Mormons Beleive the Bible is Inferior to The Book of Mormon

Please note: quotes in red share views of the LDS church, not the views of this blog.

When I first started writing about Mormonism, I got some negative feedback, asking why I would waste my time trying to criticize another religion. If someone believes that writing about false teachings is wrong, then they will have to blame God who inspired Paul and others to write about false teachers and false teachings in His Word. 

To keep silent about false views of God means we must disobey a number of Scriptural commands such as Ephesians 5:6-13 and Romans 16:17-18.

I'm unashamed to share the errors in Mormonism so Christians can realize they are not our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to pray for them and share the true gospel with them. And it will be challenging because they use many of the same words we use, but they define those words differently. A Mormon may say Jesus is God and He alone can save them from their sins. But they don't mean Jesus is God, they mean he's one of several gods. They don't believe in the Trinity and they believe there are additional things required beyond Christ's salvation. 

For just one example of the differences, the LDS church teaches on their church site HERE, that Satan and Jesus are both sons of God the Father and both offered to come and die for our sins, but the Father chose Jesus. 

5 Mormon Holy Books/Magazines:

✔The Book of Mormon

In The Mormon Word of God I explained that Mormons believe the most important book on earth is the Book of Mormon. They also consider the books and magazines below to be divinely inspired:

✔ Doctrine and Covenants:

Explained by Mormon leaders:

"The Doctrine and Covenants contains revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It also includes a few revelations given to other latter-day prophets. This book of scripture is unique because it is not a translation of ancient documents. It is a collection of revelations given by the Lord to His chosen prophets in the latter days." (source) 

✔ Pearl of Great Price:

Explained by church literature:

"It clarifies doctrines and teachings that were lost from the Bible and gives added information concerning the Creation of the earth. The book of Abraham was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith from a papyrus scroll taken from the Egyptian catacombs. This book contains valuable information about the Creation, the gospel, the nature of God, and the priesthood." (source) 

✔ The KJV Bible:
While they consider the KJV translation of the Bible (especially the 4 Gospels) part of divine literature, they don't consider it as reliable as their other books. They state: "The most reliable way to measure the accuracy of any biblical passage is not by comparing different texts, but by comparison with the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelations." (source) 

Another LDS leader explains, "The Book of Mormon is another witness for the truths taught in the Bible. It also restores ‘plain and precious’ truths that have been lost from the Bible through errors in translation or “taken away” in attempts to “pervert the right ways of the Lord” (source).

Smith taught that Christianity was corrupted after the death of the Apostles and Smith judged the current Bible (all translations) untrustworthy.

✔ Church Magazines:

In addition to these books, Mormons believe their current leaders are prophets who can speak divine revelations not covered in any of these holy books. According to a 2004 church publication, a former president of the LDS church explained: "Our modern-day prophets have encouraged us to make the reading of the conference editions of our church magazines an important and regular part of our personal study. Thus, general conference becomes, in a sense, a supplement to or an extension of the Doctrine and Covenants." 

In Contrast, the Bible teaches: 

The Bible is all we need to understand Salvation and godliness:
2 Timothy 3:15-17: “from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
 
The Bible will not pass away:
Matthew 24:35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

The Bible judges us. We don't judge the Bible:
Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Mormons think God allowed mankind to go without the Word of God for 17 centuries: 
According to Mormons, the Bible was corrupted after the Apostles died, yet God waited 17 centuries (until the time of Joseph Smith) before sharing the "true Gospel" with mankind. That means millions of people who lived during those 1700 years never had the benefit of God's Word to guide them.

Why would a loving God leave mankind in such a sad state for so long? What purpose would this serve?

But historical evidence debunks this false belief: Ancient copies of the New Testament are available and they are in agreement with our modern Bible translations. 

"Almost all biblical scholars agree that the New Testament documents were all written before the close of the First Century. If Jesus was crucified in 30 A.D., then that means that the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned who could have contested the writings. In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out. But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts." 
From Christian Apologetic and Research Ministry


Source: Mormon Research Ministry