Day 41: July 16, 2011

1 Nephi Chapter 13

Verses 20-29

Nephi sees a book from the mouth of Jew going forth and notices, according to the angel, that many plain and precious things have been removed and that this is the stumbling block. I am grateful for the bible. I know that the bible is the word of God as long as it is translated correctly. Even with this correct translation I find that the bible is not as plain and simple as the book of Mormon. I am grateful that we have both of these books of scripture that together contain the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was interesting, I was talking to a friend the other day who is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. He often brings up things about the church here and there that gives me an opportunity to discuss the gospel. We were talking about how the bible is hard to understand sometimes and that he has heard that Mormons think that the Book of Mormon is easier to read. This opened up to a discussion about how over the years the bible had been translated and retranslated and corrupted in some ways. It was no long a pure text with the word of God. I explained that we do believe the bible to be the word of God as long as it has been translated as correctly as possible. I then explained that the Book of Mormon was only translated once. It still contained all the pure and plain parts that the bible was lacking. I don’t know that he cared or that he really wanted to hear what I was saying but it helped me remember that we need both the bible and the Book of Mormon to study and ponder. It also made me think that I need to spend a little more time studying the words in the bible so I can understand it better. I am grateful for the scriptures.