The inspiration for the inspiration

In Spring 1820, Joseph Smith prayed to know which church was true. His account in Joseph Smith History 1:11-13 states, "I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom... Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. At length I came to the conclusion that I must ...do as James directs, that is, ask of God."

But before this event, Reverend George Lane gave a talk at the July 1819 Gennessee Conference on James 1:5. The Gennessee Conference brought 110 Methodist ministers and their bishop within 15 miles of the Smith home. Years later, Joseph’s brother William remembered Joseph attending a meeting where George Lane addressed the question “What church shall I join?” Using James 1:5 as a text, Reverend Lane urged his listeners “to ask God.”

Joseph Smith History 1:20 states "When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven." It is often asserted in Sunday School that the First Vision was a physical experience that occurred entirely in the Sacred Grove. Baseless extrapolations are dangerous because they lead to disenchantment when people learn that the assumed details are not likely valid. Even if Joseph passed out from exhaustion after a physical experience, that would also lead to suspicion about the omission of the detail and reliability of the account. Whether the experience was literal and physical or exclusively spiritual is not nearly as important as whether it was actually inspired by God.

There is abundant evidence that Joseph considered spiritual things to be as real as physical things. For example, D&C 131:7 states, "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;" Supposing the First Vision occurred "in the Spirit" offers a potential resolution with Exodus 33:20, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." (Note that there is a JST adjustment to that verse too.) D&C 76:116-118 suggests that such visions are necessarily spiritual: "Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory." The wording in this scripture is also highly reminiscient of the wording used in Ether 4, describing the theophany of the Brother of Jared (and this indirectly connects it with the complementary theophanies of Nephi, John, Lehi, Moses, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. Several of them explicitly state that they were carried away in the Spirit. (Note: Each of those words was a different scriptural link.)

Joseph Smith received the Golden plates in September 1827, the same year he married Emma Hale. But Luck Mack Smith (Joseph Smith's mother) recalled how Joseph telling stories of the Native Americans while he was still living at his parent's home:

Our sitting up late that evening to converse upon these things together with over exertion of mind, greatly fatigued Joseph; and when Alvin observed it he said: “now brother, let us go to bed, and rise early in the morning, in order to finish our days work at an hour before sunset; then, if mother will get our suppers early, we will have a fine long evening, and we will all sit down, and listen to you, while you tell us the great things which God has revealed to you.” Accordingly, by sunset we were all seated, and Joseph commenced telling us the great and glorious things which God had manifested to him...

From this time forth, Joseph continued to receive instructions from the Lord; and we, to get the children together every evening for the purpose of listening while he imparted the same to the family. I presume we presented an aspect as singular, as any family that ever lived upon the Earth face of the Earth: all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to a boy...

During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined: he would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent; their dress, mode of travelling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, and their buildings, with every particular; he would describe their ​mode of​ warfare, as also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them. Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches, p. 85

Joseph's brother Alvin died in November, 1823. Joseph's interest in the Native Americans likely came from his role in "peeping" for buried Native American treasures, which involved telling detailed stories about what he had seen in his stone in the hat.

In his account, Joseph Smith admits that in 1825 he hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, and was accused of being a "money-digger". However, a money-digger is not a person who works with a pick-axe or shovel to perform manual labor. It is a person who uses diviniation to locate buried treasure. What this account neglects to disclose is that Stoal was working with Oliver Harper and William Hale. They had suspended their efforts to seek a more help peeping for the location of the treasure. According to Artemisia Beaman Snow, "The last time he [Luman Walters, the peeper that had previously been working with Stoal's company] came he pointed out Joseph Smith, who was sitting quietly among a group of men in the tavern, and said There was the young man that could find it." Luman Walters, had his own seer stone and was known for using mystic arts to peep for buried treasure. According to D. Michael Quinn, Joseph Smith looked to Walters as an occult mentor, and according to a certain newspaper article published in Palmyra in 1831, he was he that first suggested to Smith the idea of finding a book.

