APPENDIX 4
FIVE QUESTIONS THAT FORCED AN LDS GENERAL AUTHORITY
TO (ALLEGEDLY) ABANDON THE BOOK OF MORMONCAN THIS MARVELOUS WORK AND A WONDER®
ANSWER THE FIVE QUESTIONS THAT B. H. ROBERTS AND OTHER
LDS CHURCH LEADERS COULD NOT?Brigham H. Roberts is revered in Mormon history as one of the Mormon Church’s
greatest theologians, historians, and intellectuals. In fact, in a June 2011 challenge by the Deseret
News (the LDS Church-owned Salt Lake City area and Utah regional newspaper), which called
for a poll of the LDS Church’s “Top 10 LDS ‘Intellectuals,’” B. H. Roberts was listed as number
one on the list—ahead of Joseph Smith, the Pratt brothers [Orson and Parley], James E. Talmage,
and Hugh Nibley.^1 Roberts was the compiler of the seven volume “official” History of the Church
for the LDS Church (referenced throughout this book as the DHC), which is still the most
respected work of Mormon history and the “official” history of the LDS Church. His six volume
Comprehensive History of the Church (CHC, not to be confused with the History of the Church
[DHC]) also commands great respect in the LDS community. With many other titles under his
pen, he is still regarded as the LDS Church’s most prolific author.
Roberts was a General Authority, a member of the Mormon Church’s First Council
of the Seventy (and the first President of the same), a group that is second only to the First
Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was also elected to the U.S. House
of Representatives in 1898; but because he was a polygamist, he was not allowed to be
seated. He never feared to speak his mind, but always stopped short of insubordination.
The questions referred to in the above title come from a treatise written by B. H.
Roberts on the Book of Mormon called, “Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study.” It was
written in response to an intellectual challenge made against the authenticity of the Book of
Mormon. The challenger asked five main questions about the Book of Mormon that Roberts
could not answer. (All of these are currently used by anti-Mormon groups and critics to
denounce the Book of Mormon.)^2
That a man of his supremely regarded intellect, perhaps the LDS Church’s greatest
historian, and a highly regarded General Authority, could not find the answers to these
questions within himself as a “prophet, seer and revelator,” nor that he was he able to
effect the machinery of “revelation” above him through his superiors in the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency—should be of utmost concern to the
LDS/Mormons.
In all fairness to the LDS/Mormons, they have considered that, 1) the answers to
these questions and, 2) the alleged fragility of B. H. Roberts’ testimony of the Book of Mormon
have been dealt with “sufficiently.” The LDS Church’s quasi-official response begins with a
hi-brow approach that assumes these questions do not merit any further response:
James R. Spencer’s small brochure has been circulating since the early 1990s.
In and of itself, the pamphlet is of little importance. The points it raises are