“I think that people who study the scriptures get a dimension to their life that nobody else gets and that can’t be gained in any way except by studying the scriptures. There’s an increase in faith and a desire to do what’s right and a feeling of inspiration and understanding that comes to people who study the gospel—meaning particularly the Standard Works—and who ponder the principles, that can’t come in any other way”
--Bruce R. McConkie, in Church News, 24 Jan. 1976, 4
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. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.
--Ezra Taft Benson, “The Keystone of Our Religion,” Ensign, Jan. 1992, 2
President Harold B. Lee stated: “I say that we need to teach our people to find their answers in the scriptures. … But the unfortunate thing is that so many of us are not reading the scriptures. We do not know what is in them, and therefore we speculate about the things that we ought to have found in the scriptures themselves. I think that therein is one of our biggest dangers of today”
--“Find the Answers in the Scriptures,” Ensign, Dec. 1972, 3
"For His own reasons, the Lord provides answers to some questions, with pieces placed here and there throughout the scriptures. We are to find them; we are to earn them. In that way sacred things are hidden from the insincere."
--Boyd K. Packer, “The Mystery of Life,” Ensign, Nov. 1983, 16
"Thus the Book of Mormon will be with us "as long as the earth shall stand." We need all that time to explore it, for the book is like a vast mansion with gardens, towers, courtyards, and wings. There are rooms yet to be entered, with flaming fireplaces waiting to warm us. The rooms glimpsed so far contain further furnishing s and rich detail yet to be savored, but décor dating from Eden is evident. There are panels inlaid with incredible insight, particularly insights about he great questions. Yet we as Church members sometimes behave like hurried tourists, scarcely venturing beyond the entry hall.
--Neal A. Maxwell, Not My Will, But Thine, pg. 33
"He who reads it oftenest will like it best."
--Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 56
“Few men on earth,” said Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “either in or out of the Church, have caught the vision of what the Book of Mormon is all about. Few are they among men who know the part it has played and will yet play in preparing the way for the coming of Him of whom it is a new witness. … The Book of Mormon shall so affect men that the whole earth and all its peoples will have been influenced and governed by it. … There is no greater issue ever to confront mankind in modern times than this: Is the Book of Mormon the mind and will and voice of God to all men?” (Millennial Messiah pp. 159, 170, 179.) We testify that it is.
'An experience, repeated many times during my time as mission president and again as branch president at the Missionary Training Center, confirmed for me the truth of Joseph Smith’s statement that the Book of Mormon “was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding its precepts, than by any other book.” (Introduction to the Book of Mormon, 1981 Edition.) From time to time, one of my missionaries would sit with me, and our interview would go something like this:
“No, President, I seem to have lost my excitement about missionary work lately. I haven’t felt very spiritual either.”
“Try and tell me what you have been feeling,” I would ask.
“Oh, I just haven’t been feeling positive, excited, or enthusiastic about doing the work.”
“Have you felt this way long?”
“For about the last three weeks.”
“Has something happened personally that we need to talk about?”
“No, President. I am keeping all the mission rules. I get up on time. I read scriptures daily. I am reading the Old Testament now. I say my prayers. My companion and I get along well. I really can’t think of anything that would make me feel depressed.”
“Are you reading the Book of Mormon as part of your scripture studies ?”
“No.”
Then I would say, “I would like you to try something for several weeks and then give me a telephone call. In addition to your regular study in the Missionary Gospel Study Program, try reading and studying at least one chapter from the Book of Mormon a day.”
Two weeks later the missionary would call and report that things were fine and he had felt again the spiritual excitement he thought he had lost."
--Jay E. Jensen, Tambuli, June 1988, 25–26
“[The Book of Mormon] was written for our day,” President Ezra Taft Benson said. “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” (Ensign, Nov. 1986, 6).
Thus we can confidently expect the Book of Mormon to address the real problems we face, even issues that may not have existed in Joseph Smith’s time. Let us look at some of the major challenges which come to us today from outside the fold. How does the Book of Mormon deal with things which could not have reasonably been foreseen in the year 1830?
Some of these challenges include (1) the misuse of time, (2) prosperity and riches, and (3) a degenerating society. The Book of Mormon has genuine solutions to these problems.
--F. Burton Howard, “Overcoming the World,” Ensign, Sept. 1996, 9
President Gordon B. Hinckley, writing about the relevance of the Book of Mormon to today’s society, has said: “Its narrative is a chronicle of nations long since gone. But in its descriptions of the problems of today’s society, it is as current as the morning newspaper and much more definitive, inspired, and inspiring concerning the solutions of those problems.
