Christmas, The Israelite Tabernacle, And The Gospel Of John

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

“In the beginning was the Word,” begins a Christmas story that we seldom read at Christmas, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14).

The Greek verb translated as “dwelt,” “skeneo,” means “to dwell in a tent” — which, in Greek, is a “skene.” So John 1:14 could be rendered as “And the Word was made flesh, and tented among us.”

This recalls the Old Testament tabernacle in the wilderness, a tent-sanctuary symbolizing the presence of God that was pitched in the midst of the traveling camp of Israel:

“And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:8-11).

The Hebrew word translated as “tabernacle” is “mishkan,” which refers to the place where God’s presence, his “shekinah,” resided. “And let them make me a sanctuary,” says the Lord in Exodus 25:8-9, “that I may dwell (‘ve-shakan-ti’) among them, according to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle (‘mishkan’).” John’s Greek verb (built from the root “s-k-n”) seems to play off of the Hebrew root (“sh-k-n”; in Arabic, the equivalent root is, precisely, “s-k-n”) in order to suggest that the presence of Moses’ portable temple among the Israelites prefigured Christ’s earthly life in a “tabernacle of flesh” among mortals.

The epistle to the Hebrews also links Christ closely with the temple — most notably when it compares him to the high priest of the earthly sanctuary.

“We have such an high priest,” says the author of Hebrews, “who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” He is “a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Human priests merely “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (See 8:1-5). Into the holy of holies “went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people … which was a figure for the time then present” (9:7, 9). “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. … For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (9:11-12, 24).

So John compares Christ to the tabernacle/temple, and Hebrews likens him to a high priest officiating within the temple.

But, through redemptive vicarious service in the temple, we, too, can imitate Christ. “The keys are to be delivered,” said Joseph Smith, “the spirit of Elijah is to come, the Gospel to be established, the Saints of God gathered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up as saviors on Mount Zion. But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem(ing) them.”

What more Christ-like gift could we possibly give than to go to the temple this Christmas season, to help, in our lesser and derivative way, to redeem God’s children? If we haven’t planned to attend the temple during this hectic and foreshortened month, perhaps we should. It may require special effort, but nothing could be more thoroughly in the spirit of the season.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2023/12/christmas-the-israelite-tabernacle-and-the-gospel-of-john.html

Christmas Beyond Christendom

(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)

I published this article in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News back on 19 December 2019:  “What is the appeal of Christmas beyond Christian believers?”  It was supposed to have been co-written with my dear friend William J. Hamblin.  But, to my deep and continuing sorrow, he had suddenly passed away the previous week, on 10 December 2019:

Landing this month at the international airport in Cairo, Egypt — busy gateway to a city and a nation that are roughly 85%-90% Sunni Muslim — you will see Christmas decorations everywhere. And such decorations show up prominently in hotels and public spaces well beyond the airport and the city.

In Japan, where estimates put the number of Christians somewhere between 1%-2% of the population or perhaps even lower, a quite secularized version of Christmas focused on Santa Claus and gift-giving is widely observed. Also prominent among Japanese Christmas traditions is eating fried chicken from KFC, where the statues of Colonel Sanders that stand in front of KFC restaurants are dressed as Santa Claus during the holiday season. Japanese people who don’t pre-order their KFC Christmas dinners can end up waiting in long lines for them, and could miss out altogether.

“Why KFC?” you might ask.

In 1970, just a few months after Takeshi Okawara opened the first KFC restaurant in Japan — he would go on to become the CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984-2002 — he conceived the idea of a Christmas “party barrel” containing not only chicken but, in some premium cases, ribs and stuffing and cake and even wine. In 1974, the promotional campaign went national with the slogan “Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii” (“Kentucky for Christmas”). Since, in the 1970s, there were few if any traditional Japanese Christmas observances, KFC filled a void.

In the West, too, Christmas remains by far the dominant holiday even among those indifferent to its theological background, including many non-Christians. In increasingly post-Christian Europe, for example, the colorful Christmas markets of such cities as Krakow, Dresden, Cordoba, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam continue to flourish. In America, scores of virtually interchangeable Christmas-themed television movies celebrate “redemption through romance” nonstop through the season, with little or (usually) no specific religious content at all.

What can explain the appeal of Christmas to people well beyond the community of committed Christian believers?

First of all, it must be recognized that a superficial view of Christmas can easily be rendered much less threatening, theologically speaking, than Easter. Everybody can accept and celebrate the birth of a baby, whereas the revivification and eventual ascent to heaven of a crucified man is difficult to reconcile with a non-Christian or even secular worldview.

It seems clear, though, that there is a very great deal, even in the most watered-down versions of Christmas (as illustrated in those television movies), that speaks to the deepest longings of human hearts around the world.

Whatever our culture or religious views, for instance, the message sung by the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago resonates with all of us: “Peace on earth, good will toward men” (compare Luke 2:14). Every Lifetime or Hallmark movie concludes with love and harmony, things for which we all yearn.

The practice of gift-giving reminds us of the generous, kind people we would like to be and among whom we would like to live. Think of the chastened and redeemed miser Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol,” which, like the television movies that proliferate during the Christmas season, is not an explicitly Christian tale: The new Scrooge became both generous and beloved, and, as Dickens writes, “it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

The birth of a baby — any baby — is a moment of hope and the inauguration of virtually boundless possibilities, and Christmas powerfully reminds us of these things once more each year.

Finally, the image of the Holy Family, of the little baby snugly wrapped against the cold and lying in a manger, reminds us of the security and warmth of our own homes and families, whether as they really are or as we aspire for them to be. These are the kinds of homes and families conjured up, too, in many beloved Austrian Christmas carols and in the Victorian illustrations of father and mother and children — even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their young family — gathered by the hearth and around the Christmas tree, then fairly recently introduced from Germany.

We all yearn for lives of love, safety, harmony, warmth, kindness, generosity and possibility. But this is not our world. Christmas, however, whispers that we’re strangers here, and we feel that we have wandered from a more exalted sphere.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2023/12/christmas-beyond-christendom.html

Tapped Out: Criticism an Unsustainable Fountain for Faith

(by Dan Ellsworth publicsquaremag.org 12-8-23)

A year ago, popular Catholic YouTube channel Pints with Aquinas showcased one of the most important lessons in religious epistemology, and they showcased it on accident, the hard way. The host, Matt Fradd, moderated a debate between Jeff Cassman and Peter Dimond on the question of sedevacantism—the idea that at some point in Catholic history, the seat (sede) of St. Peter became empty (vacante) as the office of pope became occupied by people who do not legitimately hold that title. In the sedevacantist view, Pope Francis and some number of his predecessors are not really popes due to their departure from the faith.

I say that Pints with Aquinas learned a hard lesson because, in their debate, the sedevacantist Peter Dimond simply destroyed the arguments of his opponent Jeff Cassman. It was one of the most lopsided debate victories in recent Catholic memory, and it led Fradd to record and air a lengthy justification for his decision to continue offering footage of the debate. Fradd’s explanation was a painfully awkward monologue intended to answer the complaints of many pope-affirming Catholics who were left reeling by the exchange.

If that episode was in any way a hard lesson for the host and viewers, then over time, they seem to have unlearned the lesson. And the lesson can be plainly stated in a single sentence: accusation is the epistemology of hell. In the debate on Pints With Aquinas, Catholics witnessed the immense power of a prolific accuser in Peter Dimond. When accusation is the primary element of one’s epistemology—their framework for seeking the truth—the basic underlying assumption is that a person or institution is not a reliable guide to the truth if bad things can be said about them.

Most psychologists understand that human beings’ rationality is employed in the service of our intuitions and not the other way around. Our logic and reason generally don’t point us to what is true; they serve to reinforce things we believe to be true for non-rational, intuitive reasons. In a masterful presentation touching on epistemology, Catholic scholar Robert George emphasized this point, invoking Thomas Hobbes’ insight that “…the thoughts are to the desires, as scouts, and spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things desired.” Hobbes’ insight was further affirmed by David Hume, whose views are then expanded in Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind.

The power of accusation lies in its ability to poison our intuitions, which then leads our powers of logic and reason to be employed in the service of those poisoned intuitions. In the Book of Mormon, this process is allegorized in Lehi’s vision, where messaging from the great and spacious building leaves believers ashamed (a non-rational state of mind) and therefore unable to employ the same thought processes that had once been leading them toward the tree of life. Religious disaffection is usually a negative reprocessing of one’s past based on intuitions that have become poisoned by accusation.

Pints With Aquinas and other debate venues do their participants and spectators a disservice by offering the pretense that debates are a dispassionate exchange of “the facts.” As I indicated in another article, this is a typically male approach to epistemology, and it is misguided. Christian epistemology began with Christ’s observation to Peter that “flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Paul understood this and exclaimed, “…where is the disputer [debater] of this world?”. From the outset, Christianity never claimed to be a commitment to be embraced on the world’s intellectual terms—a commitment arrived at through the medium of debate.

Long predating Hobbes and Hume and Haidt, Christ pointed to the dominant role of intuitions in epistemology with his declaration that “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.” Sign-seeking always presents itself as a rational process for establishing the truth of claims that are offered in the realm of faith, but sign-receivers almost always demonstrate a marvelous capacity for rationalizing into oblivion any signs that they are given. When accusers engage believers and demand some universally empirically verifiable evidence for their faith, believers are correct to reply like a therapist: “Tell me, what’s really going on?” Because chances are, there is something.

For Latter-day Saints, this principle was perhaps best articulated in a 1994 article, “Text and Context,” written by Dan Peterson in the FARMS Review of Books. There, Peterson offers a long and thorough exploration of the reality of personal factors in shaping historiography, especially among religious critics. Countering the naïve claims of critics who often claim “objectivity” in their accusatory behavior toward the Church and its leaders, Peterson observed that “Human beings are not asocial, ahistorical, disembodied intellects. Clearly, considerations of the total personality of the individual advancing a theory, writing a book, or painting a picture may be entirely germane and legitimate in analysis of what that individual produces.”

Dan Peterson’s article has aged very well, as wide swaths of disillusionment have been cut through Christian communities by biblical scholars and researchers claiming “objectivity.” Scholars have formulated arguments against Christ’s resurrection and other elements of Christian sacred history, but much of the negative impact of the field of secular biblical studies could be blunted if people understood theologian Walter Wink’s insight that “People with an attenuated sense of what is possible will bring that conviction to the Bible and diminish it by the poverty of their own experience.” And it’s important to note that I first came across that quote and a robust discussion of its implications for scholarship in evangelical scholar Craig Keener’s wonderful book Miracles. In the flood of accusations toward our faith, ordinary Latter-day Saints are left without the kind of Latter-day Saint academic resources that we see among Evangelical scholars at Wheaton College and other places.

In discussing scholarship, I employ the term “accusation” very deliberately. When secular biblical scholars make counterclaims around sacred history, they do tend to arrive at some form of accusation, either direct or implied. Scholarly denials of the reality of the resurrection, for example, contain an embedded accusation against the early Christian community: they bore false witness about things they saw and heard. Scholars formulate sophisticated narratives that sometimes openly, often implicitly, accuse early Christians of forming a conspiracy to maintain a lie. Scholars in the field of secular biblical studies commonly refer to their craft as “biblical criticism,” and they are eager to explain that “criticism” in this context simply means a benign process of objective analysis. But in practice, their analyses tend to be rife with inferences that the ancients were not just misinformed in their judgments; not just creative and flexible in their approaches to historiography by modern standards; but outright dishonest and manipulative in their formulation of the biblical text. What are offered as benign scholarly analyses land in the mind of the average Christian as intuition-poisoning accusations.

