Every time
I study the Book of Mormon, I come across evidences that Joseph Smith could
never have written this book. I am amazed by its historical complexities, its
prophecies, its textual correctness, its overwhelming spirit. I save these
discoveries not to prove to me that the Book of Mormon is true, because I know
that with every fibre of my being, but because it reminds me of so many truths:
that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that this book is indeed the second witness of
Christ and that we are so blessed to have additional scripture that enhances
the Bible and makes clear so many points of Christ’s doctrine.
Take
special note in the last paragraph of how Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy
became convinced of the validity of the Book of Mormon:
“I was
reading again the twenty-sixth chapter of Alma and the story of Ammon’s
mission, I read out loud, as I sometimes do, trying to put myself in the
position of the characters in the book, imagining that I was saying or hearing
the words, that I was there. Once more I went over the report, and, with a
clarity which cannot be described and which would be difficult to comprehend by
one who has not experienced it. The Spirit spoke to my soul, saying, Did you
notice? Everything that happened to Ammon happened to you?
“It was a
totally unexpected sentiment. It was startling in its scope; it was a thought
that had never occurred to me before. I quickly reread the story. Yes, there
were time when my heart had been depressed and I had thought about going home.
I too had gone to a foreign land to teach the gospel to the Lamanites. I had gone
forth among them, had suffered hardships, had slept on the floor, endured the
cold, gone without eating. I too had traveled from house to house, knocking on
doors for months at a time without being invited in, relying on the mercies of
God.
“There had
been other times when we had entered houses and talked to people. We had taught
them on their streets and on their hills. We had even preached in other
churches. I remembered the time I had been spit upon. I remembered the time
when I, as a young district leader assigned by the mission president to open up
a new town, had entered, with three other elders, the main square of a city
that had never had missionaries before. We went into the park, sang a hymn and
a crowd gathered.
“Then the
lot fell on me, as district leader, to preach. I stood upon a stone bench and
spoke to the people. I told the story of the restoration of the gospel, of the
boy Joseph going in to the grove and the appearance of the Father and the Son
to him. I remembered well a group of teenage boys, in the evening shadows, throwing
rocks at us. I remembered the concern about being hit or injured by those who
did not want to hear the message.
“I
remembered spending time in jail while my legal right to be a missionary in a
certain country was decided by the police authorities. I didn’t spend enough
time in prison to compare myself to Ammon, but I still remember the feeling I
had when the door was closed and I was far away from home, alone, with only the
mercies of the Lord to rely on for deliverance. I remembered enduring these
things with a hope that ‘we might be the means of saving some soul’ (Alma
26:30).
“And then
one day as I read, the Spirit testified to me again, and the words remain with
me even today: No one but a missionary could have written this story. Joseph
Smith could never have known what it was like to be a missionary to the
Lamanites, for no one he knew had ever done such a thing before” (“Ammon:
Reflections on Faith and Testimony,” in Heroes From the Book of Mormon [1995],
124, 125)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Ammon Before Lamoni, Artist Unknown)
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