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Devyn S., “Primary Builds My Testimony” Excerpt from mormonmentality.org

Yesterday, I was teaching my 8-10 year old Primary class about the 3 witnesses and the 8 witnesses to the Book of Mormon. We talked about the importance of witnesses which they all agreed was critical for Joseph Smith. We also talked about the witnesses that eventually left the Church – usually over disagreements with Joseph Smith. I then asked them how many of the witnesses recanted their story about seeing the plates. The students matter of factly said “none”. I asked why? Why wouldn’t these men recant their story when they stood to benefit while also able to do tremendous harm to this religion that they no longer accepted? The students answer was simple – “They were afraid of God”. Not sure any other answer is warranted beyond that.

This reminded me of one reason why I intellectually have to believe the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith. This is in addition to the spiritual manifestations I have received of the Book of Mormon. This is why I love Primary!

“Crazy Mormon Belief: More Scripture” Excerpt from realmormonism.com

Ok, so what’s the deal with Mormons having more scripture than the Bible? Haven’t they ever read Revelation 22:18:

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.

That seems pretty clear to me! But wait a second, let’s think through this for a minute. John wrote the book of Revelation that is quoted above. Many mainstream Christian scholars now acknowledge that Revelation was likely not the last book of the Bible that was written. Actually, it was probably the first one John wrote, even before the Gospel of John. Does that mean that John will have the plagues of God added to him?

I guess I should also mention that the Bible wasn’t compiled at the time John wrote that in Revelation and wouldn’t be for a long time. Does that mean that John was just writing that for the Book of Revelation and not for the entire Bible then?

Ok, so maybe this isn’t a crazy belief that the Mormons have. Of course John won’t have any plagues added to him, because YES, John was just referring to the Book of Revelation when he wrote that and not the entire Bible. Therefore, this scripture does not rule out further scripture.

Still not convinced, huh? What if we take a look at Deuteronomy 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.

When you compare that scripture with the one in Revelation, there are a lot of similarities. In fact, it sounds like the same warning. But it’s obvious to all Biblical readers that the one in Deuteronomy is referring only to that book of scripture and not the Bible up to that point (or else the rest of the Bible would be null and void).

In the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi Chapter 29, the Lord reveals:

Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles
of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

So, what are the key takeaways then? First, nothing in the Bible precludes there being additional scripture if the Lord so commands. Second, the Lord loves and has guided His children in all parts of the world, not just Jerusalem. As a result, this “crazy Mormon belief” of having additional scripture isn’t so crazy after all!

Clayton M. Christensen, “Testimony: Clayton M. Christensen” Excerpt from ldsaliveinchrist.com

Clayton M. Christensen is a returned LDS missionary and is currently a Professor at Harvard Business School. This is a portion of an essay he wrote, Why I Belong, and Why I Believe.

I was born into a wonderful Mormon family, and as I grew up I found few reasons to disbelieve the teachings of the church. My parents had deep faith in its precepts, and their example and encouragement were powerful -I believed in my parents, and I knew that they believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was not until I was 24, however, that I came to know these things for myself.

I had been given a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. After I had lived there for a few weeks, far away from the supportive environment in which I had been raised, it became clear that adhering to Mormonism in that environment was going to be very inconvenient. In fact, doing the sorts of things I described in the first part of this essay within the Mormon congregation in Oxford would preclude my participation in many of the things that had made Oxford such a rich experience for prior recipients of my scholarship. I decided, as a result, that the time had come for me to learn for certain and for myself whether Mormonism was true.

I had read the Book of Mormon before – seven times, to be exact. But in each of those instances I had read it by assignment – from my parents or a teacher – and my objective in reading it was to finish the book. This time, however, my objective was to find out if it was a true book or a fabrication.

