What Are the 6 Proclamations that Have Been Issued in Church History?

(by Lindsey Williams ldsliving.com 4-5-20)

On April 5, 2020, President Russell M. Nelson introduced a new proclamation, “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World.” This isn’t the first proclamation leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have made. In fact, it’s the sixth proclamation. Church News shared some background on the other proclamations:

1. Proclamation of the First Presidency to the Saints Scattered Abroad, issued on Jan. 15, 1841. 
2. Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued on April 6, 1845.
3. Proclamation of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles, issued on Oct. 21, 1865, in Salt Lake City. 
4. Proclamation from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued on April 6, 1980.
5. The Family: A Proclamation to the World, issued Sept. 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
6. Learn more about the history and contents of these proclamations at Church News. 

https://www.ldsliving.com/What-Are-the-6-Proclamations-that-Have-Been-Issued-in-Church-History/s/92664

Relaxing Roman Music - Aetas Romana

Adrian Von Ziegler has almost a million subscribers on YouTube and puts out some interesting and relaxing "mood music."

He also always uses some very neat artwork for his videos.

Artwork by Marc Simonetti

www.artstation.com/marcsimonetti

Saul and Joseph

from the Templars or Zion Facebook page (not associated with this blog btw)

Kingdom Of Heaven - Official® Trailer [HD]

Like I have said, I geek out far too easily when it comes to anything Templar. Hence the name of this blog.

But I do like this movie a lot, but watch the extended version for sure. The theatrical version had too much cut out of it for time.

Oliver Cowdery to Samuel W. Richards

In 1848, the year before he died, Oliver Cowdery received rebaptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Kanesville, Iowa.  “I feel that I can honorably return,” he told the high council there.  “I have sustained an honorable character before the world during my absence from you.  This though a small matter with you, is of vast importance.”[1]

Before an audience of approximately two thousand, including non-members of the Church, Cowdery bore witness of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and the divine calling of Joseph Smith.  “I beheld with my eye and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is true.”[2]

 It was not an auspicious time to return. The Saints had been expelled from Nauvoo. Some had already arrived the previous year in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, but most were scattered across the plains and still gathering from Europe. En route to stay with the Whitmers in Richmond, Missouri, during the ensuing winter, the Cowderys were forced by a snow storm to seek shelter at a farmhouse in the northwestern part of the state. As fortune would have it, the master of the house was a devout Latter-day Saint by the name of Samuel W. Richards. The storm offered Richards the chance to spend days in conversation with one of the Three Witnesses, the former second elder of the Church, and he used the time well, asking numerous questions about the early days of the Restoration.

This interview with Brother and Sister Cowdery was one of entire freedom and familiarity, although we had never met before; and his experience in connection with the prophet Joseph, when the ministrations of angels were frequent in restoring Priesthood, and the Keys of Knowledge . . . made it all a most divinely and sacred interview to me.[3]

 At the end, Richards asked for a personal statement, in writing, of Oliver’s testimony of the basic divine events of the Restoration. In 1884, the Deseret News published the following “testimony and statement,” dated and signed on 13 January 1849, that, Richards reported, Oliver had “penned, with his own hand and in my presence,” addressed “To Elder Samuel W. Richards”:

While darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people, long after the authority to administer in holy things had been taken away, the Lord opened the heavens and sent forth his word for the salvation of Israel. In fulfillment of the sacred scripture, the everlasting gospel was proclaimed by the mighty angel (Moroni), who, clothed with the authority of his mission, gave glory to God in the highest. This gospel is the “stone taken from the mountain without hands.” John the Baptist, holding the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James, and John, holding the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, have also ministered for those who shall be heirs of salvation, and with these ministrations ordained men to the same priesthoods. These priesthoods, with their authority, are now, and must continue to be, in the body of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Blessed is the elder who has received the same, and thrice blessed and holy is he who shall endure to the end. Accept assurances, dear brother, of the unfeigned prayer of him who, in connection with Joseph the Seer, was blessed with the above ministrations and who earnestly and devoutly hopes to meet you in the celestial glory.[4]

