So early on, the saints who came into the church as converts, like I am, North America was the place. But somewhere along the line we've walked away from this and looked totally south of the Rio Grande. And my whole thing for doing what I'm doing, I'm trying to get people to look to the east. To look east of the Mississippi. Back to North America.
Blinded by the gold of the pharaohs and the mighty ruins of Babylon, Book of Mormon students have declared themselves "not interested" in the drab and commonplace remains of our lowly (North American) Indians. But in all the Book of Mormon we look in vain for anything that promises majestic ruins.
There are a number of structures of earth and stone scattered throughout (the) state (of Ohio)...All such earthworks are, of course, placed on summits of high hills, or on plateaus overlooking river valleys. At fort Miami, it seems as if blockhouses or bastions of wood had been burned down when once protecting the gateway. This is not only an excellent description of the Book of Mormon strong places, but it also suits exactly the picture of the standard fortified places of the Old World.
In the Book of Mormon we talk about these strong places and it can be demonstrated that the forts of the Ohio do fit the description given in the book of Alma.
By doing the work in the mounds we find there are post molds left behind, and that will give us the size of the log and the size of the Bastions that stood in the earth banks. Post molds. Not only do you get that, but you also get carbon dating, and the dating goes from approximately 30 A.D. on the average to a high of 430 A.D. Right in the Book of Mormon timeline. That's how accurate the post-molds are for Ohio forts.
O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world! Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom's paths! Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.
“Measured against all … possible objections, the testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon stands forth in great strength. … As is well known, because of disagreements or jealousies involving other leaders of the Church, each one of these three witnesses was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by about eight years after the publication of their testimony. … Yet to the end of their lives … not one of these witnesses deviated from his published testimony or said anything that cast any shadow on its truthfulness. “Furthermore, their testimony stands uncontradicted by any other witnesses. Reject it one may, but how does one explain three men of good character uniting and persisting in this published testimony to the end of their lives in the face of great ridicule and other personal disadvantage? Like the Book of Mormon itself, there is no better explanation than is given in the testimony itself, the solemn statement of good and honest men who told what they saw”
My heart overflows with gratitude for my Heavenly Father. I realize that He has not doomed His children to stumble through mortality without hope for a bright and eternal future. He has provided instructions that reveal the way back to Him. And at the center of it all is His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ,7 and His sacrifice for us.
The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon is similar to the type we have today. God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time…The Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ… It fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day.
The Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic means. First, it tells in a plain manner of Christ and His gospel. ... Second, the Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ. It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention.
The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon are similar to the type we have today. God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time.
We are to use the Book of Mormon in handling objections to the Church.
We, the members of the Church, and particularly the missionaries, have to be the “hissers,” or the tellers and testifiers, of the Book of Mormon unto the ends of the earth.
The Book of Mormon is the great standard we are to use. It shows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It contains the words of Christ, and its great mission is to bring men to Christ, and all other things are secondary. The golden question of the Book of Mormon is “Do you want to learn more of Christ?” The Book of Mormon is the great finder of the golden contact. It does not contain things which are “pleasing unto the world” (1 Ne. 6:5), and so the worldly are not interested in it. It is a great sieve.
Now, we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat falsehoods in socialism, rationalism, etc.
The situation in the world will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of God and quit building up and upholding secret combinations, which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of ancient civilizations.
Every Latter-day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise, he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life. There is a difference between a convert who is built on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon and stays hold of that iron rod, and one who does not.
“First came Moroni with the plates from which was translated the Book of Mormon. What a singular and remarkable thing this was. Joseph’s story of the gold plates was fantastic. It was hard to believe and easy to challenge. Could he have written it of his own capacity? It is here, my brothers and sisters, for everyone to see, to handle, to read. Every attempt to explain its origin, other than that which he gave, has fallen of its own weight. He was largely unschooled; and yet, in a very brief time, he brought forth the translation which in published form comes to more than 500 pages. … “Through all of these years critics have tried to explain it. They have spoken against it. They have ridiculed it. But it has outlived them all, and its influence today is greater than at any time in its history”
Trust the guides you have been given from Him, rather than turning solely to the world to measure your personal worth and find your way.
