B.H. Roberts
Back
to Mormon Quotes Index
Check out Roberts' book, Studies
of the Book of Mormon
B.H. Roberts was one of the most
respected and well-known LDS Historians. He also was a member of the
First Council of Seventy (1888-1933). Roberts' in-depth studies of Book
of Mormon origins led him to doubt the authenticity of the book.
Roberts' honest research and study is uncommon to LDS Historians, who
commonly seek to suppress and sanitize LDS-sanctioned historical
information rather than critically analyze Mormon origins.
“One
other subject remains to be considered in this
division... viz. –
was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative
imagination as to produce such a work as the Book of Mormon from such
materials as have been indicated in the proceeding chapters... That
such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded;
that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no
question....
“In light of this
evidence, there can be no doubt as to the possession
of a vividly strong, creative imagination by Joseph Smith, the Prophet,
an imagination, it could with reason be urged, which, given the
suggestions that are found in the ‘common knowledge’ of accepted
American antiquities of the times, supplemented by such a work as Ethan
Smith’s View of the Hebrews [published in Palmyra in 1825], it would
make it possible for him to create a book such as the Book of Mormon
is.”
- Studies of the Book of
Mormon, by B.H.
Roberts, p. 243, 250
“There were other
Anti-Christs among the Nephites, but they were more
military leaders than religious innovators... they are all of one breed
and brand; so nearly alike that one mind is the author of them, and
that a young and underdeveloped, but piously inclined mind. The
evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their
creator. It is difficult to believe that they are a product of
history, that they came upon the scene separated by long periods of
time, and among a race which was the ancestral race of the red man of
America.”
- Studies of the Book of
Mormon, by B.H.
Roberts, p. 271
“If from all that has
gone before in Part 1, the view be taken that the
Book of Mormon is merely of human origin... if it be assumed that he is
the author of it, then it could be said there is much internal evidence
in the book itself to sustain such a view.
“In the first place
there is a certain lack of perspective in the
things the book relates as history that points quite clearly to an
underdeveloped mind as their origin. The narrative proceeds in
characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its reasonableness,
as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for
consistency.”
- Studies of the Book of
Mormon, by B.H.
Roberts, p. 251
“At his [B.H.
Robert’s] request Pres. Grant called a meeting of the
Twelve Apostles and Bro. Roberts presented the matter, told them
frankly that he was stumped and ask[ed] for their aide [sic] in the
explanation. In answer, they merely one by one stood up and bore
testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. George
Albert Smith in tears testified that his faith in the Book had not been
shaken by the question.... No answer was available. Bro[.]
Roberts could not criticize them for not being able to answer it or to
assist him, but said that in a church which claimed continuous
revelation, a crisis had arisen where revelation was necessary.
After the meeting he wrote Pres. Grant expressing his disappointment at
the failure... It was mentioned at the meeting by Bro. Roberts that
there were other Book of Mormon problems that needed special attention.
“Richard Lyman spoke
up and ask[ed] if there were things that would
help our prestige and when Bro. Roberts answered no, he said then why
discuss them. This attitude was too much for the historically
minded Roberts...
“After this Bro.
Roberts made a special Book of Mormon study; treated
the problem systematically and historically and in a 400 type written
page thesis set forth a revolutionary article on the origin of the Book
of Mormon and sent it to Pres. Grant. It’s an article far too
strong for the average Church member but for the intellectual group he
considers it a contribution to assist in explaining Mormonism.
“He swings to a
psychological explanation of the Book of Mormon and
shows that the plates were not objective but subjective with Joseph
Smith, that his exceptional imagination qualified him psychologically
for the experience which he had in presenting to the world the Book of
Mormon and that the plates with the Urim and Thummim were not
objective.
“He explained certain
literary difficulties in the Book....
“These are some of the
things which has made Bro. Roberts shift his
base on the Book of Mormon. Instead of regarding it as the
strongest evidence we have of Church Divinity, he regards it as the one
which needs the most bolstering. His greatest claim for the
divinity of the Prophet Joseph Smith lies in the Doctrine and
Covenants.”
- Private Journal of Wesley
P. Lloyd, Aug. 7,
1933
“... B.H. Roberts, a
seventy, had problems directly involved with the
writings of Church history. In November 1910, Church President
Joseph F. Smith told the Salt Lake Temple fast meeting that Elder
Roberts doubted that Joseph had actually received a priesthood
restoration from John the Baptist. Church president Heber J.
Grant also required B.H. Roberts to censor some documents in the
seventh volume of the History of the Church. Elder Roberts was
furious. ‘I desire, however to take this occasion of disclaiming
any responsibility for the mutilating of that very important part of
President young’s manuscript,’ Roberts replied to President Grant in
August 1932, ‘and also to say, that while you had the physical power of
eliminating that passage from the History, I do not believe you had any
moral right to do so.’”
-
Dr. Michael Quinn, Mormon scholar, Sunstone,
February 1992, pp. 13-14
