Let me make my standard hypocrisy statement. I am not perfect, and what I am writing about today is certainly no exception. But if perfection were the standard we were all held to before trying to help one another...we wouldn't get anywhere.
What is scripture? Jesus commanded "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are which testify of me."
Here, Jesus teaches two very important things. First of all, the job of Scripture is to testify of Christ. Testify of His mission, His divinity, and most importantly, of His redeeming power! Secondly, he is correcting a prevelant idea at the time, and sadly still persists to this day. The words in the Scriptures will not save a man, but rather their job is to direct the man to Who will save him.
Therefore, the purpose of every Prophet and Apostle, (the distinction between the two is almost non existant, and for the rest of this blog entry they will be treated as the same), the writers of these Scriptures, is to testify of Christ and lead us to Him. From the time of Adam, these men wrote of their experiences with God, and of the teachings He had revealed to them. At the time of Jesus, what the Jews called scripture, is more or less known as the Old Testament today. What the Apostles wrote after the death of Jesus up until around 90 AD is known as the New Testament.
And suddenly, Prophets and Apostles stopped writing scripture? Why is that? For 4000 years God had revealed His will to men, and did so shortly after the death of Christ, but why stop? Did He? Or did we just stop listening?
Shift gears just a little here. "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one pastor." Who are these other sheep?
Shift gears again, and time for a history lesson. 600 B.C. Jersusalem is being invaded. The Lord commands a man, Lehi to take his family into the wilderness, and promises to lead them to a promised land. Over the course of nearly 10 years, he leads them in the wilderness, and eventually to construct a ship and leads them to this continent.
Over the course of 1000 years these people build a civilization. They write their dealings with God, teachings of the promised Savior, and record his visit here, to his "other sheep".
These writings would later become known as the Book of Mormon.
What is so special about this Book? Isn't the Bible enough?
I will be first to admit I love the Bible. It has a record of Christ's mortal ministry and some of the most precious teachings ever given to man. A look through history will show that the fact we even have a Bible, in any form, is a miracle. Through the several book burnings in the first few centuries A.D, to uninspired men choosing what was canon and not, through several thousand years of history and the changes that come with that, what we have now cannot possibly be what the early saints had two thousand years ago.
The Book of Mormon was untouched by mortal hands from 421 AD to when Joseph Smith received the record to translate it in 1827. It serves as ANOTHER Testament that Jesus is the Christ, the very Son of God, the Savior of the World. What true believer in Christ would not want more of Him? Where there are literally thousands of different points of view on the Bible, when paired with the Book of Mormon, those points of view are limited to one.
The Book of Mormon is proof positive that God has not stopped talking to man, rather man stopped listening to God. This Book is what convinced me that Jesus is the Way to God. This Book is what taught me why I need a Savior, and how He wants me to live. This Book has brought be closer to Jesus than any other book, or teaching of man. This Book is what convinced me to put a hold on everything in my life for two years so I could share its glorious message. This Book is literally the reason I have the life I have now. Without this Book, I would not have my wife nor my children. I would not have the promised blessings of being with my family forever, if it weren't for this Book.
How do I know this book is of God, and not some device of man? As Jesus taught "by their fruits ye shall know them." The fruit this book has wrought in my life is undeniable. I invite any and all who are within the sound of my voice to read this book, ponder its message and test it in your own life. The power is real.
As I stated above. This book was buried in 421 AD and was not removed until 1827. Those who wrote this book, did not do so for them, but for us. God inspired them with the message we would need in our day and time. When Paul was writing his letters, he was not writing to us, but to the people of his time, we are only fortunate to have those letters today.
God still talks to us through living Prophets and Apostles to give us instruction for our time, our circumstances. He has never stopped loving us.
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