Monday, March 27, 2023

Grant Hardy on how the Book of Mormon Helps Clarify the BIble

  

The Book of Mormon clarifies ambiguities and fills in gaps in the Bible with regard to a number of key doctrinal issues such as the restoration of Israel (1 Ne. 22; 2 Ne. 10; 3 Ne. 16; 20-21); the fall and the atonement (2 Ne. 2; Mosiah 3); the resurrection and judgment (2 Ne. 9; Alma 12; 34; 40-41); the purpose of the law of Moses (2 Ne. 25; Mosiah 12-13; 3 Ne. 15); church regulation (Mosiah 26; 3 Ne. 18); the nature of faith (Alma 32; Ether 12; Moron. 7); the reconciliation of God’s justice and mercy (Alma 42); and proper procedures and liturgical wording for baptism, the Eucharistic, and ordination (3 Ne. 11; Moro. 2-6; 8). Strikingly, several Nephite prophets insist that God’s covenants with Israel will remain in force even after the establishment of the Christian Church (1 Ne. 19:13-16; 2 Ne. 29:5; 3 Ne. 29; Moro. 10:31), and that salvation for Gentiles will come as they are adopted into the house of Israel. (Grant Hardy, “How the Book of Mormon Responds to the Bible,” in The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition, ed. Taylor G. Petrey, Cory Crawford, and Eric A. Eliason [Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2023], 147-48)