The following year, Smith was arrested and tried for a misdemeanor count of being a "disorderly person and an imposter" for defrauding the others of that company as a "Glass Looker". Stoal (also "Stowell"), however, still believed and testified that Smith's powers were real. In a later 1830 trial, Stowell being sworn, testified that he positively knew that said Smith never had lied to, or deceived him". Stowell later said he saw a corner of the Bible (Book of Mormon plates), unknown to Smith, and that they resembled a stone of a greenish caste. Newel Knights sworn testimony said the "prisoner could see in a stone as stated by Stowel; that formerly he looked for money, &c., but latterly he had become holy, was a true preacher of the Gospel of Christ, possessed the power of casting out devils; he knew it to be a fact, that he, (Smith, the prisoner,) had cast a devil from him, (witness,)..."

A book, The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed, was in the local Manchester Library (five miles from Joseph Smith's home) and extant records show that it was reportedly checked out during the years 1826 to 1828. This book ...attempts to establish a Hebrew origin for Native Americans.

Around Cumorah were several Indian mounds, which were a source of speculation and great interest to Joseph Smith in particular.

It was a common legend that western New York and Ohio had once been the site of a terrible slaughter and that the mounds were the cemeteries of an entire race. In 1821, a Palmyra newspaper stated that diggers on the Erie Canal had unearthed "several brass plates" along with skeletons and fragments of pottery...

That Native Americans descended from the Hebrews was a popular theory at the time Joseph lived. America's most distinguished preachers - William Penn, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards - had all espoused the theory. A Jewish rabbi, M. M. Noah, summarized the parallels between the cultures of Hebraic and Indian customs in Joseph's hometown paper on October 11, 1825. Joseph unquestionably had access to the Wayne Sentinel, for on August 11, 1826 his father was listed among the delinquent subscribers as owing $5.60. Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History (35-36, 45,46)

A comparison of the parallels between Nephi's account of Lehi's theophany shows more similarities than might occur by random coincidence. One candidate explanation is that God follows a consistent procedure when calling someone to prophesy against a hard-hearted nation prior to its destruction. Another is that Joseph may have encountered a comparison of theophanies in the Bible, perhaps at the Gennessee conference, and planned to make the Book of Mormon seem credible by following the same template. It is a shame Book of Lehi was lost, since it would likely shed more light on the matter.

Many other parallels could be noted, especially with John's vision in Revelations, and even moreso if symbols are interpreted in a manner familiar to Joseph Smith. Because of the prominent placement of Lehi's theophany (at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon), and because Lehi's theophany is explicitly connected with Nephi's, The Brother of Jared's, and Moses' very similar theophanies, it seems likely that a central motivation behind the Book of Mormon was to deliver a unification theory that tied several different Biblical visions together.

Another Biblical unification effort can be found in the "Doctrine of Christ" as described in 2 Nephi 31, 3 Nephi 11:31-39, and 3 Nephi 27:13-21. The patterns in these sections can be tied to more Bible verses than I have any intention of attempting to document at this time. So it is not clear whether citing the Bible as the source of these ideas is sufficient. It is often noted that Joseph Smith is unlikely to have been the original source of such compelling teachings. Perhaps Joseph Smith might have picked it up some ideas at the 1819 Gennessee Conference, which he attended. Perhaps there was an unknown silent co-author. Or perhaps God just wanted to repeat Bible content. But somehow, it definitely came from the Bible.

Lucy Mack Smith's history records that in 1811 her husband, Joseph Smith Senior, became much excited upon the subject of religion and experienced a vision with a great many parallels to the one recorded in 1 Nephi 8.

BookOfMormonCentral observes the following similarities:

But FairLatterDaySaints.org observes that The details of Joseph's father's dream were written long after the Book of Mormon was published, so the influence could have actually happened, at least in part, in the other direction.

In general, I think most Latter-day Saints are aware that the Book of Mormon makes extensive use of wording from the King James Version of the Bible. Typical defenses of Joseph Smith suggest he may have used the King James Version of the Bible to assist in his translation efforts when ancient prophets quoted from the Brass Plates. Notably, this contradicts Emma's testimony that he conducted the work of translation without reference materials. Her testimony is probably unreliable.