Accordingly, I reserved the time from 11:00 until midnight, every night, to read the Book of Mormon next to the fireplace in my chilly room at the Queen’s College. I began each of those sessions by kneeling in verbal prayer. I told God, every night, that I was reading this to know if it was His truth. I told Him that I needed an answer to this question – because if it was not true I did not want to waste my time with this church and would search for something else. But if it was true, then I promised that I would devote my life to following its teachings, and to helping others do the same.

I then would sit in the chair and read a page in the Book of Mormon. I would stop at the bottom of the page and think about it. I would ask myself what the material on that page meant for the way I needed to conduct my life. I would then get on my knees and pray aloud again, asking the Lord to tell me if the book was true. I would then get back in the chair, turn the page, and repeat the process, for the remainder of the hour. I did this every evening.

After I had done this for several weeks, one evening in October, 1975, as I sat in the chair and opened the book following my prayer, I felt a marvelous spirit come into the room and envelop my body. I had never before felt such an intense feeling of peace and love. I started to cry, and did not want to stop. I knew then, from a source of understanding more powerful than anything I had ever felt in my life, that the book I was holding in my hands was true. It was hard to see through the tears. But as I opened it and began again to read, I saw in the words of the book a clarity and magnitude of God’s plan for us that I had never conceived before. The spirit stayed with me for that entire hour. And each night thereafter, as I prayed and then sat in that chair with the Book of Mormon, that same spirit returned. It changed my heart and my life forever.

It was as if I had been looking out as far as I could see toward the horizon, and had been quite satisfied that I could see everything that there was to see. When I undertook to read the Book of Mormon in that manner, however, I discovered that so much more beauty and truth about who we are and what God has in store for us, lies beyond that old horizon. I did not know what I did not know.

I love to go back to Oxford. As the beautiful, historic home of the world’s oldest university, the town is filled with students and tourists. To me, however, it is a sacred place. It is there that I learned that the fundamental message of the Book of Mormon is in fact true – that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is there that I learned that God is indeed my Father in Heaven. I am His son. He loves me, and even knows my name. And I learned that Joseph Smith, the man who translated the Book of Mormon and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a prophet of God in the same sense that Peter and Moses were prophets. I love to return to Oxford to remember the beautiful, powerful spirit that came to my heart and conveyed these messages to me.

During my adult life I have been blessed to witness or participate in many miracles – events that the scriptures term “gifts of the Spirit.” I have healed the sick by the power of the God. I have spoken with the gift of tongues. I have been blessed to see visions of eternity; and events in my future that have been important for me to foresee, have been revealed to me. These truly have been gifts, and have been great blessings in my life. But when I assess the collective impact that they have had on my faith, my heart, and my motivation to follow Jesus Christ, they pale in significance and power to those evenings I spent with the Book of Mormon in Oxford.

John A. Tvedtnes, “The Book of Mormon Helps Us Understand the Bible” Excerpt from bookofmormonresearch.org

One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to lend support to the Bible. About four centuries after the coming of Jesus Christ to visit the Nephites in the New World, Mormon wrote, “this [the Book of Mormon] is written for the intent that ye may believe that [the Bible]; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also” (Mormon 7:9).

In this article, we shall examine some of the ways in which the Book of Mormon helps us to understand the Bible.

Jesus is the Son of God

The first way in which the Book of Mormon supports the Bible is in testifying that the Bible is correct in declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Nephi, who had come from Jerusalem to the Americas six centuries before Christ, wrote that “according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (2 Nephi 25:19). More than four centuries later, one of Nephi’s descendants, a king named Benjamin, prophesied of the coming of the Savior: “And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary” (Mosiah 3:8). Alma, a prophet of the next generation, also declared that “the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God” (Alma 7:9-10). Four centuries after Christ came to teach the Nephites, Mormon, wrote, “Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God” (Mormon 7:5).

