Is the Book of Mormon true?
Read Dave’s answer
Answer 1
Yes, it is.
I have read it countless times, studied it, contemplated it, researched it, read about it (analyses, talks, critiques, apologetics, and more), taught it to others, and learned about it from others.
And even though all those activities confirm to me that it is indeed true, the way that I know that it’s true is through the power of the Holy Spirit, consistent with the promise made in Moroni 10:4–5.
I also find this answer to be enlightening as well: So...You Think The Book of Mormon is a Fraud?
If you would like to know the whole story of how I came to know that it is true and received God’s witness that it is, I bare my soul in Why are you convinced of Mormonism?
Answer 2
We absolutely believe that The Book of Mormon is true. It’s not just a story, either. It’s truth.
And we know the difference - we tell our children about Santa Claus while they’re young, but eventually we make it clear that Santa Claus is mythology and The Book of Mormon is truth. It’s not at all difficult, either. The former is shallow with easily recognized and criticized flaws, while the latter is so extraordinarily rich in the stunning and radical consistency of the paradigm in which it dwells that critics are forced into petty harping on those details that prove little more than the fact that the critics just don’t get it - they’re simply trying to look at things from far outside the paradigm of truth created by the book and its origins.
For example, pointing to the inclusion of entire chapters of Isaiah and dismissing the book as plagiarism is simply risible evidence that the critic could not have read the reasons that Nephi gives for the inclusion of those chapters, much less the incredible way those very chapters literally tell of and point to the future - including the gathering of the Jews to Israel and the gathering of the tribe of Ephraim to “the tops of the mountains” in Utah.
So nice try in creating the syllogism that both Santa Claus and Book of Mormon stories are myth. #RESEARCH=FAIL
Answer 3
Yes.
Like the Bible and the Quran, it is a miraculous work that literally defies explanation as a human achievement.
See Dave Whittle's answer to Let's say that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon. How did he do it? and Dave Whittle's answer to Is the Book of Mormon poorly written and boring?
Answer 4
My initial tendency, as a lifelong student of the Book of Mormon, is to borrow language from the Book of Mormon and (paraphrasing) say “Exceedingly likely, even unto a sure knowledge” — and then support that assertion, since it must surely seem like unwarranted confidence and zeal to any nonbeliever reading this answer. Rest assured, I will provide a few boulders from the mountain of evidence that supports the Book of Mormon as I answer your question.
On the other hand, however, I’m not sure how one can ever assess likelihood in regards to a matter that is so explosive in its implications. Are you ready to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if that is to faith, repentance, baptism, and being born again to live a new life led by the Spirit of God? If not, then you should stop asking questions like this and stop reading the wide spectrum of answers you’re getting right now. If you love truth, however, and are open-minded, then as soon as you finish reading all of the answers, your curiosity will probably lead you to a sincere and diligent study of the Book of Mormon, since if it’s true, all of the difficult questions of life can be answered from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ of which the Book of Mormon witnesses.
Most faithful believers (which is not the same thing as a member of the Church) know that the truth of the Book of Mormon is not a matter of probability, but is a matter of certainty based on an extraordinary mountain of evidence, including the pinnacle of that mount, which is a miraculous spiritual confirmation by the Spirit of God.
Many books have been written about this mountain of evidence, but ultimately most members agree with B.H. Roberts, a scholar and Seventy who said:
“The power of the Holy Ghost … must ever be the chief source of evidence for the Book of Mormon. All other evidence is secondary. … No arrangement of evidence, however skillfully ordered; no argument, however adroitly made, can ever take its place.”
In other words, through faith, we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said:
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me…
- John 15:26
That Jesus will send us His Holy Spirit of truth to confirm the truth of the Book of Mormon to any sincere searcher must necessarily be the MOST IMPORTANT EVIDENCE of all other forms of evidence.
As the Lord said through revelation to Oliver Cowdery, the scribe who wrote the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon as it came from the mouth of Joseph Smith:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.
Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?
- Doctrine & Covenants 6: 22–23
Yet someone determined to disbelieve cannot be convinced to seek such a confirmation.
Therefore, consistent with the Biblical admonition to always be ready to give an account of the testimony of Jesus gained spiritually, I’ll provide those boulders in the rest of my answer for you to examine as you choose.
