Theological Proof that the Mormon Religion is False

Genuine Faith Requires Intellectual Scrutiny

According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, one of the definitions of faith is a "belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence." I believe that this definition is the most accurate for the religious context. Mormon faith does not, in my view, fit this definition though. In my experience, Mormon faith goes beyond this definition to maintain beliefs that contradict logic and evidence: what many would consider to be "blind faith."

I've found quite often that even when presented with incontrovertible evidence proving a certain belief to be false, Mormons simply refuse to accept the truth. The response I almost always get is that they know the Mormon religion is true because they've prayed about the Book of Mormon and felt the Holy Spirit's presence in their heart. They whole-heartedly believe that God would never lead them astray. They are correct that God would never lead them astray, but others will try and like Joseph Smith, many have succeeded. The Apostle Paul warned us of perverted gospels in Galatians 1:6-8:

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned."

Paul's warning has not been heeded by Mormons. He warned us that different gospels could come from both apostles and angels, meaning that the mere appearance of the messenger or who they claim to have authority from should not sway us. Even if we think the message comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, we should evaluate the message against what we know to be of God before accepting it as true. If the message is different than what has already been preached in the New Testament, then it should be condemned along with the messenger who brought it. Paul did not ask us to pray about the new gospel, he asked us to use our intellectual capabilities to compare it to what we already know to be the Lord's gospel. Is that how Mormons determine if the Book of Mormon is true? No.

Mormons are asked to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon...they've probably asked you to read it and do the same. The answer for them always comes as a feeling in their heart and never through intellectual scrutiny. How ambiguous is that? Is it any surprise that people who have lived as Mormons all their lives come to the conclusion that it is true with this method? We should take heed of the Bible's warnings:

Proverbs 28:26 "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool."

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

I believe that God speaks to us in many ways, and often in ways we don't expect. The following story, which I received in a chain email a while back, illustrates that:

A massive hurricane was threatening a small town. The town was being evacuated, but one man would not leave. The police stopped by his house and offered to help him leave, but he refused, saying "God will save me."

The storm came and the town started to flood. The 1st floor of the man's house was now under water, so he took refuge in the 2nd floor. Soon a rescue team arrived in a boat and offered to evacuate the man. But the man refused, saying "God will save me." 

Then a levee broke and the waters rose further. The man was now trapped on his roof, clinging to his chimney. A helicopter spotted the man and dropped a rope ladder to pull him up. But the man refused to climb it...he shouted "God will save me."

The man's house then collapsed under the current and he was swept away and drowned. He went to Heaven and when he saw God, he asked, "Why didn't you save me?" God answered, "I sent the police, a rescue boat, and a helicopter...what did you expect?"

God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way that we want or expect Him to. Sometimes, He gives us the answer through our friends, a stranger we bump into on the street, or a website that we stumble upon. I hope that Mormons consider the possibility that God is answering their prayers about the truth of the Book of Mormon by leading them to this blog. The truth is right in front of you, you just have to have the wherewithal to recognize that it is the answer to your prayers.

Let's now use our intellectual capacity to compare some key Mormon beliefs to the teachings of the Bible. Many, if not most of the Mormon beliefs contradict the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Biblical teachings, but addressing all of them is a waste of time, when Mormonism is easily proven wrong on the fundamental nature of God. Below, I will cite the Mormon beliefs on the nature of God and show how their beliefs contradict not only the Bible, but also the Book of Mormon. The fact that their beliefs are not supported by their own scripture demonstrates the importance of intellectual scrutiny.

The Nature of God

Christianity is well know to be a monotheistic religion. Mormons, on the other hand, actually believe in the existence of countless gods, including their own ability to become gods, making it a polytheistic religion.

Mormon Belief: The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate gods

"...the Godhead. Not one person in three, nor three persons in one; but the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in essence, as the hearts of three men who are united in all things."

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.6, pg95-96, 11/29/1857

Mormon Belief: There are many gods and men can become gods

"How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds..."

