Occasionally you hear someone say, I could believe the Mormon Doctrine if I just didn't have to swallow the story about Joseph Smith being a man of God and that he translated the Book of Mormon from some golden plates which he claimed he had found on a hillside. Well, let us consider some facts or conditions that must be complied with in order for you or someone else to produce a similar record under comparable condition.

1. You must be between 23 and 24 years of age.

2. You cannot be a college graduate; in fact, you can have only three years of schooling.

3. Whatever you write must be on the basis of what you now know; no research to be done.

4. You must write a book with 239 chapters, 54 of them about wars, 21 about history, 55 about prophecy, 71 about doctrine, 17 about missionaries and 21 about the mission of Jesus Christ.

5. You must write a history of an ancient country, such as Tibet, covering a period from 600 B.C. to 421 A.D.

6. You must include in your writings the history of two distinct and separate nations, along with histories of different contemporary nations or groups of people, of which no one ever knew existed.

7. Your writings must describe the religious, economic, social, and political cultures and institutions of these two nations.

8. You must weave into your history the religion of Jesus Christ and the pattern of Christian living.

9. When you start to produce this record, covering a period over 1,000 years, you must finish it in approximately 80 days.

10. When you have finished, you must not make any changes in the text. The first edition must stand forever.

11. After pauses for sleep and food, if you are dictating to a stenographer, you must never ask to have the last paragraph or last sentence read back to you.

12. Your record must be about 522 pages with over 510 words per page. You must add 180 proper nouns to the English language. (William Shakespeare added only 30).

13. You must announce that your "smooth narrative" is not fiction but true, yes, even that it is a sacred record of history.

14. It must fulfill the Bible prophecies; even in the exact manner in which it shall come forth, to whom given, its purpose and accomplishments (respectively--Psalms 85:11-11, Isaiah 29:2-4, 11-14, Ezekiel 37:18-21. etc.).

15. You must publish it to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, declaring it to be the Word of God.

16. You must include with the record itself, this promise; "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."

17. Tens and hundreds of thousands must bear record to the world for the next 145 years that they know the record to be true. Because they put the "promise" to the test and found it to be true, the truth manifested to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.

18. Thousands of great men, intellectual giants, and scholars must subscribe discipleship to the record and its movement even to the point of laying down their lives for it.

19. Your descriptions of the culture and people in these civilizations of which you will write include the manner of their written and spoken language, type of buildings, geographic locations, governmental types, monetary system, types of tools and materials used, and many other facts completely unknown to the rest of the world.

20. There can be no flaw whatsoever in the entire record.

21. You must not make an absurd, impossible, or contradictory statement.

22. Many of the facts, ideas and statements given us as true in your record must be entirely inconsistent, even the direct opposite of the prevailing beliefs of the world where very little is claimed to be known about these civilizations and their 1,000 years of history.

23. You must invite the ablest scholars and experts to examine the text with care. You must strive diligently to see that your book gets into the hands of all those most eager to prove it a forgery and who are most competent to expose a flaw in it.

24. Thorough investigation, scientific evidence, and archaeological discoveries for the next 146 years, you must verify your claims and prove even the minutest details of your history to be perfectly true, even to the types of roads they built.

25. After 146 years of extensive analysis, no claim or fact in the book is disproved, but all is vindicated. Other theories and ideas as to its origin, rise, and fall, leaving your claims as the only possible ones.

26. Internal and external prophecies must be confirmed and fulfilled in the next 146 years.

27. Three honest, creditable witnesses must testify to the whole world that an angel from heaven appeared to them and showed them the ancient records from which you claim your record is translated.

28. You must call out of heaven the voice of the Redeemer to declare to the three witnesses that your record is true and that it is their responsibility to hear the testimony. And they do it. They must handle and feel the engravings on the record.

29. Eight other witnesses must testify to the world that they saw the ancient records in broad daylight and they handled them and felt the engravings on the record.

30. The first three and the second eight witnesses must bear their testimony not for profit or gain, but under great personal sacrifice and severe persecution, even to their death.

31. You must find someone to finance your book with the understanding that neither he nor you will ever receive any monetary remuneration from it. You must sell the book at cost or at less than its production value.

32. You must tell the world that the written record you have translated from was engraved on gold plates, even though up until the time you make this claim, no one has ever found anywhere in past history any civilization using gold as a method of keeping records, and not until about 100 years later were any similar engraved gold plates found.

33. Many of the chapters and verses must be written in a chiastic style, characteristic of the Hebrew style of writing. This style of writing was discovered very recently, long after the publication of the Book of Mormon.

34. Finally, after suffering persecution and revilement for 20 years after you finish the book, you must willingly give your own life for your testimony that the record is from God.