In this post I want to discuss the claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has on modern day revelation and the Book of Mormon.

Simply put, the Mormon church would have claim to nothing if we didn’t believe in modern day revelation.  To understand modern day revelation one must understand the roll of prophets throughout history. The history of the world has followed a very specific pattern of dispensation and apostasy. A dispensation is a period of time when a called prophet and leader of the church has the priesthood authority to act in God’s name and has, “a commission to preach the gospel.”1 These periods of time are followed by periods of apostasy or, “a ‘falling away’.  A desertion of or a departure from one’s faith.”2 These cycles of dispensation and apostasy have happened continually from the creation of the world. One of the most notable from the old testament is the flood. The people fell into a state of general apostasy and the Lord saw fit to cleanse the earth from it, saving only Noah and a few others. Prophets like Noah, Moses, and Adam received divine revelation and guidance from the Almighty in establishing the church and leading the people toward God.

A search of the Princeton Word Net search produced the following definition of Revelation, “communication of knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency.”  Which can be understood as the communication of knowledge from God to man.

One of the major travesties of Christendom today is that people believe that the channels of revelation have been closed. If this were the case and prophets were truly done away with after the coming of Christ, God would be changeable and thus an imperfect God. I find that the scripture in Amos 3:7 rings true here, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Personally, I think that with the current state of things in the world a prophet is needed more than ever to guide people toward Christ.  God used prophets in the times of old to warn people of the dangers of sin and the blessings that came with following God’s command. The prophets were also very specific in their teaching as to what sins the people needed to be careful over at that time. Think about the world today, a world where the evils of pornography, drugs and an endless list of other “socially accepted” sins are becoming widespread. Shouldn’t God have a spokesperson to warn the people of these dangers and evils?

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that role as the Lords spokesperson is filled with a prophet of God, that the priesthood authority to speak and act in God’s name resides with him and that the channels of revelation are indeed open.

Starting with Joseph Smith and the translation of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ from ancient texts by the grace and power of God, the heavens are once again near to us. I wish more people would read into the Book of Mormon because it confirms and testifies of what the Bible says about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks of Christ’s life, ministry, atonement and resurrection in the East, but shouldn’t the Savior of the world visit all people? I find it interesting that in almost all cultures there are stories about a great white god that visited their people during this time period. He taught them miraculous things.  The Book of Mormon is just that, a record of his visit to the people in the Americas, this book doesn’t do anything but give more validity to the Bible itself and they together, the Book of Mormon and the Bible bear a stronger witness of the divinity of our Savior.

Unfortunately some feel that it can not be true and that revelation ended with the apostles so this is my topic for today.

People cite these scriptures as claims that revelation was done away with:

1. Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar” (Prov. 30:6)
2. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it (Deut. 4:2)
3. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life… (Rev. 22:18-19)

We have three verses that more or less proclaim the same thing, not to distort or modify the scriptures under penalty of damnation. The question that all of Christianity asks itself is how to interpret these verses because if the verses in Proverbs or Deuteronomy are true than it alone either disproves the New Testament, or it makes God a liar and I hope that all Christianity knows that neither of those are true. So then the flaw must be lack of understanding behind the verse. Dr. Daniel C. Peterson from FARMS gives us some further insight into the matter,

The Bible as such did not exist when the book of Revelation was written.  The individual books of the Bible circulated independently as scrolls.  The Bible never refers to itself as “the Bible,” because it does not know itself as such.  Because, of course, it did not exist as such during the time of its writing…  It is merely a warning to unscrupulous scribes against tampering with the words of Revelation itself. Such tampering was a significant problem in antiquity, when books circulated in small numbers of easily-modified hand-written manuscripts, and such warnings are not uncommon 3(excellent link)

Another insight comes from a Protestant scholar, “on what biblical or historical grounds has the inspiration of God been limited to the written documents that the church now calls its Bible? . . . If the Spirit inspired only the written documents of the first century, does that mean that the same Spirit does not speak today in the church about matters that are of significant concern?4*

I hope that none doubt my deep love for the Bible, a book filled with the teachings and life of the Savior is the greatest gift a Christian could ask for. But even the Bible can be confusing at times, so many verses can be interpreted in so many different ways. How do we know what is right and what is wrong? The only way to know is by divine revelation from God. Having the influence of the Holy Ghost while studying scriptures is a much sought after gift. We believe that there is so much wonderful information that can be learned about the Gospel by using the Book of Mormon as a companion to the Bible for study and learning. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said of the canonized scriptures that,

Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing revelation. The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.5

The Book of Mormon is the “keystone” of the Mormon religion, “Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none” 6*.

4 Lee M. McDonald, The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon, rev. ed. (1995), 255–56

6 History of the Church, 2:52