Sacrifices for the Scriptures

Would you give your life for the scriptures?  William Tyndale was one who did.  He was strangled and burned at the stake; as Elder Christofferson put it, “His crime was to have translated and published the Bible in English.”  He gave his life for the Bible that he cherished and sought to make available to all English speakers.  Elder Christofferson suggested that he was not the only one to make such a sacrifice: “William Tyndale was not the first, nor the last, of those who in many countries and languages have sacrificed, even to the point of death, to bring the word of God out of obscurity” (The Blessings of Scripture, April 2010).  On this the 171^st anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph, he is one that we honor for making that same ultimate sacrifice: he gave up his life for the word of God. 

                We might not always think of the death of the Prophet Joseph in connection with the scriptures that he brought forth, but that’s the connection that John Taylor made in his description.  He wrote this: “To seal the testimony of this book [the Doctrine and Covenants] and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch” (D&C 135:1).  He wrote of this further in the same section: “The reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (D&C 135:6).  In other words, the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum were a witness and seal upon the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the revelations.  Joseph had once described his new religion this way: “Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 196).  Given that kind of stamp of importance on the books of scripture that Joseph brought forth, it is only fitting that Joseph’s death would be a witness of those.  Not only did he spend some of his last moments reading from the Book of Mormon to find solace, but one of the very last testimonies that he bore was of the Book of Mormon.  As Elder Holland summarized, “When actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.  Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators” (Safety for the Soul, October 2009).  Whatever else one might say about Joseph, to me it’s hard to dispute that he himself believed in the Book of Mormon and the revelations.  As he himself stated, “I never told you I was perfect—but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 522).

                It’s probably not likely that we will be called upon like Joseph or William Tyndale or others to give our physical lives in defense of the word of God.  But we are certainly asked to sacrifice time each day to read and ponder the words that so many have died for in order to bring them to us.  How much time out of our busy schedules will we give to honor both God and the men who made such a sacrifice?  It’s a question we must answer every day.  President Eyring suggested that “we may read a few lines or pages of scripture every day and hope that will be enough” (Serve With the Spirit, October 2010).  But it won’t—so how much of our life will we give for the word of God?