I was sitting in a class at church today when the statment was made that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon in about 3 months time. That got me thinking...

Hmmm...that is a pretty strong arguement for me that the BoM is true. So, what other evidences and pretty strange facts point to the authenticity of the BoM?

Nibley on How Time Vindicates the Book of Mormon

"Even if. every parallel [in the Book of Mormon] were the purest coincidence, we would still have to explain how the Prophet contrived to pack such a dense succession of happy accidents into the scriptures he gave us. Where the world has a perfect right to expect a great potpourri of the most outrageous nonsense, and in anticipation has indeed rushed to judgment with all manner of premature accusations, we discover whenever ancient texts turn up to offer the necessary checks and controls, that the man was astonishingly on target in his depiction of general situations, in the almost casual mention of peculiar oddities, in the strange proper names, and countless other unaccountable details.... As the evidence accumulates, it is not the Prophet but his critics who find themselves with a lot of explaining to do."

-The Prophetic Book of Mormon (1989), 325-26, quoted in Echoes and Evidences, of the Book of Mormon

There are three possibilities that I know of for the origin of the Book of Mormon. One is that Joseph Smith's story of an angel's visitation and direction to find the plates is true...or TWO: a product of spontaneous generation...or Three: Joseph Smith, maybe with help, made it up. So let's look at this third option and see what critics are saying and what the truth behind the critics words are:

First a quote by BH Roberts: Let me say once and for all, so as to avoid what might otherwise call for repeated explanation, that what is herein set forth does not represent any conclusions of mine. This report herewith submitted is what it purports to be, namely a 'study of Book of Mormon origins' for the information of those who ought to know everything about it pro et con, as well as that which has been produced against it, and that which may be produced against it. I am taking the position that our faith is not only unshaken but unshakable in the Book of Mormon, and therefore we can look without fear upon all that can be said against it.

Anti-Mormons have said that Joseph Smith wrote the book himself. Let's take a look at their theories on how this could have been accomplished.

--Silent partner Sidney Rigdon-

"It was suggested in the Howe book that Rigdon had written the theological or religious portions of the Book of Mormon, and that the historical setting of the book was also furnished by him by plagiarizing an unpublished novel written nearly twenty years earlier by one Solomon Spaulding, declared atheist, about the ancient peoples of America. Rigdon was supposed to, have purloined the manuscript from the printer with whom it had been deposited.

The Book of Mormon, according to this theory, was nothing more than this Spaulding story, ornamented with Rigdon's religious emanations. This theory was as a raft at sea for the helpless enemies of Joseph Smith, and it has been peddled industriously by antiMormon writers for the delectation of unwary readers." (Widstoe, Mormonism Researched)

--Spalding Manuscript theory-

"The Spaulding tale is a story of a party of Romans who came to America and an account of their life there. The story was read by Mr. Spaulding to his family and some friends. Several persons who had heard the story read fifteen or twenty years earlier were induced to sign a statement that the languages and the characters in the story fitted in with the contents of the Book of Mormon. This was enough to set up and circulate the theory that the Book of Mormon was based upon the manuscript story of Solomon Spaulding.

Unfortunately for the Rigdon-Spaulding theory, the manuscript of the Spaulding story was discovered in 1884 among the possessions of Mr. L. L. Rice of Honolulu, who had secured Spaulding's literary remains,' when he purchased the printing effects of E. D. Howe. The discovered Spaulding story has since been published in two editions. It bears no resemblance in language, style, names, or subject matter to the Book of Mormon.

In utter despair, the enemies of the Church fled for cover. A few proceeded to set up another theory, that Spaulding had written more than one story and that the one found was not the one that resembled the Book of Mormon.'

However, the discovered Spaulding manuscript was identified with the one set up in the book Mormonism Unvailed. The names of the people who thought that the Spaulding story as read by them many years before and the Book of Mormon story were similar, were found endorsed on the discovered manuscript as those who knew it in Spaulding's day. This was destructive of the theory that the Howe book had used another manuscript than that found in Honolulu.

The Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon has been thoroughly demolished. Anyone who teaches this theory today betrays deliberate dishonesty or pitiful lack of knowledge concerning the whole matter." (Widstoe, Mormonism Researched)

--View of the Hebrews Ethan Smith--

Did Joseph Smith plagiarize from View of the Hebrews when writing the Book of Mormon?

by Jeff Lindsay

Some critics claim that Joseph Smith copied much of the structure and content of the Book of Mormon from the 1823 book View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith (no relation to Joseph Smith). Ethan Smith's book proposes that the American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel and has several apparent parallels to the Book of Mormon. These parallels include long journeys that were religiously motivated; references to wars, writing, and metal work; and moral overtones such as the denouncement of pride. Also, according to View of the Hebrews, Indians talk of a "lost book" they left in Palestine. But these similarities are rather vague and general. See link for entire article.

