Mormon Studies Commons^™

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“Be Not Faithless, But Believing”, Brad Wilcox

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

esus Christ taught Thomas, and through him, all of us, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believed” (John 20:29). In the Americas, the Savior taught that those who have not seen and still believe are “more blessed” (3 Nephi 12:2). How are we more blessed not to see Him? By not compelling us to believe, the Lord leaves space for choice and for faith. Choosing faith is the act that welcomes God and Christ into our lives, and their involvement and influence bring the miracle of change. The goal is not just to see God and Christ—one …

Joseph Of Egypt As A Model Of Gospel Living, Khumbulani D. Mdletshe

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In Genesis 37–50, the narrative of Joseph of Egypt offers instructive lessons on the blessings that flow from persevering through trials while honoring covenant commitments with God. Joseph’s capacity to consistently and courageously apply eternal principles when facing abuse, temptation, injustice, and other challenges not only led to his personal success but also proved critical for those whom he served as a slave and prisoner and, once he was elevated to great power in Egypt, for the numerous subjects of Pharaoh’s kingdom during times of famine. This essay identifies and discusses the primary principles that guided Joseph’s efforts to accomplish …

Declared Guiltless Justification By Faith In The Latter-Day Saint Classroom, Stephan Taeger

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Religious educators can face unique challenges when teaching the doctrine of grace. Some students struggle with excessive guilt and do not think they are doing enough to live the gospel. Others think that grace somehow excuses their sins. Helping students better grasp the doctrine of justification by faith can help them feel peace with God while inspiring them to be more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. This article uses the words of scripture, modern prophets, and trusted scholars to clarify this doctrine and discusses how understanding it removes guilt and inspires obedience to God’s commandments. The concluding section provides practical …

“An House Of Prayer For All People” A Guide To Christ’S Cleansing Of The Temple, Joe Cochran

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article explores the contextual background of Christ’s cleansing of the temple as recorded in the four Gospels. An analysis of scriptural and historical evidence can help teachers and learners better understand what Christ cleansed and for whom his actions were undertaken. Discovering specific meaning and purpose behind the Savior’s words and actions in the temple helps establish this event as yet another witness of the loving, compassionate, and justice-seeking Savior we all know well.

Relational Grace The Reciprocal And Binding Covenant Of Charis, Brent J. Schmidt

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In New Testament times, the concept of grace (Greek charis) was operative in relationships in which a person giving something of value to another could expect the recipient to provide service, thanks, or something else of much lesser value in return. When the Apostle Paul described Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice as a gift (charis), his ancient audiences understood that redemptive act as initiating a covenantal bond with expectations of devoted discipleship. Bible translators have never properly conveyed Paul’s message of active, obliging grace, an oversight that some scholars of the New Pauline Perspective are now demonstrating. During the Great Apostasy, …

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Vital Gospel Nutrients, Dale G. Renlund

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Instead of sharing “spiritual Twinkies,” or shallow teachings, teachers can provide deep spiritual nourishment to students. Four spiritual principles, or “staples,” are essential to help students grow strong in faith: (1) nurturing students’ testimonies of Jesus Christ and the gospel, (2) fostering students’ personal relationships with teachers, (3) facilitating students’ confidence in addressing gospel questions, and (4) preparing students’ hearts to feel the Spirit.

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Helping Students To Take Charge Of Their Own Testimonies, Clark G. Gilbert

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This message focuses on President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation to “take charge of your testimony,” given in a worldwide devotional to young adults. It is meant to be a resource to religious educators to help their students deepen faith. Elder Gilbert shares his own personal faith journey as an example of what it means to work for, own, nurture, and take care of a testimony. Religious educators are given five suggestions to help students take charge of their testimonies: (1) exercise agency, (2) be a light to others, (3) ask questions in faith, (4) look to truth-filled sources, and (5) …

Seminaries And Institutes Reach And Impact Update, Chad H. Webb

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article highlights efforts of Seminaries and Institutes instructors to support youth and young adults worldwide. It addresses concerns about previously declining institute enrollments, sharing strategies implemented to mitigate and reverse the trend. Feedback from focus groups emphasized the need for relevance, belonging, accessibility, and deepened conversion to Jesus Christ. As a result, initiatives such as workshops, new classes, and online options have been implemented. Notably, institute enrollments have increased by 20 percent, and seminary enrollment has also grown, with the programs adding over 126,000 students in the last three years. It emphasized the need for continual innovation, grounded in …

Addressing The Crisis In Meaning And Identity Through Covenant Relationship, Jenet Jacob Erickson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Our youth are experiencing a profound hunger for connection, evidenced by an epidemic of loneliness and increasing mental health challenges despite the seeming connectivity of a world swimming in social media. The deepest loneliness stems from disruption and disorder in family life, including ruptured or never formed family relationships. In answer to this relational fracturing, the gospel of Jesus Christ offers covenant belonging and connection. The revealed understanding of the nature of our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and his work in enabling eternal bonds within the family and across the entire eternal family is at the heart of helping …

Institutional Efforts To Amplify Prophetic Messages, R. Kelly Haws, C. Shane Reese, Chad H. Webb, Brian K. Ashton, Bruce C. Kusch, John S. K. Kauwe Iii, Alvin F. Meredith Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In this panel, presidents from Church Educational System universities, Ensign College, and the administration of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion consider prophetic priorities, increasing one’s ability to recognize and amplify those teachings, and the blessings that come to young adults and others from understanding prophetic priorities.

Department And Individual Efforts To Amplify Prophetic Messages, Scott C. Esplin, Brad Streeter, Rory Bigelow, Aaron Shumway, David Peck

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This panel focuses on Church Educational System efforts to follow Elder Clark G. Gilbert’s counsel to amplify prophetic messages. An amplifier takes an input source such as a microphone and increases its amplitude or size and sends it through an output source such as a speaker. Instructors can help students reduce background noise, or contradictory information from sources other than the Savior or prophets.

