Claim: "BoM
– Not an isolated production"
Argument 1: "Joseph Smith displayed his capacity
to compose text throughout his career, beginning with dictating revelations
that ultimately became the D&C"
This
argument is another contradiction. Was he “composing text” or “dictating
revelations”? Those are two very different things. If he dictated revelations
that became the D&C, then it means that he was able to receive the Book of
Mormon text through revelation as well. If D&C was just him composing text,
it still doesn’t explain the Book of Mormon very well because it’s a very
different kind of text. More about that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/latterdaysaints/comments/bgv5ob/there_is_a_huge_literary_difference_between_the/
Argument 2: "After the BoM was published, he
dictated the JST, later the BoA, and was dictating his own life’s history at
the time of his death"
None of
those come anywhere near the complexity of the Book of Mormon. If this is all
Joseph Smith’s work, why start with the Magnum Opus? Highly unusual.
Claim: "Book
of Mormon filled with Joseph Smithisms"
Argument 1: "The text includes Joseph Smith Sr’s
vision (Lehi’s dream in 1st Nephi 8)"
Joseph
Smith Sr’s vision is found in Lucy Mack Smith’s biography long after the Book
of Mormon was written. There is no known source of Joseph Sr’s vision from
before the Book of Mormon. So this seems rather a case of Lucy’s recollection
of her husband’s dream decades earlier being filled with Book of Mormonism. I
find that far more likely than Joseph Smith incorporating his father’s dream in
the Book of Mormon. Surely, he must have known that would make his family
members suspicious.
Argument 2: "The text predicts a choice seer:
Joseph son of Joseph (2nd Nephi 3)"
This is
useless to debate. Those who have already made up their minds that Joseph Smith
invented the Book of Mormon will say this is him dictating a prophecy about
himself. Those who believe in the ancient origin of the Book of Mormon believe
that Joseph in Egypt actually prophesied about a future Joseph.
Argument 3: "The text predicts the Martin Harris
and Charles Anthon story (2nd Nephi 27:6-12)"
Same as the
previous section. Except this is also found in Isaiah 29 which was written way
before the Harris-Anthon event.
Isaiah
29:11-12: “And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of
a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that
is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for
it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not
learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.“
Does Isaiah
also contain Joseph Smithisms?
