# Book of Mormon (Plain English Version)/Jacob/Chapter 4

​Jacob values prophecies and records... (compare Jacob, chapter 4)
I have spoken many times to my people, but I can only write a small part of what I said because engraving on plates is so difficult.
We do it knowing what we engrave on metal plates will endure. Any other material we write on (parchment, skin, etc.) will not endure.
The little we engrave on our plates will give our children, and also our beloved brethren, the Lamanites, a little knowledge of ​us, their forefathers.
We work diligently to engrave these plates, hoping the Lamanites and their children in the last days will receive them with thankful hearts, and learn with joy, not sorrowing nor resenting Laman and Lemuel, their first parents.
We keep our records so they'll know we knew of Christ, and that we had a hope of His glory hundreds of years before He came, and that holy prophets who lived before us also had a hope of His glory.
Those prophets believed in Christ and worshipped the Father in His name as we do now. And like them, we keep the law of Moses, which points our souls to Christ. And our sacrifices are considered righteous, as was Abraham's, who offered his son Isaac--a symbol of God's offering of His Only Begotten Son.
We search the prophets' writings and have many revelations in the spirit of prophecy. With all these witnesses, we have hope.
Our faith becomes so strong we can command the trees, the mountains and the ocean in the name of Jesus, and they obey us.
But the Lord shows us our weaknesses so we may know it's by His grace and great kindness to His people that we have this power.
The Lord's works are great and marvelous! How deep His mysteries are! It's impossible for people to know all His ways, and no one knows His ways without revelation. This is why you should not despise revelation from God.
By His word, man, woman and the earth were created. So if God created the earth and everything on it by speaking, why ​can't He command all the elements of the earth as He so desires?
Pondering this, do not try to counsel the Lord. Take His counsel, for you know He counsels in wisdom, justice and great mercy over all His works.
Be reconciled to Him through the atonement of Christ, His Only Begotten Son.
If you do this, then through Christ's power, you may be among the first to be resurrected and presented to God.
Have faith in Him, and obtain a hope of glory in Him before He shows Himself in the flesh. Do not wonder that I tell you these things, for why should we not speak of the atonement of Christ, and seek a perfect knowledge of Him, of the resurrection, and of the world to come?
Those who prophesy should be understood by the people, for the Spirit speaks the truth and does not lie. He speaks of things as they really are, and as they really will be, explaining eternal truths to us plainly to save our souls.
We are not the only witnesses of these things, for God also told them to the prophets of old.
But the Jews were stubborn. They despised plain words and killed the prophets, looking for things they could not understand.
Because of their blindness, which came from looking beyond the mark, God gave them exactly what they wanted. He took away His plain words and gave them many things they could not understand. This is why they stumbled spiritually and fell.
​Now I, Jacob, am led by the Spirit to prophesy, for I sense by the workings of the Spirit in me, that because the Jews stumble, they will reject the stone upon which they might have built a safe foundation.
According to the scriptures, this stone will become the great, last and only sure foundation upon which they can build.
       Note: Christ is the cornerstone upon which to build (Helaman 5:12).
And how will it be possible for the Jews, after rejecting their sure foundation, to ever build upon it and make it their cornerstone? I will tell you how, as long as I do not get shaken from my determination in the Spirit and stumble because of my anxiety for you.
Speaking to all members of the house of Israel, the Lord's prophet, Zenos (who was martyred), told us exactly how the Jews will make Christ their cornerstone after rejecting Him for centuries: