Does the Book of Mormon Contradict the Bible?

 My Facebook algorithm has exploited my insatiable interest in religious discourse to serve me an endless barrage of anti-Mormon posts and Mormon apologetic responses to them. I usually know better than to respond directly, but a recent post about a Christian’s experience with the Book of Mormon (He found it contradictory to the Bible and too full of KJV English and anachronisms to take seriously) made me want to present my own story as a case for viewing scripture differently than is commonly represented by both sides. 

I was born and raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I drank all the Kool-Aid. I heard all the objections and had answers for them all and, most importantly, didn’t think proof was nearly as valuable to me as the spiritual witness through which I felt very close to my Heavenly Father. 

But then about 4 years ago, things changed. I felt like I fell off a spiritual cliff, like when I prayed, there was no one on the other end of the line. 

I seriously considered leaving the church. Without a spiritual witness, what’s the point? 

But these words from the Gospel of John kept me in the church: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17). 

I figured maybe I wasn’t living the gospel strongly enough and this seemed like as good a test as ever. I determined to try doing the Mormon thing with ever more rigor for 4 more years, corresponding with the quadrennial cycle of church curricula (Saints study one of the four main segments of our scriptural canon each year and we were just about to start the Old Testament). As they were relevant to my scripture study, I would deep-dive into all the sticky issues: biblical contradictions, Book of Mormon anachronisms, polygamy, folk-magic, institutional corruption, etc.

For the first two years of this journey, I focused on the Bible. I purchased a study bible in a modern translation, and vowed to silence all my Mormon biases and simply try to understand the plain meaning of the text. And you know what!? The Bible DOES contradict Mormon teachings! 

For example: 

• Latter-day Saint curricula identifies Moses as the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But those books don’t claim Mosaic authorship AND they contain anachronisms that point to a much later composition. 

• Latter-day Saints teach that Ezekiel prophesied the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as a “stick of Joseph” to be bound together with a stick of Judah. But a close reading reveals that Ezekiel 37 is clearly talking about the reunification of the divided monarchies of Judah and Israel–and not a spiritual gathering of Israel through missionary work, either. 

• Joseph Smith taught that the Apostle Paul was referring to two of three kingdoms of glory in heaven in 1  Corinthians 15, but Paul was clearly referring to the difference between earthly beings and stars. 

What’s more though, the Bible contradicts itself! For example: 

• Genesis 1 presents a different order of created things than Genesis 2. 

• Exodus 33 teaches that no man can see God and live, yet many biblical people claim to see him and even speak with him face to face. 

• Each of the Gospels present contradictory details in the life of Jesus, even though they clearly copied from each other or the same source for some of their statements. 

• Paul makes a huge point about not going to Jerusalem until much later in his life and then meeting only with Cephas, but Acts says he went to Jerusalem where he was introduced to the apostles.

• James directly responds to Pauline teachings on the deadness of the law and the reliance on faith alone. 

I know that as some of you read this, you’re thinking of reasons why these aren’t contradictions. And before you jump down my throat about it, let me assure you: I believe you! I believe that there are ways to make all of these work and appear non-contradictory. I could articulate each of the most quoted reasons right now. But the catch is, I can do the same for the apparent contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Christians won’t accept these explanations, just like atheists won’t accept the Christian explanations for apparent Biblical contradictions. And just like Christians won’t accept the theories that glue together data points in certain scientific fields. 

The problem is, all of the explanations that smooth over scriptural contradictions violate the modern dogma of Sola Scriptura. They create a reason, that is not explicit in the plain reading of the text, for why the contradiction isn’t really contradictory. And we all do it. 

That’s why I don’t have a lot of patience for “here are 10 ways the Mormon Jesus is different from the Christian Jesus” arguments. The God of Genesis 1 is different from the God of Genesis 2. The Jesus of Luke is VERY different from the Jesus of Mark. But they are also—the same! The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. You will have a richer, more satisfying, more transformative theology if you learn to appreciate the contradictory sides of God across all scripture and then you allow yourself to harmonize, accepting with an honest heart that that is exactly what you’re doing. 

And isn’t that kind of the point in Christianity? Jesus Christ was 100% God. Jesus Christ became 100% human. Those two statements are contradictory. God died! A contradiction in just two words! That’s a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23)!

Mormonism annoys me in some of the same ways Christian apologetics does, but it does it in a trickier way. Christians have to respond to apparent contradictions in the Bible by employing reasoning or historical possibilities (no matter how implausible) that are extra-biblical, and yet they typically still claim dogmas like inerrancy and sola scriptura. Mormons actually have canonized scripture that smooths over contradictions! 

For example: 

• The Books of Moses and Abraham both attest to the creation events from Genesis 1 being a “spiritual creation” or planning session before the physical creation of earth. 

• The book of Moses gives Adam and Eve a reason to partake of the fruit (to have children)

• The Book of Moses gives Adam and Eve more children, multiplying two by two, before the births of Cain and Abel. 

• The Joseph Smith Translation of Exodus corrects every instance of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart to give him agency. 

None of these are “biblical,” if by that you mean relying only on the text of the Bible. But to Latter-day Saints, they are scriptural in ways that most apologetic explanations of scripture can never be without a concept of continuing, non-biblical revelation. 

Once more, IT IS OKAY for you to think outside the text! We all do it! Sola Scriptura is such a thinly-justified doctrine (which is extra-biblical, by the way!). Just don’t be surprised when not everyone agrees with the way you create meaning from the Bible.