It is inspiring to learn how Parley Pratt came to know of the book about which he wrote the words of this hymn. In August of 1830, as a lay preacher, he was traveling from Ohio to eastern New York. At Newark, along the Erie Canal, he left the boat and walked 10 miles (16 km) into the country where he met a Baptist deacon by the name of Hamlin, who told him “of a book, a strange book, a VERY STRANGE BOOK! . . . This book, he said, purported to have been originally written on plates either of gold or brass, by a branch of the tribes of Israel; and to have been discovered and translated by a young man near Palmyra, in the State of New York, by the aid of visions, or the ministry of angels. I inquired of him how or where the book was to be obtained. He promised me the perusal of it, at his house the next day. . . . Next morning I called at his house, where, for the first time, my eyes beheld the ‘BOOK OF MORMON’—that book of books . . . which was the principal means, in the hands of God, of directing the entire course of my future life.

“I opened it with eagerness, and read its title page. I then read the testimony of several witnesses in relation to the manner of its being found and translated. After this I commenced its contents by course. I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep.

“As I read, the spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I knew and comprehended that the book was true, as plainly and manifestly as a man comprehends and knows that he exists.” 2

Parley Pratt was then 23 years of age. The reading of the Book of Mormon affected him so profoundly that he was soon baptized into the Church and became one of its most effective and powerful advocates. In the course of his ministry he traveled from coast to coast across what is now the United States, into Canada, and to England; he worked in the isles of the Pacific and was the first Latter-day Saint missionary to set foot on the soil of South America. In 1857, while serving a mission in Arkansas, he was shot in the back and killed by an assailant. He was buried in a rural area near the community of Alma, and today in that quiet place a large block of polished granite marks the site of his grave. Incised in its surface are the words of another of his great and prophetic hymns, setting forth his vision of the work in which he was engaged:

The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
Lo, Zion’s standard is unfurled! . . .
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world.

The clouds of error disappear
Before the rays of truth divine; . . .
The glory bursting from afar
Wide o’er the nations soon will shine. 3

Parley Pratt’s experience with the Book of Mormon was not unique. As the volumes of the first edition were circulated and read, strong men and women by the hundreds were so deeply touched that they gave up everything they owned, and in the years that followed not a few even gave their lives for the witness they carried in their hearts of the truth of this remarkable volume.

Today, a century and three-quarters after its first publication, the Book of Mormon is more widely read than at any time in its history. Whereas there were 5,000 copies in that first edition, about 5,000,000 are currently distributed each year, and the book or selections from the book are available in 106 languages.

Its appeal is as timeless as truth, as universal as mankind. It is the only book that contains within its covers a promise that by divine power the reader may know with certainty of its truth.

Its origin is miraculous; when the story of that origin is first told to one unfamiliar with it, it is almost unbelievable. But the book is here to be felt and handled and read. No one can dispute its presence. All efforts to account for its origin, other than the account given by Joseph Smith, have been shown to lack substance. It is a record of ancient America. It is a scripture of the New World, as certainly as the Bible is the scripture of the Old. Each of these volumes of scripture speaks of the other. Each carries with it the spirit of inspiration, the power to convince and to convert. Together they become two witnesses, hand in hand, that Jesus is the Christ, the resurrected and living Son of the living God.

The Book of Mormon narrative is a chronicle of nations long since gone. But in its descriptions of the problems of today’s society, it is as current as the morning newspaper and much more definitive, inspired, and inspiring concerning the solutions of those problems.

I know of no other writing which sets forth with such clarity the tragic consequences to societies that follow courses contrary to the commandments of God. Its pages trace the stories of two distinct civilizations that flourished on the Western Hemisphere. Each began as a small nation, its people walking in the fear of the Lord. But with prosperity came growing evils. The people succumbed to the wiles of ambitious and scheming leaders who oppressed them with burdensome taxes, who lulled them with hollow promises, who countenanced and even encouraged loose and lascivious living. These evil schemers led the people into terrible wars that resulted in the death of millions and the final and total extinction of two great civilizations in two different eras.

No other written testament so clearly illustrates the fact that when men and nations walk in the fear of God and in obedience to His commandments, they prosper and grow, but when they disregard Him and His word, there comes a decay that, unless arrested by righteousness, leads to impotence and death. The Book of Mormon is an affirmation of the Old Testament proverb: “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

The God of heaven spoke to these people of the Americas through prophets, telling them where true security could be found: “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).

While the Book of Mormon speaks with power to the issues that affect our modern society, the great and stirring burden of its message is a testimony, vibrant and true, that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, He who walked the dusty roads of Palestine healing the sick and teaching the doctrines of salvation; who died upon the cross of Calvary; who on the third day came forth from the tomb, appearing to many. Prior to His final Ascension, He visited the people of this Western Hemisphere, concerning whom He earlier had said, “And 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).

For centuries the Bible stood alone as a written testimony of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, at its side, stands a second and powerful witness which has come forth “to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations” (Book of Mormon title page).

As I indicated earlier, at this season exactly 176 years ago the first edition of the Book of Mormon, which had been translated “by the gift and power of God” (Book of Mormon title page) was being set in type and run on a small press in Palmyra, New York. Its publication preceded and was a forerunner to the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which took place on April 6, 1830.

We studied the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this past year. Nonetheless I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year. Very near the end of its 239 chapters, you will find a challenge issued by the prophet Moroni as he completed his record nearly 16 centuries ago. Said he:

“And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? . . .

“And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true” (Moroni 10:27, 29).

Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.

Notes

1. See Hymns, no. 13.
2. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (1938), 36–37.
3. “The Morning Breaks,” Hymns, no. 1.

The Book of Mormon is a second witness along with the Bible that Jesus is the Christ. It testifies of Christ’s appearance to the American inhabitants shortly after his resurrection in Jerusalem. It makes plain many of the precious truths of the gospel.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said:

…the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. (November 28, 1841. Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194.)

One of the great themes of the Book of Mormon is that America is a land of promise – a chosen land. Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, … (Ether 2: 12.)

The Lord commands us in the Book of Mormon to awake to a sense of our awful situation, so President McKay commends and encourages those who are seeking to “… awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us.”

(Excerpts from Ezra Taft Benson’s “The Book of Mormon is the Word of God“)

We have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc. Our missionaries are not as effective unless they are “hissing forth” with it. Social, ethical, cultural, or educational converts will not survive under the heat of the day unless their taproots go down to the fulness of the gospel which the Book of Mormon contains. Our Church classes are not as spirit-filled unless we hold it up as a standard. And our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.

