Teachable

I have a 14 year old son.  Granted, his special needs make him a little different than a lot of 14 year old boys, but in some ways there is no difference.  He loves his video games.  He gets annoyed by his sisters.  He hates homework and housework and, well, any kind of work.  He is loving and sweet and innocent.  I look at him, and I melt.

In today's reading, Isaiah foretold the coming forth of a book to an unlearned man.

Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver again the book and the words thereof to him that is not learned; and the man that is not learned shall say: I am not learned.

That man was Joseph Smith.  A lot people outside the church (and some inside) have a difficult time processing the Joseph Smith story.  I am blessed to have always been able to believe it.  It does seem strange to think of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to a 14 year old boy in a grove of trees.  It does seem strange that that same boy would be entrusted a few years later to translate gold plates into the Book of Mormon.  Strange, until one recalls the stories of Samuel or David or Daniel from the Old Testament.  All were very young boys when they were called to serve the Lord. 

I look at my son and, while easily distracted, he is also very teachable.  Perhaps this is why the Lord sometimes chose young boys to become His prophets, and why we send missionaries out into the world at just nineteen years of age.  Just as a young willow branch is bendable and flexible, and a mature branch is not, so it is with people.  As we age, we become set in our ways and much less humble and teachable.  Joseph Smith needed to be an unlearned man, as Isaiah prophesied, so that the Lord could direct his path and bring about the restoration of His church on the earth.  Of this I have no doubt.

I have also heard it said that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon himself, without the gold plates or the direction of the Lord.  This seems utterly unfathomable to me.  In fact, if there is anything in the history of the church that has given me an unshakable testimony that the church is true, it is this.  How is it possible that a backwoods farmboy with barely any education could write such a book without the aid of the Lord?  I ran across a "challenge of duplication" a few months ago when I was helping one of the kids with a Primary talk.  It gave a list of things one would have to be able to do in order to produce a comparable record within the same constraints experienced by Joseph Smith:

• If you have more than three years of formal education, you are disqualified.
• This history must be handwritten and only on the basis of what you know right now.  You can't use any libraries, encyclopedias or computers, because there weren't any back then.
• This book must be at least 500 pages long, more than 300,000 words, and yes - handwritten.
• You must write the entire book in 75 working days.  You may use friends as scribes, but you may make no changes other than grammatical corrections after your first draft.  What you write must stand forever.
• This record is to contain the history, particularly the religious history, of two different and separate nations.  You must deal with every phase of their society, describing their religious, economic, social, and political cultures and institutions.
• Be sure to change your style of writing several times to indicate that many authors contributed to the work, each with his own writing style.
• Include 54 chapters on wars, 21 chapters on history, 55 on visions and prophecies that correspond exactly with the Bible.  Write 71 chapters of doctrine and exhortation (these should also match the Bible), and write 21 chapters on the ministry of Christ which are consistent with the New Testament.
• Many of your facts and statements written as absolutely true must be inconsistent with the prevailing beliefs of the world.
• Your narration must include authentic descriptions of clothing, crops, customs, travel, and governments.
• Invent 280 new names that will stand up under scrutiny through the years as to their proper derivation.
• Call down an angel from heaven in broad daylight and have him and the voice of God bear testimony to four honest citizens of your community that the record is the work of God.  These witnesses must bear testimony to the world, not for profit or gain, but under sacrifice and ridicule even to their deathbeds.
• You must be willing to take great abuse and persecution, suffer financial hardship, and finally give up your life to assassins' bullets rather than deny your testimony of the book.

To me, this has always been something of a no-brainer.  It would be impossible for one man, young and unlearned as Joseph was, to fabricate such a record.  It would even be very difficult for an educated man to do so within the same constraints listed above.

 

And the things which shall be written out of the book shall be of great worth unto the children of men...

I look at my 14 year old son, humble and teachable, and I can imagine the prophet Joseph at that age.  He had such a desire to understand religion during his time.  He read the scriptures.  He pondered and prayed.  Because of his humility and sacrifice, the book that Isaiah prophesied would come forth is sitting next to me on my desk.  It is of great worth.  It is true.  And I am so grateful to have it.

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