"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
From The Truth, The Way, The Life: The Truth about the Way B.H. Roberts Viewed the Book of Mormon at the End of His Life
by Jeff Lindsay
Critics
often claim that a famous LDS general authority, intellectual, and
prolific defender of the faith, B.H. Roberts, lost his testimony of
the Book of Mormon after investigating its weaknesses, including
evidence that it was a modern creation based on other works available
in Joseph Smith's day.
B.H. Roberts
This
conclusion is based on writings from the early 1920s in which he
explored the arguments that critics might make. Though incisively
written and developed at length, he clearly explained that this was a
case of playing devil's advocate to help the Church prepare for
future challenges and did not reflect his personal beliefs:
Let
me say once and for all, so as to avoid what might otherwise call for
repeated explanation, that what is herein set forth does not
represent any conclusions of mine.
This
report herewith submitted is what it purports to be, namely a “study
of Book of Mormon origins” for the information of those who
ought to know everything about it pro et con, as well as that which
has been produced against it, and that which may be produced against
it.
I
am taking the position that our faith is not only unshaken but
unshakable in the Book of Mormon, and therefore we can look without
fear upon all that can be said against it.
(Letter to President Heber J. Grant dated March 15, 1922, as cited by
McKay V. Jones, "Evasive
Ignorance: Anti-Mormon Claims that B.H. Roberts Lost His Testimony,"
FAIRMormon.org, emphasis by M.V. Jones.)
His
personal beliefs after that exercise can most accurately be gauged by
his magnum opus, The Truth, The Way, The Life, a book
which he spent many years preparing and which summarized his lifetime
of learning and experience in matters of faith and theology.
This
book was unpublished at his death because he refused to tone down
some sections related to evolution (the existence of "pre-Adamites")
that worried other leaders in the Church.
Now that the book
has been published, though, we can evaluate where he stood on the
Book of Mormon, and the result is unquestionable and undeniable: he
firmly believed it was an ancient record of a real people in the
ancient Americas, preserved on gold plates, delivered to Joseph Smith
through the ministry of an angel, and translated by the power of God
by a true and living prophet.
The
Book of Mormon in his view was a powerful witness of the reality of
Jesus Christ and contained a powerful, "thrilling" account
of his visit to the ancient Americas.
Those
who claim B.H. Roberts secretly lost his testimony do not know B.H.
Roberts and have ignored his statements about his devil's advocate
Studies of the Book of Mormon, and more importantly, have
ignored his subsequent magnum opus. To perpetuate the claim
that he lost his testimony is now inexcusable.
Here are some
excerpts from Robert's crowning work, The Truth, The Way, The
Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology, ed. John W. Welch, 2nd
ed. (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 1996).
From
my perch here in China, I only have access to the Kindle edition and
so my reference to page numbers is problematic. Where page numbers
are given, I have found statements from others citing the passages;
please let me know if any are in error.
Excerpts
from B.H. Roberts, The Truth, The Way, The Life
In
Chapter 47, "Renewal of 'The Way," Roberts examines various
witnesses, ancient and modern, of the Restoration. He treats the Book
of Mormon as a genuine witness from an ancient people, with no hint
of a decayed testimony. (On Kindle, this section begins about 64%
through the book; p. 469 ff.)
The
second vision of the New Dispensation: The Book of Mormon revealed.
Three years after this first revelation an angel of God named Moroni
was sent to the Prophet to reveal the existence of an ancient volume
of scripture known as the Book of Mormon, a book which gives an
account of the hand-dealings of God with the people whom he brought
to the continents of America from what we now call the “Old
World.”
(a)
The Jaredites. The first colony came from the tower of Babel at
the time of the dispersion of the people from the Euphrates Valley;
they were called Jaredites, after their leader, named Jared. They
occupied the land located in the southern part of Central America and
founded a nation which existed for about sixteen centuries, and then
were overwhelmed at last in a series of wars which ended in their
complete destruction, on account of their great wickedness. This
about 600 b.c.
(b)
The Nephite colony. It was about the time of the destruction of
the Jaredites that a small colony was led from Jerusalem, under
divine guidance, to the western continents, where they too developed
into a great people and into national life.
This
colony was made up of Israelites of the tribes of Ephraim and
Manasseh, and later augmented by a second small colony made up of
Jews. They continued in occupancy of the land — chiefly in
North America — until about 400 a.d.