(Excerpts from Ezra Taft Benson’s “The Book of Mormon Warns America“)

These are life changing awakenings. I’ve have seen miraculous personal changes from myself and the people who have awaken to these things. It creates a keen awareness that we really are in a battle for our ETERNAL souls. It pierces the veil of darkness that Satan put around the whole earth.

The fruits of this awakening are:

• Having an intensely deepened testimony of the gospel and the Saviors plan of salvation.
• A more fervent attendance to family duties, church callings, temple attendance, consistent home teaching and family home evening,
• A magnified dislike for the evil influences on television.
• Diligence in preparedness in both spiritual and temporal matters.
• A more discerning ear and heart when listen to the Prophets and Apostles.
• A much greater determination to following the council and admonitions our inspired leaders.
• A desire to serve God more fully by developing and utilizing our talents to bring sheep to His fold with more zeal then ever before.
• A call to our Civic duties as a part of our ultimate responsibility that Jesus Christ will hold us accountable for at Judgment Day.
• An intensified willingness to protect, defend, and to proclaim the ‘Heavenly Banner’.
• A burning desire to uphold all that is holy and good and to more intently fulfill the three fold mission of The Church seeking earnestly the eternal truths from Christ and his prophets.

Can you think of other fruits of the awakening? Perhaps things that you’ve experienced in your own life as a result of waking up?

The Book of Mormon Warns America

As I’ve listened to and read through this talk, I feel that even though it was given over 40 years ago, it is still relevant to us today. Many want to deny the existence of ‘conspiracies’ and secret societies attempting to destroy the nation and our freedoms; I suppose they don’t understand the Book of Mormon, if they have read it. The label ‘conspiracy theory’ and ‘conspiracy theorist’ is used over and over again to discredit people. I admit that there are many theories out there which are simply theories. What’s unfortunate is that the conspiracy facts get thrown into the same pot, and the idea that our own government would be involved in such combinations is unbelievable to many people – to those people, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon (be sure to pay attention to what happened because of Secret Combinations in those days, and the warnings of the same thing happening today, even specifically in America.)

Some claim that this subversive threat to our government ended with communism (even though communism is still well alive in other parts of the world), and that the threat of a communist take-over of America is over.

The Prophets have not told us that we are no longer under condemnation and safe from the destruction of our nation for upholding Secret Combinations, letting them get power, gain, and destroy our freedoms – we know this continues on to this day. The prophets continue to warn us of the increasing wickedness of the people of this nation and that “political machinations ruin the stability of nations, despots grasp for power” and so on… Yes, they are being more careful about how they say it, with good reason, but the warning continues.

When you read/listen to The Book of Mormon Warns America (and many other past talks by prophets warning about communism) replace the word communism with socialism, fabianism, progressivism, or collectivism, and it very much still applies to the problems we face today. The enemy, with Lucifer at the head, has simply changed some of it’s strategies and tactics; the threat still exists.

As Ezra Taft Benson stated:

Suffice it to say that they have penetrated every major segment of our society, as J. Edgar Hoover has testified – the news media, the schools, the churches, the unions, etc. But their greatest desire and most successful drive has come from their effective penetration of government.

The open threat of communism in America may have been defeated, but it’s clear that Lucifer, through those in the Secret Combination and the assistance of “the misguided idealists, the political opportunists, the dupes and fellow travelers, and the ignorant and apathetic Americans” still has control of “every major segment of our society… the news media, the schools, the churches, the unions… government”

There may be some trials ahead – The War in Heaven continues on earth today – but I know that in the end Christ wins, along with those of us who stand with Him, and stand up for the Gospel, for Truth, Agency, Freedom, and Liberty.

Enjoy…

Humbly and gratefully I stand before you. I am not here today to tickle your ears, to entertain you. The message I bring is a very serious one. It may not be popular with everyone, but it is the truth–and time is on the side of truth.

Because of the nature of the message , I have committed it to writing, and because our time is limited, I will proceed immediately to the subject, which is “The Book of Mormon Warns America.”

The Book of Mormon

The eighth Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reads as follows:

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

It is because of our belief in the Book of Mormon, along with the Bible, that we were nicknamed “Mormons.”

The Restoration of the Gospel

On a spring day in the year 1820, in the state of New York, a young boy by the name of Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees on his father’s farm to pray. He needed help. He wanted to join a church, but he was confused as to which one. Seeking an answer, he read one day these words from the Bible:

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. (James 1: 5.)

This Joseph Smith did. In response to his prayer, our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ appeared to him. Joseph was told to join none of the churches.

Joseph was to learn that Christ established the Church in former days when he was here on earth. Its members were called saints, but because of the wickedness of men, the prophets were taken away from the people and so revelation ceased, the scripture ended and the doctrines and creeds of uninspired men prevailed. As predicted in the scriptures, there was an apostasy.

But, as had also been predicted, the Lord was planning to restore his Church in these latter days, prior to his second coming, and like the former-day Church, his restored Church was to have apostles and prophets and have new revelation and added scripture. And so through Joseph Smith the Lord established The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On the evening of September 21, 1823, an angel to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The angel’s name was Moroni. He was the last of a long line of ancient prophets of two great civilizations who lived here on the American continent centuries ago. The angel told Joseph Smith that a history of these early inhabitants of America was written on metallic plates and lay buried in a hill nearby.

These records covered a period of American history from time of the Tower of Babel until about 421 A. D. Part of these cumulative records engraved and handed down from generation to generation were abridged by Moroni’s father, Mormon. Moroni added some additional writings and then laid the records in the earth where they remained until he delivered them to Joseph Smith. Under the inspiration of God, Joseph Smith translated part of these records which is known today as the Book of Mormon.

Besides Joseph Smith, there were other witnesses who saw the angel and the plates and whose written testimony you will find printed in the front of each copy of the Book of Mormon.

As the Bible is a scriptural account of God’s dealings with his children in the Old World, so also is the Book of Mormon a scriptural account of God’ s dealings with his children in the Americas.

The Book of Mormon is a second witness along with the Bible that Jesus is the Christ. It testifies of Christ’s appearance to the American inhabitants shortly after his resurrection in Jerusalem. It makes plain many of the precious truths of the gospel.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said:

…the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. (November 28, 1841. Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194.)

The last chapter of the Book of Mormon contains the promise that if a person will read the book, he may then ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if the book is not true, and if he shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, God will manifest the truth of it unto him by the power of Holy Ghost. (Moroni 10:3–7.)

We invite all men to make this test.

America a Land of Promise

One of the great themes of the Book of Mormon is that America is a land of promise – a chosen land. Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, … (Ether 2: 12.)

