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Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 2: Covenants and Ordinances with BJ Spurlock

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Have you ever felt that the gospel is a bunch of things to check off a list? Have you ever wondered what’s up with this “covenant path” that Church leaders talk so much about? If so, join us for this episode with BJ Spurlock as we explore covenants, ordinances, and how God teaches us through symbolism.

BJ Spurlock is a Sunday School teacher in Kentucky, blogs at thingsastheyreallyare.com, and has also written for FAIR and Public Square Magazine.

 

Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.

Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 15–17; Mark 7–9

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Evangelical Questions: “What Apostasy?”

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about the Apostasy. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand.

Our scripture this week comes from Matthew 16:18:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

On the one hand, what a fantastic, reassuring scripture. And on the other hand, you can immediately see how there is a lot of debate about what this actually means. And I’ll be honest, Latter-day Saint friends, some of the ways we talk about the apostasy are adding to the confusion and I think as we go along you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 15–17; Mark 7–9

Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Easter

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Evangelical Questions: “Don’t Latter-day Saints worship a different Jesus?”

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about Easter and Jesus. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand.

So, you are probably watching this video sometime in April or later. Dear people of the future, I hope the sun is shining and it’s warmed up because I’m recording this in February and the sky just dumped 1 foot of snow.

This week’s topic is a tiny bit different because of Easter. We jump forward in the readings from earlier in the Gospels to the events of Easter this week, we’ll go back and pick up the rest of the Gospels after this. So I don’t have a particular scripture that encompasses the question for this week, but it goes something like this…”Don’t Latter-day Saints worship a different Jesus?” [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Easter

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 5 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 5 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.

“Was that a revelation?” General Conference and Agents of the Divine

by Steve Densley

Over time, I have come to look forward to General Conference more and more. It seems that now, more than ever, we need the wisdom and guidance that comes from those who have been set apart by God to instruct us.

Of course, I do not always hear what I want to hear. I am often challenged by the words of our leaders and can feel that I will need to stretch, sometimes with some pain, to accomplish what is expected. So I understand when I hear people wonder aloud, “Was that a revelation?” as if to say, “Do I really need to do that?” Or, “Is that really true?” [Read more…] about FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 5 Days!

Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6

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Evangelical Questions: “Paid Ministry?”

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about paid ministry. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. 

Today’s verse comes from Mark 6:7-9:

And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

And there is so much in that verse alone to talk about, but I want to focus on a question that comes up a lot between Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals: Is it right to pay clergy or isn’t it? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6

Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 1: The Plan of Salvation with Scott Woodward

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Attending the temple for the first time can be a bit overwhelming. It can seem like a very unfamiliar experience for many, especially because we rarely hear details about what happens there. Understanding the doctrine and purpose underlying the temple will help you be ready and excited to enter the House of the Lord.

The purpose of this podcast is to do just that. We will cover topics such as the Endowment, temple sealings, covenants, ordinances, sacred temple clothing ,and common misconceptions about the temple.

Whether you are preparing for a mission, your own temple sealing, or just desire to receive your own endowment we hope that this podcast will deepen your understanding of the doctrine surrounding the temple.

In this episode, Jacob Crapo talks with Scott Woodward about how the temple and “Plan of Salvation” relate to each other. They discuss what the temple teaches about God’s plan for humanity and how the temple ordinances and covenants play a key role in that plan. Scott teaches religion classes at BYU-Idaho, is a managing director at Scripture Central, and host of the Church History Matters podcast.

 

Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.

The Gospel Brings Life and Immortality to Light

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by Jennifer Ann Mackley

Willing to Sacrifice

On August 7, 1839, a very ill Wilford Woodruff prepared to leave his pregnant wife, Phebe, and his one-year-old daughter, Sarah Emma, to serve a mission with other members of the Quorum of the Twelve in the British Isles. He wrote, “I make a sacrifice of my all for Christ’s sake to do his work. It is no small trial of faith.”

In November 1839, he was still recovering from his illness and preaching the gospel in New York while awaiting the departure of their ship to England. Over the course of three weeks, he recorded three dreams about his wife and child. On November 8, he wrote, “I saw Mrs. Woodruff in deep affliction in a dream at Montrose. I did not see Sarah Emma.” Three days later he noted, “I had a dream during the night and had an interview with Mrs. Woodruff, but did not see Sarah Emma.” [Read more…] about The Gospel Brings Life and Immortality to Light

History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference

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by Maddie Christensen and Kristy Wheelwright Taylor

Wilford Woodruff kept a journal from the time of his baptism at the close of 1833 until his death in 1898, saying, “I have ever been impressed . . . of the deep importance of keeping a journal and record of the dealings of God with his people.”1 His sixty-plus years of records comprise over 115,000 written pages (26,000 of which have been located), left to us as journals, letters, discourses, autobiographies, and personal papers. These records document a large part of the early Restoration of the gospel. Three years ago, Jennifer Mackley and Don Parry created the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, whose mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seeks to make Wilford Woodruff’s records universally accessible to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. In celebration of these newly published documents, the Foundation hosted its first conference, Building Latter-day Faith. The conference was held at the Hinckley Center on the campus of Brigham Young University on Saturday, March 4, 2023, with over 350 people in attendance. [Read more…] about History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference

Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13

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Evangelical Questions: “Certain Women”

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about Women and their role in the church. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand.

Today’s verse comes from Luke 8:1-3:

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

So here we have Jesus and his disciples going around doing what they do – and we also have a group of women who are supporting them financially, and though the text doesn’t say it they were probably offering lots of other practical means of support as well. And so the question presents itself about the role of women in various churches. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13

Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 11–12; Luke 11

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Evangelical Questions: Why Don’t You Pray to Jesus?

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about Prayer. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand.

Today’s verse comes from Luke 11:1-2:

“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name….”

If you’ve ever visited an Evangelical church for a worship service you’ve probably noticed a lot of differences from how we conduct worship in our church. A couple videos back I talked about this at length and if you want a more thorough discussion on that take a look at the episode about honoring the Sabbath. And one of the things you may have noticed is that they address prayers directly to Jesus, while we do not.  [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 11–12; Luke 11