This
quotation from Elder Dallin H. Oaks is worth pondering:
Sadly, some Latter-day Saints ridicule others for their reliance
on revelation. Such ridicule tends to come from those whose scholarly
credentials are high and whose spiritual credentials are low.
The Book of Mormon's major significance is its witness of Jesus
Christ as the only begotten Son of God the Eternal Father who redeems and saves
us from death and sin. If an account stands as a preeminent witness of Jesus
Christ, how can it possibly make no difference whether the account is fact or
fable—whether the persons really lived who prophesied of Christ and gave
eye witnesses of his appearances to them?
This is part of a response to the following position:
Some who term themselves believing Latter-day Saints are
advocating that Latter-day Saints should "abandon claims that [the Book of
Mormon] is a historical record of the ancient peoples of the Americas." They are promoting the feasibility of reading and
using the Book of Mormon as nothing more than a pious fiction with some
valuable contents. These practitioners of so-called higher criticism raise the
question of whether the Book of Mormon, which our prophets have put forward as
the preeminent scripture of this dispensation, is fact or fable—history
or just a story.
Among his conclusions, Elder Oaks lists the following:
5. Those scholars who rely
on faith and revelation as well as scholarship, and who assume the
authenticity of the Book of Mormon, must endure ridicule from those who disdain
these things of God.
