Saturday, March 9, 2024

Nephi Jensen on the Fulfillment of 2 Nephi 30:3


 

1.     The Book of Mormon contains many significant prophecies. Among the rest is this one:
II Nephi 30:3: “And now I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed.”

2.     In 1830, when the Book of Mormon was published there was nothing about Joseph Smith or his surrounding that would indicate that a book he could publish would be accepted by “many” people as the word of God.
(1) He was poor.
(2) Unlearned.
(3) Without funds.
(4) very unpopular.

3.     And yet in his poverty and obscurity he wrote into the Book of Mormon the bold prediction that many would believe that the Book of Mormon was the word of God.

 

Argument

 

This prophecy has come true. More than a million [RB: Over 17 million now, as of writing this post] people have accepted the Book of Mormon as a revelation from God. Joseph Smtih could not have foretold such an unusual event without inspiration. Human power could not have made the prophecy come true.

 

A PROPHECY THAT CAME TRUE

 

A prophecy fulfilled is a perpetual miracle. It is an enduring monument to the operation of the mind of the Infinite in the affairs of the world.

 

But all forecasts that come true and do not furnish evidence of a divine purpose in world affairs. Indeed, very few fulfilled prophecies prove the existence of a divine purpose in human destiny. Only the fulfillment of a prophecy that foretells an event, which would require more than human foresight to foresee, would constitute evidence of the superhuman. If the one who makes the prediction has no possible human means of foreknowing what he predicts; if the event foretold is very uncommon; and if the prophecy comes true, then we would be compelled to believe the prediction was inspired by the One who knows the end from the beginning.

 

Suppose for example, a young obscure farmer should this year, 1933, publish a book containing the prediction that within a comparative few years his book would be accepted by hundreds of thousands of people of all degrees of intelligence as the veritable word of God. If such a prophecy were written this year, and we were living ten years from now, and witnessed people by the thousands accept the book as divine, we would have very good reason for being deeply impressed by the book which contained such a forecast. The Book of Mormon contains such a prophecy.

 

In II Nephi 30:3 is recorded this prediction:

 

“And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed.”

 

Nephi, the author of this prophecy speaks of a most unusual event. Mark the significant words: “Many shall believe the words which are written.” What does this prophecy mean. It means more than the boast of a poet the industrial arts, hundreds of thousands of people are that his poem will take a prominent place in the classical literature of the word. It means more than the prediction of the writer of a text book on science that his work will come to be accepted as a standard authority on the subject treated. In this Book of Mormon prophecy it is boldly declared that the Book of Mormon will be accepted by “many” people as the veritable word of God.

 

This is not an ordinary forecast. It is not a prediction of a common-place human event. There is no other prophecy in all of the literature of the world just like it. No other book has been published, containing the strange prediction that “many would believe” that the book is a divine revelation.

 

The event here predicted is most extraordinary. The forthcoming of a new book of Scripture is something which has not happened a half dozen times in over six thousand years of recorded history. The Kiran was the last book to be published and accepted as divine. It was given to the world in the seventh century. The Book of Mormon is the first new divinely inspired book to be given to the world in the last one thousand years. So the prediction that the book would be accepted as the word of God is a most singular declaration.

 

The prophecy was first put into English in the early summer of 1829. Joseph Smith, the translator of the Book of Mormon, was then twenty-four years of age. He was poor. He had no influential friends. In fact, he was already hated and despised because of his connection with the story of the gold plates. How did this obscure young man, in the midst of poverty, surrounded by foes, and hounded by persecutors, conceive the most unusual idea that a book, which he was about to give to the world, would be accepted as the very word of God? This tremendous thought could not have originated in his brain. He must have obtained it by inspiration from a divine source.

 

But has the prophecy come true? It is hardly necessary to answer this question. The evidences of the remarkably literal fulfillment of this most unusual forecast are to manifest that they are known to all persons who are all informed on the subject. The Book of Mormon has been before the world 100 years. In that time, it has been translated into 16 languages. It has been published extensively in 12 [RB: as of writing this blog post, 115] tongues. Its message has been proclaimed in every corner of every American state. Its divine authenticity has been heralded in Mexico, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, South Africa, India, Japan, Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand and the Argentine republic. Counting all the believers in this record who have died, and all who are living, it is conservative to say that over a million have accepted this book as in fact and truth the word of God.

 

Nor can it be truthfully said that those who believe this record to be divinely inspired are just simple, over-credulous folks. In the ranks of these devout believers are lawyers, scholars, doctors, men of letters, educators, financiers and statements.

 

Even apart from the prediction that “many” people would believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, the fact that the book has been accepted by hundreds of thousands of intelligent people as a direct revelation from God is a circumstance of tremendous significance. Such an event does not occur once in a century. It does not even happen once in a thousand years. The real significance of the event will appear when we take a brief glimpse of what has really happened. An obscure brief glimpse of what has really happened? An obscure young farmer published the Book of Mormon in 1830. He said it was an inspired translation from the record on gold plates, which contained the history of ancient America. He solemnly affirmed that the book was the word of God. The 99 years during which the Book of Mormon has been before the world have witnessed more inventions, discoveries, and progress in science than all the rest of the world’s history combined. This period, little short of a century, so far as advancement in science and industrial achievement is concerned, has been the most enlightened epoch in human history. And yet, during this period of marvelous progress in science and in industrial arts, hundreds of thousands of people are led to accept this book, which was given to the world by an unschooled farmer, as the very word of God!

 

But some critics will say that Joseph Smith, without inspiration, might have predicted that “many” people would believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. What is the answer to this argument. It is found in the fact that neither Joseph Smith, nor any other human being, could fulfill such a prophecy. Only God would make such a prophecy come true. Since it has come true under his guiding providence, we are compelled to believe he is the author of the prediction.

 

In this prophecy, and its manifest and marvelous fulfillment, we have proof of a great divine plan which reaches across more than 20 centuries. More than 2,000 years ago, the Almighty determined that the record of his hand-dealings with the ancient inhabitants of this continent should be brought forth in our day. He inspired the Prophet Nephi to put this divine determination into prophetic words. These prophetic words have become history before our eyes.

 

The history which has been written under the guiding inspiration of this sacred book furnishes one of the most thrilling epochs in human annals. The book has since Peter preached in the name of the crucified Christ and Paul declaimed against pagan gods. The simple, earnest testimony of the book for Jesus Christ, has awakened in the hearts of thousands of drooping souls a living comfort and hope have driven dismal despair from tens of thousands of disconsolate human hearts. Its simple, definite doctrines have made both God and Christ real and intelligible in an age of speculation, theorizing and confusion. Its clarion notes of righteousness have turned hundreds of thousands of souls from error to truth; from despairing doubt to radiant faith; and from folly and sin to God and truth.

 

It must be God’s book because it unfailingly turns Godward. It must be divine. It makes human lives sublime. (Nephi Jensen, Missionary Themes No. 2: Manual for the Priests’ Quorum [Salt Lake City: Desert News Press, n.d.], 186-90; comments in square brackets added for clarification)


Further Reading:


Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies