Posted on 02/23/2010 9:54:36 AM PST by greyfoxx39
The truth is that the Church reveres the Bible as a sacred volume of scripture. Latter-day Saints cherish its teachings and engage in a lifelong study of its divine wisdom. Moreover, during worship and instruction services the Bible and its teachings are pondered and discussed. To increase biblical understanding, the Church provides extensive resources and tools: lesson manuals, cross-reference materials, Bible maps, a Bible dictionary, and articles in various magazines. Thus, the Bible is much more than simply a collection of antiquated writings and revelations that have only scant relevance to the modern world. On the contrary, it stands in the center of the Latter-day Saints’ spiritual lives.
In a recent sermon, Church apostle Elder M. Russell Ballard characterized the Bible as the “bedrock of all Christianity” and one of the “pillars” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Furthermore, he described the Bible as a miracle: “It is a miracle that the Bible’s 4,000 years of sacred and secular history were recorded and preserved by the prophets, apostles, and inspired churchmen. … It is a miracle that the Bible literally contains within its pages the converting, healing Spirit of Christ, which has turned men’s hearts for centuries, leading them to pray, to choose right paths, and to search to find their Savior.” It instills real, tangible power in the lives of Latter-day Saints and offers practical solutions and spiritual guidance that inspire them to overcome challenges and trials.
There is a broad range of approaches within the vast mosaic of biblical interpretation. For example, biblical inerrancy maintains that the Bible is without error and contradiction; biblical infallibility holds that the Bible is free from errors regarding faith and practice but not necessarily science or history; biblical literalism requires a literal interpretation of events and teachings in the Bible and generally discounts allegory and metaphor; and the “Bible as literature” educational approach extols the literary qualities of the Bible but disregards its miraculous elements.
The Church does not strictly subscribe to any of these interpretive approaches. Rather, in the words of Joseph Smith, it regards the Bible to be the word of God, “as far as it is translated correctly” (8th Article of Faith). Accordingly, Church members believe that during the centuries-long process in which fallible human beings compiled, translated and transcribed the Bible, various errors entered the text. However, this does not override the overwhelming predominance of truth within the Bible. As Elder Ballard noted, “Without the Bible, we would not know of His Church then, nor would we have the fullness of His gospel now.” Part of that fullness is the Bible’s seminal instruction that God reveals Himself to those who seek Him. The Bible is a living invitation to know personally the sacred revelatory experience that fills its pages.
The scriptures, or “standard works,” of the Latter-day Saints comprise the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. According to Elder Ballard, these scriptures constitute a “great, indivisible whole” of God’s revealed word that help humankind understand the past, present and future. The great gospel plan contained in these works does not apply to one generation or one people alone but to all of God’s children throughout all time. Thus, in the words of Elder Ballard, “those who think that one part is more important or more true than the other parts are missing some of the beauty and completeness of the canon of ancient scripture.”
During previous periods of time when God organized His church, He added new revelations to pre-existing scripture, forming a connection between believers of the present and believers of the past. For example, the Old Testament book of Isaiah gives shape and meaning to the Gospel of Matthew. The two revelations need not be viewed as rivals competing with each other: the existence of one does not negate the relevance or legitimacy of the other. This ongoing revelation of scripture gives uniformity and continuity to an unfolding gospel narrative and unites people under one standard of doctrine.
Of all the standard works, the Bible remains the best source for an intimate understanding of the character and personality of Jesus Christ during His mortal mission. While the Old Testament offers a prophetic foretelling of that mission, the New Testament provides an unmatched account of the events, experiences, teachings and personal interactions of Christ. The Book of Mormon strengthens and reinforces His teachings through additional witnesses and provides moving accounts of the personal experiences many individuals had with Him. According to Elder Ballard, “The Book of Mormon does not dilute nor diminish nor de-emphasize the Bible. On the contrary, it expands, extends, and exalts it.”
Ok, how do you have reverence for the Bible when you also believe it wasn't translated correctly.
You believe there are errors in the Bible, yet the Bible is at the center of your spiritual life.
For mormonism to stand, they will diminish the value of the Bible because the Bible straight up repudiates most of mormonism doctrines. Mormons will not point out that in addition to the bom, they have two other ‘scriptures’ - called Doctrines and Covanants and the Pearl of Great Price - that they hold in practice above the Bible. Add to that the mormon doctrine of a living prophet empowered to speak changes to any of the mormon ‘scriptures’ and doctrines and you have a jolly good free for all trying to decide what mormons believe at times.
(Matt. 27:5) “And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all of his bowels gushed out.” (Acts 1:18
Judas bought the field. He returned the money to the priests. When Judas hanged himself and then fell "headlong" it was because the body was either cut down or fell because of decomposition......broke open and his inners spuewed out. Not really surprising.
Where did svcw say that?
Show me where I said there were errors.
Are you trying to read my mind?
“You believe there are errors in the Bible...”
Where did svcw say that?
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She didnt...
Sorry, I made the rash assumption that you are familiar with the thousands of variants discovered through NT textual criticism.
If so, would He not also communicate to them?
In THAT case, where are the "books" in Sioux, Cherokee, Hope, Navajo, telling of the visit to the "new world"?
Or, are those batches of plates yet undiscovered, waiting for an even newer "prophet" to discover them?
There ARE native legends that can be followed, but I am unaware of any that speak of "On Easter Sunday, 3 April 1836, the Savior, Moses, Elias, and Elijah will appear in succession in the Kirtland Temple Window Rock, AZ and restore the priesthood keys required for the dispensation of the fulness of times. (See D&C 110.)
an ingenuous non-answer.
I'm not claiming one answer as correct over another.
I am asking you, since you believe the Bible is translated, every whit and tittle, correctly, (that none of the hundreds of scribes thru' the 300 + years until The Council, could have, would have, made any errors,) which of the two examples I gave are, then, correct - in your eyes.
I’ve noticed that Mormons use lots of words that don’t mean the same thing when Christians use them.
That’s “jot” and tittle. You must have one of those sloppy-scribe translations.
I’ve noticed that Mormons use lots of words that don’t mean the same thing when Christians use them.
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Yes, Elsie has a list of some of those words...
Would you please post your list, Elsie ???
:)
RE; #28...”Hope should be Hopi”...guess I’m just all excited about the “hope and change” we are seeing.../sarc
Jesus died as the Victor, He had completed what He came to do. When He gave up the Spirit it was an act of His will.
Luke23:46: “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
Would mean the same thing.
Jesus’ last words Matt.27:46,50: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” ...Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”
Would have been nice to use all the versus. So I will.
46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
48And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
49The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
50Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Giving up the Ghost, giving up the Spirit, yielding the Spirit, yielding the Ghost are all the same thing.
That “change” tribe must been one of the found lost tribes of mormonism...
No problem I am used to ldsers thinking I am to stupid to know anything.
Don't remember say that.
I always get a laugh when mormons trot the "thousands of variants" arguement - with apparent lack of what the definition of 'variant' ever really is or how it it totaled. Most of these 'variants' consist of mis-spellings or obvious slips of the pen, so that a variant spelling of one letter of one word in one verse in 2,000 manuscripts is counted as 2,000 “errors.”. Kinda sucks the oxygen out of the mormon applicaition doesn't it.
The fact of the matter is that because of the wealth of tens of thousands of ms, both in greek and other languages, the writings of ANF, lectionaries etc, these are readily identified. Others are readily identified as grammatical. Bottom line is Textual scholars Westcott and Hort estimated only one in 60 of these variants has significance. This would leave the text 98.33% pure. Philip Schaff calculated that, of the 150,000 variants known in his day, only 400 altered the meaning of the passage, only 50 were of real significance, and not even one affected “an article of faith or a precept of duty which is not abundantly sustained by other and undoubted passages, or by the whole tenor of Scripture teaching.”
PS Bible scholars know where these critical variants occur, and have so for quite some time.
Please tell us all why smith left these clear variants, like the Johannie Comma in place when he supernaturally corrected the KJV to translate it to what it origionally should have read? Thats one I'm still waiting for an answer on.
Of course not. The Bible books were written long before anyone in the Old World KNEW of the existence of the Americas. There was no "OLD WORLD" until after the 'discovery of "THE NEW world."("OLD" and "NEW" are man's titles...even though the Americas are every bit as old as the other. It's man's labels, not God's.)
that is why none of the American lands are mentioned in the Bible while all the "Old World" lands ARE.
But GOD knew the Americas were here and the peoples thereof. They were as much His as of the Old World.
Maybe that's what Jesus referred to when He said "King James Bible - "And 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."?
I don't claim to know. The Apostles didn't know. The Bible simply records what He said.
Lol
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