Since God says in the Bible "Do not add to my word nor take away from it"?

Question

How is the Book of Mormon as a supplement to the Bible justified? According to that law from God, it is adding to his word which no one is supposed to do.

Answer 1

I hate to tell you this, but the Christian Bible has been modified so much through miscopying, mistranslation, and yes, outright conscious change of wording, that Christians can't point fingers at anyone. NSRV is the best translation to the original texts as we've unearthed them, but we can't even say it's perfect.

Here's a few examples: Where the Bible says "man", current scholars argue that the original word should have been translated "human" (favoring neither gender). That changes a lot, doesn't it? And don't forget the council who met long ago to "exclude" texts they didn't like from the Bible, thereby editing it for centuries for the rest of us. If you read those texts, you'll get a MUCH different view of Christianity. And then there was good old King James, who gets the award for most obvious and accountable re-writing of the Word. Remember the line "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live?". He ordered it changed from "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live." to help keep women down. He changed a lot of other stuff, too.

Those who actually believe that the Bible is the untampered with word of God need to do their own research on this topic. They will be AMAZED how much tampering has gone on.

This isn't to say that the Bible is useless - far from it. But you have to use the intelligence God gave you to sort out what's important and what's not. It's the concepts, not each word, that are truly important.

Answer 2

I wonder, how many books and epistles are missing from the canon itself? We are also talking about the books held be the Catholic faith known as the Apocrypha. Where is Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians as mentioned in the first chapter of Ist Corinthians. And no this is not a mistake. Paul went to Corinth three times, yet only two letters were written. Where is that first letter? The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is also a history of the early settlers of this hemisphere. Also, why would God deny the Gospel to them if not the Jews and gentiles in that part of the hemisphere. We are all children of God and would you think that a record kept by leaders and prophets of these people wouldn't know who God and Jesus is. To think that the Book of Mormon is hogwash, is like saying the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is hogwash. Evidence is subjective in most part, we still rely on faith that he existed as do the people who traveled to these continents those thousands of years ago. If you believe in the power of God, Almighty, wouldn't think that he could lead a family from Jerusalem to the Americas safely and supply them with the means to survive. Or do believe that God is limited in his powers and love? There were other scholars before Joseph Smith that believed that Native Americans actually descended from a tribe of Israel and not particularly from Judah.

Answer 3

i particularly believe that "below God" has no longer something to do with any of those incidences. it type of feels to me such as you're scraping the backside of the barrel to blame Catholicism for the worries of the international, and IM an atheist.... people killed people until eventually now the addition to the pledge, only no longer with weapons. and those incidents have been plenty greater the fault of bullies at colleges than God. I lived a million city far flung from Columbine on the same time as the shootings have been taking place, so please do no longer take that **** gently and attempt to blame it on all of us. And there have continuously been an incredible style of minor mothers in the time of history.

Answer 4

If your interpretation of this verse is correct, then everything after Deuteronomy 4:2 needs to be discarded. Moses said the same thing. And he meant it the same way that John did in Revelations: Do not take away from the words of God or add to it with the words of men, specifically referring to the things they wrote (i.e. the first five books of the Old Testament in Moses's case, and the book of Revelation in John's case.)

These verses do not rule out continuing revelation, obviously, or else the rest of the Bible after Deutereonomy would be considered heresy.

EDIT: Imasis, you really need to set aside your hatred for the Mormons and use your head. The New Testament does indeed teach different things than Moses taught. How is "eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" not contradictory to "turn the other cheek". good grief...

Answer 5

Its suppose (ex-mormon) to be a second witness to christ and explain were jesus went during those three days before rising from the dead, like the North American continent, it also is a good story as to were the indians came from. But we already have prophecy from the O.T. and Four books from Jesus Disiples so why would we need a second testament???Joseph Smith explained it with an Athesit excuse, he put back what was missing, he did not add to...but who said anything was missing???

Answer 6

Mormonism also teaches that you can become a God, and Many Christian Scholars believe that Mormonism teaches what the serpent said to eve. About the bible I have read a few versions all I se is different wording but what I have also seen is that the bible versions are to help people understand it better and to put it in a more modern dialogged. but all the bibles say the same thing that I have seen they just use differ words.

for example the kjv will say Where art thou, or O God cast not your presence away

While the Standard version will say Where are you? or O God Do not cast your presence away.

Answer 7

Using your own logic lets go back to DEUTERONOMY
CHAPTER 4:2, "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." Everything after this should not be scripture.

This is poor logic. God can add or take away as he pleases. Man may say the Book of Mormon is not of God, but God know the truth and the Book of Mormon is of God.

Answer 8

Technically the Book of Revelations (Revelations according to John) says that. It was written wholly seperate from the rest of the books of the bible, being a stand alone text. That it is in the Bible is a matter of selection at a later time, not a matter of it's words reflecting on the rest of the Biblical cannon. One could easily argue that you shouldn't add to Revelations (which many early Church fathers did, in arguing on excluding the Revelations according to Peter, or the Apolcolypse of Peter.), not the entire bible.

Answer 9

The Mormons will say it is because other things were added after the verses in Deuteronomy. However, when they say that they are not looking at the meaning in context of those verses. You are not supposed to add different, contradictory words to the Bible. They have added different and contradictory words. They are the apostate religion Paul warned believers about.

Answer 10

exactly right. The book of Morman is adding to the Bible. However, and unfortunately do not believe in the Bible to be the final word of God and that is where the problems lie.