AboutMichael Kelley Expertise For a different viewpoint on Mormonism for your questions, try me. I am a staunch believer in the Book of Mormon and belong to another church (the Church of Christ)that is set up identically to the Biblical church. If there are things about traditional Mormonism that trouble you or you have questions about, just ask and you might find the answers from the Book of Mormon to be quite surprising. I have been studying the scriptures diligently for 16 years under the school of hard knocks... I may not have all of the answers but will sure go find them if I don`t. I`m strongest on Biblical and Book of Mormon doctrines, and am also somewhat familiar with Mormon history and archaeology.
(a) Which version of the book of Mormon do you use? And (b) what do you think of the 1830 version?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...
-----Question-----
Dear Sir,
There are many mormon Church of Christ. Is this the Birckonite one that accepts only the Book of Mormon? Do you have a Web site you could give for your church?
Thanks,
Redfox
-----Answer-----
Hi Redfox,
I will be happy to answer your questions. Please note I am ex-LDS and belong to the original Church of Christ that believes in the Bible and Book of Mormon.
Yes, I belong to the Church of Christ that believes in the Book of Mormon (as well as Bible). We are sometimes called the Hedrickites or Temple Lot Church of Christ though I prefer the simple "Church of Christ" title. The Bickertonite faction is called the "Church of Jesus Christ" and is somewhat similar to us. Another large faction used to be called "The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" but recently changed their title to Community of Christ and no longer uses the Book of Mormon. There are some 100 Restoration (Book of Mormon) factions that split off from the original Church of Christ. The Utah LDS faction is of course by far the largest, and in many ways the most departed from the Bible and Book of Mormon teachings.
Feel free to ask any questions about our beliefs, differences between the other factions, etc. as you wish, I will be happy to help.
God Bless,
Mike
Answer Hi Redfox,
I will reply to your questions below in **, Mike
(a) Which version of the book of Mormon do you use? And
**Mike: The 1990 Church of Christ Authorized version. This is versed the same as the old RLDS 1908 version but has been carefully compared to the original manuscript copy the RLDS has and corrected to match. There are a few typos but all in all is the most accurate that I am aware of.
(b) what do you think of the 1830 version?
**Mike: Ours is essentially the same, except with versing which the 1830 version did not have. Maybe you already know this... but the original Book of Mormon as it came off of the plates during translation had no versing or punctuation (which is normal for Hebrew writings). The versing and punctuation were added later on for better readability. Also complaints have been made by critics of the Book of Mormon about it's terrible grammar such as starting sentences with "and" etc... however this is typical Hebrew grammar and to be expected. Some have even removed these "poor grammar" examples from their Book of Mormon versions not realizing they were taking out evidences of Hebraic authorship.
