+~-llll_.lltl-t--1!11-h-1111-fl-ltl!-lll-h-k~--1111-hu-uh--tt-~-~~-m--1111-l!-llll-l+ ~ : THE ~ f! t BOOK OF MORMON J s t "The Stck of Ephram" j Referred to n the Thrty-seventh Chapter of EzekeL, Verses Ffteen to Nneteen = f t BY ELDER JOSEPH LUFF +u- 11-1111-tlll-nn-un-nK-ttu-ltn-utt-utt-uu-nu-uu-uu-uH-tttt-nH-Ru-Nu-ttu-utt-uw-tt~-uu-uu-n+ f
FOREWORD The am of the author of ths pamphlet, n wrtng t, s to help and not to hnder the work of the church. He has been an actve mnster of the Reorganzed Church of Jesus Chrst of Latter Day Sants for sxty years and s today as devoutly nterested n the welfare and success of that church as he has ever been; but for the reasons heren assgned, beleves t to be hs duty to put forth ths effort towards correctng what he esteems to be an error n ts authorzed teachng, as s also the case n the teachng of every branch or facton of the church that professes to be an exponent of the fath ntroduced through the agency of Joseph Smth n or pror to the year 1830- not a doctrnal error, but a mstake n the employment of a scrptural passage where t does not apply or belong. Where, or just how, or by whom ths error frst found place n those teachngs do not know, but f t be, as s clamed heren, an error, t matters not what ts age, or who ts author, or where ts brthplace, there s no justfcaton for ts contnuance. A church should be wllng to correct ts mstakes mmedately upon the dscovery of them, regardless of the consequent humlaton, otherwse ts request of the world to do so s nconsstent and hypocrtcal. The L. D. S. Churches all beleve they are renderng a kndly and even dvne servce to the relgous world when exposng some popular doctrnal errors and urgng a correcton of them. The wrter of ths pamphlet beleves lkewse n publshng t, and asks only a thoughtful readng and study of what t contans, declarng hs readness to consder kndly and carefully anythng that may be properly offered n rebuttal. The people of Berea, ancently, were more noble than those of Thessalonca, the Good Book says, because they receved the word wth all readness of mnd, when t was offered to them, and then searched the Scrptures daly to dscover whether those thngs were so. (See Acts 17:11.) A smlar exhbton of noblty would be regarded as a kndness by ths wrter now, belevng, as he does, that every wrong n teachng and practce n the church-contnued after dscovery-wll brng dscredt n heaven and loss of savng grace and sprtual dstncton on earth.
The Book of Mormon s t the "Stck of Ephram" referred to n Ezeke/37: 15 to 19 herewth quoted? "Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stck, and wrte upon t, For Judah and for the chldren of srael hs companons; then take another stck, and wrte upon t, For Joseph, the stck of Ephram, and for all the house of srael hs companons; and jon them one to another nto one stck; and they shall become one n thne hand. And when the chldren of thy people shall speak unto thee, sayng, Wlt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? say unto them, Thus sath the Lord God; Behold wll take the stck of Joseph, whch s n the hand of Ephram and the trbes of srael hs fellows, and wll put them wth hm, even wth the stck of Judah, and make them one stck, and they shall be one n mne hand. And the stcks whereon thou wrtest shall be n thne hand before ther eyes. And say unto them, Thus sath the Lord God; Behold, wll take the chldren of srael from among the heathen whther they be gone and wll gather them on every sde, and brng them nto ther own land; and wll make them one naton n the land upon the mountans of srael and one kng shall be kng to them all, and they shall no more be two natons, nether shall they be dvded nto two kngdoms any more at all." For about one hundred years, every Latter Day Sant Church, wthout an 3 excepton, has from pulpt and press sad "Yes!" Nearly every sermon on the Dvne Authorty of the Book of Mormon has ncluded the above verses and these verses have been employed as beng among the strongest bblcal evdences at command. For ths wrter, therefore, to answer the above queston wth an emphatc No, may sound lke a human whsper uttered n an attempt to slence dvne thunder, and may go unheeded n consequence; but as have done a thousand tmes before, when defendng our beloved gospel clams aganst the bosterous denuncatons of an unbelevng world, let me here agan use the scrptural word of counsel and suggeston as a means of reachng a safe concluson as to whch answer s rght: "To the law and to the testmony, they speak not accordng to ths word, t s because there s no lght n them." -saah 8:20. Does the Bble authorze or warrant the L. D. S. Church answer? No. Does the Book of Mormon declare or ntmate that t s the Stck of Joseph or Ephram? No. Does the Book of Doctrne and Covenants anywhere say that the Book of Mormon s the Stck of Joseph or Ephram? No.
