“We Need No More of the Word of God”

Pharisees of two thousand years ago rejected Jesus because he represented and proposed an extension to the Old Testament. Pharisees of this last dispensation reject Mormonism because it stands as a supplement, an addendum to what many regard as a perfect, complete, and inerrant Bible . . . . We cannot rely solely on the thunderings of Sinai or even on the sublime utterances of the Sermon on the Mount; we are desperately in need of our Palmyras, our Kirtlands, our Nauvoos, and our Salt Lake Cities- living fruit from the living tree of life. In a letter to his uncle, Silas Smith, Joseph Smith wrote in 1833 that ’the Lord has never given the world to understand, by anything heretofore revealed, that he had ceased forever to speak to his creatures, when sought unto in a proper manner.’ ’Why, ’ the Prophet then asked, ’should it be thought a thing incredible that he should be pleased to speak again in these last days for their salvation?’ . . .

“We Need No More of the Word of God”

It is the height of hypocrisy to be outwardly observant and religious, and at the same time closed and opposed to spiritual verities. In short, one is not religious who rejects divinely sent theological truths. One of the prominent Book of Mormon themes is a warning to latter-day readers to deny not the revelations of God. In chapter 28 of 2 Nephi, the prophet Nephi describes evil actions and attitudes of the last days . . . . And then, as though Nephi were saving the most horrid and abominable attitude for last, he warns:

'Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost! Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more!' (Verses 26-27; emphasis added.)

The subject is so important to Nephi, and the attitude so deadly, that he devotes approximately twenty more verses to the matter, including the poignant sermon that we read in 2 Nephi 29. To those of our day who have become content with an ancient scriptural record, the Lord gives timeless counsel:

'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 29:10). “ (Sustaining and Defending the Faith pp. 34-35, 36-37.)”

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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