Elder Joseph F. Merrill of the Quorum of the Twelve (1868-1952), known of by few in the Church today, was the son of another slightly-better-known Apostle, Elder Marriner W. Merrill. His teachings are included here because he used much of his time in three General Conference talks over three years to teach and testify about the First Vision. ...
read moreA selection of teachings and testimony about the First Vision from various Church leaders as given over the decades. ...
read moreFollowing are accounts by General Authorities of choice experiences they have had in the grove of trees where Joseph Smith was visited by God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. ...
read moreMany years ago, I visited for the first time a wooded area of extraordinary natural beauty near Palmyra, New York. This area is known to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Sacred Grove. On the day of our visit, the bees were kissing the wildflowers, and the soft zephyrs gently rustled the leaves of the great trees. It is a place of perfect peace and serenity. It was easy to believe that the heavens were opened and that the magnificent vision took place there. ...
read moreOccasionally, when the first vision is reviewed by church leaders, they may state some doctrinal insights, interpretations, defenses, or positions about various particulars. The below items mention some of these....
read moreWhile there were many curious people from around the city who visited the Kinshasa Temple open house, the majority of the visitors were already members of the Church. Some were long-time members who had been eagerly anticipating a temple in Kinshasa for decades....
read more[This post was originally withdrawn because we learned that “the Temple Department owns the rights and access to what is recorded on the temple grounds during groundbreaking, open house, and dedication.” We are reposting it because we have now received...
read moreReaders may be interested in a recently published peer-reviewed study appearing in Forensic Science International: Genetics, the journal of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. The article, entitled “Resolving a 150-year-old paternity case in Mormon...
read moreAs this review demonstrates, the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon is riddled with misinformation, misrepresentation, special pleading, and a host of additional dubious and erroneous claims. These many problems are not simply innocuous mistakes. They represent an egregious disregard for the even the most basic standards of scholarship. ...
read moreOne of the foundational claims of Rod Meldrum for his "heartland" model of Book of Mormon geography is that modern science has verified a genetic link between native peoples of North America and those of the Middle East. Meldrum uses this evidence to bolster his argument that the events described in the Book of Mormon took place around the Great Lakes region of the United States and that the remnant of Lehi's seed can be identified with specific North American Indian tribes....
read moreThe April 1920 General Conference became a 100-year anniversary commemoration of the Prophet Joseph Smith's First Vision. Most of the conference speakers referenced it one way or another. President Heber J. Grant, only a year into his administration, began by sharing his own feelings, and other speakers followed his example. ...
read moreDieter F. Uchtdorf: There was an additional benefit that came from this assignment: the bellows operator sat in a seat that offered a great view of a stained-glass window that beautified the front part of the chapel. The stained glass portrayed the First Vision, with Joseph Smith kneeling in the Sacred Grove, looking up toward heaven and into a pillar of light. ...
read morethis narration is only of the prayer and vision, not other closely related matters. It contains descriptive material (not word-for-word) from the four main accounts originating with Joseph Smith. I put it together to show how they collectively enlarge our understanding by adding depth, breadth, and detail. One quickly understands why this vision is considered as foundational to the restoration of the gospel and the eventual establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints....
read more[An interview of Royal Skousen by his friend and colleague Dan Peterson regarding the Book of Mormon critical text project to which Skousen has dedicated his career. This interview was conducted September 10, 2019, via email and was published in the quarterly magazine...
read moreAs is probably fairly well known by now to most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the October 2019 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson said: "In the springtime of the year 2020, it will be exactly 200 years since Joseph Smith experienced the theophany that we know as the First Vision. "...
read more[This post was originally withdrawn because we learned that “the Temple Department owns the rights and access to what is recorded on the temple grounds during groundbreaking, open house, and dedication.” We are reposting it because we have now received...
read more[Note: This video is from the talk “The Ezekiel Mural at Dura Europos and the Mysteries of Aaron, Moses, and Melchizedek” given at the BYU Studies 50th Anniversary Symposium (Brigham Young University, Provo, UT) by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and David J. Larsen on March 13,...
read moreI am grateful for the responses to my series reviewing the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. They have come to me both as public comments on different posts in the series and as personal communications (both online and in person). They have given me an opportunity for reflection and have confirmed to me that there is considerable interest among Latter-day Saints for the subjects discussed in my review....
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon features a number of small miscellaneous errors that are evidently the result of either editorial or typographical carelessness....
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon makes a number of unsubstantiated claims and arguments that are meant to either preclude a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon or reinforce a North American setting for the same. ...
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