The Book of Mormon vs The Bible, Part 6 of an indepth study of Latter Day Saints Archeology

The Book of Mormon verses The Bible, Part 6 of an indepth study

With the great vast amounts of evidence we find in the Bible through archeology, why is there no evidence for anything writte in the Book of Mormon?

Tags: church false mormon christian bible book of mormon joseph smith cult LDS latter day saints.

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From time to time you will read articles in the Arkansas press by  such writers as  John Brummett, Max Brantley and Gene Lyons that poke fun at those that actually believe the Bible is historically accurate when in fact the Bible is backed up by many archaeological facts. The Book of Mormon is blindly accepted even though archaeology has disproven many of the facts that are claimed by it.

“Barley” is mentioned three times in the Book of Mormon narrative dating to the 1st and 2nd century BC.^[59] “Wheat” is mentioned once in the Book of Mormon narrative dating to the same time period.^[60] The introduction of domesticated modern barley and wheat to the New World was made by Europeans after 1492, many centuries after the time in which the Book of Mormon is set.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: Early in 1947 a young Bedouin shepherd was searching for a lost goat among the rocky ravines of the north shore of the Dead Sea at Wadi-Qumran in Israel. He found in the course of his search a cave, which contained what has been for Bible students great treasure indeed – the Dead Sea Scrolls. The careless handling of these valuable documents as they were ‘hawked’ around the Arab ‘black markets’ makes agonizing reading [The Bible as History – Keller] but in the course of time they became available for the careful scrutiny of experts.

Probably the most valuable of these documents is the ‘Isaiah Scroll’. Some 23 feet long and made of leather, it is a remarkable testimony to the textual accuracy of the Bible as we know it today. Modern methods of estimating the age of the scroll and its flax, or linen cover, reveal the fact that it is a transcription of the complete text of the book of Isaiah made in about 100 B.C. The value of this ‘find’ lies in the fact that it pre-dates the oldest manuscripts available in Hebrew The Masoretic Text 9th – 10th Century A.D.] by some 1,000 years, and comparisons made between our modern translation of the book of the prophet Isaiah and this ancient scroll, show that the book we have in our hands today accurately reflects what was originally written.

This scroll, made of seventeen sheets of leather sewn together, reminds us of the scene in the synagogue at Galilee depicted in the Gospel record through Luke:

“And there was delivered unto him (Jesus) the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor…” [Luke 4.17,18]

About 1991, the Institute for Mittelnergiephysick in Zurich conducted Carbon 14 tests on eight scrolls from Qumran caves and six scrolls from nearby sites. These were Masada, Wadi Dayiyeh, Khirbet Mird, Wadi Murrabba’at and Wadi Seyal where manuscripts found are considered to be part of the Dead Sea Scroll collection. Ten of the scrolls had already been dated by a method known as ‘Palaeographic’ which is based upon the style of script used, when the script is known and proved from other sources. In addition was the dating of pottery which was found in the vicinity of the scrolls as well as coins. Eight of the ten scrolls were from Qumran with the other two from Masada and as a result of the tests, it was confirmed that seven of the eight Qumran scrolls matched the Palaeographic dates allocated to them. One of them was the Isaiah scroll which is now confirmed as being no later than 100 BC, with the other scrolls being a `Paraphrase of the Pentateuch’, the `Testament of Levi’, `Samuel’, the `Temple Scroll’, the `Genesis Apocryphon’ and the `Thanksgiving Scroll’. The results from this renowned Institute is a further example that the continual advance of science never conflicts with, but establishes the truth of the Scriptural record. The word of God has since been preached in almost every language in the world. It is reassuring to know that the Bible we have today is accurate and reliable – a book to be trusted.

[Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls is another special issue of Light which gives more detailed information on this subject.]