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Stirring and emotional testimony of Book of Mormon given at General Conference
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Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spoke at the Sunday afternoon session of the 179th semi-annual conference held on October 3 and 4, 2009. Conference was viewed in Albuquerque at various Stake Centers.
Elder Holland began his talk by recounting how prophets of old have prophesied of latter-day destructions. He recounted the story of Lehi's dream, as did several speakers during conference.
Lehi was a Book of Mormon prophet. He had to flee jerusalem and take all of his belongings and his family out into the wilderness to avoid being put to death by the people of the city, who wanted to kill him because he told them they needed to repent of their wrong-doings, or God would destroy the city. While he was in the wilderness with his family, he had a dream, which is told in the book of 1Nephi, chapter 8. In part of this dream, people were getting lost in a mist of darkness. They were able to stay on the right path if they held tight to a rod of iron that lead up to a tree with pure, white fruit. The rod of iron is symbolic of the word of God, as is discribed in 1 Nephi, chapter 11. The tree, which is the tree of life, is symbolic of the love of God. Towards the end of the book, in Ether 12: 38-41, the ancient prophet, Moroni, admonishes all readers of the record of his people to come unto Christ and be perfected in him.
Elder Holland explained that the purpose of the entire Book of Mormon is to testify of Christ. He then told a little of the story of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith, as they were in Carthage jail facing an imminent martyrdom. Hyrum Smith opened his Book of Mormon and read to Joseph Smith, Ether 12: 37 which reads," ...thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father." After reading the passage, Hyrum marked the page by folding down the corner of the page. Sometime thereafter, Joseph Smith bore a powerful testimony to the guards who held him captive of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Not long after that, Joseph and his brother, Hyrum were murdered by an angry mob who stormed the jail, thirsty for the blood of the Prophet, Joseph Smith.
Elder Holland held up and showed the congregation the actual book that Hyrum read from before his martyrdom, with the folded page still visible. He then gave a perfectly articulated, passionate and emotional testimony of the book of Mormon. He began by asking, "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 etenal salvation on a book, and by implication a church and a ministry they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives afe about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be houseless, homeless and friendless, and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four corners of this earth that they know that the Book of Mormon and the church that espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter into 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 impostors and charlatans until the end of time. THEY WOULD NOT DO THAT! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."
"For 179 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, parroted and died, from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spalding, to deranged paranoid, to cunning genius. 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.' "
Following this moving testimony, Elder Holland also reminded listeners that there were several witnesses who gave their signatures to the testimony that they had seen an angel, and that they had felt and handled the plates. He reminded the audience that even though several of these men had left the Church, that even on their death-beds, none of them would deny that they had seen an angel, and held the plates into which the Book of Mormon was translated.
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