Jesus Christ’s Appearance in the Ancient Americas

“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world” (3 Nephi 11:10).

Image

Jesus Christ descends from Heaven in a beam of light in front of a temple in Land Bountiful.

God the Father introduced His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to the Nephites and invited them to hear Him. The resurrected Savior then descended and proclaimed that He had completed the Atonement and had “suffered the will of the Father in all things” (3 Nephi 11:11). The Savior invited the Nephites to feel the prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet and to know for themselves of His glorious Resurrection. After they did so one by one, they cried, “Hosanna!” and worshipped Him.

In the April 2023 general conference, Elder Gary E. Stevenson invited us to contemplate how the account of the resurrected Savior’s ministry in the Book of Mormon can enhance our Easter celebration:

Imagine: the Nephites at the temple actually touched the hands of the risen Lord! We hope to make these chapters in 3 Nephi as much a part of our Easter tradition as Luke 2 is of our Christmas tradition. In reality, the Book of Mormon shares the greatest Easter story ever told. Let it not be the greatest Easter story never told.

I invite you to look at the Book of Mormon in a new light and consider the profound witness it bears of the reality of the risen Christ as well as the richness and depth of the doctrine of Christ. (“The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told,” Liahona, May 2023, 8)

Read and Ponder

3 Nephi 11:1–17

How can you follow Elder Stevenson’s invitation to “model the teachings and celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Easter Story, with the same balance, fulness, and rich religious tradition of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Christmas story?” (“The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told,” Liahona, May 2023, 6).

Watch

“Jesus Christ Appears at the Temple”

Sing

“Easter Hosanna,” Children’s Songbook, 68