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BYU New Testament Commentary Online Conference March 6, 2021

February 27, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak Leave a Comment

The Epistle to the Hebrews: Radiating the Great Principles of the Restored Gospel

We are pleased to announce the release of the newest commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is authored by Richard D. Draper and Michael D. Rhodes, produced by the Brigham Young University New Testament Commentary, and published by BYU Studies, Provo, UT 84602. Available through https://byustudies.byu.edu. On Saturday, March 6, 2021, a free public video conference will be held on Hebrews and the Latter-day Saints, “Radiating the Great Principles of the Restored Gospel.”

A Live Opening Webinar
Saturday March 6, 2021
9:00 am–10:45 am
No pre-registration needed.

Join the program at https://zoom.us/j/95770639916 for the opening session with Eric Huntsman, John Welch, Michael Rhodes, and Richard Draper. For the full schedule of thirteen videos, visit https://www.byunewtestamentcommentary.com/online-conference-march-6-2021/.
For the playlist of all the video presentations on March 6, visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXbAVRWvW61YxGGxH2xqj1MulRbjefwqs. For Q&As, email your questions to [email protected]

A flyer may be downloaded here.

Come Follow Me Week 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 18–19 “The Worth of Souls Is Great”

February 22, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak Leave a Comment

by Mike Parker

D&C 18:10–16

¹⁰Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; ¹¹for, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. ¹²And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. ¹³And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

¹⁴Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. ¹⁵And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

¹⁶And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

How great is “the worth a soul”? It could be measured by the cost incurred to redeem it. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 18–19 “The Worth of Souls Is Great”

FAIR Voice Podcast #29: Don Bradley on The Lost 116 Pages

February 21, 2021 by Hanna Seariac 1 Comment

Podcast: Download (77.1MB)

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Don Bradley, is an author and independent historian of religion specializing in the beginnings of the Restoration. He completed a Bachelor’s in History at BYU and a Master’s in History at Utah State University, where he wrote his thesis on “American Proto-Zionism and the ‘Book of Lehi’: Recontextualizing the Rise of Mormonism.” Don has performed an internship with the Joseph Smith Papers Project working with the earliest Joseph Smith sources. He was the primary researcher for Brian C. Hales’s Joseph Smith’s Polygamy series. He has published on the translation of the Book of Mormon, plural marriage, Joseph Smith’s “grand fundamental principles of Mormonism,” the Kinderhook plates, and early Latter Day Saint understandings of the New Jerusalem. His first book is The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Greg Kofford Books, 2019), and he is currently completing a book on Oliver Cowdery as revelator and translator. He lives in Springville, Utah.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17 (additional post)

February 19, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak Leave a Comment

by Mike Hickenbotham

I developed a testimony that Jesus Christ was our Savior and Redeemer at a young age and have had a strong conviction of the reality of his atoning sacrifice every since. My studies in the scriptures have reinforced that testimony to the point today that I can state that I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God and my Savior. He truly died for me and made possible my resurrection and exaltation. I have also gained a testimony of Joseph Smith’s calling as God’s prophet in these last days.

As a teenager, I remember the Joseph Smith story being recited by a returned missionary in Sunday School class exactly as it is contained in our scriptures. At that time, the Holy Ghost witnessed to me that the account I was hearing was true. Through the years my testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and other LDS scriptures has grown, but I knew from the beginning they were true as a result of this initial witness I received. If Joseph Smith was a prophet — and I knew he was — then these other revelations must also be true. To this day I cannot read the Joseph Smith story without receiving a similar assurance that these events actually occurred as Joseph Smith had recorded.

Joseph Smith’s History is the key to the restoration. Either Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and the restored gospel is true, or Joseph Smith was a fraud and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in error. Either he saw God and his Son, Jesus Christ, or he didn’t. There is no gray area of truth. It is either all true or all a hoax. It is my testimony that it is true and that no man could have done what Joseph Smith did without the help and inspiration of God. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17 (additional post)

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17

February 15, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak 1 Comment

Bringing souls unto Christ

by James Perry, PhD, FHEA

In June 1829, Joseph Smith was residing at the home of Peter Whitmer Snr. in Fayette, New York. Three of Peter’s sons, David, Peter Jnr., and John Whitmer, had gained testimonies of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and had subsequently been baptised.[1] Convinced of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling the three men then sought from Joseph the mind of the Lord regarding what they should do to help with the restoration.[2] Sections 14-16 are the resulting revelations.

Although brief, the three revelations indicate the monumental nature of missionary work and that the time for proclaiming the gospel was at hand. “…the field is white already to harvest,” the Lord declared to David Whitmer, “therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.”[3] This final dispensation was to be one where the gospel of Jesus Christ, being restored to the earth, needed to be preached throughout the earth. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine & Covenants 14-17 “Stand as a Witness”

February 15, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak Leave a Comment

by Dan Peterson

The witnesses of the Book of Mormon pose a real obstacle to any honest person who wishes to dismiss the claims of the Restoration.

