*This is the third and final post in this series where I discuss my thoughts about the Scripture essay in Adam S. Miller's book, Letters to a Young Mormon. You can find posts the other two posts here and here.
"Don't balk at this responsibility or hand it off to church leaders. Our minds go dark and our hearts go cold when we set this work aside. "Your minds in times past have been darkened," the Lord told Joseph, "because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received - which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation" (D&C 84: 54-55). Our minds go dark because we've treated this responsibility lightly. We don't sit down with the scriptures and we don't study them out in our minds. And, to our discredit, we've often dismissed the world's best books rather than translate them. As a result, we'll "remain under condemnation" until we "repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon" (D&C 84:57)
The Book of Mormon is this new covenant. It is itself what God promises you. It is given to you as a Urim and Thummim, as your own personal seer stone. Look into it and learn how to see the world by its light. And as you do, you'll be shown not only how to say but to do what the Lord requires."
The responsibility that Adam is referring to is the work of us personally translating the scriptures. See the two other posts for more explanation on that.
Below is an entry from my journal that tells the story of an experience that I still think about often. And combined with this excerpt from Adam Miller's essay on Scripture, I think it teaches a great principle.
October 23, 2011
A little over a month ago, we had a Stake Relief Society activity where we had a luncheon and then 3 hours of classes. We could chose 3 out of 5 topics –Family, Scriptures, Sacrament Meeting (Sabbath), Temples, and Prayer – and attend the corresponding class. I decided to go to the Sabbath, Scriptures, and Temples classes.
All of them were really good, but I especially enjoyed the scriptures class. The class was taught by a sister in our Stake named Evangelina Ledesma. I think that she was Hispanic (or part Hispanic) because she spoke both English and Spanish. She also said that she was raised Jewish but joined the church when she was in her 20’s. It was one of those classes where at first you are wondering where in the world the teacher is going with what they are talking about and you have to double check to make sure that you are in the right class. She started out by saying that she had prepared 3 different lessons (for the 3 different hours) because as she was praying and preparing she had felt impressed that the people who would attend her classes were there for a reason and they all needed individual, specific things.
The first part of her class was spent teaching us about Mary (the mother of Jesus) and how she had learned about the scriptures throughout her life. She kept bringing up this term “Shema” which is really prevalent and important in Judaism. It means “Hear” – but more than just listening and physically hearing, it is a deeper, more heartfelt, to-the-core hearing.
She then talked about how when Jesus was tempted by Satan, He rebutted him with scriptures (found in Deuteronomy) – scriptures that he had been taught by his mother.
She also told us that in Judaism, they don’t call the Old Testament books by the same names that we do (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) – they are named after the most important word in that book of scripture. In the case of Deuteronomy, it is named “Devarim”, meaning “word” (word of God). So if you put them (Shema and Devarim) together, you get “Hear the word”.
She had been speaking English for about half of her lesson when all of a sudden, she decided to switch to Spanish. The second counselor in the Stake Relief Society presidency is Hispanic and happened to be in our class, so she translated into English what the teacher was teaching in Spanish. It definitely added a different feel to the lesson. I almost think it was easier to feel the spirit when she was speaking in Spanish because you could see that she was better able to express what she was feeling.
Towards the end of the class, she paused for a minute and then said that she felt impressed to share a story with us that she hadn’t shared in the previous class. She said that she grew up in the country so she didn’t really interact with very many people when she was really young. When she was 6 years old, she went to school and was exposed to kids of other faiths for the first time. When it got close to the end of the year, the other kids started talking about Christmas. She asked them what Christmas was and they told her about celebrating Christ’s birthday. She got really excited and said “the Messiah has come!” She couldn’t wait for the school day to be over so she could go home and tell everyone the good news. When she got home that day, she ran up to her house saying “the Messiah has come!” Her parents weren’t too happy about this and had to explain to her the difference between Christianity and Judaism. They tried to convince her that the Messiah hadn’t actually come yet – despite what her friends had said. She dropped the topic, but always kept this feeling in her heart that what her friends said was true. As she grew up, she began to search for this Jesus Christ – the Messiah (probably not to her parents’ knowledge). When she was introduced to the church and read the Book of Mormon, she knew that it was true. She said that she knew that it was true because she recognized the voice of in the book – it was the same voice that she had been taught to hear (Shema) throughout her life. The God of the Old Testament (or Torah), was the same God of the Book of Mormon (and other scripture). Her mother hadn’t realized when she was teaching her Shema that she was teaching her to hear that same voice.
I loved this story and the spirit was really strong as she told it and bore witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. Everyone in the room was crying.
She finished by emphasizing that it is important for us (as women and mothers) to learn to hear the voice of the Lord. Not only for ourselves, but because we need to teach our children to hear the voice as well. In these two stories (Christ being tempted and her finding the church), they were both greatly influenced by the teachings of their mothers (from the scriptures).
I loved this class. I was so glad that I had chosen to attend. It strengthened my testimony and determination to teach my children to not only know that the church is true, but to really come to hear (Shema) the voice of the Lord. It also strengthened by desire to better study the scriptures myself so that I can personally learn how to hear the Lord’s voice.
"Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”" (Introduction to the Book of Mormon)
I know that the Book of Mormon gives us a greater view of the gospel. Gospel principles are clearer and more complete than in any other book of scripture that we currently have.
Another thing that I have come to feel is that it is through the Book of Mormon that we learn to hear the voice of the Lord the most clearly. The more we read the Book of Mormon, the more we will get to know God's voice. And then when we read other books, or consume information in any other way, we are able to sift through the information and decipher what is truth. We will be able to recognize God's voice anywhere that it is present. Light is light. Truth is truth. "All things which are good cometh of God." (Moroni 7:12-13)
I really like how Adam says about the Book of Mormon being "given to you as a Urim and Thummim, as your own personal seer stone. Look into it and learn how to see the world by its light." We can "look through the lenses" of the Book of Mormon to be able to recognize truth and error in other books/sources.
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