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“Hallowed Journey” is a dramatic recreation of Lehi’s journey to the promised land.
Gives a short account of Joseph Smith: his family history, the first vision, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Claims that the Book of Mormon’s origin lies in the Spaulding manuscript.
The Lord did not need an educated man to translate the Nephite records, but one like Joseph Smith who would capture the spirit and message of the original document through divine aid.
This is a continuation of the comprehensive bibliography of LDS writings on the Old Testament published in BYU Studies 37, no. 2 (1997–98), available at byustudies.byu.edu. This bibliography includes publications from 1997 to the end of 2005 as well as a few older publications that were not included in the first bibliography. Since that bibliography, there has been a Sperry Symposium dedicated to the Old Testament; all of those printed proceedings (Covenants, Prophecies, and Hymns of the Old Testament) are included in this bibliography. Published in 2005 is the volume Sperry Symposium Classics, a collection of papers from previous symposia; since many of those articles were revised for the 2005 volume, they are included here. Also relevant to the Old Testament is a volume published by FARMS entitled Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem. Of note but not included in this bibliography because of space considerations are the many Old Testament topics discussed in encyclopedic form in The Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis Largely (Deseret Book, 2003).
This article can now be found in the Deseret News archives.
A reflection on Hugh Nibley’s feelings about the environment and humankind’s responsibilities as stewards of the earth.
Describes Hugh Nibley’s passion for the Book of Mormon and how he defended it.
“The Hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon regularly appears on lists of the rarest LDS-related publications. This claim raises at lease two questions: 1) Why is it so rare? and 2) How many copies are still in existence? A related question is: How did the Hawaiian Book of Mormon come to be the first non-European language translation of that work? This study will address all of these questions.” [Author]
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Chapters of the Book of Moses > Moses 4–6:12 — Grand Council in Heaven, Adam and Eve
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
Abstract: The authors begin by highlighting the importance of Book of Moses research that has discovered plausible findings for its historicity, rendering it at least reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt to sacred premises — even if, ultimately, the choice of premises is just that, a choice. Emphasizing the relevance of the Book of Moses to the temple, they note that the Book of Moses is not only an ancient temple text, but also the ideal scriptural context for a modern temple preparation course. Going further, the authors address an important question raised by some who have asked: “Since Christ is at the center of the gospel, why doesn’t the temple endowment teach the story of the life of Christ? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?” The answer given in detail in the paper is as follows: “The story of the life of Christ is the story of giving the Atonement. And the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement. Their story is our story, too.”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Bruce C. Hafen and Marie K. Hafen, “Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Tooele, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.]Historicity and Plausibility of the Book of Moses.
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2020)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2020)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
“May we lay down our lives for those sheep, a day at a time, in a service that partakes of the most honorable cause that ever graced the pages of human existence.”
When the Savior’s all and our all come together, we will find not only forgiveness of sin, … “we shall be like him.”
We can’t develop a Christlike love by ourselves, but we can do all in our power to become a “true follower”—meek, lowly of heart, and submissive to correction and affliction. Then the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, “filleth” us “with hope and perfect love, which . . . endureth [forever], when all the saints shall dwell with God.”
They fulfill their dreams by coming to this oasis of learning in a spiritually parched world, yearning to ask the young ruler’s question: What shall I do? And they come believing that the faculty and staff here will tell them what to do.
RSC Topics > A — C > Atonement of Jesus Christ
RSC Topics > G — K > Grace
RSC Topics > L — P > Mercy
All I ask brothers and sisters, is that we who go to college may be honest enough and courageous enough to face whatever uncertainties we may encounter, and that we try to understand them and do something about them.
Every time we go to the temple, the ordinances reorient us to the natural order of the universe, including the natural order of marriage. Like the ancient mariner, we look to the heavens to get our bearings—and we do that through the temple.
RSC Topics > L — P > Ordinances
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
RSC Topics > Q — S > Sealing
Using the life of Neal A. Maxwell as a standard, Bruce C. Hafen, in his Neal A. Maxwell Lecture, delivered 21 March 2008, discusses the relationship between intellect and spirituality. While many people struggle to understand how reason and faith can coexist, Elder Maxwell exemplified how the two notions are, in fact, complementary to each other.
The best way for a Latter-day Saint student to reconcile the competing values of faith and intellect is to be mentored by teachers and leaders whose daily lives, attitudes, and teaching authentically demonstrate how deep religious faith and demanding intellectual rigor are mutually reinforcing.
“The Lord speaks of a solemn assembly where the laborers for Zion may purify themselves so that he by his atoning power may make them clean.”
RSC Topics > D — F > Faith
RSC Topics > T — Z > Testimony
“The teacher’s work, especially here at Karl Maeser’s school, is a deeply satisfying labor, with students and books and papers that bless us all the days God lets us live. What a good way to spend our lives.”
May your positive memories of BYU stay with you throughout your life. May your BYU connections continue to be a strong influence in all that you do. May you know that you will always be welcome here on campus on this consecrated ground.
May your positive memories of BYU stay with you throughout your life. May your BYU connections continue to be a strong influence in all that you do. May you know that you will always be welcome here on campus on this consecrated ground.
As we connect with others, our power to do good in the world is exponentially increased.
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Chapters of the Book of Moses > Moses 4–6:12 — Grand Council in Heaven, Adam and Eve
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
Abstract: The authors begin by highlighting the importance of Book of Moses research that has discovered plausible findings for its historicity, rendering it at least reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt to sacred premises — even if, ultimately, the choice of premises is just that, a choice. Emphasizing the relevance of the Book of Moses to the temple, they note that the Book of Moses is not only an ancient temple text, but also the ideal scriptural context for a modern temple preparation course. Going further, the authors address an important question raised by some who have asked: “Since Christ is at the center of the gospel, why doesn’t the temple endowment teach the story of the life of Christ? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?” The answer given in detail in the paper is as follows: “The story of the life of Christ is the story of giving the Atonement. And the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement. Their story is our story, too.”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Bruce C. Hafen and Marie K. Hafen, “Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Tooele, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.]Historicity and Plausibility of the Book of Moses.
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2020)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2020)
“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement” (2021)
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
RSC Topics > A — C > Atonement of Jesus Christ
RSC Topics > G — K > Grace
RSC Topics > L — P > Mercy
RSC Topics > L — P > Ordinances
A member of the RLDS church discusses Church doctrine, practices, history, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Old Testament Topics > Melchizedek
Old Testament Topics > Melchizedek
This essay originally appeared in a slightly different form in the unpublished “Tinkling Cymbals: Essays in Honor of Hugh Nibley,“ John W. Welch, ed., 1978.
Why science shouldn’t be the absolutely authoritative source of knowledge.
The book of Ruth helped strengthen one young convert
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
Book of Moses Topics > Selection of Ancient Sources > Noah
Learn to be … obedient above all things—that you might be able to carry out the Lord’s work in the majestic way in which it must be done.
As my eyesight dims somewhat, I think my vision improves—my vision of the long road, my vision of what lies ahead.
“The Lord wants and needs all of you to be strong, to be believers, to be an example of goodness to all the world.”
What we need is the faith of Brigham Young and the faith of Gordon B. Hinckley and the faith of people who are our prophets and leaders.
I hope that we have grateful hearts for the knowledge that we have and the testimonies we have and for the feelings we have.
You will be able to do and accomplish so much that I will only add to the other advice you have received: live the principles of the gospel.
May you have a burning feeling in your heart. May you feel as I do on this day that this work is true and that it is meant for us to help bring about the eternal plan of salvation and exaltation.
Priesthood is the power and authority delegated to man by our Heavenly Father. The authority and majesty of it are beyond our comprehension.
The gospel is true. I know it; I’m a witness of it.
What a wonderful future we have for the Church. All of these things are dependent upon how we accept the truth, how we live the principles of the gospel.
Joseph Smith was foreordained to be the duly appointed leader of this, the greatest and final of all dispensations.
Take advantage of this great opportunity in your life to live it well, to be good, to have good works, and to influence other people for good.
Let me just remind all of you of the great need we have … for couple missionaries. … If you’re retired and wondering what to do with those extra years, there’s a world out there of excitement.
Someone has likened each of our lives to a mighty river as it flows to the sea. It is the product of many streams—some large, some small . . . I thank God for the streams, clear and pure, that have influenced my life.
The gospel is true; it is the hope of the world; it will move onward to accomplish all that it must do.
David B. Haight - We as members of this church know the meaning of life. It has been revealed in its truthfulness and purity and is available to all who seek, will listen, and believe. The mission and responsibility of this church and its members have been made abundantly clear—to proclaim the Lord’s teachings unto the entire world.
If we’re ever going to show gratitude properly to our Heavenly Father, we should do it with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.
Claims that the Bible is sufficient, inerrant, and infallible. The Book of Mormon adds to God’s word, when this is strictly forbidden by scripture. For the author, it is “the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible” The Book of Mormon also contradicts many statements found in the Bible and is full of many ridiculous anachronisms.
Letters responding to C. L. Sainsbury’s letter (July/August issue) seeking inclusion of Nephite history on an international timeline. Contributors contend that no archaeological evidence exists for the Book of Mormon, point out the book’s similarity to the Bible, and enclose the Smithsonian Institution’s statement concerning the Book of Mormon.
Analysis of Book of Mormon passages dealing with Old Testament characters and events is made to establish the historical validity of the Bible. Several historical characters and events are mentioned such as Adam, Eve, Moses, and the parting of the Red Sea.
The sustained success of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon posed a major dilemma for the Mormon Church1 and for many individual Mormons who revere the scripture from which the musical comedy takes its name. As a minority religion in the USA, the Mormon Church has endured over 190 years of persecution, public ridicule and marginalisation, much of which has been prompted by media and religious opposition to the Church’s distinctive doctrines and scripture. Naturally, Mormon sensitivity to criticism – including humour which targets its core doctrines – remains high, given this historical legacy of wider community hostility. Nevertheless, the Mormon Church responded with what commentators saw as a unique and good-natured official public relations/proselyting campaign, capitalising on the musical’s success. It signalled what can be referred to as a mature and creative policy/culture of tolerance, and this policy probably encouraged some members to attend the musical. This paper investigates the Church’s official response to the musical, looks briefly at Mormon humour, and presents the results of a survey amongst Mormons who watched the show, to see if Mormons can laugh at The Book of Mormon.
Mr. Hale handled the box that contained the gold plates but was not allowed to look. Tells how Martin Harris came to assist in the translation, how the 116 pages were lost, and concerning Oliver Cowdery as scribe. Finds that the whole affair was a “silly fabrication of falsehood and wickedness”
A story for children about gaining a real testimony of the Book of Mormon by reading it.
(Comment on Alexander Campbell’s analysis of the Book of Mormon.)
If we are to prosper rather than perish, we must gain a vision of ourselves as the Savior sees us.
Let us do that which is necessary to have the widow’s heart, truly rejoicing in the blessings that will fill the “want” that results.
Attributing the Book of Mormon’s origin to supernatural forces has worked well for Joseph Smith’s believers, then as well as now, but not so well for critics who seem certain natural abilities were responsible. For over 180 years, several secular theories have been advanced as explanations. The more popular hypotheses include plagiarism (of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript), collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.), mental illness (bipolar, dissociative, or narcissistic personality disorders),6 and Joseph’s intellect (with help from the Bible, View of the Hebrews, parallelism, or his environment). Even today the topic remains controversial without general consensus.
Review of Alex Beam. American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church. PublicAffairs, 2014. 352 pp.
Abstract: On April 22, 2014, PublicAffairs, an imprint of a national publisher Persues Books Group, released American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church, authored by Alex Beam. Beam, who openly declared he entered the project without personal biases against Joseph Smith or the Latter-day Saints, spent a couple of years researching his work, which he declares to be “popular non-fiction” and therefore historically accurate. This article challenges both of these assertions, showing that Beam was highly prejudiced against the Church prior to investigating and writing about events leading up to the martyrdom. In addition, Beam’s lack of training as an historian is clearly manifested in gross lapses in methodology, documentation, and synthesis of his interpretation. Several key sections of his book are so poorly constructed from an evidentiary standpoint that the book cannot be considered useful except, perhaps, as well-composed historical fiction.
Abstract: The first published commentary on Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 is a lengthy volume with much material that deals directly with the revelation as well as extended discussions that go well beyond Joseph Smith’s dictated text. Much of the included material has been previously published, although several new historical items are presented, including a detailed examination of the provenance of the revelation. An apparent weakness of the book involves key themes mentioned in the revelation but minimized or otherwise ignored in this extended commentary. Examples include the possible meanings of the “law” (v. 6), importance of sealing authority (vv. 7‒20), possible polyandry (v. 41), Emma’s offer (v. 51), and others.
Review of William Victor Smith, Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2018). 273 pp. $26.95.
Abstract: In early 1830 Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon, a 269,938-word volume that discusses religious themes intermingled with a history of ancient American peoples.
Claiming it was scripture like the Bible,
in 1841 he declared it to be “the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of our religion.”
Yet, many changes in the text of the Book of Mormon can be detected when comparing the original manuscript to the version available today. These changes have served as a lightning rod for some critics who imply that a divinely inspired book should not require any alterations. This article examines the types of changes that have occurred while trying to assign levels of significance and identify Joseph’s motives in making those alterations in the 1837 and 1840 reprintings of the book.
Abstract: The advent of the computer and the internet allows Joseph Smith as the “author” of the Book of Mormon to be compared to other authors and their books in ways essentially impossible even a couple of decades ago. Six criteria can demonstrate the presence of similarity or distinctiveness among writers and their literary creations: author education and experience, the book’s size and complexity, and the composition process and timeline. By comparing these characteristics, this essay investigates potentially unique characteristics of Joseph Smith and the creation of the Book of Mormon.
Abstract: In the October 2015 issue of The Journal of Mormon History, Gary Bergera presents a richly illustrated article, “Memory as Evidence: Dating Joseph Smith’s Plural Marriages to Louisa Beaman, Zina Jacobs, and Presendia Buell” (95–131). It focuses on a page from the “Historian’s Private Journal,” which Bergera dates to “specifically September or thereabouts” of 1866 (99). Wilford Woodruff’s handwriting on that page describes Joseph Smith’s plural marriage sealings and dates his marriage to Louisa Beaman to “May 1840,” to Zina Huntington on “October 27, 1840,” to Presendia Huntington on “December 11, 1840,” and also to Rhoda Richards on “June 12, 1843.” The first three dates on the historian’s document are important, as Bergera explains: “If accurate, Woodruff’s record not only pushes back the beginnings of Joseph Smith earliest Nauvoo plural marriage by a year but it also requires that we reevaluate what we think we know — and how we know it — about the beginnings of LDS polygamy” (95–96). The key question is whether the information on that page can be considered “accurate” in light of other available documents dealing with these plural sealings. During the remaining thirty-four pages of the article, Bergera presents an argument that 1840, not 1841, is the most reliable year for the Prophet’s earliest Nauvoo plural unions. This essay examines why his analysis of the records appears to be incomplete and his conclusions problematic.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Abstract: This essay addresses the reasons many persons have left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In particular, there are those who publicly assert the Church is not led by inspired leaders so they can feel at peace about their decision to leave it. One common argument used to justify their estrangement is the “Samuel Principle,” which ostensibly would require God to allow his followers on earth to go astray if they chose any level of unrighteousness. Problems with this interpretation are presented including examples from religious history that show that God’s primary pattern has been to call his errant followers to repentance by raising up righteous leaders to guide them. Also explored are the common historical events that dissenters often allege have caused the Church to apostatize. The notion that the Church and the “Priesthood” could be separate entities is examined as well. The observation that Church leaders continue to receive divine communication in order to fulfill numerous prophecies and that a significant number of completely devout Latter-day Saints have always existed within the Church, obviating the need for any dissenting movement, is discussed. In addition, several common scriptural proof-texts employed by some dissenters and their ultimate condition of apostasy are analyzed.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
Doctrine and Covenants section 132 is undoubtedly the most controversial of all of Joseph Smith’s revelations because it mentions the practice of plural marriage. Ironically, it is also one of the least discussed of all of Joseph’s official teachings for the same reason. The Gospel Topics Essays encourage a new transparency on this subject including inquiring into specific historical and doctrinal points found in the revelation. This illustration-rich fireside presentation focuses on its historical context and provenance. It will also address questions like what is the “new and everlasting covenant” (vv. 4–6), the “one” man “anointed and appointed” (vv. 7, 18, 19), the “law” (v. 34), the “holy anointing” and polyandry (vv. 41-42), the “offer” Emma is to “partake not of” (51), and “the law of Sarah” (v. 65). In addition, did Joseph “trespass” against Emma and why does the revelation threaten her to be “destroyed” (vv. 54, 56, 64)? Other inquiries include: Does D&C 132 command believers then or today to be polygamists? How does D&C 132 describe Joseph Smith’s zenith teaching, which is not polygamy?
RSC Topics > A — C > Chastity
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
Abstract: For nearly 200 years, skeptics have promoted different naturalistic explanations to describe how Joseph Smith generated all the words of the Book of Mormon. The more popular theories include plagiarism (e.g. of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript), collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.), mental illness (bipolar, dissociative, or narcissistic personality disorders) and automatic writing, also called “spirit writing, “trance writing,” or “channeling.” A fifth and currently the most popular theory posits that Joseph Smith possessed all the intellectual abilities needed to complete the task. A variation on this last explanation proposes that he used the methods of professional storytellers. For millennia, bards and minstrels have entertained their audiences with tales that extended over many hours and over several days. This article explores their techniques to assess whether Joseph Smith might have adopted such methodologies during the three-month dictation of the Book of Mormon. Through extensive fieldwork and research, the secrets of the Serbo-Croatian storytellers’ abilities to dictate polished stories in real time have been identified. Their technique, also found with modification among bards throughout the world, involves the memorization of formulaic language organized into formula systems in order to minimize the number of mental choices the tale-teller must make while wordsmithing each phrase. These formulas are evident in the meter, syntax, or lexical combinations employed in the storyteller’s sentences. Professional bards train for many years to learn the patterns and commit them to memory. When compared to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the historical record fails to support that he had trained in the use of formula systems prior to 1829 or that his dictation employed a rhythmic delivery of the phrases. Neither are formula patterns detected in the printed 1830 Book of Mormon. Apparently, Smith did not adopt this traditional storyteller’s methodology to dictate the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Abstract: In the past decades much of the debate regarding Joseph Smith and plural marriage has focused on his motivation — whether libido or divine inspiration drove the process. Throughout these debates, a small group of observers and participants have maintained that Joseph did not practice polygamy at any time or that his polygamous sealings were nonsexual spiritual marriages. Rather than simply provide supportive evidence for Joseph Smith’s active involvement with plural marriage, this article examines the primary arguments advanced by monogamist proponents to show that important weaknesses exist in each line of reasoning.
Abstract: Although Joseph Smith has been credited with “approximately seven full school years” of district schooling, further research supports that his education consisted of basic instruction in “reading, writing and the ground rules of arithmetic” comprising “less than two years of formal schooling.” The actual number of terms he experienced in common schools in upstate New York is probably less critical since the curricula in district schools did not then teach creative writing, composition, or extemporaneous speaking. If Joseph Smith learned how to compose and dictate a book, extracurricular activities would likely have been the training source. Six of those can be identified: (1) private Bible studies, (2) Hyrum Smith’s possible tutoring in 1813, (3) participation in local religious activities, (4) involvement with the local juvenile debate club, (5) occasional family storytelling gatherings, and (6) brief participation as an exhorter at Methodist meetings. Three of his teachers in Kirtland in 1834–1836 recalled his impressive learning ability, but none described him as an accomplished scholar. A review of all available documentation shows that no acquaintance at that time or later called him highly educated or as capable of authoring the Book of Mormon. Despite its current popularity, the theory that Joseph Smith possessed the skills needed to create the Book of Mormon in 1829 is contradicted by dozens of eyewitness accounts and supported only by minimal historical data.
Joseph Smith and his followers declared the Book of Mormon’s supernatural origin—that it was a divinely inspired translation of an ancient-American record, acquired by Joseph through visions and the help of an angel. This explanation, however, was widely rejected by outsiders from the outset. Within weeks after the Book of Mormon’s first pages came off the press, critics promoted “naturalistic explanations”—so called because they are based on scientific observation or natural phenomena—that rejected the possibility of a divine, supernatural origin of the Book of Mormon. To varying degrees, these naturalistic theories continue to be perpetuated today. This article examines the most popular naturalistic explanations for the Book of Mormon longitudinally, which will enable readers to better understand them and why they have waxed and waned in popularity over time.
A Review of Carol Lynn Pearson, The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy: Haunting the Hearts and Heaven of Women and Men. Pivot Point Books, 2016, 226 pages with endnotes. $19.95.
Abstract: The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy boldly declares “that plural marriage never was — is not now — and never will be ordained of God” (21) and that the Mormon religion is guilty of “extraordinary spiritual abuse” (22) due to the practice. Seven distinct problems associated with plural marriage are identified, four of which have merit: polygamy history is often messy; earthly polygamy is unfair to women; widows and widowers are treated differently regarding future sealings; and the cancellation of sealings has not always paralleled the desires of the participants. Three additional issues form the bulk of the discussion and are based upon assumptions about eternity: polygamy is required in the celestial kingdom; child-to-parent sealings may be unfair in eternity; and eternal polygamy will be everlastingly unfair to women. This review addresses these observations, noting that the idea that all exalted beings are polygamists is false, revelation has not defined the exact nature of earthly parent–child relationships in the afterlife, and the dynamics of eternal plural marriage have not been revealed. The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy seeks to reinforce fears of the unknown while ignoring the abundant messages that God promises eternal joy and happiness to those who live worthily.
Review of Michael Hubbard MacKay, Prophetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2020). 184 pages. $22.95 (paperback). Abstract: With ready access to all the documents acquired by the Joseph Smith Papers project, Michael Hubbard MacKay, co-editor of the Joseph Smith Papers’ Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, presents a new historical reconstruction of the priesthood restoration in Prophetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood. MacKay summarizes how Joseph Smith’s initial authority was based primarily on charisma drawn from the Book of Mormon translation and his revelations. The transition next to apostolic authority — derived from priesthood keys restored by Peter, James and John — is also detailed. MacKay contextualizes the priesthood as part of Smith’s efforts to offer “salvation to humankind and [bind] individuals to Christ” (37‒38). Historical controversies are handled with frankness and depth. This study constitutes an important upgrade in the historiography of this controversial topic.
Abstract: Denver Snuffer posted an essay entitled “Plural Marriage” on March 22, 2015.
