You have either forgotten entirely that I have a blog or you have charitably noticed, but not mentioned, that I haven't posted anything in a month. I plan to remedy that, starting right now. I am going to enter some mini-blogs about the Book of Mormon. They are not designed to be scholarly, because I am not one, but they take from the work of scholars. In other words, these are more homey and personal -- yet profound because of the truths contained.
It is no accident that this comes 24 hours before I give a presentation on the Book of Mormon to our ward as a Friday Night Fireside. There is so much material about the Church, the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph that we just can't comprehend much of it! [E.g., "No man knows my history." That includes, by the way, Fawn Brodie who wrote a book about Joseph and took that quote as the title. That was the highlight folks, it was downhill after that. She also wrote a similarly wretched book about Thomas Jefferson which would have completely ruined her academic reputation if she hadn't relieved a lot of people's minds about Joseph Smith. Hugh Nibley wrote a riposte called "No Ma'am, That's Not History," which shreds Brodie's scurrilous book. I have a copy which can be borrowed with a promise of careful handling.]
So, blogette #1
'I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone to our religion, and that a man can get closer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book." This is a bold claim. Joseph Smith did not respond to the Lord's call to the prophet ship tentatively. He was, as we now like to say, "all in." If he was perpetrating a fraud, it was a bold one. If he was trying to pass off fantasy for fact, he was doing so with a flourish. many, assuming to know the answer before investigating, look high and low for explanations of this great revealed keystone of our religion -- everywhere but in the book itself. As one historian noted, tongue in cheek, the Book of Mormon is one book people don't need to read in order to have an opinion of it! So true!
How do we resolve the question? By taking the one course which will give us the answer and which, by the way is right in front of us. Read the book! Follow its precepts! See what happens! Stop wringing your hands (or your brains)! This is good doctrine. The Lord Himself explained this to reticent listeners in His day: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." [John 7:17) As my parents were wont to say, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
So quit looking for a replacement for the Spaulding Manuscript. That ship sailed over a 100 years ago.
We can apply all this in the micro as well as the macro sense. When we are troubled, when we are down, when we are spiritually confused, WHEN WE FEEL FAR FROM GOD, the answer is the same. Sup from the pages of the Book of Mormon, apply them to your life and you will feel the renewing spirit of God come back into your life. "I will not leave your comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:18)
