But We Have the Book! -- We Make the Word of God of None Effect

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold to the tradition of men.... Full well ye reject the commandments of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such things do ye" (Mark 7:7-9; 13).

This is a talk, at least a version of it, given in my French ward in Metz, France on October 27, 2024, given in English, but posted here so it can be shared via a link.

I enjoy being part of your family. We are, after all, brothers and sisters and hope to be part of the Lord's eternal family. But I am getting older which is both a blessing and a curse. Just the other day, I went into an antiques store and they would not let me leave! But being older, I have had many years to feast upon the words of God and He has blessed me with the Spirit of Revelation and the Spirit of Prophecy. Following my own Road to Damascus experience many years ago, I turned to His words and have been feasting upon them ever since. 

Think of me today as an older family member teaching you some of what the Lord has revealed to me through His words, one who knows the difference between the word of God and the teachings of men mingled with scripture. I want you to taste the exceeding joy of which I have tasted, and know as I know.

The word of God is the focus of the entire Book of Mormon. He has given us His words which He tells us are truth, light, spirit, even the spirit of Jesus Christ. There is a reason we are told to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.

But Christ has warned us that by our traditions we make His words of none effect.

When religious tradition replaces the Gospel of Jesus Christ; when we place the emphasis on us; when we attempt to justify ourselves because of our good works; when we merely parrot back or echo a conference talk, we make the word of God of none effect through our religious traditions.

The topic I was assigned comes from a Talk by Elder Soares. It is entitled "Followers of the Prince of Peace." Elder Soares encourages us to be more like our Savior. But the method to do so includes a word that waters down the word of God. And that word is 'strive' as in "strive to develop" the attributes of Christ.

Religious traditon puts the focus on us striving to develop these attributes, when the scriptures clearly teach that it is Christ that changes us. It is a fiction to think that by further, better and more aggressive living, or by striving harder, we can become like Christ. 

The word of God teaches us something that, if we believe His words, we will come to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about improvement, but about redemption. It is a Gospel of repentance, not a gospel of performance.

Transfiguring the word of God even a fraction perverts it, and

changes the truth of God into a lie. 

Let me give you just a few examples contrasting our religious traditions with the word of God, and how tradition makes the word of God of none effect. 

1. Religious tradition teaches us to love more and better by our own efforts. 

Christ teaches that "charity is the pure love of Christ...and whoso is possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." And how do we possess it? "pray unto the Father will all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ (Moroni 7:48).

2. Religious tradition teaches us to follow the brethren. 

The word of God teaches us to never put our trust in the arm of flesh, in no person, but to "look to God and live" (Alma 37:47), and to live "by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God" (D&C 84:44), not by every word that comes from the pulpit, unless it is the word of God. But only those who speak with the Tongue of Angels will know the difference (2 Nephi 31:14). 

3. Religious tradition teaches us to 'live the gospel."

The word of God teaches us that Christ is the Gospel, the Good News, sent by his Father to save us from our sins, first as Jehovah, then as the mortal Jesus and finally as the resurrected Jesus, to deliver His everlasting Gospel: mercy to all those who repent, and justice to all those who do not repent (3 Nephi 27:13-21). 

4. Religious tradition teaches that repentance is a change of behavior, feeling sorry, and paying some penance.

The word of God teaches us that repentance means to turn to Christ and put all our trust in Him, relying wholly upon His merits, and that only the penitent are saved. 

5. Religious tradition teaches us to be good, make good choices, and be good examples.

The word of God teaches us to choose good, not human goodness, but the goodness of God, and that we do not merit anything of ourselves. 

His words also teach us there are only two choices: Good or Evil, but only as His words define Good and Evil.

He teaches us that we should hold up His light, and not our tiny spark.

Ask yourself this question:

Is my faith so little that I cling to the deeds that I do, calling them good, because I am afraid to see the evil in me? And yet it is only through seeing the evil in me that I can exercise the faith to see the good in Him.

6. Religious tradition teaches us that the gospel is about our worthiness and our righteousness. 

The word of God teaches us to always retain in remembrance our unworthiness (Alma 38:14), and that only God is righteous. 

