"The Fulness of the Everlasting Gospel"

In his recent General Conference talk, Elder Shayne M. Bowen spoke of the Book of Mormon, repeating the quote from President Joseph Smith, "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." I wonder how that statement could be true, especially since "any other book" could easily be the Holy Bible. The Book of Mormon easily has any other book beaten, but people all over the world have used the Bible to "get nearer to God." How is it that the Book of Mormon does that too, but better?

In my opinion, the best thing the Book of Mormon has going for it in this regard is that, according to the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, it "contains . . . the fulness of the everlasting gospel." Living the gospel is how we draw near to God. A book that "contains . . . the fulness of the everlasting gospel" is bound to "get [a person] nearer to God" than a book that only contains part of the gospel.

However, you may have noticed the ellipses in those quotes up there, and you may recall the phrase those ellipses represent: "as does the Bible." The Introduction on the Book of Mormon says that the Book of Mormon "contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel."

Or rather, that's what it said.

The phrase "as does the Bible" no longer appears in the Introduction. Those ellipses I added were unnecessary. The Introduction no longer says that the Bible contains "the fulness of the everlasting gospel."

Because it doesn't.

The Bible used to contain the fulness of the everlasting gospel, but it doesn't anymore. President Boyd K. Packer explained this in April 1988, largely by quoting Nephi:

Nephi testified that the Bible once “contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve apostles bear record” (1 Ne. 13:24) and that “After [the words] go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away” (1 Ne. 13:26).

We know that many plain and precious truths have been removed from the Bible. Whether those omissions were intentional or not, the effect was that the Bible no longer contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel, making it not quite as good at getting people nearer to God as the one book that does.

The Book of Mormon is the best book for helping us draw nearer to God because it still contains those plain and precious truths that compose the fulness of the everlasting gospel. The Book of Mormon is unique in that regard, unfortunately for the Bible and those who rely exclusively on it. The Bible is a good book, but it's no longer the best book. The Book of Mormon is.