This documentary, like many people with an axe to grind, makes a classic mistake when analyzing the Book of Mormon. In order to prove (or disprove) a book you must analyze what it actually says rather than what you *think* it says.
They begin with Nephi and criticize a particular passage (1 Nephi 13:26) that says, "And after they {the writings of the Bible} go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away."
They then ask a regular member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints how the "plain and precious" parts could have been taken away from the Bible. He replies with a common theory among our church members that monks made conscious changes during transcription. They then proceed to destroy that theory with modern evidence. Fair enough, because that theory isn't great anyway.
However they ignore the entire prophecy itself. The prophecy is about a church that takes away the plain and precious parts of the "gospel"- not the Bible. How do they do that? They don't change the Bible. They take away the Bible altogether. For several centuries only the clergy were allowed access to the actual Bible. It was written primarily in Latin and kept from the eyes of the people. After the invention of the printing press, the first attempts at making the Bible generally available resulted in the unceremonious execution of those responsible for such an egregious act. Several martyrs gave their lives during the early days of the reformation for their belief that the Bible should read by all people in their own language whenever possible.
When the Bible actually began to be distributed widely, many realized that the Church was not following what the Bible actually said. The entire reformation was based on that exact same premise. If Nephi was wrong, so then was the entirety of the Protestant movement.
I have not yet finished the film. I had to stop so as not to become completely frustrated by the errors and omissions, from both the Protestant do-gooder and the "regular" Mormon dude.
They begin with Nephi and criticize a particular passage (1 Nephi 13:26) that says, "And after they {the writings of the Bible} go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away."
They then ask a regular member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints how the "plain and precious" parts could have been taken away from the Bible. He replies with a common theory among our church members that monks made conscious changes during transcription. They then proceed to destroy that theory with modern evidence. Fair enough, because that theory isn't great anyway.
However they ignore the entire prophecy itself. The prophecy is about a church that takes away the plain and precious parts of the "gospel"- not the Bible. How do they do that? They don't change the Bible. They take away the Bible altogether. For several centuries only the clergy were allowed access to the actual Bible. It was written primarily in Latin and kept from the eyes of the people. After the invention of the printing press, the first attempts at making the Bible generally available resulted in the unceremonious execution of those responsible for such an egregious act. Several martyrs gave their lives during the early days of the reformation for their belief that the Bible should read by all people in their own language whenever possible.
When the Bible actually began to be distributed widely, many realized that the Church was not following what the Bible actually said. The entire reformation was based on that exact same premise. If Nephi was wrong, so then was the entirety of the Protestant movement.
I have not yet finished the film. I had to stop so as not to become completely frustrated by the errors and omissions, from both the Protestant do-gooder and the "regular" Mormon dude.