By Jack H. West, 1954.
Now to the trial. We can try to visualize the various witnesses of the Book of Mormon as they offer their testimonies.
First of all, in personal witnesses, I called Joseph Smith the Prophet. Without him, the very key witness in our case, we have no case. If his testimony will not stand up, then none of it will. And if his testimony will stand up, we have a marvelous foundation for the balance of the testimonies.
Remember, the prophet Joseph was renowned as a wrestler, had a marvelous physique, and was a fine looking fellow. We can’t call Joseph Smith back in person, but we can call his words back.
Do you know that Joseph Smith, according to the testimony of Brigham Young and others, was a party to over fifty law suits? In searching I found only twenty-seven. I say only twenty-seven, but that would be a lot for any one of us. I found, however, several places where court records had been destroyed by fire or by vandalism or by mob. Undoubtedly the statement that Joseph Smith was a party to a law case in over fifty suits is true. We can get his testimony, sworn under oath, from these cases. We also have his written testimony, and the testimony of those who were present when he made certain statements. And so we go to his testimony now to set up the evidences as to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith’s story was simple, and it was straightforward. The things implied were rather amazing, but still his story was simple. To what did he testify? Turning to his own words in what we have called The Writing of Joseph Smith, a part of the Pearl of Great Price, we find that he begins by telling us that his home area, nearby Manchester or Palmyra, in New York state, a religious revival took place. The Smith family had been living on what may be considered a western frontier in that day. There were just scattered farms and not enough families in many cases to organize official church groups. But more and more families came into this area, and several church ministers decided they would put on a “combined revival”, as we call it today. The decision of the ministers, according to Joseph Smith’s testimony, was that regardless of what church the various converts responded to, the clergymen would not get angry with each other. The Prophet said it all started in a very friendly way, but soon the revival program became filled with animosity. One minister would shout, “Here is Christ,” and another minister, “Here and here only is the true Christ.” Then a third one, “They are both wrong – here is the only place you will find a true Christ.”
Now Joseph had a real problem. Put yourself in his position. Suppose your mother and your sister and a couple of brothers had been proselyted by and had joined the Presbyterian church. Suppose your father thought that this could not possibly be the true church and was about to join a second group of Christians.
Now here is the crux in Joseph Smith’s problem. His mother, sister, and two brothers had joined one church, and his father was about to join a second. But he, Joseph, though less than fifteen years of age at this time was a deep thinker and had a mind of his own, and he believed that neither of the two churches in question was the true church. He had been used to hearing the scriptures read almost every day in their home. And so, though he testified that he’d never even approached the eighth grade, after the learning of men, Joseph was quite well educated in the Bible. In the testimony of the Prophet, he was leaning toward a third church and was about to join with a Methodist group because he had a very dear friend who was the minister of the Methodist church in that area.
Then Joseph Smith stopped to think and said, “This just can’t be right. They all believe the same Bible, apparently, but they don’t teach the same things. They interpret the same passages so differently from one another as church groups that I can’t see any possibility of their getting together.” So he said, “What’s to be done? Which is the right church? Which church should I join?” And then he testified that he was reading in the writings of James, and a passage which so impressed him that the words seemed to stand right out from the page of the book –
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (James 1:5.)
“Surely that is my answer,” he said. So he went out into the woods close by his home and for the first time offered a vocal prayer to his Heavenly Father. He asked a very simple question. “Which church shall I join?” And he asked it with perfect faith, believing to his very core that he would receive an answer. Then he testified that a spirit of darkness attacked him. He described it as a power of darkness, and although exceedingly strong even at this youthful age, he wrestled physically with this power and was just about to give up in despair when suddenly a light began to appear over his head, finally becoming greater than the brilliance of the noonday sun. Upon appearance of the light, the spirit of darkness, this power that had had hold of him and found his tongue, left him. He said he saw two personages standing above him in the air in a shaft of brilliant light, one standing slightly behind the other. “Joseph,” One of them said, and then pointed to the second personage, “This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personage who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right – and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; [This was a rather surprising thing and yet surely he had thought of that possibility, for he had said to himself before he went into the woods to pray, “Could it be possible that they are all wrong together; that none of them is the true church of Jesus Christ?”] and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, having a form of Godliness, but they deny the power thereof. (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:18-19.)
And Joseph Smith was told many other things including how this drifting away from faith took place from the time following the original teachings of Christ, until the falling away was finally so complete that Christ himself wouldn’t recognize the conglomerate teachings of the many christian religions, all claiming to believe the Bible, yet none which taught identically the same doctrines.
Now the boy Prophet had his answer, and the statement came to him, you recall, that if he were faithful, he would be the instrument in the hands of God in restoring the true gospel to the earth.
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