By Jack H. West, 1954.
Let us read a quotation from DeRoo on page 65 of the book. Then we’ll read a statement of Kingsborough, the granddaddy of the archaeological group, quoted and requoted perhaps more than any other archaeologist. De Roo says:
The Indian narrated to him how, long ago, the Otomis were in possession of a book, handed down from father to son and guarded by persons of importance whose duty it was to explain it… For the sake of reverence, they did not turn the leaves with their hands, but with a tiny stick kept along with the book for that purpose. The friar having asked the Indian what the contents of the volume were and its teachings, the old man could not give the details, but said that, were it in existence yet, it would be evident that the teachings of that book and the preaching of the friar were one and the same. [Now note this interesting piece of evidence.] But the venerable heirloom had perished in the ground, where its guardians had buried it.
Yes, of course, they had a record similar to the Old Testament.
Now on page 18, a quote from Kingsborough:
I cannot fail to remark that one of the arguments which persuades me to believe that this nation descends from the Hebrews is to see the knowledge that they have of the book of Genesis.
In another treatise Kingsborough, also on page 18, tells us about the Borgian Manuscript, found way out in the jungle country buried under centuries of debris, with no possible chance that it could have been tampered with by modern-day man.
A very remarkable representation of the ten plagues which God sent on Egypt occurs in the eleventh and twelfth pages of the Borgian Manuscript. Moses is there painted, holding up in his left hand his rod, which becomes a serpent; and, with a furious gesture, calling down the plagues upon the Egyptians. These plagues were frogs, locusts, lice, flies, etc. ,all of which are represented in the pages referred to; but the last and most dreadful were the thick darkness which overspread Egypt for three days, and the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians…
Where did these people get these ideas if they had not had some record of the Old Testament events and peoples?
The Book of Mormon makes another amazing claim: Jesus Christ appeared on this continent after his crucifixion and resurrection on the old continent. Let us turn to 3 Nephi, chapter 11. Oh, I wish that we had someone with the talent of Grauman. Some of you may have seen, in times of the past, Grauman’s prologue in Hollywood. If you saw the one of King of Kings, I know that you will remember it all the days of your life. Someone needs to depict this event—one of the most marvelous things that has ever happened on the earth—the coming of Jesus Christ to this continent. Remember the background, three hours of terrible destruction while the prophets testified Christ was being crucified on the old continent. Then the three days and nights of darkness, the darkness so dense and damp that they could not light any kind of fire. Then came the quietude in which they did not dare to speak to each other.
A long period of unknown length followed, then a voice came out of the heavens. The third time they heard the voice, they understood some words. Let us in fact go to the Book of Mormon:
Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.
And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel which had appeared unto them.
And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. (3 Nephi 11:7-10.)
Two thousand five hundred people saw Him descending out of heaven.
…and the eyes of the whole multitude were upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them. (3 Nephi 11:8)
Then this personage identified himself, “Behold I am Jesus Christ whom the prophets testified should come into the world.” (Ibid. , 11:10.) And then he invited them to come forth and thrust their hands into his side and feel the prints of the nails in his hands and feet,”… that you may know that I am the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.” (see Ibid. :14.) And then, one by one, all the men, women, and children did go and “did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands and did bear record, and it was He, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.” (see Ibid. :15.) And these people did testify of this event from generation to generation that the God of Israel of whom their prophets had testified did come to them.
To my knowledge and from all that I have read, you just cannot find a tribe of Indians today which does not have the legend among their people of the Great White God who was the Son of God, who came to live with their ancient people and taught them his beautiful gospel.
And yet in the year 1830, when this statement was read in the Book of Mormon – that Christ had been here amongst these people—again the LDS people heard the opposing churches shout, “Blasphemy.” The churches said, “Do you mean to tell us that the Son of God himself came to these savages?” All that the Latter-Day Saint people could say in 1830, was, “Well, that is what the book says, and we have confidence and faith in that book.” They could not have proven it with the existing evidence, but today the evidence is complete.
Last fall my wife (mother of my six children) and I went on a honeymoon to end all honeymoons. We went down through all of the South American and Central American countries, visiting every island of the Caribbean Sea enroute, in and out of twenty-nine nations, and covered 38,500 miles. We had an excuse to go on this trip because our son, Jack, Jr. , was just getting off his mission in Brazil, and we had promised to meet him in Rio de Janeiro.
I had wanted to go through all the major ancient ruins down there to get additional colored pictures and to have a good vacation at the same time. Boy, were we having fun! But when we arrived in Brazil, the honeymoon was over. I just thought I was on vacation. When we arrived in Rio and met my son, he had Book of Mormon lecture engagements for me all over South America. The vacation ended very abruptly.
In attempting to cover a little bit of the material we had covered in the “Trial of the Stick of Joseph,” for those people in South and Central America, we combined three lectures into one and called it: Christ Came to the Americas.” We found the people completely captivated with the idea that Jesus Christ had been amongst the people in early times on this continent, and they were amazed! Then, as we got deeper and deeper into this Indian country, we found no consternation whatsoever, because the Indians knew that Christ had been among their forefathers and had taught their people his beautiful gospel.
But this idea of Christ’s ministry in America did cause many of the other church groups great alarm in the year 1830, when they found the Book of Mormon claiming that Jesus Christ had lived with people here , had taught them his gospel, and had indeed set up His church and appointed twelve disciples to follow up with the work on this continent.
Now let us turn to The Americas Before Columbus, page 36, and quote Kingsborough:
The legendary Christ of America performed miracles and taught Christian doctrines. Rosales’ History of Chile declares, “A wonder man had come to that country,, who performed many miracles, cured the sick with water, kindled fire at a breath, caused it to rain and their crops and grain to grow, healing at once the sick, giving sight to the blind.”
Another quote from Kingsborough , on this same page:
The Aztecs have a tradition of a God suffering and crucified named Quetzalcoatl, and of one preceding Him to prepare the way and call them to repentance. Tezcaltlipoca offered Him a cup, calling Him ‘My son,’ of His unwillingness to taste and weeping bitterly after having drunk its contents; forsaking temporal kingdoms for spiritual, being called away by the Father. At His departure there were four earthquakes. He promised to return again and redeem His people.
Have you ever stopped to think why it was that Cortez and a mere handful of people were able to subjugate millions of Indians? Have you ever wondered why he was able to write his very name in blood all across the face of Mexico? I have some of the personal writings of the first bishop of Chiapas. He says that as he writes, tears are in his eyes, and he tells us, “Up to my time alone, in this area alone, Cortez has murdered in cold blood over fifteen million Indians, because they refused to accept a form of Christianity which they say is even less perfect than their own, and yet they know they have degenerated from the original. “
Now why did the Indians allow such destruction? I know an Indian chief very personally who is a direct descendent of Montezuma, and he has some of the personal writings of Montezuma. In there it is made very clear that the Indians could have snuffed out Cortez any time they wanted, until he turned Indian tribe against Indian tribe or Indian against Indian. Why then did they let him live? Why did they let him commit such atrocities? Because they believed he was the White God returning, even as their forefathers had been promised he would return to them! Finally I asked the old Indian out there in Yucatan, “Were not there any of the Indian people who finally believed he could not possibly be a God, and do the terrible things he did to your people?” He said, “Yes, many finally believed he could not possibly be a God, but they also had the legend from their ancient people that a White race had to conquer us before our true religion would come back to us again.” And so even those who finally believed that he was not the returning White God would not turn against him, knowing they had to be conquered by a white race of people. They knew the God of their forefathers would come back, and their true religion would come back prior to His coming.
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