Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
Moroni Chapter 10
(29). Her Zionism is largely, if not entirely, political and social. In God's way and time this will
change, and his covenants with the house of Israel will all be fulfilled (28).
"And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body
shall reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing
bar of the great Jehovah" (31).
BY WAY OF TESTIMONY
It seems quite likely that the actual length of time used in translating the Book of Mormon was not
over ninety days. Oliver Cowdery began his work as secretary to the prophet Joseph Smith on
April 7, 1829. The work done previously by Martin Harris, Emma Smith, and the Whitmers on
116 pages of foolscap was lost and never recovered.
On October 21, 1848, Oliver Cowdery testified, A wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of
Mormon (save a few pages), as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it
by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim."'
The title page was filed with the clerk of the United States District Court in northern New York on
June 11, 1829. The actual date that the translation was completed is not recorded. David Whitmer
testified that the translation "was finished about July."' Cowdery made a copy of the whole
manuscript after that before it was put in the hands of the printer. "Mr. John H. Gilbert of Palmyra,
New York, who claims to have set the type," testified that "the manuscript was put in our hands in
August."'
I have spent the major part of sixteen months on this commentary. I am convinced that it was
humanly impossible for Joseph Smith to have composed and dictated the Book of Mormon in
ninety days. He must have worked "by the gift and power of God."
Accept the challenge given by Moroni (10:4, 5): "When ye shall receive these things, I would
exhort you that ye would ask God, the eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if these things
are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will
manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."