Blasphemy! The Book of Mormon

The first and foremost objection to the Book of Mormon was summed up in the first word of Alexander Campbell's opening blast against it: "Blasphemy!" The first thing that would hit any Christian on opening to the title page was the claim of this book to be nothing less than the word of God—right beside the Bible! . . .

Again the Book of Mormon has the last word. Rare indeed is the Christian scholar today who would maintain that every word declared canonical in the past by committees claiming no inspiration whatever is the absolute word of God or that all the writing given noncanonical status by the same learned conclaves are, when they claim the status of scripture, to be condemned out of hand as fraudulent. That won't do any more. Today religious journals are full of perplexed and controversial articles on "What is Scripture?"

Hugh Nibley, "Howlers in the Book of Mormon," The Prophetic Book of Mormon (1989), 253