We Believe The Bible!

By Eugene Olsen

"If any of you lack wisdom" (James 1:5) was the key that opened the whole Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ.

Those reading this book will gain greater insights into how the teachings found in the restored gospel taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are supported by teachings also found in the Bible itself.

This book is a valuable tool for missionaries, future missionaries, members, and non-members alike as it helps explain how the Bible itself supports truths found in the restored gospel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jesse Olsen
• Release date: Nov 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311230232

Book preview

Chapter One – Let There Be Light!

When Elder James E. Talmage was a student, a man approached him to sell an excellent oil lamp. Elder Talmage already had a lamp he felt was satisfactory, but he allowed the lamp seller to come up to his room to demonstrate.

"We entered my room, and I put a match to my well trimmed lamp. My visitor was high in his praise, it was the best lamp of its kind, he said, and he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He turned the wick up and down and pronounced the judgment perfect.

Now, he said, With your permission I'll light my lamp, as he took it from his satchel. Its light made bright the remotest corner of my room. Its brilliant blaze made the flame in my lamp weak and pale. Until that moment of convincing demonstration I had never known the dim obscurity in which I had lived and labored, studied and struggled."

Elder Talmage bought the new lamp and he later suggested what we could learn from the lamp seller as we teach the gospel. The man who would sell a lamp did not disparage mine. He placed his greater light alongside my feebler flame, and I hasted to obtain it.

How we should thank our Father in Heaven for all the light and truth He sends us! What a blessing to our lives is the light of the Lord! How fortunate we are today to live when the gospel has been restored for the last time and the restitution of all things is to be brought about! This is the day to prepare for the Savior's second coming and the inauguration of His glorious millennial reign.

In high school, we learned an axiom in geometry: The whole is always greater than any of its component parts. That is a true principle. The totality of truth embraces all truths in existence. The totality of goodness embraces all goodness in existence everywhere.

As we move into high school, do we need to give up any of the truths we learned in grade school? As we move into college, do we need to give up any of the truths we learned in high school?

It is better to light one small candle than to hurl a thousand curses at the dark! Let There Be Light!

We Believe The Bible!

Chapter Two – Keep All the Good!

We are to teach the restored gospel to all the world with love and kindness. President George Albert Smith, eighth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, frequently emphasized that no one need give up anything they already have that is good and true to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Keep all the truth and goodness you already have, he would say, and we will share with you additional truths the Lord has revealed as part of the Restitution of all things, predicted by the Apostle Peter, a great refreshing that was to be sent from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19-21)

Brother John Carter, of Wallace, North Carolina, says that several years ago his brother, director of the Baptist School of Divinity at Dunn, North Carolina, asked him to entertain one of their instructors coming to San Diego for a convention.

Brother Carter took the visitor to Tijuana and Rosarito, Mexico. While they were together the visitor said, John, your father was a Free Will Baptist preacher all his life and I knew him well. Your brother has been a Free Will Baptist preacher all his life, and I know him well. Others in your family are Free Will Baptist preachers also. With that kind of a background, how could you possibly have joined the Mormon Church?

Brother Carter responded. You believe in God, and in Jesus Christ. You believe in the Holy Ghost, and in the Bible. You believe in faith and prayer. So do we. They are our basic core beliefs just like they are yours. But in addition to that, we have many more things our Father in Heaven has revealed in our day as part of the promised restoration that had to occur before the Second Coming of Christ.

Then he told his visitor some of those things the Lord has restored in our day. His guest thanked him for that information and said he now understood the matter in an entirely different light.

As we live and obey any truth, its worth soon becomes apparent to us. On one occasion Jesus proclaimed, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:31-32)

Is that not what truth always does for us, as we learn it and live it? Is not truth the knowledge of things as they really are, as they really were, and as they really shall be? Moreover, is not that true knowledge the key to our success in any endeavor?

Many years ago, I borrowed a transit to prepare a topography chart of the hillside property on which I was about to build my home. Try as I would I could not make that instrument work. So, I finally took it back to the builder who had loaned it to me, and with just the touch of his finger he showed me a tiny screw I had to adjust to get the instrument into focus so I could use it.

