Script
Other Sheep in the Book of Mormon
Hi, I’m Danny. Welcome to this video. I was an active Latter-day Saint for 60 years. During those years, I had a passion for scripture. I particularly loved studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Joseph Smith claimed the Book of Mormon to be the most correct book on earth. Former prophet and president of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson declared, “…the Book of Mormon is the keystone of [our] testimony. Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.” In other words, if the Book of Mormon is true – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. But if the Book of Mormon isn’t true – the LDS Church isn’t true either. You see, it ALL hinges on that book.
In reading the Book of Mormon, there was one huge concern among others that caught my attention. What I’m about to share with you is extremely important in understanding scripture correctly. So, please carefully follow me in this line of thinking.
Here we go!
When reading the Book of Mormon, the storyline builds, to a high point when the resurrected Jesus Christ appears to the inhabitants of the New World following His resurrection. After addressing the crowds, Jesus then speaks directly to His newly chosen twelve Nephite disciples.
Listen carefully to these verses. Jesus tells them, 3 Nephi 15:12-13 “Ye are my disciples; and ye are a light unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph. And behold, this is the land of your inheritance; and the Father hath given it unto you.” In this passage, Jesus is connecting these “Nephites” to Joseph of Egypt - which would make those Nephites and Lamanites of Jewish lineage. Got it? Jesus is telling them they are Hebrews from the lineage of Joseph of Egypt. The Book of Mormon got away with that claim for more than 180 years – until modern science caught up with it and refuted it.
We have come to find out through modern science – there is no DNA proof or evidence that Native American people – who the Book of Mormon claims to be descendants of the Lamanite people through Jospeh of Egypt - came from the Middle East.
Comprehensive DNA surveys of Native Americans have failed to find any genetic markers or any evidence of pre-Columbian Hebrew migrations into the New World or Pacific Islands. Scientists see no genetic or cultural connection between Native American and ancient Hebrew people. Rather, they descended from Asian origins – most likely migrating thousands of years ago, over the Bering Straits from the Asian continent.
For a reaction and explanation from the LDS Church on the results of the DNA science - See Gospel Topic Essays “Book of Mormon and DNA Studies” at churchofjesuschrist.org. In having to concede to the latest DNA science on the matter, the LDS Church in 2006 had to change the Introduction page of the Book of Mormon from “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” Now it reads: “and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.” So, it was changed from principle ancestors to being just among the ancestors of the American Indians. This change is seriously problematic, as the Book of Mormon itself clarifies the New World lands to be uninhabited except for the Jaredites, Mulek, and the family of Lehi (Ether 2:7 and 2 Nephi 1:5-9).
The Church is playing down something that all Latter-day Saints accepted as a known fact until irrefutable DNA evidence proved otherwise. Since the original 1830 Book of Mormon, it has undergone many textual changes. As evidence steadily accumulates against the Book of Mormon narrative, the LDS Church has been compelled to take steps to address the seriousness of these problems.
Based on DNA science, by Jesus telling the Nephites and Lamanites they were Jews and “a remnant of the House of Israel” – that would make Jesus a liar – wouldn’t it? Because now we know through science that it can’t be so – and the LDS Church had to own up to that fact in its Church essay. But how many Latter-day Saints have read that essay to understand how that impacts the claims of the Book of Mormon? I wager - relatively few.
In 3 Nephi 15:14-15, Jesus tells these Nephite disciples that knowledge about their existence has been kept a secret from the Jewish people back in Jerusalem of the Old World - where Jesus spent His mortal ministry.
3 Nephi 15:17 Jesus tells the Nephites, “That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one, fold and one shepherd.” If that verse sounds familiar, it is because Jesus is quoting Himself from the biblical parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10:16. We recognize here that Joseph Smith was plagiarizing word for word from the King James Bible into the Book of Mormon. Smith so desperately wanted to tie the Book of Mormon story to the Bible to give it credibility.
I can’t tell you how many times on my LDS mission, I quoted John 10:16 in reference to “other sheep” being the Book of Mormon Nephites and Lamanites. It was a tactic I was taught to believe and teach connecting the Bible with the Book of Mormon. I wish I could take back that false doctrine - now that I properly understand the context of Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament, and what I am about to share with you, now.