If we are concerned about not offending the world, the first thing we ought to do is to reject the Book of Mormon. Can you imagine a book telling someone who believed in infant baptism that they are “in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity,” that they have neither “faith, hope, nor charity,” and that they ought to be cast down to hell for the very thought? (Mormon 8:14).
The Book of Mormon is uncompromising where breaking the laws of God are concerned. It teaches that the effects of sin are eternal and that the laws of God are absolute.
You can say what you want by way of criticism about the Book of Mormon. Give it whatever grade you think it deserves, but what you cannot say is that it lacks for plainness or that you cannot quite figure out where it stands relative to Christ and his gospel. On such matters it is plain, clear, and bold; its writers had no intention of being misunderstood.
We arrived this morning on the banks of the Mississippi...we left the eastern part of the state of Ohio...wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skills and bones, as proof of its divine authenticity...
Judgment, Eternal—Numerous scriptural passages teach of a day of ultimate reckoning when all of God’s children will be judged “according to their works” (Revelation 20:12; see also 1 Samuel 2:1–10; Daniel 7:10; Matthew 12:36; Acts 17:31; Romans 14:10; 2 Nephi 9:15; Alma 5:15; 3 Nephi 27:16; Mormon 3:20; D&C 43:29) … All mankind are brought back into the presence of God as part of this final judgment scene. The culmination of this judgment is when “all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever” (D&C 76:110; 88:104; see also Philippians 2:9–11; Revelation 5:13).
The depth of the concepts in the Book of Mormon are a constant source of inspiration, if we will but contemplate them. There, more abundantly than in any other volume, the Lord opens the windows of heaven, not only to pour out blessings, but to let us look in. He lets us see things, if only fleetingly
Writing ancient history on metal plates was a real thing. Although totally unknown in 1829, hundreds of examples of this type of record keeping have been discovered all over the world since the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830. One of the most notable discoveries was made in Persepolis in present-day Iran in 1933. German archaeologists uncovered inscribed gold and silver plates in stone boxes placed there by King Darius of Persia to commemorate the building of a palace about 515 B.C., not many years after Lehi and his family left Jerusalem.
There were more qualified witnesses to the reality of the plates than you would need to get a murder conviction in any court. Over a dozen upstanding citizens in their communities saw and/or handled the plates and signed documents to that effect.
Modern computer wordprint studies called “stylometry” have established beyond a reasonable doubt that the Book of Mormon text was written by at least 22 different authors with individual writing styles, using many ancient Hebrew literary techniques. None of the writing styles were those of Joseph Smith or any of his scribes when compared with their other contemporary writings.
Although the Book of Mormon does contain some material quoted from the Bible, any unacknowledged parallels between it and the Bible or other books such as the Solomon Spalding Manuscript or View of the Hebrews are miniscule and insignificant. Over 93 percent of the text is totally original and remains unchallenged by any charges of plagiarism.
According to well-documented sources, Joseph Smith dictated the 500+ pages of the first draft of the translation of the Book of Mormon to his scribes in less than 70 days, using no notes or external research sources. It took J.R.R. Tolkien over 12 years to write Lord of the Rings. Joseph had only three years of formal frontier elementary education, very little library access, and no internet.
The first draft was the only draft, except for minor changes in grammar, punctuation, etc. A number of changes have been made in subsequent editions to correct scribal and printing errors and what was thought to be “poor English” in the first edition. However much of that “poor English” has since been discovered to be excellent Hebrew word construction, though awkward to readers in other languages.
