The World's New Scripture

THE WORLD’S NEW SCRIPTURE

By DR. FRANCIS W. KIRKHAM

ON March 26th, 1830, a very strange book was announced for sale in Palmyra, a small town of western New York State. The person who signed himself author and proprietor to meet the requirements of the copyright law, declared in the preface that the record on the ancient Gold Plates from which the book was taken, had been preserved and hidden up unto the Lord, to come forth by Divine power to convince the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.

Thus no living person at the time of its publication had anything to do with the writing of its contents, except that Joseph Smith, the translator, dictated its pages as another wrote as he looked upon strange and unknown characters on Gold Plates, entrusted to him on September 22nd, 1827, by a person who had lived 1,400 years before.

The local paper, commenting on the appearance of this strange book, called it “the greatest piece of superstition that has yet come to our attention,” and declared, “the whole matter will be treated with contempt.” Yet to-day this religious book is printed in sixteen languages and sells 50,000 copies a year. It is accepted by a rapidly growing Church with a membership of three-fourths of a million people as a divine revelation from God to man, and evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of the True and Living God.

In the words of Orson Pratt, an early convert who had an opportunity to know all the facts concerning its divine origin:

“This book must be either true or false. If true it is one of the most important messages ever sent from God to man. If false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions who will receive it as the word of God.”

The printing of this strange book required more than a half year on a small hand press. At the time the manuscript was given to the printer, the person who had the copyright was unknown except to a few hundred neighbours and friends. He was twenty-three and one-half years old, with ability only to “read, write, and cipher,” such as was common to those who attended the one-room rural school during about three winter months and for a few years of their lives. He had travelled no farther north, east, or west than 30 miles, where at times he worked at such odd farm jobs as were available.

It was in a small home he built on a part of his father-in-law’s farm which he had purchased, that he began to translate and dictate to a friend the contents of the book.

The work progressed continuously as “circumstances permitted” from April 7th until about July 1st, when the manuscript, consisting of 522 printed pages, was completed. No revision was possible for the reason that the translator claimed he was dictating by the gift and power of God.’ Thus this long record could not have been corrected for errors in doctrine, or for continuity of events, or for any other condition that would help make the book consistent with itself.

On August 25th, 1829, after the manuscript had been copied in long hand, the printing began. The first copy was advertised for sale on March 26th, 1830.

Enlightened and strengthened by Spiritual power, the believers in the divine message of this book withstood ridicule and bitter opposition for nearly a century. They were exiles in their own country, they were misunderstood, condemned, and maligned. They were called “shameless sinners,” “ignorant and deluded.” Yet to-day vital statistics show their birth rate greater, their death rate lower, their divorces fewer, their criminals less in number than the average for the country. They lead in education, in home building and ownership, in care for their needy, in providing activities for members, both spiritual and temporal, and they have always answered with intense patriotism every call of their country.

During the past quarter of a century they have been better understood, until to-day prejudice has practically disappeared and some observers are beginning to see within their organization that vital force of primitive Christianity which makes for better lives and more useful citizenship.

It is hoped that these facts will cause the earnest seeker for truth to read the book with earnest intent to know whether or not it is of divine origin, and through his own sincerity put to test the spiritual promise contained in the book by the last writer of the record, which follows:

And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.

Behold. I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ve 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 bv the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.—Moroni 10:2-5

Upon this sacred promise and the miraculous events of the origin of this book, and the appearance of immortal messengers of God to restore the knowledge and powers of the ancient Church of Our Lord and Saviour, the Restored Church arose. If the contents of this book, therefore, is the work of any living person or persons at the time of its publication, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no right to exist.

If Christ, after His mortal death, did not arise from the tomb an immortal resurrected Being, and if He did not give to His disciples power to act in His name, and if, on the day of Pentecost, they were not endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost, then there is no Christ, there is no true Christian Church, and man is left without a knowledge of the true and living God.

If Christ, on the other hand, a resurrected, immortal Being, appeared to His disciples as proof of His divinity and endowed them with the spiritual power of the Holy Ghost, why refuse to investigate the evidence that another resurrected person appeared at this time, thereby making possible the translation of ancient scriptures that contain the plainness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the very purpose, as the messenger said, “To convince both the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.”