The Bible and Mormonism

Summary

How do Mormons view the Bible? At the lay level in Mormonism there is a deep distrust of it. It is thought to be corrupted by evil men in the Great Apostasy and further corrupted by a two-thousand-year-old telephone game. But there is a larger spectrum of belief: some Mormons try to default to a more trusting attitude of the Bible, while others wait for a more confirmatory emotional epiphany or at least confirmation from outside LDS sources that a given Biblical scripture is correct.

The "as far as it is translated correctly" creedal affirmation (in the eighth article of faith) ends up, at the lay level, functioning as a kind of free pass for rejecting what seems to challenge Mormon beliefs, while more educated Mormons try to insist this isn't the case.

Related article: Does Scholarship Support Article Eight of the Articles of Faith?

On Joseph Smith's changes to the Book of Revelation

“The final contribution of the Prophet to our understanding of the Apocalypse is in the actual work he did on the text of Revelation as part of his inspired translation of the Bible. As was noted above, he deleted from, added to or changed a total of ninety verses. Obviously, not every one of those changes are of equal significance. The committee that worked on the LDS edition of the King James Version included changes for only forty-seven of the ninety verses, or just slightly better than half of the total changes.” (Gerald N. Lund, Nyman and Millet, ed., The Joseph Smith Translation: The Restoration of Plain and Precious Things, BYU, p.258).

Related article: Does Revelation 22:18 Condemn the Book of Mormon?

Articles

 

“Jehovah did not strive with the leaders of the church forever, and as they drifted down the stream of apostasy, they themselves recognized the fact that God would have nothing to say to them. To explain his silence, and maintain their ecclesiastical standing with their followers, they invented the theory that personal and direct revelation was no longer necessary,—that God had nothing to communicate to his children beyond what was found in the Bible. Men are ever prone to believe a lie rather than a truth, and as this theory explained the prevailing conditions in the church, it grew into a cardinal doctrine of the apostate churches of Christendom. The dead letter of the Bible became the sole standard, and was substituted for the living voice of God.” (Frederic Clift, Improvement Era, vol. X, 1907, no. 11) http://gospelink.com/library/document/57254
“This is the complaint made in ancient Israel at times; because of wickedness, there was no prophet, no vision, no communication with the heavens. (1 Samuel 28:6.) For nearly, if not quite, nineteen hundred years there had been no divine revelation. Religious denominations relied entirely on the dead letter of the Bible for their authority. They closed the heavens against themselves, and their interpretations of scripture without divine guidance led them into division, subdivision, and multiplication of churches, each going its own way blindly and in confusion.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 1, p. 97) http://gospelink.com/library/document/208

The Dead Letter of the Bible vs. the Living Voice of Mormon Oracles?

“Jehovah did not strive with the leaders of the church forever, and as they drifted down the stream of apostasy, they themselves recognized the fact that God would have nothing to say to them. To explain his silence, and maintain their ecclesiastical standing with their followers, they invented the theory that personal and direct revelation was no longer necessary,—that God had nothing to communicate to his children beyond what was found in the Bible. Men are ever prone to believe a lie rather than a truth, and as this theory explained the prevailing conditions in the church, it grew into a cardinal doctrine of the apostate churches of Christendom. The dead letter of the Bible became the sole standard, and was substituted for the living voice of God.” (Frederic Clift, Improvement Era, vol. X, 1907, no. 11) 

“This is the complaint made in ancient Israel at times; because of wickedness, there was no prophet, no vision, no communication with the heavens. (1 Samuel 28:6.) For nearly, if not quite, nineteen hundred years there had been no divine revelation. Religious denominations relied entirely on the dead letter of the Bible for their authority. They closed the heavens against themselves, and their interpretations of scripture without divine guidance led them into division, subdivision, and multiplication of churches, each going its own way blindly and in confusion.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 1, p. 97)