Two Great Civilizations Destroyed

The Book of Mormon records the rise and fall of two great civilizations. They fell because they failed to serve the God of the land, Jesus Christ. The American Indians are the descendants of that last great civilization.

Fortunately, under the inspiration of the Lord, many of the Book of Mormon prophets realized that the historical account which they were making of their people would eventually come forth in this day and age while our own great civilization was flourishing here in America.

These prophets were anxious to see that the tragedies that befell their ancient American civilizations would not happen to us. It would be well for us to seriously consider their warnings.

A Warning to America

They record that both of their great civilizations were destroyed through the insidious work of a murderous, secret conspiracy whose designs were to get power and gain and to overthrow the freedom of all lands. And then realizing that in our time we would be threatened with a similar conspiracy, the Book of Mormon warns as follows:

Wherefore … it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain–and the work, yea, even work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; …

For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; … for it is built up by the devil. (Ether 9:23–25.)

The Threat of Communism

Today, the international, criminal, communist conspiracy fits this Book of Mormon description perfectly, for there is a combination of gangsters who lust for power, who have liquidated some 70 million people, brought one-third of the world’s population under bondage, and who seek to overthrow the freedom of all nations. I have talked face to face to some of these godless leaders, on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

President David O. McKay, whom we sustain as a latter-day prophet and as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said:

The position of this Church on the subject of communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth. (General Conference Address, Priesthood Session, April 9, 1966.)

And then as the Lord commands us in the Book of Mormon to awake to a sense of our awful situation, so President McKay commends and encourages those who are seeking to

… awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. (Ibid. )

Then President McKay adds:

We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it. (Ibid.)

Supreme Court Decisions

The Book of Mormon points out how these ancient conspirators were able to fill the judgment seats, usurp power, destroy justice, condemn the righteous, and let the guilty and the wicked go unpunished. Do you see any parallel between this and the present-day decisions of our Supreme Court?

President McKay has stated that the Supreme Court is leading this Christian nation down the road to atheism. I believe the court is also leading us down the road to anarchy and atheistic communism. Here is the net effect of a few of their decisions:

Communists can work in our defense plants.

U.S. v. Robel, U.S., 88 S. Ct. 419 (1967)

Communists can teach in our schools.

Slochower v. Board of Education of N,Y, 1350 U,S. 551(1956)

Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234 (1957)

Communists can hold offices in labor unions.

U.S. v. Brown, 381 U. S. 437 (1965)

Communists can run for public offices.

Yates, et ., v, U.S., 354 U.S. 298 (1957)

Communists can serve in the merchant marines.

Schneider v. Smith, U.S. , 88 S. Ct. 682 (1968)

Today by court edict a person is allowed to advocate and convince others of the duty and necessity to overthrow the 90vernment by force and violence. (A memorandum on Supreme Court Decisions by G. Edward Griffin, American Opinion, Belmont, Massachusetts.)

The Supreme Court justices would probably have been accused of treason if they had dealt in this manner with the Nazis during World War II. Yet how does one explain the court’s attitude towards the communist conspiracy which is a much greater threat than the Nazis ever were. Perhaps you can understand why the communists have held victory rallies to honor the Supreme Court and its decision.

I have not even covered the areas of how the court is hamstringing the police, destroying property rights, encouraging civil disobedience, undermining state sovereignty, and so forth.

Communism and Serious Charges

And now I come to a passage in the Book of Mormon which gives me great concern about the future of our country because of the way we are helping the communists. The passage reads as follows:

And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations I to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold f they shall be destroyed; … (Ether 8:22.)

And so the crucial question is, “Has our nation upheld communism so that it could get power and gain?” The tragic answer is, “Yes.” And so, unless we as a people can soon stop and reverse the disastrous course we are taking I then our nation shall be destroyed. For the sad truth is that communism would be insignificant in our country and the world today were it not for the consistent and persistent help which it is continuing to receive from right within our own government.

I know these are serious charges. There is ample evidence.

American Opinion Magazine Articles

Returning a few days ago from a month in Europe and the Middle East, I found in my accumulated mail an advance copy of a courageous, hard­hitting, truthful magazine–a rare thing today–and one not carried by the liberal news agencies on our newsstands. On the title page, the fearless young managing editor, Scott Stanley, Jr., had this in his “Letter to the Readers” :

Dear Reader:

We write in the wake of burning and looting in 168 American cities, at a time when we are at war in Vietnam and our own government is sending raw materials to the arsenal of an enemy killing our soldiers in the field. We write in the midst of an economic crisis described by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board as the most serious since the Depression year of 1931. And, as we write, a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States has called for openly paying blackmail to the Communists, and for the resignation of J. Edgar Hoover, the anti­Communist Director of the F.B.I.

It is a time when black Marxists call for burning down America, and make a good try at it, and every Presidential candidate – save one – recommends buying off those burning our cities with more of the federal subsidies which are enlarging the inflationary debt about to destroy our entire economy. It is a day in which men who have been chair­man of officially cited Communist Fronts sit even in the Cabinet of the President of the United States and protect the revolutionaries, promote Marxist schemes, and drive America’s back ever closer to the wall. (American Opinion Magazine I June, 1968.)

From his letter transmitting the June issue, I read the last paragraph:

The Constitution surely hangs by a thread. Without God’s help this Republic will fall as certain as it was with His help that it was born. (Ibid.)

From the lead article, which I recommend to all, entitled “Insurrection – Is America Sleeping Through a Civil War?,” I quote from the first page:

America has just endured the most widespread civil uprising in a hundred years – except for the Civil War, the largest in American history….

Arrests totaled well over twenty thousand. Washington, D. C. [and it would do us good if we could go through the streets of Washington, D. C. , now - down 14th Street two blocks from our Mormon chapel - 7th Street in the business section], reported more than a thousand fires set by arsonists. Baltimore between seven and eight hundred, Pittsburgh five hundred, two hundred in Chicago, and so on…

The federal government was itself effectively shut down on Friday afternoon, April fourth, as word of unchecked, marauding mobs ranging freely in the downtown…

All over the world, sophisticated people must have laughed at us uproariously, and a hundred million no doubt lost any faith they ever had in us…

The author, Dr. Susan L. M. Huck, concludes the 25-page article with these words:

Okay, let’s take the gloves off. This insurrection didn’t just happen. It was set-up – just as the assassination of Martin Luther King was a set-up. The Communists and their Black Power fanatics have been working to create just such a situation for years. They even told us what they were planning to do, again and again, as they did it.

