can we trust the book of Mormon?

You all are close in what LDS is. Let me just make some corrections having first hand experience.
The Golden Plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon are no longer on the earth. They were taken back up to heaven not long after the translation by the angel Moroni.
Moroni was indeed a prophet of ancient America, and witnessed the end of the Nephites first hand.
John The Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood to the earth through Joseph Smith. I don't believe he participated in the translation of the Book of Mormon.
There is no "HARD CORE" proof of certain locations in the Book of Mormon. But it does describe in the Book of Mormon a "narrow stretch of land". This stretch is referred to often in the war parts of the BOM, and many Mormon scholars of today believe it is the present day Panama. Also, many uncovered cities such as Tulum are believed to have some corrolation with the BOM
The BOM does quote passages from the Bible, especially Isaiah. But it not plagarism, in fact many times in the book the prophets give credit to the sources of information.
Mormonism does deviate from traditional Christianity. But if there was one code of united Christianism, there wouldn't be so many different sects.
Jesus is Lucifer's spiritual brother. We too are Lucifer's spiritual brothers and sisters. We are also Christ's spiritual brothers and sisters. We are all children of the same Father, only Lucifer has been cast out of Heaven and now resides in Hell. We are going through an earth life to obtain a physical body and gain mortal experiences. If we live worthily, we can become just as God now is at judgement.
Mormon's believe sin is sin. But we also believe that Children are not accountable for their sins until the age of eight when they are then baptized.
The atonement served a few main purposes. God lives by the Laws of Justice and Mercy. Otherwise he would cease to be God. It is hard to explain, and being of sacred nature, you should probably call the Missionaries if you're really curious. Anyway, Because of all the sin in the world, somebody had to be punished (law of Justice). Either we would have no choice but to die and never live again, or someone else would have to suffer (Law of Mercy). Christ took upon him the sins of the world when he suffered in Gethsemane and Died on Calvary. Thus Justice has been fullfilled. Now we can be ressurected at judgement day. However, we can still suffer a "spiritual" death, by being cast away from God down to Satan. This depends on how we strive to live our lives. If we try to be righteous, and repent of our sins, God can have us in his Kingdom, and we can soon become Gods ourselves.
The Doctrine and Covenants is not part of the BOM. It is modern day revealation given to Joseph Smith and others regarding standards that his people were not ready for in the olden days. An example is the Word of Wisdom. This is what makes Mormons famous. We don't drink alcohol, we don't use drugs, and basically, we don't use products that can severly hurt your body. Funny how Joseph Smith, a unschooled young man, was somehow able to tell people what was bad for you at least 50 years before modern science even thought about it. But it was just coincidence, right? (;
The Pearl of Great Price is a translation of papyrus that was discovered in ancient Egypt and brought to Joseph Smith who translated it.
The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible is the Bible retranslated to what we believe to be a more correct and full translation. It actually is not printed right into our copies of the Bible, just in the footnotes so that we can use them when talking to other members, but if talking to a non-member, we can be more creditable to them.
About Members having to reconfirm their testimony of Joseph Smith every week at church, some of the older people do that. But I bet they were trying to make a good impression on you. Please don't hate them for that.
i truly believe what I'm saying. So do most members. I read the BOM and I get good wisdom and advice from it.
One more question for the person who started this discussion. Have you been reading the Book of Mormon itself or just the writings of apostates? Personally, I sugest you read both, and decide for yourself.

(quote)This is the only verse I saw using the word "lucifer" in the BOM. It is the exact same verse as used in the KJV and the only time the word "lucifer" is used in the KJV.The word "lucifer" is latin for morning star and wasn't used until the Bible was written in Latin which was completed about 400AD.The Greek version of the Bible wasn't written until about 250BC. The Greek for "morning star" is phosporos.According to the BOM those people left about 600BC. Greek and Latin weren't the languages of the area.Connecting the word "lucifer" with Satan or the devil was done in the time of Origen in AD.The original writers of the "gold plates" realistically wouldn't have connected the morning star with the devil and therefore would not have had Smith translate it as such, since Isaiah was refering to the planet Venus and the poem referred to the King of Babylon.(/quote)What is your source of information? I have researched this and have never found it before.(qs)A little too convenient that Smith's translation matches the KJV words, chapters, and breaks and not the Tanakh.Did Nephi take a copy of the Torah and Isaiah to the wilderness with him?(/qs)Yes. As it says in the first book of Nephi, Nephi and his brethren were exhorted to retrieve the Original Plates of brass from Laban in Jerusalem. The reason Nephi's family needed the scriptures is the same reason we need our own. To gain wisdom and understanding. Only the plates they brought were a record of Nephi's ancestors and the writings of the ancient prophets. Since this is almost the very first story in the entire BOM, Your lack of knowledge makes me doubt you read it. And if you did, you skimmed over it with a mindset to PROVE it's falseness, rather than open-mindedly absorb it.

