[The Book of Mormon] is the new
covenant to the seed of Joseph, that has been gathered from the nations of the
Gentiles, and to the seed of Joseph that has been preserved upon this land—the
stone-power, the aborigines—the Kingdom of God since the death of Shiloh, the
testator, in the year thirty-four. (Heb. 9:16, 17).
For where a testament is, there
must also, of necessity, be the death of the testator. For a testament is of
force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength while the testator
liveth. Doct. & Cov. 84:57: “And they shall remain under this condemnation
until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and
the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do
according to that which I have written.” (Angus McDonald, Mormonism:
The Advance Guard of the Terrestrial Kingdom of God [1889], 3)
