Book of Mormon Weeks
28, 29, 30
We are now less
than a month away from the starting of our Fall class. We are scheduled to
begin on Thursday, September 13 at 7:00 pm in the Granite Tabernacle. The class
is not yet listed on the BYU web site. We are waiting for Stake President
authorization, but there should be no problems there. I am really looking
forward to being back in the classroom and hope that your schedules will allow
you to be there. Some of you may have noticed on the web site that I will be
teaching the same class (Alma 3-Moroni 1) on Wednesdays from noon to 1:30 at
the Layton East Stake Center. I am thankful for this opportunity. It fits
really well with my work (just a few blocks away) and my new temple assignment
in the Bountiful Temple. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Sorry about my
Summer-slows on these updates. We have had a very active Summer. We got to
visit Island Park last week with an old college roommate and his wife. We are
only 11 days away from finishing the Book of Mormon on the 239th day of the
year. Congratulations to those who are keeping up.
Gary
Thought - The Book of Mormon is
one of the most marvelous records ever revealed to the world. Many members of
the Church do not seem to realize that when this record was revealed to Joseph
Smith he was but a lad in his teens, and that when it was translated and the Church
organized he was but twenty-four years of age. Because of family circumstances
his privilege to attend school was extremely limited, and it is absolutely
beyond comprehension how any youth, by his own initiative and ability, could
have produced such a record. In fact, we may defy all the learned men in the
world to produce such a work and present it to the world as an authentic
document giving the history of an ancient but lost people. Should they attempt
it, their effort would be filled with glaring errors and their work could not
endure.
No book ever published has passed through the
intense criticism and the most bitter opposition of the learned as well as the
ignorant, yet it has triumphed over them all. Had it been a work of fiction it
would have been forgotten, notwithstanding the divine claims which it contains.
The truth has met with severe opposition all through the ages; yet it goes on.
The thousands who have come into the Church can testify that the words of
Moroni are true. Every man who seeks to know the truth will come to the light
if there has been a sincere and prayerful desire to know the truth.
It is only natural that a record of this kind, which is true, would have to
face the most intense and bitter opposition. (Joseph Fielding Smith, in An Approach to the Book of Mormon by
Hugh Nibley, Course of Study for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums, 1957,
Preface)
Date
|
Chapter
|
Verse
|
Comments
|
July
27
|
Mormon
4
|
12
|
A
key verse in understanding why the Nephites were destroyed.
|
July
28
|
Mormon
5
|
20
|
A
2 part prophecy. We live and work in part 2.
|
July
29
|
Mormon
6
|
21
|
Mormon's
sad commentary to his unrepentant and soon to be destroyed people. It is also
a sober reminder to us.
|
July
30
|
Mormon
7
|
9
|
Mormon's
message to latter-day Israel that the Book of Mormon was given to help us
believe the Bible.
|
July
31
|
Mormon
8
|
34-5
|
My
favorite verse in all of scripture. Thank you Moroni!
|
Aug
1
|
Mormon
9
|
1-3
|
Moroni
asks those who do not believe when they will. I love it!
|
Aug
2
|
Ether
1
|
43
|
God
tells the Jaredites about just how wonderful America has & always will
be.
|
Aug
3
|
Ether
2
|
11
|
Another
editorial statement from Moroni warning us to listen to his from the dust
pleadings.
|
Aug
4
|
Ether
3
|
14
|
Jesus
testifies to the Brother of Jared of His mission.
|
Aug
4
|
Ether
3
|
35
|
The
Brother of Jared saw "History of the World" parts 1-7
|
Aug
5
|
Ether
4
|
7
|
A
conditional promise that we will be able to see the same movie.
|
Aug
6
|
Ether
5
|
6
|
Moroni
gives another challenge to us. He is pleading with us to pay attention.
|
Aug
7
|
Ether
6
|
17
|
We
should teach each other and we each should also be taught from on high.
|
Aug
8
|
Ether
7
|
25
|
Give
prophets the opportunity and they will change lives and nations.
|
Aug
9
|
Ether
8
|
24
|
I
had never noticed how directly Moroni speaks to people of our day.
|
Aug
10
|
Ether
9
|
22
|
A
prophet who saw Jesus almost 2000 years before His birth.
|
Aug
11
|
Ether
10
|
28
|
A
Zion time amongst the Jaredites.
|
Aug
12
|
Ether
11
|
21
|
The
Jaredites find out about the Nephites.
|
Aug
13
|
Ether
12
|
6
|
No
witness until AFTER the trial of our faith.
|
Aug
13
|
Ether
12
|
27
|
God
gives us weakness to ALL and then helps us turn our weakness into strength.
|
Aug
14
|
Ether
13
|
20
|
A
great example of if and then. It seems easy when we see others.
|
Aug
15
|
Ether
14
|
25
|
Thus
we see that Wickedness prepares us for destruction.
|