Divine Origin of the Book of Mormon (27 June 1881)

DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

BY APOSTLE MOSES THATCHER.

In our historical researches we find none so obstinate to Biblical analogies as Prof. Short, yet even he is compelled to admit the traditional knowledge existing among the American Indians of a flood, and that they were of old world origin. On page two hundred and two, he says: “That the American population is of old world origin there can be but little doubt; but from whence it came, and to what particular people or peoples it owes its birth, is quite another question.” In a note on the same page we find the following: “Tylor Anahuac, London, 1861, p. 104, says: ‘On the Whole, the most probable view of the origin of the Mexican tribes seems to be the one ordinarily held, that they really came from the old world, bringing with them several legends, evidently the same as the histories recorded in the book of Genesis.’” A further note from Pritchard’s National History of Man, London, 1845, reads:

“The era of their existence as a distinct and isolated race must probably be dated as far back as that time, which separated into nations the inhabitants of the old world, and gave to each branch of the human family its primitive language and individuality.”

The native author, Ixtlilxohitl, fixes the date of the first peopling of America about the year 2000 B. C., which closely accords with that given by the Book of Mormon, which positively declares that it occured at the time of the dispersion, when God in his anger scattered the people from Babel upon the face of the whole earth. Scientific researches and further discoveries will continue, in our opinion, to confirm not only the fact that Adam is the sole stock from which has sprung the whole human family, but that the Bible and Book of Mormon, being divine, and bearing on their historical and prophetic pages their own confirmation, cannot be impeached by the wisdom or learning of this or any other age; for God has decreed that they should come together as the Sticks of Judah and Ephraim and become one, in bearing testimony of the dealings of the Almighty with His children.

Prof. Short, from whose able compilation we have, and shall probably continue to extract, while a seeming hater of the Book of Mormon, which I presume he has never read, only referring to it because other writers of great ability have made extracts from it, has nevertheless accomplished much, we think, in confirming its “Divine Origin” by his judicious compilation of historical records. As to his opinions, we hold them valuable only so far as they are supported by recorded evidence. We have the same right to disagree with his theories ns he has freely and without stint exercised in disagreeing, apparently often without any reason whatever, with those advanced, and at least circumstantially well supported, by Lord Kingsborough; who, certainly is entitled to be considered among the greatest compilers of original American writings known; as well as one of the most painstaking, persevering and exhaustive writers on American antiquities which our age has produced. IIis works, embodied in nine immense volumes, while being spoken of by some respectable authors as an inexplicable maze, have, notwithstanding, proven a standard and source of information, of which most modern writers on American antiquities have liberally availed themselves, and from which, also, we expect to make extracts as occasion may offer in preparing these articles.

Returning to the subject under consideration, we will quote from the writings of one of those early Catholic priests, who sought to destroy every vestige of tradition and history from among the natives pertaining to religious matters. Bishop Las Casas, as quoted by Short, p. 228, says: “They (the Guatemalians) have among them knowledge of the flood and of the end of the world. They call it ‘butic,’ a name which signifies a flood of many waters. They also believe that another ‘butic’ and judgment will come, not of water but of fire. They hold that certain persons who escaped from the flood populated their land; these were called the Great Father and Great Mother.”—Hist. Apologetics, MS. Cap. 235 p. 327.

The Book of Mormon, as we plainly proved in number one of this series, gives a distinct account of two records had among the ancient inhabitants of this continent, each of which contained a detailed account of the matters which we have hastily brought forward and compiled in this number from authentic records, namely the brass plates brought by Nephi from Jerusalem, 600 B. C., containing a copy of the five Books of Moses; and the same knowledge written previously upon the gold plates of Ether. It would appear unnecessary to make quotations from the Bible on these points for the sake of comparison. To those desiring to do so we refer them to Genesis chapter vi, 14, 15, 16, and chapter vii, 13, 17, 19, 20, 23.

Referring to the quotations from Ixtlelxochitl, seventeen hundred and sixteen years are said to have elapsed from the creation to the flood. Moses places it sixteen hundred and fifty-six, a difference of only sixty years. They agree exactly as to the number of cubits, "fifteen" which the waters prevailed over the highest mountains.

Such a coincident can lead to but one conclusion, the identity of origin of the two accounts.

Kingsborough says that Patecatle, who escaped in the ark invented the art of making wine. Moses informs us that Noah became a husbandman, planted a vineyard, drank of the wine and was drunken. A remarkable coincident.—"Contributor.”