The CT is a testimony of Jesus Christ
The First Reason: The CT SAYS just that, in several ways.
There apparently are two forms of ‘CHRIST-INSPIRED’ characters. As I read them, the ‘Christ-inspired’ characters refer to the divinity of the Book of Mormon in at least two sets of repeated, composite characters. These are the
- ‘of-Christ’ and
- ‘Christ caused-to-be’ characters.
At present, I consider both of these to mean essentially the same thing: ‘Christ-inspired.’ Thus, I will address both of these forms together.
In honesty, however, I must also concede that both of the two original authors used both of these forms, and thus, to them (Mormon and Moroni), there must have been some logical reason for making the distinctions between them. But to me, as I understand them today, they are so similar in meaning that I continue to use the term ‘Christ-inspired’ for both forms. I am not rigid in that impression, and certainly am open to making changes reflective of any new distinctions that I may find in the future. But for the present, I think of both sets of characters as meaning ‘Christ-inspired’.
There are also the ‘Jesus’ characters that include the name of Jesus. To me, this indicates that the message is FROM Jesus, or is divinely inspired.
We will examine evidence of all of these repeating basic characters.
Christ-Inspired characters
The following two graphics are representations of those characters seen as meaning: ‘Christ-Inspired’.
Caused-to-be characters
Christ caused-to-be is embedded within:
- A7 (Christ causedtobe interpretation),
- A23 (Christ causedtobe the record),
- E18 (Christ causedtobe Lord tongue), and
- F14 (Christ causedtobe Lord tongue record—perhaps the difference in interpretation is due to faulty copying of original characters, and if so, E18 and F14 have identical meanings).
Christ caused-to-be is also embedded within the:
- A25 (Christ causedtobe the plates writings for Israel prophetic) and
- D4 characters(At present, the omission of ‘writings’ at bottom of left side of D4 is taken to be a copying error and meanings of A25 and D4 were intended to be the same character).
(At present, the omission of ‘writings’ at bottom of left side of D4 is taken to be a copying error and meanings of A25 and D4 were intended to be the same character).
Of-Christ characters
The ‘Of-Christ’ character by itself, can be found at C10 and F12.
Of-Christ is also embedded in:
- A18 (of-Christ gift),
- D6 (of-Christ for people promise preserved),
- B2 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel),
- B16 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel prophetic),
- E9 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel),
- E21 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel),
- F32 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel), and
- G12 (of-Christ plates writings for Israel—G11 and G12 should be a single character.)
Jesus Characters
Consider the following 2 graphics.
The word Jesus by itself can be found in: C6, G10, G22
The word Jesus is also embedded in:
- C15 (Jesus Lord testimony plates),
- D9 (from Jesus),
- F1 (Jesus Christ Lord of)
Jesus paired with Christ
The Jesus Christ combination by itself is at F1 (but the full meaning of F1 is: “Jesus Christ Lord of”.) This is the only location of the combination, ‘Jesus Christ.’
A partial translation of characters F1 through F5 (ignoring an introductory phrase that this record is taken from the language of Nephi at the end of line E) contains this transliterated phrase:
Jesus Christ Lord of [F1] testimony [F2] Judah [F3] people [F4] of the king heir Lord [F5]
which I interpret as meaning in English:
“a testimony to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
“a testimony [F2] to the Jews [F3/F4] that Jesus is the Christ [F1], the Son of God [F5].”
While the combination, Jesus Christ, is found at only one location (i.e., F1), the connection is linked with some of the above combinations in character string B24 to C16 where it is transliterated (i.e., a word-for-word translation, shown in the sequence written—but often not in the sequence of the English language) as:
“The record of prophecy [B24] abridged of the record [C1] by commandment [C2] from [C3] Christ-tongue record [C4] abridged [C5] Jesus [C6] by strongest commandment [C7] of [C8] revelation [C9] of-Christ [C10] abridged [C11] tribe [C12] Brother of Jared [C13] Jesus Lord testimony plates [C15] tribe language Lord [C16]”
I interpret the above transliteration (a word-for-word translation) as meaning in English:
[Note: words shown in smaller gray font are not in the transliteration, but are inserted to facilitate the English understanding.]
“This record of prophecy has been abridged by commandment, taken from the Jaredite language record by the strongest commandment of Jesus and includes a revelation of Christ abridged from the Jaredite language of the tribe of the Brother of Jared written in the plates that testify of Jesus.”
“This record of prophecy [B24] has been abridged [C1] by commandment [C2] taken from [C3] the Jaredite language record [C1, C5/C4] by the strongest commandment [C7] of [C8] Jesus [C6] and includes a revelation [C9] of Christ [C10] abridged [C11] from the Jaredite language [C12/C16] of the tribe [C13] of the Brother of Jared [C14] written in the plates that testify of Jesus [C15].”
Thus, we have seen three different types of CT characters that attest to the divinity of the Book of Mormon record. Each occurs multiple times, always with the same basic meaning: ‘Christ-inspired x’ with ‘x’ being what was inspired about the message:
- the interpretation [A7]
- of Lord-tongue record [F14]
- plates-writings for Israel [A25]
- etc.
Throughout the text, the meanings that I have shown are consistent and clear:
God inspired this record and it is a testimony of Jesus!
