Who Wrote the Book of Mormon and Where Did It Come From?
I have an old 1885 American history book titled; "American Progress or The Great Events of The Greatest Century including also Life Delineations of Our Most Noted Men".
In this old American history book there are only two stories, concerning where the Book of Mormon came from. (The Great Events of The Greatest Century.)
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The first story as to where the Book of Mormon came from as recorded in this American history book, is as follows:
“God…himself to Joseph Smith…thus making…a new dispensation which is to precede the second coming of Christ…” (The Great Events... p. 217)
© By Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
“According to his own account…” Joseph Smith received from “the Angel Moroni...a bundle of golden…plates deposited in a hill in Manchester, New York…Translated into plain English” (The Great Events... p. 215) © By Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
An old picture of the Hill called "Cumorah", "located in the State of New York". This is the hill in which Joseph Smith testified that the plates were "deposited in a stone box".
"Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, within..." (Joseph Smith-History 1:51)
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The second recorded story in this 1885 American history book is:
“It is charged by the opponents of Smith that the book in question was not the production of Smith, in any wise, but of the of Rev. Solomon Spalding, who wrote it as a sort of romance, and that it was seen and stolen by Sidney Rigdon, afterwards Smith’s right-hand man.” (The Great Events... p. 215)
“Mr. Spalding’s business partner, Mr. Miller, testified on oath as follows: ‘I have recently examined the Book of Mormon, and find in it the writings of Solomon Spalding, from beginning to end, but mixed up with Scripture and other religious matter…’” (The Great Events... p. 216)
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Which story is true?
These are two completely different stories or versions of;
Where Book of Mormon came from?
Who wrote the Book of Mormon?
What is in the Book of Mormon and is it really true historical scriptural history?
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The Book of Mormon, is in no way Solomon Spalding's Manuscript.
1st The Book of Mormon was first published in March 26, 1830. At that time Sidney Rigdon was an ordained Baptist minister who had never even heard of Solomon Spalding or his manuscript.
2nd Sidney Rigdon never even met Joseph Smith until December 1830 that was nine months after the Book of Mormon was published.
3rd On April 6, 1830 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized and thereafter the first Missionaries were sent out.
4th One of the first missionaries was Parley P. Pratt. Sometime "in October 1830 Sidney Rigdon was introduced" to the restored gospel and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "by Parley P. Pratt...." Sigdon Rigdon was later "baptized on 14 of November 1830". (Spalding Manuscript, Harold B. Library) (Sidney Rigdon, Who's Who in the Doctrine & Covenants by Susan Easton Black, p. 247-247)
5th Solomon Spalding’s 'sort of romance' is 24, [modern day typed], pages long. The Book of Mormon is 531 pages long.
6th Anyone who has read the Book of Mormon knows that the Book of Mormon without question, is not, 'a sort of romance'.
<< This unfinished Solomon Spalding Manuscript called "Manuscript Found".
See "Wordprints" on this website.
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Archaeological Evidence
If the Book of Mormon is really a true history, then I would think that there should be some Archaeological evidence that supports the truthfulness of those historical events.
If the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, really did visited the Book of Mormon people in the Americas. Just by chance, even after 2,000 years, could there be any Archaeological evidence that would support this event as recorded in the Book of Mormon?
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Could Joseph Smith or anyone else in the 1800's, have written the Book of Mormon using archaeological information available them, at the time? NO!
Why? In the year 1830, there wasn’t any significant archaeological information on Mesoamerica that would have been available to Joseph Smith or anyone else in the United States.
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In 1830 A.D., when the Book of Mormon was first published, there was accentually no drawings, pictures or information available, in the United States, about the many ancient cities and ruins down in Mesoamerica.
It was noted in the 1844 newspaper, Times and Seasons, that it was a common belief all throughout the United States, that there was no ancient pre-Columbus “civilized people” or “large cities” in the Western Hemisphere as described in the Book of Mormon.
