The Law of Witnesses
and the Book of Mormon

 

© Copyright 1999-04 by Richard G. Grant.
Free use is granted, with attribution, for any non-pecuniary purposes.

 

Witnesses Promised – 2 Nephi 11:3

"Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word.
Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he proveth all his words."

This is the law of witnesses. While faith and the testimony of the Spirit will always be THE way to know of the truth of the Book of Mormon, the Lord has not left us without many witnesses.

And We Have Received Many Witnesses

He has even said that he will prove his words. Has the Book of Mormon been proven by witnesses that the Lord has provided? Well, proof is really a somewhat illusive and arbitrary thing. Even proof requires an open mind, a willingness to look at the evidence, a willingness to weigh that evidence, a willingness to consider possible that conclusion towards which the evidence points. That Joseph Smith, or anyone else in the early nineteenth, could not be the author of the Book of Mormon is today easily demonstrated. That God is the author of the Book of Mormon, or any other book, can never be proved. Thus, faith and the Spirit must ever remain as the sole source of true testimony – but God has sent MANY WITNESSES.

Witnesses increase credibility. Witnesses may open a doubtful heart. Witnesses may silence the scoffing critic. Witnesses may also condemn those who reject the word of the Lord! Christ warned, "If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23) And Isaiah declared, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20) But, none has said it plainer than Nephi:

"And if they [his teachings in the Book of Mormon] are not the words of Christ, judge ye – for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day [there will be many evidences and God will prove his word]; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.

"And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.

"And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come.

"And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God,s behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.

"For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen." (2 Nephi 33:11-15)

The Three and Eight Were a Beginning

Joseph was promised that there would be witnesses – even three special witnesses:

"And behold, ye may be privileged that ye may show the plates unto those who shall assist to bring forth this work;

"And unto three shall they be shown by the power of God; wherefore they shall know of a surety that these things are true.

"And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record – and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day" (Ether 5:2-4).

Three witnesses who who see the Book of Mormon Plates by the power of God, "as a testimony against the world at the last day." These were three special witnesses. The Lord knew them – he knew their strengths and their weaknesses. Their weakness brought each in to open conflict with Joseph Smith.

  • Martin was excommunicated and returned – he never denied his testimony
  • Oliver was excommunicated and returned – he never denied his testimony
  • David was excommunicated and did not return – he never denied his testimony

And There Are Many Other External Witnesses

Central American Archaeology

Arabian Peninsula Archaeology

Contemporary Records

 

The Most Significant Evidences are Internal

Lehi in the Desert    go to Lehi in the Desert

The World of the Jaredites    go to World of the Jaredites

A Unique and New World View   

Orson Scott Card is considered by many to be America's, if not the world's, premiere science fiction writer. He is also a Latter-day Saint, and he has gone to the Book of Mormon for the themes for many of his most popular works. In The Book of Mormon, Artifact or Artifice?, he examines the world's thesis that the Book of Mormon is no more than a clever fiction (science fiction), written by Joseph Smith, or some other contemporary. His conclusion is that it would not be possible for the greatest of science fiction writers to have produced the Book of Mormon in 1830. He points out that the author of the book just does too well what no fiction writer can do: it presents a unique and new world view, and presents that view without fanfare, without explanation, and without conscious attention. He described that new world as if it were familiar to himself and his readers. More than that, his descriptions of social customs, political relationships, and military operations, are described exactly like you would expect them to be described by a contemporary who would just assume that this is the way everybody does these things. This unique world view includes customs and practices in the following areas which certainly do not have their roots in 1830 Upstate New York.

       

male/female relationships

       

social classes

husband/wife relationship

  

politics

employment relationships

  

government

kinds of employment

  

religion

a consistent geography

  

warfare

a consistent calendar

  

economics

The Book of Mormon uses names the way a contemporary would, and describes its culture the way a contemporary would speak of their culture. The unique cultural anomalies of 1830 are absent. Of greatest interest is the subtle things that at first appear to be errors. The book refers to horses where there were no horses; it gives Jerusalem as the birth place of Christ, when every school child in 1830 would have known it should be Bethlehem; it describes a social system in which there is no mention of trades and warfare in which cities are quickly built for defense rather than the forts of frontier America.

Read for yourself what Orson Scott Card had to say
in this most interesting and illuminating article:

The Book of Mormon, Artifact or Artifice?
   go to "Artifact or Artifice"

Verifiable Factual Consistencies

Correct Use of Language and Expressions

Complex Literary Structures

The Collected Works of Many Different Authors

  • Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki

    While most of the Book of Mormon is given to us in the carefully edited phrases of Mormon's abridgement, in that translation taken from the small plates we have the opportunity for a first person association with the authors. Even there, Nephi's careful editing of First Nephi gives us perhaps more of a plastic character than the real Nephi we encounter in 2 Nephi 4:17-35. With out question the dominant personality of this record is Nephi. Yet, the personalities of other contributors may be less ambiguously drawn.

    From Jacob's first "Behold, my beloved brethren" (2 Nephi 6:2), we know that we are reading words spoken by a tender spirit. Neal Maxwell calls Jacob the "great poet prophet," and all readers are moved by his sensitivity and empathy for the challenges of women. Jacob is a teacher. Robert Matthews calls him "the outstanding doctrinal teacher of the Book of Mormon." He makes clear his discomfort with confrontation; yet, because he is "weighed down with . . . desire and anxiety for the welfare" of his people, he must speak boldly and testify "concerning the wickedness of [their] hearts." No reader would confuse Nephi and Jacob. The contribution of each to this historical record is clear and consistent with their plainly identifiable personalities.

    The last three books of the small plates record occupy little more than seven pages in our current Book of Mormon publication. On those seven pages we meet seven writers. Their words are few; for some, very few. Yet, it's remarkable how much these few words reveal about their authors. What they say, and what they don't say, draws them so clearly that Robert Thomas can say that "I feel I might recognize them on the street."

    This is my introduction to a study of the last seven contributors to Nephi's Small Plates.

     

    Enos, Jarom, Omni: A Window On Their Souls
       go to "Enos, Jarom, Omni: A Window On Their Souls"

  • The distribution of chiasms

  • Word prints

Even the Testimony of Earthquakes   go to World of the Jaredites

 

The Book of Mormon Witness of Christ

Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah

Zenos and the Brass Plates

And Christ himself    go to World of the Jaredites

The Book of Mormon Witness of the Bible    go to World of the Jaredites