Eight (1813)that made sense at the time, and, so long as the people put their trust in it as being the
“word of God,” then Bible-believers could claim that it (“God’s word,” or, in other words,
“God”) “made them do it.” Clearly, the people were not in full possession of their free will.
They were held in captivity by the powerful false religions and the governments that
supported these religions.^42
The advanced human monitors responsible for our mortal experience and
learning are compelled by the nature of laws that have always existed to ensure that
none of us have any excuse for our actions that would justify obstinacy. In perfect,
advanced human worlds, there is no such thing as the “written word,”^43 and there are
certainly no scriptures, no “word of God,” and no gods of any kind outside of the self.
There are only equal human beings, each existing in the realm of their own kingdom and
acting upon their environment according to their own free will.
The Bible has held the mortal human mind captive for a long, long time. It was
powerful because of its universal appeal and the way children were taught by its stories
from birth. The Book of Mormon was needed to counter the Bible and to set the stage for
a great and marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be
everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of
them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness
of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down
into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually,
according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.^44This “captivity of the devil, of which [the Lord has] spoken” was described in the
Book of Mormon’s chapters and verses preceding the one quoted just above. This captivity is
nothing more or less than the corruption that has been caused among the inhabitants of the
world by their belief in the Bible.^45 The time had now come in which advanced monitors
would “equal[ize] our opportunity and experience”^46 without revealing their existence or
impeding upon mortal free will.
Providing a Choice Between “Good” and “Evil”
Inasmuch as the Book of Mormon is a translation of characters written on golden
plates in an ancient language unfamiliar to “Joseph,” and, inasmuch as the translation was
accomplished through the instrumentation of the Urim and Thummim, one might well ask,
“Who actually wrote the Book of Mormon or was it really written contemporarily by Joseph
Smith?” While Joseph’s mind had been enhanced by the advanced beings who had visited
him (thereby he understood the true message of the book), he had no way of knowing if the
words he was given in English were a true translation or not. The answer comes from
understanding that the Book of Mormon came not from the compelling demand of an actual
translation of characters from the gold plates, but by what advanced humans, who gave
Joseph the English words of its translation, knew that it must say. In short, it was written by
and under the direction of advanced monitors who knew what the people needed to read in
order to give them the opportunity to be convinced of the “hardness of their hearts and the
blindness of their minds,” so that maybe—just maybe—they might be convinced “unto
peace and life eternal.”^47