What is The Book of Mormon?

What is The Book of Mormon? Why are Mormon missionaries always trying to get you to read it? What is it about? Why do we need it if we have the Bible? I'm glad you asked.

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  Just like we have the Old Testament and the New Testament, this is another or a "third" testament.  And also like the Bible, it was written by ancient prophets. We read both The Book of Mormon and the Bible. We don't consider one to be better than the other, they are both the word of God. 

The book of Ezekiel prophecies about The Book of Mormon: "Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand"(Ezekiel 37:16-17).

The stick of Judah is the Bible. The tribe of Judah is the Jews and the Bible is the record of the Jews. The stick of Ephraim is The Book of Mormon. The people in The Book of Mormon were of the tribe of Ephraim.

The Book of Mormon takes place 600 B.C. during the time of Jeremiah the prophet and the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah.  It starts with the record of a family living in Jerusalem.  The father, Lehi, had a vision and was called as a prophet to preach repentance to the people.  He told them that if they didn't repent then Jerusalem would be destroyed.  The people didn't listen. They also wanted to kill him. So God in His mercy told Lehi and his family to leave Jerusalem.  They did so and traveled in the wilderness for 8 years and then eventually sailed across the ocean to the American continents. 

One of Lehi's sons, Nephi, was righteous and believed in his father's visions and received many more visions from God because of his faith.  He later became a prophet and wrote the first two books in The Book of Mormon. His descendants called themselves the Nephites.  Lehi had two other sons, Laman and Lemuel, who did not believe he was a prophet and were bitter about leaving Jerusalem.  They rebelled when they arrived in the Americas. Their descendants were thereafter called the Lamanites.

The rest of The Book of Mormon is a record written by prophets who passed the records on to the next prophets.  It covers 1000 years of history of this people.  The crowning event in The Book of Mormon is when Jesus Christ appeared to the people after His death and resurrection. Moroni was the very last prophet to write in The Book of Mormon before the Great Apostasy. His father was a man named Mormon. Mormon abridged and compiled the records written by the prophets and gave the gold plates they were written on to his son.  Moroni buried the record in a hill after writing his final testimony in it shortly before he died.  Moroni appeared as an angel 1400 years later in 1823 to the Prophet Joseph Smith to show him where the record was buried.  The record is named The Book of Mormon after Moroni's father, Mormon, since he was the one who abridged and assembled the record written by all of the prophets. 

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are nicknamed the Mormons because we have The Book of Mormon.

This ancient scripture was so important that God waited until the restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel to bring it forth so that it wouldn't be altered or tainted by men and so that it can stand as proof that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that Jesus Christ's Church is once again on the earth. 

I am so grateful for The Book of Mormon!  Together with the Bible, it testifies of Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't we want further revelation from God?  If your favorite author wrote a second book, you wouldn't get mad and say that you won't read it because they can only write one. It's the same with the scriptures! Why would you try to limit God and say that He can't speak to multiple people and have multiple scriptures? God is our loving Heavenly Father.  We are all His children.  He loves the Jews and the Gentiles.  He loves every race, nationality, gender, and age regardless of a person's standing in the world, financial situation, or level of education.  He revealed Himself to the prophets in the ancient Americas just like He did to the prophets in the Bible. He has probably revealed Himself to so many other people that we have no record of. He is the God of the whole world.  I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God as is the Bible. 

If you read and pray about the book, you can know for yourself that it's true.  Moroni, in his final testimony in the book before he died, wrote:

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things"(Moroni 10:4-5).

I know that whoever reads this book and prays about it with real intent and faith (faith meaning hope, not a perfect knowledge) in Christ will receive an answer through the power of the Holy Ghost. And how does the Holy Ghost speak to us? The Bible tells us: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance.."(Galatians 5:22-23).  If you feel any of those things as you read and pray about it, then that's the Holy Ghost telling you that it's true.

Amen.

(You can go here to read The Book of Mormon online or click here to request a free copy.)