There is an antidote to poisons of criticism and accusation, but it is not found in Matt Fradd’s address to his viewers after the debacle that was his debate on sedevacantism. His message was not a mea culpa; rather, he offered a rationale more along the lines of this is the price of doing business. Viewers of Pints With Aquinas learned the hard way that when you are in the business of accusation and counter-accusation, it is only a matter of time before the flood comes in your direction. The cost of doing business may be the poisoning of the faith of your viewers. And the antidote to these poisons of criticism and accusation is to see that these things sometimes have their place in discourse, but they are overrated as tools in truth-seeking, and utterly useless in leading people to God.

Among those viewers who love and support Pope Francis, one can only hope that they learned the principle that it is possible to formulate very persuasive accusatory narratives to undermine the authority and validity of good people and good institutions. We sometimes resist this principle, however, because it also applies in a favorable way to people and institutions that we disagree with. But it leads to a much more mature set of assumptions in our epistemology. If I believe my religion’s claims are valid, this conviction stands on its own merits, and can be stated without dwelling on the perceived flaws of other religions. Debates over theology and scripture and doctrine can be interesting and sometimes even enlightening, but they are a weak basis for faith commitments.

The other mature assumption is that we are all biased in some way. Returning to biblical scholarship, the claim commonly held among secular scholars that religion causes a biased view of evidence, and lack of religion somehow eliminates that bias, just indicates a lack of self-awareness. In the field of biblical studies, secular scholars offer numerous competing claims on most every issue, yet only one view can be factually correct. This means that biblical scholars can and do claim “objectivity” while developing vast amounts of well-researched, well-documented, peer-reviewed, consensus-shaping analyses that are 1) the results of personal biases and 2) factually wrong, opposing the correct view. It is a rare biblical scholar who is willing to plainly acknowledge this depressing reality about the nature of their field.

Plainly stated to my fellow believers, don’t be unsettled by accusations designed to undermine your faith, because it is possible to formulate extremely powerful and poisonous accusations against souls and institutions that are good, up to and including the very God you worship. Furthermore, don’t be unsettled in your faith by critics’ appeals to rationality because it is possible to formulate narratives of reality that are at once rational and completely false. And greater intellectual gifts don’t automatically equate to a greater embrace of reality: as often as not, the greater one’s intellectual gifts, the more sophisticated his delusions.

In closing, I hope we and our Catholic friends at Pints With Aquinas can internalize their hard lesson about the nature of accusation and its tendency to backfire when it is misguidedly employed in Christian epistemology. For a theological final note, I appeal to C.S. Lewis, who said, “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth), we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.” A good indicator of our yearning for heaven is our willingness to let go of souvenirs of hell, like the faith-poisoning intellectual idols of criticism and accusation.

https://publicsquaremag.org/dialogue/tapped-out-criticism-an-unsustainable-fountain-for-faith/?fbclid=IwAR2pHj_iWN9Bukvn6fitVfHGicWNSFMOzhjPdHF3qflDLImtqGaKpsYuHzQ

Twin sisters walked the road to baptism together.

(by Ellie Smith ldsliving.com 12-7-23)

Ariana and Briana Mendez share a lot of things as identical twins, but their conversion stories show how God sees them as the unique, individual souls they are.

Volleyball and Faith: Briana's conversion story

Briana was introduced to the Church through her friend Ryan, who played volleyball with her and a group of friends regularly at their local church building in Houston, Texas. One day, Ryan called Briana to tell her about relationship troubles that were plaguing him and asked her to come to the church to talk. Briana thought that they would play a few rounds of volleyball to cheer Ryan up. Instead, he wanted to talk to her about the big questions of life, and the pair ended up discussing the equivalent of the first four missionary lessons.

As Ryan taught her the plan of salvation, Briana felt a strong feeling rise inside herself, and she began crying, though she couldn’t explain why or even what that feeling was. Ryan suggested they go into the chapel to pray about the Church, and while Briana thought it was a strange request, she agreed so long as Ryan said the prayer. “He prayed out loud, and I loved the prayer—so beautiful. The Spirit was so strong and so present, and I loved it,” Briana says.

She continued to learn from Ryan, his girlfriend Kayla, and other Latter-day Saint friends she made. Eventually, they invited her to take the missionary lessons. She agreed and immediately felt the difference in her life as she began to learn about the gospel and read the Book of Mormon regularly. “I loved it. I felt like something was different, and it was. I knew that it was true. I don’t think I've ever questioned if it was the true Church of Jesus Christ,” Briana says.

Learning the Language of the Spirit: Ariana's conversion story

Ariana needed a bit more time to recognize the truthfulness of the gospel. “I was pretty disobedient,” she says. “I did some stuff that obviously I regret, but I’m very grateful because I feel like Heavenly Father let me go through those experiences because … it’s the best way that I was able to learn. And that just shows how much He loves me.”

When she saw her sister get baptized, Ariana decided to learn more about the Church for her sister’s sake. “If it was some random person inviting me to church, I would have probably said no, but because it was Briana, my sister, telling me, ‘Let’s go to the lessons with the missionaries,’ and because I love her so much, I agreed,” Ariana says. “I feel like Heavenly Father said, ‘I know how to soften Ariana’s heart.’ It just testifies of how much He loves us and how He’s so aware of us.” The way that God sent Ariana the gospel was unique from the way He sent it to Briana, and that testified to them both that He knows who they are as individuals.

Along with her sister’s help, the Holy Ghost played a big part in Ariana’s conversion. A friend of hers was receiving the Aaronic Priesthood in church, so Ariana joined the group in a separate room for that ordinance. As soon as the brethren laid their hands on her friend’s head, Ariana felt chills all over her body. Shocked, she tried to understand the source of the feeling and interpreted it as being cold. After the blessing, she talked with her sister, who had experienced a similar feeling but was sure the reason for the chills was something different. They asked the missionaries there about it and realized it was the Spirit. Ariana wanted to keep that feeling with her always.

“Why didn’t [the missionaries] hype up the Holy Ghost more?” Ariana asks. Feeling the Spirit was a game changer in her conversion process, and it has remained a constant source of comfort after her baptism as she has continued progressing in the gospel. “Because I haven’t had the gift of the Holy Ghost my whole life, seeing the difference it makes is so amazing. I’m so grateful to have this beautiful companion constantly with me, guiding me with my life, with whatever I need. If I have a question, the Spirit is always going to be there to testify of the truthfulness.”

A Double Confirmation that God Sees the One

As twins, it’s important for Briana and Ariana to feel like individuals. Repetitive questions about their ages (20) and who was born first (Ariana, by about four minutes) can make them feel like a joint set. When they both received their patriarchal blessings, they were able to recognize assurances from God that He sees them as the unique souls that they are.

The sisters received their patriarchal blessings in Spanish, but since they learned the gospel in English, they didn’t recognize all the Spanish words. Reflecting on the words and meanings has helped them see how specialized both of their blessings are to their different needs and circumstances.

The sisters assumed that they would be declared as the same tribe of Israel when they got their blessings, so it took a while for them to double-check and realize their lineage was through different tribes. “That showed how aware Heavenly Father is of us,” Ariana says. “We are very, very similar. Obviously, we’re twins. But it showed we’re individuals. I’m Ariana. She’s Briana. I feel like Heavenly Father was saying, ‘You guys are gonna be from different tribes because you’re individuals.’”

Feeling the pressure of being twins has been a lifelong topic for the sisters. “It’s something that we struggled with our entire lives because people are like, ‘Oh, you guys are twins.’ They just see us as a twin package,” Ariana says. Recognizing that God was able to see them for who they were underneath the “twin package” label was the cherry on top for the sisters. It confirmed that God was real and that He knew them personally.

Dual Desires to Serve

Both twins have been members of the Church for over a year now and are working toward serving a mission. Just as their conversions were unique, their testimonies and reasons for wanting to serve come from their individual experiences.

Briana is very aware of everything she’s been blessed with—her health, her job, her sister, and now, the Church. “It had felt like something was missing in my life. And then I found the Church, and everything just came together,” Briana says. “I know that I mostly have everything [I need]. But the gospel was something that I was missing in my life. Imagine someone who doesn’t have the many things that I’ve had in my life, and the gospel can change their life. So, I know that I want to serve a mission. I want to help people change.”

Ariana focuses on the happiness she’s found in the gospel and having the Spirit with her. That happiness is something she wants to share with the world. “Sitting with the missionaries and having the lessons, I just felt so much peace and so much happiness. It was such an odd feeling to me because it was like, ‘How can we feel this new?’ … but it was the Spirit there and testifying.”

Even after having been a member for a year now, Ariana is still amazed by everything she’s learning and feeling. “It’s mind-blowing that … this feeling is never gonna go away. And I just want everyone to know that same happiness and that peace I feel.”

While the sisters don’t yet have their mission departure dates, they are excited to go wherever the Lord sends them and help others discover the gospel. “This gospel is the gospel of change and of love," Briana says. "And I’m just so grateful to have it.”

https://www.ldsliving.com/twin-conversions/s/11906

“He brought heaven and earth together”

(by Dan Peterson  sic et non blog  6-25-23)

The latest iteration of the script for our next theatrical film, Six Days in August, arrived earlier today.  The film will focus on the succession of the Twelve to leadership of the Church after the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on 27 June 1844.  My wife and I look forward very much to reading it through.  We’re on track, I think, to commence initial filming sometime in August.

Which sets me to thinking about the relationship between Joseph Smith and his successor, Brigham Young.  Here are some quotations expressing Brigham’s attitude toward the founding prophet of the dispensation:

I feel like shouting Hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith, the Prophet whom the Lord raised up and ordained, and to whom he gave keys and power to build up the Kingdom of God on earth and sustain it (Discourses of Brigham Young [DBY], 456).

I can truly say, that I invariably found him to be all that any people could require a true prophet to be, and that a better man could not be, though he had his weaknesses; and what man has ever lived upon this earth who had none? (Brigham Young to David P. Smith, 1 June 1853, Brigham Young Papers [BYP], 1832-1878. Historical Department Archives. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

President Young’s lifelong veneration for Joseph Smith and his work was confirmed on his own deathbed.  Brigham’s final words seem to express anticipation, if not recognition: “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph” (Susa Young Gates, with Leah D. Widtsoe, The Life Story of Brigham Young [LSBY, 1930], 362).

I felt in those days [before joining the Church], that if I could see the face of a prophet, such as had lived on the earth in former times, a man that had revelations, to whom the heavens were opened, who knew God and his character, I would freely circumscribe the earth on my hands and knees; I thought that there was no hardship but what I would undergo, if I could see one person that knew what God is and where he is, what was his character, and what eternity was (Deseret News Weekly, 8 October 1856, 3).

What is the nature and beauty of Joseph’s mission? . . .  When I first heard him preach, he brought heaven and earth together (DBY, 458).

