Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 1: "Tickle Monster"
Chapter Summary:
Enos prays mightily and gains a remission of his sins--The voice of the Lord comes into his mind, promising salvation for the Lamanites in a future day--The Nephites sought to reclaim the Lamanites--Enos rejoices in his Redeemer. About 420 B.C.
Now that Jacob is dead and gone, his son, Enos, takes responsibility of the gold plates. It is interesting that one of the last things Jacob says is that the Lamanites continue to war against the Nephites and that the Nephites struggle to stay righteous. This is a time of transition for Lehi's progeny, yet this book (Enos) and the next few are only one chapter each.
The next book with any substance (Mosiah) speaks of the corruption in place. Very little time is actually spent discussing how the Nephites transition from righteousness to wickedness. There are a few lines here and there, which I will discuss, but very few specifics are mentioned to the same degree as Lehi's dream of the tree of life (repeated 3 times), Nephi's broken bow, or the plagiarized chapters from Isaiah. If the Book of Mormon is really intended to be received by future generations as a tale of woe and warning and redemption, shouldn't it contain specifics on what went wrong? How else would we learn from their mistakes?
Much of this chapter/book is spent describing how Enos came to believe in god. His experience is similar to a story in Genesis, where Jacob (not Enos' father) literally wrestles with god in order to obtain a blessing. Not only does Jacob win the match and obtain a blessing, but god also changes Jacob's name to Israel (a prerogative of any omnipotent being, clearly).
Although Enos' experience is meant to be a metaphor, as opposed to Jacob's literal bout with god, it is intended to be considered just as seriously and with as much power to persuade the doubter as hard evidence. In other words, Enos' emotional, contemplative, internal struggle to know god exists is supposed to be just as impactful a sign from god as Jacob literally wrestling with god.
So important is this concept (validating internal and subjective feelings as much as physical evidence) that, for Mormons, it is the very basis of their belief. In fact, the story of Joseph Smith's famed "First Vision" (wherein Joseph claimed to have seen god the father and Jesus in physical form) begins with Joseph doing exactly as Enos: praying in the forest, struggling internally to know god exists and "wrestling" with supernatural forces (in Joseph's case, against Satan himself; now do you see how important Joseph was?).
For all their bravado, Mormons fail to catch a very important difference between their "spiritual witness"--which they claim confirms their belief that the Mormon Church is true--and the experience described by Enos. You see, Mormons are taught that feeling a "burning in their bosom" (i.e. warm fuzzy feelings) is a sign from god. Whereas, Enos prayed and then heard an audible voice telling him his sins were forgiven. Isn't it curious that the standard for miraculous signs from god has diminished so drastically as Mormonism has welcomed more members? Curious, indeed.
As I have said in many other posts, these proposed "signs from god" seem to fall into one of two categories: either subjective feelings in line with their desired beliefs (i.e. confirmation bias), or experiences indistinguishable from hallucinations.
Enos seeks forgiveness for his sins, which is granted. Enos asks how it can be that he is forgiven, and god replies:
"Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole."
Yup. There it is. God favors those who believe outlandish claims of events hundreds of years in the future, over those who reserve judgment until they have demonstrable evidence to justify belief. God favors gullibility over skepticism.
Having been forgiven by god for all his sins, Enos carries on in conversation with god. After all, god picks up his phone so rarely, you may as well talk his ear off while you have the chance. Enos voices concern for his brethren, who have begun to be less righteous. God says that he will judge the Nephites according to their obedience to his commandments and their transgressions will be brought down upon their heads. So, basically the same thing god does with every person on earth.
Enos expresses a similar concern for his cousins, the Lamanites. God replies, seemingly without noticing Enos' supplication for the Lamanites, that Enos may ask god anything and god will grant it. Taking full advantage of his rare situation (it's not every day one finds a genie!), Enos asks god for the most beneficial favor he can think of--a favor above all favors which will surely calm his troubled mind concerning the eternal welfare of his brethren:
"13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him--that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation."
He asked for the Book of Mormon! Of course he did. What else could possibly save the souls of his distant relatives from the judgement and wrath of an all-loving god?
