members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
latter-day saints
believed that the Book of Mormon is
Scripture like the Holy Bible it's a
sacred record of God's words and actions
it is another testament of Jesus Christ
many people know about the Bible but
where did the Book of Mormon come from
and how did we get it The Book of Mormon
came to us through a series of
miraculous events in 1820 a 14-year old
young man named Joseph Smith prayed to
know which church he should join in
response
Joseph was visited by God and Jesus
Christ similar to the heavenly
visitations recorded in the Bible God
called Joseph Smith's to be his prophet
on the earth a few years later an angel
named Moroni also visited Joseph Smith
Moroni told Joseph Smith about an
ancient record buried in a hill near
Joseph's house the record contained the
writings of prophets who lived in the
Americas centuries earlier Moroni knew
this because he had been one of the
prophets
Joseph followed maroney's instructions
in 1827 he went to a hill near his home
buried in the hill was a stone box
containing the Book of Mormon written in
an ancient language on gold plates the
stone also contained artifacts from the
prophets who wrote the Book of Mormon
because Joseph had no experience as a
translator or with ancient languages God
had prepared one of the artifacts buried
with the plates to help Joseph called
interpreters Joseph said that the
artifact looked like two transparent
stones set in a metal rim because they
resembled eyeglasses they were also
sometimes called spectacles
looking through the interpreters Joseph
was able to translate the record into
English he dictated the text to a nearby
scribe or secretary who would write down
his words when Joseph didn't know how to
pronounce a word he saw he would spell
it out letter by letter witnesses to the
translation stated that Joseph sometimes
used what some called a seer stone to
help him in the translation process they
explained that Joseph placed the stone
into a hat to block out external light
looked into the stone and dictated the
translation to his scribes some people
in Joseph Smith's day believed they
could use seer stones to find lost
objects but translating an ancient text
with a seer stone was unheard of indeed
the interpreters and seer stones were
merely aides for Joseph the real power
to translate came from God several
people served as scribe for Joseph
during the translation including his
wife Emma and family friend Martin
Harris
most of the Book of Mormon was
transcribed by Oliver Cowdery a
schoolteacher who learned about the Book
of Mormon and sought out Joseph Smith at
first translating the Book of Mormon
went slowly the Smith's faced attacks
from mobs trying to steal the gold
plates to keep them safe Joseph had to
move the gold plates from one hiding
place to another on top of it all
Joseph had his family and farm to attend
to nevertheless Joseph persisted by the
end of June 1829 the Book of Mormon was
translated it ended up being over 500
pages long and historians estimate
Joseph's translated it in about 65
working days everyone involved with the
translation of the Book of Mormon
believed they had seen a miracle Oliver
Cowdery testified under oath that
Joseph's translated the Book of Mormon
by divine authority Emma Smith said she
knew her husband couldn't have written
it himself due to his lack of formal
education to his dying day Joseph Smith
never stopped proclaiming that he
translated the Book of Mormon by the
gift and power of God years later Joseph
Smith's friend Martin Harris was asked
if he still believed that the Book of
Mormon had been translated by the power
of God he said just as surely as the sun
is shining on us so surely do I know
that the Book of Mormon was divinely
translated so how did we get the Book of
Mormon
let's review God called Joseph Smith to
be his prophet an angel named Moroni
told Joseph where to find ancient metal
plates that contained the Book of Mormon
and Joseph translated it by the gift and
power of God
after first being translated into
English the Book of Mormon is now
published in over 100 languages the Book
of Mormon teaches that God loves us and
he wants everyone no matter what
language they speak to know him and His
Son Jesus Christ now you know
you