The Book of Mormon and the American Revolution

Please write 500-600 words on the Book of Mormon description of the founding of America.

Most of the following discussion based on the above prompt comes from
BELIEVING HISTORY
Latter-day Saint Essays
Richard Lyman Bushman
Edited by Reid L. Neilson and Jed Woodworth
Columbia University Press
New York

Like last week’s post, this article is well worth a read; sadly, however, I do not have the rights or privileges to post the article here, though I will reference it.

The main point of the afore mentioned article is that Joseph Smith, the translator, could not have written the Book of Mormon because there is no subconscious Americana hidden in the writing. Rather, the book must be what it claims to be: a collection of prophecies or scripture from ancient Americans, who did not have revolutionary ideals in their heads while writing the book.

The ideals the author, Richard Bushman, addresses are “first, the depiction of the American Revolution as heroic resistance against tyranny; second, the belief that people overthrow their kings under the stimulus of enlightened ideas of human rights; and third, the conviction that constitutional arrangements such as frequent elections, separation of powers, and popularly elected assemblies were necessary to control power.”

The Book of Mormon depicts the American Revolution as due to Divine deliverance, not heroic revolutionaries acting on their own. 1 Nephi 13:17-19 reads “[The] mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.” (emphasis added).

Nowhere does it describe a George-Washington-type hero, a revolutionary Continental Congress, no tyrannical kings or Parliaments. In fact, the theme is reliance on God to deliver a people, as is a theme in ancient scripture: Moses and the Israelites, and in the Book of Mormon, the deliverance of the people of Limhi from the Lamanites.

Nowhere in the book does it describe a tyrannical king. Rather, the colonial Americans are delivered from the “Mother Gentiles.” In the Book of Mormon, the people actually persist in having a king. To their mindset, a good king was a good thing:
“If it were possible that you could always have just men to be your kings,” Alma said, “it would be well for you to have a king” (Mosiah 23:8).”
“If it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would establish the laws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments . . . then it would be expedient that you should always have kings to rule over you. (Mosiah 29:13)”

For some of Nephite history, the government consisted of a “reign of judges.” This reign was far different than the American Constitutional government. There were no elected officials, it was not a democracy, and most of the principles associated with the Constitution are missing.

Bushman concludes, “The Book of Mormon was an anomaly on the political scene of 1830Instead of heroically resisting despots, the people of God fled their oppressors and credited God alone with deliverance. Instead of enlightened people overthrowing their kings in defense of their natural rights, the common people repeatedly raised up kings, and the prophets and the kings themselves had to persuade the people of the inexpediency of monarchy. Despite Mosiah’s reforms, Nephite government persisted in monarchial practices, with life tenure for the chief judges, hereditary succession, and the combination of all functions in one official.” (no checks and balances with the government split into three branches as we know today).

The Book of Mormon has Old-World precedents that no American would write. Only ancient prophets with that mindset already engrained in their culture could actually write such a book. The Book of Mormon is what it claims to be: a scriptural record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.