Lord hath commanded. However marvelous they may be as gaged by physical
standards, the gifts of the Spirit appeal to the unbelieving and carnal
mind only as unusual and curious phenomena; while to the man of faith
they testify of the power and purposes of God. Many people followed
Jesus about through morbid curiosity, clamoring to see some strange
thing wrought; and degenerate Herod Antipas, before whom our Lord was
brought in bonds, was interested and amused, because "he hoped to have
seen some miracle done by Him." (Luke 23:8.) Through a revelation to
the Church in 1831 the Lord Jesus Christ gave this solemn admonishment
against the craving for spiritual gifts to gratify curiosity.
"Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be
deceived, seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for
what they are given. For verily I say unto you, they are given for the
benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that
seeketh so to do, that all may be benefited that seeketh or that asketh
of me, that asketh and not for a sign that he may consume it upon his
lusts." (D&C 46:8-9).
We are not justified in regarding miracles as infallible testimony of
Divine power and authority, for powers of the baser sort work wonders,
to the deceiving of many. The magicians of Egypt were able to imitate
in small measure the miracles of Moses. John the Revelator told of evil
powers deceiving men by what seemed to be supernatural achievements,
and he saw unclean spirits, whom he knew to be "the spirits of devils
working miracles." (See Rev. 13: 13-14, and 16:13-14). And the Savior
Himself by this solemn warning armed the disciples against deception:
"There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew
great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect." (Matt. 24:24).
The distinguishing feature of a miraculous manifestation of the Holy
Spirit, as contrasted with a wonder wrought through other agencies,
lies in the fact that the former is always done in the name of Jesus
Christ and has for its object the fostering of faith and the furthering
of Divine purposes.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejoices in the
possession of the several gifts and graces with which the Church of old
was endowed; and within her pale signs do follow them that believe.
Come and see.
-- 33 --
IS THE BIBLE SUFFICIENT?
Scriptures of Many Peoples
WE believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated
correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
(Articles of Faith, No. 8).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts the Holy Bible
for just what it purports to be, nothing less, nothing more. Taken as a
whole the Holy Bible is a collection of sacred and historical writings,
depicting though incompletely the Divine dealings with mankind on the
Eastern Hemisphere from the creation down to about the close of the
first century after Christ. The Old Testament contains a brief record
of pre-Mosaic time, but is largely a history of the Semitic people or
Hebrews, as they lived under the Law of Moses. The New Testament is
distinctively the Scripture of the Gospel as contrasted with the Law,
and is devoted to the earthly ministry of the Savior and to the growth
of His Church under apostolic administration. The compilation as it
now stands is the work of men, and our modern translations from the
original Hebrew of the Old Testament and Greek of the New have been
made by skilled linguists and learned theologians.
But the wisdom of even the wisest of men may be faulty, and the
understanding of the prudent may be biased and dangerously imperfect.
The many revisions and successive versions of the Bible, made as the
errors of earlier renditions became strikingly apparent, testify
to the unreliability of scholarship in the translation of sacred
writ. Moreover, it is an indisputable fact that the compilation of
books constituting our present version is incomplete; for within
the Bible itself more than a score of books, epistles, or other
writings not included are mentioned, and generally in such a way as
to show that those lost Scriptures were considered authentic and
genuine. Furthermore, numerous Biblical passages are tinged with what
scholars call "gloss"--that is wording intended to convey the private
interpretation of the translator.
The Latter-day Saints openly proclaim their reservation as to incorrect
translation. We are in harmony with all able and earnest students of
the Scriptures in accepting the Bible as the Word of God, only so far
as it is translated correctly.
But we hold that there are now extant other Scriptures, of equal
validity with those of the Holy Bible, and in no sense in conflict
therewith nor a substitute therefor. For nearly six centuries before
and about four centuries after the birth of Christ, the American
continent was inhabited by a detached body of Israelites, who developed
into powerful nations. Their existence was unknown to the people of
the East. Is it unreasonable to believe that unto the western fold God
sent His shepherds, and that prophets officiated amongst them by Divine
appointment?
