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TODAY'S THEME
EIGHT MORE TESTIMONIES OF JESUS CHRIST WHICH ARE FOUND IN: THE BOOK OF MORMON ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST.
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| He is Risen! -Artist Unknown |
Jarom 399 B.C.
Jarom 1:9 And thus being prepared to meet the Lamanites, they did not prosper against us. But the word of the Lord was verified, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.
10 And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land.
11 Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.
12 And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance. (emphasis added)
Aaron, one of the sons of King Mosiah (90-77B.C.)
Alma 21: 9 Now Aaron began to open the scriptures unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, and that there could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ, and the atonement of his blood.
10 And it came to pass as he began to expound these things unto them they were angry with him, and began to mock him; and they would not hear the words which he spake. (emphasis added)
Aaron, one of the four sons of king Mosiah was a valiant missionary serving with his three brothers, Ammon, Himni and Omner on a very challenging and yet, very successful mission to the Lamanites.
As you learned in my post 35q (April 24, 2009) these four sons of the king had been converted from their ways of wickedness through the appearance and a reprimand by an angel of the Lord. I show this picture again that I showed in that previous post.
Painting: Gary Kapp 
In the painting above in which is depicted Aaron and his three brothers, along with Alma the Younger is the person toward whom the angel is pointing in this vivid scene.
In my opinion, the testimony of Alma the Younger is one of the most striking and convincing testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ found in the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I quoted nineteen verses from Alma, Chapter 36 in my post 35b, but have chosen to focus on these eight verses from that same chapter here because it is such a fervent testimony of Jesus Christ!
Alma the Younger (about 73 B.C.)
16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.
17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.
22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.
23 But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God. (Alma the Younger and Amulek (about 78 B.C.)
Alma, 16:20 And many of the people did inquire concerning the place where the Son of God should come; and they were taught that he would appear unto them after his resurrection; and this the people did hear with great joy and gladness. (emphasis added)
Helaman, (About 30 B.C.) son of Alma the younger, father of Nephi and Lehi.
Helaman 5:9 O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.
10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.
11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.
Ether, (Reported by the Prophet, Moroni, Son of Mormon.
4 Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land.
5 And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel.
6 And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.
7 For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not.
8 Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away.(In a revelation received by Joseph Smith we learn that the New Jerusalem which was to be built in the Latter-days is to be built in on the Western side of Jackson County Missouri (U.S.A.)
I add this scripture written by the Prophet Moroni in 421 A.D. 10:32
Moroni 10:32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.
34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah (another name for Jesus Christ), the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.As I did in the just previous post, I once again call upon the writing of an LDS scholar to deal with the issue of How the translation of the Book of Mormon took place. This time I have copied the words of noted LDS Historian, Richard L. Bushman from his book,
JOSEPH SMITH ROUGH STONE ROLLING
Richard L. Bushman
VINTAGE BOOKS A DIVISION
OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC. NEW YORK
This Blogger's excerpt is taken from pages 71-73 of the above mentioned book.
"Neither Joseph (Smith) nor Oliver (Cowdery) explained how translation worked, but Joseph did not pretend to look at the "reformed Egyptian" words, the language on the plates, according to the book's own description. The plates lay covered on the table while Joseph's head was in a hat looking at the seerstone, which by this time has replaced the interpreters. The varying explanations of the perplexing process fall roughly into two categories; composition and transcription. The first holds that Joseph was the author of the book. He composed it out of knowledge and imaginings collected in his own mind, perhaps aided by inspiration. He had stuffed his head with ideas for sermons, Christian doctrine, biblical language, multiple characters, stories of adventure, social criticism, theories of Indian origins, ideas about Mesoamerican civilization, and many other matters. During translation, he composed it all into a narrative dictated over the space of three months in Harmony and Fayette.
The transcription theory has Joseph Smith "seeing" the Book of Mormon text in the seerstone or the Urim and Thummim. He saw the words in the text in the seerstone or the Urim and Thummim. He saw the words in the stone as he had seen lost objects or treasure and dictated them to his secretary. The eyewitnesses who described translation, Joseph Knight, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer, who was in the house during the last weeks of translation, understood translation as transcription. Referring to the seerstone as a Urim and Thummim, Knight said: "Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkened his Eyes then he would take a sentence and it would appear in Bright Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentence would Come and so on."
Whatever the process, the experience thrilled Oliver Cowdery. "These were days never to be forgotten," Cowdery reflected in 1834. "To sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom!" The young prophet more than fulfilled Cowdery's expectations. On the other hand, the shock of the sudden immersion in a supernatural work now and then gave Cowdery pause, and like Harris he needed further reassurance. A revelation helped put Cowdery's doubts to rest by telling of two spiritual experiences he had never mentioned to Joseph and that only a prophet, as Cowdery saw it, could have known about.
Cowdery was open to belief in Joseph's powers because he had come to Harmony the possessor of a supernatural gift alluded to in a revelation as the "gift of Aaron," or "gift of working with the rod." Most likely, Cowdery used a rod to discover water and minerals. The revelation spoke of divine power causing "this rod of nature, to work in your hands." His family may have engaged in treasure-seeking and other magical practices in Vermont, and, like others in this culture, melded magic with Christianity. For a person with his cultural blend, and angel and gold plates has excitement and appeal. The revelation said nothing to discourage Cowdery's use of his special powers. "Behold thou has a gift and blessed are thou because of they gift. Remember it is sacred and cometh from above." Rather than repudiate his claims, the revelation redirected Cowdery's use of his gifts. "Thou shalt exercise thy gift, that thou mayest find out mysteries, that thou mayest bring many to the knowledge of the truth"
Soon after Cowdery began work on the Book of Mormon, he wanted to exercise the greater gift of translation. Characteristically, Joseph made no effort to monopolize the work. In a peculiar form of democratic generosity, he held out the expectation throughout his life that his followers could receive revelations or see the face of God as he did. The first revelation to Cowdery promised "a gift if you desire of me, to translate even as my servant Joseph." Hearing this, Joseph remembered, Cowdery "became exceedingly anxious to have the power to translate bestowed upon him.
Cowdery tried the experiment but failed. He began and then stopped, apparently mistakenly believing that he needed only to ask God and look in the stone. A revelation explained his mistake. "Behold I say unto you," the revelation chided, "that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you. . . You feared and the time is past, and it is not expedient now," Cowdery was to return to writing, "and then behold, other records have I, that I will give unto you power that you may assist to translate,"
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Now, Dear Blog Readers I quoted the above from the book mentioned which was written by a very respected historian and scholar.
You, yourselves, in this post and in other of my posts you may have reviewed, have read many quotes from the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I am very confident that you, like me have noted the complexity and sense made in the many chapters of the Book of Mormon.
It is very clear to me personally that the Author, Richard L. Bushman, was correct in asserting that the writing of the Book of Mormon was done by the Transcription Method of Writing and not by the Composition Method.I quote this because it was made in a Nationwide (U.S.A.) TV Presentation on the last day of April and the first day of May, 2007 by PBS, entitled: "The Mormons."
I have, at times, over the course of writing the approximately 225 posts in this my blog, quoted a statement made by a professor from a State University here in the State of Utah in the United States of America concerning his own personal theory of how the Book of Mormon was written.Of course, it was viewed by millions of viewers. In reading the quote below which I have included in a number of my blog posts you can easily realize that this professor has never really read The Book of Mormon! I quote his statement from the text of that PBS Documentary, "The Mormons:"
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| Professor Alex Caldiero |
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Please take note that my quote from Richard L. Bushman's book has taken the place in this post of a Mormon Messages Video that is most often featured!
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