Joseph Smith has laid the foundation of the Kingdom of God in the last days; others will rear the superstructure (DBY, 458).

I never saw any one, until I met Joseph Smith, who could tell me anything about the character, personality and dwelling-place of God, or anything satisfactory about angels, or the relationship of man to his Maker. Yet I was as diligent as any man need to be to try and find out these things (DBY, 458).

He took heaven, figuratively speaking, and brought it down to earth; and he took the earth, brought it up, and opened up, in plainness and simplicity, the things of God; and that is the beauty of his mission. I had a testimony, long before that, that he was a Prophet of the Lord, and that was consoling. Did not Joseph do the same to your understandings? Would he not take the Scriptures and make them so plain and simple that everybody could understand? Every person says, “Yes, it is admirable; it unites the heavens and the earth together,” and as for time, it is nothing, only to teach us how to live in eternity (DBY, 458–59).

I honor and revere the name of Joseph Smith. I delight to hear it; I love it. I love his doctrine (DBY, 458).

What I have received from the Lord, I have received by Joseph Smith; he was the instrument made use of. If I drop him, I must drop these principles; they have not been revealed, declared, or explained by any other man since the days of the Apostles. If I lay down the Book of Mormon, I shall have to deny that Joseph is a Prophet; and if I lay down the doctrine and cease to preach the gathering of Israel and the building up of Zion, I must lay down the Bible; and, consequently, I might as well go home as undertake to preach without these three items (DBY, 458).

The excellency of the glory of the character of Brother Joseph Smith was that he could reduce heavenly things to the understanding of the finite. When he preached to the people—revealed the things of God, the will of God, the plan of salvation, the purposes of Jehovah, the relation in which we stand to him and all the heavenly beings, he reduced his teachings to the capacity of every man, woman, and child, making them as plain as a well-defined pathway. This should have convinced every person that ever heard of him of his divine authority and power, for no other man was able to teach as he could, and no person can reveal the things of God, but by the revelations of Jesus Christ (DBY, 463).

No man was to be found who could teach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, with authority to administer in the ordinances, until God commissioned Joseph Smith, and sent him forth with his commandment to the people. Previous to that time, I searched everything pertaining to the churches; I searched high and low to find whether there was any such thing as pure religion upon the earth; I searched for a man that could tell me something of God, of heaven, of angels and of eternal life. I believed in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, but I could not believe that the Church of Christ was upon the earth (DBY, 463).

I might have continued to study the Bible and all the books that have been written, and without revelation from God I would have been like the sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, having no knowledge of God, of true religion, of the redemption of the living or of the dead; I would have lived and died in ignorance; and this was the condition of all the inhabitants of the earth (DBY, 463).

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2023/06/he-brought-heaven-and-earth-together.html

What only the Book of Mormon reveals about Mary’s perspective as the mother of the Savior

(from ldsliving.com)

Editor’s note: The Book of Mormon’s powerful witness of Jesus Christ results, in part, from the wide chorus of diverse voices in the book who testify of Him. Like the New Testament—which includes the four accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each of these different witnesses might be described as a “gospel.”

We can find the gospel of Mary, the mother of Christ, in 1 Nephi 11. Nephi’s vision of the “condescension of God” opens a window into Mary’s own experience of God’s good news. This gospel speaks to her unique experience of God’s love as a mother who was called to give birth to the Son of God and then had to allow that child to grow up, leave her home, suffer, and die.

This is an adaption of an essay by Rosalynde F. Welch from Seven Gospels.

What is Mary’s gospel?

A mother’s relationship to her child is a delicate thing, an ever-changing dynamic of coming and going, approach and rebuff, departure and return. My own kids span the spectrum from adolescence to young adulthood, and those comings and goings are the rhythm of my life.

I see in Mary’s gospel the same coming and going, the near-and-far rhythm of mother and child. After Mary has been carried away in the spirit, Nephi sees her again, this time carrying a child in her arms (1 Nephi 11:20). The angel says to Nephi, “Behold the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 11:21).

The image of the Christ child in his mother’s arms, unique to Mary’s gospel, emphasizes the intimacy between the mother and her holy child, and thus it also heightens the poignancy of the sacrifice they both made in submitting to his atoning mission. This is the rhythm of motherhood: after coming is going; after nearness is distance. As the heft on her hip grew each day and time took its due, I think Mary would have known in her body what all parents know, you and I included: this is a child who will leave my arms and go into the world. Soon the weight will be replaced by an emptiness. This child is not mine, but the world’s.

Mary’s parental intuition, however, would have taught her something vaster than yours or mine. Having been told by Gabriel of her child’s divine identity (Luke 1:35), Mary would have had a motherly premonition of her child’s coming departure into the world that would have revealed something about divinity itself. This is not a Lord who remains distant and removed from the world, like a holy hermit sequestered in a sacred fortress. This is a Lord who goes out among his people.

I’m making inferences about Mary’s experience, of course, likening the scriptures to my own life in the process of “informed imagination.” For me, this kind of likening is valuable for the way it can partially reconstruct women’s voices in the scriptures, but you should take it with a grain of salt.

Still, what Mary may have intuited from holding the divine child in her arms, Nephi is shown directly by the angel. Twice the angel shows him the Son of God “going forth among the children of men” (1 Nephi 11:24, 31). Jesus leaves Mary’s arms to be among his people. He goes out among the crowds who visit John to be baptized at the River Jordan; there he is baptized with them and, like them, buried in the water in a rehearsal of their future burials in the earth (1 Nephi 11:27). He goes out among the afflicted, healing and ministering (1 Nephi 11:28, 31). He goes out to disciples who fall at his feet and supplicate him, and he goes out to multitudes who cast him from among them (1 Nephi 11:24, 28). He goes out among them all.

Nephi and the angel see these scenes as manifestations of the condescension of God (1 Nephi 11:26). God’s condescension is the love of Father and Son for their children: a love so great that a Father would send his own Son down to a world lying in wait; so great that a Son would descend from his place at the Father’s side to die among his people, first in baptism and then on the cross.

Mary’s motherly perspective adds an important nuance to our understanding of God’s condescending love. We often picture Christ coming down to earth from heaven and then returning again to the heavenly throne where he will gather the faithful, as Nephi saw later in his vision (1 Nephi 13:37). We think of condescension as primarily an up-down or vertical movement.

But I wonder if condescension looked and felt slightly different to Mary. She would have sensed that her son’s direction was also a horizontal out and into: out of her arms and into the world, going forth among his people. The vertical axis of condescension emphasizes the power and glory of the pre- and postmortal Christ, at the top of his trajectory, and the humility of his descent into mortality. But to my mind, the horizontal axis of his movement from Mary’s arms into the world emphasizes his essential solidarity with humankind, his willingness to be like us, among us, and for us.

These twin dimensions of condescension, Christ’s “coming down” and “going forth,” will prove to be important elements of the Book of Mormon’s witness of Christ.

Both Christ’s birth and his death express divine condescension in that they follow the twin patterns of coming down and going forth. More, we can begin to grasp the significance of Christ’s death from the very beginning, in the wonder of his mortal birth.

This is why Mary matters so much to me here. Early in their conversation, the angel twice asks Nephi about what he knows. First he asks if Nephi knows the condescension of God. Nephi answers truthfully: “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17). Nephi understands that God loves but doesn’t yet understand how that love is expressed in Christ’s coming down and going forth. He doesn’t yet understand condescension.

The vision of Mary, bearing her divine child in her arms, has taught him that condescension is Christ’s coming down from heaven and going forth to the cross, and he answers the angel: “It is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men” (1 Nephi 11:22). He has understood the how of God’s love: God’s love is expressed through acts of self- shedding at Christ’s birth and death (and continuously before, after, and between), and transmitted through the hearts of all people.

Isn’t there something perfect and crystalline about this phrase, “sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of men”? Shortened in this way, and if you squint, it takes the form of iambic pentameter, the favored style of Shakespeare and Milton. But it’s the word “shed” that really captures me. Although a similar verse appears in the New Testament, the idea of love being shed hasn’t quite made it into an English idiom (see Romans 5:5).

What kinds of things are shed? Skins are shed. Tears are shed. Light is shed. And blood is shed. This sounds like the scene of a birth, the messy and dangerous path by which Christ and his mother Mary agreed to bring the son of God bodily into the world so that he could live fully among us, one of us in every way except sin. And it sounds like the scene of a death: “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). The love of God “sheds itself” through the willing birth and willing death of the child borne in Mary’s arms.

I think this is the message of Mary’s gospel. The condescension of God includes not only Christ’s coming down from heaven, but his going forth among his people. Jesus came to earth to share all of human experience, minus sin, with and among his people, not merely to instruct us from a safe place at a comfortable distance.

This truth gains special poignancy when seen from Mary’s point of view. Mary appears as a faraway, revered figure in other gospel accounts, but only here in 1 Nephi 11 do we get a glimpse of her own motherly perspective—incorporated, as we’ve surmised, as an element of Nephi’s vision.

Mary understands, as only a mother can, the personal cost at which the Savior, her babe in arms, will go into the world to spread the love of God through his ministry and his atonement. This, I think, is more than teary-eyed sentimentalism, though it certainly does move me as a mother myself. It’s a significant contribution to our understanding of the mission of Jesus Christ and the condescension of God.

https://www.ldsliving.com/understanding-marys-unique-perspective-on-gods-love/s/11894

Did you catch the inspiring examples of the 20 faithful women who labored with Paul?

(from ldsliving.com)

When we think of faithful New Testament women our first thoughts probably go to Mary the mother of Jesus, or to Mary Magdalene the first human witness of the resurrected Savior. While these two Marys are stalwart disciples, we can also find inspiring examples in the women converted soon after Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, women who were essential to the growth of the early Christian church.

Many of these women were well known in their communities; they heard Paul preach in the synagogues, by rivers, and in busy city centers (Acts 16:13; 17:10,16,17). A mix of Jews and Gentiles, they were powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ whose devotion can deepen our own discipleship. As we study the final Pauline epistles in Come, Follow Me, we can find great value by reflecting on their contribution.

In an informal social media survey of 254 church members, 99% said they knew something significant about Mary Magdalene, only 4% knew something significant about Damaris, and only 1% something about Euodia. This is not surprising given that the information about these women is often sparse. In this article, we will explore the examples of early Christian women who exemplify deep consecration, commitment, and conviction to Jesus Christ. (Note: In this article, scripture references come from the King James Version, KJV unless otherwise indicated.)

(follow link for rest of article)

https://www.ldsliving.com/three-lessons-from-the-faithful-women-of-pauls-day/s/11815

Oh dear, look what I saw at Barnes and Noble today

 I'm a sucker for anything having to do with the Templars.

Preparation for the Second Coming

Perspective: Latter-day Saints aren’t going anywhere. Look at the numbers

(deseret.com 9-27-23)

This week, millions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will gather in homes and meetinghouses around the world to listen to inspiring messages. General conference, the biannual gathering of Latter-day Saints, is a natural time to reflect on the state of the church and its members.  

There’s a compelling story to tell — from rising enrollment at church schools to near record numbers of missionaries and growth in temples to expanding church membership and established financial sustainability amid economic and global upheaval.

