When they are learned, they think they are wise...

I was flipping through channels on my TV when I stumbled across something that I thought would be interesting. It was a "documentary" (and I put that in quotes for reasons you'll note later) discussing the "evidence" supporting or countering the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon.

And boy was I in for a shock. Right off the bat, they made no attempt to even pretend that it was a balanced investigation and reporting of their evidences. Rather, the entire show was dedicated to convincing the viewer that the Book of Mormon is false.

Heading up the convincing was some joe with the title "LDS Anthropologist" repeatedly shown beneath his name. His, and that every other "expert" they had on the show, evidence to "prove" the Book of Mormon false was a lack of archaeological evidence. That's basically all they could say: "There's no evidence of this," or "There's no evidence of that," and so on.

I thought it was incredibly funny to sit there and watch a guy who apparently used to believe in the Book of Mormon declare, "There's no evidence of the Book of Mormon manuscripts anywhere. Why doesn't the church put them on display for everyone to see, so that anyone that has doubts can come and see the original manuscript for themselves?"

Like an idiot, he failed to remember that Joseph Smith's account of what happened to the plates is quite clear: they were carried off into heaven by an angel.

Furthermore, he states the lack of archaeological evidence regarding horses, elephants, goats, etc. Then he goes on to state a similar lack of archaeological evidence of other animals in history, but then says that we have the written eyewitness accounts of explorers and others so "there is no doubt that these animals existed where they say they did." In particular are written accounts of the Romans using lions in Rome, yet there has not a single lion's bone been found anywhere near the city of Rome.

Naturally, they failed to mention the many American cave drawings that have been discovered -- that date to Book of Mormon times -- of horses and other animals that supposedly did not exist during Book of Mormon times. They also fail to mention the eyewitness accounts of the gold plates and how, even though all those witnesses eventually turned against Joseph Smith, not one of them ever retracted their accounts of having seen the gold plates.

And my favorite part. The question was posed to one of the so-called LDS anthroplogists, "If you had textual evidence of the Book of Mormon, do you think you would have kept your faith in it?"

The man stood dead silent, unmoving, for several secconds. So long in fact, that I decided to answer for him, "The answer is no..."

Finally, he laughed and said, "That's a good question. Certainly it would have helped to have that evidence."

Then it was my turn to laugh. He denounced the Book of Mormon and left the church not because of a lack of evidence, but because of a lack of faith. It had nothing to do with "evidence".

I have irrefutable evidence of the Book of Mormon's truth. I just wish I could share it with others. But I guess by doing so, I would condemn many who would continue to deny it. You see, my irrefutable evidence is a witness given to me by the Holy Ghost himself. Something that is far more powerful than any evidence man can produce.

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not."

The fact that these so called anti-Mormons want so badly to believe the Book of Mormon to be false, and want just as badly for everybody else to not believe in it as well, that they'll go to nearly any length -- even flat out bold faced lies -- is further evidence of its truth. Only the devil himself could create such desires in the hearts of men to destroy the faith of Mormons. And why are Mormons virtually the only target of such men's desires? Because the devil is the driving force behind it all.

You'd think that if a person decided that the church was false along with the Book of Mormon, then they would simply leave the church and go about their lives. But that is never the case. Some of those who have left the church spend every spare moment, every ounce of energy, in trying to destroy the faith of others.

The one other thing I can think of that drives man to go to such lengths... is greed.

The evidence supporting the Book of Mormon is overwhelming. It's so sad that those who leave the church choose to ignore it.

"But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God."

So whom am I to believe? The anti-Mormons frothing at the mouth in the hopes that I'll believe them, or God himself as told to me by his holy messenger? Would you choose man over God?