When you ask this question to a Mormon, they will probably say yes. They will say that they accept and revere the Bible as the Word of God. However as you dig into the Mormon beliefs you will find that they do not accept the Bible as the complete, infallible and final Word of God.
Anytime a religious organization contacts you and offers you an additional book(s) to the Bible, you are know you are dealing with a cult or apostate church. Check out the Roman Catholics with the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. As a Roman Catholic I never read a page of the Bible on my own, you were not supposed to. Check out the Jehovah Witnesses with their watered down, poorly translated, fit our own doctrine NWT Bible.
The same goes for the Mormons with their Book of Mormon, which is listed as Another Testament of Jesus Christ. They also accept two other books, The Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants as the inspired and infallible Word of God. As the former Lutheran church goer told me, 'I felt the Bible was a puzzle with pieces missing, when I read the Book of Mormon, all the pieces fit together. In fact, the missionaries that visited with me had the King James Bible and Mormon books in one unit as if it were one complete book. They will tell you that the Bible is full of errors due to the translation process. They will tell you that there are items missing because none of the original manuscripts are available.
When you open the book of Mormon you will find The Testimony of Three Witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris . The Mormon missionaries will point this article out to impress on a person the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. The three men go on about how they saw the plates and engravings that they were written on. However. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris were all excommunicated from the Mormon church and described as thieves and counterfeits. Martin Harris denied he had actually seen the plates. He said he had only seen them with the "eye of faith".
You will also see on the next page the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Listed are some of the problems with Joseph Smith and his claims:
Joseph Smith, Sr. was a peep stone user and treasure digger. He also claimed his son Joseph Smith, Jr. was a peep stone user and treasure digger. A peep stone is supposed to be a magical rock which when placed in a hat and darkened, revealed lost treasure. One of his many wives, Emma Smith claimed that he translated the golden plates using this method. This would not only be unBiblical but a from of occult.
Joseph Smith Jr. claims that the language used on the plates was Reformed Egyptian. According to every Egyptologist and philologist ever consulted, Reformed Egyptian is a non-existent language.
Joseph Smith in his first writing said the angel Moroni was the messenger. In a later account he listed Nephi as the messenger.
The Department of Anthropology at Columbia University and The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC both claim that there is no archeological evidence of the Book of Mormon.
The National Geographic Society says they have never used the Book of Mormon in locating historic ruins in Middle America or elsewhere.
The Book of Mormon contains some 27,000 words from the King James Bible. If it was written between 600 B.C, and 421 A.D., how could it contain such extensive quotations from a book written 1200 to 2000 years later? In fact it even contains two translation errors from the King James Bible. Compare 2 Nephi 14:5 to Isaiah 4:5, the correct translation of the Hebrew word chuppah is canopy, not defense. Compare 2 Nephi 15:25 with Isaiah 5:25, the correct translation for the word suchah is refuse, not torn.
There have been some major and some 3000 minor translation changes from the original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. How can this Book possibly be translated by the power of God?
The Book of Mormon has other significant errors in its scriptures. For example the Book of Mormon teaches that Jesus was born in Jerusalem (Alma 7:9-10), not in Bethlehem as the Bible teaches (Micah 5:2); Matthew 2:1). In Helaman 14:20, during Jesus' crucifixion, the darkness over the land was said to last for three days instead of the Biblical three hours (Matthew 27:45: Mark 15:33). 3
The 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon contains some other problems. In Mosiah 21:28 the edition refers to King Benjamin, the modern editions read King Mosiah. According to the Book of Mormon chronology, Benjamin was no longer king at the time, he was dead! The 1830 edition, in 1 Nephi 11:18 teaches, "The virgin which thou seest, is the mother of God, after the manner in the flesh". However Mary since could not be the mother of God, later editions were changed to " the mother of the Son of God".
A portion of the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Abraham has been proven to be a forgery. It is a copy of the pagan text-the Egyptian Book of Breathings, an extension of the occultic Egyptian Book of the dead relating to alleged journeys of the soul after death.
Joseph Smith, Jr. had this to say about false prophets: " The only way of ascertaining a true prophet is to compare his prophecies with the ancient Word of God, and see if they agree... When, therefore any man, no matter go, or how high his standing may be, utters, or publishes, anything that afterwards proves to be untrue, he is a false prophet".
In Doctrine and Covenants 1:37, 38, "God" promises that all the prophecies and promises within the book's pages "shall be fulfilled". Doctrine and Covenants 84:1-5, 31 declares under the authority of "the Word of the Lord" that both a city and a temple are to be built "in the Western boundaries of the state of Missouri" and dedicated by Joseph Smith Jr. It stated that tho temple would be erected during the lifetime of those living. The prophecy promised that the temple would be erected " in this generation' (Doctrine and Covenants 84:4-5) and that "this generation would not pass away" until it was built. It is now 165 years later since the original prophecy and the temple is still not built.
The Bible (Taken from Major Bible Themes)
You can view the evidence and supporting that the Bible is the Word of God in two ways:
1. The Internal evidence where the Bible declares or assumes itself to be the Word of God:
The Bible declares itself to be the Word of God. Deuteronomy 6:6-9, 17-18, Joshua 1:8, 8:32-35, 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 1:2, 12:6, 19:7-11, 93:5, 119:9, 11, 18, 89-93, 97-100, 104-105, 130, Proverbs 30:5-6, Isaiah 55:10-11, Jeremiah 15:16, 23:29, Daniel 10:21, Matthew 5:17-19, 22:29, Mark 13:31, Luke 16:17, John 2:22, 5:24, 10:35, Acts 17:11, Romans 10:17, 1 Corinthians 2:13, Colossians 3:16, I Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 1:23-25, Revelation 1:2, 22:18.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says all Scripture is inspired by God, this includes the New Testament. Note how Peter equates Paul's writings as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16.
2. The external evidence by the Continuity of the Bible:
The Bible was written over a period of 1600 years, and rather than a collection of 66 books it is one book. It's authors came from all walks of life - kings, peasants, fishermen, physicians, statesmen, scholars, poets and farmers. It can be seen in its historical sequence, doctrinal themes, type followed by antitype, and prophecy by fulfillment. The Biblical revelation covers creation, sin, salvation and judgment. No other book has ever been published in so many languages for so many people and cultures.
Because if the combination of human and supernatural qualities which enter into the Bible, a similarity may be observed between the Bible as the written Word and the Lord Jesus Christ as the living Word. They are both supernatural in origin, presenting an inscrutable and perfect blending of that which is divine and that which is human. They both exercise a transforming power over those who believe, and are alike allowed of God to be set at nought and rejected by those who do not believe. The untainted, undiminished divine perfections are embodied in each. The revelations which they disclose are at once as simple as the mental capacity of a child, and as complex as the infinite treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge, and as enduring as the God whom they reveal.
