My Testimony of the Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ
By Kevin James Keddington
As I begin
the year’s church home study course “Come Follow Me” studying the Book of
Mormon I have decided to record the testimony I already have of the divinity
and truthfulness of this great volume of scripture. If I am so blessed that someone perchance
should come across my record, there is no greater desire in my heart than to
impart some semblance of how important this book is to me and what an impact it
has had on my life. Of all the books,
fiction, non-fiction, history, instruction, or scripture the Book of Mormon is
by far my favorite.
I
was born in Salt Lake City to LDS parents. As a teenager I began to question
the values and teachings I had been raised with, which resulted in a departure
from church activity and exploration of other philosophies, religions, and life
styles. I had begun my college studies, attending Oklahoma State University in
Stillwater, Oklahoma, when my best friend was killed in a private plane crash.
As I grieved his loss and tried to make sense of what seemed to be such a
senseless death, serious questions about the purpose of life took center stage
in my mind. Were there really answers to these questions and if so, where would
I find them? In this process it occurred to me that if I were to be honest and
fair with myself, I needed to include a thorough investigation of the religion
I was born into while searching for the truth among other beliefs. It seemed
illogical to exclude it simply based on the fact that it was what I had grown
up with. I decided to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover with a sincere
desire to discover the truth. My question at the outset had been "Is this
the product of Joseph Smith's imagination, one of the greatest frauds of our
time, or is it possible that the time had come for the restoration of all
things prophesied in the New Testament and Joseph Smith was telling the
truth?" If the former were true, I would need to continue my search
elsewhere, among other beliefs and philosophies. Throughout the entire time I
was reading the Book of Mormon, I attended Sunday meetings at the local university
student branch. What I experienced during this time was the kind of
enlightenment which I could best describe as a series of "Aha"
moments. My most profound questions regarding the purpose of life, and my life
in particular became clear and I came to know the Book of Mormon to be exactly
what it claimed to be...scripture, translated by the gift and power of God from
the writings of ancient prophets. Scripture which enhanced my understanding and
belief in Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world, my personal Savior
and Redeemer, whom I could have a real and personal relationship with. It
wasn't just intellectual analysis that brought me to that conclusion, although
I found nothing contrary to logic or reason.
What
became the bedrock of my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon
were spiritual experiences I was having as I was reading and studying. I had the good fortune of working as a tank
truck driver for a company hauling salt water from oil wells to injection
wells. As crude oil is pumped out of the
ground it almost always contains a certain amount of salt water. At the well site there is equipment the
separates the crude from the salt water diverting it into two tanks, one for
the crude oil and a large tank for the salt water. The crude oil is hauled to a refinery or a
collection of larger tanks where it is pumped through pipelines to a refinery. There
it is made into gas, diesel, engine oil and other petroleum products. The salt water on the other hand is a
byproduct that has little use other than to take it injection wells where it is
pumped back into the ground to push the underground oil reserves toward the
well where it can be pumped to the surface.
Each time I either filled my tanker or emptied it at the various well
sites I had twenty to thirty minutes of down time while the salt water was
being transferred either into or out of my truck’s tank. This process happened five, six, sometimes
seven or eight times a day. That gave me
anywhere from two and a half to four hours a day to do whatever I wanted. The truck’s engine had to kept running to
power the auxiliary pump which transferred the salt water back and forth. As
nice as the new tank truck was it did not have air conditioning. Summers in central Oklahoma are hot and
humid. I carried a sack lunch with me
along with a jug of ice water and my copy of the Book of Mormon. While the pump was transferring the salt
water either from or into the truck’s tank I would sit in the shade of the truck’s
shadow and read. Sometimes stories or
the doctrine in the scriptures I was reading had me so engrossed it was difficult
to stop once my tank was filled or emptied. But I had a schedule to keep. And I knew that
I could resume reading where I left off at the next stop. The drive between wells gave me an opportunity
to ponder and pray about what I had just read.
I even read while I was eating my lunch.
The truck had an AM radio, but I don’t think I ever turned it on.
