Bazooka wrote:LittleNipper wrote: The Bible is perfect and therefore there is a God or the Bible could not exist because it is perfect.
The Book of Mormon is perfect and therefore there is a God or The Book of Mormon could not exist because it is perfect.
The Quran is perfect and therefore there is a God or the Quran could not exist because it is perfect.
Contradictions Between the Book of Mormon and the Bible
By:
Luke P. Wilson
Copyright © 1999 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.
There are many serious objections to the claim of Joseph Smith and the LDS church that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired latter-day scripture supplemental to the Bible. However, none are more significant than the numerous contradictions between Book of Mormon teaching and the Bible. This list is illustrative only, not exhaustive.
"The contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible constitute a most serious obstacle to accepting the Book of Mormon as Latter-day scripture supplemental to the Bible."
1. The Book of Mormon teaches that little children are not capable of sin because they do not have a sinful nature (Moroni 8:8). In contrast, the Bible in Psalm 51:5 clearly teaches that we have sinful nature from birth: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (NIV). (This does not mean that those who die in infancy are lost.*)
2. The Book of Mormon teaches that the disobedience of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit was necessary so that they could have children and bring joy to mankind (2 Nephi 2:23-25). In contrast, the Bible specifically declares that Adam’s transgression was a sinful act of rebellion that unleashed the power of sin and death in the human heart and throughout God’s perfect world (Genesis 3:16-19; Romans 5:12; 8:20-21). There is no Biblical support for the view that Adam and Eve could only fulfill the command to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28) by disobeying God’s command regarding the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:17). The Book of Mormon teaching that these divine commands are contradictory, and that God expected Adam and Eve to figure out that in reality He wanted them to break the latter command ("of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it") in order to keep the former ("be fruitful and multiply"), has no basis in logic or the Biblical text, and attributes equivocation to God.
3. The Book of Mormon teaches that black skin is a sign of God’s curse, so that white-skinned people are considered morally and spiritually superior to black skinned people (2 Nephi 5:21). In contrast, the Bible teaches that God "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26, KJV), that in Christ distinctions of ethnicity, gender and social class are erased (Galatians 3:28), and that God condemns favoritism (James 2:1).
4. The Book of Mormon teaches that, "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23; see also Moroni 10:32). In contrast, the Bible teaches that apart from Christ we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1,5) and unable to do anything to merit forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is wholly of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 11:6; Titus 3:5-6), not by grace plus works. Good works are a result, not the basis, of a right relationship with God (Ephesians 2:10).
5. According to the Book of Mormon, about 600 years before Christ, a Nephite prophet predicted that "many plain and precious parts" (1 Nephi 13:26-28) would be removed from the Bible. In contrast, from the Bible it is clear that during His earthly ministry, Jesus himself constantly quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures, and showed full confidence in their completeness and accurate transmission as they had survived down to His time. Jesus declared that "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31; see also Matthew 5:18), and promised His disciples who were to pen the New Testament that the Holy Ghost "shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26); Jesus further promised the apostles that they would "bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). These promises clearly imply that the fruit of the apostles — the New Testament Scriptures and the Christian church — would endure.
6. According to a Book of Mormon prophecy (Helaman 14:27), at the time of Christ’s crucifixion "darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days." In contrast, the New Testament gospel accounts declare repeatedly that there was darkness for only three hours while Jesus was on the cross (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44).
An earlier prophecy in 1 Nephi 19:10 implies the three days of darkness will be more than regional in scope for it says this sign will be "unto those who inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel." The darkness then would extend over the ocean to the islands and reach as far as Israel in the Middle East.
Book of Mormon references to the fulfillment of this prophecy, however, use wording that could be understood to mean the three days of darkness was only in the Americas, stating that the three days of darkness would be "over the face of the land." (3 Nephi 8:3ff; 10:9). This appears to be the position of the late Mormon General Authority B. H. Roberts in his book Studies of the Book of Mormon, p. 292). If this is the case, then this would resolve the apparent contradiction between the Bible and the Book of Mormon regarding what happened at the time of Christ's death, for we would have 3 hours of darkness in Israel and 3 days of darkness on the American continents. However, this would make the earlier prophecies of 1 Nephi and Helaman internally contradictory with later Book of Mormon references, since their phrasing of "the isles of the sea ... those who are of the house of Israel" and "the whole face of the whole earth" is difficult to understand as merely a localized time of darkness.
7. The Book of Mormon people are said to have observed "all things according to the law of Moses (2 Nephi 5:10; 25:24). However, although they are supposed to have been Hebrews, they were descendents of the tribe of Joseph (1 Nephi 5:17) or Manasseh (Alma 10:3), not the tribe of Levi and family line of Aaron, as the Law of Moses dictates (Numbers 3:10; Exodus 29:9; Numbers 18:1-7), so they would not have had a legitimate priesthood.
8. According to the Book of Mormon, there were many high priests serving at the same time (Mosiah 11:11; Alma 13:9-10; 46:6,38; Helaman 3:25) in the New World, among those it describes as Jewish immigrants from ancient Israel who "kept the law of Moses" (e.g., 2 Nephi 25:10; Jacob 4:5; Jarom 1:5). In contrast, it is clear from the Bible that only one individual at a time occupied the office of high priest under the Old Testament dispensation (see, for example Leviticus 21:10; Matthew 26:3; Hebrews 8:6-7). (The mention in Luke 3:2 of "Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests" is not a real exception -- in Christ’s time Israel was under the domination of the Romans, who intervened to change the high priest at will. That is, this office became a kind of "political football," rather than following the appointment process dictated in the Law of Moses. See John 18:13, which describes Annas as "father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year.")
