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Why Does “Holiness To the Lord” Appear on LDS Temples? (History, Meaning, and Purpose) (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 26A)

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. Stephen T. Whitlock: View of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park (Ophel Walls site) from the southwest corner, 2017

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 26: King Solomon: Man of Wisdom, Man of Foolishness (1 Kings 3; 5-11) (JBOTL26A). A video version of this article is available on the FairMormon YouTube channel.

Note: Jeff and his wife, Kathleen, have just returned from their mission to the DR Congo. He will be presenting at the upcoming FairMormon 2018 Conference on “Stories of the Saints in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” This series of Old Testament KnoWhy articles will resume sometime in the first half of August.

Question: Why does “Holiness to the Lord” appear on LDS temples? Was the phrase used on buildings anciently?

Summary:The Wikipedia article on LDS temples asserts that the phrase “Holiness to the Lord” was inscribed “on the Old Testament Temple of Solomon.” However, so far as we know, the phrase was never used as part of any ancient building. It is unique to modern temples. In this article we will address three questions:

  1. How did the practice of inscribing LDS temples with the words “Holiness to the Lord” begin?
  2. What was the meaning of the phrase in the Old Testament?
  3. What is the purpose of modern temples?

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL26A — Why Does “Holiness To the Lord” Appear on LDS Temples?

A video version of this article is available on the FairMormon YouTube channel

 

From convert, to anti-mormon, to reconversion – Interview with Dusty Smith

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Dusty Smith with Elder L. Tom Perry
Dusty Smith (right) with “pen pal” Elder L. Tom Perry (left)

Welcome to the LDS MissionCast. To those of you who are new listeners to our show, thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy what this podcast has to offer as education and inspiration for missionary work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each week we try to bring you interviews that can help you to be a better missionary, or to help you feel inspired in missionary work. This week features an interview with Dusty Smith. While that may not be a name you immediately recognize, this is a story you won’t want to miss. This story is filled with the hand of God, and is an amazing, extraordinary example of how simple acts of missionary work can have a profound impact on literally hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

Shawn Rapier Ryan Snarr Latter-day Lives Podcast LDS MissionCast
Shawn Rapier (left) host of Latter-day Lives Podcast, Ryan Snarr (right) guest for the Latter-day Lives segment.

Occasionally we have Shawn Rapier from the always entertaining, Latter-day Lives podcast who records a special side interview with his guests about their mission experiences, or missionary-related experiences that can make you laugh, feel nostalgic for your own mission, or just leave you feeling inspired. This week Shawn had on artist Ryan Snarr, who tells a story about the enduring relationships that can be created from serving a mission, and how rich and fulfilling those relationships can be as they extend beyond the years of missionary service.

Each episode we try to feature different music or different LDS Musicians. This week we are showcasing a website and service called Music For Missionaries.net. Heather Bosshardt arranges and performs some great arrangements of the hymns. She sends you firesides in your inbox each and every week. It is FREE to missionaries while they are on their missions. This is music and spiritual messages that are sent to you each week that you can use for your own inspiration or you can share it with those being taught, or wards where you serve. Check out, www.musicformissionaries.net

Thank you to FairMormon for the continued sharing of LDS MissionCast.

Music for LDS Missionaries

Videos of Dusty Smith’s story:

 

FairMormon Conference Podcast #8 – Janiece Johnson, “Restoring the Tapestry of the Restoration: Early Mormon Women’s Witness”

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This podcast series features a past FairMormon Conference presentation each month. Please join us for the 2018 FairMormon Conference coming up August 1-3. You can attend in person or purchase the video streaming.

Janiece Johnson, Restoring the Tapestry of the Restoration: Early Mormon Women’s Witness

Transcript available here.

Janiece Johnson is a transplanted Bay Area, California, native who loves history, design, art, good food, and traveling. She has master’s degrees in American Religious History and Theology from Brigham Young University and Vanderbilt’s Divinity School respectively. She finished her doctoral work at the University of Leicester in England. Janiece has published work on gender and American religious history—specializing in Mormon history and the prosecution for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. She is a co-author of The Witness of Women: First-hand Experiences and Testimonies of the Restoration (Deseret Book, 2016) and general editor of the recently published Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). A visiting professor in Religious Education at BYU-Idaho for the last three years, Janiece will begin as a research fellow for the Maxwell Institute’s Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies at BYU this fall.

Audio and Video Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

Church History as a Missionary Tool with Casey Griffiths

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Casey Paul Griffiths - LDS MissionCast
BYU professor of church history Casey Paul Griffiths discusses the 100 most important events in Latter-day Saint history at his Education Week class.

Welcome to a select episode of the LDS MissionCast right here on FairMormon. This episode is hosted by Nick Galieti. The guest on this podcast is Casey Griffiths a professor from BYU, and one of the contributing authors to the book, What You Don’t Know about the 100 Most Important Events in Church History. We discuss the importance of knowing the history of the church and how our unique history can be used as a proselyting tool.

After that interview we have a funny segment from Shawn Rapier from the Latter-day Lives podcast. Shawn interviews a hilarious comedian, Steve Soelberg, who tells a funny story from his mission when he was…shall we say, caught in an awkward moment.

