Saturday, March 26, 2022

On the Relationship between the Truth of the Book of Mormon and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints being the Only True Church

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)