9. The people described in the Book of Mormon operated multiple temples (Alma 16:13; 23:2; 26:29). This violates the dictates of the Old Testament Scriptures on two counts: First, God commanded Israel to build only one temple to reflect that fact that there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 12:5,13-14; 16:5-6). Second, the one legitimate temple was to be built in Jerusalem (Zion), the location designated by God (The Old Testament is filled with explicit references to God choosing Jerusalem [Zion] as the place where "His name would dwell" in the temple: for example, 1 Kings 8:44,48; 11:13,32,36; 14:21; 2 Kings 21:7; 23:27; 1 Chronicles 28:4; 2 Chronicles 6:6; 7:12,16; Psalm 78:68-69; Isaiah 18:7.
10. The most common biblical terms used to describe the Old Testament priesthood, temple and appointed feasts, are entirely missing from the Book of Mormon. Here are 10 examples of such biblical terms with their frequencies, that never appear once in the Book of Mormon:
•"laver" (13 times in Bible)
•"incense" (121 times in Bible)
•"ark of the covenant" (48 times in Bible)
•"sons of Aaron" (97 times in Bible)
•"mercy seat" (23 in Bible)
•"day of atonement" (21 times in Bible)
•"feast of tabernacles" (17 times in Bible)
•"passover" (59 times in Bible)
•"house of the LORD" (627 in Bible)
•"Aaron" – this name appears 48 times in the Book of Mormon, but never in reference to the biblical Aaron or the Aaronic priesthood
Conclusion: The contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible constitute a most serious obstacle to accepting the Book of Mormon as Latter-day scripture that is supplemental to the Bible. The Bible came first, not the Book of Mormon. And whereas the Bible is organically linked to the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ by extensive surviving manuscript evidence going back as far as A.D. 125-30, the Book of Mormon is wholly lacking in any such evidences of ancient origin. Is it not reasonable, therefore, to make the Bible the standard for judging the Book of Mormon, and not the other way around? If we accept the Bible as our "measuring stick" for spiritual truth, the Book of Mormon must be rejected.
Does the Quran contradict the Bible?
Answered by Luke Buckler · 13 April 2010 · 11 Comments
Yes, the Quran contradicts the Bible in a number of ways. All of the following examples are taken from the second chapter (sura) of the Quran, but they are representative of the whole of the book.
•Sometimes the Quran contradicts the historical record of the Bible:
The Quran
The Bible
2:31
… He [God] taught Adam the names of all things … Gen. 2:19
So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The Quran says God taught Adam the names of everything; the Bible says that Adam came up with the names of the animals.
•The Quran also contradicts the Bible on the identity of satan/devil:
The Quran
The Bible
2:33-36
And behold We said to the angels: “Bow down to Adam”; and they bowed down: not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: he was of those who reject Faith. We said: “O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) ye will; but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression.” Then did Satan make them slip from the (Garden) and get them out of the state (of felicity) in which they had been. … Heb. 2:14
… him who had the power of death, that is, the devil
Rom. 7:11
… sin … deceived me and … killed me.
The Quran says ‘satan’ is a supernatural evil being; the Bible uses ‘satan’ as a symbol of sin (and also possibly for evil rulers or kingdoms).1
•The Quran contradicts the Bible regarding rituals:
The Quran
The Bible
2:173
He hath only forbidden you dead meat, and blood and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name hath been invoked besides that of Allah. … Mark 7:18-19
And [Jesus] said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” Thus he declared all foods clean.
1Tim.4:1-5
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, {2} through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, {3} who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. {4} For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, {5} for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
Col. 2:16
… let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink …
The Quran forbids eating certain meats; the Bible says all meat is acceptable.2
•The Quran contradicts the Bible regarding physical violence and, also, love:
The Quran
The Bible
2:90-93
Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith. But if they cease, Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful. And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression. Mat. 5:43-44
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ {44} “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Mat. 7:12
… whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them …
The Quran says believers should physically attack enemies; the Bible says we should love our enemies and pray for them.3
•The Quran contradicts the Bible’s claim that Jesus is God’s son:
The Quran
The Bible
2:116
They say: “Allah hath begotten a son”; Glory be to Him. ―Nay … Mat. 3:16-17
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; {17} and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The Quran says God doesn’t have children; the Bible says that Jesus is God’s son.
As said at the start of this answer, all of the examples above are taken from only the second chapter of the Quran. There are other contradictions with the Bible in the second chapter, and different ones still in the rest of the Quran (with the ones highlighted above often repeated).
This demonstrates the incompatibility of the Quran with the Bible — the Quran contradicts the Bible . In this way, the Quran fails the tests that God gives in the Bible to identify genuine revelations from him; e.g.:
Deut. 13:1-3
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and … says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Isa. 8:19-20
when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? … To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
Someone might claim a revelation has come from God, but if that “revelation” contradicts what God has said before then the “revelation” is false, it is not from God. This is true of the Quran: it contradicts the Bible so it is not from God.
