I was asked recently to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it was true.  Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ( Mormons or LDS members) all have a testimony of when they felt God confirm in their hearts through the Holy Spirit that the Book of Mormon is true.

LDS members hold both the Bible and Book of Mormon as scripture and often read from both each day.  They believe they are a testimony to one another, confirming one another.  Unlike the Bible, the Book of Mormon has no real evidence for its historicity.  The evidence of its truth lies in the members’ testimonies of how the Holy Spirit confirmed it in their hearts.

Is it possible to affirm both the Bible and the Book of Mormon?

Let’s first look to the normal method that Mormon’s use to confirm the truth of the Book of Mormon.

LDS members point to an experience in their hearts when they just knew.  They say this is the Holy Spirit witnessing in their hearts to its truth.  It is good to look to God and expect His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us if the Book of Mormon is true.  But how do we know when/if the Holy Spirit is actually confirming it to us?  A feeling in the heart can most certainly be aligned with what is true, but is it a confirmation of reality?

If it was truly the Holy Spirit stirring the emotions, it could be a confirmation, but how does one know if the feelings were from the Holy Spirit or from themselves or from situational factors or even maybe from demonic spirits? It becomes a very difficult thing to discern.  Is this the way we should seek the Holy Spirit to confirm it?

In John 14:26, Jesus says “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to remembrance all that I said to you.”  He says later in 16:13, “when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”

So yes, the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth, but Jesus indicates that one method that the Holy Spirit will use to guide us into truth is to remind us of Jesus’ words.

Let’s look to Jesus’ words to discern if the Book of Mormon should be accepted.  Now in order to affirm the Book of Mormon, one has to affirm Joseph Smith as a true prophet of God.  For He is the one that declared that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and the “most accurate book” of these latter times.  The Book of Mormon completely stands on Joseph Smith’s testimony.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  So then, you will know them by their fruits.  Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?  And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Jesus warns that many will come prophesying in His name, performing miracles and even casting out demons in His name.  But He says many of them are false and will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  He teaches us that the way to discern if someone is a true prophet is by looking at his life.  If He practices lawlessness (sin–living in disobedience to God), He is not of God.

So, according to Jesus, an essential step in evaluating if we should believe Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is to evaluate Joseph Smith’s life.  Now, it’s difficult when looking back in history to truly evaluate lives.  For someone may appear righteous in the history books but still not be.  However, in Joseph Smith’s life, there is clear evidence that he practiced blatant sin.  Joseph Smith practiced both polygamy and polyandry.  His polygamy involved around 40 wives, including some very young wives, as young as 14 years old.  Polyandry is marrying wives that are already married and have living husbands.  This is what would be considered “lawlessness.”  Jesus said marriage was between one man and one woman and declared marrying a woman that was already married as adultery (Mark 10). Joseph Smith was living against the commandments of God.

Jesus says that if a man practices lawlessness, He is a false prophet and will not enter the kingdom of God.

In 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter warns us that false prophets will arise and secretly introduce destructive heresies.  He says “Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with words; their judgment from long ago is not idol, and their destruction is not asleep.”  He also says of them in 13 that they will be “reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray and followed the way of Balaam, Son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.”

This so perfectly describes Joseph Smith who had eyes full of adultery and did go the way of Balaam (a false prophet from the Old Testament that was involved in sexual immorality).

Regardless of how we feel when reading the book of Mormon, we cannot accept it as being God’s words.  Joseph Smith, who said that it was God’s words, has proven himself to be a false prophet by his practice of lawlessness.  The only way to accept the book of Mormon and His other revelations is to disregard Jesus’ teachings in the bible.  The only way to accept Joseph Smith is to reject Jesus’ warnings.  Because of this, if one chooses to stand by the Book of Mormon, they are not standing by the Bible.  If one chooses to allow the Book of Mormon to “clarify” the teachings of the bible, one will not see the true teaching of the bible because they will only be reading it through a false prophet’s interpretation.

Believe Jesus’ words as recorded in the Gospels OR believe Joseph Smiths revelations as recorded in the Book of Mormon and other works.  But you cannot believe both.

In following posts I will address doctrinal issues in which the Book of Mormon veers from the biblical teaching.