Authenticity of the Book of Mormon

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Concluded from page 503.)

A Little Book Open. Turning to the great prophetic book of the New Testament, The Revelation, by John, we pause at the tenth chapter, containing the grand vision of a mighty angel with a little book open.

In the preceding chapter John saw the countries in which the church first was planted swept with a besom of destruction because of the general apostasy, but those who were spared did not repent (Rev. 9:18-21). Naturally, the question arose in the mind of John, “Is this, then, the end of the church? Was the atoning blood of the Lamb of God spilt in vain?” In answer to such questions he was given the vision in chapter 10, in which he saw the restoration of the gospel.

He saw a mighty angel, that is to say, a messenger from God— for the word angel means messenger—come from heaven. This messenger was clothed with a cloud. A cloud was the visible sign of the presence of God in the Mosaic dispensation. There was a rainbow upon his head—the visible sign of God’s covenant with Noah. His face was, as it were, the sun. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, and His glory was reflected in the countenance of the messenger, just as Moses’ face shone when he had been in the presence of Jehovah. His feet were as “pillars of fire.” This is, possibly, an allusion to the two pillars, Boaz and Jachin, erected outside the temple of Solomon, and from which chains extended into the most holy place, behind the veil. This messenger, there­fore, was equipped with the characteristics of all the great dispen­sations—that of Noah, or patriarchal; the Mosaic, the Christian, and the last dispensation, into which they are all merging and in which they are completed, and from which our hope, as a chain, or “anchor of the soul entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. 6:19).

This messenger came with a “little book open,” in his hand. “He set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth” (v. 2). Remember that, when this was written, men’s geographical knowledge was not what it is to-day. It was thought that the west­ern limit of the habitable earth was the Atlantic coast. All beyond was “the sea.” When John saw this messenger standing on “the sea.” and “the earth,” he saw him standing on what we should call the western and eastern hemispheres; and that he had his right foot on the sea and the left on the earth, means that he, or his message, came from the western hemisphere to the eastern.

John heard this messenger with the little book deliver his message, and it was this, that there should be no more time, or delay, but that, as soon as the seventh angel begins to sound, “the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants, the prophets” (v. 5-7). That is to say, his message was that the time is now near for the completion of the plan of salvation—God's mystery—by the establishment of the kingdom of God, as promised through all the prophets.

At the time this messenger appeared, John heard “seven thunders.” He was not permitted to write what these seven thunders represented, and it is idle to speculate on that subject, in the absence of an explanatory revelation. But we may suppose that they refer to wars and calamities which we are led to expect before the coming of the Lord.

John was told to “eat” (v. 9), that is to say, read, the little book; or, as we say, “digest” its contents. He did so, and he found it sweet in his month. But the sweetness was not without bitterness (v. 10), for the Apostle undoubtedly saw that the bringing forth of this book and the message of the angel would cause trouble and tribulation, and even martyrdom, among the faithful saints of God.

This vision is a remarkable delineation of the coming of the Prophet Joseph with the Book of Mormon and a message of salva­tion. Every detail is easily recognized in this prophetic pen-­picture. It would not have been clearer if the name Joseph Smith had appeared in bold type on the sacred page. For he is, clearly, that mighty messenger, and the “little book” is the Book of Mormon.

The chapter closes with the assurance that the appearance of that mighty messenger begins a new era in the history of the church, in which the prophetic office is again re-instated. For the angel said to John, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” This was literally fulfilled when John, together with Peter and James, ordained and confirmed Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to be apostles and special witnesses of the restoration of the gospel. Through John and his fellow-apostles the word of prophecy was thus again brought to all nations, and tongues, and even kings.

The Everlasting Gospel. In the 14th chapter of the Revelation, there is another prophecy which all saints and investigators are familiar with. I refer to the following: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Rev. 14:6). This was ful­filled, when the angel brought to light the Book of Mormon, which was but the first step toward the restoration of the Church, with the administration of the ordinances and the proclamation of the truths of the gospel in its fulness. And that there might be no doubt on this point, John the Revelator was made acquainted with the message of the everlasting gospel. It is, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and wor­ship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fount­ains of water” (v. 7). These are the two fundamental principles of the everlasting gospel—a complete epitome of “Mormonism.” Its message is, first, Fear God! Repent! The hour of judgment has come; second, Worship Him who made all things! Worship God as revealed in the story of the creation; God, in whose image man was made! Worship the God of the Scriptures, and not the Being whom the Athanasian creed has created, nor statues and pictures that are but the inanimate works of man. This, I say, is the everlasting gospel, as distinct from the transient theology of the dark ages. When we have this prophetic word before us, giving a clear outline of “Mormonism” as the everlasting gospel, there can be no doubt as to what is meant.

