Prophets and Chronology - D&C 7, 8:1-2

 

Original Image author unknown, copied from: https://www.orthocuban.com/2020/06/anachronisms-and-isms/

One of the benefits of omniscience is that you know things before they happen. All the intellectual debates about causality and determinism aside, the concept of a prophet receiving messages from an omniscient God not only gets the messages relayed, but offers the non-prophets both a test of faith and something upon which to make a faithful test. People that suffer because they didn't heed a prophet may be deserving of more clemency than those who knew the message came from higher, and chose not to obey anyway. And it's also true that after the prophecy has been fulfilled, we can retroactively offer the prophet their due respect, no matter how they were treated in the moment. The corollary to prophets is that fulfilled prophecies become proof of their prophetic nature and therefore their divine provenance. At least intellectually, this kind of "proof" should satisfy after the fact, and if the intellect is honest and humble enough to allow for the concept of an omniscient Creator who speaks to His creation through authorized messengers, then it should tool the sensibilities to help identify true messages from God, and true messengers, before the time of will alignment has passed.

Stated another way: evidence of a prophetic calling consists in clocking their anachronisms. Saying something they couldn't have known naturally, which turns out later to come to pass, confirms their claims. Those of us who notice these are likely already believers whose testimony of a prophet's calling already has the single most compelling evidence--the Spirit's witness. But noticing them can still confirm and corroborate, and add meaning to their words and frames.

I noted a couple of these in Sections 7 and 8 in my study, that I hope will supplement what truths you already gleaned from the passages.

1. The contextual introduction to D&C 7 mentions an inquiry made through the Urim and Thummim on a question that arose between Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith in April 1829. What it doesn't mention is what the precise question was or how it came to be a subject of curiosity between them. More context can be found in the historical introduction to the section's manuscript record at the Joseph Smith Papers project site. It reminds us that this was the period of heavy productivity in the pair's project to translate the Book of Mormon. We know very few of the details of the translation process--Joseph Smith seemed loath to describe it in detail--but we know that it began in earnest on April 7 of that year, and took around 60-90 days to complete. From this information, and recalling the fact that because of the 116 lost manuscript pages, the two began from the current Book of Mormon's book of Mosiah, it stands to reason that they could have been well into Alma by the end of the month, but could not have completed 3 Nephi. The Joseph Smith Papers historians estimate, with the modifier "probably" attached, that it was their translation of Alma 45:19 that triggered the question. In this passage, Mormon entertains theories from church members at the time of the prophet Alma's son Helaman to the effect that Alma the Younger had been taken up to heaven without tasting death as was Moses. This must have led them to other biblical cases where a power to escape death was discussed, and perhaps the most famous of these is the case of John the Beloved, from the final verses of John 21 in which the resurrected Jesus used word play to keep Peter guessing about whether or not John would be granted an early immortality to be able to serve Him without dying. D&C 7 corrects and appends those verse in John to assert that John really had been granted this power. But what Joseph Smith could not have known until the next month when 3 Nephi came up in the order of translation, that the same resurrected Lord, during His visit to Nephites, also confirmed that John did, in fact, not taste of death, and that three Nephite apostles were also blessed with the same thing.

And therein lies the prophet-confirming anachronism: it was revealed to him because of a question of curiosity before it was confirmed to him by translation.

2. Verses 1-2 of Section 8 announce to Oliver Cowdery an encouraging and joyful bit of news: he would be given the power to translate that he desired. It would have to be according to certain principles and practices--and we know from the next Section that these were not met, and that this entire episode was a bit of a set-up by the Lord to help Oliver feel oriented higher, but satisfied in his role, and to have confidence in the prophet whose task translation really was. The language deployed has striking similarities to phrasing neither of the two of them would learn that Moroni had used 14 centuries earlier. 

The two are laid out here:

"Whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive...by the manifestation of my Spirit. Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart." - D&C 8:1-2

 And here: 

 "I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of 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. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Are you noticing the parallels in the "honest" and "sincere" heart? The "believing that you shall receive" and the "asking in faith" and the "with real intent?" The "asking in faith" and the "with faith in Christ?" The "by the manifestation of my Spirit" and the "he will manifest the truth...unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost?"

When they finally stumbled on Moroni's wording, probably in May, I wonder if Oliver remembered Section 8 from the month earlier, and how the revelatory process as was explained to him those short weeks ago was so nearly identical to the revelatory process Moroni outlines for all seekers after the truth of the record Moroni had sealed up for our time.

Oliver's instructions came with a reference to other spiritual gifts--the gift of "Aaron" along with the above guidance on how to recognize the Spirit's truth-revealing influence. Moroni's came with an enumeration of dozens of spiritual gifts as part of his argument that the manifestation of the truth will not be limited to a mere emotional connection with Deity, but has an effect over time that flowers and fruits into measurable growth toward God's goodness, attributes, and powers. But I'll write more on that soon.