How indispensable is knowledge of truth! Surely, truth does indeed set us free. Moreover, is not truth a statement of correct principles, or laws that must be obeyed if we are to obtain a blessing in any field?

My doctrine is not mine, the Savior declared, "but his that sent me. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak it of myself." (John 7:16, emphasis added)

You can know too. As you obey and live each truth you learn you will know of its truth through the witness of the Holy Ghost to you, if you will ask our Father in Heaven in prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, with true purpose of heart.

That is how Peter received his witness, or testimony, that Jesus is the Savior, you will recall. Whom do men say that I am? Jesus had asked his apostles. Some say you are one and some say you are another, they had responded.

"But whom do you say that I am, he then insisted, whereupon Peter, boldly declared, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Blessed art thou, Jesus responded, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (Matt. 16:13-17, emphasis added)

Was not this personal testimony by revelation from our Father in Heaven the very rock on which Christ then said he would build his Church?

As we live correct principles of truth, we find ourselves living a healthier, happier, and more prosperous life. That is the Law of the Harvest Jesus taught. We do indeed reap as we have sown. If we plant cucumbers, cucumbers we shall harvest, and not squash or watermelons even though they do all grow on a vine.

Moreover, is not that same principle as true in all phases of life as it is in gardening? So keep and live all the truth you already have and be diligently engaged in obtaining more.

That is the key to happiness and success in every endeavor. It is the key to contentment and joy in this life and endless felicity in the life to come, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free! (John 8:31-32) So says the Bible, and—

We Believe the Bible!

As we live and obey any truth, its worth soon becomes apparent to us.

Chapter Three – New Wine In Old Bottles

Jesus cautioned, Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. (Matt. 9:17)

The bottles referred to were actually leather containers and the new wine, with its powers of expansion, was put into new leather containers, which would stretch to accommodate the expansion of the wine.

Probably a good example of this principle occurred when the budding scientist Galileo was announcing some of his scientific discoveries. When he announced that he had discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, he was compelled to crawl on his hands and knees to beg the forgiveness of the Pope. The Establishment taught that this earth was the center of the whole universe. Therefore, everything else had to revolve around the earth.

That is unfortunate for it gave the impression that science and religion are inescapably opposed to each other. The truth of the matter is that it is truth and error that are opposed to each other. Any time new ideas are introduced, they come with the expansive force of new wine, and they can only be contained by minds capable of doing a little stretching.

Truth is truth, wherever it is found, whether on Christian or on heathen ground.

The case of Galileo is a good example of the new wine of scientific progress being poured into the old bottles of a Dark Ages mentality. Christ came as a restorer of Gospel Truth to an Establishment of Dark Ages mentality in his day. Therefore, he had to be rejected and done away with. He was a threat to the establishment.

The most powerful force in the earth is an idea whose time has come. But, are not all-new ideas new wine, meeting the resistance of an old bottle mentality unable to accommodate them?

It would probably be difficult to find a better example of Jesus' teaching of new wine being poured into old bottles, than the Restoration of the Gospel in our day. It was a threat to the establishment and had to be stamped out at all costs.

"And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said...

Is not this the carpenter's son?... And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. (Matt. 13:54-57)

He could have added, and in his own time. Sometimes a century or two after they are dead, men begin to pay some attention to the new ideas they expressed. Sometimes even earlier than that! Josiah Quincy, former mayor of Boston, had met the Prophet Joseph Smith and was deeply impressed by him. He said:

It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And, it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High---such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. (Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past, p.376)

Eventually the pigeons come home to roost. Truth can sometimes eventually become quite irresistible.

Joseph Smith doesn't appear really timid in his presentation of the case:

Our missionaries are going forth to different nations... The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done. (March 1, 1842—from the Wentworth Letter, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 4, page 540)

If this just happens to be the latter-day kingdom that Daniel said the God of Heaven would set up, then it will continue to grow until it becomes a great mountain in the midst of the earth, and it will continue to grow until it fills the whole earth. That's what the Bible says, and—

We Believe The Bible!

