{"id":583,"date":"2020-06-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2020-05-29T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:25:21","slug":"6th-address-to-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"6th Address to Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8507\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-583-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=583-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2018.09.08_LT049_Christian-Talk-6.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 43:58 &#8212; 51.2MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/light-and-truth-podcast\/id1474389927?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The following address was presented and recorded in Sandy, Utah on September 8, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/transcripts\/2018.09.08%206th%20Address%20to%20Christians.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In, in examining the mission of Christ and what was accomplished during His lifetime and what was left unaccomplished during His lifetime \u2013 but intended by the Lord to be accomplished at some point before His second coming \u2013 even the record of the Lord\u2019s accomplishment is incomplete and suggests that there is a great deal more that might have been learned or might have been recorded at the time of His ministry, but simply omitted from the record of the New Testament.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After His resurrection and His appearance to the women at the garden Tomb, He appeared and spent the better part of the day walking on the road with two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus \u2013 about a seven-mile walk. He sidled up beside them and He walked beside them and they talked throughout the day. It was evening when they arrived at their destination. And they asked Him to come in and to sup with them, to eat with them, because they had enjoyed the fellow\u2019s company. And He went in and blessed the food. Actually, He took bread, blessed it and brake it and gave it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they realized it was Him. But their reaction to Him after they recognized who He was, was a reflection on how they ought to have perhaps recognized Him earlier in the day. Not because of seeing Him as He is and recognizing His person, but instead because of the message. Reflecting on what He had said, asked one another,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201c<em>Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way and while He\u00a0opened to us the scriptures?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p><cite>(Luke 24:32)\u00a0<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And then they rose up from there and scurried back to Jerusalem to announce the news that He had appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we know that the Lord spent the better part of the day walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus and that the subject that He discussed was the scriptures in such a way that the scriptures were opened to them and the effect of that was to have their hearts burn within them from the conviction that what they were being taught was truth. Not one word&nbsp;<strong>about<\/strong>&nbsp;what the Lord&nbsp;<strong>said<\/strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>taught<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>when<\/strong>&nbsp;the disciples\u2019 hearts were touched and&nbsp;<strong>when<\/strong>&nbsp;they were&nbsp;<strong>brought<\/strong>&nbsp;to understand by having the scriptures&nbsp;<strong>opened<\/strong>&nbsp;to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so when something is missing from a record, a page or a hole in the record, that is called a lacuna. So one of the more obvious lacunas in the narrative is the failure to tell us anything about what Christ did to open the scriptures in order to have these disciples, these believers, these people who He deliberately chose as witnesses of His resurrection, and that&nbsp;<strong>too<\/strong>&nbsp;as&nbsp;<strong>priority<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>witnesses<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s an interesting study to take a look at who the Lord appeared to and in what order because there appears to be a pattern in the appearances of the Lord and the priorities of the people to whom He appeared in order to have witnesses of His resurrection. But these are two of the earliest and so they have a high priority. And I believe that one of the two witnesses was in fact Luke, who leaves his own name out. He identifies the companion who was with him, Cleopas, but he doesn\u2019t identify himself. And I think that it was Luke who wrote the books of Luke and Acts, in which he explains the history, the life, the death, the resurrection of Christ, the message, the importance of the message, the vindication of the promise of Him being a Messiah because of His resurrection, and then the immediate effect of the post-resurrection ministry of the apostles. All of those things are written about, and they\u2019re written in some detail by Luke. And yet, that talk that was so convincing that the hearts of both him and his companion, Cleopas, burned within them is left as a glaring lacuna in the narrative by a fairly exhaustive biographer. Luke picks up upon&nbsp;<strong>some<\/strong>&nbsp;details of Christ\u2019s life that&nbsp;<strong>only<\/strong>&nbsp;appear in the Gospel of Luke. This incident on the road to Emmaus is one of those, but some of the more intimate details about the birth of Christ are preserved by Luke. There are things that Luke was fully capable of preserving and conveying and he clearly, if his heart was burning within him,&nbsp;<strong>that<\/strong>&nbsp;kind of a message is going to have some durability, some persistence,&nbsp;<strong>capable<\/strong>&nbsp;of writing it, and it\u2019s gone from the record.