The Book of Mormon stands equal to the Bible in Mormon theology. It serves as an additional testimony that the Bible is true. The people of the Book of Mormon had as much of the Bible as existed in 600 BC, when they left Jerusalem, and the leaders of that people quoted from it often as they taught their people. The original family whose story begins the book endured great danger to obtain a copy of these records, demonstrating just how important it was to them to have the story of God’s first dealings with man on earth and the teachings that had been presented to the Biblical prophets.
The Book of Mormon is not a story book, but, as with the Bible, there is a story. The Bible begins with a single family, Adam and Eve, and likewise, the Book of Mormon also begins with a family.
The family that starts the Book of Mormon is that of . Lehi was a wealthy man with a good and comfortable life until God called him to be a prophet. In this time, Jerusalem was in great danger. It was the time of the prophet Jeremiah, when God was warning that if the people didn’t repent, Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people carried away captive. The problems were so great there were multiple prophets called to warn the people, who refused to listen. Lehi’s life was in danger and God instructed him to take his family and only those possessions necessary for survival and flee into the wilderness.
At this time, Lehi had four sons and an unknown number of daughters. We know only of the sons, because it is their actions that influence the future events. The two oldest, Laman and Lemuel, had chosen to rebel against the teachings of their parents. They resented being taken away from comfortable lives over what they considered to be imaginary visions by their father.
The two younger sons, Sam and Nephi, had managed to escape the rebelliousness of their older brothers and chose, instead, to follow their parents and God. Nephi, the youngest and still a teenager, was chosen by God to lead the family after the father died. The brothers learned of this from an angel while Nephi was still a teenager and the father was still alive. The two oldest resented the discovery that their youngest brother would lead them. They felt they deserved the role of leader due to their age, regardless of their lack of spiritual commitment. Over time, their resentment toward both the changes in their circumstances and the growing leadership of their brother led them from being rebellious to trying to commit murder. They were abusive to their siblings and even to their parents.
When the parents died, the family was in its new homeland in the Americas. The older brothers became so dangerous Nephi took his family and friends away to another location and set up their own new home. The two groups became known as the Nephites and Lamanites, and throughout the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites would generally work hard to persecute and destroy the Nephites, and the Nephites would work equally hard to convert the Lamanites, who were, after all, still distant family.
Throughout the Book of Mormon, the prophets taught their people of the Savior and His coming. When Jesus
was born, they received signs from Heaven to tell them He had come. When He died, they also knew this. And then the Savior came to them, as promised. He stayed with them for a few days, giving them blessings, teaching them the gospel as He’d taught it in Jerusalem, and helping them to organize their church.
What is the message we who live today can gain from this divine event? It is that the Savior came for all of us. He didn’t come for a select few in Jerusalem. He came also to the Nephites, and to others we don’t yet know of, and this He did because He loves all of us. He is the Savior of all who ever lived, no matter where or when they lived.
His appearance elsewhere, and the record of that appearance, stands as a testimony of the Savior’s divinity. It’s yet another record of His many miracles, more proof that He is the Son of God.
The Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ.