If You Believe The Bible, Than You Should Also Believe The Book of Mormon

Now before some of you get too annoyed by the title, please take the time to read on and comprehend where I’m coming from. I love the Bible. If I could open it to you I think you’d believe me. It is one of the most important guiding influences in my life today. It helps me to become an improved son, sibling, missionary, and friend. But here is my problem. I am trying to figure out why people are able to so easily consider the Bible, but are reluctant to even consider the possibility that The Book of Mormon might be true as well.

 

 

If you are to ask most Christians, they will tell you that they believe the Bible to be the ‘watertight’ word of God. I almost agree with them except for the perfect part. I've usually ask someone, well…”which Bible”? There are over hundreds of translations with minor differences in each of them. Some differences are agreeable, but then…others don’t even share the same story. Many people will say, “go back to the Greek”, I then reply, “you know Greek?” They’ll say… “Well no”, but my pastor does. So I’ll say, “What is the Greek going to do for us because Jesus and the apostles spoke Galilean Aramaic.” <I learned that from one of my companions. So in actuality, no one on this planet can show us the original manuscripts for the New Testament. They are gone! All we have are duplicates of duplicates of duplicates and hundreds of prejudiced translators “trying to get it correct”. So when a “Mormon” says, “No I can’t reproduce the ‘gold plates’ for you to look at”, it’s really not to different then a person saying that they can’t reproduce the original Bible for me to look at. The lack of the original isn’t a deal breaker for me and I’m supposing it’s not for you either.

 

 

Another question I might ask is who determined the Bible was going to consist of 66 books. There are 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books in the Bible. Why? Do we really need Songs of Solomon? Who received a revelation from God that those 66 books contained everything that God wanted us to know for the next 2000 plus years? Definitely not Peter, the Bible was compiled long after Peter was gone. Most people don’t even grasp that the Bible is not in chronological order. I admit, I didn't even know that myself until my mission. Revelation was definitely not the last book that was written even though it appears last in the New Testament. What about those “lost books?” What about 3rd Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9) or the epistle to the Church at Laodicea (Col. 4:16). What about the book of Jasher (Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18); book of the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:41); or the book of Samuel the seer (1 Chr. 29:29)?  What took place during the 40 day ministry found during Acts 1? What if there was something in one of those books that God wanted us to know?

 

My point in saying all of this is…

1. We need prophets! Amos 3:7  says “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Only a prophet that receives revelation is in a rank to tell us what should and should not be included in the “Word of God”. No preacher, reformer, or scholar is in a position to make that statement no matter how well intentioned it might be. To say the canon is bolted shut would require a revelation.

2. It takes just as much faith to assert that the Bible is true as it does to make the same assertion about the Book of Mormon being true.

Let me explain.

In Exodus 14 there is a man named Moses, a prophet that parts the Red Sea. Literally…the Hebrews walk through on solid, dry ground. In Joshua 10:12, the sun stood still and the moon didn’t move. What the? This is saying is that the earth stopped rotating! In Genesis 19:24-26, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt. In Numbers 22:28-30 a donkey speaks to his master. He pretty much tells him what’s up! In Judges 14-16, Samson kills 1,000 Philistines by himself…with a jawbone of a donkey. In Genesis 6, a man named Noah builds a ship and he and his wife, as well as 3 of their sons and their wives jump on board. Yep… along with two of every kind of animal, bird, and seed. The whole earth is afterwards flooded. In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (sweet names eh?) are walking in the midst of a roaring fire and remain unharmed and unburned. In 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah is taken up into heaven on a “chariot of fire”. In Matthew 14:25-26, Jesus is seen walking on water. Even Peter takes a few steps on the water himself! To crown it all off, we have the Virgin Birth and Atonement and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.



 These are just a few illustrations of things that happened in the Bible that most people agree to without questioning. In Matthew 23, Christ is confused by the Pharisees and their willingness to so easily accept the teachings and stories of Abraham and Moses but are so reluctant to even consider things that He was doing and teaching them at that precise moment. “A prophet hath no honor in his own country”.

Do these seem unbelievable? Of course they do! And yet so many of us still believe. Why? Because you know as well as I know, that with God, all things are possible and who are we to doubt or limit Him in what He can or cannot do? Does it sound any more believable that God appeared to a young boy in a grove of trees and that an ancient record was buried in the earth from the ancient days?

With all of that faith…I’m just so curious…how it’s so difficult for someone to give the Book of Mormon a chance. So many people deny Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon because “there is no way that could happen” or because “my friend told me it was a fake.” Well guess what. That is what people say about the Bible too…but do you believe them? No. So why not give the Book of Mormon a chance as well?

 

I tell you whole heartily…that I don’t know if I could even believe some things in the Bible if I did not have a second witness in the Book of Mormon to testify of the things that took place in the Bible! Did you realize that one of the main reasons the Book of Mormon was engraved and compiled was to testify of the Bible and help people who were unsure of the accuracy of the Bible?

Look at this amazing verse of scripture I came across a while ago.

For behold, this (the Book of Mormon) is written for the intent that ye may believe that (Bible); and if ye believe that (Bible) ye will believe this (Book of Mormon) also; and if ye believe this (Book of Mormon) ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.
(Mormon 7:8-9)

 

I believe that Heavenly Father saw the day we live in and that it would be full of nonbelievers and skeptics. He knew that people would begin to doubt the reality of God and His Son and the truthfulness of the Bible and so He called a prophet, once again, to translate an ancient record similar to the Bible as another testament of Jesus Christ.

All I’m saying is that if you’re willing to accept and believe the Bible, then why not give the Book of Mormon a possibility. Both take faith, and if what happened in the Bible is possible, then what happened in the Book of Mormon is also possible. The Book of Mormon in no way refutes the Bible. Instead, it supports it in every way shape and form. It is the stick of Joseph talked about in Ezek 37:15-17 and a record of the “other sheep” that Christ spoke about in John 10:16.

Just give it a read… it's something worth exploring.

Elder Falslev

No man can say that this book (laying his hand on the Bible) is true, is the word of the Lord, the way, is the guide-board in the path, and a charter by which we may learn the will of God; and at the same time say, that the Book of Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing it read, and learning its doctrines. There is not that person on the face of the earth who has not had the privilege of learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ from these two books, who can say that one is true, and the other is false.

-President Brigham Young

I love the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments. It is a source of great truth. That sacred and holy book has been of inestimable worth to the children of men. In fact, it was a passage from the Bible that inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith to go to a grove of trees near his home and kneel in prayer. What followed was the glorious vision that commenced the restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. That vision also began the process of bringing forth new scripture [the Book of Mormon] to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Bible in bearing witness to a wicked world that Jesus is the Christ and that God lives and loves His children and is still intimately involved in their salvation and exaltation.

-President Ezra Taft Benson