“The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalm 12:6,7)
There is a reason why Mormons doubt the validity of the Bible, and it comes from the Book of Mormon. This is because Joseph Smith’s book teaches that plain and precious parts were removed. Therefore, they cannot trust the teachings in Christianity. Books that were removed or lost would have taught differently, they assume. They also say that all their core doctrines, when it comes to eternal marriage, works for the dead, temples, the priesthood, and more, were lost with these scriptures. It all stems from this one verse. “And the angel spake unto me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved.” (1 Nephi 13:40) And so people rely on this account given by a fictional character called Nephi. Instead of believing that the words are pure, or that it was preserved, they doubt this.
So yes, Mormons doubt the historicity and accuracy of the Bible because of what the Book of Mormon says about it. And for this reason, they made an official statement about this. How they only believe the Bible to be true as far as it is translated correctly. This is one of their core 13 beliefs in Mormonism. It reads, “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.” (8th Article Of Faith) And they don’t simply state that the vast amount of translations is the major issue. Instead, they say that the canon is missing important books, chapters, and verses. Even so far to say that the translators cannot be trusted. This is why they are ok with Joseph Smith changing over 3410 verses when using the King James Bible as his reference book. Most people would see a person adding to and removing verses from the Bible as a terrible idea. However, when you have a warped mind, then the Bible would need to be corrected, for things were lost. Are the Mormon people wrong? Of course, but only few people will ever find this out before it is too late. Therefore, God calls us to witness to them. So what are you waiting for? Amen.
TY Paul, Until now, I didn’t know the ‘root’ cause of why Mormons thought ‘plain and precious things’ had been removed from the Bible.