…NATURE OF REVELATION
“Revelation, scripture, and Church directives are not necessarily composed divinely-revealed-and-ideal-eternal facts, but inevitably contain human elements and understanding common to the time. Ultimately, the qualifying characteristic of revelation is not a complete lack of human aspects, but the guiding hand of the divine with that humanity, in a joint composite, iterative, and progressive process, which we call the Restoration.”
Ben Spackman,www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2019/a-paradoxical-preservation-of-faith
DOCTRINE: MODELS TO EVALUATE TYPES AND SOURCES OF LATTER-DAY SAINT TEACHING
“Though scripture, personal experience, tradition, and our own reason are constantly part of our evaluation of doctrine, prophetic declaration reigns supreme. The concept of continuing revelation, expressed in the ninth article of faith, has allowed for prophets to address each generation and the Church to build “line upon line, precept upon precept” with a certain kind of flexibility that is limited when doctrine can only be found within the pages of the Bible, or to being only that which is eternal and unchanging. All of this implies that new ideas, altered concepts, expanded teachings, and additional knowledge will be given, thus requiring what we teach—our “doctrine”—to also be expandable. The very notions of a living Church and continuing revelation suggest that any statement on doctrine is not a declaration of eternal finality but temporary understanding or expediency.”
rsc.byu.edu/archived/re-17-no-3-2016/doctrine-models-evaluate-types-and-sources-latter-day-saint-teachings
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GOD
When we are struggling there is no way we can determine what God is up to, how He might be working in our lives, tutoring us, or supporting us. When we struggle, the only thing we can do is to cling to what we KNOW about Him.
ANTI-NEPHI-LEHIES
“Recall that the record tells us more than once that the Lamanites delighted in shedding Nephite blood. Far from being reluctant, the Lamanites’ killings had in fact been wanton and deliberate, in both large-scale aggressive wars and in smaller-scale marauding and banditry. Furthermore, one of the Lamanites’ motives for attacking Nephites was to rob them—to take from them gold and silver so they would not have to mine it for themselves. And finally, note that in all of their conflicts, the Lamanites, not the Nephites, had been the aggressors. So the wars Anti-Nephi-Lehi is speaking of here are not wars involving legitimate disputes that simply escalated out of control, but rather aggressive wars and acts of plunder that were motivated by hatred and were instigated and pursued in the first instance by the Lamanites themselves.
Such was the moral atmosphere that had existed among the Lamanites, and it is little surprise that Anti-Nephi-Lehi, in hindsight and from the perspective of a changed heart, could see such acts of hate-filled killing as thoroughly murderous in character.
Moreover, a close study of the text reveals the actual reason the Ammonites renounced war and entered a covenant to eschew all conflict: doing so was act of penitence—reparation (insofar as such was possible) for a past filled with aggression, violence, and hatred.”
Duane Boyce, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-ammonites-were-not-pacifists/
SUFFERING FOR OTHERS
Suffering proved to be more than a purifying process for the donor; it also brought a redemptive power to the recipient. There is a certain compelling power that flows from righteous suffering. Such suffering for another is the highest form of motivation we can offer for those we love.
Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement
TEMPLE COVENANTS
They include the "covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth and the uplifting of the [human] race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive Jesus Christ.” (Talmage, p. 84).
eom.byu.edu/index.php/Temple_Ordinances
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