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Testimonies

Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

March 31, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

by Robert Hill

Every six months, dating back to 1840, Latter-day Saints gather as a worldwide congregation to worship, sing and learn at the feet of leaders we consider living prophets. It’s a wonderful time full of the Spirit of God. But recently, I can’t help feeling I miss the way General Conference used to be. I don’t mean the recent changes in whether we get a male priesthood session or the socially-distanced broadcasts necessitated by the pandemic. I mean the feeling of sitting down for it. It wasn’t so very long ago that I looked forward with unalloyed eagerness to gathering with family and food for a joyful weekend of spiritual edification. [Read more…] about Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apostasy, Conversion, Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, LDS History, New Testament, News stories, Old Testament, Prophets, Questions, Revelation, Temples, Testimonies

FAIR Conference Podcast #78 – Kirk Magleby, “Unforgettable Hugh Nibley”

March 11, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kirk-Magelby.mp3

Podcast: Download (12.1MB)

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This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference. If you would like to watch all the presentations from that conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Kirk Magleby, Unforgettable Hugh Nibley

Hugh Nibley Observed is available from the FAIR Bookstore.

Kirk Alder Magleby is the Executive Director of Book of Mormon Central. Kirk was born in Salzburg, Austria, and raised in Utah and Arizona. He served a mission for the Church in Peru. Kirk has a degree in economics from BYU and has spent his life in entrepreneurial as well as religious and humanitarian pursuits. Kirk is currently the Executive Director of Book of Mormon Central. He and his wife, Shannon, have 4 children and 10 grandchildren.

Filed Under: Archaeology, Book of Mormon, FAIR Conference, FAIR Conference, Geography, Hugh Nibley Observed, Podcast, Prophets, Resources, Testimonies

FAIR Conference Podcast #75 – John Gee, “Lessons on Doing Apologetics”

January 18, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/John-Gee.mp3

Podcast: Download (11.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference held in August. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

John Gee, Lessons on Doing Apologetics

John Gee’s books are for sale in the FAIR bookstore.

John Gee is the William (Bill) Gay Research Professor in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University. He has authored more than 150 publications on topics such as ancient scripture, Aramaic, archaeology, Coptic, Egyptian, history, linguistics, Luwian, rhetoric, Sumerian, textual criticism, and published in journals such as British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar, Enchoria, Ensign, FARMS Review, Göttinger Miszellen, Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, Journal of Academic Perspecitves, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Journal of Egyptian History, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, Lingua Aegyptia, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur, and Interpreter, and by such presses as American University of Cairo Press, Archaeopress, Association Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, E. J. Brill, Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Deseret Book, de Gruyter, Harrassowitz, Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Peeters, Praeger, Religious Studies Center, and Society of Biblical Literature. He has published three books and has edited eight books and an international multilingual peer-reviewed professional journal. He served twice as a section chair for the Society of Biblical Literature.

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apologetics, Apostasy, Chastity, Conversion, Doctrine, Doctrine and Covenants, FAIR Conference, FAIR Conference, Faith Crisis, Homosexuality, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, LDS History, Podcast, Power of Testimony, Prophets, Testimonies

FAIR Conference Podcast #74 – Jenny Reeder, “First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith”

January 12, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jenny-Reeder.mp3

Podcast: Download (11.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference held in August. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Jenny Reeder, First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith

Jenny Reader’s books are for sale in the FAIR bookstore.

Jenny Reeder is the nineteenth-century women’s history specialist at the Church History Department for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has a PhD in American history from George Mason University, and an MA from New York University in history, archival management, and documentary editing. Jenny is on the Church Historian’s Press Editorial Board, the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts Advisory Board, the Mormon History Association’s book awards committee, and the editorial board of Mormon Historical Studies. She has taught at BYU Education Week and has been a featured speaker at BYU Women’s Conference, the BYU Easter Conference, and Time Out for Women. She recently published First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith with Deseret Book, and past publications include At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women and Witness of Women: Firsthand Experiences and Testimonies of the Restoration. She leads the “Discourses of Eliza R. Snow” project, collecting and publishing all of Snow’s sermons on the Church Historian’s Press website and a selection of discourses in an upcoming print volume.

Filed Under: Book of Mormon, FAIR Conference, FAIR Conference, Joseph Smith, Podcast, Revelation, Testimonies, Women

Book Review: “In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks”

December 12, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

Available from the FAIR Bookstore

This biography of Dallin H. Oaks was written by Richard E. Turley, Jr., who has been associated with Oaks throughout most of his (Turley’s) professional life. Turley has served as the Director of the Church History Department (originally selected to work for the department by Oaks), Assistant Church Historian, and Director of Public Affairs. He has previously written or co-written several other books, including Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hoffman Case and Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy.