I
had started out with this company working as a yard hand maintaining and repairing
equipment used in the oil fields to lay pipe lines and repair oil wells. After several weeks of ‘proving myself’ to
the owners that I could be relied on to first of all to show up every day on
time, and to complete work I was assigned without much supervision, I was given
bigger jobs or assigned to assist experienced roustabouts who then taught me
how to do things I hadn’t learned yet. When
the company bought a new tanker truck and asked me if I would like to be the
sole driver and operator for a new business endeavor, transferring salt water
for their clients, I was honored and thrilled.
As long as the salt water was transferred on schedule I was pretty much
on my own, working with little or no supervision. I was even allowed to drive the truck home at
night, on days when my schedule could be improved by driving directly from home
to the next job rather than starting out at the companies ‘yard.’ In hindsight it was easy to see how the Lord
was blessing me, knowing that I was seeking to know the truth about Him and His
works. I remember gaining an
understanding of the Plan of Happiness, how we needed a savior to receive a
remission of our sins in order to be worthy to return to that God who created
us. I read about how Adam and Eve, our
first parents, made the choice to undergo death, both spiritual and physical,
so that mankind could be, and enter into this state of probation, to learn
faith, and prove to ourselves and God that we would repent and keep his commandments,
make covenants and serve Him and each other to qualify for salvation and eternal
life. When I read in Alma how we would
all be resurrected, regardless of whether we were good or evil, and that not one
hair of our head would be lost, and no matter what kind of infirmities we had
in this life, we would be restored to a perfect and immortal body, I felt the
warm confirmation of the Spirit that I was learning the truth. I felt that so many times, like learning
about the need for opposites, opposition in all things, or how good people can
experience terrible, unjust things in this life because God gives agency to all
men, and will more than make up for those injustices in the eternities, because
he is both a just and merciful God. I
came to understand the relationship between justice and mercy, how mercy cannot
rob justice, but can save us from our mistakes and transgressions if we repent,
because Jesus Christ paid the price required by justice for those who believe
on Him and make sacred covenants, keeping His commandments to the best of their
ability, learning and growing spiritually to have power to overcome mortal
weaknesses. My heart was filled, I felt
as if intelligence and light were poured into me from heaven. I knew what I was reading was true. I
knew it in my heart and my mind.
It made sense. It felt right. I’ll
never forget reading the footnotes to verse 16 in 2 Nephi chapter 12.
“16 And upon all the
ships of the asea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant
pictures.”
Here
is the footnote: The Greek (Septuagint) has “ships of the sea.”
The Hebrew has “ships of Tarshish.” The Book of Mormon has both, showing that
the brass plates had lost neither phrase.
The
brass plates obtained by Nephi from Laban had the records of the first five
books of Moses, books of prophecy from other Hebrew prophets up to Zedekia and
Jeremiah, including most importantly Isaiah.
I knew the original texts used for the King James Bible were Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin, the Old Testament in Hebrew and Greek. These scriptures were handed down for many,
many generations, copied by hand until the age of Renaissance and Gutenberg’s
invention of the printing press. It’s
not hard to find some simple errors, especially in the Old Testament, mathematical
and otherwise. I don’t read Hebrew, or Greek. Here is documented that between
the two translations into English for the King James Bible, there are three
elements in verse 16. Two of the three appear in the Hebrew, and two of the
three in the Greek translation, with only one of the three being common to both
of those translations. Yet all three appear in 2 Nephi, which Mormon abridged
from the brass plates. The brass plates
had not been copied over and over and translated, had not lost plain and
precious truths, or even simple little details like one of three elements
Isaiah used to describe a circumstance of his time. Here they were, all three in the Second Book
of Nephi. Joseph was translating at a
rate of seven to nine pages as they appear in our current version of the Book
of Mormon. No one can tell me credibly
that Joseph Smith, a relatively uneducated farmer who had difficulty with spelling
correctly, who stopped in the middle of translating a page to remark to his wife,
Lucy, that he never knew there was a wall around Jerusalem, which she politely
confirmed there to be, I can not imagine that Joseph had access to or a working
knowledge of Greek and Hebrew translations of the Bible let alone an awareness
of the discrepancy between those translations in Isaiah chapter 2. Over the years I have become aware of a few
things appearing in the Book of Mormon that seemed contrary to common knowledge
in 1830, but have since been proven true.
