Friday, October 9, 2009

My family and the book of Mormon

It has come down to me a late 1800s copy of the Book of Mormon that my 2nd great-grandfather -- and his daughter -- was converted with. It is a family treasure.

My cousin treasures another copy of the book that converted another of our ancestors about the same time.

It needs to be remembered how much this European sacrificed because of the firm testimony they received of this book, fleeing country and family, at times. To come to America where she lived in a tent in the foothills near Provo. My great grandmother suffered a terrible burst appendix as a child and was told she would never have children, but faith helped her have one child, my gentle grandfather.

All this was driven by the results of this remarkable book, the Book of Mormon.

I attach a quote from Elder Holland's talk that critics must answer, if they are serious about their firm attacks on the faith:

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 and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding 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.


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