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Summary: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses..."
Review: "... shall every word be established." (2 Cor. 13:1) No other revelation from God is attested to by so many modern witnesses or has been reaffirmed personally by the Father and Son as this book of scripture. Shall we fail to ignore this veritable "cloud of witnesses?" (Heb. 12:1) Eleven witnesses besides Joseph Smith, Jr. saw and handled th plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Three of these men saw the angel who brought the plates and heard a voice from heaven declaring that the translation had been done by the gift and power of God and was true. All eleven men signed sworn legal affidavits attesting to these events as firsthand witnesses. Despite persecution, attempts to discredit their testimonies, and even the excommunication of some, NONE of these witnesses ever denied his testimony of these events. The dying words of the three witnesses leave no doubt along with the added testimonies of their friends and relatives who took part in these events that Joseph Smith's account of the origin of the Book of Mormon - Another Testiment of Jesus Christ was true.
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Summary: Read this book
Review: If you're like me, you will read many books in your life. Some will be flashier, more exciting, than this one. But no book you will read will be more important than this one. It is true. It is real. It will change your life. It offers comfort and inspiration, but more importantly it offers direction and peace. In it, the Lord has spoken again to his children and completed the truths of His gospel. It complements and completes the wisdom of the Bible and shows us the path we should walk and how to stay on it. The Book of Mormon and all it reveals are the keys to happiness. I know it is true.
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Summary: You want to know if it's worth buying?
Review: I can't tell you that for sure, but I can make some suggestions. If you are looking for a Christian religion to believe in and you want to try Mormonism, you'll have to read this book. You'll only have to read a couple passages near the end, though, that tell you to pray to God asking if the book is "true". The text says that if you receive a warm, fuzzy feeling, that means it's true. After that, you can contact the missionaries and get yourself baptized. You don't need to read the whole book; lots of Mormons never do. If you are looking to study Mormonism as a religion, culture, cult, or some other type of organization, you'll need to read this book at least a little. But also read the original version (you can buy it on Amazon, apparently), because there seems to be a difference between the current and past versions. Also, read lots of other books about Mormons, and make sure you know the agendas of the writers, so that you know how biased their information is. I would say that authors have a tendency to be biased when it comes to religion. If you are looking to be entertained, I have no idea if you'll enjoy it. The writing is rather crappy (that is my opinion as a writer). It can be quite repetitious. It has little stories that can be entertaining, in a mythical-folklore-larger-than-life kind of way. But you may find yourself getting bored if you try to read it from beginning to end. You wouldn't be the only one; there are plenty of Mormons who can't make it from cover to cover, either.
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Summary: popular american mythology
Review: the book is a very nice book of mytholgy but I must admit it is one of the most boring ones I have ever read(at least Zeus didn't claim to have guns!). Looking at it through a rleigious point of view it was tolerable if you are dedicated to this sort of thing,but looking at it as a historical record is almost laughable so many things have been physically disproven. Of course this very odd akward dull peice of work does get you to help understand your oddly mormon neighbors.
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Summary: A poorly written work of fiction.
Review: I've read this book from cover to cover and it is clearly a work of fiction. This "novel" masquerading as a testament of Jesus Christ has been discredited time and time again. There is no proof of any of its claims despite what the "gushers" say. Don't waste your time or hard-earned money on this. If you really want to learn the truth about the Mormon church, try one of these books first: Questions to Ask Your Mormon Friend by Bill McKeever & Eric Johnson; Mormonism by Walter Martin; How to Answer a Mormon by Robert A. Morey; Answering Mormons' Questions by Bill McKeever; and How to Respond: The Latter-day Saints by Edgar P. Kaiser. Edited to say that if it were possible to give this book a negative star rating, I would have.
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Summary: Good cure for insomnia
Review: This has to be a classic of boring books. Born into Mormonism I had to read it at least twice from cover to cover. Ask me to tell you what's there? Ha! I fell asleep too many times. But I do remember that I had to agree with Mark Twain's assessment -- If you leave out all the "... And so it came to pass that," ---- it would turn into a pamphlet. I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'd give it five stars for curing insomnia, but zero stars as a worthwhile book.
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Summary: Where's the choice for zero stars?
Review: "The Book of Mormon : Another Testament of Jesus Christ (Official Edition) by Joseph Smith" By Joseph Smith is correct. Not ancient prophets. Nothing is inspired about this book at all. It's a Bible wanna-be and a poor one at that. You don't have to read any so called "Anti-Mormon" material to find it out. Just pick up a book on history, real history. Or DNA. Or Archaeology. Or Anthropology. Or Botony. Or Chemistry, Metalurgy, or Zoology. If it's science, then it proves this book wrong. Because science is the study of the actual, real world. This book is pure fiction, set in a fiction place with fictional people doing fictional events. Don't be fooled by this books claims. Any research into them will tell you the real truth.
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Summary: An Actual Review
Review: .... As a book of non-fiction I found the general theme for the story to be unbelievable. The idea that Christainity could have existed before Christ is a huge error in logic in the storyline. To believe that gold plates were hidden by God and then found by man and then NOT used to create a translation (rather a method of pschic translation was used) but then taken back by God anyway is absurd. As a work of fiction I found the story to be disjointed and poorly thought out. The imagry used to describe the various types of animals in existance in this fictional world was interesting as were the battle scenes. If this were to be reviewed as a fictional work it might be worth a 3 star. BUT AS A non-fiction work it is a 1 star only because this rating system doesn't allow any lower.