Evidences, even compelling ones like that found in Second Nephi still aren’t
convincing on their own merit that this is holy writ, translated by the gift
and power of God. They serve to bolster
my faith and strengthen my testimony, and for that I am grateful. Most
importantly, my faith in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon comes from
reading it, feeling the Spirit of the Holy Ghost confirm the doctrines taught
over and over again. Over the years I
have read the Book of Mormon numerous times. To be honest, I wouldn’t attempt
to claim a number of times as I have lost count. Each time I read it, I am amazed to find new
understanding of doctrines, new perspectives on the teachings which I have previously
read and yet, it is almost like I’m reading some of them for the first
time. I can’t read those pages without
feeling somehow uplifted, enlightened, or inspired.
Upon
completion of that reading during the summer of 1978, I determined to put Moroni’s
promise to the test. Since I was a
little boy in Primary I remembered being taught this powerful promise (Moroni
10:3-5):
“3 Behold,
I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God
that ye should read them, that ye would remember how amerciful the
Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down
until the time that ye shall receive these things, and bponder it in
your chearts.
4 And when ye shall receive
these things, I would exhort you that ye would aask God, the
Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not btrue; and if ye
shall ask with a csincere heart, with dreal intent, having efaith in
Christ, he will fmanifest the gtruth of it
unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
I
had read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover thanks to having a job which
not only made it easy, but ensured time to reflect on what I was reading. So, I went to my bedroom and knelt down to
pray. I was definitely expecting either
a total blank spiritual silence indicating I had been fooling myself, or some
kind of marvelous manifestation, an epiphany like witness. Angels had appeared to others, could they not
appear to me as well? Or appear and tell me I had been misled and needed to
seek truth elsewhere…well I knelt there praying, listening, and felt the Spirit
whisper clearly “You don’t need angels, or a marching band to come crashing
through the wall, or a pillar of light and heavenly music. You don’t need anything
like that because you already know.
Remember how you felt reading in Second Nephi? Alma? Remember how you
felt reading about the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites after his
resurrection and ascension? Remember how you felt when you read the words Jesus
spoke to the Nephites about other sheep whom He had not manifested Himself to,
but would, and there would be one fold, and one shepherd? Remember the burning
in your heart, the tears streaming down your cheeks as you read Third Nephi
chapter 17, when Jesus blessed the little children, and angels came down and
ministered to them?” I remembered how comforted I felt reading Ether 12:27:
“27 And if men come
unto me I will show unto them their aweakness. I bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my cgrace is sufficient for all men that dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves
before me, and have faith in me, then will I make eweak things become strong unto them.”
Suffice
it to say I came to know the Book of Mormon to be true, and it's author and
translator, Joseph Smith, to be who and what he claimed to be, a modern day
prophet called to be a tool in the hands of God to restore the fullness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and His church in preparation for His prophesied return.
Since
those early days in a salt water tanker and a humble single wide mobile home in
Stillwater, Oklahoma, my testimony of the existence of God, whom I know to be
my literal spiritual Father and Creator, and His Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior
and Redeemer, Friend and Advocate with the Father, has grown exponentially. The expression “Faith precedes the Miracle”
has proven true on my life too many times to count. At times like this, I wish I had done a
better job of documenting those personal miracles. Many are recorded in my missionary journals,
and many which have happened since my mission are recorded only in my memory
and I am quite sure in some books kept by angels in heaven. I know, as surely as I know the sun will come
up in the morning, that God lives and loves us all, with a love that is so
great, so wonderful, so deep and so tender it is difficult to comprehend, and
His Son, Jesus Christ loves us the same, if it were possible, even more deeply,
as He paid the awful price for our redemption personally. I love Him. I love them both. You cannot love
the one without loving the other. The
knowledge and understanding of my purpose for being here, of the great Plan of
Happiness and my part in it is more precious to me than anything this world has
to offer. Knowing that this life is a small
part of a greater plan, and what I need to do to have happiness and joy here,
in this life, as well as in the eternities in the life to come is a gift so sweet
and precious it is nearly beyond comprehension.
