Can We Trust the Bible? — The LDS View
“As far as it is translated correctly” — what the Eighth Article of Faith actually means
What LDS Believe About the Bible
Protestant Christians sometimes assume that Latter-day Saints view the Bible with suspicion — that the qualifier in the Eighth Article of Faith (“as far as it is translated correctly”) is a backdoor through which inconvenient scriptural passages can be dismissed. This is a misreading.
Latter-day Saints use the Bible. They read it. They study it. They teach from it. Sunday School lessons, General Conference addresses, and temple teachings are saturated with it. The Bible — specifically the King James Version — is the primary scriptural text in LDS worship and instruction. The other standard works supplement and clarify it; they do not replace it.
The LDS position on the Bible is not that it is unreliable. It is that it is the word of God as far as it has been accurately transmitted through centuries of copying, translation, and selection — and that some things have been lost or altered in that process. This is not a Mormon innovation. It is a conclusion that most serious biblical scholars, including Protestant ones, hold in some form.
The Eighth Article of Faith Explained
Article of Faith 8
“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
The qualifier is not a rejection of the Bible. It is an honest acknowledgment of textual history. The Bible was not written in English. It was written in Hebrew and Greek. It was translated into Latin, then into English, then into dozens of modern languages. Every translation involves human choices. Every copy made by hand across centuries introduced potential errors. The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and subsequent councils made decisions about which texts to include in the canon.
These are not LDS talking points. These are the facts of biblical transmission that scholars across all traditions acknowledge. The doctrine of biblical inerrancy — the claim that the Bible as it exists today is perfectly preserved in every detail — is a relatively recent Protestant position, not an ancient one. Most Protestant scholars do not hold to strict inerrancy; they hold to something more like infallibility, which means the Bible reliably teaches what is necessary for salvation.
The LDS position is in this same territory, but more explicit: the Bible is the word of God, it reliably transmits the gospel of Jesus Christ in its essentials, and where transmission has been imperfect, the Restoration provides additional witnesses and clarifications.
What “Plain and Precious Things” Were Lost
1 Nephi 13:26–29
“And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.”
The Book of Mormon does not claim to enumerate every “plain and precious thing” that was lost. What it establishes is a principle: the Bible as the world received it had passed through a process that removed or obscured things that were originally part of the gospel. This is why a Restoration was necessary — not because the Bible is useless, but because it was incomplete.
Things the Restoration Clarified or Restored
- The nature of God — Embodied, glorified, distinct from the Son
- Premortal existence — We lived as spirit children of God before birth
- The purpose of the Fall — Not catastrophe but necessary step in God's plan
- Priesthood authority — The specific keys and ordinances for salvation
- Temple ordinances — Baptism for the dead, eternal marriage, endowment
- Degrees of glory — The fuller picture of what happens after death
None of these restorations require rejecting the Bible. They require reading it more carefully and receiving additional revelation that fills in what was lost.
How the Restoration Supplements the Bible
The Restoration does not compete with the Bible. It extends and clarifies it. Consider what the Book of Mormon does with the Bible: it quotes Isaiah at length. It quotes Malachi. It has Christ himself deliver the Sermon on the Mount to the Nephites. It fills the gaps in the Mosaic understanding of Christ with a people who understood that all the law of Moses pointed toward the Atonement.
Consider what the Doctrine and Covenants does: it expands the understanding of salvation, of the resurrection, of priesthood, of scripture itself. Section 91 specifically addresses the Apocrypha — Joseph Smith was told that the Apocryphal books are mostly accurate but contain some errors and are not necessary for salvation. This is a nuanced, thoughtful engagement with biblical history, not a dismissal of it.
The Restoration treats the Bible as a precious, partially preserved record that points toward a truth larger than what the Bible alone contains. The additional scriptures don't make the Bible less important. They make the truth the Bible was pointing toward more fully visible.
Why We Still Use the KJV
The Church officially uses the King James Version of the Bible in English-speaking countries. This is not a claim that the KJV is the most accurate modern translation — it is not. It has translation choices that more recent scholarship has refined or corrected.
The KJV is used because it is the translation that Joseph Smith worked with, because the Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon quotes align with its language, because it has deep roots in the worship tradition of English-speaking Christianity, and because its majestic prose captures the weight of scripture in a way that modern translations often sacrifice for readability. The Church is not unaware of its limitations. It uses it deliberately, with those limitations acknowledged.
The Bible and the Book of Mormon Together
The relationship between the Bible and the Book of Mormon is not competitive. The Book of Mormon itself declares its purpose: it is to come forth “to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God” (title page). It is a second witness of Christ. It takes what the Bible establishes and confirms it from a different angle, with a different people, across a different thousand years.
Christ himself said that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word would be established. The Bible is one witness. The Book of Mormon is another. Together they establish the divinity of Jesus Christ more firmly than either could alone.
The Bible Is Not the Enemy of the Restoration
A common Protestant concern is that Latter-day Saints have replaced the Bible with other books. The reality is different. The Bible remains the foundational scriptural text of LDS Christianity. Its stories, its prophecies, its doctrinal arguments, and its testimony of Christ are woven through everything the Church teaches.
What the Restoration does is take the Bible seriously enough to ask what it originally said and to seek additional revelation where it falls short of the fullness of truth. This is not disrespect for the Bible. It is confidence that God had more to say than what survived the centuries of transmission — and that He said it through Joseph Smith.
The Bible points toward Christ. The Restoration brings you to him more completely. These are not competing destinations — they are the same destination reached by a fuller path.