Moroni's Premise

 The Second and Third Chapters of 1 Nephi have more parallels with Joseph Smith's personal story, and feature material which could be derivative of the Royal Arch Degree in Freemasonry. CHAPTER 2 F OR behold, it came to pass that the L ORD spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to take away thy life. Again, the experience of Lehi parallels with Joseph's personal claims that he was persecuted because of his own visions. We don't really have much historical record of this claim early in Church history. Joseph's own persecutions seemed to have been related to his money-digging practices. Perhaps, however, Joseph Sr. had been persecuted because of his own visions, and Joseph Jr. is seeing himself as the faithful son, following in h

The First Chapter of the Book of Mormon establishes a historic context, makes a claim about the language which was used, and contains parallels with Joseph Smith's first vision account. THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI HIS REIGN AND MINISTRY An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The L ORD warns Lehi to depart out of the land of Jerusalem, because he prophesieth unto the people concerning their iniquity and they seek to destroy his life. He taketh three days’ journey into the wilder- ness with his family. Nephi taketh his brethren and returneth to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews. The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and de- part into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. They come to the large waters. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him. He confoundeth th

For this analysis, I am using the Key of Joseph Revision, because the marked changes in the text become relevant. Problems in the introductory matter to The Book of Mormon: Claims it as written "to the Lamanites" ... that they may know the covenants" ... "that they are not cast off forever."  This is the first mention in the book of this Euro-centric viewpoint that assumes Native American culture is barbaric and that they need to be "saved" and brought into conformity with European cultural ideals. Today, it has become apparent based upon DNA that Lamanites cannot be identified (because the ancestors of the Native Americans were not actually Jews), which means the Book of Mormon has actually failed to reach its primary target audience, since its target audience does not exist. The Book is supposed to come forth by way of the Gentile, but according to later statements, Joseph Smith was not a Gentile. “Jacob blessed his twelve sons and gave them each a

Perhaps the biggest issue that puzzled me while I was in the Church was related to what I would term theological drift. I don't believe in these scriptures or this set of Theology any more, but let me give an overview of what it was, and what the Scriptures actually say.  Finding contradictions allows us to illumine or minds with light, dispelling shadows of error, and is an important tool to hone our grasp on the truth of things.  I don't think it is a waste of time to study these things, even today, in order to exercise critical thinking skills and learn to identify errors. The Drifting Ideas of Mormon Theology Period I: Trinity & Modalism Joseph Smith started out teaching a Trinitarian version of God which was expressed with Modalist tendencies - in other words, holding very common views for people in his place and time. This is the Theology of the first edition of the Book of Mormon.  At this point in Mormon Theology, the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) of the Old Testament i

Now, in 2022, I'm nearly 41 years old.  I grew up in a partly religious home. My parents often sent me with my grandparents to attend a non-denominational community church when I was a child. As I got to being a young adult, I started considering things more seriously, and I started wondering about baptism and about communion (what Latter-day Saints call "the sacrament") and how I would know when I was supposed to participate in it. Around that time, I became aware of friends from school who were "Mormons" (what Latter-day Saints called themselves as a nickname at the time.) The church I went to had never taught me specific negative things about Mormons, but I did have some vague idea that it was a dangerous cult that I should stay away from. That's really all I knew. I loved my friends and I was very concerned for them, so I asked one of them about it, I got a copy of the Book of Mormon, and I started to learn about it and read about it online as well (i