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Book of Mormon, there\u2019s an early visionary encounter before they migrate very far from Jerusalem in which Nephi is shown the whole sweep of history and he begins to record the account of what it was he saw. And he\u2019s interrupted and told you can\u2019t write a record of what I\u2019m going to show you hereafter because this record is going to be entrusted to another person who is going to write it. His name is John. And the account that John would record, the Book of Mormon doesn\u2019t recite, but we all can identify it as the Book of Revelation. And so Nephi is told, \u201cDon\u2019t write about this visionary material. Someone else is going to do that.\u201d (1Nephi 14:20-25) So, Nephi is told he cannot write that. A fuller account is going to be given by John. But Nephi is also told that this same kind of material has been shown to others. Nephi later, in the second book that he composes, by that time 40 years has passed from the time of the visionary encounter near Jerusalem. He\u2019s now on another continent, a new world, a promised land given to them. And he\u2019s had 40 years of reflection on what he saw and what he heard. And from that 40 years of reflection he realizes that he can bear testimony of what he saw, without infringing upon the right of John to write the fuller account, simply by quoting Isaiah who wrote about much of the same material. And so Nephi adopts as his text in large measure&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>text<\/strong>&nbsp;that came from&nbsp;<strong>Isaiah<\/strong>&nbsp;as it appeared on the brass plates \u2013 slightly different than the version that we have in our Bibles that descend from the Masoretic Text \u2013 but he preserves as his testimony words that were composed by Isaiah in the form that he had them as his testimony. Then as his entire account is winding down at the end of the second book that Nephi composed, he begins at about \u2013 in the standard LDS-published version it\u2019s chapter 27 \u2013 he begins to change from quoting the Isaiah text to paraphrasing the Isaiah text in order to adapt it to a&nbsp;<strong>very<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>specific<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>prophetic<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>foretelling<\/strong>&nbsp;of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in the last days in order to make the Isaiah text fit exactly what would be happening with the Book of Mormon coming forth.&nbsp;<strong>Then<\/strong>&nbsp;he gives his interpretive key from that point explaining exactly why it was that he put those Isaiah materials in in order to have people understand that it is his testimony of what he knows and what he was shown, and to convert the language of Isaiah into the prophecy of Nephi to convey Nephi\u2019s message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, we don\u2019t have any explanation from&nbsp;<strong>Luke<\/strong>&nbsp;as to why there is a lacuna in the record and the&nbsp;<strong>omission<\/strong>&nbsp;of Christ\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>post-resurrection<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>exposition<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>opening<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>up<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>scriptures<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>explaining<\/strong>&nbsp;what it was in the scriptures that bore testimony of Him.&nbsp;<strong>We<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>just<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>have<\/strong>&nbsp;Luke leaving it out. But in the Book of Mormon, the record that we have of Christ\u2019s appearance to the Nephite descendants, includes Christ opening up the scriptures in order to show how they bear testimony of Him, not merely of Him coming as the sacrificial lamb, but also of Him coming in the last days. Christ\u2019s missing material from the Book of Luke is&nbsp;<strong>back-filled<\/strong>&nbsp;by the Book of Mormon\u2019s account of Christ\u2019s appearance and Christ\u2019s ministry and teachings to the Nephite people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if anyone is a&nbsp;<strong>devoted<\/strong>&nbsp;follower of Christ and attentive to the scriptural record as the way in which they come to understand and know who Christ is and to gain a conviction of His status as the Redeemer of mankind. Anyone who is sincere about searching into and trying to find how and why and what the Savior was, is, and what He did,&nbsp;<strong>is<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>going<\/strong>&nbsp;to be eager to&nbsp;<strong>back-fill<\/strong>&nbsp;the lacuna that appears in the Gospel of Luke and find out what it was that the Lord was saying. And&nbsp;<strong>they\u2019ll<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>be<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>eager<\/strong>&nbsp;and willing to look at the Book of Mormon with that in mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can tell you that the Book of Mormon has received perhaps the greatest amount of neglect