ARTICLE OF FAITH #8 - "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God."
ARTICLE OF FAITH #9 - "We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."
I'm frequently asked, "How could your church believe in any scripture other than the Bible". They then quote one or more of the following verses:
Deut. 4:2
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Deut. 12:32
"What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."
Rev. 22:18-19
"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."
These questions are easy to answer if one really studies these verses. There are essentially three points that need to be understood to help you to clearly see why it is we have no problem at all in accepting other works as true and accepted scripture from God. These three points are:
- What about other books that existed at that time?
- What is the chronology of these books?
- What is the real intent of these verses?
What about other books that existed at that time?
There are many books referenced in the Bible that are not included in the book we now recognize as the Bible. I will name only a few.
- "Book of the Covenant" - Exodus 24:7
- "Book of the wars of the LORD" - Numbers 21:14
- "Book of Jasher" - Joshua 10:13
- "Book of the Law of Moses" - Joshua 8:31
- "Book of the Law of God" - Joshua 24:26
- "Book of the Acts of Solomon" - 1 Kings 11:41
- "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel" - 1 Kings 14:19
- "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah" - 1 Kings 15:7
- "Book of Nathan the Prophet" - 1 Chronicles 29:29
- "Book of Gad the Seer" - 1 Chronicles 29:29
Genesis is called the "First Book of Moses" and Exodus is called the "Second Book of Moses". This numbering also includes Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as the third, fourth and fifth book of Moses. This would indicate that there are possibly other books of Moses that we don't yet find in the Bible.
Are these other records written by the hand of Moses to be excluded from what we call scripture simply because it isn't already found between the covers of the Bible you have on your desk?
I raise this question specifically because we do have an additional Book of Moses that was discovered buried with two mummies in Egypt. In the late 1830's this scroll was given to Joseph Smith to translate, because it was well known that he had translated the ancient record of The Book of Mormon and the owners were hopeful that he could also translate this record.
What is the chronology of these books?
None of these verses that I mentioned at the top are at the conclusion chronologically of the Bible. In each case there were many more things written and recorded by the hands of Prophets and the Apostles of Christ.
So if we are to assume their meaning is that beginning from that point in time, there would never be any further scripture written by any prophet or apostle, than we would essentially have to throw out the entire New Testament and the majority of the Old Testament because they were clearly written chronologically after Deuteronomy.
So we can see that this particular logic doesn't make much sense when discussed in these terms. So the next question is what was the authors intent when he wrote these verses?
What is the Intent of these Verses?
When Christ came to the earth he was constantly being challenged by the Jewish Priests who said that he was not following the Law of Moses. In Matthew Chapter 12, Jesus taught what the law of Moses was really about. The problem was that over time the priests would add a little here and a little there until the Law of Moses became the law of Men.
It is the gospel principals that these writers and verses are protecting. For example Christ has taught us to "Love one another". If someone were to try to improve upon this principal by teaching to their congregation; "We must show that we love one another with a kiss on the cheek of everyone we meet." This would be an obvious addition to the gospel principals that Christ taught and would then be in violation of these scriptural warnings.
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