The Book of Mormon: From God or the Devil?

     Lately I've been thinking about a talk that a General Authority of the Church gave in General Conference in October of 2011. The talk was given by Elder Tad. R. Callister and the title of his talk is The Book of Mormon- a Book from God. This talk was one of my favorite talks and most of my information from this blog comes from his talk.

     Elder Callister begins by telling of an experience his great-great grandfather had. While reading the Book of Mormon for the first time, his great-great grandfather said, "That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it." He then read through the Book of Mormon twice in the next10 days and declared, "The devil could not have written it—it must be from God."

     There is no middle ground with the Book of Mormon, it is either written from God, or not. Ultimately it is up to the person deciding who its from to actually read it for themselves and find who it truly came from.

Let me tell you more from Elder Callister used in his talk to demonstrate how the Book of Mormon relates to the Bible which proves it is in fact of God. First Elder Callister poses a question. "But why is the Book of Mormon so essential if we already have the Bible to teach us about Jesus Christ?"

He then gives us the answer, "Have you ever wondered why there are so many Christian churches in the world today when they obtain their doctrines from essentially the same Bible? It is because they interpret the Bible differently. If they interpreted it the same, they would be the same church. This is not a condition the Lord desires, for the Apostle Paul declared that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). To help bring this oneness about, the Lord established a divine law of witnesses. Paul taught, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1)".

He continues, "The Bible is one witness of Jesus Christ; the Book of Mormon is another. Why is this second witness so crucial? The following illustration may help: [now pay attention to this analogy] How many straight lines can you draw through a single point on a piece of paper? The answer is infinite. For a moment, suppose that single point represents the Bible and that hundreds of those straight lines drawn through that point represent different interpretations of the Bible and that each of those interpretations represents a different church.

What happens, however, if on that piece of paper there is a second point representing the Book of Mormon? How many straight lines could you draw between these two reference points: the Bible and the Book of Mormon? Only one. Only one interpretation of Christ’s doctrines survives the testimony of these two witnesses."
 

     The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, only testifies of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. The Book of Mormon provides warnings against the devil and his temptations and testifies against him. Why would the Satan provide a book that completely goes contrary to his plan? He would not do that! Therefore, the Book of Mormon has to be from God. I know it is because I have read it and have been brought closer to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. You too can know for yourself whether or not the Book of Mormon is from God or not. The only way for you to know that for yourself is to read from its pages.  Like Elder Callister's great-great grandfather, I know the devil could not have written the Book of Mormon, it must be from God.

The Love of God

     I wanted to share a pretty powerful experience I had a couple four or five months back. I was serving in the town of Glasgow, Montana. Glasgow is a pretty small town and I loved serving there. There are some great people there whom I grew to love and appreciate. Anyways, at this time, I wasn't really down or depressed or anything. I've been blessed to have a positive attitude for the most part during tough times on my mission, but I just really wanted God to show me that He loved me.
     So, like it says in James 1:5, if we lack wisdom, we ask God, I decided to pray to my Father in Heaven, asking Him to show me in someway, that He truly loved me. Now, I grew up believing that we have a God in Heaven who loves us, and I still believed that when I asked my prayer, I just wanted a confirmation that what I had believed my whole life was in fact true.

 

     Now, I was told once that if we want to talk to God, we pray, and if we want God to talk to us, we read the scriptures. If I remember right, that same day I prayed asking God to show He loved me, I was reading in my scriptures and I was reading in the New Testament in the Book of 1 John of all books. Let me share a few verses from that chapter;

 7 "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

 8 "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 

Most of this chapter talks all about how God is love, love is of God, etc. and as I was reading this, I almost got a little annoyed with it because it kept saying that God is love. At that exact moment when I got a little bugged, the Spirit pretty much slapped me in the face and some words came into my head like, "Look, maybe God is trying to tell you here that He truly loves you." Or something to that effect. When I realized that, I got a sense of calm, peace, and comfort and I knew, with all my heart that God does in fact know me personally and He really does love me! 

 

 

I would like to testify to you all that God loves each and every one of us with a perfect love! He knows us and each of our situations and He is always there for us, whenever we may need Him!

The Spirit World

    Three days after the death of the Savior, His apostles and friends find the tomb He was buried in to be empty. As we read in the account of John Chapter 20 in the Bible, Mary Magdalene is found weeping at the tomb because she, and many others weren't sure what happened to Christ because they didn't know the reality of a resurrection yet. As Mary is crying by the tomb, Jesus comes and says to her in John 20: 15, "Woman, why weepest thou?" Mary then replies in the same verse, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." Mary doesn't know its Christ Himself talking to her, till in verse 16 He says, "Mary." Mary then turns and realizes it is in reality Jesus Himself says continuing in verse 16, "Rabboni; which is to say, Master."
     Mary realizes it is Jesus Christ alive again! As we can conclude from reading verse 17 of John 20, Mary must have reached out to Christ as to give Him a greeting with a hug or some sort, because Jesus stops her and says, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father:..." If Jesus had not yet gone to His Father, where did He go in the meantime?...

