Book of Mormon Evidence

BOOK OF MORMON EVIDENCES

Elder Melvin J. Ballard

OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE

MANY TIMES, in the fourteen years of my own missionary experience for the Church, when I have presented the marvellous story we tell concerning the visit of heavenly messengers in this age, even the visit of the Father and the Son, the visit of holy angels with divine commission, this declaration is often rejected by a doubtful and skeptical world that does not believe in miracles.

They are inclined to speak of these manifestations as imaginations of men, hallucinations, the dreams of the night. When I have met this skepticism I have been very grateful that the Lord, knowing the character of the age in which He was going to introduce His work again in the earth, surrounded it with tangible evidences that are of a miraculous character also, and the most outstanding of all the evidences with which the Lord has supported the Prophet Joseph Smith and this great latter-day work is the volume I hold in my hand called by us the Book of Mormon. It is tangible evidence because it exists. Anyone may have it. They must account for it. They cannot dispose of it as they would a dream or vision that may have been ever so real, but it is past and gone.

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Two months ago this last week, visiting the Mexican Mission in company with President Antoine R. Ivins, the president of that mission, and Ambassador J. Reuben Clark, I had the thrilling joy for the first time, in the Valley of Mexico, to climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, ancient and historic, visited by arclue- ologists and tourists, located some twenty miles from the City of Mexico.

We ascended that great pyramid to a height of 700 steps and to the right of us was the Pyramid of the Moon, and to the left of us the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the great street of the dead, with its numerous ruins. Sitting in the midst of these impressive evidences of an ancient civilization, my mind was turned again to the explorations that are being made and the value of the evidences that are coming. I recall a visit that Brother Rey L. Pratt and myself had in the great Andean plateau six years ago in the midst of the remains of that ancient civilization that must have fairly teemed around Lake Titicaca. I recall the visit to the City of Tichuanaco on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca said by many to be the oldest ruined city in the world. Some have placed the date of its antiquity as far as eight thousand years ago. This, however, is mere speculation.

IMPRESSIVE RUINS ATTRACT ATTENTION

There were two outstanding ruins in that great city that impressed me. One was the temple of the Sun, the site of which occupied approximately ten acres of ground. Around this temple court are great hewn monoliths, stones of approximately twelve feet in height, about eight feet wide and nearly two feet deep. There are twenty-eight of them on each of two sides of this plot of ground and thirty-two on the other two, so the whole temple court is completely surrounded with these great hewn monoliths. The entrance way to this temple court is through a great stone, itself of one piece, approximately twelve feet wide and twelve feet high and nearly two feet thick with an archway in the centre of it. That stone, as the others, is beautifully carved in designs which are most strikingly Egyptian, and no one has ever visited these ruins but has come away with the impression that whoever were the builders of this civilization must have had knowledge of the Egyptian civilization, art and culture.

An Egyptian prince visiting these monoliths said: “I am an Egyptian, born and reared of royal blood and educated in the best that my country affords. Without doubt those are Egyptian hieroglyphics which I read as history only too plain, but the problem puzzling me is that nowhere outside of my own country have I heard as pure an Egyptian dialect as is spoken here by these natives.”

Remarkable, not only to discover evidences of Egyptian art and culture upon the stones, but actually, according to the testimony of this Egyptian prince, an Egyptian dialect still spoken among the natives of that country. The outstanding characteristic of all this civilization is so strikingly Egyptian, that Ex-Vice-president Dawes, our recent ambassador to Great Britain, and at the present time head of our Reconstruction Finance corporation of the United States, has made an appropriation for the exploration of the possibility of there being in the traditional story of Atlantis some foundation of fact. The tradition is that there was a continent connecting the eastern world with the western world, and that over it people passed from the Old World to America, but that through the upheavals of nature, this continent gradually sank below the ocean itself and so they are trying to discover the bridge, if you please, over which this great migration passed. Whether or not they shall find any evidences of the sunken Atlantis is problematical, but there is only one consistent answer to-day being made and that is by this Book of mormon.