f my readng and understandng are correct, those books justfy me n the dstnct and postve answer thus made. For years after enterng the church accepted, wthout queston, the poston held by the church on ths queston and so preached, as may be seen by reference to my Book of Sermons, publshed thrty years ago, n whch the popular church belef was proclamed. As years passed and what seemed to me to be lght came through dfferent channels to my mnd when n study, was compelled to dscard the popular dea as beng ncorrect and to fx my expectaton elsewhere than the Book of Mormon for a fulfllment of the Stck of Ephram predcton. Hence, let me agan state that am a belever n both the Book of Mormon and Ezekel's prophecy but do not beleve that the latter has' any reference to the former. t s the wrongness of the applcaton that strs my pen, for Ezekel's prophecy, f authorzed of God, wll some day be fulflled, and when that day comes and ts ntended applcaton s attempted, the dscovery wll be made, to the humlaton of the church, that the place dvnely ntended for t has been usurped by the Book of Mormon heralds and zealots blndly. There s an abundance of Bble evdence supportve of the Book of Mormon wthout Ezekel's prophecy, so that ts elmnaton need cause no dsappontment, and a rght applcaton of Ezekel's prophecy ought to vtalze our expectaton regardng the event to whch t properly apples-an event at least as wonderful and glorous as the comng of the Book of Mormon could possbly be. As already stated, do not know who frst enlsted Ezekel's prophecy to support the Book of Mormon. am of opnon that Orson Pratt, who was so 4 marvelously effcent n acqurng and applyng scrptural passages to support the clams of the New Evangel, may have been the man; but be that as t may, does t not seem remarkab~e that (f the popular use of the text 1s correct) so mportant a passage as that was not referred to by the angel who vsted Joseph Smth and rected so many other passages of scrpture n support of the comng book-and assocated events-not one of them surpassng n drect value ths passage, f t was really applcable thereto? saah, Malach, and Joel were quoted, and several apparently less mportant tems. t s true that Joseph sad that other passages were quoted, but t seems evdent that one so mportant as Ezekel's prophecy would never have been left unquoted, f t related to the n:rolved event. Judgng from the prommence gven t n all sermons and artcles relatng to the Book of Mormon, t s evdent that t has been rated by the church as of frst mportance. My desre s only that each porton of the word of God shall be appled where he sad t should be, and that when each passage s fulflled the:e wll be. no clashng of church teachmg and cla1ms. No clams should be made for the book other than ts contents justfy. The book has ts place and Ezekel's prophecy has ts place, and both wll fgure n and contrbute n an mportant way and degree toward the consummaton promsed of God; but the success of God's processes wll be delayed rather than hastened by us f we locate one where the other belongs, and compel a readjustment by the church when the blunder s exposed upon the housetops by the later dvnely planned fulfllment of prophecy. There wll be no frcton n the God-ordered process; but there wll be n our manpulaton of church
affars f n our gnorance we dsarrange the detals connected therewth when professng to act as hs nterpreters. But to my reasons for belevng and declarng as have done. The books speak for themselves. Let me, therefore, appeal to ther speech. Frst, to secure a few sdelghts on the subject, let me call your attenton to some facts announced regardng those who fgure n the nvolved case, that wll help us to more easly reach a proper concluson: From 1 Kngs 12, and 2 Chroncles 10 we learn that, followng the death of Solomon, Rehoboam, hs son, became kng of srael (embracng all of the twelve trbes), but because of hs atttude towards the people, a dvson occurred and ten and a half trbes revolted and, later, under Jeroboam, started a separate naton at Shechem n Mount Ephram for themselves, leavng the trbe of Judah and part' of the trbe of Benjamn as a separate naton under Rehoboam at Jerusalem, and from the later verses we learn that wars occurred contnually thereafter between these two natons. That breach to ths day has never been healed. Snce that tme they have ever been referred to as two natons-judah and srael, or Ephram and Judah. (See sa. 11:12.) Seven hundred years before Chrst Shalmanezer, Kng of Assyra, beseged Samara and took srael (the ten and a half trbes, ncludng Ephram) captve to Assyra. (See 2 Kngs 17: 5, 6; also 18:10-12.) About sx hundred years before Chrst, Nebuchadnezzar, kng of Babylon, came aganst Jerusalem, destroyed t, and took the trbe of Judah to Babylon:. Seventy years later, by grant of 5 Cyrus, kng of Persa, Judah returned to Jerusalem and remaned there tll about seventy years after Chrst, when the dsperson occurred "unto all natons." From that tme, reference has been made to them as the dspersed of Judah, whle the ten and a half trbes are mentoned as the "outcasts