“The Trial” — Section 5
An obvious Book of Mormon mistake, or contradiction
Representative of a Christian church:
I would like you to explain a very obvious contradiction in the Book of Mormon. In Alma 7:10 of your Book of Mormon, it states that, “He [Christ] shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem, which is the land of our forefathers…”, while the Bible clearly informs us in Luke 2:4-11 that Christ was born in Bethlehem in the City of David. Look on any Bible map and you will see that Bethlehem is over 5 miles from Jerusalem. Can Bethlehem be Jerusalem? No, it cannot.
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
We will be happy to discuss this verse, and explain why it is not a contradiction at all. Would you please turn with us to 2 Kings 14:20? It reads, “And they brought him on horses; and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the City of David.” Now if the City of David, according to the New Testament, is Bethlehem, how could he be buried at both Jerusalem and Bethlehem? Notice that the Book of Mormon states that Christ would be born AT Jerusalem, the LAND of their forefathers. The Oxford dictionary defines ‘at’ as a word which expresses exact or approximate position. Notice also that the Book of Mormon describes the birth of Christ as occurring in the LAND of Jerusalem, not the city of Jerusalem. Bethlehem is indeed included in the general LAND of Jerusalem.
Representative of a Christian church:
Fine, but here is another contradiction found in the Book of Mormon. Upon the crucifixion of Christ, we read in Luke 23:44 that “…it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.” Then we turn to the Book of Mormon and in 3 Nephi 8:20-23 it states that darkness covered the land for three days. Was it three hours, as evidenced by the Bible, or three days, as stated in the Book of Mormon?
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
We have identical experiences in the Bible where darkness prevailed for unusual periods of time in one area, and was light at the same time in other areas. We read in Exodus 10:21 — “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over all the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days.” You will notice that the Book of Mormon incident was a repeat performance of the experience suffered in the land of Egypt. As 3 Nephi 8:19 points out, the corresponding three hours to Luke 23:44 were among the most perilous of the three day ordeal. However, the wisdom of the Lord prevailed as it did in Egypt, and this continent remained for three days in darkness. We would point out that the Exodus account specifically points out that the darkness covered the ‘land of Egypt’. The Lord obviously has the power to cause certain areas to be darkened and other areas be simultaneously unaffected. This was apparently the case at the crucifixion of the Lord also, as the Bible states that the darkness was ‘over all the earth’, but the Book of Mormon states that the darkness there was ‘upon the face of the land’, not over all the earth.
Representative of a Christian church:
Here is another Book of Mormon contradiction that I doubt you will be able to explain. In Mosiah 18:17, at approximately 147 B.C., it states, “they were called the Church of God, or the Church of Christ, from that time forward. And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authority of God was added to his Church.” Yet we read in Matthew 16:18 that Christ told Peter, “…upon this rock I will build my church.” This is future tense, so was the Church organized in 147 B.C. as the Book of Mormon suggests, or after 33 A.D. as Christ and the Bible suggests? We then read in Alma 46:11-15 that in 73 B.C. the people in the Book of Mormon were called ‘Christians’, yet we read in Acts 11:26 that the people were called Christians FIRST at Antioch, approximately 45 A.D. Again, do we follow the Book of Mormon or the Bible? We choose the Bible!
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
It is a well established fact that people lived on the American continent during the time of Christ. The book ‘History of America before Columbus’ is a great source for this information. We can establish that the writers of scripture in the Eastern continents, where the Bible was written, had no understanding of these races of people on the American continent. We read in Acts 2:5 that on the day of Pentecost, “there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.” Obviously those ‘devout men’ did not include any representatives from the American continent, or it would have been recorded. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:23, “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hopes of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I paul am made minister.” Ephesians 3:8 informs us that Paul was sent to “preach among the gentiles” and yet we have no record of his visiting the people on the American continent in any of his writings. Thus we know that he wrote of the world as he knew it, which was the old world, or the Middle Eastern world. Christ referred to his sheep in the new world in John 10:14-15 when he said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” It could not have been the gentiles that Christ was referring to as his “other sheep” because Christ said in Matthew 15:24, “I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and also in Matthew 12:21 when he said, “And in his name the gentiles trust.”
Representative of a Christian church:
That was during his lifetime he referred to, but after his resurrection he told the disciples “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” (See Acts 1:8) Therefore, he was sent to the gentiles and they were his “lost sheep”.
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
It should be pointed out that in John 10:16 the sheep to which Christ ws referring “would hear his voice” and the gentiles never heard his voice. Incidentally, Acts 1:8 was also verifying that the “uttermost part of the earth” with which they were familiar, was only their own continent and they fulfilled that command of Christ. Caiaphas, prophesying of Christ’s future mission, said concerning John 10:16, “Consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And not for that nation only, but that also he could gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” (John 11:50-52) We have pointed out that there were other sheep — they lived on another continent, and the apostles did not have accessible means to preach the word of God on the other side of the ocean. Therefore, the American continent people had their own prophets because, God being just, would reveal his word to all righteous people, and especially entire nations. Their prophets had great revelations, and prophesied of greater events concerning the birth of Christ because he was to live among another people. Therefore, they knew his name would be Jesus Christ so they took upon themselves the name of “Christians”. When Luke wrote that they were called Christians “first” at Antioch, that was according to his knowledge, because he had said earlier that Christ had told the disciples they would preach “to the uttermost parts of the earth”. On Pentecost, people were “gathered out of every nation under heaven” so therefore to Luke’s understanding, they were called Christians first in Antioch. That was the first time on the old continent that the people of that hemisphere were called by that name, but such was not the cae upon this continent as we have demonstrated and pointed out. The people on the American continent, being a more righteous nation, leaned many years before the Savior’s birth that his name would be Jesus Christ. Therefore, 147 years before his birth they named the Church after him. They remained under the old law until his appearance to them in 34 A.D. When he appeared to them and taught them his principles, they did away with the Law of Moses and accepted his teachings. He chose twelve apostles on this continent and did many wonderful things for these people. Therefore, we have pointed out that it was not a contradiction, but just a lack of knowledge due to communications which prevented the writers of the New Testament books from knowing of the events that were transpiring on the American continent. If you do still believe the the New Testament writers knew of the American continent peoples, then you will need to explain Acts 1:8, Colossians 1:23, and Acts 2:5)
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