In more normal times, this would be a story of success. 

But given accelerating cultural headwinds against religiosity, the full storyline is even more dramatic. And yet, these more positive details are too often overlooked as part of the unfolding story of faith in society today. The dominant news headline is effectively captured in one skeptic’s comment recently featured in a Washington Post story, asserting that “everywhere you look” people are turning away from faith.

Of course, many of us do see friends and family stepping away from religious participation. And let’s be clear: Even one person walking away will always be cause for sorrow among former brothers and sisters of faith. But too little attention is given to the other side of the story, in a way that would provide a more accurate picture of at least one faith that continues to add members, wards and stakes each year.

One recent analysis by the University of Chicago’s Devin G. Pope leveraged cellphone data to examine weekly attendance at church across various faith groups. According to an early abstract of his study, he found that while there are 14 times more Americans identifying as Catholics than Latter-day Saints, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had more comparative weekly attendees at church among over 2 million people sampled in the study.

Additionally, data scientist Ryan Burge found that Utah, where 56% of the state affiliates with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has the highest rate of weekly church attendance in the country.

Saddening disaffection amidst heartening growth, of course, is not a new phenomenon. Just 71⁄2 years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in 1830, between November 1837 and June 1838, “possibly two or three hundred Kirtland Saints withdrew from the church, representing 10%-15% of the membership there,” according to historian Milton Backman. Later, in a nine-month period in Missouri, Frederick G. Williams, a member of the First Presidency, four members of the Twelve Apostles, and several members of the First Quorum of the Seventy left the church.

Since that period, however, the Church of Jesus Christ has grown over 1,000 times in size (from over 16,282 members to over 17 million today). Those numbers alone — quite apart from media and social media amplification — guarantee a higher likelihood of hearing more negative stories.

It’s young people, more than most, who can be vulnerable to often overstated messages of dwindling faith. And yet even there, we see clear indications that a popular narrative of youth with no interest in religion has been vastly oversimplified.

After acknowledging that less importance is placed on religious participation by more recent generations overall, Justin Dyer at Brigham Young University recently highlighted data confirming a more nuanced picture. 

Broader trends of general youth disaffection do not hold for Latter-day Saint young people, whose attitudes among the recent generations — millennials and Gen Z — are on par with or actually more favorable to religion than some earlier generations.

“In comparing the generations when they were high school seniors, millennial Latter-day Saint youth feel religion is more important than all other generations,” Dyer summarized.

Furthermore, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recently announced that despite fewer children being born today in most countries there are expected to be over 72,000 missionaries serving by the end of 2023 (up from 56,000 at the end of 2021). 

In turn, convert baptisms have also increased and were up 25% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year.

The signs of heightened engagement among young adults doesn’t stop with missionaries. Look no further than the recent Utah Area YSA conference, “Together in Christ,” which represented the largest gathering of young single adults ever in the church.

Enrollment at church schools is also up considerably over a 10-year window — with approximately 145,000 total students enrolled in CES higher education. These are the kinds of figures that would need to be at least acknowledged in any sincere attempt to paint a complete picture of Latter-day Saint faith today.

The fact is that there is still a demand for the spiritual, and the church can help fill that need. Empty pews notwithstanding, traditional religious beliefs like God, angels, heaven and hell are, even in 2023, still held by commanding majorities of the U.S. public, with only about a third of people not believing in the devil, and about a tenth not believing in God. Furthermore, Pew and others have predicted that the world will become increasingly religious over the next several decades as religious families have more children. While we might see pockets of growing irreligion here and there (and even those tend to be exaggerated, as strong majorities of Europeans still believe in God, and many in the biblical God), religion and spirituality has a powerful, natural part to play in our society, and the church is a part of that story. 

Whatever personal proclivities individual journalists and social media influencers may have about faith and religious community, here’s to hoping that a desire for the full truth, fairness and objectivity can win out in the end. Even while rightfully scrutinizing the various challenges facing faith communities, let’s not forget to take a moment to appreciate the many reasons to be encouraged by positive religious developments and hopeful about even better things on the horizon of faith today. 

https://www.deseret.com/2023/9/27/23893171/latter-day-saint-numbers-church-attendance-general-conference

How Mormonism Went Mainstream

(time.com 9-21-23)

September 21, 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the date that Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by the Angel Moroni in Palmyra, New York. According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ canonical account, the 17-year-old Smith was in bed when the divine visitor appeared in his room. The prophet-to-be was then instructed to dig up a sacred record inscribed on ancient golden tablets that was located in a nearby hill.

The resulting text, the Book of Mormon, published in 1830, became a cornerstone for a new world religion. Today, the Latter-day Saint church claims over 17 million members across the globe. But while they have achieved a degree of cultural acceptance, especially among American Christians, there remains a suspicion—sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit—that Mormon beliefs are fundamentally irrational, if not heretical.

While there are plenty of doctrinal principles that have drawn scorn, like their since-rescinded belief in polygamy and an anti-Black racial restriction, the story of an ancient scripture record found on buried gold plates has long served as a lynchpin for external skepticism. How could otherwise rational people believe in what appears to be a fundamentally irrational myth? And does such a belief forfeit their place within mainstream culture?

Yet debates over the boundaries of religious respectability, and whether the Mormons could be accepted therein, reveal as much about America as it does about its most famous homegrown religion.

Charles Dickens once wrote that Joseph Smith’s true audacity was in claiming to have “communion with angels” in an “age of railways.” By that, he meant that the 19th century was supposed to usher in a new enlightened era in which eccentric frauds could no longer dupe the gullible. How is a religion that believes in ancient gold plates, angelic ministrations, and prophetic revelation supposed to function in a rational society?

Smith was raised in a family that believed in a miraculous world. That included buried treasure that could only be acquired through supernatural means. Smith was therefore part of an earnest though unsuccessful circle of treasure diggers who used seer stones to unearth priceless wonders. (It was on one such magic quest that Smith met his wife, Emma Hale.) So when Smith eventually produced a book of scripture—an alleged account of ancient Christians who had inhabited the American continent—his fellow seekers and skeptical neighbors alike connected it to his folkloric practices.

Indeed, few critics felt it necessary to actually examine the Book of Mormon’s text. Its purported origins were scandalous enough. An early dissenter exposed the fact that Smith had used the same seer stone with which he sought treasure to translate the gold plates. In response, Smith refused to detail the exact method through which he produced the Book of Mormon, only insisting it was through “the gift and power of God.” It was an indirect confession that some stories appeared too fanciful.

Of course, some who took the time to read the new scripture were still not impressed. Mark Twain claimed that the real “miracle” of the Book of Mormon’s origins was Smith “keeping awake” while dictating “chloroform in print.”

But for the scores of believers who followed Smith’s teachings, the book represented an open canon of truth and a sign that God still spoke to a modern world. Their most successful proselytizing tract throughout the 19th century, Parley P. Pratt’s Voice of Warning, argued that the Book of Mormon’s appearance was evidence of the end times. Moroni, who had delivered the gold plates to Joseph Smith, was soon identified as the angel prophesied in the New Testament who would preach the gospel “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6). The image of the Angel Moroni and his horn therefore became the faith’s unofficial symbol, gold statues of which appeared on the top of their temples.

For the remainder of the 19th century, Mormons were proud of their “peculiar” image. Their founding stories set them apart from a fallen society and corrupt Christendom. Eventually other principles, most notably polygamy, became their doctrinal center. But when the church was forced to renounce their distinctive practices at the end of the 19th century, and encouraged to adopt more mainstream culture in the 20th, Latter-day Saints were forced to consider how their faith would fit in a society they had previously scorned.

After decades of slow, uneasy, but steady cultural assimilation, Mormons appeared on the brink of cultural acceptance by the 1970s. Yet an upswing in evangelical anti-Mormonism threatened such advances. Part of the resurgent animosity was rooted in resurrected fears of “cults” that accompanied backlash to the mass murder-suicide at Jim Jones’s People’s Temple in 1978. A wave of books, pamphlets, and movies dredged up old stereotypes of conniving Mormon leaders and duped LDS followers. Most successful was the film The God Makers, which showed a caricatured version of the gold plates story to millions of viewers across the nation.

Mormons were forced once again to adapt. They accomplished this by framing their faith’s story, including that of the Book of Mormon’s origins, as one of Christian sincerity. They announced a subtitle to the Book of Mormon meant to cement their Christian affiliation: “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” Leaders even re-formatted the church’s logo so that the words “Jesus Christ” were far larger than the rest.

The most successful form of improved collaboration, of course, was in the political sphere. Starting with their fervent opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, followed by their central role in opposing same-sex marriage in the 1990s and 2000s, Latter-day Saint leaders formed firm alliances with Evangelical groups that otherwise found their truth claims blasphemous.

Mitt Romney’s presidential runs in the 21st century demonstrated both how little and how much things had changed. During his first campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination, he was blindsided by hostility from those on the left and the right. Progressive critics already prone to question religion pounced on the irrationality of stories like the gold plates. “Someone who truly believed in the founding whoppers of Mormonism,” wrote an editor at Slate, exhibited “a basic failure to think for himself or see the world as it is.”

Meanwhile, evangelical opponents, like the supporters of Mike Huckabee, quickly identified the theological chasm between Mormons and “acceptable” Christianity. The outspoken Reverend Bill Keller went so far as to say that a vote for Romney was “a vote for Satan,” as it would validate Mormonism’s blasphemous beliefs. Though declared an early frontrunner, Romney’s candidacy fizzled well before the GOP convention.

Yet much changed in the succeeding four years. Once exposed to national attention, the vehement anti-Mormon sentiment seemed neutered, or at least drowned out by a cultural fascination with the faith. Dubbed the “Mormon Moment,” 2012 featured a wave of media obsession with the faith in the form of Broadway musicals, television hits, and a successful LDS public relations campaign titled “I’m a Mormon” that highlighted the faithful’s cultural commonalities. Either out of growing tolerance or forced necessity, Republican voters this time embraced Romney’s message. Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress explained that while Mormonism was still obviously a “cult,” he clarified that it was a “theological” cult, not a “sociological” one—a distinction that reflected the Religious Right’s emphasis on political over doctrinal fidelity.

The supernatural elements of the Latter-day Saint faith’s founding stories no longer appeared so exotic. Stephen Colbert’s satirical Comedy Central character skewered Christians who dared to claim Mormonism illogical. Mormon beliefs that “Joseph Smith received golden plates from an angel on a hill” were “weird,” he protested, only because “everyone knows that Moses got stone tablets from a burning bush on a mountain.” The message was clear: Mormon supernatural claims were no more outlandish than traditional Christianity’s.

Indeed, the Latter-day Saint church has continued to be repackaged to appear less intrusive to mainstream Christians. Its most recent prophet, Russell M. Nelson, encouraged the media to no longer use the “Mormon” nickname, claiming it distracted from their Christian message. He also ceased their century-long production of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, where thousands of saints gathered each summer to witness a dramatic reproduction of Joseph Smith receiving the gold plates on the same New York hillside where he claimed to find them. And while the church has rapidly increased its construction of temples, most of the new sacred buildings no longer feature the Angel Moroni.