Quotations like these from the King James Version of the New Testament are even more troubling since the New Testament would not have been contained on the Brass Plates. One possible explanation may be that the King James Version of the New Testament was given to Moroni by divine revelation, perhaps because that is the version early Latter-day Saints would relate to. However, this explanation leaves unexplained why many quotations contain alterations, as if to suggest that the quotations had derived from some other interpretation. Suspiciously, earlier Biblical quotations in the Book of Mormon seem to be somewhat more vigilant to consider what scriptures should have been available at the time. For example, Nephi speaks of faith, hope, and charity in 2 Nephi 31, which would certainly invoke a connection to 1 Corinthians 13 for Christians, but he was not so brazen as to directly quote from the New Testament as Moroni did.

Here's another comparison showing the extent to which ideas in the Bible were incorporated in the Book of Mormon.

View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith was published in 1823, a Congregationalist minister in Vermont. He argued that the Native Americans descended from the lost ten tribes of Israel. For several years, Oliver Cowdery attended the Congregational Church where Ethan Smith was the minister.

The similarities listed on the relevant Wikipedia article are:

• Both books quote extensively from the Old Testament prophecies of the Book of Isaiah;
• describe the future gathering of Israel and restoration of the Ten Lost Tribes;
• propose the peopling of the New World from the Old via a long sea journey;
• declare a religious motive for the migration;
• divide the migrants into civilized and uncivilized groups with long wars between them and
• the eventual destruction of the civilized by the uncivilized;
• assume that Native Americans were descended from Israelites and their languages from Hebrew;
• include a change of government from monarchy to republican; and
• suggest that the gospel was preached in ancient America.

In the early 1920's, President Heber J. Grant received a letter questioning the historicity of the Book of Mormon. In response, Grant asked B.H. Roberts, a General Authority in the First Council of the Seventy to develop an apologetic of the Book of Mormon. Roberts was a Church historian who had previously edited a popular six-volume history of the LDS Church, and was working on a book called Studies of the Book of Mormon, which ended up being published post-humously. In 1922, Roberts met with the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency to discuss his results. They focused heavily on View of the Hebrews, and concluded that the evidence was against the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

Roberts gave three conditions that would suggest that one book had been derived from another:

1. that the derivative book had appeared after its model,
2. that the author of the derivative book had access to the model, and
3. that the derivative work be similar to the model.

Roberts concluded that View of the Hebrews had been published first, that the possibility that Joseph Smith had access to it was "a very close certainty," and that there were many similarities between the works. Roberts summarized his comparison of the parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon as follows:

Did Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews furnish structural material for Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon? It has been pointed out in these pages that there are many things in the former book that might well have suggested many major things in the other. Not a few things merely, one or two, or half dozen, but many; and it is this fact of many things of similarity and the cumulative force of them that makes them so serious a menace to Joseph Smith's story of the Book of Mormon's origin. B.H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, pg. 240

Unfortunately, the authorities were disinterested in Roberts' academic approach to the matter. Regarding their unwillingness to examine it, Roberts wrote:

I had written it for presentation to the Twelve and the Presidency, not for publication, but I suspended the submission of it until I returned home, but I have not yet succeeded in making the presentation of it, although a letter of submission was made previous to leaving the E. S. M.. I have made one feeble effort to get it before them since returning home, but they are not in a studious mood. B.H. Roberts

His essays were not published until more than a half-century after his death. Roberts continued to affirm his faith in the divine origins of the Book of Mormon until his death in 1933; but as Terryl Givens has written, "a lively debate has emerged over whether his personal conviction really remained intact in the aftermath of his academic investigations." Some examples of this debate are here and here.

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is To Come is a 1676 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. Similarities between this book and the Book of Mormon were first observed by Eber Howe as early as 1831 in his anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed. As examples, he noted the use of the names "Desolation" and "Bountiful" in Lehi's story, as well as several thematic elements.