We cannot be righteous, but we can be, as Elder Soares reminds us, followers of His righteousness, and can be saved only because of His righteousness. 

7. Religious tradition teaches us to keep the commandments, and depending on who is teaching, the list is long and detailed like a modern day Law of Moses.

The word of God teaches us to obey the commandments of God, and then defines His commandments as repentance, baptism, enduring in faith in Christ until the end (3 Nephi 27:16), and

to "give diligent heed to the words of eternal life" (D&C 84:43) because His words will tell us all that we must do (2 Nephi 32:3). It is His righteousness that saves us, not our own.

8. Religious tradition counts as a good member of the church, one who pays tithing, attends meetings and the temple, reads the scriptures, fasts once a month, fulfills his or her duties, and who does not commit any of the serious sins.

The word of God says that only those who are repenting are of His Church (D&C 10:68-68). 

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is a parable about the futility of religion (Luke 18:9-14). None of the Pharisee's good works justified him.

The word of God teaches us that it is only His church if it is built upon His gospel, and not upon the works of men or of the devil (3 Nephi 27:10-11).

9. Religious tradition puts the cart before the horse, measures our repentance and our righteousness by our works and our human goodness.

The word of God teaches that our works follow our repentance and are the fruits of our repentance. 

Some of the fruits of our repentance are being born again, saved by the grace of God, and saying nothing but repentance unto this generation. 

Those who are repenting are those who have experienced their own lost and fallen state, are harrowed up in their sins, and want to experience the Atonement and His mercy in their own lives. And want others to experience the same. Why? So that others may receive the mercy of God and avoid being judged by their works. 

We are also taught by the word of God that only Christ is good, and that no one doeth good except by the gifts and power of God. For if there be one among (us) that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God (Moroni 10:25).

10. Religious tradition teaches that when we partake of the sacrament we are renewing covenants we made at baptism. 

The word of God does not teach that we renew baptismal covenants when we partake of the sacrament. At baptism, we enter into His everlasting covenant, and are accounted as the salt of the earth and the savor of men. 

But if we lose that savor we become as salt that has lost its savor and is good for nothing only to be cast out. He tells us that He covenanteth with none except they that do repent (D&C 101:39-40).

When we partake of the bread and water we partake of His flesh and blood and witness unto God that we are repenting, that we are 'willing to' or 'want to' take upon ourselves His name, keep His commandments (repent and endure to the end), and always remember Him. 

We do not witness that we will, but that we are willing to. When we repent and turn to Him, he cures our tendency to turn away from Him. Again just two choices: turn to Him or turn away from Him.

I often wonder when I observe someone refusing the sacrament if they understand that only those who are not turned to Him or who are not repenting, are unworthy to partake. 

The problem with religious tradition is that it makes the word of God of none effect because it transfigures His words, mingles them with the teaching of men, and is anti-Christ because it puts the focus on us, and denies the gifts and power of God. 

It can take on a life of its own and cause us to believe we are on the path that leads to eternal life because we are religious. 

But only the word of God, or the Rod of Iron, gets us in the right way and keeps us there, but only if we hold fast, and only if we feast upon the words of Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation, not the power of us unto salvation.

And what a glorious Gospel it is! 

Christ chose to take upon Himself the demands of Justice and save us from our lost and fallen state, from our sins, so that if we repent mercy will claim us and when we stand before Him at the judgment, He will find us guiltless (3 Nephi 27:13-21)! 

The news cannot be any better news than that! So rather than 'live the gospel' we should proclaim the Gospel!

Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received?

A voice of gladness!

A voice of mercy from heaven; and

A voice of truth out of the earth;

    glad tidings for the dead;

    a voice of gladness for the living      and the dead;

    glad tidings of great joy.

(D&C 128:19)

Next: But We Have The Book! - That Same Spirit

But We Have The Book! - Introduction

"And ye have not his word in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye have eternal life: and they (His words) are they which testify of me" (John 5:38-39).

