"During this time of great (religious) excitement my mind was called up to
serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and
often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I
attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process
of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some
desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion
and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible
for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come
to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong.
In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I
often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right;
or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it,
and how shall I know it?
While I was laboring under the extreme
difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one
day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse,
which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Never did any passage
of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did
at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of
my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person
needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and
unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know...
At length I came to the conclusion that I must either
remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs,
that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,”
concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and
would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
So, in accordance with this, my
determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the
attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the
spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I
had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made
the attempt to pray vocally.
After I had retired to the place where I
had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself
alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to
God...
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above
the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon
me. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose
brightness and glory defy all description, standing above
me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing
to the other—This is
My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Joseph Smith History 1:8-17).
The Savior taught the boy, Joseph Smith, that many
plain and precious things had been lost from His Gospel over the generations
since his ministry on Earth. After His apostles were killed, some of the simple
truths of the Lord's Church were disregarded and forgotten. And through the
process of many translations, and sometimes by the intentional deception of
evil men, some important truths had been removed from the Bible.
Because God loves all His children the same, prophets all
over His earth have learned and testified of Him and of His son, Jesus Christ.
Remember that Christ declared, “Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Just
like Isaiah, Abraham, Moses, Peter, Paul, John and many others, prophets from
other continents and lands have learned of, and been visited by, the
Savior.
One of those prophets, Moroni, who lived on the American
continent about 400 A.D., visited the young man Joseph Smith as an angel, and
gave him an untranslated record of the history of his people from about 600
B.C. to about 400 A.D. The record contained prophesies regarding a Savior who
would be born of a virgin, and also included a detailed account of a visitation
from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, after his Resurrection.
The name given to this ancient record was "The Book of
Mormon", because the records had been abridged by Moroni's father, a
prophet whose name was Mormon. Mormon took the most important information from
the hundreds of written records of his people and combined them into one
record, carved into thin sheets of gold, which Moroni gave to Joseph Smith.
Moroni also delivered tools for Joseph Smith to use to translate the ancient
writing, which he accomplished through the gift and power of God (Joseph Smith
only had an eighth grade education) within 65 days of receiving the record.
When the translation was completed, the angel Moroni returned to Joseph Smith
and collected the record, returning it to the safety in which it had been
preserved for almost 1,400 years.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's
church restored to the earth as He established it during His mortal ministry.
People nicknamed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
"Mormons" after the prophet Mormon. The simple truths that were lost
from Christianity during the Great Apostasy (called the Dark Ages) are
contained in The Book of Mormon, which is a companion to the Holy Bible.
Jesus Christ continues to lead His church through a modern-day prophet, just as
He called Peter to lead His church after His mortal death.
