The Book of Mormon Witness
of the Bible

From "The Doctrine of the Living Christ," by Robert Millet,
a Book of Mormon lecture,
part of the FARMS Prophets of the Book of Mormon video series.

This continues Dr. Millet's discussion of 3 Nephi 12-14

As I thought of chapters 12, 13, and 14, I thought about what is going on here in regard to repeating the same message. Why say something over and over? I'd like you to think about this. When Nephi, very early in our record, was taken into vision and had the same visionary experience that his father, Lehi, had, among the things he saw was that a time would come when plain and precious truths and many covenants of the Lord would be taken from the Bible. Back in 1 Nephi 13, he saw that that would happen. He saw that a time would also come, though, when the Book of Mormon would come forth and other books would come forth, and what would they do? They would establish that Jesus is the Christ, but they would also establish the essential truthfulness of the Bible itself.

Let me refer you to something that I have come to appreciate in recent years. This is a segment of a talk given by President Harold B. Lee in 1971 at an LDSSA fireside:

"Fifty years ago or more, when I was a missionary, our greatest responsibility was to defend the great truth that the Prophet Joseph Smith was divinely called and inspired and that the Book of Mormon was indeed the word of God. But even at that time there were the unmistakable evidences that there was coming into the religious world actually a question about the Bible and about the divine calling of the Master himself. Now, fifty years later, our greatest responsibility and anxiety is to defend the divine mission of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, for all about us, even among those who claim to be professors of the Christian faith, are those not willing to stand squarely in defense of the great truth that our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, was indeed the Son of God. So tonight it would seem to me that the most important thing I could say to you is to try to strengthen your faith and increase your courage and your understanding of the place of the Master in the great Plan of Salvation.

"The vital necessity of having that testimony was put in language by a beloved colleague of ours, the late President Charles A. Callis, who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and before that served for many years as president of the Southern States Mission. He [Brother Callis] said: 'Beautiful flowers do not grow on a rosebush unless the parent bush has its roots firmly planted in rich fertile soil, unless it is watered, cultivated, unless it is pruned and carefully cared for by a gardener. Just so, beautiful flowers of sobriety, honesty, integrity, and virtue do not blossom in a human soul unless the feet of that human soul are firmly planted in a divine testimony of the mission of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.'"⁽¹⁾

That was in 1971. More than twenty years later, we find ourselves living in a society where it is becoming quite the fad to doubt the historicity not just of the Book of Mormon but of the New Testament. We have people rising up on all sides telling us what they are convinced Jesus said and what he didn't say. As you may know, a recent group, called the Jesus Seminar, had the contention that 82 percent of all that was written in the Gospels was never spoken by Jesus. It is okay as long as Jesus talks about flowers and pretty days. But when he talks about Messiah, resurrection, life after death, or godhood, they conclude it couldn't have been Jesus himself who said those things.

It occurred to me as I was thinking about this the last few days what an interesting witness the Book of Mormon becomes. That the Nephite writers would feel moved upon to give to us much of what is in the New Testament–there are slight differences, but it contains much of what is in the New Testament– establishes the truthfulness that the Savior delivered a message that is important. Doctrine and Covenants 20:11 says the Lord said one of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to prove to the world that the holy scriptures are true. And so, as we dip into this important sermon, let's keep in mind that one of the things we are doing through the Book of Mormon is establishing that there was a Lord and Savior, that he did preach, and that we can rely, for the most part, on what is in the Bible.

References:

1. Paul R. Cheesman, ed., The Book of Mormon: The Keystone Scripture, pp. 23-4.