MormonThink has now issued its response to the Mormon Church essay ‘Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham’ at this link. There are also associated links available on their home page.
As previously noted, I covered the Book of Abraham fraud in TMD Vol.2. When all is said and done, the content of the book nails the Mormon coffin solidly shut with no argument left to consider. It gives a creationist account of a young earth, along with Adam – and Eve made from a rib of Adam – and Adam naming “every” fowl, beast and animal. (That would involve many millions of names). Science has long proven creationism a complete myth. We know the age of our planet and we know more about evolution than we do about gravity. I know I am repeating things previously mentioned but there we are – scientific facts are conclusive and the content of the Book of Abraham condemns itself as a complete and utter hoax – and equally, Joseph Smith a complete and utter fraud.
When Joseph Smith rewrote part of the Bible that became the Mormon ‘Book of Moses’, he had ‘God’ in the singular (175 mentions) handle the creation, just as in Genesis. Remember, this was supposedly an ‘Inspired Revision’ of the Bible. Yet God didn’t ‘inspire’ Smith enough to mention that there were in fact ‘Gods’ involved – and he had one-hundred-and-seventy-five opportunities to do so. The Book of Abraham was invented after Smith’s theology changed from monotheism to polytheism (you will find full details and evidence of the change within ‘The First Vision’ booklet on the side bar), so it is replete with ‘the Gods’ in the plural, performing the very same acts that ‘God’ had managed all on his own in the Book of Moses regarding the creation, in Chapters 4 & 5 (with 48 mentions). As ever, the only thing that is consistent about Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church is the inconsistency.
Also note Moses 8:24. “Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not.” What nonsense, to pretend Moses mentioned baptism, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in a Jewish book supposedly dated to hundreds (if not thousands) of years before the invention of the concepts (by Christians – or at least Romans). It is beyond delusional, yet Mormons seem not to notice. Then Smith includes the fictional flood story as if it really happened and the Church still accepts it as a real event, having confirmed it in their ‘Noah’ essay (see April 2014).
I have previously mentioned the absurd claims about Egyptus ‘discovering’ Egypt following the claimed flood. (See 11th July update and link to my note there). There is no need to argue about where the Book of Abraham originated – none at all, as even a cursory glance at the content confirms beyond any doubt that it is just a little book of complete nonsense. The Book of Abraham content is proof positive that Smith’s Mormonism was a hoax, and the ‘Noah’ essay is evidence that the conspiracy to deceive continues.
Jim Whitefield 