 

     After Christ was resurrected, and just before He ascended to God the Father, He went to a place what's called the Spirit World. The Spirit World may be compared to what most people call, Heaven and Hell. The Spirit World is like a waiting room, where our spirits go, once we have gone out of this life. In the Spirit World are two places, Spirit Paradise, and Spirit Prison. There are a few verses in the Book of Mormon that explains who goes where in the Spirit World. The scripture comes from Alma Chapter 40, verses 11-14.

     " Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

  "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

 "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.

  "Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection."

     Now, what's great about the Spirit World is the gospel is being preached to those who are in "Prison". What a wonderful tender mercy of the Lord to give people a first (for those who never heard about Jesus Christ) and second chance to accept His gospel.

     The Bible tells us that those who have passed on will have the gospel of Jesus Christ taught to them. 1 Peter Chapter 4 verse 6 reads. "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."

     I can testify that there is in fact life after death. The Spirit World is the place where we will go after we pass on from this life. Those who accepted Jesus Christ and lived His gospel will live in a state of peace and happiness and they will teach those who are in Spirit Prison and give them an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ and His true gospel there. We will be in the Spirit World until the Second Coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, where we will all then be resurrected.



Baseball, Carnivals and the Adversary

     Throughout my life I have learned many valuable life lessons from the awesome coaches I have had while playing sports. While serving my mission here in Montana I have learned some more valuable life lessons. Many of which came from my studies, attending District Meetings, Zone Conferences and trainings, and even when teaching people about the gospel. Who knew I would learn a valuable life lesson from an experience I had while attending a Carnival in Glasgow Montana?!

      The day was Monday August 8, 2011. The good ol county fair/carnival was in town for the weekend and my companion and I were meeting some people there for dinner. Before our dinner got there, we decided to look around a little bit to see what was going on and to be seen by people in the community. As we're walking around, I see a little game called "Break the Bottle". Yep it was a baseball throw. It was kinda like the milk bottle throw only four or five rows of beer bottles were waiting to be shattered by a baseball! Boy did I get get antsy inside, I love baseball and I haven't played for over a year and I REALLY wanted to play this game! So we stopped and looked at it and the Carnies (the people who try to get people to play) could tell I liked what I was seeing so they jumped all over me and kept telling me "You know you wanna play!" Did I ever! Finally I said 'what the heck lets do it!' I mean its was only 5 bucks and I play baseball, I could do it easily! So I pay my five bucks and take a look at the bottles and on the bottom row, right in the middle there is a big champagne bottle with a 20 dollar bill taped to it! WHAT?! Man that made me want to break it even more! 20 bucks to break a bottle, not bad. The Carnie said he wasn't gonna make it easy so you had to hit the bottle in the perfect spot to get it to break, and the spot was the size of Jefferson's head on the 20 dollar bill. No big deal, I'm getting 20 bucks! 5 baseballs later, no 20 bucks.

     Yep I failed and didn't break the bottle. Breaking the big bottle was a little harder than I thought, but I was convinced I could do it, after all the first five balls was just a warm up. Again the Carnies asked if I wanted to do it again, they said again "you know you want to" and all that to convince me to play again. Yes I wanted to and I played again. Five more bucks, five more baseballs, no 20 bucks. Darn.

     After that fail I decided to quit and it was about time for dinner so we left and met the people we were eating with and we went and had some dinner and looked around at other exhibits at the carnival. Instead of getting into too much detail, lets just say I ended up going back to play the game and I did not win the 20 bucks. I even borrowed money from a friend who trusted I could break the bottle, but I failed. Its not that I didn't hit the bottle, I hit the bottle plenty of times trust me. Either the game was rigged and I was tricked by those Carnies or I didn't hit the bottle in the right spot. It's all a mystery. Either way, the Carnies and my pride convinced me to keep playing the game when I should have quit 20 dollars earlier.