The Book of Mormon makes it clear that the prophecy of the servant of God in Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus Christ (see Mosiah 14-15). It also tells us that when Abraham was “obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac,” this was “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

Prophets Not mentioned in the Bible

The Book of Mormon prophet Helaman wrote that “all the holy prophets” of ancient times had testified of Christ to come (Helaman 8:16). He mentions the biblical prophets Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and mentions other prophets named Zenos, Zenock, Neum (Helaman 8:17-20). Several Bible passages mention prophets whose writings were lost in antiquity (1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22; 20:34; 26:22; 33:18-19). From the Book of Mormon, we learn that there were other prophets whose writings are no longer extant. This agrees with statements by some of the early Church Fathers of the first centuries after Christ, such as Eusebius, Augustine, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Justin Martyr, who sometimes quoted prophetic books that are no longer in our modern Bible.

Jesus’ “Other Sheep”

While at Jerusalem, Jesus told his disciples, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). But, he declared, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). The Book of Mormon tells us that these other sheep were the Nephites, whose ancestors had come from Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ. When he appeared to the Nephites after his resurrection, Jesus told them, “ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (3 Nephi 15:21).

The Sermon on the Mount

One of Christ’s most well-known sermons, the sermon on the mount, is recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. According to the Book of Mormon, he delivered this same message to the Nephites in the New World, but with a few changes (see 3 Nephi chapters 12-14). These changes give us insights into the meaning of his teaching. One of these changes is found in the beatitudes. Matthew 5:6 has Christ telling his disciples, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” The Book of Mormon version says “for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.”

After warnings about sexual temptation in Matthew 5:27-28, verses 29-30 contain enigmatic statements about cutting off one’s right eye or right hand if it offends. This may have been an idiomatic or symbolic expression that meant something to Jesus’ audience, but which we no longer understand. These expressions would probably have meant nothing to the Nephites, who lived across the ocean. So the Book of Mormon has Christ telling them, “Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things [temptations] to enter into your heart; for it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell” (3 Nephi 12:29-30). Thus, we learn that Christ was saying that we should resist sinful temptations.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Christ says not to concern oneself with food, clothing and shelter. This is strange counsel for mothers and fathers who have to care for not only themselves, but for their children. Was the Savior really saying that we should not go get a job and buy the necessities of life? Again, the Book of Mormon clarifies this situation by explaining that Jesus addressed these specific words to a select group of twelve disciples, whom he was sending out to preach the gospel (see 3 Nephi 13:25-34). Viewed in this light, it is likely that the words in the sixth chapter of Matthew were addressed only to the twelve apostles, not to all of Christ’s followers. It was while traveling in the service of God that the twelve were not to concern themselves about mundane matters, but to work to build up the kingdom of God.

Isaiah Texts

The Book of Mormon contains nearly 500 verses that are quoted from the biblical prophet Isaiah. About 70 of these are paraphrases. Of the remainder, half agree with the Bible reading and the other half vary from the Bible text. While some of these differences are insignificant, 234 of them improve our understanding of the Bible. Many of these are supported by different Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible (including the Dead Sea Scrolls) or by very early Bible translations, such as the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament produced in the second century B.C.

For example, Isaiah 2:16 contains the words “and upon all the ships of Tarshish,” while the Book of Mormon, when quoting this passage, reads, “and upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish” (2 Nephi 12:16). The additional line is not found in the Hebrew text of Isaiah. But the Septuagint reads, “and upon every ship of the sea” in place of “and upon all the ships of Tarshish.” The Book of Mormon preserves the reading of both the Hebrew and the Greek texts, which suggests that the Hebrew could have dropped one line while the Greek dropped a different line. The two lines together form a parallelism, which is a poetic feature found throughout the Bible and which is especially prominent in the writings of the prophet Isaiah.