[1] Pottawattamie High Council Minutes for 5 November 1848, cited in Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, 175.
[2] Journal of Reuben Miller, 1848, and MS 21 (20 August 1859): 544. [See originals.]  Edward Bunker was still talking in 1894 of the “powerfull testimony” he heard Oliver Cowdery give at Winter Quarters in 1848.  See Larson and Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 2:774.
[3] Samuel W. Richards, handwritten statement, 21 May 1907, Ms 3703, LDS Church Archives, as cited in Faulring, “The Return of Oliver Cowdery,” 150-151.
[4] Cited in Anderson, “Personal Writings of the Book of Mormon Witnesses,” 44.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/oliver-cowdery-to-samuel-w-richards.html?fbclid=IwAR3puDvX9OZ0es6g2TuKXcSZd5v9wKesLRsBX2VesLsH6ts3WauXEKqU0RA

Shared Delusion?

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

I offer another note taken from Andrew Sims, Is Faith Delusion? Why Religion is Good for Your Health (London and New York: Continuum, 2009).

But, first, I need to point out that his use of the name Joseph Smith here is probably not significant.  For one thing, of course, the Prophet Joseph Smith most definitely did not imagination himself to be Jesus Christ and was never a resident of a mental hospital, and the passage below makes no real sense if the “Joseph Smith” mentioned is thought to be an early nineteenth-century American religious leader.  I assume that Dr. Sims used Joseph and Smith because they are common names, much the way that Thomas and Brown are.  Certainly he makes no reference whatever to the Restoration or to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

His point, though, is and remains an interesting one:

In former times, when there could be several long-term residents of the mental hospital who believed themselves to be Jesus Christ, this was not a shared or communicated delusion.  Joseph Smith believed that Joseph Smith was Jesus Christ and Thomas Brown believed that Thomas Brown was.  Thomas Brown would not believe that Joseph Smith was Jesus Christ — the delusion was not shared; if a belief is shared, it is most unlikely to be delusion.

The reason that delusions cannot be shared is that it is of the essence of delusion that it is, in [Karl] Jaspers’ expression, ‘ultimately un-understandable’.  This means that, even putting oneself in that person’s position and seeing the world from their point of view, one is still unable to understand how they could hold that belief with delusional intensity.  One can be bludgeoned into giving assent . . . but one cannot believe what cannot be shared.  (127-128)

[Dr. Sims is citing Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology (1959), translated by J. Hoenig and M. W. Hamilton (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1963), 305-307.]

Why do I think his point significant?  Well, I think it relevant to attempts to dismiss the experiences of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon as delusional.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/shared-delusion.html?fbclid=IwAR14-5faGVyvckPxWNduUfixqvfbUL10n0_MuUQJK404-gILv-0I8Hb7MwI

Just a simple fraud?

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

Another passage from one of my rough-cut manuscripts:

We’ll first look at various explanations holding that, yes, there was an objective reality [to the plates, etc.], but it was an artifact of fraud.  This is perhaps the most common explanation advanced by skeptics.  As one recent book from a prestigious academic publisher remarks in passing, with regard to the Book of Mormon, “Exactly how this work was composed remains a matter of debate, but most non-Mormons would dismiss it as outright forgery.”[1]  But can such dismissal withstand serious scrutiny?