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.7, pg331, 10/8/1859

"Gods exist, and we better strive to be prepared to be one with them."

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.7, pg237, 9/1/1859

"The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy. Others attain unto a glory and may even be permitted to come into the presence of the Father and the Son; but they cannot reign as kings in glory, because they had blessings offered unto them, and they refused to accept them."

- Brigham Young Journal of Discourses, Vol.11, pg266, 8/19/1866

"He is our Father--the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted Being."

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.7, pg331, 10/8/1859

"When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him.  He helped to make and organize this world.  He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days, about whom holy men have written and spoken--He is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do."

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol 1, p50, 4/9/1852

Christian Belief: The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God and no other gods exist

Bible

• Genesis 1:26-27 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image."
• Deuteronomy 4:39: "Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else."
• Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord"
• Joshua 3:10 "And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the LIVING God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites..."
• Job 10:8 "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me..."
• Isaiah 42:5 "Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein."
• Isaiah 43:10 "Before me there was no god formed, neither shall there be after me."
• Isaiah 43:11 "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour."
• Isaiah 44:6 "I am the first and I am the last; and beside me there is no God."
• Isaiah 44:8 "You are my witnesses. ; Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one"
• Isaiah 45:5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God..."
• Isaiah 45:12 "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded"
• Isaiah 46:9 "for I am God, and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me."
• Mark 12:32 "for there is one God; and there is none other but he."
• Mark 12:29 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord."
• John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
• John 10:30 "I and my Father are one."
• John 1:3 "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
• Hebrews 1:2 "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."
• Hebrews 1:10-11 "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish: but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment."
• Colossians 1:16 "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him."
• I John 5:7 "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."
• I Corinthians 12:5-6 "And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."
• I Corinthians 12:12 "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."

Interestingly, the Book of Mormon is more consistent with the Bible than current Mormon teachings:

Book of Mormon

• I Nephi 13:41 "...for there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth."
• Mosiah 8:16 "...except he should possess the power of God, which no man can..."
• Alma 11:26-29 "And Zeezrom said unto him:... is there more than one God? And he [Amulek] answered, No"
• Alma 11:35 "...for he said there is but one God..."
• Alma 11:38-39,44 "And Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?  And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last;...Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God..."
• II Nephi 26:12 "...it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God;"
• II Nephi 31:21 "...of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen"
• Mosiah 5:15 "...that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent..."
• Mosiah 15:1-4 "I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son - The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and the Son-And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth."
• Mosiah 16:15 "Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen"
• Ether 3:14 "...Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son..."
• Mormon 7:7 "...unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God..."
• Testimony of three witnesses(last line) "And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God"

Doctrine and Covenants

• Section 20:28 "Which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite and eternal, without end. Amen."

Conclusion

Let's put these contradictions into the context of Joseph Smith's claims as a prophet. According to Joseph Smith, the Nephites and Lamanites came to the Americas around 600 B.C. They were preceded by the Jaredites. He claimed that the Lamanites were the only civilization that survived and were the ancestors of the American Indians. Soon after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, the Book of Mormon states that Jesus visited these peoples in the Americas and preached to them His gospel. Despite the fact that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, told His disciple Peter that he was the Rock upon which He would build his Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, Joseph Smith tells us that the church did fall into apostasy around 100 A.D.

Smith claims that God then waited for over 1700 years until 1830, before sending the Angel Moroni to reveal the golden plates to him in order to restore His true church to the earth. Of course, the golden plates are too precious to leave on earth, so they are taken back to Heaven when Smith completes their translation. Now, this new scripture does not contradict the major beliefs of the Christian churches of the time, as shown above. It maintains that there is and always has been only one God, which consists of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This, of course, precludes the ability of men to become gods. The Book of Mormon also asserts that polygamy is an abomination to God (BoM Jacob 2:24,27; 3:5). The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith tells us, is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of their religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.

