This Book of Mormon: What My Friend from Harvard Said...

My dear friend, attorney, mission president, Howard J. Marsh sat me in his office in Venezuela, and said regarding the Book of Mormon, "It's like the Cartesian Doubt exercise. You will remember how Rene Descartes doubted everything away."

Marsh went to Harvard Law School and was the editor of the Law Review. He continued, " You can doubt everything away: Joseph Smith, the prophets, the angel Moroni, the gold plates - everything; doubt it all away. And you are left with the book in front of you. It is physical; it's there; you can handle it. Where did it come from? Given the extraordinary amount of internal and external evidences supporting it, you must ask yourself: Could the ploughboy Joseph have produced it?"

Now, at this point I am well aware of the arguments against it, as was Howard J. Marsh, visiting scholar at Oxford - from arguments like the Spaulding manuscript, to the "no credible archeology" argument; from it being the product of the 19th Century American scene, to horses, peep stones, and salamanders; from gold digger, to philanderer. I have heard it all.

(For more detailed discussion on these topics go to http://www.fairlds.org/ ) However, one need only read 3 Nephi 17 on pages 440 -441 in that Book; then, tell me what you think.

One visiting scholar of the Apocrypha, a Methodist minister, said of Nephi's Chapter 17, that of all the Apocrypha he'd ever studied, "your chapter 17 is the most beautiful I've ever read." That, for me, is the least of the arguments.

Those who love the words of Christ will love the words in this Book, for they are Christ's. I bear witness that they are the Words of Christ. I have listened to the witness of Jesus born by your tele-evangelists, and have felt the Spirit of God moving with them, as they bore testimony of accepting Jesus. He that believeth in Christ and is baptized the same shall be saved; I know this to be true. Likewise, I hear and know His voice in the passages of 3 Nephi chapter 17! And that for me, is much.

But most is His witness of Grace in my life - after all I can do, which in the eternal measure is close to nothing - but it still must be done! For without His Charity, we are as tinkling brass and sounding cymbal. So we must pray with all the energy of heart that we may be filled with His love.

And so as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, I humbly petition you, with all the tender feelings of hearts knit together in His love, pick up the Book one more time - just once more, and....May His Grace be with you ever, my fellow citizens in Christ!