In this study we will show that there have been at least 3,913 changes made in the Book of Mormon from the time it was first published in 1830. In making this study we obtained photocopies of an original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon from the University of Utah Library. This copy was donated to the library by the Mormon Apostle John A. Widtsoe. After comparing the first edition of the Book of Mormon with the 1964 edition we marked the changes on the photocopies of the 1830 edition. Therefore, the text is an exact photographic reproduction of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, and the handwriting shows the changes that would have to be made in the text to bring it into conformity with the 1964 edition. We have not tried to show capitalization or punctuation changes in this study. (In 1981 the LDS Church published a new edition of the Book of Mormon, making a number of additional changes in the text. They also reset the type thus changing the page numbers from the previous editions.) Tt is very interesting to note that the Mormon Historian Joseph Fielding Smith has claimed that there is no truth in the statement that there have been thousands of changes in the Book of Mormon.

Not only does the Book of Mormon plagiarize heavily from the King James Bible, but it betrays a great lack of information and background on the subject of world history and the history of the Jewish people. The Jaredites apparently enjoyed glass windows in the miraculous barges in which they crossed the ocean; and “steel” and a “compass” were known to Nephi despite the fact that neither had been invented, demonstrating once again that Joseph Smith was a poor student of history and of Hebrew customs.

Is the Book of Mormon the word of God, an ancient collection of Scriptures restored to the world through Joseph Smith? Or is it a 19th-century fiction created to lead people away from the God of the Bible? I will try to show that even the most sophisticated and seemingly convincing arguments offered by Mormons today in defense of the Book of Mormon are unsound. Such arguments simply are unable to overcome some very easy-to-understand objections to regarding it as an authentic ancient text or placing one’s faith in it as God’s word.

There is a great wealth of information concerning the material contained in the Book of Mormon and the various plagiarisms, anachronisms, false prophecies, and other unfortunate practices connected with it.