Individual Deceit (practiced by Joseph Smith, unaided). It seems difficult to credit this as a believable explanation for the Book of Mormon. We have seen evidence of Joseph Smith’s sincerity and good character, which makes it difficult to imagine that he would be party to such deceit. Of course, there is one theory that Joseph was a “pious fraud,” lying for Jesus, concocting a tale with which to resist the-then popular heresy of Deism. Whether even such a notion is compatible with the many testimonies of his honesty and character is dubious, in my view. But entirely aside from the perhaps ultimately unresolvable question of his innermost character, Joseph Smith seems positively incapable of having pulled off such an enterprise on his own, unaided. He was, as those who best knew him readily and repeatedly noted, only marginally literate during the period of the production of the Book of Mormon. Certainly he seems an unlikely candidate to have produced a book manifesting all the apparently authentic ancient and Near Eastern characteristics that, as we have seen, the book quite arguably possesses. There is even, as we have seen, quite persuasive evidence that he was unfamiliar with the text as he translated it, and that he struggled with its proper names and some of its vocabulary. Furthermore, could he have written something so sophisticated and complex in so short a time? Could he have fabricated gold plates? Where did he derive the metallurgical expertise? Where did he get the gold? [At the time of writing, gold is selling for just over US $275.00 per ounce. If William Smith’s estimate of their weight at 60 pounds was accurate, and if they were of pure gold, their monetary value in today’s terms was something on the order of US $264,000. More likely, they were a gold alloy, but, clearly, their value was far beyond the reach of the young son of a subsistence farmer.] Where did the gold go when he was done with it? Did he just give it away? Bury it? How was he able to produce the breastplate and other artifacts that many saw? Was he really up on the Hill Cumorah cementing a box and hiding it in the earth? Why did nobody notice any of this elaborate activity? Finally, it is very difficult to see how he convinced many of his associates to believe that they were seeing angels, experiencing miracles, hearing the voice of God, and witnessing examples of otherwise impossible prophetic foreknowledge. For lack of a better word, such “supernatural” aspects of the story are exceptionally difficult to account for on a hypothesis of simple fraud.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/just-a-simple-fraud.html?fbclid=IwAR3mC5N9rwojPYdENShNxexYMS1x3X4iEoAREB7fSn0If-YUpBPp0wgP2Mw

The “lakam-tuun” of Book of Mormon Omni 1:20

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

One of the tasks that I’ve set myself for my COVID-19 house arrest (and, I hope, beyond) is to extract notes from John W. Welch, Neal Rappleye, Stephen O. Smoot, David J. Larsen, and Taylor Halverson, eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2017).  I’ve been delinquent in doing this, but no longer.  Knowing Why is a product of the Interpreter Foundation’s esteemed sister organization, Book of Mormon Central, which I enthusiastically commend to your attention.  Here, I’m working from pages 178-179:

And it came to pass in the days of Mosiah, there was a large stone brought unto him with engravings on it; and he did interpret the engravings by the gift and power of God.  And they gave an account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people. And Coriantumr was discovered by the people of Zarahemla; and he dwelt with them for the space of nine moons.  It also spake a few words concerning his fathers.  (Omni 1:20-22)

This Book of Mormon passage was clearly on the minds of the Latter-day Saints living in Nauvoo, Illinois, when, in 1841, explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood published their discovery of a large, engraved stone among the ruins of Quiriguá in Guatemala.  Their excited reaction — Joseph Smith’s included — demonstrates both that they recognized its connection to the “large stone” mentioned in Omni 1:20-22 and that they had previously been unaware of such stones actually existing in the Americas of their day.
 In our day, after nearly two centuries of archaeological research, such large, carved stones — stelae, as they are called (sg. stela) — are well known and relatively common.  But we shouldn’t take them for granted.

This is one instance where archaeology now strongly supports the Book of Mormon, whereas it did not seem to before.  Realizing this underscores the importance of patience when it comes to comparing a text like the Book of Mormon to the archaeological record.  (179)

Prior to the 1960s, too, most Mesoamericanist scholars believed that the stelae of the region were devoted exclusively to mythological matters rather than to ordinary terrestrial historiography.  Now, though, it is recognized that they treat the histories of kings, their battles, and their lineage — exactly as the “large stone” described in Omni 1:20-21 does.  Moreover, the inscription of stelae appears to have begun with the Olmec, a Mesoamerican culture that was contemporary with the Book of Mormon’s Jaredites and (if one follows John Sorenson’s proposed geography) at least roughly contiguous with them.

