Show Ogden Standard-Examine- February 7 1987 r Elder speaks of Mormons New Testament By JOHN DeVILBiSS religion editor — Could any group of write a letters and documents equal in wisdom and inspiration to those composing the New Testament canon? That was a question Elder John K Carmack of the LDS First Quorum of the Seventy posed during the opening session of the 14th annual Sidney B Sperry Symposium last weekend at Brigham Young University “One of the most revered of the books of scripture is the New Testament of the Bible” he said “It is not only that these ‘holy men of God spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost’ but that these New Testament authors wrote their messages Then what they wrote became in process of time accepted by the church as especially authoritative binding and inspired as well as useful for doctrine and instruction in the church generally" The theme of the symposium sponsored by Religious Education and Seminaries and Institutes was “The New Testament and the Saints" From the list of -day more than 50 proposals submitted by LDS scholars 16 papers that were presented on New Testament themes were taken It is this same canon of scripture members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints are studying this year in their Sunday School classes throughout the world The annual symposium attended by about 800 people is named in honor of Sidney B Sperry the distinguished scholar who taught at BYU for 39 years He authored 18 books served as director of the Division of Religion and received the Karl G Maeser Distinguished Teaching Award PROVO All of the scholars w ho presented papers ranging in topics from “Joseph Smith and the Apocalypse of John" to “The Beatitudes: A Struggle for Eight Qualities That Sustain Peace" teach at BYU except for two from the University of Utah and one from Ricks College in Idaho Robert J Matthews BYU dean of Religious Education and professor of Ancient Scripture gave the concluding address In the keynote address Carmack reviewed what he called the same perceptions Mormons have toward the New Testament that other people have felt for thousands of years — “something basic special and authoritative" He said all truth found in the New Testament is also found in the Mormon Church and that Mormons believe in the historicity of this canon of scripture as being divinely inspired He said Mormons also have a special endorsement of the New Testament “from an unexpected source" found in the church’s scripture the Doctrine and Covenants In this section there is reference to the Book of Mormon and a statement that the book was true because it was confirmed to certain witnesses through angels “Then suddenly and in point for our discussion of the New Testament it states that one of the key reasons for bringing forth another sacred and inspired book was to prove ‘to the world that the holy scriptures are true " he quoted “Latter-da- y Saints therefore have an unexpected ringing endorsement of the New Testament in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and its clearly established authenticity by witnesses to whom angels appeared and who publicly endorse every published copy of the Book of Mormon by their printed testimony Accepting the Book of Mormon as au Mary and Martha with Jesus For related story see Page 67 thentic the member automatithe divine cally accepts authenticity of the New Testament" Yet Mormons believe this ancient scripture is not without errors He said the Book of Mormon itself indicates that “plain and precious things" have been removed from the Bible While some Christians may call this blasphemous Carmack said Mormons understand that the authors of the Bible were real people often humble people of limited literary education who reported real events In turn other men copied these writings by hand Reporting errors were inevitable in such circumstances LOS Church photo “A book made of such writings is more believable tangible and real to us than one created perfectly and delivered by deity to men who had no part in creating it" he said “Working through humble often less educated men seems to be God's modus operandi" See BIBLE on Page 6 The Mark Hofmann case and church historyPage 3 |