You can always know where the TRUTH and WISDOM are, because Satan will be fighting the hardest there.   I don’t know of another person in the last few centuries who Satan has fought against more vehemently than the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Satan tried to make Joseph’s life a hell on earth, but failed because Joseph knew the Lord and was tutored directly by Him.

Joseph Smith – Wisest In The Last Dispensation of Time

After reading the book, They Knew the Prophet; Personal Accounts from over 100 People who Knew Joseph Smith by Hyrum & Helen Andrus, I am convinced by it and from all my research that Joseph Smith is the wisest to live in this last Dispensation of Time.  Because he was tutored directly by God, everything he touched prospered.    Had Satan not fought against him so vehemently he could have been the richest man in America (p 139 of the above book) and could have been president of the United States (read the book, The Martyrdom Conspiracy), and would have freed the slaves without one of the bloodiest wars in history (the American Civil War).

The Savior gave us an absolute criterion on how to know if a prophet is true or false. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20) As we look at the fruits of the Prophet Joseph he shines as one of the brightest prophets who have ever lived.

Uniqueness of The Book of Mormon in the Lord’s Latter-day Work and proof of Joseph as a prophet

When Joseph gave the world the Book of Mormon, the Lord offered in it the potential to solve all the ills of society.  The Book of Mormon has baffled critics for nearly 200 years, and now it is being accepted because of the overwhelming evidence of its validity and its far-reaching spiritual capacity to bring us to Christ – even more powerfully than the Bible.

Both the translation and printing of the Book of Mormon were God orchestrated miracles. It is estimated that Joseph spent about 65 days translating from two unknown languages (Demonic Egyptian and Reformed Egyptian) at about two words per minute. He had to spell many of them for the scribe because they were unique to the Book of Mormon people. Demotic Egyptian was spoken in 600 B.C. when Nephi was the scribe. A thousand years later Mormon wrote is abridgement in what is called Reformed Egyptian.

It should have taken at least 17 1/2 months to print and bind the first 5,000 copies; it was done in the Lord’s compressed time from of six months. Furthermore, The Lord instructed Joseph to have it printed in the Divine Ratio or Golden Mean.

Now over 90% of the leading American scientists believe the Bible is a myth.   Amazingly, Joseph in Egypt prophesied this would happen, as quoted by Lehi, and he proclaims the Book of Mormon would come forth to re-validate the Bible in our day (2 Nephi 3:11).  The Prophet Nephi gave a similar prophecy. (1 Nephi 13:38-41).

The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible has been shown to be the most accurate English translation, but still there are many miss-understood statements, and the Book of Mormon gives great clarification, insights, especially into the Lord’s infinite atonement.  Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible (JST), which the Lord commanded him to do, adds greatly to our understanding as well. Now David Hocking has provided the “Annotated Edition of the Joseph Smith Translation of the New Testament,” which is a great contribution.

James Palmer, who knew the Prophet Joseph Smith well, quotes Joseph saying, “I did translate the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, and it is before the world; and all the powers of earth and hell can never rob me of the honor of it.” (p 150 of They Knew the Prophet) In summary, Joseph has done more to further the work of the Lord than any other person who has ever lived except the Savior Himself. (Doctrine & Covenants 135:3)

Harold Bloom in his book, The American Religion, called Joseph Smith “an authentic religious genius unique in our national history,” with “insight [that] could have come only from a remarkably apt reading of the Bible… So strong was this act of reading that it broke through all the orthodoxies — Protestant, Catholic, Judaic — and found its way back to elements that Smith rightly intuited had been censored out of the stories of the archaic Jewish religion.”  Bloom misses the major point that Joseph Smith was tutored directly by God.  What could be better?  And the fruits of his labors show it.  The Savior said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Mathew 7:20)

In the above Mathew scripture, the Savior gives logically, both a necessary and sufficient condition to know a prophet is from God, and the profound number of Joseph’s prophecies validate him as such.  Consider the not well-known prophecy that the saints would only be seven years in Nauvoo, Ill, then the “will go into the Rocky Mountains, right into the midst of the Lamanites [the native American Indians]. (p 62 They Knew the Prophet)  And the Prophet exclaimed, “Oh the beauty of those snow-capped mountains!  The cool refreshing streams that are running down through those mountain gorges!” (p 104, They Knew the Prophet)

Three unique phrases tying to the Adamic Language

The KJV, as the most accurate English translation, has done more good for the world than any other book:  I believe the Lord inspired Joseph to nominally use King James English in his revelations and translations work to give Divine signature to it all.

