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Part 1 of 2: Why Is the Story of David and Bathsheba Significant? (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 24A)

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James Tissot: David Sees Bathsheba from the Roof

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 24: “Create in Me a Clean Heart” (2 Samuel 11-12; Psalm 51) (JBOTL24A)

Question: Why is the story of David and Bathsheba significant?

Summary: Chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Samuel are among the treasures of scripture. There are several reasons for their importance:

  • Historically, these chapters constitute the turning point that marks the end of the rise and the beginning of the fall of the house of David;
  • Doctrinally, the setting provides a context for discussions of the consequences of adultery and murder, and of abuses stemming from David and Solomon’s often politically motivated taking of “many wives and concubines”;
  • As a literary composition, we can experience and appreciate how an inspired and skilled author selectively presents details with incredible focus and economy of expression, thus revealing with exceptional clarity the central messages of the story;
  • As a tragic personal account of the steps leading to temptation and damning sin, we can draw moral lessons that can fortify and protect us against similar mistakes.

Because of the incredible richness of this account, it is best discussed verse by verse. Before entering into detailed commentary, three questions relating to the story will be discussed as background.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL24A — Why Is the Story of David and Bathsheba Significant? (Part 1 of 2)

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.

How Does the Story of David’s Loyalty to Saul Apply in Our Day? (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 23A)

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David Cuts Off a Corner of Saul’s Robe

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 22: “The Lord Be Between Thee and Me Forever” (1 Samuel 18-20; 23-24) (JBOTL23A)

Question: How does the story of David’s loyalty to Saul apply in our day?

Summary:The story of David’s rise to power “is designed to demonstrate David’s innocence of wrongdoing in his conflict with the house of Saul and to explain his dramatic ascent to the throne as a consequence of divine favor.” His self-restraint in the face of both Saul’s murderous intentions and his own anointing to become king “shows his respect for God’s appointment of Saul and his patience to wait for God’s timing.” David never speaks of Saul as his enemy, and his declaration to Saul after he cuts off a part of the old king’s cloak make it clear that “what David wanted was not to harm Saul but to demonstrate his own loyalty.” Though it is unlikely that any of us will encounter the sort of challenges faced by David in his relationship with Saul, his story serves as a reminder of the attitude of love and respect that should be maintained with regard to “the Lord’s anointed.” It is hoped that the suggestions collected in the discourse below will be a helpful resource for members who seek to resolve differences with Church leaders in the Lord’s way.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL23A — How Does the Story of David’s Loyalty to Saul Apply in Our Day?

FairMormon Conference August 1-3

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Register now for the FairMormon Conference in Provo, UT on August 1, 2 & 3.  You can attend live, or via streaming. Many people attend live AND also purchase the streaming so they can share the best talks later with their friends and family.

Speakers include Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the First Quorum of the Seventy, Brad Wilcox, Daniel C. Peterson, Jenny Reeder, Lisa Olsen Tait, Jenny Lund, Matt McBride, Steven Harper, Randall Spackman, Spencer McBride, John Gee and more.

A partial list of presentations is as follows:

  • “We all must be crazy”: The Plight of a 19th-Century Mormon Missionary Wife
  • ’Fire In My Bones’: Women’s Stories on churchhistorianspress.org
  • Women’s Stories in Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days
  • Mormon Women in India
  • Peter and Paul’s Paradoxical Passages on Women
  • “Even as Moses’ Did”: the Use of the Exodus Narrative in Mosiah 11-18
  • “Have You Been Saved By Grace?” How Do We Respond?
  • Barriers to Belief
  • Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo
  • Making Saints: A Look into the Writing of the New Church History
  • Chronological structure and symbolism in the small plates of Nephi
  • Joseph Smith in Van Buren’s White House: Lessons in Electoral Politics and Religious Freedom
  • Horses in the Book of Mormon
  • Strengthen they Brethren. Bolstering those in Faith Crisis
  • “Arise from the Dust”: Digging into a Vital Book of Mormon Theme
  • Selling Our Birthright for a Mess of Pottage: The Historical Authenticity of the Book of Abraham
  • Thinking Differently About Same-Sex Attraction
  • Apologetics: What, Why and How?

