BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
Let us know if you’d like to receive your own digital copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
Mormon Reflections on the Word: Firm Foundation
This week in class, we got to read and discuss a little bit more in depth one of my favorite Book of Mormon scriptures. Helaman 5:12 reads: “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” This scripture is just so strong to me. It shows just one of the many promises our Heavenly Father has in store for us if we keep His commandments and obey the teachings of the gospel. The verse is very straightforward and says, “when the devil” … not if the devil. We will all go through trials and the devil will test us. But if we have a solid foundation built upon the rock of our Redeemer, we will be able to withstand those challenges. After the mention of the devil testing us, it says that his temptations will “have no power over you.” It’s great to see that confirmation of how if we do our part in building a solid foundation, Heavenly Father will see us through it all, and as the scripture says, He won’t let us fall.
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