LATTER-DAY SAINTS & THE BOOK OF MORMON

The official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS - Mormon) weekly, Church News, reported in September 2008, that 140 million copies of ‘The Book of Mormon’, have been distributed since it was first published in 1830.

There have been seven major editions in that time, with some significant and substantial unacknowledged changes (over 4,000 changes in all) – in a book, the first edition of which Joseph Smith, its author, described as: ‘I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book’ (History of the Church, Vol. 4, p. 461). It is also reported that it is published in 107 languages world wide.

Other books looked on as scripture by the LDS (Mormons) are the Bible (KJV only); The Doctrines and Covenants; Pearl of Great Price – as well as the preached and published messages given by the top Mormon hierarchy at its twice-a-year conferences in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In spite of the promotion of the Book of Mormon (BoM), many creative efforts to present the book more graphically have failed to enthuse the masses. In our May-June 2005 TACL (pp.12-14) we reported on efforts to turn the BoM into a movie drama. The Book of Mormon Movie – Volume 1 – The Journey. The 120-minute movie, written and directed by Gary Rogers – screenplay by Craig Clyde, came out in early 2004. It was not a successful adventure drama.  In fact, many (including Mormons) who have seen it have described it in less than flattering terms – bluntly, it was a flop! We mentioned in 2005 that efforts to raise money for the seconded instalment: The Book of Mormon Movie – Volume 2 – Zarahemla were not promising! We have learnt that some money seems to have been raised, because the second movie is supposedly ‘in production’ this year, 2008! However, there are no details (not even anticipated release/screening dates) and the year is fast slipping away. Comments and suggestions for the second movie have been far from polite or complimentary.

In the same article we mentioned that well-known comic artist, Mike Allred, had given up his lucrative income from secular comic work to concentrate on producing a new 12-volume series of BoM comics, The Golden Plates.

The first was published in October 2004; the second in May 2005 and the third in September 2005.  Each of these (and the remaining 9 volumes that were to come) was priced at US$7.99 – THAT WAS BACK IN 2005!  Mike stopped after volume 3 – lack of interest and sales brought an end to the project before it was even halfway completed.  Now a mint Volume 1 has already been priced at US$29.95 on the Internet.

Apart from Mormons, most other people don’t seem to be too gripped by the Book of Mormon – especially not enough to pay big prices for it.

Our booklet ‘Take a Closer Look – the Mormon Message Examined’ gives easy to read insights into the LDS (Mormon) teachings.

P.S. While Mormon Internet wiki’s make incorrect statements such as: ‘The Book of Mormon (properly titled The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ)…’ the truth is that words, ‘Another Testament of Jesus Christ’ were never part of the original, and were only added in 1982, in a deliberate attempt to align the Book of Mormon with the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and make it more acceptable to Christians (http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/the-book-of-mormon-another-testament-of-jesus-christ).  And while most editions of the BoM, including current editions, state on the title page: ‘Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun’, this has been a deliberate alteration from the original editions, which clearly stated: ‘By Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor.’ 

(First published in TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, Vol. 29   No. 5; Oct-Nov 2008)