I am sure most of you reading this have heard that LDS Inc. just purchased a printers manuscript of the Book of Mormon for 35 million from the Community of Christ(formerly known as the reorganized church) who bought it in a collection, way back in 1903, for only $2500.
Thirty Five Million dollars is a lot of money no matter how you spin it or how you obtained it. Didn’t the church already have the Book of Mormon? Haven’t they published tens of millions of them already? Can’t you buy a copy of it for just a few dollars? Oh wait, there must be new information in this manuscript that contains important revelation or new doctrines that weren’t previously available, right? Well, not really. Everything in this document has already been released and was already made available to anyone interested. So it contains nothing new that you can’t already find in millions of existing copies of the Book of Mormon. And isn’t it the words contained in the book that are far more valuable than the book itself?
So then why does LDS Inc. need this now? Why did God want his prophet, Thomas S. Monson to spend 35 million for something they really already have? Surely Thomas wouldn’t have authorized such a monumental expenditure for some old papers unless God told him to do that, right? Whose church is this anyway?
But then why couldn’t God have directed his now dead prophet(Joseph F. Smith), back in 1903 to buy this seminal document for a tiny fraction of that amount, if it was going to be so essential to his work going forward from the year 2017? Doesn’t God know the future and how pivotal this was going to be in spreading his word at this time? Isn’t that foreknowledge one of the things that makes Him God? Or did his main prophet back then(Joseph F. Smith) and his other lesser prophets, the apostles, just not get the message? Surely God would have rather have had his church just spend $2500 back then so they wouldn’t have to spend 35 million today, right? That is just common sense.
I am sure you would agree 35 million does buy a lot of food, water, clothing, medicine, etc., which could have been spent to help poor and suffering people make it through another day. Or it could have been spent on public relations campaigns which also are obviously very important to God at this time. Do you remember the doctrine of good, better, best revealed by one of our living prophets, Dallin H. Oaks? Surely this 35 million outlay was the very best use of that money, right?
Yet in this very document, which was so crucial at this time in forwarding the work of the Lord it required an expenditure of 35 million dollars, we find the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah chapter 4:22. And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
Now, God has called prophets to do his work and those prophets can’t lead us astray so therefore we KNOW God wanted His 35 million dollars best spent on some old papers, even though there is no new information, doctrine or revelations in them, instead of being used for something else very important to God, like taking care of the poor.
We thank thee, oh God for a Profit.
Right?
Right Reason 