Moreover, this testimony was recorded long before men had discovered evidences of the Egyptian character of this ancient civilization. Joseph Smith’s translation is declaring that they brought with them the Egyptian art and culture. Indeed the records that came into his hands were in Egyptian characters. It is the only satisfactory answer, I say, to-day, to the question, “Whence came the Egyptian characteristics found in this ancient civilization?”

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY TON STONES

I remember also being impressed with evidences I saw in the ruin of the temple itself. Stones of that wall are standing many feet high and of enormous size. I measured the stones, not only of the walls but of the floor of that temple court, and there are stones, so large that they weigh 170 tons. They were moved, apparently, across Lake Titicaca, for the quarries from whence they were taken and are still in existence. How men could move stones of such immense size when with our modern skill of today we have great difficulty in moving stones weighing 100 tons is a question that puzzles modern men. I saw on the Avails of that temple the cross; crosses that were five feet in length and three feet in width, carved on the face of these stones, standing as perfectly as I have ever seen crosses constructed anywhere in the world.

I recall further in a stone, in one of the walls of that temple, a compass executed that was seventeen inches from point to point and as perfectly executed as though it had been done but yesterday. The square also  and in the centre of that temple court was the great sacrificial slab, a stone of approximately nine feet in length, seven feet wide, grooved so that the blood of the animal would drain to a common point where a great stone basin, blackened by the fire of the ages, had received the blood of the sacrifice. Whoever has looked upon that temple has concluded that the builders knew all about Solomon’s Temple, for here were the symbols, marks and designs upon it so strikingly like Solomon’s Temple.

They have also concluded that the builders of these temples knew about the law of sacrifice for here, too, were the evidences of that sacrifice having been perpetuated upon this American continent. Where is the answer?

Long before these evidences were ever known to men, Joseph Smith, in translating the Book of Mormon, records that when the people reached this American continent they builded temples after the manner of Solomon’s Temple. In the findings of the Republic of Mexico there is gathered in the great museum, among other things, and most outstanding, what is known as the Callendar Stone. I listened to a learned discussion of it from a splendid young Mexican the other day, who pointed out that which has also been written upon, and I am quoting from matter that appeared in the Popular Science of two years ago on the Callendar Stone. He, I say, pointed out that the Callendar Stone was the most perfect calendar we have in the world to-day. So accurate indeed is it that not in three thousand years did they have to supply an extra day to make their calendar balance. You know that we have to supply an extra day every leap-year to make our calendar balance.

MAYAN AND EGYPTIAN ALPHABETS

I have seen side by side, the Alphabet of the Mayan people and the alphabet of the Egyptian language so nearly alike, letter by letter, that one is at once impressed with the thought that either the Mayans borrowed their alphabet from the Egyptians or the Egyptians borrowed their alphabet from the Mayans. And so they are deciphering these inscriptions. For instance, Mr. Thompson, who for twenty years was an American ambassador in Mexico, and owns the present City of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsular of Southern Mexico, has himself unearthed ruins as marvellous, I think, as anything King Tut’s tomb has revealed and lias so far deciphered the Mayan characters that he is able to determine dates upon tablets over entrance ways to the temple, and this is interesting. He deciphers that over the entrance way to one temple on a statuette is a date corresponding with 113 years before Christ. On another tablet over another temple, is a date corresponding with 47 years after Christ, and still another 160 years after Christ. There is one thing that I have discovered from my own observation of this civilization from Lake Titicaca to the City of Mexico, they are almost uniformly the same architectural design.

I now wish to quote from and comment upon an article in the Popular Science of 1930, “With the record cut in imperishable stone, the Mayans suddenly make their first appearance on the historical scene on August 6th, 613 B.C. On that remote date, the oldest date in this American history, they put into operation a workable and astonishingly accurate calendar system which has been the marvel of the scientific world since it was deciphered.” August 6th, 613 B. C. is apparently the oldest date in this American history. Now, if this is correct, it disposes of the speculation about the City of Tiahuanaco being eight thousand years old and it helps to establish the probable age of this entire civilization.

