Let's suppose that Joseph Smith really was a prophet and translated the Book of Mormon as claimed. Would not God make sure that the foundational book of scripture for the restored church was error free? Yet right there in the title page to the Book of Mormon is the following disclaimer:

"And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ."

LDS history is littered with stories of fantastic miracles, yet God can't even cause the Book of Mormon to be "perfect."

Scriptures of all religions have errors because they were solely the product of earth-bound, fallible human beings.

the BoM isn't Claimed to be 'Perfect' ... as if there is such a thing!

so, knowing that no human is perfect, how could any reasonable person expect a product of a human to be perfect?

The BOM is claimed to be the most perfect book.


I expect the book to be perfect because it is the only way for the infallible human to know about the un-falliable god.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2012 08:56PM by bingoe4.

Didn't Joe "translate" it one character at a time based on what god was telling him ? How could it NOT be perfect ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2012 10:34PM by Dave the Atheist.

that's a valid point, BUT: he was 'translating' what other humans wrote.

It wasn't exactly like turning water into wine or rising from Death.

guynoirprivateeye Wrote:
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> that's a valid point, BUT: he was 'translating'
> what other humans wrote.

Why would 'god' not correct any mistake in the original (if there ever were any such thing) when he inspired Joe's translation then? (And if the originals were inspired/instructed words of god in the first place, why would there be any mistake in them?)

This doesn't fly. A god that's supposedly perfect allowed mistakes to be made by its prophets, especially when the prophets were speaking for god, under god's direct inspiration??? If one can't expect perfection out of god or god's supposed words, then how can one tell what is god's or of god from any manmade forgeries/deceits? Might as well join us atheists and dismiss the whole 'god' thing if one's notion of god isn't all that distinguishable from one's expectations of man... Just saying.

But, God _wasn't_ giving him a translation just of what the BoM prophets wrote, because God was making the effort to correct all of the refferences to pre-colombian things that we wouldn't understand. God cared about making sure we thought of their battles and animals and food and houses in terms that we understand.

There's really no way they can have their cake and eat it too, is there?

I also like how they are careful to call it the "most correct book," and will never say it's "perfect."

Hmmm. An interesting thought.

The disclaimer appears in the introduction written by Smith and is not part of what he claimed to have translated. As far as I know the BOM takes no position on how correct, or perfect it is, at least not in specific terms like that.

However, I think the Point being made is why was this included in the introduction?

Several ways to look at it I guess.

1. Smith knew it was fabricated nonsense, that there were probably some gaping holes and is throwing in a catch all to preemptively answer the critics.

2... Actually #1. seems rather likely. I'll just apply Occams Razor and disregard the less likely options I was able to think of.

I believe that Smith claimed that the title page was a translation of the one included on the plates by Mormon himself (possibly Moroni). Moreover, there a few different places within the text that contain similar "disclaimers".

Option #1 is correct. :-)

...the supposed ancient authors kept testifying that what they wrote is true. That always struck me as odd, as if they knew people would think it was baloney. You don't see that sort of thing in the Bible. Both the Old and New Testaments just lay the miracles and claims out there without reassurances, like a teacher presenting facts. This repeated testimony bearing by the ancient BoM prophets eventually made me see it was really just JS (or whomever concocted the book) trying to sell a load of make-believe. It was a bad con man saying, "No, believe me, I'm not lying. It looks like I am, but I'm not. Trust me. Now just leave your life savings in a bag under the bridge and I'll quadruple it overnight."

Interesting. I never picked up on that before.

More and more from TBMs, I hear all the mistakes were introduced by the printer. It wasn't Joe's fault.

It's like how it has been "prophesied" that in the last days the church will become corrupt and many will leave the fold. Basically a pre-emptive strike against what would eventually happen once people started seeing through the fraud.

Bear in mind that the original LDS believed that they were already in the last days and that the second coming was imminent. Most of those "prophesies" were just post-hoc explanations for the steady stream of apostates leaving their ranks.

What do the folks on Kolob say on this topic? It would be good to get their take on it.