That the Book of Mormon would be rejected by many on the specious and
untenable claim that they already had a Bible and that there could be
no other Scriptures, the Lord foretold by the mouth of the prophet
Nephi:
"And because my words shall hiss forth, many of the Gentiles shall say,
A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more
Bible.
"Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I,
the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who
are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above,
and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children
of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?
"Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?
Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you
that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore,
I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the
two nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall
run together also.
"And I do this that I may prove unto many, that I am the same
yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words
according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one
word, ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is
not yet finished; neither shall it be, until the end of man; neither
from that time henceforth and forever.
"For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and
I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I
shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I
have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all
nations of the earth, and they shall write it.
"And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the
Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the
Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of
Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the
Nephites and the Jews." (2 Nephi 29).
Thus is predicted the bringing forth of yet other Scriptures, not
extant among known nations today, viz., the records of the Lost Tribes
of Israel, to whom the Book of Mormon indicates the Resurrected Christ
went to minister after His visitation to the Nephites. In the present
or last dispensation numerous revelations have been given by Jesus
Christ to His modern prophets. Many of these are before the world in
the volume of latter-day Scripture known as the D&C.
It is noticeable that we make no reservation respecting the Book of
Mormon on the ground of incorrect translation. To do so would be to
ignore attested facts as to the bringing forth of that book. Joseph
Smith the prophet, seer, and revelator, through whom the ancient record
has been translated into our modern tongue, expressly avers that the
translation was effected through the gift and power of God, and is in
no sense the product of linguistic scholarship.
The Bible in its original form, and in modern versions so far as
correctly translated, contains the Word of God. Without it, the world
would be plunged into spiritual gloom. Nevertheless there are other
Scriptures already published, and yet others are to come.
-- 34 --
A MESSENGER
From the Presence of God
THE discovery of the ancient record known to mankind as the Book of
Mormon was no affair of chance. To the contrary, both the finding
of the plates of gold and the translation of the inscriptions were
specifically the result of Divine direction. So the following facts
attest.
On the 21st of September, 1823, Joseph Smith of Manchester, N. Y., was
visited by an angelic personage who announced himself as Moroni, "A
messenger sent from the presence of God."
"What!" the skeptical may exclaim, "A heavenly being visiting the earth
and talking to a man in these modern days?" To which interrogatory a
fair rejoinder is Why not? Has the God of Heaven changed in nature and
attributes, or found need of altering and revising His former and most
simple methods of communicating with men?
To the priest Zacharias in days of old came one saying "I am Gabriel,
that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee."
(Luke 1:19). To the prophet Joseph Smith in latter times came a
messenger with the same form of annunciation.
Both Gabriel and Moroni were ambassadors from the Eternal One, who
is the same yesterday, today and forever, and "with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1: 17; Heb. 13:8).
Part of Moroni's message delivered at this visitation is thus stated
by the latter-day prophet: "He said there was a book deposited,
written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants
of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also
said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it,
as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants. Also, that
there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones, fastened to a
breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim--deposited
with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what
constituted 'seers' in ancient or former times; and that God had
prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. . . . While
he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to
my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited,
and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I
visited it."
On going to the place the next day Joseph Smith located the stone box,
and with the aid of a lever removed the cover. His record continues:
"I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the
messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth
had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time;
but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year
from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should
continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates."
At the close of the fourth probationary year, the plates and
accessories were given into the custody of the latter-day seer. Of this
occasion and subsequent developments he wrote as follows:
"At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and
Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September,
one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at
the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the
same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge:
that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go
carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but
that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the
messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.
"I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to
keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I
had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no
sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions
were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented
was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter
and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to
get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained
safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required
at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for
them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until
this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight."
Subsequent revelations showed that Moroni was the last of a long line
of prophets whose translated writings constitute the Book of Mormon.
By him the ancient records had been closed about 420 A. D.; by him the
graven plates had been deposited in the stone vault wherein they lay
buried over fourteen centuries; and through his appointed embassage
they were given into the possession of the latter-day seer whose work of
translation is before us.
Joseph Smith, unschooled beyond the rudiments of what we call an
education, unversed in any tongue but the vernacular English, was
wholly unequipped according to all human standards to translate the
language of a nation long extinct, and, except for certain Indian
traditions, forgotten. But the operation of a power higher than human,
by which the engraved plates were brought forth from the earth, was
to be effective in making the long-buried chronicles intelligible to
modern readers.