However, Howe apparently did not feel inclined to continue comparing the two works in a systematic manner because Abinidi's story, which occurs later in the Book of Mormon, exhibits even more distinctively similar narrative elements. In Pilgrim's Progress,

• Faithful is bound and thrown into prison. (Mosiah 12:17, Mosiah 17:5)
• A town leader assembles a group of associates to examine them. (Mosiah 12:17)
• The prisoners are "brought before" the town leaders and put on trial. (Mosiah 12:18)
• They accuse Faithful of being a "madman", (Mosiah 13:1)
• of slandering the town leaders. (Mosiah 17:12)
• Faithful speaks "boldly" in his defense, but to no avail. (Mosiah 13:2-4)
• The trial leader condemns Faithful to be "slain" and "put to […] death." (Mosiah 17:7)
• Faithful is then "scourged," and (Mosiah 17:13)
• finally burned at the stake. (Mosiah 17:14)
• Thus, Faithful "seals" his "testimony" with his "blood." (Mosiah 17:10,20)
• Faithful’s teachings and martyrdom convert a witness, Hopeful, who becomes a major character in the story. (Mosiah 17:2)
• Other converts follow and depart from the city, (Mosiah 18:34)
• "entering into" a "covenant" to follow Christ. (Mosiah 18:13)

In total, Bunyan wrote upwards of 60 books, tracts, and pamphlets [with] narrative parallels to the Book of Mormon.

In 1816, a book titled The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain by Gilbert J. Hunt was published. It offered a scriptural style account of the War of 1812. Between 1817 and 1819 it was marketed "for the use of schools throughout the United States" under the title The Historical Reader. This book contains an uncanny number of parallels with stories in the Book of Mormon. This site offers a side-by-side comparison of such similarities.

Linguistic analysis shows a surprising co-occurrence of rare 4-grams between this book and the Book of Mormon, surpassed only by the King James Version of the Bible. Also, this book contains significant and clear chiastic structure, suggesting a potential source for the chiasmus in Alma 36, and refuting the false claim that chiasmus was unknown in Joseph Smith's time.

A sample of some wording overlaps is given in the table below. For a much more thorough comparison of overlapping themes, plots, details, and word choices, please follow that link.

On December 16, 1811, the largest earthquake to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history occurred. An aftershock with a moment magnitude of 7.4 occurred later the same day, and two more earthquakes of similar magnitude occurred in the following two months. Joseph Smith would have only been six years old at the time, but the tales and interpretations that followed likely would have influenced him. Among the religious revivalism at the time and the looming threat of war with Britain, the tremors led many to ponder the deeper divine messages encoded in the shaking. Among Baptist and Methodist congregations closest to the tremors, conversions spiked in early 1812, and observers attributed the revivalism to the earthquakes. People soon derided those "Earthquake Christians" who abandoned commitments to church attendance and other proper Christian behavior when the shaking stopped in the spring of 1812. ...The American Methodist Church’s 10% rate of growth in 1812 nearly doubled that of the previous year.

Scientists in the domain of paleoseismology study geologic sediment and rocks for signs of ancient earthquakes. Several list of historical earthquakes are easily available, but conspicuously absent is any evidence for a major seismic event in the Americas around 33 CE. This seems significant given the intense description found in the Book of Mormon: "But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the ...exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth;" (3 Nephi 3:12)

It may be significant that darkness (except due to disruptions of electrical power grids) is not typically associated with earthquakes. However, darkness is explicitly mentioned in three of the gospels around the time of the crucifixion. The Book of Mormon account also strongly emphasizes darkness.

In D&C 27, the Lord references scriptures in Ephesians 6 (without actually noting the reference). But somewhat more peculiar is how numerous passages in the Book of Mormon also make reference to the "Armor of God".

