Farewell

The time has come to say good-bye to this blog. In August 2016, I began this project to “flood the earth” with the Book of Mormon. Two and a half years and 773 blog entries later, I have completed my mission, having sadly not accomplished my goal. I set out to flood the earth one drop at a time. My blog has made only the tiniest of drops in the ocean of humanity that needs the message of the Book of Mormon. Perhaps it was only my thirst that needed to be slaked, but I have received a downpour of knowledge and inspiration from having studied the word of God and listened to the impressions of the Holy Ghost.

I will now leave it to others to take up the call of the prophets of God to send his word into the world while I pause and take a breath. Nevertheless, I will not stop studying the Book of Mormon. Even as I have recorded my learnings from a single pass through this sacred volume, additional subsequent readings have already added new layers to my understanding. I may feel impressed to share more truths in another forum and another time.

But for now, I close with a final testimony. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, brought forth in these last days by a prophet of God to witness afresh the reality and divinity of Jesus Christ. Through the words of the Book of Mormon, my faith in Christ has grown, deepened, and matured immeasurably. He is the anchor of my soul, the light of my life, my Savior and Redeemer. Without the Book of Mormon, my knowledge of Christ would be impoverished, my light only half lit, my soul tossed about. I thank God every day for the exquisite power of the Book of Mormon to touch my life and my heart. I join my testimony with millions of others: IT IS TRUE.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

--David A. Armstrong, Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019

Moroni 10:33

And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Here is hope! Moroni's final words are of hope. We can hope to be spotless and holy and acceptable to God because Christ has ransomed us and paid our price. God can be merciful because of Christ, which fills both the Father and the Son with joy. Their joy is our one true hope.

Moroni 10:32

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

We are perfected, or completed, only by Christ. We cannot do it on our own. All the self-help books in the world cannot change us enough to meet God's standards. Only Jesus and the atonement and the power of the Holy Ghost can make the kind of changes in us that qualify as perfection.  We must try and do our best, but we must always remember where the power to please God comes from.

Moroni 10:30

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

When we have faith in Christ and turn ourselves over to him, he can endow us with every gift we need to serve him. He will not let us fail. We must take the offered gifts, however, and use them. A gift unused is no gift at all. God will not help us if we do not accept the help.

Moroni 10:29

And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true.

Moroni appeals to God to prove his words. Or rather, he challenges us to look to God to prove that his writings are true. He knows the source of the truths he had written, and he directs us to go to that source to learn for ourselves. We do not have to take the word of any human. We can appeal to God himself. Moroni promises that God will give us an answer. No other book in the world makes such a bold assertion. No other book claims that God will testify of it. The test is infallible. The results are miraculous.

Moroni 10:26

And wo unto them who shall do these things away and die, for they die in their sins, and they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God; and I speak it according to the words of Christ; and I lie not.

If Joseph Smith made up these words as a fraud, he is the boldest liar in history. He is either a liar or a prophet. He does not quibble on the middle ground. It is so simple to take him at his word and put him to the test. Ask God. Surely the Lord would not let such a liar take his name in vain and not make the fraud known to any honest seeker. An evil man could not write such a book and a good man would not try -- unless it were true.

Moroni 10:25

And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.

Moroni wrote earlier that all good comes from God. Therefore, if anyone does anything truly good, he does it through God's grace, which are the gifts of the Spirit. The glory thus belongs to God. The definition, then, of a good work is something we do for God. The Savior scolded the hypocrites of his day for putting on a pious show of good for their own gain. True, they gave to the poor and prayed regularly, but they did these things for the wrong reasons. Therefore, they were not truly good works. They may have been helpful, but they were not good. According to Jesus, the widow who contributed two mites did more good than the rich man who donated a large sum, for she gave all she had to God, while the rich man kept most of his fortune for himself. If anyone does real good, it is because he or she has one goal in mind, which is to serve God with the gifts he has given them.

Moroni 10:23

And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.

Do you ever feel like your not good enough? That no matter what you do, you just don't measure up to be the best parent, coworker, sibling, or daughter or son you can be?

When you feel like insecurities are overwhelming you, President Eyring has the perfect, but sometimes overlooked, solution that will inspire confidence:

"If you will let your heart be drawn to the Savior, to always remember Him, and to our Heavenly Father in prayer, you will have put on spiritual armor. You will be protected against pride because you will know that any success comes not from your human powers. And you will be protected against the thoughts which come rushing in upon us that we are too weak, too inexperienced, too unworthy to do what we are called of God to do to serve and help save His children. We can have come into our hearts the reassurance recorded in this verse. There is another sure promise. It is this: Whether or not you choose to keep your covenant to always remember Him, He always remembers you."

