The Book of Mormon is True

[Commons] [School] [Garden] [Kitchen] [Meditorium] [Library]
apostasy/bom-true.htm

Many people say, “The Spirit has testified to me that the Book of Mormon is true, therefore I know that So-And-So is a Prophet of God.”

I claim that the two parts of this statement are unrelated. If the Book of Mormon is the mind and will of God for His people in the last days, then any church that professes to be God’s church, should teach the Book of Mormon, but just because a church teaches the Book of Mormon does not mean that the leader of that church is the only authorized spokesman for God on earth. (Think of all the fundamentalist and restoration sects that believe the Book of Mormon. Are they all true?)

It is rare to find anyone in the LDS church who claims to know through revelation that the current prophet holds all priesthood keys. The common response is to say, “I feel good when I listen to Brother-X, therefore he is a prophet.”

There is a difference between the Spirit testifying of truth, and the Spirit testifying that the keys of the Priesthood are held by any particular person. The spirit testifies of truth to all people, be they pagan, or Christian, or Muslim, or Buddhist.

Consider the case of the Baptist Minister that lives nearby. He teaches a more powerful sermon about Christ than any LDS sermon I have ever heard on the topic, including that great masterpiece by Bruce R. McKonkie a few months before his death. So the question becomes, is this Baptist Minister The Prophet of God, because I felt good when I listened to his sermon? Should I convert to the Free-Will Baptist faith because the Holy Spirit confirmed that the minister is teaching truth?

Another common LDS statement is to say, "The Lord gave me a spiritual witness that the Book of Mormon is true before I joined the church. Now I don't need any more spiritual witnesses because God has spoken and it would be evil of me to continue seeking for a sign that the church is true." I claim that the Lord wants us to "know the truth of ALL things" by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Joseph

(This page may be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial use)