A Witness of the Resurrection

After reading the account of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, in which he described how he obtained the plates of gold from Moroni, I realized that the book itself is a symbol of the resurrection. The plates were buried in the earth by Moroni, laid there for about 1600 years, and then were “brought forth from the earth as the voice of a people speaking from the dust, and translated into modern speech by the gift and power of God.” In essence they were “dead” for many centuries, having been buried as we bury those who pass away, and then an angel of the Lord brought them back and they were made alive again to speak to all mankind. As Nephi prophesied, “For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust” (2 Nephi 26:16). For many years the book could not speak to us because it was hidden up, but God gave it life again to speak out of the ground to all mankind. Moroni himself wrote in the book, “Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words” (Mormon 9:30). Indeed, all of the Book of Mormon prophets speak unto us as though from the dead; their words were hidden up unknown to the world, only to be brought forth again and given life to speak to us. In the final chapter of the book, Moroni wrote that one day the Lord will question us, “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?” (Moroni 10:27) Indeed, the book speaks to us as from the dead. Marshall McLuhan gave us the famous phrase that “the medium is the message,” and that is the case here: the physical manner by which the Book of Mormon was buried and brought forth to life again is a witness itself of the reality of the resurrection. And so, it is fitting indeed that it was a resurrected being who was the messenger to deliver the plates to the young prophet and give them life again.    

                One of the main themes of the Book of Mormon is indeed the reality of the resurrection. All of the major writers testified in some form about the resurrection. Nephi saw in vision how the resurrected Savior would visit his people: “And I saw the heavens open, and the Lamb of God descending out of heaven; and he came down and showed himself unto them” (1 Nephi 12:6). He also recorded the words of his father who spoke of “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise” (2 Nephi 2:8). His brother Jacob declared, “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord” (2 Nephi 9:6). King Benjamin testified of the death of the Savior and that “he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world” (Mosiah 3:10). Abinadi declared to the wicked priests of Noah, “But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death” (Mosiah 16:8-9). Alma spoke often of the resurrection. For example, he declared to his son Corianton, “Behold, [Christ] bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead…. Therefore, there is a time appointed unto men that they shall rise from the dead;… The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame” (Alma 40:3, 9, 23). Mormon, in addition to recording the appearance of the resurrected Lord to the Nephites, wrote to the faithful of his day, “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41). And Moroni himself declared with power, “And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar” (Mormon 9:13). These and many other passages declare unequivocally that Christ rose from the dead and that all of us will as well. The Book of Mormon is a powerful witness of the reality of the resurrection, in both the way it came forth to us and in the many, many testimonies of the prophets that it contains.