David Padfield and Paul Meade

Debate On The Book Of Mormon

In 1987 David Padfield and Paul Meade engaged in a debate on WVHI radio in Evansville, Indiana. Mr. Meade, a Mormon elder from England, affirmed the proposition that "The Book of Mormon as translated by Joseph Smith is the inspired Word of God."

Joseph Smith said, "If the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, then it is to be accepted with equal authority, yea with greater authority, (than the Bible, dp), since it purports to be not only the Word of God, but translated into English by the power of God" (A Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, 273).

The attitude of Mormon leaders towards the Bible is one of utter blasphemy. Orson Pratt, a prominent early Mormon leader, stated, "All therefore is uncertainty as to the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament. They can be proved to be changed, added unto and corrupted in almost every text. Who knows that even one verse of the whole Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original." I deny that the New Testament and the Old Testament that we have has been corrupted. I believe when we pick up the Bible in our hands we hold the Word of God.

This debate is available here as two MP3 files. You can either download the files onto your hard drive or listen to them directly from your Web browser if you have QuickTime installed (nearly all computers do).

After introducing the radio program from the station's announcer, you will hear Harry Lewis introduce both speakers and read the proposition for the debate.

Audio Debate Part One: You can either click this link to start listening now (33 minutes), or right-click this link to download the file to your hard drive (15MB).

Mormon church Part Two: You can either click this link to start listening now (25 minutes), or right-click this link to download the file to your hard drive (11.4MB).

Articles In A Series On Mormonism:

  1. Introduction to Mormonism
  2. The History Of Mormonism
  3. The Bible Or The Book Of Mormon?
  4. Other Sources Of Mormon Authority
  5. Mormon Doctrines
  6. Comparisons And Conclusions

For further study

The Truth About Mormonism, the largest of all American cults, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) has grown to a worldwide membership of over 16 million people—yet it began in 1830 with just six members. This eighteen-page booklet contains two sermon outlines on this cult (PDF file size: 463k).