The Times and Seasons 1844 newspaper:
“At the time, [in 1830], that book, [the Book of Mormon], was translated there was very little known about ruined cities and dilapidated buildings."
"The general presumption was, that no people possessing more intelligence than our present race of Indians had ever inhabited this continent, and the accounts given in the Book of Mormon concerning large cities and civilized people having inhabited this land, was generally disbelieved and pronounced as humbug.” (Times and Seasons, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, Editors, January 1, 1844,Vol. 5 no 1, p. 390)
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It would have been impossible for Joseph Smith or anyone else, in 1830 A.D., to produce a book that would exactly match future archaeological discoveries.
The Book of Mormon was published for the first time on March 26, 1830.
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The only significant archaeological book that is known to have become available to Joseph Smith was “The Incidents of Travel in Yucatan”, by John Lloyd Stevens. See: (Old Archaeology Books.)
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Just as there is Archaeological evidence that supports the truthfulness of the Bible. So, there is also archaeological evidence that supports the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, really did visit the Book of Mormon people in the Americas.
There is an abundance of Historical and Archaeological Evidence that supports the scriptural historical events as recorded in The Book of Mormon.
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In Summary:
Just as there was: Two different stories of where The Book of Mormon came from.
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There were also two "stories" about Jesus Christ’s resurrection. One story is that He was resurrected and the other story was that the disciples came "by night”, and "stole" the Savior's body. "...this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day" (Matthew 28:11-15)
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The story that Solomon Spaulding's "novel", was "stolen by Sidney Rigdon" and then used to make the Book of Mormon is still believe by some today. In November of 2014, to my astonishment, a man that I was trying to teach, referred to the Book of Mormon as "Spaulding's Doctrine". He of course, had never read the Book of Mormon or Solomon Spaulding’s Manuscript so as to compare them, to see for himself, the truthfulness of such a story.
How did such a fraudulent story ever get started? See: "The Manuscript Found"
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<< Elder Tad R. Callister, of the second Quorum of the Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Book of Mormon: Man-Made or God-Given?
"disprove the Book of Mormon and you disprove the Church and undermine testimonies. ...this is no easy task—in fact, it is impossible, because the Book of Mormon is true."
1. The factitious unsupported idea that Joseph Smith, alleged to be an ignorant man, wrote the Book of Mormon
2. The factitious unsupported idea that someone else wrote the Book of Mormon.
3. The factitious unsupported idea that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from other books.
4. The factitious unsupported idea that Joseph suffered from a mental illness.
5. The factitious unsupported idea that Joseph Smith was a creative genius who, wrote the Book of Mormon.
6. The factitious unsupported idea that Joseph Smith got information from over 30 books and then produced the Book of Mormon.
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7. Another factitious unsupported idea is that Satan appeared to Joseph as an "angel of Satan" and gave Joseph Smith the plates.
Note: 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 & Galatians 1:8
None of the seven above factitious ideas have any supporting facts to back them up.
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The Book of Mormon: Man-Made or God Given? (Elder Tad R. Callister, BYU Speech Nov. 1, 2016)
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The facts to this, "angel of Satan", idea and question are as follows;
Could Moroni have been an "angel of Satan"? (fairmormon)
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Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage, pp. 265-266
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None of the seven above factitious ideas have any supporting facts to back them up.
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Note: Joseph Smith's wife, Emma Smith, wrote the following;
“My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it.”
“…for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, [could not have written the Book of Mormon], it was simply impossible.” [See: Emma Smith]
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Additional Information:
...How we got the Book of Mormon? (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). (2:57 min.)
Who Wrote the Book of Mormon? (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Is the Book of Mormon Like Any Other Nineteenth Century Book? (KnoWhy #502) (7:33 min.)
Book of Mormon Introduction. (2:42 min.)
Joseph Smith receiving the Book of Mormon plates.
Joseph Smith's Testimony about The Book of Mormon.
How can we know that the Book of Mormon is true?
Witnesses Who Saw and/or Handles the Plates.
The Book of Mormon: A Sacred Ancient Record (9:59 min.)
...