“I Desire That Ye Shall Plant This Word in Your Hearts”

Alan C. Miner

John Welch writes that all Book of Mormon prophets taught "more or less" (Mosiah 13:33; cf. Jacob 4:5) the same "word" of belief in Jesus Christ. In visions, public speeches, and personal statements they typically declared (1) that Jesus is the Son of God, (2) who would come down to earth to live as a mortal, (3) to heal the sick, cast out devils, and suffer physically and spiritually, (4) to take upon himself the sins of the world and redeem his people, (5) to be put to death by crucifixion and rise from the dead, (6) to bring to pass the resurrection of all mankind, (7) to judge all people in the last day according to their works.

For example, when Alma invited the Zoramite poor to plant that seed of faith in their hearts, the specific "word that he wanted them to plant appears to epitomize the basic Nephite testimony embracing these seven points:

[1] Believe in the Son of God, [2] that he will come to redeem his people, and [3] that he shall suffer and die [4] to atone for their sins; and [5] that he shall rise again from the dead, [6] which shall bring to pass the resurrection, [7] that all men shall stand before him to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.

And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts.

The prophets of the Book of Mormon regularly referred to these points when they testified of Christ. Accordingly, on another occasion, Alma essentially rehearsed the same seven points in the city of Gideon and expressly identified them as the "testimony in me" (see Alma 7:13). Indeed, it is reasonable to assume that Alma's "word" of faith in Christ represented a standard Nephite testimony that was regularly used in Alma's day.

No doubt these points of testimony were distilled from the words of the Nephite prophets who had preceded Alma. All seven elements can be found scattered throughout the writing of Nephi (1 Nephi 11:31-33; 19:9-10; 2 Nephi 25:12-13), Jacob (2 Nephi 9:5-15), Abinadi (Mosiah 15:5-9), and Benjamin (Mosiah 3:5-10). It appears that Alma molded them into a concise statement of belief that was especially useful in the newly-established churches in the land of Zarahemla over which he presided. This observation is corroborated by the fact that Amulek's testimony is quite similar to Alma's:

Yea, [1] he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, and the first and the last; and [2] he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and [4] he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else. Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, [6] the day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and [7] be judged according to their works. (Alma 11:39-41)

This basic patter persisted to the end of Nephite civilization, as is reflected in one of Moroni's last testimonies of Christ:

And because of the fall of man [2] came Jesus Christ, [1] even the Father and the Son; and [4] because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man. And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; year this is wherein all men are redeemed, [3] because the death of Christ [6] bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and [7] all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death. And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them. (Mormon 9:12-14)

Building upon this foundational testimony of Christ, each Book of Mormon prophet distinctively accented certain attributes of Jesus Christ. Judging simply from the names and titles that they used in referring to the Lord, we can see that each Book of Mormon prophet related to and testified of Jesus in his own personal ways, revealing to us things about Jesus Christ and also about the prophets who knew him. [John W. Welch, "Ten Testimonies of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon," F.A.R.M.S., 1994, pp. 1-3]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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