That He Lives!

Today is the end of a week that we spent visiting historic church history sites near Palmyra as well as remembering the last events of the Savior’s life in preparation for Easter. As I thought about both the early period of Church history and the message of Holy Week, I realized that what Joseph Smith experienced in that first decade—from the First Vision in Palmyra to the publication of the Book of Mormon—bear a powerful witness of the reality of the resurrection. Joseph went into the grove of trees to pray and find answers to his questions, and he came out with a sure knowledge that Jesus Christ was resurrected. He recorded what he saw after he prayed in these words: “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” He saw the Savior standing above him with His glorified, resurrected body. He could testify not only that God answered prayers but also that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Bible, was real. About three years later, he received a visit from the angel Moroni. Joseph described the heavenly visitor this way: “A personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant…. Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning…. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni” (JSH 1:16-17, 30-33). Though Joseph may not have immediately realized it, he eventually came to understand that this was a resurrected being who had died centuries before. Once again, this vision was a witness to Joseph that the resurrection was real. Joseph would eventually translate these words from Moroni who had finished the Book of Mormon with his hope in a resurrection: “I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah” (Moroni 10:34). His spirit and body did indeed reunite, and his appearing was a powerful witness to Joseph of the reality of the resurrection.

               Perhaps the most important evidence of the resurrection from 1820-1830 was the witness of the Book of Mormon itself. Joseph translated the plates through the gift and power of God, and before the official organization of the Church, he published it. It contains countless powerful witnesses of the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection that will come to all who have lived on the earth. In addition to its priceless account of the Savior’s visit among the Nephites as a resurrected Being, many passages within its pages bear witness that He would or did rise again from the grave. For example, 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). King Benjamin taught his people with these words given to him by an angel: “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). Abinadi, shortly before losing his life because of his testimony of the truth, declared, “And 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” (Mosiah 16:7-8). And because He was resurrected, through Him all will rise again. Amulek put it this way: “The day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works. Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death” (Alma 11:41-42). This passage and many others affirm that because Christ was raised from the dead, all of us will indeed be resurrected. And all of these words came from the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith translated as he sought to fulfill the mission given him by the Lord. These experiences of that first decade and many others afterwards would lead him to declare of the Savior, “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22)