Disciples' preachers understood that they spoke directly for God, just as Smith assumed to do in his "revelations." Referring to the preaching of Rigdon and Bentley, after a visit to Scott in March, 1828, Hayden says, "They spoke with authority, for the word which they delivered was not theirs, but that of Jesus Christ." The Disciples, like the Mormons, at that time looked for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Scott* was an enthusiastic preacher of this. "The fourteenth chapter of Zechariah," says Hayden, "was brought forward in proof—all considered as literal—that the most marvellous and stupendous physical and climatic changes were to be wrought in Palestine; and that Jesus Christ the Messiah was to reign literally in Jerusalem, and in Mount Zion, and before his ancients, gloriously."
* "In a letter to Dr. Richardson, written in 1830, he [Scott]
says the book of Elias Smith on the prophecies is the only sensible
work on that subject he had seen. He thinks this and Crowley on the
Apocalypse all the student of the Bible wants. He strongly commends
Smith's book to the doctor. This seems to be the origin of millennial
views among us. Rigdon, who always caught and proclaimed the last word
that fell from the lips of Scott or Campbell, seized these views (about
the millennium and the Jews) and, with the wildness of his extravagant
nature, heralded them everywhere."—"Early History of the Disciples'
Church in the Western Reserve," p. 186.
Campbell taught that "creeds are but statements, with few exceptions, of doctrinal opinion or speculators' views of philosophical or dogmatic subjects, and tended to confusion, disunion, and weakness." Orson Pratt, in his "Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," thus stated the early Mormon view on the same subject: "If any man or council, without the aid of immediate revelation, shall undertake to decide upon such subjects, and prescribe 'articles of faith' or 'creeds' to govern the belief or views of others, there will be thousands of well-meaning people who will not have confidence in the productions of these fallible men, and, therefore, frame creeds of their own.... In this way contentions arise."
Finally, attention may be directed to the emphatic declarations of the Disciples' doctrine of baptism in the Mormon Bible:—
"Ye shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye baptize them.... And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water."—3 Nephi Xi. 23, 26.
"I know that it is solemn mockery before God that ye should baptize little children.... He that supposeth that little children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity; for he hath neither faith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go down to hell. For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism."—Moroni viii. 9, xc, 15.
There are but three conclusions possible from all this: that the Mormon Bible was a work of inspiration, and that the agreement of its doctrines with Disciples' belief only proves the correctness of the latter; that Smith, in writing his doctrinal views, hit on the Disciples' tenets by chance (he had had no opportunity whatever to study them); or, finally, that some Disciple, learned in the church, supplied these doctrines to him.
Advancing another step in the examination of Rigdon's connection with the scheme, we find that even the idea of a new Bible was common belief among the Ohio Disciples who listened to Scott's teaching. Describing Scott's preaching in the winter of 1827-1828, Hayden says:—
"He contended ably for the restoration of the true, original apostolic order which would restore to the church the ancient gospel as preached by the apostles. The interest became an excitement;... the air was thick with rumors of a 'new religion,' a 'new Bible.'"
Next we may cite two witnesses to show that Rigdon had a knowledge of Smith's Bible in advance of its publication. His brother-in-law, Bentley, in a letter to Walter Scott dated January 22, 1841, said, "I know that Sidney Rigdon told me there was a book coming out, the manuscript of which had been found engraved on gold plates, as much as two years before the Mormon book made its appearance or had been heard of by me."*