Authenticity of the Book of Mormon

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Continued from page 487.)

In The Story of the Book of Mormon, George Reynolds gives a more extended list of words with their Hebrew and Egyptian root, and their meaning.

The phraseology of the Book is also in many passages decidedly Hebrew. For instance:

In the Earth. In the Hebrew Scriptures the earth very often means a part of the earth, a certain conn try. Solomon was said to reign from the river (Euphrates) to the end of the earth (Ps. 72), and the Queen of Sheba, who is supposed to have lived in the extreme southern portion of Arabia, is said to have come from the uttermost part of the earth.

The expression, the earth, occurs frequently in the Book of Mormon in that sense. In the Book of Alma (28:11) it is stated that “the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are mouldering in heaps upon the face of the earth," meaning the surface of the land of the Nephites.

In III. Nephi 9:1, we read that, “There was a voice heard among all the inhabitants of the earth," which is explained to mean, “upon all the face of 'this land'"—a well known Hebrew mode of expression.

In the next verse a Woe! is pronounced upon the “inhabitants of the whole earth,” which the context shows to mean the people of a limited area of the American continents.

Compare, further, III. Nephi 8:17, 18, and many similar passages.

In the morning. Orson Pratt (Journal of Discourses, Vol. XIII., p. 128) calls attention to this expression in III. Nephi 10:9. He says:

“This book, the Book of Mormon, informs us that the time of day at which Jesus was crucified, I mean the time of day in America, was in the morning; the New Testament tells us that Jesus was crucified in Asia, in the afternoon, between the sixth and ninth hour according to the Jews’ reckoning. They commenced their reckoning at six o’clock in the morning, and consequently the sixth hour would be 12 o’clock at noon, and the ninth hour 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Jesus, from the 6th to the 9th hour, in other words, from 12 o’clock to 3, was hanging on the cross. Now the Book of Mormon, or the historians whose records it contains, when relating the incidents that transpired at the time of the crucifixion—the darkness that was spread over the face of the land, the earthquakes, the rending of rocks, the sinking of cities and the whirlwinds—say these events occurred in the morning; they also say that darkness was spread over the face of the land for the space of three days. In Jerusalem it was only three hours. But the Lord gave them a special sign in this country, and the darkness lasted three days, and at the expiration of three days and three nights of darkness, it cleared off and it was in the morning. That shows that, according to the time in this country, the crucifixion must have taken place in the morning.

“Says one, ‘Is not this a contradiction between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament?’ To an unlearned person it would really be a contradiction * * * ‘But,’ says one, ‘how do you account for it?’ * * * Simply by the difference in longitude. This would make a difference of time of several hours; for when it would be 12 at noon in Jerusalem it would only be half past four in the morning in the north­west part of South America, where the Book of Mormon was then being written * * * If the Book of Mormon had said that the crucifixion took place in the afternoon we should have known at once that it could not be true.”

This is evidence that cannot be refuted. In a book of fiction, by an unlearned author, the difference in time would not have been noted.

IV. Prophecies in the Book of Mormon.

In the Bible, as every reader of the Scriptures knows, there are many predictions concerning future events relating both to secular and ecclesiastical history, and the fulfilment of these prophecies is referred to as irrefutable proof of the divine inspiration of those who uttered them, and the truth of their claims to recognition as messengers from God.

There are prophecies concerning the first advent of our Savior, and of His second coming; the flood was predicted; the bondage of Israel in Egypt; their deliverance and second bondage in Baby­lonia; their return, the scattering among all nations, and their ultimate gathering; the crucifixion, the resurrection, the establish­ment of the Church, the general apostasy, the restoration, the Millennium—all these events are clearly foretold in the Scriptures. The prophets speak of the downfall of mighty empires, such as Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and calamities that were to come upon Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, Damascus, etc., and their predictions have all come true to the letter. God appeals to the prophecies as an evidence of the truth of the message delivered by His servants, when He says, through Isaiah: “Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me” (Is. 45:21).

There is the same kind of evidence in the Book of Mormon, and it is equally conclusive as a proof of the divine inspiration of the authors of that volume.

Among the prophecies in the Book of Mormon is the following, spoken by our Lord:

“When the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them” (III. Nephi 16:10).

