Hypocrisy: The Foundation for Many Anti-Mormon Arguements

I apologize for not posting for quite a long time... School, spring break, and family have been taking up most of my time. I am still working on "Where Does the Book of Mormon Take Place? - Part II", and it should be ready in a little bit, but in the meantime my mind has been on other subjects.

I was idly sitting in my dormitory a few days ago, talking to a friend. Somehow or another my beliefs were brought up, and I was more than eager to talk a bit about my faith in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her questioning of my beliefs and LDS beliefs, in general, was sincere. She simply wanted to know a bit more about the Church, and, I believe, wanted to figure out why there is such a commotion caused by the simple mentioning of the word “Mormon” (not always bad… just you say you’re Mormon, or basically Mormon…, and people always go “Ooh really?”; some then respond, “Oh I know a Mormon back home”, others, “Really?! Why?”, and some simply say in a somewhat disapproving tone, “Oh…”). I explained some stuff, such as the First Vision, the Golden Plates, modern-day prophets, and such. During the conversation she said something about some of the criticisms and accusations made against the Book of Mormon that I was somewhat surprised by; she said she did not understand how critics (most of which are Christians of other denominations) found things wrong with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the same (or very similar) arguments could be made against aspects and parts of the Bible. She's completely right. Critics of the LDS Church and the Book of Mormon often use hypocritical arguments when the same arguments could be posed to them. I'm not saying all critics, but many do (I am refering to Christian anti-Mormons, just to clarify).

Critics look at the Book of Mormon as a textbook, searching direly for flaws and mistakes. I understand this approach, I myself began my reading of the Book of Mormon in much the same way, but the Book of Mormon is not a textbook. Granted it is a record of ancient peoples in the Americas, but that is only a very small part of it. The true purpose of the Book of Mormon (like the Bible) is to give people a testament of Jesus Christ, that He is in fact our Lord and Redeemer.

Now this is where the hypocrisy comes into play. Generally speaking, critics of the Book of Mormon pick it apart bit by bit grappling onto whatever they can to "falsify" it. But what do many of these same highly scrutinizing critics do when they look at the Bible? They turn a blind eye to the somewhat "disputed" events in the Bible. Now don't get me wrong I believe the Bible to be true (so long as it is translated correctly; see: Article 8 of the Articles of Faith). My point is simply that critics should be careful in their criticisms of the Book of Mormon and aspects of the Church (such as a sea-voyage across the Pacific c. 600 B.C) when, many times, very similar things occur in the Bible (Noah's ark).

If you recall earlier I said the Book of Mormon is not a textbook, let me explain. Although the Book of Mormon (contrary to what many may say) gives a quite accurate description of Mesoamerican culture (heirarchal political structre and political diffusion, cities rather than nomadic living, temples, smitting of arms, priests/teachers, use of cement, warring factions, etc.) it is a record of religion, a record of Christ, therefore it is meant to tested by the Spirit and confirmed by faith, not by physical evidence. Now, as you may have seen already on my blog, I am very interested in finding evidence for the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it helps me in building my testimony, but it is not the rock on which my testimony is built. That I received simply through faith; by power of the Holy Ghost.

I was speaking with a couple very good friends of mine recently (who have helped me so much in my investigating the Church, thanks again!), we were talking about different things that have been found only in recent years that actually heavily support the validity of the Book of Mormon and the Church, then one of them posed a very hypothetical question to me, "Let's say some physical evidence came out tomorrow that invalidated the Book of Mormon, whould you still believe it to be true?" I thought about it, and the answer is I would. Now before you go hooting and hollering about me being irrational and brainwashed, let me try to explain how I arrived at my decision. Although the physical evidence is a big part of why I believe the things I do, it is not the core, that is faith. One does not need a single shred of physical evidence to know the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith Jun. was a prophet of God. Secondly, physical evidence is fleeting. Evidence/Fact one day changes the next. A few centuries ago we knew the earth was flat, it was common knowledge. I few months ago we knew eggs were bad for us, now we know they are good for us, or are they bad again? A few years ago, VHS was the best quality movie we could get, a couple years ago we knew DVDs were the best quality we could get, now it's Blue-Ray, what will it be tomorrow? Facts change (as much as that sounds like an oxymoron I believe its somewhat true). Time and technology unearth new evidence all the time, that many times invalidates old facts, new theories will arise, more evidence will come about both in support or and against the Book of Mormon; just the same as it has been for thousands of years with both the Book of Mormon and the Bible. It's not that the evidence is false it's that we may not fully understand what it means, or what it is saying; it's true meaning may only be revealed to us later.

Revelation. That is another reason I love the Church. God has information, scriptures, prophesies that He has yet to reveal, and He can, and has clarified things so that we can understand them in this dispensation. (Sorry for getting sidetracked...)

So I'm not asking you critics to give up your beliefs and just convert (although if you would to here is a link to finding a Church meetinghouse near you and here is a link to request a visit from the Missionaries), I'm just asking you to have some faith... at least try to use the faith you have for the Bible when speculating the Book of Mormon.