The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It
is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the
Americasa and contains, as does the
Bible, the fulness of the everlasting
gospelb.
The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C., and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.
The crowning event recorded in the Book of Mormon is the personal
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ among the Nephites soon after his
resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines
the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain
peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.
After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his
son Moroni who added a few words of his own and
hid up the plates in the hill Cumorahc. On September 21,
1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the English language.
In due course the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, who translated them by the gift and power of God. The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto him and obey the laws and ordinances of his gospel may be saved.
Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told
the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
In addition to Joseph Smith, the Lord provided for eleven others to
see the gold plates for themselves and to be special witnesses of the
truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon. Their written testimonies
are included herewith as “The Testimony of
Three Witnesses” and “The
Testimony of Eight Witnesses.”
We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in
their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal
Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this
course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity
by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni
10: 3-5.)
Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.
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a God's dealings with the ancient
inhabitants of the Americas Because the Church offers no set
geography to the Book of Mormon, many take liberty to prescribe it according
to their own inventions. One criteria many choose to ignore is that the Church
has always maintained that all the Americas, North, South and
Central are involved with that geography of those ancient inhabitants.
b fulness of the everlasting
gospel All the written volumes of the whole earth are not
sufficient to contain all there is to know concerning the Kingdom of
God. The concept of the 'fulness of the everlasting gospel' is not
so all incompussing. It can be summed up as the Doctrine of Christ
which is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repent of one's
comprehended sins, enter into a newness of life living by those
commandments which one has been given, and to receive the Holy Spirit,
that Spirit of Revelation and Prophecy which does reveal through the
process of time, line upon line, precept upon precept, principle upon
principle all that man needs to know to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven.
That is the 'fulness of the gospel'. Those of the earth who do not
receive of the fulness are those who have closed their cannon of God's
word, reject the ministering of angels and the living prophets of God,
and have therefore turn there back upon that fulness, rejecting the
principle of continuous revelation and the speaking of God to man. We
believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal and we
believe that he will yet and continue to reveal many great and important
things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. The LDS cannon of scripture is
NOT closed. We believe in the ministering of angels and living prophets
of God. We believe in continuous revelation from God and that the heavens
are not sealed. Here in lies the fulness, for there is much yet to
receive and learn of God which we still do not know, volumes upon volumes.
c hid up the plates in the hill Cumorah
This has always had a simple and clear meaning until those who like to
pretend to two Cumorahs. That away that 'theory' and we are back to the
simple truth.
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