The Book of Mormon

     One of the biggest things that people get caught up in about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is that we have the Book of Mormon. Most people I talk to think that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to do away with the Bible. That assumption couldn't be farther from the truth. Even Nephi who was prophesying about the Book of Mormon knew that people would have trouble accepting it and he was writing this somewhere between 559 BC and 545 BC. By the way this is the Lord speaking to Nephi.

     "Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? ...

     For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them.... For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; 

     And I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever." 2 Nephi 29:3,7-14

     "Now, I did not sail with the brother of Jared in crossing an ocean, settling in a new world. I did not hear King Benjamin speak his angelically delivered sermon. I did not proselyte with Alma and Amulek nor witness the fiery death of innocent believers. I was not among the Nephite crowd who touched the wounds of the resurrected Lord, nor did I weep with Mormon and Moroni over the destruction of an entire civilization. But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal as was theirs. Like them, “[I] give [my name] unto the world, to witness unto the world that which [I] have seen.” And like them, “[I] lie not, God bearing witness of it."

     "I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my “last days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days." Elder Jeffery R Holland
     I stand with Elder Holland and testify that the Book of Mormon is of God and as we read with a sincere heart, with real intent, and having  faith in Christ the Holy Spirit will tell us that we are reading truth. And if we know the truth of the Book of Mormon, we will know that God has called a prophet once again to lead and guide his church.