of any volume of scripture since its coming forth in 1830. The one who translated the record, Joseph Smith, made almost no use of it in his public ministry. He was dealing with people who were largely converts from other denominations, including initially predominantly people who had been followers of Alexander Campbell. They were among the most devoted people to the Bible. New converts who came in believed the Bible and accepted the Book of Mormon, but regarded the Book of Mormon largely as a sign that God was up to something. When Joseph Smith taught, even as the one who translated the Book of Mormon, he largely focused upon the Bible and an exposition of the content of the Bible, because prospective converts and&nbsp;<strong>new<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>converts<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>to<\/strong>&nbsp;the idea relied upon and had a priority for the Bible above any other volume of scripture. So adapting to the audience, Joseph Smith\u2019s teachings largely focused upon the content of the Bible. You can see leaking through in the talks, the transcripts of the talks that are preserved of Joseph Smith, that there was tension that ran all the way up to the highest level of the church. Sidney Rigdon was a counselor to Joseph Smith, and in a talk that has been called the King Follett discourse. It was a funeral sermon about the recently deceased man named King (first name) Follett (last name). We used to give names like King to people. King Follett was a fellow who had been killed in an accident in a well. He was recently deceased at the time that Joseph gave the King Follett discourse. In the discourse, he talks about a variety of things stretching on into the eternities, and the post-death course that mankind will take. In the middle of that, Joseph makes an aside. Sidney Rigdon was not in the audience at the time. He wasn\u2019t in the city of Nauvoo. He was elsewhere. But he makes an aside, specifically calling Rigdon by name, and saying, to the absent Sidney Rigdon, \u201cI suppose that the inquiry has to be supported by the Bible.\u201d And then he goes on to use the Bible in order to demonstrate the teaching that he is going to advance to the audience is Biblical. It is&nbsp;<strong>based<\/strong>&nbsp;in the content of the Bible itself. So, Joseph Smith is saying, \u201cRigdon, I\u2019ll prove the truth of what I\u2019m about to teach from the Bible.&nbsp; I suppose I have to support it by the Bible.\u201d That tells you that one of the problems Joseph was confronted with is that people, including those very closest to him at the top of his organized church at the time, didn\u2019t want to hear anything that wasn\u2019t supported by the Bible, didn\u2019t want to hear him talking about the Book of Mormon, didn\u2019t want to accept something based upon the new revelations. At a still later time, a fellow who was one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, who got excommunicated and disassociated himself with Joseph in 1838, he wrote in the late 1870s or early 80s a pamphlet that was called \u201cAn Address to All Believers in Christ.\u201d And in that, David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon, complained that the revelations of Joseph Smith were given too much priority. I assume that the attitude that David Whitmer reflected 30 years after the death of Joseph Smith was an attitude that he held even while Joseph was alive, one of the reasons why he became disaffected and that&nbsp;<strong>he<\/strong>&nbsp;didn\u2019t want to see the revelations of Joseph Smith expounded upon.&nbsp;<strong>He<\/strong>&nbsp;didn\u2019t want to hear material that was more recent. Although David Whitmer did hold the Book of Mormon in some considerable regard and he remained true to his witness as one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, after the death of Joseph Smith, among the people who are nicknamed \u201cthe Mormons\u201d, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints being the largest one of those, the one that most Christians would be familiar with, the church that sends out the missionaries two by two in their white shirts and ties to knock on people\u2019s doors, the one that sponsors the Tabernacle Choir, the one that sponsors Brigham Young University, the largest single denomination. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not give any serious consideration to the Book of Mormon until the 1950s, and only then, in the 1950s, because the church president \u2013 at the time it was a man named David O. McKay \u2013 asked a professor at Brigham Young University, whose name was Hugh Nibley, to write a priesthood manual that could be used by the institutional church to teach a course in priesthood for a year. When that interview took place, in the accounts that Hugh Nibley tells of it, he wanted to focus upon the Book of Mormon, and David O. McKay\u2019s reaction was surprise because no one took that book seriously. And Hugh Nibley was saying, No, he believed in it. The seriousness with which the Book of Mormon was taken after the 1950s is largely the result of a now-deceased Brigham Young University professor, Hugh Nibley, and his&nbsp;<strong>conviction<\/strong>&nbsp;that the Book of Mormon was an authentic book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I say that to a Christian audience because the Book of Mormon has largely been so neglected by the people who are nicknamed \u201cMormons\u201d that if Christians were to take that book up and to examine it through the eyes of a devoted Christian believer, I believe that Christians are