It is apparently a transcription of a recent talk he had given and provides his followers with his views on Joseph Smith and plural marriage. Snuffer’s basic conclusion is that the Prophet did not practice polygamy. He alleges that the historical evidences that support Joseph’s participation should instead be attributed to John C. Bennett’s activities in Nauvoo in 1840–1842 or blamed on Brigham Young’s behaviors and teachings after the martyrdom. This article provides references to dozens of documents that counter this conclusion and shows plainly that Snuffer is in error. On page 28 of the transcript, Snuffer shifts away from the subject of plural marriage, touching on several themes he has written on before. Part 2 of this response will specifically address those twenty pages of Denver Snuffer’s claims.
Abstract: Part 2 of this response to Denver Snuffer’s essay entitled “Plural Marriage” posted on March 22, 2015, will primarily address non-plural marriage issues as discussed in the last twenty pages.
Snuffer’s portrayal of adoption teachings and practices is analyzed and shown to be in error, along with his interpretation of presiding priesthood quorums as described in the Doctrine and Covenants. His primary thesis, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in apostasy, is also examined including Snuffer’s personal need for the Church to have fallen away in order to create an opening for his new visionary voice. The lack of evidence supporting such an apostasy is also reviewed including the obvious absence of any prophesied latter-day “dwindling in unbelief.” Snuffer is compared to other dissidents who have come and gone over the past century showing his claims are not unexpected or original. While the Latter-day Saints could be more obedient, a core group of righteous members and leaders has always existed in the Church through which the Lord could perform His restorative works.
Abstract: Grant H. Palmer, former LDS seminary instructor turned critic, has recently posted an essay, “Sexual Allegations against Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Polygamy in Nauvoo,” on MormonThink.com. In it, Palmer isolates ten interactions between women and Joseph Smith that Palmer alleges were inappropriate and, “have at least some plausibility of being true.” In this paper, Palmer’s analysis of these ten interactions is reviewed, revealing how poorly Palmer has represented the historical data by advancing factual inaccuracies, quoting sources without establishing their credibility, ignoring contradictory evidences, and manifesting superficial research techniques that fail to account for the latest scholarship on the topics he is discussing. Other accusations put forth by Palmer are also evaluated for correctness, showing, once again, his propensity for inadequate scholarship.
Review of Richard E. Bennett, 1820: Dawning of the Restoration (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University / Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020). 380 pages. Hardcover, $31.99.
Abstract: Richard E. Bennett’s latest volume, 1820: Dawning of the Restoration, is not a book about the First Vision. Instead, it describes the world in 1820 through thirteen biographies that provide useful context to the seminal event. Included are Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean Francois Champollion, Alexander I, Ludwig van Beethoven, Theodore Gericault, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George IV/Queen Caroline, John Wesley/William Wilberforce/Hannah More, Simon Bolivar, John Williams, Henry Clay, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Joseph Smith. Topics of military conquest, music, science, literature, art, linguistics, religion, politics, and the industrial revolution receive extensive coverage for 1820 and the surrounding decades. Even if readers are not seeking an expanded understanding of the world that launched the Restoration, this well-written and highly researched compilation would be an interesting and rewarding read.
Abstract: At an author-meets-critic Sunstone Symposium on August 2, 2013, Gary Bergera devoted over 90% of his fifteen-minute review to criticize my 1500+ page, three-volume, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: History and Theology. This article responds to several of the disagreements outlined by Bergera that on closer inspection appear as straw men. Also addressed are the tired arguments buoyed by carefully selected documentation he advanced supporting that (1) John C. Bennett learned of polygamy from Joseph Smith, (2) the Fanny Alger-Joseph Smith relationship was adultery, and (3) the Prophet practiced sexual polyandry. This article attempts to provide greater balance by including new evidences published for the first time in the three volumes but ignored by Bergera. These new documents and observations empower readers to expand their understanding beyond the timeworn reconstructions referenced in Bergera’s critical review.
A review of William L. Davis, Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2020, 264 pp. paperback $29.95, hardcover $90, e-book $22.99, ISBN: 1469655675, 9781469655673.
Abstract: Within the genre of Book of Mormon studies, William L. Davis’s Visions in a Seer Stone presents readers with an innovative message that reports how Joseph Smith was able to produce the words of the Book of Mormon without supernatural assistance. Using oral performance skills that Smith ostensibly gained prior to 1829, his three-month “prodigious flow of verbal art and narrative creation” (7) became the Book of Mormon. Davis’s theory describes a two-part literary pattern in the Book of Mormon where summary outlines (called “heads) in the text are consistently expanded in subsequent sections of the narrative. Termed “laying down heads,” Davis insists that such literary devices are anachronistic to Book of Mormon era and constitute strong evidence that Joseph Smith contributed heavily, if not solely, to the publication. The primary weaknesses of the theory involve the type and quantity of assumptions routinely accepted throughout the book. The assumptions include beliefs that the historical record does not support or even contradicts (e.g. Smith’s 1829 superior intelligence, advanced composition abilities, and exceptional memorization proficiency) and those that describe Smith using oral performance skills beyond those previously demonstrated as humanly possible (e.g. the ability to dictate thousands of first-draft phrases that are also refined final-draft sentences). Visions in a Seer Stone will be most useful to individuals who, like the author, are willing to accept these assumptions. To more skeptical readers, the theory presented regarding the origin of the Book of Mormon will be classified as incomplete or inadequate. .
Book of Mormon Topics > Criticisms and Apologetics > Book Reviews
Abstract: This paper is composed of three parts connected consecutively because their conclusions build upon each other. The first part investigates the transportation methods used in the Book of Mormon, concluding that horse and river travel contributed little and that foot travel dominated all journeying. The second part uses that conclusion to estimate the overall dimensions of the Promised Land by examining Alma the Elder’s journey from Nephi to Zarahemla. This exercise reaffirms the 200-by-500-mile size promoted by John L. Sorenson decades ago. The third part looks at four ramifications of this 100,000 square-mile Promised Land footprint when stamped upon a map of the Western Hemisphere. (1) It allows for more than one Promised Land (occupied by other God-led immigrants) to exist simultaneously in the Americas. (2) It predicts that no matter where the Book of Mormon Promised Land was originally located, most Native Americans today would have few or no direct ties to the Jaredites-Lehites-Mulekites. (3) It demonstrates that research efforts to identify evidence of the Book of Mormon peoples could be exploring locations thousands of miles away from their original settlements. And (4) If any of the post-400 ce localized population losses in the Americas due to disease, war, or unknown causes involved the original Promised Land location, then the primary locus of organic evidence of the existence of the Jaredite-Lehite-Mulekite populations might have been largely destroyed.
Abstract: An article recently published in an online journal entitled “The Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism: A Working Hypothesis” posits that Joseph Smith used naturally occurring chemicals, called “entheogens,” to facilitate visionary experiences among his early followers. The entheogenic substances were reportedly derived from two mushrooms, a fungus, three plants (including one cactus), and the secretions from the parotid glands of the Sonoran Desert toad. Although it is an intriguing theory, the authors consistently fail to connect important dots regarding chemical and historical cause-and-effect issues. Documentation of entheogen acquisition and consumption by the early Saints is not provided, but consistently speculated. Equally, the visionary experiences recounted by early Latter-day Saints are highly dissimilar from the predictable psychedelic effects arising from entheogen ingestion. The likelihood that Joseph Smith would have condemned entheogenic influences as intoxication is unaddressed in the article.
The Father is aware of us, knows our needs, and will help us perfectly.
A Reason for Faith was written to do just as the title implies: provide reasons for faith by offering faithful answers to sincere questions. Before the Internet, historical and doctrinal questions not addressed in LDS Church curriculum were mostly found in the scholarly articles of academic journals. This is no longer the case. These topics are now widely debated and discussed online and in other forums. And when members of the LDS Church come across information that is unfamiliar, they may feel surprise, fear, betrayal, or even anger. Respected LDS scholars have teamed with Laura Harris Hales to offer help in A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History. Together these authors have spent an average of 25 years researching these topics. Their depth of knowledge and faith enables them to share reliable details, perspective, and context to both LDS doctrine and Church history. The information in these essays can begin an exciting process of discovery for readers as they learn from a source they can trust. Each chapter is engaging and thought-provoking, providing an invaluable resource for both the merely curious and the seriously concerned. ISBN 978-1-9443-9401-1
Whenever we choose to come unto Christ, take His name upon us, and follow His servants, we progress along the path to eternal life.
The constellation of characteristics that result from faith in Christ are all necessary to our standing strong in these last days.
When we live providently, we can provide for ourselves and our families and also follow the Savior’s example to serve and bless others.
We cannot expect to learn endurance in our later years if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult now.
This is the call of Christ to every Christian today: “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep.”
Answering our accusers in the Savior’s way.
As the Savior’s latter-day disciples, we come unto Him by loving and serving God’s children.
We become converted and spiritually self-reliant as we prayerfully live our covenants.
It is proper for a mature sister or couple to let their priesthood leaders know that they are willing and able to serve a mission. I urge you to do so.
Your Heavenly Father needs you. His work, under the direction of our Savior Jesus Christ, needs what you are uniquely prepared to give.
Our Baptism and confirmation is the gateway into His kingdom. When we enter, we covenant to be of His kingdom—forever!
God and Christ are literally a Father and a Son—separate, distinct, individual beings who are wholly unified in Their purpose.
However dark conditions may seem in this world today, whatever the storms we are facing personally, … joy can be ours now.
Only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement can bring us peace, hope, and understanding.
I promise you that your achievement of the Duty to God Award will provide you with a living testimony that will sustain you throughout your life.
What has been told to me … can be told to you by the Holy Spirit … according to your obedience and desires.
Oh, how we need general conference! Through conferences our faith is fortified and our testimonies deepened.
“It is for this reason you have come to this institution—to learn how to take this intelligence, knowledge, and experience to gain wisdom and learn understanding in your hearts in order to help you keep the commandments.”
To assist you in living lives of service, let me suggest three essential principles: First, help others succeed. Second, learn and develop your own talents and value the talents of others. Third, obtain a spirit of serving and giving.
If we seek the truth, develop faith in Him, and … sincerely repent, we will receive a spiritual change of heart which only comes from our Savior. Our hearts will become new again.
I express my love and gratitude to Heavenly Father for the gift of the Holy Ghost, through which He reveals His will and sustains us.
Sacred records bear testimony of the Savior and lead us to Him.
Using our agency to obey means choosing to “do what is right [and letting] the consequence follow.”
Jesus is the great Mediator. Through omnipotent and omniscient, all-powerful and all-knowing, He is our friend.
RSC Topics > L — P > Lifelong Learning
RSC Topics > L — P > Lifelong Learning
RSC Topics > L — P > Lifelong Learning
RSC Topics > Q — S > Scriptures
As the years go by, you will discover many axioms that reflect your own experience of living the gospel. Learn them, live them in your life, and share them.
The choices you make—mission, education, marriage, career, and service in the Church—will shape your eternal destiny.
It is our imperative duty to help youth understand and believe the gospel in a deeply personal way.
In our fast-paced world, we are sometimes impatient for His plan to unfold. Popular culture tells us, “Get a life.” My advice to all of us is, “Get an eternal life.” By making right choices today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our time on earth, that eternal goal means the most to us.
The emblems of the Savior’s Atonement remind us that we need not stumble in darkness. We can have His light with us always.
Personal revelation is the way we know for ourselves the most important truths of our existence.
[The Lord’s] hand has been over the work of the Restoration from before the foundation of this world and will continue until His Second Coming.
Robert D. Hales explains why religious freedom is necessary for us to exercise agency and fulfill Heavenly Father’s plan.
“The capability, through repentance, to forgive and the ability to love are God-given gifts to enable us to live our lives fully and to help others live bravely and meaningfully in this less than perfect world.”
Follow the example of Joseph Smith and the pattern of the Restoration. Turn to the scriptures. Kneel in prayer. Ask in faith. Listen to the Holy Ghost.
Good friends help keep us on the high ground. Good friends strengthen us and help us live the commandments when we are with them. True friends will not make us choose between the Lord’s ways and their ways.
The light of belief is within you, waiting to be awakened and intensified by the Spirit of God.
Standing obedient and strong on the doctrine of our God, we stand in holy places, for His doctrine is sacred and will not change.
The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes. The goal of our families is to be on the strait and narrow path.
The temple is a sacred edifice, a holy place where essential saving ceremonies and ordinances are performed to prepare us for exaltation.
I add my testimony to that of Nephi. I know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ and that this is the way.
Pay your tithing. Unlock the windows of heaven. You will be abundantly blessed for your obedience and faithfulness to the Lord’s laws and commandments.
Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness.
How you bear [the] priesthood now will prepare you to make the most important decisions in the future.
It is my fervent desire that each of us will use our God-given intelligence to gain the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in our hearts to meet life’s tests and trials and to endure to the end.
The purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences.
No matter how evil the world becomes, our families can be at peace. If we do what’s right, we will be guided and protected.
A guide for parents on how to teach their children about the doctrinal concepts in the Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon concepts are supported with scriptural references from the standard works of the LDS church. This work is reviewed in P.068.
Presents Book of Mormon lesson outlines and commentary to American Indian students with a limited vocabulary or insufficient reading skills.
A guide for parents on how to teach their children about the doctrinal concepts in the Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon concepts are supported with scriptural references from the standard works of the LDS church. This work is reviewed in P.068.
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1878–1945
RSC Topics > G — K > Hope
RSC Topics > Q — S > Restoration of the Gospel
Review of Gadiantons and the Silver Sword: A Novel (1991), by Chris Heimerdinger.
RSC Topics > T — Z > Welfare
RSC Topics > T — Z > Women
Among the anachronistic elements discussed are Book of Mormon statements regarding animals, the Lamanite curse, condemnation of polygamy, large numbers of war casualties, and the great destructions at the time of Christ’s visit to the American continent. The author advocates a Spaulding origin for the Book of Mormon.
This first of two volumes of essays honoring Hugh Nibley includes scholarly papers based on what the contributors have learned from Dr. Nibley. Nearly every major subject that he has encompassed in his vast learning and scholarly production is represented here by at least one article. Topics include the influence of Nibley, Copts and the Bible, the Seventy in scripture, the great apostasy, the book of Daniel in early Mormon thought, an early Christian initiation ritual, John’s Apocalypse, ancient Jewish seafaring, Native American rites of passage, Sinai as sanctuary and mountain of God, the Qurʾan and creation ex nihilo, and the sacred handclasp and embrace.
A study into the original Roman New Year and how some of those traditions carry on now in March instead.
These studies offer solid information about the material culture of the first-century Judea. Even though the story of Masada itself has recently become significantly politicized and rightly reexamined in the scholarly literature, these developments do not diminish the importance of this archaeological site as a source of information about the world of the New Testament.
Compares Joseph Smith to Mohammed. Notes that the anthropological data in the Book of Mormon does not likely reflect Jacksonian America. Discusses the characters from the plates and Joseph Smith’s supposed authorship. “I think the fact remains that the Book of Mormon is more or less difficult to explain because it has remarkable internal homogeneity”
Poetry. No abstract available
Poetry. No abstract available
Poetry. No abstract available.
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine and Covenants
RSC Topics > T — Z > Zion
Whether it is a no-problem day or we are in the midst of an intensive period of testing and trial in our lives, we can find strength in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon provides many good examples to Latter-day Saint writers of how to magnify their work. By following the patterns of the Book of Mormon, writers can understand what to emphasize and how to include the Spirit in their writing.
Review of Mormons, Scriptures, and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson (1998), edited by Davis Bitton
A linguistic analysis of the symbol of a barren woman associated with Zion, the earth, and the Lord’s servants
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
Third Nephi 22 (quoting Isaiah 54) addresses a desolate woman who will be redeemed in the latter days. The desolate woman represents Zion, which itself signifies the city of Enoch in ancient times, the hill where the temple was built in Jerusalem, the celestial city of God, the kingdom of God on earth, and a covenant community of temple-worthy Saints. The Lord promises to relieve the desolation of Zion felt through barrenness, lack of a permanent home, and being forsaken and persecuted. The destiny of Zion parallels the pattern of Noah—both remain faithful to their covenants and witness a cleansing of the earth. The Savior serves as Zion’s husband. The servants of the Lord are equated with Zion—the Lord will not allow oppressors to be successful against Zion. The Lord promises to redeem Zion as he sings a song of redeeming love.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
This article explains the benefits of studying specific words in the context of the Book of Mormon. Focusing on the origin of a word provides additional meaning and insight to a particular verse of scripture and helps the reader better understand the intended meaning of the author.
The use of the word judge in the scriptures can cause confusion. By researching the etymologies and scriptural uses of the words judge and righteous, Cynthia Hallen observes that there is a difference between judging and judging righteously.
Scriptural records are important in preserving the words of prophets as well as the language of our ancestors. An etymological study of the important words in scriptures can link us to the thoughts and feelings of people who lived in the past. An example is the word heart, which has meaning both as an essential body part and as a metaphor for one’s thoughts and feelings.
The word tender is used repeatedly throughout the Book of Mormon, but the modern connotations of the term may skew readers’ understanding of what Book of Mormon authors intended to convey when employing it in their writing. By examining the etymology of tender and the etymologies of similar words, readers can better comprehend the intended meaning of the ancient Book of Mormon authors.
Cynthia Hallen invited students in her History of the English Language course to search for conjoined word pairs in the scriptures as a term project. They searched for pairs of words linked with conjunctions in order to better understand the meaning of selected set expressions in the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon. Hallen summarizes and comments on their research.
A two-pronged approach to studying the scriptures emphasizes language as well as doctrine. Some typical syntactic structures that appear in 19th-century Book of Mormon English include word-order variation, interruption, parenthesis, ellipsis, fragment, conjunctions, and parallel structure.
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1878–1945
RSC Topics > G — K > Hope
RSC Topics > Q — S > Restoration of the Gospel
The purpose of the Church is to help us live the gospel.
Uplifting traditions … that promote love for Deity and unity in families and among people are especially important.
Now is the time to reconcile with God through the merciful process of change afforded us by the Redeemer.
Our supreme focus should be on the spiritual miracles that are available to all of God’s children.
Both the heart and the mind must be fully engaged in this holy process. The conversion of our soul and the ongoing refinement of our life, as we adopt the attributes of godliness, is our earthly mission and is rewarded with “eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
A correct understanding of our heavenly heritage is essential to exaltation.
My aspiration is for each of us to want to live a more reverent life—a life reflective of our love for God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ, His Son and our Savior.
[S]eeking balance—giving adequate time and effort to each of those things that really matter—is vital to our success in mortal probation.
Never let an earthly circumstance disable you spiritually.
What changes are required of us to become the manner of men we ought to be?
A perfunctory discussion on the unique LDS scriptures. Devotes a chapter to the Spaulding manuscript, concluding that proper names and writing style in that romance have affinities with the Book of Mormon.
Helping students with reading disabilities to be able to understand the scriptures
Ever since rumors of a Golden Bible began circulating in the late 1820s, the Book of Mormon has occupied a singular place in the American popular imagination. It has been revered as scripture by Latter-day Saints and condemned as imposture by anti-Mormons for nearly two centuries, but what of Americas more moderate majority? Especially in the earliest days of its presence in print, how was the Book of Mormon seen by ordinary Americans, and what do their perceptions reveal about their day? This study analyzes the place of the Book of Mormon in the antebellum popular imagination as revealed through the lens of humor. A surprising number of the books early observers found something unmistakably humorous about its content and story of origin, and assumed that it was a piece of imaginative fiction. In expressing their views of the Mormon scripture, often in comic ways, they revealed much about the social and religious values they espoused, the cultural incongruities with which they were grappling, and the underlying assumptions that were being shaped in part by a uniquely American humor. Sounding a natural resonance with many of Americas comic chords, the Book of Mormon quickly achieved a certain cultural currency that was recognized by both humorists and polemicists, who often exploited humors rhetorical power. In the process, the Book of Mormon became and has remained a mythic presence in the national imagination.
RSC Topics > L — P > Old Testament
RSC Topics > L — P > Ordinances
RSC Topics > Q — S > Sacrifice
RSC Topics > T — Z > Worship
I invite you to … do whatever it takes to earnestly seek truth, to know God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
There are many on the earth who desire a witness of truth and earnestly seek the peace and joy promised by the Savior.
Book of Mormon oriented exercises designed for children. Includes mazes, scrambled words, and fill in the blanks.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Abstract: The scriptures are saturated with covenantal words and terms. Any serious or close reading of the scriptures that misses or ignores the covenantal words, phrases, and literary structure of scripture runs the risk of missing the full purpose of why God preserved the scriptures for us. This is especially true for the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, which emerged out of an Old Testament cultural context. Research during the past century on ancient Near Eastern covenants has brought clarity to the covenantal meaning and context of a variety of words and literary structures in the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. This article builds on that revealing research to show that the English word “perfect” in a covenantal context in scripture can also be represented with the covenantal synonyms of “loyal, loyalty, faithful, and trustworthy.” God has revealed and preserved the scriptures as records of these covenants and of the consequences of covenantal loyalty or disloyalty. The Lord’s injunction to “be ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48) is beautifully magnified when we realize that we are not simply asked to be without sin, but, rather, to “be ye therefore covenantally loyal” even as God has been eternally and covenantally loyal to us.
Old Testament Topics > Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha [including intertestamental books and the Dead Sea Scrolls]
Taylor Halverson presents Covenant Patterns in the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon
Abstract: Deuteronomy 17:14–20 represents the most succinct summation in the Bible of criteria for kingship. Remarkably, the Book of Mormon narrative depicts examples of kingship that demonstrate close fidelity to the pattern set forth in Deuteronomy 17 (e.g., Nephi, Benjamin, or Mosiah II) or the inversion of the expected pattern of kingship (e.g., king Noah). Future research on Book of Mormon kingship through the lens of Deuteronomy 17:14–20 should prove fruitful.
Old Testament Scriptures > Deuteronomy
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Words of Mormon
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Old Testament Scriptures > Jeremiah/Lamentations
Abstract: In the days of the first Israelite temple, only certain individuals were allowed into the temple and sacrificial services; foreigners and eunuchs were excluded. However, in Isaiah 56:1–8, formerly excluded individuals are invited into the presence of God at the temple. This paper will explore how metaphorically connecting Isaiah’s words with Abraham, the eponymous father of the covenant faithful, may demonstrate that even the most unlikely candidates for the presence of God are like Abraham; they too will inherit the ancient covenants according to their faithfulness.
