I am often amazed at the critics of The Book of Mormon,
especially those who claim they have read it and do not believe it. I do not
understand how anyone who has read such a spiritually charged book could
disclaim it. The only explanation I can come up with is this: “….when a man
speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it
unto the hearts of the children of men” (2 Nephi 33:1). Notice how Nephi says
the Holy Ghost carries the truth UNTO people’s hearts and not INTO. The message
can only ever penetrate the heart of the hearer if the hearer allows it. And because
of this “….there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit,
that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are
written and esteem them as things of naught” (v 2). In other words, you can lead
a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. (See also "Seek Learning by Faith by Elder David A. Bednar, Ensign Sept 2007, 61-68).
If you have ever had suspicions that an uneducated man
such as Joseph Smith, or anyone else, could have written “the full-blown history of an ancient
people, following them through all the trials, triumphs, and vicissitudes of a
thousand years without a break, telling how a civilization originated, rose to
momentary greatness, and passed away, giving due attention to every phase of
civilized history in a densely compact and rapidly moving story that
interweaves dozens of plots with an inexhaustible fertility of invention and an
uncanny consistency that is never caught in a slip or contradiction” (Collected
Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.7, Ch.6, pp.137, 138),
I offer the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland for consideration:
"[I only] say what so many have said before:
that if Joseph Smith–or anyone else, for that matter–created the Book of Mormon,
that to me is a far greater miracle than the proposition that he translated the
book from ancient records with an endowment of divine power to do so. Has
anyone here ever tried to write anything? Have you ever, with your degrees and
libraries and computers and research assistants, ever tried to write anything
anyone could stand to read? Even if you have, my guess is you haven’t succeeded
at writing anything anyone would read more than once, or say it changed their
lives, or say that were willing to leave family and fortune and future for–and
then do it.
You thought it was tough to have your
dissertation committee grill you for a couple of hours? How about tossing your
piece of work to the most hostile–and learned–of enemies for, say, 164 years
(just to pull a number out of the air). Go ahead. Put that terrific master’s
thesis of yours out there under a microscope for everyone to kick and gouge and
attack for a century or two, and let’s see how marvelous that
university-produced accomplishment of yours really was. After a little of that,
are you still standing by the divinity and immortality of your work? Is anybody
still reading it?
In light of all this, as it applies to the Book
of Mormon which is still changing human lives and still moving moral mountains,
and as one who has tried to write a line or two of both poetry and prose and
failed miserably, I want to meet the author of this work whoever it is. I want
to praise first hand such a remarkably gifted writer. Surely in 164 years there
must be someone willing to step forward– you know, the “real” author–claiming
credit for such a remarkable document and all that has transpired in its wake…..Well,
the simple fact of the matter is no other origin for the Book of Mormon has
ever come to light because there isn’t one. A bad man could not have fabricated
such an inspiring book and a good man would not have done so" (Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland, CES Symposium, BYU Marriott Center, 9 August 1994).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Mormon Abridging the Plates by Jon McNaughton)
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