In the KJV and the scriptures coming forth from the Prophet Joseph Smith, there are 1800 occurrences of the three phrases, “And it came to pass,” “And now it came to pass,” and “And it shall come to pass,” that I have identified in these scriptures that they tie back to the Adamic language and correspond to the Lord’s definition of truth (D&C 93:24), as I shared in the previous link and again here:

The phrase, “And now it came to pass” occurs uniquely in the BoM 104 times.  From the ancient Hebrew kabala and gematria the phrases “And it came to pass,” ties to EL (God) and significant past events, and the phrase “And it shall come to pass” ties to Jehovah and important future events.  The distribution of these three phrases in their 1800 occurrences in our standard works is a direct manifestation of divine signature.  Who uses them, how they are used, and where they are used is a direct validation of all the scriptures.

The Works of Robert Kay

Robert Kay, who as a Jew, was trained in the language of the Jews, discovered the Book of Mormon when he was fifteen.  He immediately recognized the Hebraisms in the book.  He studied the book for three years and then joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Later he wrote a three-volume set, Voices from the Dust, which profoundly illustrates these Hebraisms.  I am on my fifth reading of this three volume set and have gained much in doing so.  The above link is for Volume 1.  Volume 2 and 3 are available on Amazon.com as well.  Rob sells them at his cost.  Rob has an amazing conversion experience and gave me permission to share it.

Rob used the 1840 version of the Book of Mormon, the last one the Prophet edited before he was martyred, to illustrate the Hebraisms in his three-volume set, Voices from the Dust.   Rob and I discussed how the Hebrew doesn’t have punctuation and that the above three phrases often begin each of his sections, as he ties it to the ancient Hebrew format.  The Hebraisms he shares are so insightful and fascinating and give a different dimension of understanding of this incredible record, the Book of Mormon, as a second witness companion with the Bible to help bring the world to Christ.

Critics of the Book of Mormon often say that Joseph plagiarizes the Bible.  The shallowness of their claims are refuted by Rob Kay’s work, and by the ancient phrases that tie to the Kabbalah and to the Adamic language as I shared above and as explained in more detail in this link. Jonathan Neville’s book, Infinite Goodness, Joseph Smith, Jonathan Edwards, and the Book of Mormon, also clearly refutes these plagiarism accusations.

Hebrew Midrash Magnification

I find it interesting that of the 425 verses of Isaiah scriptures in the Book of Mormon, more than half of them are different, and in some cases those differences are far reaching.  The further astounding dimension of the inclusion of these scriptures is that the prophet or the Savior, who is citing these scriptures is doing it for our benefit and expanding the meaning of them by using the ancient Hebrew Midrash magnification technique, so that their great importance for our day can be appreciated.  For me commonality between religious writers only validates that they are all listening to the same Spirit.

Accomplishments of the Prophet Joseph Smith

The accomplishments of the Prophet Joseph in his short 38 ½ years seem humanly impossible.  Indeed, they would be except that the Lord was with him.  The Lord showed Joseph much more than he was able to share, but even so I expect that Joseph did not comprehend at the time the enormity of what he was bringing forth to the world.  As an example, I have found a hidden book of scriptures in our scriptures in the phrase, “And it shall come to pass,” waiting for someone under inspiration to pull it out.  I made my limited attempt in this 34 page PDF article.  There are some really exciting insights one can gain as you go through these scriptures, and I am guessing Joseph didn’t have a clue how significant the phrase, “And it shall come to pass” would be in the revelations and translations he brought to the world.

It is fascinating that the Savior uses this phrase “And it shall come to pass” seven times (the number of perfection or completion) in the last part of Third Nephi where He is talking to us today.  I share these seven occurrences and their detailed relevance for our day in a lecture that I gave at the Book of Mormon Conference  on  27, September 2019.

In The Age Of Enlightenment – Follow His Counsel

I believe Joseph is pleased with the enormous ramifications and the ongoing rippling effects of what he has shared with the world.  It is like we are living in the shadow of “the stone… cut out of the mountain without hands [by God]” (Daniel 2:45) that “shall role forth, until it has filled the whole earth.” (Doctrine and Covenants 65:2).  Joseph Smith’s whole mission – especially including the translation of the Book of Mormon – was and is to bring us to Christ – to know the true Redeemer and our Beloved Father-in-heaven.  To know them is Eternal Life (John 17:3) – the greatest of all the gifts of God (D&C 14:7) – and Joseph has shown us the way.  His great mission began when he saw the Father and the Son, as prophesied by Enoch, and like as Stephen saw just before his martyrdom. (Acts 7:54-56)

David W Allan

updated 18 November 2024