Jeffrey R. Holland,“Safety for
the Soul,”Ensign , Nov. 2009, 88–90.
“Flooding the
Earth and Our Lives with the Book of Mormon,”ch. 10 in TPC-
ET Benson(2014), 137–45.
1. 2 Nephi 27:1, 4-5- What the Book of Mormon says about
conditions in our day.
2. 2 Nephi 27:6, 29-30, 35- The Lord's solution to the
problems we face.
3. 3 Nephi 29:1-2- An important part the Book of Mormon
will play in our day
4. “The Book of
Mormon was published just a few days before the Church was organized. Saints were given it to read before they were
given the revelations outlining such doctrines as the 3 degrees of glory,
celestial marriage, or work for the dead. It came before priesthood quorums and
Church organization. Doesn’t this tell us something about how the Lord views
this sacred work?” (ETB Ensign,Nov. 1986, 4). Why
5. Joseph Smith
History 1:34-
6. “The Lord
Himself has stated that the Book of Mormon contains the ‘fulness of the gospel
of Jesus Christ’ (D&C 20:9). That does not mean it contains every teaching, every doctrine ever
revealed. Rather, it means that in the Book of Mormon we will find the fulness
of those doctrines required for our salvation. And they are taught plainly and
simply” (TPC - Ezra Taft Benson [2014],
7. Moses 7:62-
Where will righteousness and truth come from in the latter-days?
8. What are some
ways that we can “sweep the earth” with righteousness and the message of the
Book of Mormon “as with a flood”?
9. 3 Nephi
21:9-11- The servant is Joseph Smith! Have you ever had the chance to defend
the message of the Book of Mormon?
10. “For [more
than 180] years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and
deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern
religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious
history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born
and parroted and have died. … None of these frankly pathetic answers for this
book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young
unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said
simply enough, ‘No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man
would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so” (JRHolland).
11. Mormon
8:1-5- We often talk of the sacrifices made in our day to bring forth the Book
of Mormon. We should not forget the tremendous work BJS, (Before Joseph Smith)
12. Mormon
8:26-35- My favorite!- Moroni speaks to me! (See also 2 Nephi 25:21-22; Mormon
7:1)
13. “The Book of
Mormon … was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did
the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end
of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things
from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories,
speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us. “Each of the major
writers of the Book of Mormon testified that he wrote for future generations. …
If they saw our day and chose those things which would be of greatest worth to
us, is not that how we should study the Book of Mormon? We should constantly
ask ourselves, ‘Why did the Lord inspire Mormon (or Moroni or Alma) to include
that in his record? What lesson can I learn from that to help me live in this
day and age?’” (Teachings: Ezra Taft Benson, 140).
14. How should this effect how we read this Book?
15. 1 Nephi 8- "It is imperative to note that
this mist of darkness descends on all the travelers—However
dark the night or the day, the rod marks the way of that
solitary, redeeming trail. (Holland)
16. Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of
Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is
the safe harbor God wants for us in days of despair. That is the message with
which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends,
calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.” That
phrase—taken from Moroni’s final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after
Lehi’s vision—is a dying man’s testimony of the only true way. (Holland)
17. “And now I, Moroni, bid farewell … until we
shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.”
A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the
Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the
page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony
for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book,
the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down,
still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the
Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony
of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly
thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators.
As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the
divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its
truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would
these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor,
and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a
church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?
(Wives, Children, Followers) Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this
hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge
quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very
word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of
time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather
than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
18. I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this
latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in
these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon
and the Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled
enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary
and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of
those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus
Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now
tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or
otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be
done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit.
In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of
stumbling, … a rock of offence,” a barrier in the path of
one who wishes not to believe in this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were
for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an
angel and had handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of
God, and not of man,” they declared. “Wherefore we know of a surety that the
work is true.”
19. I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and
all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by
men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my “last
days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand
before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward
language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth
the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to
the faithful in the travail of the latter days.
20. My witness echoes that of Nephi, who wrote part of
the book in his “last days”: “Hearken unto these words and believe
in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And
if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the
words of Christ, … and they teach all men that they should do good. “And
if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you,
with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day. (2
Nephi 33:10-11) (15-20-Holland)
21. “‘He can’t be serious!’ thought Margo Merrill
… My children are only six, five, and two years old. I’ll just be wasting my
time and patience.’ “They decided to try reading the Book of Mormon with their
children anyway. When they came to the story of Nephi and his broken bow,
six-year-old Melissa became ill with pneumonia and pleaded with me to let her
go back to school even though she was sick,’
22. Howard J.
McOmber II pondered President Benson’s exhortation to flood the earth with the
Book of Mormon. He wondered, “How could I as an individual be a significant
part of such a flood? (Neighbors- 104 houses-40 books; 75 employees-23
missionary lessons-7 baptisms + 4 children= 1 later) “I love the Book of Mormon. I think of it as
the Lord’s calling card, and I have been amazed at how easy it is to start a
spiritual flood with it on a personal scale. When we do the work of the Lord,
we have his help.”
23. The Book of
Mormon … was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did
the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end
of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things
from the beginning, he abridged
centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be
most helpful to us.
And there is
example after example of how that question will be answered. For example, in
the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Second Coming. A
major portion of the book centers on the few decades just prior to Christ’s
coming to America. By careful study of that time period, we can determine why
some were destroyed in the terrible judgments that preceded His coming and what
brought others to stand at the temple in the land of Bountiful and thrust their
hands into the wounds of His hands and feet.
From the Book of
Mormon we learn how disciples of Christ live in times of war. From the Book of
Mormon we see the evils of secret combinations portrayed in graphic and
chilling reality. In the Book of Mormon we find lessons for dealing with
persecution and apostasy. We learn much about how to do missionary work. And more than anywhere else, we see in the Book of Mormon the dangers
of materialism and setting our hearts on the things of the world. Can
anyone doubt that this book was meant for us and that in it we find great
power, great comfort, and great protection?
24. As we study
the Book of Mormon daily, the power of the book will flow into our lives. It is
not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that.
It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it
indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the
book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious
study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will
find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the
strait and narrow path.
25. This, then,
is the supreme assurance for the honest in heart—to know by personal revelation
from God that the Book of Mormon is true. Millions have put it to that test and
know, and increasing millions will yet know.
26. Every
Latter-day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise,
he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give
spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life. There is a difference
between a convert who is built on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon
and stays hold on the iron rod, and one who [is] not.
27. I have a
conviction: The more we teach and preach from the Book of Mormon, the more we
shall please the Lord and the greater will be our power of speaking. By so
doing, we shall greatly increase our converts, both within the Church and among
those we proselyte.
28. In this age
of the electronic media and the mass distribution of the printed word, God will
hold us accountable if we do not now move the Book of Mormon in a monumental
way.
29. I have a
vision of thousands of missionaries going into the mission field with hundreds
of passages memorized from the Book of Mormon so that they might feed the needs
of a spiritually famished world.
I have a vision
of the whole Church getting nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the
Book of Mormon.
2 Nephi 25:18,
22; 1 Nephi 13:26,
28–29, 32, 34–35, 40
Regular
reading of and talking about the Book of Mormon invite the power to resist
temptation and to produce feelings of love within our families. And discussions
about the doctrines and principles in the Book of Mormon provide opportunities
for parents to observe their children, to listen to them, to learn from them,
and to teach them. (David A. Bednar, CR, April, 2010)
