I don't think there's any question but
the Book of Mormon was in some ways
and what I'm about to say, I don't mean to be irreverent,
the Book of Mormon in some ways was to the Latter Day Saints
what the Resurrection of Christ became to the early Christians
The Resurrection was the physical
manifestation of Christ's Divine Sonship
They had questions, the disciples,
the Apostles had questions about so many things
but two things happened,
the Resurrection takes place and the Holy Ghost is poured out on the day of Pentecost
and suddenly they see things with new eyes
and that resurrection was the clincher for many of them.
All that he said was true.
It was the manifestation of the truthfulness of who Christ was and what he taught
in a lesser sense but in a similar vein.
The Book of Mormon was the
the symbol, the representation,
the embodiment of the notion of the fact that God
has begun a new revelation.
And many of the saints read it and knew it quite well, many did not.
It isn't they didn't think they needed to, it's just that it stood as that great symbol of the revelation.
I remember talking with my friend Richard Mao,
a beloved friend who was for many years the President of Fuller Theological Seminary
and the way Richard describes Joseph Smith and Mormonism
he said it isn't just that Joseph Smith comes along and says I've come to restore
the notion of the gift of prophecy.
He says no, Joseph Smith comes
along and announces and the Mormons announce
that what's been restored is the prophetic office,
and that's a different thing entirely.
and I think the great manifestation for those early Saints that the prophetic office
had been restored and that the heavens were once again opened and revelation was flowing
the great embodiment of that was the Book of Mormon
and so I believe there were many who held it up who weren't as familiar with its text as they might have been
or others work but for them it was
sufficient evidence God had spoken.
