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| ©Darrell Wyatt |
The internet is truly an amazing thing. With just a few clicks of my mouse, I can know everything newsworthy that is happening anywhere around the world. I can check to see what the temperature is in Chicago or Tokyo or Moscow. I can look up the menu for a restaurant in Hong Kong. I can even look up traffic reports in Sydney, Australia. It's really quite unbelievable, the information that I have, right at my fingertips.
I love to look at the statistical reports on my blog. There's a whole bunch of information about which posts have been read during any given period of time and by how many people, what internet platform each reader is using, and whether any comments have been posted. My favorite statistic to look at, though, is the audience stat. It tells me what country each reader is from. Including the United States, people from ten different countries on four different continents have read various posts that I've written. People from places like Canada and Russia and Brazil are reading about my thoughts and experiences. This is a little bit mind-blowing to me. People halfway across the world are interested in what is going on thousands of miles and oceans away.
I've always been very grateful to have the Book of Mormon, but today, as I was reading, I realized just how grateful I really am. I am reading of the time period during and just following the crucifixion of Christ. Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied of the signs that would be given at the time of Christ's death, and these signs were coming to pass.
...there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.
And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder.
And there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land.(3 Nephi 8:5-7)
Cities were swallowed up into the ocean or burned or buried. People were taken away in whirlwinds. The earth quaked and divided. All of this destruction lasted about three hours, and then there was complete darkness - just as Samuel the Lamanite had foretold. The darkness lasted for three days, during which the people mourned the loss of their brethren and also mourned the fact that they had not repented earlier. They didn't believe that the signs would ever come. They had lost any belief that they once had in Christ, but now that the prophesies were being fulfilled, they knew that they had been wrong.
I decided to do a side by side comparison between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I wanted to see what was happening on the other side of the world - in Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified - during this exact time in the Book of Mormon. What a wonderful experience this was for me! Of course I've read both the biblical account and the Book of Mormon account of the crucifixion of Christ before, but I have never read them together. I learned that much the same thing was happening in Jerusalem as it was on this continent.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, (Matthew 27:51-52)
I also learned that the people in Jerusalem were having the same type of reaction as the Nephites were.
Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.(Matthew 27:54)
Just like the Nephites, these people realized that they had been wrong in disbelieving the prophesies they had been given about Christ being the Messiah - the Savior of the World. Only after his death did both groups of people believe.
If it weren't for the Book of Mormon, I would only have an account of events that happened to the people that were with Christ on that great and terrible day. There would be no way for me to know what was happening to the people halfway around the world. The Nephites were as effected by the crucifixion of Christ as those people that were with Him in Golgotha. Christ died for their sins, also - not just for those who were on the same continent. How grateful I am for this record and for the opportunity that I have to read about one of the most important events in the history of the world from the perspective of a group of people half a world away. It truly is another witness of Jesus Christ.
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