Anachronistic beliefs:

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The basic problem may be summed up as follows: the theological worldview of the Book of Mormon is entirely that of nineteenth-century Christians, not that of ancient Israelites 600 years before Christ. To cite that most obvious example, Book of Mormon prophets focus on the expectation of a Messiah, but such a belief did not exist in Lehi’s time. A Davidic monarch still ruled in Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah was independent. Why, in these circumstances, would people hope for a future Davidic king to restore the throne and deliver Israel? It was only after the Babylonian captivity that such a hope even began to take shape—and even then, it took centuries before the expectation developed into the full-blown Messianism of the first century CE. If you look through the King James translation of the Old Testament, you notice that the word “Messiah” is conspicuously absent, only appearing twice in the book of Daniel, which is the Old Testament’s latest book. In the New Revised Standard translation, the word “Messiah” does not appear at all. Yet before Lehi even arrived at the promised land, he is teaching his family about “a Messiah, or in other words, a Savior of the world” (1 Ne. 10:4).

Not only do the Nephites expect a Messiah, they expect a particular kind of Messiah. As we saw in chapter ten, during the first century CE there were many ideas about who the Messiah would be—a king or a priest, an angel or a human, a political or religious leader—or even whether there would be ore than one Messiah. Yet the Nephites believe in a Messiah who would be the Son of God (1 Ne. 11:7), who would offer himself as sacrifice (Alma 34:10) to atone for the sins of the world (Alma 33:22), and who would rise from the dead after three days (Mosiah 3:10).

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The Nephites also believe in the existence of Satan, though, as we saw in chapter six, the concept of Satan did not arise until the Persian period (sixth to fourth centuries BCE), most likely under the influence of Zoroastrianism. The Nephites further believe that the afterlife is divided into two kingdoms: the righteous “inherit the kingdom of heaven” (Alma 5:51) while the wicked go “down to hell-yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of men” (1 Ne. 14:3), “an endless torment” (Moro. 8:21), “that lake of fire and brimstone” (2 Ne. 9:19). This view certainly was not Israelite. If we recall from chapter nine, the Israelites during Lehi’s time believed that everyone ended up in Sheol. The concept of heaven and hell do not appear until the end of the Old Testament period, the earliest indication being the book of Daniel, likely written in the second century BCE. This view lines up precisely, however, with a nineteenth-century Christian view of the afterlife.

Similarly, baptism did not emerge until the end of the Old Testament period. As we saw in chapter nine, before the Babylonian captivity, Judaism was not conceptualized as a religion to which a person could convert, so there were no conversion ritual such as baptism. No one in the Old Testament is said to be baptized, and archaeological evidence of “fonts” for ritual washing do not appear until close to the time of Jesus. Yet Nephi preaches “repentance and baptism by water” (2 Ne. 21:17). He even inserts baptism into Isaiah 48:1, which is more anachronistic still (2 Ne. 20:1). The Book of Mormon assumes that baptism was a regular part of Israelite religion at the time that Lehi left Jerusalem, in contradiction to every piece of evidence we have from that period as well as everything we know about Israelite religion at that time.

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The second reason an appeal to revelation cannot adequately address these anachronistic beliefs is that, generally, the Book of Mormon does not present this knowledge as coming through revelation. It is true that Book of Mormon characters often talk about their belief in Christ as coming from angels and the Spirit, but the vast majority of these anachronisms are simply presented as part of the Israelite religion from whence the Nephites came (see, for example, worship in synagogues or the attribution of baptism to Isaiah).

Simply put, according to the best scholarship we have, the theology presented in the Book of Mormon does not fit the state of Israelite theology in 600 BCE.