Without Disclosing My True Identity
Critics of the Book of Mormon can tout their claims that Joseph made it up; they can
make the assertion that it is an invention of contemporary ideas; they can point out its
inconsistencies, its contradictions, its errors, and its historical and scientific miscalculations;
but what they cannot do is find anything close to it in comparison, except for the Bible itself.
No critic can sit down and duplicate what Joseph supposedly produced. Those who have
tried have failed. No one else has created a work that, upon being read, speaks to the
reader’s “Holy Ghost” with a more convincing feeling of authenticity.
The Corrupt Influence of the Bible
The Bible is a literary work that, up until Joseph’s day, had been read more and
examined less than any other book ever written. Likewise, the same thing can also be said of
its counterpart, the Book of Mormon. Its readers prefer just to read it more than they consider
it for origins or meaning. People who read these books and accept them as truth do not do
so to examine them, but to feel from them.
People want answers to life’s questions. Because of the travesties and obvious
inequalities of life upon earth, humans desire the assurance of a better existence than that
which they are experiencing here. People hope that there is someone greater than their
politicians and their leaders—someone who would rule them with justice and equality. The
Bible and the Book of Mormon give people this hope.^27
Beyond this hope, though, the Bible also presents a concept that has caused the
destruction of more human life and property than any other philosophy or religious idea. This
idea is that God chooses one people over another and blesses them, while cursing everyone
else. This concept is contrary to our common sense and does not speak well of an unbiased,
equal, and loving God; nevertheless, millions of people believe this to be the truth. Believers’
only support of this type of God is the Bible, first, and then, in the case of LDS/Mormons, the
Book of Mormon.
The belief of so-called “civilized” white Europeans and Americans—that they were
“blessed by God,” while others were “cursed”—led to the captivity of black slaves^28 and the
mistreatment of Native Americans. These “uncivilized,” indigent peoples were viewed as
less-than-human creatures in their native state, and “cursed by God” for not believing in the
“white man’s” God and his commandments.^29 Belonging to a group of people who believe
that they are chosen by God and mandated to defend their group from all other people^30 has
also led to multiple wars and countless human miseries and tragedies. And how do the
leaders of these groups of people get their followers to maim, kill, and mistreat other
humans outside of their group?^31 They are able to do so by giving the people the written
“word of God” and the application (or misapplication) of its examples to guide them and
justify their actions.
Here, for instance, are some direct quotes from the Bible, clearly showing the human
suffering and tragedies:
And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their
little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their
goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly
castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and
of beasts. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto