Has the Bible Been Changed? Responding to Mormon Criticisms

Has the Bible been changed over time—or is it still reliable today?
Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) believe the Bible has been corrupted or mistranslated. But what does the manuscript evidence actually show?

In this video, we respond to common LDS criticisms of the Bible and explore the ancient biblical manuscripts that confirm the accuracy and preservation of Scripture over thousands of years.

You’ll learn:

What the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient texts reveal
How the New Testament manuscripts confirm reliability
Why Christians can trust the Bible as the Word of God
How to share this truth lovingly with LDS friends and family
If you've ever wondered whether the Bible we read today is the same as what was originally written, this video will give you the historical and textual evidence you need.

#BibleManuscripts #BibleReliability #Mormonism #ChristianApologetics #LDS #TextualCriticism

👉 Subscribe for more videos comparing Christianity with Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, and other worldviews from a biblical perspective.

For many of my points, I'm indebted to the wonderful research conducted by Luke Wayne from CARM.org, featured in this video below from the YouTube Channel, God Loves Mormons.

Timestamps below

00:00 - Intro
01:47 - What the LDS Church Teaches
09:07 - Some Initial Questions
10:17 - Inspiration
12:22 - More Copies
15:46 - Earlier Copies
18:39 - The Telephone Game?
20:24 - Translations
21:14 - Church Father Quotations
22:19 - What the Scholars Say
24:30 - Textual Variants
26:42 - Meaningful & Viable
28:17 - John 8, Mark 16, & 1 John 5
31:29 - The LDS View of The Atonement
33:21 - What About the Old Testament?
36:03 - Conclusion

[rwd]

May God bless you Seth, I appreciate these videos. You are shining light on the darkness. Have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, expose them. (Eph. 5:11)

[ginamiller]

I have a prayer request. Please pray for my LDS mil and sil.
And also for my sisters and step father and his wife who are not believers.
Thank-you so much!!

[hollayevladimiroff]

Thank you for this, believers need to be exposed to the falsities of other religions.

[KristenWalker-ll]

Excellent video! Thank you! I love your passion and your kind, gentle, rational approach.

Indeed, the Bible has amazing reliability! Of all the ancient texts throughout history, the Bible stands out as delivering the same message since its inception. Even an atheist would have to admit this. Only the One True Living God could ensure that the Bible would be so accurately preserved over the centuries. No other religion—and certainly no cult, like LDS—could ever rightfully claim the same authenticity for its “sacred” text that the Christians can claim about the Bible. It is the Living Word of God. It never changes, because God never changes. The Bible is a gift and a miracle from our Creator.

In this post-modern society, there is so much skepticism about the truth of the Bible. Most of this skepticism is due to ignorance, negativity, rebelliousness, and the misconception that Christianity defies intellectualism. In any case, I appreciate your powerful and convincing defense of the one true faith. Although the Bible defends itself, intelligent Christians like you make our religion appear more appealing to nonbelievers. 🩷

[bgslayer]

I find it funny that Orson Pratt said they couldn't trust a single verse in the Bible when Joseph Smith literally plagiarized hundreds of Bible verses directly into the Book of Mormon. The LDS religion is truly wild lol. Thanks for the video, Seth!

[imagingteam]

It's always a good day when Seth uploads a new video!

[BananaBeards-qwmh]

Great video! I find when I meet with the LDS missionaries, it’s very tricky to draw out the view that the Bible is corrupt, so I loved the section about doctrine and general authorities that lay it out clearly. Very helpful!

[gargamel]

Also, while reading 3 Nephi some time ago I noticed that for whatever reason the Book of Mormon there greatly exalts the Jews. In the Bible we can clearly read that there shall be no Jew nor Greek since Jesus brought salvation, there is the parable about the tree that has its branches cut and replaced, and so on. The Book of Mormon on the other hand teaches that the Gentiles are (even after Christ's resurrection) inferior to the Jews, and that no Gentile can see God. I don't remember the verse, but Joe got pretty crazy while writing this. Or maybe the "angel" gabriel/moroni got a bit drunk. EDIT: That verse is 3 Nephi 15:23

[phaedragalloway]

Thanks Seth! love the visuals and fascinating as always!

"How did you come to that conclusion?" What a good question to help someone think critically.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:8

[BananaBeards-qwmh]

The Dead Sea scrolls I think are one of my favorite evidences against Mormonism. The nephi quote claims that Christianity will corrupt the Bible *after* the 12 apostles, but the Dead Sea scrolls, especially the great Isaiah scroll, prove that many LDS views (especially rejection of monotheism) were foreign to Jews in and before the time of Jesus.

[Karen-ezl]

Thank you so much!!! This is so helpful as we love and minister to our LDS friends.

[Jesusismysavior]

Excellent video. You do a good job and provide much needed information to help others.

[warrr_machine]

5:51 mormons and muslims share the same origin story.

*mohammed was an unlearned man whom was given the koran by jibreel: sahih al-bukhari 4953.
*joseph smith was an unlearned man whom was given golden plates by moroni: joseph smith-History 1:33-35

[gargamel]

And it came to pass that today I have read the book of Helaman. And it came to pass that it containeth false and deceitful prophecies about the day-night cycle, for behold, nothing of that kind ever happened. Verily, Joe seemed to think not that in the future his prophecies should be proof-checked.

[anthoprsp]

Hello there!
Awesome, this is also a claim made by many other cult like Islam or even some JWs.
I'm gonna enjoy this video!

[majorphenom]

Thanks for sharing 🙏🏿
His grace and mercy be upon you and your loved ones 🕊️🥛🍯

[TheMexicanMonkeyy]

9:18, second step of the Columbo technique

[BrentDavis-xrud]

I find it peculiar when you bring up to Mormons that they historically don’t trust the Bible and that their own founder and other prophets and apostles and general authorities and etc have said many disparaging things about the Bible, denigrating it, they get all huffy and puffy and deny all of that, and all of a sudden they love the Bible 🤪 Then when things in the Bible don’t agree with Mormonism they say the Bible must have the problem 🙃 You can’t win with these people. The Bible is corrupt and untrustworthy when it doesn’t agree with our teachings but yet, how dare you say that we don’t trust the Bible 🤪

[Mennischwisprian]

Not all textual variants are unintentional errors. There are textual variants that change the meaning and are of theological interest; there are even families of variants. In the West, the text is considerably longer than the Alexandrian, for example. And there are corruptions to the Gospel text that still persist today, which we know about precisely from the Church Fathers or manuscripts.

[cos_ll]

@10:00 But Mormons do have good answers to these questions on the important matters. As do scholars. I think the premise of your question is flawed. LDS are the ones who arfirm the Bible is reliable, just not infallible.