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Summary: Fiction about imaginary people
Review: This is a book that requires you read it with some nebulous spiritual guidance, suspend common sense, reason and logic and ignore any reliance on any facts or evidences. It is based on the alleged-claimed visions of Joseph Smith, a 19th century man steeped in Protestantism who was born in 1805 and is the foundation for the American religion of Mormonism which was organized in 1830 after he produced the Book of Mormon. This book is nothing more than a book of fiction about imaginary people which draws heavily on the King James version of the Bible, The View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith (no relation), the Solomon Spaulding Manuscripts and other sources which sound suspiciously like his own family. If you are willing to believe that Joseph Smith had visions and saw angels and many of the Biblical characters, then it will appeal to you as some sort of complimentary book to the Bible. It is interesting to note that no where do any of the witnesses to these claimed "golden plates" which are supposed to be the basis for this book state that they ever saw anything with their physical eyes. Instead they use such phrases as "spiritual eye" (Martin Harris-one of the witnesses) and "shown by a supernatural power," another "witness." One must ask the question, if these records were real, why did it require faith and prayer to see them by some metaphysical, spiritual means? These kinds of documented reports show clearly this is a book based on beliefs in angels, the supernatural and other metaphysical notions. Obviously, there are no evidences of any tangible source to validate this book which is claimed to be written in an unknown language called: Reformed Egyptian. It has remained as some source of "truth" only in a spiritual sense as it relies heavily on the Christian principles in the Bible. It is a mildly interesting read, but very laborious to wade through because of the repetitious phrases such as: "and it came to pass." One can see clearly that this book is only for Mormons who have a "belief" in their brand of subjective truth. I would not recommend it.
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Summary: Is it honestly true?
Review: Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844) claimed that in 1823 an angel of God named Moroni visited him while he was living in upstate New York. This angel told him of a record of the ancestors of the American Indians who were descendants of the house of Israel. Smith claimed to receive several other visitations from this personage and many others who gave him a basic understanding of the history of these people. Smith also claimed that through the power of God he was able to translate this record which was written on golden plates into the English language and that a person could know that he was a true prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which he founded was God's kingdom once they gained a witness from God that the translation of this record (which is the Book of Mormon) was a true record (i.e. not fictional) of these ancient inhabitants of the Americas. The leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have also consistently encouraged anyone who can show that the book is false to do all they can to correct the wrongs and frauds of the Church. These leaders make this claim because they seem to have been quite certain that the Book is truly what it claims to be. The historical setting for the book starts in the tower of Babel approx 2300 BC with a group of people called the Jaredites who cross the sea in barges where they carry all sorts of grains, animals and honeybees with them in their barges and come to the Americas which was given exclusively to them by God after the great flood in the days of Noah. These people spread throughout the whole continent and eventually become very wicked and God lets them destroy themselves around 600 BC and the Americas are then given to a new group of people who are all Israelites. Church leaders have consistently taught that the American continents were given exclusively to these group of Jews and that a knowledge of it would be kept hidden from all other people until about the time of the coming of Columbus. Therefore Joseph Smith and the rest of the Mormon church leaders were quite certain and confident that all of the Native Americans were descendants of these people and full-blooded descendants of Israel. In recent years scientists in the fields of archaelogy, anthropology, linguistics and most recently genetics have concluded conclusively that the principal ancestors of the Native Americans were individuals who descended from migrators over the Bering Straits from Mongolia and/or Siberia several thousand years ago. They've also found no evidence at all about any such Israelite groups as described in the Book of Mormon. Scientists who are defenders of the Mormon faith now generally support the claims of these scientists and now claim that the Church never really taught that the principal ancestor of the Native Americans were these Book of Mormon people or that what Joseph Smith and other early Mormon leaders said was just their opinion based on incomplete information. The most common hypothesis of the defenders is that the groups who came to the Americas around 600 BC from Jerusalem mixed with the natives of Mongol descent. Yet this hypothesis directly contradicts the teachings of Smith, others and the text that the Americas would be kept hidden from all other people. Another common hypothesis is that the Hebrew groups who came around 600 BC came to some obscure place and we just haven't yet found their descendants. Yet this hypothesis directly contradicts the teachings of Mormon leaders that all or almost all of the Native Americans are of hebrew blood and descent. The reader should be reminded that Smith claimed to get his information from heavenly messengers and that Smith and other Mormon leaders claimed several times in the "thus saith the Lord" tone that indeed the American Indians are indeed Jews. The reader should also be reminded that Mormon church leaders are recognized by the church membership as being God's authorized representatives to give the world a fulness of truth and to learn firsthand from God about his plan and all truths. The current church leadership has never addressed this issue and in fact they refuse to let third parties examine many early documents that might help scholars better understand the issues involved. Instead they encourage people everywhere to pray to God for guidance and to gain a testimony that they are telling the truth and that the Book of Mormon is true. The assumption is that those who don't gain this special testimony witness from God are not living according to God's commandments and they need to repent in some way in order to really know that the Book of Mormon is true. The Church to this day has always stated that its truthfulness rests on whether or not the Book of Mormon is honestly true. The Church has a massive missionary program in place with the hope that the honest people of the world will come to know that the Church is true and that they will join the Church. I encourage you as you study this book that you consider these things and ask yourself if the Church is really being completely honest and truthful so that you can know for yourself whether or not its true.
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