“A KnoWhy is a short essay… about some brief historical, archaeological, cultural, linguistic, literary, legal, devotional, or prophetic insight in the Book of Mormon. Individually, these pieces are about very specific topics: knowing why Nephi wrote in Egyptian (chapter 5), knowing why Jacob talked about polygamy (chapter 64), knowing why Abinadi was ’scourged’ with faggots (chapter 93), or knowing why Alma would talk about Melchizedek (chapter 117). In many cases, we profess less-than-definitive answers, but rather offer some reasons for why these things might be as they are in the Book of Mormon. As a collective body, these KnoWhys provide more than possible answers to specific questions. Combined, they are about knowing why the Book of Mormon is amazing, knowing why it is beautiful, knowing why it speaks to our hearts and minds so powerfully, knowing why it is so uniquely inspiring, and ultimately knowing why the Book of Mormon is true in so many ways.” [Editors]
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Abstract: During the Second-Temple Period, Jews remembered and reimagined the story of Abraham to address their own immediate historical and cultural concerns. By exploring these reimaginations, we learn more about the faith and interests of later Jews who looked to their forefather for inspiration and guidance on how to live in a world of change, opportunity, and challenge. Second Temple Jewish writers included in this article are Artapanus, the author of Jubilees; Pseudo-Eupolemus, the author of Genesis Apocryphon; Philo, and Josephus. Abraham was resurrected in these texts, but with the body and soul of the later author, Josephus; these authors live on in the guise of Abraham.
Abstract: While David is frequently held up as the standard for great kings in the Old Testament, examination of Nephi’s writings shows that he sought to imitate Moses the prophet rather than David the king. In fact, he never even mentions David. Relative to two major theological movements in Jerusalem in his day, “Zion theology,” in which David was the great hero, and “Deuteronomistic theology,” in which Moses was the hero, we see that Nephi was more aligned with Deuteronomistic theology, which was also more consistent with views in the Northern Kingdom, where Nephi’s ancestry originated.
Abstract: This note explores a literary comparison between Nephi’s confronting of Laban and shrinking from the act of shedding blood, to Jesus’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane of shrinking from the act of shedding blood. Comparing these two stories suggests that we can profitably read Nephi’s experience with Laban as Nephi’s personal Gethsemane.
Abstract: We are told in the Title Page of the Book of Mormon that the Book of Mormon was revealed in our day “to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever.” Hence, the covenantal context, structure, and logic of the Book of Mormon demand further consideration, exploration, and elucidation. A prosperous starting point is the phrase “If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.” This covenantal phrase is used throughout the Book of Mormon as a summary of the theological logic of the suzerain-vassal treaty covenant type in which God sought to secure the fidelity of his people, who would receive in exchange continued prosperity in His appointed promised lands.
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
Abstract: Nephi is the prototypical wise son of the Wisdom tradition. As Proverbs advocates that a wise man cherishes the word of God, so Nephi cherishes the words of the wise. Nephi’s record begins with a declaration of his upbringing in the Wisdom tradition and his authenticity and reliability as a wise son and scribe (1 Nephi 1:1–3). His is a record of the learning of the Jews — a record of wisdom. If the Wisdom tradition is a foundation for Nephi’s scribal capabilities and outlook, perhaps the principles and literary skills represented by the scribal Wisdom tradition constitute the “learning of the Jews” that Nephi references so early in his account. Thus, if Nephi’s is a record of the learning of the Jews — a record of wisdom — we would be wise to read it with Wisdom — that is, through the lens of ancient Israelite and Middle Eastern Wisdom traditions.
“Wisdom cries out [from the dust]”
(Proverbs 1:20).
Abstract: Literary studies, especially intertextual approaches, are relevant for exploring how scriptures are constructed and interpreted. Reading 1 Peter intertextually reveals the thoughtful way that Peter selected suitable, relevant, and applicable Old Testament scripture to encourage faithfulness for his audience. Peter draws from Isaiah 40 in 1 Peter 1:24-25 to preach comfort; Isaiah 40 is one of the hallmark Old Testament chapters focused on comfort. 1 Peter 2:2-3 quotes from Psalm 34 which is a hymn dedicated to the salvation that God’s servants experience when they faithfully turn to Him during times of distress and persecution. And when 1 Peter 1:16 invites people to be holy, that call is grounded in the meaning and significance of a portion of the ancient Israelite Holiness Code, Leviticus 19. In summary, Peter demonstrates his scriptural mastery by dipping his pen into some of the most appropriate Old Testament passages available to support his message of faith and encouragement to his audience.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide several examples of how meaning, understanding, and interpretation of scriptures may be enhanced when scriptures are read in their geographical context. Many scholarly articles seek exclusively to break new ground in meaning and meaning-making, to essentially produce new knowledge. This article hopes to break new ground both in terms of new knowledge (insights) as well as in the pragmatics of giving readers additional tools and opportunities for exploring the scriptures in fresh ways. In particular, this article will also highlight several free geographical tools that can improve one’s learning with the scriptures, with particular focus on Google Earth and the BYU scriptures.byu.edu/mapscrip tool (hereafter referred to as Google Earth Bible or GEB). The hope is that this article will, through the tools discussed, create opportunities for others to create new knowledge for themselves through scripture study.
Abstract: This article explores why Jesus so often healed in synagogues. By comparing the uses and purposes of Diaspora and Palestinian synagogues, this article argues that synagogues functioned as a hostel or community center of sorts in ancient Jewish society. That is, those needing healing would seek out such services and resources at the synagogue.
Abstract: The three great monotheistic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all claim Abraham as father and prototypical monotheist. Though Adam is the putative first father in all of these traditions, he is seldom remembered in Judeo-Christian scriptural, apocryphal, or pseudepigraphic texts as an exemplary monotheist. This essay briefly reviews why Abraham retains the lofty title “Father of Monotheism” while exploring how Latter-day restoration scripture adds to and challenges this ancient tradition vis-à-vis enhanced understanding of Adam’s covenantal and monotheistic fidelity to God.
Book of Moses Topics > Chapters of the Book of Moses > Moses 4–6:12 — Grand Council in Heaven, Adam and Eve
Abstract: This note provides a brief overview of Roman economic history and currency in order to throw light on the value and significance of the two debts illustratively used by Jesus in his parable to Simon the Pharisee. Though we cannot with accuracy make the claim that a Roman denarius was always the daily wage, we can determine that the debtors of Jesus’s parable owed something on the order of a year’s worth of wages and ten years’ worth of wages.
Abstract: This article is centered on possible causes for the fall of Israel and, secondarily, Judah. The topic is not new. The very destruction of these ancient kingdoms may be the cause for the production of much of the Biblical literature that drives our interpretive enterprise. My proposal is that Max Weber’s socio-political theories of power and domination, sometimes called the tripartite classification of authority, may provide a fruitful lens by which to understand some of the reasons Judah persisted for more than a century after the fall of Israel. Specifically, I wish to investigate whether the lack of routinization of charismatic authority was a contributing factor in Israel’s fall.
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Old Testament Scriptures > 1 & 2 Samuel
Old Testament Scriptures > 1 & 2 Kings/1 & 2 Chronicles
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
In this environmentalist approach to the Book of Mormon the author believes that it is difficult to treat the Book of Mormon as an ancient historical document. Alleged problems extant in the Book of Mormon listed by the author include: the explicit mention of the name of Jesus Christ before Jesus’ ministry in Palestine, similarities with the Bible, the Deutero-Isaiah problem, anachronistic mention of synagogues, Greek names, pre-Christian baptism, domesticated animals, Old World crops in America, and textual changes. The writer therefore espouses a “nonliteral view of the Book of Mormon”
A textual comparison between the Isaiah texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Mormon.
Review of “Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity” (1993), by Brent Lee Metcalfe.
This first of two volumes of essays honoring Hugh Nibley includes scholarly papers based on what the contributors have learned from Dr. Nibley. Nearly every major subject that he has encompassed in his vast learning and scholarly production is represented here by at least one article. Topics include the influence of Nibley, Copts and the Bible, the Seventy in scripture, the great apostasy, the book of Daniel in early Mormon thought, an early Christian initiation ritual, John’s Apocalypse, ancient Jewish seafaring, Native American rites of passage, Sinai as sanctuary and mountain of God, the Qurʾan and creation ex nihilo, and the sacred handclasp and embrace.
What accounts for the parallels between modern temple rituals and ancient Judeo-Christian ceremonies?
Anti-Mormon criticisms of the Book of Mormon are frequently based on a questionable set of assumptions concerning the nature of historical and archaeological evidence, the role of governing presuppositions, and the nature of historical proof. Using arguments found in a recent anti-Mormon critique by Luke Wilson as a foundation, this article analyzes difficulties of reconstructing ancient geographies, problems with the discontinuity of Mesoamerican toponyms, the historical development of the idea of a limited geography model, and challenges of textual and artifactual interpretation when trying to relate the Book of Mormon to archaeological remains.
Introduction to the current volume.
Review of Explorers of Pre-Columbian America? The Diffusionist-Inventionist Controversy (1994), by Eugene R. Fingerhut; and Legend and Lore of the Americas before 1492: An Encyclopedia of Visitors, Explorers, and Immigrants (1993), by Ronald H. Fritze.
Review of How Wide the Divide: A mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation (1997), by Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson
Abstract: John 17 contains a richly symbolic Last Discourse by Jesus, in which the disciples are assured a place in the Father’s celestial house or temple. To fulfill this promise Christ reveals both the Father’s name and his glory to his disciples. Jesus’s discourse concludes with the promise of sanctification of the disciples, and their unification—or deification—with Christ and the Father. This paper explores how each of these ideas reflects the temple theology of the Bible and contemporary first-century Judaism.
A challenge to George D. Smith Jr.’s “Isaiah Updated,” which appeared in Dialogue.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Review of Archaeology and the Book of Mormon (1972), by Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner
This chapter is adapted from a review of Douglas F. Salmon, “Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective Unconscious,“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 33, no. 2 (2000): 129–56. The article was originally published as William J. Hamblin and Gordon C. Thomasson, “Joseph or Jung? A Response to Douglas Salmon,“ FARMS Review of Books 13, no. 2 (2001): 87–107.
A review of an article written by Douglas F. Salmon.
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Hugh Nibley > Scholarship, Footnotes, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, CWHN, Editing > Comparative Analysis
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Pearl of Great Price > Book of Moses > Characters > Adam, Eve
Review of “Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Saint Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective Unconscious?” (2000), by Douglas F. Salmon
Review of ?Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection? (1994), by Lance S. Owens
The failure of those who reject the historicity of the Book of Mormon to respond cogently to the increasing body of evidence and argument supporting historicity is becoming painfully apparent. Stephen E. Thompson’s recent review of Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/1 (1994) is one of the most recent examples of this "straw man" approach.
Review of The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology (1994), by John L. Brooke.
Review of Christopher Hitchens. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
This paper is part of a series of F.A.R.M.S. papers intended to give clear, concise answers to criticisms that have been raised against the Book of Mormon. As can be seen in the footnotes, much is owed to previous researchers who have addressed these criticisms. The foundation wishes to thank Matthew Roper for his help in gathering and summarizing large portions of the raw material for this series of papers. The authors wish to thank Robert Durocher for his help with this paper.
Review of Robert M. Price. “Prophecy and Palimpsest.” Dialogue 35/3.
In this article William Hamblin responds to critics of the Book of Mormon who claim that there is no language known as reformed Egyptian, a term found in Mormon 9:32. Hamblin reminds readers that reformed Egyptian is a modern term for an ancient language and lists examples of other ancient records written in languages that could also be considered reformed Egyptian.
This article discusses the term reformed Egyptian as used in the Book of Mormon. Many critics claim that reformed Egyptian does not exist; however, languages and writing systems inevitably change over time, making the Nephites’ language a reformed version of Egyptian.
Review of The Sanctity of Dissent (1994), by Paul Toscano.
Significant evidence reveals that bronze and other metals were historically used for writing sacred texts. This article uses that information to demonstrate the plausibility that the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi would have followed the same practice.
A response to Mark Thomas’s book review of Warfare in the Book of Mormon. It is impossible to prove whether the Book of Mormon is an ancient document or not. The book Warfare was written with the premise that the Book of Mormon is an ancient record, and comparisons of Book of Mormon warfare and Near Eastern military practices are sound. No comparison with warfare in Napoleon’s day or Spaulding’s manuscript is necessary.
Abstract: In the Hebrew Bible, the Sôd of God was a council of celestial beings who consulted with God, learned His sôd/secret plan, and then fulfilled that plan. This paper argues that the LDS endowment is, in part, a ritual reenactment of the sôd, where the participants observe the sôd/council of God, learn the sôd/secret plan of God, and covenant to fulfill that plan.
Old Testament Scriptures > 1 & 2 Kings/1 & 2 Chronicles
Old Testament Scriptures > Job
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Old Testament Scriptures > Jeremiah/Lamentations
Old Testament Scriptures > Twelve Minor Prophets
Abstract: Most scholars agree that sôd, when used in relationship to God, refers to the heavenly council, which humans may sometimes visit to learn divine mysteries or obtain a prophetic message to deliver to humankind. Biblical texts on this subject can be compared to passages in Latter-day Saint scripture (e.g., 1 Nephi 1:8-18; Abraham 3:22-23). In this article, William Hamblin succinctly summarizes this concept and argues that the Latter-day Saint temple endowment serves as a ritual and dramatic participation in the divine council of God, through which God reveals to the covenanter details of the plan of salvation — the hidden meaning and purpose of creation and the cosmos.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.See William J. Hamblin, “The Sôd of Yhwh and the Endowment,” in Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of The Expound Symposium 14 May 2011, ed. Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 189–94. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-temple-worship/.].
Book of Mormon Topics > Doctrines and Teachings > Divine Council
Book of Mormon Topics > General Topics > Temples
Review of Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon (1988), by F. Richard Hauck
William Hamblin considers concepts related to the temple that are found in Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17. For example, the word for glorify recalls the glory of the Lord that filled the tabernacle and temple. The word for given in John 17:2 can have the implication of endow, in the sense of giving a gift. To know God implies being familiar with his glory. The name of the Father is known by a few but is not revealed to the many.
Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (1998), by D. Michael Quinn
Since 1989, the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon has published review essays to help serious readers make informed choices and judgments about books and other publications on topics related to the Latter-day Saint religious tradition. It has also published substantial freestanding essays that made further contributions to the field of Mormon studies. In 1996, the journal changed its name to the FARMS Review with Volume 8, No 1. In 2011, the journal was renamed Mormon Studies Review.
Review of An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Hugh Nibley > Scholarship, Footnotes, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, CWHN, Editing > Christian History, Apostasy, Early Christianity
For an introduction, see Benjamin L. McGuire, “Josiah’s Reform: An Introduction.”
For a counterpoint, see Kevin Christensen, “Prophets and Kings in Lehi’s Jerusalem and Margaret Barker’s Temple Theology”
Abstract: Margaret Barker has written a number of fascinating books on ancient Israelite and Christian temple theology. One of her main arguments is that the temple reforms of Josiah corrupted the pristine original Israelite temple theology. Josiah’s reforms were therefore, in some sense, an apostasy. According to Barker, early Christianity is based on the pristine, original pre-Josiah form of temple theology. This paper argues that Josiah’s reforms were a necessary correction to contemporary corruption of the Israelite temple rituals and theologies, and that the type of temple apostasy Barker describes is more likely associated with the Hasmoneans.
“People may well ask: Why study warfare in the Book of Mormon? There are so many answers, among which are these: to understand better the events in the Book of Mormon, to develop a perspective against which to understand its teachings and messages, to enjoy the interesting lives of a remarkable people, and to aid in assaying the historicity of the book, ” writes John W. Welch at the beginning of Warfare in the Book of Mormon.
The wars and battles described in the Book of Mormon include some of the most detailed narratives of the book. Those accounts provide us with an excellent chance to examine how consistent and complex the text is. Joseph Smith lived in an age of warfare with guns, yet the Book of Mormon displays patterns of warfare that made sense only before gunpowder was used. This can be seen in both the general patterns and in the tiny details of the text. Descriptions of weapons and tactics in the Book of Mormon are definitely ancient. Furthermore, the warfare in the Book of Mormon differs from what we read about in the Bible. It differs in the same way that war in ancient Mesoamerica differed from biblical warfare.
A presentation of archaeological finds from North, Central, and South America. Artifacts presented include many from the Padre Carlo Cresa collection, the Metcalf Stone, the Bat Creek Stone, and the Tree of Life Stone.
Reviewed for the Association of Mormon Letters.
A review of Hugh Nibley Observed that draws on the reviewer’s own experiences with Nibley and his writings.
May we continually hold fast to the iron rod that leads to the presence of our Heavenly Father.
Elder Hamilton teaches that repentance is necessary and that as we humble ourselves and have faith in Jesus Christ, our weaknesses can be made strong through Christ’s grace.
We renew [our] covenants as we come to His Church every Sabbath day and partake of the sacrament. This is how we come to Christ. This is how we walk with Him. This is how we realize our full divine potential.
The Hill Cumorah Pageant, a dramatic reenactment of the events in the Book of Mormon, is reviewed. Details are given concerning the size, location, and quality of the pageant.
Do your sons ever wonder if you are asleep when it comes to the things that are most important to them?
RSC Topics > L — P > Old Testament
I humbly remind you of the only pure, sinless life ever lived on this earth, that of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Seek for Him! And when you find him, you, too, will make a difference.
Life, if lived properly, allows the Holy Ghost to bring the vision into our mind. The perfect description was given by a loving Heavenly Father when He said, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
It requires the gospel and the Church to bring everything that is important in our lives into one eternal sphere. There is nothing else in this life of eternal worth—just family, friends, and the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ.
Presents information to support the idea that the Book of Mormon lands are located in Central America or Mexico. Suggests that a Hill Cumorah was located both in Palmyra New York and in Central America. A number of maps and diagrams are presented.
Many believe Guatemala to be the Land of Nephi. This author felt the spirit of this holy ground. His testimony of Jesus Christ was strengthened as his testimony of the Book of Mormon increased when seeing the ruins of Mesoamerica and the idolatrous worship of the people. The Book of Mormon will bring them to Christ.
Computer analysis of the personal words of Jesus Christ as found in the New Testament and in the revelations of Joseph Smith shows them to be similar, suggesting that Jesus Christ is the author of both of the works mentioned. Hamson also points out that the wordstyles of Christ are different than the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Joseph Smith (who have their own unique writing styles), allowing a positive identification of authorship in a given text. The Book of Mormon is examined and the results showed multiple authorship and that the Book of Mormon wordprints were nowhere near that of Joseph Smith or his contemporaries.
Abstract: Section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants contains what is commonly known by Latter-day Saints as the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. Priesthood leaders in the church are expected to teach and explain this Oath and Covenant to prospective Melchizedek Priesthood holders. However, the meanings of phrases within the Oath and Covenant are not well understood. For example: What does it mean to become the sons of Moses and Aaron? In what sense are bodies renewed? Are the promised blessings just for holders of the priesthood or for others as well? This paper discusses several ways that phrases in the Oath and Covenant have been interpreted. To identify differing interpretations, I conducted an extensive review of references to the Oath and Covenant in LDS conference addresses and the words of Joseph Smith using the LDS Scripture Citation Index
. After considering these interpretations, I explore other ways the phrases could be interpreted to provide greater understanding of what it means to hold the priesthood and “magnify” it.
The ordinance of the sacrament needs to become more holy and sacred to each of us.
You were entrusted to come to the earth in these last days to do again what you did before—to once again choose good over evil.
A polemical work against Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. Author believes that the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible, both doctrinally and scripturally; there is no archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon, the Anthon account is discredited, and no proper names in the Book of Mormon can be found in Central America.
Abstract: What is theosis? Why does the doctrine of theosis matter? Why did God become man so that man might become God? In his book To Become Like God, Andrew C. Skinner answers these questions with compelling clarity. He provides ample convincing evidence that, far from being a deviation from original Christian beliefs, the doctrine of theosis, or the belief that human beings have the potential to become like God, is central to the Christian faith.
Review of Andrew C. Skinner, To Become Like God: Witnesses of Our Divine Potential (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016). 164 pp. $18.99 (hardback).
A polemical defense of the Book of Mormon by a member of the Church of Christ.
An informative tract that presents doctrines taught in the Book of Mormon, written by a member of the Church of Christ.
The Book of Mormon is from God and its teachings are harmonious with the Bible. The grammatical and editorial changes in the Book of Mormon deny the power of God and corrupt the Book of Mormon.
Review of The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU (1998), by Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel
Review of Adam S. Miller, Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2016).
Review of The Book of Mormon and the Constitution (1995), by H. Verlan Andersen; and If Men Were Angels: The Book of Mormon, Christ and the Constitution (1995), by Brad E. Hainsworth.
Review of Joseph M. Spencer, 1 Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction (Provo, UT: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020). 146 pages. $9.99 (paperback).
Abstract: Joseph Spencer’s intimate familiarity with the Book of Mormon text, based upon years of close textual study and informed by a well- developed theological sensibility, is in full evidence in this lead-off volume in Neal A. Maxwell Institute’s new series of books on the various books of the Book of Mormon. Leaving to prophets and apostles the responsibility for “declaring official doctrine,” this new series approaches the book with the tools of the “scholarly practice” of theology. In Spencer’s case at least, his practice is understood to be (1) informed by an emphasis on grace that is skeptical of claims of personal righteousness and (2) very much engaged with contemporary moral and social issues grounded in a fundamental concern for “equality.” Accordingly, Spencer’s reading is much more interested in “what God is doing in history with what we call the Abrahamic covenant” than with the more popular (non-scholarly) concerns of “everyday faithful living;” it is also more interested in Nephi’s “realistic” and “mature” regret over his youthful over-boldness than in his confident statements of righteous faith. In the end, Spencer’s extremely careful but theologically tendentious reading alerts us very skillfully to certain features of Nephi’s imperfect humanity but reveals a consistent preoccupation with any possible faults in the prophet that might be extracted from an ingenious reading of the text. Finally, concerning women in the Book of Mormon, Spencer again expertly raises provocative questions about barely heard female voices but is too eager to frame these questions from the standpoint of the “modern sensibility” of “sexual egalitarianism.”.
Book of Mormon Topics > Criticisms and Apologetics > Book Reviews
Review of C. John Sommerville. The Decline of the Secular Unversity.
In Alma 42, Alma is explaining God’s just treatment of sinners. His explanation can be applied to modern questions regarding God’s justice, as in Alber Camus’s book The Rebel, wherein Dostoievski’s Ivan Karamazov thinks God is unjust not to save everyone and he (Ivan) refuses to be saved without the damned.
Review of Grant Hardy. Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. xix + 346 pp., with index. $29.95.
Legion are the stories that could and need to be told of women valiant in their testimonies of Jesus Christ who are unsung heroines in our midst.
Recounts legendary stories concerning the three Book of Mormon Nephite apostles who were given power over death until the return of Jesus Christ in the last days.
In the Old World Jesus taught, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6), yet in the New World he says, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:6). Attention, understandably, has been given to the differences, large and small, between the Sermon on the Mount as recounted in the New Testament and the similar sermon given in the New World. At times, we note slight shifts in emphasis (here in the New World, for example, Jesus makes this promise to “all”), more complete understandings (we are filled specifically with the influence of the Holy Ghost), and so on. And these differences raise compelling questions about the possibility that plain and precious truths were lost in translation in the Bible but are restored again in the Book of Mormon. The differences might also suggest the importance of a shifting context that moves Jesus to vary his speech. One wonders if one version is more authoritative than the other. But there is an additional question the two accounts of Christ’s sermon raise. What do readers make of the fact that in most cases the wording is exactly coincident? What might that signify?