"...the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

~ Joseph Smith

Chapter Four – Creeds

When fourteen-year old Joseph Smith asked which was the true Church and which church he should join, in the spring of 1820, he was told that he should join none of them. He was told that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and they had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.

The Lord said, moreover, that all of their creeds were an abomination in his sight. That has offended many people. Not as offended by what he did say as by what they thought he said.

Let us take a look at that.

Most people think the Lord was saying that all of their teachings were an abomination unto him. But that really isn't what he said. He said all of their creeds were an abomination unto him.

What is a creed? The dictionary I have in my hands defines a creed as:

A formally phrased confession of faith; a brief, authoritative, summarizing statement of religious belief; as, the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed;

A common ingredient in the creeds of the churches in Joseph Smith's day, and many today, was the baptism of infants and small children stemming from the doctrine of In Adam's fall, we sinned all.

The Restoration corrects that with the Second Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which states: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.

Another error of doctrine in the creeds of that day involved a belief that men are predestined, stemming from an error in translation. The Restoration corrects that error to say that people are often foreordained, as were Abraham and Jeremiah. We are never predestined, as that would take away our freedom of choice, which our Father in Heaven would never do.

But by far the most abominable part of creeds of the churches of that day, and of many today, is their acceptance of the so-called Nicene Creed, which is a categorical contradiction of the testimony of the Apostles of Jesus Christ concerning his resurrection. If the testimony of the Eleven Apostles is true, sealed in blood, then the Nicene Creed is false, for each of them categorically contradicts the other.

The Nicene Creed says the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all one and the same thing, and adds that they are without body, parts, or passions. The Eleven Apostles testify that Christ appeared to them after his resurrection saying to them, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39, emphasis added) They testified that they saw and felt and know. The Nicene Creed says he does not even have a body.

One of them is lying. They cannot both be true. That being the case, how could anything be more abominable to the Lord than the Nicene Creed?

If all their creeds include the Nicene Creed, would that not be sufficient reason to say their creeds were all an abomination in the sight of the Lord? We believe the Bible, including the testimony of the Eleven Apostles.

We Believe The Bible!

Chapter Five – Under Oath

Preparing to testify at my first trial as a rather new agent of the F.B.I., I asked an older agent for any suggestions he might have to help me.

Well, he said, the most common thing a defense attorney would be apt to ask a new law enforcement agent serving as a witness would be whether he had ever told a lie. If he says yes, the attorney will ask the jury if they think they should believe the testimony of a witness who has already admitted he is a liar. If he says no, the whole courtroom will break into laughter, for there won't be a man there who hasn't told his wife how beautiful she was, even when both he and she knew that she was anything but beautiful, at least at that moment.

There is only one answer you can give, he continued, And that is 'I have never told a lie under oath.'

So that was my answer then, and it has been my answer ever since. I have never told a lie under oath. No other answer could be correct, for the witness has taken an oath that the testimony he is about to give shall be "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," so help me God.

And do we not also have the same obligation when we are talking about the things of God? Are we not then also under obligation to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

That is certainly the way I feel about it, and I therefore solemnly declare that I shall so do, and would like to suggest that I believe everyone else ought to feel that same responsibility.

Several years ago I was paneled to serve on a jury for the trial of a case involving illicit drugs. Since I was frank in stating I was a retired F.B.I. Agent, I was surprised that the defense attorney did not ask to have me dismissed from the jury, but he did not.

In the deliberations of the jury at the conclusion of the trial I stated to the jury, "It is my personal opinion that the accused is guilty, but in my opinion that certainly has not been established by the testimony of witnesses in the trial of this case.

In the United States the accused is presumed to be innocent until he is shown to be guilty by the testimony of competent witnesses. In my opinion this man's guilt has not been established by the testimony of witnesses in this trial, and for that reason I am voting to acquit him." Acquit him