Jesus Christ’s presence as an active character in Third Nephi proves the Book of Mormon’s purpose of inviting all to come unto Christ.
When I was a missionary, my companion and I met every week with a recently baptized young adult. Our friend struggled with reading, so we would study the Book of Mormon together to help him understand it better. One day, my companion and I didn’t have very much time to prepare for our study session with our friend, so we arbitrarily decided to read 3 Nephi 11 with him.
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As we began to read about the resurrected Christ’s visit to America, our friend was shocked. “Wait, Jesus is actually in the Book of Mormon?” he asked. He had never read far enough to discover Jesus Christ’s visit to the Nephites. He was amazed to find that Christ is an active character in the Book of Mormon.
This experience made me realize that I had taken for granted my knowledge that Jesus Christ visited and ministered to people on the American continent. Seeing my friend’s amazement at this story caused me to think more about its importance.
In his talk “The Savior’s Visit to America,” President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Third Nephi is a book that should be read and read again. Its testimony of the resurrected Christ in America is given in purity and beauty.” It is significant here that President Benson emphasizes Christ’s ministry in America. What sets this ministry apart from his ministry in Jerusalem?
Jesus Christ is an important figure throughout the Bible, but we primarily read about his physical presence only in the New Testament when we get a glimpse at his three-year ministry in Israel. Similar to this section in the New Testament, Third Nephi is so unique because we get to see Jesus Christ teaching and ministering to people outside of his homeland, all the way across the ocean. In Third Nephi, Christ isn’t just a symbol, dream, vision, or voice but rather a tangible, physical, loving Savior who invites the people to come and see the scars in his hands and feet, one by one.
Getting to see Jesus Christ as an active character outside of the four gospels shows us that he is a universal Savior. This powerful knowledge brings the sense of amazement that my friend experienced the first time he read Third Nephi. When we read Third Nephi as President Benson invited us, we will gain a firm witness of Christ’s divine mission to save us all—past and present, Nephite and Lamanite, Israelite and Gentile.
Read Ezra Taft Benson’s full message in “The Savior’s Visit to America” to learn more about the importance of Third Nephi.
Source: General Conference
—Karlie Kelsch, Latter-day Saint Insights
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Find more insights
Read Catherine Niesporek’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Strengthening Our Foundation in Christ” for more inspiration about Jesus Christ.
Learn more about the importance of the Book of Mormon in Phoebe English’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “The Book of Mormon Reaches 200 Million Copies.”