BLOOD ATONEMENT: The Views of Brigham Young and His Colleagues

 

BLOOD ATONEMENT: The Views of Brigham Young and His Colleagues

  February 7, 1852 - Governor Brigham Young address before Utah Territory assembly, about slavery: 

Let me consent to day to mingle my seed with the seed of Cane. It would bring the same curse upon me as it would upon any man. And if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward & have his head Cut off & spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his children. (Wilford Woodruff's Journal)

 

An address delivered by Young in the Tabernacle, March 27, 1853:

 

I will tell you a dream that I had last night. I dreamed that I was in the midst of a people who were dressed in rags and tatters, they had turbans upon their heads, and these were also hanging in tatters. The rags were of many colors, and when the people moved, they were all in motion. Their object in this appeared to be, to attract attention. Said they to me, "We are Mormons, brother Brigham." "No you are not," I replied. "But we have been, said they, and they began to jump, and caper about, and dance, and their rags of many colors were all in motion, to attract the attention of the people. I said, "You are no Saints, you are a disgrace to them." Said they, "We have been Mormons." By and bye, along came some mobocrats, and they greeted them with, "How do you do, sir, I am happy to see you."  They kept on that way for an hour. I felt ashamed of them, for they were in my eyes a disgrace to "Mormonism." Then I saw two ruffians, whom I knew to be mobbers and murderers, and they crept into a bed, where one of my wives and children were. I said, "You that call yourselves brethren, tell me, is this the fashion among you?" They said, "O, they are good men, they are gentlemen." With that, I took my large bowie knife, that I used to wear in a bosom pin in Nauvoo, and cut one of their throats from ear to ear, saying, "Go to hell across lots." The other one said, "You dare not serve me so." I instantly sprang at him, seizing him by the hair of the head, and, bringing him down, cut his throat, and sent him after his comrade; then told them both, if they would behave themselves they should yet live, but if they did not, I would un-joint their necks. At this I awoke.

I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will un-sheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.] Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. [Voices generally, "go it, go it."] If you say it is right raise your hands. [All hands up] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work. (Journal; of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 83)

 

Discourse by Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, March 16, 1856:

 

I mention this to inform the people, that they may understand what they should do with regard to the law of God, and the transgression thereof. ...

You say, "That man ought to die for transgressing the law of God. Let me suppose a case. Suppose you found your brother in bed with your wife, and put a javelin through both of them. You would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God. I would at once do so in such a case; and under such circumstances, I have no wife whom I love so well that I would not put a javelin through her heart, and I would do it with clean hands. ...

There is not a man or woman, who violates the covenants made with their God, that will not be required to pay the debt. The blood of Christ will never wipe that out; your own blood must atone for it.  (Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 247)

 

Discourse by Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, February 8, 1857:

 

And I will say that the time will come, and is now nigh at hand, when those who profess our faith, if they are guilty of what some of this people are guilty of, will find the axe laid at the root of the tree, and they will be hewn down. What has been must be again, for the Lord is coming to restore all things. The time has been in Israel under the law of God, the celestial law, or that which pertains to the celestial law, for it is one of the laws of that kingdom where our Father dwells, that if a man was found guilty of adultery, he must have his blood shed, and that is near at hand. But now I say, in the name of the Lord, that if this people will sin no more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them without taking life....

Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellence of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, "shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?"

"All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?

"That is what Jesus Christ meant. He never told a man or woman go love their enemies in their wickedness, never. He never intended any such thing; his language is left as it is for those go read who have the Spirit go discern between truth and error; it was so left for those who can discern the things of God. Jesus Christ never meant that we should love a man in his wickedness.

"I could refer you go plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil, until our elder brother Jesus Christ raises them up - conquers death, hell, and the grave. I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.

"This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary go spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 219-220)

 

Discourse by Young in the Tabernacle, May 8, 1853:

 

"If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit another iniquity. That is what I expect I shall do, though never, in the days of my life, have I hurt a man with the palm of my hand. I never have hurt any person any other way except with this unruly member, my tongue. Notwithstanding this, if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should be very apt to send him straight home, and that is what I wish every man go do, to put a stop go that abominable practice in the midst of the people." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, pp. 108-9)

 

Discourse by Young in the Bowery, September 21, 1856:

 

"I do know that there are sins committed, of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. And furthermore, I know that there are transgressors, who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further; I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins.

"It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit. As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day; and though the principles are taught publicly from this stand, still the people do not understand them; yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man. That is the reason why men talk to you as they do from this stand; they understand the doctrine and throw out a few words about it. You have been taught that doctrine but do not understand it." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 53-4. Also published in the Deseret News, 1856, page 235)

"I preached on the condition of the Camp of Israel ... and warned those who lied and stole and followed Israel that they would have their heads cut off, for that was the law of God and it should be executed." (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, December 20, 1846)

"We investigated several orders purporting to be drawn by J. Allen, Lieut. Col., signed by James Pollick; which I requested should be burned. I swore by the Eternal Gods that if men in our midst would not stop this cursed work of stealing and counterfeiting their throats should be cut." (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, December 20, 1846)