Then, only five years later, Joseph Smith purchases some Egyptian papyri from a Mr. Michael Chandler, who is traveling around with an exhibition of Egyptian mummies. Smith claims that the papyri contain the Book of Abraham, written by Abraham himself. It is in this "scripture" that God reveals many of the beliefs and practices of the current Mormon church, none of which are supported by the Book of Mormon and generally contradict it (see Book of Abraham post).

These contradictions are not insignificant. Notice that Mormon missionaries ask potential converts to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to determine its truth. If you accept it as true, then you must also acknowledge that Joseph Smith is God's prophet. If you believe Smith is a prophet, you cannot challenge his later revelations, even when they contradict the Book of Mormon itself. So what are we to believe? Did God send the Angel Moroni to deliver the sacred golden plates containing the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith, plates so sacred that they had to be taken back to heaven? Then only five years later, did God guide the Book of Abraham, encoded in an Egyptian burial text on papyrus, to Joseph Smith through a traveling mummy exhibition and reveal new truths contradicting the sacred Book of Mormon?

Both scriptures cannot be true, especially since they contradict each other on the basic nature of God. If only one of these scriptures were true, you'd have to believe that the one delivered by an angel and returned to Heaven was it. But, given that the same prophet revealed both of them to us, one can only conclude that both are false and fraudulent texts.

In this blog post, I've presented multiple contradictions between what Mormons believe and what the Bible teaches about the nature of God and existence of only one God. I've shown similar contradictions with the Book of Mormon and other Mormon writings. The major Mormon beliefs are in complete opposition to everything established by the Old Testament prophets and confirmed by Jesus, and even contradict the Book of Mormon on the fundamental nature of God.

I pray that my Mormon brothers and sisters recognize that their faith must be rooted in reality, not blindly followed. It is not intellectually honest or possible to simultaneously hold the belief that the Book of Mormon is true while also believing that there are countless gods and that they can become  gods themselves. The only rationale conclusion is that the Mormon religion is false and that Joseph Smith and his successors were false prophets.

Dishonesty by Mormon Apologists, Case #1: John Gee

In my many years of debating Mormons, many of them have avoided making arguments themselves, instead resorting to simply forwarding articles from Mormon apologist sites like FARMS or FairLDS. Professor John Gee and Professor Michael Rhodes are among the most commonly referenced authors in these articles and a large number of Mormon claims rest on the veracity of these men's presentations of the evidence.  I am usually able to refute the arguments in a couple of sentences, due to the fact that their arguments tend to focus on side issues and weak evidence. In a recent debate, I took the time to verify the references that Mr. Gee used to make a case. To my surprise, I found blatant dishonesty by Mr. Gee in his representation of the evidence. When I pointed this deceit out to a Mormon opponent, he defended Mr. Gee and dismissed the blatant dishonesty. I shouldn't really be surprised, but it did motivate me to make this post in the hopes that Mormons will not simply rely on the propaganda created by Mormon apologists.
Of course, I don't expect you to take my word for it, just as I don't believe one should take Mr. Gee's word at face value. In his article, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence of the Joseph Smith Papyri", Mr. Gee warns his readers in the first couple paragraphs of the dangers of hearsay evidence. He states, "the Joseph Smith Papyri need careful treatment since discussions of the situation have generally been plagued by reliance on hearsay evidence or unwarranted assumptions...care thus needs to be taken to separate the eyewitness portions from the hearsay portions of any given witness's testimony." Given this warning, it is implied that Mr. Gee intends to take such care. However, a little further down, Mr. Gee discusses the "eyewitness" testimony by people that viewed the vignette contained in the Hor Book of Breathings prior to the publishing of Facsimile 1. His key witness is a Reverend Caswall, whom Mr. Gee describes as "a non-Mormon openly hostile to Joseph Smith." Mr. Gee claims that Caswall "describes JSP I as having 'that man standing by him with a drawn knife.'"  He goes on to argue that "the existence of the knife has been doubted by many because it does not conform to what other Egyptian papyri would lead us to expect, yet it has here been described by a non-Mormon eyewitness..." That eyewitness testimony, as Mr. Gee described it, would certainly be significant if it was an accurate characterization. Mr. Gee's reference to Reverend Caswall's statements comes from Reverend Caswall's book, "City of the Mormons," which is easily accessible through Google Books. On pages 22-23, Reverend Caswall very clearly attributes the statements describing the knife to a Mormon storekeeper: 