John Walker published the first edition of A Key to the Pronunciation of Greek, Latin and Scripture Proper Names in 1793. A great number of names from the Book of Mormon appear to have made by someone with access to its table of Scripture Proper Names on pages 215 to 256 (of the Eighth Edition, linked above). (But it's also a fairly long list, so some coincidental similarities should be expected. It is also not an exclusive source of these names, so it is possible that there is another source.) Some very similar names in this table include:

• Aaron
• Abinadab -> Abinadi
• Abishua -> Abish
• Amalek -> Amulek
• Ammon
• Ammonites
• Antipas
• Benjamin
• Carchemish
• Chemosh -> Chemish
• Enos
• Ephah
• Ether
• Ezem -> Ezrom
• (No "f" names in this table or the Book of Mormon)
• Gideon
• Gideoni
• Gilgal
• Helam
• Heman -> Helaman
• Heth
• Ishmael
• Ishmaelites
• Jared
• Jeremoth -> Jarem
• Kish
• Korathites -> Korihor
• Lacunus -> Lachoneus
• Lahman -> Laman
• Libni -> Limhi
• Lehi
• Lemuel
• Nahum -> Nahom
• Nephi
• Omer
• Omri -> Omni
• Rabboni -> Rabbanah
• Riblah -> Riplah
• Sami -> Sam
• Sidon
• Tubal -> Tubaloth
• Zorah -> Zoram
• Zorathites -> Zoramites

The Church's study manual states that the Book of Abraham originated with Egyptian papyri that Joseph Smith translated beginning in 1835. The Book of Abraham papyri were thought to have been lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. However, in 1966 several fragments of the papyri were found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in the LDS Church archives. Upon examination by professional Egyptologists (both Mormon and otherwise), these fragments were identified as Egyptian funerary texts, including the "Breathing Permit of Hôr"[nb 1] and the "Book of the Dead", among others.

Two common theories explaining this discrepancy are the "missing scroll theory" and "catylist theory", described here. Further, the Book of Moses certainly demonstrates that having a relevant manuscript to translate was not any kind of necessity for the Urim and Thummim. D&C 7 is another example of Joseph Smith translating a manuscript that was not actually in his possession.

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost was published in 1667. The Church accounts for the numerous doctrinal overlaps between Milton's work and the restored gospel by claiming Milton was an inspired man. That same article lists many doctrinal overlaps with many teachings typically considered unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

• The pre-mortal realm,
• The Council in Heaven,
• Lucifer's rebellion,
• The War in Heaven,
• Unity of spirit and matter,
• A corporeal God,
• Creation from existing materials rather than ex nihilo,
• praising Eve for partaking of the fruit,
• celebrating the Fall,
• Free agency (as opposed to Calvanism),
• Satan misunderstanding what it means to be free,
• The Apostasy following Jesus' atonement,

It is very likely that Joseph Smith read Remarks on the character and writings of John Milton, a pamphlet by William Channing published in 1826, and likely would have sought out the full poem by Milton.

Another piece of evidence suggesting Joseph was familiar with Paradise Lost is the chiasmus that occurs in Alma 36. Milton's Paradise Lost (1663) exhibits significant chiastic structure. Unfortunately, it is often falsely taught in LDS circles that chiasmus was first discovered in the Book of Mormon in 1967, then was later found to also occur in the Bible. This has been so widely published by the Church that it dominates many simple Google searches on the topic. However, Paradise Lost proves authors were already incorporating chiasmus in their writings as early as the 1600's. In 1742, J. A. Bengal calls attention to the presence of chiasmus in a few passages of the New Testament. The Late War by Gilbert Hunt, published in 1816, contains significant chiastic structure, and is believed to have significantly influenced the Book of Mormon. And in 1820, John Jebb wrote a book called Sacred Literature in which he continues the work of Bishop Lowth in the study of chiasmus. These topics likely would have been curiosities of interest at the Gennessee Conference, which Smith is known to have attended. Thus, claims that Smith would have had no exposure to scholarly gospel topics are more likely the product of faith-promoting exaggerations than accurate analysis.

I think Augustine brilliantly described the dangers of carelessly repeating unreliable faith-promoting information:

Often, a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances, ...and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, which people see as ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn.

The shame is not so much that an ignorant person is laughed at, but rather that people outside the faith believe that we hold such opinions, and thus our teachings are rejected as ignorant and unlearned. If they find a Christian mistaken in a subject that they know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions as based on our teachings, how are they going to believe these teachings in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think these teachings are filled with fallacies about facts which they have learnt from experience and reason.

