Do Scriptural Miracles REALLY Matter?

Here are a few quick questions, easy enough to answer. Answer them personally.

• Does it matter that Jesus Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene three days after being laid dead in a tomb?
  
• Does it matter that the Savior and His Father appeared to Joseph Smith in a grove of trees behind Joseph's farm house?
  
• Does it matter that we have the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other accounts of God's dealings with men and women here on Earth?
  

I could ask a few other questions, but you get the point. Or so you think. I'm going to give an answer that you might find surprising: Maybe not. 

Now, don't get to uppity, I will explain!

Spiritual experiences are powerful. They allow us to feel God's love, grace, and almighty power. They show
us that there is a Being out there who knows us, hears us, and is willing and maybe even eager to interact with us. They can confirm our hopes or they can point us in directions that we have never imagined. 

But the three questions all refer to other people's spiritual experiences. I'm sure having a resurrected Messiah appear to Mary was pivotal for Mary. I'm sure having the "two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description" was life changing for Joseph. Other stories found in scripture show people who develop dramatic and powerful relationships with deity, be it the story of Moses, of the Brother of Jared, of Nephi, or of Paul the Apostle.

Here's the real kicker, though: None of this matters if we don't have our own spiritual experience as a result of these events. By this, I mean solely as pertains to our life here on Earth. Clearly, if the account of the Savior's resurrection is true and if the story of the Restoration is true, they will affect all of us in the end. So, like I said, for the sake of this post, I mean these things only matter in mortality if they lead to a spiritual experience of our own. If we don't get a spiritual confirmation, a witness from our Heavenly Father that these events are real, then they will never change us here in mortality.

2 Nephi 33:1 teaches, "For when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." See, when we teach with the Spirit, the Spirit testifies of truth. When I learned of the resurrection of the long-
awaited Messiah, it wasn't the fact that He rose that has changed my life (at least in mortality), but what has changed my life is that I know that He rose. When I learned about the First Vision, it wasn't the appearance itself that has changed my life, but the fact that I know that Joseph Smith did, in fact, have his prayers answered in such a dramatic way. When I learned about Elijah's soaking wet altar bursting into flames, or of Nephi's voyage across the great deep, or of Peter's vision which opened the teaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, none of these things mattered until I knew that they were true.

In my life, I have had many spiritual experiences myself. Within a month of going on a mission, I seriously, seriously doubted the truthfulness of the gospel that I was about to spend two years teaching. An experience involving an answered prayer and a slap-in-the-face Book of Mormon passage changed that entirely. On my mission, I had an experience where all of our plans cancelled, only to randomly call a lady who had prayed earlier that day for the first time in years, asking God for a helping hand. I have had thoughts flow into my mind, linking ideas that have at one point confounded me, in ways and in situations that could not have been from myself.

But again, none of this matters to you!!! What matters is the spiritual experiences that you have. If you have a spiritual experience by hearing of my spiritual experience, then wonderful! One of the biggest blessings of the Restored Gospel is that we do not have to take other people's experiences and learn only from them. We can experience our own. We can become converted ourselves. Not to a relationship between God a prophet who died hundreds of years before Christ. Not to a relationship between God and a current Church leader. But to a relationship between God and us!

"The Bible is not religion; it is a history of those who had religion, " said Joseph Fielding McConkie. So, what the religion of the Bible? What was the religion that Christ left? John 17:3 answers this perfectly:

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

Religion points us to knowing God. Blake Ostler explains the work of missionaries by saying,

"We don’t say, 'Trust me and my brain and how well I can argue;' we say, 'Despite the fact that I’m not such a great instrument, you can get it for yourself and you don’t have to rely on me.'"

What do we offer? We offer a way to know God. We testify that we have had spiritual experiences, those in the scriptures have had spiritual experiences, and everyone can have spiritual experiences. Through a combination of these experiences and faith, which links the fact that we know we had these experiences and that we hope that they truly came from God, we all can come to know our loving Father in Heaven in the same way as those who we learn about. It doesn't matter to you if Alma the Younger or Abraham or John the Beloved knew God; what truly matters is if you know God.