In view of the prophetic evidence here considered, we may say, with Orson Pratt, “Never had mankind more prophetic evidences in confirmation of a revelation than they have for the Book of Mormon.”

VI. Testimony of Antiquity.

In the case of the books of the Bible, archaeological and ethno­logical research has brought to light, in recent years, a mass of evidence by which their historical accuracy is fully and abund­antly established. Belshazzar has been identified, and the ap­parent contradiction between Daniel and other historians har­monized. Mugheir has been identified as the city of Ur, the place from which Abraham came. The movements of Shalmaneser II. can be traced in numerous inscriptions. The expedition of Shishak, king of Egypt, against Jerusalem, under the name of Juda-Malech, has been found to be an historical fact. The Hittite civilization has been unearthed. And the very stones which Jeremiah placed in the earth at Tahpanhes, in Egypt (Jer. 43:8), with the predic­tion that Nebuchadnezzar should place his throne upon them, have been found by Flinders Petrie. The Old Testament history has thus been corroborated by scientists.

In the case of the Book of Mormon, this class of evidence is, as yet, not very abundant, for the reason that American archaeology is in its infancy. When exploration of the ancient monuments of wonderful American civilizations shall have yielded more positive results, and the key to the various hieroglyphics shall have been found, so that American history can be read as extensively as the records of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, etc., we shall know more about the harmony between the historical part of the Book of Mormon and the history of the ancient Americans as preserved on monuments. In the meantime it should be noted that, so far, not one genuine, scientific discovery has been made which contradicts the Book of Mormon. On the contrary, that Book is corroborated by the explorations in the American fields of research.

The Book of Mormon tells us that the Brother of Jared and his company came from the tower of Babel, in eight barges, which were blown across the Pacific. They landed on the western coast of North America, a little south of the Gulf of California. Their descendants flourished about 1,600 years. About six hundred years before our era, Lehi and his company were brought from Jerusalem. They came, first, to the Red Sea, and then, after having followed its shore line for many days, took up their journey in an easterly direction and came to the Arabian gulf. Here they con­structed a vessel, embarked, and were carried across the Indian and Pacific oceans to the western coast of South America. Eleven years after the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem, another small company, a son of King Zedekiah being among the number, emigrated from that city and landed somewhere on the coast of America, north of the Isthmus. In this way the Book of Mormon accounts for some of the American civilizations which now lie buried in the depths of oblivion. What do explorers say?

According to press reports, Mrs. Harriet Chalmers Adams, one of America’s foremost women explorers, in a communication to the National Geographic Society, Washington, has expressed the opinion that the ancient inhabitants of America came by sea, possibly in broken stages, from Asia. This immigration took place, she thinks, very far back. She says:

“This earlier immigration, however, was at a very remote period, for our pre-historic monuments point to an indigenous culture. A branch of an old world race, these ‘early Americans’ evolved to their highest civilization on new world soil.”

She adds:

“In olden days, great war canoes were paddled by many oarsmen from one south sea island to another. It seems likely that in this fashion men set sail from Malay peninsula, with their wives and children, food, house­hold goods and domestic animals aboard, and, aided by wind and tide, reached the promised land, some palm-fringed isle in the tropic sea.”

Mrs. Adams has records of many small boats that apparently were blown across the Pacific, one of them a Japanese fishing boat which lauded its unwilling immigrants alive and well on California soil a few years ago. This shows that voyages such as that described in the Book of Mormon across the Pacific can be made, and have been made in recent years. What is possible now can not have been impossible in more remote times.

