Pentecostal Church: Gentlemen, the Latter-day Saints claim scriptural support for their belief that the Bible prophecies of the coming forth of “The Book of Mormon”. Among these scriptures, they take Ezekiel 37:l6-19, and they themselves use a scriptural rail split. Speaking of the two sticks, (that of Judah and Joseph), the Lord went on to say (verse 17) what these two sticks were and that they would become one in His hand, and then explained what He meant, of which the Mormons do not include in this prophecy. "I will take the children of Israel from the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king of them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore at all." (Ezk. 37:21-22) Therefore, they use verses 15-20 to refer to “The Book of Mormon”, but as verses 21-22 point out, Ezekiel was referring to the reuniting of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms that had been divided in fulfillment to the prophecy of Elijah. Then in Isaiah 29:13-14 they claim a fulfillment to Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Mormon Church as "This marvelous work and a wonder," yet we find a direct fulfillment to verse 14 is found in 1 Cor. 1:19, Matt. 21:42 and John 9:30. The Latter-day 59 Saints go on to say that verse 18, (Isa. 29:18), refers to a book which was sealed, when it actually refers to the Book of Revelations which also in parts had "sealed books". They say Isaiah 29:4 refers to a literal fulfillment of when their book was to "come forth from the dust" and yet you will find that it was referring to Ariel, or the City of David, as verse 1 points out. Therefore, to my understanding, I have included both of your Book of Mormon prophecies and proven them false using the Bible.
Missionaries: I feel it is a great privilege to testify of the divinity of “The Book of Mormon”. I challenge the Pentecostal Minister on his interpretation of Ezekiel 37 most emphatically. He took two completely separate prophecies that had similarities and tied them together to refer to the same thing. You will notice that in Ezekiel 37:16-17 that they were referring to the word "stick" and they were to WRITE UPON IT. In ancient times they would record their records on scrolls and roll them up on a stick as Jeremiah 36:2-8 very plainly points out. Ezekiel said that they were to write upon these sticks not for the two sticks to unite as yet but write on one stick or scroll for the record of Judah and his descendents, and a second stick for Joseph, and particular through his son, Ephraim. So, there were to be kept two records of two separate nations. As you might recall, there were two houses in Israel after the dividing of the 12 tribes.
As we have pointed out, however, the sticks (books) were to be joined together first as Ezekiel points out, and then the tribes were to be fathered and become "one-fold". Now no person or groups of people have claimed to have this record of Joseph except the “Mormons”. This leaves “The Book of Mormon” as the "Stick of Joseph" and it has been joined with the "Stick of Judah", (the Bible), and they are one in the Lord's hand. But the next verse, verse 21 is a real key. It clearly states that these two records, the Bible, the stick of Judah, and the other record which is in the hands of the descendants of Joseph through his son Ephraim, (“The Book of Mormon”), will have been put together and available to all at the time that the Jews are restored to their lands. Brethren, the Jews have been gathered together since 1948. Where is the record which Ezekiel says is among us? Is there anyone in the world who has made a claim to have had it other than the Mormons? As we examine Joseph's blessing at the hand of his father, Jacob, (Gen. 49:22-26) we read where "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall." That the wall referred to a large body of water is pointed out in Exodus 14:22 and notice, his branches were to run "over" the wall, or over the water. Then in verse 26 to confirm it was the land of the America's, we read, "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills." The American Continent has the longest range of mountains in the world, the Rockies, which stretch from one tip of the North American continent down to the end of South America. Notice Joseph's branch (descendents) were to go "over the ocean". The blessing to Joseph was perhaps the most outstanding of the blessings of the twelve tribes of Israel. The descendents in “The Book of Mormon” to Joseph placed genealogical evidence that they were that "branch" and the evidence in their record is undisputed. The second part of the prophecy concerns the gathering of the twelve tribes.
In answer to Isaiah 29:13-14, I remind you that prophecies can receive partial fulfillment. Christ never said the prophecy in Matt. 15:7-8 was fulfilled, but that Matt. 15:7-8 merely referred to Isaiah's description of the troubled conditions. Christ said, "it prophesied of them", but it could also have prophesied of "others". Paul, likewise, made reference to Isaiah's prophecy in 1 Cor. 1:19, and yet his only comment was "for it is written". As you can see, He did not claim its fulfillment. Whenever a prophecy is fulfilled the prophets almost always indicate fulfillment. For example, "For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken." (John 19:36) Also refer to Acts 3:22-23, Matt. 3:3, Isaiah 22:34 crossed with Luke 22:54-62. Matt. 21:42 did not fulfill Isaiah's prophecy, but 60 referred to Psalms 118:22. Therefore, since the Bible did not teach these scriptures were fulfilled, and we have already established that a scripture is fulfilled upon declaration by a prophet; this proves that all the references you gave merely refer to the prophecy, and that it awaited fulfillment. That Isaiah 29:18 refers to the Book of Revelations is ridiculous, since the Book of Revelations does not "OPEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND" and help them to see out of obscurity. Also, your statement that Isaiah 29:11-12 refers to John and the removal of the "7 seals", as in the "Book of Revelations" is ridiculous because there is not a fulfillment to the verse. If you would try and make Revelations 5:1-8 the fulfillment to Isaiah 29:11-12, you would fail because the book that was "sealed" was to be delivered to one that was learned who would declare he could not read the book because it was sealed. It was then to be delivered to one that was unlearned who would likewise say he could not because it was sealed. In Rev. 5 John never stated that he could not read the book, so it did not refer to John. You will notice the Book was delivered in Rev. 5 to one person, the Lamb of God, and he opened the seals and read from it. It is blasphemy to assume that Christ, who was learned, "could not read the book for it was sealed," and then sat down and read the book. It only goes to show the weakness of your stand. This prophecy was fulfilled with the record being delivered to a professor in New York who asked to have to whole record and when he was refused he said he could not read a sealed book. Yet Joseph Smith, not a learned man, did translate the sealed book.
Another interesting thing you will notice in Isaiah 29:17 is that when this book was to come about or come forth, Lebanon was to be turned into a fruitful field and this was never fulfilled at the time the Book of Revelations was written, but only since 1948 when the beginning of the modern day Israeli country was established, it is also after one of our apostles went there and dedicated the land for their return. Now it has blossomed and become a fruitful field. This has also been fulfilled in the deserts of Utah. When the Mormons entered the Utah valley, one tree stood in the entire valley for as far as the eye could see. Within 50 years it was also like Lebanon, blooming like a rose.
You will notice in Isaiah 29:4 that the book would speak from the dust "with a familiar spirit." language is similar to the Bible, and familiar to the ear. You were mistaken in your interpretation of Arial as the place it would come from, because you will notice in verse 2 that Arial, (which is the city of David), was to be distressed, "and it shall be unto me AS Arial" and not the actual city of David. In other words, the prophecy would be fulfilled in a plane like Arial. Also the manner in which came forth, from the ground as a buried record, “from the dust of the earth”, is how we reference that the people who wrote it were long dead. Psalms 85:11 also refers to “The Book of Mormon”, when it said, "Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven." So truth, “The Book of Mormon”, came from the earth and righteousness, Moroni, the angel, sent from heaven to restore the truth, (Rev. 14:6- 7). This, with Isaiah, has been literally fulfilled. The book came from the earth and an angel came from heaven. It further says that these two items “kissed” meaning they have come together. Can you find the fulfillment of any of this anywhere else other than our church? Since you can not it would be a forgone conclusion that “The Book of Mormon” is a true record of the history of the ancient inhabitants of America and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.