This is only the beginning! And, this time the Administration used only seventy thousand troops to stop them. This time our politicians who have tied the hands of our police officers, have, by employing curfews enforced by federal soldiers, put only ten million or so good citizens under house arrest. This time the insurrectionists hit only 168 towns and cities; they killed only forty-three people; and, they set only three thousand or so major fires.

And remember, the Reds and their Black Power troops have promised us that this is only the beginning! Stokley has said that his forces plan to burn down America.

They’re sure going to try.

How do you stop it? It’s very simple. You stop Communist racial agitation; you arrest the leaders for conspiracy to commit murder, arson, and burglary, prove their guilt in a court of law, and lock them up; and, you free the hands of our police so they can prevent rioting and looting and arson by those citizens now convinced by the actions of our “Liberals” that theft, incendiarism, and assault will be tolerated.

Don’t kid yourself. The people who are behind all of this mean to have a civil war. We either stop them now or they will escalate this thing. (Ibid.)

The Law Breakers

Also on my desk as I returned from abroad was the new volume entitled The Law Breakers – America’ s Number One Domestic Problem, by the brilliant young editor of the Indianapolis News, Mr. Stanton Evans. I give you the opening paragraphs:

Americans in this second half of the twentieth century have been told, with some justice, that they never had it so good. By every material standard, ours is the richest society on earth. We have higher personal incomes, more consumer goods, less poverty, and more leisure than any other nation known to history. And our government has set about, through a variety of programs in every field of human effort, to supply deficiencies in the web of comfort.

Yet if in that sense we never had it so good, in another sense we never had it so bad. Or so scared. Precisely as we have achieved our present affluence, precisely as our government has proclaimed its readiness to spread the good things more widely still, the nation is clawed by nameless apprehensions. Richer than any other generation of Americans, we are also more frightened. Blessed with better food, finer clothes, and more expensive cars, we are also haunted by the fear that the enjoyment of these things might be taken from us by marauders who stalk our streets and attack our homes.

The paradox is of the sort suggested by the Pennsylvania Dutch saying, “The faster I run, the behinder I get.” The faster we multiply our material comforts, the greater seems the likelihood of losing them through hoodlum terror. The more our government suggests we are advancing toward utopia, the more we stumble backward toward the jungle. We are a people for whom anything seems possible – except to defend ourselves against primitive evils which the rudest of societies can control.

The people of the United States are fast losing one of their most precious rights – the simple right to move as they please, to      go to church meetings at night, to shop where and when they would like, to take walks near their homes.

A survey conducted by the Crime Commission found that “one-third of a representative sample of all Americans say it is unsafe to walk alone at night in their neighborhoods. Slightly more than one-third say they keep firearms in the house for protection against criminals. Twenty-eight per cent say they keep watchdogs for the same reason.” (Stanton M. Evans and Margaret Moore, The Law Breakers [New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1968], p. 1.)

There is not time for a full outline of this treacherous development.

Communist Penetration of Government

We have mentioned briefly the help which the communists have received from our Supreme Court. Suffice it to say that they have penetrated every major segment of our society, as J. Edgar Hoover has testified – the news media, the schools, the churches, the unions, etc. But their greatest desire and most successful drive has come from their effective penetration of government.

They knew the power, prestige, influence, and finances that would be theirs once they got the machinery of the United States government headed in their direction. And they were right. For let the government of the United States stop helping communism and communists all over the world, and in a short period of time the conspiracy would be in retreat and in due time would collapse.

But we extend the advantage of diplomatic recognition to their puppets when they come to power. We send them billions in foreign aid. We’ve trained their pilots. We ship them wheat. Through cultural and other exchanges, their spies come to America. We supply them know-how. We extend them credit. We buy their goods. Their propaganda goes through our mails at our expense. We’ve helped them in their conquests through secret agreements. Our government does all it can to keep the anti-communists from coming to power in any country.

And once we’ve helped the communists to take over a nation such as China and Cuba, we do all in our power to keep the anti-communists from freeing their land. We even negotiate with these butchers and sign treaties with these criminals who have no respect for treaties. Said President McKay:

I would not deal with a nation which treats another as Russia has treated America. It is a condition which cannot be permitted to exist. (Church News [weekly section of Deseret News], August 6, 1952.)

But it does exist and every day brings in new evidence of the increasing help which our government extends the communists.

A Few Traitors

The vast majority of American citizens and federal employees are loyal to our Republic. But there are a few traitors whose numbers are growing and who are in key positions to influence and help shape government policy. In fact it is becoming increasingly apparent that appointment to high government office today is not hampered by one’s pas t affiliations with communist fronts or one’s ability to follow the communist line. You don’t need to look further than the President’s Cabinet and recent appointments to the Supreme Court to find ample evidence of this fact. (See: “The Unelected,” by Gary Allen, American Opinion, June 1968, p. 81.) Parrot the communist line and you can expect to be glamorized by the liberal news media and pushed to the front. But take a strong anti­communist position and you can expect to be passed over, smeared, and silenced. And this has happened and is happening to too many great and distinguished Americans to be accidental.

Communist Tactics

Now mind you, the communists could not do this all by themselves. They knew that communism would also have to be built by non-communist hands. And so, as in the past, they use, to suit their purpose, the misguided idealist, the political opportunists, the dupes and fellow travelers, and the ignorant and apathetic Americans.

Nor does the communist always deal in totally black instrumentalities – especially when he is trying to come to power. He must deceive. He must produce counterfeits. He must be willing at times to take one step backward – especially when it pacifies people about his past advances and makes it easier for him to take his next two steps forward.

He knows that some of his greatest successes have come with programs which have been sold to the American public as ways to fight the communists but which in reality had the net effect of promoting communism. This has been true of our foreign aid program. Designed, supposedly, to help nations, its overall effect has been to keep socialist governments in business, enhance the communists, discourage free enterprise and demoralize the anti-communists.

Win in Vietnam

Another illustration is the war in Vietnam. We are supposed to be fighting the communists in Vietnam, yet we are helping them everywhere else. Why do we trade with communist countries and supply them the means with which to kill our sons? Why do we build plants for them? We ship them machinery, metals, chemicals, rubber, airborne equipment and many other things for their war machine. In return we get back coffins – hundreds of them per week.

We cancelled a $17 million debt which the Polish communist government owed us on the very day a Polish ship pulled into Haiphong harbor with war materials to kill our men. On one side of Stettin harbor in Poland they unload the wheat we send them and on the other side of the harbor they load their ships with equipment to kill our men in Vietnam.

