Knowledge of the Christ in the Book of Mormon is both prophetic and historical. To appreciate the full value of its testimony prophetically, the fact of the pre-existence of the Christ — that is, his existence as a personal spirit before his birth into mortal life — should be set forth and emphasized.

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A very impressive revelation of the pre-mortal spirit of the Christ is given in the abridged record of the Jaredites placed in the collection of the Nephite records, by the Prophet Moroni, who revealed the existence of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith. The Jaredites were the first colony brought from the Old World to America. They came from the Tower of Babel about the time of the confusion of languages. At the beginning of their voyage over the ocean their prophet leader was awed at the prospect of making the journey in darkness — and such was the structure of their vessels that the journey would have been made in darkness unless some special means could be improvised by which they could be lighted — and hence he took sixteen stones and prayed unto the Lord that he would touch them and make them luminous to give light in the vessel during the journey. And as God, thus implored, did so, the prophet beheld the finger of God. whereupon he pleaded for a full revelation of God and it was granted.

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In addition to this revelation of the Christ in the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Lehi, 600 years before the birth of Christ, beheld him and his apostles in vision (I Nephi 1:9-11); and the mission of the Messiah was also made known to this prophet. He was told of a prophet whom the Lord would raise up among the Jews "even a Messiah * * * a Savior of the world." "And he [Lehi] also spake concerning the prophets, how great a number had testified of these things concerning the Messiah, * * * this Redeemer of the world." (I Nephi 10:4, 5.)

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The birth of Christ to the Nephites — the ancient people of America — was manifested in a most singular and beautiful manner. It was signified to them in the fulfilment of one of their prophetic utterances of one of their prophets, (one Samuel) by the appearance of "great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it were day. Therefore, there shall be one day and a night, and a day, as if it were one day, and there were no night, and this shall be unto you a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun, and also of its setting; therefore, they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless, the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born. And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld, and this also shall be a sign unto you." (Helaman 14:3-5.) This is the prophecy, and it was literally fulfiled. (Ill Nephi Chap. 1.)

Advent of the Risen Christ Among the Nephites

Finally came the fulfilment of all the prophecies concerning the appearance of the Christ to the people of the Western World. And this is the manner of it:

The signs of the Christ's crucifixion to the people of the American continent was a three hour period of terrific storm and tempest and earthquake by which whole cities were destroyed, shore lines sunken, mountains rent and upheaved, and such cataclysmic destruction and changes wrought in the earth as perhaps were never before known to man. This was followed by three days of terrible darkness, during the three days that the Christ lay in the tomb. A time during which the lamentation and cries and moaning of the people were heard through the land. Then the reproving voice of God was tremulously heard through the land, upbraiding the people for their sins and announcing the doom of a fallen people and the destruction of their cities. Then came surcease of all this, and the remnant of the people who survived this period of destruction, as they were assembled about a temple in the land by them called Bountiful, and were talking of all the mighty changes that had taken place in the land, and of this Jesus Christ of whom all these things that had taken place were signs —

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Concluding Reflections

Thus the risen Christ visited the Western world, made known himself unto them; made known to them God's plan for man's salvation; taught them the fulness of the gospel; organized his Church among them; and gave them the same moral and spiritual laws that he had given to the people of the Eastern lands — placed them in the way of salvation; and the Church, so established, reaped a rich harvest of souls through a golden age of some three hundred years; then came departure from the way of righteousness, apostasy from God, wreckage of civilization, anarchy, ultimate barbarism! They reaped the full harvest of their apostasy from God. They sowed the wind, they reaped the whirlwind. The condition in which their posterity were found by the Europeans when they discovered them late in the fourteenth century A. D. — a state of barbarism, and their melancholy history under Gentile nation domination, since that event discloses, indeed,

"How blessings vanish, when man from God has strayed."

But by this revelation of what God did for the people of the Western world — making known the truth to them; making known the gospel to them — the covenant of everlasting life which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began; sending the risen Christ to them, that they might hear his voice and be brought to a knowledge of God, and led into the one fold of Christ — all this vindicates the justice and the mercy of God to the joy of all those who contemplate these high things, and become an added message concerning the handdealings of God toward men that is of great value — a new found "Fifth Gospel," to be joined to the four Gospels of the New Testament, that makes for the increase of the witnesses of God that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself to all nations as the Savior of the world and the Savior of men individually that dwell therein, to the praise of his Majesty, and to the glory of his name forever and forever.