Is the Book of Mormon True or False?

Greg Trimble convinced me to do this

Well, Greg and the teachings of some apostles. And the Holy Ghost. And this question posted online:

Is it true that Steven C. Harper and others in the history department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are transitioning the narrative about the Book of Mormon, so that it came through ‘revelation’ and not through ‘translation.’

The person who posed—pun intended—the question presumed to answer for me. So I hereby speak for myself.

It took me awhile to show up

I’ll grant that. Here are my excuses: I’m a historian by training and by personality, so I like to observe and analyze and describe the debates, but prefer not to get involved, especially when the quality of the dialogue decomposes in the comments. Plus, I’m an introvert. I don’t like to draw attention to myself. But I’m motivated most of all by the identity Mormon described best:

“I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life” (3 Nephi 5:13).

So I’m late but I’m here now. This is my first post. Subscribe if you want to be notified of the next one: Did Joseph Smith obey the Word of Wisdom? And the one after that, and the one after that. I’m not going away. I’m not changing sides.

The answer to the question above?

No. I’m not transitioning the narrative about the Book of Mormon. I’m telling the history as Joseph and Emma and Oliver did.

The question poses a false dilemma. It assumes that the Book of Mormon either came through revelation or translation. But it didn’t. The translation of the Book of Mormon came to Joseph Smith by revelation.

The question assumes there is conflict between the past and the present, the new and the old, between revelation and translation. There isn’t.

I have studied what Joseph Smith said about translating. I have studied the manuscript Oliver Cowdery wrote as Joseph dictated. I have studied the copy Oliver made for the printer. I have studied the statements of the people who witnessed Joseph translating the Book of Mormon.

Here are a few facts from all the evidence:

Joseph often said he translated by the gift and power of God—meaning the revelation/translation of an unknown ancient language through a stone or stones (either worked).

Oliver Cowdery wrote almost all of the Book of Mormon as Joseph Smith dictated it with the aid of seer stones but without books or notes between April 7 and June 11, 1829.

The records of those who knew Joseph Smith best show that they believed these things most.

That’s how I know the story. But this is how I know the story is true:

I read the Book of Mormon myself shortly before my mission. When I finished I did what the last chapter said I should. I knelt and said a simple prayer with faith in Jesus Christ, a sincere heart, and real intent. God answered my prayer with the thought: “You already know it’s true.” And that thought was accompanied by a feeling, a desire, an intense desire, to affirm the thought. I did know. I didn’t want to deny it. I never have wanted to fight it. It’s true.

I don’t have an answer for people who have asked God with faith in Christ, a sincere heart, and real intent, and not experienced what I did. I don’t deny their experience, or lack thereof. I don’t know why their prayer wasn’t answered as mine was. I just know that mine was.

I don’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt

I have shadows of doubts all the time. I just choose to not let doubts define me. I choose faith for that. I choose faith because I am better, happier, and holier when I live by the teachings of the Book of Mormon. I feel the Holy Spirit when I read it and try to do what it teaches me. I feel God’s love when I listen to Nephi explain how easily he was beset by sins, and how he trusted God and felt His love. I feel it when I listen to Enos, Alma, Amulek and others.

Their stories are the reason I became a born again Christian on my mission, where I internalized the Book of Mormon’s teaching that I am saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. So I testify that the Book of Mormon was translated from Reformed Egyptian by God’s revelation to Joseph Smith. I love the Book of Mormon and invite others to love it too.

Finally, notice how the question assumes that I’m much smarter and more capable and influential than I actually am. I’m ok with that part.

 