Why not let our men win in Vietnam? Why handcuff them? In war there is no substitute for victory. We have been pouring tens of billions of dollars into defense for years. Is it possible that we cannot win a war against a third-rate country of 17 million people, smaller than the state of Missouri? Honest and competent military men in whom I have great confidence have stated that we could win the war in six weeks or less.

TRAIN Committees

What can you do, you ask? Listen to the conclusion of a shocking article which every American should read by Wallis W. Wook, Coordinator for TRAIN Committees (TRAIN takes its name from To Restore American Independence Now):

What can one person do? You can try to match the determination of Lieutenant Colonel Wilbur Outlaw of North Carolina. He is a twenty-five-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. His oldest son, Bill, is now a helicopter pilot in South Vietnam, and in the past nine months has been shot down once and strafed several times. In a recent letter to his family from Vietnam, he urged: “Tell those fools back home that there is a war going on over here and they’d better start doing something about it, either by Signing those petitions or by getting the powers that be (which is probably impossible) to start fighting a war instead of playing Mickey Mouse games. I feel sure that everyone else over here is as tired as I am of being shot at and knowing they can’t do anything about it most of the time.”

As Bill’s father told me: “I spent twenty-five years trying to defend my country; now I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to save it.”

What can you do? You can help protect the lives of your fellow Americans -the 500,000 super-patriots fighting Communism in Vietnam. You can get to work with TRAIN, or on your own, to help stop this treasonous aid and trade with the enemy – and, insist on the removal of the restrictions on our military. If not? Well, if not, mister, go back to sleep. But don’t call yourself an American. (American Opinion, May 1968, p. 14.)

A Personal Letter

What can you do? Hear the pleading warning and counsel of a Mormon elder, an air force captain, in the following letter:

APO San Francisco
26 March 1968

Elder Ezra Taft Benson
of the Council of the Twelve

Dear Sir:

I am an Air Force Captain serving in ______, Republic of Viet Nam. I have a wife and three young sons living in ______ whom I love very deeply and for whom I want to secure the freedom that I have thus far enjoyed. In discussions with members and non-members alike who are caught up in this war, I’ve found a unifying fear concerning the destiny of our country, a fear which I feel confident that you and many Church leaders share. Since this is an election year, and a very crucial year for the future of our nation, I’d like to do more than I am presently doing to further the cause of freedom.

I’ve attached a letter which I’ve prepared intending to express thoughts which our elders must employ with their own [members] if we’re to survive the present challenge to our nation. Certainly I’d like to go into greater detail with them about the communist threat… but what I’ve written may be useful.

As a member of the Armed forces I cannot actively participate in the political destiny of my country; but as an elder in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am obligated to watch over the Church and to do what I can to protect the liberty that God has given us. Therefore, I write the accompanying letter, hoping that it might have some use in convincing the priesthood of their pressing obligation to the cause of freedom.

Then he signed his name, and attached this letter, which is addressed to the priesthood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Dear Brethren:

We in Viet Nam, who are struggling and dying that men and women, you and your loved ones, might maintain the free agency which thousands before us have died to protect, are deeply concerned with the state of our beloved nation…

The news that comes to us from home is disheartening. While we endeavor to assist in securing freedom for a weak and tottering nation, but a nation filled with people desirous of freedom, the greatest nation of all, our homeland, now overflowing with selfish and materialistic millions, is staggering clumsily but steadily toward the clutches of self-imposed slavery. How sincerely we cry to our countrymen in words similar to those of our Master who cried “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,… how often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37–38.)

Dear Brethren, we stand upon the very threshold of calamity…

Brethren, truly our freedom hangs by a thread, and if we wish to keep it then we, the elders of Israel, must now step forward to preserve it.

I am a soldier. I am doing what I can to help. You are free and educated citizens capable of guiding our country’s destiny. How can you do it? Your local political organizations need your support and your participation. Your newspapers need your opinions. Your representatives in your state and national legislatures need your continuing support, interest, and advice… We know only too well the consequences if we fail to meet the challenge before us. It is time to act, to be doers and not hearers only. We plead with you from this the dark side of the earth. Put your shoulders to the wheel and push with your might…

Oppose Communist Aggression

Are there advantages to the communists of our being involved in a long no-win war? Can it eventually be converted into World War III? Can it be used to create bitterness, confusion, and a breakdown in American morale? Can it be used as an excuse to institute greater socialistic controls over the people – to weaken our economy? Can it be used to get the American people to accept peace on almost any terms?

If we really mean to oppose communist aggression, why did we pick distant Vietnam instead of Cuba? We had the Monroe Doctrine before there ever was a U.N. or a SEATO. If our government leaders are really opposed to communism, why don’t they start cleaning them out at home?

Why do they allow the Office of Economic Opportunity to be the means of providing finances and programs for the communist revolutionaries and their allies who plan to ravage and burn down America?

Yes, communism is tightening its strangle hold on America and the world because of the help it is receiving increasingly from right within our own government. Americans are destroying America.

And so I return to the grave warning of the inspired Book of Mormon:

And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold they shall be destroyed; … (Ether 8: 22.)

God grant that we may repent, prayerfully study the Book of Mormon, follow the prophet, do our homework, and wake up in time to reverse the tragic course we are following, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Gordon B. Hinckley stated:

“The Book of Mormon narrative is a chronicle of nations long since gone. But in its descriptions of the problems of today’s society, it is as current as the morning newspaper and much more definitive, inspired, and inspiring concerning the solutions of those problems.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Testimony Vibrant and True,” Ensign, Aug 2005, 2-6)

The following are scriptures from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants regarding war and its justifications. I’ll leave it up to you to come to your own conclusions; please consider leaving a comment below regarding your thoughts…

D&C 98: 23–38

Now, I speak unto you concerning your families—if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it patiently and revile not against them, neither seek revenge, ye shall be rewarded; But if ye bear it not patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure unto you.

And again, if your enemy shall smite you the second time, and you revile not against your enemy, and bear it patiently, your reward shall be an hundredfold.

And again, if he shall smite you the third time, and ye bear it patiently, your reward shall be doubled unto you four-fold; And these three testimonies shall stand against your enemy if he repent not, and shall not be blotted out.

And now, verily I say unto you, if that enemy shall escape my vengeance, that he be not brought into judgment before me, then ye shall see to it that ye warn him in my name, that he come no more upon you, neither upon your family, even your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation. And then, if he shall come upon you or your children, or your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation, I have delivered thine enemy into thine hands; And then if thou wilt spare him, thou shalt be rewarded for thy righteousness; and also thy children and thy children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.

Nevertheless, thine enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified.

