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“And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men”

“And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men”

Last updated on: January 7, 2018 at 6:05 pm by Dan Peterson

“And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men” 2018-01-07T18:05:27-07:00 Dan Peterson

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The cover of Royal Skousen’s Yale edition of the Book of Mormon
(from Amazon.com)

The title page of the Book of Mormon concludes with a striking statement:

And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.

In other words, the Book of Mormon never claims perfection or inerrancy for itself.

And yet a report from Wilford Woodruff about the Prophet Joseph Smith appears in the History of the Church (4:461) as follows: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

Can that statement be reconciled with the frank admission of faults on the Book of Mormon title page?

“What is a ‘correct’ book?” asked Hugh Nibley. “One with properly cut margins, appropriate binding, a useful index, accurately numbered pages? Not at all; these are mere mechanical details, as are also punctuation, spelling, and even grammar — those matters about which the critics of the Book of Mormon have made such a to-do.”

The correctness and value of the Book of Mormon consist, rather, in the teachings that it contains, through which “a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

“Wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”

“And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these.” (Mormon 8:12)

[See “Are There Mistakes in the Book of Mormon?” in John W. Welch, et al., eds. Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017), 12-14.]

While we’re at it, though, the very best work — by many light years — on the punctuation, spelling, grammar, and textual history of the Book of Mormon is being done by Royal Skousen and John Carmack. I recommend it enthusiastically; it’s both interesting and faith-promoting. (Incidentally, my wife and I read daily from Royal Skousen’s The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text.)

***

Here’s a thought-provoking — and perhaps provocative — post from Steve Smoot. Perhaps he’s trying to generate a little bit of desperately needed heat up there in the Frozen North:

“The November 5 Policy as an Abrahamic Test”

***

The indispensable Robert Boylan has alerted us to this important (and related) item:

“The Mormon Church is Not Responsible for a Nationwide Increase in Teen Suicides”

***

And here are two contributions from the remarkable Jeff Lindsay:

“Lengthening Our Stride: Globalization of the Church: A Valuable Book for the Increasingly International Church”

“Update on Tentative Proposals for Janus Parallelism in the Book of Mormon”

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