I want to note that those who find themselves caught on a trail leading up that mountain of evidence are often quickly forced to make a decision about whether to follow the trail to wherever it leads or turn around in denial. You’ll probably face that decision if you read on.
Interestingly, those who turn around and turn their backs on the mountain often seek to find fellowship with others who are also taking the path of denial back down the mountain, convinced that their short walk on some pebble-strewn zig-zagging pathway taught them that there is 0% chance that the Book of Mormon is true.
What is peculiar is that they can’t see the mountain they’re on because they long ago turned their backs to it and refuse to turn around and take an honest look at the mountain looming in their peripheral vision, even as they’re telling others they may meet just starting to climb the mountain that there is no mountain so they shouldn’t bother climbing it.
And so you can easily find many who will assess the likelihood of the truth of the Book of Mormon at something approaching 0% and counting.
So let me proceed to back up my statement that I know it to be true based on a variety of types of evidence with even greater certainty than I know that men have landed on the moon - to cite one example where even compelling evidence is not enough to convince those who harbor reasons of their own to disbelieve the evidence, however strong it may be.
So let me invite you to discard any reasons to disbelieve you might be harboring, and consider the categories of evidence with me. There’s no way I can present all of the evidence itself, so to criticize my answer for not providing enough actual evidence is necessarily a face-palm-worthy display of begging the question. Anyone sincerely interested in truth should be motivated to learn more for themselves in order to decide for themselves, and those who have no interest in the truth can go on with their ankle-biting and risible attempts to refute the irrefutable.
I’m going to go from the weakest categories and types of evidence back again to the strongest, so bear with me as we examine a few examples of the available evidence by type.
Exculpatory Evidence that Addresses the Absence of Evidence There are numerous cases where the critics of the Book of Mormon have asserted that the book can be known to be false because it mentions _______ (fill in the blank) and everyone knows that there was no such thing in ancient America that is the setting for most of the Book of Mormon. This applies to a variety of things over the years.
In other words, critics often fallaciously equate the absence of evidence to evidence of absence. And then, a later discovery provides exculpatory evidence that supports the truth of the Book of Mormon, and the critics simply move onto some other absence of evidence to illogically point to as evidence that the Book of Mormon isn’t true.
For example, the Book of Mormon mention of the use of cement in building was once cited as opposing evidence, with one scholar making the firm statement that "There is zero archaeological evidence that any kind of cement existed in the Americas prior to modern times.”[1] And yet now that cement work has been found exactly as described in the Book of Mormon, all you hear about is elephants and horses, again as if the absence of evidence is evidence of absence.
Other examples of exculpatory evidence found over the years include:
- inscribed metal plates in the Americas[2]
- brass plates used for preservation of scripture in Lehi’s time[3] confirmed by the Copper Scroll and other findings in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- horses,[4] and
- reformed Egyptian.[5]
And that’s why I’m leading with this category of evidence. Even though it’s perhaps the strongest of the categories of evidence in opposition to the Book of Mormon, at least judging from how often it’s used by critics, professional anti-Mormons, and former members of the Church, the positive refutation of this kind of weakly negative evidence posited by critics is probably the weakest of the categories of evidence in support of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
Scientific Evidence. Joseph Smith was not a scientist, and science was never intended to lead to spiritual knowledge, but that doesn’t mean that Joseph’s revelations say nothing of the kind of things science deals with. Within modern revelation one can find some of the earliest advice to avoid alcohol and tobacco, support for what we now know about quantum physics, a definition of truth, passages addressing the origins of consciousness and life, both spiritually and physically, life elsewhere, multiverses, and nothing that contradicts the big bang, evolution, or other such bugaboos of traditional religion.
Circumstantial Evidence. Why did a respected teacher in Palmyra, NY, who had been boarding with the Smith family, travel over 250 miles to Harmony, PA, in 1829 just to meet Joseph Smith, after hearing rumors of golden plates and angelic visitations from others?
Even if one dismisses Joseph Smith as a charismatic charlatan, Oliver Cowdery cannot be so easily dismissed. He made up his mind to seek out and travel to meet Joseph Smith without ever having met him - ostensibly because his prayers were answered with a prompting to do so. And that was just one of the countless ways that the Lord helped Joseph accomplish what by any standard must be considered some of the most remarkable achievements in human history.
Oliver’s lifelong testimony and unimpeached witness was that he was the one who wrote the original manuscript (which is indeed in Cowdery’s handwriting) AND that he saw the same resurrected beings that Joseph did (namely Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, Moses, Elias, Elijah, and Jesus Christ himself).