There are many archaeological, anthropological, geographical, historical, and botanical claims about ancient America in the Book of Mormon that seemed outlandish and absurd when it was published in 1830, but which have been validated by scientific research since that time. Many references to supposed “anachronisms” such as the presence of horses, barley, etc. in ancient America have been discovered to be accurate only in recent years.
As a historical document the Book of Mormon is very complex. It speaks of three different groups reported to have migrated from the Middle East to the Americas. It covers a time period of over 2,600 years and records complex political histories, wars, and societal changes. It describes geographical details that include dozens of cities, rivers, seas, mountain ranges and so forth, including the distances and directional relationships between those places. It interweaves throughout this history the religious teachings found in both the Old and New Testaments. But after almost 200 years of careful scrutiny of this history and doctrine by its critics, there have been found no internal contradictions or inconsistencies.
As a literary document, the Book of Mormon is exceptional. It contains many kinds of obscure Near Eastern ancient traditions and Hebrew word plays including parallelisms, “if-and” constructions, etc. It was only in 1967 that many excellent examples of a forgotten form of Hebrew poetry known as “chiasmus” were discovered in the text. Hebrew scholars from all over the world have acknowledged the beauty and complexity of the chiastic passages in the Book of Mormon.
As a geographical document, the Book of Mormon is a puzzle. In its very opening chapters it describes in remarkable detail the journey of Lehi and his family from Jerusalem through the Arabian Desert southward along the borders of the Red Sea, and then eastward to a luxuriant oasis on the shore of the Indian Ocean where they built a ship and sailed to the Americas. Modern explorers have re-traced Lehi’s trail through the desert and found many of the landmarks described by Nephi in just the right places. These include the ancient city of Nahom where the family made a radical change in their direction, and the Khor Karfot seaside oasis that corresponds exactly to Nephi’s description of the area he called “Bountiful”. None of these geographical details were known to the Western world in 1829, much less to Joseph Smith. Most of that area known as “The Empty Quarter” was not mapped until over a hundred years later.
The subtitle of the Book of Mormon is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ”. That’s because the central message of the book is that after his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus visited his “other sheep” of the House of Israel who lived in the Americas. If true, this astounding claim not only testifies of the divinity of our Savior Jesus Christ, but it supports and verifies the Bible and its record of his ministry as well. (That’s known as a “two-fer”.) Of course, in 1829 this was a pretty crazy idea, but since that time many historical accounts and legends have been discovered of a “white and bearded god” who appeared in the Americas at about the time of Christ. These accounts come from all over the western hemisphere. They have often been corrupted over the centuries and details vary, but the preponderance of evidence indicates that someone very much like Jesus who had what we would today call “super-powers” did indeed visit this continent sometime around 34 AD.
The Book of Mormon...Guard it, know it, read it, study it, teach it and give God thanks for that great gift to us.
The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.
few things build faith more than does regular immersion in the Book of Mormon. No other book testifies of Jesus Christ with such power and clarity. Its prophets, as inspired by the Lord, saw our day and selected the doctrine and truths that would help us most. The Book of Mormon is our latter-day survival guide.
“Think of the short time Joseph took to translate the Book of Mormon. Working from April to June of 1828, Joseph translated the 116 pages that Martin Harris later lost. Joseph began translating again on Tuesday, April 7, 1829, with Oliver Cowdery as scribe. The manuscript was completed eighty-five days later, on June 30 of that year. Of course, not all of that time was spent working on the translation. … Conservatively estimated, this left sixty-five or fewer working days on which the prophet and his scribes translated this book, which contains 531 pages in its current edition. (See John W. Welch, Ensign, Jan. 1988, pp. 46–47.) That calculates to an average of eight pages per day. Consider this when you translate a book, or as you schedule your own reading of the Book of Mormon” (“A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, July 1993, 61–62).
I have had many people ask me through the years, 'When do you think we will get the balance of the Book of Mormon records?' And I have said, 'How many in the congregation would like to read the sealed portion of the plates?' And almost always there is a 100-percent response. And then I ask the same congregation, 'How many of you have read the part that is open to us?' And there are many who have not read the Book of Mormon, the unsealed portion. We are quite often looking for the spectacular, the unobtainable. I have found many people who want to live the higher laws when they do not live the lower laws.
