President Russell M. Nelson in Priesthood Session on April 3, 2021 said, “What are lessons learned — and never to be forgotten — in the two years since the last general conference priesthood session?
Lesson 1: “The home is the center of faith and worship.”
Lesson 2: “We need each other.”
Lesson 3: “Your priesthood quorum is meant for more than just a meeting.”
Lesson 4: “We hear Jesus Christ better when we are still.”
__President Russell M. Nelson April 3, 2021
“If you know of anyone who is alone, reach out — even if you feel alone, too! … Pandemic or not, each precious child of God needs to know that he or she is not alone!” President Russell M. Nelson April 3, 2021
President Nelson also quoted from Luke, emphasizing; [When men’s hearts are failing] “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:25-28
“People will be afraid. Men’s hearts are failing and that includes women because they forget their identity and purpose.” The heartaches will come…. Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvements. As you let the Lord help you through that, He will make the difference.” Men’s Hearts Shall Fail Them (Video transcript by Elder Russell M Nelson Nov 18, 2011 highlights added)
May the blessings of Easter be with each of you. He died that we may live, so may we live to remember Him. I am sharing with you below on this Easter day, words of the Scriptures, songs of praise and pictures of beauty. May we all live worthy to be with our Savior Jesus Christ again. I know He lives.
“Yea, even so He shall be led, crucified, and slain,
the flesh becoming subject even unto death,
the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.
And thus God breaketh the bands of death,
having gained the victory over death,
giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—having ascended into heaven,
having the bowels of mercy,
being filled with compassion towards the children of men,
standing betwixt them and justice,
having broken the bands of death,
taken upon Himself their iniquity and their transgressions,
having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.”
The Prophet Abinadi (Mosiah 15:7-9)
THE ANNOTATED EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
Page v, vii, ix, and 585
THE OLD TESTAMENT:
“I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them.” (Jeremiah 23:3)
THE NEW TESTAMENT:
“I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. 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 10:14-16)
THE BOOK OF MORMON:
“And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: ‘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.’” (3 Nephi 15:21) “…for behold, I know My sheep and they are numbered.” (3 Nephi 18:31)
Above: Christ Appears to the Nephites in North America
by Kendra Burton
YEA, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him,
and deny yourselves of all ungodliness;
and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness,
and love God with all your might, mind and strength,
then is His grace sufficient for you,
that by His grace ye may be perfect in Christ;
and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ,
ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
(Moroni 10:32)
ND He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions
and temptations of every kind;
and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith,
‘He will take upon Him the pains and the sicknesses of His people.’
And He will take upon Him death,
that He may loose the bands of death which bind His people;
and He will take upon Him their infirmities,
that His bowels may be filled with mercy,
according to the flesh,
that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people
according to their infirmities.
(Alma 7:11–12; see Isaiah 53:4)
Book of Mormon References to Deity
by Charles D. Tate
In a day when many claim that the “Mormon Church” is a cult and certainly not a Christian church, it is interesting to note that the Book of Mormon has 476 references to the Lord Jesus Christ by name. With 531 pages in the text of the 1981 LDS edition, that averages nearly one reference per page. Of all the other Christian scriptures, only the Gospels, which abundantly use the name Jesus because they present synopses of his life, have more references to him by name.
Lee Crandall and Susan Easton Black did studies on the frequency of all references to Deity in both the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. They found that even with 1,349 fewer verses than the New Testament, the Book of Mormon makes 108 more references to the Lord. (Because Jehovah was actually the premortal Christ, and because the Savior directs the affairs of the world, most of the references to Deity in the Book of Mormon refer to Jesus Christ.)
I, too, had long known that almost every page of the Book of Mormon refers to Deity. In my Book of Mormon classes I would have the students let their copies of that scripture fall open randomly to any page. We would see how many times the books would fall open before we found one of the few pages that did not contain a specific name of God. Pronoun references did not count.
We learned a great lesson—the Book of Mormon is a Christ-oriented book. I had heard estimates that there are fewer than 50 of the 531 pages in the Book of Mormon on which a name of God does not appear. Not satisfied with guesswork, I set out to count the pages that did not contain a name of Deity.
To my delight, I found that only 30 of the 531 pages contain no specific name reference to Deity. Furthermore, many of those 30 pages make references to God without using names.
For instance, two pages record catastrophes and “a voice heard among all the inhabitants of the earth” (3 Ne. 9:1), but the source, Jesus Christ, is not identified by name until the third page.
Two more pages describe Lehi’s vision of the tree of life. (1 Ne. 8:1–35.) Nephi later tells us that the tree and the rod of iron in the vision are the love of God and the word of God. (1 Ne. 11:21–22; 1 Ne. 15:23–24.)
To those who say Latter-day Saints don’t respect Christ or don’t worship him, we need simply point to the Book of Mormon. If they read only the book of Moroni, they will encounter 215 references to him in its thirteen and one-half pages. Page 519 alone has 26 references to Deity. The Book of Mormon is a volume of scripture that centers on God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. It records the Lord’s dealings with the Nephites and witnesses to the world that the Bible is true, that Jesus is the Christ, and that God still speaks from the heavens.
Charles D. Tate, professor of English, Brigham Young University, https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1992/04/research-and-perspectives-book-of-mormon-update?lang=eng
Names of Christ in the Book of Mormon
By Susan Easton Black
Even statistically, he’s the dominant figure of the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon was preserved to come forth in these latter days to convince “the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.” Its purpose is to verify the divine Sonship of the Nazarene to those who “ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ.” (Moro. 10:4.)
