To the
Remnant of the Seed
of The Book of Mormon
"And
at that day shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the
House
of Israel and that they are the covenant people of the Lord; And then
shall
they come to the knowledge of their forefathers and also a knowledge of
their redeemer."
By
Nephi - Prophet of Ancient America.
I
Nephi 4:17-18
A Record Unknown
The origins of the Native
American people are obscure. For many generations they have
tried to preserve the legends and traditions of the Native American
people. Some have
forgotten them all together.Other men have probed the earth for
clues,
trying to unravel the great mystery of the Native American's
beginnings. Many of the clues are
now lost to the eyes of man and we see only through
a darkened glass.
From the beginning it was not the
will
of the Great Spirit
that this darkness should last
but that the time would come when a record of these
things would come forth. And because of His love and through the
prayers
of His ancient prophets the day was to come that the glass
is no longer to be darkened and to those who would open their eyes and
hearts to the understanding of the Spirit shall come a greater light.
Above is a quote
from one of these prophets who spoke and wrote as the Great Spirit
commanded. There are many more prophecies and promises concerning the
Native American People and this land which is a land of their
inheritance, a land
of promise, a land set aside by the Great Spirit for
those who would live in Righteousness and follow Him, the
Chief
of all Chiefs.
In the last
years of Black
Elk, a Sioux holy man, he prayed this in hope for his people:
"…
with running tears I must say now that the tree has never bloomed… It
may
be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish
it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing
birds… Hear me in my sorrow, for I may never call again. O make my
people live!"
Today his tears would
be from joy that the root does live, that the tree is leafing and
blooming and being filled
with
singing birds. The Great Spirit has set his
hand
again to fulfill His promises and redeem His people.
A Record
Preserved
Some of the Native American
forefathers prayed that if the people should lose sight of their God
and
should fall because of unrighteousness that the sacred record which had
been kept of their history might be preserved and
brought forth at a later time. They rejoiced in the promise that
this
would be
done.
Even so, it was with great sorrow
that these prophets foresaw the wickedness and
final destruction of a once great people. Especially
sorrowful were those who lived in those terrible days and in vision
saw the
wanderings and sufferings of those who remained.
In fulfilling the promise
that the records would not be lost, the last prophet was
instructed
to take and hide them that they could be preserved for another
generation.
A
Record Revealed
In 1820, a young boy
named
Joseph Smith was praying for spiritual direction and the Great Spirit
appeared
to him and told him of a special work he was to do. Part of this work
was
to take these records and translate them. This he did and the book or
record
was called by the name of the last prophet, who compiled all of their
history, "The
Book of Mormon".
This book tells the story
of how God led a small group of people out of Jerusalem
before
it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., how they traveled many
years to a great sea and crossed over to this land. It
tells
of their growth and of a division that occurred among them.
It speaks of their times of kings, and judges, their conflicts,
migrations
and building of great cities.
The most important thing of this
history was in 33 A. D. when, as their prophets had
foretold, that the Son of the Great Spirit, the Healer, the Morning
Star, visited them and performed many miracles. He
taught
them, blessed their children and gave them power to continue His work.
For about 200 years these
people lived together in righteousness. There were no wars, no
persecutions,
no poor, and they prospered and multiplied.
Then because of pride and
greed and forgetting their Creator they began to divide and war with
one
another. Their end was tragic and only
warring and scattered tribes remained.
The
Promise
This last prophet who hid up
the records saw his people fall and mourned at the
loss
of the rich heritage they once had. The prophets were gone, the
records
were hid up, and the Spirit had ceased to work with
them. Their greatness faded as dew before the sun. But he knew, as the
Great Spirit had told him, that the
records and promises would return and to those upon whom the sun would
rise
he wrote this last promise:
"And
when you shall receive these things, I would exhort you that you would
ask God, the eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are
not true; And if he shall ask with a sincere heart, with a real
intent,
having faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth of
it unto you, by the power of the Holy
Ghost; and by the power of the Holy Ghost, you may know the truth of
all
things."
Moroni
10:4-5
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