“The Scriptures,” New Era, Dec. 1985, 11–12
“The Scriptures”
I have the conviction that in the generations ahead the publication of the new editions of the standard works, with all of the resource helps they now contain, will emerge as one of the most important events in the Church that we shall witness in our lifetime on the earth.
With the passing of years, the scriptures will produce successive generations of faithful Latter-day Saints who know the Lord Jesus Christ and are willing to obey His will.
Nothing compares with the scriptures—no book written by scholars, no course of study. Even books written by the leaders of the Church do not carry the same authority as do the scriptures.
The Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Bible now contains a Topical Guide listing 3,495 references from the four standard works, and a Bible Dictionary which gives historical background and information. They total 793 pages, and there are over 20 pages of maps in full color.
The new edition of the Book of Mormon carries the very descriptive subtitle “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” The Doctrine and Covenants now includes two additional revelations and the official statement announcing the 1978 revelation on the priesthood. And there is a new edition of the Pearl of Great Price. All four contain the new system of footnotes and cross-references. All have new chapter headings. In the triple combination there is an index of 416 pages and 4 pages of Church history maps.
Every aid that could be thought of was considered. Every one that was possible was included. The objective was this: to organize the helps in the scriptures in such a way that anyone who can read may have the scriptures opened to them.
The library of the scriptures is open to you now. You can enter therein. Alone in that library, in quiet individual study and prayer, you may receive the kind of revelation that is available to you, so that you too can be an instrument in the hands of God in bringing about His mighty work.
Deep spiritual impressions come to us as we read the scriptures. Those impressions come long before we have read them all. The reading of the scriptures, whether from beginning to end, or following a subject from book to book, brings a tempering, soothing feeling to us, even in the midst of the turmoils of life.
There comes the realization that all of the scriptures teach the same message. They all testify of Christ, from the early pages of the Old Testament to the recent revelation added to the Doctrine and Covenants.
You will find in the Topical Guide 58 categories of information about Jesus Christ—18 pages of small print, single spaced, listing literally thousands of scriptural references on the Christ.
These references from the four volumes of scripture constitute the most comprehensive compilation of scriptural information on the mission and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ that has ever been assembled in the history of the world.
The new editions of the scriptures affirm an acceptance of, a reverence for, and a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow those references and you will open the door to whose church this is, what it teaches, and by whose authority—all anchored to the sacred name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer, our Lord.
I bear testimony of the scriptures and pray that the Lord will grant us entrance into them and grant that, when we enter therein, we will know that we stand on holy ground.