The Book of Mormon Introduction

Through My Conscious Understanding

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and a record of people who lived in the ancient Americas seeking to understand our Eternal Father.

When I read the word God, I want to comprehend whom I am speaking about. I am speaking about our Eternal Father—the Father of our spirits. Jesus Christ is His Son and our Elder Brother. Jesus does not replace the Father in my understanding. Jesus shows us the way to the Father.

That distinction matters to me.

I believe we are eternal children of the Eternal Father, experiencing mortality through human bodies. Our bodies give us a physical way to experience this world—to learn, choose, love, hurt, forgive, create, serve, and develop our conscious understanding.

And we are free to choose.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly shows people being given knowledge and then being allowed to decide what they will do with it. A prophet can teach. A parent can teach. Jesus Christ Himself can teach. But ultimately another human being cannot manufacture my testimony for me.

My conscience must become engaged.

My agency remains mine.

My relationship with the Eternal Father must become something I consciously seek.

A Record Passed From Generation to Generation

The Book of Mormon was written by many ancient prophets across generations.

Families became communities.

Communities became nations.

Children became parents.

Parents became ancestors.

And every new generation had to decide what it would do with what the previous generation had learned.

That is why I don’t read the Nephites and Lamanites merely as two teams fighting each other.

I see generations of human beings.

Some inherited tremendous spiritual knowledge.

Some questioned it.

Some rejected it.

Some rediscovered it.

Some became proud.

Some humbled themselves.

Some repeated mistakes their ancestors had already made.

And some consciously chose a different path.

Mormon eventually looked across generations of records and abridged them. He wasn’t simply recording what happened yesterday. He was looking backward and asking what people living far in his future needed to understand.

Then he passed that responsibility to his son, Moroni.

That itself teaches me something:

Knowledge survives when one generation consciously gives it to another.

And Then Jesus Christ Comes

The crowning event of the Book of Mormon is the appearance of the resurrected Jesus Christ to the people in the Americas.

This matters enormously to my understanding of Him.

Jesus had experienced mortality.

He had suffered.

He had been killed.

And He overcame death.

The resurrected Christ who stands before the people in 3 Nephi is therefore demonstrating what humanity is striving toward: the victory of eternal life over mortal death.

He comes among these people not to make Himself into our Eternal Father, but to bring the Father’s children back toward their Father.

He teaches the Father’s will.

He prays to the Father.

He teaches people to pray to the Father.

He ministers to His brothers and sisters.

He heals.

He blesses children.

He establishes His gospel.

And because of what He accomplished through His Atonement, death, and Resurrection, He stands in a position none of us can create for ourselves.

He is our Savior, Mediator, Advocate, and example.

That is why I strive to become like Christ rather than confusing Christ with the Eternal Father I am trying to return to.

Our Bodies Matter

Mortality isn’t meaningless to me.

My body is part of how I experience this stage of eternal existence.

Through it I experience consequences and choices. I learn the difference between pain and comfort, isolation and companionship, fear and faith, selfishness and service, hatred and love.

My spirit experiences mortality through this physical existence.

Jesus experienced mortality too.

But He has gone where I have not yet gone.

He died and was resurrected.

His spirit and perfected resurrected body are reunited.

So when I say that Jesus can stand between mortality and eternity in a way I cannot yet do, I mean that He has completed the mortal journey and overcome death while I am still living mine.

That makes His invitation “Come, follow me” extraordinarily personal.

He isn’t merely saying:

Believe something about me.

I hear:

Learn to live as I lived. Love as I loved. Forgive as I forgave. Seek the Father as I sought the Father. Become what the Father knows His children can become.

And Nobody Can Force That Choice

This is where freedom of conscience becomes essential to my reading of the Book of Mormon.

The Eternal Father gave His children agency.

Therefore faith cannot simply be obedience to another human being’s conscience.

Someone can teach me.

Someone can testify to me.

Someone can disagree with me.

Someone can invite me.

But eventually I must choose.

That is why Moroni’s final invitation is so important.

He doesn’t tell me merely to accept Moroni’s consciousness.

He sends me beyond himself.

Read.

Remember.

Ponder.

Then ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ.

That means I don’t have to make Mormon my Eternal Father.

I don’t have to make Moroni my Eternal Father.

I don’t have to make Joseph Smith my Eternal Father.

And I don’t make Jesus Christ the Eternal Father whom Jesus Himself teaches me to approach.

They can point.

They can teach.

They can testify.

But the Eternal Father remains the Father.

And Jesus Christ provides the way to Him.

So What Is the Book of Mormon Asking of Me?

For me, its invitation becomes remarkably simple:

Here is the record of generations who came before you.

Learn from what they understood.

Learn from what they misunderstood.

Watch what happens when people become consumed by pride, power, wealth, division, vengeance, and identity.

Notice what happens when another generation forgets what the previous generation learned.

Watch prophets struggle to awaken people.

Then watch the resurrected Christ stand among His brothers and sisters and point them toward their Eternal Father.

After reading all of that, I still possess my agency.

I still possess my conscience.

And I still have the responsibility to ask:

What do I understand?

What am I learning?

What am I repeating?

What should I change?

Who am I becoming?

And ultimately:

Am I consciously becoming more like Jesus Christ as I make my own journey home to our Eternal Father?

That is how I comprehend the invitation of the Book of Mormon.

It isn’t merely:

“Here is an old book. Believe it.”

It is:

Here is the experience of generations of your fellow children of the Eternal Father. Read what they left behind. Learn from them. Look toward Jesus Christ. Exercise your own agency. Ask the Eternal Father. Listen to the Holy Ghost. Then consciously choose what you will do with the life and understanding you have been given.