Bible and New Revelation

How open minded are you? Or more precisely, how much faith do you have to know the truth?

Before we get into the concept of modern day revelation, we must first discuss the history of the Bible. How did that book come into existence? Was it always available in its present form? For a full historical account we can research this site.

The Bible is the word of God, granted. The question is simply this: if tomorrow we discovered an Epistle of Paul to the Athenians that was buried in some cave in Greece, would we be offended? Similarly, if we found other records written by some of the other apostles which testified of Jesus Christ would we recoil in disbelief?

I would hope we would be open minded enough to acknowledge the possibility of additional hidden records. A few will site Revelations 22:19 as the authoritative word on any new revelation, not realizing that the book of Revelations was written 30 years after the last known epistle was written, at a time when the Bible had not even been compiled.  Furthermore, we can find almost the identical injunction in Deuteronomy 4:2.

If we are to think logically for a minute, it would seem highly unlikely that these two authors intended that no new scripture be introduced into the world. They were simply cautioning that no one tamper with their writings. How could they have possibly known that a compilation of distinct and disparate writings were to be compiled into a book called the Bible?

For this reason we can safely conclude that any unearthed scripture would be welcomed if it provided additional evidence of God's dealings with his children. Even the Savior commented about other sheep which he was to visit, who would also hear his words. 

Finally, the thing is really this: who among us can tell God when to speak to His children and when not to speak? He is God and He can choose to speak through prophets in various parts of the world or the universe, whenever He well pleases. To deprive Him that privilege is tantamount to telling God to shut up. Who among us can dare tell God to shut up?

Seen from that perspective, it is then conceivable that God spoke to other sheep through prophets, and that these yet to be discovered scriptures could benefit us.

In the case of Mormons, additional scriptures - ancient and modern - is a given. The word Mormon comes from the name of one of the last prophets on the American continent who abridged almost 1000 years of pre-Columbian American history into a book he named "The Book of Mormon".  Had his name been Adam, then we would have had the Book of Adam, and Mormons would have been nicknamed Adamites.

To believe in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon is not a matter of accepting the above argument, but a matter of faith. One must ask God if it is true or not. This is what is known among LDS as obtaining a testimony of the veracity of the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is true, then the young man who translated it, Joseph Smith, was a true prophet. If he was a true prophet, then the restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth through the instrumentality of a modern day prophet must also be true.