While this page has yet to be finished, we can use it as an appetite whetter for the future! We have a few of the more than 3900 changes to the text of the 'Book of Mormon' here, showing visually where these were added or removed between the 1830 1st Edition and the present time.
We also present some of those similarly changed between the first edition of the 'Book of Commandments' and its successor, the 'Doctrine and Covenants'. Even the 'D & C' has undergone changes since the copy I used for instruction of members of the Elders' Quorum. Last but not least, we shall also show visually some of the changes made to the 'Pearl of Great Price' between its 1851 first edition and recent revisions.
It should be heavily emphasised that the LDS church's actual doctrines are NOT contained in the Book of Mormon. It is true that most of the changes in that book are really cosmetic. However, note importantly that the more significant changes and additions to LDS teachings are in the Books of Abraham and Moses in the 'Pearl of Great Price', and the 'Doctrine and Covenants'.
In time, we shall also share a few points in the ongoing evolution of the Mormon temple ceremony which has undergone similar substantial changes between 1842 and 1990 - changes which current Latter-Day Saints believe to be cosmetic (even if they are aware of them), but which a comparison of the texts side-by-side shows is far from superficial. As a past 'Temple Mormon' who was word-perfect in the Endowment ritual in the 1970s through having been an 'acting' veil worker on the second of my two trips to the New Zealand Temple from Australia, I can assure you that the changes are real. I remember the old ritual very well, despite it being thirty years since I first participated.
It is also interesting for me to recollect the teaching received from older temple workers in which they taught that the ritual was at that time word-for word with that which Joseph Smith taught at Kirtland - namely that the Father had instructed him to never change it, because (according to those who taught me) that was the precise wording used by the Father during his time on earth. I am truly sorry to disillusion you temple folk; my understanding is that the ritual was changed once before as well - in 1931.
One has to question why the need to change something - anything - that God Almighty is supposed to have given His mouthpiece on earth, so that mistakes made by men over the past ages could be fixed up once and forever.
As an aside, I have contributed many articles as a technical author to editors of technical periodicals. Most other such authors would agree with the statement that often one spends more time doing piece-meal alterations trying to tidy up your composition and make it presentable after it is finished.
The point here is that an author will do that... never will someone who takes dictation from a superior change what has been dictated - ask any good secretary about that.
Does that suggest to you that the supposed revelations were really dictated by God? Or were they just figments of the imaginative thinking process of a young man who was well known in the community as an extremely good story-teller, and who needed to 'update' the earlier story as new bits were added later?
The 1855 Edition of the Key to Theology, written by Mormon Apostle Parley P Pratt has also suffered at the hands of editors, and we can compare parts of the original with the 1965 edition, showing huge chunks of material that is at variance.
Joseph Smith's Documentary History of the Church is also unable to be given a clean bill of health, so excerpts from that document will also be included in this exercise in examining 'truth' and the changes to it, and in this case the actual sources of material fraudulently claimed by the LDS as being written by Joseph Smith before his death.
Despite insistance by the LDS church that there is not, there is plenty documentary evidence of Brigham Young personally teaching the 'Adam-God' theory, which in time will be added to this site. The available material goes on and on.
I have had correspondence with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. which totally refutes the LDS Misionaries' material about the Book of Mormon being used for anthropological work. That is a complete fiction, and I have a letter which says so.
There is a further document furnished by the Smithsonian Institution which is available to view here; this has been retyped from the original.
This is all being assembled laboriously, so please be patient as each of these pages is typed, and images scanned, and space found on servers.
I have not made any idle claims. Having seen with my own eyes, I am perfectly satisfied, and my wish is to share that information with you as soon as it can be done.
Each of these will be on its own unique page, to avoid making it difficult to follow. I dislike what is called 'hate mail'. I deeply regret it if you consider this web site to be such; it is just fact after fact uncovered, and shared with you so that you may make your own educated choice after looking at the material. If you still consider the LDS organisation to be without blemish, that is fine.
However you need to know both sides of the coin to come that that conclusion and make that decision.
All material I have used I have authenticated either from my own memory, from reading the sources quoted, or researching myself. While some of the sources may be anathema to LDS, please realise that it was a while before I also accepted that this lot of stuff was truth. I was still an LDS in beliefs, and I defended those beliefs from 1977 when I ceased activity with them right up to the time I realised that these errors were well documented in 1987.
Remember what the LDS teach about the 'Three Witnesses' to the Book of Mormon - they stuck to their beliefs and story after leaving. So did I - for ten years, until I discovered what I did not want to discover - a series of cover-ups.
In the case of the present editions of these works, the copyright is vested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In the case of the original editions of the Book of Mormon, Book of Commandments, Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith, and the Fourteen Articles of Faith, copyright is claimed by a Mormon brother named Wilford C. Wood who paid for the printing of the reissue of the original works - a printing encouraged by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and which was later rejected by them, because these works conflict with their late 20th century teachings.
Official correspondence between the LDS Church and various people regarding the initial availability of Brother Wood's books, and their subsequent non-availability will be added to this site as time permits. I have documentary proof for everything I have stated here.
It should be pointed out that this Brother Wood is a member (in good standing) of the L.D.S. Church, and has not in any way sponsored this website, nor canvassed the thoughts that I hold about the completely false teachings of that organisation.