What is the Book of Mormon & how did it come into being?

Answer 1

South Park did a good synopsis.

Answer 2

The easiest way to understand where we believe the Book of Mormon came from and why it is known by that name is to read the introduction to the book:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/introduction

Someone stated that only Joseph Smith ever saw the Golden Plates. This is not true. There were at least eleven men that saw them, in addition to Joseph Smith. Their records of seeing the plates can be found here:

The Testimony of Three Witnesses:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/thrwtnss

The Testimony of Eight Witnesses:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/eghtwtns

And we do not find the term "Mormons" to be insulting. It simply does not convey the full depth of our beliefs, so we prefer to be known by the full name of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon was a great prophet in the Book of Mormon that spent much of his adult life compiling the many records of his people into the Golden Plates that were eventually given to Joseph Smith.

And last of all, to the comment about the seer stones. Here is a link to a very good, concise article that explains where the seer stones came from and what they were used for:
http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith_and_seer_stones

Answer 3

The Book of Mormon is a book of scripture written by prophets in the Americas. It is a second witness of Jesus Christ and details specifically His visit to the Americas after His crucifixion and ressurection.

The book itself was translated from an ancient record written on gold plates by Joseph Smith (but seen by others, contrary to some of the answers provided here). Gold was a good choice for the writings, as gold is soft enough to write on easily, gold does not tarnish or decay (like silver or iron for example), gold is relatively light. And gold was plentiful on this continent for the prophets to make plates from.

The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. It is a second book of scripture and I know that it is a true work.

Answer 4

The Book of Mormon is a book of scripture similar to the Bible. It contains the writings of Prophets from the American continent in ancient times. The Book of Mormon Covers a time period between the time of the Tower of Babel and about 300 years after the birth of Christ. It teaches the Gospel of Christ as taught in the Bible by the Twelve Apostles called by Christ.

Answer 5

It is a made up book by Joseph smith. He copied a few of the ideas (3 levels of heaven and the temples sun, moon and stars, ect) from other writers. (Emmanuel Swedenborg)
Also Joseph Smith was a mason and copied quite a bit if their ideas to incorporate it with the Temple cerimonies!

Heres a link from WIKIPEDIA stating the similiarities!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.

Why cant Mormons just admit that he was a copycat, it's so obivious!

Below is from a PBS special that was broadcast on TV!


In the recent PBS special, The Mormons, Daniel Peterson publicly and explicitly admitted that “most of the translation [of the Book of Mormon] was done using something called a seer stone.” Since many Mormons have labeled claims like these “anti-Mormon“, Peterson’s statement is significant because he is a professor at BYU and is considered the foremost apologist of Mormonism today. While one has been able to find such candid admissions buried in some FARMS/FAIR material, depictions of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon in church-published literature have led nearly all Mormons to believe that Joseph Smith simply translated with the golden plates right in front of him. But Peterson knows better:

“We know that Joseph didn’t translate the way that a scholar would translate. He didn’t know Egyptian. There were a couple of means that were prepared for this. One was he used an instrument that was found with the plates that was called the Urim and Thummim. This is a kind of a divinatory device that goes back into Old Testament times. Actually most of the translation was done using something called a seer stone. He would put the stone in the bottom of a hat, presumably to exclude surrounding light. And then he would put his face into the hat. It’s a kind of a strange image for us.”

So he put some rocks in a hat and made up a few stories!!

Hey Mormons, do you ever see the pictures of how Joe smith really translated the tablets?? No that because he used the urim and thumbim sp.. fastened to a breasplate and put it up to his eyes and then took the Seer stone which was a small brown rock that he found near his home. He would look through the "googles and into a HAT and then claim to look through the rock and the letters would appear one at time and he would state what he saw to his SCRIBE!! While looking into a hat at a ROCK!! coo coo! Anyways you mormons will never see this printed on your beloved ensign. Its always joseph looking at the tablets!! When actuallu he wasnt even doing that!! His head was in a HAT!!

Answer 6

It is a book named after "Mormon" that members of the LDS church, though they subscribe to it, find insulting and commemorate with a website also named after him.

The book was found in the form of Golden Plates that no one Joseph Smith has ever seen. He translated it with the use special magic stones.

Even though the book was found in the United States and is supposed to be a recorded history of the people of God in the states in ancient times, for some reason it was translated in old English speak ... just like the KJV Bible used during the time of its translation.

For more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WbB9FgazJk

Answer 7

An illiterate, uneducated conman, named Joseph Smith, started his new religion. Joseph claimed to have found ancient tablets on some hill in upstate New York and supposedly translated them in six months. How an illiterate could read outdated Aramaic language is beyond me. But he managed to get thousands to follow him.
Check out Christopher Hitchens book, God is Not Great, for further indepth details.

Answer 8

http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/the-book-of-mormon