November 13, 1931.

Dr. George W. Middleton,

Deseret National Bank Bldg.

City.

Dear Brother Middleton:

I have before me the question you submitted in your letter of November 9th relating to the 9th chapter of III Nephi and the destruction visited upon the Nephite cities during the crucifixion and entombment of the Christ, etc., etc., and the revelation which the Christ gave concerning the terrible destructions visited upon this land of America among the Nephites, and the further statement that the Book of Mormon represents the Christ, as we may say, personally responsible for that extensive judgment upon the Nephites, as you point out, by the Christ saying: "Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God;" thus making him personally responsible for the vengeance poured out upon those cities. Then the question: How can this be reconciled with the character of the Christ as revealed in the New Testament where he admonishes his disciples "to love their enemies; to do good to those who hate you and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you", and you might have added, who prayed while suffering the agonies of the cross, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do". And in addition to that he refused to permit the disciples James and John to call down fire from heaven upon a village of Samaria because they refused to receive the Master. But he rebuked them and said: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Referring to such passages, however, merely increases your difficulties and does not answer them.

I have called your attention and emphasized the patient unangered disposition of the Christ in these instances merely to show you that the difficulty you speak of about reconciling the destruction of the Nephite cities with the gentleness of the Christ as exhibited in the New Testament to remind you that the difficulty of reconciliation exists not only as to the destruction and vengeance upon the Nephite cities alone, but is just as clearly a difficulty between the two pictures drawn of the Christ in the Bible as well as between the Book of Mormon and the representations of the Christ in the New Testament. For instance: Suppose you draw the contrast between the general picture we gather of the loving tenderness, patience and the abhorrence of violence on the part of the Christ as portrayed in the Gospels and those other pictures of him in other parts of the New Testament. In Revelation VI we get a description of the judgments that are yet to come upon the world as follows:

"And I saw when the Lamb [undoubtedly, of course, the Christ] opened one of the seals, I heard as it were the noise of thunder one of the four beasts saying: Come and see * * * and I beheld when he [the Lamb of the first verse] opened the sixth seal, and lo there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood * * * and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the judges, captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb [i.e. the Christ], for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand." (Rev. VI).

Remembering that the Jehovah of the Jews is the gentle Christ of the New Testament I call your attention to the judgment which befell Babylon in ancient times, <and> where in chapter XIII the destruction of that day of vengeance overtook the world under the direct action of the Lord; for "The Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle"; and the destruction that follows under that action was very terrible, for "I will [saith the Lord], punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity," etc. etc. "I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger" (Isaiah XIII:13)

Many similar examples can be found in the Bible in the Old Testament and also in the New, in chapters from the VIth to about the XIth of Revelation. To all this, however, you will say - this multiplies my difficulties and does not answer them. Quite true; and <but> I merely make these citations to call your attention to the fact that the difficulties of "reconciliation" of the God of Vengeance and the God of peaceful methods, loving persuasion and kindness, are just as great in the Bible as between the instance you refer to in the Book of Mormon and the Christ of the New Testament Gospels.

Frankly I can not reconcile the two views of God, either between the Book of Mormon and the Christ of the New Testament; nor between the Christ of the Gospels and of other parts of the Bible. I can only say that the difficulties are as great in one case as in the other.

But speaking now, in a general way, I call attention to the fact that as men sow, so must they reap; and this is as much in community and national existence as in individual cases; and that a course of evil is followed with evil consequences, as righteousness is rewarded with its harvest of blessing; and the evils that follow wickedness as rewards follow righteousness, God takes unto himself as being the cause, and hence when destruction and death fall upon individual, community or nation, or the world, the Lord says "Behold, I did it", though the apparent judgments are but consequences inherent in eternal things as they exist and bring results of what these several divisions of humanity have done, and for which they receive evil or good as they themselves do evil or good; and then these things are ascribed to the Lord as bringing them about.

It is out of these thoughts that I form my own ideas of reconciliation between the loving Christ and the God of vengeance. Nor are these difficulties peculiar to the "God of Revelation" they exist as well in the deist's "God of Nature". Men look upon nature and they behold the sunshine and the gentle rain, the succession of the seasons, the fruitfulness of the earth, and exclaim how beneficent is the kindly God of Nature in supplying the wants of man and conferring upon him happiness by reason of the blessing the God of Nature gives. But the God of Nature changes his peaceful aspects and destructive storms come, the sea heaves itself beyond its bounds, the dreadful earthquake shakes down cities and engulfs hundreds of thousands, the innocent with the guilty and seems altogether reckless and immoral in the destructive aspects of this "God of Nature."

Still the deists pay tribute of homage to this "God of Nature" and sometimes venture to contrast him with the "merciless" "God of Revelation". But how can the deist reconcile the awful disparagement of the God of Nature in peaceful and kindly moods, and this other aspect of him in storm and tempest and earthquake with all the cruel results that follow? <—including death & suffering from slow disease or cruel accident.> Yet men admire the "God of Nature". They think of him however as just the result of insensient force, but de<i>fy him nevertheless.

In the moral and spiritual realm certain immoral courses are followed by men and disastrous results follow, and in "Revelation" these are portrayed sometimes as coming as the result of God's anger and vengeance, when in reality they are but consequences of immoral and unspiritual conduct on the part of men, and then we exclaim against the "God of Revelation", when in reality these things called "judgments" are but "consequences" of men's actions, of which God has given them merciful and due warnings.

Another phase of this subject would be the overbalanced importance that men attach to life and the time and manner in which it ends, etc., but that is another phase of the subject with which your question does not call upon me to deal.

All this is respectfully submitted to your consideration, although I know you may feel that I have not adequately answered your question, and if not it is because I am unable to offer any clearer explanation.

Very truly your brother,

BHR/c