Analyzing for Forgery

By Allison Jones

Leap of Faith by Bob Bennett, US Senator from Utah, takes a look at the Book of Mormon from the perspective of someone who has dealt with forgeries before.  While not a scholar himself, Bennett says he is still capable of “weighing the arguments of those who are.”

In the beginning Bennett goes over some forgery cases that he has intimate knowledge of and how it was discovered that the documents were fake.  From these case studies seven traits of or clues left in forgeries are derived.

1.       “A forger will salt his work with information that others would either hope or expect to find there.”

2.       “The more detail a forger goes into, the more he exposes himself to detection.”

3.       “A forgery reflects the attitudes that are current at the time when it appears.”

4.       “A forger will always have a motive that influences the resulting product.  For starters, ‘follow the money.’”

5.       “When examining possible forgeries, experts, even ones with the best credentials, can be fooled if they have a predisposition to believe one way or the other.”

6.       “A potential forgery should be looked at in a total context.”

7.       “Finally, time is not on the forger’s side.”

Bennett addresses the story of the Book of Mormon and its doctrine separately. 

 He goes over the problems that many find in the Book of Mormon.  These include animals that are not found in Central America and the lack of those that are found there, racist overtones common to Joseph Smith’s day, and the lack of archaeological or cultural evidence of a link between Ancient Israel and Ancient America.  

He also discusses those items that appear to be authentic such as internal consistency, Middle Eastern cultural references and geography, and computer tests confirming multiple authors and purposeful presence of chiasms.

The doctrine of the Book of Mormon is examined for relevance and conformity to doctrinal concerns in Smith’s time period.  Bennett looks at four key doctrines examining sermons from the Book of Mormon given by different authors for each of them.  These doctrines are agency and faith, the Fall and the Atonement, Sin, and Jesus’ identity as the Christ.

Bennett claims that doctrine contained in the Book of Mormon is unique and does not represent the issues current in 1830.  He claims that it is more in tune with 20^th century scholarship than 19^th century scholarship.

The conclusion is that there is evidence both for and against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.  To believe either way requires a choice, a leap of faith.