Meet a Real Mormon!

Sometimes people will try to convince me the Book of Mormon can't be real because the Bible says there can't be any additional scripture. They then whip out the trusty scripture learned in their anti-Mormon classes (usually given nicer names):

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (Revelation 22:18)

Unfortunately, their teachers forgot to explain one very small detail to them. The Book of Revelation was not the last book written in the Bible. Nor had the Bible even been compiled when that verse was written. And then there is the pesky little problem of that verse in Deuteronomy:

1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.

2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4 in the King James version of the Bible)

Now what? Do you rip out all the scripture that comes after Deuteronomy? Think of all you'd miss if you did that. Clearly, since the Bible wasn't even the Bible until long after all of it was written, the verse isn't saying to stop adding things to the Bible. Every word we have in our Bible is added scripture. New things happened and they added to it. The Bible was always getting added to and eventually people stopped and put it all together into one book, after considerable debate about what got included and what didn't.

What that verse really means, clearly, is that we as humans must not add anything to the word of God. We mustn't mingle God's teachings with our own.

Ignoring the Book of Mormon on the basis of a misinterpreted scripture--one with no basis in history, even--deprives you of the chance to hear more of God's teachings, to learn more of the Savior's time on earth. I love knowing more about the Savior and of God. I wish we knew more about His life than we do.

Don't miss anything. Some really amazing things happened that didn't make it into the Bible.