Music for this episode comes from Anne Britt. You can find her beautiful piano arrangements and this music on her site, http://annebrittmusic.com.

 

What you don't know about the 100 most important events in church history

Make sure to check out the full interview with Steve Soelberg on Shawn’s podcast, Latter-day Lives. 

Shawn Rapier and Steve Soelberg
Shawn Rapier and Steve Soelberg

Thank you for listening to the LDS MissionCast. You can reach out to LDS MissionCast on their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages.

FairMormon Conference Podcast #7 – Gerrit Dirkmaat, “Lost Teachings of the Prophets: Recently Uncovered Teachings of Joseph Smith and Others from the Council of Fifty Record”

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This podcast series features a FairMormon Conference presentation each month. Please join us for the 2018 FairMormon Conference coming up August 1-3. You can attend in person or purchase the video streaming.

Gerrit Dirkmaat, Lost Teachings of the Prophets: Recently Uncovered Teachings of Joseph Smith and Others from the Council of Fifty Record

Transcript available here.

Gerrit J. Dirkmaat is an assistant professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD in American History from the University of Colorado in 2010 where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. His dissertation was titled “Enemies Foreign and Domestic: US Relations with Mormons in the US Empire in North America, 1844–1854.” He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 as historian on several volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers project. Since taking his position at BYU, he continues to work on the Joseph Smith Papers as a historian and writer. He currently serves as Editor of the academic journal Mormon Historical Studies, published by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, and on the Church History editorial board for BYU Studies. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and is the co-author, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the book From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University and Deseret Book, 2015. He and his wife Angela have four children.

Audio and Video Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Witness of the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood

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A selection from the 2017 book,
I Know He lives: How 13 Special Witnesses Came to Know Jesus Christ,
by Dennis B. Horne
(From the chapter on Elder McConkie’s special witness of Jesus.)

            On June 1, 1978, Elder McConkie enjoyed, with his Brethren of the First Presidency and ten of the Twelve, the most spiritual experience of his life, at least to that point.[1] It came in the House of the Lord at the time of the receipt of the revelation to President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy men regardless of race (see D&C Official Declaration 2). On June 28, 1978, Elder McConkie related the event to family members while vacationing in Nauvoo, and visiting in the home of a Kimball relative. A family member present that took notes from Bruce’s narration later described what he said:

            When we were all seated . . . Bruce began to tell us some of the events and details about this revelation. . . . One thing that he cautioned us not to do was to make it more than it was, even though I can’t imagine a greater thing than this in this life. . . . With President Kimball the preliminaries for this [revelation] started at least two years [before it was received]. There were many, many, discussions, returning to the subject from time to time in their quorum meetings in the temple. There was much fasting and there was much praying and many prayers were offered pleading to the Lord for a resolution of this problem. During the last three or four months there had been extended discussion during the quorum meetings regarding offering all of the blessings of the gospel to all the people of the earth.

            Now the various members of the quorum were asked to express themselves briefly and did. . . . The Prophet had told the quorum that this was a problem that he had been wrestling with for many hours and had spent many hours going to the upper rooms of the temple, wrestling [in prayer] with the Lord. He had not received a revelation but he wanted a revelation. . . .

            This particular Thursday (this was on June 1st) President Kimball asked the members of the Quorum [of the Twelve] to stay; he said that he had some things that he wanted to discuss further. All of the members of the quorum were there except [two]. [Read more…] about Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Witness of the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood

Race and the LDS Church – What do we know, and how do we teach it?

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Russell Stevenson Mormon Scholar
Russell Stevenson – Author of “For The Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013

The LDS MissionCast is a podcast designed to educate and inspire in the great cause of Missionary Work. This episode is all about Race and the LDS Church. Some of the episodes of the LDS MissionCast feature content for those preparing to serve a full-time mission, some episodes are directed towards those that have returned home, or are wanting to be more inspired in member-missionary work. Episodes like this one are unique in that we occasionally need to take the time to learn the gospel, to learn our history better, so that we can better members of the church, and better ministers to those around us.

On June 1st, 2018 there will be a celebration in the conference center in Salt Lake City, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1978 revelation on the Priesthood, or Official Declaration #2. This topic is often referred to as being the “Priesthood Ban.” In an effort to explain or even justify this policy, it is common for members of the church to say things about this issue that are either wrong, possibly hurtful, incorrect, you name it. So we will spend some time in this episode learning the history, and coming to some understanding of this often controversial topic.

The scholar for this episode, Russell Stevenson, has dedicated years of his life to the study and understanding of the issues surrounding Race and the LDS Church. He talks about how his mission experience inspired this work, and informs much of what he does in his academic studies.

For further reference, please refer to the Race and the Priesthood essay at LDS.org


LDS MissionCast Podcast for Mormon Missionaries

10 Questions with Dennis B. Horne

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Cross-posted from From the Desk of Kurt Manwaring

I recently had the privilege to interview Dennis B. Horne.

