Side Lights on the Book of Mormon

Joseph Smith received a great spiritual education through contact with heavenly beings and learning of God’s dealings with men in the Book of Mormon. The literary structure of the Book of Mormon is complex, filled exposition of doctrine and many details regarding people, events, and things. The Book of Mormon clears up many disputed doctrines of the Bible, such as baptism, the Godhood of Christ, pre-earth life, the nature of man, the purpose of life, and others. Hebrew culture, customs, ideas, and mode of thought is at the very root of the book. Early converts to the Church—Thomas Marsh, Parley P. Pratt, Willard Richards, and others—received their testimony from reading the Book of Mormon.