Why I'm not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

I have known and respected many Mormons. Some are among the smartest and most sincere people I have ever met. Others are seriously flawed and struggling. The point of this short note is that I believe Mormons have been misled and are following the teachings of a Christian sect whose central documents cannot be trusted.

Many spend their time arguing about  the various doctrinal differences (subtleties of beliefs) that separate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from evangelical Christianity. Some don't care about these differences. Many Mormons are mystified about why their lovely and sincere faith is not accepted by their Christian friends.  Many see the central documents of Mormonism provided by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith as simply additional testaments of biblical revelation. Like my Muslim friends, these Mormon friends would have all believe that God has simply updated earlier faith traditions with new revelation.

So why am I not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, choosing instead to be an evangelical Christian?

It is not about doctrine. We can argue about doctrine all day. It is simply because I do not believe the central documents of Mormonism can be trusted. In contrast, I believe the biblical manuscripts that form the core of evangelical Christianity, though centuries older, are historically and archeologically valid. I base this conclusion on three central problems with the Mormon scriptures (The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price). These problems are scientific and historical, unrelated to doctrine.

1.There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was an accurate translator.

Two major problems argue that Smith's documents are not trustworthy translations.

First, the Book of Mormon was produced by Joseph Smith in the early 1800's, supposedly translated by divine power from golden plates since lost. However, the Book of Mormon contains a large number of passages from the King James Bible. Far from this making the document more believable, these King James passages are a huge problem. There is no reason to believe that a divine translation of writings on ancient artifacts would come to Smith in the early 1800's in the English language of Shakespeare's time (1611; 200 years earlier). A divinely inspired translation of the original Hebrew words would be in the form of 1800's language (Smith's time).

Second, there is clear evidence that Joseph Smith was completely unqualified to translate ancient documents. In a tremendous embarrassment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have very specific evidence that Smith had no skills in translating ancient Egyptian. His 1835 translation of Egyptian papyri to produce his Book of Abraham is the perfect example. The original Egyptian documents used in the translation were thought lost after Smith's translation was complete. However, key fragments were rediscovered in 1966 and examined by academic Egyptologists. It was immediately obvious that Smith's "translation" was a fraud. The papyri represent a historically important collection of Egyptian funeral instructions and have absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or any of Joseph Smith's alleged translation. The papyri are now known in academic circles as the Book of Breathings. The argument that Smith was given a different "spiritual" translation of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics shows the deep embarrassment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints regarding this matter. Joseph Smith completely fabricated his translation of this ancient document.

2. The Mormon documents are not historically valid.

Large parts of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are well documented by the archeology of the Middle East. In fact, archeologists use biblical texts to understand Middle Eastern archeology. The opposite is true of the Mormon literature. There is no new world archeological evidence for the validity of any of the stories, places, and peoples described in the Mormon texts. As a student of North American archeology I have studied the rich and interesting cultures of North and Middle America. There is no scientific evidence that any of the Native American, Mayan, Inca, Aztec or Toltec civilizations are described in the Mormon literature. None of the places or people or events is connected with any modern archeological evidence, and archeologists find no value in the Mormon literature. This is also a tremendous embarrassment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Even more problematic are scientifically and historically invalid references in the Book of Mormon, including descriptions of horses and elephants in the New World. Both species had been extinct in the Americas for thousands of years before the arrival of the first humans. Horses were only introduced by the Spanish after Columbus. Nor is there any evidence to support the description of steel implements. Thus, though wildly creative and imaginative, there is no evidence that any of the allegedly written accounts translated in the Book of Mormon have scientific or historical validity. This is quite the opposite for the historical and archeological validity of the Old and New Testaments.

3. Genetic relationships predicted by the Mormon scriptures are incorrect.

Finally, modern molecular genetic research has created a central problem for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is because scientists have been able to sequence the DNA contained in cellular mitochondria, the membrane-bound organelles that produce much of the energy of the cell. Mitochondria contain small circles of DNA code that are inherited almost completely from the mother. These sequences provide wonderful genetic "fingerprints" that allow relationships to be traced over many generations. At the very heart of the stories in Mormon literature is the fantastic myth that some Middle Eastern people, including the "lost tribes" of Israel, migrated to the New World in more than one wave,  contributing to the pre-Columbian civilizations of North and Central America. At least one such immigration would have been about 1500 years before Christ. This is an extremely recent date relative to New World archeology. Early in Mormon history, this concept that Middle Eastern people contributed to Native American civilizations seemed quaint and plausible. However, modern genetic testing has completely disproven this possibility: there is absolutely no evidence that any of the people of the New World are related to any of the Semitic people of the Middle East. All evidence shows that Native Americans are related to the Asian peoples through migrations across the Alaskan land bridge. DNA evidence clearly proves that the central claims of the Mormon documents about North and Central American prehistory are wrong. No Middle Eastern DNA is present in the native peoples of America.

To summarize, discussions of doctrinal differences between Mormons and Evangelical Christians are quite irrelevant. The point is that the documents originating with Joseph Smith have no supporting evidence of accuracy or legitimacy, either scientific or historical. There is every reason to believe that Smith and/or other very creative writers fabricated these documents on their own. Because the documents are fraudulent, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints traditions based on these documents can simply be ignored.

This does not mean that Mormon people are insincere or evil. It simply means that Mormon people are being misled.

As with all my friends from other faith traditions, I share the same Christian message: 

Most people think they can earn their way to heaven by being good. I hear it all the time. That’s not what the Bible teaches, but it’s what most people think. “If I follow the golden rule, or try to do my best, I can live with God forever.” “Bad” people go to hell, right?

Jesus taught something very different, and the New Testament makes it clear. Nobody is good enough to go to heaven. NOBODY. Saint Paul writes in the Bible (Romans 3:23) “There is nobody who is righteous, not even one. For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.” He writes in Romans 6:23 “For what we deserve is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” 

The Bible teaches that God is perfectly good, and he has planned a way to live with us forever, but it requires that we become perfectly good too. That is impossible for us to achieve by trying. God proved it by giving us the 10 commandments, and all of us have broken many of them many times. If breaking even one of them once makes us imperfect, then we’re hosed and none of us can get to heaven.

No, God made a plan so that we can be perfect and holy like him. We can have this forgiveness and perfection even though we are bumbling sinful humans. We can meet God now, and we can meet him in heaven someday, and we can be confident that we will be accepted. How? Not because we deserve it or are “good enough.” No, it is because we can receive God’s forgiveness as a gift.

The Bible teaches that Jesus didn’t suffer and die on the cross by accident or because of a tragedy. Jesus was God on earth, and he died on purpose for you and for me. He died as a perfect sacrifice in my place and in your place. He died on the cross to receive the punishment that you and I deserve. He took God’s punishment in our place, his one perfect life paying the price for all the imperfect lives that have ever been lived. John 3:16 in the Bible (what you see at football games) says that “God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him would not die, but have everlasting life.”

So what do we have to do to be forgiven and receive this gift? The Bible says that it isn’t automatic, but we just have to ask. I did it when I was a junior in high school. If you haven’t done it yet, you can do it right now, and then learn more by beginning to read the Bible (try starting with the book of John in the New Testament). You can pray a simple prayer just by talking to God. I think I prayed something like “God, I know now that I could never be good enough to live with you in heaven. I’m so sorry for that, and I’m sorry that I have fallen so far short of your commands. But I am so happy that I now understand that you made a way for me to be forgiven forever so I can live with you in my heart now and live with you in heaven forever. I accept the gift of Jesus Christ, and his death for me on the cross. Lord Jesus, come into my heart as my savior and my Lord.”

5.11.13