going to find treasures within the Book of Mormon, an understanding, as a result of their Christian background from the Book of Mormon, that the Mormons themselves have never been able to harvest, have never noticed, and do not have the eyes with which to even see its presence. The Book of Mormon remains a&nbsp;<strong>Christian<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>treasure<\/strong>&nbsp;that has&nbsp;<strong>yet<\/strong>&nbsp;to yield its greatest results, having only been taken seriously. In 1950 there were&nbsp;<strong>leaders<\/strong>in the church who had never&nbsp;<strong>read<\/strong>&nbsp;the Book of Mormon. Mormon church leaders who did&nbsp;<strong>not<\/strong>&nbsp;read the Book of Mormon,&nbsp;<strong>much<\/strong>&nbsp;less understand it. It was quite some time after that before the Book of Mormon became something in which there was some&nbsp;<strong>regular<\/strong>&nbsp;study among&nbsp;<strong>Latter-day<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Saints<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the Book of Mormon was published before there&nbsp;<strong>was<\/strong>&nbsp;an LDS church, and because the Book of Mormon stands as an independent witness, there is no reason why accepting the Book of Mormon requires you to be institutionally loyal to&nbsp;<strong>anyone<\/strong>. You can be a Baptist and believe in the Book of Mormon and there is at least one minister out there who is&nbsp;<strong>doing<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>that<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>right<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>now<\/strong>. There is no reason why Catholics, and Presbyterians, and other mainstream Christian denominations can\u2019t pick up the Book of Mormon and make use of it without pledging allegiance to any institution that claims ownership over the Book of Mormon. In fact,&nbsp;<strong>the most accurate edition<\/strong>&nbsp;of the Book of Mormon currently in print is one that was prepared&nbsp;<strong>independent&nbsp;<\/strong>of any institution and is available for purchase on Amazon. It is part of two books combined in a single volume called The New Covenants. The&nbsp;<strong>first<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>half<\/strong>&nbsp;of the book is the New Testament and the&nbsp;<strong>second<\/strong><strong>half<\/strong>&nbsp;of the book is the Book of Mormon. They were intended to go together as a witness by people who on one side of the world and on the other side of the world both witnessed the ministry of a resurrected Lord, who showed the prints of the nails in His side, and in His hands, and in His feet. And had people bear testimony that it was Him who was sacrificed, that rose again from the grave, and who is the Savior&nbsp;<strong>prophesied&nbsp;<\/strong>of by Isaiah; He uses Malachi in the Book of Mormon; He uses other texts to demonstrate and to teach His identity as the Son of God and Redeemer of mankind. And I believe if the Presbyterians, and the Baptists, and the Catholics were to pick up the Book of Mormon and treat it seriously&nbsp;<strong>it<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>would<\/strong><strong>yield<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>truths<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>to<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>them<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>which<\/strong>&nbsp;they could then preach&nbsp;<strong>independent&nbsp;<\/strong>of the LDS church or the people who are nicknamed \u201cMormons\u201d and they would find themselves growing closer to Christ as a consequence of having this material available to their study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been too long that the Book of Mormon has been neglected. It\u2019s been too shoddily handled by the people to whom it was originally given. The copyright has expired. The book is now available to the public. The institution that got it originally has made precious little use of it. And if you find yourself not only disbelieving the LDS church, but because of your institution\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>native<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>hostility<\/strong>&nbsp;towards the LDS church, you will find in the Book of Mormon a great deal of ammunition to use to condemn, to criticize, to censure the LDS institution because the Book of Mormon spares very little ink in criticizing, condemning, and judging harshly the people to whom the Book of Mormon would be delivered, including the LDS church. The use to which the Book of Mormon can be put by Christians is so relevant to the Christian belief system that if Christians will soften their heart and consider it and allow for the record that is latest in time to be used to help understand the records that are earlier in time \u2013 because God\u2019s latest word clarifies and governs the interpretation of His earlier word \u2013 Christians are going to reap a fabulous reward in doing so. And,&nbsp;<strong>unlike<\/strong>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<strong>texts<\/strong>&nbsp;that we have in the New Testaments, many of which are copies of copies of copies, that we&nbsp;<strong>know<\/strong>&nbsp;have been altered in the process of transmission. Bart Ehrman, a one-time believer, now agnostic, parsed through the texts of the New Testament, compared it to quotes in the anti-Nicaean, the pre-Nicaean fathers, and to internal evidence in the New Testament itself, and reached the conclusion that the New Testament text deserves great deal of skepticism because the method and manner of its transmission has been demonstratively shown to be inaccurate and the record to be muddled. In one place, the less-altered text of Hebrews, preserves the words that are drawn right out of the seventh chapter of Proverbs:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201c<em>This is my son; today I have\u00a0 begotten you,\u201d <\/em><\/p><cite><em>(Hebrews 5:5)<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>A statement that was made prophetically about Christ. The Book of Hebrews preserves it in that form.