In passing, it is interesting to compare the voyage of Noah with that of the Brother of Jared. Noah started from somewhere in North America and landed on Mount Ararat, in Armenia. He spent one year in the ark, from the 17th of the 2nd month of the 600th year of his life, till the 27th of the 2nd month the following year. If the year at that time consisted of 354 days, it took him just one of our years to complete the journey, but much of this time was spent waiting for the water to recede and the surface of the earth to dry np. The actual voyage lasted five months (Gen. 7:11; 8:4), or, if the shorter year be the true year, 147 days. The Brother of Jared started from some point on the Arabian sea, which he had reached from the land between the rivers, where the tower of Babel had been reared. His voyage lasted 344 days (Ether 6:11). We know not the exact point from which Noah started; nor the point at which Jared’s brother embarked, or exactly where he landed. Detailed calculations are, therefore, out of the question, but if anyone will consult the map, he will find that the voyage of the Brother of Jared was much longer than that of Noah, especially if he, as is probable, took advantage of the currents and the west wind drift. This is so striking as to preclude the supposition that the time given, 344 days, is merely guesswork. Noah’s voyage along, say the 30th parallel, would cover about 120 degrees of longitude, while that of Jared’s brother would cover more than double, at least 280 degrees.

Students of American archaeology are pretty well agreed that two mighty civilizations have left their monuments on the American continents. This fact bothered Mr. Lamb in his attacks on the Book of Mormon. The Toltecs appear in Mexico before the Aztecs. Of the Toltecs but little is known. They are supposed to have come to Mexico, from the north, in the eighth century of our era, or four hundred years after the battle of Cumorah. They were peaceful, industrious, and enterprising. They built cities and temples. They knew how to work metals, make pottery, polish stones. They were experts in spinning and weaving; they were astronomers, had a written language, and formed military orders and unions. The Aztecs, on the other hand, were a savage race. In the 11th century, it seems, they invaded the empire of the Toltecs and subjugated them. They held sway when Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, in 1519.

From the Book of Mormon we learn that the Nephites were almost annihilated at Cumorah, about the year 400 of our era, by the Lamanites. A few fled southward. The descendants of some of these may have reached Mexico and founded the empire there, which has become known as Toltec. The Nephites, too, were city and temple builders. They were experts in spinning and weaving (Jacob 2:13, 11). They made their fabrics of silk, turned and twisted linen, etc. They had a correct division of the year, founded on astronomical observations, and they had their orders and unions (Alma 11:16, 18; 15:15; 16:11; 21:4; 24:28). The Lamanites, on the other hand, were a savage people. They sacrificed human beings, and practiced cannibalism to some extent. They were just in the condition in which the Spaniards found the Aztecs, at the time of the conquest. The history and the description of the Nephites and Lamanites, as given in the Book of Mormon, agree perfectly with what is known of the Toltecs and Aztecs some centuries after the Book of Mormon record closes. The Nephites and Lamanites pass out of view, temporarily, at the end of that record. They seem to reappear again four hundred years later in the Toltecs and Aztecs. And so far archaeological and ethnological research corroborates the Book of Mormon.

For a more extended discussion of this class of external evidence, the reader is referred to The Articles of Faith, by Dr. James E. Talmage.

VII. Moral and Spiritual Evidence.

The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, is, however, tested by its moral and spiritual results.

It is a good book, in the sense that it teaches virtue and incul­cates obedience to the commands of God. Those who follow its precepts become better fathers and mothers, better husbands and wives, better children, more loyal and law-abiding citizens, purer, healthier, stronger men and women, better equipped for the per­formance of every duty of life, than they were before they came under its influence.

It is a good book in the sense that it is valued most by those who are striving to serve God. It is not found in saloons, or gambling- dens, or houses of bad repute. It is not the kind of literature that is relished by the people who resort to such places. It is a book for the home and the family circle. It is a book for children, as well as mature people; for ladies as well as gentlemen, for public as well as private reading.

It is a good book, in the sense that its doctrines and precepts agree in every particular with the teachings of the Bible. In this respect it is its own witness, bearing testimony on every page to its divine source.

And, finally, it gives to all who will pray for light, the promise that they shall receive it, in answer to their prayers. In the very last chapter in the book, Moroni says:

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort yon 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” (Mor. 10:4, 5).

Here is a test all can make. Tens of thousands have followed the directions here given, and, in answer to their prayers, have received a testimony to the truth of the sacred volume, which has not only stilled all doubts but given unspeakable joy. God hears and answers prayers. Would He deceive His children when they ask Him for light? Joseph Smith and his brother testified to the truth of that book a few hours before their martyrdom at Carthage, June 27th, 1844. They were not deceived.

What further evidence than that which has been considered in these paragraphs can the world ask for? It is true of the books of the Bible, that their integrity “is substantiated by evidence, in a tenfold proportion, more various, copious, and conclusive than that which can be adduced in support of any other ancient [secular] writings.” And that is equally true about the remarkable literary production which has been given to the world under the name of the Book of Mormon.

J.M.S.