This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Four covers 3 Nephi 8 to Moroni 10.
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume One covers 1 Nephi 1 to Jacob 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Two covers Enos 1 to Alma 29. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the original printed format.
This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Three covers Alma 30 to 3 Nephi 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.
An introduction to nautical archeology, focusing on social, cultural, and political history as exposed by shipwrecks from ancient times to the present.
Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and highlights the way in which Mormon created it to meet his goal of “convincing . . . the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.”
AN INACCESSIBLE MORMON ZION:EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY This is Volume IV of an epic, multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: A Mormon Generation Saga, which combines family, Mormon, and American history, focusing upon how the author's ancestors were affected by their conversion to the Mormon religion. In Volume I, four of the author's ancestral families the Carters, Hammonds, Knowltons, and Spencer's and the ancestors of Mormon Church founders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are followed from the time they enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in the 1600s down to the early 1800s. Toward the end of Volume I, the focus is upon Joseph Smith and his family, including their move from Vermont to western New York and their religious and occult "magic worldviews." Volume II takes up the narrative at about the year 1820, and involves a detailed, comprehensive, and critical look at the events in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., during the decade in which he purportedly was visited by numerous heavenly messengers, received the "golden plates," translated the writing on the plates to produce the Book of Mormon, received priesthood authority from other heavenly messengers, published the Book of Mormon, and organized the Mormon Church. There is a detailed examination of the contentious debate concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the validity of Smith's 1820s visionary experiences. The later chapters describe the movement of Church headquarters from western New York to northeastern Ohio in early 1831, Smith's interest in western Missouri as the site for his New Jerusalem/Zion, and the conversion of the author's direct ancestor Simeon Daggett Carter. Volume III roughly covers Mormon history for the years 1831-33, and describes the influence of Sidney Rigdon and many other Ohio Campbellites (Disciples of Christ Church members) on the early Mormon Church. Numerous Joseph Smith revelations designate Jackson County, Missouri, as the New Jerusalem/Zion, the place where the Second Coming of Christ will soon take place. However, Smith chooses to live instead in Kirtland, Ohio, and serious disagreements and tensions develop between Smith in Ohio and Missouri Mormon leaders. Smith begins construction of a temple in Kirtland, and angry Missourians rise up in the summer of 1833 and violently expel the Mormons from Jackson County. They are given temporary sanctuary mainly in Clay County, located across the Missouri River to the north. Volume IV describes the expulsion of Mormons from Jackson County, the efforts of Missouri state officials to deal with the explosive situation, and Smith's attempt to explain why his Missouri Zion is now off-limits to Mormons, although the Lord purportedly has designated it as the site for the hallowed New Jerusalem and imminent Second Coming of Christ. Smith recruits a Mormon army ("Zion's Camp") and leads it from Ohio to western Missouri in an unsuccessful effort to forcefully "redeem Zion," and fourteen members of the camp die of cholera at the end of the trek, including one of the author's Carter ancestors. There are serious recriminations against Smith within the Mormon Church on account of the total failure of this military venture, and a member of the Kirtland High Council Sylvester Smith brings formal charges against him. In the "trial," however, the accuser quickly becomes the accused, and to avoid excommunication Sylvester is forced to apologize profusely for his "false accusations" against "The Prophet." A disgruntled, excommunicated Mormon--Doctor Philastus Hurlbut--travels to western New York in late 1833 and collects numerous affidavits from residents of the Palmyra/Manchester area alleging that the young Joseph Smith, his father, and some of his brothers engaged in illegal, occult, "treasure-seer," "treasurer-digging" activities during the 1820s, and were lazy and dishonest. Many of these affidavits are published by Pain
This is volume 14 (2015) of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published by The Interpreter Foundation. It contains articles on a variety of topics including "Sustaining the Brethren," "Who Was Sherem," "Whoso Forbiddeth to Abstain from Meats," "Where in Cincinnati Was the Third Edition of the Book of Mormon Printed?" "Celestial Visits in the Scriptures, and a Plausible Mesoamerican Tradition," "Father is a Man: The Remarkable Mention of the name Abish in Alma 19:16 and Its Narrative Context," "A Redemptive Reading of Mark 5:25-34," "Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon," "The Implications of Past-Tense Syntax in the Book of Mormon," "Reflections of Urim: Hebrew Poetry Sheds Light on the Directors-Interpreters Mystery," "John L. Sorenson's Complete Legacy: Reviewing Mormon's Codex," "Lehi the Smelter: New Light on Lehi's Profession," and "Place of Crushing: The Literary Function of Heshlon in Ether 13:25-31."
This collection of essays examines interactions of war, peace and religion in the United States, a country where religious faith was, and still is, often deeply felt and widely held, where faith has provided a set of values to uphold with fervor or to transgress in protest, and where religion has been used to legitimize both armed violence and passive resistance. These essays analyze the mythos of America as a place of religious freedom, yet one imbued with a socially-imposed civil religion and underpinned by a heavy presumption of Protestant dominance. With subjects ranging from the War of Independence to the early 21st century, the contributions to this volume focus on a variety of historical and chronological circumstances in order to consider what concrete, tangible outcomes, what artifacts, were produced by the interface of war, peace and religion – the swords and ploughshares of the title. This volume thus presents a variety of often multifaceted responses that reflect its interdisciplinary scope. Some contributions refer to fine art pieces, including statues, paintings, and murals, and others to works of literature, theology, or public speaking. Some of these interfaces were performed on stage or in film, while yet others were heard on the radio or read in newspapers or journals. Some of the essays gathered here concern individuals working through the meaning of armed conflict in terms of their own, personal faith, while others examine the impact of such conflicts on a larger scale, as with whole faith communities or in the shaping of national or foreign policy. The first part, Communities, looks at interfaces that served to structure a whole community. The second, Margins, examines instances where the relationship between religion and war and peace has occupied a more marginal space within a faith community. The final section turns this interface Outward, situating it away from American soil or noting how foreign war shaped the spirituality of those returning.