Chiasmus is a poetical form used in the ancient Middle East, a form of parallelism in which ideas are structured in a mirror image. An example of this is A,B,C,C,B,A. Chiasmus is in the Book of Mormon and was first discovered by John Welch in 1967.

Chiasmus being in the Book of Mormon is strong evidence that this is an ancient Semitic literary work and not one of a 19th century young farm boy.

An example of Chiasmus found in the BoM is found in Alma 36. Mosiah 5:10-12 is another. There are other Chiasmus found in the BoM but this should give you a good feel for them.

Several critics focus on words such as horses being in the book of mormon when there were not horses in the area at that time. Here are some articles to see the truth behind their claims.

Coins: Why does the Book of Mormon mention coins? Coins were not used in ancient Central America.

Horses: The Book of Mormon mentions horses, yet these animals seem not to have been known to native Americans who greeted the Spaniards upon their arrival in the New World in the sixteenth century. Moreover, archaeological evidence for the presence of the horse in the pre-Columbian Americas is presently scant and inconclusive. How can this be explained? Careful consideration of this question begins with an examination of what the Book of Mormon says and does not say about horses.

From Jefflindsay.com "No systematic research has been done comparing the names of animals in the Near East and Mesoamerica. Just as we saw with the metals, perhaps also with beasts: clarifying links may appear through linguistic studies. A hint of the possibilities derives from work on the Yuman language group (located around the lower Colorado River, near the U.S.-Mexican border). Reconstructing the protoculture associated with the ancestral Yuman language by comparing the descendant tongues, an investigator reconstructed a word for "horse" on strong evidence [Howard W. Law, "A Reconstructed Proto-Culture Derived from Some Yuman Vocabularies," Anthropological Linguistics 3 (1961):54]. That is, the indications are that a term for horse was shared by those people long before European horses arrived. The evidence is not foolproof, of course, but it does demand some alternative explanation if we are not to suppose early knowledge of the horse."

(John L. Sorenson in An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, Deseret Book Comp., SLC, UT (1985), p. 297.)

Chickens and more oh my: From Jeff lindsay.com "Critics point to apparent problems with plants and animals in the Book of Mormon as proof of fraud from Joseph Smith. As with the Bible, there are some complex issues that require some digging and understanding."

What if certain books had been written by a different author,

Like Shakespeare, or Milton, or Dickens or Chaucer.

And then giving this ponder a little more juice,

What if the Book of Mormon had been written by Dr. Seuss?

Nephi:

Of goodly parents I was born

I've never drunk, I've never sworn

This is Lehi, he's my dad

Laman, Lemuel, they are bad

And who is this? Why this is Sam.

Sam:

Yes, this is Sam; Sam I am

Laman:

That Sam I am, that Sam I am

I do not like that Sam I am

Sam:

In a tent, my father dwelt

Laman:

And it's so hot, I think I'll melt

Lemuel:

Our father's brain is out of whack

Laman:

Yeah, it's too hot, I'm going back

Lehi:

Then go and get the plates, my dear

Laman:

On second thought, I'm staying here

Nephi:

You said you'd leave and go away

Now all you want to do is stay?

Lemuel:

That Nephi always gets his way

Laman:

Here we are in this damp cave

Sam:

We would not be here if you'd behave

Nephi:

I will go and I will do

There's the angel, that's my cue

Laban's had too much to drink

Now he'll lose his head, I think

Nephi:

Look what I found, a brother from the quorum

Sam:

We will take him home, we will call him Zoram

Laman:

Our gold and silver we have spent

I do not like it in this tent

Lemuel:

I cannot read the Liahona

I must have drunk too much Corona

Laman:

We hate it here, we have no lives

Lehi:

Then go back to the city and get some wives

Lehi:

A tree, a tree, I see a tree!!

The fruit is white, the fruit is free!

A floating building, could it be?

Why do they laugh and stare at me?

Laman, Lemuel, come and see!

Laman:

We will not eat your precious fruit

Lemuel:

We will not wear a tie and suit

Laman:

We will not help you build your boat

Lemuel:

We do not think that it will float

Laman:

No not this boat, it will not float

Not even in a shallow moat

I do not care what Nephi wrote

Lemuel:

We will not eat your fruit I say

Laman:

We will not eat it on a tray

Lemuel:

And we won't eat it in a tent

Not even if your clothes you rent

Laman:

We'd rather have a can of spam

L&L:

We will not eat it, Sam I am

Sam:

You do not like it, so you say

Try it, try it, and you may

Try it and you may I say

Laman:

Sam, if you will let us be,

We will try it, you will see

L&L:

Say, we like this fruit of life

Sorry that we caused such strife

You've saved us from an awful jam

Thank you, thank you, Sam I am!