Dallin Harris Oaks was born August 12, 1932 in Provo, Utah. He got his middle name from his mom’s side of the family, who was descended from a brother of Martin Harris. He grew up in Provo; Twin Falls, Idaho; Payson (where he stayed with his grandparents at times due to the death of his father when he was 7); and Vernal. He came close to dying several times in his childhood, beginning with his birth, with miraculous preservation of his life occurring each time. [Read more…] about Book Review: “In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks”

Filed Under: Book reviews, Doctrine, General Conference, Jesus Christ, LDS History, Priesthood, Prophets, Revelation, Science, Testimonies

FAIR Conference Podcast #68 – Keith A. Erekson, “Real Vs. Rumor”

November 30, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Keith-Erekson.mp3

Podcast: Download (11.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference held in August. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Keith A. Erekson, Real Vs. Rumor

Keith’s book is available in the FAIR bookstore.

Keith Erekson is an award-winning author, teacher, and public historian who has published on topics including politics, hoaxes, Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, and Church history. He grew up in Baltimore, served a mission in Brazil, and earned advanced degrees in history and business. He works for the Church History Department in efforts to encourage outreach and historical engagement.

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apologetics, Apostasy, Doctrine, FAIR Conference, FAIR Conference, Faith Crisis, LDS History, Media, Podcast, Questions, Resources, Testimonies

Come, Follow Me Week 48 – Doctrine and Covenants 135-136

November 22, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

By René Krywult

A view of the bedroom in Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith was martyred

This week’s Come, Follow Me lesson starts with the following words:

The afternoon of June 27, 1844, found Joseph and Hyrum Smith in jail once again, accompanied by John Taylor and Willard Richards. They believed they were innocent of any crime, but they submitted to arrest, hoping to prevent violence against the Saints in Nauvoo.

There were several reasons for this arrest: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 48 – Doctrine and Covenants 135-136

Filed Under: Come Follow Me, Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, LDS History, Politics, Prophets, Testimonies

Come, Follow Me Week 41 – Doctrine and Covenants 111-114

October 8, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

Finances and Faith in the Kirtland Crisis of 1837

by Elizabeth Kuehn

(This is from a presentation given at the 2017 FairMormon Conference)

While I will cover nineteenth-century economics and the Kirtland bank briefly in my presentation today, I also want to focus on the period of spiritual crisis in Kirtland in 1837 and ways I hope we can learn from the Kirtland experience for our current moment of spiritual crisis.

The crisis within the Mormon community of Kirtland has been inseparably connected to the founding and subsequent failure of the church’s Kirtland bank. However, there is too often a direct causal connection assumed between the bank and the 1837 crisis. The focus of my presentation today is to demonstrate the complexity of this period of history, contextualize both the bank and the crisis, and address several prevailing assumptions about each.

Although most Kirtland narratives place the bank amid the financial devastation of 1837, the Kirtland Safety Society Bank was organized in November 1836. As such, understanding developments in Kirtland in 1836 is key. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 41 – Doctrine and Covenants 111-114

Filed Under: Come Follow Me, Doctrine and Covenants, Faith Crisis, Gospel Doctrine: D&C, Joseph Smith, LDS History, Prophets, Testimonies

Three Important FAIR Conference Presentations to Help Parents, Leaders, and Other Teachers of Children and Youth

October 8, 2021 by Scott Gordon

These three presentations are important to families and Church leaders of all faiths. We hope you will watch them and share them with your Latter-day Saint, and non-Latter-day Saint, friends.

Jeffrey Thayne – “Worldview Apologetics: Revealing the Waters in Which We Swim” (transcript)

Carl Trueman – “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution”

Ed Gantt – “Agentic Sexuality: How a Latter-day Saint Perspective Can Rescue Humanity from the Tyranny of the Abstract”

Jeffrey Thayne is from BYUI, Carl Trueman is with Grove City College and is an Orthodox Presbyterian, and Ed Gantt is from BYU.

This is a reposting from a previous blog to highlight the conference presentations.

Filed Under: FAIR Conference, Faith Crisis, Gender Issues, Homosexuality, Interfaith Dialogue, Mental Health, News from FAIR, Perspective, Philosophy, Prophets, Questions, Resources, Testimonies

Come, Follow Me Week 37 – Doctrine and Covenants 98–101

September 6, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

A Letter to my Seminary and Institute Students

by Louis Herrey

My dear young friends,

This week I had the chance to meet with several of you. As always, it is a joy to be around you. I deeply appreciate not only your attendance, but also your participation. You might not think your comments matter that much, but believe me, your words are a strength to me and to your classmates. I feel like I want to become a better person because of you.

I see the goodness in your faces; you have an honest desire to come closer to Jesus and grow in truth and light. All I want to say to that is: continue. Continue to walk in the light of your Savior, trusting Him with every step you take, showing gratitude each day for the grace that He gives you.

My heart is full, and there are many things I want to tell you. For starters, even if you might be facing more complex challenges in your live than I did in my youth, I still understand what you’re going through. I know that although you are filled with dreams and ambitions, it’s hard sometimes to know if you’re on the right path to fulfilling those. I know that although you have faith, sometimes you wonder if it’s strong enough – or even there at all. Some of you struggle with finding your identity, fighting off addictions, and suffering injustices caused by others. And on top of it all, you may ask, why is it such a struggle finding true love? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 37 – Doctrine and Covenants 98–101

Filed Under: Come Follow Me, Conversion, Doctrine and Covenants, Gospel Doctrine: D&C, Questions, Testimonies, Youth

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