Book of Mormon Book of Lies

378 Pages·2012·16.432 MB·English

by  Meredith Ray Sheets

Published by 1811 Press, LLC
P.O. Box 71
McLean, Virginia 22101
First Edition Paperback 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Kendal Sheets
Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
ISBN-13: 978-1-939179-00-5
Front cover design: Ron Toelke, www.toelkeassociates.com
Toelke Associates, www.toelkeassociates.com;
Design/production:
Pegasus Type, www.pegtype.com
Printed in the USA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
1 The Source
2 Strategies
3 The Real “First Book of Nephi”
4 The Tree of Life
5 Names and Numbers
6 Into the Wilderness
7 A Place Called Bountiful
8 New World, Old Tricks
9 The Rise of the Nephites
10 The Road to Mexico
11 The Land of Zarahemla
12 Preparing for Battle
13 Warriors and Warfare
14 Captain Moroni
15 Jesus Visits the Nephites
16 Mongols on Elephants Invade “The Book of Ether”
17 The Fabled Church
18 Gold Plates and Tablets
19 Strange Caractors
20 How to Fool a Witness
21 The New Religion (Is the Same as the Old Religion?)
22 Spectres and Visions
23 The Prophet’s Mother and the Year 1811
Epilogue
Notes
DEDICATION
To all those who seek the truth through
the exercise of enlightened criticism.
To William “Bubba” Stamm.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FIRST, MY THANKS TO THE TWO LONG-AGO BUT NOT FORGOTTEN MORMON
missionaries who knocked on my door one fateful day in 1987. Without their dedication and
patience, I never would have been inclined to read The Book of Mormon, which led to this
stunning discovery. For my four children, I am constantly reminded by your support through all
these years of working on this project to appreciate the kindness you bestowed on me. Most of
all, to my lovely wife and lifelong companion, Ladona, a talented artist, writer, teacher, and
devoted mother. Thank you for all your patience and understanding through the long days and
nights of my working on “the book.”
—Meredith Ray Sheets
THIS BOOK IS THE RESULT OF THE WORK DONE BY A PROFESSIONAL, GENER-ous,
and dedicated team of people, to whom I owe my deepest gratitude. Foremost is editor, mentor,
and friend Laurie Rosin. For many years she championed this book as her own and shepherded it
along from beginning to end. Her brilliant work and renowned reputation are eclipsed only by
her kindness. Without her this book simply would not have happened. My gratitude also to editor
Paul Thayer, who worked many long hours with true professional acuteness under a demanding
schedule on a detailed and challenging manuscript. He carried us across the finish line of this
marathon. Many thanks to proofreader Sandy Fishman. Her careful attention to overwhelming
detail raised the bar for all of us. I also extend my special posthumous thanks to Trudi Martineau,
who was our proofreader until she passed away in 2009. God bless your soul and thank you.
I’m very grateful to Ron Toelke of Toelke Associates and to Kenneth Benson of Pegasus
Type, who turned the raw manuscript into a work of art. Many thanks to you both for the book
design and the stunning and perceptive cover illustration. Ken’s ingenuity in creating the
numerous tables deserves special recognition. Both of you made the impossible possible. A
special note of thanks to Randy Wyeth at I Do Photography. Randy’s talent and ingenuity spared
my rare book collection from being dismantled.
To SSAGLX for saving me, thank you. My gratitude to Joseph Zito for teaching me
intellectual property litigation, VH1 for being there, Jessica Smith for graphics, JDPP, Joel
Longnecker, and all my friends who encouraged me.
To my mother, an English teacher, who spent countless hours raising me to be a better writer
and better person. Finally, to Soraya Nouralian, a talented dancer, artist, and businesswoman.
Her kindness and patience prevailed through years of trials and triumphs, sacrifices and
successes while I researched and wrote this book. She deserves more gratitude than I can
express. I could not have done this without her.
—Kendal Sheets
TO THE LIBRARIANS WHO ASSISTED US WITH LOCATING SCORES OF RARE AND
hard-to-find books at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Museum, Georgetown University,
Johns Hopkins University, the University of Utah, the University of Denver, George Washington
University, Montgomery County College in Maryland, the University of Oklahoma, and many
other sources.
For any errors in this book we take full responsibility as far as they were under our control.
—Meredith Ray Sheets
Kendal Sheets
1
THE SOURCE
I
n 1830, Edwin Budding invented the lawnmower, H. D. Hyde invented the fountain pen, and
Joseph Smith Jr. invented a religion.
How does one conceive of and then market a brand-new religion to people of other faiths and
beliefs? By its nature, religion creates a deep bond with its followers. They try to live according
to its scripture, structure, and strictures. And yet many people abandoned—and still abandon—
their religion in favor of Joseph Smith’s church of Latter-day Saints. Why? What did Smith offer
that prompted men and women to turn away from what they believed and how they were raised
to embrace entirely new tenets?
For starters, Joseph Smith brought holiness home to America. Rather than a Bible whose
1
stories spring from long ago and far away, The Book of Mormon sets much of its foundation
right here in the United States. We stand on hallowed ground. That alone proved seductive in a
young, nineteenth-century America where anything was possible.