The essays in this book inspire Latter-day Saints to consider carefully their stewardship in caring for God’s creations. It also encourages finding common ground with those of other persuasions. The book demonstrates that our religion offers a vital perspective on environmental stewardship that encompasses the best impulses of liberal generosity and conservative restraint. ISBN 0-8425-2618-8
RSC Topics > D — F > Faith
This article states that experiencing soul satisfying circumstances is better when one is not alone. Sharing such experiences with loved ones increases the satisfaction, as is exemplified in the Book of Mormon. Examples of such phenomena include Lehi, who tastes of the fruit of the Tree of Life and desires to share; Enos, who prays for his brethren; and the sons of Mosiah and Alma, who shared their experiences as missionaries following their conversion.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Enos
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
We are authority figures, and our outreach, or our interest—or our lack of it—may influence these of little experience but great capacity to learn.
Provides an outline for studying the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi through the Book of Alma. Gives a summary of each section and a list of “vital lessons” that may be learned, i.e., the mysteries of God, purpose of the Book of Mormon, tree of life, etc.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
This article tells youth that they can find answers in the scriptures and uses stories and quotes from the Book of Mormon and the Bible to show this.
We are not justified if we “pass by on the other side,” hurrying to our priesthood meetings or to the temple or to do visiting teaching or anything else if there is something at hand we should do that the Lord wants done. I don’t think we should or need to choose between serving God and serving our fellowmen.
This article affirms that the only way to clearly understand the great teachings and doctrines of the Book of Mormon is through the Holy Spirit. Science, study, and pure human intellectual pursuits, without God’s spirit, will not adequately relay the full message of the Book of Mormon.
This article discusses how, although being born of “goodly parents” (1 Nephi 1:1) is an ideal situation, not all children have this opportunity and privilege. However, everyone may become “goodly parents” to their own children in ways that the Book of Mormon teaches.
This article discusses some of the many rewarding approaches to the Book of Mormon. One can approach the Book of Mormon historically, through the external evidence, through its marvelous theological teachings, and through its application to life.
Marion D. Hanks - What can we do? How can we help this great young generation meet the challenges of their time? - October 1971 General Conference.
This article is a biographical sketch of Mormon, who served as prophet, editor, soldier, and author.
Quoting an Episcopalian prayer book, the author gives “five steps to wisdom”—read, hear, mark, learn, and digest. Application of the five steps should be made to the Book of Mormon, so that one’s love of the book will grow.
We all have the need to know the processes by which we recoup what we could be and could have, had we chosen more wisely. So these are the three basics: Atonement, Agency, and Accountability.
In this response to the criticism that Joseph Smith authored the Book of Mormon, Hanks claims that the Book is so intricate, with numerous migrations, expeditions, flashbacks, interpolations, and other plot complexities, that it would have been amazing for an untutored boy to have written it. He includes a chart of travels between Zarahemla and the land of Nephi.
A one-page handout that discusses different approaches to studying the Book of Mormon—relate the Book of Mormon to the Bible, study external evidences, consider the theology, and find the “life lessons” in the book.
This article discusses how Alma 31:16-18 contains the prayer offered by the apostate Zoramites. They declare themselves the chosen and elect of God. 1 Nephi 1:20 tells us that the chosen are such because of their faith. Alma adds repentance and good works to faith (Alma 13:1, 3-4, 10). “The Lord chooses those who in faith choose him!”
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
RSC Topics > G — K > Heaven
RSC Topics > T — Z > World Religions
A story of a young man who took Moroni’s challenge (Moroni 10:3-5). After he prayed, the Spirit manifested the truth of the Book of Mormon to him.
A story of a young man who took Moroni’s challenge (Moroni 10:3-5). After he prayed, the Spirit manifested the truth of the Book of Mormon to him.
Mormons in Eastern Europe found themselves mercilessly caught at the center of political and social turmoil during World War II and its aftermath. This book is a completely new collection of first-hand accounts by German and other Eastern European Latter-day Saints who suffered unbelievably brutal trials and lived to tell their stories. These personal statements, gathered and translated by Lynn Hansen, are humbling: Mama always said, ‘Go to bed, then you will not feel the hunger.’ We stumbled around in the dark forest with the others. A fire bomb fell into the bunker and we had to get out because there was so much smoke. As we came out, we saw the entire city on fire. Despite having their homes bombed and their lives shattered, and despite having to struggle for survival in frozen forests and on foreign streets, these Saints clung to their faith. Their vivid memories and poignant testimonies convey this through and through. Often, prayer was their only ally. Though the individual stories of these many Saints are varied and diverse, they all echo a common theme: Our Father in Heaven was accompanying us. The true treasure of these stories is the lesson that faith and testimony, obedience and faithfulness will bring blessings from heaven. As one survivor puts it, The gospel is true. The priesthood of God exists, and we have been mightily blessed in the Church, in our families, and also materially in having what we needed to sustain life. These real-life experiences build faith despite despair, offer hope amidst peril, and champion charity in defiance of hate.
RSC Topics > A — C > Conversion
RSC Topics > L — P > Missionary Work
RSC Topics > T — Z > Teaching the Gospel
Additional authors: Tad R. Callister, John Gee, Joel A. Flake, and Gerald N. Lund.
RSC Topics > G — K > Judgment
RSC Topics > L — P > Prophets
Reprint from Utah Academy of Science 8 (July 1, 1931): 1-32. Discusses theories of the origin of the American Indian: the Atlantis Theory and the Israelitish or Lost Ten Tribe and Hebrew Theory. The most challenging is the Book of Mormon theory.
A tract in which the author bears testimony about the value of the Book of Mormon and provides comments about secret oaths and priesthood.
Contains the script to the Hill Cumorah pageant.
Harold I. Hansen directed the Hill Cumorah Pageant from 1937 to 1977 (excluding the years 1943–47 when the pageant was suspended for the duration of World War II). He passed away in 1992. This article is an excerpt from his unfinished history of the pageant. His narrative includes details of his efforts to revive the pageant in 1948 and mentions the assistance of Bishop Thorpe B. Isaacson of the Presiding Bishopric, who visited the pageant in 1949. Because of his visit and recommendation to the First Presidency, the pageant was again established as an annual event and moved from an Eastern States Mission activity to a church-recognized production. Hansen includes a statement of support from President David O. McKay and reminiscences of Elder Richard L. Evans, the missionaries, and Harris Cooper, who provided lighting for the production for many years.
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine
RSC Topics > Q — S > Resurrection
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
RSC Topics > Q — S > Sin
Abstract: The word Gentiles appears 141 times in the Book of Mormon (the singular Gentile appears only five times.) It appears more frequently than key words such as baptize, resurrection, Zion, and truth. The word Gentiles does not appear with equal frequency throughout the Book of Mormon; in fact, it appears in only five of its fifteen books: 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, 3 Nephi, Mormon, and Ether. Additionally, Book of Mormon speakers did not say Gentiles evenly. Some speakers said the word much less often than we might expect while others used it much more. Nephi1 used Gentiles the most (43 times), and Christ Himself used it 38 times. In addition to analyzing which speakers used the word, this study shows distinctive ways in which Book of Mormon speakers used this word.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 2 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Abstract: While references to heaven in the Old Testament are sparse, non-explicit, and predominantly cosmological, the New Testament reveals a more complex concept of the afterlife that reflects a rapidly evolving understanding of Heaven. The Jewish apocalyptic literature of the late Second Temple period describes a heaven of multiple degrees that is populated with angels and the righteous dead of varying glories. Those glories also tangibly reflect astral qualities of light and glory comparable to the sun, moon, and stars. Within this worldview of Heaven, several of the Apostle Paul’s writings to Corinth can be read with added insight, including his ascent to the “third heaven.” Paul’s teachings of resurrected bodies assuming astral qualities may reflect the native Corinthians’ metaphysical views of the body and soul, which Paul may have shared himself. While Western Christianity would embrace degrees of glory through the Middle Ages, Reform Theology of the Protestant Reformation would affirm a concept of Heaven that supported only a single habitation. It would take a Restoration-era vision to Joseph Smith to restore the doctrine of degrees of glory original to the Jews and early Christians but lost to those of the modern era.
Review of Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example (1996), by D. Michael Quinn
I propose that in striving to achieve the aims of a BYU education, you will simultaneously be advancing in your quest for perfection and eternal life—a quest that we must always remember is made possible only through the love and the Atonement of the Savior.
Both Hansen and Lawrence review Grant Hardy’s The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition. Not meant to replace the 1981 edition published by the church, this edition appears in a reader-friendly format and provides additional notes and appendices.
This is a collection of more than fifty Indian legends concerning the Healer, the Mighty, and the Prophet. The sequence of these legends, particularly vivid among the wild tribes, form a curious pattern matching the stories told in the Book of Mormon. They tell of a saintly white teacher who performed miracles of healing. His symbols are woven into blankets, carved on canyon walls, and burned in pottery.
A letter to the editor points out that chiasmus was indeed known by English and German scholars before Joseph Smith’s time, but it is probable that Joseph Smith did not know of the form during his day.
A letter to the editor points out that chiasmus was indeed known by English and German scholars before Joseph Smith’s time, but it is probable that Joseph Smith did not know of the form during his day.
Mormons in Eastern Europe found themselves mercilessly caught at the center of political and social turmoil during World War II and its aftermath. This book is a completely new collection of first-hand accounts by German and other Eastern European Latter-day Saints who suffered unbelievably brutal trials and lived to tell their stories. These personal statements, gathered and translated by Lynn Hansen, are humbling: Mama always said, ‘Go to bed, then you will not feel the hunger.’ We stumbled around in the dark forest with the others. A fire bomb fell into the bunker and we had to get out because there was so much smoke. As we came out, we saw the entire city on fire. Despite having their homes bombed and their lives shattered, and despite having to struggle for survival in frozen forests and on foreign streets, these Saints clung to their faith. Their vivid memories and poignant testimonies convey this through and through. Often, prayer was their only ally. Though the individual stories of these many Saints are varied and diverse, they all echo a common theme: Our Father in Heaven was accompanying us. The true treasure of these stories is the lesson that faith and testimony, obedience and faithfulness will bring blessings from heaven. As one survivor puts it, The gospel is true. The priesthood of God exists, and we have been mightily blessed in the Church, in our families, and also materially in having what we needed to sustain life. These real-life experiences build faith despite despair, offer hope amidst peril, and champion charity in defiance of hate.
RSC Topics > A — C > Creation
RSC Topics > D — F > Fall of Adam and Eve
Strong family relationships don’t just happen. It takes time. It takes commitment, it takes prayer, and it takes work.
With balance comes happiness and inner peace. How unfortunate it is that some work a lifetime on a goal like making money or attaining social status, only to find that these things do not bring real happiness.
Argues that Nephi made two sets of plates and that Mormon made references to both sets while compiling the Book of Mormon.
My purpose today is to encourage us all to “say something” and “know something” more about mental health in order that we all might “be something” more and obtain optimal mental health.
This book is about finding God and strengthening faith. Though some stories are about joining the LDS church, this is not a book of conversion stories. This three-year effort began as a search for interesting stories about how BYU intertwined with people’s lives and how it affected their faith. The compilers were pleased to discover experiences that were much richer in thought and detail, and far more complex than the anticipated recitations of meaningful classroom interactions and the introduction of religious values in an intellectual environment. In this thoughtful, inspriring, and sometimes humorous book, you’ll read the stories of more than twenty people and their personal interactions with BYU. You’ll read the account of Patricia Holland, who as a young teenager was deeply touched by her first contact with the University. Rabbi David Rosen shares his poignant account of traveling to Salt Lake City to meet with Church leaders about the BYU Jerusalem Center. And you’ll read about Earl Kauffman, then a non-LDS athlete who visited BYU on a recruiting visit and immediately fell in love with the University and found God in his daily interaction with teammates, students, and faculty, and later joined the Church. These essays, each a significant part of the contributors’ life histories, also serve to enrich our lives, as well as our perspectives on Finding God at BYU. ISBN 9781577349297
Reprints of letters that describe the ruins of Central America: Teotihuac‡n, Tula, Copan, Quirigua, Palenque, Uxmal, and others. Includes photographs. He relates Central American Culture and religion with Near Eastern Culture and religion, quoting such authors as Bancroft, Humboldt, and Lord Kingsborough, among others, to back his claims. Equates Quetzalcoatl with Jesus Christ whose visit to America is recorded in 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon.
Friar Diego de Landa’s book, Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, recently published, reveals that most of the writings of the Mayas were destroyed by de Landa because he considered them workings of the devil that stood in the way of the native’s conversion to Christianity. The information that was preserved tells of communal living, reckoning of time, festivals, sacraments, worship of one supreme God, baptism, immortality of the soul, and creation of the world. This new publication verifies the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
Uses scriptures, archaeological evidence, and geography to explain that the Book of Mormon lands do not encompass as large an area as previously supposed. Suggests that the RLDS church maps placing Lehi’s landing on the coast of Chile should be revised. Finds the Isthmus of Tehuantepec much more probable contender for “narrow neck of land” than the Isthmus of Panama.
The origin of the “feathered serpent” in the American native culture can best be explained by the Book of Mormon scripture that tells of Moses’ placing the fiery serpent upon the stick. This author sees the feathered serpent as a symbol of Christ, whose visit is recorded in Third Nephi.
Argues that Quetzalcoatl, a major deity of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America, may have been Christ. Presents a pictorial tour of archaeological sites—including the Toltec ruins at Tlaxcala, the ruins at Mitla, and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Tula, in which this deity, also known as the Feathered Serpent, is represented.
Submits archaeological, anthropological, and historical evidence to validate the Book of Mormon. Topics include Israelite origin of Native Americans, native American myths, Quetzalcoatl—the tall white god who may have been Jesus Christ—and linguistic similarities between Hebrew words and words from Mayan, Incan, and Mexican languages.
Considers the idea that the white god of America, Quetzalcoatl, was Jesus Christ of the Book of Mormon.
Says that the Book of Mormon fulfills prophecies of Isaiah and was witnessed by eleven honorable men. Egyptologists find little or no resemblance between the facsimile of characters that Martin Harris took to Charles Anthon and Egyptian writing. Hanson explains that this is because the Nephites altered the language.
Recalls Lehi’s dream of the rod of iron that leads to the tree of life. Likens those who occupied the great and spacious building and mocked those who partook of the tree of life to people of the present age who scoff at the existence of the Book of Mormon.
Traces the rise and growth of organized crime in Nephite-Lamanite culture. The author discusses how, through conspiracy and murder, the Gadianton Robbers gained seats in the government and became the ruling force. Claims they originated with Cain. Shows how the Jaredites, 2300 B.C.—A.D. 200, were destroyed by a similar group. Draws parallels with present-day society and warns that history repeats itself and that liberty requires vigilance.
RSC Topics > A — C > Charity
RSC Topics > L — P > Love
RSC Topics > T — Z > Unity
An historical discussion of Mormonism. The Anthon denials are discussed. Author considers the Book of Mormon to be “a strange jumble of pseudo-historical narrative and religious precept” and dismisses the book on the grounds that it is full of “outlandish errors in spelling, syntax and grammar” He also notes what he terms “countless anachronisms that exposed the author’s ignorance of geography, chronology, physical science and Bible history” He decries the book’s use of King James English and alleged pilfering of biblical material. He seems to accept the Spaulding Theory regarding its origin.
Maintains that the Book of Mormon contains key phrases, like “it came to pass” and “thus we see,” that point out the messages of the various Book of Mormon authors and abridgers. These phrases can be historical in nature, explaining events, or polemic, explaining teachings, or they can be direct statements to the reader. The author includes tables and summaries that list the phrases.
Nephi was the only Book of Mormon author to receive what might be called a classical Hebrew education. He had ambivalent feelings about his training—indeed, he specifically noted that the tradition would end with himself: “I . . . have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:6; see vv. 1–2). So it is not surprising that he remains the most literate, book-learned of the Nephite prophets. That is to say, his writings exhibit the most connections with earlier prophecies and texts, and he structures his teachings in a way that suggests he is working from written documents. In particular, he is eager to tie his own visions of the future of the House of Israel to the words of Isaiah, and his commentary at 1 Nephi 22—where he weaves phrases from the two Isaiah chapters he has just quoted into a new revelatory discourse—is a masterpiece of prophetic interpretation. The same style of commentary, which by placing familiar phrases into new contexts reinterprets as it explains, is found in a slightly more diffuse form at 2 Nephi 25–30.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 2 Nephi
“This is the first fully annotated, academic edition of the Book of Mormon in its 200-year history. Modelled after the Oxford line of annotated Bibles, it provides readers with the information they need to understand this classic text of American religious history. This edition reformats the complete scriptural text in the manner of modern Bible translations with paragraphs, quotation marks, poetic stanzas, and section headings, all of which clarify the book’s complicated narrative structure. As a result, readers experience a more accessible and readable presentation than the standard version. Annotations explain the meaning and context of specific passages, delineate extended arguments, identify rhetorical patterns, explore theological implications, highlight ancient and modern parallels, and point out intertextual connections, particularly with the Bible. “The Book of Mormon is subdivided into internal books; in this edition, each book is preceded by an introduction that discusses its key themes and literary features, at the same time offering a quick overview of major figures, events, and sermons. The three primary narrators--Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni--receive special attention. In addition to the annotations, which focus on the text itself, there are twelve general essays that introduce readers to various ongoing conversations about the text. There are also several maps and charts, as well as a comprehensive list of biblical quotations and allusions. The editorial material is informed by contemporary biblical and historical scholarship; while it deals forthrightly with both the strengths and weaknesses of the narrative, it nevertheless treats the Book of Mormon as a sacred text, worthy of careful study and respect.” [Summary from Amazon]
This chapter draws parallels between the Book of Mormon and the Bible, examining the two from multiple perspectives including Americanism, diction, and intertextuality.
This edition is a study version of the Book of Mormon, introducing the text and the history behind each chapter and the history behind each prophet that has written in the Book of Mormon.
Grant Hardy responds to the six essays written about Understanding the Book of Mormon. He pairs up the authors and imagines conversations between them, as in a book club exchange. He acknowledges their comments and expresses interest in ongoing dialogues fostered by the ideas in his book.
This exquisitely produced volume presents the official Latter-day Saint edition of the Book of Mormon in an attractive, accessible, readable version that brings to Latter-day Saints the helpful features that have been part of standard Bible publishing for decades: paragraphs, quotation marks, poetic stanzas, section headings, and superscripted verse numbers. The latest Latter-day Saint scholarship is reflected in its brief, thoughtfully considered footnotes, although the focus is always on the text itself—its wording, structure, and interconnections—allowing the book’s sacred message to be heard anew. The Maxwell Institute Study Edition is ideally suited to both new readers of the Book of Mormon and also those who know the book well and have loved its teachings and testimony of Christ for many years. ISBN 978-1-9443-9465-3
Mormon’s choices are most revealing when the message of his editing seems to contradict the facts that he recorded. Mormon’s honesty as a historian sometimes forced him to include facts that did not exactly support the message he was trying to convey. This tension is frequent in the Book of Mormon as Mormon tried to make spiritual sense of historical events. For me at least, this tension is evidence that Mormon was an actual person, since we all face similar difficulties in making sense of our own lives.
Hardy hypothesizes that the misplacement of Alma 13:16 (which, he proposes, actually belongs three verses earlier) is an example of a mistake in handwriting and copying known as homoeoteleuton.
RSC Topics > D — F > Faith
As is well known, when the words of the Book of Mormon were translated “by the gift and power of God,” there was no punctuation at all in the early manuscripts, and that is the way the translated text was delivered to E. B. Grandin’s print shop. Type-setter John Gilbert reported that when he sat down to prepare the text for publication, “every chapter . . . was one solid paragraph, without a punctuation mark, from beginning to end.”¹ So he added punctuation and paragraphing as he went along. He did a good job, especially for someone reading the book for the first time, but there are a few sentences that could have been punctuated in more than one way, with slightly different results. Since the punctuation of the Book of Mormon does not enjoy the same revealed status as the words themselves, it may be worth considering some of the alternatives.
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
Until now, nearly all commentaries on the Book of Mormon have focused mainly on issues of doctrine rather than beginning with the text itself. Royal Skousen’s critical text project does the opposite by treating the text itself on the word and phrase level. Skousen weighs nearly all possible evidence to deduce the events that may have led to the variations seen in the texts and to draw conclusions about which readings are most likely original. Some conclusions may surprise readers, but Skousen is more interested in candidly documenting what the texts reveal than in interpreting all the implications. Several lengthy excerpts from Skousen’s work show the scholarly depth and rigor of his analysis. In the end, Skousen may have produced the seminal work of Book of Mormon textual criticism that scholars and students will still be using hundreds of years from now.
Review of Digging in Cumorah: Relcaiming Book of Mormon Narratives (1999), by Mark D. Thomas
Review of Robert A. Rees and Eugene England, eds. The Reader's Book of Mormon. and Review of The Book of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith. Introduction by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp.
The Book of Mormon is clearly a didactic text, with its narrators using plainness, explicitness, and repetition to keep the message clear and straightforward. However, Hardy offers a more in-depth analysis of the text’s rhetorical design that also reveals it as a literary text. The Book of Mormon is both a primer for judgment and a guidebook for sanctification. Parallel narratives are compared through clusters of similar narrative elements or phrasal borrowing between the multiple accounts. In Mosiah, Mormon tells the story of the bondage and delivery of Alma and his people after recounting the story of the bondage of the people of Limhi. Hardy explains that ambiguity, indirection, comparison, and allusions are all used to suggest the larger context of these two narratives. The ability to read the book as a guidebook for sanctification, rather than just as a straightforward didactic primer, will provide insight and guidance in the process of living a faithful life.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
Third Nephi testifies to the fulfillment of Jesus’s eschatological prophecies, even though Mormon, the prophet-historian who records the remarkable events, was unaware of the content of Jesus’s mortal teachings. He nevertheless recognizes Christ’s postresurrection visit as both the fulfillment of Nephite prophecy and the reenactment of particular episodes of their sacred history by incorporating numerous scriptural allusions into his account. Mormon’s independent witness in which he recounts a day of divine judgment, the coming of the Lord, and the inauguration of the kingdom of God within the timeframe Jesus had prescribed validates Jesus’s prophecies in Galilee and Judea. Despite the ironic incongruity between what was expected and how it was fulfilled, Mormon’s narrative confirms the New Testament’s proclamation and thus serves to save the credibility of Christianity that has long been challenged by the problem of the delayed parousia—that is, that Jesus’s prophecies of an imminent theocratic kingdom seem to have failed.
