Did you know that archeology has repeatedly confirmed the historical details in the Bible?
Faith is the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” What’s the evidence of Mormonism’s claims? Every historical claim of the Bible is in two categories; that which is proven, the which has not been proven yet. Nothing is disproven. Not a thing. The Bible is so infinitely accurate a historic account that it is seen as an authoritative witness by non-believers in the realms of history, archeology, and anthropology. Easily, it is the most used and trusted historical survey of the ancient world.
For example, the Hittites were called a fabrication until 1906, when their entire capital city turned up in Turkey. Belshazzar was called fictional until a cylinder inscription confirmed he co-reigned with Nabonidus exactly as Daniel describes. The Pool of Bethesda in John 5 was considered a theological symbol until archaeologists dug it up in Jerusalem with its five porticoes precisely as the text describes. The Tel Dan Stele, discovered in 1993, contains the explicit phrase “House of David” in Aramaic – a direct extra-biblical confirmation of the Davidic dynasty that critical scholars had spent generations calling a legend. Pontius Pilate was considered a literary device until a dedicatory stone bearing his name and title surfaced at Caesarea Maritima in 1961. The Ebla tablets corroborated patriarchal names, customs, and cities from Genesis that had been written off as late priestly invention. No other ancient text - not Homer, not Herodotus, not Thucydides - has survived the archaeological pressure test the way Scripture has, and the digs are still running.
In juxtaposition, the Book of Mormon is trusted by exactly no one in those fields, because it’s never been substantiated by the smallest detail.
There is not a single archeological discovery supporting the Book of Mormon. I can have faith that what is not yet proven in the Bible is true, because it’s been proven true, a myriad of times.
But Mormons have nothing but the word of a man proven to have prophesied falsely. By the standards of Deuteronomy 18, Joseph Smith should have been stoned to death. Moses gave Israel a simple test: if the prophet speaks and the thing does not happen, God did not send him, and put him down like a dog.
Smith’s 1832 prophecy in Doctrine and Covenants 84 declared by “the word of the Lord” that a temple would be built in Independence, Missouri, within his own generation. The temple was never built, and the lot in Independence, MO sits empty to this day.
Smith also prophesied in 1843 that if Congress did not redress the grievances of the Saints, God would come out of His hiding place and “vex the nation in His hot displeasure.” Congress declined to act, and God did not vex the nation on schedule. Smith was dead within the year, which the prophet didn’t see coming (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jesus saw it coming).
Smith’s 1835 prophecy declared that the Lord would come within 56 years, meaning no later than 1891. Don’t recall that one happening.
The truth is, finding accurate prophecies about the future from Smith is as difficult as finding accurate claims about the past. Past, present, future, the man was full of lies. So while faith does not require evidence, when your religion’s unverified claims come from someone with a track record of being wrong about every possible timeline, maybe rethink your religion.
But my person favorite is that the Book of Mormon claims to have been written up to 400AD, but quotes verbatim from the 1611 KJV, including KJV translation errors and italicized words that the KJV translators themselves added for English readability and marked in italics to indicate they had no Hebrew or Greek equivalent. Those italicized words show up in the Book of Mormon as if they were on the original plates.
Oopsie.