Then
came their destruction because of their rebellion and wickedness
against God. They lost touch with faith and righteousness until their
civilization was overthrown, and they survived only in the tribal
relations such as existed at the advent of the Europeans.
(c)
Summary of the book and its translation. This record discloses
the hand-dealings of God with these ancient people through the
prophets and teachers God sent unto them, and also gives the account
of the visits of the risen Christ to them, the introduction of the
fulness of the gospel by his ministry, which established a true
church of Christ in the western world, with all the principles and
the ordinances of the gospel necessary to salvation. Therefore it
contains the fulness of the gospel.
In
this record God has brought forth a new witness to the truth of the
things whereof the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament and the New
also bear witness. Thus an angel came bringing the everlasting gospel
which is to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
This
American volume of scripture, God’s new witness to the old
truths of the everlasting gospel, Joseph Smith was commanded to
translate, and was given the power and means by which he could
translate the unknown language of these ancient American peoples.
The
“means” provided was a “Urim and Thummim.”
This consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow, a
divine instrument used in ancient times for obtaining knowledge from
God. This instrument for translation was found with the gold plates
on which the above record was engraven.
Joseph
Smith translated the Book of Mormon, and through a century now, it
has been published to the world. It is translated into fifteen of the
world’s languages.
Here
Roberts is unequivocal. There is no struggle to find faithful words
to spin something he doesn't believe in. There is no trace of vague
statements about what Joseph "felt" or "imagined"
his writings might reflect, no suggestion that he applied his
imagination to craft inspiring stories, no equivocation about finding
uplifting power in inspired fiction.
Joseph
was visited by a real angel, was given a genuine record from an
ancient people, and was given divine power to translate. The result
is scripture, authentic ancient scripture from ancient prophets and a
powerful witness of Christ.
Earlier in the text, Roberts has
this to say about the Boo of Mormon's witness of Christ (about 54%
through, according to Kindle; p. 395):
The
testimony of the Book of Mormon. Also in the Book of Mormon is
given a most dramatic and soul-thrilling testimony to the
resurrection of the Christ by the appearance of the risen Redeemer to
a multitude of people in America, shortly after the resurrection of
the Christ; for to the people of America, no less than to the people
of the Eastern hemisphere, did God give assurances through their
ancient prophets from time to time of the existence of his gospel and
of its power unto salvation; and lastly the risen Christ came to them
to assure them of the verities of the plan of salvation and
especially of this feature of it, the resurrection from the dead, by
his own glorious appearance among them, and his quite extended
ministry among them.
Here
the resurrected Christ according to the Nephite record, descended out
of heaven and appeared to the multitude, proclaiming himself to be
the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world; and the multitude blessed
the name of “the Most High God,” “And they did fall
down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him” (3 Ne.
11:17).
Assurance
of the resurrection. No incident in the gospel history is more
emphatically proven than this great truth, the resurrection of the
Son of God, and the promise of the resurrection of all men.
The
Nephite record is part of the evidence that makes the resurrection of
Christ one of the most "emphatically proven" truths in the
scriptures. This is not the thing that a closet doubter would write,
especially a frank and strong-willed man like B.H. Roberts.
Other
statements from Roberts again support his appreciation of the Book of
Mormon. For example, regarding the sacrament prayers in the Book of
Mormon, he writes (53% through the book):
These
prayers of consecration, are the most perfect forms of sacred
literature to be found. So perfect they are that one may not add to
them or take ought from them without marring them.
He
then explores at length the meaning and the power of the sacrament
prayers. Clearly, he finds the literary value of these items in the
Book of Mormon to be extraordinary. His previous ramblings about the
weak-minded author of the poorly crafter Book of Mormon fraud have no
place in his personal beliefs.
This
is a man who finds intellectually satisfying beauty in the Book of
Mormon, a man who shows no doubt when he declares: "More
consistent is it with right reason — which is but intelligence
in action — to accept the light-giving and inspiring thought of
the ancient American Scripture — the Book of Mormon..."
(23% through; p. 165).
Further insights can be found in the
editor's remarks from John W. Welch (emphasis mine):
Indeed,
not knowing what we as editors would encounter in the manuscripts of
TWL [The Truth, the Way, the Life], I was surprised to
find that TWL pointedly and repeatedly asserts the antiquity
of the Book of Mormon. While such affirmative statements may seem
unremarkable, it is precisely their routine orthodoxy that makes them
so notable.