Behold, this is the law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy fathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles. And again, this is the law that I gave unto mine ancients, that they should not go out unto battle against any nation, kindred, tongue, or people, save I, the Lord, commanded them.

And if any nation, tongue, or people should proclaim war against them, they should first lift a standard of peace unto that people, nation, or tongue; And if that people did not accept the offering of peace, neither the second nor the third time, they should bring these testimonies before the Lord; Then I, the Lord, would give unto them a commandment, and justify them in going out to battle against that nation, tongue, or people.

And I, the Lord, would fight their battles, and their children’s battles, and their children’s children’s, until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation. Behold, this is an ensample unto all people, saith the Lord your God, for justification before me.

Alma 43: 45–47

Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church.

And they were doing that which they felt was the duty which they owed to their God; for the Lord had said unto them, and also unto their fathers, that: Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies.

And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion.

Alma 48: 14–16

Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught never to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.

And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger; And also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.

Third Nephi 3: 18–21

Now the chiefest among all the chief captains and the great commander of all the armies of the Nephites was appointed, and his name was Gidgiddoni. Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge.

Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: Pray unto the Lord, and let us go up upon the mountains and into the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands. But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands.

Mormon 3: 9–17, 4: 4-5

And now, because of this great thing which my people, the Nephites, had done, they began to boast in their own strength, and began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies. And they did swear by the heavens, and also by the throne of God, that they would go up to battle against their enemies, and would cut them off from the face of the land.

And it came to pass that I, Mormon, did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people, because of their wickedness and abomination. Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts.

And thrice have I delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and they have repented not of their sins. And when they had sworn by all that had been forbidden them by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that they would go up unto their enemies to battle, and avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren, behold the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and because this people repented not after I had delivered them, behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the earth.

And it came to pass that I utterly refused to go up against mine enemies; and I did even as the Lord had commanded me; and I did stand as an idle witness to manifest unto the world the things which I saw and heard, according to the manifestations of the Spirit which had testified of things to come. Therefore I write unto you, Gentiles, and also unto you, house of Israel, when the work shall commence, that ye shall be about to prepare to return to the land of your inheritance.

And it was because the armies of the Nephites went up unto the Lamanites that they began to be smitten; for were it not for that, the Lamanites could have had no power over them.
But, behold, the judgments of God will overtake the wicked; and it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished; for it is the wicked that stir up the hearts of the children of men unto bloodshed.

ST LUKE Chapter 6: 27-38

But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.

Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Questions to consider:

1.When is war justified?
2.What is the higher law regarding war and peace?
3.What do the scriptures tell us regarding defensive war versus offensive war?

Some would like to argue that standing up and being bold about Freedom equates to engaging in politics. I would like to argue against that.

D&C88 states:

And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom… in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand… things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations…knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms- That ye may be prepared in all things… I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free…

Ezra Taft Benson quoting President David O. McKay saying:

There should be no question in the mind of any true latter day saint as to what we shall preach… the gospel plan of salvation.” … Then President McKay lists the areas our preaching should cover and admonishes us to include in our preaching what governments should or should not do in the interests of the preservation of our freedom. Do we preach what governments should or should not do as a part of the gospel plan, as President McKay has urged or do we refuse to follow the Prophet by preaching a limited gospel plan of salvation? The fight for freedom cannot be divorced from the gospel – the plan of salvation. (Our Immediate Responsibility. BYU Devotional, October 25, 1966.)

President J. Reuben Clark also warned us of the importance of standing up for Freedom:

Do not think the members of the church shall escape. The Lord has assured us that the church will still be here when he comes again. But has the Lord assured us that we can avoid fighting for freedom and still escape unscathed both temporally and spiritually? We could not escape the eternal consequences of our pre-existent position on freedom. What makes us think we can escape it here?

I say to you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions have been. (J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, April 1944, pp. 115-116; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 89.)

Again Ezra Taft Benson stated:

I also do not agree that spiritual leaders cannot comment on basic issues which involve the very foundation of American liberty.

In fact, if this were true, we would have to throw away a substantial part of the Bible. Speaking out against immoral or unjust actions of political leaders has been the burden of prophets and disciples of God from time immemorial. It was for this very reason that many of them were persecuted. Some of them were stoned, some of them were burned, many were imprisoned. Nevertheless it was their God-given task, as watchmen on the towers, to speak up.

It is certainly no different today.

To Moses God said: “….proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” (Lev. 25:10)

Why? For God knows full well that the gospel – His plan for the blessing of His children can prosper only in an atmosphere of freedom.

To modern men God has said: the Constitution “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh.” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77)

Is the Constitution being maintained or is it in jeopardy?

(Stand Up For Freedom. Assembly Hall at Temple Square, Feb 11, 1966. Given to The Utah Forum for the American Idea)

Fotrunately all hope is not lost:

This is still God’s world. The forces of evil, working through some mortals, have made a mess of a good part of it. But it is still God’s world. In due time, when each of us has had a chance to prove ourselves–including whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom–God will interject himself, and the final and eternal victory shall be for free agency. And then shall those complacent people on the sidelines, and those who took the wrong but temporarily popular course, lament their decisions. To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul–and maybe your country.” (Teachings of Ezra T. Benson Chapter 5 P. 592)

What’s the moral of the story? We know that Satan has gained much dominion over the earth, and because we, those who stand up for Freedom, are still too few in numbers, we must bare it patiently. We must not give up. Each of us can take a stand for what is right. We all have our own unique talents and knowledge; the key is to ask the Lord what he would have us do, and do that.

If you get discouraged, remember the words of Edward Everett Hale, when he said:

I am only one, but I am one.
I can’t do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, that I ought to do,
And what I ought to do,
By the grace of God, I shall do!

Purchase: The Book of Mormon and the Constitution by H. Verlan Andersen

During the early part of the eighteenth century, Samuel F. Smith wrote his great poem:

My country! ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble, free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills.
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!
(Hymns, no. 115.)

These lines, first used in 1832 at a Fourth of July celebration, indicate that Samuel F. Smith had with poetic insight glimpsed some great truths concerning this land—truths which, at about the same time, were clearly made known to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

By divine revelation, Joseph, between 1827 and 1829,0 translated the Book of Mormon, from which he learned that God is in fact the author of our liberty and that to retain it, the inhabitants of the land must be protected by his mighty hand. There is no other power that can protect that liberty.

The truths received by Joseph Smith went further. They identified the “Great God” implored by Samuel F. Smith as Jesus Christ. They also declared that in order for us to enjoy the protection of his might, we must accept him as our God and keep his commandments.