"... At the same time my feelings are these - the best way to sanctify ourselves, and please God our heavenly Father in these days, is to rid ourselves of every thief; and sanctify the people from every vile character. I believe it is right; it is the law and practice of our neighboring state to put the same thing in execution upon men who violate the law, and trample upon the sacred rights of others. It would have a tendency to place a terror on those who leave these parts, that may prove their salvation when they see the heads of thieves taken off, or shot down before the public. Let us clear up the horizon around us; and then, like the atmosphere after the thunder storm has spent its fury in the tops of the mountains, becomes purified; and a calm sun-shine pervades the whole. I believe it to be pleasing in the sight of heaven to sanctify ourselves and put those things away from our midst." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 73)

 

 

 "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10, p. 110)

 

Heber C. Kimball on BLOOD ATONEMENT

 

Heber C. Kimballwas an Apostle and member of the First Presidency:

 

Discourse in the Bowery, August 16, 1857:

 

"I have not a doubt but there will be hundreds who will leave us and go away to our enemies. I wish they would go this fall: it might relieve us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned, and that too according to their covenants." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 375)

 

Discourse in the Tabernacle, December 13, 1857:

 

"Jesus said to his disciples, 'Ye are the salt of the earth; and if the salt loses its saving principle, it is then good for nothing but to be cast out.' Instead of reading it just as it is, almost all of you read it just as it is not. Jesus meant to say, 'If you have lost the saving principles: it is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.' Judas lost that saving principle, and they took him and killed him. It is said in the Bible that his bowels gushed out; but they actually kicked him until his bowels came out." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, pp. 125-6)

"God designs we should be pure men, holding the oracles of God in holy and pure vessels; but when it is necessary that blood should be shed, we should be as ready to do that as to eat an apple ... we will let you know that the earth can swallow you up, as it did Korah with his host; and as brother Taylor says, you may dig your graves, and we will slay you, and you may crawl into them." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, pp. 34-5)

"We read in the Bible that the Lord told Joshua to sanctify Israel; for, says he, 'there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel.' And on the morrow they sanctified themselves by stoning to death Achan, the son of Carmi, who stole the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment. They also stoned to death his wife and children, his oxen and his asses, and burnt them with fire, together with his tent, the silver, the gold, and the garment, in the valley of Achor.

"Thus all Israel put to death the transgressor, and sanctified themselves before the Lord. Would it not be an excellent course to pursue with this people, to sanctify them to the fullest extent of the word? There are individuals in these valleys who profess to be Latter-day Saints; but do they by their works make their profession honorable? No, their works and their profession are very dissimilar indeed. I think it would be an excellent thing for this people to be sanctified from such persons, and have them cleansed from our midst, by making

an atonement." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 17)

 

J. M. Grant, an Apostle and member of First Presidency.

 

Grant discourse in the Bowery, September 21, 1856:

 

"Some have received the Priesthood and a knowledge of the things of God, and still they dishonor the cause of truth, commit adultery, and every other abomination beneath the heavens, and they meet you here or in the street, and deny it.

"These are the abominable characters that we have in our midst, and they will seek unto wizards that peep, and to star-gazers and soothsayers, because they have no faith in the holy Priesthood, and then when they meet us, they want to be called Saints.

"The same characters will get drunk and wallow in the mire and filth, and yet they call themselves Saints, and seem to glory in their conduct, and they pride themselves in their greatness and in their abominations. They are the old hardened sinners, and are almost - if not altogether past improvement, and are full of hell, and my prayer is that God's indignation may rest upon them, and that He will curse them from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet.

"I say, that there are men and women that I would advise to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their case; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood.

 

"We have those amongst us that are full of all manner of abominations those who need to have their blood shed, for water will not do, their sins are of too deep a dye.

"You may think that I am not teaching you Bible doctrine, but what says the apostle Paul? I would ask how many covenant breakers there are in this city and in this kingdom. I believe there are a great many; and if they are covenant breakers we need a place designated, where we can shed their blood." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 49-50.)

 

Comments by Grant which were published in the July 27, 1854 Deseret News:

 

"What disposition ought the people of God to make of covenant breakers ...What does the Apostle say? He says they are worthy of death....

"What! do you believe that people would do right, and keep the law of God, by actually putting to death the transgressors? Putting to death transgressors would exhibit the law of God, no difference by whom it was done; that is my opinion.

"But if the government of God on earth, and Eternal Priesthood, with the sanction of High Heaven, in the midst of all his people, has passed sentence on certain sins when they appear in a person, has not the people of God a right to carry out that part of his law as well as any other portion of it? It is their right to baptize a sinner to save him, and it is also their right to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned by shedding his blood. If the Lord God forgives sins by baptism, and ... certain sins cannot be atoned for ... but by the shedding of the blood of the sinner, query, whether the people of God be overreaching the mark, if they should execute the law ... We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed him to save him....

"...If you shall thus advance, and then turn and trample the holy commandments of God under your feet, and break your sacred and solemn covenants, and become traitors to the people of God, would you not be worthy of death? I think you would ...

