. . .

Doesn't it seem singularly strange that Joseph Smith would use words so consistently without knowledge of the customs and mores of ancient peoples: without special training; with no staff of experts; and with no means by which to hire such help, and could write an account of an ancient people such as the Jaredites covering about 2,500 years of time, and then again of the Nephites covering another one thousand years, each of these accounts being peculiar to its own time and conditions? In these accounts Joseph Smith gives locations, distances, migrations by land and sea; notwithstanding at this time. Joseph Smith had never traveled outside of his immediate vicinity and had probably never seen an ocean. In these accounts are given the doings of governments and courts with officers and laws.

Joseph Smith knew almost nothing of these people. They had, according to the Book of Mormon, monetary systems, systems of weights and measures, religions, agriculture, with all the customs and activities of people and nations. Doesn’t it seem strange, indeed, that none of the common errors that writers and the motion picture industry make are found in the Book of Mormon? Grammatical errors, yes, because God used man as he is, but it is evident that he was not using Joseph Smith to provide the facts; they were already provided in the record on the golden plates.

When the Lord used Joseph Smith as Joseph Smith, there were human errors, but where he used the record as recorded by the prophets at the time and under the conditions as the records were made, there are no errors.

Taking into consideration, then, the manner in which the Book of Mormon came forth, and also the searching scrutiny to which the book has been subjected, it seems that we may well conclude that if the claims set out by Joseph Smith were not true, they would long ago have been disproved and exposed. His claims have stood well over a century of time, standing as firm today as they did the day they were made.