Reckless and presumptuous expounders of Scripture bring about much harm when they are caught in their mischievous false opinions by those not bound by our sacred texts. And even more so when they then try to defend their rash and obviously untrue statements by quoting a shower of words from Scripture and even recite from memory passages which they think will support their case ‘without understanding either what they are saying or what they assert with such assurance.’ (1 Timothy 1:7) St. Augustine of Hippo (354AD – 430AD)

The origin of this tradition is a verse in the Book of John:

Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. John 21:20-22

Amusingly, the very next verse cautions against interpretting these words to imply John would never die.

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? John 21:3

Yet, that very caution itself seems so tantalizingly random, as if the author of the Book of John was saying "no comment" when confronted with an accusation, that verse 23 is probably the primary impetus behind the story continuing to maintain its traction. Historically, there was even a legend that the ground in Ephesus where St. John was buried would rise and fall as though someone were breathing, or even snoring.

In April, 1829 (immediately before translation of the Book of Mormon began), Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were intrigued by this tradition. In a vision, Joseph Smith saw a piece of parchment written and hidden up by the hand of John clarifying the matter, and Joseph translated it through the Urim and Thummim. (See also the Section heading for D&C 7.) It was originally Section 6, and was significantly edited between the 1833 and 1835 versions. Here's the 1833 version. (And tangentally, here's a page for comparing versions of various sections.)

When the Book of Mormon was subsequently translated, it became apparent in 3 Nephi 28 that it was not going to be left out of this juicy tradition. In a sense, it one-upped the story by making three of them insted of just one! Apparently, the Three Nephites were very busy making appearances throughout Utah and Idaho until about the 1920's, when the number of accounts seemed to start decreasing considerably.

Universalism was a complex issue for Joseph Smith, since his father was a Universalist and his mother was a Calvanist. Interestingly, D&C 76 presents somewhat of a compromise that simultaneously embraces aspects of both sides of the issue. Wikipedia has a whole article about the complex relationship between universalism and LDS doctrines.

FairLatterDaySaints.org takes the position "There is no contemporaneous or late evidence that the Cochranites influenced LDS ideas about plural marriage." That's rather like standing in the light of the noon-day sun and taking the position that no double-blind studies have been formally conducted to confirm that it is presently day time. Sometimes there are ways of saying things that are technically true while still blatantly lying. In this case, the evidence may not be contemporaneous, but the amount of circumstantial coincidence is too compelling to honestly dismiss. The following brief time-line shows how polygamy evolved within the Church:

See Temperance Movement and Latter-day Saints.

In the sacrament ordinance, Latter-day Saints consider water to be just as acceptable as wine, even though it lacks the symbolic appearance of blood. Yet, with the ordinance of baptism, the symbol of being completely immersed in water is considered imperative. One might ask, why does this inconsistency exist?

A simple answer may be that Sidney Rigdon's group of Campbellite Baptists had some influence on LDS doctrines. Baptists believe baptism by immersion is essential.

Gnosis is the Greek noun for knowledge. In the first century AD, several Christian and Jewish sects (called "Gnostics") taught that salvation was obtained by gaining personal knowledge about God. In Lecture 3 Smith and/or Ridgon teach that a correct knowledge of God's character and attributes is necessary for the exercise of faith leading to life and salvation. In Lecture 6 it is taught that the knowledge that one's life is in accordance with God's will is necessary for obtaining eternal life. And in Lecture 7 it is taught that by faith, one obtains knowledge of God, through which knowledge one can receive all things pertaining to life and godliness.

Unfortunately, little is known about the Gnostics because the early Church viewed their teachings about personal revelation as a threat to their authority, and systematically destroyed most of their texts. But Joseph Smith certainly believed in personal revelation. He also held the gnostic belief that spirit was quite literally as real as matter,

All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; D&C 131:7

and spiritual experiences result in knowledge as real and reliable as any knowledge based on phyiscal evidence.