of srael." Thus keepng clear the fact of two natons. (sa. 11:12.) Every thoughtful reader of the Scrptures knows that they abound wth propheces of a future return of both srael and Judah to ther former home at Jerusalem. Jeremah, saah, Hosea, Ezekel, and others are very pronounced n such propheces. Next wsh to note what s recorded n 1 Chroncles 5:1-3. Here we learn that whle Reuben was really the frst born of Jacob, yet because he defled hs father's bed, the brthrght was taken from hm and transferred to the sons of Joseph-Ephram and Manasseh. After that we fnd the word Ephram frequently used nterchangeably wth srael when referrng to the ten and a half trbes, that revolted and later went to Assyra. Sometmes t reads srael and Judah, at other tmes Ephram and Judah, substtutng the word Ephram for srael, and n referrng to the fnal gatherng, says, " wll brng them from the north country whther they have gone, and the coasts of the earth, for am a father to srael and Ephram s my frstborn. Ephram then s n that north country or n the coasts of the earth apparently. Read now sa. 11:12, 13: "The envy of Ephram shall depart and the adversares of Judah shall be cut off. Ephram shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephram. srael. Here Ephram stands for
Carefully now read 2 Kngs 17: 6, 23; Jer. 31:6-9; Hosea 7:11; 8:8, 12; 9:3; 10:6; 11:3-5; 12:1. t doubtless was whle he was n Assyra that God wrote the "great thngs of hs law to Ephram" whch were accounted as a "strange thng" (Hosea 8:12), and when the "stck" of Ephram comes forth t probably wll contan that wrtng. These passages clearly show Ephram to be n Assyra, and as beng one of the two natons whch Ezekel's prophecy refers to, and revelatons to ths church show that naton (those lost trbes) to be there stll, as we shall show. Let me now come to the man pont n mnd, upon whch all these passages throw a helpful lght. Read Ezekel 37:16-19, as found above. Observe closely, please, the language of the prophecy, and keep n mnd the common nterpretaton of the word "stcks" or "stck" whch beleve to be correct. That s: "records" or "record/' and: what s made clear? Let us see: Frst, please note that the Lord heren says n hs nterpretatons of the vson, that he refers to the two natons (Ephram, or srael, and Judah), and there s not a word to justfy the admsson of any other people or to justfy a severng of these. Now what does He say? Read, usng the word record for stck. "Take thee one record and wrte upon t, For Judah and for the chldren ot srael, hs companons; and take another record and wrte upon t, For Joseph, the record of Ephram, and ALL THE HOUSE OF SRAEL, DS COMPANONS, and jon them one to another n one record and they shall become one n thne hand." 6 As a meanng for ths command God told Ezekel to thus explan: "Behold wll take the record of Joseph WHCH S N THE HAND OF EPHRAM AND THE TRBES OF SRAEL HS FELLOWS, and wll put them wth hm-even wth the record of Judah, and make them one record, and they shall be one n my hand." Further, n explanaton, he says: " wll take the chldren of srael from among the heathen whther they be gone, and wll gather them on every sde and brng them nto ther own land, and wll make them one naton n the land upon the mountans of srael, and one kng shall be kng to them all, and they shall be no more two natons, nether shall they be dvded nto two kngdoms any more at all." Now, please notce that ths stck or record of Ephram must contan the hstory of Ephram and all the house of srael, hs companons. Does the Book of Mormon contan that? Notce further, that t s to be found n the hands of Ephram and the trbes of srael, hs fellows. Was the Book of Mormon found there? And agan t s dstnctly referrng to and dealng wth one of the two natons referred to-that naton known as srael or Ephram (ncludng the ten and a half trbes that revolted under Rehoboam's rule) and are yet separate from that other naton known as Judah. Does the Book of Mormon represent that naton, or s t not a smple fact that all that the Book of Mormon pretends to be s a hstory of two famles whom God led to Amerca (not to but from Jerusalem) and some tems from plates found by them, and offers not a _ word regardng ths naton of srael as hstory or as a record of them and ther whereabouts and development. t s smply a record of Leh or Neph and
Zoram and ther descendants n Amerca. t s therefore clear from the Bble and especally the passage from Ezekel tself, that the Book of Mormon cannot be a fulfllment of ts predcton. Let us now consult the Book of Mormon tself and see f t warrants the clam made for t that ths pamphlet s wrtten to oppose. wll quote from the small Plano edton, publshed n 1876, begnnng on page 105, paragraph 8: "Wherefore because that ye have a Bble ye need not suppose that t contans all my words; nether need ye suppose that have not caused more to be wrtten; for command all men, both n the East and n the West and n the North and n the South, and n the slands of the sea, that they shall wrte the words that shall speak unto them; for out of the books whch shall be wrtten wll judge the