In 2 Nephi 3, we find this prophecy of the coming forth of the BOM and what it will accomplish:

12 Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, UNTO THE CONFOUNDING OF FALSE DOCTRINES and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.

I recall the BOM clarifying that infant baptism was wrong. But other than that, it seems like the BOM actually perpetuated false doctrines (from a current LDS perspective) as opposed to correcting it.

The BOM continued to teach or at least complicates the doctrines of:

(1) The trinity as opposed to three separate Gods.
(2) A literal hell after the resurrection.
(3) Only repentance and baptism are necessary for salvation as opposed to additional ordinances (temple endowments).
(4) No real discussion of priesthood and its role. Mostly refers to the power of the holy ghost.

So from a TBM perspective, how is this not a false prophecy?

Does the BOM really confound false doctrines? I can't think of any doctrines the BOM helped to clarify from a modern TBM perspective, with the exception of infant baptism and maybe the sacrament prayers.

Can you?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 11:32AM by 8thgeneration.

This always threw me for a loop as a tbm cause the bom was supposed to contain the fullness of the gospel and yet doctrine wise it's pretty weak

According to those groups who refused Polygamy and who refused to follow Brigham out West, it does plenty. For those people including the BoM witnesses who left JSjr and joined or formed their own LatterDay sects, it had plenty to say about correcting false doctrines.

Not that I would defend the BoM as the definitive word of God, but for those groups who did and still do, there are lots of teachings as you've listed that point out the Utah church as an apostate sect.

Perhaps a better question would be, which false doctrines did LDS and its spin-offs embrace?

I agree that groups like the church of christ could use the BOM more easily than the brighamites in salt lake today.

I was definitely writing my post from a salt lake mormon perspective.

The BOM just does nothing from my perspective to support the current "gospel" preached by the salt lake mormons. It actually contradicts it on a regular basis.

So much for the prophecy.

The Book of Mormon did contain a certain form of Protestant belief from the 1800s that was different than other beliefs and clarified some things that fit in with that system. It was actually fairly effective at clarifying a number of items of religious contention of the day:

1) 8 year old baptism thing

2) That the atonement of Christ did more than just cure sin. There is actually some kind of cool stuff in the BoM outlining the mythology of Christ and the atonement that goes somewhat beyond or at least clarifies an interpretation of the Bible.

3) Some good definition of things like faith, hope & charity.

Really the doctrine / inspirational parts are (from memory):
- 2 nephi 4
- 2 nephi 9
- 2 nephi 29-33 or so
- Alma 5
- Mosiah 2-5
- Alma 36-40 or so - Alma's discussion with his sinner son
- Alma 32
- Ether 12
- Moroni 7-10

That's about it. Very little of that is super impressive or super unique but it does lay a general foundation of an interpretation/ flavor of Protestantism.

One of the HUGE eye openers is how different that outlined religion is from Mormonism the way it is practiced today. So many of Smith's later innovations are excluded. Also telling is how the supposed historical account of the Nephites just happened to address pretty much all the hot ticket items of religious contention of the late 1820s and almost nothing of contemporary society.

(Swearing warning in last paragraph)

Finally there is definitely an overriding theme to the Book of Mormon - turn to God even in your good times or he will fuck you up until you turn to him. Then when you turn to him he will make things good for you. But then you will forget him and be ungrateful for the good times and then he will fuck you up again to remind you to turn to him. So be smart and stay close to Him even when things are good.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 12:17PM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

wasn't the palmyra area mostly protestant?
Where was the Catholic church in early U.S., upstate NY in those times?

Another case of More Context required for understanding of the BoM.

Palmyra was called part of New York's "burned out zone"...there had been so many travelling revivals go through there during the second Great Awakening...all kinds of non-Catholic denominations... BoM is full of phrases common to Second Great Awakening revivals.