The New Witness for Christ   The Doctrine & Covenants Lecture 03 by Hyrum Andrus
Channel: Light and Truth
Date: 2016-06-23

Hyrum L. Andrus All rights reserved August 15-18, 1991
Lecture – 3 THE NEW WITNESS FOR CHRIST
Our topic for this session is “The New Witness For Christ.” Let me begin with a statement or two by our living prophet, President Benson. “The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of the book. It is a record of a fallen people compiled by inspired men for our blessing. These people never had the Book of Mormon, it was meant for us.” [Witness and a Warning: A Modern- Day Prophet Testifies of the Book of Mormon p.7] It is a digest of the spiritual experience of the Nephite people.
He goes on to say, “Grave consequences hang on our response to the Book of Mormon. Those who receive it in faith, said the Lord, and work righteousness, shall receive a crown of eternal life. But those who harden their hearts in unbelief and reject it, it shall turn to their own condemnation. For the Lord God hath spoken it. Is the book of Mormon true? Yes. Whom is it for? Us. What is its purpose? To bring men to Christ. How does it do this? By testifying of Christ and revealing his enemies. How are we to use it? We are to get a testimony of it; we are to teach it. We are to hold it up as a standard. Have we been doing this? Not as we should, nor as we must. Do eternal consequences rest upon our response to this book? Yes, either to our blessing or to our condemnation. Every Latter-day Saint should make the study of the Book of Mormon a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise, he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life.
“There is a difference between a convert who is built on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon and stays hold on that iron rod, and one who does not.” [Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson p. 204] You can tell the flavor; there is a difference.
“Over a quarter of a century ago, I listened in the Tabernacle to these words: (Quoting Marion G. Romney) ‘A few years ago as I began to practice law, members of my family were a little uneasy. They were afraid I would lose my faith. I wanted to practice law, but I had an even greater desire to keep my testimony. So I decided upon a little procedure which I recommend to you. For thirty minutes each morning before I began the day’s work, I read from the Book of Mormon. In just a few minutes a day, I read the Book of Mormon through every year for 9 years. I know that it kept me in harmony so far as I did keep in harmony with the Spirit of the Lord. It will hold us as close to the Spirit of the Lord as anything I know.’” [Witness and a Warning: A Modern-Day Prophet Testifies of the Book of Mormon p.7, see also Conference Report, April 1949, pp. 36, 41]
These are some comments from President Benson. We all know to what extent he has been stressing that we make the Book of Mormon more fully and completely the basis of our lives.
In the Book of Mormon, Nephi and Ezekiel were contemporaries. They had one thing in common. They both had a vision of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as a new witness for Christ and as a divine instrument by which Israel would be gathered and reestablished in the last days. While Nephi was traveling southward through the Arabian Desert and locating in the land called Bountiful, Ezekiel was taken captive about 598 B.C. and carried captive into Babylon, where the Lord showed him many things about the last days.
In Ezekiel 37, he wrote of God’s word to him about the “stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph.” We are all familiar with this passage, but I would like to read it to you from the New English Translation, which uses archeological findings of a recent date to better understand and better interpret Ezekiel’s statement. So I read from the New Translation. You can start with verse 15 of Ezekiel 37 and read along with me if you would like.
From the New Standard Translation, then: “These were the words of the Lord unto me: Thou son of man, take one leaf of a wooden tablet and write on it, Judah and his associates of Israel. Take then another leaf and write on it, Joseph the leaf of Ephraim and all his associates of Israel. Now bring the two together to form one tablet. Then they will be a folding tablet in your hand. When your fellow countrymen ask you to tell them what you mean by this, say to them, These are the words of the Lord. I am taking the leaf of Joseph which belongs to Ephraim and his associate tribes, and joining to it the leaf of Judah. Thus, I shall make them one tablet, and they shall be one in my hand. The leaves on which you write shall be visible in your hands for all to see.
“Then say unto them: These are the words of the Lord God--I am gathering up the Israelites from their place of exile among the nations. I will assemble them from every quarter and restore them to their own soil.”
Some people read Ezekiel 37… Get the full transcription from www.hyrumandrus.com!