This is not to say the church is forfeiting core doctrines. Far from it. Latter-day Saint belief in the Book of Mormon’s historicity, Joseph Smith’s divine calling, and prophetic revelation are as firm as ever before. But after two centuries of heated battles with Christian contemporaries, Smith’s successors have learned how to frame these fundamentals in less threatening ways. The Book of Mormon is no longer posited as a correction to an apostate world, but a supplement to the Christian canon; his followers are not separated from Babylon, but fellow travelers in a world of pilgrims.

Two hundred years later, Joseph Smith’s Moroni story is as salient as ever, even if its tone and significance have evolved.

https://time.com/6315969/mormonism-history-america-essay/

Church Marks 200th Anniversary of Joseph Smith, Moroni’s Visit and the Gold Plates

(from the church newsroom)

The gospel Restoration began September 21, 1823, when a heavenly messenger appeared to Joseph Smith

Three years after his first humble prayer was answered in the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith uttered another pivotal prayer the evening of September 21, 1823.

The 17-year-old sought forgiveness and understanding of his place before God.

“I betook myself to prayer and supplication to the Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I had previously had one,” he wrote (Joseph Smith—History 1:29).

As he prayed, a light and heavenly being appeared in his room.

“He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger from the presence of God, and that his name was Moroni,” Joseph wrote (Joseph Smith—History 1:33), and “God had a work for me to do.”

It was the first of four visits Moroni made to Joseph during the night and early the next day. In Moroni’s repeated messages during those four visits, Moroni revealed the nearby location of an ancient record written on gold plates — the Book of Mormon — and he quoted scripture about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and gathering of Israel.

This year, September 21-22, 2023, commemorates 200 years since that historic event, which marks the beginning of the Restoration, said Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy and Church historian and recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“If you were to ask Joseph in his day when was the beginning of the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days, he probably would not have pointed to the First Vision. That was the beginning of the redemption of Joseph,” Elder McKay said. “The beginning of the redemption or Restoration of the Church and the gospel happened on September 21, 1823, when Moroni shows up and says: ‘Joseph, I’m a messenger sent from the presence of God. My name is Moroni. Let’s get to work.’”

In many ways, this is the moment when the Restoration becomes public, said Keith A. Erekson, director of research and outreach with the Church History Department.

“Joseph had had his experience that we now call the First Vision, but that was largely a private thing,” Erekson said. “But at this moment, it is going to become a very big deal in the Smith family.”

Elder McKay and Erekson reflected on the anniversary of Moroni’s visits with Joseph Smith and subsequent events during a recent interview with the Church News at the Church History Museum.

Moroni’s 4 Visits to Joseph Smith

The first three visits took place during the course of the night. When the third one concluded, Joseph was surprised to see the sun rising. He attempted to go to work but was exhausted. His father sent Joseph home to rest. On his way home his strength failed him and he passed out.

He awoke to a fourth appearance from Moroni, who repeated the same message and instructed Joseph to tell his father about all that had transpired, which he did. His father believed him and encouraged him to do as the angel instructed. Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah and found the gold plates and other items in the stone box, but Moroni, appearing again, forbade him to obtain them.

The following day, after rest and a full day of work, Joseph told his entire family all that happened, and they believed him.

The Smith family was a believing, close-knit and unified family, Elder McKay said, but they also had a spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of these events.

“It makes the most sense to believe that as they listened to their brother, their son, tell of his experience, they had a confirmation and they knew it was true,” he said. “And so they followed in faith.”

What Did Joseph Smith Learn in His Visits With Moroni?

In his multiple visits, Moroni told Joseph about the record written on gold plates before quoting Old Testament prophecies from the writings of Malachi, Isaiah and Joel regarding the Restoration (see Joseph Smith—History 1:27-54).

“Moroni tells him about this record because the record will begin the whole thing, but the Restoration itself is what Moroni focuses on,” Elder McKay said. “He begins with this amazing prophecy from Malachi about the prophet Elijah and the sealing keys, the sealing power that will come forth because of his visit. I like to say the keys of the priesthood restored by Elijah were promised in Palmyra, New York, restored in Kirtland, Ohio, and turned in Nauvoo, Illinois.”

Joseph learned the record, which he later translated and published as the Book of Mormon, would be the main tool for gathering Israel.

“A great part of what Moroni talked to Joseph about was the gathering of Israel, the Restoration of not only the gospel, but of God’s covenant people. And the Book of Mormon, this record that I’m telling you about, is the preeminent tool for that gathering,” Elder McKay said.

The Book of Mormon opens the Restoration for the earth but also provides individuals the opportunity to learn truth personally and develop a lifelong relationship with God.

“Two hundred years later, it’s hard to overstate the significance of the Book of Mormon,” Erekson said. “It laid the foundation and begins the work. In many millions of cases, it is the first encounter that converts to the restored gospel have as they talk to missionaries. ... The book itself is an invitation, not to stay within the covers of the book, but for the reader to go to God and ask for more.”

The first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed in 1830. As of October 2020, the Church had published 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon in 112 languages.

Impact on the Smith Family

News of Joseph’s heavenly visitations drew attention from some in the community who were interested in the things of God while others were more interested in treasure.

“There begins to be a competition between the spiritual value of this work and the financial gain to be had,” Erekson said. “It also increases Joseph’s notoriety as a seer, somebody who can find things and see things that others cannot see.”

Joseph and his family endured the extra attention for the next four years as he met annually with Moroni, was married to Emma, sought employment and continued to live his life.

Personal Learnings

One of the personal insights Erekson has gained from studying the events of September 21, 1823, is how little Joseph knew in the beginning and how his understanding unfolded over time.

“I have this kind of humble awe about Joseph getting these really simple instructions,” he said.

In the First Vision, Joseph is told to not join a church, just wait.

Then his instruction from Moroni is ‘you need to be worthy to accept this record,’ which takes years. Then he receives the record and is instructed to translate it.

“In all of these moments, he does not know he is supposed to organize the Church yet,” Erekson said. “We just see him humbly taking that one prompting, that one instruction, from the Lord and doing it. Then the Lord can say, ‘Okay, here is something else.’ I see a great lesson there in the simple instructions we receive.”

Elder McKay said Joseph’s life, including the Sacred Grove and Moroni experiences, are examples of daily repentance.

“It is a pattern in which Joseph recognizes a need to repent and be forgiven,” he said.

Both Elder McKay and Erekson were impressed when considering Joseph Smith’s age at the time he was called to perform these significant tasks.

“One thing I like about Joseph in this moment is how young he is,” Erekson said. “Today, in the 21st century, we often underestimate what God can do through young people. We think, ‘Oh, you are not old enough for that important calling.’ We see this first generation of both Joseph and his scribes, the witnesses and early Church members, are people in their 20s and 30s, and they are at the forefront of something huge.”

“It’s remarkable,” Elder McKay added. “They were full of energy, faith and belief. God raised them up and prepared them for this. ... That same capacity and expectation is part of God’s plan now for young people in the Church. ... He can take anyone who is willing and use them for a great and glorious purpose.”

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-marks-200th-anniversary-of-joseph-smith-moronis-visit-gold-plates

Meet the ‘Michael Phelps of rodeo’ and ‘a solid Saint in the kingdom’

(ldsliving.com 7-22-23)

The “Father of Modern Rodeo” was truly a renaissance man. He is also known as the “Cowboy of Cowboy Artists,” “Lord Bascom—King of the Canadian Cowboys,” and “rodeo’s first collegiate cowboy.” And even those titles don’t quite capture all of Earl Bascom’s achievements. Throughout his storied career, he was a professional bronc buster, bull rider, trail driver, blacksmith, rodeo champion, cattle rancher, WWII shipfitter, inventor, painter, sculptor, high school teacher, and Hollywood actor.

And amid all these unique and impressive pursuits, his former stake president said, “He was one of those people that I would consider a solid Saint in the kingdom.”

Earl passed away in 1995 at the age of 89, but he left a legacy of faith, hard work, and innovation for his family and rodeo fans alike. So let’s dive into the life, career, and faith of Earl W. Bascom.

Early Life and Lineage

According to the Vernal Express, Earl Bascom was born in a log cabin on the 101 Ranch near Vernal, Utah, on June 19, 1906. But even before he was born, Earl’s family heritage paved the way for his career path in frontier, ranching, and rodeo life. Earl was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, and both of his grandfathers, Joel A. Bascom and C. F. B. Lybbert, were Latter-day Saint pioneers, frontier lawmen, and ranchers. Earl’s father, Deputy Sheriff John W. Bascom, chased members of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang and outlaw Harry “Mad Dog” Tracy in the late 1880’s. Earl’s great-uncle Ephraim Roberts was a pony express rider, riding from Utah to Southern California and back, and another great-uncle, William Lance, was a soldier in the Mormon Battalion.

When Earl was six years old, his mother Rachel died of breast cancer in 1912, according to Cowboy Country Magazine. Shortly after, the family moved to Canada, where Earl’s father worked as foreman on the ranch of Ray Knight, the millionaire rancher namesake of the city of Raymond, Alberta, Canada. His father’s fortuitous employer was considered the “Father of Canadian Rodeo” after he promoted and produced Canada’s first rodeo, the Raymond Stampede, in 1902. The Raymond Stampede of 1918 is where Earl entered his first professional rodeo at the age of 12.

Rodeo Career

For 23 seasons, between the years of 1916 and 1940, Earl rodeoed professionally and was frequently named rodeo champion. He saw his professional rodeo heyday between 1930 and 1940, and according to The Sun, Earl took second place in the North American Championship and placed third in the rodeo Championship of the World. Throughout his career, Earl took part in every aspect of rodeo competition—“including bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, steer riding, steer wrestling, steer decorating, wild cow milking, and wild horse racing. He also worked as a rodeo producer, stock contractor, rodeo announcer, pickup man, hazer, rodeo clown, and bullfighter.”

Inventions

According to Cowboy Country Magazine, in 1916, brothers Raymond, Melvin, and Earl Bascom designed and constructed the first known side-delivery rodeo chute. In 1919, the Bascom brothers redesigned their side-delivery chute, requiring only one man to work the gate and eliminating the hazard of riders’ banged-up knees. This ingenious Bascom design is now the standard for rodeo chutes and arenas.

On his own, Earl also invented two important pieces of rodeo equipment: the first hornless bronc saddle back (“mulee”) in 1922 and the first one-handed bareback rigging in 1924. Today, both pieces of equipment are standard issue at all professional rodeos throughout the world.

Wikipedia also lists Earl as the inventor of the first high-cut rodeo chaps in 1926 and the first rodeo exerciser in 1928. He and his brother Weldon produced the first rodeos in the state of Mississippi and the first night rodeos held outdoors under electric lights. Earl’s designs also led to the first first permanent rodeo arena constructed in the state of Mississippi.

Film

In 1917, Earl was in his first Hollywood movie, The Silent Man, starring William S. Hart. Years later, Earl acted as one of the outlaws in the 1954 Hollywood western, The Lawless Rider. Earl’s brother Weldon played the sheriff in the film, and Weldon’s wife, Texas Rose Bascom, was the leading actress.

After retiring in California, Earl and his son-in-law Mel Marion worked with Roy Rogers, being filmed for TV commercials for the Roy Rogers Restaurant chain, according to Wikipedia. Earl and his son John were also featured in the television documentary Take Willy With Ya, a tribute to the life of rodeo champion Turk Greenough.

