The Birth of Plenty

In The Birth of Plenty by William J. Bernstein, he writes that apparently "something happened" at some point in the early nineteenth century. He is referring to a measurable rate of improvement from that time on. Further in the introduction he says that "[u]ntil approximately 1820, per capita world economic growth - the single best way of measuring human material progress - registered near zero." And again, "not long after 1820, prosperity began flowing in an ever-increasing torrent; with each successive generation, the life of the son became observably more comfortable, informed, and predictable than that of the father." (For more on this see the google book interview with the author at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTUZXwQwUJM.)

Profound? I think so. Why? Well, consider the comments of a man who said that early in the spring of 1820 he entered a grove of trees near his humble home in upstate New York to inquire of God about which church he should join :

"After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

"But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

"It no sooner appeared than I found myself adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I bsaw two cPersonages, whose brightness and dglory defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My fBeloved gSon. Hear Him!

"My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

"I was answered that I must join none of them." (Pearl of Great Price | JS-History 1:15 - 19)

It was this same man, who months before his martyrdom wrote these remarkable words which, especially when considering the remarkable findings of Mr. Bernstein (who used much research from Angus Maddison), are profoundly prophetic:

"I calculate to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel by the word of the Lord, and I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world."

These are the words of Joseph Smith. Were they prophetic? The promise is always given: "Ask and ye shall receive."

The confirmation of the prophetic words of this remarkable man will continue to be found in discoveries of science, art, and anthropology for they are all inclusive under the umbrella of truth.