The storekeeper now proceeded to redeem his promise of obtaining for me access to the curiosities...Pointing to a figure of a man lying on a table, he said, "That is the picture of Abraham on the point of being sacrificed. That man standing by him with a drawn knife is an idolatrous priest of the Egyptians. Abraham prayed to God, who immediately unloosed his bands, and delivered him." Turning to another of the drawers, and pointing to a hieroglyphic representation, one of the Mormons said, "Mr. Smith informs us that this picture is an emblem of redemption..."

This is textbook "hearsay" evidence. Reverend Caswall makes it clear that the storekeeper provided the description about the knife and his description of the event suggests that his time with the "curiosities", of which he had no expertise, was quite brief.
So why did Mr. Gee mischaracterize Reverend Caswall's statements, especially after warning his readers of the dangers of mixing hearsay and eyewitness testimony? It is obvious that non-Mormon eyewitness testimony carries greater weight than Mormon eyewitness testimony in supporting Joseph Smith's claims about Facsimile 1. Mr. Gee couldn't find any non-Mormon eyewitnesses, so he mischaracterized Reverend Caswall's testimony to give greater weight to his arguments.
I expect most Mormons who read this to give Mr. Gee the benefit of the doubt and not attribute any dishonesty to his actions. That is certainly a normal response for loyal members of his church. I only ask that Mormons apply more scrutiny to Mr. Gee's articles and not accept them at face value.

The Book of Abraham Fraud Explained

I've started this blog to share my debates in public. In the past few years, I've debated countless Mormons by email and through quick back and forth comments on my YouTube videos. I find myself repeating arguments to a lot of different individuals, so my hope is that a more open debate on this blog will save me some time and spread people's awareness of the faulty claims of the Mormon faith.
Below is a slightly modified version of my next video's script. My videos up 'til now have focused individually on the three facsimiles that Joseph Smith claimed were part of the Book of Abraham. Unfortunately, most Mormons attack my arguments on each facsimile as if they were in a vacuum, ignoring the larger picture. The script below addresses the whole picture and simultaneously refutes all of the major Mormon defenses of the Book of Abraham. It is not as detailed as my Book of Abraham page on my website, but does hit the major points.

In 1835, Joseph Smith acquired a collection of Egyptian papyri from a Mr. Michael Chandler, who was touring the eastern U.S. with a mummy exhibition. After examining the papyri, Smith stated:
"I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt." (History of the Church, Vol 2:236)
In 1842, Joseph Smith published the Book of Abraham in serial fashion in the LDS magazine, "Times & Seasons." He included copies of 3 vignettes found among the papyri and his interpretations of them. Labeled as Facsimiles 1 through 3, Smith claimed they too were part of the Book of Abraham.
The papyri used by Joseph Smith to produce the Book of Abraham were thought to be lost until some of them were discovered in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1966.
With the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, ancient Egyptian texts can now be accurately translated by Egyptologists. They have translated the extant papyri and identified all of the remains as parts of the Egyptian funerary texts, the Book of the Dead and the Book of Breathings.
The most common Mormon response to this is to allege that the writings of Abraham and Joseph of Egypt were contained in the papyri that are now lost. They insist that without the remaining papyri, there is not enough evidence in the extant papyri to discredit Joseph Smith's translation. Another Mormon theory attempts to explain away the use of the Egyptian funerary texts in Joseph Smith's translation efforts. Known as the Semitic Adaptation theory, it posits that the Egyptian funerary texts were adopted by an ancient Jewish redactor to illustrate the Book of Abraham story. And yet another prominent Mormon theory avoids the extant papyri altogether, suggesting that the Book of Abraham must be a true ancient text based on parallels that its authors have identified with other so-called ancient texts.
While we don't have all the papyri that was at Joseph Smith's disposal, we do have enough evidence to discredit these theories and to conclude with certainty that Joseph Smith was a fraud.
Very near to the beginning of the Book of Abraham, Chapter 1, verse 12, we see a reference to Facsimile 1: "And it came to pass that the priests laid violence upon me, that they might slay me also, as they did those virgins upon this altar; and that you may have a knowledge of this altar, I will refer you to the representation at the commencement of this record."
Clearly, Joseph Smith believed that this portion of the papyrus was the commencement of the Book of Abraham, since from here he produced Facsimile #1, shown below next to the original papyrus and also with an overlay to demonstrate that the papyrus is definitely Facsimile #1's source.