"Do you think it would be any sin to kill me if I were to break my covenants? ... Do you believe you would kill me if I broke the covenants of God, and you had the Spirit of God? Yes; and the more spirit of God I had, the more I should strive to save your soul by spilling your blood, when you had committed sin that could not be remitted by baptism. (Deseret News, July 27, 1854)

We Will Debate Anyone But Strang

 Correspondence found in the Millennial Star, Volume 3. Philadelphia, August 30th, 1846. See also Gospel Herald, Voree, Volume 1, No. 8. In opposition to the revelations given through Joseph Smith Junior regarding the order of the church and its quorums, with the Twelve being subordinate to the First Presidency, and with ten of that quorum declaring that there shall be no more First Presidency and that they shall direct the church, James J. Strang writes to meet with them so that they can bring their strong reasons, as is recorded in ULDS D&C 71. Though clever in its flippancy, their response reveals their trepidation, as they were willing to meet with any other who might oppose their bid for leadership. Without proving anything, they accuse a saint in all ways honoring the laws of the church of being Satan while presuming the prestige of God and assuming entitlements even he does not, for he gave Lucifer a full hearing. They also refer to their having illegally recorded an excommunication of James, but if they had consulted the Law of the Church, they would have seen that a trial must be made to make such action legal, and that would mean hearing and answering his testimony. The closest this was had was in the pleadings before the Court of Law when Brigham Young sued James J. Strang for the right of possession of the Kirtlin Temple, and having won the case in the pleadings by showing that Young had no legal right to assume leadership, let alone possess church property, Young withdrew his cause lest he commit the ordeal to publicly available transcripts.

1. Messrs. John Taylor and Orson Hyde: Knowing from your public proceedings, as well as otherwise, that you and others associated with you, claim the right, and are attempting to use the power of dictating all the affairs of the church of Jesus Christ in all the world, not under the direction of the First Presidency thereof, but independently;

2. I suggest to you the propriety of publicly showing by what means you are authorized to act as leaders to said church, and offer to publicly discuss that question with you in this city, or any other proper place that will suit your convenience.

3. Your answer to this, left at the house of Jacob Gibson, on the northeast corner of Third and Dock Streets, near the post office, will receive immediate attention. Yours respectfully. James J. Strang.

4. The answer to the above: Sir: After Lucifer was cut off and thrust down to hell, we have no knowledge that God ever condescended to investigate the subject or right of authority with him.

5. Your case has been disposed of by the authorities of the church, and being satisfied with our own power and calling, we have no disposition to ask from whence yours came. Yours respectfully, Orson Hyde and John Taylor.

The Revelation of Sedrach

 The following ancient revelation attributed to an otherwise unknown apostle, Sedrach, or Shadrach, is a very interesting revelation of mercy and justice, the law and the atonement, in answer to Sedrach's bold and challenging questions, and even more so in God's tolerance as Sedrach vents before clapping back and putting Sedrach in his place. It is clear that there is more history here between the two, in which Sedrach has proven his righteousness by obedience to the Law, and the Lord has made his calling and election sure, yet his challenges of God must truly arise from distress over the fate of mankind, and not arrogance. His complaint may be taken as akin to Enoch's declaration at the fate of those to fall in the flood in the Inspired Translation of First Moses, that he refuses his soul to be comforted. In teaching his mercy, the Lord reveals hints to him of his doctrine of Baptism for the Dead in Sedrach 3:11. We have parallels with other prophets bartering with God over souls, such as Lot as he attempted to intercede on behalf of the people of Sodom, and the challenging inquiries here hint of that found in the wisdom literature, such as Job and Ecclesiates.

REVELATION OF SEDRACH

  

ALSO KNOWN AS THE APOCALYPSE OF SEDRACH

 

Also known as The Word of Sedrach. It is an ancient text. The name of the main figure, Sedrach, may be the Greek form of Shadrach, the name of one of the three individuals put into the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel, or it may be a corruption of Esdras, the Greek form of Ezra. The text shares similarity with other texts attributed to Ezra, such as the Apocalypse of Ezra

 

CHAPTER 1

 

1 The Word of the holy and blessed Sedrach concerning love and concerning repentance and Orthodox Christians, and concerning the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord give your blessing.

2 Beloved, let us prefer nothing in honor except sincere love: for in many things we stumble every day and night and hour. And for this cause let us gain love, for it covers a multitude of sins:

3 For what is the profit, my children, if we have all things, and have not saving love? O blessed love, supplier of all good things.

4 Blessed is the man who has gained the true faith and sincere love. According as the Master said, there is no greater love than this that a man should lay down his life for his friend.

5 And invisibly he received a voice in his ears: Come here, Sedrach, since you wish and desire to converse with God and ask of him that he may reveal unto you whatever you wish to ask.

6 And Sedrach said: What, Sir? And the voice said to him: I was sent to you to raise you here into heaven.

7 And he said: I desired to speak mouth to mouth with God: I am not fit, Sir, to come into heaven.

8 And stretching out his wings he took him up and he came into heaven to the very flame, and he set him as high as the third heaven, and in it stood the flame of the divinity.

9 And the Lord saith to him: Welcome, my beloved Sedrach: What suit have you against God who created you, that you have said, I desired to speak face to face with God?