In John 10:16, Jesus was speaking to the Jerusalem Jews - as “this fold.” “This fold” were the Jews in Israel.
Then, Jesus finishes His statement in John 10:16 by saying, “other sheep” “not of this fold” - which all biblical scholars agree were the non-Jews or gentile nations – Jesus must bring them also “and there shall be one, fold and one shepherd.” Jesus was clearly speaking of “this fold” as the Jews of Israel. And “other sheep” as the Greek Gentiles – not Hebrew Nephites and Lamanites in America. You follow me?
So, when properly understood - it becomes a complete impossibility for those “other sheep” – mentioned in 3 Nephi – the Nephites and Lamanites - to be those spoken of in John 10.
Get it? Now stay with me!
As an LDS missionary, I would have the investigator we were teaching, turn to this next passage in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi and attempt to make the connection with Jesus’s words and the biblical parable of the Good Shepherd.
I would have them read out loud, 3 Nephi 15:21 “And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” Here, Book of Mormon Jesus is telling the Nephites and Lamanites that they are those “other sheep.” Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Then Jesus goes on to speak about the people back in Jerusalem, 3 Nephi 15:22 “And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching.” Cleverly here, Joseph Smith twists our thinking by saying the “other sheep” were also from the house of Israel or the Jews. Now, any serious student of the Bible knows the “other sheep” Jesus was speaking about in John 10:16 were indeed the Gentiles, not other Jews! The problem is that Latter-day Saints don’t catch the bate and switch that Smith pulls on the reader of the Book of Mormon.
Again, referring to the Jews in Jerusalem, Jesus says, 3 Nephi 15:23 “And they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice – that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost.” Joseph Smith wants the message to be – that those silly Jerusalem Jews just didn’t understand at all what Jesus was trying to tell them.
Joseph Smith wants to assure us the readers - and them, the Hebrew Nephites and Lamanites - that THEY were His “other sheep.” 3 Nephi 15:24 “But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me.”
To go a step further, while visiting the Nephites Jesus also said in 3 Nephi 16:1 “And verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep, which are not of this land (speaking of the Americas), neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister.” Supposedly, there were even more “other sheep” which were not of those in America OR Jerusalem.
Jesus tells them in 3 Nephi 17:4 “But now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.” Now Joseph Smith wants to include the Lost Ten Tribes – more Hebrews Jews – who Jesus must now go and visit.
3 Nephi 16:2 “For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them.” Where were these “lost tribes” living? Were they all in one location? Were they at the North Pole? Unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t disclose that information to these Nephites.
3 Nephi 16:3 “But I have received a commandment of the Father, that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them.” He wants to make these peoples all Hebrew Jews and one herd of sheep. I wonder if this Book of Mormon Jesus - also intends to cause destruction and the murder of more innocent children upon His visit to those Lost Tribes - like He did when appearing to the Nephites?
Ironically and paradoxically, now that we know from modern science that the Native American Indians do not have DNA linking them to Hebrew-Jewish ancestry – they COULD AFTER ALL, NOW correctly be considered the “gentiles” – or “other sheep” that Jesus mentioned in John 10:16.
Related to this whole discussion about “other sheep” that’s a major problem for the Book of Mormon is that “sheep” as animals were not introduced to the Western Hemisphere until the Spanish and English settlers came in the 15th and 16th centuries – long after Jesus supposedly appeared in 3 Nephi. Those Nephite disciples would have no idea what a “sheep” was that Jesus was referring to. The terms – “Sheep,” “lambs,” and “shepherd” are mentioned throughout the Book of Mormon narrative. This is a huge problem along with numerous other anachronisms in the Book of Mormon narrative proves it to be a 19th century book of fiction.
Bottom line: Joseph Smith intentionally misapplied the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in the biblical Apostolic Record - to create a false teaching in his fabricated story line in the Book of Mormon. And Smith made liars not only out of Jesus, but LDS missionaries who today continue to teach these false doctrines. And to that, I say – shame on the LDS church for promoting false scriptures as the word of God. Remember, LDS prophets teach that - Mormonism stands or falls on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
Something to consider! Thank you for watching today. Please check out more videos like this one on You Tube and at talkingtomormons.com. Share with family and friends.
Until next time, God Bless!