LDS Doctrine & the Bible
• Latter Day Saints have been taught that “many plain and precious parts” (1 Nephi 13:28) have gone missing since the early church, and that the Bible we have now is not to be fully trusted. Because of the missing parts, it can be confusing, and the Book of Mormon is needed to clarify.
• We have now discovered ancient manuscripts (Dead Sea Scrolls) preserved in the Qumran Caves that give us the ability to test the reliability of our modern day Bibles. Perhaps most significant is the Great Isaiah Scroll, dated to around 200 BC. As scholars can attest, there are no precious and plain parts that have gone missing; what we read now in our modern day Bibles aligns almost exactly to the original—written around 2,300 years ago!
• In regards to the New Testament, “the sheer volume of biblical manuscripts makes it simple to recognize any attempt to distort God’s Word. There is no major doctrine of the Bible that is put in doubt as a result of the inconsequential differences among the manuscripts.”
Manuscript Count:
Greek Manuscript total: 5,856 [2]
*Earliest manuscript: AD 130 [3] (John Rylands Papyrus: P52) Non-Greek Manuscripts (Armenian, Latin, etc.): 18,130+
Total Manuscripts: 23,9862
• Aside from physical evidence, we have the promise from Jesus Himself to preserve His Word: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away(Mtt. 24:35).”
• Affirming the authority of His Word: Psalm 138:2; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12
• Affirming the truthfulness of His Word: John 17:17
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-corrupted.html 1
https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/what-is-the-most-recent-manuscript-count-for-the-new- 2 testament