Smith described the scene as showing the attempted human sacrifice of Abraham by the idolatrous priest of Elkenah. Egyptologists, however, say that it actually depicts the resurrection of Osiris. It is similar to a wall relief in the Dendera Hathor Temple Complex in Qena, Egypt (Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

The standing figure is actually the Egyptian god Anubis and the canopic jars beneath the lion-couch were used by Egyptians during the embalming process to store and protect the mummy's organs. The hieroglyphic text to the right of the scene confirms that this papyrus is a Book of Breathings text prepared for an Egyptian priest named Hor. Michael Rhodes, a Mormon Egyptologist, provides the following translation:
"[The Osiris, God’s father, ] priest of Amon-Re, king of the gods, priest of Min, who massacres his enemies, priest of Khonsu, who is powerful in Thebes. . . Hôr, justified, the son of one of like titles, master of the secrets, god’s priest..." etc. etc.
If we look on the left side of the vignette, we see the purpose of this text. Michael Rhodes translates: "Beginning of the Book of Breathings which Isis made for her brother, Osiris to cause his soul to live, to cause his body to live, to rejuvenate all his limbs again...". The context provided by this text clearly show its purpose and demonstrate that the vignette is right at home in the papyrus as an Osiris resurrection scene.
The vignette, however, is not Smith's only use of this papyrus. Facsimile 2, for which we don't have the original source, is a hypocephalus, which was placed under the heads of Egyptian mummies to guide them in the afterlife.

The original, sketched in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, had missing portions (the red areas above), which Joseph Smith filled in from the Book of Breathings papyrus and a Book of the Dead papyrus.

As Michael Rhodes points out, the text in the red portion of the hypocephalus comes from lines 2, 3, & 4 of the Book of Breathings papyrus (source of Facs 1). The depiction of Re, the Egyptian sun god, was pulled from the Book of the Dead, shown above. If Smith really did have the Book of Abraham in front of him, why would he restore the missing parts of the hypocephalus using the Book of Breathings and Book of the Dead papyri?
Smith also incorrectly provided Hebrew interpretations of the Egyptian gods depicted in the hypocephalus, making errors that most Christians would consider blasphemous. Most notably, in scene number 7, Smith referred to the ithyphallic god Min, an Egyptian god who had sex with his own mother, as our God and due to the fading over the millennia, misconstrued the snake god Nehebka to be a dove representing the Holy Spirit. We know Smith was wrong because this scene is common on many hypocephali, as shown very clearly in the Leiden Hypocephalus on the right side.

As revealing as these errors are, it is in Facsimile 3 that Smith directly contradicts the hieratic text which he claims to be translating. According to Smith, it depicts “Abraham sitting upon Pharaoh’s throne, by the politeness of the king, with a crown upon his head, representing the Priesthood...”

Egyptologists identify this scene as the presentation of the dead to the Egyptian god of the underworld and judge of the dead, Osiris. This scene is not only common in the Book of Breathings, but prevalent in Egyptian artwork on temple walls, sarcophaguses, and stele. Below is a similar scene from the Book of Breathings of Ousirour (Photo courtesy of Amberinsea) and several other examples are shown on my website.