And inscribed stelae were also created by the Maya, whose term for a stela was lakam-tuun — which literally means “large stone,” just as it is called at Omni 1:20.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/the-lakam-tuun-of-book-of-mormon-omni-120.html?fbclid=IwAR2jfFaFxo6JMQl2iz37gCl1aeBX_43XVPjVJeckWxZrcRFUUBnGjX_EAvo

“Subscriptio” in the Book of Mormon

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

I base these notes upon John W. Welch, Neal Rappleye, Stephen O. Smoot, David J. Larsen, and Taylor Halverson, eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2017), 180-181:

It’s striking that, according to Joseph Smith, the title page of the Book of Mormon as it currently appears in English is “a literal translation taken from the last leaf of the plates” (emphasis mine).  This seems to be consistent with an ancient practice called subscriptio, in which information that we would customarily regard as “introductory” — e.g., the title of the text and the author’s name — is placed “right at the end, after the last line of the text.”  The eminent classicist Walter Burkert (1931-2015) of the University of Zürich, with whom I was once privileged to spend a bit of time while he was visiting Brigham Young University, argued that the existence of this practice in ancient Greek literature was “a detailed and exclusive correspondence which proves that Greek literary practice is ultimately dependent upon Mesopotamia.”

On the basis of Burkert’s argument, my late friend and colleague William J. Hamblin asked an intriguing question:  If the phenomenon of subscriptio is indeed “proof” of a dependence of classical Greek literature on Mesopotamian influence, “cannot the same thing be said of the Book of Mormon — that the practice of subscriptio represents ‘a detailed and exclusive correspondence’ which offers proof that the Book of Mormon is ‘ultimately dependent’ on the ancient Near East?”

The word proof is, I think, too strong.  (Please note that it is actually Professor Burkert’s word, not Professor Hamblin’s.)  But Bill was right to observe that “This idea would have been counterintuitive in the early nineteenth century when title pages appeared at the beginning, not the end, of books.”  Even Joseph Smith himself, when he published the English Book of Mormon in 1830, put the title page at the front of the volume rather than placing it in the back, on the “last leaf.”

Incidentally, another instance of subscriptio in the Book of Mormon seems to appear in the placement of Words of Mormon after the text from the small plates that they seem to introduce and to explain rather than as a preface to it.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/subscriptio-in-the-book-of-mormon.html?fbclid=IwAR0bA-X8srxFLNTkgIP0FryG2WKoOG_hc4SYJQzUVcWb6kUGNCIGjWrQ9zQ

The Garden Tomb by Robert A. Boyd

“Celebrating a Very Special Holy Week”

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

The item below, from Bob and Gloria Rees, was passed on to me yesterday and, with Bob’s kind permission, I’m sharing it here.  Brother Rees is a retired member of the faculty at UCLA, as well as a former editor of Dialogue and the co-founder and vice president of the wonderful Bountiful Children’s Foundation (formerly the Liahona Children’s Foundation), whose website, for some reason, I cannot currently access.

I commend the following note to your attention.  Thanks to the alertness of a reader, I have corrected some erroneous dates that existed in the original:

This coming week, Latter-day Saints have a rare opportunity to celebrate the holiest week of the year, first, preparing ourselves by listening to general conference and then focusing on the events of this sacred season throughout the week, culminating on Easter Sunday. Undoubtedly, some of the words we will hear from apostles and prophets on this 200th anniversary of the First Vision will help us prepare our hearts and homes for what one person has called, “the most concentrated, symbol-laden, primitive, critical, foundational, animating . . .  time in the Christian calendar. . . . [During Easter week] We stand before the emotional well-spring of Christian . . . experience.”
 

Does Holy Week play a role in the Restoration? We believe it does in a significant way. Although we don’t know the precise date of the First Vision, it is very likely that it took place on Easter Sunday, April 2, 1820. Joseph records the time simply as “early in the spring” (Joseph Smith 2:14).  Our reason for speculating that the Father and the Son chose this day to reveal themselves to the young Joseph is that ten years later when the Church was organized, it was between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, 1830, and sixteen years later when Christ appeared to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland Temple, April 3, 1836, it was Easter Sunday. In fact, that entire week seems to have been a holy week, for on Palm Sunday, March 27th, Joseph dedicated the temple and at the conclusion of his prayer the congregation sang “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning” and then partook of the sacrament. Joseph recorded, “We sealed the proceeding of the day by shouting hosana to God and the Lamb 3 times sealing it each time with Amen, Amen, and Amen.” Although Joseph does not so indicate, this is the very shout given by those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday heralding the beginning of the most memorable week in history.
 