When 2 Nephi 23:22 cites Isaiah 13:22, it adds the following phrase to the end of the verse: “For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish.” Different versions give partial support to the Book of Mormon addition. The Septuagint adds, “quickly shall it be done, and shall not be delayed,” while one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsa) adds “more (still, yet).” It is possible that the standard Hebrew text dropped this verse ending by a process known as haplography. The portion added in the Book of Mormon passage would begin with the Hebrew word KY, “for,” which happens to be the initial word in the next verse (Isaiah 14:1 = 2 Nephi 24:1). An early Hebrew scribe evidently let his eye skip from the first occurrence of this word to the second and left out the entire passage, which was kept in the Book of Mormon version. Moreover, Isaiah 14:1 is not a logical successor to Isaiah 13:22 without the Book of Mormon addition, which introduces the subject of the Lord’s mercy toward Israel.

There are many other examples of such variants in the Isaiah text that are clarified by the quotes from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, but these will suffice to demonstrate that one ancient scriptural text can sometimes be used to help understand another.

Higher and Lesser Laws

To the Galatians, the apostle Paul wrote, “Wherefore then serveth the law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed [Christ] should come to whom the promise was made” (Galatians 3:19). This suggests that the law of Moses was superimposed atop something else the Israelites had received from God–presumably something that was part of a higher law. Because the ten commandments are authoritatively cited as the word of God in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Book of Mormon, they must be part of the higher law that remained even under the covenant made at Sinai. They would therefore not be part of the lesser “handwriting of ordinances” of which Paul said that Christ “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14).

Christ told the Nephites, “in me is the law of Moses fulfilled” (3 Nephi 9:17; see also 3 Nephi 12:18-19, 46; 15:4-5, 8). But he seems to have suggested that only the lesser portion of that law had been fulfilled when he said, “Behold, ye have the commandments before you, and the law is fulfilled” (3 Nephi 12:19). The Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi, while noting that salvation does not come by the law of Moses, indicated that it was, nonetheless, important to keep the commandments that were part of that law (Mosiah 12:31-33; 13:27-30; see also Alma 25:16).

In order to understand this subject, we must note that the law of Moses was comprised of three divisions, the commandments (sometimes called “law” or “testimonies”), the statutes (sometimes called “ordinances”), and the judgments. These same three divisions of the law are listed in the Book of Mormon, where the word “performances” sometimes is substituted for “judgments.” From some of the Book of Mormon passages (Alma 30:3; 2 Nephi 25:24-25, 30; 4 Nephi 1:12), we learn that it was the statutes and judgments (or ordinances and performances) that would be done away in Christ, while the commandments would remain as part of the higher law that Christ revealed during his ministry. Thus, the Book of Mormon explains which part of the law of Moses was added, as Paul says, because the Israelites sinned.

Conclusions

From the things we have discussed here, it can be seen that the Book of Mormon lends support to the Bible and helps us to understand some difficult passages in the Bible. We have looked at only a few of those passages in this brief article.

The Book of Mormon also makes the point that the Bible is not the only volume of scripture inspired by God. Through the prophet Nephi, the Lord spoke to us in these latter days: “Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written” (2 Nephi 29:10). The Book of Mormon is one of the other books that God has given us to help us understand his will.

Notes:

. For a thorough study of Jesus’ sermons in the Old and New Worlds, see John W. Welch, The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount (Salt Lake City: Deseret and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990).

. For a book-length report, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon” (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies report No. TV?81, 1983). For a brief article on the subject, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” in Monte S. Nyman (ed.), Isaiah and the Prophets (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young Univ., in cooperation with Bookcraft, Inc., Salt Lake City, 1984), 164-177.

. In the Bible, see Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 13-14; 5:28; 6:20; 26:17; 28:45; 2 Kings 17:34, 37; 2 Chronicles 19:10; 29:19; 33:8; 34:31; Nehemiah 9:13-14; 10:30; Jeremiah 32:11.

.1 Nephi 17:22; 2 Nephi 5:10; 25:25, 30; Mosiah 6:6; Alma 8:17; 25:14-15; 31:9-10; 58:40; Helaman 3:20; 15:5; 4 Nephi 1:12.