Art and Teaching

Earl’s formal education as a young student was meager—he was educated in one-room schoolhouses and only completed one full school year, according to Wikipedia. Even without a high school diploma, he was accepted as a student at Brigham Young University in in the fall of 1933. He was a 27-year-old freshman who, in his words, “felt like a wild horse in a pen,” but he had developed a love for art as a child and took every art course BYU offered.

The Provo Evening Herald reported that during his freshman year, Earl won the Studio Guild Award for the best student art work of the year, and he won the award again in 1936. He was a beloved member of the BYU Art Club as a popular entertainer with his cartoon drawings, and Earl graduated from BYU with a degree in Fine Art in 1940, where his fellow art students voted him “most likely to succeed” as an artist.

Years after graduating and moving with his wife, Nadine, to California, the couple brought their family back to Utah, where Nadine earned her degree at BYU and Earl qualified for a lifetime teaching certificate. Both Earl and Nadine became teachers after settling back in Victorville, California, in 1966—Nadine teaching elementary school and Earl teaching high school art classes. According to MormonWiki, Earl took sculpture and bronze casting at UC Riverside, launching him into another field of art.

In his later years, Bascom became internationally known as a cowboy artist and sculptor, with his art being exhibited across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. In 1994, Bascom was commissioned by the Texas Longhorn Quincentennial Celebration Committee to produce his sculpture of what was considered “the most authentic example of a classical Texas longhorn steer.”

Earl is quoted to have said of his own art, “I’ve tried to portray the West as I knew it —rough and rugged and tough as a boot but with a good heart and honest as the day is long.”

Awards and Honors

Earl Bascom received countless honors during his lifetime, including induction into four major Halls of Fame—the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame, and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Additionally, he has been inducted into state rodeo halls of fame in Utah, Mississippi, and Idaho, and in 2014 he was named the National Day of the Cowboy honoree. The U.S. House of Representatives also honored Earl Bascom as an “American Hero” in 1985.

Tributes

Earl Bascom passed away on August 28, 1995 at the age of 89, on his ranch in Victorville, California. After his passing, Earl was given a tribute honor in the Congressional Record by United States Congressman Jerry Lewis: [Earl Bascom was a] “cowboy hero and a true inspiration … (who) lived one of the most interesting lives ever known in modern cowboy history.”

Cowboy celebrity Roy Rogers, who worked with Earl on TV commercials and was known to be a collector of Bascom’s art, once said, “Earl Bascom is a walking book of history. His knowledge of the Old West was acquired the old fashioned way—he was born and raised in it.”

Ken Knopp, historian of the Mississippi Rodeo Hall of Fame, said that “Earl Bascom is the Michael Phelps of rodeo.“

Faith

Earl served a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Southern States, according to Church News, which helped lead to his years later spent bringing rodeo to Mississippi. He married his wife, Nadine Diffey, in the Salt Lake Temple in December 1939, and together they raised five children. Earl also served in various Church callings, including as bishop and patriarch of the Barstow and Victorville California stakes.

Brother Donald Bigler served as stake president while Earl was stake patriarch in Southern California.

“He was one of those people that I would consider a solid Saint in the kingdom,” he told Church News.

When Earl was posthumously inducted to the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 2013, his youngest son, John A. Bascom, attended the ceremony on his behalf.

“He was faithful and true to the gospel,’” John told Church News. “Many looked up to him. He was a spiritual man, always honest in his dealings.”

https://www.ldsliving.com/did-you-know-the-father-of-modern-rodeo-was-a-latter-day-saint/s/11615

When is it OK to use the term ‘Mormon’?

(ldsliving.com 7-24-23)

Last month, the LDS Living staff was discussing whether to write a story about the swarms of Mormons crickets that were then plaguing parts of Nevada and Idaho. Many Church members, when they hear about modern hordes of grasshoppers, can’t help but recall the stories of the early pioneers who were saved from crickets just in time by devouring seagulls, now the Utah state bird.

But in our discussion, the question was asked, “Can we use the term Mormon cricket?” After all, LDS Living’s style guide says to avoid using the term Mormon. Should we now be saying “Latter-day Saint crickets?”

And we suspect we’re not the only ones. There are likely other members of the Church who are asking similar questions—and who might find it helpful to explore whether there are times when it’s appropriate to use Mormon, especially in light of President Nelson’s direction in the past few years.

Specifically, in a 2018 official statement and general conference address, President Nelson urged members and the media to refrain from using the terms Mormon to refer to the Church or its members.

At the same time, the Church Newsroom released new guidelines for referring to the Church, reflecting this call to largely abandon the term Mormon. But part of those guidelines mention two specific contexts in which it is appropriate to use the term Mormon, and these give LDS Living the direction we follow on Mormon crickets:

“Mormon” is correctly used in proper names such as the Book of Mormon or when used as an adjective in such historical expressions as “Mormon Trail”

(“Style Guide—The Name of the Church,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

According to these official guidelines, it’s OK to use “Mormon” as a proper name—which makes sense because a revered ancient prophet was named Mormon, as is the book of scripture that bears his name: the Book of Mormon.

But it’s also appropriate to refer to use “historical expressions” that use the term “Mormon.” The specific example given is Mormon Trail, which refers to the 1,300-mile-long route from Illinois to Utah that pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled in 1846–47. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, and its official name is the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.

Other historical expressions that use the word include Mormon pioneer, Mormon Battalion, Mormon War—and, yes, Mormon cricket.

Following these guidelines, LDS Living will continue to uphold our prophet’s direction to “restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church,” and we encourage members and media organizations to do the same.

In so doing, we refrain from using the term Mormon the vast majority of the time, but we also recognize the guidance that once in a while—and in very specific contexts—the word still has a limited place in Latter-day Saint vocabulary.

https://www.ldsliving.com/when-is-it-ok-to-use-the-term-mormon/s/11611

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The original name of this blog was "Mormon Village", and sometimes I wonder if I should have left the name alone. 

But "LatterDayTemplar" is kind of cool too so I guess it is alright. 

The Translation of the Book of Mormon - Interview with Royal Skousen

What became of the oak coffins that carried Joseph and Hyrum Smith after they were martyred

(by Trent Toone 6-26-23)

After a mob rushed the Carthage Jail and killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844, the martyrs' bodies were transported back to Nauvoo, Illinois, in a pair of rough-hewn oak coffins.

A short time later, pieces of the oak planks were used to make canes, with some containing locks of the brothers' hair in the ivory knob, as special mementos and sacred relics for some of the Prophet's closest friends, including Willard Richards, Heber C. Kimball, Dimick Huntington, Wilford Woodruff and Brigham Young.

What little is known about these "Canes of the Martyrdom" was compiled and published by a Brigham Young University history student named Steven G. Barnett in 1981.

"The Canes of the Martyrdom are a very real part of the Mormon heritage," Barnett wrote. "Shrouded in mystery as they are, the canes stand as a testimony of the love the owners shared for the Prophet Joseph Smith and his work."

This June 27 marks the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom.

Barnett's four-page history features several references to the canes in Latter-day Saint literature.

One comes from the "Life of Heber C. Kimball," by Orson F. Whitney.

"How much would you give for even a cane that Father Abraham had used, or a coat or ring that the Savior had worn? The rough oak boxes in which the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought from Carthage, were made into canes and other articles," Whitney wrote. "I have a cane made from the plank of one of those boxes, so has Brother Brigham and a great many others, and we prize them highly and esteem them a great blessing."

In a journal entry dated Aug. 23, 1844, Woodruff writes about visiting Emma Smith and her letting him have a piece of oak for "a staff" taken from the coffin of the Prophet Joseph. She also let him have a pair of gloves and a cotton handkerchief which he used. He also visited Mary Fielding Smith, Hyrum's wife, who gave him hair from Joseph, Hyrum, Samuel Smith, and Don Carlos Smith.

"My object was in putting a portion of each in the top of my staff as a relic of those noble men, master spirits of the nineteenth century, to hand down to my posterity," Woodruff wrote.

Some of these canes are still around today.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has two "coffin canes," both of which are on display near Joseph and Hyrum's death masks in "The Heavens Are Open" exhibit at the Church History Museum.

One, presented to President Joseph F. Smith in 1905, bears the inscription: "Presented by Brigham Young to Sidney Rigdon, 1844."

Huntington was the original owner of the second cane, which was donated in the name of George Joseph Huntington.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers also have two canes in its collection at the Pioneer Memorial Museum. Both canes have ivory handles, although one has hair in the knob and the other does not. The cane without hair is on the first floor in case 67. The cane with hair is on the third floor, in case 2, DUP officials said.

Other coffin canes exist in private hands, according to Reid Moon, owner of Moon's Rare Books and a collector of early Latter-day Saint artifacts.

In his dealings and speaking to hundreds of groups over the last 20 years, Moon estimated that more than 99 percent of his audiences have never heard of the coffin canes.

"I became fascinated by these 'coffin canes' after I first read about their existence in a sermon given by Heber C. Kimball in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1857," Moon said. "As someone who collects early church artifacts, I put these few lost 'canes of the martyrdom' right up there with the Holy Grail."

https://www.ldsliving.com/what-became-of-the-oak-coffins-that-carried-joseph-and-hyrum-smith-after-they-were-martyred/s/91118

Utah Bride Discovers Her Mother-In-Law Was a Nurse Who Helped Deliver Her

(people.com 6-30-23)

Tyler West and Kelsey Poll met when she was working as a bank teller inside a grocery store in August 2021. They were both students at Weber State University. When he deposited a check, they chatted, he finished grocery shopping, then came back and asked for her number.

“He is just the sweetest guy ever,” she says.

On Super Bowl Sunday this year, Tyler surprised Kelsey with a sunset beach proposal in Puerto Vallarta. 

“I was excited to have my best friend around at all times,” Tyler tells PEOPLE.

Shortly after they got engaged, they went to dinner with both of their parents. Tyler’s mom, Mary Ann West, thought Kelsey’s mom, Stacy Poll, looked familiar.

“I’m like, ‘Where do I know her from?’” Mary Ann tells PEOPLE. She wondered if she met her performing at the community theater, the gym or at work — she's a registered nurse at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah. “I couldn’t quite put my finger on it,” says Mary Ann, 49. 

On March 16, as the couple was gathering pictures for a slideshow at their wedding, Kelsey got out her baby book. Flipping through, Tyler stopped at a photo of a nurse foot printing the newborn and said, "That is my mom!"

Kelsey is the third child out of five. None of her siblings’ baby books have pictures of the nurses — but Tyler’s mother was a very special nurse. 

“My heart dropped with excitement,” Stacy Poll, 47, tells PEOPLE. “It made so much sense.”

Stacy Poll remembers being very stressed and scared when she was in labor with Kelsey. When Stacy learned she was pregnant with Kelsey, she had a 9-month-old baby. She worried about how she would be a good mom to three children under three and work full time. 

Mary Ann told her she understood — she had just had her third baby herself and was back at work. She held Stacy’s hand and told her, "You’ve got this." 

“She calmed my soul,” Stacy says. 

