Historical Authenticity of The Book of Mormon

The main view widely accepted among latter-day saints is that the Book of Mormon is a historical document, which truly and accurately records the deeds of three ancient American civilizations. Joseph smith said in the introduction of the Book of Mormon: "I told my brothers that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book in the world and the cornerstone of our religion. If people follow its lessons, they will be closer to God than any other book.

Since the Book of Mormon was published, Latter-day Saints have generally explained that the Book of Mormon is the complete history of all Native Americans, which is called the "hemispheric model". However, other Latter-day Saints, after reading the scripture carefully, think that the hypothesis of "hemispheric pattern" is not supported by the scripture itself. joseph smith also said that he believed that the Book of Mormon took place in Central America.

The position of this city in the Book of Mormon has not been confirmed. Several Mormon defense organizations, including the Apostolic Information and Research Foundation and the Foundation for Ancient Studies and Mormon Investigation, put forward the view that Chairehanla City is in Central America, because Alma 22: 27 describes a slender neck with the sea on both sides. This view is often called "limited geographical model", which discusses the view of a restricted area and holds that the Book of Mormon is only the history of a small group of Central American aborigines. This theory can be traced back to the viewpoint of joseph smith and others in 1842, and has recently gained considerable support because it is more in line with the description in the scriptures. For example, the civilizations and ethnic groups in the Book of Mormon are too small to occupy the entire American continent. In addition, more evidence shows that it is incorrect to think that ancient Americans used to have only a single pre-group (the civilization in the Book of Mormon is the only civilization in America).

The recent testimony of church leaders emphasized that the Book of Mormon is a holy book of spiritual affairs, which aims to teach Christ and should not be regarded as a guide to history, geography, archaeology and anthropology. Although some Mormon and non-Mormon scholars claim to have found archaeological, cultural and linguistic evidence to prove that the Book of Mormon is an ancient record, their conclusions are not accepted by most scholars. Researchers and apologists of Mormonism point out that several ancient Central American civilizations (Olmec, Maya, Miztec, Sapotec and Aztec) have rich archaeological materials and historical records during the Book of Mormon. Some civilizations have quite advanced languages, writing, mathematics and astronomy. In addition, a large amount of evidence also found tools of plant species, animals and early residents. There are many descriptions of plants, animals, weapons and technology in the Book of Mormon, but many descriptions are not consistent with the knowledge we know at that time today. For example, there are many records about horses in the Book of Mormon, but it doesn't actually prove that there were horses in pre-Columbian America, and horses were reintroduced by Spanish conquerors. Of course, some people can argue that horses may have been introduced in an earlier period, but later disappeared. "Previously domesticated horses were incorporated into wild horses after large-scale regional wars, and then gradually grew naturally" seems to conflict with this view. Wild horses, native to America, came to America through bare land during the Ice Age, but they became extinct about 8,000 years ago. The Clovis tribe before the early Ainu people or the Clovis tribe from Eurasia did have a record of domesticating them before extinction.