How The Book of Mormon Came to Pass: The Second Greatest Show on Earth

Lars Nielsen

Apr 2024 · Lars Pauling Nielsen

About this ebook

Several explanations for the seemingly sudden appearance of The Book of Mormon in 1829 (first published in 1830) have been put forth by both historians and apologists alike. Each holds some value to its advocates while displaying obvious inconsistencies and unexplained features. However, significant new evidence necessitates the revision of all such authorship theories, including and especially the sole-authorship hypothesis—that Joseph Smith, Jr. (between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-three) single-handedly composed all the sentences in The Book of Mormon through creative writing, automatic writing, or inspired dictation. Neoteric observations reveal deliberately hidden details in Mormonism’s keystone scripture that could not have been put there by Smith. What is the real story behind how the two bookending characters (Nephi and Mormon) got their names? Where did the idea of Nephi being guided through the wilderness by a spiritually magnetic compass—a curious ball having pointers, spindles, and writing on its sides—truly come from? In this book, such details are called “Kircherisms,” a new class of anachronisms in The Book of Mormon. These Kircherisms have revealed a fresh set of influences, an undiscovered source text, and a wellspring of intriguing evidence that has never been published anywhere else. With an infusion of new data, this book presents a novel and distinctive exegesis as well as a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive framework for organizing and evaluating the merits of all prior authorship theories. One mechanism, in particular, has emerged as the most comprehensive, evidence-based, and satisfying explanation for how The Book of Mormon came to pass.

Trigger Warning: This book is not written for true-believing Mormons (TBMs). If you are a TBM and you do not yet have a robust support system outside of the Mormon church, do not read this book. If you continue to read it, you accept the responsibility of managing your immediate or eventual faith crisis in a way that will not result in harm to yourself or others.

About the author

In a family of ten children, I was technically the second born—arriving less than five minutes before my twin brother. As part of my birthright, I became the namesake of my great-great-grandfather, Lars Peter Christian Nielsen, who emigrated from Denmark in the mid-19th century to join the Mormon movement. Having been born of thoroughly Mormon parents, I identified with their high-demand belief system throughout my youth—most of which I passed in Modesto, California. From January 1998 to December 1999, I served as a missionary for the Brighamite sect of the Mormon church in Sonora, Mexico. Returning to the States, I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry after which I moved to Boston for graduate studies, earning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry as well as an MBA. In 2009, I left Harvard University for Minnetonka, Minnesota, where I have worked for both non-profit and for-profit corporations in the healthcare sector.

While raising my three little girls, I felt a profound desire to make sure that I never taught them anything that was not strictly true. For better, and for worse, I allowed myself to study Mormon history from academic/“uncorrelated” sources, which inexorably led to the unweaving of my rainbow. I resigned from the Mormon church in 2010. Ever since, I have been intrigued—and even fascinated—by just how distortedly the contemporary Mormon church continues to whitewash its own history. Over a period of about fifteen years, I conducted my own research (and sometimes furtive investigations) through which I discovered the true sources of inspiration for what later became The Book of Mormon.