Benjamin Brooks’s Reviews > The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ > Status Update
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 10 of 531
1Ne4
This one has a few theological uh oh’s so let’s break it down. I’ll start using yellow and red to organize. Yellow is anything that’s weird, suspicious, or interesting enough to mention. Red is anything theologically, historically, or narratively incorrect outright.
Yellow: vv 11-12, 14
Red: vv 2,16, 18-21
— Aug 08, 2025 09:08AM
This one has a few theological uh oh’s so let’s break it down. I’ll start using yellow and red to organize. Yellow is anything that’s weird, suspicious, or interesting enough to mention. Red is anything theologically, historically, or narratively incorrect outright.
Yellow: vv 11-12, 14
Red: vv 2,16, 18-21
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Benjamin’s Previous Updates
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 30 of 531
There’s literally too much wrong with this book to write it all down every chapter. I get frustrated reading this. And then I get really sad. Pray for the lost.
Nephi’s been having this vision of the “promised land” and “heaven” and the tree of life that’s definitely not the tree of life. Smith quotes and obscures a lot of NT and is vague in all the important parts and specific when he has the info.
— Aug 12, 2025 03:14PM
Nephi’s been having this vision of the “promised land” and “heaven” and the tree of life that’s definitely not the tree of life. Smith quotes and obscures a lot of NT and is vague in all the important parts and specific when he has the info.
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 12 of 531
Oh boy (there’s only 6 verses in this chapter, making 66% of this chapter erroneous)
Yellow: vv 1, 3, 6
Red: v 2
— Aug 09, 2025 11:33AM
Yellow: vv 1, 3, 6
Red: v 2
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 11 of 531
New color! Amazingly I am now also highlighting in blue, which is something that’s actually true.
1 Nephi 5
Blue: v 2
Yellow: vv 6, 9, 12-13
Red: vv 19-20
— Aug 09, 2025 08:26AM
1 Nephi 5
Blue: v 2
Yellow: vv 6, 9, 12-13
Red: vv 19-20
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 7 of 531
1Ne.3
Not much here, but it is interesting that a genealogy would be recorded on brass plates instead of passed down orally or written down with a paper equivalent. I’m curious why brass?
v17 “he knew that Jerusalem must be destroyed” Jeremiah is the contemporary prophet to 1 Nephi so people would certainly be hearing his prophesies of Babylon.
— Aug 07, 2025 01:32PM
Not much here, but it is interesting that a genealogy would be recorded on brass plates instead of passed down orally or written down with a paper equivalent. I’m curious why brass?
v17 “he knew that Jerusalem must be destroyed” Jeremiah is the contemporary prophet to 1 Nephi so people would certainly be hearing his prophesies of Babylon.
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 5 of 531
1Ne.2
“now this he speak because of the stiffneckedness… for behold, they did murmur and many things against their father”
Interesting how the second chapter of the whole book introduces that there is doubt for this religion, and that there is severe punishment for doubting this religion. Almost as if that is a manipulation tactic that cult leaders will use to bolster fake authenticity.
— Aug 07, 2025 01:05PM
“now this he speak because of the stiffneckedness… for behold, they did murmur and many things against their father”
Interesting how the second chapter of the whole book introduces that there is doubt for this religion, and that there is severe punishment for doubting this religion. Almost as if that is a manipulation tactic that cult leaders will use to bolster fake authenticity.
Benjamin Brooks
is on page 3 of 531
1 Ne. 1
v2 “in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.”
What I was able to find was that this is called reformed Egyptian. What I wasn’t able to find was any other source using this language besides something Joseph Smith wrote down, which is not even enough to be able to decipher an entire language. This book isn’t verifiable.
— Aug 07, 2025 01:02PM
v2 “in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.”
What I was able to find was that this is called reformed Egyptian. What I wasn’t able to find was any other source using this language besides something Joseph Smith wrote down, which is not even enough to be able to decipher an entire language. This book isn’t verifiable.
Benjamin Brooks
is starting
Brief explanation:
“abridgment by Mormon… with many commentaries.”
“abridged by Moroni, who inserted comments of his own…”
Again, this book is just admitting that it is full of idiosyncrasies that you must believe blindly. It is a poor source academically, and spiritually. I’m not even on page one yet.
