The Book of Mormon
~124 BC

Mosiah 5

After King Benjamin finished speaking, he sent word through the crowd, asking if they believed what he’d told them.

The People’s Covenant

They answered with one voice: 'Yes! We believe everything you’ve said. And we know it’s true because of the Spirit of the Lord Almighty. He’s changed us completely—changed our hearts—so that we don’t want to do evil anymore. All we want now is to do good.' 'Through God’s endless goodness and the power of his Spirit, we’ve seen what’s coming. If we needed to, we could prophesy about everything.' 'It’s our faith in what you’ve taught us that’s given us this deep understanding. That’s why we’re filled with such overwhelming joy.' 'We’re ready to make a covenant with God—to do his will and obey his commands in everything, for the rest of our lives. We don’t want to bring endless suffering on ourselves, the way the angel warned. We don’t want to drink from the cup of God’s anger.'

This was exactly what King Benjamin had hoped to hear. He said to them, 'You’ve spoken the words I wanted to hear. The covenant you’re making is a good and righteous one.'

Children of Christ

'Because of this covenant, you’ll be called the children of Christ—his sons and daughters. Today he has spiritually given birth to you. You say your hearts have been changed through faith in his name. So you’ve been born of him. You’ve become his sons and daughters.'

'Under him, you’re free. There’s no other way to be made free. No other name brings salvation. So I want you to take on the name of Christ—all of you who’ve made this covenant with God to stay faithful to the end.' 'Anyone who does this will stand at God’s right hand, because he’ll know the name he’s called by. He’ll be called by the name of Christ.'

'But whoever refuses to take on the name of Christ will be called by some other name—and he’ll find himself on God’s left hand.'

Guard the Name

'Remember: this is the name I told you I’d give you—the name that can never be erased unless you turn away from God. So be careful. Don’t let your sins erase that name from your hearts.' 'I’m telling you—keep that name written in your hearts always. That way you won’t end up on God’s left hand. You’ll recognize his voice when he calls you. You’ll know the name he calls you by.'

'How can someone know a master they’ve never served? A master who’s a stranger to them—someone far from their thoughts and intentions?' 'Let me ask you this: Would someone take his neighbor’s donkey and keep it? Of course not. He wouldn’t even let it graze with his own animals. He’d drive it away and kick it out. That’s how it’ll be with you if you don’t know the name you’re called by.'

'So stay steady. Don’t waver. Always overflow with good works, so that Christ the Lord God Almighty can seal you as his own. Then you’ll be brought to heaven—to everlasting salvation and eternal life—through the wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of the one who created everything in heaven and on earth. He is God above all. Amen.'

Influences

  • 5:1 — Luke 19:28 (KJV)
    And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
  • 5:3 — Titus 3:3 (KJV)
    For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
  • 5:3 — Westminster Confession chapter 5:4
    The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission,
  • 5:3 — 1 John 4:13 (KJV)
    Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
  • 5:3 — 1 Timothy 4:8 (KJV)
    For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
  • 5:5 — Hebrews 13:21 (KJV)
    Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
  • 5:5 — Revelation 14:10 (KJV)
    The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
  • 5:7 — Matthew 5:9 (KJV)
    Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
  • 5:7 — Acts 3:16 (KJV)
    And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
  • 5:7 — 1 John 2:29 (KJV)
    If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
  • 5:8 — John 8:33 (KJV)
    They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
  • 5:8 — Acts 4:12 (KJV)
    Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
  • 5:8 — 1 Peter 4:14 (KJV)
    If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
  • 5:9 — Romans 8:34 (KJV)
    Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
  • 5:11 — Matthew 6:1 (KJV)
    Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
  • 5:13 — John 7:15 (KJV)
    And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
  • 5:13 — Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)
    For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
  • 5:14 — Matthew 12:45 (KJV)
    Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
  • 5:14 — James 2:7 (KJV)
    Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
  • 5:15 — 1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV)
    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
  • 5:15 — 1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV)
    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
  • 5:15 — Luke 2:11 (KJV)
    For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
  • 5:15 — Revelation 19:6 (KJV)
    And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
  • 5:15 — John 6:40 (KJV)
    And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
  • 5:15 — 1 John 5:20 (KJV)
    And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Notes

  • 5:3

    "After some of Joseph Smith's family joined the Presbyterian faith in the mid-1820's, he evidently spent some time reading the Westminster Confession and Catechism, a vital part of that church. The Confession was formally adopted by the Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1729. Significantly, many phrases that are peculiar to that document appear in the Book of Mormon. The Westminster Confession, chapter 32, appears to be the source for Alma, chapter 40." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 28.

    See Footnotes on Alma 40:11, 12, 13, 14, 20.

    Additionally, compare the following:
    Mosiah 3:5-"The Lord... from all eternity"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 3:1-"God from all eternity"

    The word eternity is only used once in the KJV (Isaiah 57:15) and not in connection with the words from all.

    Mosiah 5:3-"infinite goodness of God"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 5:4-"infinite goodness of God"

    The word infinite is found only three times in the Bible and never in connection with goodness of God.

    Alma 42:2-"our first parents"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 6:1-"our first parents"

    All three of these words are found in the Bible, but they are never used in that order.

    Alma 5:18-"before the tribunal of God"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 33:1-"before the tribunal of Christ"

    The word tribunal is never used in the KJV.

    Mosiah 4:30-"thoughts, and your words, and your deeds"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 33:1-"thoughts, words, and deeds"

    Although these words are used in the Bible, they are not found in this order.

    2 Nephi 28:21-"carnal security"
    Westminster Confession, ch. 33:3-"carnal security"

    Although both these words are found in the Bible, they are not found together.

  • 5:15

    "When one begins to read the Book of Mormon, if he is well-acquainted with the Bible, he will at once be impressed with the large scale use of biblical materials in the book. Not only is there an unskilled mimicking of the style of the King James Version, but there is an artificial clarity added to that portion of the Book of Mormon that claims to date from the Old testament period. The contrived clarity is the result of writing back into that Old Testament period New Testament words, phrases and quotations, as well as the introduction of New Testament concepts and teachings into that time-frame... The frequency with which the Book of Mormon introduces this chronologically misplaced material into its text would required that God supernaturally provided this American colony with virtually the entire New testament text, as well as those portions of the Old Testament which postdated their departure for America... passages from the New Testament... are sprinkled generously into the speeches and sermons of Book of Mormon characters in the same manner as one might find them in the sermons of a Methodist or Baptist preacher of Joseph Smith's day....New testament concepts, interpretations and theology are all worked into the text itself." -Wesley P. Walters, The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon, (Master's thesis, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis Missouri, 1981), p. 7, 10-13.

    LDS author Grant Hardy writes, "In 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the book's first critics (and certainly the first one to read it carefully), famously observed that it seemed to weigh in on all the popular religious questions of the day, including 'infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry , the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the right of the man.' This is a fair list, and references to these topics-or their analogous counterparts-can be found throughout the Book of Mormon." -Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, p. 184

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