Jesus Christ and His Life
Details of Christ’s Life in the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon has prophets giving details of Jesus’ life long before he was born, such as his name, his mother’s name, his baptism by John, and many other details. In the Bible, such details were unknown until New Testament times and Old Testament prophecies of Christ were generally vague.
Such views are rather normal in the philosophy that drives modern thinking, but they do not reflect the views of the earliest Christians. A number of early Church Fathers of the first centuries AD claimed that Christ’s name and details of his mortal ministry (including the name of his mother) were known long before his birth and some early Christian texts indicate that this information had been revealed to Adam in the very beginning. (Read More)
Unlike the Mormon Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible did not visit the New World.
Members of the Church of England and its American offshoot, the Episcopalian Church, are readily accepted as Christians, even “born again Christians” when appropriate, by other Protestants, yet Anglicans have a tradition that Christ, as a boy, visited the British Isles. If Anglicans can be considered Christians and yet believe Jesus visited ancient Britain, why should the Book of Mormon account of Christ’s visit to the Nephites in the New World disqualify its believers from being Christians? (Read More)
The Name Jesus in the Book of Mormon
In the Book of Mormon, an angel uses the name “Jesus Christ” years before the time of Christ (2 Nephi 25:19; Mosiah 3:8, etc.). Yet in Old Testament times, the name “Jesus Christ” was never used in reference to the Son of God. The first time His name was revealed was when Gabriel appeared to Mary (Luke 1:31).
Book of Mormon prophets recieved their information on the name of the Savior through direct revelation and also from other Book of Mormon prophets and not from the Old Testament. (Read More)
The Book of Mormon uses the term “Christ” but this word is of Greek derivation and ancient Israelites would not have used it. Moreover, it is used as a “name” in the Book of Mormon, though it is really a title.
The title “Christ” may have a Greek origin, but it has been part of the English language for centuries. English has many terms borrowed from foreign languages (the word “language” itself comes from the French word meaning “tongue”), but this does not invalidate their use. (Read More)
The Name Mary in the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon (Mosiah 3:8; Alma7:10) twice calls Jesus’ mother Mary, which is the Greek form of Hebrew Miriam. Since the Nephites came from Jerusalem, shouldn’t we expect the Hebrew form in their record?
The Hebrew name Miriam became Mariam and Maria in Greek and Maria in Latin, though the Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote in Greek, rendered it Mariamne. The Latin name was formed as if the final a were the feminine suffix, so the French, taking it to be such, made it a silent e (as almost always in the case of names with the feminine suffix a), giving us Marie. The English form Mary comes from the French. But they all trace back to the Hebrew. (Read More)
In the original (1830) edition of the Book of Mormon, some portions of Nephi‘s vision indicate that Christ was considered to be the Father, not a separate individual. The words “the son of” were added in later editions, making it appear that Joseph Smith modified the text as his view of the Godhead changed. Thus, 1 Nephi 11:18speaks of Mary as “the mother of [the son of] God,” where the words in brackets were later added. The same is true of 1 Nephi 11:21(“behold the lamb of God yea, even the [son of the] Eternal Father”), 1 Nephi 11:32(“The [son of the] Everlasting God”), and 1 Nephi 13:40(“the Lamb of God is [the son of] the Eternal Father”).
From a number of Book of Mormon passages, it is clear that the Nephites knew that Christ and his Father were separate individuals. The Savior told the Nephites that his Father had sent him (3 Nephi 20:26; 27:13-14). (Read More)
The Godhead in the Book of Mormon
Several Book of Mormon passages 2 Nephi 31:21; Alma 11:44; 3 Nephi 11:27; Mormon 7:7), teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are but one God. Doesn’t this contradict the Church’s teachings that the members of the Godhead are separate beings.
The oneness of the members of the Godhead is not intended to imply that there are not three separate persons. In the Bible, too, Jesus declared, “I and my Father are one” John 10:30) and “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10). That oneness of being was not intended is indicated in his intercessory prayer, when, speaking of his apostles, he prayed “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us . . . I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:20-23). Clearly, Christ did not intend that his disciples should become physically one and merge with the Godhead.
Similarly, in the Book of Mormon, though Christ declared his oneness with the Father (3 Nephi 11:27, 36; 20:35; 28:10), he made it clear that he was teaching what the Father had given him (3 Nephi 11:32; 12:19; 18:4) and declared his intention to ascend to his Father (3 Nephi 15:1; 17:4; 18:27, 35; cf. 26:15; 27:26; 28:1, 4). He also spoke of having received commandments from his Father (3 Nephi 15:14-19; 16:3, 16; 17:2; 20:10, 14, 46; 26:1) and prayed to the Father (3 Nephi 17:14-18, 21; 18:24; 19:19-35). His statement that the Father had sent him (3 Nephi 27:13-14) clearly shows that they were separate individuals. (Read More)
Book of Mormon Jesus Killed Millions
The Book of Mormon Mormon Jesus killed millions of people at time of the crucifixion (3 Nephi 8-9), while the biblical Jesus is always loving and kind.
There is no indication in the Book of Mormon that the Nephites and Lamanites numbered in the millions and it never says how many people were slain during the destructions that occurred at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, it is true that the Savior indicated that he had destroyed the wicked cities that had slain and cast out the prophets and that these were the more wicked ones who were destroyed (3 Nephi 9:1-15). But the Bible also has the Lord destroying people in the flood, in the towns surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah, and ordering the Israelites to exterminate or expel the Canaanites from their land. We also read that the Lord will send angels to destroy the wicked at his second coming (Matthew 13:38-42; Revelation 14:10; 16:1). (Read More)