LDS Quotes About the Restoration
“It is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater for new revelation than now…The doctrine of inspiration is lost. Miracles, prophecy, the holy life, exist as ancient history [only]. Men have come to speak of revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.”
| The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The Book of Mormon is not only the keystone of our religion, but it can also become the keystone of our testimonies so that when trials or unanswered questions confront us, it can hold our testimonies securely in place. This book is the one weight on the scales of truth that exceeds the combined weight of all the critics’ arguments. Why? Because if it is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet and this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, regardless of any historical or other arguments to the contrary. For this reason, the critics are intent on disproving the Book of Mormon, but the obstacles they face are insurmountable because this book is true.”
| "God’s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon," Conference October 2017
“For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”
| "Safety for the Soul," Conference October 2009
“Joseph Smith [as a young man] could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter; let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”
| in “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 290.
The war in heaven never ended, we simply switched battlefields. In pre-earth life Satan sought us by gift and was rejected with his plan by our Father in Heaven. Now, here upon the earth, he seeks us by the commission of sin. During the Missouri persecutions there were many who apostatized from the Church and even became enemies. The Prophet Joseph Smith spoke of their sad state and warned against apostasy.
At the conclusion of the Prophet’s remarks, Isaac Behunnin, a member of the Church, stated: “If I should leave this Church, I would not do as those men have done – I would go to some remote place where Mormonism had never been heard of, settle down, and no one would ever learn that I knew anything about it.” To which Joseph Smith replied: “Brother Behunnin, you don’t know what you would do. No doubt these men once thought as you do. Before you joined this church you stood on neutral ground. When the gospel was preached good and evil were set before you. You could choose either or neither. There were two opposite masters inviting you to serve them. When you joined this church you enlisted to serve God. When you did that you left the neutral ground, and you never can get back on to it. Should you forsake the Master you enlisted to serve, it will be by the instigation of the evil one, and you will follow his dictation and be his servant.” He [further] emphasized the fact that a man or woman who had not taken sides either with Christ or Belial could maintain a neutral position, but when they enlisted under either the one or the other, they left the neutral ground forever. (Juvenile Instructor, Aug. 15, 1892, p. 492). . . Why is it, then, that the apostates will not leave the Church alone? Because they are the servants of sin and have another master whose bidding they now do.
| Church News, January 4, 1997, p. 13
“The Restoration scriptures encourage us as individuals and as a Church community to seek after good everywhere and make it a part of our religion. ‘The grand fundamental principle of Mormonism is to receive truth let it come from where it may.’ As the prophet Joseph Smith stated: If the Methodists, Presbyterians, or others have any truth, then we should embrace it. One must ‘get all the good in the world’ if one wants to ‘come our a pure Mormon.'”
“I cannot believe in any of the creeds of the different denominations, because they all have some things in them I cannot subscribe to, though all of them have some truth. I want to come up into the presence of God, and learn all things; but the creeds set up stakes, and say, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further’; which I cannot subscribe to.”
| History of the Church, 4:536
“I have read—and I believe—the testimonies of those who experienced the grief of Christ’s crucifixion and the joy of His Resurrection. I have read—and I believe—the testimonies of those in the New World who were visited by the same risen Lord. I believe the testimony of one who, in this dispensation, spoke with the Father and the Son in a grove now called sacred and who gave his life, sealing that testimony with his blood.”
| “He Is Risen!”
| Things As They Really Are, 46;
“It seems to me an unreasonable thing, to suppose that there should be a God that has so much concern for us…and yet that he should never speak; that there should be no word [from him].”
| The Works of Jonathan Edwards