How does that correspond with the Book of Mormon account?

You will find in all of the editions of the Book of Mormon the earliest date, giving the probable time when Lehi left Jerusalem and started with his family for America, “about 600 years before Christ.” If the records in stone are accurate and fix the date at 613 B. C. it will do no violence to our own record for we have not, in any edition, announced with positiveness the absolute time when Lehi landed upon this American continent, but have said, as I have observed, “about 600 years B. C.”

Now, reading again from the account in Popular Science: “Why, on August 6th, 613 B.C.? Where were the Mayas on August 5th? Had they lived, tilled the soil, developed their wonderful astronomy and admirable architecture, pursued their other arts and sciences on this continent before they carved that first inscription? If so. for how long? If not, whence did they come? Nobody knows.”

Thank the Lord, somebody does know.

“Step by step, along trails of tangible remains, science has been able to trace the evolution of the Egyptians and other ancient peoples back to their earliest and crudest beginnings. But not so in the case of the Mayas. So far as any concrete evidence is concerned they might as well have dropped down from Mars or some other planet on the morning of the sixth day of August, 2,542 years ago.”

TWO THEORIES HARMONIZE

It is true that old ancient civilization can be traced, as in the case of the Egyptians, along the Nile valley from their early and crude beginnings through their advancing civilization. But not so in the case of the Mayas. They may as well have descended from Mars, because their civilization burst forth in its glory and its splendour at once. That harmonizes absolutely with the record of the Book of Mormon, these people came in vessels with their art and their culture fully developed and began at once to build where the Egyptians left off. Where Israel, at the height of its glory had obtained eminence so this colony, bringing that knowledge and culture with them, began their civilization just as the record in stone would indicate.

Reading again: “Toward the close of the first century of the Christian era, when the decline of Rome had begun, the first Mayan Empire began a cultural development that was to culminate in a period of brilliant achievement from about A. D. 300 to 600.”

Something unusual, according to the record in stone, happened about the close of the first Christian era. Our Book of Mormon record declares that following the visit of Christ to the eastern continent in fulfillment of His promise that other sheep He had which were not of that fold, them also He must visit, and there should be one fold and one shepherd, that He did come to America. It is well known that at the time Christ lived upon the eastern hemisphere there was a vast teeming civilization upon this western world, and if Jesus Christ was indeed the son of God, as He declared, He was the Saviour of that great multitude who lived upon this continent as well as in the eastern world. If He was indeed the Son of God, He had knowledge of that, for He knew all about the peoples who lived upon the face of the earth. Why not like Him to come as He declared He would to another flock that was not of that fold in Jerusalem. They must hear His voice and there was to be one shepherd and one sheep-fold. All evidences point to that extraordinary thing having happened.

Onr record declares that the sign of His birth appeared by a day and a night and another day passing without darkness; and at His crucifixion cities were swallowed up, great upheavals occurred on the face of the land; mighty destruction was wrought; darkness was so intense that it was impossible to build fires, for three days. Then at the end of that unusual incident out of the heavens came a man and the whole multitude saw Him; He descended and stood in their midst; He called upon them to come and handle Him and they did so, and He bore record unto them that He was Jesns Christ who had been crucified for the sins of the world. He spent three glorious days with them miraculously appearing each morning and as miraculously disappearing each night. He organized His Church among them, blessed them and left them, but promised to come back again. If an event of this character had ever happened the history of any people, I care not to what depths they would ultimately have descended, the traditional story of these outstanding events would have lived to the ends of time. Have they lived?