10 Sedrach said to him: Yes, truly, the son has a suit with the Father: my Lord, why did you make the earth?

11 The Lord said to him: For man's sake. Sedrach said: And why did You make the sea? Why did You scatter every good thing on the earth?

12 The Lord said to him: For man's sake.

13 Sedrach said to him: If You did these things, why will You destroy him? And the Lord said: Man is my work and the creature of my hands, and I discipline him as I find good.

14 Sedrach said to him: Chastisement and fire are Your discipline: they are bitter, my Lord: it were well for man if he had not been born: why then did You make him, my Lord? Why did You weary Your pure hands and create man, since You did not intend to have mercy on him?

15 God said to him: I made Adam the first creature and placed him in Paradise in the midst of the tree of life and said to him: Eat of all the fruits, but beware of the tree of life: for if you eat of it, you shall die the death. But he transgressed my commandment, and being beguiled by the devil ate of the tree.

16 Sedrach said to him: Of Your will Adam was beguiled, my Lord: You commanded Your angels to make approach to Adam, and the first of the angels himself transgressed Your commandment and did not make approach to him, and You did banish him, because he transgressed Your commandment and did not make any approach to the work of Your hands:

17 If You loved man, why did You not slay the devil, the worker of unrighteousness? Who is able to fight an invisible spirit? And he as a smoke enters into the hearts of men and teaches them every sin: he fights against You, the immortal God, and what can wretched man then do to him?

18 But have mercy, O Lord, and stop the chastisements: but if not, count me also with the sinners: if You will have no mercy on the sinners, where are Your mercies, where is Your compassion, O Lord?

19 God said to him: Be it known unto you that I ordered all things to be placable to him: I gave him understanding and made him the heir of heaven and earth, and I subjected all things to him, and every living thing flees from him and from before his face:

20 But he, having received of mine, became alien, adulterous, and sinful: tell me, what father, having given his son his portion, when he takes his substance and leaves his father and goes away and becomes an alien and serves an alien, when the father sees that the son has deserted him, does not darken his heart?

21 And does not the father go and take his substance and banish him from his glory because he deserted his father? And how have I, the wonderful and jealous God, given him everything, and he having received these things has become an adulterer and a sinner?

22 Sedrach said to him: You, O Lord, did create man. You knew of what sort of mind he was and of what sort of knowledge we are, and You made it a cause for chastisement: but cast him forth; for shall not I alone fill up the heavenly places? But if that is not to be so save man too, O Lord. He failed by Your will, even wretched man.

23 And the Lord said, Why do you waste words on me, Sedrach? I created Adam and his wife and the sun and said: Behold each other how bright he is, and the wife of Adam is brighter in the beauty of the moon and he was the giver of her life.

24 Sedrach saith: but of what profit are beauties if they die away into the earth? How did You say, O Lord, You shall not return evil for evil? How is it, O Lord? the word of Your divinity never lies, and why do You retaliate on man? or do You not in so doing render evil for evil?

25 I know that among the quadrupeds there is no other so wily and unreasonable as the mule. But we strike it with the bridle when we wish: and You have angels: send them forth to guard them, and when man inclines towards sin, command them to take hold of his foot and not let him go wherever he would.

 

CHAPTER 2

 

1 God said to him: If I catch him by the foot, he will say, You have given me no joy in the world. But I have left him to his own will because I loved him. Wherefore I sent forth my righteous angels to guard him night and day.

2 Sedrach said: I know, O Lord, that of all Your creatures You chiefly loved man, of the quadrupeds the sheep, of woods the olive, of fruits the vine, of flying things the bee, of rivers the Jordan, of cities Jerusalem. And all these man also loves, my Lord.

3 God said to Sedrach: I will ask you one thing, Sedrach: if you answer me, then I may fitly help you, even though you have tempted your creator. Sedrach said: Speak.

4 The Lord God said: Since I made all things, how many men were born and how many died, and how many are to die and how many hairs have they? Tell me, Sedrach, since the heaven was created and the earth, how many trees grew in the world, and how many fell, and how many are to fall, and how many are to arise, and how many leaves have they?

5 Tell me, Sedrach, since I made the sea, how many waves arose and how many fell, and how many are to arise, and how many winds blow along the margin of the sea? Tell me, Sedrach, from the creation of the world of the ages, when the sky rained, how many drops fell upon the land, and how many are to fall?

6 And Sedrach said: You alone know all these things, O Lord; You only understand all these things: only, I pray You, deliver man from chastisement, and I shall not be separated from our race.

7 And God said to his only begotten Son: Go, take the soul of Sedrach my beloved, and place it in Paradise.

8 The only begotten Son said to Sedrach: Give me the trust which our Father deposited in the womb of your mother in the holy tabernacle of your body from a child.

9 Sedrach said: I will not give You my soul.

10 God said to him: And wherefore was I sent to come here, and you plead against me? For I was commanded by my Father not to take your soul with violence; but if not, then give Me your most greatly desired soul.

11 And Sedrach said to God: And from where do You intend to take my soul, and from which part of my being?

12 And God said to him: Do you not know that it is placed in the midst of your lungs and heart and is dispersed into all your being? It is brought up through the throat and gullet and the mouth and at whatever hour it is predestined to come forth, it is scattered, and brought together from the points of the nails and from all the parts of the body, and there is a great necessity that it should be separated from the body and parted from the heart.