The following Tuesday and Wednesday of that week in Kirtland witnessed the ceremony of washing of the feet, which was also first performed during Christ’s last week. This happened in first among the presiding elders and then among a larger group of three hundred saints and, finally, by the First Presidency washing the feet of the Twelve. On this same Wednesday, according to the Prophet, “the Savior made his appearance to some, while angels ministered unto others, and it was a Pentecost and endowment indeed.” Holy Thursday was another ceremonious day in the temple. Easter Sunday, however, included a series of remarkable spiritual manifestations, including the appearance of Moses, Elias and Elijah. The most glorious vision was of the resurrected Christ, who stood “upon the breast work of the pulpit. . . . under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber: his eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was like the pure snow, his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun, and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters.”
 

That these remarkable events should occur during Holy Week is, to our mind, highly significant. Throughout the scriptures the Lord uses dramatic events, including the marking of significant days or anniversaries, to teach important principles. We believe that part of the message in the Sacred Grove, in Fayette, and in Kirtland was that these holy days should be remembered and celebrated, especially by those of us who have taken upon ourselves the name of Christ.

 

Here are some things every family can do to mark this remarkable week (You might consider keeping a personal journal of your thoughts, feelings, and observation throughout this week):

 

Saturday, April 4: Watch general conference, paying particular attention to the talks that focus on the Savior and the First Vision.
 

Sunday, April 5: Sing, Hymn  No. 69, “All Glory Laud and Honor,” which celebrates Palm Sunday, Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to begin the last week of his ministry. Watch general conference, again paying attention to the speakers who talk about Christ’s atonement and resurrection and the First Vision.
 

Monday, April 6: Hold Family Home Evening and sing hymns and read scriptures about Jesus’ coming into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19). Show images from Google Images (“Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem”). Share testimonies.

 

Tuesday, April 7: Read about the organization of the Church on April 6, 1830: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1971/01/april-6-1830-the-day-the-church-was-organized?lang=eng
 

Wednesday, April 8: Read the story of the remarkable woman who anoints Jesus in preparation for his burial (Luke 7:36-7:50). Discuss how having our sins forgiven increases our love of and devotion to God. Read about other anointings by women in Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9 and talk about what these events teach us.

Thursday, April 9: (Sometimes called “Holy Thursday, “Great Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday” (from the Latin mandatum or “command,” relating to Jesus’ two great commands to love God and others as ourselves. This is the day of the Last Super, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, and his harrowing experience in the Garden of Gethsemane where he took upon himself the burden of all our sins, suffering so greatly that, as Luke says, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). You might consider reading or listening to Chapter 33 from Talmage’s Jesus the Christ about the events of this momentous day (a free recording is available at: https://archive.org/details/JesusTheChrist/JesusTheChrist-Chapter33-TheLastSupperAndTheBetrayal.mp3). See the text at: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/jesus-the-christ?lang=eng. Share testimonies about what the atonement means to you personally.

Friday April 10. Known as “Good Friday” or “Great Friday,” the day Jesus was crucified.

Read about this from the gospels: (Matthew 27:1-50; Mark 14:53-73 and 15:1-38; Luke 22:39-71 and 23:1-49; John 19:142). Watch Elder Holland’s 2009 conference Address, “None Were With Him”:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2009/04/none-were-with-him?lang=eng; see images of the Crucifixion on Google Images and share feelings of this great event and what it inspires you to do.

[And, now and very appropriately for the day, President Russell M. Nelson has invited us all to participate in a Church-wide special fast with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. -dcp]

Saturday, April 11: Read the scriptures about Christ’s burial. Read what happens among the Nephites: 3 Nephi 8-10.