This prediction, as Orson Pratt holds (Journal of Discourses, Vol. XIII., page 133), was literally fulfilled when, in the year 1847 and the years following, the Lord established His Church in the American desert, a thousand miles from the boundaries of civilization. “The fulness of the gospel” was, certainly, at that time brought from among the Gentiles, and the Church was established in the midst of a country so forbidding that Fremont could not traverse it without losing many of his men. The Lord has greatly blessed the country since then, but at that time, it was parched up and dry. “God,” says Orson Pratt, “who can foresee all events among the children of men, had His eye fixed on the gathering of His children before the Church was organized, and He predicted that they should come out of every nation under heaven. Not only from the settled portions of the Gentile nation, but they should be brought forth out of the midst of that Gentile nation, just as we have been.”

Let us read another prophecy: “They had testified that a greater curse should come upon the land * * * and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land, except they should repent of their wickedness” (Ether 11:6). Here is a predic­tion which scientific research has proved true, for it has been found that numerous mounds in North America are graves in which former generations are reposing. Their bones have, literally, become “heaps of earth upon the face of the land.” This is true of both the Jaredites and Nephites.

When a certain mound near Newark, Ohio, was opened, some years after the publication of the Book of Mormon, a coffin was found, and under it a tablet in a stone envelope. On the tablet there was a figure engraved and over the head the name Moshe (Moses); while on both sides were characters which, after examina­tion, were said to be the text of the Ten Commandments. Orson Pratt says he saw this remarkable stone in the collection of the Ethnological Society, New York. Some years after this relic of antiquity had been unearthed, other mounds in the same locality were opened, and this inscription was found in one of them: “May the Lord have mercy on me, a Nephite,”—the last word being spelt Nephel (Journal of Discourses, Vol. XIII, page 131). There is no satisfactory explanation of such facts except that furnished by the Book of Mormon.

A prophecy which all readers of the Book of Mormon are familiar with is that recorded in II. Nephi 10:11, 14, relating to the democratic institutions that were to flourish on the American continents. “This land shall be a land of liberty.” “He that raiseth up a king against me shall perish.” Those are the pro­phecies contained in the Book of Mormon on that subject.

They were literally fulfilled in the tragic end of Iturbide who proclaimed himself emperor of Mexico on May 18, 1822, and was crowned the following July, assuming the name of Augustin I. His empire included not only the Mexico of to-day, but the greater part of what are now the southwestern states of the United States, and also the Central American states. Of the latter, Salvador refused to submit to the imperial rule and proclaimed its annexa­tion to the United States, but this proclamation was not put into effect. Iturbide was driven from the throne, and the republic was instituted. He was given a pension of £5,000 a year, and might have passed the remainder of his days in Italy, whither he had gone, in quiet enjoyment of the munificence of his country, but he seemed to be driven back to Mexico, as by an invisible power, he returned in 1824 and was executed as a “public enemy.”

Those who were active in the effort to establish Maximilian as emperor over a Mexican empire in 1864, fared no better. The pro­position came from Napoleon III., who intended to take the country under his protection. Marshal Bazaine was the com­mander of the troops sent to support the new ruler, and he exercised almost unlimited power himself. The outcome of this exploit forms one of the great tragedies of history. Maximilian, abandoned by Napoleon and betrayed by his own generals, was captured and shot, June 19, 1867. His wife, Princess Charlotte, a sister of King Leopold of Belgium, who had used her influence to induce her husband to accept the Mexican crown, became insane. Napoleon, as is well known, was captured by the Germans at Sedan, in 1870, and died in exile. Marshal Bazaine was compelled to surrender himself and 173,000 men to the victorious invaders of his country. In 1873 he was tried by a court martial and sentenced to degradation and death. The death sentence, however, was commuted to imprisonment.

These historical facts have always been regarded as a literal ful­filment of the prophecies quoted.

V. Prophecies Concerning the Book of Mormon.

Among the prophecies recorded in the Bible, many refer to the restoration of the Church after a long period of apostasy and the reign of antichrist. Even the precise time of the duration of that reign is given in prophetic reckoning, viz., 1260 days, or years. It is predicted that the restoration of the gospel will be the beginning of a new era in the history of the world—a more advanced civiliza­tion, with universal peace, perfect religious and political liberty, general prosperity, and the greatest possible diffusion of know­ledge throughout the world. It is, more particularly, predicted that the restoration which introduces this era is to be brought about by the bringing forth of a record containing the fulness of the gospel. The Book of Mormon is that record, and the pro­phecies concerning it are numerous and clear. They are found both in the Old Testament and the New.