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gospels, however, were altered, and the statement that was made at the time of the baptism of Christ when John the Baptist was baptizing the Lord was changed to be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201c<em>This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased\u201d <\/em><\/p><cite><em>(Matt: 3:17)<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of a controversy that erupted over the nature of Christ during the Christological debates of the third and fourth century and it\u2019s one of the illustrations that Bart Ehrman points to in his book, \u201c<em>The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture<\/em>.\u201d That title&nbsp;<strong>tells<\/strong>&nbsp;you something about the transmission of the New Testament The Orthodox corruption of scripture.&nbsp; Bart Ehrman isn\u2019t the only scholar, but his books are fairly easily available if you\u2019re interested in the topic through Amazon.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another scholar who has done essentially the same thing in picking apart the&nbsp;<strong>Old<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Testament<\/strong>&nbsp;and the integrity of the transmission of the&nbsp;<strong>Old<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Testament<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>text<\/strong>&nbsp;is a Methodist scholar in England named Margaret Barker, whose works demonstrate that there was an earlier, an older religion that got&nbsp;<strong>defeated<\/strong>&nbsp;at about the time that the Jews were taken captive into Babylon and on the&nbsp;<strong>return<\/strong>&nbsp;from the exile a&nbsp;<strong>new<\/strong>&nbsp;religion that had been altered emerged. Christians generally view information like that as&nbsp;<strong>threatening<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>very<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>core<\/strong>&nbsp;of their religion because, if their Bible is flawed and not inerrant, if their Bible has been poorly transmitted and is inaccurate, then the&nbsp;<strong>basis<\/strong>&nbsp;upon which they seek salvation is itself threatened.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, bears witness of the very same Lord, in essentially the very same kinds of terms, identifying Him as having&nbsp;<strong>accomplished<\/strong>&nbsp;the work of the redemption by the&nbsp;<strong>sacrificing<\/strong>&nbsp;of His sinless life in order to defeat death and to restore mankind back to life. But&nbsp;<strong>unlike<\/strong>&nbsp;the transmission of the&nbsp;<strong>Bible<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>record<\/strong>, the&nbsp;<strong>Book<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>of<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Mormon<\/strong>record was preserved for generations by a singular transmission through a line of record holders. At the end of that line, a prophet named Mormon, hence the name for the book,&nbsp;<strong>did<\/strong>&nbsp;a&nbsp;<strong>summary<\/strong>&nbsp;explanation&nbsp;<strong>excerpting<\/strong>&nbsp;from all of the prior records a final and inspired God-commanded and prophetically-infused record summary of the preceding nearly millennium of history, giving us the truths that God wanted preserved. He turned that record over to his son. His son finished it up and then buried it up. And when it came forth out of the ground it was translated by the person who accomplished the translation through the means he called&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>gift<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>and<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>power<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>of<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>God<\/strong>. And&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>original<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>language<\/strong>&nbsp;in which The Book of Mormon was first published in the last days was&nbsp;<strong>English<\/strong>. The original of the first transcription has been preserved in part. It was put into a cornerstone and water damaged it and so we only have about 28% of that original. But, the original was hand copied before it was taken to the printer for the first printing. And all of that printer\u2019s manuscript still exists. And then the one who was responsible for the translation of the Book of Mormon had the opportunity to review it for another edition in 1837, and to review it and again publish it in 1840. We do not have the transmission issues with the Book of Mormon that are existing with the current Bible. Christians hear this criticism about the Book of Mormon that there\u2019s been 9,000 changes made to the text. Those 9,000 changes have been located and largely dealt with,&nbsp;<strong>every<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>single<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>one<\/strong>, in that New Covenants edition of the Book of Mormon that is currently in print and available through Amazon.