I first read the book of Book of Mormon at the age of 32 after being given a copy by a friend. I read it with much skepticism, and very low expectations. My appreciation for the book only grew in time and after a number of readings over a number of years. I now accept it as scriptures in the same way that I accept the Old and New Testaments as scriptures. I believe the Book of Mormon to be inspired and I feel that I have benefitted greatly in my own efforts to understand Our Heavenly Father’s will for me by reading the Book of Mormon and pondering and praying about its teachings.
Historical Fact or Fictional Fraud
Discussions of the Book of Mormon typically begin, and often end, with a discussion of whether the book contains historical fact or is a fictionalized fraud. For me personally, those discussions are not very fruitful and the question itself not of utmost importance. I realize that for many believers in the Book of Mormon as historical fact the previous statement may border, if not cross into, heresy, and many believers of the Book of Mormon as fictionalized fraud may consider the statement to be disingenuous and cowardly. So be it.
The value to me of the Book of Mormon to me is not because it is historical fact, and it would not lose its value if it is not historically factual. I believe the Book of Mormon to be inspired. For me, a historically accurate history is of much lesser value than an inspired work. There are many greatly influential works which touts themselves as dealing with facts, and of course science, that none the less have only serve to degrade and debase the children of Our Heavenly Father. Karl Marx’s Das Kapital being a notorious example.
The Book of Mormon, even if devoid of any historical facts, teaches profound historical lessons that, if pondered and understood, would be of immeasurable worth to us all. Not wishing to belabor the point, consider the following question by way of an admittedly imperfect analogy. If you wanted to build an airplane that could fly, would you rather have the schematics for an airplane that has never been built but that if built could fly, or an existent airplane as a model that as built can’t fly? Or if Jesus Christ’s story of the prodigal son was just a parable and not a factual account would it lose its meaning and power?
The Book of Mormon’s narrative
The purpose of the Book of Mormon is to serve as another testament of Jesus Christ. The skeleton of the Book of Mormon, although not its heart, is the purported history of two brothers and their progeny. One brother is named Nephi and the other Laman. In the account are mentioned other brothers, other family members, and many other individuals, but these two brothers and their progeny are the main focus.
Nephi was the “good” son who respected his father and sought to do the will of Our Heavenly Father. Laman was the “bad” son who did not respect his father and sought to do as he pleased. The two brothers fought often during their lifetimes and the families of the two brothers continued their conflict after their passing, with Nephi’s progeny assuming the name the Nephites and Laman’s progeny assuming the name Lamanites. The Book of Mormon for the most part chronicles the conflicts between the Nephites and the Lamanites, with the Nephites at most times being the ones who sought to do Our Heavenly Father’s will, and the Lamanites disregarding any such need. Importantly, though, at times the Nephites and the Lamanites traded roles in this regard, either in groups or as individuals.
Another important aspect of the Book of Mormon is that the Nephites kept records, or a history, of their people, with particular emphasis on their search to know and live by the will of Our Heavenly Father, in many ways similar to the more narrative books of the Old Testament.
The Book of Mormon ends with the Lamanites defeating the self-debased Nephites in a final series of conflicts, and the Nephite’s final leader, Moroni, burying the records they’ve kept for generations in the ground for safekeeping, with the hope that at some future time later generations, including the offspring of the surviving Lamanites, might benefit thereby and come again to a knowledge of Our Heavenly Father.
One testimony of the Book of Mormon
One testimony I have of the Book of Mormon, but certainly not the whole of my testimony, is of the example set by Moroni when he buried what where to him sacred records. Moroni did not bury the records in a carefully constructed crypt-like stone box with the hopes of one day retrieving the records for himself. Moroni did not bury the records with the hope that his own children would recover the records. Moroni did not bury the records with the expectation that the remnant of the people of Nephi would retrieve the records, in the near or distant future. Moroni buried the records to preserve them for the future descendants of Laman, the very people that were his sworn, mortal enemies, and for all the other children of Our Heavenly Father. Moroni knew and understood that Our Heavenly Father, when He blesses one of His children, or a certain group of His children, with knowledge or other blessings, He does so with the intention that those blessings are to accrue, either directly or indirectly, to the benefit of all of His children. Our blessings are for all.
Of this I testify.