The Lord bore witness to the Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon “was given by inspiration” (D&C 20:10). Mormon confirms this in saying the Spirit had manifest to him the things he was writing (Mormon 3:20). The reason for his writing was because every soul who belongs to the family of Adam must be judged (v. 20). This was Mormon’s way of saying every person who ever had or ever would live on the earth would be judged. The Apostle Paul also bore testimony that all must appear before the judgment-bar: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).
The other records that bear witness to the Jews of Jesus Christ (Mormon 3:21) are the Book of Mormon and the record of the lost tribes. Nephi foretold that “the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews, and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel” (2 Nephi 29:13). Of course, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Joseph Smith Translation also testify of Christ. Mormon shows his love for all mankind in urging all people to repent before they come to the judgment bar (Mormon 3:22). Jacob, son of Lehi, gave a similar admonition: “Prepare your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the righteous, even the day of judgment, that ye may not shrink with awful fear; that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness, and be constrained to exclaim: Holy, holy are thy judgments, O Lord God Almighty—but I know my guilt; I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath obtained me, that I am a prey to his awful misery” (2 Nephi 9:46). May we prize the written and spoken words of the Apostles and prophets, and so live that we may look forward to the day when we will meet them at the judgment-seat of Christ. May we also prepare ourselves to meet the Savior at the gate where he is the keeper, for he cannot be deceived (see 2 Nephi 9:41 quoted above).