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Book Review: “First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple”

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Brown-First-Principles-Cover-Final-Web-HiresBy Russell Stevenson

Note: The parenthetical citations reflect the enumeration found in the Kindle eBook version of this volume

Mormonism has never been merely a set of philosophical tenets, alienated from the material world. It is a religion of the here, the now, a religion that collapses the space between man and the cosmos, between the other-worldly and the earthly, and above all, between human beings. “This is my work and my glory,” the Christ of Mormonism declares, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” The stated purpose of Mormon project is more practical than ideological. Its success, the God of Mormonism declared, depends not on the propagation of tenets but upon the salvation of souls.

In First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple, Samuel M. Brown offers up a doctrinal exegesis of Joseph Smith’s fourth article of faith as stated in his 1842 letter to John Wentworth. Primary children the world over can recite the article by memory: “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by Immersion for the Remission of Sins; and fourth, Laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.” Primarily intended as a devotional text, the book could find a comfortable home in a church service, or a family home evening. [Read more…] about Book Review: “First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple”

Faith and Reason 47: Columbus

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From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith

by Michael R. Ash

In the early part of the Book of Mormon, Nephi saw in a vision a “man among the Gentiles” who left his people and crossed “many waters” (1 Nephi 12:22). Nephi saw that “the Spirit of God” was with this man who eventually came to the Americans and the descendants of the Lehites.  Latter-day Saints have interpreted this verse as referring to Christopher Columbus.

In the last few decades there has been a growth in scholarship regarding Columbus –much of it starting in 1991 with the translation of Libro de las profecias. This new look at Columbus reveals a spiritual man who was driven, in part, with a desire to spread Christianity. Columbus believed that he was guided to the New World by the Holy Spirit.

Michael R. Ash is the author of: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting The Prophet Joseph Smith. He is the owner and operator of MormonFortress.com and is on the management team for FairMormon. He has been published in Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Maxwell Institute’s FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt.  He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have three daughters.

Julianne Dehlin Hatton  is a broadcast journalist living in Louisville, Kentucky. She has worked as a News Director at an NPR affiliate, Radio and Television Host, and Airborne Traffic Reporter. She graduated with an MSSc from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2008. Julianne and her husband Thomas are the parents of four children.

Music for Faith and Reason is provided by Arthur Hatton.

RiseUp Podcast – Doubt Your Doubts – Interview with Chad Conrad

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1668-2007-thickbox“Doubt Your Doubts” by Chad Conrad is an eye-opening read that will help readers strengthen their faith, confront controversial topics and find relevant answers to everyday life. The book addresses hot-button questions, such as “Why don’t women hold the priesthood?” and “How should we deal with homosexuality?” Readers’ toughest gospel questions can become testimony-builders with this timely and informative book.

To purchase a copy of Doubt Your Doubts, buy it at a discount through the FairMormon Bookstore.
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Articles of Faith: Inside the Mind of an Inactive Member

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Profile_Facebook_2-25-12Laurie White is a mother of four and grandmother of ten in Sacramento, California.She often writes as Tudie Rose. She writes a weekly column for LDS Blogs at http://ldsblogs.com/.

She blogs as Laurie White about spiritual things (Thoroughly Mormon) at http://thoroughlymormon.wordpress.com/ She has written articles for Meridian Magazine and Familius. She comes on today to talk about an article she wrote for the Mormon Women Stand blog entitled, “Inside the Mind of An Inactive Member.”

Right on Target: Gidgiddoni

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(Cross-posted from Ether’s Cave with permission.)

There are generally two approaches to Book of Mormon names. One of them searches for plausible etymologies for Book of Mormon names; the other looks at whether the name is actually attested. If it is attested it does not matter much whether or not we can figure out an etymology for the name (that is, whether we can determine what the name originally meant). Both of these approaches are useful and have their merits.

The Book of Mormon name Gidgiddoni can now be added to the list of names that are attested.

Gidgiddoni, it will be remembered, was “great commander of all the armies of the Nephites” (3 Nephi 3:18) during the reign of Lachoneus. He is first mentioned during events of “the sixteenth year from the coming of Christ” (3 Nephi 3:1), and is last mentioned ten years later (3 Nephi 6:6).

The name Gidgiddoni, with its reduplication and doubled consonant, is unusual for a Hebrew name. We now know that it is not. It is a well attested name in Neo-Assyrian records. It comes from the same Assyrian empire that is discussed so extensively in the works of Isaiah. The name is mentioned many times in Assyrian records, covering a number of individuals. It is spelled a number of ways:

    • Gíd-gi-da-nu (SAA 1: 152:6)
    • Gíd-gi-da-a-n[i] (SAA 1: 152 r 9)
    • [Gíd-g]i-da-a-[ni] (SAA 1: 152 r 6)
    • [Gí]d-gi-da-a-[ni] (SAA 1: 39 :4)
    • Gíd-gi-da-a-nu (SAA 6: 31 r 23)
    • Gíd-gíd-da-nu (SAA 11: 123 ii 13)
  • Gíd-gíd-da-[nu] (SAA 12: 51 r 12)

The variety of cuneiform spellings demonstrates the following points about the Assyrian name.

