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Early American Influences on the Book of Mormon Thomas E. Donofrio

Part III
The Book of Mormon: Religious Influences

Ministers and preachers of the era delivered sermons on the subject of the Revolutionary conflict and political issues. These sermons would often be reproduced in pamphlet form. The following similarities are from Samuel McClintock's sermon on the New Hampshire constitution, given June 3, 1784.³

Abraham Keteltas delivered a sermon on October 5, 1775 entitled, God Arising and Pleading His People's Cause.⁴

Samuel Sherwood preached a sermon, The Church's Flight into the Wilderness, on January 17, 1776.⁵ In this sermon he links popery with the Mother of Harlots in Revelation. In the Book of Mormon, the mother of harlots is identified as "the great and abominable church of all the earth" (1 Nephi 14:17).

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) was president of Yale College and a Congregational minister, a rigid Calvinist, who was strongly opposed to Jacobin/atheistic influence in America. In his sermon The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis (1789), he identifies Masons and the order of the Illuminati as destructive secret forces undermining religion and God in America, a possible correlation with the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon.

Jonathan Edwards

Perhaps the most famous minister of the colonial period was Jonathan Edwards. His writings and intellect were heavily relied upon during the Second Great Awakening. Edwards' volume of works became more popular in the early 1800s than they were during his life. Much of his work was "Methodized" at that time.⁶

Edwards, in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, describes those that sin as having "hardness of heart and blindness of mind." Edwards couples Mark 16:14 ("hardness of heart") with an apparent inverse of Calvin's enlightening "inner teacher" that "opens the eyes of the mind."⁷ This same phrase can be found in the Book of Mormon, which uses language and concepts similar to Edwards' sermon.

Sermon I of Jonathan Edwards' Seventeen Occasional Sermons has further similarities with the Book of Mormon.

Jonathan Edwards, Discourse V, The Excellency of Christ

Jonathan Edwards, The Eternity of Hells Torments

Jonathan Edwards, Discourse IV, The Justice of God

Jonathan Edwards was eventually dismissed by his congregation over doctrinal disputes. He preached a farewell sermon in the First Church at Northhampton, Massachusetts on July 1, 1750. In this sermon, as was his custom, he paraphrases Bible verse. Compare his selections to the Book of Mormon.

Edwards tells them who will have the last laugh.

Edwards continues to harangue the congregation that ignored his teachings.

George Whitefield

Reverend George Whitefield read Jonathan Edwards' Faithful Narrative in Savannah, Georgia, and embarked upon his career as an itinerant preacher. He drew crowds of over 20,000 and his booming voice could be heard by all. Whitefield was most popular due to his bombastic style. His New England Crusade lasted 75 days, covered 800 miles, and logged 175 sermons.⁸

Whitefield concludes a number of his sermons in the same manner.

Many years after these sermons, the Calvinistic Methodist Confession of Faith was brought by Welsh settlers to central New York state circa 1826. For six years, around 1742, George Whitefield was the leader of Welsh Calvinists.

In the Confession of Faith, paragraph 4 defines the trinity as: "the Father an eternal Person, the Son an eternal Person, the Holy Ghost an eternal Person; but three persons one eternal God." Similarly, the Book of Mormon refers to "Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one eternal God" (Alma 11:44). Paragraph 26 of the Confession of Faith, discusses regeneration, or the change wrought by God on humans. Whitefield also refers to this change in his Marks of a True Conversion.

Whitefield's sermons contain content similar to Edwards', and the Book of Mormon is similar to both.

In this sermon, Whitefield acts the part of a sinner who has become conscious of the punishment that awaits him. The fictitious sinner expresses his remorse for following the Devil.

Jonathan Edwards, Jr.

Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (1745-1801), continued in his father's footsteps, taking on the evils of Arminianism, Antinomianism, and Unitarianism. In life, his father's doctrinal opponent was Dr. Charles Chauncey, the number one defender of universal salvation. Shortly after Chauncey died, Edwards, Jr., produced a work rebutting his position that all men would eventually be saved. His grandson, Tryon Edwards, published a collection of his works in 1842. Edwards' Salvation of All Men Strictly Examined; and the Endless Punishment of Those Who Die Impenitent, Argued and Defended Against the Objections and Reasonings of the Late Rev. Doctor Charles Chauncey, of Boston, in His Book Entitled "The Salvation of All Men," Etc., was first published in 1789.⁹

Compare the following similarites and concepts in Edwards and the Book of Mormon. The page numbering of Edwards' 1789 Universal Salvation is from the 1842 collection.