13 When Sedrach had heard all these things and had considered the memory of death, he was greatly astounded, and Sedrach said to God: O Lord, give me a little respite that I may weep, for I have heard that tears are able to do much and much remedy comes to the lowly body of Your creature.

14 And weeping and bewailing he began to say: O marvelous head of heavenly adornment: O radiant as the sun which shines on heaven and earth: your hairs are known from Teman, your eyes from Bosor, your ears from thunder, your tongue from a trumpet, and your brain is a small creation, your head the energy of the whole body: O friendly and most fair beloved by all, and now falling into the earth it must become forgotten.

15 O hands, mild, fair-fingered, worn with toil by which the body is nourished: O hands, so adept of all, heaping up from all quarters you made ready houses.

16 O fingers adorned and decked with gold and silver rings: and great worlds are led by the fingers: the three joints enfold the palms, and heap up beautiful things: and now you must become aliens to the world.

17 O feet, skilfully walking about, self-running, most swift, unconquerable: O knees, fitted together, because without you the body does not move: the feet run along under the sun and the moon in the night and in the day, heaping up all things, foods and drinks, and nourishing the body:

18 O feet, most swift and fair runners, moving on the face of the earth, getting ready the house with every good thing: O feet which bear up the whole body, that run up to the temples, making repentance and calling on the saints, and now you are to remain motionless.

19 O head and hands and feet, until now I have kept you. O soul, what sent you into the humble and wretched body? and now being separated from it, you are going up where the Lord called you, and the wretched body goes away to judgment.

20 O body well-adorned, hair clothed with stars, head of heavenly adornment and dress: O face well-anointed, light-bringing eyes, voice trumpet-like, tongue placable, chin fairly adorned, hairs like the stars, head high as heaven, body decked out, light-bringing eyes that know all things--and now you shall fall into the earth and under the earth your beauty shall disappear.

 

CHAPTER 3

 

1 Christ said to him: Stay, Sedrach; how long do you weep and groan? Paradise is opened to you, and, dying, you shall live.

2 Sedrach said to him: Once more I will speak unto You, O Lord: How long shall I live before I die? and do not disregard my prayer.

3 The Lord said to him: Speak, O Sedrach. Sedrach said: If a man shall live eighty or ninety or a hundred years, and live these years in sin, and again shall turn, and the man live in repentance, in how many days do You forgive him his sins?

4 God said to him: If he shall live a hundred or eighty years and shall turn and repent for three years and do the fruit of righteousness, and death shall overtake him, I will not remember all his sins.

5 Sedrach said to him: The three years are a long time, my Lord, in case death overtake him and he fulfill not his repentance: have mercy, Lord, on Your image and have compassion, for the three years are many.

6 God said to him: If a man live a hundred years and remember his death and confess before men and I find him, after a time I will forgive all his sins.

7 Sedrach said again: I will again beg Your compassion for Your creature. The time is long in case death overtake him and snatch him suddenly.

8 The Saviour said to him: I will ask you one word, Sedrach, my beloved, then you shall ask me in turn: if the man shall repent for forty days I will not remember all his sins which he did.

9 And Sedrach said to the archangel Michael: Listen to me, O powerful chief, and help me and be my envoy that God may have mercy on the world. And falling on their faces, they besought the Lord and said: O Lord, teach us how and by what sort of repentance and by what labor man shall be saved.

10 God said: By repentance, by intercession, by liturgy, by tears in streams, in hot groaning. Do you not know that my prophet David was saved by tears, and the rest were saved in one moment?

11 You know, Sedrach, that there are nations which have not the law and which do the works of the law: for if they are unbaptized and my divine spirit come unto them and they turn to my baptism, I also receive them with my righteous ones into Abraham's bosom.

12 And there are some who have been baptized with my baptism and who have shared in my divine part and become reprobate in complete reprobation and will not repent: and I suffer them with much compassion and much pity and wealth in order that they may repent, but they do the things which my divinity hates, and did not listen to the wise man asking them, saying, we by no means justify a sinner.

13 Do you not most certainly know that it is written: And those who repent never see chastisement? And they did not listen to the Apostles or to my word in the Gospels, and they grieve my angels, and truly they do not attend to my messenger in the assemblies for communion and in my services, and they do not stand in my holy churches, but they stand and do not fall down and worship in fear and trembling, but boast things which I do not accept, nor my holy angels.

14 Sedrach said to God: O Lord, You alone are sinless and very compassionate, having compassion and pity for sinners, but Your divinity said: I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

15 And the Lord said to Sedrach: Do you not know, Sedrach, that the thief was saved in one moment to repent? Do you not know that my apostle and evangelist was saved in one moment?

16 There is no salvation for these sinners for their hearts are like rotten stone: these are they who walk in impious ways and who shall be destroyed with Antichrist.

17 Sedrach said: O my Lord, You also said: My divine spirit entered into the nations which, not having the law, do the things of the law. So also the thief and the apostle and evangelist and the rest of those who have already got into thy Kingdom. O my Lord; so likewise do You pardon those who have sinned to the last? For life is very toilsome and there is no time for repentance.

