However, there is one fact above all that completely puts the rest to shame. The Book of Mormon itself states its purpose.
3 Nephi 9:15
15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name
There is no doubt in my mind, or the mind of anyone who has read this book, that if nothing else, putting everything else aside, this Book testifies of our Lord, and our Savior Jesus Christ. It tells us if his suffering, it goes into painful detail about his Atonement.
Mosiah 3:7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people
The Book of Mormon also exhorts us and asks us to repent. It explains that repentance is not a backup plan for The Father's children. It is not just a thing we do in case we sin. But it is the plan. We will sin and there is no getting around it. Our father knows this, and through Jesus Christ we can become clean.
3 Nephi 9:21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin
The Book of Mormon, according to the Prophet Joseph Smith "is the most correct of any Book on earth". This is an incredibly bold claim. In a modern context it is downright dangerous to say this in view of a near infinite amount of knowledge and information. Especially dangerous is when you say this in the presence of someone who upholds the Bible as a flawless monolith of truth. In the talk "The role of the Book of Mormon in conversation" by Elder Shayne M Bown, He tells us about his MTC teachers experience in Chile
As a young missionary going to Chile, I learned a life-changing lesson about the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. Mr. Gonzalez served in a respected position in his church for many years. He had extensive religious training, including a degree in theology. He was quite proud of his biblical expertise. It was obvious to us that he was a religious scholar.
He was well aware of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they went about their work in his home city of Lima, Peru. He always wanted to meet with them so that he could school them in the Bible.
One day, almost as a gift from heaven, so he thought, two missionaries stopped him in the street and asked if they could come to his home and share the scriptures with him. This was his dream come true! His prayers had been answered. Finally, he could set these misguided young boys straight. He told them that he would be delighted to have them come to his house and discuss the scriptures.
He could hardly wait for his appointment. He was ready to use the Bible to disprove their beliefs. He was confident that the Bible would clearly and articulately point out the error of their ways. The appointed night came, and the missionaries knocked on the door. He was giddy. His moment had finally arrived.
He opened the door and invited the missionaries into his home. One of the missionaries handed him a blue book and bore a sincere testimony that he knew the book contained the word of God. The second missionary added his powerful testimony of the book, testifying that it had been translated by a modern prophet of God named Joseph Smith and that it taught of Christ. The missionaries excused themselves and left his home.
Mr. Gonzalez was so disappointed. But he opened the book, and he started to leaf through its pages. He read the first page. He read page after page after page and didn’t stop until late into the afternoon of the next day. He read the whole book and knew that it was true. He knew what he had to do. He called the missionaries, received the lessons, and gave up the life he had known to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That good man was my MTC teacher in Provo, Utah. Brother Gonzalez’s conversion story and the power of the Book of Mormon made a great impression on me.
I love that excerpt from that conference talk. Elder Shayne M Brown had an amazing MTC teacher. It gives me a lot of hope. The power of the Book of Mormon is very powerful brothers and sisters. I remember I was instructing a young men's activity here in the woods creek ward a few months ago. We did a tracting activity with them, to give the young men a taste of what they would run into as a missionary. I gave them one objective: get the Book of Mormon in their hands. Me and my companion stood behind the doors of the class rooms and we paired them up into companionship. Me and my companion gave them a very rough time. We wanted to make it is real as possible. I must say me and my companion were very impressed, as they managed to get a Book of Mormon in the door most times.
At the very end of the activity, I sat the young men around a table. I asked them a very simple and seemingly obvious question: why would we want everyone to have a Book of Mormon?
I heard some good answers, me and Elder Harris were pretty impressed. I then raised another question. Why don't we hand out Bibles? As members of the church, we absolutely love and uphold the Bible as the word of God. We even dedicate this whole year to studying the New Testament. So why then, when missionarys knock on doors, we have a Book of Mormon instead of a Bible?
The Answer is simple and crucial. The Book of Mormon, is physical proof of the Restoration. A professor at BYU named Hugh Nibley had this to say about The Book of Mormon, "The fact that the Book of Mormon exists proves that someone wrote it". There is a long list of possibilities for who actually wrote it. The world will tell you that Joseph Smith wrote it. That he forged all 531 pages in a span of just over 2 months. That somehow Joseph Smith was able to forge an ancient document, that contains an extremely diverse amount of content, everything from Hebrew style prophecy, to Military strategy that rivals some of the greatest strategists of the 20th century, let alone the 19th, to some of the most beautiful writings of Christ ever written. The world will tell you that somehow Joseph Smith was able to accidentally create ancient writing patterns in the Book of Mormon, which are extremely complex, and only known to the ancients until they were discovered in the late 19th century, well after the Book of Mormon was published. Frankly brothers and sisters I cannot comprehend the Book of Mormon not being true. The only way it makes sense, is if the Book of Mormon was written by who the Book of Mormon says it was written by. By the ancient prophet Mormon himself, by his son Moroni, and by Nephi. It follows that they also quoted all of the ancient Nephite Prophets, from the Great King Benjamin, to the martyr Abinidi, to the amazing missionarys Alma and Amulek.
However no amount of worldly information can prove the Book of Mormon right or wrong. Sure we have a lot of physical, temporal and logical proof. It is easy to fall for the worldly ways of doing things and worldly evidence. However, there is really only one way to know for sure the Book of Mormon is what it says it is. And we learn that at the end of the Book. Before I quote these verses I want to give you some context. Imagine you are the last surviving person of your entire civilization. The only other people within the next 200 square miles want you dead. You had the privilege of watching your friends fall by the sword to the tools of the adversary. Your own father was even killed. Now for the rest of your life you are in the wilderness alone. This is Moroni's situation. And some of his last few words say this.
Moroni 10:4-6 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth Jesus Christ, but acknowledgeth that He is.
This is the tool Brothers and Sisters. This is how we are expected to find our way back to Father. Through our prayer. Through our pleading and wrestling with God.
Elders and Sisters this is my testimony *Bear testimony *
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