The following article consists of two sections. Section one is based upon the response of a Mormon apologist to one of my articles on the Spotlight on Mormonism page of this site: Questions for Mormons on Latter Day Revelation. Section two is my counter resonse.

Section 1.

Subj: Questions for Mormons on Latter Day Revelation: Some Answers
Date: 06/02/2003 05:29:14 GMT Standard Time
From: [Email on File]
To: VSpotlight@aol.com

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have some answers for the Questions for Mormons on Latter Day Revelation page.

For Question 2: The Prophets of today have had their sayings and doctrines canonized into Mormon Scripture. We have a magizines Theres the Liahona(International Magizine), The Ensign, The New Era, and the Friend. All these magazines come out once a month to the members with the latest words of the General Authoritys. The magizines are doctrine and are used very often for scripture.

Question 4: Joseph Smith never said there were "lost books." He said there was "lost scripture." Which has been lost or missworder through the years and years of the translation of the Bible. We know the Bible to be true "as much as it is transalted correctly."

Question 5: Though the Bible is missing Scriptures. The LDS Prophets havn't had them restored because the Lord has not told them to do so. The prophet can only preform such things with the help of God and the Holy Ghost. It has not been told by God to any Prophets to fix these problems. The Lord called Joseph Smith to this calling. Not any other Prophets to this date. This could change though in the future.

Question 6: The LDS church does not use the Joesph Smith Translation of the Bible because we didn't have the manuscript to do it. When Joseph died. His wife Emma Smith gave the manuscript that Joseph had worked on to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We don't use it now because the RLDS church could have changed around the manuscript taking out important details and what not. Although still with flaw. The King James Version of the Bible is the least mistranslated.

Section 2.

Hi there,

Many thanks for taking the time to read through the article and to feedback.

I think you may have possibly misunderstood what I was saying with question 2. What I meant was that the LDS leaders words are not part of the LDS Standard Works. In fact, there is a great tension between LDS folk as to whether current LDS teaching is more important than the Standard Works or if LDS people should just stick with the Standards Works and view these as more important...

Question 4 - You said that Joseph Smith never said that there were lost books, and you may be right. However, please note that I never said that Joseph Smith said that books were lost, but that the LDS Church says that there are lost books: "If, as the LDS Church asserts, the Bible is an incomplete record with many "lost books", then why were these books not restored by Joseph Smith when he completed his own version of the Bible, ..." But with that said, the LDS Church belief that the Bible has lost books must originate from somewhere. I would submit to you that that place was from Smith himself, as he clearly did not have confidence in the book.

Question 5 - You said that God has not called any other LDS leaders to restore the missing portions of the Bible. But in the meantime, if this were true, we are without essential Scripture. Also, in the meantime, the LDS missionaries continue to knock on the doors of Christians to tell them their Bible is incomplete. I think in honesty, the idea to restore the Bible died with Smith, as it was his idea, not God's.

Question 6 - You said: "The LDS church does not use the Joesph Smith Translation of the Bible because we didn't have the manuscript to do it. When Joseph died. His wife Emma Smith gave the manuscript that Joseph had worked on to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We don't use it now because the RLDS church could have changed around the manuscript taking out important details and what not. Although still with flaw. The King James Version of the Bible is the least mistranslated."

Although some people have stated that they believe that the RLDS have tampered with the text of the JST, it is just that a 'belief'. There is no factual evidence to support this assertion. Added to this, respected Mormon authority, Robert J. Matthews, states:

"Because the translation was published by the RLDS church, some questions have existed as to whether it had been published accurately. However, research in the past few years with the original manuscripts has indicated that the Inspired Version of the Bible, published by the RLDS church, is an accurate representation of the sense of the original manuscripts prepared by Joseph Smith and his scribes. Furthermore, it seems to be increasing in use and acceptance in our church today." (Robert J. Matthews, "Q&A: Questions and Answers," New Era, Apr. 1977, p. 46).

"The recent 1944 New Corrected Edition of the Reorganized Church, which book many interested Latter-day Saints have acquired, is faithful to the original manuscripts and a most accurate printing. The editors have scrupulously worked to overcome normal scribal mistakes, typographical errors, and difficult notations (e.g. , transposed sentences or confusing marginal notations). Matthews concludes that this edition is worthy of trust." (Dr. Truman G. Madsen, Improvement Ra, March, 1970, p. 70, as quoted by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormon Scriptures and the Bible, p. 29).

also:

Dr. Truman G. Madsen, of the Brigham Young University, has assured that...

"the recent 1944 New Corrected Edition of the Reorganized Church, which book many interested Latter-day Saints have acquired, is faithful to the original manuscript and a most accurate printing.... this edition is worthy of trust" (Improvement Era, March 1970, p.70).

As to the RLDS Church not making the text of the original manuscript available to the LDS Church, this is not so. LDS scholars do have access to this manuscript as the following info shows:

The independent Mormon magazine "Sunstone" reported on a...

"joint LDS-RLDS effort" to restore the original yellow paged document [the original JST] which was "washed, cleaned, and deacidified." (n.n. "LDS, RLDS Churches Restore J.S. Bible," Sunstone. September, 1997, 71).