BY WAY OF AN INTRODUCTION

On New Year's Day, I shared the story of how and under what circumstances I gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It always amazes me how many of the book's critics have never committed to reading with the prayerful goal of understanding it.  Even if you don't have a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I have heard of more than one clergyman who read it and testified that it is at its heart a book about Jesus Christ. At least one of those clergymen who is still pastor of his Protestant congregation actually preaches out of the Book of Mormon.  His claim (and mine, too, by the way) is that if one reads the Book of Mormon, it will help one better understand the Bible.

One of the earliest testimonies of the truthfulness of the book is an ancient prophet named Moroni.  His father, Mormon, was the primary editor of the documents from which the book is translated.  Moroni lived about 400 years after the death of Jesus Christ and was the last remaining survivor of an apostate people.  After his father's death, Moroni wandered the land for about 30 years, caring the plates of which his father entrusted him. He ultimately buried the plates in a stone box in a hillside.  Before doing so, he wrote his testimony of the purpose of the book in what we now know as the Title Page of the Book of Mormon.  He listed the audience to whom the book is addressed and the message it is to deliver and the testimony of Christ that it bears:

• Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites—Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile . . .
•  [Written] to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—
• And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—

This book also outlines Heavenly Father's Plan for the salvation and happiness of His children, and does so more clearly than any other book of scripture. Here are just a couple of examples taken from the Book of Mormon:

O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. (2 Nephi 9:13)

But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;

Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.  (Alma 12: 33-34)

And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also. (Alma 42:15)

The ancient Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians As in Adam all men die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The Creation. The Fall. The Atonement and Crucifixion. The Resurrection.  These are the crux of the Father's plan to bring His children home. The Bible testifies of this from Genesis on, but it is sometimes difficult to find.   The Book of Mormon supports and clarifies the Bible.  

May I join with Moroni in inviting you to study it (not just read it) and pray about what you study this year?  You won't regret it.

© January 3, 2020,  Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson