Remarks on the Book of Mormon

REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON.

By Elder William Gibson.

(Continued from our last.)

I shall now turn to the doctrines taught in the Book of Mormon, and look at some objections raised against them. The Rev. Alex. Campbell, in his “Analysis of the Evidences of the Book of Mormon,” page 14, says, “Smith, its real author, as ignorant and impudent a knave as ever wrote a book, betrays the cloven foot in basing his whole book upon a false fact, or a pretended fact, which makes God a liar;” it is this:—“With the Jews God made a covenant at Mount Sinai, and instituted a Priesthood and an High Priesthood; the Priesthood he gave to Levi, and the High Priesthood to Aaron and his sons for an everlasting priesthood; then says God, Moses shall appoint Aaron and sons, and they shall wait on their priest’s office, and the stranger (the person of another family) who cometh nigh shall be put to death.” (Numbers iii. 10). In the 18th chapter of Numbers, the Levites are again given to Aaron and his sons, and the priesthood confirmed to them with this threat, ‘The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.’ Even Jesus, says Paul, were he on earth, could not be a priest, for he was of a tribe concerning which Moses spake nothing of priesthood. (Heb. vii. 13). So irrevocable was the grant of the priesthood to Levi and the High Priesthood to Aaron, that no stranger dare approach the altar of God which Moses established. Hence Jesus himself was excluded front officiating as priest on earth, according to the laws.

“This Joseph Smith overlooked in his impious fraud, and makes his hero, Lehi, to spring from Joseph, and just as soon as his sons return with the roll of his lineage, ascertaining that he was of the tribe of Joseph, he and his sons acceptably ‘offer sacrifice and burnt offerings to the Lord.’

“They build a Temple in the New World, and in fifty-five years after they leave Jerusalem, make a priesthood, which God approbates. A High Priest is also con­secrated, and yet they are all the while teaching the law of Moses, and exhorting the people to keep it. Page 146, 209. Thus God is represented as instituting, approbating, and blessing a new priesthood from the tribe of Joseph, concerning which Moses gave no commandment concerning priesthood. Although God had promised in the law of Moses, that if any man, not of the tribe and family of Levi and Aaron, should approach the office of priest, he would surely die, he is repre­sented by Smith as blessing, approbating, and sustaining another family in this appropriated office. The God of Abraham or Joseph Smith must then be a liar; and who will hesitate to pronounce him an impostor! This he runs through his records for the first six hundred years of his story.”

It is really wonderful to see the ignorance of Mr. Campbell concerning what is recorded in the Bible; and he, at the same time, the leader of a religious society. He commences by telling us that the Book of Mormon is based upon a false fact: the wise man said there was nothing new under the sun, but, I think, when Mr. Campbell discovered a false fact, he found something that the wise man never dreamed of, and therefore he may justly claim to be the discoverer, if not the author and sole proprietor of the same; unless, indeed, it may be a necessary ingre­dient in his religious views; in that case, he will have others to share the honor with him.

And what is this false fact? it is this; he says that God gave the priesthood to Levi and Aaron for an everlasting priesthood, and so irrevocable was the grant of this priesthood, that any stranger of another family who should dare to offer sacri­fice should die. Hence, Christ himself was excluded from officiating as a priest on earth, according to the law, and, therefore, if God did approbate the offering of one of the house of Joseph, when he officiated as a priest, as the Book of Mormon says, it would make God a liar.

And so Mr. Campbell has discovered that Christ could not be a priest on earth, and yet in the same chapter, (Heb. vii. 15), we are told he is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec; so then he was a priest on earth, but after a different order from that of Aaron, and what is the difference of these priesthoods ? The priesthood of Levi and Aaron belonged to a certain family and tribe, who could claim this priesthood by descent through father and mother, but the Priesthood which Christ had, Paul tells us in Heb. vii. 3, does not come by descent, for it is without descent, or without reference to father or mother; therefore, although Christ sprung from Judah, to which tribe Moses promised no priesthood, yet still he was a priest, but of another and more exalted order than that of Aaron— the order of Melchisedec.

And would it make God a liar if he should approbate the priesthood of one belonging to the tribe of Joseph? Mr. Campbell says so; let us see what the Bible says: (Judges vi. 11), there we are told that an angel came with a message to Gideon; but who is Gideon? What does the angel tell him to do? In the 15th verse we are told that he belongs to a poor family in Manesseh, and from the 25th to the 28th verse, we are told that he is commanded by God to build an altar, and offer “burnt offerings, or sacrifice to the Lord.” What a pity that Mr. Campbell was not there to put the Lord right, and prevent him from making himself a liar; for you know, Mr. Campbell, this was after the days of Moses, and he gave no com­mandment concerning priesthood to the seed of Joseph, you say, and if, according to your logic, his approbating the priesthood, or accepting the sacrifice offered by one of the seed of Joseph in America, either proves God to be a liar, or the Book of Mormon false, for saying he did so, will not the same rule apply to the Bible? why, sir, by your own rule, you are bound to do one of two things, either declare God to be a liar, or the Bible a fable.

Mr. Campbell calls Joseph Smith an ignorant and impudent liar; but I think the man who could make assertions like the above, can be left to be judged by every honest man, who will not rob him of his right, but give him the honor of the titles he has conferred on Joseph Smith.

But to show his utter ignorance of the scripture on this point, I will quote a pas­sage or two.

Paul, in Heb. v. 4, speaking of the Aaronic priesthood, says, “And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." From this passage we learn, first, that no man has a right to take this honor on himself, and, secondly, that if God should call any man as he did Aaron, viz., by revelation, that he had a perfect right to that which God had called him to perform.

God had made a covenant with Aaron and the tribe of Levi, so that if a man could prove he sprang from them, he could claim the priesthood by descent, and no stranger of another family had a right to administer in the priest’s office, except he was called of God as Aaron was, and if God did call a man as he did Gideon, of the seed of Joseph, or Manoah of the tribe of Dan, see Judges xiii. 2 and 16, and others in the land of Canaan, or Lehi and Nephi in the land of America, it neither makes God a liar, nor yet the Bible or Book of Mormon false.

On the 16th page of his book, Mr. Campbell says, “He (Joseph Smith) has more of the Jews living in the New World than could have been numbered anywhere else, even in the days of John the Baptist, and has placed them under a new dy­nasty; the sceptre with him has departed from Judah, &c., a lawgiver from among his descendants hundreds of years before Shiloh came; and king Benjamin is a wiser and more renowned king than king Solomon. He seems to have gone upon an adage which says, the more marvellous the more credible the tale, and the less of fact and the more of fiction, the more intelligible and reasonable the narrative.” We have here another specimen of the ignorance of the Rev. Alex. Campbell; how does he know how many of the children of Israel were on the earth in the days of John the Baptist? One would think he had got a revelation concerning the lost ten tribes—of their numbers—revelations and dynasty; and if the taking away of one family, and setting them up into a separate government or kingdom, as recorded, in the Book of Mormon, made the sceptre depart from Judah, and a lawgiver from his descendants, what would the taking away of ten tribes from the son of Solomon and setting them up as a separate kingdom, as recorded in the Bible, do? Why, prove it false or God a liar, by Mr. Campbell’s logic.

(To be Continued.)