Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are likely familiar with the historic account of how Joseph Smith reluctantly allowed his scribe Martin Harris to borrow 116 pages of the original Book of Mormon manuscript in 1828.
The young Prophet was twice told “no” by the Lord before Harris was permitted to show them to only a few family members. But the pages disappeared and were never recovered.
Following severe chastisement from the Lord, Joseph Smith learned a valuable lesson and was allowed to continue the translation of the Book of Mormon.
In his keynote address to open the Church History Conference on Friday, Sept. 5, Elder Kyle S. McKay told the story before asking a question — “Who is the central figure in this story?”
Speaking to hundreds gathered in the Conference Center Theater and others watching online, he considered a few characters and their roles before providing the answer — Jesus Christ.
“The Savior has declared on multiple occasions, ‘I am in your midst.’ By definition, ‘midst’ means in the middle, at the center,” said Elder McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder and executive director of the Church History Department.
Elder McKay cited five scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants where the Savior uses the phrase “I am in your midst.” (See Doctrine and Covenants 29:5, 38:7, 49:27, 50:44 and 61:36.) The phrase was included with the theme of the two-day conference: “Jesus Christ at the Center of Church History.”
“He truly is in the midst of His work, including, and most relevantly, this ongoing Restoration,” Elder McKay said.
Christ and the lost 116 pages
Returning to the story of the lost 116 pages with Jesus Christ as the primary figure of the story, Elder McKay said the Savior’s involvement began hundreds of years before His birth when the prophet Nephi was keeping a detailed record that would later be abridged by the prophet Mormon.
“Christ quietly prompted Mormon, the abridger and compiler of Nephi’s larger plates, to include at the end of his abridgment this shorter record from hundreds of years earlier,” he said.
After Moroni, Mormon’s son, buried the plates, they were preserved for 1,400 years.
“I don’t care how skilled Moroni was at creating a stone box, those plates do not survive unless the Lord preserves them from weather, earthquakes, animals, insects, erosion. ... That was an impressive stretch of preservation,” Elder McKay said.
One must then consider everything the Lord did to get Joseph Smith’s family to a place near the hill where the plates were buried, and where 14-year-old Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
The Savior then sent the angel Moroni to tutor and prepare Joseph Smith, prior to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the loss of the 116 pages.
When translation resumed, Joseph discovered the small plates of Nephi contained a similar account of what had been lost by Martin Harris.
“They were written by Nephi for a purpose he did not know, and they were included by Mormon for a reason he did not understand, but the Savior knew and understood, because he was in the midst of it all along,” Elder McKay said. “Jesus Christ is the central figure, the main character in the saga of the 116 lost pages, and He is in the center, the midst of every event in the entire Restoration.”
Invitation
Elder McKay invited conference attendees to look for and “see” the Savior in Church history.
“As we keep Christ in the center, we guard ourselves against troubles that can arise when He is removed from out of the midst,” he said. “If He is in the center, it just doesn’t matter what mistakes or potential distractions are happening in the periphery.”
Elder McKay cautioned that although the Savior’s hand is in all things, it does not mean He caused all things.
“He did not cause Martin Harris to lose the manuscript, but He planned for it,” he said. “Be careful about attributing to Christ things that He did not do but is willing to deliver us from.”
Elder McKay concluded by bearing his witness of the Savior. He encouraged all to find Jesus Christ in Church history and in one’s own personal history.
“It may be an interesting, even important, exercise for each of us to reread and reconsider each event in Church history, just as we did the episode of the 116 pages, seeking to identify Christ in the midst of each event. He is the central figure throughout the Restoration. It is His history,” he said. “Look back on your own personal history. Can you see Him in your midst?”