Coming
from one of the great intellects of the Church, whose views about the
Book of Mormon supposedly became more intellectually sophisticated in
his last years, these unequivocal statements will disappoint anyone
who has imagined Roberts as a closet doubter or late-in-life skeptic.
TWL
especially reveals how Roberts felt about the Book of Mormon after he
wrote his “Book of Mormon Study” in 1922. That work
identified several Book of Mormon problems and called urgently for
further study.
Some
have seen “Book of Mormon Study” as evidence that Roberts
had changed his views on the historicity of the Book of Mormon, but
readers can now determine that Roberts did not waver in his belief
because of that study. In TWL, Roberts describes the miraculous
coming forth of the Book of Mormon in strong, straightforward,
traditional terms.
For
example, he says:
Three
years after this first revelation an angel of God named Moroni was
sent to the prophet to reveal the existence of an ancient volume of
scripture known as the Book of Mormon, a book which gives an account
of the hand-dealings of God with the people whom he brought to the
continents of America from what we now call the “Old World.”
(469)
In
addition Roberts affirms that “Joseph Smith was commanded to
translate, and was given the power and means by which he could
translate the unknown language of these ancient American peoples”
(470). TWL contains several statements that necessarily assume
the antiquity and literal truthfulness of this ancient American
scripture.
For
example, Roberts speaks literally of the words that the resurrected
Jesus spoke “to the assembled Nephites to whom he appeared on
the Western Continent” (482–83; compare 388, 389).
Indeed, Roberts believed that “no incident in the gospel
history is more emphatically proven than this great truth, the
resurrection of the Son of God” (395), and he used as his key
witness the appearance of the resurrected Christ to the Nephites
(395).
TWL
often identifies Book of Mormon prophets by the centuries in which
they lived. Lehi, Roberts says, lived “before the birth of
Christ, early in the fifth [sic] century, b.c.” (401).
Roberts
identifies a prophecy in the book of Alma as “one written near
the close of the second century b.c.” (401). Moreover, Roberts
goes out of his way to describe the book’s authors as
“ancient.”
He
calls Lehi “an ancient American Prophet” (75). He cites
“revelations of God to the ancient inhabitants of America”
(275). He calls the book “the American volume of Scripture,”
written by “the old prophets of the ancient American race”
(259; see also 21, 152, 263, 275, 427, 445).
He
also treats many Book of Mormon passages as the unique, authoritative
source of revealed knowledge on important topics. He takes joy in
drawing attention to doctrines “derived almost wholly from the
teachings of the Book of Mormon” (444). He extols it as a
masterful work. Of a Book of Mormon reading he exclaims, “how
beautifully clear this principle of purity in thought is set forth”
(501).
There
is more to say about the relevance of Ethan Smith as a modern source
for the Book of Mormon and the other arguments that Roberts
considered, but there is one thing we can say with confidence: he did
not lose his testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon
through his brief investigation into areas of potential weakness in
the test.
However, in 1933, Wesley P. Lloyd met with B.H.
Roberts, who was Lloyd's former mission president, and then wrote a
lengthy journal entry that critics use to argue that Roberts felt the
Book of Mormon was not historic and that the plates were just a
"subjective" creation of Joseph Smith.
The Wesley Lloyd Journal entry appears to be
summarizing what Roberts had argued in playing devil's advocate,
calling attention to weaknesses in need of more buttressing. Roberts
had expressly rejected the subjective theory before and there is no
evidence that he had now been swayed by it.
If
Roberts actually mentioned it in that conversation, it would have
been in the context of restating the challenges yet to be faced in
defending the Book of Mormon — and his position was clearly and
long had been that of one that believed in Joseph Smith as a
prophet.
Lloyd shows no indication then or later of worrying
that Roberts had lost his testimony. Roberts, like many of us
apologists, recognized that there are weaknesses and points of attack
that demand attention and defense.
Calling
for further research, analysis, and even revelation to resolve a
current apparent problem is not the same as abandoning faith. Roberts
certainly did not abandon the Book of Mormon, and turned to it as an
authentic ancient record translated by a real prophet of God when he
prepared his great final work on theology, The Truth, The Way, The
Life.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.