18 The Lord said to Sedrach: I made man in three stages: when he is young, I overlooked his faults as he was young: and again when he was a man I considered his purpose: and again when he grows old, I preserve him so he may repent.

19 Sedrach said: O Lord, You know and understand all these things: but have sympathy for sinners.

20 The Lord said to him: Sedrach, my beloved, I promise to have sympathy and bring down the forty days to twenty: and whosoever shall remember your name shall not see the place of chastisement, but shall be with the just in a place of refreshment and rest.

21 And if anyone shall publish this wonderful word, his sins shall not be reckoned against him for ever and ever.

22 And Sedrach said: O Lord, and if anyone shall bring enlightenment to your servant, save him, O Lord, from all evil.

23 And Sedrach, the servant of the Lord, said: Now take my soul, O Lord. And God took him and placed him in Paradise with all the saints. To whom be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

A Belated Dismantling of Alexander Campbell's Delusions Part 1

The Esteemed Alexander Campbell, founder of Campbellitism, apparently jealous and alarmed at losing his right hand man, Sidney Rigdon and others as converts to Mormonism, whose founders far more brilliantly signaled the bestowal of Heavenly Gifts, undertook to publish a refutation of its claims two years after the Book of Mormon made its appearance.

Having just come across his work entitled Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon with an Examination of its Internal and External Evidences and a Refutation of its Pretenses to Divine Authority, I could not help but muse upon answering his absurd quibbles. Thus far, he has yet to analyze anything with accuracy, offer much in the way of evidence or refute anything, and the pretenses are all his. I have to confess being surprised that such a man as he was not able to offer more robust arguments in his favor and a more sound understanding of doctrine. A pity he is not here to see his pride fall, but I can always read my responses to him before performing his baptism for the dead, the logical end to having his objections handed back to him!

Below is the first part of my Dismantling of Alexander Campbell's Delusions: My responses to his text appear in brackets.

Alexander Campbell:

2. This ignorant and impudent liar (Joseph Smith), in the next place, makes the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, violate his covenants with Israel and Judah, concerning the land of Canaan, by promising a new land to the pious Jew. 

If a company of reprobate Jews had departed from Jerusalem and the temple, in the days of Zedekiah, and founded a new colony, it would not have been so incongruous. But to represent God as inspiring a devout Jew and a prophet, such as Levi and Nephi are represented by Smith, with a resolution to forsake Jerusalem and God's own house, and to depart from the land which God swore to their fathers so long as they were obedient; and to guide by a miracle and to bless by prodigies a good man in forsaking God's covenant and worship — is so monstrously an error, that language fails to afford a name for it. It is to make God violate his own covenants, and set at naught his own promises, and to convert his own curses into blessings. Excision from the commonwealth of Israel, and banishment from Jerusalem and the temple, were the greatest curses the law of Moses knew. But Smith makes a good and pious Jew the subject of this curse, and sends him off into the inhospitable wilderness, disinherits him in Canaan, and makes him more happy in forsaking the institutions of Moses, more intelligent in the wilderness, and more prosperous in adversity, than even the Jews in their best days, in the best of lands, and under the best of all governments!!! The impostor was too ignorant of the history of the Jews and the nature of the covenants of promise, to have even alluded to them in his book, if he had not supposed that he had the plates of Moses in his own keeping, as he had his 'molten plates' of Nephi. To separate a family from the nation of Israel, was to accumulate all the curses of the law upon that family. — Deut. 29:21. 

[Note: Campbell’s argument here is too ignorant for words. It is beyond dispute that Israel was destroyed and the Jews carried off to Babylon, therefore relocation was a blessing in lieu of death. And an unchanging God who can promise a people a land of inheritance contingent upon keeping His laws at one time can most certainly revoke and do so again at another, the Jews having inherited expulsion from their promised land for disobedience. Having promised the Land to Abraham, what managed to place them in Egypt for under the prosperity of his grandson being the second under Pharoah, and then finding themselves in bondage after that prosperity led to disobedience?]

3. He has more of the Jews, living in the new world, than could have been numbered anywhere else, even in the days of John the Baptist; and has placed them under a new dynasty. The scepter, with him, has departed from Judah, and a lawgiver from among his descendants, hundreds of years before Shiloh came;

[Note: The conquest and removal to Babylon and the scattering of the lost ten tribes is a matter of biblical record, and that they started new colonies and served under their own kings or foreign ones is inevitable and cannot be viewed as interfering with the prophecies of Christ.]

…and King Benjamin is a wiser and more renowned king than king Solomon. 

[Note: The book never makes this comparison, but if it had, the Bible never forbids there being one greater than Solomon, especially considering his debauchery with women and foreign Gods. In fact, most of the prophets stand head and shoulders above Solomon in righteousness.]

He seems to have gone upon an adage which saith, “the more marvellous, the more credible the tale,” and the less of fact, and the more of fiction, the more intelligible and reasonable the narrative. 