Moroni 10:22

And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.

God gives us afflictions, but he does not give us despair. Trials are mandatory but misery is optional. Righteousness brings peace even in the midst of hard times. Sin brings sorrow even in the best of times. We cannot choose our consequences in spite of our actions, but rather, we choose our consequences by our actions.

Moroni 10:21

And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.

We cannot be saved without faith, hope, and charity because we will not be like God without these three attributes. The Savior can wipe away our sins, but he cannot change us against our wills. If we have not done the work to develop faith, hope, and charity, we will fall short of the full hope of Christ. He offers the gifts of the Spirit, but we must receive them for them to work in our lives.

Moroni 10:19

And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.

The logic of this verse is impeccable. God is always the same. He must be the same at all times, for he is perfect, and perfection is complete and unchanging. If perfection were to change, then it wasn't perfect to begin with, or it is no longer perfect now. If perfection is not absolute, then God is neither perfect nor absolute, and so he is no god at all. But if God is perfect and absolute, then he is unchanging. And being unchanging, he can do today what he did yesterday. In fact, he is guaranteed to keep doing the same things the same way because they are perfect. We either believe in a perfect, unchangeable God or we believe in no God at all. We either believe in gifts of the Spirit, revelation, and miracles today, or we believe they never existed. Any middle ground is simply illogical.

Moroni 10:7

And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.

God's power operates according to our faith. Our goal here is to learn to exercise faith, from which power comes. God himself works by faith. He has power because he has faith. We must therefore learn faith as a prerequisite to learning power. God's power does not vary, but as our imperfect faith fluctuates, his power in our lives waxes and wanes. Moroni is clear that it is not God who changed but us.

Moroni 10:4-5

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

If Joseph Smith was a fraud, this promise of a testimony from God would be the most audacious, outlandish, bold-faced lie ever perpetrated on the public. Joseph was either a lunatic or a prophet. He lays it all on the line. He invites us not to take his word for it nor to rely on the words of any other human. He says we should go to God and put it in his hands. Joseph was confident of the outcome. Millions have put this promise to the test and have found it to be true.

Moroni 10:3

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 merciful 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 ponder it in your hearts.

The first steps to conversion are to recognize, remember, and ponder. Conversion starts in the head with a conscious decision to consider the possibility that God is real and that he has been at work among mankind for our entire history. When I ponder that thought, it makes God alive and relevant to me. When I recognize how he has blessed others, I begin to see those same blessings in my own life, and I know the Lord has been at work in me all along. Remember and ponder -- we cannot come to God without these two essential habits.

Moroni 9:25

My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.

The bleak events of the world can weigh us down and overwhelm us. But they do not have to crush us. Christ can lift us, strengthen us, and comfort us, even in the midst of turmoil.

Moroni 9:6

And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

Our calling is to labor to the end. The outcome is in the Lord's hands. We count our success in sharing the gospel not by the number of converts, but by our faithfulness in the work. In the eyes of the Lord, a missionary who works diligently and tirelessly every day is as successful as one who baptizes hundreds. God is far more impressed with intent and effort than with numbers. The same is also true in the work we do in our families. We must labor to the end with our family, regardless of how unpromising the results may appear. God labors with each of us to the very last day. He expects us to do the same with each other.

Moroni 8:25

And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins;

To receive full forgiveness of our sins and to have them remitted or canceled from our account requires obedience on our part. Christ has already paid the price. The cost of our ransom has been covered by his atoning sacrifice. He is prepared to set us free whenever we qualify. To which commandments must we be obedient to become eligible to be ransomed and released from guilt? Repentance and baptism. While the Lord gives us many commandments to guide our lives and teach us how to live as he lives, the two things we must do for forgiveness and justification are repent and receive baptism. The doctrine is simple enough for an eight-year-old to understand.

Moroni 8:17

And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and partakers of salvation.

Mormon did not fill himself with charity. Christ filled him. Mormon had only to ask for it, accept it, and then act on it to retain it. Christ will fill all of us with charity if we earn his trust and show him in the little things that we are ready for bigger things. Charity expands and changes us. It grows us from the inside out. Like an inner tube, it is practically impossible to expand the tube to its full dimensions by tugging and stretching it from the outside. But as we pump air into it, it grows and expands at a rapid rate.  In its pitiful, deflated state, it is good for almost nothing, but fully inflated, it can serve many useful purposes.

Moroni 8:16

Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.

If we are afraid, it is because we do not have enough love. We either do not love the Lord, or we do not love others. When we put God and others ahead of ourselves, and are outward focused, we have no room for fear. Why would we fear those we love? Fear comes from wanting to look good more than wanting to do good.