— Aug 07, 2025 12:53PM
“abridgment by Mormon… with many commentaries.”
“abridged by Moroni, who inserted comments of his own…”
Again, this book is just admitting that it is full of idiosyncrasies that you must believe blindly. It is a poor source academically, and spiritually. I’m not even on page one yet.
Benjamin Brooks
is starting
Smith’s testimony:
“But his whole person was glorious beyond description” nothing in the entirety of the Bible has been beyond description, including God (Dan. 7:9-10; Rev. 4:2-6) but ok.
Really interested to see how the Urim and Thummim get to America, and how it can be concluded they were used for translating anything (Ex. 28:30; Lev. 8:8 being the only mentions of it in the Bible).
— Aug 07, 2025 12:26PM
“But his whole person was glorious beyond description” nothing in the entirety of the Bible has been beyond description, including God (Dan. 7:9-10; Rev. 4:2-6) but ok.
Really interested to see how the Urim and Thummim get to America, and how it can be concluded they were used for translating anything (Ex. 28:30; Lev. 8:8 being the only mentions of it in the Bible).
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Red:v2 “Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither,”
This might seem nitpicky but this is absolutely false. First, Moses did not speak to the waters in this encounter (Ex. 14:21). Second, and more importantly, Moses did not divide the Red Sea, God did. And it might seem nitpicky and you might say “God did it through Moses so it’s fair to say Moses did it.” No, in the very same verse that says Moses stretched out his hand, not speaking to the sea, it then says “and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind” (v21). This statement that Moses did it by speaking is just plainly false.
v16 “ And I also knew that the law was engraved upon the plates of brass.”
This is just a complete narrative hole. The brass plates were introduced because they had Lehi’s genealogy (1 Ne. 3:3), and that’s why he needed them. But now, newly introduced, the plate contain the law of Moses instead? And this becomes Nephi’s only motivation to retrieve them. What happened to the genealogy being on the plates, where did the law being on them come from? The only thing I can think of is “the record of the Jews” and the law of Moses are the same thing, but why introduce it so cryptically? The record of the Jews is more aligned with genealogical records, especially in the context of needing Lehi’s genealogy.
vv18-21
I’m not going to quote the whole thing but Nephi kills Laban, takes his clothes from his body, and uses them to trick Laban’s servant by saying that he is himself Laban. So immediately after god says “as long as you keep my commandments your seed will prosper,” Nephi proceeds to break the 6th, 8th, and 9th commandments.
vv11-12: “Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the Commandments of the Lord; and he also hath taken away our property. And it came to pass that the spirit said unto me again: slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into their hands…”
Correct me if I missed it but I don’t know if anywhere in the Bible that God commands the killing of a person for personal retribution. God has commanded death of people (see Joshua and Judges) and even set the death penalty for several laws (see Leviticus). But what really alarmed me was the phrase “and he also hath taken away our property”. I don’t know of a single instance where God convinces someone to kill another person for any kind of personal revenge (i.e. reclaiming stolen property), even if they actually deserve it (1 Sam. 24:1-4). It is so alarming in fact that “the spirit” would say to a person “has also hath taken away *our* property” that this is the first verse that I can genuinely say, even if this story is real, if Nephi was a real person and he wrote things that actually happened down, he was being guided and convinced by a demon, not God.
v14: “Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.”
This just furthers the last point. “god” again is leading Nephi OUT of the promised land to this *new* promised land IF he does everything the spirit commands. That’s not how God has worked in the past so it’s concerning that this pops up in this context. First off, that’s now how God does covenants with people. God promised Abraham that his seed would prosper (Gen. 15:5) and actually took both conditions of the covenant made between them (vv8-19), it wasn’t up to Abraham to keep all the commandments, because they would be broken, because Abraham was sinful. He actually breaks his agreement with God the very next chapter in Genesis (16:1-4). God does prolong promise and even delay it to the next generation at times (Num. 20:10-13; Deut. 34:1-5), but the future generations are still promised Canaan (Josh. 1:2-5), because that’s what God promised. God’s promises to Nephi are conditional, and at this particular moment, they are under the condition that Nephi murder someone.