world, every man accordng to ther works, accordng to that whch s wrtten. For behold shall speak unto the Jews and they shall wrte t; and shall also speak unto the Nephtes and they shall wrte t, and shall also speak unto the other trbes of the house of srael, whch have led away, and they shall wrte t, and shall also speak wth all natons of the earth and they shall wrte t. And t shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephtes, and the Nephtes shall have the words of the Jews, and the Nephtes and the Jews shall have the words of the lost trbes of srael, and the "lost trbes of srael" shall have the words of the Nephtes and the Jews; and t shall come to pass that my people whch are of the house of srael shall be gathered home unto the lands of ther possessons and my word also shall be gathered n one." The "words of the Jews" here doubtless refer to the record of Judah mentoned n Ezekel's prophecy. And suppose that all my readers wll agree wth me that the words or record of Neph here referred to means the Book of Mormon, for that book certanly s ther record. There can be no queston about that. On the plates from whch the Book of Mormon was translated these words appeared concernng t: "t s an abrdgment of the record of the people of Neph, and also of the Lamantes, wrtten to the Lamantes." S ee Church Hstory, volume 1, page 74. Hence, as have shown, t s at some future day to be unted wth the record of Ephram and Judah. f, then, t s the Book of Mormon, and wll someday be joned wth the record of the lost trbes of srael, how can t be the record of those lost trbes, whch as we have shown, are the naton referred to n Ezekel's prophecy as one of the two natons of former hstory whch was removed by Shalmanezer from Samara to Assyra, ncludng the ten and a half trbes? The record of those trbes cannot be taken "from ther hand" tll they are located, and sacred testmony declares that ther appearance wll be accompaned wth mracles that wll eclpse the glory of sraeltsh delvery formerly from Egypt. Then they wll cease to be referred to as the "outcasts"-the "lost trbes," and ther records wll be joned wth Judah's and that of the Nephtes. n the Book of Doctrne and Covenants 108:6, dated November 3, 1831, we are told that those trbes were then stll n the north country and we are nformed that "they who are n the north countres shall come n remem brance before the Lord, and ther prophets shall hear hs voce and shall no longer stay themselves, and they 7
shall smte the rocks and the ce shall flow down at ther presence. And an hghway shall be cast up n the mdst of the great deep.... Behold ths s the blessng of the everlastng God upon the tdbes of srael and the rcher blessng upon the head of Ephram and hs fellows." Ths probably has reference to the same events as are foretold n Jeremah 16:14, 15, ndcatng mraculous dsplay n ts fulfllment. f, therefore, the Book of Mormon does not contan a record of "Ephram. and all the house of srael hs companons"-(the lost trbes) as we have shown, how can t be the Record or Stck of Ephram, whch was to do that? f the Book of Mormon was found n Amerca, how can t be the Record whch, accordng to Ezekel, was to be found n the hands of Ephram and the trbes of srael hs companons, whom we have shown were n Assyra? The Book of Mormon was wrtten n Amerca and only pretends to be a rec_ord of God's dealngs wth people n Amerca. Any reference n t to others s coped from the record of Judah. We have no known record of what those trbes (meanng or ncludng Ephram) found or dd n Assyra, or what became of them. The prophet Esdras (supposed by many to be the prophet Ezra of our Bble) n the second book of hs wrtngs n what s known as the Old Testament Apocrypha, says that after reachng Assyra they took a year and a half's journey north 8 -helped by mraculous nterventonto a country where they were determned to fathfully serve God as they had never done n ther own land. Thus the known chapter of ther hstory closes. Our Book of Mormon, as a record, stck, or hstory, does not even squnt n ther drecton; and when they later appear they wll lkely be amazed to learn that the Book of Mormon has been posng as ther hstory, whle not even knowng ther whereabouts. Whle callng hs attenton to my vews on ths subject some tme ago, an elder drected me to a statement found n Doctrne and Covenants, secton 26, paragraph 2, whch he thought declared the Book of Mormon to be the Stck of Ephram. But close readng wll reveal that t merely says that Moron had been sent to reveal the Book of Mormon, and that to hm had been commtted the keys of the record of the stck of Ephram. t does not connect the Book of Mormon wth the Stck of Ephram but merely declares that unto Moron had been commtted the authorty for the double servceone dealng wth the Book of Mormon and the other wth the stck of Ephram. My vews are now before you. Whatever may be the fate of ths pamphlet, my mnd s freed from the urge that led to ts beng wrtten. present t wth a desre to "make straght the way of our Lord," and am ready to take cheerfully the consequences. n gospel bonds, JOSEPH LUFF.