Joseph Smith Biography

Five Questions that B. H. Roberts Could Not Answer Appendix 4

As his investigation continued, he became more and more disillusioned with

the Book of Mormon; and he always resented the response he received at the

two-day seminar. Two months before his death he told a friend, Wesley P.

Lloyd, former dean of the graduate school of BYU, that the defense the

brethren made for the Book of Mormon might “satisfy people who didn’t

think, but (it was) a very inadequate answer for a thinking man.” He said

Apostle Richard R. Lyman did not take the matter seriously and the others “merely one

by one stood up and bore testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. George

Albert Smith—in tears—testified that his faith in the Book of Mormon had not

been shaken by the questions.”

Roberts told Lloyd “in a Church which claims continuous

revelation, a crisis had arisen where revelation was necessary.”^5

As stated, given enough time and scientific investigation, plausible answers can be
derived by the most intelligent of our fellow mortals. However, a true messenger has the
answers to these and all mortal questions and, in the case of these five questions, can fill in
the appropriate scientific evidence that conclusively PROVES the answer.

Here are the main questions that were asked:

1. If the American Indians were all descendants of Lehi, why is there such
   diversity in the languages of the American Indians in such short time? And
   why is there no indication of Hebrew in any of the Indian languages?


2. The Book of Mormon says that Lehi found horses when he arrived in America.
   The horse described in the Book of Mormon (as well as many other domestic
   animals) did not exist in the New World before the arrival of the Spanish
   Conquistadors.


3. Nephi is stated to have had a “bow of steel.” Jews did not know steel at
   that time (circa 600 B.C.). And there was no iron smelted on the American
   continent until after the Spaniard Conquest.


4. The Book of Mormon frequently mentions “swords and cimeters
   (scimitars).” Scimitars were unknown until the rise of the Moslem faith (after
   600 A.D., when Lehi left Jerusalem).


5. The Book of Mormon states that the Nephites possessed silk. Silk did not
   exist in America in pre-Columbian times.

Because B. H. Roberts believed in the divinity of LDS prophet and president Heber J.
Grant^6 as a “prophet, seer, and revelator,” Roberts assumed that Grant could answer the
questions. Instead, under President Grant’s direction, LDS Church leaders organized a special
meeting in the temple wherein these questions were discussed. At that meeting, Roberts
presented them with the 141-page, typed manuscript of “Book of Mormon Difficulties: A
Study” (Jan. 1922), which elaborated on the questions in detail. Following the meeting,
Roberts was very perplexed and confused at the ignorance of the “prophet, seer, and