    1. The second d is doubled. (see Gíd-gíd-da-nu).
    2. The a is long. (see Gíd-gi-da-a-nu). This is important because Assyrian (Akkadian) long a goes to an o in Hebrew. Cuneiform does not have an osound and uses a variety of strategies to reproduce it.
    3. The form of the name borrowed into Hebrew is the oblique case. Hebrew does not have case endings but does have names ending in -i.

The form of the name borrowed into Hebrew must have been taken from the oblique case, which may have been the form of the name they heard most often. Hebrew often changes foreign names when it adopts them (think Marduk-apil-iddina becoming Merodach-Baladan).

The following individuals bearing the name are known from Neo-Assyrian records:

    1. An individual working in Dur-Sharrukin during the reign of Sargon II.
    2. A man from Kalhu listed in as a member of the chariotry during the reign of Sargon II.
    3. A tailor to the governor of Kalhu during the reign of Sargon II.
    4. A temple carpenter from Assur during the reign of Esarhaddon.
    5. A man from Assur during the reign of Assurbanipal.
    6. A man mentioned during the reign of Assur-etel-ilani.

(The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire [Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1999], 1.2:422-23.)

The simplest explanation is that an Assyrian individual with the name Gidgiddanu was mentioned in the brass plates. This was then the source of the name for this particular military leader several centuries later.

Interestingly, the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project was not able to determine an etymology or meaning for this name.

Thus the number of attested non-biblical names in the Book of Mormon has just increased by one.

Faith and Reason 46: King Benjamin’s Speech

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From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith

by Michael R. Ash

Secondary to the spiritual insight gained by reading the sermon of King Benjamin, we also find additional evidence of the Book of Mormon’s link with the ancient Old World. Modern research suggest that King Benjamin’s speech fits the patterns of ancient “farewell addresses”.

Not only does King Benjamin’s speech resemble Near Eastern traditions, but so does Mosiah’s coronation. Hugh Nibley writes, “Imagine a 23-year-old backwoodsman [Joseph Smith] in 1829 giving his version of what an ancient coronation ceremony would be like –what would be done and said, how, and by whom?”

Order the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith in time for Father’s Day at http://bookstore.fairlds.org/

Michael R. Ash is the author of: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting The Prophet Joseph Smith. He is the owner and operator of MormonFortress.com and is on the management team for FairMormon. He has been published in Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Maxwell Institute’s FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt.  He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have three daughters.

Julianne Dehlin Hatton  is a broadcast journalist living in Louisville, Kentucky. She has worked as a News Director at an NPR affiliate, Radio and Television Host, and Airborne Traffic Reporter. She graduated with an MSSc from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2008. Julianne and her husband Thomas are the parents of four children.

Music for Faith and Reason is provided by Arthur Hatton.

Fair Issues 89: Dilemmas with Great Lakes Model

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MAIn this episode brother Ash explores the work done by Dr. John Clark and Dr. John Sorenson concerning how the Great Lakes model for the Book of Mormon geography creates a number of inconsistencies and dilemmas that go beyond geographical issues.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon

 

 

“By the Gift and Power of Art”

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“By the Gift and Power of God” by Anthony Sweat.

Professor Anthony Sweat (an assistant professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University) and the Religious Studies Center at BYU have kindly allowed FairMormon to post an excerpt from the new volume From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon by Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat. (See these two blog posts here and here for more information on the book.) Professor Sweat wrote an appendix to the book discussing artistic depictions of the translation of the Book of Mormon, including his new piece “By the Gift and Power of God.” The appendix is posted below as a PDF file. Among other things, Professor Sweat explores the “language of art” and depictions of the translation of the Book of Mormon done by past and contemporary Latter-day Saint painters. He likewise discusses the significance of the Church’s commissioned artwork of the translation of the Book of Mormon and the artistic process behind his own piece.

From Darkness unto Light can be purchased in hardcover or eBook format from Deseret Book and the FairMormon Bookstore.

“By the Gift and Power of Art”

Faith and Reason 45: Olive Culture

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From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith

By Michael R. Ash

In Jacob, chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon, Jacob quotes the ancient prophet Zenos regarding the allegory of the wild and tame olive trees and how the Israelites would be scattered, and the Gentiles would eventually be grafted into the olive tree. This allegory goes into considerable detail about olive horticulture and care, including pruning, digging, grafting, and fertilizing methods. What makes this interesting is that in Joseph Smith’s time, there was no information about olive culture… in nineteenth century new England.

Order the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith in time for Father’s Day at http://bookstore.fairlds.org/

Michael R. Ash is the author of: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting The Prophet Joseph Smith. He is the owner and operator of MormonFortress.com and is on the management team for FairMormon. He has been published in Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Maxwell Institute’s FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt.  He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have three daughters.

Julianne Dehlin Hatton  is a broadcast journalist living in Louisville, Kentucky. She has worked as a News Director at an NPR affiliate, Radio and Television Host, and Airborne Traffic Reporter. She graduated with an MSSc from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2008. Julianne and her husband Thomas are the parents of four children.

Music for Faith and Reason is provided by Arthur Hatton.

Fair Issues 88: Geographical inconsistencies in the Great Lakes model

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MAWhile the past few installments have engaged some of the more common non-geographical claims that Great Lakes proponents propose for Book of Mormon geography brother Ash now deals with specific  geographical issues concerning the Great Lakes model.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon