A Bible? We have a Bible!

3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.

2 Nephi 29:3

I was an LDS missionary in the mid-1970s in the Southern United States — the Bible Belt. We missionaries had a special connection to the Book of Mormon verse above because we occasionally heard these very words from the people whose doors we knocked on. They called the Book of Mormon “The Mormon Bible” and wanted nothing to do with it.

They claimed that the Bible was the “Inspired, Inerrant, Infallible, Word of God” and that it, alone, was the “Final” Word from God. There we were, barely out of high school, claiming that the Bible was the “word of God as far as it is translated correctly.” (8th Article of Faith).

We also had the temerity to claim that God had given us another book of scripture that testified of Jesus Christ. (Though the subtitle “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” was not added to the book until 1982).

God still speaks

Our greatest offense, however, was probably our belief that God still speaks today, that there is a living prophet on the Earth. To the Evangelical Southerners we met, “Bible” and “Word of God” were synonyms. The Bible was not a book where the word of God was recorded, it WAS the Word of God. They were the same thing. To us, of course, the Word of God is whatever God says. The way it is recorded is a separate issue.

The idea that God’s work is done, that He only spoke to one nation, that everything He ever wanted to say to His children is contained in one book, and that that book, which came to us through several languages and many centuries, is somehow “inerrant and infallible” is simply unbelievable. Yet that is what millions of people have been taught to believe.

The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have been blessed with the knowledge that God still speaks and that what He says is still being written down for our study, reference, and enlightenment.

The Jews gave us the Bible

Second Nephi chapter 29 goes on to criticize the modern-day Gentiles who claim to believe in the Bible. While these “Christians” champion the Bible, they have, for centuries, actively persecuted the Jews whose record it is.

4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?
5 O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people.

2 Nephi 29:4-5

We have easy access to scripture

We Latter-day Saints have four readily available books of Scripture — in print, digitally, and online. Inspired General Conference talks, twice a year, are both recorded and printed for our use. Yet we remain slow and reluctant learners. The Saints in every previous dispensation would have been immensely jealous of our easy access to the word of truth.

The question is whether we really appreciate, and make use of, the blessing at hand. As Latter-day Saints, we presumably are interested in building Zion here on Earth and in obtaining the blessings of Eternal Life for ourselves and our families in the next world. These are lofty goals. They cannot be achieved without serious and extensive study of the instruction manuals.

If you pray for an angel to visit you, you know what he’ll do if he comes. He’ll just quote the scriptures to you—so you’re wasting your time waiting for what we already have.

Hugh Nibley, “Gifts,” Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:87