I believe the Book of Mormon is true.
Those who don't believe it tho have
to find a justification in their minds
for how Joseph Smith could have invented
the book. Recently an acquaintance of
mine was explaining one of his possible
theories. He said that maybe Joseph did
indeed have supernatural help writing
the book but help from Satan not God.
let's dive into that theory a little
more.
There's this great bit in the New
Testament in Mark where the people see
Christ casting out Devils. The people are
amazed but some of them are also a
little suspicious. "And the scribes which
came down from Jerusalem said, he hath
Beelzebub and by the Prince of the
devil's casteth he out Devils." And Christ
says back, "How can Satan cast out Satan?
And if a kingdom be divided against
itself that Kingdom cannot stand and if
Satan rise up against himself and be
divided he cannot stand, but hath an end."
In other words, Satan is never gonna
inspire you to follow God. He's never
gonna tell you to do something that just
makes his life more difficult. It's true
that he can appear to you as an angel
of light but with the purpose of
tricking you into doing or believing
something wrong. You deserve to be
punished. If an angel appears to you and
says, "Jesus Christ is your Savior," rest
assured that's probably not Satan. But if
an angel appears and says something like,
"Christ is meh, you should probably
worship me" or "Money is all that matters"
or "Mom jeans are the best," that's when
you really have to worry. So let's take
that principle from the Bible and apply
it to the Book of Mormon. Now, a lot of
people unfortunately make up their minds
about the Book of Mormon well before
even reading it. They'll hear something
about it from their pastor or they'll
look up problems with the Book of Mormon
or heaven forbid they'll watch an episode
about it on South Park and that's as far
as their study goes. But as we actually
look at what the Book of Mormon teaches,
ask yourself, if you're a religious
person, is this something inspired of God
or if Satan? Would Satan say something
like this? Because it has to be one or
the other. Here's just a sampler platter
of verses. "We talk of Christ, we rejoice
in Christ, we preach of Christ, we
prophesy of Christ, and we write
according to our prophecies, that our
children may know to what source they
may look for a remission of their sins."
"And now my sons, remember, remember it is
upon the rock of our Redeemer who is
Christ the Son of God that you must
build your foundation; that when the
devil shall send forth his mighty winds...
it shall have no power over you to drag
you down to the gulf of misery and
endless woe because of the rock upon
which ye are built, which is a sure
foundation, a foundation whereon if men
build
they cannot fall." Yea, come unto Christ
and be perfected in him and deny
yourselves of all ungodliness..." "Believe in
God, believe that he is, and that he
created all things both in heaven and in
earth; believe that he has all wisdom and
all power both in heaven and in earth..."
"Angels speak by the power of the Holy
Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of
Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast
upon the words of Christ; for behold the
words of Christ will tell you all things
what you should do." "Whosoever shall put
their trust in God shall be supported in
their trials, and their troubles, and their
afflictions, and shall be lifted up at
the last day." "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better
world, yea, even a place at the right hand
of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh
an anchor to the souls of men, which
would make them sure and steadfast." And
if you suspect I'm just cherry-picking
the good parts here, The Book of Mormon
references Jesus Christ three thousand
nine hundred and twenty-five times.
That's an average of one reference to
Christ every 1.7 verses. I
wish I could just read you the whole
thing right now but whether or not you
believe the historicity of the Book of
Mormon, there can be no doubt that this
book testifies and teaches that Jesus
Christ is our Savior,
he lived, suffered for our sins, died, and
was resurrected. Either it's an elaborate
plot by Satan, the kind which Christ
himself said doesn't make any sense at
all, or it's inspired of God. I'm not
telling you what to believe but
hopefully based on the theme of the Book
of Mormon that these verses outlined you
understand a little more why Latter-day
Saints are proud to call the Book of
Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ.
If you have questions, drop them in the
comments below. Check out the links in
the description for more info on this.
There's a link to actually read the
whole Book of Mormon if you'd like but
either way, have a great day.
