0:00:00 - 0:00:29 I'm a big fan of the Bible. I've been reading it almost every day for over 20 years now. And it's really, it's been an enormously valuable vehicle for the Lord to teach me all sorts of things about all sorts of things. I really treasure the Bible. And um every single day when I open it up, he teaches 0:00:29 - 0:00:51 me something new and it's a huge strength to me if I were to learn all of the sudden that there was more to the Bible than I knew about. So say a different version that had an extra book or a different version that had an extra chapter. I'd get my hands on a copy of it. And this is not a hypothetical 0:00:50 - 0:01:13 . Um Not many people know this, but the King James version originally had more books than what's available in the modern King James versions, which is really strange. It's the same translation, but some of the books have been taken out. One of those is called Ecclesiastic Kiss. That's a, that's a mouthful 0:01:12 - 0:01:40 . Um It's also known by the name Sat, which is funner to say. But um it turns out that that is a really good book. It's like Psalms, but it's longer and uh it's got some really valuable uh scriptures in it. So I'm not 100% sure about why that was taken out. And I would have looked that up if I planned 0:01:40 - 0:02:06 on saying that, but I just wanted to make a point, but this isn't a hypothetical and I've gotten tons of insights out of sat. In fact, I like it so much that I typeset my own document and submitted it to uh Amazon's print on demand because I get something out of reading books on paper rather than just 0:02:05 - 0:02:32 on a screen. Um One of the things I like to do is read just before bed kind of as a cap on the day I read at the beginning and I read at the end. So anyway, um in that, on that note, it's important to understand how the Bible came to be. And I don't think many Christians do understand that we only have 0:02:31 - 0:02:54 the Bible today because of the Catholic church. So it's interesting, I'm not a Catholic. I've never been a Catholic. Um I seriously doubt I'll ever be a Catholic, but uh the Lord's taught me enough to know that I shouldn't uh have too strong of an expectation on my future because he runs that and uh 0:02:54 - 0:03:19 he knows things I don't. So, but notwithstanding the fact that uh I'm not interested in being a Catholic and I've never been a Catholic and I'm probably never gonna be a Catholic. I have great value in the Bible that we only have because of the Catholic church. So most Christians would just sort of say 0:03:19 - 0:03:43 , well, we have the Bible because God wants us to have the Bible. Yeah, it's true. But you know, the Lord uses people. He even uses organizations. Now, I happen to believe that at this moment on the earth there is no organization, not even one um in a worldly sense anyway, no church, no legally established 0:03:43 - 0:04:09 church that is equivalent to the Kingdom of God. And I'll go further, I don't think there's any institution on this earth that has a monopoly on truth. So, um what I do believe though is that there's tremendous truth that God's made available on this planet and we can find it in all sorts of crazy places 0:04:08 - 0:04:35 and the more open we are to uh to not having all the answers, the more effectively God can use what's here to lead us and guide us. And the value of that, that uh guidance. It can be as great as what you find in the Bible. Because if you value what's in the Bible, you have to admit that that tremendous 0:04:35 - 0:04:56 value came through an institution that did some really crazy things, some bad things. In fact, a long time ago for a long time and more recently for a long time, I'm not trying to bash Catholics. I, I have great respect for all people that are true and faithful to what they honestly believe is right 0:04:55 - 0:05:18 , tremendous respect. And there are those types and also the much more common other types in all organizations as far as I can tell. So why I'm saying this is that if you find value in the Bible, you also have to admit that it, it came through an organization that you don't necessarily find nearly as 0:05:18 - 0:05:41 valuable and in an organization with which you might have some serious qualms. So what's my point in saying all of this? I want to encourage you to look into the book of Mormon. And I said, I've been reading the Bible for 20 years a little more. And that's because the Lord directed me to unbeknownst 0:05:40 - 0:06:02 to me to come to know who he is about. That long ago. I was raised as a, I guess you could say a holiday, Christian, a nondenominational Christian and sometimes went to church, usually with relatives. But uh I didn't believe in God. I just sort of left that option open. But about 20 years ago, through 0:06:01 - 0:00:00 the instrumentality of the L DS church, bear with me, bear with me. I came to know that God was real, not because someone in that church told me, but because someone in that church invited me to pray, to ask him if he was real. And I received an answer to my prayer. And I know that God is real. Now, 0:00:00 - 0:06:44 since then, I have a lot more evidence. But even then, just with that simple prayer, I knew in the way that God responded to it, that he was, in fact real. And I knew that that knowledge came with, uh I don't wanna say a duty. It was, it was a desire to know Him, to know everything I could about him 0:06:44 - 0:00:00 . And uh I came to know him through the Bible and through the book of Mormon. But uh since then, I've parted ways with the L DS church. Uh more than a few years ago now, actually, but the value that I find in the book of Mormon has only increased as uh I'm no longer L DS as that transition happened. 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 And since then, the value I find in that book is even greater than it used to be. So what's all the hubbub? Here's the thing, the things that, that have value they add on each other, they build on each other. There's synergy between them. So, so for example, let's say that I just gave you a copy of, 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 I don't know, second chronicles. And that was the only part of the Bible that you knew of. And then I also gave you a copy of the Gospel of John. Now, would your knowledge of God increase or decrease through that additional book? And maybe you're one of these folks that says, yeah, yeah, but that's, 0:00:00 - 0:08:12 that's sort of a false example or um uh an impermissible example because the Bible is entire. It's true. It's, it's total, it's whole. No, it's not. It's not because first off, let's go back in time to, before those books in the New Testament were added to the Bible by the Catholic church. So when it 0:08:12 - 0:08:32 was the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, was it complete? No, of