TRADITION AMONG ALL TRIBES

It has been my privilege to do missionary work among the Indians from Canada to South America. I have never encountered a single tribe where the traditional story of the visit of this fair God does not exist. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl where I stood in the Valley of Mexico the other day, was erected to this fair God. I grant you that they call Him by other titles in other places, but the story is all the same, that a long time ago their fathers were visited by a fair God. After having visited them and blessed them, He promised to come back again. I say the traditional story of it lives; I often was puzzled at the incident of Pizarro, with 260 soldiers penetrating into the heart of the empire from the west coast of South America When there were millions of Indian soldiers who might have destroyed him, even with their crude instruments at any one of a thousand points along that trail that led up into the heights of the Andes mountains. I saw myself, points where a handful of men with rocks could have destroyed these Spanards. Why were they permitted to come more than 500 miles to the heart of the empire and then when they reached that place to find the palace vacated, offered to them as a place where they might be cared for as royal guests. The reason is that when the white man landed on the west coast of South America runners went immediately to the empire to give the ruling chief the good news of the coming of the whiteman, and return runners brought word to give him safe escort into the heart of the empire.

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Why did they trust Pizarro? It was the traditional story that their fathers, a long time ago, had been visited by a fair God and He promised to come back again. Was this the coming of the fair God? Half trusting, half worshiping, they extended honours to him as they would have done to the returning Christ. Cortez’ entrance into Mexico is a duplicate of this story, confidence betrayed. The traditional story of that visit of Christ led the peoples of both Mexico and South America into their bondage. They were visited by Christ and our record declares that toward the close of the first century the entire people had become converted to the Christian religion, and consequently the record in stone ought to bear some witness of that extraordinary thing which happened when the whole people had become converted. They started a cultural development that was soon to culminate in a period of brilliant achievement sometime between 300 and 600 years after Christ. The record in stone is not accurate as to when that brilliant achievement was accomplished. One united people, according to this Book of Mormon record, continued for 400 years and there came finally the climax of it in the great suicidal civil war between the Lamanites and the Nephites that brought the destruction of the Nephites 400 years after Christ.

WHAT CATASTROPHE BEFELL THE RACE

The record in stone is shown to indicate some time between 300 and 600; no contradiction here between our record and the record in stone. Then reading again But then at the height of its power and glory, the empire suddenly collapsed. Within approximately fifty years the magnificent cities with their monumental temples, sculptured and jeweled palaces, astronomical observatories and probably thousands of dwellings grouped about the edifices of worship and public business, were abandoned. Soon they were covered by the tropical forests as completely as though the earth itself had opened up and swallowed them.

“What happened? What catastrophe befell this race, so sturdy in body, so keen in mind? Did it fall victim to a suicidal civil war? Did its food supply suddenly give out? Or was it decimated by some devastating epidemic? Experts say yellow fever probably had much to do with its dramatic decline. But nobody really knows.”

Our Book of Mormon declares forty years of warfare waged until the Nephites were entirely overcome by their warfaring brethren, the Lamanites. And then suddenly the great empire would go back to the wilderness.

BOOK OF MORMON RECORD VERIFIED

My brethren and sisters, I say this gives me joy and satisfaction, to see this Book of Mormon record verified by such findings of science, but all the evidence is not in. You will remember those critics who made light of the book when it was declared that they in that early period of time builded houses of cement, when cement was unknown in the old world at such a remote period of time, but there are no skeptics laughing about cement to-day. As we sat upon the top of that great pyramid in the Valley of Mexico, held together by coatings of cement as old as that ancient civilization and as firm as any cement I have ever seen. Evidences of cement abound everywhere and the skeptic has ceased his ridicule. That the horse and the elephant were also inhabitants of ancient America was also, ridiculed, but yon students know that there is only one condition under which the fossil remains of living creatures may be preserved, and that is when the body falls into water where silt is in deposit, the incrustation about the body is made. Finally the silt becomes hard and ultimately comes to be stone, and some upheaval of nature throws up the lake or the river bed and your faithful record of the past is revealed. We have not lived long enough to have many of those pages where this history is written exposed, but within recent years the pages are revealing such facts as to further substantiate the truthfulness of this record for the evidence of the pre-Columbian existence of the horse and the elephant have now been found.

