In the current introduction to the Book of Mormon (largely the work of Bruce R. McConkie), we read that, those who receive the spiritual witness from the Holy Spirit that the Book of Mormon is true, this automatically entails that
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the
world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and
that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-ay Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once
again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the
Messiah.
I would have to take exception with this. It would mean that one
of the groups that teaches the Book of Mormon to be God-breathed Scripture to
be the one true Church; it does not automatically mean that The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. A better argument can be seen from Edward
K. Watson in his Empirical Evidence for the Book of Mormon:
In simplistic terms, if the Book
of Mormon is true, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the
True Church to a 99.2% probability based on the number of people who believe
the book is true and equal to the Holy Bible. (Edward K. Watson, Empirical
Evidence for the Book of Mormon: Proof of Deliberate Design Within a
Dictated-From-Imagination Book [Brainey Press, 2021], 100-1)
In the footnote to the above, Watson notes that
This is just one evaluation criterion
and other criteria can be used to determine the likelihood of which
denomination is likely the “true” one. However, the number of people who
believe the book is true and equal to the Holy Bible is a valid criterion since
the more believers, the more likely the denomination is credible.
As for the 99.2% figure, there are
13 denominations that each have at least 1500 members that believe the Book of
Mormon to be scripture. Of these, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, with over 16.56 million adherents as of 2019, is the largest. The
Community of Christ (the former Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints) is next with 250,000 members, but while they believe the Book of
Mormon is scripture, they no longer believe it is equal to the Holy Bible. The
third largest is the Church of Jesus Christ with the Elijah Message with 56,000
members as of late 2019 (private correspondence with their Apostle Norman D.
Lyles), and the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) is fourth with 23,000
members. The remaining ten denominations have around 53,000 members between
themselves.
Consequently, as of early 2020,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 97.7% of adherents who
believe the Book of Mormon to be scripture and 99.2% of adherents who believe
it is equal to the Holy Bible. (Ibid., 101 n. 1)
