By Jack H. West, 1954.
THE FIFTH CHARGE OF THE PROSECUTION WAS THAT IF THE BOOK WERE TRUE, IT WOULD NOT MAKE SO MANY RIDICULOUS STATEMENTS.
Our answer: Many statements that sounded ridiculous in 1830 have since been proven completely true. We testify to the world that every statement still remaining in this book which has not yet come to pass in prophecy, and that it will come to pass just as surely as dozens upon dozens of prophecies have already come to pass since 1830.
We have to go along with the prosecution just a little bit though on this charge. Imagine a book coming off the press in 1830 and making a fantastic statement that in the latter-days the greatest nation upon the face of the earth would be built upon this continent. A youngster on the street today would not think that was a fantastic or ridiculous statement, would he? He would say, “Why any one knows, even in the fifth grade, that that statement is true.” But in 1830 they were still calling the United States “that great and foolish American experiment.” Europe didn’t even give us the status of a nation. There was not a vestige of evidence in 1830 that there would be a nation on this continent greater than any nation upon the face of the earth. I’ll use this as just one example, “a land choice above all other lands.” We find the evidence of this statement not only in I Nephi 13:30, but also over in the record of the people of Jared – in Ether, 1:42-43, and 2:8, 10, 12.
Let us go back about 124 years and get a quick picture. Chicago was known as little Ft. Dearborn, way out in the Western frontier, with sixty five inhabitants, most of them military men who slept with their rifles within their reach for fear the savage Indians would scalp them in their sleep. We had only three miles of steam railway. We were so poor as a nation that the President and his cabinet had to borrow on their personal finances to pay the cost of government in the year 1830. In that year, many of our people went hungry because we did not raise enough food to feed them in this land that was supposed to be a choice land above all other lands.
Now let us get the comparison today in this land of the United States, with only 1/20th of the landed area of the world and only 1/16th of the population of the world. Even after World War I, we were producing 1/3 of all the coal, doing 1/3 of all the manufacturing of the earth, producing ½ of all the steel of the earth, 2/3 of the cotton, and 4/5 of the corn. We had ¼ of all the wealth of the earth, did 1/3 or all the banking, had ½ of all the railroads of the earth, and did ½ of all the printing in the earth. Chicago was not way out on the “western frontier” but in the eastern part of our nation. Its sixty five inhabitants had grown to over three million. We had over 350,000 miles of steam railway instead of three. The closest nation to us was over 200 billion dollars behind us in national wealth. We have just finished hitching our belts to feed a good part of the world with our surplus. Yet is was sixty eight long years after this prophecy was made in the Book of Mormon before we even stepped into fourth place among the nations of the earth – after the war with Spain; then in 1904, into second place after the Russo-Japanese agreement; and nearly one hundred years after the prophecy was made, after the war ended in 1917, before we stepped into first place as a nation of the earth. The statement that this was “a land choice above all other lands” sounded fantastic in 1830. Today we know it as absolutely true.
Now in our next session, we will show other “ridiculous statements” made by the Book of Mormon in the year 1830 coming true, with visual proof and with the evidence of the scientific men of the earth right before us. The external evidence is coming forth so fast that we cannot keep up with it.
The prosecuting attorneys brought up this point; we didn’t. They were the ones who said that the book makes ridiculous statements and in answer to that charge we gave endless evidence to the contrary.
THE SIXTH CHARGE OF THE PROSECUTION WAS IF THE BOOK OF MORMON WERE TRUE IT WOULD BE MORE POPULAR.
This was an accusation of a desperate prosecution. Remember the opposition attorneys were going down for the third time; they had tried everything they could think of to prove fraud in the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon, and there was no proof. The Book was and is true, authentic, and divine. Now they said that if the book were true, it would be more popular.
Our answer to that charge is twofold. First, what relationship does truth necessarily have with popularity? Many times because a thing is true it is unpopular. Isn’t that true? Then the second part of our answer was posed as a question, “How popular can a book get?” We used the terminology of the charge. There has never been a religious book come off the press which has outsold the Book of Mormon (Stick of Joseph) except its running mate, the Bible (Stick of Judah). That’s a fact! Other than the Bible, the Book of Mormon has topped all other religious books by an immense margin. Until the churches accepted the Standard Revised Version of the Bible, which gave great impetus to sales of the Bible, the Bibles was neither gaining greatly nor losing greatly in sales; it was somewhat static, but the Book of Mormon was gaining by leaps and bounds. The Book of Mormon is extremely popular with anyone who will read it with a real desire to know whether or not it is true.
As an evidence of the popularity of this great Book of Mormon in the world today and in times past, I would like to give an example of just one copy of the Book of Mormon, and how popular it became with a certain group of people.