RSC Topics > A — C > Conversion
Discourses by Bishop L. W. Hardy, Elder Erastus Snow, President John Taylor, delivered at a Meeting Held in Nephi, on Wednesday Evening, May 15, 1878. Reported By: Geo. F. Gibbs.
Real hope, based on eternal principles and spiritual experiences, is an anchor to our souls, intended to have and capable of having precisely the same effects as a sea anchor.
An attempt to explain Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses on the basis of current pop psychology. Links Smith’s reputed early practices to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. “The Book of Mormon reads like a mixture of Old Testament, Arabian Nights and Gulliver’s Travels, with a literary quality decidedly inferior to any of these” Suggests that the Three Witnesses suffered a hallucination.
With covenant identity and belonging, we are called by the name of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon is an important part of the Restoration. It is the sacred history of the American natives and clarifies the location of the lost tribes who are “lost only as to their identity and not their location”
An outline of time from Abraham to the birth of the United States written by W. J. Cameron and pedigree charts written by James H. Anderson showing the relationship of Mormonism to the past and the future of the covenant
Old Testament Topics > Covenant [see also Ephraim, Israel, Jews, Joseph]
Deseret News, 8 Jun 2015
The author remembers a trip to Croatia and the places where Kresimir Cosic (Europe’s Michael Jordan equivalent) lived.
Deseret News, 19 Apr 2020
“Kresimir Cosic arrived on BYU’s campus without knowing the language, the school’s
affiliation to a church, the honor code or its unique culture. Yet, he survived and starred.“
This report describes the design, development, and evaluation of a computer-based diglot reader of the Book of Mormon Stories of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Di means two and glot means language, thus a diglot reader combines two languages into one reader in order to teach a person to read in a new language. The program, which runs on both Macintosh and Windows computer platforms, contains fifteen chapters of the Book of Mormon Stories and introduces about four hundred Spanish words. This report includes a literature review on the diglot method and related materials, a description of the program and its features, and an evaluation of the program including eight one-to-one evaluations and a small-group evaluation. The small-group evaluation volunteers completed a pretest, studied the reader, completed a posttest, and filled out a questionnaire for their evaluation of the product. Finally, the report examines the strengths and weaknesses of the program and suggests some general guidelines for future diglot reader computer programs in general.
Review of Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (1994), by Richard S. Van Wagoner
Review of Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (1994), by Richard S. Van Wagoner
Old Testament Topics > Adam and Eve [see also Fall]
Old Testament Topics > Marriage
RSC Topics > A — C > Consecration
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine and Covenants
RSC Topics > Q — S > Stewardship
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
RSC Topics > G — K > Joseph Smith
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
RSC Topics > T — Z > Testimony
RSC Topics > A — C > Atonement of Jesus Christ
RSC Topics > A — C > Covenant
RSC Topics > A — C > Creation
RSC Topics > D — F > Endowment
RSC Topics > D — F > Fall of Adam and Eve
RSC Topics > L — P > Ordinances
RSC Topics > A — C > Atonement of Jesus Christ
RSC Topics > A — C > Covenant
RSC Topics > A — C > Creation
RSC Topics > D — F > Endowment
RSC Topics > D — F > Fall of Adam and Eve
RSC Topics > L — P > Ordinances
RSC Topics > G — K > Gold Plates
RSC Topics > T — Z > Testimony
Abstract: Historically there have been just three basic arguments against the authenticity of Joseph Smith’s first vision. They all begin with the a priori premise that such a vision simply could not have happened. The arguments originated with the Methodist minister to whom Joseph related his vision, author Fawn Brodie, and the Reverend Wesley Walters. The minister’s critique is explained by Methodism’s shift away from ecstatic religious experience. Fawn Brodie is shown to have made innovative yet flawed arguments within the narrow scope allowed by her conclusion that Joseph was a charlatan—a conclusion that did not allow for alternative interpretations of new evidence. Walters is shown to make fallacious arguments of irrelevant proof and negative proof in his understandably determined effort to undermine Joseph Smith’s credibility. Close-minded believers in Joseph’s vision are similarly likely to make unfounded assumptions unless they become open to the rich historical record Joseph created. Belief in the vision should correspond to Christian empathy for and civility toward critics.
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1820–1844
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
This volume explores some of the seminal articles that examine Joseph Smith’s First Vision, which were written by the foremost experts who have studied it for half a century. This book preserves and shares that work. Those who study the First Vision today depend very much on the works of the scholars that are reprinted in this volume. The book includes articles by and interviews with James B. Allen, Richard L. Anderson, Milton V. Backman Jr., Richard L. Bushman, Steven C. Harper, Dean C. Jessee, Larry C. Porter, and John W. Welch. ISBN 978-0-8425-2818-4
No one knew…that Jack was beginning what would be a quarter-century tenure in his new role, but he had already set the course for it. He had seen no reason to revolutionize what BYU Studies was—a quarterly journal committed to showcasing the complementary nature of revealed and discovered truth, welcoming contributions from all fields of learning written for educated nonspecialists. He was determined, however, to “expand the variety of its articles and the size of its reading audience,” based on the belief that “BYU Studies can and should offer the world the best scholarly perspectives on topics of academic interest to Latter-day Saints. I don’t expect my tenure to last nearly as long as Jack’s. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: you know Jack and I’m not him. Like Jack, however, I want BYU Studies Quarterly to remain committed to showcasing the complementary nature of revealed and discovered truth. I welcome contributions from all fields of learning written for educated nonspecialists. I will expand the variety of articles based on the belief Jack instilled in me: BYU Studies owes readers the best perspectives on topics of academic interest to Latter-day Saints.
RSC Topics > L — P > Pearl of Great Price
The plan is for us to seek our way from simplicity through complexity, by study and by faith, until we arrive at the simplicity on the other side of complexity.
RSC Topics > T — Z > Teaching the Gospel
This volume celebrates the bicentennial of Joseph Smith’s 1820 First Vision of the Father and the Son, a founding event in the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Contributors examine the various accounts of the vision, the religious excitement prevalent in the region, the question that prompted Joseph to enter the grove, the powers of darkness that assailed him, and the natural environment and ultimate preservation of the Sacred Grove. This volume brings together some of the finest presentations from a 2020 BYU Church History Symposium honoring the bicentennial of the First Vision. ISBN 978-1-9503-0408-0
RSC Topics > D — F > Endowment
RSC Topics > T — Z > Temples
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1820–1844
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
RSC Topics > Q — S > Restoration of the Priesthood
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
RSC Topics > Q — S > Restoration of the Priesthood
The 33rd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium Before Joseph Smith was born, religious scholars such as William Tyndale and Martin Luther put their lives in jeopardy to spread the word of God to their followers, blazing doctrinal trails so that a restoration of the gospel could occur. This volume highlights these influential men and other important Reformers who helped pave the way for the Restoration. ISBN 1-5903-8329-X
The 2009 BYU Church History Symposium The pattern of keeping records dates back to the earliest days of the church, when Joseph Smith, the church’s founding prophet, announced the divine decree, “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you” (D&C 21:1). Leaders of the church have strived to obey that command. Contemporaneous records were kept of revelations received by the prophet, the calling and interaction of early leaders, missionary assignments, the building of temples, and much more. The Latter-day Saints continue to be a record-keeping people. In fact, there may be no other people on earth of comparable size who have a richer record-keeping tradition than the people nicknamed Mormons. It is a part of the church’s administrative system, reaching from small committees to the church’s general conferences and from new members to the most senior leaders. Because of this tradition, scholars can readily evaluate Latter-day Saint history from a wealth of primary documents. ISBN 978-0-8425-2777-4
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1820–1844
Volume 8 in the Regional Studies Series When most Latter-day Saints conjure up images of Church history, their minds are filled with pictures of the sacred sites and peoples of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Utah. But years before Brigham Young declared the Salt Lake Valley to be the site of future gathering in 1847, Church members had already pushed even further west into the Pacific Basin frontier. William Barratt made his way to Australia on a mission in 1840. Addison Pratt and his evangelizing companions arrived in the Society Islands in 1844, the year Joseph Smith was martyred in Illinois. And during the early 1850s, when Saints in the Utah Territory were clawing for their physical survival in American’s Great Basin, missionaries enjoyed proselyting success among the native Sandwich Islanders in today’s Hawaii. Clearly, the Pacific Isles have played a major—and early—role in the unfolding of the Restoration. In preparation for the 2008 BYU Church History and Doctrine Department’s regional studies tour to the Pacific Isles, faculty members were invited to research and write on the peoples and places of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Australasia. Topics include the introduction of the gospel to Tubuai, the influence of Jonathan Napela in Hawaii, the receptivity of Tongans to the gospel, the Oahu Tabernacle, the contributions of educational missionaries to Kiribati, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s performances in the Pacific Islands, and the destruction fire in the Apia Samoa Temple, among others. Contributors are Reid L. Neilson, Arnold K. Garr, Fred E. Woods, Michael A. Goodman, Matthew O. Richardson, R. Devan Jensen, Dennis A. Wright, Megan E. Warner, Cynthia Doxey, Lloyd D. Newell, Richard O. Cowan, Scott C. Esplin, and Kip Sperry. ISBN 978-0-6152-0037-8
RSC Topics > D — F > First Vision
RSC Topics > D — F > First Vision
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
Review of Grant H. Palmer. An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins.
RSC Topics > D — F > Faith
Review of Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (1994), by Richard S. Van Wagoner
Perhaps no doctrine has had greater impact on Latter-day Saint theology than the doctrine of preexistence, or the belief in the existence of the human spirit before its mortal birth. Fundamental concepts such as the nature of man as an eternal being, his singular relationship as the offspring of Deity and concomitant brotherhood with all mankind, the talents and privileges with which he is born into the world, and his potential godhood are all inextricably connected to the doctrine of preexistence. This distinctive LDS doctrine was not immediately comprehended by the early Saints in the more fully developed form in which it is understood today.
Like many of the other teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, it was revealed line upon line and adapted to the Saints’ understanding. Moreover, there was a natural tendency to view initial teachings on preexistence in light of previously held beliefs until greater clarity was given to the doctrine. This study traces the early development of the doctrine by examining chronologically the revelations and recorded sermons and writings on preexistence by the Prophet Joseph Smith in light of contemporary commentary by his associates. Seeing how early Saints perceived preexistence enhances our own understanding of the doctrine and leads to a greater appreciation of our theological heritage.
More than something that that dude in the Third Ward or your great aunt does, genealogical consciousness is a way of being, a way of thinking about your place within and responsibility to the generations surrounding you.
Joseph Smith described the gold plates as having “the appearance of gold” The word “appearance” is significant as plates of pure gold would have been in danger of easy destruction. Most likely it was a gold and copper alloy. The Book of Mormon could have been written in Hebrew on just 21 pages or plates; in Phoenician characters about 45 plates would have been necessary, even taking into account the loss of the 116 pages.
This article argues that Book of Mormon references and archaeological evidences (i.e. complex irrigation systems and terraces) from early agricultural sites demonstrate advanced knowledge and practice in tilling the land among the Nephite peoples.
Harris claims that the references in the Book of Mormon, with regard to both the Jaredite and Lehite peoples, concerning the use of timber and cement are corroborated by studies published in a bulletin from the U.S.D.A. Similar claims are made of the fauna and flora in America.
The real value of the Book of Mormon is that it is a witness of Christ and it is able to convince people of his message to the point where they will try to live his teachings and commandments. The author gives examples of how some of the first Latter-day Saints were converted by the Book of Mormon.
A typewritten, unpublished, initial research for Seven Claims of the Book of Mormon This bibliography deals with the origin of the Book of Mormon, harmony with biblical prophecies, witnesses, Joseph’s lack of training, and other topics.
Provides photos and notes of a stone box containing silver and gold plates of Darius I and stone memorial tablets of Xerxes.
The inhabitants of ancient America had Christian traditions in pre-Columbian times and their ancestors crossed the Pacific Ocean in boats, landing somewhere on the coast of present day Mexico.
A missionary manual that presents seven Book of Mormon claims and gives supporting evidence. The claims include: the Book of Mormon is of divine origin, it consists of writings by successive historians, it was written in reformed Egyptian on metal plates, the native Americans are partly of Hebrew descent, and there were great civilizations in ancient America that Christ visited.
A radio address Sunday, October 20, 1946, over KSL. Critics of the Book of Mormon have three theories to explain the Book of Mormon: Joseph got the ideas from other books and ingeniously authored the Book of Mormon through Sidney Rigdon; Joseph used the Spaulding manuscript; or Joseph suffered from psychological delusions that account for his supposed inspiration. None of these theories have been convincing.
An argument for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. The author asserts that the biblical passages of the Book of Mormon represent a translation of an ancient text and that the language of the Book of Mormon indicates multiple authorship. Also discusses discoveries of metal records, the origin of the Native Americans, and Christ’s visit to America.
Catholic missionaries who arrived in America found the natives practicing baptism and were horrified. Some cultures sprinkled while others immersed the infant, but always it was meant to lead the individual toward a better life and salvation in the kingdom of God. These practices are explain by the Book of Mormon text that informs the reader that baptism was introduced early in America’s history. [J.W. M.]
Growing amount of evidence shows that Columbus was late in his discovery of America. Ancient manuscripts indicate that the first inhabitants of America came from the East and that they had elephants as reported in the Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, November 4.
The calendar developed by the Maya Indians began somewhere between 613 and 580 B.C., though it dates back to 3373 B.C., and was arranged by the deity Quetzalcoatl. The Book of Mormon people reckoned their time from the Savior’s birth. The date when Mayan history began and the correlation with the sign of the birth of deity are evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
Harris cites evidence that many ancient American cultures used “seer stones” and breastplates that suggest a corrupt form of the Urim and Thummim used with the breastplate. He shows how many Indians from North America to Peru in South America used clear stones or crystals for divination.
Lord Kingbrough (1830—1848), H. H. Bancroft, D. G. Brinton, Torquemanda, and Angus W. McKay found traditions of the virgin birth in the traditions of Mexico, the Otomies, and Navajo Indians. Other ancient peoples such as the Aztecs and the Indians of Paraguay believed in the virgin birth of their gods. This same belief was taught to ancient Americans in the Book of Mormon.
Harris cites many examples of one language being written with another alphabet—transliteration. This he does to support the claim of the Book of Mormon that Hebrew was written with Reformed Egyptian characters (Mormon 9:32-33; 1 Nephi 1:2). Mentions the discovery by Sir Flinders Petrie of some writings in the Peninsula of Sinai that were in the Hebrew language but written “in Egyptian hieratic characters somewhat changed”
Metal plates prepared by the ancients have been found in several locations in America. There are many historical accounts of metal plates that no longer exist as they were melted down to be used in other ways. Melvin J. Ballard describes plates seen in a museum in Lima, Peru, that were gold sheets, the size of the Book of Mormon plates (Deseret News April 30, 1932).
The Book of Mormon records that Lehi’s colony took brass plates upon which were recorded the record of the Jews and the genealogy of their forefathers. The British Museum has metal plates that are engraved with records of several different cultures.
This article refers to evidence about the existence of elephants in ancient New Mexico.
Refers to evidences of iron found in ancient America.
World peace can only come if there is tolerance and freedom. The Book of Mormon teaches these attributes. It also teaches there should be no law against belief and no single race is superior to another.
Discusses what the Book of Mormon says about war. God has forbidden the shedding of blood (Ether 8:9). However, he does not command men to subject themselves to bondage, but rather to protect their freedom (Alma 6:9-14).
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Discusses the many books that attempt to prove the origin of the American Indian. He writes that the dominant view is that the Indian crossed the Bering Strait. Other contact by boat was also later made.
Book of Mormon peoples kept records on metal plates. Early critics claimed that this was impossible since ancient metallurgy was not sufficiently advanced, but many other metal records have been discovered since the days of Joseph Smith. Includes a table of plates found and a map of sites.
This article will join the procession of articles dealing with the problem of scriptural change and its impact upon LDS theology. There will be concern to explain the nature of the material undergoing change, the historical, situations in which these changes occurred, and the impact of these facts upon a concept of revelation. As it is in the book of Moses that the most important changes have occurred, an explanation of how and why these changes were made in this text should satisfy the reader.
Conversion is the key to salvation. Conversion can be gained, in part, by reading the Book of Mormon and reliving its many conversion experiences. Harris identifies six patterns in these conversion experiences and suggests ways to implement them in daily life. Includes a chart of typical conversion events and a graph of steps in sanctification.
Links inscriptions on rocks in the American Southwest with Book of Mormon themes. This work is reviewed in T.176.
In the traditions of the Apache all the Indian tribes long ago combined against a white group and exterminated almost all of them. Due to this great sin the Great Spirit allowed the Spaniards to drive them from their homes. A good book once held by their ancestors was lost long ago.
Some Zuni Indians consider themselves to be descendants of Montezuma. A tradition says that more than 300 years before the Spanish arrived, white men landed in Mexico and became the ancestors of the great kings, including Montezuma. They intermarried and lost their distinction. Story told of an elder who administered to 406 Indians afflicted with small pox.
News article about a recently-discovered letter, written to a Walter Conrad and dated January 13, 1873, in which Martin Harris testifies that as he was praying to see the “ancient record” an angel appeared behind a table on which were the spectacles called the Urim and Thummim and the engraved plates. (Editor’s note: this has since been shown to be a forgery by Mark Hofmann.)
Two letters of Martin Harris written to a Mr. Emerson, with an editorial introduction. Harris testifies that an angel showed him the plates containing the Book of Mormon and that the translation copied from them was approved by Professor Anthon. Harris states that Joseph Smith could not have translated the plates by himself. He denies that he preached against the Book of Mormon in England.
In recent years, the topic of Mormonism and race has attracted the attention of many Mormon scholars. In 2015, W. Paul Reeve’s Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness was published, in which he argues that the development of Mormon racial theology is best understood as a reaction to larger trends in nineteenth-century America. The Protestant majority privileged “whiteness,” Reeve argues, and Mormons sought to appease them by embracing a whiteness theology. The year 2015 also saw the publication of a special edition of the Journal of Mormon History featuring race and Mormonism. Advocating a “new history of race and Mormonism,” the essayists examined “the constitution of a white colonial hegemony in Mormonism,” moving beyond the typical medium of the priesthood and temple ban to explore Mormon racial teachings. Clearly, scholars are paying close attention to the Mormon racial experience and trying to understand how race affected Mormon doctrine and practice.
On many occasions the Book of Mormon has converted practicing Christians to the LDS faith. Moroni’s promise (Moroni 10:3-5) applies to all.
Study of the varied metaphorical levels of the Book of Mormon continues to yield new insights into the message and meaning of that book. Several prominent typological readings of aspects of the Book of Mormon have been published, but despite calls for such an effort, little inquiry into its possible archetypal levels, or what has been called “the mythic dimension” of the book, has yet been undertaken. As an initial attempt at such an endeavor, I compare certain events described in 1 Nephi with the elements of one prominent mythic archetype, the hero’s journey, as elucidated by Joseph Campbell in his famous The Hero with a Thousand Faces. A strong correlation between the hero’s journey archetype and the events from 1 Nephi is intriguing and seems to demonstrate at least the presence of mythic patterns in the Book of Mormon. This leads to some preliminary conclusions about what the apparent presence of such patterns might signify.
Tract exposing the absurdities of Mormonism. Pages 4-14 discuss various anachronisms in the Book of Mormon.
Harrison argues that it is impossible that the Book of Mormon be even remotely related to the Manuscript Found by Solomon Spaulding. The Manuscript Found is a fictitious account of the lost ten tribes and the Book of Mormon is an account of one family of the tribe of Joseph.
A polemical work critical of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith probably used Ethan Smith’s book View of the Hebrews in creating the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon shows evidence that it was influenced by modern environmental factors such as free- masonry. Various anachronisms are discussed. On pages 95-167 the author lists over fifty-eight examples of what he terms false prophecies made in the Book of Mormon or by Joseph Smith.
A polemical work against the Book of Mormon, declaring that the Book of Mormon is a wicked book that has deceived millions. Raises many issues, including inconsistencies of the Book of Mormon, the killing of Laban by Nephi, and “Book of Mormon fairy tales” and compares the lives of Paul and Alma.
This article argues that it is more difficult to think Joseph Smith could invent the Book of Mormon, given his youth, limited experience, and opportunities, than to believe he was inspired. Joseph would have needed extensive research to have learned, for example, that Native Americans used stone boxes for the burial of valuables, a fact virtually unknown in his day. Not until 1906 were such boxes discovered in the areas of Toronto, Tennessee, Illinois, and New Mexico.
Refutes the claim made in the 1911 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia that the Three Witnesses denied their testimonies of the Book of Mormon plates. As evidence, he cites an 1883 interview of David Whitmer, the dying declaration of Martin Harris, and an affidavit testifying that, in a Michigan murder trial, Oliver Cowdery defended the Book of Mormon.
Although secular knowledge somewhat explains how genetic-based characteristics and environmental influences interact to influence human development, there is an important spiritual dimension of our beings that cannot be readily probed by scientific means. What a wonderful blessing it will be if we are found worthy to learn from our Heavenly Father about how our spiritual personalities and biology are intertwined, according to His foreknowledge, in preparation for individualized schooling experiences in mortality.
RSC Topics > L — P > Love
If you follow the suggestions I have offered and combine them with earnest prayer and pondering, they can provide you with the insight needed to see where and possibly how you can maximize your potential and leave your indelible mark in the world.
Most Latter-day Saints take for granted the existence of portraits of the Three Witnesses, but in fact no likeness of Oliver Cowdery was available to the Church until 1883, and then it was touch-and-go whether one would be obtained. Had it not been for the faith and tenacity of James H. Hart, who pursued the portrait when others had failed, we might never have known just what Oliver Cowdery looked like. In the course of following the trail of the portrait, Hart was also able to conduct important interviews with David Whitmer.
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon > Oliver Cowdery
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon > David Whitmer
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Tells how the Nephites started declining when they became the aggressors by attacking the Lamanites.
A poem describing David Whitmer’s witness and testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was approved by David Whitmer as a factual account of his experiences.
President Benson tells the saints that they need to make the Book of Mormon a lifelong study and to continue using it as a missionary tool. He also warned that “grave consequences hang on our response to the Book of Mormon. We have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should”
President Benson’s counsel to read the Book of Mormon helps people by giving them peace in their souls and strengthening their testimonies.
A student minister read the Book of Mormon to denounce it, but after reading it he took the lessons from missionaries and was baptized. Another man read it when he had nothing else to do and is now a full-time missionary. Even with the missionaries and discussions, the Book of Mormon is still the greatest converter.
The Book of Mormon translation into Bislama is now available to those natives who live in the chain of islands of Vanuatu. This responds to the Lord’s command that the Book of Mormon should be available to all.
