Reviews of "The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon"

Living Hope Ministires (now “Sourceflix”) produced a poorly-researched “documentary” entitled “The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon” (at least they are consistent about the quality of their research; got to give them that . . . [cf. their inane "The Bible vs. Joseph Smith").

There has been a couple scholarly LDS responses to this “documentary,” including reviews by Brant Gardner (an anthropologist specialising in Mesoamerica) and Dr. David Bokovoy (expert in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible). The reviews can be found online here:

Brant Gardner, "Behind the Mask, Behind the Curtain: Uncovering the Illusion."

David E Bokovoy, “The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon: Still Losing the Battle.”

FAIRLDS (now FairMormon) produced a DVD responding to the “documentary,” too, featuring leading LDS scholars (e.g., Daniel Peterson; John Tvedtnes; John Sorenson). An online version can be found here:

Recent Debate with a Fundamentalist

I recently engaged a Fundamentalist Protestant, Desmond Smyth, who is associated with a minitry, "Jeremiah Cry"; on a friend’s facebook page. For those who live in Dublin, he is the fellow one often finds engaging in “street preaching” in O’Connor Street (one example of his preaching on youtube).

With permission of my friend, I am reproducing the exchange in a .htm format; for those who wish to read it en toto, click on this link. It does show the exegetical and intellectual bankruptcy of the more Fundamentalist flavour of Protestantism and the anti-Mormonism it produces (cf. the works of Ed Decker; the late Dave Hunt and others).

Hebrews 1:1-2--does it preclude modern revelation?

Heb 1:1-2 reads:

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days, spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds [Greek: the ages]

It is not uncommon to have this passage cited against there being modern revelation and additional scriptures being revealed after the cessation of the Bible (although the obvious fact that Hebrews, probably written in the mid AD 60s, was not the last book of the New Testament to have been written and the implications of this fact are usually glossed over; odd that . . .)

A couple of years ago on an LDS discussion forum, I offered the following interpretation of the text against such a charge, which I think still holds up today:

The problem is that, by taking the absolutist view that many critics (e.g., Kurt Van Gorden in his booklet, Mormonism) is that it would preclude the letters of Paul, the Catholic epistles, the Revelation of St. John, etc., being divinely inspired Scripture, because for it to be "God-breathed" revelation, God would have to inspire the authors of such texts. Indeed, it would mean that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews was not inspired when he wrote it, as it would preclude post-ascension revelation!

In reality, all that these verses state is that God spoke in the past through the prophets and during the time of Christ, through His Son, Jesus Christ. It does not touch upon the question of post-ascension revelation, apostles, and prophets, so in reality, critics who bring up this passage against LDS teachings are, essentially, begging the question.

How many Protestant Denominations are there?

Many critics of sola scriptura, such as Latter-day Saint and Roman Catholic apologists, often claim that there are 28,000 denominations, though that figure differs on occasion (for instance, I recently heard a Latter-day Saint throw out the [false] claim that there are 43,000[!] denominations).

To be sure, there are many problems, especially exegetical, with sola scriptura, the formal doctrine of the Reformation (search for “sola scriptura” to see many of the key proof-texts refuted). However, this line of argument should be abandoned by critics of this false and rather pernicious doctrine, as it is just wrong.

Protestant apologist, Eric D. Svendsen, wrote a book entitled, Upon this Slippery Rock (2003), and one of the chapters contained therein examines this claim, as presented by Tim Staples (Catholic) and others who employ this lousy apologetic--the chapter can be found online via archive.org here.

I hope that Latter-day Saints, wishing to uphold intellectual integrity, will retire this argument, or, at the very least, modify the argument and use the proper figure of Protestant denominations, too--in reality, the issue of denominationalism is due to poor ecclesiology, not epistemology per se, within the broad spectrum of Protestantism.

Geology of the Book of Mormon

One recent book on the Book of Mormon is that of Jerry D. Grover, Geology of the Book of Mormon (2015). It serves as a pretty solid contribution to a study of the text in its ancient Mesoamerican context, and is a good supplement to works such as John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book.