The Bible is a pretty awesome book…as long as you see it for what it is and what it is not. The Bible is certainly not ‘infallible’ and it’s definitely not ‘complete’. Anyone who tells you that, just doesn’t understand where the Bible came from and what it went through in order to reach us.

The Bible has stood alone for many years…but in the last days…it’s becoming evident why the Bible needs the Book of Mormon.

The Bible is by definition a “collection of books” written by various authors that were not necessarily eye witnesses to the events that took place in it. It was recorded by apostles and disciples many years after the events took place. In some situations, no one was even present to become an eye witness and thereby had to be given the knowledge of the event by revelation. This fact alone proves that Joseph Smith was not way off base in claiming revelation for various events such as the Book of Moses and The Book of Abraham.

Take for instance the most important event in the history of the world, and the climax of all events in the Bible. The atonement. It took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and although Peter, James, and John went with Jesus to Gethsemane…they stopped “a stones throw away” and subsequently fell asleep. They didn’t witness blood coming from every pore, the pleadings of Christ with the Father, or the angel that strengthened Him while He was in pain. Therefore, that event had to have been revealed to someone in order for it to be recorded in the gospels.

Herein lies the problem for the Bible. It is incomplete! And rightly so. Who said that God was going to stop talking to us through prophets? Why would He? He’s been doing it since the day He dropped a garden in Eden…so why would He stop now when we need it the most.

As you read the Bible…if you get deep enough into it…you’ll start to realize that there are some very serious unanswered questions. But if you read the Book of Mormon, in connection with the Bible, you’ll start to realize that those questions begin to be answered. The Bible tells us what happened, while the Book of Mormon tells us why it happened.

One day I met with a man in Michigan who was a junior pastor for his local congregation. He loved meeting with us, and we with him. A very nice and respectful guy and super interested in what we had to say. One day we shared a message with him that included some teachings about the Fall. The next time we came over to his house to meet with him, he told us that he taught his congregation about the fall out of 2 Nephi 2 in the Book of Mormon…but didn’t tell them where he had learned the things he was teaching. He conceded that 2 Ne 2 was the best explanation of the Fall that he had ever heard…and this guy had a library like I had seldom seen.

This guy and his congregation had been transformed by the ‘why’ of the Fall…

Unanswered Biblical Questions Answered By The Book of Mormon

Here are a few more reasons why the Bible needs to Book of Mormon:

1. Genesis 3:24 – Why was Cherubim placed to guard the tree of life after Adam and Even transgressed? Why was it so important that they remained in a fallen state?

The Book of Mormon answers this question in Alma 12:21-27 by teaching us that “if it were possible that our first parents could have gone forth and partaken of the tree of life they would have been forever miserable”. Why? Because none of us would have been able to progress. We needed to understand the bad in order to comprehend the good. We needed to understand that there is opposition in all things. Partaking of the tree of life would have removed eternal progression from the equation…and eternal progression is the entire point of the plan of salvation. If you don’t understand eternal progression, then you won’t the events that took place in the Garden of Eden.

2. Romans 11:25 – Paul calls this a mystery. He says that Israel will remain “in blindness…until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.” What the heck is the “fullness of the Gentiles”?

In 1 Nephi 15:12-13 Nephi tells his brothers that after “the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed.” This means that the Gentiles will receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and that they will bring the gospel in its fullness back to those of the house of Israel. The Israelites in the America’s fell into darkness and had the gospel taken away from them. The Jew’s rejected Christ and have be scattered and persecuted for almost 2,000 years. They are yet to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ was restored ‘in it’s fullness’ and now ‘gentile’ missionaries are being sent to tribes around the globe to spread the good news on foot and on Facebook.

3. Revelation 20: 5-6 – What is the first resurrection and who gets to be a part of it?

Mosiah 15:21-26 tells us that “the resurrection of all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God, shall come forth in the first resurrection…they that have died before Christ came, in their ignorance, not having salvation declared unto them, little children.”

Those that are part of the first resurrection get to play a role in the great work of the millennium while those that were unrighteous are excluded. The first resurrection has already begun and will continue until the end of the millennium.

These are 3 of about 20 examples I have in my notebook of things that are mentioned in the Bible but not understood by people that reject the Book of Mormon. There are many more. Where is the stick of Joseph referred to in Ezekiel 37? Where are the “other sheep” Jesus referred to in John 10? Why was Jesus baptized? Do little children need to repent or be baptized? And on and on…

When you read the Book of Mormon…you start to see that the Book of Mormon came to us in a day when we needed it most. The Bible needed the Book of Mormon to act as a second witness just a Paul tells the Corinthians that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” (2 Cor 13:1)

The title page to the Book of Mormon (which was actually the last leaf in the plates) states that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to ‘convince the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ’ in the last days. It was sent as another witness of Christ in a day when people are discarding the Bible and leaving Christ for atheism or agnosticism. Many people cite leaving the faith due to a lack of evidence in Biblical stories and traditions. So the Book of Mormon comes on to the scene and says, “wait a minute…I’ve got something to say”. For over 500 pages, the Book of Mormon goes on to testify of the Bible and of Christ. Literally. Christ is referenced on 95% of the pages in the Book of Mormon which makes Elder Holland’s great grandfather look pretty wise when he said “no wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”

Give it a chance…