A news update concerning the Book of Mormon’s translation into Polish, Hebrew, Kuna, and Bolivia Quecha.
Combat the world’s trends by reading and studying the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon prepares and persuades people to go on missions.
Srilaksang Gottsche, the first convert in Thailand, helped translate the Book of Mormon into Thai.
Since 1979 the Book of Mormon has been translated into several new languages. They include Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Navajo, Arabic, Czech, Vietnamese, Fijian, Catalan, Russian, Icelandic, Niuean, and four Central and South American Indian languages.
Although the Book of Mormon had a humble beginning, there have now been printed over 35 million copies in 80 languages. President Benson’s admonition to read the Book of Mormon over and over has increased people’s testimonies.
In a talk to mission presidents, President Benson stresses that the Book of Mormon is the “great converter” Missionaries need to build their own faith and a way to do that is to read the Book of Mormon.
One million copies of the Book of Mormon have been donated to the personalized family-to-family Book of Mormon project since the project began in 1966.
President Benson teaches that more missionaries are needed. He encourages families to read and study the Book of Mormon. “The Book of Mormon is one of the greatest means for preparing missionaries”
President Ezra Taft Benson urged mission presidents and missionaries at the Missionary Training Center to more effectively use the Book of Mormon.
President Benson outlined basic gospel principles essential to the success of the mission presidents. One of the principles was that they should take time daily to read and study the Book of Mormon. Elder Perry told missionaries to use the Book of Mormon more to bring converts into the Church.
President Benson and his family personalize dozens of copies of the Book of Mormon a month. Article describes the influence personalized Books of Mormon have and tells about the Family-to-Family Book of Mormon program.
Following the counsel that President Benson gave, members will spend more time reading the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon, and then will share the truths they learned.
Elder Ashton gave encouragement to read the Book of Mormon in President Benson’s behalf.
Edwin and Elsie Dharmaraju presented President Spencer W. Kimball a 700-page manuscript containing the translation of the Book of Mormon into Telugu. It was translated by the 82-year-old father of Elsie Dharmaraju.
The goal of a seminar on the Book of Mormon was “to make the teachings of the Book of Mormon a part of the lives of the participants”
A report on the addition of the subtitle to the Book of Mormon—”Another Testament of Jesus Christ” Discusses several aspects of the LDS church’s ten-year scripture project, including the creation of a topical guide and cross-references.
The Salt Lake Cottonwood Stake initiated a ‘Super’ Book of Mormon Family-to-Family program, and 27,274 personalized books have been donated.
When children send their testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon, people respond more positively to the book and the door is opened for conversion.
RSC Topics > D — F > First Presidency
RSC Topics > Q — S > Relief Society
RSC Topics > T — Z > War
RSC Topics > T — Z > Welfare
Additional Authors: Ronald W. Walker, James B. Allen, and Richard O. Cowan
The restoration of priesthood authority was a key event in the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith in 1830, as is well known. Much less familiar is the fascinating process of continuing revelation and administrative brilliance that has unfolded over the last two centuries as priesthood offices and quorums have gone into action. This book makes available William G. Hartley’s lifetime of research about that powerful story. Interesting questions include: How were local congregations organized before there were wards and ward bishops? Do bishopric counselors need to be high priests? When did leaders begin to expect all boys to receive the Aaronic priesthood at age 12 in preparation for becoming elders? What is a quorum? Who defines the work of an elders quorum? What is the relationship between the Presiding Bishop and Aaronic Priesthood quorums? When and why did the Seventies become General Authorities? These, and many others, are answered on the pages of this unique and very significant book. This remarkably thorough collection of Professor William Hartley’s career writings is a handsome tribute to a very talented and careful scholar, and a “must read” for every serious student of LDS Church History. —Richard E. Bennett, Associate Dean, Religious Education, Brigham Young University
RSC Topics > Q — S > Sacrifice
RSC Topics > G — K > Joseph Smith
RSC Topics > L — P > Peace
RSC Topics > L — P > Prayer
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
Newel Knight (1800–1847) was one of the very earliest Latter-day Saint converts and maintained a lifelong friendship and close association with Joseph Smith Jr. The journals of Newel Knight are part of a handful of essential manuscript sources that every historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints relies on to understand its early history. He was one of a few early converts to provide an eyewitness account of the founding events in Church history, including the rise and fall of the Church in Missouri, miraculous healings, legal battles, the construction and dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the first marriage performed by Joseph Smith Jr., the martyrdom, and the cold, difficult exodus from Illinois to Winter Quarters. Knight’s history has always been a difficult source to use because it was never published in one volume until now. This book brings together his various accounts into one place to tell the story of the rise of the Latter-day Saints. ISBN 978-1-9443-9483-7
A story for children about Nephi building a ship to cross the seas to the promised land. Illustrations included.
An RLDS teaching manual that addresses the topics of Book of Mormon authorship (including the Spaulding-Rigdon theory), language, metal plates, witnesses, animals, metals, and the problems of dating.
A verse- by-verse doctrinal commentary on the Book of Mormon. The commentator’s sources include histories, archaeological findings, personal religious beliefs, and other sources.
Nephi, son of Helaman, confronts the wicked judges (Helaman 6-9).
Outlines the beginning of Mormonism under the leadership of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Believes that the Book of Mormon was created from the Solomon Spaulding manuscript, Protestant revivalism, and other events and items contemporary with Joseph Smith.
What did the Prophet Joseph Smith look like? Questions about Joseph Smith’s appearance have circulated ever since his martyrdom. This book is a comprehensive study into what the Prophet looked like based on many years of research. Work was started in 1975 when the author obtained a Joseph Smith portrait and after further inquiry learned that there was substantial disagreement regarding the Prophet’s appearance. The author’s desire for an accurate understanding of Joseph Smith’s image has resulted in this book, which includes the knowledge and resources of many individuals. Nearly 150 images are found in this volume, with fascinating commentary on the Prophet and the significance of each illustration. This book is an attempt to sort those that are accurate representations from those that are not. ISBN 1-5700-8394-0
General Authorities and religious educators provide thoughtful answers to intriguing gospel questions as they share their testimonies of the Savior. This collection of papers presented at a Brigham Young University symposium on the Savior invites us to learn more about the Being we worship. It sounds a clarion call of testimony—offered with clarity, vigor, and gratitude—in witness of the divine calling of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth. ISBN 1-57008-856-X
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
RSC Topics > G — K > Grace
RSC Topics > G — K > Hope
In The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion, Sterling McMurrin considers what I’ve called the theorem of Lehi, according to which there must necessarily be an opposition in all things. McMurrin offers up two possible interpretations: First, evil exists to make good possible such that God creates or allows evils to the favor of a greater good. Related to this is that idea that evil is necessary to experience and appreciated the value of good. A second option is that rather than stipulating that the opposition must exist with a purpose in mind, it is content with observing that evil exists as a matter of metaphysical necessity. In this view, God is not responsible for the creation or allowance of evil. In this article, I defend a scheme that combines the first option (a teleology of evil) with a theme that belongs to the second (divine limitation), which guarantees God’s innocence. What is excluded is the idea that evil exists as a matter of fact. My purpose is to integrate Lehi’s theorem into a dynamic theodicy that utilizes Friedrich Shelling’s dialectic philosophy, and to do so without removing it from its Mormon context.
Christianity, like other world religions, surprisingly acknowledges the existence of a plurality of human messiahs. In this comparative work, philosopher Jad Hatem examines Mormonism’s Three Nephites, Buddhism’s Bodhisattva, and Islam’s Mahdi—distinctive messianic figures who postpone Heaven, sacrificially prolonging their lives for the benefit of humankind. Originally published in French, this translation includes two additional papers written by Jad Hatem dealing with aspects of Latter-day Saint belief and a new interview between Hatem and Latter-day Saint philosopher James E. Faulconer.
Nephi’s older brother Sam was a holy and just man who experienced and witnessed many events in early Nephite history.
A geographical and historical approach to the Book of Mormon that attempts to “document the settlement and route networks of the Book of Mormon” The author “examines the interaction and relationships between settlements, transportation routes, and cultural technology and environment for any given people, time, and place” and then creates “an actual, physical correlation of the places in the Book of Mormon…The model fit into the portion of Ancient America that is known as southern Mesoamerica comprising portions of the modern nations of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala” Presents numerous maps and charts. This work is reviewed in C.298 and in W.060.
RSC Topics > L — P > Obedience
RSC Topics > T — Z > Tolerance
Introduction to the current issue.
Introduction to the current issue.
Introduction to the current issue.
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine
RSC Topics > D — F > Faith
RSC Topics > L — P > Mercy
RSC Topics > Q — S > Repentance
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
The 32nd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium The first publication of the Book of Mormon was completed only a few days before the Church was organized. The Lord revealed that it “contains a record of a fallen people, and the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before the revelation was received on the organization of priesthood quorums, before the vision of the three degrees of glory, before knowledge of vicarious work for the dead, and before Joseph Smith was instructed to begin an inspired translation of the Bible, the Book of Mormon was received as scripture for all members of the Church. As the “keystone” containing a “fulness of the gospel,” the Book of Mormon connects, enhances, and clarifies the other standard works. This volume was published to encourage all who read it to discover and rediscover for themselves that the Book of Mormon does indeed contain the fulness of the gospel. ISBN 9781590381885
RSC Topics > D — F > Eternal Life
RSC Topics > G — K > Holy Ghost
RSC Topics > G — K > Joseph Smith
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
Review of E. Douglas Clark. The Blessing of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People.
Review of Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology (1990), by Margaret and Paul Toscano.
Review of The Book of Mormon: Alma, The Testimony of the Word (1992), edited by Monte S. Numan and Charles D. Tate Jr.
Review of The Most Correct Book: Why the Book of Mormon Is the Keystone Scripture (1991), by Monte S. Nyman.
Review of C. Reynolds Mackay. Muhammad, Judah, and Joseph Smith.
Review of The Book of Mormon: Restored Covenant Edition (1999), by Zarahemla Research Foundation
Review of Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. In God's Image and Likeness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses.
Since 1989, the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon has published review essays to help serious readers make informed choices and judgments about books and other publications on topics related to the Latter-day Saint religious tradition. It has also published substantial freestanding essays that made further contributions to the field of Mormon studies. In 1996, the journal changed its name to the FARMS Review with Volume 8, No 1. In 2011, the journal was renamed Mormon Studies Review.
Review of Hugh Nibley. Abraham in Egypt.
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Hugh Nibley > Scholarship, Footnotes, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, CWHN, Editing > Pearl of Great Price > Book of Abraham
The 46th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium This book explains Old Testament prophecies in their original linguistic, historical, and theological contexts, helping us more fully understand the Old Testament and its relevance. Prophetic books such as Amos, Micah, Jonah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Obadiah are contextualized. Topics include rhetorical questions and prophetic voice, imagery of salvation, and symbolic naming. The volume additionally concentrates on topics such as Daniel’s apocalyptic visions, social domains and dimensions of foreign soil, sacred land and divine communication, gathering outcasts and remnant theology, the everlasting covenant and redemption, and the period of the exile. A section of the volume is also devoted to situating the Old Testament within other books of scripture. Chapters include topics such as Isaiah 7 and the fulfillment of prophecy in Matthew 1–2, the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants, as well as the influence Old Testament prophets and prophecies had on the development of the Restoration. ISBN 978-1-9443-9422-6
In 1979, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published its edition of the King James Version of the Bible. The Scriptures Publication Committee decided to include portions of the Joseph Smith Translation in the new edition. For the first time, Latter-day Saints had access to Joseph’s inspired work in their own personal scriptures. Many Latter-day Saints may be unaware that the efforts to include the JST material in the new edition of the Bible were pioneered by Robert J. Matthews, former dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University. Beginning in 1953, Brother Matthews began a letter-writing campaign to the RLDS Church (now called the Community of Christ), requesting permission to study the original JST manuscripts. Through his sustained efforts, the RLDS Church gave Brother Matthews permission to examine the manuscripts.
Book of Moses Topics > Joseph Smith Translation (JST) > History
RSC Topics > G — K > Grace
RSC Topics > G — K > Justice
RSC Topics > Q — S > Sin
Old Testament Topics > Temple and Tabernacle
In July 1835 at Kirtland Ohio, a traveling antiquities dealer brought to Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, four Egyptian mummies and several rolls of papyri. Upon inspection Smith determined that one of the rolls contained a lost record of the patriarch Abraham. After purchasing these artifacts for $2400 Smith generated through translation five chapters that appeared during March 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois in the Times and Seasons, a Mormon periodical, under the title “The Book of Abraham”. This book has since become a canonized text of scripture for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions serves as a source book for interested researchers and scholars. It includes a brief introduction to the Book of Abraham and a detailed record of textual variants from the time it first appeared in the Times and Seasons until its latest edition (1981). This volume also produces for the first time typographic transcriptions with facing grayscale images of the surviving handwritten manuscripts of the Book of Abraham. Several appendices offer additional helpful resources such as contemporary accounts related to the translation of the Book of Abraham and a full set of color high-res images of the surviving Abraham manuscripts. A valuable reference tool for scholars interested in researching the textual history of the Book of Abraham.
Old Testament Scriptures > Genesis
The Book of Mormon was written in a language that was grounded in Hebrew and Egyptian; the people of the Book of Mormon most likely spoke this same language. It is interesting, then, that the Book of Mormon authors periodically included definitions for certain terms that they used in their writing, as if their audience did not understand them. This technique, known as a gloss, suggests that those terms may not have been a part of that ancient language. In an attempt to uncover the true origin of such words, this article dissects the Book of Mormon term Irreantum and delves into its linguistic characteristics to determine whether the term could have originated from Hebrew, Egyptian, ancient South Semitic, or another language.
Includes three papers: \"Who Controls the Water? Yahweh vs. Baal\" (Fred E. Woods), \"Justice and Mercy in the Book of Deuteronomy (Is There Mercy in the Old Testament?)\" (Jared W. Ludlow) and \"Garment of Joseph: An Update\" (Brian M. Hauglid).
RSC Topics > L — P > Love
I remember slipping out of bed to my knees. It was the first time in my life that I had ever prayed intently. There I was, with bandages on my eyes, alone in my bedroom, praying for help.
As we come unto our Savior, Jesus Christ, and purify our hearts, we will all be instruments in fulfilling the mighty promises of the Book of Mormon.
We can all receive unspeakable peace and partnering with our Savior as we learn to freely forgive those who have trespassed against us.
Abstract: The drought recorded in Helaman 11 is probably the only dated, climate-related event in the entire Book of Mormon that could have left a “signature” detectable over 2,000 years after it occurred. Typical methods to detect this kind of event using dendrochronology (the study of tree rings) or sediment cores from lake beds either do not go back far enough in time or are not of high enough resolution to detect the event described in Helaman 11. However, over the last 15 to 20 years, various researchers have turned to analyzing stalagmites collected from caves to reproduce the precipitation history of a given area. These analysis methods are now producing results approaching the 1–year resolution of dendrochronology, with 2 sigma (95%) dating accuracies on the order of a decade. There is an ongoing debate with regard to where the events in the Book of Mormon took place. One of the proposed areas is Mesoamerica, specifically in southern Mexico and Guatemala. This paper will test the hypothesis that the drought described in the Book of Helaman took place in Mesoamerica using the results of precipitation histories derived from the analysis of three stalagmites compared to determine if there is evidence that a drought took place in the expected time frame and with the expected duration.
An abridgment of the Book of Mormon for quick reading and reference. Reviews the story regarding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and presents 1600 study questions with answers, explanations of Isaiah, and a system for memorizing.
A new revised edition of the author’s Book of Mormon Digest and 1600 Study Questions with Answers, with additional questions and answers.
Each of the four volumes features a cassette tape and a coloring book based upon Book of Mormon stories. Vol. 1, Lehi leaves Jerusalem; Vol. 2, Lehi with the Liahona; Vol. 3, Alma Baptizes at Waters of Mormon; Vol. 4, The Savior blesses the children.
Contains 1700 study questions with answers, thirty charts, maps, and illustrations, and a summary of the contents of the Book of Mormon.
A collection of forty-seven illustrated Book of Mormon stories for Primary children.
Issued by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve in 1995, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” has instructed and inspired Latter-day Saints throughout the world, including many LDS scholars who seek to strengthen and defend marriages and families. This new volume, edited by Alan Hawkins, David Dollahite, and Thomas Draper, all of The School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, draws together the best of their latest findings.
Compares survivor witnesses in the Book of Mormon with other survivor witnesses that are described in Des Pres, “Survivors and the Will to Bear Witness” Social Research 40 (1973): 668-69.
Consecrating our education and cultivating a giving attitude will enable us to bless many more individuals. . . . These will be the people who years later and thousands of miles away will not necessarily remember what we did but rather how we did it.
Twelve essays based on Book of Mormon teachings that establish the concepts and principles of the Bible. Jesus Christ is the mediator; the pure in heart will come unto Christ; it is required that we forgive one another because of Christ’s Atonement; Alma speaks of the Fall of Adam, the birth of Christ, and the law of Moses; Samuel the Lamanite testifies of Christ; Christ teaches in the land Bountiful; Mormon reveals the God of miracles; Ether teaches of faith; Moroni teaches the way to judge good and evil and exhorts all to come unto Christ.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
RSC Topics > G — K > God the Father
RSC Topics > L — P > Obedience
Brothers and sisters, what we choose as our guide determines the kind of life we will live and the blessings we will enjoy. . . . We will live a life and receive rewards consistent with the law by which we are willing to abide.
An apologetic work that answers numerous charges against the Book of Mormon. He reviews Emma Smith’s testimony that while translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith “had neither manuscript nor book to read from” An attempted refutation of Bay’s work, Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism.
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine
RSC Topics > G — K > Godhead
RSC Topics > G — K > Grace
The BYU 2012 Church History Symposium This book is a compilation of presentations from a BYU Church History Symposium. It features more than twenty messages about the life of Joseph F. Smith, including chapters by Elder M. Russell Ballard and Joseph Fielding McConkie. Elder Ballard, great-grandson of Joseph F. Smith, describes how the Lord prepared President Smith to lead the Church. Several scholars, historians, educators, and researchers highlight aspects of President Smith’s life, including his boyhood and adolescence, his family and personal relationships, his doctrinal contributions, Church government, and initiatives taken during his presidency in education, building construction, building the Laie Temple, creating the seminary program, and public outreach. ISBN 978-0-8425-2747-4
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
RSC Topics > L — P > Priesthood
RSC Topics > T — Z > Word of Wisdom
RSC Topics > D — F > Doctrine and Covenants
RSC Topics > G — K > Joseph Smith
RSC Topics > Q — S > Revelation
RSC Topics > T — Z > War
We can notice how false these comparisons most often are…That is worth noting, worth confronting, and worth constantly reminding ourselves.
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
A report on blood type analyses used to determine the origins of the American Indians. A lack of B-type blood, which is outstanding in Asiatic areas, indicates that most American Indians are probably not of Mongoloid descent. Transoceanic crossings, espoused in the Book of Mormon, are discussed as a possible source for American Indian origins.
A polemical work against Mormonism, written by a former Mormon. The Book of Mormon condemns polygamy. The book contains various anachronisms, including the mention of the Mariner’s compass and the use of scimitars hundreds of years before they were ever in use. The character of the Book of Mormon witnesses is discredited. Modern terms such as “priestcraft,” “lawyers,” and”machinery” found in the Book of Mormon are considered to be proof of forgery. The Jaredite barges are ridiculed by the author as well.
An encyclopedia of church terminology.
Explains various parts of the temples from temple worship, to the history of temples, to how members worship in the temples.
Hayes compares the contents of the Spaulding manuscript with the Book of Mormon. The Spaulding manuscript is a story of a Roman named Fabius who was blown off course traveling from Britain to America in the 4th century A.D. Hayes writes that nothing is similar in the Book of Mormon to what is contained in the Spaulding Manuscript.
Caring about God’s creation—which includes people and other living things already being affected by climate change today—is a genuine expression of our faith. It is a faithful acceptance of our responsibility, and it is a true expression of God’s love.
References to Hugh Nibley weekly lecture series at Brigham Young University.
A polemical tract attempting to expose the errors of the Book of Mormon. Advocates a Spaulding origin for the book. The Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible and mentions Christian ideas and phrases hundreds of years before the time of Christ. The author pities the poor “deluded souls” who believe in the book.
A tract refuting Mormon doctrines. The Book of Mormon is “another gospel” that contradicts the Bible. It therefore should be rejected as “a foul mass of ignorance, knavery and blasphemy”
Father in Heaven has chosen the pattern of revealing truth to His children through a prophet.
The Book of Mormon includes a narration of the Jaredites and records that this people brought honeybees with them from the Old World to the New World. A study of the history of beekeeping in the ancient Near East supports the plausibility of the Jaredites’ story.
This article explores the ancient Near Eastern ritu-als that endowed kings with this power, specifically the rites suggested by the Investiture Panel at the palace of Mari, with specific focus on the motifs of creation, sacred garden, and divine kingship. Because contemporary evidence at Mari relating to an interpretation of the panel and the functions of various rooms of the palace is limited, it will be necessary to rely in part on a careful comparative analysis of religious texts, images, and architecture throughout the ancient Near East, including the Old Testament. Comparative analysis not only has the benefit of increasing our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion but also can enrich our understanding of the Bible.
Book of Moses Topics > Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
This article explores the ancient Near Eastern rituals that endowed kings with this power, specifically the rites suggested by the Investiture Panel at the palace of Mari, with specific focus on the motifs of creation, sacred garden, and divine kingship. Because contemporary evidence at Mari relating to an interpretation of the panel and the functions of various rooms of the palace is limited, it will be necessary to rely in part on a careful comparative analysis of religious texts, images, and architecture throughout the ancient Near East, including the Old Testament. Comparative analysis not only has the benefit of increasing our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion but also can enrich our understanding of the Bible.
Longer version of an invited presentation originally given at the 2009 Conference of the European Mormon Studies Association, Turin, Italy, July 30-31, 2009
Investigates textual clues to determine what type of calendrical system was used by the Nephites and the Jaredites and when these systems commenced and fell into disuse.
In September, Morgan Davis, Daniel Peterson, and I led a development council tour through some of Turkey’s most remarkable religious sites. In doing so, we followed in the footsteps of a fifth-century abbott called Daniel, who was told not to go to Jerusalem as he had planned, but instead to “go to Byzantium and you will see a second Jerusalem!” Daniel did indeed go to Byzantium, or Constantinople as it was called then, and found a city filled with Christian sites. Fifteen hundred years later, Maxwell Institute friends and scholars descended on Turkey to ex- plore the ancient ruins and religious sites of this other holy land.
Volume 2 (2010) of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity promises to be a significant contribution to the ongoing Latter-day Saint scholarly conversation on the Dead Sea Scrolls. This volume features essays from Donald W. Parry, Dana M. Pike, and Andrew C. Skinner, all of whom have served on the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and have helped produce several of the 40 volumes in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series.