And she has it all on video. Stacy went to the basement and dragged out the camcorder recording of Kelsey’s birth. They watched it and heard Mary Ann’s voice encouraging Stacy and telling her about Tyler. They watched as Mary Ann held Kelsey and said, "Hello, baby," and was the very first person to welcome her to the world.

Stacy texted Mary Ann, saying that she knew where she knew her from. 

"I completely remembered that delivery — even though I’ve delivered thousands of babies over almost 30 years — but I remember her delivery," says Mary Ann. "That was really special. It just made me love Kelsey and Stacy even more, and [I'm] just thrilled to have them part of our family."

The couple wed on May 25. Kelsey’s connection to Tyler’s mother has deepened. "She really is another mom," Kelsey says.

The two moms live about 10 minutes apart and are constantly talking and texting. "They’re besties now," Tyler says. "The two of them are doing things without us."

The moms are planning hikes, date nights and adventures.

"If we weren’t sisters in life, this definitely brought us closer — we’ll be moms," Stacy says. "She should have been my sister, but instead we were blessed to be mothers together."

They envision years of sharing grandchildren and spending special occasions together. 

"Seeing the video of me holding sweet little Kelsey and handing her to Stacy — it just brings it full circle," Mary Ann says. "This whole family, we were meant to be."

https://people.com/utah-bride-discovers-mother-in-law-nurse-helped-deliver-her-my-extraordinary-family-7555503#:~:text=Utah%20Bride%20Discovers%20Her%20Mother,Who%20Helped%20Deliver%20Her%20(Exclusive)&text=Flipping%20through%20his%20fianc%C3%A9e's%20baby,woman%20he%20planned%20to%20marry.

"Mormon" Church: Taxes, Trust, Transparency: Deeper Context

Great interview, with a great explanation of the whistle-blower's big nothing burger. 

In CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ segment on church finances, it missed the sweeping rags-to-riches history of faith

(deseretnews.com 5-14-23)

On Sunday night, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” aired a segment about the financial assets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story rehashed widely reported items about the church’s investments and spending and one man’s criticisms, a self-described “whistleblower” who once worked with church investments.

What the “60 Minutes” segment about the church’s finances and other reports often miss is the sweeping and at times poverty-ridden history that helps explain the church’s finances and decision-making today, including its modern-day record of self-sufficiency that sustains a global church.

Sixty years ago, a financial crisis engulfed the church and threatened to become the worst in the faith’s history, one historian wrote. That’s saying something for a church with a storied past of economic distress.

For example, an apostle once secured new loans in New York City hours before the church would have defaulted on a large payment with a San Francisco bank. He awoke despondent that morning, aware that a run on the two banks owned by the church threatened to wipe out the last of its deposits. If he had failed, the church’s credit rating would have been ruined and debtors would have sued to seize church assets, according to the late historian Ronald Walker.

In 1962, the church ran a $32 million deficit. With red ink soaking the church’s books again in early 1963 and its financial officers worried they wouldn’t be able to meet payroll for church employees, President David O. McKay moved decisively. He changed the assignment of one the counselors in his First Presidency who had overseen church finances, historians say.

A few months later, President McKay handed that role to a brand-new counselor who set the church on a rigorous course of fiscal responsibility. It began with years of belt tightening. The biggest symbol of that frugality was an immediate building moratorium. For five years, construction was halted on the largest building in Utah and Latter-day Saint history to that time, the 28-story Church Office Building.

The new strategy worked spectacularly. One historian said the principles for church finances established in the 1960s led directly to its accumulation of assets today.

“As far as I know, that program has been relentlessly and consistently followed for half a century. And if you do that for half a century — you take a portion of the tithing revenue every single year and you just set it aside and invest it — between savings and then the exponential growth that you get from compounding interest on investments, the church gets this enormous pool of reserves,” said Nathan Oman, a historian and professor of law at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Today, the church has a stock portfolio worth tens of billions of dollars. “60 Minutes” said some have estimated the church’s assets total as much as $150 billion, though it didn’t provide a source for that figure. The church does not publicize how much money it has so it can keep the focus on its religious mission, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, told “60 Minutes.”

The program suggested, again without a source, that the church takes in $7 billion in tithing each year and spends $6 billion on its various religious and charitable causes, investing what remains for a time of need. These funds are managed by an investment arm known as Ensign Peak Advisors, which is not considered a separate entity but rather functions as an “integrated auxiliary” of the church.

If the church did have $150 billion, a figure the church did not confirm during the “60 Minutes” interview, then the $6 billion it is said to spend annually on its mission would represent 4% in annual charitable spending, above what a retired IRS executive told “60 Minutes” would be necessary for a non-church 501c3 to maintain its nonprofit status. Unlike other charitable 501c3 entities, churches are not required by the IRS to make minimum disbursements.

The church provides more than $1 billion in charitable contributions to an extensive multicampus worldwide educational system (including its flagship university, BYU) and another $1 billion a year in humanitarian offerings. Meanwhile, it funds 30,000 congregations, a global missionary effort, as well as thousands of meetinghouses, hundreds of temples and extensive free genealogical services — all part of the church’s religious mission to invite people to follow Jesus Christ.

Bishop Waddell said the church’s goal is “to make sure that we’re comfortable with how many years’ worth (of operational budget) we have in case of a financial crisis to make sure that we can continue church operations. We just want to make sure that that is sufficient.”

It is impossible to understand the church’s financial holdings and practices by looking at stock filings alone or at incomplete estimates compiled by unofficial sources, historians say. Latter-day Saint leaders’ actions are deeply rooted in both specific theology as well as a history of economic distress.

Large church reserves have been wiped out before.

Those factors, combined with a history of societal and governmental tensions, created an immense drive to build independent, self-sustaining communities and economies. This is the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ rose from a small band of believers with little to no money to become a global faith that has achieved a sweeping economic sufficiency that its earliest leaders sought from the start.

And the unprecedented reserve funds that are a first in the church’s history could shape its increasingly global growth trajectory. Oman proposed that the church’s compilation of assets may be increasingly important during a time when most of its membership expansion is centered in Africa and Latin America.

“The per capita wealth of Latter-day Saints today is likely higher than the per capita wealth of Latter-day Saints in the future,” he said. “What savings does is move money from the high per-capita wealth of Latter-day Saints now and transfers it to the lower per-capita wealth of future Latter-day Saints.”

Financing preceded the birth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The publisher hired to print the Book of Mormon required the full payment upfront. There was no church yet, and the printing would cost the equivalent of nearly $100,000 in today’s money. Prosperous New Yorker Martin Harris, for whom Joseph Smith had worked as a day laborer, covered the cost by mortgaging his 320-acre farm in 1829.

The church was organized in 1830. Five months later, Joseph Smith received a revelation stating that to God, all things are spiritual. That statement became the theological underpinning for the church’s vigorous economic development across the American frontier and through 21st century globalization. Church leaders continue to interpret the scripture to mean that both the spiritual and earthly are eternal and inseparable. For Latter-day Saint leaders, then, economic welfare is an indispensable part of religion, according to the late economic historian Leonard J. Arrington.

Joseph Smith had a management role in more than 20 business enterprises, according to the late historian D. Michael Quinn. Brigham Young oversaw economic expansion from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. They believed money was necessary to build the kingdom of God, provide maximum security for the church, help church members, and care for the poor and needy, Quinn said.

So the church bought property and built up — then abandoned under duress — frontier cities from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois. It received pennies on the dollar for the properties it could sell as it left each place.

“Leaders had to devise ways of helping poor members move westward,” Arrington wrote. The moves also involved church leaders in buying land and formulating plans for community and economic development.

Finally driven from the United States by murders and mobs, the bedraggled religious pioneers didn’t just stop beyond its borders in the Salt Lake Valley. They expanded from there to create more than 300 settlements ranging from Mexico to Idaho and California to Colorado.

Success in each depended on developing an economy from scratch. They founded stores, sawmills, printing shops, asheries, farms and much, much more. Some succeeded. Others did not. In early Utah, church leaders persisted in their quest to be self-sufficient from the United States.

Brigham Young once said that if the church was left alone for 10 years in the Great Basin, Latter-day Saints would establish themselves as an independent people. In the 1850s, he instigated missions dedicated to economies — the Iron Mission, the Sugar Mission, the Lead Mission and others for cotton, flax, silk, wine and wool.

“From the very beginning of the church, there was a need for money, and I think that’s something that influences how the church operates today, because it’s been such a large part of our history,” said Matthew Godfrey, senior managing historian for outreach and engagement in the Church History Department.

Church leaders also started a salt business and a resort, bought interests in railroads and telegraph lines, and pioneered the hydroelectric power industry in the West. All of those interests eventually were sold to eastern businesses. That, too, has been a Latter-day Saint pattern.

The Church of Jesus Christ filled community needs, then over time donated or sold off assets when it no longer made sense for the church or the need could be met by others, historians say. In some cases, keeping businesses would have benefited the church’s bottom line. For example:

-In the 1930s, as public education disrupted church schools, the Latter-day Saints gave to Utah and Arizona what today are Weber State University, Utah Tech University, Snow College and Eastern Arizona College.

-The church’s three banks merged in 1957, but in 1960, it got out of the banking business, too, selling its controlling interest in Zions Bank for $9.8 million. In 2021, Zions reported a net income of $1.1 billion.

-In 1975, it donated its 15 “vigorous and financially viable” hospitals to a nonprofit organization because they were not “central to the mission of the church.” Intermountain Healthcare, now Intermountain Health, since has expanded to 33 hospitals in seven states with $13.9 billion in total revenue last year.

What remains central to the mission of the church is welfare and humanitarian aid, education, missionary work, genealogical work, meetinghouses and temples for weekly worship and religious ordinances.

Historical efforts by church leaders to build economic independence and look after the welfare of its members sometimes failed to pan out.

Deficit spending was common for the church in the 19th century. The church experienced deficits repeatedly, in the 1830s, ’40s, ’70s and ’90s, and in the 1900s, ’20s, ’30s and ’60s, according to historians.

The worst early financial setback was the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, the church’s first foray into banking, though the institution technically was a joint stock company. It opened in January 1837, suffered major losses by May and closed in November.

“The church established the Kirtland Safety Society because, like other frontier communities, Kirtland was a cash-poor society. The idea was to leverage the land that people owned to provide for economic development in the area,” Godfrey said.

A complex set of factors doomed the bank. One was the nationwide Panic of 1837, a recession that caused 600 banks to fail. Every bank in Michigan closed, including one the church had acquired to shore up the Kirtland Safety Society. The church’s leader, Joseph Smith, lost the most money, Godfrey said.

“Generally, church-owned or -controlled businesses have been a drain on its resources, often helping drive the LDS church to the edge of bankruptcy,” Quinn wrote. “This happened first in 1837 during a national depression.”

Joseph Smith led the church next to Missouri, but within 10 months, the governor issued an extermination order against the Latter-day Saints. An apostle and at least 17 others were killed in the days before and after the order. (A future governor formally rescinded the order in 1976.)

The church again suffered losses in the next move, to Nauvoo, Illinois.

There, church members turned swampland into a city that for a period surpassed Chicago as the largest in Illinois. The influx of Latter-day Saints — the church organized to assist 5,000 European converts to migrate to Nauvoo — threatened the state’s political order and their religious beliefs, including polygamy, offended other residents. (The 1890 Manifesto “led to the end of plural marriage in the church.”)

