Years ago, I was intrigued by two statements in the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. The first was the claim that the book “contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel.”
The other was the quote from Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon was the keystone of our religion and that a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.
I had already read the Book of Mormon multiple times. I was convinced of its truthfulness. I loved its teachings and the feelings I got when I read it. But I was curious to see if it I could convince at least myself that it really was the best and clearest source of doctrine and contained the most powerful teachings on the application of the gospel to daily life.
Topics selected for the study
I picked multiple gospel subjects which I felt encompassed the most important areas of interest for a Latter-day Saint. I then consolidated them into the following thirty-five topics, arranged here in alphabetical order:
- Atonement of Jesus Christ
- Baptism: authority, mode, purpose
- Building of a latter-day Zion
- Church functions and regulations
- Covenant people and promises to Israel
- Current priesthood organization
- Degrees of glory in the hereafter
- Eternal marriage
- Faith
- Fall of man
- Family unit—its importance
- Free agency, individual accountability, and the purpose of life
- God: His corporeal nature; separate identities of the Father and the Son
- Holy Ghost (spiritual rebirth; how to get a testimony; personal revelation and spiritual gifts)
- Jesus Christ’s role as the pre-mortal Jehovah and our Savior
- Living prophets—role and importance
- Miscellaneous priesthood ordinances: sacrament prayers, ordination, etc.
- Missionary work: how to do it effectively
- Parent-child relationships
- Prayer: importance; proper content
- Premortal life and foreordination
- Priesthood: Necessity of divine authority
- Principles of good government and secrets of national survival
- Proxy ordinances for the dead
- Repentance
- Resurrection
- Scriptures—their importance
- Second coming of Christ and events preceding it
- Secret combinations: their danger, how to recognize them, how to combat them
- Spirit world
- Standards of personal righteousness, including the law of chastity
- Tactics of Satan and trials of the last days and promises of protection to the righteous
- Tithing
- War: when it’s justified, how to fight it righteously, etc.
- Word of Wisdom
I next examined what each of the four Latter-day Saint books of scripture had to say about each of the thirty-five topics and determine which of the four standard works was the major source of our teachings on each.
Doctrines that are clearer in the Book of Mormon than anywhere else
I was impressed to find, to my satisfaction, that the Book of Mormon was demonstrably clearer and more comprehensive in its teachings on twenty-one of the thirty-five themes (60%). They were:
1) Jesus Christ’s role as the pre-mortal Jehovah and our Savior
2) Fall of man
3) Atonement of Jesus Christ
4) Faith
5) Repentance
6) Baptism: authority, mode, purpose
7) Holy Ghost (spiritual rebirth; how to get a testimony; personal revelation and spiritual gifts)
8) Prayer: importance; proper content
9) Priesthood: necessity of divine authority
10) Standards of personal righteousness, including the law of chastity
11) Missionary work: how to do it effectively
12) Parent-child relationships
13) Scriptures—their importance
14) Free agency, individual accountability, and the purpose of life
15) Covenant people and promises to Israel
16) Tactics of Satan and trials of the last days and promises of protection to the righteous
17) Principles of good government and secrets of national survival
18) War: when it’s justified, how to fight it righteously, etc.
19) Secret combinations: their danger, how to recognize them, how to combat them
20) Spirit world
21) Resurrection
Topics on which the Book of Mormon taught clearly but probably no better than other books of scripture
There were eight other topics on which I felt that the Book of Mormon’s teachings were clear and powerful but not necessarily more so than those of the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants, or the Pearl of Great Price.
1) Premortal life and foreordination
2) Living prophets—role and importance
3) Miscellaneous priesthood ordinances: sacrament prayers, ordination, etc.
4) Building of a latter-day Zion
5) Second coming of Christ and events preceding it
6) Family unit—its importance
7) Tithing
8) Church functions and regulations
Topics not clearly taught in the Book of Mormon
I found that six of my chosen topics were essentially untreated in the Book of Mormon:
1) God: His corporeal nature; separate identities of the Father and the Son
2) Eternal marriage
3) Degrees of glory in the hereafter
4) Proxy ordinances for the dead
5) Word of Wisdom
6) Current priesthood organization
The fulness of the gospel?
I asked myself how we could claim that the Book of Mormon contained the “fulness” of the gospel if it didn’t even mention those six rather central Latter-day Saint doctrines. I found that the Savior Himself answers the question in the 27th chapter of 3 Nephi, when he defines what He means by the “gospel.” Beginning in verse 13, He says “This is the gospel which I have given unto you….” He then talks about the atonement, repentance, baptism, reception of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, and the final judgment. He concludes by saying again, “This is my gospel.” Then, as a postscript, He adds: “And ye know the things ye must do in my church.” In other words, the “gospel,” in the sense of which the Book of Mormon contains a “fulness,” does not necessarily include every church teaching and practice. Rather, it means those basic principles and ordinances which will bring one to Christ, enable one to live by His Spirit in this life, and achieve eternal life with Him hereafter. Other doctrines, church policies, and practices, as important as they may be, are peripheral and may or may not be treated in detail in the Book of Mormon.
My intention in embarking on this personal experiment was not to convince anyone else of anything. But I did satisfy myself that the Book of Mormon really does contain the “fulness of the everlasting gospel.” And I came out impressed that even on those less central doctrinal topics I had picked, the Book of Mormon offered a more comprehensive, understandable, and powerful treatment than any other book on earth. I invite you to make your own study. Pick your own list of topics. See what each of our books of scripture has to say on each subject. And see if you don’t come to the same conclusion I did.