Ephrem the Syrian, who died in ad 373 in Edessa, wrote one of earliest extant commentaries on Genesis and Exodus. In this commentary he weaves a new biblical story by selecting from both the narrative background and foreground—not in an arbitrary way, but as a very deliberate process. One of the new themes that Ephrem weaves into his retelling is the unwavering righteousness and spiritual receptiveness of the patriarchal wives.
“We live in a world awash with ancient religious texts. Among the most famous discoveries made since the publication of the Book of Mormon are (in order of discovery) the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, the Cairo Genizah, the Oxyrhyncus Papyri, the Ras Shamra tablets, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi library. What is our responsibility as Latter-day Saints toward these other texts? How are we to read them? To answer these questions, we go back to the beginning, to the first and grandest ancient text of the Restoration, to the Book of Mormon. We look to the Book of Mormon to help determine four fundamental strategies that can guide our future engagement with ancient texts as a community of Saints. The Book of Mormon explains and enacts an ethic of reading that promises not only to enlighten but to redeem us from a misguided sense of sufficiency and to direct us to attend to the outpouring of light that followed in its wake. As we recognize this prompting, we begin to understand that God has spoken, does speak, and will continue to speak to his children through ancient religious texts.” [Authors]
Near the end of the children of Israel’s journey to the promised land following their miraculous escape from Egypt, they once again began to complain against the Lord and against Moses. As a result of this sin, the Lord sent “fiery serpents” among them (Numbers 21:6). Faced with physical death, the people went to Moses, confessed their sins, and entreated him to pray to the Lord to take the serpents away. However, the serpents were not taken away as requested. Instead, in what may have seemed an expression of deep irony—but was in reality a sacred symbol—Moses was instructed to raise up a brass serpent as the means of healing those bitten. This Moses did: “And it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. And the children of Israel set forward” (Numbers 21:9–10). There ends the story in the Bible account.
RSC Topics > A — C > Baptism for the Dead
The Standard Works, the Masoretic text, and the JST arranged in columns with commentary to teach about Adam, Enoch, and Noah
Old Testament Topics > Adam and Eve [see also Fall]
Just as there is a necessity for each of us to know that our physical heart is functioning properly, it is equally important to know that our spiritual heart is healthy and functioning properly.
Examines Book of Mormon passages wherein the original author or editor added additional words for clarification. Since the custodians of the gold plates did not possess erasers, they used terms or phrases such as “or,” “rather,” and “or in other words” when adding clarifying remarks to the text. Includes a list of all the verses where this is noted.
Provides tables and references of word changes, omissions, and additions in the RLDS 1908 authorized edition of the Book of Mormon as compared to the 1837 printer’s manuscript and discusses the significance of these textual alterations.
A follow-up to “Chinese Stone Anchors in the New World” (Zarahemla Record 15 [Winter 1981-1982]: 1-3) by the same author. Writes concerning the origin of stone anchors discovered off the coast of California. Discusses the implications that this discovery has on the Book of Mormon.
Examines the chiastic structure of Alma 13:68-14:1 (RLDS versification) to better understand the geographical information contained in the passage.
A pamphlet that points out that pre-Christian Chinese ships recall the form of the Jaredite barges. Also, the recent “discovery of ancient stone anchors from Asia on the shores of the New World” suggests an early contact that may point to Jaredite migration.
A report and discussion of ancient stone anchors (approx. 2000-3000 years old) discovered off the California coastline and their possible connection to China. Argues for a Jaredite cultural influence in China and pre-Columbian oceanic crossings.
A brief biographical sketch of Christopher Columbus, showing how he fulfills the prophecies in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 3:147, RLDS versification). The article also discusses the timing of Columbus’s voyage and why the Americas had been kept hidden (2 Nephi 1:16-21, RLDS versification).
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 2 Nephi
This article explores themes in Columbus’s writings. Columbus saw himself to be, in part, a fulfillment of Isaiah 11:10-12. He also expected to find the “other sheep” spoken of in John 10:16. The article also shows the accuracy of Nephi’s vision regarding Columbus.
Contains a history and description of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. The author uses photographs to show the differences between the two manuscripts, including changes, omissions, and punctuation additions. Also presents a “study of five editions of the Book of Mormon—the 1830, 1837 and 1840 edition and the 1874 and 1908 editions, which were published during the reorganization period” Includes a number of charts and tables.
Contains a history and description of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. The author uses photographs to show the differences between the two manuscripts, including changes, omissions, and punctuation additions. Also presents a “study of five editions of the Book of Mormon—the 1830, 1837 and 1840 edition and the 1874 and 1908 editions, which were published during the reorganization period” Includes a number of charts and tables.
Poetic analysis of Alma’s words in the Book of Mormon provides insight into the meaning of word “joy”
Lehi’s blessing of Joseph in 2 Nephi follows a chiastic structure that emphasizes the importance of coming to a knowledge of the covenants of the fathers.
Details of the history of Book of Mormon manuscripts and RLDS editions are summarized in a chart. Concludes with the suggestion that a corrected text is needed.
Moroni wrote the title page of the Book of Mormon. The poetic structure of the title page emphasizes that its purpose is for the Lamanites, Jews, and Gentiles to “know the covenants of the Lord”
Reports on the progress of publishing a new edition of the Book of Mormon and asks for financial assistance from the reader.
Notes that the phrase “state of awful woundedness” (1 Nephi 13:32) in the original and printer’s manuscripts was replaced in the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon with the phrase “state of awful blindness” Then Heater references Alma 32 and writes concerning the power of the word.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Results of the author’s textual comparison research detailing differences between the printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon.
A detailed summary of John L. Sorenson’s two-part article “Digging into the Book of Mormon,” Ensign (September 1984): 26-37 and (October 1984): 12-23. Studies in the areas of geography, archaeology, war, demographics, metallurgy, and writing are discussed.
Discusses excavations at Rio Azul (Mayan city, 250 B.C.—A.D. 400 to 500) and possible Book of Mormon connections. Five archaeological firsts are also reported in detail: (1) locking lid jars, (2) directional hieroglyphs, (3) the hieroglyph of the verb “bury,” (4) ancient Maya fabric “1000 years older than any . . . previously found,” and (5) carving on the jaw of a wild pig.
Because attaining knowledge is such an important task—and a lifelong endeavor—it is important to understand the meaning and implications of being teachable. When we are teachable, the Holy Ghost bears witness of truth and we increase in knowledge and wisdom.
If you really understood that truth, you would sacrifice anything—everything—to achieve it. Understanding this truth is central to your purpose for being on the planet.
A lesson outline for missionaries serving in the Southern Far East Mission. The Book of Mormon as a record of the biblical Joseph’s descendants is emphasized.
RSC Topics > D — F > Family
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
RSC Topics > T — Z > Women
RSC Topics > D — F > Education
RSC Topics > L — P > Prayer
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
RSC Topics > T — Z > Women
Contains excerpts from sacred texts and scriptures of many of the world’s religions. The editors quote 3 Nephi 21 from the Book of Mormon as a representative scriptural text from Mormonism and state that it represents “the charter for Joseph’s foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the vision which drew the faithful in their drive to create a new society in the American West”
Abstract: In his book on Mormonism, the Reverend Andrew Jackson claims to explain “the teaching and practices of the LDS Church,” with an intended audience of non-Mormon Christians but also “interested Mormons.” He doesn’t succeed well. Although his presentation of Mormon history is mostly fair, his discussion of the faith of Latter-day Saints devolves into the usual anti-Mormon tropes, to which he adds a celebration of a simplified evangelical theology. What might have been a useful, straightforward account of The Church of Jesus Christ and its history ended up, instead, as a clumsy attack. Reverend Jackson eventually re-released his book under a different title as a warning against what he considers Mitt Romney’s reticence to publicly explain his faith to the Reverend’s specifications. The later iteration of Reverend Jackson’s opinions was not even revised beyond a new introduction, making plain his basic antagonistic agenda.
Review of Andrew Jackson, What Latter-day Saints Teach and Practice: Mormonism Explained, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books [a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers], 2008. 208 pp., with four appendixes, name index, and scripture index. $29.64 (paperback).
Review of Paul F. Fink. Comparing and Evaluating the Scriptures: A Timely Challenge for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Mormons. Lompoc, CA: Summerland Publishing, 2008. 166 pp. $16.95 (paperback and e-book format).
After Joseph Smith received the gold plates from the angel Moroni, he had to take great measures to protect them from people who wanted to steal them for their monetary value. Although Joseph did not leave much documentation of such experiences, the people who were closely associated with him at the time did. Using what records still exist, Hedges pieces together some of the stories of Joseph’s challenges in obtaining and protecting the gold plates.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
The 2013 BYU Church History Symposium This volume is a collection of essays by prominent LDS scholars–including keynote speakers Richard Bushman and David Holland–that discuss the interest in the ancient world shared by Joseph Smith and the early Latter-day Saints. Topics include Joseph Smith’s fascination with the ancient Americas, his interaction with the Bible, his study of Hebrew and Greek, his reading of Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings, and his work with the Book of Abraham in the context of nineteenth-century Egyptology. Together, these essays demonstrate that Joseph Smith’s interests in antiquity played an important role in his prophetic development as he sought to recover ancient scripture, restore the ancient Church, and bring the Latter-day Saints into fellowship with the sacred past. ISBN 978‐0‐8425‐2966‐2
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Book of Moses Topics > Joseph Smith Translation (JST) > Historicity and Ancient Threads — General Issues
Hedges describes the evolution of Mormon thought in regards to Book of Mormon geography during the time of Joseph Smith. Hedges cites eleven different documents in an effort to understand the perceptions members of the Church had about geography described in the Book of Mormon.
The 44th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium The 2015 Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium explored the modern miracle of the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon. Featuring a keynote address by Elder Merrill J. Bateman discussing the Book of Mormon’s restoration of plain and precious truths, this volume describes the development of the teenage seer Joseph Smith Jr. and includes marvelous accounts of the many witnesses to the plates. It tells the story of the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith’s translation of the sacred record to the process of financing and printing the first edition, and concludes with its message rolling forth to many nations—to “every kindred, tongue, and people.” ISBN 987-1-62972-114-9
Richard Lloyd Anderson is a scholars’ scholar. Among Latter-day Saints, he is dean and master of two separate fields of academic study: the New Testament and early LDS Church history.
His passion for history has profoundly influenced his scholarly career; his passion for order and system has shaped his missionary work and directed him into studying law; and his love for Brigham Young University and loyalty to its mission and destiny have guided his academic path.
This volume, as you can see from the table of contents, contains essays written by outstanding LDS scholars on Book of Mormon Studies, Old Testament Studies and Ancient History, and New Testament Studies and Early Christian History.
Richard Lloyd Anderson is a scholars’ scholar. Among Latter-day Saints, he is dean and master of two separate fields of academic study: the New Testament and early LDS Church history. His passion for history has profoundly influenced his scholarly career; his passion for order and system has shaped his missionary work and directed him into studying law; and his love for Brigham Young University and loyalty to its mission and destiny have guided his academic path. This volume, as you can see from the table of contents, contains essays written by outstanding LDS scholars on Book of Mormon Studies, Old Testament Studies and Ancient History, and New Testament Studies and Early Christian History.
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
RSC Topics > T — Z > Testimony
RSC Topics > T — Z > Zion
The 37th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium Awareness of the background and development of Joseph Smith’s revelations allows us to better understand their significance. The 37th annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium can help readers gain that knowledge. Written by scholars trained in a variety of fields, the articles are intended to help Latter-day Saints better appreciate the setting in which Joseph received his revelations. This volume will help readers better understand and appreciate the significant roles Joseph Smith’s revelations have played, and continue to play, in the dispensation of the fulness of times. ISBN 978-1-60641-015-8
The editor gives a brief history of the Journal and gives his vision for the future of the publication.
Summary of current issue.
Review of View of the Hebrews (2nd ed., 1996), by Ethan Smith
The use of the Bible and especially Isaiah by ministers at the time of Joseph Smith
Old Testament Topics > Restoration and Joseph Smith
Review of Dan Vogel. Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet.
The 33rd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium Before Joseph Smith was born, religious scholars such as William Tyndale and Martin Luther put their lives in jeopardy to spread the word of God to their followers, blazing doctrinal trails so that a restoration of the gospel could occur. This volume highlights these influential men and other important Reformers who helped pave the way for the Restoration. ISBN 1-5903-8329-X
RSC Topics > G — K > Justice
The leather-bound record book was a perfect place for Lorenzo Snow to preserve his outgoing correspondence while incarcerated in the territorial penitentiary. The record book’s significance lies in three areas. First, the record book sheds much-needed light into the thoughts, personality, and personal life of Lorenzo Snow. The deftness with which he puts his thoughts into verse, his vocabulary, as well as his humor and compassion all reveal facets of Snow’s intellect and character unfamiliar to many Church members today. Second, the record book is significant for its doctrinal content. Finally, it is an important primary source for students of the antipolygamy crusade. His poems and letters are invaluable for understanding how the Saints viewed their persecutions, justified their resistance to the laws, and found the nerve and the will to carry on despite increasingly difficult circumstances. ISBN 978-0-8425-2762-0
Review of Dan Vogel. Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet.
This is a sixteen-volume work for young readers. Major events are narrated and illustrated.
Sequel to Tennis Shoes among the Nephites. Fiction.
A fictional account of boys of the twentieth century finding themselves traveling back in time to Book of Mormon days and places.
RSC Topics > A — C > Church History 1845–1877
RSC Topics > D — F > Death
A collection of journal extracts and writings that report the influence of the Book of Mormon in the lives of various individuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their conversion to the LDS faith. Includes the conversion stories of Brigham Young and Parley P. Pratt.
A series of Book of Mormon illustrations accompanied by Book of Mormon scriptures in story sequence.
We don’t have to be perfect—after all we can do, the Savior does the rest. When we repent we choose to be changed, to be spiritually stronger, and to come closer to the Savior.
Heiser responds to Bokovoy’s critique of his argument against the traditional interpretation of Elohim as developed from Psalm 82.
Heiser discusses Psalm 82 and the interpretations of Elohim that Latter-day Saints and evangelicals derive from that scriptural passage. Heiser then offers alternative interpretations from his own study.
We should learn to discern the truth not only through our rational minds but also through the very still and small voice of the Spirit.
Polemical work from a fundamentalist Protestant point of view. Contains a study guide to help Chilean Protestants learn how to “witness” to the Mormons. Includes photostat copy of the article “Book of Mormon Problems” written by the author and published by Saints Alive Journal.
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
A polemical work against the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon contradicts itself and has poor grammar showing it to be the work of an illiterate man. It is full of errors, absurdities, and gross anachronisms.
Robert Hughes collected eighteen poems about the Hill Cumorah from 170 years of church magazines and periodicals. Author Louise Helps presents these poems in their entirety in this article and discusses the themes, images, and techniques of the poets. The poems give insight into the feelings and attitudes of the poets as well as the then-current fashions in poetry.
Treats the symbols, practices, and beliefs of ancient America that appear to be related to Christianity that were prevalent before Columbus discovered America. Includes the cross; the use of keys, stones, and mountains in their temples; baptism; sacrament; fasting; prayer; life after death; the creation; the flood; the tower of Babel; the ten lost tribes; and many others. This work is reviewed in W.059.
A biographical treatise on the prophet Mormon (b. approx. A.D. 311). Includes details surrounding his compilation of the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, his personal teachings and sermons, and other historical events surrounding his life.
Book of Moses Topics > Selection of Ancient Sources > Noah
Book of Moses Topics > Selection of Ancient Sources > Enoch — Secondary Sources
Book of Moses Topics > Selection of Ancient Sources > Noah
Book of Moses Topics > Basic Resources > Study Resources for the Hebrew and Greek Texts of Genesis
This article contains descriptions of the gold plates quoted directly from individuals who were closely associated with Joseph Smith Jr. Among those quoted are Martin Harris, Orson Pratt, and Emma Smith. The compiler also comments on the material of the plates.
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon > The Translation of the Book of Mormon
An exposé of Mormonism written by a former Mormon. The author complains that he had never heard of the Book of Mormon until after his baptism. The Book of Mormon cannot be believed since the Three Witnesses left the Church, it mentions things that would occur in the New Testament hundreds of years before they happened, and it contradicts the Bible. The author alleges that there is a chronological discrepancy in the Book of Mormon when it says that Lehi left Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of Jesus. He accepts the Spaulding theory regarding its origin.
An exposé of Mormonism, written by a former Mormon. Spaulding was responsible for the origin of the Book of Mormon. The testimony of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon is rejected. Numerous contradictions with the Bible are listed. The Anthon denial is cited. Phrases and style in the Book of Mormon that are similar to those in the Bible are denounced as plagiarisms.
Your spiritual development, particularly the development of a firm Matiu Kauri–like testimony, will be of great value to you in perilous times.
The continuum begins with faith and ends with charity, or the pure love of Christ. Charity requires that we love the Savior and all people through the development and mastery of His attributes.
A chart that synchronizes historical events (from A.D. 1 to A.D. 421) of the Book of Mormon with contemporary events of the biblical and secular world.
Srilaksana Gottsche was commissioned to help translate the Book of Mormon into Thai.
Wilhelm Warlenier of Bonn, Germany was converted after years of pondering the Book of Mormon.
Chart synchronizing Book of Mormon events with biblical and secular history, beginning with the Jaredites and continuing until the Nephite destruction.
Book of Moses Topics > Basic Resources > Study Resources for the Hebrew and Greek Texts of Genesis
Old Testament Topics > Flora and Fauna
When a group of LDS scholars collaborated in 1994 under the auspices of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies to publish a book on the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5, few substantial works on olive production in the ancient world existed. Now, two new archaeological books add a wealth of information to our understanding of the importance of the olive in ancient life. The first mention of the olive in the Book of Mormon is found in Lehi’s prediction of the Babylonian captivity and the coming of the Lamb of God. Lehi compared the house of Israel to an olive tree whose branches would be broken off and scattered upon all the face of the earth (1 Ne. 10:12). After being scattered,the house of Israel would be gathered and the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, would be grafted in, or come to a knowledge of the true Messiah (1 Ne. 10:14). In this passage, Lehi probably drew upon Zenos’s allegory, found on the plates of brass. In incredible horticultural detail, that allegory compares the house of Israel to an olive tree. Yet that Old World information was apparently lost among Lehi’s descendants in the New World. After the fifth chapter of Jacob, the olive is not mentioned again in the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Enos
Old Testament Topics > Flora and Fauna
Old Testament Topics > Olive Oil
Review of “A Hard Day for Professor Midgley: An Essay for Fawn McKay Brodie” (1999), by Glen J. Hettinger
Demeaning description of newer religious movements. Joseph Smith rose from a background of change and confusion, claiming to have discovered records that clarified theological arguments of his day and the origin of the American Indian. The authors rely on the opinions of Fawn Brodie and Thomas O’Dea.
Review of Keith Bailey Schofield. How to Increase Your Enjoyment of the Book of Mormon: Striking New Insights Into the Life of Mormon and His Work.
The Book of Mormon is perhaps best known in Americanist circles as a version of the Indians-as-Israelites theory. It features the racialized division of the progeny of the text’s founding diasporic Jewish figure, Lehi, into wicked “Lamanites,” who are cursed with “a skin of blackness” and were understood by the earliest readers to be the ancestors of Amerindian peoples, and the righteous “Nephites,” the fair-skinned narrators of The Book of Mormon. This essay shows how The Book of Mormon’s foundational raci(al)ist orthodoxy autodeconstructs, and in so doing not only offers a vision of racial apocalypse diametrically opposed to what would come to be known as Manifest Destiny—one resonant with contemporaneous Amerindian prophetic movements—but also challenges the literalist hermeneutics that found warrant for Euro-Christian colonization in the transcendental authority of “the Bible alone.”
An anthropological/archaeological approach to the Book of Mormon with emphasis on cultural parallels between Book of Mormon people and American Indians. Hebrew origins of early American aborigines and possible evidence of Christ’s visit to the Americas are also discussed.
A lesson manual. Cultural/religious parallels between the Book of Mormon people and the American Indians are discussed. Cites evidence linking American aborigines to Hebrew origins.
“My aim and method has been to present in brief the researcher’s findings in science and tradition as these data seem to reveal the ancestry of the Indian and his early history, and at the same time draw the reader’s attention to the close agreement to the story from the Book of Mormon. Even those who put no credence in the Mormon Prophet cannot help being intrigued by the parallelism and impressed by the fact that the book he gave to the world antedates the research that slowly but steadily corroborates his story. Those who read this work carefully, I venture to say, will be led into one of the most interesting and thought-provoking theories of history. Though not all who read may fully believe, yet they will revel in the newer and broader fields of exploratory thought and reason.” [Author]
If the acquisition of knowledge is an act of humility and faith on our part that is powered by personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, then we need to do all we can to take full advantage of the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
As specified by revelation, one of the responsibilities given to Emma Smith was to select hymns for the church. However, almost immediately after the revelation was given, tension arose as to who should compile the hymnbook and what its nature should be. This eventually led to more than one “official” hymn book for the church—the 1840 hymnbook created by the Quorum of the Twelve during their mission in England and Emma’s 1841 hymnbook. Whereas the apostles’ hymnbook focused mainly on restoration, millennial, and missionary topics, Emma’s felt more Protestant, focusing in many instances on the cross, the blood of Jesus, and grace. With the departure of the Saints from Nauvoo and Emma’s choice to remain behind, however, it was ultimately the apostles’ hymn book that was in a position to shape the hymnody for the present-day church.
Review of The Book of Mormon, Current Broadway Musical. ”…And so here is this noisy, heartfelt, touching, gawdy and weirdly illuminating patchwork of tenderness and blasphemy that dares to go by the name of that most Mormon book, The Book of Mormon. In that regard, this musical is to Mormonism what Bernstein’s Mass was to Catholicism, a wildly exploitative trope on the faith’s core liturgy—though, in this case, without the brilliance of Bernstein.” [from the text]
Report from the Society for Archaeological Research that cites nine scholarly books and articles that show evidence of horses in ancient America. Uses this to support the 14 occurrences of the word “horses” in the Book of Mormon.
The three standard books of the RLDS church give a complete account of the life and accomplishments of Jesus Christ. Those who accept Christ and are valiant will receive greater glory than those who do not.
A six-page synopsis of the Book of Mormon. Encourages researchers of the origin of the American Indians to read the Book of Mormon and end their research there. Through prayer all can know the truth of the Book of Mormon.
Gustav Koehn seriously questioned the Book of Mormon. He had a dream in which an angel showed him the plates of gold, leafed through them, and declared the book to be true. He was baptized into the RLDS church and continued to testify of the Book of Mormon.