Let me first briefly summarize who the official witnesses were and what they claimed to have seen, and then explain why I believe them to represent a significant challenge to disbelief:

The Eight Witnesses—Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel Harrison Smith—not only saw but “hefted” the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and turned their leaves. They did so under quite ordinary and mundane circumstances, in broad daylight.

The Three Witnesses—Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer—not only saw the plates but were shown them by an angel in a blaze of light, as well as hearing the voice of God declare them to have been “translated by the gift and power of God.” Moreover, in addition to the plates themselves, they saw a variety of other exotic objects, such as the Urim and Thummim, the Liahona, and the Sword of Laban. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine & Covenants 14-17 “Stand as a Witness”

Come Follow Me Week 7 – Doctrine and Covenants 12–13; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75

February 8, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak 3 Comments

by John Gee

Many years ago, a friend reported to me on a mutual friend’s conversation with his bishop. Our mutual friend wanted to ordain his twelve-year-old son to the Aaronic Priesthood. The bishop said to him: You do not believe that angelic messengers appeared to Joseph Smith. What exactly do you think you will be conferring on your son?

I never heard what his answer was, but I have long thought about the question.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a covenant organization. It consists of those who have made at least one specific covenant with God: baptism. This covenant is an agreement between God and an individual whose terms are dictated by God and it is administered by those specifically authorized by God to represent him. Both parties of the covenant need to participate in the covenant for it to be binding. God is party through his representative or agent who administers the covenant on his behalf; they are “agents . . . on the Lord’s errand” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:29). We act as agents on our own behalf, or agents unto ourselves (Doctrine and Covenants 29:35, 39; 58:28; 104:17). [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 7 – Doctrine and Covenants 12–13; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75

FAIR Voice Podcast #28: Valerie Hudson on Women and the Priesthood

February 7, 2021 by Hanna Seariac 2 Comments

Podcast: Download (31.0MB)

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Valerie M. Hudson is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the George H.W. Bush Chair at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. She has previously taught at Brigham Young, Northwestern, and Rutgers universities. Her research foci include foreign policy analysis, security studies, gender and international relations, and methodology. Hudson’s articles have appeared in such journals as International Security, Journal of Peace Research, American Political Science Review, and Foreign Policy Analysis. She is the author or editor of several books, including (with Andrea Den Boer) Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population (MIT Press, 2004), which won the American Association of Publishers Award for the Best Book in Political Science, and the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Best Book in Social Demography, resulting in feature stories in the New York Times, The Economist, 60 Minutes, and other news publications. Hudson was named to the list of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009. Winner of numerous teaching awards and recipient of a National Science Foundation research grant and a Minerva Initiative grant from the US Department of Defense, she served as the director of graduate studies for the David M. Kennedy Center for International and Area Studies at BYU for eight years, and served as Vice President of the International Studies Association for 2011-2012. Hudson is one of the Principal Investigators of the WomanStats Project, which includes the largest compilation of data on the status of women in the world today. She is also a founding editor of SquareTwo, a founding editorial board member of Foreign Policy Analysis, and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. She has testified before Congress on three occasions, is president of the Utah Valley Institute of Cystic Fibrosis, and co-founded the LDS National Security Society. Her recent books include Sex and World Peace, co-authored with Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad Emmett, The Hillary Doctrine, co-authored with Patricia Leidl, and The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide,co-authored with Donna Lee Bowen and Perpetua Lynne Nielsen, all three published by Columbia University Press. She and her husband David, an artist and landscape architect, are the parents of eight children.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She has interests in the interaction that the Greek New Testament has with the Septuagint as well as sacrifice in ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.

Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)

February 3, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak 1 Comment

by Brant Gardner

Section 10 is a new beginning for Joseph Smith. The loss of almost everything that had been translated created a crisis. Doctrine and Covenants 10:2 describes the aftermath of the loss: “And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened.” After what must have been a spiritual feast during the translation, the loss became much more that just the words that were written. The gift itself was lost. The ability to respond to the divine light was lost to darkness. Joseph lived under that weighty cloud for nearly three months.

Section 10 provides a declaration of forgiveness, and this part might have been received in the summer of 1829. With the ability to translate restored, Joseph and Oliver began translating. They started with the small amount of work that had been retained, and continued to the end of Moroni. The rest of section 10 deals with the problem of continuing the translation, of finding a new beginning for what they had translated of Mormon’s record.

Right after the Lord tells Joseph that he may translate again, he is offered sober advice for the remainder of the task, if not for the remainder of his life: “Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end. Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:4–5). [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)