Thursday, May 7, 2020

James Talmage on the Latter-day Saint View of the Bible


  
Our Acceptance of the Bible:—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts the Bible as the first and foremost of her standard works, chief among the books which have been proclaimed as her written guides in faith and doctrine. In the respect and sanctity with which the Latter-day Saints regard the Bible, they are of like profession with Christian denominations in general; differing from them only in the additional acknowledgment of certain other scriptures as authentic and holy, which others are in harmony with the Bible, and serve to support and emphasize its facts and doctrines . . . Nevertheless, the Church announces a reservation in the case of erroneous translation, which may occur as a result of human incapacity; and even in this measure of caution we are not alone, for biblical scholars generally admit the presence of errors of the kind, many of them self-apparent. The Latter-day Saints believe the original records to be the word of God unto man, and, as far as these records have been translated correctly, the translations are regarded as equally authentic. (James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Principle Doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1899], 240)

Further Reading