Eighth 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.

This one is fairly straightforward.  We use both the Bible and the Book of Mormon as Scripture.  They complement each other in teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I just watched a series about the coming forth of the King James Bible, "Fires of Faith".  Did you know that it was illegal in England to possess a Bible during the Renaissance?  People would actually hide pages of the Bible in barrels of beans and smuggle them in to the country.  Much like people do with drugs now.  But it was the Bible!  In fact, Many people were burned at the stake for heresy because they wanted to translate the Bible into English for people to be able to read for themselves.  William Tyndale was one of them.  He was a scholar who knew several different languages and translated the Bible into English.  In fact most of the King James Bible we use today is the result of William Tyndale's work.

Now we have the Bible at the tip of our fingers whenever we want it, but how many people actually read it?  People gave their lives for us to have this privilege.

I have a deep respect for those who translated the Bible into English.  For my benefit.  They were certainly men of God.  They did the best they could in translating the Bible for us.  And for the most part did an excellent job.

Although we know that through translation some of the plain and precious truths of the Bible were lost.

1 Nephi 13:23, 28

23...The book that thou beholdest is a record of the Jews, which contains the covenants of the Lord, which he hath made unto the house of Israel; and it also containeth many of the prophecies of the holy prophets..."

28... there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God.

It's wonderful that we have another Testament of Jesus Christ -- the Book of Mormon -- to help restore some of those plain and precious doctrines that were taken from the Bible. It's a blessing to have a second witness of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon.

The apostle Paul said:

2 Corinthians 13:1

"In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."

From the introduction to the Book of Mormon:

"The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel."

"Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”" 

The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth!

The Bible and the Book of Mormon both teach us and help us understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.