Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormonism 101/Chapter 7

Chapter 6: The Apostasy

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson

Chapter 8: The Book of Mormon

Index of Claims made in Chapter 7: The Bible

Claim

• The chapter on the Bible begins with a short excerpt from a pamphlet that the authors title "The Bible an Insufficient Guide," by Orson Pratt:

Add all this imperfection to the uncertainty of the translation, and who, in his right mind, could, for one moment, suppose that the Bible in its present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse of the whole Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original? ^[1]

Response

• To begin, our authors have incorrectly attributed their excerpt. Orson Pratt's work was not called "The Bible an Insufficient Guide." Its title was The Bible and Tradition, Without Further Revelation, an Insufficient Guide. It was published in Liverpool in 1850 as the third of three pamphlets addressing the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. The authors show a consistent pattern of presenting the worst possible image of the LDS Church, both past and present, and consistently ignoring conflicting or corrective statements issued by the leaders of the LDS Church both past and present. There is a significant difference between the two titles, the complete title showing Pratt's intent in writing the pamphlet, while the title provided by the authors clearly portrays an attack on the Bible-which better proves their asserted reason for writing this chapter.
• What is the imperfection of which Pratt speaks at the beginning of the citation? He spells it out in his text as follows:

We all know that but a few of the inspired writings have descended to our times, which few quote the names of some twenty other books which are lost, and it is quite certain there were many other inspired books that even the names have not reached us. What few have come down to our day, have been mutilated, changed and corrupted, in such a shameful manner that no two manuscripts agree. Verses and even whole chapters have been added by unknown persons; and we do not know the authors of some whole books; and we are not certain that all those which we do know, were written by inspiration. [note] 

• For a detailed response, see: Bible/Insufficient

Claim

• The authors speculate that "the connection between the Bible and Christianity is a reason why the LDS Church began an advertising campaign in the United States in 1997 offering free King James Version Bibles."

Response

• The Bible has always been one of the most important standard works of the Church, and the Church has always claimed to be "Christian."

Claim

• The authors claim that Latter-day Saints don't fully read the Bible because they don't find it "trustworthy."

Author's source(s)

• McConkie n1

Response

• This claim is absurd. The Church spends fully 50% of it Sunday School and Seminary time devoted to the Old and New Testaments. One year out of every four is devoted to the New Testament, and one is devoted to the Old Testament.

97-98

{{IndexClaim |claim=

• The authors now bring into the equation a 'conspiracy' of sorts-an attempt by the LDS Church to lend itself legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the Christian world by borrowing from the legitimacy of the Bible. They write:

There can be no better way to legitimize a church's existence and make it look like the Christian mainstream than by showing how the movement accepts the Bible in this way, quoting it in an attempt to support their doctrine on one hand while severely criticizing it on the other. Historically, LDS leaders have used the Bible in this way, quoting it in an attempt to support their doctrine on one hand while severely criticizing it on