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The modern Christian world believes that the Bible is the complete word of God. That is, everything that God has given to man is in the Bible. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that there are many books that have been taken out of the Bible over the centuries that have become lost to modern man.

Many people don't believe that it is possible for even one sacred book to be lost, let alone about 40 or more. Still, even the Bible itself quotes from these missing books as though they were an official source of knowledge. In addition to that, we are missing two letters of Paul which he makes reference to but that we don't have. A logical question is: Could it not be possible that there are even more missing letters? The evidence contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi texts shows that there were quite a few books of the Old Testament that the ancient Jews used which we no longer have today in our Bible.

To many modern Christians, it is hard for them to comprehend how the Jews, who were strong believers in the word of God, could have lost any of their sacred books. However, this isn't difficult to understand. If we look at the history of the Israelite nation as detailed in the Bible we can easily see that the Lord's chosen people had many more generations of unfaithfulness than fidelity to the Lord.

Starting with their first king, Saul, we find that he became puffed up in pride and finally did many things contrary to the ways of God. David is considered by the Jews to be one of their best kings, and for the most part he remained faithful to God's ways (with the exception of the wife of Uria, the Hittite.) Solomon, began his kingship as a faithful follower of God, but toward the end of his life he turned his heart to idols.

After Solomon's death, the nation was divided in two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Jeroboam ruled over the kingdom of Israel. In 1 King 12:26-29 we read, "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan."

This isn't just a case of having an unrighteous king. This is also a situation where the king led his people to worship false idols, thereby polluting not only himself but all the citizens of his kingdom as well. We can assume that the reading of the law was no forbidden. Then what did king Jeroboam do with all the sacred books? The common practice in those days would have been to destroy them.

Rehoboam ruled over the kingdom of Judah In 1 Kings 14:21-26 we read, "And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made."

In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Solomon's the temple was looted by the king of Egypt. What happened to all the sacred records? Perhaps the priests who were in charge of taking care of the books somehow kept them from being destroyed, but that is only a wishful guess. In fact, verse 26 seems to indicate that such may not have been the case.

The next king of Judah was Abijam. According to 1 king 15:3 it tells us, "And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father."

Clearly he was not a righteous king. Fortunately Asa, who was the next king, did strive to follow the ways of the Lord, but by this time idolatry was rampant throughout the kingdom. In fact, in 1 king 15:13 we read, "And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron."

As good as this may sound about Asa's efforts to eradicate idolatry throughout the land, we we read in the next verse, "But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the LORD all his days." In the meantime, Nadab, who was the king of Israel, was not a righteous king and King Baasa who succeeded him to the throne was just as bad.

As we go through each succeeding king in both kingdoms, we come to see how few of them followed the ways of the Lord. If that's the case, who was caring for the sacred books which contained the words of God? My personal opinion is that the true believers lived in the wilderness rather than in the cities. There they tried to maintain the sacred books as best they could. There are many archeological finds which seem to suggest this idea and they indicate that these wilderness believers taught something very different from what the Christian world teaches today.

There is an amazing story in the Bible which supports this idea. It's found in 2 King 22:1,8,11,13: "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath... And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes... Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us."

This clearly shows that the Jews not only could have but did lose one of their sacred books of the law. What makes this story even more amazing is that this lost book was discovered in their own Temple! How negligent must they have been to misplace and not even notice the loss of a sacred book? If that is true of one book, what about other writings of the prophets, especially when we consider that they were usually killed by the people for what they taught?

Originally, the law that was written upon the tables of stone by the finger of God was placed in the ark along with the rod of Aaron. To the Israelites, these items were the most sacred items of all. These were physical evidences of God's presence in creating their nation, but even these have been lost. Is it so incredible to believe that written books could also be lost?

There are those who say that the Old Testament books were meticulously kept by highly trained scribes. This may be true beginning shortly before the birth of Christ. But by that time, almost two thousand years had passed from when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai. What happened before then?

I am a genealogist and as I have gone into churches looking for records, I have found some that are very good (a few times) and many that are very poorly kept. It all depends on the clerks. If the records were made and maintained by good clerks there were accurate and useful, but if they were made and kept by careless clerks, the records are full of insects and sometimes there are broken or missing pages.

Then we also have to account for wars and calamities such as earthquakes, floods, volcanic activity and the like. My personal opinion is that the biggest problem was during the Roman persecutions when they destroyed entire libraries of the Christians. During the Middle Ages the pendulum swung the other way and it was the church's holy inquisition which then destroyed every book which they didn't agree with.