&nbsp;<strong>Most<\/strong>&nbsp;of those purported changes are punctuation changes.&nbsp;<strong>Many<\/strong>&nbsp;of them come from the fact that when it was first printed it was printed like a book, but it later became versified and divided into chapters, and footnotes were added, and in the tally of changes, many of the changes also are superficial changes to versification, and chapter divisions, and other such things. There were some errors made. There were some lines that were dropped out between the original manuscript and the printers manuscript that have been located and have put back in. But even with&nbsp;<strong>every<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>one<\/strong>&nbsp;of the identified changes to the Book of Mormon, the fact is that it is&nbsp;<strong>demonstrably, on a whole other order of<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>magnitude, more faithfully preserved and more reliably a text attesting to Jesus Christ, than anything that we have transmitted<\/strong>&nbsp;in the bible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, if you are a Christian who feels some insecurities as a consequence of the criticism leveled at the Bible because of its clear transmission issues, it\u2019s very demonstrably true problems of conveying the text from the original authors down to what we get printed \u2013 and, the vagaries of how you convert some Greek lettering into other languages. At the time the New Testament was written, the form of Greek that was used didn\u2019t have lower case, it only had uppercase. It didn\u2019t have punctuation. And in almost every text there\u2019s no separation from the end of one word and the beginning of another. Dividing it up into words, upper and lower-casing the alphabet that was used, all of that was accomplished by monks hundreds of years after the original text had been handed down. Well, the Book of Mormon has far greater integrity. So if you\u2019re insecure about the reliability of the content of the Bible,&nbsp;<strong>none<\/strong>&nbsp;of those insecurities should attach to the text of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is not only a testimony of Jesus Christ, but it is perhaps the most reliable testimony of Jesus Christ that exists in available print right now, today, in the English language.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if you\u2019re a Christian and you\u2019re sincere about your faith, I think you neglect the Book of Mormon at your peril. If God has sent to you a message, a testimony about His Only Begotten Son, in order to bring you closer to Him, to prepare you for the day of His coming to judge the world, and you decide that you\u2019re simply going to dismiss that message that came from God, then what kind of a Christian are you really? Have you no faith? Do you think that God cares less about the generation of people who will be on the earth at the time of His returning to judge the world, cares less about them, than He did about the people to whom He came and ministered when He came here to sacrifice His life to redeem mankind?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it\u2019s true at His first coming precious few took seriously&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>message<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>accepted<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Him<\/strong>. But God bears testimony whether&nbsp;<strong>you<\/strong>&nbsp;will listen to it or not.&nbsp;<strong>Wise<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>men<\/strong>, who were some&nbsp;<strong>distance<\/strong>&nbsp;from the place of the Lord\u2019s birth,&nbsp;<strong>watched<\/strong>&nbsp;for and understood the signs testifying of Christ in the heavens above. Based upon the appearance of the sign, and the&nbsp;<strong>journey<\/strong>, and their&nbsp;<strong>arrival<\/strong>, it took them&nbsp;<strong>two<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>years<\/strong>, according to the New Testament record, to get from where they were to where the Lord was. And&nbsp;<strong>Christ<\/strong>&nbsp;is called a&nbsp;<strong>young<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>lad<\/strong>&nbsp;when they bring gold, and frankincense, and myrrh in order to worship the newborn King. And when they depart, they depart without advising Herod where they\u2019d found the newborn king because they\u2019d been warned in a dream, which means God had been talking to them also, and they returned perhaps on a two-year journey somewhere else. The people who were on&nbsp;<strong>this<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>continent<\/strong>, the&nbsp;<strong>American<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>continent<\/strong>, watched for signs in the heavens,&nbsp;<strong>knew<\/strong>&nbsp;about His birth,&nbsp;<strong>knew<\/strong>&nbsp;about His death, and were anxiously testifying of Him before He came to visit with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The testimony of Christ to the world by God at His first coming was not local. Admittedly, the record begins with Zacharias [Zechariah] bringing incense to burn before the veil of the temple, to recite the prayer asking God for the redemption of Israel to take place, when an angel appeared. And the record begins with the angel announcing that, \u201cYour prayer about the redemption of Israel is going to be answered, and your wife\u2019s going to have a son who is going to go before the face of the Redeemer of Israel,\u201d (Luke 1:5-13)&nbsp;which seemed improbable to Zacharias [Zechariah] because of the age of his wife. Nevertheless, it was vindicated.