If this doesn't smack you in the face as self-fulfilling prophecy, I have a bridge I'll sell you...
Enos continues to explain his reasoning for asking god a favor (as if god telling Enos to ask him for anything wasn't reason enough...):
"Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it."
What a tasty morsel of self-contradiction. This directly conflicts with Enos beseeching god for the welfare of his brethren and god responding that he will only reward them based on their obedience. If Enos really believed this masturbatory tripe, he should have asked god to save his brethren and god should have delivered accordingly. No qualifiers. No rationalizations excusing god's inaction. At its core, Enos is describing prayer as pure and simple cause and effect. But when has religion ever been this pure and simple?
As you may have guessed, god agrees to preserve the record of the Nephites in order to save the future Lamanites. Enos takes this experience to his people, which in turn bolsters their faith. I have no idea why anyone would just take Enos at his word, but it makes perfect sense for Joseph to include such a story as a model for others to take him at his word about finding some gold plates with an ancient record which can only be translated through a divine process to which only he has access, and that he saw god and Jesus and loads of angels and is totally the legit prophet of our time, guys. Also, he has to marry your fourteen year old daughter or else an angel with a flaming sword will smite him and your whole family will be damned. Do you believe it now?
The Nephites take courage in Enos' story and try to reconvert the Lamanites to the true religion. But the Lamanites, being pure evil bastards, reject the message and continue to fight the Nephites. And then we get this lovely description of the Lamanites, which I think reveals a great deal about Joseph's opinion of the Native Americans:
"20 And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us."
Keep in mind the admission in a previous chapter that the only reason the Lamanites fell away from the "true faith in god" is because their fathers were stubborn. This generation of Lamanites is not at fault for their iniquity and will not be held accountable in the same way as the Nephites come judgement day. Why, then, would the Nephites try to take away the Lamanites' golden ticket? Perhaps out of self-preservation? But if the Nephites die while righteous, they will go to heaven. They already know they will be destroyed because Lehi told them as much. If they really believed all of this malarkey, wouldn't they welcome death?
Or, perhaps it's all poppycock to begin with.
In contrast to the wicked Lamanites, Enos describes the Nephites:
"21 And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds, and flocks of all manner of cattle of every kind, and goats, and wild goats, and also many horses."
But despite their more favorable conditions (such as having access to horses, which no one else on the American continents had at this time), Enos adds that they were "a stiffnecked people, hard to understand." This is Mormon code for "not believing unsubstantiated claims because you're stubborn." So, Enos, which is it? Is your generation full of righteous missionaries to the Lamanites, or are they wicked and stubborn like the Lamanites? He seems to be contradicting himself.
Not to worry, though. Mormons can easily explain away this seeming contradiction by saying that some Nephites were righteous and some were wicked. The problem I have with this, however, is that the Book of Mormon does not speak in such nuanced terms. The book almost always describes different groups of people in generalized all-encompassing terms. It is very black and white.
If my memory serves, there are a couple of instances where this is not the case, but these instances seem to proceed a schism among the people. No such schism occurs here and Enos makes no effort to describe any subgroups or any nuance among the Nephites. Therefore, I see this as a contradiction easily explained by Joseph's sloppy writing.
Enos goes on to describe his and other prophets' predictions of wars and contentions and the like, as the only thing keeping the Nephites in check and sufficiently scared in to faith by the vastness of eternity and death. To be sure, death is a driving motivation for many religions. Some people hypothesize that it is the very thing which first inspired religious predilections.
Even if the implicit terror of death is not the reason religions came to be as humans evolved, Enos is surprisingly on point to suggest that many people are motivated by it to believe in an afterlife. But, to insinuate, as he does, that prophesies of wars and contentions are in any way impressive predictions which suggest divine aptitude and inspiration, I say, give me one period in recorded history that has ever seen worldwide peace. The universality of war speaks to the absurdity of the notion that predicting war is prophetic.
Furthermore, this pandering to people's fears of death and these predictions of one of the most inevitable aspects of humanity, namely war, more than anything reveals Joseph's charlatanry--not his prophetic calling.