Permit me to offer some striking evidence to show that the Prophet was not learned, by the word directly over the lines of characters. How natural it would be for a boy unlearned to leave out the silent h and further to substitute the o for the e, as it is written by his own hand, thus—Caractors. This I offer as evidence of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, 29th chapter and 12th verse, “I am not learned.” [p.34]
Well, indeed, may the prophet say in the same chapter:
“Cry ye out, and cry; they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.”
I ask what kind of drunkenness can this mean, unless as really inferred by Isaiah’s own words: “For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.”
At the time the book came forth there were upon the earth no prophets or seers to guide the people. There had been prophets from the time of Adam to Moses and from Moses to Jesus Christ, John the Revelator being the last prophet of that time, 96 AD.
And the Book came forth and a new prophet arose after that long period, and at a time when people were drunken with confusion regarding the true religious light, for there were about six hundred different religious sects staggering against each other, each one claiming to be the true church that Christ established, with one lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.
Every Bible student should know that Jesus placed in his church: first, twelve apostles, then seventies, elders, pastors, teachers, gifts and blessings for the perfecting of the saints. After the apostasy from the Church of Christ, the mother of harlots made all nations drunken with the wine of her fornication, divided up into fragments, without prophets, seers or revelators. It was in this condition, as the prophets have foretold, when the boy Prophet began so marvelous a work, and which cost him his life to establish.
Chapter V
The Prophet Joseph and others Sentenced to be Shot on the Public Square at Far West, in the Presence of their Friends.—The Execution Deferred, and the Prisoners afterwards sent to Liberty Jail.