Mormon Studies Commons^™

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“The Lord God Which Gathereth The Outcasts” (Isaiah 56:3–8), Daniel Balnap

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

During the last week of his ministry, Christ was asked what the great commandment was, and in his answer he suggested two, the last being “love thy neighbor as thyself ” (Mark 12:31). Though not stated by Christ, this commandment, found in Leviticus 19:18, is then followed by a similar commandment to love the stranger “as thyself ” (19:34). These two principles reflected one of the great principles of the law—the care for the marginalized outsider. Yet the plight of the marginalized was not only realized in the law, it was also found in the writings of the prophets. One …

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Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

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Deep Learning And Joy In The Lord, Kim B. Clark

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

It is a blessing to speak to the Seminaries and Institutes family all across the earth. I love you very much, and I am grateful for you and all that you do and all that you are. I pray the Lord’s blessings upon you in the great work that lies before us.

Early Latter-Day Saint Martyrs: The Jesse Woods And Armela Shanks Berry Family, Shauna Timpson Johnson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

On 10 August 1884, three Mormon missionaries, Elders William S. Berry, Henry B. Thompson, and John H. Gibbs, met at the house of James Condor in Cane Creek, Tennessee, for Sunday worship services. They had just finished singing a hymn when a mob rushed up to Condor’s front gate. Historian B. H. Roberts described the dramatic scene:

Elder Gibbs had just taken up his Bible . . . when a man disguised—which afterward proved to be David Hinson—came in at the front door, crossed the room, took down a shotgun suspended on hooks over the back door, and then took …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Doctrine Of The Family: A South African Example, Khumbulani D. Mdletshe, Michael A. Goodman

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Early in 2015, I visited my aunt’s home. She lives in one of the largest townships in South Africa, an urban residential area with a predominantly black African population. Townships often have higher unemployment, greater poverty, and younger populations than other areas in South Africa. Townships also tend to have higher levels of risk behaviors such as drug abuse, unprotected sex, and crime. This was my first visit to my aunt’s home in five years. As I entered the home, I noticed some young people I had never met. My aunt, who is in her early sixties, began to introduce …

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Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Joseph Smith Translation Of 1 Corinthians 15:40, Jared T. Parker, Todd B. Parker

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The Joseph Smith Translation ( JST) of 1 Corinthians 15:40 is significant for the Latter-day Saint (LDS) community because the King James Version (KJV) is closely associated with the LDS doctrine of three degrees of glory in the Resurrection. Of particular interest is that JST 1 Corinthians 15:40 adds two phrases to the KJV,1 in bold below:

Dealing With Difficulty In Scripture: Divine Violence In The Book Of Mormon, Andrew C. Smith

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Latter-day prophets have implored and continually encouraged members of the Church to make daily and habitual study of the scriptures a priority in their lives. One of the most important reasons for this is the fact that it is through the scriptures that one learns the most about the life and teachings of the Savior and how to follow him. “What manner of men had ye ought to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” is Jesus’s scriptural call to each of us (3 Nephi 27:27).1 When we consider our relationship with Jesus, especially as our exemplar …

“After This Manner Did He Speak”: Mormon’S Discourse On Faith, Hope, And Charity, Charles Swift

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Literary scholar Richard Dilworth Rust calls Mormon’s discourse in Moroni 7 “one of the most tightly woven and forceful sermons in the Book of Mormon.” It is a masterful example of a prophet not simply stating doctrinal truth but building a case for it. Mormon creates an argument that begins with teachings that seem almost completely unrelated to what he ends up saying in his conclusion, yet the argument is so tightly constructed that each step beautifully and powerfully leads to the next.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Getting To Know Saints: The Story Of The Church Of Jesus Christ In The Latter Days, Steven C. Harper, Scott Hales, Casey Paul Griffiths

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Griffiths: The purpose of this meeting is to explain a little bit about what Saints is and how teachers can use it. Scott, can I start with you? Can you tell us a little bit about Saints and what it is intended to do?

Hales: Saints is a new four-volume narrative history of the Church. It covers Church history from 1815 to the present. Each volume culminates in the completion of a temple and shows Latter-day Saints making and keeping sacred covenants. The first volume covers the organization of the Church and the early years of the Restoration. It begins …

The Power Of Principles, Tad R. Callister

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

On 15 July 2017, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building on the campus of Brigham Young University became the site for the first annual conference of the LDS Educators Association. The purpose of the association is to challenge LDS educators to consider the relationship between their sacred covenants and their professional practice. It provides a place to discuss critical contemporary issues in the context of faith, encourage educators to consider the unique aspects of LDS doctrine, and network together in finding the most effective ways to strengthen learning in all settings.

