MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
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| "Translated by the gift and power of God."--- (Three Witnesses) "... 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.”--- (Joseph Smith, Introduction, The Book of Mormon). |
That I may not be misunderstood in what I have to say, I would like to acquaint the readers about the teachings of the apostle Paul which is as much applicable to us now as it was to the people at Corinth during his time. He wrote: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-14).
I have heard much about heartwarming testimonies of the Book of Mormon by leaders and members during the last more than four decades of my membership in the church. But I uphold the personal witness that had been manifested to me by the Holy Ghost during that formative and earlier search for truth as an earnest investigator of the church; confirmed and strengthened since then and now through in-depth regular study of the book.
My testimony of The Book of Mormon came as an answer to my first personal prayer, after having been taught by the missionaries to read, ponder and pray about it, and accept the challenge of the prophet Moroni to ask God if the book was indeed true.
In weeks since I was first found by the missionaries during that cold mid-December afternoon of 1976, I read and studied the Book of Mormon thoroughly and diligently. As a security investigator, I have much time to read the Book in my room at our barracks. Not only did I read the assigned pages, but the whole of the book. I understood then that it contained principles and doctrines that corresponds with those I learned from the Holy Bible which I have in my barracks room. I eventually grasped the fact that such could not have been written by anybody who is not inspired of God. I began to pick up more religious truths which made me became more interested about my studies of the book. In the depths of my mind I started to think that this must have been truly a message from God to humankind as it has been declared in the Title Page---“Written…also to Jew and Gentile—Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation. And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.” However, each time we had our appointment, I was always sorry to tell the missionaries that I have not as yet prayed about it.
I was raised a Roman Catholic and I only knew memorized prayers, particularly the “Lord’s Prayer.” But here comes the missionaries telling me to offer a personal prayer and to talk to God and ask Him the question whether the Book of Mormon is true. I thought it was ridiculous, yet I continued to read the Book of Mormon and sincerely kept my appointments with more and more questions about the things I read and studied.
Throughout our succeeding meetings, I had been compelled by the missionaries to offer a special prayer personally and to ask Heavenly Father if what they have been teaching to my family are true, and I did, though perhaps not so sincerely. Even with their compelling promise, I did never as yet tried to pray personally while on my own.
At the conclusion of my reading of The Book of Mormon, the last chapter of Moroni, I noted the marked verses again. After reading the last verse, I went back and reread the challenge: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would 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 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.” (Moroni 10:4-5).
I thought deeply of the challenge and considered in profound reflection the principles I learned from my study and readings of the book. My mind reaffirmed my understanding that the contents of the book must have come from God. But the challenge was exhorting me to pray for confirmation of the truth through the manifestation of the Holy Ghost.
Never have I known then about manifestations of the Spirit, except that I was told by the missionaries that I would have a burning feeling in my bosom. Nevertheless, I submitted myself to the challenge. Thereupon, in the serenity of my barracks room and in the stillness of an spiritually absorbing hours in the night, I prayed to Heavenly Father in earnestness and with best intentions and real intent to know whether The Book of Mormon is indeed true. I waited for days for the manifestation of the Spirit to come, but I never have any such burning feeling.
Then during our next appointment, sometime in the last week of January 1977, I was again asked by the missionaries the same question whether I believe The Book of Mormon is true. And for the first time in my life, with tears in my eyes and with voice choked with deep emotion and my heart pounding with joy, I bore a solemn testimony to the missionaries, that I know that The Book of Mormon is true. That it taught me things which are beyond my mind to comprehend, but which my heart so clearly and undoubtedly understood.
Shortly thereafter, we were brought into the waters of baptism on February 12, 1977 and thus became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Since then and during those 43 years of membership, I have continually proclaimed my personal undeviating and unshakable testimony and witness that The Book of Mormon is indeed true. It has influenced my personal and family life for good. It has taught me principles which have guided me through my journey in mortality. My continued study of the Book had led me then and now to understand the purpose and meaning of life, the wondrous and convincing promise attendant to the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the life between death and resurrection, the gift of a glorious resurrection, and Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness.
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-14).
I have heard much about heartwarming testimonies of the Book of Mormon by leaders and members during the last more than four decades of my membership in the church. But I uphold the personal witness that had been manifested to me by the Holy Ghost during that formative and earlier search for truth as an earnest investigator of the church; confirmed and strengthened since then and now through in-depth regular study of the book.
My testimony of The Book of Mormon came as an answer to my first personal prayer, after having been taught by the missionaries to read, ponder and pray about it, and accept the challenge of the prophet Moroni to ask God if the book was indeed true.
In weeks since I was first found by the missionaries during that cold mid-December afternoon of 1976, I read and studied the Book of Mormon thoroughly and diligently. As a security investigator, I have much time to read the Book in my room at our barracks. Not only did I read the assigned pages, but the whole of the book. I understood then that it contained principles and doctrines that corresponds with those I learned from the Holy Bible which I have in my barracks room. I eventually grasped the fact that such could not have been written by anybody who is not inspired of God. I began to pick up more religious truths which made me became more interested about my studies of the book. In the depths of my mind I started to think that this must have been truly a message from God to humankind as it has been declared in the Title Page---“Written…also to Jew and Gentile—Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation. And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.” However, each time we had our appointment, I was always sorry to tell the missionaries that I have not as yet prayed about it.