 

            Now to relate this whole experience to the gospel. The Devil and his temptations to get us to sin are exactly like the experience I had with the baseball throw. We have already established that I love baseball, so naturally, seeing the carnival game wanted me to play. Satan makes sinning appealing to us and makes us want to "have fun". Satan also has his own "Carnies" out there to convince us we "want to do it". Peer pressure is a huge factor Satan uses to try and get us to make a mistake. Just like the Carnies, Satan is persistent and will do all he can just to make that one little mistake. Satan is quite convincing too because he makes sinning look like fun! He tells you little white lies like "one time won't hurt" and "everyone's doing it". Satan is a sly, filthy snake and if we give in to his temptations once, we are more likely to give in again. Once I did the baseball throw for the first time, I was sucked in and very easily gave into the temptation another couple three or four times. Just like the Carnies, Satan is a great salesmen and he is happy when we give in and waste our "money" (or spirituality). Satan is just a big jerk and gets too many to fall into his traps, which we cannot afford to do.

 

     There is always hope though. Hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus knows how to help us during our times of difficulty with temptation. He has suffered for our temptations so He can help us overcome them. There is no temptation that we can't overcome (1 Corinthians 10: 13). If we have messed up and have fallen into Satan's trap, repentance is the only way we can get out of that trap. I know that if we build our lives on a solid foundation, which is our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel, then we will be able to withstand all the winds and temptations of the Devil. I'm grateful for the experience I had at the Carnival which helped me learn a valuable lesson about resisting the wiles of the Devil. I hope and pray I won't give in to sin like I gave into the baseball throw. I know I won't as long as I build my foundation on Christ (Helaman 5:12).

Knowledge

     The next Christlike attribute we need to develop is Knowledge. Jesus Christ was had all knowledge and wisdom. He knew the scriptures and He knew all He needed to know in this life to fulfill His purpose on earth. He grew up seeking, searching, pondering and applying what He learned from the scriptures and from His Heavenly and earthly parents to gain the wisdom and perfect knowledge that He had. Likewise, we are to obtain knowledge so we can be successful in this life.
     We have been commanded by the Lord to gain knowledge. In the scriptures we are told to "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (D&C 88:118). We need to seek knowledge, specifically spiritual knowledge. We are to study from the scriptures and the words of the Apostles and Prophets everyday. When we study in faith, with prayer, we will find answers to questions, and find help to any challenges we may be facing in life. We should do all we can to gain the knowledge we need to be eternally happy in this life and forever. By so doing we will live our lives as our Savior would have us live.
     Now, we must remember that when we are seeking knowledge, we will not know everything all at once. Knowledge comes over time. We learn little by little every day, line upon line, precept upon precept. We have the scriptures and living prophets to helps us gain the knowledge we need to know so we know how to worship, what to worship, and what we need to do to find success in this life.  Knowledge is one of the gifts of the Spirit and if we do all we can to seek and obtain the knowledge God wants us to obtain, then we will have "the advantage in the world to come" (D&C 130:18-19).
     I know that my spiritual knowledge is very small compared to others. But I do know that if we don't obtain knowledge, then we won't know how to get back to our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the scriptures and the words of the Apostles and Prophets that help me to learn and grow in my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love reading the scriptures and hearing the knowledge others have of the gospel and I hope that one day I can become more knowledgeable in the ways of the Lord so I can help others obtain the knowledge they need to find true happiness and success in this life. 

Virtue

     "Virtue originates in your innermost thoughts and desires. It is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. Since the Holy Ghost does not dwell in unclean tabernacles, virtue is prerequisite to receiving the Spirit's guidance. What you choose to think and do when you are alone and you believe no one is watching is a strong measure of your virtue.
     "Virtuous people are clean and pure spiritually. They focus on righteous, uplifting thoughts and put unworthy thoughts that lead to inappropriate actions out of their minds. They obey God's commandments and follow the counsel of Church leaders. They pray for the strength to resist temptation and do what is right. They pray for the strength to resist temptation and do what is right. They quickly repent of any sins or wrongdoings. They live worthy of a temple recommend.
     "Your mind is like a stage in a theater; in the theater of your mind, however, only one actor can be on stage at a time. If the stage is left bare, thoughts of darkness and sin often enter the stage to tempt. But these thoughts have no power if the stage of your mind is occupied by wholesome thoughts, such as a memorized hymn or verse of scripture that you can call upon in a moment of temptation. By controlling the stage of your mind, you can successfully resist persistent urges to yield to temptation and indulge in sin. You can become pure and virtuous" (Preach My Gospel pg. 18-19).
     Jesus Christ never at any moment even considered thinking about thinking unwholesome thoughts. He always resisted the temptations of the devil and He conquered all. I know that if we strive to keep our thoughts and desires clean and pure and virtuous, then we will live a true happy and productive life. Even in eternal life with our Father in Heaven.

 What does it mean to be virtuous?
 D&C 4:6        D&C 46:33                  2 Peter 1:3-8
D&C 25:2       D&C 121:45-46
D&C 38:24     Articles of Faith 1:13