Section 12: The Book of Mormon — Claims and Problems

The Book of Mormon is subtitled "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" and is presented as the most correct book on earth. Its narrative covers approximately 2,600 BC (the Jaredites) to AD 421 (the Nephite-Lamanite wars), with Jesus's post-resurrection appearance to the Nephites at its theological center (3 Nephi 11–26).

The theological content of the Book of Mormon is, in important ways, more compatible with orthodox Christian theology than other LDS scriptures. Mosiah 15 and 2 Nephi 31 contain passages that sound broadly evangelical. The book does not contain the most distinctive LDS doctrines — eternal progression, the embodied nature of God, the three degrees of glory — which were introduced through later revelations. Critics of LDS theology sometimes observe that if the Book of Mormon were the only LDS scripture, the resulting theology would be much closer to creedal Christianity.

The historical and archaeological problems are documented extensively. No pre-Columbian horse remains exist in the Americas during the periods the text requires. Steel was not in use in the regions and times described. Wheat and barley were not cultivated in pre-Columbian America. The Jaredite bees and elephants cannot be archaeologically situated. The geography of the narrative has never been satisfactorily mapped onto any known American geography, producing a decades-long internal LDS debate about "Book of Mormon geography" with multiple competing proposals. DNA evidence contradicts the claim that Lehite immigrants are the principal ancestors of modern indigenous Americans.

ERROR IDENTIFIED: The Book of Mormon presents itself as a historical document with specific historical implications. Those implications are testable. The testing has been done. The evidence does not support the historical claims. The LDS church's standard response is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence — that the civilizations simply did not leave recoverable evidence. But the absence is not just the absence of evidence for LDS peoples. It is the presence of evidence for entirely different populations with entirely different origins. The DNA evidence is not silent. It points decisively away from the Book of Mormon's claims about indigenous American ancestry.