Ebook: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (Maxwell Institute Study Edition)

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record
of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the
everlasting gospel.
The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation.
Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named
Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in
600 bc and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites.
The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel.
This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the
Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.
The crowning event recorded in the Book of Mormon is the personal ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ among the Nephites soon after His resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines
of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells people what they must do to gain peace
in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.
After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who
added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah. On September 21,
1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph
Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the
English language.
In due course the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, who translated them by the gift
and power of God. The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional
witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto Him
and obey the laws and ordinances of His gospel may be saved.