Smith claimed that as a teenager, he spoke with an angel who gifted him with golden plates
inscribed with hieroglyphics. A self-proclaimed uneducated farm boy, he was given the ability to
translate the symbols, which became The Book of Mormon. A miracle indeed, in Upstate New
York.
Smith made sure his believers would not have to reject what was familiar to them. The Book
of Mormon does not stray far from the Old and New Testaments. Many of the stories and events
are similar. The Book of Mormon’s opening chapters take place in Palestine, and they
acknowledge the One God and his prophets, including Moses and son Jesus. Joseph preached
that The Book of Mormon was a restoration of lost biblical truths and rituals. The style and tone
of the book reflect the Bible’s, so prospective converts would not have to move outside their
comfort zone.
Equally important, The Book of Mormon is a darned fine yarn, with lots of action and exotic
adventures.
Joseph Smith knew he had a good chance of selling his religion, even though only five
people organized the church in 1830 in Seneca, New York. Why? Because he also based his
Book of Mormon primarily on a third book that had already been a success around the world.
The book on which Smith based his writing contained the essential elements he needed. All
he had to do was plagiarize it—and a few others—and then conceal what he had done with
soporific wordiness, minor changes, and reorganization. He counted on his followers to be an
eager audience unfamiliar with the true sources of his so-called awakening and inspiration.
The Book of Mormon and Smith’s other writings came primarily from The Travels of Marco
Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century, Being a Description of Remarkable Places and
2
Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World, published in English in 1818.
Smith did not accomplish this task himself. Joseph Smith Sr. began the project. Father and
son completed The Book of Mormon together.
In the pages that follow, you will read the countless connections between Marco Polo’s
accounts of his wondrous journeys to the Smiths’ Book of Mormon, including the adventures and
customs of the nomadic Tartars of Asia. You will read the names of people and places, animals,
and adventures lifted directly from The Travels of Marco Polo as well as material from the 1818
edition’s seventy-five-page introduction by British author William Marsden.
For the basic structure of The Book of Mormon’s opening, the Smiths dipped into Marco
Polo’s memoirs of his years spent with the Tartars. Needing details for authenticity, the Smiths
copied history, geography, and theory from travel books available in the early 1800s, such as
Christopher Columbus’s journals, which were compiled by his son Don Ferdinand, and records
of New World conquests by Hernando Cortez. Their content stretches from Asia to Lapland and
from the Middle East to the Americas. The Smiths recast the texts in biblical times and set them
in the Holy Land, Mexico, and North America, duping an ever-expanding population of
believers.
Many different religious sects follow the teachings of Joseph Smith Jr. and identify
themselves as Joseph Smith’s Latter-day Saints, who are commonly known as Mormons. The
largest sect by member size is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and now boasts more than twelve
million members, with more than half living outside the United States. The Community of
Christ, the second largest, is located in Independence, Missouri, and claims a quarter-million
3
members worldwide. Many other splinter groups have come and gone over time. The
fundamentalist Latter-day Saints, who continue Smith’s ordained practice of polygamy and view
those who do not as apostate Mormons, remain in strong numbers in the United States but for
obvious reasons keep their church rolls secret.
Mormon adherents operate at the highest level of business, government, and academia.
According to some estimates, the membership of the LDS doubles approximately every fifteen
years. This is due mainly to missionary efforts. It is now the fourth-largest religion in the United
States and is growing much more rapidly than other religions, largely because of a young
Venetian man’s adventures that commenced in 1271.
Marco Polo’s father, Nicolo, was a merchant, and as a boy Marco was trained to be a trader
as well. He learned to read and write and how to exchange foreign currency by using his
knowledge of mathematics.
In 1269, Nicolo and his brother, Maffio, traveled to eastern Asia, where they met the
Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan. Before the merchants returned to Italy, the khan invited them to
come back to his empire. They did and brought young Marco with them. They sailed from
Venice to a port in Palestine. At that point Joseph Smith Sr. picked up their adventures and made
them his own.
When did this remarkable discovery of the Smiths’ plagiarism begin? How did the
investigation take shape?
In 1987 Meredith Ray Sheets, this book’s coauthor, was living in Rawlings, Wyoming, when
two missionaries of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knocked on his
door. Sheets, a chemical engineer with a master’s degree in science and forty-five years’
experience in the petrochemical industry, was working for a Mormon-owned company. This was
the first time he had met Mormon believers, and he spent a lot of time with them.
“Would you have any interest in The Book of Mormon?” one of the missionaries on his