A Disciple. [Reply to John E. Page.] Morning Chronicle (Pitt
A Disciple. [Reply to John E. Page.] Morning Chronicle (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) (2 July
1842).
For the Chronicle.
Not feeling that I have any personal difference, or controversy with Elder Page, I cannot
consent to bandy hard language.—What I have said concerning the use of the Mariner’s
Compass by Nephi, 2,000 years before it was discovered; the quotation from Shakespeare, ages
before he was born; the piling of the earth on the city of Moronihah—the ships and genealogy of
Jaredites, are matters that can be ascertained by reference to the 1st edition of the Book of
Mormon.—The Elder quotes from the 3d edition, and although the translation was professedly
made by divine inspiration, I am preferred to show, thut there exist essential variations in the 3d
from the 1st editiou. Will you join issue, Elder?
That part of my communication of Wednesday last, which claims superior attention, is,
the charge brought against the Book of Mormon, namely, that in two important facts it
contradicted the Bible. These are,
First. —The Book of Mormon records it as a fact that Jesus Christ was born in
Jerusalem. The Bible records that he was born in Bethlehem.
Second.—The Book of Mormon informs us, that at the time of Christ’s crucifixion and
burial, there were three days of darkness.—The Bible informs us of only three hours of darkness.
Here then, in two plain matters of fact, about which there ought not to be the slightest
difference, the Bible and the Book of Mormon contradict each other; and I defy the ingenuity of
Elder Page, or any other man, to reconcile them. The Book of Mormon claims to be divinely
inspired. The Bible we all believe to from God. Now if both books were dictated by the same
author, why are matters of fact recorded so very differently? Both of these records cannot be
true, one of them must be false.
Which is it? Certainly not the Bible.—Then it must be the Book of Mormon. I say then
triumphantly, that I have established it as a fact, admitting the Bible to be true, that the Book of
Mormon is false.
Dagon has fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord.
A DISCIPLE.