I was raised a Roman Catholic and I only knew memorized prayers, particularly the “Lord’s Prayer.” But here comes the missionaries telling me to offer a personal prayer and to talk to God and ask Him the question whether the Book of Mormon is true. I thought it was ridiculous, yet I continued to read the Book of Mormon and sincerely kept my appointments with more and more questions about the things I read and studied.
Throughout our succeeding meetings, I had been compelled by the missionaries to offer a special prayer personally and to ask Heavenly Father if what they have been teaching to my family are true, and I did, though perhaps not so sincerely. Even with their compelling promise, I did never as yet tried to pray personally while on my own.
At the conclusion of my reading of The Book of Mormon, the last chapter of Moroni, I noted the marked verses again. After reading the last verse, I went back and reread the challenge: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would 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 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.” (Moroni 10:4-5).
I thought deeply of the challenge and considered in profound reflection the principles I learned from my study and readings of the book. My mind reaffirmed my understanding that the contents of the book must have come from God. But the challenge was exhorting me to pray for confirmation of the truth through the manifestation of the Holy Ghost.
Never have I known then about manifestations of the Spirit, except that I was told by the missionaries that I would have a burning feeling in my bosom. Nevertheless, I submitted myself to the challenge. Thereupon, in the serenity of my barracks room and in the stillness of an spiritually absorbing hours in the night, I prayed to Heavenly Father in earnestness and with best intentions and real intent to know whether The Book of Mormon is indeed true. I waited for days for the manifestation of the Spirit to come, but I never have any such burning feeling.
Then during our next appointment, sometime in the last week of January 1977, I was again asked by the missionaries the same question whether I believe The Book of Mormon is true. And for the first time in my life, with tears in my eyes and with voice choked with deep emotion and my heart pounding with joy, I bore a solemn testimony to the missionaries, that I know that The Book of Mormon is true. That it taught me things which are beyond my mind to comprehend, but which my heart so clearly and undoubtedly understood.
Shortly thereafter, we were brought into the waters of baptism on February 12, 1977 and thus became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Since then and during those 43 years of membership, I have continually proclaimed my personal undeviating and unshakable testimony and witness that The Book of Mormon is indeed true. It has influenced my personal and family life for good. It has taught me principles which have guided me through my journey in mortality. My continued study of the Book had led me then and now to understand the purpose and meaning of life, the wondrous and convincing promise attendant to the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the life between death and resurrection, the gift of a glorious resurrection, and Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness.
The Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon declared that the contents
of the golden plates “…have been translated by the gift and power of God, for
his voice hath declared it unto us. Wherefore we know of a surety that the work
is true.”
Richard
Lloyd Anderson quoted the “feelings [which] remained with the Prophet’s wife
near her death, as she retold the experience of the translation period to her
son: “I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the
manuscripts unless he was inspired. For when acting as his scribe, your father
would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals or after
interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either
seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him. This was a usual
thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do
this, and for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply
impossible.”” (Saints’ Herald 26 (1879):290, “By the Gift and Power of God” By
Richard Lloyd Anderson churchofjesuschrist.org).
Then the
same author also wrote: “When Cowdery returned to Church membership in 1848 he spoke
to an Iowa conference. His words there were recorded by Reuben Miller: “I wrote
with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from
the lips of the Prophet as he translated it by the gift and power of God by
means of the Urim and Thummim, or as it is called by that book, holy
interpreters. I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands the gold plates
from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is
true. … I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet.”” (“Journal
of Reuben Miller,” 21 Oct. 1848; for background see R. L. Anderson, “Reuben
Miller, Recorder of Oliver Cowdery’s Reaffirmations,” BYU Studies 8 (1968):277.
“By the Gift and Power of God” By Richard Lloyd Anderson
churchofjesuschrist.org)
I am in
complete accord with what Elder Tad R. Callister had to say about the Book of
Mormon: “No one can ever convince me that Joseph Smith at age 23, trying to eke
out a living on the edge of the frontier, with only primitive writing skills
and no notes in front of him, wrote this historical and doctrinal masterpiece
in a single draft in approximately 65 days, let alone in any time frame. It is
beyond rational belief.” (Elder Tad R. Callister: The Book of Mormon — man-made
or God-given? thechurchnews.com January 19, 2020).
As it is indicated in its title page, “The Book of Mormon” is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ”. I declare with solemn conviction to all the world and bear testimony that it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. I believe and know of the truthfulness of what the prophet Joseph Smith had said 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.” (Introduction, Book of Mormon). I know that it “contains…the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ (D&C 20:9, D&C 42:12); that “those who receive it in faith, and work righteousness, shall receive a crown of eternal life.” (D&C 20:14).
The Lord warns, however, that, “…those who harden their hearts in unbelief, and reject it, it shall turn to their own condemnation” (D&C 20:15). At least, in due time, when I will cross the veil, which I’m sure will no longer be as long a time than those period when I have personally declared with soberness the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, I could stand with clear conscience before the bar of the righteous judge of all, even the Lord Jesus Christ, that I have done my duty to declare my personal witness of the Book of Mormon as the new covenant.
I encourage every honest reader of the Book of Mormon to know for himself or herself by accepting the challenge as recorded in Moroni 10:4-5. I know the Lord will manifest the truth of this marvelous book to every honest searching soul by the power of the Holy Ghost.
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