Udney H. Jacob queries Joseph Smith concerning alleged anachronisms such as pre-exilic knowledge of crucifixion and the concept of an infinite atonement.

Date
Jan 6, 1844
Type
Letter
Source
Udney H. Jacob
LDS
Hearsay
Holograph
Direct
Reference

Udney H. Jacob, letter to Joseph Smith, January 6, 1844, 1-2, The Joseph Smith Papers website, accessed March 27, 2023

Scribe/Publisher
Udney H. Jacob
People
Udney H. Jacob, Joseph Smith, Jr.
Audience
Joseph Smith, Jr.
Transcription

The reason why I adress this letter to you is because my enquiries relate to the Book of Mormon, and you who profess to be the translator, and author of that Book; must be I suppose on that account the best able to solve them of any living man— And to make my enquiries as inteligible as I can, I will nomber them under general heads— Query 1st. If you should read in a Book professedly antient, of two, or three thousand years standing a foretelling of our manner of warfare, and that we should fight with Guns, Bayonets, and Pistols; could you believe that the invention of Gunpowder was then forestalled by Prophecy? Or should you read in a Book said to have been written in the days of Nebudchadnezar that hundreds of persons should be destroyed on the Missisippi by the explosion of the boilers of Steem-Boats; would you believe that the invention of Steem boats was thus forestalled by Prophecy? And if you did admit the books to be Genuine; would you not rather conclude that the above mentioned sentences were interpolations inserted by somebody who lived after <​since​> the invention of Gunpowder and Steem boats? For is it not evident that those antient people, to whom the books were first adressed, would be incapable of <​forming​> any idea whatever of the meaning of such words? Guns, Bayonets, Pistols, Steem boats, and Steem boat boilers would certainly be wholly uninteligible to them. And furthermore such language must naturally have created an enquiry, which must have terminated in an explanation of those things, which would have compleatly forestalled the invention of Gunpowder and Steem boats. What then must I say or think when I find the word Crucify; put into the mouth of Nephi so many ye[ar]s before the idea of executeing criminals by Crucifixtion was ever thought of, or the method invented by the Romans? And what rational idea could the Nephites have formed from such expressions? would <​not​> similar enquires [inquiries] & similar results have been the consequences as above alluded to? Query 2d. I find in the mouth of Nephi the following words— “Infinite Attonement”— Here is a word and an idea not found in the Holy Bible, nor in any other antient book with which I am acquainted— It does not appear ever to have entered the mind of Moses, the Prophets, or Appostles; and it is strange that it ever entered the brain of of any rational being! Attonement or Pacification, is attonement, or Pacification; and no more, nor less. It is not subject to comparison, and cannot consistantly be qualified with an adjective— When God declares that his law is satisfied— What then?— It is satisfied— when God declares that any thing is an attonement, or Pacification for sin;— it is so— if it were merely the blood of a Dove or a Mouse— It is written that Christ should make reconciliation for sin— To make reconciliation for sin, is precisely the same thing as to make attonement for sin— How would it sound to read infinite pacification? Infinite satisfaction? Infinite reconciliation? Infinite settlement? I am aware of the fact that modern Divines have had a long protracted contest upon this matter; but I have always supposed that it originated from the confusion of Babel, and the darkness of Mystery Babylon— What then shall I think when I find this modern imp of darkness in the mouth of Nephi ages before Christ was born? Do not suppose Dear Br. Smith that I make these enquiries from evil motives of opposition— It is not so— I am a humble enquirer after truth— I am also a member of your Church by Baptism, and that by particular revelation to me personally— But I should be glad to understand these things, and to be able to meet the cavils, or enquiries of such as oppose. Shall I suppose that the young man who translated the Book of Mormon had at that time no other ideas of Divinety or religion than such as he had gathered from the fals Church and thus atribute these things and many other Modernism to the cause alluded to in the Preface of the Book? If you will admit this it would relieve my mind amazeingly— There are other things in said Book that are very far from being plain to me. I will mention the doctrine of endless torments so frequently occuring therein. How could I Justify the idea of devoteing any sensative being to endless torments? even a Rattle Snake.— They did not bring themselves into existance, and their end was foreknown—

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