This issue looks at how the claims of Mormonism regarding its connection to Israel don’t hold water.
SINCE YOU ASKED
As most of my readers know, my focus is on the relationships between America, Israel, and Islam. For those who failed to see such a relationship in my articles about Glenn Beck, this edition will show how it’s all connected. As we examine one aspect of Mormon theology, you’ll see that what Mormons believe regarding Israel and America represents, in reality, a huge disconnect. According to the Book of Mormon, after Jesus’ resurrection, He came to the Americas to preach to the Indians who the Mormons believe are really Israelites. Thus, the Jesus of Mormonism established his church in the Americas as he had in Palestine.
By the year 421 A.D., the dark skinned “Israelites,” known as the Lamanites, had destroyed all of the white skinned Nephites in a number of great battles. According to Mormon writings, the Nephites were an ancient people who lived on the American continent. They are named after their prophet and leader Nephi (a Jew) who traveled with his family from Jerusalem to the Americas in approximately 600 B.C. Nephi and his descendants were commanded by God to keep a record of their people, an abridged version of which is now found in the Book of Mormon, which is considered scripture by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).
The Nephites’ records were supposedly written on golden plates buried in the Hill Cummorah by Moroni, the last living Nephite. About 1,400 years later, Joseph Smith, claimed to have uncovered the same gold plates near his home in upstate New York. He is now honored by Mormons as a prophet because he claimed to have had visions from the spirit world in which he was commanded to organize the Mormon Church because all Christian creeds were an abomination.
According to other Mormon writings, the term “Lamanite” includes all Indians and Indian mixtures, such as the Polynesians, the Guatemalans, the Peruvians, as well as the Sioux, the Apache, the Mohawk, the Navajo, and others (“Of Royal Blood,” Ensign, July 1971, p. 7). Being descended from Nephi would make Lamanites or American Indians of Jewish or Semitic ancestry (“And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.” II Nephi 30:4).
AS I SEE IT
What I have presented here does not represent the beliefs of some fringe element of Mormonism. This is what Mormons believe. Glenn Beck believes this. So does Orrin Hatch and Mitt Romney. If these beliefs seem preposterous to you, your response is well founded. A basic study of Anthropology shows these claims to be impossible. The Jewish people are classified anthropologically as “Mediterranean Caucasoid.” Indians are classified as “Mongoloid.” These are mutually exclusive. You can be one or the other, but not both.
This represents one of many historical inconsistencies found in Mormon writings. The book of Mormon contains numerous references to great cities and nations along with monetary systems and great artifacts. Yet, not one of these “great cities” has ever been found. No “Book of Mormon names” has ever been found in New World inscriptions, and no genuine inscriptions written in Hebrew have been found in America. The writings on the gold plates was supposedly written in the “reformed Egyptian language, ” yet, according to all archaeological records, no such language has ever existed. No evidence of Mormon persons, places, nations, monetary system, or artifacts of any kind, which demonstrates the Book of Mormon is true, has ever been found.
As was noted earlier, the Bible and the Book of Mormon are alike in presenting themselves as records of ancient history. However, whereas the authenticity of the Bible is widely accepted even by secular scholars, no non LDS archaeologist accepts the Book of Mormon as authentic history, and now even many LDS scholars no longer support its historicity. In the words of Michael Coe, “As far as I know, there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the foregoing to be true, and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group” (Michael Coe, “Mormons and Archeology: An Outside View,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 1973), p. 42 – ).
I have written this so you will understand what lies behind some of the Christian sounding theology of prominent Mormons like Glenn Beck. Most of what he presents is excellent material. When he ventures into theology, however, beware.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
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