Expecting More, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Olivia Osguthorpe, Eastin M. Hartzell

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Trying to amplify the words of the prophets while helping religious educators throughout the world understand the hearts and heads of young adult students as they become lifelong disciples of Christ, Barbara Morgan Gardner, professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU; Matthew O. Richardson, professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU; and Sean Dixon, area director in the Utah South Area of Seminaries and Institutes, led a panel of young adult students. The young adult panelists included Matt Conway (Utah Valley University), Zoe Gomez Paz (UVU), Eastin Hartzell (BYU), Abigail Haven (BYU), Micah Johnson (BYU), and Olivia Osguthorpe …

Broken Shelves Or Continuing Revelation? Extending The Shelf Life Of Faith, Jared M. Halverson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Many former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explain their loss of faith with the phrase “My shelf broke.” This is in reference to a well-known analogy by Camilla Kimball in which her shelf was where she kept the questions she could not yet answer, not as a way to avoid those questions but with faith that God would eventually answer them. Based on Sister Kimball’s analogy and the ninth article of faith, this paper suggests that there are actually three shelves rather than one, with a constant interplay between revelation past (shelf 1), revelation present …

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Perfectionism Across Adolescence, W. Justin Dyer

BYU Studies

As a sixteen-year- old on my first date, I had such a nervous tightness in my stomach that, at one point, I ran to the bathroom to throw up. I’d always been somewhat nervous, but it had never bothered me much before. Yet from that time on through my teenage years, any time there was something new happening, I would inevitably have to throw up.

The Pathophysiology Of The Death Of Jesus The Christ, C. Thomas Black

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Centuries-long speculation continues regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of the Savior. Over the past century, the Savior’s tribulations between the Last Supper and his death on the cross have been scrupulously examined from a medical viewpoint. In this article I review many of these studies and, using current medical acumen, propose additional inferences and explanations based on scriptural, medical, and historical accounts. The evidence suggests that at some point between Gethsemane and his last moments on the cross, the Lord’s body was pushed beyond the limit that a normal mortal could endure. The Lord did, however, endure and completed …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Creating The Book Of Mormon Art Catalog Why Religious Art Matters, Jennifer Champoux

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The Book of Mormon Art Catalog allows users to access and study a greater volume and variety of art based on this book of scripture than ever before. This open access digital database includes more than four thousand images from seven hundred different artists hailing from fifty-five nations. The catalog provides a resource for teachers, enhances possibilities for scholarship, and creates new opportunities for artists. As an ongoing gathering of art, the catalog can also inspire new production, including scenes or approaches currently underrepresented in the art. Incorporating more art into our study and teaching of the Book of Mormon …

Observation, Reason, Faith, And Revelation, Dale G. Renlund

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

While some might believe that observation and reason are at odds with faith, they in fact support our ability to receive revelation. We can be deceived when we draw conclusions based on observation, reason, or faith alone, but when used in harmony, they facilitate revelation and enable the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion. Following this pattern of revelation increases the spiritual momentum in our lives.

Experiencing The Doctrine Of Christ, Gaye Strathearn

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This paper compares the prophetic teaching of Nephi, son of Lehi, regarding the doctrine of Christ and the teaching of the resurrected Jesus in the Americas. This comparison shows the purposeful and experiential nature of Christ’s teaching, leading the Nephites to experience the doctrine of Christ rather than simply hear it. By drawing on scriptural texts in the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, this paper shows how each step of the doctrine of Christ was presented to and experienced by those who were witnesses to the Savior in the Americas. These insights directly relate to current seekers of …

Teaching That Leads To Enduring Conversion, Shon D. Hopkin, Ross Baron, Rob Eaton, Phillip Allred

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article includes four presentations centered on teaching that leads to enduring conversion. To integrate and nuance the concepts into a cohesive whole, the four ideas were followed by a dialogue discussion between the four authors. Following the dialogue, each presenter provided brief concluding thoughts. While this article follows the basic organization of the presentations, the authors have refined and expanded on the comments delivered at the conference.

Stephen Burnett Versus The Eight Witnesses An Exercise In Mature Historical Thinking, Neal Rappleye, Stephen O. Smoot

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article critically examines the credibility of the claims made by Stephen Burnett about the experience of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. A disaffected Latter-day Saint who lost his faith in Joseph Smith after the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society in 1837, Burnett wrote a scathing letter in early 1838 in which he claimed he heard Martin Harris admit that the Eight Witnesses did not physically see and handle the gold plates as claimed in their printed testimony. This article argues that Burnett is not a credible source for accurately understanding the experience of the Eight …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

A Pillar Of Light, Alex Arner

BYU Studies

I remember the first time I tried to have my first vision. It had been a normal Sunday at my house. Mom made blueberry muffins to get me and my siblings out of bed so we could make it to church on time. When we got to church, I sat down and quickly lodged my feet against the rough carpet on the back of the pew. Instead of listening to the talks, I began my favorite sacrament meeting game: the fastest foot contest. I’d relax my legs and watch my church shoes slide down the pew. The first foot to …

Irresistible Burdens, Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

BYU Studies

The children would be asleep

by the time we pulled away from the jammed parking lot,

Explaining Mormonism: A Believing Skeptic’S Guide To The Latter-Day Saint Worldview By Gregory Steven Dundas, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

BYU Studies author Gregory Dundas has written a book aimed primarily at a non– Latter-day Saint audience to inform them about the beliefs, culture, and practices of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dundas is an engaging writer who has a diverse background and whose research is both broad and thorough.

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.