Read Ex. 34:6f; Num. 14:18f; Hos. 11:8f, Authority of the Bible (4)

1)    The Bible bears the marks of inspiration.  By this we mean to say that the Bible has such a character to it as to make it easy to see that it is the word of our Creator.

a)    Internal consistency.

i)      A consistent picture of God. 

          You may have heard, and perhaps it might have even seemed to you, that the “God of the Old Testament” is not the same as the “God of the New Testament.”  The former is vengeful, always on the warpath, while the latter is loving and gracious.  Such an idea does not reflect the view of someone who has actually studied the Bible.  The OT view of God is dominated by Ex. 34:6-7 where God describes Himself as a God who is full of mercy and forgiveness but who will punish sin.  This passage is referenced thereafter in the OT on many occasions (e.g. Micah 7:18-19; Jonah 4:2 and many, many other times). 

          This is exactly the same God who is at the center of the gospel story which comes to its fullness in the NT.  God is, in fact, judging sin in Christ and thus is being merciful and forgiving to mankind.  It is the same God!  And if you think that Jesus is all about love and never about wrath you have certainly not really read the Gospels (e.g. Jn. 2:11-22). 

          On the other hand, the Book of Mormon and the other sacred books of Mormonism lack this consistency.  The “god” of the LDS once was not (i.e. he had a beginning was born).  He is growing in knowledge.  And, of course, there is the strange and idolatrous devaluation of Christ who is a god, Yahweh and not Elohim (Alma 11:22,27f,38f is one of many confusing passages in the Book of Mormon’s view of God).  And when you take all this and then realize that the Bible is, in fact, supposed to be one of Mormonism’s holy books, the confusion that results from the outright contradictions make the Book of Mormon out to be the writings of someone who did not know the God of the Bible.

ii)   A consistent picture of salvation. 

Mormonism has a standard view of how a person can be saved: “it is by grace we are saved after all we can do” (note what 2 Nephi 25:23 says about this: it is impossible).  That statement is a profound contradiction to the Bible.  Take just one verse: Romans 11:6: And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 

That’s not the only place because the Bible’s view of how to be saved never changed.  This is a huge subject and we cannot cover every illustration of this.  But I think one of the most profound truths is that the Apostle Paul, in Rom. 4 and 10, in establishing the doctrine of salvation by grace, through faith, and not of works based his entire presentation in the Old Testament.  Let us pick this up in our next post.