Another Witness of the Resurrection

In his recent message in general conference, Elder Stevenson highlighted the difference between our celebrations for Christmas and Easter. He suggested that we can do more during the Easter season to remember the Savior and His atonement and resurrection. He asked us to consider this question: “How do we model the teaching and celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Easter story, with the same balance, fulness, and rich religious tradition of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Christmas story?” Most of us who celebrate Christmas will naturally read the accounts in Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2 that describe the events surrounding the birth of the Savior. Elder Stevenson said that he and his wife wondered what similar scriptural reading tradition his family could have at the time of Easter. He related, “And then we had this heavenly epiphany: In addition to the important verses about Easter in the New Testament, we as Latter-day Saints are endowed with a most remarkable Easter gift! A gift of unique witness, another testament of the Easter miracle that contains perhaps the most magnificent Easter scriptures in all of Christianity. I am referring of course to the Book of Mormon and, more specifically, to the account of Jesus Christ appearing to inhabitants in the New World in His resurrected glory.” He suggested that his family is going to focus on reading together the account of 3 Nephi 11 in which the Savior visited the Nephites and gave this powerful invitation: “Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world” (v14). Indeed, the Book of Mormon is a powerful witness of the resurrection because it describes His words and deeds among the Nephites after He was resurrected. Elder Stevenson invited us, “I invite you to look at the Book of Mormon in a new light and consider the profound witness it bears of the reality of the risen Christ as well as the richness and depth of the doctrine of Christ.”

               Clearly the words of 3 Nephi 9-28 stand as a “profound witness” of the reality of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, and we would do well to focus on these chapters in our scripture study at the time of Easter. There are also many other passages in the Book of Mormon that testify of the resurrection of the Savior in a powerful way. Nephi declared, “Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 25:13). His brother Jacob taught, “it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. 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…. The bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 9:6, 12). The angel gave these words to King Benjamin: “And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him. And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world” (Mosiah 3:9-10). I love this testimony of Abinadi to the wicked court of King Noah: “If Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. 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 16:7-9). Alma witnessed to his son that Christ “bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead” and similarly Samuel the Lamanite testified of how the Savior’s resurrection was the door for us all to overcome the Fall: “By the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual. But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord” (Alma 40:3, Helaman 14:16-17). Because Christ was resurrection we will all be brought back to the presence of God: “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). Indeed the Book of Mormon is a powerful witness of the resurrection of Christ that we should especially study when we celebrate the triumph of Easter.