'Read Book of Mormon' is message to members from today's prophet
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Throughout his ministry as an apostle and as president of the Church, President Ezra Taft Benson has encouraged members to read the Book of Mormon.
In an October 1988 general conference address, President Benson said: "At present, the Book of Mormon is studied in our Sunday School and seminary classes every fourth year. This pattern, however, must not be followed by Church members in their personal and family study. We need to read daily from the pages of the book that will get a man `nearer to God by abiding its precepts, than by any other book.' (See History of the Church 4:461.)"And when we are called upon to study or teach other scriptures, we need to strengthen that undertaking by frequent reference to the additional insights which the Book of Mormon may provide on the subject." (See 1 Ne. 13:40, 2 Ne. 3:12.)
President Benson, in regional conference addresses, explained that "the Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic means. First, it tells in a plain manner of Christ and His gospel. It testifies of His divinity and of the necessity for a Redeemer and the need of our putting trust in Him. It bears witness of the Fall and the Atonement and the first principles of the gospel, including our need of a broken heart and a contrite spirit and a spiritual rebirth. It proclaims we must endure to the end in righteousness and live the moral life of a Saint. . . ."
"We are to use the Book of Mormon as the basis for our teaching. . . ." (See D&C 42:12.)
