The Story of the World, Vol. 1: Ancient Times, Introduction

One of the other things we have available to us to read is the scriptures. Scriptures are a record of what prophets and others have written about God’s dealings with his children. The reason prophets have written the scriptures is different than why historians write about what has happened. The purpose of scriptures is to help us understand what we need to know and do to return to live with our Heavenly Father someday. Sometimes we learn these things through the stories of the people who lived before us. We learn about the choices they made and the consequences of those choices. This is especially true for the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the parts of the Pearl of Great Price that clarify some things in the Bible. Additionally, we have the Holy Ghost to help us understand the principles being taught.

Sometimes the earliest things that happened on the earth are explained in the scriptures in ways that we don’t yet understand. As the events in the scriptures move forward, closer to our time, other records from those time periods (that have been found and are histories written by others) corroborate (or go together with) the things we read in the scriptures. From these other records, as well as archeological findings, we can see a more complete picture of what has happened in the past because we have more witnesses to help us understand the whole story.