And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, ...for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand. O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; Alma 32:34-35

FairLatterDaySaints of course takes the useless position that thers is no proof. They are not wrong. A clear connection has not been established (as far as I know). But there are several overlapping themes include Zionism, the gathering of Israel, and the doctrine that men can become gods. A lack of proof is not a sufficient reason to dismiss these similarities unless one is already committed to another interpretation. There are some works that have found many parallels. I haven't really investigated this, yet, so todo: investigate further.

Joseph Smith joined the fraternity of Freemasons in March, 1842. Soon after, he introduced the temple endowment, which contained a number of symbolic elements that were very similar to those in Freemasonry. It is no secret that there is a relationship between the ordinances. Heber Kimball reported that Joseph Smith justified using Masonic symbols by claiming Freemasonry "was taken from the priesthood but has become degen[e]rated. but many things are perfect."

Deriving from Masonic symbols and ordinances is a big deal to both Masons and Latter-day Saints as these ordinances are (or were) delivered along with solemn covenants accompanied by threats of violence or death and symbolic motions that mime such death to those who reveal them. In recent decades, some of the similar components were removed from the LDS temple endowment, but it is no longer difficult to find details about how the ordinances were historically performed or how they evolved.

The phrase, "O Lord my God, is there no help for the widow's son," is significant to Freemasons. It is used as a distress call between Masons. Before Joseph was shot in Liberty Jail, he cried, "Oh Lord, my God..." It is speculated that Joseph likely recognized Masons among those who had come to kill him, and was attempting to complete this call when he shot five times.

In the Bible, most events of significance seem to have happened in the viscinity of Egypt and Israel. Yet peculiarly, the battle of Cumorah occurred where Joseph Smith lived, Joseph's seer stone was buried where he happened to be digging a well, The Garden of Eden was in Missouri where the Saints later intended to make their home, and The City of Enoch turned out to be the Gulf of Mexico (which geologists tell us was not scooped up, but rather was depressed by the weight of water from the Missippi River). It is also very surprising that geologists have not found evidence of the Great Destruction that allegedly changed the whole shape of the land.

Since Moses was educated in the Pharoah's court, he certainly would have been familiar with Ma'at, the Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. So when he was establishing his own law to rule the Hebrews, he may have borrowed some ideas from the Egyptians. About half of the 10 commandments appear to derive from the 42 negative confessions found in the Papyrus of Ani, that the Egyptians taught deceased persons must make to their pantheon of deities.

(Frankly, I think it's a great shame that more of the negative confessions did not make it into the Hebrew Commandments.)

Mesopotamian influences can be seen in the visual arts of Egypt, in architecture, in technology, weaponry, in imported products, and also in the possible transfer of writing from Mesopotamia to Egypt and generated "deep-seated" parallels in the early stages of both cultures. It follows that Moses, who was educated in Egypt, would likely have been familiar with Sumerian traditions. Therefore, it is likely more than coincidence that Sumerian accounts of similar events which predate Genesis are notably similar to the stories Moses was presumably shown in vision when he encountered the burning bush. In particular, the Epic of Gilgamesh offers strikingly similar accounts of the creation, garden, and great flood. There are also Egyptian variations of Creation, Garden of Eden and the Flood, but they are not quite as similar to the accounts in Genesis as the Sumerian versions.

Matthew 1:22-23 claims that Jesus was born to a virgin in fulfillment of a prophesy in Isaiah 7:14. However, that scripture had been mis-translated. The word used by Isaiah was "almah", meaning "young woman", but was incorrectly translated to "parthenos", meaning "virgin", in the translation available to the author of Matthew.

It can be argued that "young woman" does not necessarily exclude the possibility of being a "virgin", but it is awkward to even debate something that was taken so entirely out of context anyway. Isaiah 7 very clearly describes the Lord telling Ahaz not to be concerned that Ephraim and Syria have conspired against him because their plan is doomed to fail. As a sign to confirm this prophesy, he invokes the young woman bearing a son and says, "For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." The only connection to the Messiah comes from the poor interpretation by the author of Matthew. But Nephi's vision in 1 Nephi 11:18 anachronistically echoes Matthew's misinterpretation 592 years earlier.