Answer:

Joseph Smith certainly claimed that it was.  This claim is found on the title page of the Book of Mormon.

The simple answer is NO WAY.

Joseph Smith showed no legitimate signs of being a prophet.  He made no predictive prophecies which later came true.  His theology is in obvious contradition with the Bible.  He was a swindler who turned to religious swindling for a "career."  He had  more than a dozen wives, in addition to many other sexual liasons. His supposed second testament of Jesus Christ:  The Book of Mormon is a poor quality religious fantasy.   The supposed "history" recorded in this book is absurd.  It has Jesus coming to Central America immediately after ascended to heaven in Palestine, despite the fact that Jesus himself made statements which make this claim unacceptable.  The Book of Mormon has people being baptized into Christ over two hundred BC.  It has wild stories of Jebusites and Nephites with massive cities and massive wars which cannot possibly be reconciled with archaeological data.  My suggestion is that you read the Book of Mormon for yourself.  There is no way it can be compared favorably with the New Testament.

A power point on Mormonism is at the web site.  Here is the URL.  There is also a set of notes which will support the claim that Mormonism is very bad theology.

https://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/index.php?option=com_custom_content&task=view&id=3645

John Oakes, PhD