The Lord is in the details of our lives. The printing of the Book of Mormon was truly a miracle. The details of the life of Gordon L. Weight, who died in 2004 at the age of 72, is another case in point. He wrote the booklet, “Miracle on Palmyra’s Main Street,” the year before he died.
Gordon is probably the only person on the planet that could have written with authenticity this booklet with subtitle, “An ‘Old-Time’ Printer’s Perspective on Printing the Original Copies of the Book of Mormon.”
The Book of Mormon has been criticized and praised for nearly 200 years. Now it is well recognized by many non-LDS scholars and religious leaders. Many Jews have come to know the true Messiah by reading the Book of Mormon. My good friend, Rob Kay, when he was fifteen years old picked up the book and immediately recognized it as a Hebrew document. He gave me permission to share his conversion story.
We have the book physically before us. What Gordon Wright has done is to show in its first printing we have a documented miracle. It would have been impossible for it to be printed as it was without “Divine assistance” – thus showing this second witness for Christ – companion to the Bible – was brought forth with God’s help because of its great importance in preparation for the coming of our Lord.
For example, Joseph specified both the kind of type and the kind of paper for the Book of Mormon, but the printer had neither or access to same, but they were provided miraculously. The massive amount of ink for the printing of the 5,000 copies was also miraculously provided. Brother Weight, who had the expertise to say so, estimates a minimum of 22 ½ months to print and bind these 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon, and Grandin Press had other printing responsibilities in addition – a newspaper and other customer jobs.
Yet the 5,000 printed copies were ready in time for the Lord to organize His Church on the 6th of April 1830. They were printed and bound in a little over 6 months – a clear documented miracle. It is like what George Washington said when we should not have won the Revolutionary War, but we did. He summarized it in two words, “Divine intervention.” This is like water into wine at Cana of Galilee. (John 2)
I was pondering these miracles in the early morning hours of the Vernal Equinox (20 March 2017, 4:28 AM MST), and had the impression that the dimensions of this first printing were in the Divine ratio or Golden Mean = 1.618… Having a replica of these, I got up and measured it. It was exact. Another fingerprint of the Lord. I have found no other book in our library with these exact dimensions and we have well over two thousand books.
Copies of Gordon’s booklet on the Book of Mormon miracle can be obtained from Dorotha Wright: 4649 S. 345 E. Murray, UT 84107, (801) 262-9290 or palmyramainstreet@gmail.com.
Faithfully yours,
David W. Allan