Mormonism Exposed (Hancock)/Chapter 13

According to the New Testament record after the resurrection of Jesus He was with His disciples forty days. He then lead them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Such is Luke's account of the ascension. As he approached the throne of God the Father said: "Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?" Being seated at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, we are told that the crown, for which he endured the cross, and despised the shame was placed upon Him. Being thus glorified His appearance is that of God, whom none in the flesh could see and live. When He appeared, hence, to Saul it was as the glorious Shekina, the brightness of which eclipsed the noonday's sun. Saul was permitted to see Him, but from that time was totally blind, till miraculously restored to sight.

On the day of Pentecost, ten days after the ascension of Jesus the Holy Spirit came, and the apostles were endued with the necessary power to qualify them as the witnesses for Jesus. Upon that day by the inspiration of the Spirit, Peter said: "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." The Holy Spirit did not know that Jesus was just over here in America among the Nephites?! And of course the appearance to Saul was all ​for show; for he could stand eight to ten hours at a time and let the Nephite people thrust their hands into his side!!! People that can accept such stuff certainly do not reason, or they pride in being duped.

Speaking of the day of Pentecost Luke says: "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven."

1. All the nations under heaven where devout Jews lived were represented at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
2. But there were no Jews there from the American continent.
3. Therefore no devout Jews lived on the American continent. Again,

1. The epistle of James was addressed to the twelve tribes that were scatted abroad.
2. But the epistle of James was not addressed to the Nephites.
3. Therefore, the Nephites were not of the twelve tribes.

We now call attention to the significant fact that the author of the Book of Mormon was totally ignorant as to what it took to constitute a conversion, either under the law or the gospel. The Lamanites, it is claimed, in the commencement of their existence went away from all that was right, and became a wild, ferocious people, like the wild tribes of American Aborigines. The Nephites, it is claimed, were, when they were not heathen, strict observers of the law of Moses, being Jews. At times, when they would become exceeding good, they would make strenuous efforts to convert the heathen. But when converts would be made, did they comply with the requirements of the law? See Exodus 12: 48, 49. All knew that the Jews circumcised their converts. Where is there an intimation in the history of the Nephites that they kept this Jewish rite or observed any of the feasts as required by the law? The fact is, that the author of the Book of Mormon had no conceptions of conversion, only such as were vaguely gathered at the exciting meetings that were common in Joseph ​Smith's boyhood days! Those Nephite sermons were just such as Smith, in his younger days, would hear. If the "Ah" had been used as filling they would have passed as good old orthodox Baptist sermons. The scenes that were common in exciting meetings seventyfive to one hundred years ago are represented as occurring under the labors of those Nephite preachers. Those that would become concerned would go into trances, and sometimes the preacher would pass under the "powers," and lay for hours in a prostrate condition! The exhortations and prayers used in modern revivals were uttered by preachers and people then, and all were attributed to the working of the Holy Ghost, which, be it understood, was enjoyed in its fulness by these Nephites hundreds of years before the Babe of Bethlehem was born!! In these Nephite meetings they appealed to Jesus who was then known by His given name and hence, known as the one mediator between God and man! As an illustration take the words and actions of that imaginary woman, represented as being a queen. "O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell! O blessed God have mercy upon this people. And when she had said this, she clasped her hands, being filled with joy, speaking many words which were not understood."—P. 228: 105, 106. That some woman spoke and acted just as here represented in some of the meetings that Smith attended we can believe, but that any person ever so spoke and acted as represented in the Book of Mormon we cannot believe.

There are several facts that demonstrate this Nephite record to be a falsehood of the deepest dye.

1. Christ was never known by His given name, Jesus, till so named by the angel who appeared to Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary. Said the angel, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife; and knew her not till she had ​brought forth her firstborn son; and he called his name Jesus."—Matt. 1: 21, 24, 25. "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb."—Luke 2: 21 Poor Gabriel! He evidently thought that he had the honor of naming the Son that was to be heir to David's throne. But alas, angels are doomed to deception and disappointment as well as men. Gabriel did not know that the Nephite angels, over here in America, were so far ahead of him! As we have seen, however, heaven is forgetful. The Lord, hence, had forgotten that those Nephite plates were "hid up in bumora." Or, it may be, the Lord had forgotten what was on those plates! "Mirabile dictu."

2. The second fact that we cite to show the falsity of the Book of Mormon is the fact that God utterly refused to afford those who had the Jewish Scriptures anything additional in order to their conversion. When the rich man, spoken of in the sixteenth chapter of Luke, realized that his eternal destiny was hopelessly fixed, he thought of and desired the salvation of his brothers, he is represented as saying to Abraham, "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house; For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."—Luke 16: 27–31. The rich man was like those Mormon preachers. He thought that God would afford man something outside of the divine arrangement in order to conversion. Remember, those Nephites claimed to have Moses and the prophets, then consider the following:

The testimony of Christ being true God did not afford those who had the Jewish Scriptures anything additional in order to ​their conversion. But the testimony of Christ is true. Therefore; the record in the Book of Mormon is false. Again, The record in the Book of Mormon being true, the statement in the Bible "God is no respecter of persons," is not true. But that statement in the Bible is true. Therefore, the record in the Book of Mormon is not true. The trouble with those Nephite preachers was, they did not know enough about Bible teaching to distinguish between conversion and pardon. They confounded the two. Christ and his apostles taught as did the ancient prophets, that conversion is the condition of pardon. Upon this point the Savoir gives the following from Isaiah "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive; for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."—Matt. 13: 14, 15., Is. 6: 9. If one would understand the subject of conversion he will need to carefully study the quotation from Isaiah. The language not only establishes the fact that conversion is the condition of pardon, but gives the means upon which God depends for the accomplishing of a conversion. It also gives the process through which an individual passes in a Bible conversion. When one is brought to see the beauty in the counsel of God they open their ears and hear that counsel, and thus seeing and hearing they understand that counsel. Being thus brought to an understanding of that counsel they turn to the Lord. In every instance where the term convert occurs in the Bible it means to turn, and a conversion is a turning to the Lord. Thus we have, in a Bible conversion, seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, understanding with the heart, turning to the Lord, then receiving pardon. The idea of a trance state in order to salvation is of heathen origin. It has been correctly said, "In heathen idolatry we have the vain efforts of man to reach his Creator, but in Christianity we have ​the effort of God to reach humanity." To ask us to believe that a set of preachers that would adopt the heathen idea in salvation instead of the Bible teaching were inspired of God, is asking too much. The Book of Mormon says that the American Indians were the descendants of the Lamanites, the children of Lehi, the father of the Nephites. I wonder if the advocates of that book will say that the savages of America borrowed their ideas of a trance state in religious exercises from those Nephite preachers? Such an idea was not in America, according to their own authority, until the Nephite preachers introduced it. With those Indians in the West that still practice the ghost dance the trance is very common. When in their religious exercises, the chief of which is their ghost dance, they become excited to a certain degree, they go into a trance, lay prostrate for hours, then wake up full of joy; for they have been to the happy hunting ground.