The Story of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

George Reynolds , a General Authority of the church of Latter-Day Saints , considered this 1888 classic the first treatise on the Book of Mormon . The passion he had for this book of truth, and the influence he gained from it and expressed within the pages of this book continues to inspire current readers.
According to Latter-Day Saint belief, The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter-Day Saint movement which comprises writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from about 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published by Joseph Smith , in March 1830 as The Book of Mormon, which is An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi . The Book of Mormon is the earliest of the rare writings of the Latter-Day Saint movement, the values of which regard the text primarily as scripture, and secondarily as an ancient document of God’s dealings with the ancient citizens of the Americas.

The archaeological, ancient, and scientific associations do not recognize the Book of Mormon as an ancient history of current ancient events. The essential story of this book is the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection. This book has several unusual and special doctrinal discussions on topics such as the fall of Adam and Eve , the nature of the Christian atonement, eschatology, redemption from physical and spiritual death, and the group of the Latter-Day Saints church. It was divided into smaller books, written in English similar to the Early Modem English language style of the King James Version of the Bible —The Book of Mormon has been either fully or partially translated into 112 languages, and as of 2011, more than 150 million copies had been produced.

Joseph Smith said that he was only 17 years old when an angel of God named Moroni appeared to him and told that a collection of ancient writings buried near a hill in present-day Wayne Country, New York , imprinted on golden plates by ancient prophets. He said the writings describe a people whom God had brought from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus’ birth. Moroni was the last prophet among these people and had buried the record, which God promised to bring forth in the latter days, according to the narrative. Smith stated that this vision occurred on the evening of September 21. 1823, and that on the following day, via divine guidance, he located the burial location of the plates on this hill. Moroni instructed him to meet him at the same hill on September 22 of the following year to receive the further instructions. In four years from this date, the time would arrive for “bringing them forth”, i.e., translating them. Smith’s statement of these events recounts he received the plates on September 22, 1827, exactly four years from that date, and translated them into English.

Accounts vary of how Smith dictated the Book of Mormon. He mentioned he read the plates directly, using spectacles prepared by the Lord to translate. Other accounts variously say that he used one or more seer stones placed in a top hat. Beginning around 1832, it pointed out both the different spectacles and the seer stone to as the “ Brim and Thummim “.
During the translating process itself. Smith constantly separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them. The plates were not always present during the translating process. and when present, he always covered them up. Smith’s first published description of the plates said that the plates “appeared to be gold “. They were described by Martin Harris , one of Smith’s early scribes, as “fastened in the shape of a book by wires? Smith called the embedded writing on the plates “reformed Egyptian “. A part of the text on the plates was also “sealed ”according to his account, so its contents were not included in the Book of Mormon. Besides his account regarding the plates, eleven others said they saw the golden plates and, sometimes, handled them. There written testimonies are known as the Testimony of Three Witnesses and the Testimony of Eight Witnesses. These eye witness accounts were included in most editions of the Book of Mormon.

First Council of the Seventy

• George Reynolds was born on January 1, 1842, In Marylebone, London, United Kingdom and died on August 9, 1909, in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States because of meningitis.
• His father was George Reynolds and his mother was Julia A. Tautz.
• He was under the care of his maternal grandmother, Sarah White, during his childhood who occupied as a servant and also was an influencer to Reynolds to go to a gathering of Latter-Day-Saints church with her.
• He attended a sacrament meeting of the church’s Paddington Branch with his grandmother, and almost immediately decided that he wanted to become a member.

• In any case, his parents rejected to allow him to be baptized as a member of the church. Often, he would avoid his parents’ choices and attend the Sunday meetings in Paddington. When Reynolds was 14 years old, he visited the church’s Somers Town Branch, where he was unfamiliar, and requested acceptance into the church by baptism. Not realizing that his parents had forbidden the action. The branch president, George Teasdale, baptized him on May 4, 1856, and he was confirmed as a member of the church on May 11, 1856.
• He wedded his third and last wife, named Mary Goold on April 25, 1885. But like many early Latter-Day Saints, he practiced the religious principle of plural marriage. He had 3 wives and 32 children. One of his daughters wedded Joseph Fielding Smith.
• He had been jailed In Utah since the Utah Supreme Court confirmed his second conviction in June 1876. After his failed appeal to the Supreme Court, they transferred him from a jail in Utah to the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, where he became U.S. Prisoner Number 14 and was assigned to be the bookkeeper in the knitting department. He hardly survived In the Nebraska prison for 25 days, after which they transferred him to the Utah Territory Penitentiary, where regulations were more primitive and vermin more abundant. He reported the detainees could not have a fire for fear that the jail would burn down. On many wintry mornings, he would awaken and his beard would be one solid mass of ice. They released him from jail on January 20, 1881, having served his full sentence, less than 5 months for moral behavior. U.S. President Grover Cleveland absolved him in 1894.
• He continued his position as secretary to the First Presidency after being imprisoned. He also became an active organizer within the Deseret Sunday School Union (DSSU), serving as the editor and writing many articles for its publication, the Juvenile Instructor. Reynolds was an early or second assistant to three general superintendents of the DSSU from 1899 until his death in 1909. He was the second assistant to George Q. Cannon from 1899 to 1901; he became the first assistant to Lorenzo Snow In 1901, and he was also the first assistant to Joseph F. Smith from 1901 until 1909.

Published Works

• Reynolds, George (1879). The Book of Abraham: Its Authenticity Established as a Divine and Ancient Record: With Copious References to Ancient and Modern Authorities. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret New Printing & Publishing.
• (1888). The Story of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Jos. Hyrum Parry.
• (1900). A Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.
• (1891). A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon: Comprising Its Biographical, Geographical and Other Proper Names. Salt Lake City, Utah: Jos. Hyrum Parry.
• (1882). “Internal Evidences of the Book of Mormon: Showing the Absurdity of the ‘Spalding Story'”. Juvenile instructor. LDS Church. 17 (15-16): 235-38, 251-52. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• (1882). “The Book of Mormon and the Three Witnesses”. Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (18): 281. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• (1882). “Time Occupied in Translating the Book of Mormon”. Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (20): 315-317. Retrieved 2007.04-05

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