Book of Mormon Testimony

BOOK OF MORMON TESTIMONY.

In the Book of Mormon, I Nephi, 13:38-42, the purpose why this record had been carefully preserved until the time for its publication through the gift and power of God had come, is plainly stated. The Prophet was permitted to behold “the book of the Lamb of God,” or the Bible, and then “other books,” also coming forth by the power of the Lamb, and the special mission of these latter was to convince the Gentiles and also “the remnant of the seed of my brethren” and the Jews that the records of the Prophets and the Apostles are true. It is stated ‘‘And the angel spake unto me saying, These last records which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, shall establish the truth of the first.” The ultimate object is also stated: “And shall make known to all kindreds, tongues and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the eternal Father and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto Him, or they cannot be saved.” To establish the truth of the Bible, especially with regard to the great fundamental truth of salvation through Jesus Christ is the mission of the Book of Mormon in this age.

When the wonderful record was first brought to light, the question was often asked: “Is there any need of such an additional testimony?” The truth of the books of the Bible was generally accepted, at least through­out the professedly Christian world. Except for a few advanced scholars and their rather uncritical followers, the evidences for the genuineness and authenticity of the sacred records were accepted as satisfactory. It was therefore claimed that the additional testimony of the inspired writers on this continent was superfluous and consequently not to be credited, since the Almighty cannot be supposed to do what is not necessary for the salvation of His children. Many refused to investigate the book solely on this ground.

Lately a wonderful change has taken place in the Christian world with regard to the Bible. The attitude is now such that a candid student of sacred literature will be forced to admit that the mission of the Book of Mormon is not a superfluous one. Indeed, it seems to have to come to this, that unless some such testimony as that which this volume offers be supplied, the Bible plan of salvation will be a “fiction” and a myth to a great part of mankind. The rationalistic schools that commenced by attacking the New Testament—its history, its miracles, its ethics—seem to have changed tactics, and with greater success than formerly. They have turned their attention to the Old Testament, employing all the modern weapons, with the result that an old-fashioned believer in God’s word is becoming almost a curiosity in the world.

Consider one moment what modern critics claim for the Old Testament. Moses, they say, did not write the books that bear his name. The ten commandments in their original form are lost, and the copy preserved in Exodus is only a spurious version of them, while the account of the giving of the law on the mount is an invention of somebody to give impressive­ness to the Decalogue. The Pentateuch, they say, is chiefly a collection of laws, and its history is mostly fable. And these laws are not as given to the people originally, but as existing after a long process of evolution, about 400 years before Christ. They may have been framed by the priests after the return from Babylonia and the name of Moses forged to them, just to give them authority. The Deuteronomy, they say, is a literary invention of the fifth century before Christ. To a somewhat earlier period belong the alleged documents of which the history of the creation and subsequent events is composed. There were, they think, an Elohist and a Jehovist story-book in Palestine, and an editor, or several editors, undertook to reconstruct these and put Moses’ name to the literary production. In the same way the writings of the Prophets are subject to vivisection by the critics. There is hardly one of them that is admitted to be genuine. The history of the Bible is pronounced worthless and its prophetic declarations composed after the events they predict. All is fiction, poetry, parable.

This attack effects clearly the whole Bible. For if the Old Testament is admitted to be a mere human production, the New Testament must fall, too, and with it the plan of salvation as known through the revelations recorded in these sacred books. Its direct messages from the Almighty are fiction, and the lessons taught by its history are worthless in propor­tion as that history itself is unreliable.

That this lamentable error in regard to the word of God is assuming vast proportions among professed Christians cannot be denied. Rev J.F. Behrends, in a recent sermon in Brooklyn stated that of seventy-three theological professors in Germany, connected with the universities of Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Greifswald, Halle, Konigsberg, Leipzig and Tubin­gen, no less than thirty advocate this view. In this country it is repre­sented at Boston, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Union, Chicago University and Andover. It is therefore clear that while the new school cannot claim superiority in the number of scholars and learned institu­tions arrayed in battles in its behalf, yet it can claim rapid progress, and that at present the lines are very closely drawn between error and truth.

If the situation be rightly understood, it will be admitted that just some such testimony for the truth of the Bible us that supplied by the Book of Mormon is the need of the present age. And has it not been given in order that the people of God in this time of important events shall not be drawn into the whirlpool of infidelity that threatens the world with destruc­tion? The Latter-day Saints have accepted this record as from God. Let them consider what its peculiar mission is and what the acceptance of that mission involves. It is through the faithfulness of the people that the testimony shall fulfill the purposes for which it has been given.— Deseret News.