Sunday, April 12: Easter Sunday, “He Is Risen!” If you feel comfortable doing so, rise just before dawn and sing hymns celebrating Easter from the hymnbook. Read the gospels about the resurrection. Read 3 Nephi 11. Read and or listen to Talmage’s Chapters 36-37 (from the same sources cited above). Read Elder Monson’s “He is Risen” conference address: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1981/10/he-is-risen?lang=eng. If you feel comfortable doing so, walk in nature with your family and observe all the new flowers and grasses, the blossoming trees, and share your feelings with one another about the renewal of the world which symbolizes our individual spiritual renewal through Christ and the great gift of a physical resurrection.

 

Take time to listen to great music, including the Easter section of Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s great Passion According to St. Matthew and Passion According to St. John which are available for free on You-Tube.

 

Plan on ways you can take the great spiritual gifts from this week to strengthen you during the coming weeks and months as you and your family face the challenges of the coronavirus. Pray for those who are adversely affected by the virus and spread the good news—Christ has risen indeed!  

Robert A. Rees, Ph.D.

 

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/04/celebrating-a-very-special-holy-week.html

Artwork by Kamila Szutenberg

Although technically not templar it is still medieval and knightly. I love the angles and the lighting.

I like it so much I have this as the background on my computer.

The Church’s New Symbol Emphasizes the Centrality of the Savior

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new symbol to identify the faith. Church Prophet and President Russell M. Nelson announced it and explained its significance during the Saturday evening session of the April 2020 general conference.

President Nelson said this new symbol is a continuation of the effort he felt inspired to initiate in August 2018 to focus on the Church’s divinely revealed name. Since that time, he said, the Church’s leaders, departments, related entities, main website, members and many others now use the correct name of the Church.

“We have gone to these extraordinary efforts because when we remove the Lord’s name from the name of His Church, we inadvertently remove Him as the central focus of our worship and our lives,” said President Nelson, who has given strong emphasis to the correct name of the Church in his ministry since at least 1990. “When we take the Savior’s name upon us at baptism, we commit to witness, by our words, thoughts, and actions, that Jesus is the Christ.”

This new emblem emphasizes the name of Jesus Christ and His central role in all the Church does. The name of the Church is contained within a rectangular shape that represents a cornerstone. This idea has biblical roots. The Apostle Paul, employing a construction metaphor in a letter to the first century Saints in Ephesus, wrote that the Church is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The center of the symbol is a representation of Thorvaldsen’s marble statue, the Christus. Jesus stands under an arch as a reminder of His emergence from the tomb three days after His death.

“[The symbol] portrays the resurrected, living Lord reaching out to embrace all who will come unto Him,” President Nelson said. “This symbol should feel familiar to many, as we have long identified the restored gospel with the living, resurrected Christ.”

This new symbol will be used on Church materials as directed by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Detailed usage guidelines are being developed, including possible uses of the new symbol around the world.

“The symbol will now be used as a visual identifier for official literature, news, and events of the Church,” the prophet continued. “It will remind all that this is the Savior’s Church and that all we do, as members of His Church, centers on Jesus Christ and His gospel.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a global family of more than 16 million members worldwide. This new symbol is being created in 110 languages—a complex process that will take several months to complete. As the First Presidency urged in 2019 as the Church made adjustments to better reflect correct use of the faith’s full name, members of the Church worldwide should be patient and courteous as these symbol adjustments are made in their language.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/new-symbol-church-of-jesus-christ?fbclid=IwAR1Uvzn2PcxdTBsaMoTj65QAQ0a6wBXwZWF37PZo04wfEDXzuTxCODx3ltI

Templar artwork by Jama Jurabaev

I geek out to anything Templar far too easily. But you have to admit, some of the following artwork is pretty amazing.

It all came from artist Jama Jurabaev's Art Station page or from the Big Medium Small website.

Please see the following links for even more;

www.bigmediumsmall.com

www.artstation.com/jama

In formation

Templars gather

A crusade begins

Templar church artwork

artwork by Jama Jurabaev