You remember we introduced Samuel H. Smith as the first missionary for the Church. He had a rough time. He went from door to door, and ministers had advised their people ahead of time not to talk to the Mormon missionaries – that the book that they had was founded under the influence of Satan. So he thought that if he could get to one of the popular ministers of the day perhaps the minister would help him get into the homes of his people. He was sure that if he could get a minister to read the Book of Mormon, he would realize that it was not written under the influence of Satan. Samuel Smith tells of going to the home of Reverend John P. Green, a very well known Methodist minister, and Reverent Green was away from home, but Samuel talked to his wife. She said, “Oh no, I wouldn’t dare have the Book of Mormon in the house. I have heard of Joe Smith and his Gold Bible, and my husband says it was written under the influence of Satan.”
Well he gave up trying to sell the book to her, in face he was out of the gate about to leave, and then he said that he was deeply impressed to go back and give her a copy of the book. He went back and said, “Mrs. Green, I know you are a very intelligent person, and I know you do not mean to be unfair in any regard. Do you think it is quite fair to condemn a thing before you have even looked at it?”
It made her stop and think a minute and she said, “No, I guess that isn’t very fair.”
Then he turned to the tenth chapter of Moroni, the fourth verse to the beautiful words of Moroni, and veritable challenge to anyone who would receive the book to test its truth.
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would as God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye 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. (Moroni 10:4.)
Samuel told how Mrs. Green choked up and through her tears said, “That certainly doesn’t sound as if it were written under the influence of Satan, does it? She said, “I want to admit that I have wanted to read that book and if you care to leave it, I promise you I will.”
Samuel went back to this home a short time later, and again the Reverend was out amongst his people. Sam didn’t get to talk to him in person, but he said to Mrs. Green, “Did you read the Book?”
And she said, “Yes, and I believe every word of it.” “Well what does the Reverend think about it?” he asked.
She said, “Oh, I didn’t even dare tell him that I had it in the home because I knew it would just cause trouble.”
“Please Mrs. Green, I am pleading with you to get your husband to read that book, because I believe he can help us eliminate some of the prejudice in this area.” She finally agreed that she would do her best.
“One day in desperation,” Reverend Green testified later. “I grabbed that book out of my wife’s hand and said, ‘Give me that thing and I will show you in the very first two pages I open to, that it was written under the influence of Satan.’” But he was in trouble! He could not show that. He opened the two pages the he happened to turn to, and read them, and then he said, “I turned to the first of the book and I read the testimony of those witnesses, and then I went through the entire book, page by page, reading word by word. When it came time to eat, I didn’t want to eat; when it came to sleep, I wasn’t interested in sleep. I didn’t want to talk to anybody.
All I wanted to do was read.” And he testifies that he read the book from cover to cover before he ever laid it down.
Now he was completely converted by the power of conversion of the Book of Mormon itself. He resigned his position as Reverend in the Methodist church and brought a good many of his flock into the restored Church after he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Returning to the story of one copy of the Book of Mormon: Reverend Green handed the self-same book that had converted his wife and himself, to Phineas Young who was on one of the councils of the Methodist church, and he said to Phineas, “I don’t want to tell you anything about the book. Just read it and let me know what you think about it.” And the same thing happened to Phineas. He was converted, and he resigned from the Methodist group and joined the restored Church. Phineas handed it to his brother Brigham Young, and he said, “Brigham, I want you to read this book and let me know what you think about it.” Brigham read the book, and he was converted and later became one of the great presidents of the Church, following the Prophet Joseph Smith. Brigham gave it to his sister, Mrs. Murray, and she was converted. Her daughter later married Heber C. Kimball, as I recall. And then Brigham went to his sister and said, “Have you finished that book?” And she said, “Yes I have.” “Well, let me have it. I have some work to do with it.” He did not know his way around the Church as well as he later did, and he went on a mission up into Canada before he was even baptized into the restored Church. There he met his brother John, who was on a mission for the Methodist church, and he said to John, “John, here is a book. I want you to read it, and let me know what you think about it.” So John read the book, and he resigned his work as a missionary for the Methodist group and joined the Church. (See also History of the Prophet Joseph Smith, by Lucy Smith. Pp. 167-168.)
Now that is the story of one copy of the Book of Mormon and how popular it became with the people of the earth. There have been 55 English editions, 33 foreign editions, and it has been translated into many many tongues. It is extremely popular with anyone who will read it with real intent to know whether or not it is the world of God.
The charges will not stand up! The Book of Mormon is true, authentic and divine! May you have a strong and burning testimony of the truthfulness of this work, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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