The Book of Mormon isn’t about God the Father. It isn’t about God the Son. It isn’t about God’s Holy Spirit. It isn’t about God’s plan for our salvation. It really isn’t “another testament of Jesus Christ.” [1] The Book of Mormon is about the Book of Mormon. From start to finish, the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to convince the reader that the Book of Mormon belongs as another source alongside the Bible.

And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people. Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews? Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also. And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.  (2 Nephi 29:3-10)

The Book of Mormon testifies to itself. It uses a clumsy kind of prophetic voice to sell the reader on the notion that it predicted very exact details about Jesus 600 years before He came. But that is done as part of the pitch for inclusion alongside the Bible. We don’t find even a plausible kind of prediction-prophecy in the Book of Mormon – it isn’t believable, it isn’t authentic, it isn’t the same kind of book as the Bible. Not by a long shot.

This is why I say the Book of Mormon doesn’t have the same kind of glory as the Bible. The glory of the Bible is the God of all the ages Who reveals Himself in the writings of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. God looms large on every page of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Genesis reveals God as the Creator of all things. “The worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). The books of the law describe the perfect holiness of God and call us to walk in His ways. The books of history show us God’s work in bringing redemption to mankind. God preached the gospel to Abraham, promising that “in thee shall nations of the earth be blessed.” God made of Abraham a great nation, allowed that nation to spend 400 years in slavery, led His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm, fed them in the wilderness for 40 years, gave them the Promised Land, drove out their enemies, and gave them a king, a man after God’s own heart. Then, God promised King David that He would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Many times, humanity failed and nearly ruined God’s plan to bring redemption through the seed of Abraham and the throne of David. Had it been left to man to carry out God’s plan, we would never have found redemption. David himself, an adulterer who murdered the husband of his paramour, should have been destroyed by God but was instead forgiven. Time and again in the books of history, we see God repeating this theme of grace: “You’ve been very bad, but I will be very good to you anyway.”

The prophets expose God’s unyielding displeasure with sin and His refusal to give it a pass or come to terms with it. Yet, the prophets also reveal God’s unwavering commitment to His people, His resolve that they will not be cast away or destroyed. The years of captivity are not intended by God to annihilate Israel but to purge them and purify them as His peculiar people.

The gospels set before us the Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14), the incarnate Son of God (Matthew 1:23), the second Person of the Trinity.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

The book of Acts shows how God established His church, “which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). God established the New Testament Church “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20) and promised that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). That same church, the church Jesus Christ established, marches triumphantly through the halls of time, terrible as an army with banners, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2).

The epistles declare the glorious results of the gospel in the hearts and lives of believers everywhere, assuring us that “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). The author of our faith is also its finisher (Hebrews 12:2) so that those who believe are taught to groan for the day of final redemption when we will lay aside these vile bodies and put on new robes in the kingdom of heaven (Romans 8:19-23).

The glory of the Bible is the glory of God. The heavens declare that glory (Psalm 19:1). Dozens of times, the Psalmist praised that glory (Psalm 8, 63, 103, 148, among many others). God speaks worlds (Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 33:6), for He spoke the world into existence, “and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). But the glory of God is never more plainly displayed than in the Person of Jesus Christ.

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18)

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

God displays His glory in the works, words, and worth of Jesus Christ. Never a man spake as this man. He spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes. He didn’t regurgitate tired cliches about the law of God. He described God’s law in its ultimate sense and displayed it in its grandest splendor (see Matthew 5:17-48 for a beautiful example). Who can equal the glory of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)? What teacher ever expressed the profound truths of God in a more straightforward and accessible way than Jesus in the parables? Who faced more withering scrutiny, only to baffle his adversaries as effectively as Jesus? In the time of Christ, the title of Pharisee was a title of status and respect (see Acts 23:6, Philippians 3:5); by the time Jesus finished with them, “Pharisee” had become a term of scorn and ridicule (see Matthew 23:13-33). Profound wisdom flowed from His mouth, and such grace and truth as the world has never heard.