Go to https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2018 to register and to get more information.

If you are a Seminary or Institute instructor (volunteer or paid), there is a discounted rate. You can get that discount code from your S & I representative, or you can email us directly at [email protected].

Please note: The conference discounted hotel rate is only available until 4 July. So, please register now.

What Was the Religious Role of Music in the Life and Times of David? (Gospel Doctrine Lesson 22A)

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Lyrist from the tomb-painting of Khnumhotep II, Beni-Hasan, Egypt. Twelfth Dynasty, ca. 1900 BCE

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 22: “The Lord Looketh on the Heart” (1 Samuel 9-11; 13; 15-17) (JBOTL22A)

Question: What was the religious role of music in the life and times of David?

Summary: From the earliest times, music has played a central role in religion. The book of Samuel is a good example. Before Saul became king, music enabled the Spirit of the Lord to come upon him in the company of prophets; afterward, in Saul’s misery, David’s harp — or, more accurately, lyre (Hebrew kinnôr) — invited the Spirit into his palace once more. Later, in likeness of other nations in the ancient Near East, music and dance became an inseparable part of the institution of kingship in Israel. The Psalms, in a tradition that stretches back to David, contain some of the most significant prophecies of scripture and became the backbone of temple liturgy. In this article, we will explore all these themes and will finish with examples of how the combination of inspired singing and playing continue as important mainstays of the religious life of the Saints today.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL22A — What Was the Religious Role of Music in the Life and Times of David?

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.

A Review of: Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective by Dr. Jared W. Ludlow.

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The first book of the Standard Works I studied in Early Morning Seminary was Doctrine and Covenants. I remember how puzzled I was to read D&C 91:

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the Apocrypha—There are many things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly;

2 There are many things contained therein that are not true, which are interpolations by the hands of men.

3 Verily, I say unto you, that it is not needful that the Apocrypha should be translated.

4 Therefore, whoso readeth it, let him understand, for the Spirit manifesteth truth;

5 And whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom;

6 And whoso receiveth not by the Spirit, cannot be benefited. Therefore it is not needful that it should be translated. Amen.

Having come from a Catholic background, I first didn’t know what the LORD was talking about, but our teacher then explained that this is the protestant name for what I knew as the deuterocanonical books. This left me with more questions, as for me those books had always been scripture (Catholic background, as I said), and now I heard that they were – basically –a noncanonical mixed bag.

But reading D&C 91 more carefully, I saw that the LORD was not as negative about them as I had thought first, and I studied them for myself.

Dr. Jared W. Ludlow

Back in those days, a book like Jared Ludlow’s Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective would have been very helpful to me. Ludlow is Professor of Ancient Scripture and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University. His primary research interests are with texts related to Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, which is exactly the time period most of the Apocrypha come from. So, the author sets the stage by first discussing Apocrypha in general, including their history, and second, by showing the attitude to and usage of these ancient books LDS leaders have shown throughout church history. The main part is dedicated to discussing the contents of each one of the apocrypha, its problems and its highlights.

Aimed at the beginner, who has never read these ancient works, the book is easy to read and you do not need any background knowledge to understand and enjoy it. But being a general introduction for the interested public, a primer, and in order to be interesting to its intended audience, it does not deal with topics in depth.

So, if you have not read the apocrypha so far, if you want to get a quick overview, and if you want to know if they are worth your time, Jared Ludlows book is exactly right for you.

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René A. Krywult, 45 years old, was born and lives in Vienna, Austria, Europe. He has been a member of FairMormon since 1998, and in 2004 he started the German branch of FairMormon. A software developer by profession his apologetic main interests are patristics, comparisons between different branches of Christianity, and interdenominational communication.

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