Financial struggles persisted. Joseph Smith, whose finances had become enmeshed with the church’s, was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1842. He spoke of moving the church farther west. His violent murder at the hands of a mob and additional threats of violence in 1844 led to just that.

When the Saints departed Nauvoo they again left behind a temple and lost money on property.

The move touched off what Arrington deemed the largest migration in American history. It was a religious imperative once again inseparable from earthly expense and survival. And what began with 25,000 pioneers organizing to leave Nauvoo for Salt Lake City in 1847 was just a beginning.

Through the church’s Perpetual Emigration Fund and other efforts, 80,000 people moved west over four decades at a cost of $10 million, Arrington wrote. What one economist called the best system of regulated immigration in U.S. history would have continued, but Congress shut it down in 1887 with the anti-polygamy Edmunds-Tucker Act.

Congress had sought to quash early Latter-day Saints’ polygamy for years. The Edmunds-Tucker Act had real teeth. It attacked church businesses and seized church assets. A combination of government interference, business setbacks and poor investments left the church defenseless against the coming of the second-worst depression in U.S. history, Arrington wrote.

A perfect storm was rising that threatened to become another Kirtland, which one church leader had dubbed the “perfect horror.”

By December 1892, the church owed half a million dollars in short-term, rapidly maturing loans it had no prospect of paying, according to historian Ronald Walker. The church had suffered major losses in mining, sugar, real estate, banking and investments.

Church President Wilford Woodruff dispatched a future church president, Elder Heber J. Grant of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to New York City to seek new loans so the church could make its payments. Elder Grant initially saw some success in May 1893, according to Walker.

But in June, an economic panic struck the country. The Panic of 1893 would be known among Americans as the Great Depression until the next one in 1929. Utahns began a run on Salt Lake City banks, including two owned by the church.

On July 1, the Latter-day Saint banks began the day with $40,000 in deposits on hand, already below what federal regulations required. By the end of the day, they had $10,000 left, Walker wrote.

At the same time, the church failed to make payroll for its employees. “We have no money,” the First Presidency wrote.

In August, the church informed Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco that it likely would default on a Sept. 2 loan payment. On Sept. 1, the church’s banks held less than 3% of deposits, Walker said.

In New York, Elder Grant secured what should have been the necessary $100,000 loan, but the banker delayed payment until Sept. 6. Elder Grant had a fitful night, crying in prayer early the next morning.

Fortunately, New York bank deposits had begun to stabilize, and Elder Grant managed to secure a $250,000 loan from a man who had done business with the church before, John Claflin. Within hours, $50,000 was available to one of the church banks, and Wells Fargo received its payment on time.

The loan saved the church from bankruptcy, Walker wrote, but combined with the depression, it still was ruinous. President Woodruff called the loan’s terms “fearful”: The church was to pay back the $250,000 in two years at 6% interest. Claflin also got to keep $50,000 off the top for himself.

That meant the church actually had only $200,000 to use.

The church couldn’t pay Claflin in 1895. Instead it transferred railroad and resort shares to him. He received his final payment in 1899.

Almost three decades later, Heber Wells wrote a letter to Elder Grant, who had become the church’s president. Wells had helped hold back the runs on the church banks in 1893, then became Utah’s first governor. He reminded President Grant of their time in the financial foxholes of the Panic of 1893.

“Those were the days,” Wells said, “when we fought and bled and nearly died together.”

That loan was a turning point for the church, according to Walker. Economic forces were working to nationalize the American economy, he wrote. The church’s efforts to build a self-sustaining economy beyond the Rocky Mountains were over.

In 1899, new church President Lorenzo Snow told other church leaders “the Lord was displeased with us for borrowing or going into debt to the extent of nearly ($2 million) for business enterprise.”

Within the Latter-day Saint tradition, the story is well known about President Snow calling for church members to recommit to paying tithing, the biblical injunction to give 10% of one’s increase in return for an outpouring of spiritual blessings from God. By 1901, increased tithing funds had wiped out half the debt, but it would take until 1907 for the church to get its nose above water again.

“Today The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owes not a dollar that it cannot pay at once,” President Joseph F. Smith said at general conference in 1907. “At last we are in a position that we can pay as we go. We do not have to borrow any more, and we won’t have to if the Latter-day Saints continue to live their religion and observe this law of tithing. It is the law of revenue to the church.”

The next Great Depression capsized church finances once more. In 1938, the church spent nearly $900,000 more than revenues, according to records kept by the late President J. Reuben Clark, first counselor in the First Presidency. Throughout the 1940s, he capped church spending at 28% of tithing revenues. By 1959, the church had spent about $100 million less than it received in tithing from 1943-47 and 1950-59, according to historian Quinn.

By 1963, that money was gone.

During the late 1950s, the church embarked on an aggressive international building program. The church was growing fast. Worldwide membership increased by 50% to nearly 1.7 million members from 1950-60. President Henry D. Moyle, first counselor to President David O. McKay in the First Presidency, believed it could grow faster by building meetinghouses to draw and support new converts.

President Clark was reticent. President McKay pressed forward, according to Quinn. The church built more than 1,000 new meetinghouses. It also built temples in Switzerland and England when Europe didn’t have a single Latter-day Saint stake, the church term for a grouping of strong congregations, said Oman, the William & Mary business law professor.

“In a sense, they were both right,” Oman said. “President Clark is right that the spending that President McKay begins and that’s carried forward with President Moyle is not sustainable given the church’s income.

"President McKay is right in that he saw the possibility of global Mormonism, this massive wave of convert growth that he envisioned as a possibility and that the church was going to work toward.”

Tithing revenue surged as church membership grew, according to Quinn, but President Moyle resumed deficit spending to fund construction. The church spent $32 million more than it received in 1962. President McKay took back financial oversight as losses mounted again in 1963. In October, he handed the role to President N. Eldon Tanner, making the Canadian business executive his first counselor after President Moyle’s death.

“President Clark ends up being right about the finances and President McKay ends up being right about the convert baptisms,” Oman said.

“The synthesis of those two positions is N. Eldon Tanner.”

President Tanner vigorously enforced austerity. He had a ready answer when his five children asked why they couldn’t have items they couldn’t afford.

“I can give you three reasons,” he’d say. “The first is, we can’t afford it. The other two don’t matter.”

President Tanner called for a review of all financial practices and imposed revolutionary modifications. He installed modern principles of scientific financial management. He also systematized the church’s investments, according to historians.

First, he instituted a building moratorium. It was awkward. On the land just north of church leaders’ offices, they had started construction of a sky-scraping Church Office Building. Work began with a subterranean parking garage in 1962. When that was complete in 1964, President Tanner halted the project.

In 1966, he informed a committee that “funds had not been allowed in this year’s budget to begin construction on the General Office Building.” For a total of five years, church leaders could use the stand-alone parking garage and look out their windows at the top of the idle ground.

Finally, work began again in 1969 — when the church’s deficits had turned into a $29.5 million surplus, according to Quinn. The 28-story building opened in 1972.

“The basic answer to the story of how the church went from financial difficulty to this world today where it has enormous surpluses is N. Eldon Tanner,” Oman said.

“N. Eldon Tanner controls costs, and leaders put in place the requirement that the operating expenses of the church will always be met out of annual tithing revenue — so there will be no debt, there will be no liquidation of assets to pay for operating costs, and some portion of tithing revenues are going to be set aside against future expenses,” Oman said.

President Tanner’s biographer said that until he arrived, the church budget had been “‘a halfway thing,’ with many activities not even included. Now a strict, comprehensive budget was established requiring individual departments and the organizations as a whole to live within its income.”

Seven future church presidents were part of the Council on the Disposition of Tithes when President Tanner began to install those principles at the end of 1963. Elders Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, who would guide the church into the 21st century, were new apostles.

President Tanner remained the first counselor in the First Presidency for the next 20 years, overseeing church finances for President McKay and three of his successors, steeping the church in the financial principles that have led to today’s era of unprecedented financial strength.

“First, total expenditures will not exceed forecasted revenue,” said the church’s current Presiding Bishop, Gérald Caussé, who guides the church’s temporal affairs under the First Presidency’s leadership. “Second, the budget for operating expenses will not increase year to year at a more rapid rate than the anticipated growth in tithing contributions.”

An apostle who once served with President Tanner, Elder Marvin J. Ashton, said, “President N. Eldon Tanner will go down in history as one of the greatest counselors ever to serve in the First Presidency of the church.”

For most of its history, the church regularly faced financial destitution. Today it has different challenges. It has gone from a past where there was not enough money and the leaders needed to find ways to help impoverished Latter-day Saints, some of whom were refugees, to determining today how to properly utilize its funds in service of its increasingly global mission. Society and finance also are changing.

“The financial model the church has now was created to solve a bunch of problems in the 1960s,” Oman said. “It’s a very new chapter. I don’t think there’s any reason to suppose the financial model put into place in the 1960s is going to work effectively in the 2020s, 60 years later.”

The church’s humanitarian aid spending has more than doubled in the past five years, to $1.02 billion last year. It also has changed its Sunday worship schedule from three hours to two hours, allowing Latter-day Saint chapels to serve multiple congregations.

But over the past five years, President Russell M. Nelson has announced plans for 133 new temples, an increase of 73%. While some critics want the church to spend down its reserved assets, they serve a strict purpose, according to the Presiding Bishopric.

“There will come a time when all of these resources, reserves, will be necessary,” Bishop Waddell has said. “We don’t know when, we don’t know exactly in what form, but you think of the (Bible story of the) seven fat years and the seven lean years, there’s so many examples in the scriptures that we strive to follow, whether it’s the parable of the talents and not to bury the talent. We saw what the Lord did to that individual. We want to be ready for any contingency.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the church was able to dramatically increase its humanitarian projects due to the church’s position of relative economic strength.

Church leaders are also aware that stock portfolios are volatile. In 1930, the first counselor in the First Presidency said the church had lost “at least $6 million” in stock and bond transactions during the previous decade.

The church launched Ensign Peak Advisors in 1997 to manage $7 billion in reserves invested in securities, or stocks. Using long-term investment strategy, the church’s securities held by Ensign Peak rose to $52.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to public filings.

“Most of the growth, I have to say, is because we are right now in the longest period of prosperity in the United States that has ever been recorded, and this is creating that surge of financial markets,” Bishop Caussé said just before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are just beneficiaries of it.”

The church’s portfolio sank 23% to $40.3 billion in the third quarter of 2022. It rebounded to $44.4 billion by year’s end.

“I think people don’t realize how much volatility there could be in the value of a really big portfolio, especially if you’re an institution that can afford to be illiquid,” Oman said. “If economic conditions go badly, there will be big swings in the value of their portfolio.”

That means that what now looks like it would cover more years of operations should a downturn ravage the economy would actually be much smaller because of the effect a downturn would have on markets. 

“If that were to happen ...,” Bishop Waddell said, “we won’t have to stop missionary work, we won’t have to stop maintaining buildings and building temples, we won’t have to stop humanitarian and welfare work, we won’t have to stop education work.”

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2023/5/14/23649253/cbs-60-minutes-mormon-lds-church-finance-story-what-it-missed