Have you ever stayed in a Marriot hotel??
If so, I would imagine that you have run across a little blue book in your night stand drawer.
Today I want to talk about something I am very passionate about.
That little blue book titled "The Book of Mormon."
Maybe a missionary, a friend or a co-worker has once offered you a copy.
So, what is The Book of Mormon?
I normally break it down in this way...
The Bible is the communication between God and man as recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere.
& simply all that The Book of Mormon is, is the communication between the people in the
Ancient American continent and God.
It is a history of their experiences with prophets and Jesus Christ.
The Bible || The Book of Mormon
We read of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
Peter, John and Mary Magdalene find the empty tomb,
and Jesus Christ himself appears to Mary saying:
15 ...Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
which is to say, Master.
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father;
and to my God, and your God. (John 20: 15-17)
He later appeared to his apostles.
After his resurrection, The Book of Mormon provides a very unique account of his ministry among the people in the Ancient Americas.
8 ...they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.
11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.
The purpose of The Bible and The Book of Mormon is the same.
To convince all men that Jesus is the Christ.
“I bear solemn witness that we are true and full believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His revealed word through the Holy Bible. We not only believe the Bible—we strive to follow its precepts and to teach its message.”
—M. Russell Ballard
"The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In considering the additional scripture accepted by Latter-day Saints, we might ask: Were those early Christians who for decades had access only to the primitive Gospel of Mark (generally considered the first of the New Testament Gospels to be written)—were they offended to receive the more detailed accounts set forth later by Matthew and Luke, to say nothing of the unprecedented passages and revelatory emphasis offered later yet by John? Surely they must have rejoiced that ever more convincing evidence of the divinity of Christ kept coming. And so do we rejoice."
—Jeffery R. Holland ("My Words...Never Cease")
^^fantastic talk--by the way.
If you have interest in learning more about why Latter-Day Saints believe in an open canon,
I would highly recommend "My words...Never Cease" by Elder Jeffery R. Holland.
In the past year I've shared more copies of this book than I can count.
In gas stations, in the produce section next to the bananas (bleh bananas),
on doorsteps and best of all, in your member-friends home.
And I do it, because I know that it is true.
If you, like many of my dear friends here in the south, have a difficult time accepting more scripture, I invite you to ponder in your hearts this scripture.
7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?
8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.
So, if you happen to be a little skeptical about the idea of more scripture... consider The Savior's words "wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7:20)
And I would add to that, you are the only Book of Mormon some people may ever read.
FAQ's:
(Fun fact: there is a copy of The Book of Mormon in every night stand in every room in every Marriot hotel.)
You don't like bananas??!!
ReplyDeleteHermana Garlitz, su testimonio es maravilloso. Esta es la mejor comparación de las Escrituras y su relación entre sí que he visto nunca. ¡Gracias por compartir!! (Hope that came out correctly!!)
I agree with the not loving bananas comment :( I love Bananas!
ReplyDeleteI also love the Book of Mormon. I want to testify to what my dear friend Hermana Garlitz has written about here! God remembers all His children, not mattering what part of the country they live in! The Book of Mormon as well as the Bible has blessed and enriched my life! They, together, have made my knowlegde of the Savior more profound in so many ways. I have found hope in a better future because of some of the experiences in the Book of Mormon. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I testify that all things written on this blog are true and you should believe them because they will bring nothing but happiness to your life!
2 Niph 25:23 says, "for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." Eph. 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast." I suppose that that is a very obvious contradiction, but that is not exactly what I wanted to talk about per se. My question is, as a Mormon, can you ever know that you are for sure going to Heaven? Or, are you constantly working to get in, and you just can't tell for sure?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would be honored if you would comment, or just give me some feedback on my own blog post, "The Gospel Straight from the Bible" http://reborncrucified.blogspot.com God bless you bunches! Just look under "Gospel" as on of my catagories. It's also on the main page. Just look for it. Thanks a bunch!