Author: Steven Harper

I’m an introvert with an advocate personality. So I was pretty reserved in grad school seminars until a fellow student went off about how people shouldn’t have kids, and I launched into a lecture about how I’m the seventh of ten children of really great parents. My parents made sure the scriptures were read early and often in their home, but it was up to me to decide whether I would love the scriptures. I learned that the Book of Mormon is true shortly before I served in the Canada Winnipeg Mission. But It took me awhile to learn to love the scriptures. Not until I was teaching Dora, a Lutheran woman in her sixties, did I really want to know what they said and meant. That desire didn’t leave when I returned to BYU, so I changed my major from engineering to ancient near eastern studies and started a series of courses in Biblical Hebrew. I learned that the Bible was way more complicated than I had thought, and I doubted I could master the complexity. When I took a course on early Church history I decided I had to master that, so I switched my major and set my sights on a PhD in early American history. Along the way I wrote an MA thesis about who joined the Church in the 1830s and why. I wrote my dissertation on a little-known 1737 fraud by which the sons of William Penn evicted the Lenape Indians from their homeland. I started teaching in the history and religion departments at BYU-Hawaii, then in 2002 got the chance to join the Religious Education faculty at BYU in Provo and become an editor of The Joseph Smith Papers. That combo was enticement enough to leave Hawaii, where I thought I would miss the land but ended up missing the people. A decade later I taught the Bible (go figure) to great students at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Before that I had been serving on committees tasked by the Church Historian and Recorder with planning a new history of the Church. When I got home from Jerusalem I was invited to join the Church History Department in Salt Lake City to be the managing historian of that project. For the next six years it was my humbling privilege to work with devoted and talented people to produce Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. More than one million people are reading it online and more than 400,000 print copies have been sold. In 2018 I got my other dream job back: professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU. I was also named the editor of BYU Studies, where I had formative experience as a student intern a long time ago. The best thing about me is my wife and children, but they forbade me to say much about them here. Hannah Salvesen is my daughter, and I’ll share lots of links to the great stuff she produces. Thanks to Hannah and Scott Salvesen for building this site and advising me patiently about all things related to the world wide web.

24 thoughts on “Is the Book of Mormon True or False?”

  3. What an interesting and responsible job you have! FYI you may not be aware that a big chunk of LDS history happened in Harrison County (now West) Virginia where I was born and raised. I’m a convert and never thought I’d have LDS pioneers in my lineage but I do. Many missionaries came from Kirtland in the 1830s to the Shinnston/Lumberport/Jones Run area and converted many, some of whom made the trek to Nauvoo and west to SLC. At a conference in Shinnston August 18-10, 1837, over 1200 were in attendance. Their message appealed to many of the area leaders and prominent men and women. Rumor has it that Joseph Smith stayed with one of my grandfathers for a week but I believe it was his brother, Don Carlos, or one of his first cousins, Elias or George A. Smith. George A Smith married Bathsheba Bigler who was born near my birthplace. Many names readily recognized from early church history served missions there. Many meetings were held in the home of my 3rd great-grandfather Alonzo Boggess and many were baptized in the little stream of Jones Run which flowed through his farm. I wrote this tale up in a book I deposited in the FHL, “Mormon Pioneers from Harrison County (now West) Virginia in the 1830s” and you may read it online. I also complete a book on the history of the LDS church in West Virginia which is also online. I look forward to reading your work.

  6. Thank you for your perspective. I especially like two sentences that sum up your answer to the posed question: “The translation of the Book of Mormon came to Joseph Smith by revelation…So I testify that the Book of Mormon was translated from Reformed Egyptian by God’s revelation to Joseph Smith.” My sentiments but so well written by you.

  9. Welcome! Glad you showed up. Just remember… Christ was perceived by others as being late all the time. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” He was actually right on time.

  13. Thank you Steven Craig Harper, for showing up. You’re smarter than you think you are, but I appreciate a man who doesn’t know, nor care, whether that part is true or not.

  16. Joseph Smith is a seer, so revelations often came to him in written form before his eyes, upon a solid surface of the Urim and Thummin or a stone. He also received revelation by hearing words, by thinking concepts, by just knowing truths, and through his personal experiences and those of others. All came bt the Gift and Power of the Holy Ghost.

  22. I read this question where it was posed originally (I noticed you didn’t mention where that was, so I won’t either). I thought it was especially funny because I know you personally and knew exactly how you would respond. I thought about responding at the time, but the other responses and comments deterred me as well. I think responding on your own terms on your own blog was a great call. The internet is, sadly, full of trolls and their unwitting followers. Especially when it comes to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the true facts are tough to dig out of the mud. Thank you for cleaning the muck off for us and presenting the diamonds for the world to see.

  23. It is strange to me that anyone who has read your published works would have any question about your standing on the Book of Mormon. In any case, glad to have you speaking up. We need more faithful voices online.

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