Is the Book of Mormon Inspired?

I recently came across this short video, which prompted the important question: “Is the Book of Mormon inspired?” The short, produced by Jacob Hansen of the YouTube channel Thoughtful Faith, features this Latter-day Saint apologist challenging Catholic critic Trent Horn (and by extension, other skeptics) to replicate Joseph Smith’s feat of composing a book like the Book of Mormon. Hansen presents the Book of Mormon’s alleged literary genius by highlighting its multiple narrators, complex chiasms, Hebrew-style wordplays, and a plethora of other claims. His intent is to build the argument that the Book of Mormon is so extraordinary only divine origin can explain it. You can view the clip below:

While I am no where near qualified to offer expert rebuttals on ancient languages, literary structures, or archaeological details, I do not need to be to refute this argument. Since, the Bible itself supplies the decisive standard by which every purported revelation must be tested, literary genius does not factor in at all. Scripture is clear on this: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). God has spoken fully and finally in His Son (Hebrews 1:1–2), and the faith has been delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 3). No amount of human artistry or apparent complexity can override the apostolic gospel. I want to demonstrate why this is important in four major ways.

First, we gladly grant that human creativity can produce remarkable works. The image of God in every person (Genesis 1:27) includes the capacity for beauty, structure, and ingenuity. The King James Version, which was widely available and deeply influential in Joseph Smith’s time, offered elevated, archaic English rich in parallelism and repetition. Literary devices such as chiasmus appear throughout the Old Testament itself (consider the deliberate centering in many Psalms or the narrative architecture of Genesis 6–9). A dictated text displaying internal patterns demonstrates genuine human ability, not necessarily heavenly plates. Impressive form alone does not establish divine authority.

Second, we test the actual content against the unchanging apostolic faith. The Book of Mormon, for all its literary ambition, introduces understandings of God, salvation, and the finality of Christ’s work that diverge from the Bible’s consistent witness. Scripture reveals one eternal, triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—sharing the same divine essence (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). It proclaims salvation by grace alone through faith in the finished work of the incarnate Son, who is fully God and fully man, whose one offering perfects forever those who are sanctified (Ephesians 2:8–9; John 1:1, 14; Hebrews 10:10–14). Any additional scripture that redefines these realities cannot proceed from the same Spirit who inspired the Bible, for God does not contradict Himself (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 13:8). Depth that diverges from the faith once delivered is not divine depth but another voice entirely (Galatians 1:8–9).

Third, we remember how God Himself has warned us about impressive signs and wonders that still lead away from His revealed Word. Deuteronomy 13:1–3 is especially sobering: even if a prophet gives a sign or wonder that comes to pass (or produces a text of apparent genius) if he then urges people toward any god or gospel other than the Lord who has spoken, we are not to follow. The New Testament echoes this: false apostles can appear as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). Witnesses who maintain their testimony, predictions that seem prescient, or production methods that astonish may impress the mind, but Scripture trains us to ask the prior question: Does this message exalt the Jesus of the Bible, the eternal Word made flesh who accomplished our redemption once for all (Hebrews 10:10–14; 1 Corinthians 15:3–8)?

Finally, we point every inquirer back to the Bible’s own claim of sufficiency. Second Timothy 3:16–17 declares that the Scripture given through the prophets and apostles is able to make the man of God complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Hebrews 1:1–2 tells us God has spoken fully and finally in His Son. The true genius of God is not found in additional records but in the cross, which is foolishness to the world, yet the power of God for salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18–25), and in the unchanging Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

I find it interesting that both Muslims and Mormons fall into the same fundamental error: they affirm the Bible yet insist it is incomplete and must be supplemented (or corrected) by a later, “more perfect” revelation. In each case, the newer text redefines the nature of God, the person of Christ, and the way of salvation in ways that contradict the clear, unified testimony of the prophets and apostles. This approach implicitly judges God’s earlier Word as insufficient, contrary to the Bible’s own declaration that in these last days God has spoken fully and finally in His Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). No additional holy book, however impressively produced, can stand alongside or above the sufficient Scriptures that testify to the Triune God and the finished work of Christ.