Malline:FeaturedArticles

Current Features

• Elder Holland's General Conference Talk (Oct. 4, 2009)

For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”
—Jeffrey R. Holland, “Safety for the Soul,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 88–90

• Elder Holland gave a powerful testimony about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. During the course of his talk he mentioned two secular Book of Mormon authorship theories. So who are Ethan Smith and Solomon Spalding? What is the best that critics have been able to come up with to explain away the origin of the Book of Mormon? Read the articles below to find out.
  • Book of Mormon Authorship theories—Ethan Smith and View of the Hebrews
  • Book of Mormon Authorship theories—Solomon Spalding's manuscript