Why
would God speak to prophets anciently to offer guidance, send angels to proclaim
His gospel, the coming forth of His Son, our Redeemer and Savior, reveal His
commandments, and give us sacred covenants, and then leave us hanging in the
dark at a time when the world is more wicked than ever? They foretold a restoration of all things
prior to His Second Coming. I know that
restoration took place. I know the priesthood
which He bestowed on His apostles anciently was restored in our time, to Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery. I have been
ordained to that same priesthood and exercised it in the service of others. The sick have been healed miraculously in my
life under the hands of myself and other priesthood holders.
It
is important to know that while I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect
and teaches us all things we need to do and know to receive salvation and exaltation;
I am far from perfect. There are periods
in my life I wish I could erase or do over.
I have repented sorely for terrible things which I don’t need to
enumerate here, as it would serve no purpose.
I wish I had been more obedient, led a more exemplary life, had not
strayed from the path when I did. Experience
has taught me there was only misery in seeking worldly pleasures, being rebellious,
and disobedient. It has been a process
putting the natural desires I was born with aside and schooling my desires. That
process continues today. I have made
great progress, due most certainly to exercising faith in Jesus Christ, in His
gospel, in His prophetically chosen leaders, choosing to do more right than wrong,
repenting daily in an effort to become more like Him. Because I love Him. And while I can never repay Him for what He
did for me, I can show my gratitude by keeping His commandments to the best of
my ability. I do not have to be perfect
to know He loves me perfectly, and He loved me first. Yes He has shown me my weaknesses, and helped
me overcome many of them as I was willing to humble myself and subject my will
to His. And yes, I have a long way to go. One thing is certain, and that is that I am
on the right path. If you are not
already on this path, I invite you to join me.
Bring what you already know and add to it. Come test the things I claim for yourself and
find out what you don’t already know. And share what you do know so we can both be
uplifted and edified. I bear my solemn
witness that God lives and so does His Son, Jesus Christ. They have restored the true church with apostles
and prophets just like it existed in the meridian of time. Priesthood keys and authority have been
restored in our time, the dispensation of the fullness of times. All things have been restored just as prophesied
by ancient prophets. Sacred covenants
established before the creation of the world are available to us today in Holy
Temples, where worthy and righteous men and women go and serve and teach and
learn. God speaks to us today through
living prophets and apostles. Joseph
Smith was the first prophet of the restoration.
Since his time when the restoration began, there has always been a
living prophet on earth as there is today.
His name is Russel M. Nelson. God
has promised that the gospel in it’s fullness will never again be taken from
the earth, that we live in a time of preparation for the Second Coming of His Son,
Jesus Christ. I don’t know if that will
happen in my lifetime. Whether it does
or not what is most important is whether or not I have done all I could to be
prepared to meet Him, whether here or on the other side of the veil.
What
a marvelous gift He has given us, given me.
To have my sins remitted! To be cleansed from all those poor choices! It
is not enough to have ceased to do wrong, not enough to regret having made
mistakes and foolish choices. No degree
of remorse or attempt to repay the wrong somehow could make me whole. Only His redeeming love, the gift of the
Atonement can do that. Oh how I love
Him! He has done for me what I could
never do…cleansed me from sins of commission and omission, extending mercy and
love because of my faith in Him, and my desire to serve and obey Him. He knows me. Knows me better than I do. And
He loves me. In ways I can’t entirely
comprehend, I know He loves me and wants only what is best for me. I am grateful beyond my ability to express in
words that He lives, He offers His love and grace to all, and suffered
unimaginable pain and anguish for us all, for me. Russel M. Nelson is His chosen prophet
today. He chose Joseph Smith when he was
just a boy of 14 to be His servant, the prophet of the restoration. He brought forth the Book of Mormon, Another Witness
of Jesus Christ to testify of Him. I bear solemn witness to the truthfulness of
these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
