BOOK OF MORMON BELIEVER:

Those who believe the Book of Mormon claim that Isaiah 29 is a prophecy fortelling [sic] it. In Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, called the Inspired Version there are 612 words added to Isaiah 29:11-12. These same 812 words appear in the Book o Mormon [sic] in a prophecy purported to be Nephi’s which is built on the King James translation of Isaiah 29. It is from these expanded and enlarged accounts of Isaiah that the prophecy is used to support the Book of Mormon.

Even if one uses these enlarged accounts to examine Isaiah 29 in relationship to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, several problems are presented to your attention. According to the prophecy credited to Nephi in the Book of Mormon and to Isaiah in the Inspired Version (2 Nephi11:140 and Isa. 29:21), “the learned” was not to read the characters. His answer was to be, “I can not read it.” Also the unlearned was not suppose to be able to read them until after the learned “rejected them” (2 Nephi 11:142 and Isa. 29:22). In the history which Joseph Smith wrote in 1838 and published in the Times and Seasons, Vol. 3, No. 13, May 2, 1842, Page 772-773, he “copied a considerable number of them (characters), and by means of the Urim and Thummin I translated some of them. …Martin Harris come to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates and…went to…New York and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof to Professor Anthony. .. . Professor Anthony stated that the translation was correct…he said that they were the true characters. He gave…a certificate certifying that they were true characters, and that the translation… was correct.” After Professor Anthon learned the plates were obtained by the help of an angel, he tore up the certificate and made the statement, “I cannot read a sealed hook.”

So according to Joseph Smith, the unlearned was translating before the learned had rejected the work. Also the learned did read the words and certified they were correct. All of which is contrary to the purported prophecy of Nephi and the inspired version of Isaiah’s prophecy.

To further complicate the problems, there is “A History of the life of Joseph Smith Jr. an account of his marvilous [sic] experiences and of all the mighty acts which he doeth in the name of Jesus Christ. . . .and also an account of the rise of the church of Christ. …” which is in the hand writing of Joseph Smith and was written in 1831 or 1832. The manuscript is in a journal ledger in the L.D.S. Church Historian’s office in Salt Lake City. On the fifth page of this history, in his own hand writing Joseph Smith gives these details about Martin Harris’ trip to New York “…the Lord had shown him that he must go to New York City with some of the characters so we proceided [sic] to copy some of them and he took his Journey to the eastern City and to the learned saying read this I pray thee and the learned said I cannot but if he would bring the plates they would read it but the Lord had forbid it and he returned to me and gave them to me to translate and I said I cannot for I am not learned but the Lord had prepared spectacles for to read the Book therefore I commenced translating the characters and thus the prophecy [sic] of Isiah was fulfilled which is written in the 29 chapter concerning the book.”

There is no way of reconciling these two accounts of Joseph Smith’s. One was written within a few years of the event, hut never published. The other was written 7 or 8 years later by a scribe and published 4 years later in a periodical of which Joseph was the editor. The historical facts given in these two accounts deny each other.

The Bible instructs us to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21).

It is our desire “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. May he able to comprehend with all saints what is the bredth, [sic] and length and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might he filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17-19)