That's a good one, though the aforementioned contradiction may prove not to be a contradiction at all, I hope you don't feel that I'm putting you down, but when you look at the Word of God as a whole, you see the difference between contradiction and clarification; skimming over 2 Nephi 25:23 would give someone the impression that one has to exhaust themselves in order to qualify for grace, rather than gathering that after all we do; after all is said and done we cannot be saved without the grace of Christ. That (Ephesians 2:8-9) and other scriptures help us better understand Christ's grace, that is what scripture is for; we learn from the word of God given to prophets of old through revelation, it clarifies the doctrine of Christ.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, a guy named Brad Wilcox gave a great lecture on grace, you'd like it, and I'm not just saying that, it's insightful:
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966
Peace and Blessings
It's not just a contradiction between two seperate views of salvation, it represents two seperate religions: Mormonism and Christianity, which have two seperate views of what saves. You know what Mormons believe. Bible-believing Christians believe the Bible, which as previously mentioned defines grace as "not of works." That's what it says.
DeleteEphesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourseves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." In other words, Salvation is not by works. It is by grace. Every other twisted form of Christianinity tries to insert works in any way that they can. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "...not of works, lest anyone should boast." Can it be any more plain?
Galatians 2:16 says, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." In other words, we are not made right before God by the "works of the law." We are made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ - by faith. Period - that is the end of the story. It does not get any clearer than that. It is by grace through faith.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Being saved from sin and Hell is based on a substition in the eyes of the law of God. God took the perfect Jesus and imputed to Him our sin, and God took the sin of us and imputed it to Jesus on the cross. Therefore, we now have been legally declared righteous, and Jesus on the cross was legally declared a sinner, though He never sinned. We switched places legally. Being right with God is based on this substitution.
Titus 3:5 says, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." Being saved from sin and Hell is not done by works, but by mercy. The Holy Spirit does this mercy by regeneration and renewing in us, not we in ourselves. God effects this. We do not acheive anything. "All our righteousness is like filthy wrags (Is. 64:6)."
Romans 5:1 says, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, Salvation, or being saved from sin and Hell is accomplished on the basis of faith. It is through Jesus Christ. He died for me and I am made right by Him through faith. Faith is the indirect, "instrumental cause" of salvation. It is the means whereby grace is imputed or given to you.
Romans 10:9-10 says, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Here, salvation is made by believing in your heart the Gospel, that is that Jesus died for you and was raised from the dead. It says that the heart believes unto righteousness. the mouth confesses unto salvtion. There is nothing here again, about being baptised, or fulfilling sacraments, or regulations, or any man-made or otherwise system of righteousness.
Thank you for replying to me by the way. You're awesome. Let me know what you think. I know that Mormons, many of them, believe only Joseph Smith's retranslation/interpretation of the Bible, so many of my quotes above you probably wouldn't see as legitimate, except for Galatians, maybe. I think Smith laid off of that verse above. So, at the very least, how would you respond to that verse, Gal. 2:16, assuming you don't even believe the rest of those verses are accurate translations? God bless.
DeleteHey Adam! Thanks so much for checking out my blog. You obviously have a passion for the scriptures. Man... that is very respectable. I love the scriptures. I know that they are true. I also echo what Elder Carter said. I am not sure if you are familiar with the bible dictionary (a great resource that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has published to define some key words in the Bible.) ... I love the definition that it provides for the word grace: "A word that occurs frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul. The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, give through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.... Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the Fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, 'It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do' (2 Ne. 25:23). It is truly the grace of Jesus Christ that makes salvation possible. This principle is expressed in Jesus’ parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1–11)."
DeleteBrad Wilcox really does a fantastic job of articulating what we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints believe about grace. I'm excited to hear your thoughts on his lecture.
At the end of the day though, it is truly through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by His atoning sacrifice, that mankind can be saved. That is what I know and believe. The thought that we can somehow obtain salvation on our own, without him, is just plain old silly. He is everything and I love him so much for what he has done for you and for me.
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