In late 1985, Ezra Taft Benson was visiting his daughter in my stake when he became Prophet of the Church at the death of Spencer W Kimball. He spoke that Sunday at our Stake Conference in his first public address as Prophet.
When he got up, he started very haltingly, as if searching for words. He had a prepared sermon, which he later gave, but before he did so, he wanted to say something. He spoke slowly, then more clearly. He said, “I feel prompted to say that the Church has come under condemnation for not taking seriously the words of the Book of Mormon.” Then he gave a more or less prepared talk, the contents of which I have completely forgotten.
But I never will forget what he said. I believe that his statement was, and is true in all of its dimensions. I witnessed prophecy in the making.
But what followed in the ensuing months was not at all prophetic. Instead of focusing on what the Book of Mormon said, we became a church obsessed with using the Book of Mormon…as a missionary tool, as evidence of the truth of the church (because it’s an ancient record of course). Reading the book of mormon, over and over again, became the subject of goals. And to this day, the answer to all questions and doubts is to “read the Book of Mormon and pray.”
I think this is entirely missing the point of Benson’s prophetic declaration.
Let me be quite clear: I do not believe the Book of Mormon is a historical record. I tend to agree with B.H. Roberts in understanding that Joseph Smith had all the resources in his background to generate the narrative, and with Oliver Cowdery’s literate editing, they could produce the entire Book of Mormon.
So to use the Book of Mormon as a tool to prove the divinity of the Church is an exercise in futility. The evidences against historicity are so compelling that no non-mormon historian takes it seriously as a history. And in today’s internet age of free flow of information, to use it as a missionary tool *claiming it to be authentic history*, is in my opinion, in a word, foolish — not because it is or is not historical, but rather, it can be easily proven not to be so by worldly standards.
So if it isn’t a history, what is it?
Scripture.
Scripture for the Mormon people.
And yes, I distinguish the Mormon people from the “Church of Jesus Christ” — for the Church of Jesus Christ is much larger than the Mormon church. And the Book of Mormon is not written for the Church of Jesus Christ.
As I see it, the Book of Mormon is written by Mormons, for Mormons, about Mormons.
– When the Book of Mormon talks of “two churches only”, I sense that there is a message for us as LDS in this: we can — within our church — have both churches. One that is the gospel of Christ, the other is concerned about appearances and looking good. Do we “Teach for doctrine the commandments of men?” Have we created correlated statements of beliefs — creeds — that corrupt our ability to profess truth?
– When the Book of Mormon talks about a great and spacious building where the participants mock those making their way amidst the clouds of doubt and uncertainty, I sense it’s really talking about the implied arrogance of our members to sit in great and spacious conference centers, with seats doled out to those who are favored in the congregations, worshiping men in big red chairs whose talks are typically about how special we are and in their mischaracterization of the “world”, they mock those who are trying to make it in the midsts of darkness.
– When the book of Mormon speaks of King Men, who would pervert the laws of the land in order to install authoritarian leaders, I sit in awe of the significant majority of mormons who continue to support authoritarian national leaders regardless of how morally corrupt they may be.
– When the book of Mormon specifically condemns adding more things to the Doctrine of Christ beyond the first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism/rebirth, Holy Ghost as our constant companion, and enduring to the end — 3 Ne 11), then I wonder where all these extra requirements came from.
And especially,
– When the Book of Mormon speaks of Zoramites, those who wear their finest clothes to their churches, and get up on a stand telling how good they are and how grateful they are that they aren’t like others, while denying access to their temples because of poverty — whether spiritual in terms of not being “certain” in their beliefs, or financial to the point of incapable of paying tithing — then I wonder if we haven’t become Zoramites.
I believe that without knowing it, and without any conscious understanding of what he was doing, Joseph Smith revealed a document that outlines a message to Mormons today.
I thus can see it as an inspired work — Scripture for Mormons, We ought to heed it as a very important message for US as LDS to pay attention to its messages. We are both the Nephites and Lamanites. We are the Book of Mormon. And we need to pay attention to it. And not repeat its sins.
If the Nephites were the “Saints” and the Lamanites were the “Sinners”, we ought to contemplate who ultimately survived, and who ultimately killed themselves off.