Our friends and former neighbors in Arizona were visiting us in France, and while driving to one of our destinations, I got into a discussion with Joe about the Book of Mormon. I explained that it was an ancient record written on metal plates and translated by Joseph Smith. His first question was, "where are these plates?" I answered that I didn't know, but that was irrelevant because we have the book. "Yes, I understand that," he answered, "but why don't you have the plates?" I then asked him if he was currently reading a book. He answered that he was, and so I asked "where is the manuscript? Do you need the manuscript when you have the book? Isn't the book evidence that there was a manuscript?" I asked.

I can understand why people are curious about the origins of the Book of Mormon, but the proof is in the book, not in its origins. My granddaughter's testimony of the Book of Mormon was shaken after she listened to a series of podcasts on the origins of the Book of Mormon. I had listened to one of these podcasts before, and had checked all the titles, and it struck me as the same old arguments that have been made since the Book of Mormon was published, attacks of Joseph Smith, DNA, translation from Reformed Egyptian, an explanation of how scholars can show the Book of Mormon as a 19th century text, New Testament writings in 3 Nephi, etc. 

But we have the book! How then do they explain the book? They can't, so they attack its origins and try to make an ancient record, a 19th century fabrication, using the same old and tired criticisms. But the book exists. No critic has ever given a credible explanation of where the book came from! Who wrote it? Who put it all together? Have you ever considered why critics want to shift the burden of proof to us? Because they can't explain away the book. The burden is on the critic.

My purpose here is not to answer the critics by presenting all the evidence. Hugh Nibley has already done that in An Approach to the Book of Mormon. 

No, I want to ask a question:

Whom do you believe? 

Christ or the critics?

The Lesser Portion

Two-hundred and twenty-one years ago, in the early hours of September 22, 1823, an angel appeared at the bedside of the prophet Joseph Smith. Moroni was there to announce the coming forth of an ancient record whose contents contained “the fulness of the everlasting gospel… as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants [of the American continent]” (Joseph Smith—History 1:34). 

The book had been previously “sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord,” effectively making it Moroni's message to declare (“Title Page of the Book of Mormon”).

We either believe or we do not believe that:

1) an angel appeared to Joseph Smith, 

2) that the Book of Mormon is an ancient record,

3) it contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel, and

4) that the fulness of the everlasting gospel was delivered by Jesus Christ to America's ancient inhabitants.

And you either believe them all, or you believe none of these.

Moroni’s record was divided into a lesser portion—which has since been translated as The Book of Mormon—and a greater portion, which has remained untranslated. 

In the record the Savior declared, “And when they shall have received this [the lesser part of the record], which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. 

And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation” (3 Nephi 26:9-10 emphasis added).

In other words, the Book of Mormon was intended to come forth as a test to the latter-day Gentiles. If they embraced its message, they would receive greater light and knowledge. If their unbelief and false traditions led them to harden their hearts against its words, they would come under condemnation.

This clearly puts the burden on each of us to either embrace its message or harden our hearts against its words. The test is not whether we believe in the origin of the book, but whether we believe its words.

A short nine years following Moroni’s initial visit, September 22, 1832, the Lord declared that the Gentiles to whom these things had come (us) had indeed fallen into condmention for “treating lightly the things which you have received—which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation… 

And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written—

That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion” (D&C 84:54-58 emphasis added). 

This is a fulfillment of the prophecy by the Savior that those who do not believe the words in the book, will be under condemnation.

Faithfulness leads to receiving more light, unbelief leads to losing it: “And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction” (Alma 12:11; cf. 2 Nephi 28:30 emphasis added). 

“So to them the word of Jehovah remained: Line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept; a trifle here, a trifle there, that, persisting, they might lapse into stumbling and break themselves, become ensnared and be taken captive” (Isaiah 28:13 emphasis added). 

Therefore, it should be understood that the Lord’s warning of “a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion” would mark the full measure of Gentile condemnation (D&C 84:58; cf. D&C 45:28-32; 3 Nephi 20:28).