&nbsp; That\u2019s not the beginning of the testimony concerning Christ by God throughout the world. And at least some company, two-year\u2019s journey away, heard the message and appeared to worship Him. How many others were there throughout the world? Has a Christian ever contemplated the&nbsp;<strong>fact<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>that<\/strong>&nbsp;God\u2019s testimony to mankind was not tightly confined to a small group of people in Palestine, but it went out&nbsp;<strong>so<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>far<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>so<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>wide<\/strong>that one group responding to it took two-year\u2019s journey to get there? The Book of Mormon testifies that there were yet others, on the entire other side of the world, separated as they were by oceans, to whom Christ went to minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of the Book of Mormon, among other things, is to remind us living at the time when Christ\u2019s return is imminent,&nbsp;<strong>that<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>His<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>message<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>is<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>global<\/strong>. If you think you can just brush off a message that was intended to help prepare Christians for His return, well, you\u2019re like those whose hearts were hard and refused to hear even when Christ walked among them. We ought to be rather like those who would undertake an arduous two-year journey just to come into the presence of the Redeemer of mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you refuse to take the Book of Mormon seriously as a Christian,&nbsp;<strong>you<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>are<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>no<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>more<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Christian<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>than<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Jews<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>who<\/strong><strong>crucified<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>the<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Lord<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>giving lip-service to a false and inadequate religion, rejecting the message of a Messiah who intends to save your soul, because you prefer your false, inadequate, partial tradition to the truth of a living Redeemer. The Jews didn\u2019t reject Jesus because they had no religion. The Jews rejected Jesus because the religion they had did not adequately encompass the truth concerning Him and so they felt comfortable rejecting Him \u2013 just like Christians who feel themselves adequately informed from a false and incomplete set of beliefs about the work of Jesus Christ to be willing to accept the record that was intended to come forth to prepare the world for His return<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re no different if you reject the Book of Mormon. And I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following address was presented and recorded in Sandy, Utah on September 8, 2018. Transcript<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following address was presented and recorded in Sandy, Utah on September 8, 2018. Transcript\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-06T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"27 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/\",\"name\":\"6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-06T16:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"6th Address to Christians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Restoration Archives Blog\",\"description\":\"Recent developments in the preservation efforts.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075\",\"name\":\"Brent\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brent\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/author\/brent\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog","og_description":"The following address was presented and recorded in Sandy, Utah on September 8, 2018. Transcript","og_url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/","og_site_name":"Restoration Archives Blog","article_published_time":"2020-06-06T16:00:00+00:00","author":"Brent","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brent","Est. reading time":"27 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/","url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/","name":"6th Address to Christians - Restoration Archives Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-06T16:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/6th-address-to-christians\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"6th Address to Christians"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/","name":"Restoration Archives Blog","description":"Recent developments in the preservation efforts.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075","name":"Brent","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brent"},"url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/author\/brent\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DrVi-9p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}