…“Without reservation I promise you that if you will read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your life and into your home an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God”
--Be Thou an Example [1981], 100, 102
"…if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and its being led today by a prophet receiving revelation."
--Ezra Taft Benson, CR, April 1975, pp. 95-96
…The Book of Mormon is not on trial -- the people of the world, including the members of the Church, are on trial as to what they will do with this second witness for Christ."
--Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, Nov. 1984, pp 7-8
"There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serous 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."
--Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, Nov. 1986, p. 7
"No member of this Church can stand approved in the presence of God who has not seriously and carefully read the Book of Mormon."
--Joseph Fielding Smith, CR, Oct 1961
Study, Faith, and the Book of Mormon
"Only recently have I come to appreciate what a staggering achievement it was for Joseph Smith to bring forth the Book of Mormon at all. The mere fact that it exists is more of a miracle than many of us realize. Consider, for example, the simple question of how long it took Joseph to translate the Book of Mormon. Many solid and independent historical documents written by people like Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Knight, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and even public records like the mortgage on Martin Harris' farm, thoroughly corroborate the details and reveal an amazing story. After the setbacks of 1828, the translation of the Book of Mormon finally began on April 7, 1829, two days after Oliver Cowdery arrived in Harmony, Pennsylvania, guided by a personal revelation from the Lord to come and serve as Joseph's scribe. A short five weeks later, by May 15, they had already reached the account of Christ's ministry among the Nephites in 3 Nephi 11. By June 11, we know they had translated the last of the plates of Mormon, for Joseph used the words from the title page as the legal description on the copyright application he filed that day. By June 30, the job was finished at the Whitmer farmhouse in Fayette, New York. From start to finish--no more than eighty-five total days. But even from that must be subtracted some time and disruption when Joseph and Oliver moved the first week in June in a buckboard from Harmony to Fayette, some 120 miles away; time for trips to Colesville for supplies (sixty miles round trip); time to receive and record thirteen sections now contained in the Doctrine and Covenants; time to restore the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods; time to convert and baptize Samuel and Hyrum Smith and several others; time to experience manifestations with the three and the eight witnesses; and I suppose a little time to eat and sleep. (For a full discussion, see John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, "The Translation of the Book of Mormon: Basic Historical Information," F.A.R.M.S. W&R86; John W. Welch, "How Long Did It Take Joseph Smith to Translate the Book of Mormon?" Ensign, January 1988, pp. 4647)
This leaves only about sixty to sixty-five days on which the Prophet could have worked on the translation--that's about the length of this spring term. This works out to a phenomenal average of eight or nine finished pages per day--day in, day out. Only a week to produce 1 Nephi, with all its subtle religious and cultural baggage that Hugh Nibley has taken volumes to unpack! (see Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites; An Approach to the Book of Mormon; Since Cumorah [Deseret Book (Salt Lake City, Utah) and F.A.R.M.S. (Provo, Utah), 1988]; volumes 5, 6, and 7 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley)
It took a day and a half to translate King Benjamin's speech, one of the most masterful texts anywhere in religious literature. Besides teaching doctrines about the Atonement, service, humility, conversion, and covenants, the speech also reflects ancient Israelite piety infused with the true gospel of Jesus Christ! Yet there was no time for Joseph to consult at libraries (even if there had been a library in Harmony, Pennsylvania--which there was not). There was no time to study the Mishnah to find out how, in fact, Israelite kings delivered covenant renewal speeches, like Benjamin's, from towers to their people, who gathered by families in tents around their temple (see John W. Welch, "King Benjamin's Speech in the Context of Ancient Israelite Festivals," F.A.R.M.S. Wel85c). There was no time to revise and refine, no time to cross-check entangled dates and interwoven details. Instead, the text came, as Oliver recorded five years later, "day after day . . . , uninterrupted," as the words fell "from his mouth" (see JS--H 1:71n).
Seeing this has brought home to me the magnificence of the text of the Book of Mormon. This was an astonishing achievement. The text came one time through, the final copy was dictated. And thus it has stood, except for minor stylistic editing, to this day. As a lawyer, I know what it is to dictate. After years of practice, I still cannot count on dictating anything perfectly the first time. "
--JOHN W. WELCH ,
Devotional address at Brigham Young University on 10 May 1988.
Devotional address at Brigham Young University on 10 May 1988.
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