[Note: Nothing in the Book of Mormon is more marvelous or harder to believe than a universal flood and the world repopulated from 8 people and such animals as could fit on a boat, the parting of the Red Sea, the plagues of Egypt. And if John can foreknow what shall befall the earth at the end of times, surely Nephi can know of the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who existed with the Father before the creation of the world. Alexander Campbell has merely refuted his personal claims to faith in the Bible.]

4. He represents the temple worship as continued in his new land of promise contrary to every precept of the law, and so happy are the people of Nephi as never to shed a tear on account of the excision, nor turn an eye toward Jerusalem or God's temple. The pious Jews in their captivity turned their faces to Jerusalem and the holy place, and remembered God's promises concerning the place where he recorded his name. They hung their harps upon the willow, and could not sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land; but the Nephites have not a single wish for Jerusalem, for they can, in their wigwam temple, in the wilderness of America, enjoy more of God's presence than the most righteous Jew could enjoy in that house of which David had rather be a doorkeeper, than to dwell in the tabernacles of men. And all this too, when God's only house of prayer, according to his covenant with Israel, stood in Jerusalem. 

[Note: Nothing could be more certain than that Jesus came in the flesh to renounce Jewish pretensions to performing the Law and obeying the commandments correctly. Rather, they strain out a fly and swallow a gnat, or miss the forest for the trees. How do we now overthrow Christianity’s pretensions to any correction to Jewish thinking by upholding the purity and wisdom of ancient Judaism? Surely Campbell recalls prior to the construction of the Temple of Solomon that the Lord housed in a tent that was carried about the wilderness and that remained in place in Jerusalem for a generation as David was told not to build a more permanent structure. Surely the Jews can write songs pining for the temple they knew, destroyed by the Babylonians, while they are held in bondage, and this is not the same condition as those led away by God himself to a promised land to avoid said certain destruction, and living in relative freedom on the very continent Alexander Campbell himself called a blessing.] 

5. Malachi, the last of the Jewish prophets, commanded Israel to regard the law of Moses till the Messiah came. And Moses commanded them to regard him till the Great Prophet came. But Nephi and Smith's prophets institute ordinances and observances for the Jews, subversive of Moses, 500 years before the Great Prophet came. 

[Note: The Nephites were told to keep the Law of Moses as recorded on the Brass Plates, but we have no evidence that the very Jews in Jerusalem of whom it is said that they discovered a lost Law book in the temple of which they had failed to keep and of whom the prophets chided them for adopting pagan practices and worshipping idols, had practices consistent with the original Law. With Jeremiah 8:8 directly stating that "treacherous scribes hath made the Torah into a lie," the Nephites would undoubtedly be a better measuring stick for authentic practices that the Jews in Jerusalem.]

6. Passing over a hundred similar errors, we shall next notice his ignorance of the New Testament matters and things. The twelve Apostles of the Lamb, are said by Paul, to have developed certain secrets, which were hid for ages and generations, which Paul says were ordained before the world to their glory, that they should have the honor of announcing them. But Smith makes his pious hero Nephi, 600 years before the Messiah began to preach, to disclose these secrets concerning the calling of the Gentiles, and the blessings through the Messiah to Jews and Gentiles, which Paul says were hid for ages and generations, “which in these ages was not made known unto the sons” of men as it is now revealed unto us the holy Apostles and prophets, by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. Smith makes Nephi express every truth found in the writings of the Apostles concerning the calling and blessing of the Gentiles, and even quotes the 11th chapter of Romans, and many other passages before he had a son grown in the wilderness able to aim an arrow at a deer. Paul says these things were secrets and unknown until his time; but Smith makes Nephi say the same things 600 years before Paul was converted! One of the two is a false prophet. Mormonites, take your choice! 

[Note: My choice for false prophet is Alexander Campbell. Here he whines about the apostles of Paul’s day not having exclusive pronouncement rights over these very important secrets, calling to mind the ignorant disciples to whom Jesus often scolded, “What is it to you?” He quotes not God for these “promises” that he interprets with absolute literalism, but Paul, who by all evidence was in truth announcing these secrets for the first time in his part of the world and would be on record doing so for two thousand years to come, whereas Nephi's record was buried in the earth and couldn't possibly steal Paul's thunder, and any to whom he told could not have heard from Paul anyway. Clearly Paul’s intention was not to make absolute statements as though he were God, but to supply the people to whom he was speaking with the evidence that he was inspired of God, for no one to their knowledge had ascertained these secrets and they could not be had by any way other than a Gift of Knowledge, the very method that Nephi had them a continent away and in a prior age. And we believe that the message is consistent throughout all of scripture that the secrets available to the prophets through obedience are also available to us by the same method, along with every Gift of the Spirit. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but that he reveals his secrets to his servants the Prophets.” Having no such access to these secret that would make Campbell aware of these facts and the apostles’ true intentions, it is clear then that Campbell is no prophet, and we beg him to leave the task of disproving false prophets to true ones.]

7. This prophet Smith, through his stone spectacles, wrote on the plates of Nephi, in his book of Mormon, every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years. He decides all the great controversies— infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry, the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the rights of man. All these topics are repeatedly alluded to. How much more benevolent and intelligent this American Apostle, than were the holy twelve, and Paul to assist them!!! 

