Portal:Latter-day Saints/Selected article
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| Books of the Book of Mormon |
The Book of Mormon is one of the sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement, named after the prophet/historian Mormon, who according to the text compiled most of the book. Published by the founder of the Mormon movement, Joseph Smith, Jr., in March 1830 in Palmyra, New York, the belief in the truthfulness of this book stands as the central dividing doctrine of the denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement from traditional Christian faiths. Adherents to its teachings are commonly referred to as "Mormons" or Latter-day Saints. The book asserts that it contains part of the history of three large ancient American civilizations, and that one of these, the Lamanites are "the principal ancestors of the American Indians." The book declares that its purpose is to testify of Jesus Christ through the writings of ancient prophets of the Western Hemisphere who traveled there from ancient Israel, probably between 625-575 BC. It asserts that it was abridged and compiled by the prophet/historian Mormon, and his son Moroni in the 5th century, for "the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God." Joseph Smith is said to have translated the record by divine inspiration with assistance from the Urim and Thummim from gold plates, which he claimed were returned to the angel Moroni later on.
Along with the Bible, which is also held by Latter Day Saints to be the Word of God, the Book of Mormon is esteemed as part of the canon of churches that grew out of the Latter Day Saint movement, founded by Joseph Smith, Jr.
The crowning event of the Book of Mormon is the visitation of the resurrected Christ to the Nephites around 34 AD, shortly after his ministry in Jerusalem (3 Nephi 11-26). Every prophet in the book teaches about Jesus.
