After the Holy Ghost and personal revelation, what is the strongest evidence that the Joseph Smith story and the Mormon Church are true?
The Book of Mormon and the harmony of the history surrounding it and the growth of the Church as told by the countless testimonies and witnesses of those who knew Joseph Smith personally and yet were converted because of the Book of Mormon and not because of Joseph Smith.
It is difficult to study that history AND the Book of Mormon impartially, but to do so is to stand in awe of what happened. A conversion requires a personal experience with the Holy Ghost and personal revelation, but an honest and sincere inquiry into the Book of Mormon and its history as told by Joseph and all of those who knew him yields the conclusion that something both remarkable and inexplicable happened. Any other conclusion must be attributed to ignorance, hostility or a failure of critical thinking.
A parallel is the story of Joan of Arc. It simply cannot even begin to be told or understood through a purely secular perspective, since it is so deeply rooted in the faith of so many involved, which motivated them to defy reason and culture in acting as they did, all the while fitting the faith narrative perfectly and predictably. Few historians can deny that Joan of Arc was an extraordinary figure in history. You don’t have to agree that Joan saw visions and angels, but you can’t deny that what happened because she did what they told her and the historical harmony thus created must be considered to be, at the very least, strong evidence that she was telling the truth about her visions and angelic visitations.
The same can be said of Joseph Smith, except that there were at least a half a dozen others who also had angelic visitations, including several who were with Joseph at the time and others who were visited alone. You don’t have to agree that Joseph Smith and the others saw visions and angels, or that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon from an ancient record, but you can’t deny that what happened because he did what the angels told him, and that so many around him also experienced dreams, visions, and angelic visitations, which were all in harmony with Joseph’s story and the content of the Book of Mormon, that such historical harmony must be considered to be, at the very least, as strong and powerful evidence that he (and they) were telling the truth about the visions and angelic visitations and translation of the Book of Mormon.
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