[Note: While attempting to point to a deficiency in the Book of Mormon, Campbell only here succeeds in identifying them in his bible. Indeed it would be careless of the Almighty to either fail to reveal these truths in that great tome of scripture, or else fail to safeguard it through long periods of apostasy and church corruption by which the earth was defiled by its people; they having “disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 24:5), without providing some means to preserve and restore them. Perhaps Alexander Campbell is confused on the point that the establishment of doctrine is precisely what inspired scripture is intended to do. But then we would expect that a renowned doctor of the law who makes a living by endlessly debating his interpretations of vague passages would take exception to the revelation of pure and precious truths unto the confounding of false doctrines, the laying down of contentions and the establishment of peace (2 Nephi 3:12).]

He prophesied of all these topics, and of the apostasy, and infallibly decides, by his authority, every question. How easy to prophesy of the past or of the present time*! 

[Note: You must first establish whose authority we are speaking of, Joseph Smith’s or the Lord God’s, and you have yet to support a thesis, nor establish when these prophesies were written. See the article in this Strangite Herald titled ONE MIGHTY AMONG THEM for an example of a book of Mormon prophesy that predicted the future accurately.]

8. But he is better skilled in the controversies in New York than in the geography or history of Judea. He makes John baptize in the village of Bethabara, (page 22) and says Jesus was born in Jerusalem, p. 240. Great must be the faith of the Mormonites in this new bible!!! 

[Note: Mr Campbell refers to various interpretations of John 1:28: “These things were in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.” The texts indicate that it was Bethany, but Origen noted that there was no Bethany there, and pointed out that it was likely a mistake and should read Bethabara, which is there. Some scholars have found the alternate readings, but they still haven't found the place if it is different than Bethany, but a different Bethany that the town mentioned elsewhere. A larger area of Batanaea is also proposed, but until scholars can agree on what the correct rendering of the place should be, they will not be able to disagree with the Book of Mormon's identification. 

The contention around Christ's birth in the Land of Jerusalem, are misguided for two reasons. A person speaking to a primitive tribe on the other side of the planet hundreds of years removed from the Great City of Jerusalem and who likely do not recall the names of every little hamlet round about may refer to a wider region of geography such as “the Land of Jerusalem" for Jesus’ birthplace. Recall that the Nephites knew that city, for they had one among them named after it. While Campbell can only scour the text in a hyper-focused search for minute inconsistencies, the Book of Mormon offers up unasked-for real-world practicalities. I routinely today for ease of communication round up my location to the nearest metropolis: San Francisco instead of San Mateo, Salt Lake City instead of Sandy, Utah, and Charleston, South Carolina instead of Summerville, in a time when I expect people to have a little geographical knowledge. Yet, the phrase “Land of Jerusalem” cited as the region of Christ’s birth is not the same as the City of Jerusalem, rather it includes the lands round about, including Bethlehem. Secondly, however, I think it far more likely that the Book of Mormon wisely seeks to overstep the controversy of labeling the birthplace of Christ accurately in Nazareth, the town his parents were living in and where he grew up, considering that no serious historian considers the journey to Bethlehem for the purposes of taxation to be a genuine account, being nonsensical, impractical and unheard of. Rather Christ was said to spring from Bethlehem because that was where his ancestors were from, not because it was literally the place of his birth, and well meaning, but overly literal scribes who sought to alleviate any vagueness in regards to his fulfillment of prophesy sought to alleviate it by some minute narrative tampering. Either way, this contention is moot for criticism.]

The mariners compass was only known in Europe about 300 years ago; but Nephi knew all about steam boats and the compass 2400 years ago. 

[Note: Rather lacking is the faith of Mr. Campbell in the power of God to think that the being who raised the dead, multiplied loaves and fishes and turned water into wine could not produce a mysterious device that could operate as a compass would; after all, one can make a simple compass with a needle, a leaf on a pond and some static electricity. It is nothing so complicated as the alteration of the laws of physics! And as for steam powered boats, Mr. Campbell’s imagination has carried him away, for they are never mentioned in the text.]

9. He represents the Christian institution as practiced among his Israelites before Jesus was born. And his Jews are called Christians while keeping the law of Moses, the holy Sabbath, and worshipping in their temple at their altars and by their high priests. 

[Note: Prophesy is a hallmark of the God of Israel, not proof against him! And we should expect any creature that is graced with the Divine Knowledge of Christ to also reverence his name. The word Christian is but an English equivalent for the Aramaic the apostles spoke and later the Greek that the later writers spoke and the “Nephite” that the Nephite came to speak. The same feeble complaint is levied by the ignorant against he Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ for its use of the word Harbinger to refer to the Forerunner (which are synonyms) and the word Christines to refer to the Christians, which is not a proper name. All forms of it simply mean “anointed ones,” whether they call them Christians, Christines, Anointeds or Messianics. Unfortunately we cannot educate the ignorant before they weaponize their ignorance, believing it to be evidence. And lastly, the Law of Moses, Jesus said he did not come to abolish even a jot nor tittle of, and the Sabbath is expressly stated to be everlasting. We expect the Christ-believing Nephites to keep these things before and after Christ, and if Campbell and his Christian contemporaries have not, it is a sign of the apostasy and evidence of the need for a Restoration.]