Jonathan Edwards, Jr., Thoughts on the Atonement, from the 1842 collection.

When his father was dismissed as a pastor, the young Edwards moved with his family to an Indian mission, where he learned the Mohican language. In 1788, he published an elaborate study comparing Mohican to Hebrew. The title offers an explanation of Indian origins similar to the Book of Mormon: Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew Indians; in Which the Extent of That Language in North America is Shown; its Genius Grammatically Traced; and Some of its Peculiarities, and Some Instances of Analogy Between That and the Hebrew are Pointed Out.¹⁰ It is reprinted in the 1842 collection.

Edwards, Jr., delivered a sermon, reproduced in pamphlet form, to Samuel Huntington, governor of Connecticut and the general assembly on May 8, 1794, entitled The Necessity of the Belief of Christianity by the Citizens of the State, in Order to our political Prosperity.¹¹ Compare his style of framing an argument to the Book of Mormon.

Both Edwards, Jr., and the Book of Mormon reverse this phrase from Isaiah 28:13: "precept upon precept; line upon line."

Both Edwards and the Book of Mormon also paraphrase Luke 12:48: "shall be beaten with few [stripes]."

Edwards attacks the Universalist doctrine of short-term punishment. The point of the sermon is that the threat of eternal punishment will foster more obedience than a slap on the wrist would. The Book of Mormon makes the same case with the same New Testament paraphrases.

Edwards explains the heathen practice of exposing unwanted children and adults. Compare this to similar practices in the Book of Mormon.

Jonathan Edwards, Sr., wrote extensively on the concept of the will. For example he says, "beings who have will and choice, whereby as voluntary agents, they are, and act, as it becomes them to be and to act."¹² The Book of Mormon also addresses the subject. Alma 12:31 states, "placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures." And 2 Nephi 2:16 says, "God gave unto man that he should act for himself."

Edwards was a student of John Locke (1632-1704). Locke uses the phrase "state of nature" (cf. Alma 41:11) repeatedly in his Second Treatise, Of Civil Government.¹³ This phrase has been demonstrated throughout the various works of this study. Locke, in the same chapter, uses the phrase "never was, nor ever will be." Edwards, Jr., writes, "ever was or ever will be," in his Universal Salvation Examined. Shakespeare, in Richard the Third, uses "never was nor never will be." The Book of Mormon has "never was nor ever will be" (Alma 30:28). The significant thread is that these phrases are not biblical.

The phrase "an ignominious death" (Alma 1:15) has also been shown to exist in these various resources. Additionally, it can be located in Gulliver's Travels, Chapter VI. Coincidentally, in Chapter VI, Lemuel Gulliver tells the reader, "having been born of plain honest parents," while Nephi states, "having been born of goodly parents" (1 Nephi 1:1). Incredibly, Nephi has a brother named Lemuel.

Noted LDS historian B. H. Roberts was well aware of the fact that the Book of Mormon reflects the influence of popular preachers like Edwards and Whitefield. In his work A Book of Mormon Study, Roberts does not itemize word for word parallels, but rather demonstrates that the conversion process described by Edwards is repeated in the Book of Mormon.

It is clearly established now that these scenes of religious frenzy were common in the vicinage where Joseph Smith resided in his youth and early manhood. The writings of Jonathan Edwards were commonly accessible throughout New England in those days; and Joseph Smith himself came in contact with these emotional phenomena in his own experience after their rebirth in the early decades of the 19th century. The question is, did his knowledge of these things lead to their introduction into the book of Mormon narrative? I think it cannot be questioned but where there is sufficient resemblance between the Book of Mormon instances of religious emotionalism and those cited in the foregoing quotations from the works of Edwards et al. to justify the thought that the latter might well have suggested and indeed become the source of the former.