The facts of Cowdery’s life and his second witness of the truth of Joseph’s work are simply left unexplained and unaccounted for by critics, particularly since Cowdery even came to consider Joseph “a fallen prophet,” was excommunicated, and returned to the Church to be rebaptized before he died. The fact that through it all, he never recanted or denied his visions or role in the founding of the Church, even when he could have benefitted from so doing, stands as compelling indirect evidence that Smith was telling the truth and that the Book of Mormon is true.
And that is just one example of the significant amounts of powerful circumstantial and indirect historical evidence that disbelieving critics rarely even address because they have no answers.
Other such evidences include: * The Testimony of the Three Witnesses (that they saw an angel who showed them the plates) * The Testimony of the Eight Witnesses (that they handled the plates for themselves) * the miracle of the plowed field that freed David Whitmer to travel to Harmony to bring Joseph and Oliver back to Fayette to complete the translation in peace (See the movie “Witnesses” for details from the historical records) * the shared visions Joseph had with Oliver, Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young, and numerous others * the fact that the nearer a person was to Joseph (i.e. family or friend), the more likely they were to believe in the divine nature of his work * the fact that even Joseph’s gold-digging comrades, who never believed in angels or joined the Church of Jesus Christ that Joseph started, believed that he had a gift and that he had the plates * the hundreds and thousands of stories behind the miraculous interventions in people’s lives which led them to the Book of Mormon and conversion. * the many prophecies and miracles performed by Joseph Smith - including the Civil War prophecy, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, the Rocky Mountain prophecy, and many more. Never mind that some of Joseph’s prophecies have not yet been fulfilled - not all of Jesus’s or Isaiah’s prophecies have been fulfilled either, and that certainly doesn’t make them “false prophets.”
Even these significant examples powerful circumstantial evidence is apparently too much for the critics to concern themselves with explaining as they focus on the relative pebbles of evidence that they believe to be contradictory.
**Historical Evidence.**How is it that the first-hand documentary evidence from over a dozen participants in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon all tell exactly the same story, including the visitation of angels, miracles, and their faith that God was working what is often called “a marvelous work and a wonder?”[6]
Honest historians have to take the same approach to the history as honest historians take towards Joan of Arc or Jesus of Nazareth: a begruding acceptance of the historical reality that some things that must be considered historical fact based on plentiful extant documentary evidence cannot be explained away by natural means.
For example, when you have eleven witnesses who were willing to attest that they saw and handled plates of gold, the historical artifactual reality of those plates is impossible to dismiss. They strongly enter into the historical evidence. And yet dismissed they are by non-historians, simply because Joseph claimed the angel took them back.
But the more one studies the historical evidence, which is all-too-plentiful, the more one has to acknowledge that the evidence all points to the sincerity and authenticity of Joseph Smith as an “authentic religious genius” (Howard Bloom), a “prophet” (Richard Bushman), and a “mystery” and/or “a puzzle.” (Jan Shipps and many others.)
The coming forth of the Book of Mormon and its impact on American history is even more difficult to explain than the emergence of Joan of Arc and her impact on French and British history.
Sociological EvidenceThat the believers in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have been able to literally build a flourishing society with its own distinct culture in the Western United States is clearly evidence that they were powerfully motivated and aided by something beyond their trust in a “charismatic con-artist.”
While Joseph was alive and long after his death, even today, believers sought to build “Zion” (the pure in heart, of one heart and one mind, dwelling in righteousness, with no poor among them). Joseph himself succeeded in building Nauvoo, Illinois (Hebrew for “City Beautiful”), which in the early 1840s rivaled Chicago as the largest city on the Western frontier of the United States.
Even after the assassination of Joseph in 1844, the fact that over 10,000 faithful crossed the plains, settled in a virtual “uninhabitable desert” valley, and then succeeded in building a culture of unity, cooperation, and economic and spiritual power can be readily witnessed simply by studying where I live - Utah County, and the other counties in the U.S. that have a predominantly latter-day saint culture and pioneer history.
The only precedents in history of such powerful religious leaders that come of mind are Moses leading the children of Israel to the promised land where they built a similar strong and influential society, Peter, Paul and the other apostles and disciples who spread the Gospel of early Christianity, and the American pilgrims and refugees from religious persecution - although the diversity of Christian beliefs in the early Americans would make me hesitant to include that as an example were it not for the evidence of divine influence in the birth of the U.S.A. (See the book “1776″).