“Behold,” says the revelation, “this [America] is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).

The words “Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King” imply that the God of the land is also King of the land. And this is true.

The Book of Mormon, quoting Jesus as he spoke here in America, reads:

“This land shall be a land of liberty … and there shall be no kings upon [it]. …

“… For I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words. …

“… For it is a choice land, saith God … wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me.” (2 Ne. 10:11–19.)

The alternative to enjoying this liberty and happiness through acceptance of and obedience to Jesus Christ is made clear by the Book of Mormon. It gives certain answers and abundant evidence.

More than two thousand years before his birth in the flesh, Jesus Christ led a small colony of people from Asia to America. As they came he instructed their prophet leaders “that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off … when they … are ripened in iniquity” (Ether 2:8–9).

The descendants of this people, known as the Jaredites, became a mighty nation. They flourished here for some two thousand years. Obeying Christ in righteousness, they rose at times to great heights. Rejecting him, they declined until they completely annihilated themselves in fratricidal wars. An abridgment of their tragic history is found in the Book of Ether.

In 600 B.C., about the time the Jaredites were annihilating themselves, Jesus Christ directed another colony to this land. He revealed to them, as he had to the Jaredites, the truth that he is the God and King of the land; that through accepting and obeying him as such, they could always remain a free, prosperous, and happy people; and that if they chose to reject him and disobey his laws, they would bring upon themselves certain destruction.

That they might be convinced, the Savior made available to them the records of the Jaredites, whom they replaced.

The thousand-year history of these people records their division into two factions—Nephites and Lamanites.

When they followed the guidance of the God of the land they reached great heights. After his post-resurrection ministry among them, all who survived the cataclysm which accompanied his crucifixion—both Nephites and Lamanites—were “converted unto the Lord.” United, they built a society in which for about two hundred years “there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. … There were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and … the Lord did prosper them exceedingly in the land.

“Surely [concludes the prophet historian] there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.” (4 Ne. 1:2–7, 16.)

At the beginning of the third century A.D. this happy situation began to change. Pride, with its attendant evils, found place in the hearts of people. They began turning away from the ways of the God of the land. Finally they rejected him. By the end of the fourth century, as a result of contention, crime, and carnage, their civilization had disintegrated.

Having proved unworthy of protection by the “might” of the God of the land, the remnants of these people dwindled in unbelief until they reached the degradation in which Columbus found them.

Lehi, the patriarch of the colony divinely led to America in 600 B.C., prophesied that “there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord” (2 Ne. 1:6).

Just as Jesus Christ has piloted to this land of America the vanguard of each succeeding civilization which has dwelt upon it, so has he made known to them his everlasting decree “that whoso should possess [it] should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off … when they … are ripened in iniquity” (Ether 2:8–9).

Our present civilization is no exception. We who live in America are under this everlasting decree. And the Lord has said, “My word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified” (D&C 5:20). Jesus Christ, the God of this land, led Columbus to it. He led the Pilgrims to Plymouth. He sustained and gave victory to the colonists. He established the Constitution of the United States (see D&C 101:80). Over a period of some twenty-six centuries he directed the writing of the Book of Mormon, which contains the record of the former inhabitants of this land. At his command, Moroni finished the record and hid it up in the Hill Cumorah, where, under his surveillance, it was safely preserved for some fourteen hundred years.

By the power of Jesus Christ, the God of this land, the record was brought forth, translated, and in 1830 published. For nearly 150 years now it has been bearing its message to all who will receive it.

After setting forth the everlasting decree concerning this land and reviewing the destruction of two civilizations, Moroni, seeing the present inhabitants of America, and knowing by the power of God that we would have the record, penned this message directly to those who inhabit this land:

“And this cometh unto you … that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done” (Ether 2:11).

Now why do I emphasize this theme? I do so as a warning against the ongoing anti-Christ trend in America today.

Some years ago reference was made on a local editorial page to “a super-duper, eager-beaver atheist” who “does not like Christianity” at all, “and is out to destroy it. … In a national magazine [this atheist] is quoted as thundering from her ‘pulpit’ ‘Churches are leeches. …’

“Now that she has moved on prayer and Bible reading in U.S. public schools,” the editorial continues, “her next targets, it appears, are tax-exemptions for churches, ousting chaplains from the armed services and omission of ‘God’ in courtroom oaths, on money and in the pledge of allegiance.” (Norman Vincent Peale, Deseret News and Telegram, 3 July 1964.)

An article in a recent magazine advanced and argued the thesis that America is no longer “the Christian land of the Pilgrims.”

In distinguishing communism from the United Order, President David O. McKay said that communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the gospel plan, and that it is an avowed enemy of the God of the land. Communism is the greatest anti-Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people. By the extent to which we tolerate it, accommodate ourselves to it, permit ourselves to be encircled by its tentacles and drawn to it, to that extent we forfeit the protection of the God of this land.

Relying on that part of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the United States Supreme Court has ruled against Bible reading and prayer in public schools. By so doing, said President David O. McKay, “the Supreme Court of the United States severs the connecting cord between the public schools of the United States and the source of divine intelligence, the Creator himself,” who, of course, is the God of this land (Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1962, p. 878).

Now, of course, we all believe and wholeheartedly support the separation of church and state; but we must not let this wresting of the First Amendment, nor communism, nor atheism, nor any other anti-Christ influence, weaken our conviction that Jesus Christ is the God of this land nor diminish our determination to obey his laws. On such conviction and such obedience hang all our hopes so well expressed in Samuel F. Smith’s patriotic hymn:

Our fathers’ God to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!
(Hymns, no. 115.)

That it may be so, I humbly pray.

I speak to you today on a most vital subject. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “we believe … the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” (A of F 1:8.) God has so declared it, so have its writers, so have its witnesses, and so do all those who have read it and received a personal revelation from God as to its truthfulness.

In section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says that he gave Joseph Smith “power from on high … to translate the Book of Mormon; Which contains … the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ … ; Which was given by inspiration.” (D&C 20:8–10.)

Nephi, one of the prophet-writers of the Book of Mormon, testifies that the book contains “the words of Christ” (2 Ne. 33:10), and Moroni, the last writer in the book, testifies that “these things are true.” (Moro. 7:35.)

This same Moroni, as an angelic being sent from God, showed these ancient records to three witnesses in our day. Their testimony of the records is contained in the front the Book of Mormon. They state: “We also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.”

And Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the instrument whom God used to translate this record, testified that “the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4:461.)