Michael Rhodes points out that Figure 1 is Osiris, not Abraham, that figure 2 is Isis and figure 4 is Ma'at, both female goddesses and not the pharoah and a prince, as Smith claimed. Figure 5 is Hor, the Egyptian priest for whom the Book of Breathings was prepared, not a waiter named Shulem. Figure 6 is the jackal headed god Anubis, and not a slave, as Smith claimed. This is not simply a difference in interpretations; the Egyptian gods are all identified or inferred from the text above their heads, text that Smith claimed he could translate.
There is not a single reference to Abraham or Joseph of Egypt in any of the extant papyrus or even the facsimiles purported to be part of the Book of Abraham. Every piece, however, does have a proper place in the Egyptian Book of Breathings or the Book of the Dead, as one would expect given that the papyri were found among a set of Egyptian mummies.
The papyri had nothing at all to do with Abraham, as Smith clearly believed. So even if an actual Book of Abraham were among the papyri in Smith's possession, he demonstrated that he would not be able to identify or translate it. This makes the primary defense of Mormon apologists, that the Book of Abraham may have been in the now missing papyri, irrelevant.
The Semitic Adaptation theory is similarly debunked, because the facsimiles show no attempt at adoption or adaptation by a hypothetical Jewish redactor. The scene depicted in Facsimile 1 is still attached to and clearly drawn for the Book of Breathings papyrus. The scene in Facsimile 3 still has the text identifying the traditional figures of this common judgment hall of Osiris scene. Finally, Facsimile 2 is clearly a hypocephalus, which by its nature, would have nothing to do with a Jewish text, especially with the prayers to Egyptian gods still intact. Also, consider this...how would a Jewish scribe get access to the Hor Breathing Permit, the Book of the Dead, and the hypocephalus, all of which were prepared for and buried with different Egyptian mummies. He would either have to break into the tomb, which is absurd, or have access to them before they were buried. And who would let a Jewish scribe corrupt Egyptian religious texts that were just prepared for a priest's burial? Also, what rational person would go to those lengths to avoid drawing their own vignettes?
The Mormon theory of parallelism which ignores the extant papyri altogether really demonstrates the lengths that Mormons will go to deny the obvious truth. To support their theory, the authors of parallelism draw comparisons to a fictional Islamic text from the 13th century. These same authors scoffed at the idea that ONLY half of the Book of Abraham's verses had counterparts in the Book of Genesis...only half! The significant plagiarism of Abraham's story in Genesis by Joseph Smith, however, did not prevent him from making an incredible oversight. If you read Genesis, chapters 12 through 17, you'll find that Abraham was 99 years old when God gave him that name...up until that time, he was known by the name "Abram", which includes his short time in Egypt at the age of 75 to 76 years old. Therefore, if Abraham was truly the author of the Book of Abraham, it would be called the Book of Abram and no reference to the name Abraham would be in it.
The only reasonable explanation is that Joseph Smith used the facsimiles as visual cues to fabricate the parts of the Book of Abraham story that were not already described in the Book of Genesis. He is, therefore, a fraud and a false prophet.
You may be asking yourself, how can Mormons defend Smith's status as a prophet knowing how wrong he was. Unfortunately, most Mormons are unaware of this evidence, and those that are cling to these debunked theories in order to maintain their faith, even in the face of conclusive rational arguments.
In his article, "The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus...Twenty Years Later", Michael Rhodes stated: "Nevertheless, my purpose is not to 'prove' Joseph Smith was a prophet. That knowledge can and should come only from God, not from intellectual reasoning, and each individual must find it for himself or herself."
That dismissal of intellectual reasoning is the biggest challenge in convincing Mormons of the truth...you have to first convince them that while they may ask earnestly of God for the truth in prayer, God often guides us to His truth through intellectual reasoning.