LDS offshoot targets Jews and Hebrew Roots Messianics with Book of Mormon paraphrase

The book’s title, The Stick of Joseph in the Hand of Ephraim, is a nod to this LDS nickname for the Book of Mormon and an LDS euphemism for Joseph Smith Jr. himself. The LDS nickname for the Holy Bible is “Stick of Judah.”

The phrase comes directly from Ezekiel 37:

The word of the LORD came again to me saying, “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.”

Ezekiel 37:15–17 NASB

The promotional campaign includes a public Facebook page and a private Facebook group. I found them in late April 2021 on Facebook when I was targeted by an ad promoting the book. 

The foundation, incorporated as Restoration Archive LLC and also known as Call to Israel, referred to itself on the book’s promotional page as

a group of believers in Messiah, who hail from both Judah and Joseph. We believe the God of Israel has set his hand again the second time to gather his scattered people, as prophesied in Isaiah 11:11-12.

The chapter and verse numbering system of the Reformation Scripture Foundation’s translation of the Book of Mormon (Stick of Joseph) and the modern English version of the Book of Mormon your LDS friends or acquaintances own and revere deviate in small ways in some sections (maybe one or two verse numbers off) and deviate greatly in others.

Here’s a quote from the Stick of Joseph: 

Behold, I would exhort you that when you shall read these things, if it be wisdom in Elohim that you should read them, that you would remember how merciful YHWH has been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that you shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when you shall receive these things, I would exhort you that you would ask Elohim the Eternal Father, in the name of Mashiach, if these things are not true. And if you shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Mashiach, and he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh. And by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, you may know the truth of all things.

M’roni 10:2, Stick of Joseph paraphrase

And here is the official version of the text of the same verse from the book of Moroni in the official Book of Mormon as copyrighted and owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Moroni 10:4-5, Book of Mormon

Here’s another example of how the authors of the Stick of Joseph have replaced the KJV-style English of the Book of Mormon with Hebraisms. 

I say, if you should serve him with all your whole soul, yet you would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his mitzvot. And he has promised you that if you would keep his mitzvot, you should prosper in the land. And he never does vary from that which he has said. Therefore, if you do keep his mitzvot, he does bless you and prosper you.

Moshiyah 1:8, Stick of Joseph paraphrase

And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

Moshiah 1:7, Book of Mormon

Who are the target audience of this book?

The target audience for this book appears to be Orthodox and Messianic Jews as well as Hebrew Roots Gentile believers, based on the marketing. This is the Facebook targeting notice for The Stick of Joseph ad: 

The authors of The Stick of Joseph paraphrase did not simply take the most current official English version of the Book of Mormon, which was copyrighted in 2013, as the bedrock of their translation. Rather, they chose to use the last version of the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith Jr. himself edited, which was published in 1840. That version of the Book of Mormon is the foundation of the Hebrew Roots paraphrase of the Stick of Joseph.

It is true that various forms of this book have been in continuous publication since 1830 ce, and millions of people from dozens of sects have embraced it as holy scripture, but effectively none have comprehended its underlying message, and consequently all have failed to fulfill its purpose or offer it to its intended audience. This translation is unique and fundamentally different than any version that has come before because it is focused entirely on God’s covenant people, to whom He promised this record would be sent.

Introduction to the Stick of Joseph, page xii

Ya’akob (James), brother of our Messiah Yeshua, implores us to be careful about the teachings we explore:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

James 1:16–18 NASB

One of the main reasons that many parts of the Book of Mormon resonate with believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is that significant portions of the Book of Mormon were plagiarized from the 1769 King James Version of the Bible, and the 1803 English translation of the Septuagint, even down to the translation errors and italicized insertions. 

Why does a book, that was supposedly written before the Babylonian exile and added to on another continent, separated from the travails of post-exile Judaism in the Greek and Roman occupations include texts straight from the English translation of the Septuagint and KJV? 

Is the God of the Book of Mormon the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

The LDS church teaches that human beings, if they diligently perform its rites, will become gods who will have dominion over their own planets and populate those planets with their own children. 

Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the LDS church and its inaugural prophet, said: 

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man… I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea… He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth.

Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 3, emphasis added

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob warns us about the dangerous consequences of following a false prophet:

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.”

Deuteronomy 13:1–5 NASB

HaShem has already given us all the Scriptures we need to know Him and to be known by Him, from Genesis to Revelation.

We do not need to follow our tickled ears for other teachings (2Tim. 4:3–5), such as the misnamed Stick of Joseph that may use the “holy language” but aren’t from the Holy Spirit.