“I’ve been told the Book of Mormon is true”

I was handing out gospel tracts at the Santa-Cali-Gon festival last Friday evening when a 16 year old girl named Kelsey handed me a tract about the Book of Mormon.  The tract said the Book of Mormon was God’s word, more reliable than the bible itself.

I asked her “Why do you believe in the book of Mormon?”  She said, “I’ve been told the Book of Mormon is true.”

“Who told you that?” I asked.

She said, “My parents told me this.”

I said, “Wouldn’t it be better to KNOW the book of Mormon is true rather than simply believing what other people want you to believe?”

She stared at me for a few seconds…it was almost as if…she were thinking for the first time.

I said, “If you are going to believe in something you should KNOW its true.  I can tell you the book of Mormon mentions cities, battles that took place, crops, animals, languages spoken that cannot be found by secular archeologists.  If the Book of Mormon were true then there would be evidence found, but there isn’t.  For example, the Book of Mormon says people in ancient America spoke a language called Ancient Reformed Egyptian.  But secular linguists who are experts on ancient America have never heard of it.  The Book of Mormon mentions the people used metal coins for transactions and used metal weapons in battle, yet secular anthropologists cannot find any evidence of metal used in ancient America at all.  People in those days used stone tools and stone weapons.  This means the Book of Mormon is…wrong.”

I continued, “In fact the Book of Mormon is wrong about most of what it says, it cannot possibly be written by God.  Kelsey, the bible is the opposite.  Its been proven to be true from its prophecies in Daniel about world kingdoms to the prophecies of Christ’s first coming to the cities it mentions to certain kings ruling at a certain time, etc..  Kelsey, do you think its better to have evidence for your faith rather than have none at all?”

She stood there silently considering what I just told her, until finally she replied, “Yes!”

I said, “I know you are told to pray to the Holy Spirit to see if the Book of Mormon is true.  If you get a burning in the bosom that means its true.  Why would the Holy Spirit do this with a book that is so full of errors?  You can’t base your eternity on a feeling you get in your heart.  A major theme of the bible is that the human heart is deceptive, wicked and you cannot trust in it for truth.  It really doesn’t matter what I believe in my heart if there is no evidence for it…because there is an objective reality outside of my belief.  If I believe the cars that are passing by are not there and I step off the curb in front of one I am going to find out the hard way the belief in my heart is wrong.  You can be sincere in your belief and be sincerely wrong.”

She stood there for a few seconds and then told me she agreed.

I urged her to study what I told her and find evidence of her belief.  Eventually I walked through the law of God with her where she admitted to sinning against God.  I’m praying she will come out of the Book of Mormon to the truth of the bible.

Please pray for Kelsey.