There is no compromise, no middle ground, no hedging. We either believe the words and receive them and then receive more light, or we do not believe the words and we lose what we may have had, and suffer the condemnation. This gives meaning to the Lord telling us His words are like a two-edged sword. "I am God; give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words" (D&C 11:2).

Inasmuch as the Lord’s covenant relationship to the Gentiles is mediated upon the terms set forth in the Book of Mormon—the new covenant of Christ’s gospel—the realization of such judgment would surely mark the Gentiles being “cut off from among [the Lord’s] people who are of the covenant” (3 Nephi 21:11): 

“Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm top and reed, in a single day; the elders or notables are the head, the prophets who teach falsehoods, the tail” (Isaiah 9:14-15). This language comes in striking symbolic parallel to Laban’s own unfaithful stewardship over a scriptural record, whose head was consequently “cut off” by the very sword he once used to defend it (see also 1 Nephi 22:13, 19).

Should it come as a surprise that the Lord’s endtime judgments will begin on his own house, when this is the very thing He foretold? “Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation… And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house” (D&C 112:24-26 emphasis added).

The Lord, who foresaw our day, exhorted: “Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief” (Ether 4:13). Will it not be the revelation of such “greater things” that the Lord will use to divide His people, both wheat and tare? When greater light breaks forth among the Gentiles, will we be among those who “perceive not the light,” and turn their hearts from God because of the precepts of men (D&C 45:28-32)? 

And when that generation sees the foretold overflowing scourge, will we be among those who curse God, or who stand firm in holy places, having believed Christ? 

Then why is it that in a day when searching and understanding the scriptures and prophecies of our day becomes a life-or-death issue—when the times become such that it is all men can do to separate the truth from an ever mounting onslaught of falsehoods—why are people still ensconced in worldly pastimes and trust in human institutions as sources of truth, and don’t believe Christ? Or don't believe Christ's words in the Book of Mormon?

Yet, like Laman and Lemuel, we continue to voice today’s equivalent of “We know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them” (1 Nephi 17:22).

In the very hour of God’s judgments coming upon his people for their wickedness, causing him to warn Lehi to leave Jerusalem, we find today’s equivalent of these two sons’ protesting that we have judged them, when, in truth, it is the Book of Mormon, that which was spoken by prophets and by Christ, that does so. 

And such will sadly remain their mantra until the times overtake them

There comes a point in people’s spiritual progression or regression, in other words, that they are either of one mind or another. Either God’s truth is in them sufficiently so that they gladly receive further light and knowledge, or they object to the truth if it is told them. But they will not be able to continue to fight against the light, Christ's words.

There is a difference between believing Christ and believing in Christ. Believing in something or someone is irrelevant. Our belief does not make something true or not true. But believing Christ is relevant. And to make it simpler, we either believe Him or we don't. 

It is either one or the other and there is no in between. But belief in Christ is multifaceted. We can believe in Him, or not believe in Him, or we can say we don’t know, or we can believe that He was just a great teacher, but not the Son of God, and on and on. 

But when it comes to believing Him, it is either yes or no. We can never plead ignorance! We can never say we did not know! The reason is that Christ said He only teaches what His Father commanded Him to teach, the words of His Father. And because His words are truth (the only truth), to believe Christ is to believe His Father's words, or to believe the truth, no matter who speaks it. The Parable of the Sower is everyone's story.

This is where the Book of Mormon surpasses all other scripture. It is filled with the words of God! 

And what is our response to this marvel of all marvels? To treat it lightly and put it aside in favor of putting out trust in men, our religious works, our goodness. "We know that active members of the Church of Jesus Christ are a righteous people for they attend the temple, pay their tithing, attend their meetings, fulfill their duties, believe they are on the covenant path, believe their leaders, and talk about Christ."

"Now behold, my brethren, I would ask if ye have read the scriptures? If ye have, how can ye disbelieve on the Son of God" (Alma 33:14 emphasis added)?

It is no wonder that "Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son" (Alma 33:16 emphasis added). 

We cannot believe what we do not know.

Next: But We Have the Book! -- We Make the Word of God of None Effect