And think of the matchless works of Jesus. He once challenged His adversaries,

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14:11)

Everywhere Jesus went, He healed the sicknesses and diseases He encountered. He dealt decisively with demonic oppression (which was rampant in the world He entered). He performed two especially notable miracles of a sort that had never been seen before. First, Jesus healed a man who was born blind (John 9, especially vv. 31-33).

Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.

Jesus raised a man from the dead who had been four days in the grave after decomposition had begun. Other prophets and Jesus Himself brought the dead back to life, but Jesus alone called forth from the grave a man who had been dead four days. And about this great miracle, Jesus made an even more extraordinary claim:

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25-26)

But His most significant work came in His purpose for coming, the reason God sent Jesus into the world.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (I John 4:14)

The glory of the cross is much more than the mere fact that Jesus died by crucifixion on a Roman cross. Plenty of people did that. In fact, two other men died the same death as Jesus at the same time and in the same place, on either side of Jesus. The difference between the two thieves and Jesus is wonderfully declared by one of the two thieves.

Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. (Luke 23:40-41)

Christ’s innocence is more than a theoretical or mystical or sentimental thing. The very judges in the court declared that it was so.

And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. (Luke 23:13-15)

And knowing His innocence, Pilate turned Jesus over to the mob to be crucified.

Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:20-25)

But the beauty of the cross, the glory of the cross, is not so much in these historical details as in God’s stated purpose for these things. Isaiah prophesied of God’s intention about seven centuries before it happened. By the way, Isaiah does not attempt to predict exact details about the death of Jesus. Isaiah explains the purpose.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:4-7)

This is the glory of the cross – not the fact that Jesus died or the way He died, but the reason He died. This explains His matchless worth, His exceeding glory.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11)

“For he shall bear their iniquities.” That is the point of the cross: “and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Heathen gods, false gods, require all who would approach them to first placate the god by providing some sort of atonement for themselves. This is consistently the case for every false god. But in the Bible, God makes it abundantly clear that He does not require us to appease His wrath with an offering or sacrifice. This is not because God has no wrath towards sin.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (Romans 1:18)

But God provided a Substitute. He pictured this throughout the Old Testament in the sacrificial system, which required a lamb without blemish to act as an offering for sin. But in the gospel, God provided Himself a substitute to be that sacrifice. And God poured out His wrath on that substitute. And when Jesus drank the cup of the wrath of God to the very dregs, when he gave up the ghost and cried, “It is finished,” and when men placed His body in the grave, then God announced to the world that the sacrifice Jesus made in our place, dying our death, placated God’s wrath, entirely setting it aside. The Biblical term for this is “propitiation.”

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (I John 4:10; see also Romans 3:24-25, I John 2:2)

God announced that His demands for justice were met entirely and that Jesus was the sacrifice that satisfied His just demands. The announcement came when Jesus rose from the grave three days after He died.

And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:28-39)

This is the glory of the Bible.

One year, my favorite football team boasted during the pre-season that their offense would be unstoppable. Their first-team defense let it be known that they couldn’t stop the offense, that it was too potent, too many weapons.

As it turned out, their first-team defense wasn’t a great judge of such things. That defense couldn’t stop anyone in the league. Unsurprisingly, when the offense faced a real defense, they struggled mightily to put points on the board.

Even so, it can be easy to think you’ve found gold in the gravel pit. But then someone comes along with some genuine gold, and you realize you have a handsome stash of iron pyrite. Any honest reader who sets the Bible alongside the Book of Mormon will have that same experience. When you find the treasure of Scripture, it is an easy and obvious choice that you would discard the fool’s gold of the Book of Mormon as quickly as possible.

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[1] By “testament,” the Book of Mormon means another “witness” of Jesus Christ, whereas the Old Testament refers to the first covenant God made with His people, and the New Testament to the covenant that grew out of the Old Covenant, administered through the blood of Jesus Christ. So, the Book of Mormon means something different by “testament” than the Bible does. See Hebrews 9:15-28.