Transcription
I know you know what a fingerprint is, but do you know what a word print is?
Your fingerprint is unique, different from any other fingerprint in the world. And because of that, we can use a fingerprint to answer the question, who did it?
Well, a word print is a unique style an author has, different from any other author in the world. Using computers, we can establish an author's wordprint and use that wordprint comparing with other author's wordprints, and we can answer the question, who wrote it? That technology is helping us answer another question, one that's been around now for almost 200 years. The question is, who really wrote the Book of Mormon? What I'd like to show you today is how computers are helping us answer that question.
Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was written by prophets who lived on the American continent thousands of years ago. That those prophets wrote on metal plates testifying of Jesus Christ and of his gospel. Those plates were handed down from prophet to prophet until they came into the hands of a prophet named Moroni, who buried them for safekeeping and then later, as an angel of God, came to Joseph Smith with the assignment that he translate those plates into English by the gift and the power of God.
Well, critics claim that it was Joseph Smith who wrote the Book of Mormon, or that it was plagiarized from the writings of a man by the name of Solomon Spalding, or that it was written by Oliver Cowry. Well, what are the word print studies telling us about who wrote the Book of Mormon?
First of all, let me explain how word printing works. Word printing analyzes word usage and patterns that authors use subconsciously. Words like "that" and "to" and "of" and "the." Let me give you a little demonstration. I'd like you to answer the following question out loud, verbally. On which side of a proper table setting does the fork go? Ready with your response? Say it out loud. Did you say the left? Did you say on the left? Did you say to the left? Did you say on the left side? Did you say on the left-hand side, or did you, like my granddaughter, say on the right side? We won't talk about that. But do you notice those little differences with small words? Computers can pick up on that, and it helps identify an author's wordprint.
Now, you might ask a fair question. How accurate are wordprint studies? Wordprint studies have successfully identified the writings of William Shakespeare, James Madison, Jane Austen, and most recently, a book that came out in 2013 called "The Cuckoo's Calling," written by an author by the name of Robert Galbraith. Only there was a question because Robert Galbraith was supposedly a first-time author, and the writing was superb. So, they began to wonder who this Robert Galbraith was. They invited a man by the name of Patrick Ulla, professor of computer science at Duquesne University, to do a wordprint study on the book. What they found was Robert Galbraith wasn't Robert Galbraith. In fact, he was really a she. And if you don't recognize that photo, I'm guessing you recognize the name of J.K. Rowling. So, they approached her and they asked her, "Are you Robert Galbraith?" She admitted that she was. And then they asked, "Why would you do such a thing? You're an amazing author." Here's what she said: "Being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It's been wonderful to publish without hype and expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name." So, did J.K. Rowling fool some of the readers? Yes, she did. Did she fool the computers? No, she did not.
So, let's talk about wordprint studies that have been done on the Book of Mormon. There have been five. You can read about all five in the footnotes below here, but we're going to focus on the Hilton study. The Hilton study was fascinating. Over a period of seven years, they did wordprint studies. And it wasn't just LDS researchers. The researchers were LDS, Jewish, and agnostic. And here was their focus. They took the writings of Nephi, one of the authors, one of the prophets in the Book of Mormon, and they established his wordprint. Then they compared it with the wordprint of Joseph Smith, Solomon Spalding, and Oliver Cowry. Then they took another author, writer, prophet in the Book of Mormon named Alma, established his wordprint, and did the exact same thing. What did they find?
Well, conclusion number one was: It is statistically indefensible to propose Joseph Smith or Oliver Cowry or Solomon Spalding as the author of the 30,000 words from the Book of Mormon manuscript texts attributed to Nephi and Alma.
Well, next, they did another thing that was even more fascinating to me. They took the writings of Nephi and his wordprint and compared it with the writings of Alma and his wordprint. Because if the Book of Mormon was written by one author, those wordprints would show up as the same. What did they find? Well, the chances of Nephi and Alma being the same author are one in 15 trillion.
So, what do they conclude? And what do we conclude? Who really wrote the Book of Mormon? Well, I testify that it was not Joseph. It was not Solomon. It was not Oliver. The Book of Mormon was, in fact, written by ancient prophets of God who did live upon the American continent [clears throat] and testified of Christ and passed those plates down from prophet to prophet until they came into the hands of a man by the name of Joseph Smith, who by the gift and power of God translated those into English.
The Book of Mormon is true. And that book testifies, being true, of the prophet Joseph Smith. It's one of the great testifiers, one of the great fruits of the prophet Joseph Smith. You remember that's what Jesus told us, how we can identify true prophets. "You shall know them by their fruits." And the Book of Mormon is a wonderful [if you believe like not only in Jesus Christ, but it is a witness that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.] And that's the whole object of this project that we've created. We call it "By His Fruits." If you believe like we do that defending the prophet Joseph Smith on social media is critical, we invite you to join us. You can visit byhisfruits.org. You can make a donation. You can help us out by if you subscribe down below. If you share it with friends and people through Facebook and email, and also if you can comment down below. We want to testify to you. We love and honor the prophet Joseph Smith. We worship Jesus Christ. Those who will earnestly read and study and ask God concerning the Book of Mormon will receive a testimony that the book is true. And knowing that the book is true, you will know and have a witness that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. One of the great fruits of the prophet Joseph. And by his fruits, we can know.