The divinity of Christ is proclaimed by prophets in the Book of Mormon. They had a conviction of his divinity because the Holy Ghost had revealed it unto them.
Through the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost, these prophets also knew that their writings were to bear testimony that Jesus is the Christ. This they solemnly did, more than I had ever realized. In a word-by-word study, I have found some form of the Lord’s name mentioned an average of every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon. (See Table 1.)
I have found that the Savior is referred to by one hundred different names—from the first reference to him as “Lord” in 1 Nephi 1:1 [1 Ne. 1:1] to the final reference to him as “the Eternal Judge” in Moroni 10:34. [Moro. 10:34] (See Table 2.) Each of the one hundred names signifies a different attribute or characteristic of the Lord and was used appropriately to convey the prophets’ recognition of who he is and what his mission represents. For example, “Savior” means that Christ came to save his people from their sins. “Holy One” signifies that he is holy and without sin, being perfect in all things. “God of the Whole Earth” reflects his universal interest in all men and their redemption. “Lord of Hosts” indicates that Christ is a God of battles. And “Lord Omnipotent” means that Christ is the Lord of all, possessing all power. The names given to our Lord take on new significance when they are approached through a thoughtful and sensitive study of their meanings. His profound character, his singular mission, and his divine relationship to man are thereby more clearly revealed.
Further understanding of man’s relationship to Christ, the central figure of the Book of Mormon, occurs through a study of the periods of apostasy, contention, and war. Fewer references to Christ are made during these periods of darkness, probably because his influence is lessened due to the unrighteous actions of man. (See Alma 50–59, for example.) During periods of peace, joy, and prosperity, which come through man’s keeping the commandments, the names of Christ are used profusely, indicating the abundant presence of his Spirit. (See 4 Ne. 1, for example.) Thus, the righteous actions of the people brought the influence and blessings of Christ among them.
Being aware of the number of references to Christ, having an understanding of the meanings for each name, and knowing when his influence can be greatest upon the earth can inspire reverential awe for our Savior. The witness of his divinity, however, must come personally to each of us—we cannot rely exclusively on the testimonies of others. The conviction that Jesus is the Christ occurs only when God, the Eternal Father, manifests the truth of it “by the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Moro. 10:4.) To the prayerful and the sincere, the Book of Mormon bears a powerful testimony that “Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.” https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1978/07/discovery/names-of-christ-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
Charts adapted from Susan Easton’s
FINAL COMMENTS and TESTIMONIES/From the ANNOTATED EDITION of THE BOOK OF MORMON
On August 16, 2017, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave an address at the 50-year jubilee of the discovery of chiasmus wherein he spoke at BYU in the Joseph Smith Auditorium Building saying, “the presiding officers of the Church appreciate and applaud the exceptional work being done by so many to search and to substantiate, to defend and promulgate the history and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including and especially the Book of Mormon, in a way both scholarly and spiritual.” He discussed the contributions from scholars at BYU, including John W. Welch, who discovered chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, and then continued by saying, “that compliment is, of course, extended to a legion of other men and women across the Church who are putting their shoulders to the wheel of reasoned, determined, persuasive gospel scholarship. Other groups and like-minded colleagues are not part of the university per se, but may be nearby, or spread out around the Church. Our heartfelt thanks go to all of you wherever you are…
”He continued, “it should be noted that truly rock-ribbed faith and uncompromised conviction comes with its most complete power when it engages our head as well as our heart.” Speaking of the unbelieving eleven disciples of Christ following Mary and Peter’s witness of Christ resurrected, Elder Holland referenced Mark 16:14 and explained, “The message is that if members of the Godhead go to the trouble of providing‘ many infallible proofs’ [Act 1:3] of truth, then surely we are honor bound to affirm and declare that truth and may be upbraided if we do not.” He stated that “we ought to be more assertive than we sometimes are in defending our testimony of truth.
”Elder Holland then concluded, “in making our case for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe God intends us to find and use the evidence He has given—reasons, if you will—which affirm the truthfulness of His work… May our Father in Heaven bless us and an ever-larger cadre of young scholars around the Church to do more and more to discover and delineate and declare the reasons for the hope that is in us, that like those converted Lamanites, we may with bold conviction hold up to a world that desperately needs it ‘the greatness of the evidences which [we have] received,’ [Hela-man 5:50] especially of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the keystone of our religion.”– Chiasmus, An Open Conference on the State of the Art, Celebrating 50Years of Scholarship, Sponsored by Book of Mormon Central.
It is our hope and desire to do as Elder Holland has indicated, to affirm and declare “with bold conviction” the greatness of the evidences that have been discovered in support of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Our purpose for combining the sacred text of the Book of Mormon with the now enormous number of evidences continually springing from the earth in the land choice above all others in this, the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, is to affirm that this is divine scripture, and the events, places and peoples contained within its pages were real.
We solemnly bear our witness that Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet of God and testify that he translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. We pray that the Lord’s Spirit will attend and bless all who will read and ponder the words of this book. The Holy Ghost has borne witnesses to us that the Book of Mormon is indeed the Word of God.– David R. Hocking and Rod L. Meldrum.
Below: He Truly Was the Son of God
by Clark Kelley Price
Yea, even so He shall be led, crucified, and slain,
the flesh becoming subject even unto death,
the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.
And thus God breaketh the bands of death,
having gained the victory over death,
giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—
having ascended into heaven,
having the bowels of mercy,
being filled with compassion towards the children of men,
standing betwixt them and justice,
having broken the bands of death,
taken upon Himself their iniquity and their transgressions,
having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.”
The Prophet Abinadi
(Mosiah 15:7-9)
