QUOTE: “It is not unusual to have a missionary say, ‘How can I bear testimony until I get one? How can I testify that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that the gospel is true? If I do not have such a testimony, would that not be dishonest?’ Oh, if I could teach you this one principle. A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it! Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that ‘leap of faith,’ as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two.” –Boyd K. Packer, 25 June 1982. Printed in the Ensign, January 1983. [source]
QUOTE: “The Book of Mormon is indeed a miraculous miracle. • It is not a textbook of history, although some history is found within its pages. It is not a definitive work on ancient American agriculture or politics. It is not a record of all former inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, but only of particular groups of people. • The Book of Mormon is true. It is irrefutable.” –Russell M. Nelson, 23 June 2016. [source]
COMMENTARY: If you are a Mormon, and if you love and appreciate the Book of Mormon, do you claim to know it to be true? If so, why? How did you arrive at your conclusion? What facts do you have at your disposal that give you the confidence to use the words “know” and “true” when you talk about the Book of Mormon? My guess is that you have been socially conditioned to use those words but that if you think critically about them you cannot actually defend their honest use in this context. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