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A Day unto God is thousands of years to man. 6 Godly Days of creation does not undermine the fossil record.
The fossil record, however, clearly undermines evolution. (Any questions should be asked, and every answer will be given)

Stupid of me for not realizing your error before. It clears some things up. As already quoted by you, Nephi quotes Isahiahs words to bring rejoicing to his fellow men. You asume that becuase Nephi quotes Isahiahs controversial "Lucifer" statement that Nephi makes a connection between the Devil and the word Lucifer. Nope, "lucifer" is only used in that one quote written by Isahiah. Nephi himself may have recognized that the scripture referred to the king of Babylon. But only you have assumed that Nephi used it in context to the devil in the first place. I actually learned in depth about this a while ago and I apolagize for not thinking to point it out.(quote)I read the BOM about a year ago, I didn't commit it to memory. Do not presume to know my frame of mind when reading the book just because I don't agree. I didn't read it with any agenda in mind. I just read the book.(/quote)Well, I haven't memorized the Book of Mormon either, but at least to me the story I was referring to is one that stands out as hard to forget. But if you didn't read it with an agenda behind your actions, then I apologize for assuming such.(quote)I haven't seen evidence that the Jews of 600BC or before referred to the Torah as the "five books of Moses."(quote)Well there's not a truckload of evidence to go from really, but Genises, Leviticus, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers are five books containing the teachings and history of Moses. Perhaps some archeaologist of the future will someday question our present day terms, saying, "I'm not aware of any references to the ancient people's Postal System as, 'snail-mail'." All of this is the most likely solution to this 'trouble of terms'.

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A Day unto God is thousands of years to man. 6 Godly Days of creation does not undermine the fossil record.
The fossil record, however, clearly undermines evolution. (Any questions should be asked, and every answer will be given)

(quote)quote:
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You asume that becuase Nephi quotes Isahiahs controversial "Lucifer" statement that Nephi makes a connection between the Devil and the word Lucifer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------No, my contention is that Nephi would not have used the word "lucifer" at all because it is a Latin word, which was not the language in Egypt, Israel, or Judah in 600BC.(/quote)Then where did Isaiah get it from?(quote)Where did the LDS get the impression that "Lucifer" was cast out of heaven and resides in hell, which you mentioned in Message 65?(/quote)Pure and simply, modern revealation from God. You don't have to beleive it, but in religion, somethings you have to beleive happened. Like the burning bush. There are many ways it scientifically could have happened, but the question is, did God do it or was it all simply made up? If you want a 'scinetific' view of what happened, go ahead and assume that Prophets did not get it directly from God and that they're all liars and crazy people. But I don't.(quote)The BOM makes it plural.(/quote)Once again, the book's' of Moses is probably a simple 'slang' or disfunctioning adjective. The World War 1 is a bad comparison because before it was called World War 1, it was called the great war. It's a much bigger difference than 1 letter.About the verse breaks, when the BOM was first published it didn't contain verse separations. Those have since been added for organizational purposes. I don't believe Nephi had them.(quote)not a huge problem with the bible -- maybe isaiah lived a long time. and later parts of the text are clearly written by two other people. but this presents a HUGE problem with the book of nephi.this text was CLEARLY written after the exhile.(/quote)Unless it was prophesy from God. Wait, oh yeah, you guys don't believe in God. Duh! Stupid Me! I should be careful before I start making such politically incorrect assertions that have been defined by modern society as 'inapropriate'.(quote)let's look at a quote from isaiah that goes through an intermediate language (greek).quote:
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Luk 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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Mat 3:3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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Isa 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------notice how the wording changes? notice how the name isaiah changes? yet when nephi quotes isaiah in egyptian (coptic?) and joseph smith translates it into english, it miraculously keeps the exact same wording and spacing and verse numbers as the kjv? heck, even my jps and niv and rsv have different wordings.(/quote)First I DON'T know what you mean by Isaiah's name changing. Please explain thoroughly. Secondly, your whole example is plawed because you are displaying the hebrew and greek versions in english while Isaiahs is supposed to be the proper translation. Are you the better translator, or what? Your display either means you made it up or (the one I'm sure you'll try to justify yourself with), modern translators compared with translators of the past are much more acurate and therefore your point is that the BOM was translated inaccurately (which also makes little sense, but is better than being caught lying).(quote)looks like plaigarism. if i did it, they'd expell me from school.(/quote)Colledge, right? Please don't tell me you're still in elementary. (Maybe you're one of those kid genius's?)