I wonder-when exactly did the Bible become corrupt? How can we know if and when scripture was corrupted when we don’t have a copy of the original (supposedly the text of the golden book) that was dated to exist before the Bible was altered? Moroni took back the only original Book of Mormon in the early 1800s. The dead sea scrolls, conversely, were found in 1947 in a cave south of Jericho in the Middle East. This and other scrolls are carbon dated back to about 175 B.C. and contain many fragments of scripture from the Old Testament. Portions of the New Testament have been found dating back to 125 A.D. All these writings are included in the Bible we read today. Some of the New Testament, especially the gospels, was written when many people who actually saw Jesus and witnessed His ministry were still alive. Wouldn’t they have questioned or corrected written accounts of Jesus and His ministry if they were being corrupted at the time?
Per “Mormonism Unmasked,” the Book of Mormon chronicles the history of an ancient civilization in America,including their relationship with God and when Jesus visits these people after his resurrection. The text mentions a prophet Lehi and his family who traveled from Jerusalem to North America around 600 B.C. The absence of discoveries in Archeology prove this history wrong. No cities in the Book of Mormon have ever been found. No inscriptions in Hebrew or Egyptian have been found to substantiate anything in the book. No ancient copies taken from the golden book have been found. No ancient inscriptions or manuscripts tell of natives in ancient America believing anything that the Mormons teach. No artifacts have been found that prove anything in the Book of Mormon.
On the other hand, Archeology is proving the reality of many persons, places, and things in the Bible. Just some of the many examples include the city of UR (where Abraham once lived) which was discovered in modern Iraq in 1920. There is a stone that talks about a war between a person named Mesha and the Edomites. This parallels the history of 2nd Kings 1 and 3. Places in the O.T. are also mentioned on the stone. Josephus, a Jewish Historian living from 37 AD to 100 AD, gives an extra-Biblical account of Jesus. He talks about Him being crucified by Pilate and being raised on the third day after. The cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorozin, and Tiberias that are mentioned in the Bible have been excavated. Of course Jerusalem with ancient artifacts and buildings can be seen in Israel. The pools of Bethesda and Siloam mentioned in the gospels have been discovered. It affirms my faith to know that people, places, and things in the Bible can be proven by physical evidence. What do the Mormons have?
Back to the Osmonds, I can now understand why they would write a song questioning if God exists and if He is loving after learning about what Mormonism teaches on the fall of man and Jesus. Per an article on Probe.org by Dr. Zukeran from the Bible Institute of Hawaii, the LDS church claims that Jesus pre-existed before He was born on earth like Christianity does, but he was procreated by a heavenly father and one of his wives in heaven before coming to earth. Mormons don’t believe He always existed as part of the Godhead in the Trinity, as the Bible teaches. Also, Mormonism teaches that Jesus’ pre-existence is not unique because all humans are pre-existent offspring of a heavenly Father and Mother. Jesus is just the heavenly Father’s “first born” son from heaven. The LDS church believes that Jesus came to earth by the heavenly Father actually and having sex with Mary. The Bible teaches that Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, but Mary remained a virgin. Jesus, therefore, did not have a sin nature. Mormons do not even mention the existence of the Holy Spirit.
Their teachings on Adam and Eve are also off base. The LDS says they were still spiritual beings after coming from heaven to the garden of Eden. They believe that Adam did not disobey God when he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead, he actually obeyed God because eating it caused him to become mortal,and he was able to have children which is what God wanted. To Mormons, having children is necessary to be able to advance to godhood in the celestial kingdom, one of three levels of heaven they say exist in the afterlife. Christianity teaches that the act of eating the fruit was the original sin that caused death and separation from God for all mankind.
What’s worse is what the LDS Church teaches about Jesus’ role in mankind’s salvation and where we will spend eternity. Their doctrine does not include the need to believe that Jesus died on the cross as a perfect, sinless, sacrifice to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins so we could be forgiven. Nothing is taught about our sins being cleansed by Jesus’ blood. All Mormon’s teach is that Jesus’ resurrection secured universal salvation for all people, whether Mormon or not, to enter either the Telestial, or the Terrestrial Kingdoms, which are the lower two levels of heaven. The goal of every Mormon is to enter the Celestial Kingdom since he will become a god. To do this, he must work for it on earth, mainly by fulfilling all the requirements and rituals of the Mormon church. The Bible teaches that there is only one heaven and one hell. All people are separated from God by their disobedience to Him instead of not following the rules of a certain church doctrine. We are all saved by grace and not by works through faith in Jesus as Lord and by believing in what He did on the cross for us. Then we are reconciled to God and have and eternal relationship with Him now and in heaven. No wonder the Osmonds wrote that song. They don’t know God because they believe in the wrong Jesus.