While meeting with the elders of the Church on one occasion, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared: “Take away the Book of Mormon, and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.”
Ezekiel spoke about the stick of Judah (the Bible) and the stick of Ephraim (the Book of Mormon) being brought together as one. Both Ezekiel (in the Old Testament) and Lehi (in the Book of Mormon) indicate that they shall “grow together” to confound false doctrine, establish peace, and bring us to a knowledge of the covenants.
The translation process of the Book of Mormon was also a miracle. This sacred ancient record was not “translated” in the traditional way that scholars would translate ancient texts by learning an ancient language. We ought to look at the process more like a “revelation” with the aid of physical instruments provided by the Lord, as opposed to a “translation” by one with knowledge of languages. Joseph Smith declared that through God’s power he “translated the Book of Mormon from [hieroglyphs], the knowledge of which was lost to the world, in which wonderful event [he] stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries, with a new revelation.”11 The Lord’s help in the translation of the plates—or revelation, so to speak—is also evident when considering the miraculously short time Joseph Smith took to translate them.12 Joseph’s scribes testified of the power of God that was manifested while working on the translation of the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery once said: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated … ‘The Book of Mormon.’”
Lucy Mack Smith recorded that her son arrived home overcome with joy after the witnesses were shown the plates. Joseph explained to his parents, “I feel as if I was relieved of a burden which was almost too heavy for me to bear, and it rejoices my soul, that I am not any longer to be entirely alone in the world.”
I promise you that as you prayerfully and consistently study its words, you can partake of its promises and rich blessings in your life.
I reaffirm once more the promise that echoes through its pages: that if you “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 mercifully “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”25 I can assure you that He will give you the answer in a very personal way, as He has done for me and many others around the world. Your experience will be as glorious and sacred for you as Joseph Smith’s experiences were for him, as well as for the first witnesses and for all who have sought to receive a witness of the integrity and trustworthiness of this sacred book.
I think we need to pay attention. As the archaeologists hit this vast array of information in the Ohio, they all went for the burial mounds, because they wanted the artifacts. The earthen banks, the ditches, the entrance ways, places of entrance as Alma calls it, they have just now begin to start having them excavated. It began in the 1970's by Dr. Robert Reorden of Wright State University. He is leading the way on attacking the berms and the doorways. And he is finding that these things have gone down by fire. They've been burned out showing confrontation. Up to that point, they've been writing off the forts as churches, sacred places. And I've got to tell you, the people in the Ohio, the Hopewell, whoever they are they built more churches than the Mormons did.
In western New York we find in the actual ditches of the forts and in the forts we find, the early guys did, these 250 plus forts, they find these huge piles of bones showing tremendous warfare. And of course throughout the Midwest we find battle mounds. And when they are cleared we find piles of people. Men, women, and children where genocide has taken place and entire villages have been eliminated. Again, things from the Book of Mormon.
As we go into western New York, we find that the fortifications are not built so well. They are very poorly built, because in the Book of Mormon, they only had a few years to go up into that area and settle as they waited for the big day at Hill Cumorah. And so the forts here are not anywhere near as nicely made as they are in the Ohio. An this is an Indiana fort. As you can see how nice it is. Again look at the size of it. Huge earth berms. These were taken time. These were engineered walls. The walls made of different layers of clay and gravel and earth. They were made to last. Because they lived here for a long time. But not in western New York. That was a short timespan for the Hopewell people.
So early on, the saints who came into the church as converts, like I am, North America was the place. But somewhere along the line we've walked away from this and looked totally south of the Rio Grande. And my whole thing for doing what I'm doing, I'm trying to get people to look to the east. To look east of the Mississippi. Back to North America.
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