Well what an interesting couple of months. Not being one to listen to only one side – which is actually what has gotten me into this little dilly of a pickle – I have been doing a little reading from the “horse’s mouth”, or at least as close as one can get.

I went to LDS.org and I think it is nigh impossible to argue with what I found. I am sure plenty of apologists will get out their roladex of excuses…*ahem*…explanations. Forgive my abrasive tone, but I am at the anger stage right now.

I will begin with something I actually discovered a few months ago but managed to cog-dis away. It was a gem of a talk by Russel M. Nelson. I am sure any member of the church is familiar with the graphic depiction that has evolved over the years of the Prophet in the work of translating. I have seen pictures of there being some sort of cloth hung between translator and scribe so that the scribe could not see the plates. Today however, the Prophet reads from the plates with his scribe directly in front of him with plates in full view by both in church paintings. Why the change?

In Elder Nelson’s talk he quotes David Whitmer:

Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.

From David Whitmer’s account the Prophet did not use the plates. Is David Whitmer not a reliable source? If not, then why would Elder Nelson use his account? Not only did he use Whitmer’s account but he referred to it as a “precious insight”. Why is there no painting to depict this scene? How many members actually know of this account given by David Whitmer? How many members are aware that this seer stone he – which is NOT the Urim and Thummim because apparently Joseph returned them to Moroni – used is still in the possession of the church today?

Another disturbing detail is this:

The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known.

Yet is it not clear from the various talks given and pictures painted that the details of translation are known? If they aren’t known, why are they portrayed to be known? Inquiring minds want to know.

Next is the corrections to the Book of Mormon over the years. According to this reference there have literally been over 1,000 different changes and some additions to the Book of Mormon over the years. The only one I feel can be justified is the printer’s manuscript. Seeing as how the printer wasn’t “inspired”, it is reasonable to believe that he made some mistakes. Could even Joseph or his scribe have made mistakes? Well of course, unless one of his scribes made a statement like this:

Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.

This quote is also found in the same talk by Russel M. Nelson. Going by the logic presented in a statement like this – since Joseph was a prophet, seer and revelator – one can come to the conclusion that either a) God made some mistakes or his power was somehow faulty in helping the prophet translate b) Joseph was a fraud and a con artist of the highest order. Neither Joseph nor his scribe could have made mistakes according to this statement because they could not continue if there was a mistake.

Now I come to the unusual grammar found in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is full of phrases like “plates of brass”, in place of “brass plates”. RMN’s article claims that JS would have been unfamiliar with such language yet the same type of language can be found in the Bible. Another interesting fact is that, according to this chart (click on “Additional information”), the majority of significant changes came after 1836. What is significant about 1836? Look here. In 1836 JS began to learn Hebrew and, as the article states, spent nearly every day for hours at a time studying. It is quite interesting that after the prophet began to study Hebrew he made over 1,000 grammatical changes to the very same book that was “the most correct” and was translated by the gift and power of God. Is God ignorant of proper grammar since it was by His power that the BoM was translated? Oliver Cowdery was quoted in RMN’s talk that Joseph received one word at a time through the seer stone that Joseph placed in his hat, which means that what Joseph received was grammatically incorrect. Could it have been the fault of those who originally wrote upon the plates? It could have been, but why during the translation were the proper corrections not made since it was an inspired translation? They just weren’t…ok, well then why did it take almost 10 years for these things to come to light? I’m not talking about one or two mistakes here and there, over 1,000 corrections not counting the 75 in the printer’s transcript.

The reality is that I do not enjoy this. I find no pleasure at all in writing this. The past 4 years of my life have been in devoted service to something I believed in. How can I take pleasure in these things when the church was my life? I gave so much of myself only to find out that I wasn’t being told the truth. I do believe that the church teaches many good things, but so do many other religions. Teaching good doesn’t equate teaching absolute truth. By nature I question everything and have since I was a child. Being a member it was very difficult for me ignore the questions I had and just follow the prophet. Now I can no longer do either one. I do not need any apologetic comments nor do I need anyone quoting the Bible. Any comments along these lines will be removed.

Now I start a new journey. I am curious as to what the future holds for me.