Beliefs > Question & Answer > Questions about Jesus Christ

Question

I read your Statement of Beliefs with great interest. A couple of elders from your church called on me a few years ago, offering me a Book of Mormon. As I knew virtually nothing about the Mormons, I read through most of it. But there are some disturbing questions I have, such as why, if Native Americans are descendants of Israel, are there no historical records of them converting to Christianity? Until the Europeans showed up, they had apparently never heard of Jesus, and in fact, had some pretty pagan practices.

Response

If you read until the end of the book, you would have seen why these Israelite descendants did fall away from the truth of Christianity that they did have at one time. Prophets predicted it, and the Savior himself, when He visited this continent, told the people that four generations after His coming they would live in peace. He said how great His joy was about the generation which lived when He visited them but this "falling away" would come because they would listen to the spirit of Satan; they would lose their love and divide, and the result would be their entire annihilation as a nation. Four generations later the Nephites were destroyed by the Lamanites because they became proud and practiced all kinds of wickedness, refusing to repent and turn toward God even though the prophets warned them. They became more wicked than the Lamanites. This is all recorded in 3 Nephi 27:30-32 in The Book of Mormon. Now, just before their final overthrow, a man by the name of Mormon took their record containing their history and sacred writings, since the time they left Jerusalem, and made a condensed outline, or an abridgment on plates of ore. These plates, after Mormon's death, fell into the hands of his son Moroni, who survived the entire destruction of the Nephites. He finished the record and deposited it in a stone box in the ground so it wouldn't be destroyed, to come forth sometime in the future for a sign to Israel, that the time of their redemption had come. This record, which we now have, is known as The Book of Mormon. Along with the Bible, it is an ensign or testament that Jesus is the Christ. It's interesting to compare this event with Isaiah 29:4. Also, Moroni's account written in chapter 8 of Mormon is very touching. Sincerely, Donny Osmond See related multimedia presentations

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