course not. And you say, well, yeah, but Jesus had to come and then the New Testament was added and then it was a done deal. No, it wasn't. There were tons and tons of scrolls of scripture and the Catholic church curated those sources and 0:08:31 - 0:08:49 chose the ones they wanted to add and chose the ones they didn't and the ones they didn't are known as the apocrypha. Those that aren't lost to history and some of them are pretty darn good. Some of them really help, you know more about God and some of them do not. And there's a whole lot that are in 0:08:49 - 0:09:07 between somewhere. But like I said, this book of SAT is a wonderful example. If you do nothing else because of this video, check that book out because it, it, you'll like it. Like I said, it's a lot like Psalms, it's longer, it's got some good content in it and you might be asking yourself. But why do 0:09:07 - 0:09:29 we need more? Well, need really, isn't the way to look at it folks? We don't, we don't need what's in the scriptures so much as we ought. I mean, we do, but we ought to love what's in the scriptures. We shouldn't be talking about how we have enough. Paul said that the purpose of all this is to bring 0:09:29 - 0:09:51 us to the full stature of Christ. Go look in the mirror. Are you done yet? Then? Why would you deny extra, more better? I want all of the word of God, I can get. I want everything that's good, true and beautiful. Wherever I can find it, the better it is compared to how I am, the more I want it. And I 0:09:51 - 0:10:14 will not stop until I am dwelling in the presence of God forever face to face. That's me. I don't know, maybe you're happier with less than that. But the point of this is when we find things that testify of Christ, there's gonna be some aspects of that that we already know. And that's great. It's, it's 0:10:14 - 0:10:36 a reaffirmation of what we already know. There's gonna be parts of that that expand what we already know that add on to it. And there's gonna be parts of it that are new information, things we wouldn't have known otherwise. And all of that is wonderful. So here's the thing, I just wanna make two points 0:10:35 - 0:11:00 . The first point is the first point is you do not have to be L DS to read or value what's in the book of Mormon any more than you have to be Catholic to read or value what's in the Bible. It's the same logic folks any more than you can believe that the US Constitution is a fantastic document and yet 0:10:59 - 0:11:24 take question with some of the decisions the modern government makes. You don't have to agree with everything the government does. If you believe that the constitution is a good document, it's not the same, right? So you can believe that the book of Mormon is scripture or even just wisdom or even just 0:11:24 - 0:11:45 valuable, like you could read it as you would the words of Confucius for all I care. If you get value out of it, that's what matters and it, hey, if you don't, then by all means, go do what you feel is valuable. You know, if you feel like it somehow takes away from the value that you found in Christ 0:11:44 - 0:12:05 , stay away. But don't take some Yahoo's word for this, right? Whether it be a Yahoo for like me or a Yahoo against it. How stupid are you gonna feel if you get to the day of judgment? And you say, you know, Lord, you're even more wonderful than I ever knew. I wish I would have known more about you in 0:12:05 - 0:12:28 life. And he says, you know, I sent a Yahoo to tell you to read the book of Mormon. If you check that out, you'd, you'd have a lot more of me than you do right now. Probably not a place you wanna be. So this is, is the version that you've probably seen in media or you know, if missionaries that come 0:12:27 - 0:12:47 by from the L DS church. But, and the thing is, is uh it says right on the back, it's from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And in this book, I'm sorry, I'm doing this one handed about a quarter of every page is gonna be footnotes that aren't actually part of the book of Mormon. So I 0:12:47 - 0:13:04 don't actually like that copy, although you can probably score one for free really easily. There are other copies out there just like there are nondenominational copies of the Bible. It's all sorts of different translations. There are versions of the book of Mormon that are nondenominational. This one 0:13:04 - 0:13:20 I kinda like because it reminds me of the great value products at Walmart. So actually a friend of mine types at this and I think he's awesome for doing it. Um So these are available at print cost on Amazon. If you just type in non denominational book of Mormon, you'll probably find it. And then there's 0:13:20 - 0:13:40 this one and I'm just giving you examples. This is the 1840 edition. It's the book of Mormon like the Bible, it's not a copyright. Well, I should say certain translations of the Bible and so anybody can print it, right. So the point is you can, you can get a copy that is not connected to the L DS church 0:13:39 - 0:13:59 any more than the Bible is connected to the Catholic church. And in, in these is hard to hold up. There are no footnotes. So you're free to think whatever you wanna think out of it. Now, this video is already longer than I wanted it to be. Um I intend in the future on sharing one verse at a time in short 0:13:59 - 0:14:24 videos that I find particularly valuable about this. So again, none of this is intended for you to be L DS, none of it, in fact, quite the opposite. So I have actually been excommunicated from the L DS church. And the reason for that is I wrote a book called So Dogs Chewing something Up called um Teaching 0:14:24 - 0:14:45 for Doctrines and Commandments of Men where I compared what the book of Mormon said to what the L DS church actually believes and does today. And uh there were some people who didn't like that, so they booted me, um which is fine. That's their right. Um So I, I just bring that up as evidence. Uh hopefully 0:14:44 - 0:15:08 , as strong evidence that I'm not trying to uh persuade anyone to be involved with the L DS church and, and um if that floats your boat, um I mean, I'd say go for it, but I've written a, a big long book with all the reasons. I think that's a bad idea. Um If your objective is to come to Christ. So um 0:15:07 - 0:15:32 in sharing these verses my uh objective and, and with this video, my objective is uh to help you encounter more information about Jesus Christ with the intent that you become like him more than you have and that you get to know him better than you do. And actually those two are the same. So anyway, I'll 0:15:32 - 0:15:45 cut this off now. Uh I hope you, you take this seriously and you check it out. Um You don't need a print copy. There's all sorts of websites with the book of Mormon on it. Um, but I encourage you to check it out.