“This Shall Be Our Covenant”: Brigham Young And D&C 136, Chad M. Orton

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Two and one-half years after Brigham Young assumed the primary leadership role for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and nearly a year after the first Saints left Nauvoo, Illinois, to begin the journey west, the responsibility of leading the Church had taken a physical toll on him. By January 1847 he had lost so much weight that his clothes no longer fit. The reason was that the Latter-day Saints had literally and figuratively become stuck in the mud. Worn out and needing wisdom on how to extricate the Church and move the work forward, Brigham received the …

Using Women’S Voices In Teaching History And Doctrine, Jennifer Reeder

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In early July 1830, shortly following her baptism, Emma Smith received a revelation through her husband, Joseph Smith, about her position and responsibilities in the new Church of Christ. In the revelation (now known as section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants), the Lord described Emma as an “elect lady” and charged her to “expound scriptures and exhort the church according as it shall be given thee by my spirit.” The responsibilities were weighty: the 1828 American Webster dictionary defines exhort as “to encourage, to embolden, to cheer, to advise, to excite or to give strength, spirit, or courage.” Likewise, …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Focus On Faith, Jean B. Bingham

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Assembled dignitaries, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen: I am honored to be here today to discuss the role of faith-based organizations in relieving suffering and building self-reliance among the peoples of the world—particularly those who are most vulnerable. I am grateful to be in the midst of so many friends who recognize the tremendous good that is achieved when people of faith come together.

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Questions In The Book Of Mormon, Holt Zaugg

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Questions are the catalyst that drives learning, providing a focus on what an individual wants or needs to know. They are the drivers that move knowledge acquisition to realms of greater understanding and wisdom. Karen Brown, a professor at Dominican University, describes questions as the heart of learning and the impetus for building knowledge. Teachers and students use questions to vet information and allow them to develop the ability to see when change is coming and to manage changes when they occur. Questions help people to zone in on important details that help to sharpen and refine their thinking.

The Book Of Mormon In American Missions At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, John C. Thomas

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Historians describe the opening decades of the twentieth century as a challenging time of transition for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Manifesto on plural marriage in 1890 and the successful bid for Utah’s statehood in 1896 pointed toward rapprochement with American culture. But in an era of potential assimilation, tensions lingered as Mormons labored to “translate the things America demanded of them into the language and imperatives of their own faith.” Thomas G. Alexander observed that ongoing controversy in the era prompted Church leaders to search for “a new paradigm that would save essential characteristics of …

“Torah In The Mouth”: An Introduction To The Rabbinic Oral Law, Avram R. Shannon

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

One of the primary characteristics of modern Judaism, as it developed from its earliest forms, is the acceptance of what is commonly known as the oral law. Over the thousands of years of Jewish/Christian interaction and discourse, Christians—including Latter-day Saints—have tried to understand the oral law and how it relates to their own beliefs and practices. In the historical relationship between Christianity and Judaism, this has sometimes led to the propagation of anti-Semitic beliefs, even unknowingly. When teaching about Judaism, whether in the context of the New Testament or world religions, it is important for Latter-day Saint teachers and religious …

Abish, Theophanies, And The First Lamanite Restoration, Matthew L. Bowen

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Abish and her secret conversion to the Lord “on account of a remarkable vision of her father” “many years” before the conversion of Lamoni’s household (Alma 19:16–17) emerge at a crucial moment in the Lamanite conversion narratives (Alma 17–27). In terms of a timeline of events, this “remarkable vision” stands first in a sequence of visions that result in the conversion of numerous Lamanites. Moreover, these visions, and the mass conversions that follow, precipitate seismic events on the landscape of Lamanite-Nephi history as Mormon recounts it. He mentions Abish’s name, gives a brief biography, and references the “remarkable vision of …

Sitting Enthroned: A Scriptural Perspective, Jennifer C. Lane

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Putting scriptural texts into historical and cultural context has the potential to open up new insights and reveal what may have been hiding in plain sight. By allowing what might seem familiar in a modern perspective to be seen in the new light of a different cultural world, the ancient meaning can become clear.

Principles And Practices For Motivating Youth For Scripture Literacy, Eric D. Rackley, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Brother Howard enjoys teaching his students, and his students look forward to coming to class because they know they will learn important gospel truths. But there is a problem: students are not reading their scriptures as often or as carefully as they should. After careful consideration, Brother Howard decides to encourage students to complete their daily scripture reading by assigning course grades based, in part, on how often they read, and giving students daily quizzes that ask them to recall information from their reading. Brother Howard also plans a series of rewards if students complete their reading for a set …

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Review Of Council Of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–1846, Benjamin E. Park

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The Council of Fifty, a clandestine organization founded by Joseph Smith in the final months of his life, has remained one of the most controversial episodes in LDS history. Created during Smith’s 1844 presidential run and while internal and external tensions in Nauvoo were reaching a boiling point, the council embodied both the Church’s growing anxiety and its desperate attempts to find some path to resolution. And because the written records of the council have been restricted from scholars since their origin, the many historians who have tried to reconstruct these meetings were forced to do the equivalent of seeing …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Byu–Idaho Pathway: A Gateway To Global Church Education, Benjamin C. Peterson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

With the announcement of BYU–Pathway Worldwide on 7 February 2 017, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf identified the occasion as a “very special day for the Church Educational System (CES), and a day of hope and joy for many of our young people worldwide who are seeking to educate themselves and to prepare for successful livelihood.” This new higher education online organization continues to revolutionize the way in which the Church provides opportunities of higher education to an increasing number of individuals around the world. At the heart of BYU–Pathway Worldwide is the BYU–Idaho Pathway program that has for the last …