It was no part of the Lord's plan to entrust the translating to man's
linguistic skill; and, moreover, at that time the Rosetta Stone still
lay buried beneath the debris of ages, and there was not a man upon the
earth capable of rendering an Egyptian inscription into English. As
the Book of Mormon avers, the original writing was Egyptian, modified
through the isolation of the ancient peoples on the Western Continent,
and designated Reformed Egyptian.
It was divinely appointed that the sacred archives should be restored
to the knowledge of men through the gift and power of God. Had it
not been written that in the latter days the Lord would accomplish a
marvelous work and a wonder, whereby the wisdom of the wise would fail
and the understanding of the learned be hidden? (See Isa. 29: 13, 14).
And this because men would put their dogmas and precepts above the
revealed word? (Verse 13). In the translation of the Book of Mormon
there was to be no gloss of fallible scholarship, no attempt to improve
and embellish the plain, simple and unambiguous diction of the original
scribes who wrote by inspiration. Therefore was the commission laid
upon one who was rated among the weak of the earth, but whose ministry,
nevertheless, has confounded the mighty. (See 1 Cor. 1:27, 28).
-- 35 --
SCRIPTURES OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT
The Book of Mormon
THE Book of Mormon is preeminently an American book, comprising the
history of the aboriginal peoples of the New World. It professes to be
the modern translation of certain records, covering the period from B.
C. 600 to about A. D. 420, with which is incorporated the abridgment
of a yet earlier history. The original account was inscribed on thin
sheets of gold, in small characters of the Reformed Egyptian style.
The plates were taken from their repository on the side of a hill near
Palmyra, New York. This was in September, 1827; and in the early months
of 1830 the English translation was published.
The Book of Mormon story deals in part with the general history of
the ancient peoples, their rise and fall as nations, their wars and
intrigues of state, their alternating epochs of material prosperity
and adversity; but more particularly it preserves an account of the
Divine revelations, the prophets and prophecies with which the ancient
Americans were blessed; and thus the work stands before the world as
the Scriptures of the Western Continent.
This is the story in brief. In the closing years of the 7th century
B. C. there lived in Jerusalem a person of influence and wealth named
Lehi. He was a righteous man and a prophet, of the tribe of Manasseh
and therefore a descendant of Joseph, son of Jacob.
At the time of which we speak, Lehi and his wife were the parents
of four sons, of whom the elder two were of disobedient and unruly
character, in which respect they stood in striking contrast to their
dutiful brothers. Other children, both sons and daughters, are of later
mention.
Those were troublous days for Israel. The people had largely forgotten
the God of their fathers; and the calamities voiced by Moses and the
prophets as the contingent result of sins against which the people
had been specifically warned, were multiplying apace. Already the
shadows of the Babylonian captivity were falling athwart the nation.
Many prophets, Lehi among them, lifted their voices in admonition and
warning, crying repentance to the recreant Israelites, and predicting
that unless they turned from their wickedness the City of David,
their national boast and pride, would be despoiled and Israel be made
captive. Instead of heeding these men of God, the people went wild with
resentment and tried to slay them.
In the year 600 B. C., when Zedekiah ascended the throne of Judah,
the word of the Lord came to Lehi directing him to take his family
and flee from Jerusalem into the wilderness of Arabia. The scattering
of the Israelitish nation had been foretold, and the departure of
Lehi and his household, together with another entire family which was
of the tribe of Ephraim, and part of a third, was in line with the
general dispersion. Had it not so been declared by Isaiah? "For out of
Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount
Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." (2 Kings 19:31;
also Isa. 37:32).
The migrating colony journeyed by slow stages for about eight years
in the desert, during which time Lehi and his faithful younger son
Nephi received many revelations of the Divine word and will, through
which the purpose of their own exodus was made known, as were also
the portending vicissitudes of the nation from which they had become
expatriated by the Lord's command. Eventually they reached the shores
of the Arabian sea, where, divinely directed, they built a vessel, in
which they were carried by wind and current across the ocean to the
western coast of South America.
So long as unity prevailed the colony prospered in the Promised
Land, and with high birth-rate and few deaths soon became a numerous
people. With prosperity came pride and avarice, and the inevitable
accompaniment, dissension. The more righteous part chose Nephi for
their leader and called themselves Nephites, while the rebellious and
evil faction came to be known as Lamanites or followers of Laman, who
was the eldest and most wicked of Lehi's sons.
As the decades linked themselves into centuries the breach between
Nephites and Lamanites became wider, the enmity fiercer, and the
disparity in customs and culture greater; though for brief and
exceptional periods there was truce between them. The Nephites
maintained a relatively high standard of civilized activity, while
the Lamanites became a degenerate people, of nomadic and predatory
life, devoted mostly to warfare and the chase; and as a mark of Divine
displeasure they were cursed with a dark ruddy skin. Many and bloody
were the wars they waged against their more peaceable contemporaries.
Nevertheless the Nephites developed and throve in proportion to
their varying degrees of allegiance to the laws of God as made known
by the succession of prophets whom the Lord raised up among them;
and their departures from the ways of righteousness were followed
by the disciplinary suffering incident to Lamanite victories, which
were permitted to afflict them at intervals. They fled before their
aggressive foes, moving northward and eastward; so that in the course
of centuries they swept over a large part of the area now embraced by
Mexico and the United States.
The Gospel of salvation was taught and the fundamental ordinances
were administered among the Nephites; and the resurrected Lord, Jesus
Christ, ministered among them in Person, and declared them to be the
sheep of that other fold to which He had referred while preaching to
the Jews. See John 10:16.
About 420 A. D., the Nephites, having fallen into wickedness all the
more convicting because of their intellectual superiority, were utterly
destroyed as a nation by their hereditary enemies. The exterminating
conflict was fought in the vicinity of Palmyra, in the present State
of New York. The savage but victorious Lamanites have lived on as
the degraded race of red men, whom Columbus found in the land on the
occasion of his re-discovery of the Western Continent. Such is the
origin of the American Indians. They are of Israelitish descent,
belonging to the House of Joseph who was sold into Egypt.
From the time of Lehi's exodus from Jerusalem down to the end of
Nephite history, a circumstantial record was kept by scribes set apart
to the work. That record has been restored to human knowledge, and the
translated part has been given to the world as the Book of Mormon.
The announcement of such a discovery as that of the plates of Mormon,
and of such an achievement as the translation of the records into
English, could not fail to attract the attention of both layman and
scholar. But the announcement was treated with contempt and vigorous
denunciation.
The reason for this hostile rejection is found in the fact that
Joseph Smith, the translator, avowed that he had not accomplished the
marvelous work by his own or other human power alone, but that the
resting-place of the ancient plates had been revealed to him by an
angel, who appeared in light and glory, and announced himself as that
same Moroni who had sealed up and buried the inscribed plates over
fourteen centuries earlier. A further cause for the popular opposition
to the Book of Mormon lay in Joseph Smith's solemn testimony that
he had been empowered to make the translation through the direct
inspiration of God.
This avowal introduced the element of the supernatural. If Joseph Smith
spoke truly, miracles had not ceased, and direct revelation from God to
man was of modern certainty. Such a conception was wholly opposed by
theological theory and churchly dogma. And yet, why in reason should
direct revelation from the heavens be more of an improbability today
than in the centuries of long ago? Except as to the extent of the
writing, is the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon any more of a
marvel than the inspired reading of the mystic words by Daniel in the
midst of Belshazzar's riotous feast? (See Dan. 5:25-31). And surely
the means by which the writing was done appears far more mysterious in
the case of the Chaldean king than in the ordinary and human way of
engraving the Book of Mormon plates.
The Book of Mormon is before the world. It has been distributed by
millions of copies in English and other modern tongues. Let it be
understood that in no sense does the Book of Mormon profess to be a
substitute for the Holy Bible, or to be in any way related thereto
except as a parallel volume of Scripture. The Bible is essentially a
record of the dealings of God with His people of the East; the Book
of Mormon is an embodiment of Divine revelations to the people of the
West. So far as the two books touch common themes they are in harmony;
and in no particular are they contradictory of each other.
-- 36 --
BY THE MOUTH OF WITNESSES
Shall the Truth be Established