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Pastor asks Mormons why do I need the Book of Mormon if I have the Holy Bible to testify

about Jesus

Answer by Ronnie Bray


Yours is a valid question that is often asked of Latter-day Saints.

I am assuming that you are a believer in the Holy Bible, and that you have a living faith in Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Saviour, and that it is to Jesus Christ that you look for your hope of
salvation, and that because of his infinite atonement at Calvary. If that is so, then you hold these
basic beliefs in common with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I make no assumptions regarding your familiarity with the Bible, its monographs, its historical,
soteriological, eschatological, doctrinal, Christological, and theological content, so I hope you
will receive my answer in the spirit in which I frame it.

I will also leave to one side any discussion of either the inerrancy or infallibility of the Bible and
its discrete books since these issues do not stand central to your question.

If I understand you properly, you came to know Jesus through reading the Bible, principally by
the testimonies of Jesus that are recorded therein. That is a common introduction to Jesus, and is
one of the reasons why scriptures are caused to be written, including:

~ as witnesses to the reality of God the Father


~ to the divinity of his only begotten son Jesus Christ
~ and to attest to certain foundational historical events that are essential to faith in Jesus Christ.

You will appreciate that the first Christians that gathered around Jesus and his apostolic college
were familiar with the scriptures, and that while Jesus marked a turning point from proto-judaism
- itself a marked departure from the complex ritual practices held in and around the
amphictionies of ancient Israel, made necessary by the destruction of the sacred sanctuaries of
the yhvh cult - he explained his own change of direction by referring them to the scriptures.

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of
me."

At the time Jesus directed the Judeans to seek him in the scriptures there was no Bible in terms
of what we understand by the word. But there were in most Israelite communities collections of
sacred writings that equate with what Christians - and others - consider holy books that Divinity
has caused to be written, we can agree, for some very specific purposes.

The ‘writings’ to which Jesus directed doubters to turn and where he was confidant they would
‘find’ him, were not the common ‘scriptures’ or ‘writings,’ but the writings held sacred by
religious Judeans that would eventually form the bulk of the Hebrew Scriptures.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of
me!”
As far as is known, the Gospellers wrote nothing about Jesus until several years after his death,
when it was clear that the Parousia was a delayed event that seemed unlikely to take place during
the lifetimes of ‘this generation,’ as Jesus had foretold.

29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at
the doors. 30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be
done. 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 32 But of that
day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but
the Father.
[Luke 13:29-32]

Therefore, the evangelist wrote their books in order to maintain the momentum of the apostolic
κ ε ρ υ γ µ α . For it was by their proclamation, according to Jesus, that non-believers would
come faith in him, be drawn to obey him, submit to baptism at the hands of his authorised
ministers, enter into mystical union with Christ through baptism [eg, Romans 6], recognising in
the inspired utterances of the apostolate that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and
would verily come unto Christ, and own him their saviour, sovereign, Lord, redeemer, and
advocate with the Father.

It is Matthew that makes the fullest use of the Hebrew Scriptures to set out passages that point
unerringly to the nature and mission of the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah, ‘the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sins of the world.’

Matthew had no difficulty in searching the [Hebrew] scriptures and finding those that testified of
Jesus Christ. Matthew shows that from earliest times it was known that a Saviour would be
furnished, commissioned, and sent by God to save humanity from physical and spiritual death,
and it is not difficult to search the Hebrew scriptures for ourselves and find out who and what
Christ is, and learn obedience that we might be partakers of the salvation – or ‘healing’ – that he
would bring ‘in his wings.’

We know from the Hebrew writings that the Saviour would be born of a virgin [Isaiah 7:14]
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth
to a son, and will call him Immanuel”;

He would be a Nazarene, that he would be kind, loving, tender, and would, therefore, not
‘quench’ a ‘smoking flax.’

From the Old Testament we learn that he would be a servant, that he would suffer [Isaiah 53]:

“He endured the suffering that should have been ours.” (v. 4) “Because of our sins he was
wounded.” (v. 5) “All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the
Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.” (v. 6) &c.

The whole chapter bears testimony that is ratified to us by the Holy Spirit if we read it
devotionally, and we can know the Passion by testimonies dating from 600 BC, that he would be
crucified, that he would be without sin, that he would take away the stains of sin from all that
would come to him and be one with him and do the will of his Father that sent him, we read
attestations in ‘the law and testimony’ that he is the Redeemer, that we will be stand again in our
flesh and behold him when we, like him, are resurrected, we learn that he will visit those souls
imprisoned in sin and darkness and that he will be a great light to them, we receive the testimony

Isaiah 40:3 Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would be preceded by John the Baptist:
“A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the
wilderness a highway for our God.’

Zechariah 9:9 - Messiah will enter Jerusalem on a colt:

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to
you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.”

Zechariah 11:12 Jesus would be betrayed for the price of a slave: "If you think it best, give me
my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.”

Some of the most common references made to the prophesies of the Old Testament are those
related to the death of Jesus including his betrayal by Judas, revealed in Psalms 41:9:

“Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against
me.”

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and
my feet. (Psalm 22:16)

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. (Isaiah
53:12)

Isaiah testifies to the Messiah's burial in a rich man’s tomb:

He was assigned a grave with the wicked [the two malefactors], and with the rich [Joseph of
Aramathea] in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth
(Isaiah 53:9).

While the Israelites wandered in the Desert of Zin, “Then the LORD sent poisonous snakes
among the people, and many Israelites were bitten and died. Then the LORD told Moses to make
a metal snake and put it on a pole, so that anyone who was bitten could look at it and be
healed.” (Numbers 21: 6,8)
Jesus explained the significance of the snake on the pole. “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake
on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who
believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3: 14,15)

The Psalmist testifies that God said to the Redeemer to come, Jesus Christ, “Thou art my son;
this day have I begotten thee.” (Psalm 2: 7)

Jesus’ resurrection is testified in Psalm 16:10, “You protect me from the power of death. You will
not abandon me to the world of the dead.”

Psalm 22 vividly and in detail attests to the events of the crucifixion of Jesus.

“My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” (v.1) The scene is foretold thus,

“All that look upon me shall have me in contempt; they stick out their tongues and shake their
heads. ‘You relied on the Lord’ they say. ‘Why doesn’t he save you?” (v. 7,8) “They gamble for
my clothes.” (v. 18)

Psalm 22 predicts the agony of Christ’s death on the cross.

“All my bones are out of joint; my heart is like melted wax. My throat is as dry as dust, and my
tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.” (v. 14,15) “An evil gang is around me; like a pack of
dogs they close in on me; they tear at my hands and feet.” (v. 16)

Now, Pastor, I return to your question and ask you out of a good heart that since the Old
Testament testifies so roundly and fulsomely to the divinity, person, character, missions, and
accomplishments of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, what need do any of us have of the Greek
Scriptures [New Testament]?

The answer to that question is the same as the answer to your original question.

Pastor,

May God bless you to trust God completely and accept whatever blessings he bestows that our
testimonies and faith will continue to grow and strengthen, as it seems our father in Heaven
intends, that we might come through any trial, be strengthened, and that our faith fail not.

Shall the pot say to the potter, “Why hast thou done this?” I believe you know the answer.

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