There can be no doubt but what the style of preaching, exhortation, warning, praying, admonition together with the things emphasized and the ends aimed at in such work of the Christian ministry as came to the attention of Joseph Smith were all largely and deeply influenced by those first and greatest evangelical popular preachers of Protestant Christianity, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Dr. Thomas Coke et al. In saying this I am not unmindful of the fact that these great lights of the Protestant Churches wrought their work in the generation preceding the one in which Joseph Smith lived, and that he never came in contact with them - Wesley, Whitefield, and Dr. Coke on their several visits to America, or with Dr. Edwards in New England. Still that revival of religion which marked the early decades of the 19th century, with which Joseph Smith was familiar, took on pretty much all of its coloring from the spirit and manner in which these above named evangelists conducted their work. The generation of men following them - the men with whom Joseph Smith came in contact, during his boyhood and early manhood, and through whom he heard of these "giants" of ultra-Protestantism of the former generation were but imitators of these in spirit, in matter, and in manner.¹⁴

Conclusion

A legitimate question to ask would be, why would the author of the Book of Mormon so blatantly incorporate phrases not only from the Bible, but also from other popular writers? The answer may be that it was an acceptable practice of the day. The Bible was an unquestioned source of truth. Mercy Otis Warren offered her "moral observations" throughout her History. David Ramsay plagiarized from the Annual Register.¹⁵ Consider the following explanation from Lester H. Cohen, modern editor of Ramsay's History.

First, scholary citation as we know it was not an issue for eighteenth-century writers, who honored the practice, if at all, only in the most irregular and idiosyncratic manner. Second, eighteenth-century American histories were performances, not proofs; they more nearly resemble sermons, which inspire by enunciating principles and applying them to human situations, than scientific or legal discourses, which depend for their cogency and persuasiveness on their marshalling of evidence.¹⁶

In the same way, the Book of Mormon is more sermon than history, more performance and imagination than proof, depending more on inspiration than on evidence. It is a sermon, a political speech, an allegory, and a mirror of the age in which it was produced.

Notes

1. David Ramsay (1749-1815), The History of the American Revolution, ed. Lester H. Cohen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund). Reprint (Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1789), 219.

2. Geoge Washington (1732-1799), George Washington: A Collection, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund), 46.

3. Samuel McClintock, A Sermon on the Occasion of the Commencement of the New-Hampshire Consititution, in Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805, ed. Ellis Sandoz, 2d ed.(Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1784 reprint).

4. Abraham Keteltas, God Arising and Pleading His People's Cause, in Political Sermons (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund).

5. Samuel Sherwood, The Church's Flight into the Wilderness, in Political Sermons (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund).

6. Joseph A. Conforti, Jonathan Edwards, Religious Traditon, and American Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), Chapter 2.

7. Anri Morimoto, Jonathan Edwards and the Catholic Vision of Salvation (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 16.

8. Samuel Elliot Morrison, The Oxford History of the American People (Oxford University Press, 1972), 210.

9. Tryon Edwards, ed., The Works of Jonathan Edwards, D.D., Introduction.

10. Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon (Signature Books).

11. Political Sermons.

12. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 278.

13. John Locke, Of Civil Government (Chicago: Great Books Foundation).

14. B. H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon (University of Illinois Press), 308-09.

15. Ramsay, History, Foreword, xxx.

16. Ramsay, History, Foreword, xxxi.

Resources

Adams, Samuel. American Independence, August 1, 1776.

Coram, Robert. Politcal Inquiries, to which is Added A Plan for the Establishment of Schools Throughout the United States,. Wilmington, 1791.

Dickinson, John. Declaration on Taking up Arms, July 6, 1775.

Dwight, Timothy, D.D.. The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis. New Haven: Thomas and Samuel Green, 1789. Reprinted in Political Sermons of the American Founding Era. Vol. 2. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.

Edwards, Jonathan. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Banner of Truth.

Edwards, Tryon, ed. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, D.D.. Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, 1842.

Gaustead. The Great Awakening in New England.

Henry, Patrick. Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, March 23, 1775. University of Oklahoma Law Center.

Jefferson, Thomas. First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801.

Jefferson, Thomas. Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805.

Monroe, James. Second Inaugural Address, March 5, 1821.

Morris, Richard B., ed. Basic Documents on the Confederatioin and Constitution. Malabar, Florida: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., 1985.

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense, 1776.

Ramsay, David. History of the American Revolution. Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1789.

Ramsay, David. The Life of George Washington. 1807.

Spalding, Solomon. "Manuscript Story."

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels.

Sandoz, Ellis, ed. Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805. Indianapolis, Indiana: Liberty Fund.

Syrett, Harold C., ed. American Historical Documents. Barnes and Noble.

Warren, Mercy Otis. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution. Boston: Manning and Loring, 1805.

Warren, Mercy Otis. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution. Liberty Classics reprint. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1989.

Whitefield, George. The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, 1771-1772. London.

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