Ariel. Our readers are familiar with the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah 29:1-14. This chapter, and the following two chapters, contain several discourses, in a condensed form, relating to the distress of the people of Jerusalem in Palestine because of the invasion of Sennacherib, and their deliverance. But beyond the immediate scenes of trouble and the subsequent divine assistance, the prophet is caused, by inspiration from on high, to gaze upon troubles and deliverances far exceeding those of the ancient Jeru­salem. The prophet addresses Jerusalem under the name of Ariel, but he also addresses another Ariel. “Woe,” he says, “to Ariel, to Ariel, * * * Yet will I distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.”

There are, as should be noted, two Ariels in this prophecy. Both are to be sorely distressed, and one Ariel is to compare itself with another. The one that comes to view last in the prophetic vision is to compare its fate with that of the first.

The full meaning of this can be comprehended if we remember that there was a Lamanite City of Jerusalem in the land of Nephi, on the American continent, founded about a hundred years before our era, as well as one in Palestine (Alma 21:2). The Lamanite Jerusalem was destroyed at the time of the Crucifixion, together with many other cities on the American continents (III. Nephi 9:7). If the chapter referred to is read with these facts in view, it becomes clear. Much of it refers to Jerusalem in Palestine, but other parts of it refer more particularly to the Lamanite Jerusalem in America, and the people who built and inhabited it.

The prophet says, “Thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground * * * and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” The people on the American continents were indeed “brought down” suddenly, for their cities were destroyed by fire, or by earthquake, and some of them were swallowed up by the earth, in most terrible cataclysms, and yet, their history had been condensed and deposited in the earth, in the hill Cumorah, and by that means they were speaking to the world “out of the dust.” The Prophet Joseph took that record “out of the ground.” How could a nation, after it had been almost exterminated, speak “out of the ground,” or “whisper out of the dust,” except through a record of its history deposited as was the Book of Mormon? But Isaiah makes the vision so clear that it cannot be mistaken, when he says that the eyes of the nation had been closed and the seers covered. They were dead and buried, and the vision of all had become as the words of a sealed book (29:10-12). These words were partially fulfilled in the spiritual blindness of the Jews that caused them to reject the word of the Lord, but were literally fulfilled on the American continents, when the Book of Mormon plates, containing characters unknown to the entire modern world, were hidden in the earth. When they afterwards were discovered, some specimens of the writings were taken to a learned professor who, however, though he claimed to recognize the letters as Hebrew, Greek, etc., intermingled with representations of natural objects, professed his inability to read them. The pro­phecy was literally fulfilled. The prophetic vision of ages had become “as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed.” This book was also, as Isaiah says, delivered to “him that is not learned,” and he could not read it. Since, therefore, it could be read neither by the learned nor the unlearned, “Behold,” saith the Lord, “I will proceed to do a mar­velous work among this people; even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” (v. 14). That is to say, the Lord Himself would make the contents of that book known, as He did through the unlearned boy Prophet Joseph. “And in that day,” we read further, “shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see * * * the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One in Israel” (v. 18, 19).

Here, then, is a prophecy that has been literally fulfilled, in every detail, in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the marvelous work of salvation that commenced with the translation, through the power of God, of that record. In no other event has that prediction been fulfilled to the very letter.

Two Sticks. The Prophet Ezekiel was commanded to take one stick and write upon it, “For Judah”; and another, and write upon it, “For Joseph,” and join them together, and, when asked for the meaning of this symbolical act, he was to say: “Tims saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand * * * Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among 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” (Ez. 37:15-28).

It is only necessary to remark, in passing, that the prophet here predicts the final union of the “whole house of Israel”—that is, Judah, and Israel—and the establishment of the everlasting covenant of peace, and that this final restoration would be pre­ceded by the joining together of the records of the two peoples. The Old Testament is the record of Judah, chiefly; and the Book of Mormon is more particularly the record of Israel, Lehi being a descendant of Manasseh. The prediction is literally fulfilled in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and in no other event on record.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)