When we serve righteously … , we are strengthening our priesthood link and connecting it ever more securely to those who have preceded and who will follow us.
When we invite the Holy Ghost to fill our minds with light and knowledge, He “quickens” us, that is to say, enlightens and enlivens the inner man or woman.
RSC Topics > D — F > The Family: A Proclamation to the World
RSC Topics > L — P > Prayer
RSC Topics > Q — S > Service
RSC Topics > Q — S > Stewardship
RSC Topics > G — K > Happiness
RSC Topics > L — P > Marriage
RSC Topics > Q — S > Service
The choices we make with money are at the heart of mortality’s test. Will we choose to waste our resources upon transitory pleasures, or will we choose to serve others and build up the kingdom of God?
“Now, since we know the Lord loves all of his children, we need to inquire whether our being here at this time with these blessings is by chance or whether there might be a purpose to it.”
Report of a prophecy concerning the coming of Johnston’s army and of U.S. soldiers in Utah Territory, delivered by a messenger considered to be one of the Three Nephites.
Report of a prophecy concerning the coming of Johnston’s army and of U.S. soldiers in Utah Territory, delivered by a messenger considered to be one of the Three Nephites.
Old Testament Topics > Teaching the Old Testament
Surveys the most important writers, both those who are critics and those who are not, who have written on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and other themes related to the Church. Offers brief critiques of their positions.
Book review.
Book review.
Book review.
Book review.
Review of About the Three Nephites (1992), by C. Douglas Beardall and Jewel N. Beardall.
Presents the Book of Mormon in a narrative style, written primarily for juvenile audiences.
Report of debates between the two authors. Subject matter concerns the cognizance of the mind beyond the grave. References are made to Alma and his experiences. Pejorative comments are made about the character of Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses.
I pray that you young people will develop a reverence for sacred things, a respect for your elders, and a willingness to keep the commandments. I pray that you will learn to know of the Savior.
I pray that the Lord’s blessings will be with us as we are proven, as we are tried, as we go into that crucible of adversity, that we will know there is always going to be the brighter day, and the brightest day will be the day when, if we stay true and faithful and we understand, we can enter into the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Regardless of life’s circumstances or the nature of one’s calling, all members of the Church have the opportunity to teach and to testify.
When we see the effect one person can have … , it perhaps is no wonder that the Lord reminded us, “Remember the worth of souls.”
The Gadianton wars were different from most other wars in the Book of Mormon in that they were internal, often covert, and protracted. They included components of terrorism, assassination, insurgency, and other horrific aspects of war. We can trace similar characteristics from these ancient wars with the current conflicts that are occurring today, especially those in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The story of seventy years of fighting with the Gadianton robbers is told using a modernized perspective that focuses specifically on the methods by which the robbers fought the wars—secret base areas, propaganda, guerrilla-type attacks—strikingly similar to modern events.
A booklet attempting to identify the geography named in the Book of Mormon with sites in Mexico and Central America. Places the Hill Cumorah in Mexico. Refers to Indian legends and Quetzalcoatl. Several maps are included.
Quotes many sources, including the Quiche legends and the Popol Vuh, demonstrating anthropological and archaeological connections and correspondences with the Book of Mormon.
Discusses the origin of the early inhabitants of America, Jaredite movements, the Mulekite migration, archaeological evidences that support the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ among the ancient Americas, stories of Quetzalcoatl, and possible Book of Mormon lands and sites.
“I have been asked the question, as have others of the ministry no doubt, “What evidences are there to establish the credibility of the Book of Mormon?’’’ and now, after years of teaching and defending the Book, I am convinced that the geography, taken from a close study of location as found in the record itself, is the very best evidence that can be furnished to authenticate the record. Confident that the record gives a true history of Ancient Americans who once lived upon this Western Continent, I have tried to make the Book itself give to us the much-to-be-desired map. To God be the honor.”
“I have been asked the question, as have others of the ministry no doubt, “What evidences are there to establish the credibility of the Book of Mormon?’’’ and now, after years of teaching and defending the Book, I am convinced that the geography, taken from a close study of location as found in the record itself, is the very best evidence that can be furnished to authenticate the record. Confident that the record gives a true history of Ancient Americans who once lived upon this Western Continent, I have tried to make the Book itself give to us the much-to-be-desired map. To God be the honor.”
Describes the contents of the Popol Vuh and relates the four mythological founders of Mesoamerica to the four sons of Lehi. Draws on several anthropologists and archaeologists for various proposed evidences of the Book of Mormon.
An endeavor to discover Lehi’s trail in the Middle East. The authors attempt to identify such places as the Frankincense Trail, Lehi’s route from Jerusalem, the Valley of Lemuel, the place of the broken bow, and the land Bountiful.
Discusses Lehi’s eight year journey in Saudi Arabia and the possibility that he preached to and converted a group of people who later named themselves the “Lihyanites”
We construct a detailed geographical model of the Nephite homeland areas of Manti, Zarahemla, and the river Sidon using the Book of Mormon text of around 80 BC. This model assumes that these areas are located in Mesoamerica, that the names of their surrounding seas do not necessarily correspond to local compass directions, and that the directions stated in the text are to be understood in the nontechnical normal English sense. We then describe the southern end of the Grijalva river basin, located across the southern part of the Mexico–Guatemala border. We nominate this area as a possible candidate for the ancient Nephite homeland because it corresponds to the text’s topography from the most general to the most detailed parts of the description. Furthermore, significant geographical and climatic changes in this area over the last 2,000 years are unlikely. The number and detail of the topological matches encourage further careful study.
Over the last twenty years, various objective author-attribution techniques have been applied to the English Book of Mormon in order to shed light on the question of multiple authorship of Book of Mormon texts. Two methods, one based on rates of use of noncontextual words and one based on word-pattern ratios, measure patterns consistent with multiple authorship in the Book of Mormon. Another method, based on vocabulary-richness measures, suggests that only one author is involved. These apparently contradictory results are reconciled by showing that for texts of known authorship, the method based on vocabulary-richness measures is not as powerful in discerning differences among authors as are the other methods, especially for works translated into English by a single translator.
We construct a detailed geographical model of the Nephite homeland areas of Manti, Zarahemla, and the river Sidon using the Book of Mormon text of around 80 BC. This model assumes that these areas are located in Mesoamerica, that the names of their surrounding seas do not necessarily correspond to local compass directions, and that the directions stated in the text are to be understood in the nontechnical normal English sense. We then describe the southern end of the Grijalva river basin, located across the southern part of the Mexico–Guatemala border. We nominate this area as a possible candidate for the ancient Nephite homeland because it corresponds to the text’s topography from the most general to the most detailed parts of the description. Furthermore, significant geographical and climatic changes in this area over the last 2,000 years are unlikely. The number and detail of the topological matches encourage further careful study.
Editor’s Introductory Note: The following letter and accompanying critique of the stylometric studies of Ernest Taves have been sent to F.A.R.M.S. by John L. Hilton. Hilton and his colleagues, who have been actively involved in stylometric analyses of the Book of Mormon for several years, plan in the near future to complete their own extensive and thorough stylometric study of Book of Mormon texts. The following general review of Taves’ book serves to introduce John Hilton’s more detailed remarks.
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
RSC Topics > A — C > Church Organization
RSC Topics > L — P > Prophets
The 44th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium The 2015 Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium explored the modern miracle of the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon. Featuring a keynote address by Elder Merrill J. Bateman discussing the Book of Mormon’s restoration of plain and precious truths, this volume describes the development of the teenage seer Joseph Smith Jr. and includes marvelous accounts of the many witnesses to the plates. It tells the story of the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith’s translation of the sacred record to the process of financing and printing the first edition, and concludes with its message rolling forth to many nations—to “every kindred, tongue, and people.” ISBN 987-1-62972-114-9
RSC Topics > T — Z > Teaching the Gospel
RSC Topics > T — Z > Testimony
RSC Topics > T — Z > Youth
Abstract: The word Gentiles appears 141 times in the Book of Mormon (the singular Gentile appears only five times.) It appears more frequently than key words such as baptize, resurrection, Zion, and truth. The word Gentiles does not appear with equal frequency throughout the Book of Mormon; in fact, it appears in only five of its fifteen books: 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, 3 Nephi, Mormon, and Ether. Additionally, Book of Mormon speakers did not say Gentiles evenly. Some speakers said the word much less often than we might expect while others used it much more. Nephi1 used Gentiles the most (43 times), and Christ Himself used it 38 times. In addition to analyzing which speakers used the word, this study shows distinctive ways in which Book of Mormon speakers used this word.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 2 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
At the beginning of the Book of Mormon, Nephi writes, “The fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved” (1 Nephi 6:4; emphasis added). He later writes, “I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell” (2 Nephi 33:6). The pinnacle of the Book of Mormon occurred in 3 Nephi when Jesus Christ personally ministered to the Nephites and Lamanites. Clearly the central purpose of those writing on the plates was to invite and persuade each of us to come unto Jesus Christ, helping us understand his redeeming role. Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Book of Mormon. Ancient prophets in the western hemisphere consistently pointed to His life and atoning sacrifice. For example, Nephi wrote, “I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell” (2 Nephi 33:6). After His Resurrection, Jesus Christ personally ministered to the Nephites and taught them. This volume shares important reminders about how to focus on Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 2 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
RSC Topics > G — K > Hope
While Jacob records 15,000 words in the Book of Mormon, he is often underappreciated, perhaps living in the shadow of his older brother Nephi. This study illustrates how Nephi, King Benjamin, and Moroni used Jacob’s words and expanded the influence of his literary legacy.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
This volume of collected essays is intended to assist disciples of Jesus Christ in coming to a deeper understanding of the Savior and his ministry through their personal study of the New Testament. Because the period and culture of the New Testament can be daunting to modern readers, the editors gathered the work of Latter-day Saint scholars who have devoted time and research to gaining a greater understanding of the New Testament. The editors included essays written from a variety of perspectives to highlight the different lenses that can productively be brought to bear on the New Testament. Some of these essays are overtly devotional, while others are more explicitly academic, but all are written with the intent to help each of us accomplish one goal: to learn of him. ISBN 978-1-9503-0433-2
RSC Topics > L — P > Old Testament
RSC Topics > Q — S > Salvation
RSC Topics > T — Z > Worship
RSC Topics > L — P > New Testament
RSC Topics > T — Z > Teaching the Gospel
RSC Topics > Q — S > Scriptures
RSC Topics > T — Z > Youth
RSC Topics > L — P > New Testament
RSC Topics > L — P > Prophets
RSC Topics > A — C > Crucifixion
RSC Topics > L — P > New Testament
RSC Topics > L — P > Old Testament
The word resurrection is employed at varying frequencies in specific books and by individual writers in the Book of Mormon. Although Alma uses resurrection most often overall, Abinadi uses it more often per thousand words spoken. Some phrases in which resurrection is used in unique patterns by different speakers include power of the resurrection, first resurrection, and resurrection with the words time or with body. Some phrasal uses of resurrection in the Book of Mormon are not found in the Bible (such as resurrection and presence appearing together). This study of the usage of one individual word appears to show that individual voices are preserved in the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Abstract: The word baptize appears 119 times in the Book of Mormon; three speakers (Jesus Christ, Mormon, and Nephi) account for 87% of all of these usages. Each of these individuals have distinctive patterns in how they use the word baptize, indicating that each speaker has his own unique voice. When one accounts for the fact that Christ says relatively fewer words than Mormon, it is evident that per 1,000 words spoken, Jesus Christ uses the word baptize more than any other speaker in the Book of Mormon. This finding holds true for Christ’s words both in and outside of 3 Nephi. Among other patterns, we demonstrate that Jesus Christ associates his name with baptism more than any other Book of Mormon speaker and that Christ is responsible for 58% of the Book of Mormon’s invitations to be baptized. Additional patterns and their implications are discussed.
An endeavor to discover Lehi’s trail in the Middle East. The authors attempt to identify such places as the Frankincense Trail, Lehi’s route from Jerusalem, the Valley of Lemuel, the place of the broken bow, and the land Bountiful.
Thirty years after publishing In Search of Lehi’s Trail, Lynn M. Hilton looks back at the progress of research on the journey of Lehi and his family from Jerusalem to Bountiful. Hilton starts by briefly reviewing the known aspects of the party’s travel, such as the location of Jerusalem and their initial “south-southeast direction.” Following their trail, he gives an overview of the discoveries that have helped identify and describe potential sites for several key locales mentioned in Nephi’s narrative of the journey: the Valley of Lemuel, Nahom, and Bountiful. In the past thirty years, many important discoveries have expanded our understanding of the real-life setting of Lehi’s travel through the Arabian Peninsula.
Outlines a “rough summary of the basic information about Nephite wars and warfare in the Book of Mormon” Includes scriptural quotations that touch upon the subject of war and gives the corresponding date.
The following outline is a rough summary of the basic information about Nephite wars and warfare in the Book of Mormon. It is designed as a research tool, especially to aid in further studies of the conditions and circumstances of war and peace in the Book of Mormon which are now underway. This outline has been divided into sections generally corresponding with the main eras and campaigns in Nephite military history, and approximate dates have been supplied. Hopefully this data will facilitate and promote a closer examination of the text itself as further research progresses.
Nancy Goldberg Hilton shares her experiences growing up in the Jewish religion. Although she felt close to God while reciting verses from the Old Testament, she was confused about God’s true nature and current role. Hilton eventually abandoned her belief in God until she had a miraculous experience at Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell in Utah. This experience helped her to feel the reality of God and of Jesus Christ, and she soon began to search for further information about their doctrine. When a business contact gave her a Book of Mormon, she read it and was delighted to discover how the book connected the life of Jesus Christ to her Jewish heritage and to the life she was now living. Hilton agreed to meet with missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she was baptized shortly thereafter.
Remaining steadfast in Christ through our afflictions and adversity increases our capacity to see our promised end more clearly. Like a powerful spotlight that shines more brightly in complete darkness, our suffering reveals Christ to us.
A polemical work attempting to discredit Mormonism and in particular the Book of Mormon. The first section reproduces Alexander Campbell’s 1831 work, Delusions. The writer favors the Spaulding origin of the Book of Mormon.
Thirteen-year-old Mary Goble and her family were part of the pioneer overland journey to Utah Territory in the John A. Hunt wagon company in 1856. They traveled close to the Edward Martin handcart company and suffered with them through the cold of Wyoming. The core of the book is a transcription of Mary’s handwritten memoir with annotations that corroborate, correct, and provide context. This annotated transcription is bookended by an introduction and epilogue that place Mary’s story of her journey in the context of her life before and after her emigration. ISBN 978-1-9503-0405-9
I could wish nothing better for each of you, my dear young friends, than love—the companionship of one dearer than any friend; someone to be deliriously excited over and to be happy with; someone to stir within you the very best that is there; someone to grow more appreciative of, more tender toward, more grateful for, more a part of as one year becomes another and life moves toward eternity.
May God bless us with a sense of our place in history and … our need to stand tall and walk with resolution in a manner becoming the Saints of the Most High.
These are momentous times in which we are living as Saints of the Most High. … Let us go on rearing our children in righteousness and truth. Let us be good neighbors and good friends.
I offer a plea that each of us will seek to live closer to the Lord and to commune with Him more frequently and with increased faith.
God our Eternal Father lives. … Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of mankind. They have restored Their work in this last and final dispensation through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph.
No other church to come out of the soil of America has grown so fast nor spread so widely. … It is a phenomenon without precedent.
There is much more yet to be done, but what has been accomplished is truly phenomenal.
I would hope that we might go to the house of the Lord a little more frequently.
Surely the Lord is blessing us as a people, and we must reach out to bless His needy wherever they may be.
We leave with you our love and our blessing. May the Spirit of the Lord dwell in your homes.
What has been said by each of the speakers represents his or her prayerful attempt to impart knowledge that will inspire.
We have been inspired and lifted to a higher appreciation of this wonderful gospel.
May our testimonies of the great foundation principles of this work … shine forth from our lives and our actions.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the way of peace. To the extent we follow it and incorporate it in our lives … will we be blessed and prospered.
I believe the Church is in better condition than it has been at any time in its entire history.
Every convert is precious. Every convert is a son or daughter of God. Every convert is a great and serious responsibility.
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
What a glorious season it has been and now is. A new day has come in the work of the Almighty.
RSC Topics > T — Z > Temples
There is room for improvement in every life. … Regardless of our circumstances, we can improve ourselves and while so doing have an effect on the lives of those about us.
If we are to [be] an ensign to the nations and a light to the world, we must take on more of the luster of the life of Christ.
Gordon B. Hinckley - I know of no single practice that will have a more salutary effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord, you thank him for one another, in the presence of one another, and then together invoke his blessings upon your lives, your home, your loved ones, and your dreams.
I have given you a sampling of significant occasions that have forever touched my life. They have influenced my thinking and my behavior. They have affected my life in an unforgettable manner. You likewise will have significant experiences.
Video Presentation
Increased faith is what we most need. Without it, the work would stagnate. With it, no one can stop its progress.
From a satellite broadcast given at the Salt Lake Tabernacle 21 February 1999
Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others.
Somehow forgiveness, with love and tolerance, accomplishes miracles that can happen in no other way.
RSC Topics > T — Z > Teaching the Gospel
If you have never been involved in poker games or other forms of gambling, don’t start. If you are involved, then quit now while you can do so.
These conferences are held … to strengthen our testimonies of this work, to fortify us against temptation and sin, to lift our sights, to receive instruction.
The Spirit of the Lord has been in this [Tabernacle]. It is sacred unto us. We hope, we anticipate, we pray that the new [Conference Center] will likewise radiate the same spirit.
We speak words of testimony concerning God our Eternal Father and His Beloved Son.
In terms of your happiness, in terms of the matters that make you proud or sad, nothing—I repeat, nothing—will have so profound an effect on you as the way your children turn out.
On the solid foundation of the Prophet Joseph’s divine calling and the revelations of God, which came through him, we go forward.
These simple words—“He is not here, but is risen”—have become the most profound in all literature. … They are the fulfillment of all He had spoken concerning rising again.
Gordon B. Hinckley talks about the Church in Europe today
You are daughters of the Almighty. Limitless is your potential. Magnificent is your future, if you will take control of it.
If we have drawn nearer to the Savior, with a more firm resolution to follow His teachings and His example, then this conference will have been a wonderful success.
Be clean—in language, in thought, in body, in dress.
Wherever want has been created by whatever cause, representatives of the Church have been there. … I have been a firsthand witness to the effectiveness of our humanitarian efforts.
We can so live that we can call upon the Lord for His protection and guidance. … We cannot expect His help if we are unwilling to keep His commandments.
Gordon B. Hinckley - What marvelous things happen when men walk with faith in obedience to that which is required of them!
This is the greatest women’s organization in all the world. It is a God-given creation.
Joseph Smith did not write the Book of Mormon. Rather, “by the gift and power of God” he translated the writings of many authors who wrote at different times and under various circumstances.
You young men and you young women, most of you will marry and have children. Your children will have children, as will the children who come after them. Life is a great chain of generations that we in the Church believe must be linked together.
I love you. I love the people of this Church. I love all who are faithful. I love all who follow the ways of the Lord.
My dear young friends, don’t partake of the spirit of our times. Look for the good and build on it. Don’t be a “pickle sucker.” There is so much of the sweet and the decent and the good to build on.
What a tremendous work you are doing, you faithful Latter-day Saints all across the world, who carry in your hearts a firm and unswerving testimony.
There is no limit to your potential. If you will take control of your lives, the future is filled with opportunity and gladness.
Make yourself worthy of the loveliest girl in all the world. Keep yourself worthy through all the days of your life.
God bless you to walk fearlessly, even though you walk in loneliness, and to know in your hearts that peace which comes of squaring one’s life with principle, that “peace of God, which passeth all understanding.”
The key to the success of the work will be the faith of all who call themselves Latter-day Saints.
Be loyal to the best that is in you. Be faithful and true to the covenants that are associated with the priesthood of God.
God be thanked for His marvelous bestowal of testimony, authority, and doctrine associated with this, the restored Church of Jesus Christ.
The Lord is watching over His kingdom. He is inspiring its leadership to care for its ever-growing membership.
Research has shown that the Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks used tablets of metal to record important documents. The Inca-ruled natives of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico engraved records on metal sheets. Engraved records are also found among relics of North American Indians. The British Museum possesses a set of twenty-five silver plates containing Buddha’s first sermon and a gold tablet containing the dedication of the temple to Osiris by Ptolemy Eureregetes, 242-222 B.C.
Faith is the basis of testimony. Faith underlies loyalty to the Church. Faith represents sacrifice, gladly given in moving forward the work of the Lord.
In this statement, the First Presidency requests that the Book of Mormon not be rewritten into familiar or modern English because of “risks that this process may introduce doctrinal errors or obscure evidence of its ancient origin.”
The name Mormon is an honorable name, borne by one who was a great prophet on the American continent. Joseph Smith said that the name meant “more good” (TJS, pp. 299-300). The book that Mormon prepared bears his name—the Book of Mormon. It has touched the lives of thousands for good, for it witnesses of the Savior and Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ.
Of all the things for which I feel grateful … , one stands out preeminently. That is a living testimony of Jesus Christ.
Why do any of us have to be so mean and unkind to others? Why can’t all of us reach out in friendship to everyone about us?
May the windows of heaven be opened and blessings be showered down upon us as a people as we walk with boldness and in faith before the Lord to accomplish His eternal work.
I urge you … to utilize the temples of the Church. Go there and carry forward the great and marvelous work which the God of heaven has outlined for us.
Our burden in going forward is tremendous. But our opportunity is glorious.
The growth of the Church from its infancy to its present stature is phenomenal, and we have only scratched the surface.
God is at the helm. We will seek His direction. We will listen to the still, small voice of revelation. And we will go forward as He directs.
“We can offer our own witness of the truth, quietly, sincerely, honestly, but never in a manner that will give offense to others.”
Where there is widespread poverty among our people, we must do all we can to help them to lift themselves, to establish their lives upon a foundation of self-reliance that can come of training. Education is the key to opportunity.
Our behavior in public must be above reproach. Our behavior in private is even more important. It must clear the standard set by the Lord.
Let us open our hearts, let us reach down and lift up, let us open our purses, let us show a greater love for our fellowmen.
President Joseph F. Smith had an understanding of the eternal nature of man that few others have ever possessed.
Look to the example of your president. He and his beloved companion, Sharon, have walked side by side with love in their hearts through all the years of their association. Make them your shining example.
With this priesthood comes a great obligation to be worthy of it.
Old Testament Topics > Tithing
I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God’s holy work.
I thank the Lord for good bishops in this Church. … May you know that peace which comes alone from God to those who serve Him.
I carry in my heart a deep appreciation for our bishops. I am profoundly grateful for the revelation of the Almighty under which this office was created and functions.
May the Lord bless you and inspire you to walk without anger.