God's Witness to Me of the Book of Mormon

When I was 14 years old, God gave me a powerful witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

I grew up in a fairly typical LDS (Mormon) home, except that my parents were not particularly active. We did not have daily scripture reading nor did my parents attend Church. My brother Jimmy and I walked separately to Sunday meetings. So even though the Book of Mormon is considered to be a cornerstone of our religion, I had never seen or opened one at home in my youth.

At age fourteen I received a powerful challenge from a really impressive Sunday School teacher. He had a great convertible and gave the class rides during the last 15 minutes of class time if we were quiet and at least pretended to be listening to the lesson. So I tried to control my quick tongue so as not to ruin it for everyone else.

Did an angel really appear to young Joseph?
In this lesson he told us the Book of Mormon was a true book and that God had inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith to translate it from golden plates. He promised us that if we would read it, we could know that the book is true. That was quite a claim and as I already had a mind with a scientific bent, I decided to do the experiment and so I accepted the challenge.

I read the entire book of 500+ pages from cover to cover in a couple of weeks and absolutely did not believe it to be true! I felt I had detected several parts which were just too sensational to believe. For example, there was a group of people called Nephites which were going to be put to death just because they believed in the prophecy that Jesus Christ would be born someday. Killing people for their belief was hard for me to envision back in 1959 when we truly had freedom of religion in the U.S.A. But then it got worse. On the night before His birth, Jesus told the Nephite prophet that the sign of His birth would be given that very night, just in the nick of time to save the believers from death. That seemed over dramatic to me, like something that would be in an unrealistic movie.

So the next week after Sunday School class I privately and somewhat proudly announced to the teacher that I had done his experiment and it failed. I had read the entire Book of Mormon and did not at all believe it was true.

Immediately he asked if I had prayed about it as I read. I replied that I had not, in fact that idea had never crossed my mind. He rolled his eyes and said, "Johnny, you did not listen! Now you have to start all over and read the whole book again, and as you read you need to pray and ask God if it is true!" That seemed harsh to me, but I agreed to do so because he claimed my experiment was invalid and I really did want to know the truth.

The Book of Mormon is true!
So I began reading it all again. I barely got started when I had serious doubts as I read. I thought how obviously fake the story was that the angel took back the golden plates when Joseph had finished the book. In my minimal understanding of a 14-year-old, I thought the plates should be on display for all to see at the Church History Museum on Temple Square.

That thought must have tipped some celestial scale because what happened next was so overpowering that the event was indelibly burned into my memory and has not faded at all in my 73 years. A very clear spiritual voice said to me, "That's not what you want! If they were on display, you'd just say, 'Oh, sure, they could be fake because they just have chicken scratches on them in an unknown language which no one else can read.' What you want is the translation of the plates and you are holding that in your hands!" I realized that Whoever was talking to me spoke truth, that is exactly what I would have said. He was also clearly much smarter than I and there would be no point debate with Him. Then a powerful burning feeling enveloped me which left me knowing with certainty that it was God who had been speaking to me.

From that day on, there had been no doubt in my mind that the Book of Mormon is true scripture and was translated by the gift and power of God. I have read it dozens of times, studied it in detail, and realized that no unschooled youth could have written it. It has more than withstood every test I've given it. It is indeed true history. And the ironic part is that some of the parts which I had questioned the most, such as the date and sign of the Savior's birth, have been the subjects of articles I've written testifying of those very events which God indeed orchestrated in such a dramatic manner! The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith Jr. was a great prophet of God!