What Is Scripture?

Photo credit: LDS.org

I love the scriptures. The scriptures are an essential part of my beliefs and my faith. The scriptures provide me a guide to how Christ wants me to live and to love. Among other things, The Pearl of Great Price provides us with the Articles of Faith, the 13 beliefs central to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The scriptures tell me how much God loved me, and how much God loved the entire world. The scriptures tell me that God wants me to love others the same way God loves me. The scriptures tell me the story of what Jesus did to provide me with salvation. The scriptures are precious and sacred, they tell us how to live.

Unforunately, we sometimes get a little mixed up about what, exactly, constitutes scripture in the COJCOLDS. Sometimes we quote The Family: A Proclamation to the World and say "It's scripture!!!!!". We may quote General Conference talks and say "It was said at GC, it's scripture." This is often used to justify bigotry and discrimination. Most visibly in recent years, this is used to justify unloving speech towards members of the LGBTQ community and to justify opposition to marriage equality. Here's the problem: The Family is not scripture. General Conference talks are not scripture.

I realize that this can be confusing, so let's take a look at what, exactly, constitutes scripture according to the Church's definition. After all, isn't that what we should be going by?

According to the Church website posting of the manual "Scripture Study - The Power of the Word Teacher Manual", "The standard works are the official body of written scripture for the Church." The website goes on to quote Elder Harold B. Lee, who said "If anyone teaches beyond what the scriptures teach, we may put it down as speculation except one man who has the right to bring forth any new doctrine - that is the one man who holds the keys - the prohet, seer, and revelator who presides in that high place. And no one else. If anyone presures to bring forth what he claims to be new doctrine you may know that it is purely his own opinion and you label it as such regardless of his position in the Church. If it contradicts something that is in the scriptures, you may label it immediately as false. That is why we call the scriptures our four Standard Church Works. They are the standrads by which we measure all doctrine and if anything is taught which is contrary to that which is in the scirptures, it is false. It is just that simple" (Viewpoint of a Giant," 6)." and "If it is not in the standard works, we may well assume that it is speculation, man's own personal opinion;" ("Using the Scriptures in Our Church Assignments, Improvement Era, Jan. 1969, 13)"

These quotes from Lesson 1 of the manual on the Church website tell us what constitutes scripture. The lesson also goes on to tell us that "Scripture becomes part of the standard works through the process of canonization.". 

TLDR version? According to the Church website, our scriptures consist of the canonized Standard Works. These are the Holy Bible, thee Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The Family: A Proclamation to the World is not canonized, is not a part of the Standard Works, and thus is not scripture. Neither are the many talks we hear at General Conference automatically scripture. They are only scripture if they go through the process of canonization.

It is my hope that this post can be of use to us as we engage in dialogue about the various issues we face in today's world. Scripture is good, but let's be careful that we know what is actually scripture and don't set ourselves up in opposition to the Church by claiming something is scripture that is not... such as... The Family...

*Note* Edited to add SS of the lds.org definition of "scripture".