Sunday, April 6, 2008

Favorite Conference Talk


My favorite conference talk was the first talk of the Sunday Afternoon session given by Jeffrey R. Holland. His talk was mainly describing how other religions think that the Book of Mormon cannot be the words of god because of the verse in Revelations 22:18-19 it says:

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Elder Holland explained so clearly that this was in no way related to bringing forth the Book of Mormon. It is known by New Testament scholars that the BOOK and the WORDS that the verses are referring to is JUST the book of Revelations. It cant be talking about the bible as a whole because the bible wasn't even compiled at that time. and another good point is that IF the verse "was" talking about the bible, then the words of prophets that came after Revelations namely "Luke" and "John" would be TECHNICALLY adding to the bible. Therefore we can clearly see that the Book of Mormon is just another testament of Jesus Christ. It just Re-affirms what is already written in the bible and adds many plain and precious things that were left out of the bible or taken away.

Ok so why is this my favorite talk you ask? The day before conference my friend Megan told me that one of her friends from college who is Catholic asked her that very question. He said "how we can claim the BOM as the word of god when Revelations clearly states that no more words can be added to the book?" my friend Megan knew the answer but its really hard to explain when you're put on the spot like that. she asked me what i would have said and I knew as well but its hard to come up with the words to say to explain it to somebody else! so since she asked me that, the question had been rolling around in my head all day and night. I was so shocked that Elder Holland's talk was directed right at the same question that was asked to me just the night before. It was almost as if the talk was directed to me. I felt the spirit so strong during his whole talk and i will always remember how he put those great words and now i will not be hesitant to share his talk with the next person who asks that question!

Here is the link to Elder Hollands talk : Click Here

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also read 2nd Nephi Chapter 29 if you have any doubt i think it is my favorite scripture that explains the need for both the Bible and Book of Mormon SOOO well.

1 comments:

Olivia Anne said...

I agree that Elder Holland's talk was absolutely fabulous! He does have a great way of explaining things like that. This topic is also a good thing to know when you are out on your mish Chris because I bet, if you go anywhere in the U.S. you will have this question! It's sad that many people who read the Bible do not realize that it is a collection of books and they are confused by this verse. This is one good reason why it is important to be educated.