Salt Lake City Messenger UTAH LIGHTHOUSE MINISTRY Issue No. 72 PO BOX 1884, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84110 July 1989 A BLACK HOLE IN THE BOOK OF MORMON Computer Reveals Astounding Evidence on Origin of Mormon Book In 1828, Joseph Smith’s enemies for sobs and groans, and the most bitter fired a shot from ambush at his lamentations filled the house. However, translation of the Book of Mormon. Joseph was more distressed than the rest As Smith looked at the gaping hole in . he continued, pacing back and forth, the very heart of the document he had meantime weeping and grieving, until about sunset . struggled so hard to protect, he seemed The manuscript has never been to sense that the wound could be fatal. found; and there is no doubt that Mrs. His mother, Lucy Smith, revealed the Harris took it from the drawer . anguish which flooded Joseph Smith’s (Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith mind when he grasped the devastating the Prophet, 1853, pp. 117, 118, 120-123) implications of what had happened: Joseph Smith’s words, “All is Martin Harris, having written lost! all is lost!,” show the gravity some one hundred and sixteen of the predicament he found himself pages for Joseph, asked permission in. He realized that since he had not of my son to carry the manuscript retained a copy of the 116 pages, he home with him, in order to let his could not reproduce exactly the same wife read it . Joseph . inquired of the material as the first part of the Book Lord to know if he might do as of Mormon. It would, therefore, be a Martin Harris had requested, but book without a beginning! A Mormon was refused. Joseph inquired again, but received a critic, M. T. Lamb, succinctly pointed out the dilemma second refusal. Still, Martin Harris persisted as before, facing Joseph Smith: and Joseph applied again, but the last answer was not like the two former ones. In this the Lord permitted Martin The general belief was that she [Mrs. Harris] burned Harris to take the manuscript home with him . Mr. it [i.e., the manuscript]. But the prophet Joseph evidently Harris had been absent nearly three weeks, and Joseph was afraid she had not, but had secretly hid it, for the had received no intelligence whatever from him . we purpose of entrapping him, should he ever attempt to saw him [Harris] walking with a slow and measured tread reproduce the pages. If the work was really of God, the towards the house . Harris pressed his hands upon his manuscript could be reproduced word for word without temples, and cried out, in a tone of deep anguish, “Oh, a mistake. If, however, Joseph inspired it himself, his I have lost my soul! I have lost my soul!” memory would hardly be adequate to such a task, without Joseph . sprang from the table, exclaiming, numberless changes or verbal differences—and thus “Martin, have you lost that manuscript? . .” “give himself away,” since he loudly professed to be “Yes, it is gone,” replied Martin, “and I know not all the time aided “by the gift and power of God.” (The where.” Golden Bible, page 119) “Oh, my God!” said Joseph, clinching his hands. “All is lost! all is lost! What shall I do? I have sinned . .” The theft of the 116 pages brought the translation of He wept and groaned, and walked the floor continually the Book of Mormon to a grinding halt. Joseph Smith . what could I say to comfort him, when he saw all claimed that “both the plates [i.e., the gold plates on the family in the same situation of mind as himself, which the Book of Mormon was supposed to have been Extra Newsletters Free at the Bookstore – By Mail: 5 for $1.00 - 25 for $3.00 2 Salt Lake City Messenger Issue 72 written] and the Urim and Thummim [a sacred device used people would have had to produce the original pages to prove to translate the plates] were taken” from him (History of that Joseph Smith could not produce an accurate duplicate the Church, vol. 1, p. 23). Later, however, the plates were of the original. It would be almost impossible to alter the restored and he received a revelation purporting to be from manuscript without detection. The Mormons could have Jesus Christ. The Lord told him not to retranslate the missing taken the case to court and easily won a significant victory. pages because his enemies had altered them: Critics feel that the simple truth is that Joseph Smith could not reproduce an exact copy of what he had previously written. Now, behold, I say unto you, that because you delivered Therefore, he was forced to come up with the elaborate story up those writings . into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them. you also lost your gift at the same time; about the Lord providing a second set of plates covering and your mind became darkened. exactly the same time period to fill in the missing portion And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter of the Book of Mormon. the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated . GAZING INTO THE BLACK HOLE Behold, I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands; For, behold, they shall not accomplish their evil designs A few years ago we published an article entitled in lying against those words. For, behold, if you should “Probing Black Holes in Mormon History.” We noted that bring forth the same words they will say that you have lied astronomers feel that sometimes a star will “collapse into and that you have pretended to translate, but that you have itself and become a black hole and, in a sense, exit the contradicted yourself. universe.” One physicist said that “You can’t see a black hole. And, behold, they will publish this, and Satan will Just its effects.” We quoted one author as saying that “Since harden the hearts of the people to stir them up to anger not even light can escape a black hole, one can never be seen against you, that they will not believe my words. (Doctrine and Covenants 10:1, 2, 10, 30-32) directly.” We also quoted a statement which explained that “black holes theoretically occur when matter collapses into Joseph Smith was informed that about 600 years an exquisitely compact state. Its gravity grows strong enough before the birth of Christ, the Lord had anticipated this very to trap everything, including light, within the horizon of its problem. He had, in fact, inspired the ancient prophet Nephi gravitational field. The earth, for instance, would become a to make another set of plates which covered exactly the black hole, if it could somehow be squeezed to the size of a same time period as that first set of plates. Mormon writers marble. Medium-size black holes result from the collapse refer to these plates as the “small plates of Nephi,” and the of giant stars too massive to stop at the neutron star stage. plates which contained the material for the 116 lost pages are They just disappear into their dark prisons.” called the “large plates of Nephi.” One matter that is rather We noted that although we know “very little about confusing is that in a preface to the first edition of the Book astronomy or the theories concerning black holes in space, we of Mormon, Joseph Smith referred to the 116 missing pages have observed a somewhat similar phenomenon in Mormon as being from “the Book of Lehi, which was an account history. Important documents which could throw a great deal abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon . .” of light on Mormon history, seem to mysteriously “disappear Mormon writers, however, argue that Lehi did not actually into their dark prisons.” write anything on the plates; all the writing was done by his At the time we wrote this article, we had no idea that we son, Nephi: “Aside from employing his name honorifically, were going to encounter a massive black hole in the Book this work apparently was not written in any part by Lehi . .” of Mormon itself. Significantly, this black hole appears in (S. Kent Brown, Brigham Young University Studies, Winter the very material which replaced the missing 116 pages! It 1984, p. 21, n. 10). seems obvious from our research that a great deal of material However this may be, the Lord told Joseph Smith that which was originally in the Book of Mormon has disappeared he could translate the small plates of Nephi and they would into this bottomless abyss. take the place of what had come from the large plates of We have always believed that there was something Nephi—i.e., the missing 116 pages. The Book of Mormon strange about this portion of the Book of Mormon, but we would no longer be a book without a beginning. In addition, were not preparing to scrutinize it in more detail than the rest it was made clear to Smith that the small plates of Nephi of the book. Recently, however, we heard of the Mormon dealt more with spiritual matters than the missing pages. Church’s new computer program, The Computerized Consequently, the loss of the 116 pages was actually set Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day forth by the Mormon Church leaders as a victory for the Saints.