Next Witness (eBook)

Chapter 1

In the Rough

For some, this might uncover additional insight into a book of scripture, the study of which has been a life-long passion, while for others, this will be the first glimpse of what can become a beautiful friendship. In either case and for anyone in between, I ask your permission to take you on what will at first seem to be an outing into the tall grass but assure you that it is a tour of the fairway. In other words, once you see it, you will not un-see it.

This message will enhance your understanding of some of the basic tenants that you may already hold close: Joseph Smith is the prophet through whom the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in this dispensation. The Restoration is ongoing through living prophets today. The Book of Mormon is true, plays a role in the restoration of the gospel, and strengthens our ability to receive and to understand the will of God.

Mormon, his son Moroni, and Nephi(1) were not only the primary abridgers of the record we know as The Book of Mormon, but that they were also editors: They each specifically compiled this record from the originally written history to produce a manual to teach a seer—who would translate this work—to be a prophet of God.

Most of us read The Book of Mormon as a chronicle of events, sifting its annals for the precious gems of doctrine and of example. In so doing, we often bump up against or skip over certain anomalies that don’t fit our idea of proper history. For example, Nephi including two visions of Lehi in the first 15 verses of his small plates, which were hearsay via Nephi and most certainly already contained in the lost 116 pages of manuscript referred to as the book of Lehi. We will recognize that items from the original historical record were hand-picked for use in the text and that those and many of the other “anomalies” are not inconsistencies at all, but that they verify that it is primarily a precisely-edited manual that is secondarily a history.

We will cover a lot of ground to demonstrate this. Here are a few of the highlights:

The purpose of the inclusion of the Isaiah chapters will be manifest. As I have come to understand why Nephi appreciated them, they have become some of my favorite studies.

We will discuss Brigham Young’s testimony in the presence of Joseph Smith that modern revelation was even more important than the scriptures that the saints had received. In other words, as important as The Book of Mormon and The Bible are, modern revelation surpasses them both. As an example: were this not the case, Mormon might have followed the precedent of Ether by hiding and protecting the records instead of rejoining and leading the doomed Nephite army.

We note biblical precedence for the preparation of Joseph Smith by the prophet-editors of The Book of Mormon: That the prophet Samuel called Saul to “prophesy among the prophets.”

How was Joseph Smith called to be a prophet of God? The several accounts of the First Vision (1832 account, 1835 account, 1838 account (which was canonized and now contained in The Pearl of Great Price), 1842 account and five known second-hand accounts do not mention specifically that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet. The records state simply that he was “called of God.”

Moroni then immediately specified his work as seer:

There were, however, some hints dropped about him becoming a prophet: From the record of the First Vision we read:

Which is not quoted in Joseph Smith’s History but reads in part:

(Now continuing Joseph Smith-History, v. 41:)

There are two ways to see this: The first way is that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God during the first vision, or during those first visitations of Moroni, and that this fact was either omitted from the records, or Joseph Smith was forbidden to mention it at that time. This alternative is suspect because Joseph Smith-History was recorded retrospectively in 1838 by the Prophet Joseph Smith, with—-especially then as prophet—no reason to withhold such an elemental detail.

The second is that Joseph Smith was formally extended the call as seer by the prophet Moroni, and that the calling of prophet was—if not received, at least recognized—later when Joseph Smith “took up…the mantle” (2 Kings 2:13) and acted as a prophet.

We will explore details that will indicate when this occurred.

The order of translation of The Book of Mormon is significant because this is the order in which particular concepts of receiving revelation were taught to Joseph Smith as he translated by the power of revelation. (See Doctrine and Covenants 8 & 9.) It is generally understood that Mosiah was translated first, then on through Moroni, then the small plates of Nephi were translated, ending with The Words of Mormon. This is noteworthy because of how they build on one another and how Joseph Smith responded to the later lessons. Also, the fact that the theme of the small plates of Nephi parallels the theme of Mormon’s abridgment sheds additional light on the reason that he found the things on those small plates “pleasing” to him and therefore included them at the end. (See Words of Mormon 1:3-7)

If it had not been clear to him before, Joseph Smith was taught early on that a seer is a revelator and also, a prophet.