"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men." Doctrine and Covenants 4:1
"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men." Doctrine and Covenants 6:1, 11:1, 12:1, 14:1
This week's blog is supposed to be in response to the first scripture. I have posted the second because it is very similar and helps to show how often this phrase was repeated. For me, the repetition is evidence of how important this concept is.
The statement "a great and marvelous work" is referring to the Book of Mormon. I do think that the Book of Mormon is a marvelous work. I find the teachings in it have a great impact on my life and I believe it to be an inspired work. I could go on forever about how great I think this book is and what it has done for me, and if you want to hear about that- let me know and I'll tell you more, but right now I want to focus on a different part of the above quotes.
This great and marvelous work is going to come unto the children of men. It isn't going to come to the Americans, or the English, or the people who speak English but are of some other nationality. It is going to come to the children of men, and this includes everyone. When Joseph Smith started to translate the Book of Mormon off of ancient records, he was unsure how he was going to afford to publish it and distribute it to the people of America, yet he was being told it would go out to the entire world. Today, the Book of Mormon is published in 74 languages, with several more in the process of translation. 74. I knew the Book of Mormon had been translated into lots of languages; but when I learned how many languages, and how many were in the process, I was amazed. This book is going to go to all the children of men, not just the children of the English speakers, or the Spanish speakers or any other common language. This book has been translated into Xhosa, Rarotongan, Igbo, and Fante. (And I'll be the first to admit that I've never heard of the last three and just spent several minutes searching the web to see where they were spoken). (Oh, and the only reason I've heard of the first is because the lady who translated it spoke in a fireside a few months ago. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a fireside is an evening meeting in which a guest speaker comes and speaks to a specific group of people, such as the youth, the unmarried members, or some other random group that the lesson is directed to). Anyways, back to the fact that the Book of Mormon is published in 74 languages; maybe it's because I have grown up loving my religion and wishing everyone in the world could experience the joy it has brought me, I just find it so amazing that so many people in the world have access to what I love.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Lost 116 Pages
Before discussing the 116 pages, I shall first describe what they are for those of you unfamiliar with the LDS Religion (more commonly known as the Mormon religion). According to the LDS beliefs, Joseph Smith was directed to the Gold Plates, an ancient record bearing the account of the people in the Americas. Through divine inspiration he translated the record into English and published it as the Book of Mormon. Joseph started translating the plates with the assistance of Martin Harris. Martin Harris served as a scribe as well as providing the necessary money to purchase ink and paper. The first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon were referred to as the Book of Lehi. Upon completion of this book, Martin Harris believed that he could convince his wife of the truth of the book if he could just show her these pages. When Joseph asked the Lord if he could let Martin take the pages, the initial answer was no. Martin pressured him to ask again and again until the Lord allowed him to take the pages, but warned him the consequences would be great. Martin Harris lost these pages and they are not part of the published Book of Mormon.
This weeks class reading taught me a lot about these 116 pages that I was not previously aware of. I thought that the majority of the teachings in this document were lost when the pages were lost. I realized later that this thought wasn't well thought out. I believe God to be omnipotent, which means He would be aware that the first 116 pages of the book would be lost before those pages were initially written. It is for this reason he commanded Nephi (pronounced knee-fi), the son of Lehi to write his account of the same events. He recorded Lehi's prophecies and dreams as well as the historical events that happened to the family. The Lord will not allow men to prevent his plans from coming to pass. The Lord will never back out on a promise, he promised the people of the Americas that their records would be preserved and come forth in the latter days to convert people to the Gospel. Because He promised the record would come forth, and he knew part of it would be lost, He made sure there was a second account of the events, prophecies, and doctrines taught in the portion of the book that would be lost.
I also learned that, even though Martin Harris lost 116 pages of a book that, in its current published form, is fewer than 600 pages, God gave him the chance to repent and promised him that if he would do so, Martin would have the chance to be one of the Three Witnesses that saw the Gold Plates. Despite losing 116 pages, which seems like a pretty big mistake, Martin, like everyone else, still could turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Then, once he had repented, he would still have the chance to go do great things.
This weeks class reading taught me a lot about these 116 pages that I was not previously aware of. I thought that the majority of the teachings in this document were lost when the pages were lost. I realized later that this thought wasn't well thought out. I believe God to be omnipotent, which means He would be aware that the first 116 pages of the book would be lost before those pages were initially written. It is for this reason he commanded Nephi (pronounced knee-fi), the son of Lehi to write his account of the same events. He recorded Lehi's prophecies and dreams as well as the historical events that happened to the family. The Lord will not allow men to prevent his plans from coming to pass. The Lord will never back out on a promise, he promised the people of the Americas that their records would be preserved and come forth in the latter days to convert people to the Gospel. Because He promised the record would come forth, and he knew part of it would be lost, He made sure there was a second account of the events, prophecies, and doctrines taught in the portion of the book that would be lost.
I also learned that, even though Martin Harris lost 116 pages of a book that, in its current published form, is fewer than 600 pages, God gave him the chance to repent and promised him that if he would do so, Martin would have the chance to be one of the Three Witnesses that saw the Gold Plates. Despite losing 116 pages, which seems like a pretty big mistake, Martin, like everyone else, still could turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Then, once he had repented, he would still have the chance to go do great things.
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