As I came back from South America, I read with keen interest the story of Charles Darwin, the great naturalist’s visit to America a hundred years ago, in the book called The Voyage of the Beagle. I was deeply impressed to have this great scientist himself declare that he found the fossil remains of horses’ teeth in South America. He records the findings of an associate scientist to the same effect. He pondered over it with marvel because he declares that it was not known that the horse was ever an inhabitant of America, but here, said he, is evidence beyond dispute. He speculated on some catastrophe by which the horse was entirely destroyed. The horse could have appeared here at a later date and again been entirely destroyed.

In his book called the City of the Sacred Well, Mr. Willard, who writes the story of Mr. Thompson, the American ambassador to Mexico, gives us the picture of elephants upon the walls of the temples of Chichen Itza, perfect pictures, that could not have been produced except the living animal had been known to those who made the paintings. And again, the story of the Book of Mormon that they made swords of steel was ridiculed until within very recent years, because no steel implements had been found. Of course, you students of mineralogy know that steel is the quickest metal we know anything about to corrode and go into rust, and so, as Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill said in his article on this subject of whether or not the ancient builders of the American civilization had any knowledge of steel, he always believed they did. He also believed that the Egyptians had a knowledge of steel, but he was ridiculed. If, said he, the Egyptians had knowledge of steel and that steel could not be preserved in the dry countries of Egypt, how could we expect it to be preserved in the wet countries of Central or South America? But not until King Tut's tomb was opened when a steel dagger that had been deposited there hundred of years before Christ’s birth, was found, did the scientific world concede that the Egyptians had knowledge of steel.

EGYPTIANS HAD KNOWLEDGE OF STEEL

One steel dagger, of course, in King Tut’s tomb was greater evidence that the Egyptians had knowledge of steel than all the theories in the world. And now Mr. Hyatt finds, according to his record, a story recorded in one of our recent American magazines, that in unearthing a city on the west coast of Central America he discovered under fifteen feet of earth, in a charcoal bed, a steel chisel, the end exposed and out of the charcoal entirely rusted and gone ; the best part of it preserved from the moisture by its embedment in the charcoal, has been preserved until it is so hard that a file will scarcely touch it and the point is so hard that it will actually scratch glass. All we need to do is to continue to be patient and wait and the critic will be overwhelmed in his ridicule of the Book of Mormon story. If the Egyptians had knowledge of steel so did the builders of this ancient American civilization, because they brought Egyptian art and culture with them. The evidence, I say, is now coming forth to our joy and satisfaction. Again, the Book of Mormon record requires evidence of the existence of gold in abundance, so they could make their records upon gold. It required an ability to work gold.

It also required an ability to write. Did they have gold in abundance? The room where, for five months, gold was brought from all parts of the empire as a ransom for the Incas, contained, according to eminent authority, more than £4,000,000 in gold. I have myself seen in the great collections of the museums of Mexico and of South America armfuls of golden vessels of most exquisite workmanship.

Brother Pratt and myself saw in a museum in Lima, Peru, a stack of gold sheets almost identical with the size of those of the Book of Mormon sheets, approximately eight inches long and seven inches wide, as thin as paper. The whole stack was nearly an inch thick, not a thing upon either side but just gold sheets, prepared for just such a work as the plates of the Book of Mormon. Yes, they had gold in abundance, and they knew how to work it. Then they knew how to write not only upon pliable gold and in the most exquisite manner, but their engravings are found upon hard stone. While I was in Mexico City they brought from the State of Oaxaca golden animals of great value, exquisitely done, fashioned in the form of living creatures, work, it is said, far excelling anything that Egypt ever produced.

So the page, I say, is only beginning to be opened. I rejoice that as time passes we shall have further evidences that will, before the end of another century, overwhelm the world with a conviction that Joseph Smith’s story is true.

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God help us to prepare ourselves to play our part gloriously in this mighty movement, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.—Address, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A., April 24th, 1931.