Horne is the author of many books, including Bruce R. McConkie: Highlights from his Life and Teachings, Latter Leaves in the Life of Lorenzo Snow, I Know He Lives: How 13 Special Witnesses Came to Know Christ, and Determining Doctrine. A Reference Guide For Evaluating Doctrinal Truth.

Dennis B. Horne, Photo provided by Dennis Horne.

Kurt Manwaring: Welcome! Before we begin, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you first got interested in writing about religious topics?

I am an independent researcher and author. I grew up in Bountiful, Utah, and served a mission to Independence Missouri. I obtained my bachelors from Weber State University in Communications with an emphasis in broadcasting. I spent some ten years, off and on, working for two local Salt Lake City television stations before I went to work for the LDS Church twenty years ago. I have two wonderful wives (one of them deceased and on the other side of the veil for the last twelve years) and three daughters.

The spark of interest I felt for church history and doctrine when I attended Seminary grew into a roaring fire while I served a mission. That is where I first heard the other missionaries speak so respectfully and reverently of Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s teachings and testimony. He had passed away just a few weeks before I graduated from high school, and I had not had the sense to pay attention to his final famous (April 1985) General Conference address at the time he delivered it. Following my mission, and on the side while pursuing my degree, I voraciously consumed Elder McConkie’s writings and those of the other great doctrinal thinkers and authorities of the Church. I even became a small-time collector of Mormon books when I could afford it. I began assembling my own files, filled with talks and articles related to church history and doctrine. These books and files became my main interest outside of gaining my secular education. Fortunately, I came under the influence of two knowledgeable and wise CES men, who gave me invaluable counsel in how to approach my gospel and historical studies: what to feast on; what to be wary of and why; what to study for proper perspective, and where to find the purest and sweetest doctrine.

These formative years in my twenties helped me avoid a serious crisis of faith, such as what has become something of a fad today. During the decade of the 1990s I felt, rightly or wrongly, that I might become knowledgeable enough to begin considering the possibility of doing some writing. I loved good Mormon books and soon developed the desire to contribute to the field myself. How little I knew how difficult that would be.

Kurt Manwaring: What do you do for work and what is your writing schedule like? [Read more…] about 10 Questions with Dennis B. Horne

The Coming Revolution of Virtual Missionaries: Review of Books by Greg Trimble

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Available from the FairMormon Bookstore at 15% off

If I remember correctly, I first came across Greg Trimble’s blog by seeing his post “Quit Acting Like Christ Was Accepting of Everyone and Everything” shared by a friend on Facebook, apparently some time in 2014. I liked it enough that I shared it in a few places as well. He has since written a bunch of other posts that have also been shared widely, so most LDS people online are probably familiar with his name.

In the last year, Trimble has started publishing books. His first one, Dads Who Stay and Fight: How to Be a Hero to Your Family, showed up on Audible’s website, so I thought I’d give it a listen. It is a book about being a good father written by a young father, so it does have its weak spots. A lot of the chapters could have used fewer stories and more concrete examples. But there were some really good ones that made the whole thing worthwhile, in particular the ones on marriage, technology, and protecting your family from worldly influences.

A few months ago, I saw that he had published another book, The Coming Revolution Inside of Mormonism. I was curious enough about the title that I wanted to take a look at it, and I requested a review copy. When it arrived, it was accompanied by The Virtual Missionary: The Power of Your Digital Testimony, which had also recently been published. Since then, The Coming Revolution Inside of Mormonism has been retitled to The Cultural Evolution Inside of Mormonism, apparently because the original title had caused a lot of confusion. In order to avoid confusion here, I will refer to the book by its new title (and assume that none of the actual content has changed). [Read more…] about The Coming Revolution of Virtual Missionaries: Review of Books by Greg Trimble

Have There Been Any Latter-Day Parallels to Balaam’s Blessing? (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 16A)

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Balaam Son of Beor Inscription from Deir ʿAllah. This fragment, dating to several centuries after the events of Numbers, recounts a night vision of Balaam, son of Beor, a “seer of the gods.” Though the content of the vision has nothing to do with the Bible story, the text provides evidence that stories surrounding the figure of Balaam were known anciently outside the Bible among peoples who lived in the area east of the River Jordan.

 

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 16: “I Cannot Go Beyond the Word of the Lord” (Numbers 22-24; 31:1-16) (JBOTL16A)

 

Question: Have there been any latter-day parallels to Balaam’s blessing?

Summary: In 1898, Dr. John M. Reiner, a Roman Catholic scholar, visited Utah. In a talk given at the Salt Lake Tabernacle at the invitation of President Wilford Woodruff, he described in striking terms the parallels he found between ancient and modern Israel. Throughout his talk, he wove in colorful and informative allusions to the story of Balaam, who had blessed Israel in spite of himself. Reiner also spoke vigorously of the strength of the claims of apostolic authority that, in his view, had been credibly put forth by only two churches: the Roman Catholics and the Mormons. Although not claiming the gift of prophecy, Reiner’s eloquent words of appreciation and friendship for the Latter-day Saints were sincere and generous. His little-known discourse drawing out modern day parallels to the story of Balaam and Israel deserves to be better known.

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL16A — Have There Been Any Latter-Day Parallels to Balaam’s Blessing?