D&C 84:54-58
54 And your minds in times past have been darkened
because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things
you have
received—
55 Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole
church under condemnation.
56 And this condemnation resteth upon the children
of Zion, even all.
57 And they shall remain under this condemnation
until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of
Mormon and
the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but
to do
according to that which I have written—
58 That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion.
In April 1986 president Ezra Taft Benson said the following:
Unless
we
read the Book
of
Mormon and give heed to its teachings, the Lord has stated in
section 84 of
the Doctrine
and
Covenants that the whole Church is under condemnation:
“And this
condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.” (D&C
84:56.) The Lord continues: “And they shall remain under this
condemnation
until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of
Mormon and
the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but
to do
according to that which I have written.” (D&C
84:57.)
Now
we
not only need to say more
about
the Book of Mormon, but we need to do
more with it. Why? The Lord answers: “That they may bring forth fruit
meet for
their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and
judgment to be
poured out upon the children of Zion.” (D&C
84:58.) We have felt that scourge and judgment!
President Benson repeated his concern in the October 1986 conference address:
The Book of Mormon--Keystone
of Our
Religion
In
1829,
the Lord warned the Saints that they are not to trifle with sacred
things
(see D&C
6:12). Surely the Book of Mormon is a sacred thing, and yet many
trifle
with it, or in other words, take it lightly, treat it as though it is
of little
importance.
In
1832,
as some early missionaries returned from their fields of labor, the
Lord
reproved them for treating the Book of Mormon lightly. As a result of
that
attitude, he said, their minds had been darkened. Not only had
treating this
sacred book lightly brought a loss of light to themselves, it had
also brought
the whole Church under condemnation, even all the children of Zion.
And
then the Lord said, “And they shall remain under this condemnation
until they
repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon” (D&C
84:54–57).
Has
the
fact that we have had the Book of Mormon with us for over a century
and a
half made it seem less significant to us today?
Do we remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon? In the Bible
we have the Old
Testament and the New Testament. The word testament
is the English rendering of a Greek word that can also be translated
as covenant. Is this what
the Lord meant
when He called the Book of Mormon the “new covenant”? It is indeed
another
testament or witness of Jesus. This is one of the reasons why we have
recently
added the words “Another
Testament
of Jesus Christ” to the title of the Book of Mormon.
If
the
early Saints were rebuked for treating the Book of Mormon lightly,
are we
under any less condemnation if we do the same?
The Lord Himself bears testimony that it is of eternal
significance. Can
a small number of us bring the whole Church under condemnation because
we
trifle with sacred things? What will we say at the Judgment when we
stand
before Him and meet His probing gaze if we are among those described
as
forgetting the new covenant?
Dalin H. Oaks in 2010 acknowledged that we were still under condemnation.
I've carefully considered all of the reasons President Benson has given for studying the Book of Mormon. One reason stands out above all the rest. I believe that it was the neglect--the treating lightly--of this subject that brought the early Church under condemnation. I believe it is the neglect of this subject that has continued the condemnation in our own day.