There are five areas of doctrine that stem from the “inspiration of Scripture.” These are Authority, Inerrancy, Infallibility, Preservation, and Animation.
Authority involves the issue of “Canonicity.” Because the Bible is inspired by God it
speaks with authority. Bot other books
claim that authority or have had it claimed for them. So which books belong to this class of “authority,”
that can accurately say, “Thus saith the Lord”?
Let’s consider some contrasting views of
authority to set the stage for our study.
The “Book of Mormon” says (Moroni 10:4f): And when ye shall receive
these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in
the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a
sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the
truth of it into you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. To study the Bible is a good thing. Jesus spoke of the Jews who studies the
Scriptures diligently because they believe the Scriptures would give them
eternal life (John 5:39; Jesus went on to point out that these same Scriptures
testified of Him). The Bereans were more
noble than the Jews in Thessalonica because they studied the Scriptures daily
to see of what Paul said was true (Ac. 17:11).
Again, we are told to “test everything” and to hold on to the good (1
Thess. 5:21). Does this apply only to
the Bible? Or are there other sources of
God’s speaking for us to study?
Again, Mormonism says there is more than one
holy book: My words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a
standard unto my people which are of the house of Israel; 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.
But thus saith the Lord God: O fools... (2 Nephi 29:2-3). They teach that Ezek. 37:15-20 (the two
sticks, one for Judah and one for Ephraim) predicts this, that Judah’s stick in
the Bible and Ephraim’s is the Book of Mormon.
Mormons also are limiting in terms of which
Bible they accept as authoritative: We believe the Bible to be the Word of
God as far as it is translated correctly (KJV only); we also believe the Book
of Mormon to be the Word of God. We
believe all that God has revealed, and all that He does now reveal and we
believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to
the Kingdom of God (Joseph Smith's "Articles of Faith", 8,9).
Christians have rejected the Mormon
authorities and maintained that the LDS is a cult that goes beyond the
authority of God’s word. What is the “rule”
for which books are considered “Scripture?” When we say “rule,” we are leading on the term
“canon,” which likely is derived from the Hebrew “kaneh,” a measuring rod or
rule.
Today’s reading in Jeremiah is one of the most
powerful in Scripture on this issue. It’s
not that God lays out the rule. Rather
it is that God absolutely rejects the words of certain prophets who say, “God
says!” As for Mormonism, it is enough to
say (without a full study of the subject) that the extra-Biblical books of the
LDS contradicts the Bible. That is
enough for us to say that they lack the authority of God. But what is there about the Bible that
commends it as THE Word of God? That we
will continue in our next post.
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