The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of the book. It is a record of a fallen people, compiled by inspired men for our blessing today. Those people never had the book—it was meant for us. Mormon, the ancient prophet after whom the book is named, abridged centuries of records. God, who knows the end from the beginning, told him what to include in his abridgment that we would need for our day. Mormon turned the records over to his son Moroni, the last recorder; and Moroni, writing over 1,500 years ago but speaking to us today, states: “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.” (Morm. 8:35.)

The purpose of the Book of Mormon is stated on the title page. It is “to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD.”

Nephi, the first prophet-writer in the Book of Mormon, states: “For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

“Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.

“Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.” (1 Ne. 6:4–6.)

The Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic means. First, it tells in a plain manner of Christ and his gospel. It testifies of his divinity and of the necessity for a Redeemer and the need of our putting trust in him. It bears witness of the Fall and the Atonement and the first principles of the gospel, including our need of a broken heart and a contrite spirit and a spiritual rebirth. It proclaims we must endure to the end in righteousness and live the moral life of a Saint.

Second, the Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ. It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention. (See 2 Ne. 3:12.) It fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon are similar to the type we have today. God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time.

Now God expects us to use the Book of Mormon in several ways. We are to read it ourselves—carefully, prayerfully—and ponder as we read, as to whether this book is the work of God or of an unlearned youth. And then when we are finished reading the things in the book, Moroni exhorts us to put them to the test in these words:

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Moro. 10:4.) I have done as Moroni exhorts, and I can testify to you that this book is from God and so is verily true.

We are to use the Book of Mormon as the basis for our teaching. In section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord states: “And again, the elders, priests and teachers of this church shall teach the principles of my gospel, which are in … the Book of Mormon, in the which is the fulness of the gospel.” (D&C 42:12.)

As we read and teach, we are to liken the Book of Mormon scriptures unto us “that it might be for our profit and learning.” (1 Ne. 19:23.)

We are to use the Book of Mormon in handling objections to the Church. God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ revealed themselves to Joseph Smith in a marvelous vision. After that glorious event, Joseph Smith told a minister about it. Joseph was surprised to hear the minister say that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days, that all such things had ceased. (See JS-H 1:21.)

This remark symbolizes practically all of the objections that have ever been made against the Church by nonmembers and dissident members alike. Namely, they do not believe that God reveals his will today to the Church through prophets of God. All objections, whether they be on abortion, plural marriage, seventh-day worship, etc., basically hinge on whether Joseph Smith and his successors were and are prophets of God receiving divine revelation. Here, then, is a procedure to handle most objections through the use of the Book of Mormon.

First, understand the objection.

Second, give the answer from revelation.

Third, show how the correctness of the answer really depends on whether or not we have modern revelation through modern prophets.

Fourth, explain that whether or not we have modern prophets and revelation really depends on whether the Book of Mormon is true.

Therefore, the only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation.

Our main task is to declare the gospel and do it effectively. We are not obligated to answer every objection. Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand. “And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye,” said Nephi, “for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things.” (2 Ne. 33:11.) Every man must judge for himself, knowing God will hold him accountable.

The Book of Mormon is to be used “for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel,” the Lord says, and its words “shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth.” (2 Ne. 29:2.) We, the members of the Church, and particularly the missionaries, have to be the “hissers,” or the tellers and testifiers, of the Book of Mormon unto the ends of the earth.

The Book of Mormon is the great standard we are to use. It shows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It contains the words of Christ, and its great mission is to bring men to Christ and all other things are secondary. The golden question of the Book of Mormon is “Do you want to learn more of Christ?” The Book of Mormon is the great finder of the golden contact. It does not contain things which are “pleasing unto the world” (1 Ne. 6:5), and so the worldly are not interested in it. It is a great sieve.

Anyone who has diligently sought to know the doctrines and teachings of the Book of Mormon and has used it conscientiously in missionary work knows within his soul that this is the instrument which God has given to the missionaries to convince the Jew and Gentile and Lamanite of the truthfulness of our message.

Now, we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc. Our missionaries are not as effective unless they are “hissing forth” with it. Social, ethical, cultural, or educational converts will not survive under the heat of the day unless their taproots go down to the fulness of the gospel which the Book of Mormon contains. Our Church classes are not as spirit-filled unless we hold it up as a standard. And our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.

Some of the early missionaries, on returning home, were reproved by the Lord in section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants because they had treated lightly the Book of Mormon. As a result, their minds had been darkened. The Lord said that this kind of treatment of the Book of Mormon brought the whole Church under condemnation, even all of the children of Zion. And then the Lord said, “And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon.” (See D&C 84:54–57.) Are we still under that condemnation?

Reading the Book of Mormon is one of the greatest persuaders to get men on missions. We need more missionaries. But we also need better-prepared missionaries coming out of the wards and branches and homes where they know and love the Book of Mormon. A great challenge and day of preparation is at hand for missionaries to meet and teach with the Book of Mormon. We need missionaries to match our message.

And now grave consequences hang on our response to the Book of Mormon. “Those who receive it,” said the Lord, “in faith, and work righteousness, shall receive a crown of eternal life;

“But those who harden their hearts in unbelief, and reject it, it shall turn to their own condemnation—

“For the Lord God has spoken it.” (D&C 20:14–16.)

Is the Book of Mormon true? Yes.

Who is it for? Us.

What is its purpose? To bring men to Christ.

How does it do this? By testifying of Christ and revealing his enemies.

How are we to use it? We are to get a testimony of it, we are to teach from it, we are to hold it up as a standard and “hiss it forth.”

Have we been doing this? Not as we should, nor as we must.

Do eternal consequences rest upon our response to this book? Yes, either to our blessing or our condemnation.

Every Latter-day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life. There is a difference between a convert who is built on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon and stays hold of that iron rod, and one who is not.

Over a quarter of a century ago I listened in this Tabernacle to these words: “A few years ago as I began to practice law, members of my family were a little uneasy. They were afraid I would lose my faith. I wanted to practice law, but I had an even greater desire to keep my testimony, and so I decided upon a little procedure which I recommend to you. For thirty minutes each morning before I began the day’s work I read from the Book of Mormon . … and in just a few minutes a day I read the Book of Mormon through, every year, for nine years. I know that it kept me in harmony, so far as I did keep in harmony, with the Spirit of the Lord.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1949, p. 36.) It will hold us as close to the Spirit of the Lord as anything I know. That was President Marion G. Romney. I echo his counsel.

What, then, are we to say of the Book of Mormon? I bear witness that it is verily true. I know this as I know that I live. We stand with the Prophet Joseph Smith when he said, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (History of the Church, 4:461.)

May we know and use the keystone and get nearer to God, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.