Surely, Joseph Smith started something hugely significant in modern sociological history.
Philosophical EvidenceWhat I mean by philosophical evidence is the extraordinary explanatory power of the teachings that comprise what is collectively called the “Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ,” namely the revelations of Joseph Smith and subsequent prophets and the astoundingly coherent belief system that has been constructed by subsequent prophets, apostles, church leaders, and latter-day saints.
The purpose of life? Answered. The question of evil and suffering? Answered. The nature of man and God and our relationship to God and one another? Answered. Is God a God of mercy or justice? Answered. When will (or has) Elijah come again as promised in the end of the Old Testament? Answered. Have miracles ceased after Jesus? Answered. What is truth? Answered. And so on.
Demonstrative Evidence. Much of what began with faith has become real in such a way that it offers powerful support for the truthfulness of the beliefs.
For example, the existence of the plates is beyond question. They must be considered artifactual reality, given the historical evidence for their existence, including the fact that 11 men besides Joseph saw the plates, with 8 of those 11 actually handling the plates. Again, attempts to deny their reality simply begs the question by assuming they weren’t real and therefore attempting to find alternative explanations for the affidavits of so many witnesses of the plates.
So added to the historical reality of the plates, we have the additional demonstrative evidence of the content of the translation of the plates and what must be considered the extraordinary (superhuman or miraculous can be easily applied) nature of the origin of that content.
Not only to we have actual and extraordinary text to study - with computers and careful analysis - a significant portion of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon is in existence and can be studied. Almost all of the printers manuscript (a copy of the original made by Cowdery so the original could be retained to compare with the printed pages) survives and can be studied.
In fact, one scholar, Royal Skousen, PhD, has made a peer-reviewed, linguistic study of the critical text of the Book of Mormon, his life’s work. His work provides all but irrefutable evidence, detail by detail, that the Book of Mormon as it proceeded from Joseph’s mouth is more accurate and closer to perfect than what was recorded by Oliver, and what was recorded by Oliver is closer to pure revealed truth than what was published in the first edition of the Book of Mormon.
In other words, the warning words of Moroni on the Title Page of the Book of Mormon are important:
“And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God.”
So the demonstrative evidence of the Book of Mormon lies within its very pages; and the countless details of demonstrative evidence one can find that offer compelling support for the truthfulness of not only the Book of Mormon but also the entire “marvelous work and a wonder” that began with Joseph’s First Vision in 1820.
And so finally, the most important and compelling evidence of all:
Spiritual Evidence When I assert that spiritual evidence is the most powerful of all kinds of evidence, in no way do I assert that it is or should be considered compelling to anyone other than the individual, one person at a time.
In other words, I don’t expect someone who has not experienced the transcendent power of a spiritual witness to accept at face value the spiritual witness of anyone else. It is strictly personal, and that is the way God has ordained things to be when it comes to such encounters with the divine. No one can be enlightened by the light given to another by their own faith any more than a horse can be made to drink when led to the fountain.
God wants each individual to choose for themselves. He gave us freedom of conscience - the freedom to believe whatever we choose and the freedom to accept whatever we choose to accept as true and thus reject whatever we choose to reject as false.
That this freedom to believe according to our own choices is of paramount to God can be readily seen by considering the truth that there is no proof that God lives that is acceptable to an atheist, and there is no proof that God does not live that is acceptable to a believer.
And so I’ll end my answer before it becomes a tome with this admonition from the last chapter of the Book of Mormon:
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
Moroni 10: 4–5
Every time I see this promise answered in the life of a sincere seeker, I am able to once again rejoice in the grace of God by which I am not only able to have the blessings of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life, but that I am able to know for myself through repeated, powerful spiritual manifestations that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and Jesus Christ is my Savior. That is the kind of perfect joy that is so unlike anything else in this world that it can be truly said to be a miracle. And that miracle is one that anyone on earth can experience spiritually for themselves if they only seek it and do as the scripture above directs.
Footnotes
[1] Question: Is the Book of Mormon's mention of "cement" an anachronism?
[2] Book of Mormon/Metal plates
[3] Book of Mormon/Metal plates
[4] Yes world, there were horses in Native culture before the settlers came