Brigham and the Stone

More ink...

Brigham wants the stone that I have called the Sawtooth Stone.  My guess is he is probably even expecting it based on whatever plans he has laid.

This would be a reincarnated Brigham, of course, and my suspicion in whatever time period one would expect the Stone to be delivered, one would find Brigham trying to bend it to him, and if not possible to obtain it, then direct his efforts to subverting its purpose.

I am not even sure what that would entail exactly, but if you connect a thread through Laban, King Noah, and Brigham, it is this matter of important records that you find - either his possession of them (as with the Brass Plates), his desire for them (as with the Jaredite record that Limhi's people ultimately found), or in his disruption of them (as with what happened with the Book of Mormon).  Even in re-writing things (as in some of the LDS church's history and revelations).

Brigham (I will give him a new historical name in a future post, but for now I will refer to the primary Being by this name) has done his homework, and he knows what is important, and this stone, I believe, is the most important of them all.  Thus, I would expect him to be involved or enter the picture just as he has done in times before.

I mention the Jaredite record above, meaning Ether's 24 plates.  I had written in a previous post on Abinadi that following his death, it was he that likely led Limhi's people to discover the record that he had hidden as Ether many years before.  It is possible, I believe, that Brigham entered the Nephite scene as Noah during that period and in that location driven by a desire or a sense for this record.  He was removed from the scene, of course, by events put into motion by Abinadi, perhaps partly so that the record that he (as Ether) had hidden could now be safely found.  Yes, Noah's priests were still at large, but while rivaling Brigham-Noah in wickedness, they lack his power, intellect, and knowledge, and I am not sure they would have known what to do with this record or understood its importance.

Ether's record isn't to be trifled with - as Alma (the younger) explained to his sons, Ether had included all of the evil oaths, covenants, works of abomination that the Jaredites had performed that led to their entire destruction.  The record needed to both preserved and kept secret.  Preserved, because Ether was a witness to all that transpired in terms of their wickedness and wrote it down with the intent that it would be made known to all people.  Kept secret, because the oaths and covenants seemed to have a real power, resulting in signs and wonders (magic!).  If these oaths and covenants would be made known to the people, Alma told his sons, the Nephites would "fall into darkness and be destroyed".

And this is why Brigham would have wanted this record.  Perhaps on this record one might read of his own dark works in another time.  With it in his possession, he could both eliminate or alter the witness against him, as well as retain the oaths and covenants for himself to use in establishing himself as king over all the land.

That is one story, at least.  One doesn't have to believe that Noah would have been conscious of all this or had even understood this.  Beings like Brigham go through the same process of forgetting that we do, and are subject to the same limitations.  It only matters that the being who ultimately he is knew enough to make plans before he entered mortality, set his intention in a certain way, and then be born and try to bring those plans into reality, even if now as a Man he would have forgotten why he is doing certain things.

So, bringing this forward to Joseph's day, and then our day (perhaps).

Brigham led the saints out to the middle of the Intermountain West region of the US (Salt Lake City), and then stopped there.  I believe the Stone may have been a contributing factor to why that location was where he led them.  Rather than continuing on and establishing his kingdom in the more fertile areas of California, or even the Pacific Northwest, he stopped in the middle of a vast mountain desert.  Settlement efforts were then arranged where a vast array of settlements were established all over Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, etc., establishing what came to be known as the Mormon Corridor.  

The fact that the Stone was found in this same region leads me to think that Brigham was partially being driven to find that stone, or at least set up future means of doing so.  No one knew the exact location (until in the immediate time period before its recovery), so a broader dragnet of settlements and territories was established.  Again, as Brigham (the mortal man), he wouldn't even need to be aware of why he was making the choices he was.  What matters is that he developed this type of plan before being born here, and that his actions as part of Mormonism can be understood as furthering his own designs as part of that plan (while also enjoying the spoils of power in reprising his King Noah days in a very real way).  What also comes into play is the work and influence of evil beings who could direct and guide Brigham, and who might also have established a real presence in that same geography that Brigham settled in.

Ultimately, Brigham's plan included (i) the subverting of the work of Joseph Smith to his own ends, (i) putting an entire group of people (Mormons, many/ most of them Good and far too trusting) into confusion and a trap (as he did to Lehi as Laban in his vision), and (iii) hopefully getting closer to finding the stone, which would give him the culmination of his desires.  

An admittedly fairly crazy sounding and far-fetched conspiracy theory as I think on it.  But I am working under the strong belief that this stone is real, it was found where I assume it was, and it is really, really important.  I am also working under the assumption that Brigham is also very smart, very powerful, and also wants to be or play a role that is not his to play... a role, in fact, that he was specifically passed over for (which I will also go into more detail later).   The combination of those beliefs leads me to the kind of story captured here.  If any of these assumption are wrong, this story makes no sense at all.  Even if they are all right, you can play around with motives and situations and end up some story elements changing.  I do think the broad story would largely hold, though.