Dear friends,
The Stake Presidency has decided to wait until the Fall of 2021 to resume our studies. We will not meet this winter in-person or on Zoom. I miss seeing you and learning together. Hopefully things will look very different in the Fall!
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Update on Class
Hi friends,
Due to continued concern and restrictions regarding COVID, our Stake Presidency has decided to delay the beginning of class, in-person or online, until January. We are hopeful things will be more normalized by then. I will post updates here as we determine the next steps. I miss seeing you!
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Moroni 7-10
Following are the quotes and the link for the recording of today's class. Thank you for continuing to make this a wonderful experience even in the midst of difficult challenges. Your preparation and participation made this study memorable for all of us. I deeply appreciate each of you. Thank you!
We will begin class again sometime in October following October school break. I will keep the blog updated on starting dates and course of study. I hope you all have a wonderful summer as we move forward in uncertain times.
ZOOM RECORDING
CHARITY
“True charity has been known only once. It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us. It is Christ’s love for us that ‘suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not.’ It is his love for us that is not ‘puffedup...,noteasilyprovoked,thinkethnoevil.’ ItisChrist’sloveforusthat ‘beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.’ It is demonstrated in Christ that ‘charity never faileth.’ It is that charity—his pure love for us—without which we would be nothing, hopeless, of all men and women most miserable. Truly, those found possessed of the blessings of his love at the last day—the Atonement, the Resurrection, eternal life, eternal promise— surely it shall be well with them.”
Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 336-7
“Only charity never fails us. Only Jesus Christ the Healer is a sure foundation. Because they are the same.The most perfect form of love the universe has ever known is fully realized in the Christ of the Restoration. Encountering that reality is the sole means of anchoring our faith in the Restoration on unassailable foundations, moving us from fragile faith to the durable discipleship of love. Only truth that is hard won, dearly bought, and firmly grasped can nourish and sustain us through the crucible of life, of doubt, of loss. Like the philosopher’s stone of legend, the foundation we build in Christ can transmute the earthy elements of our poor selves into celestial material fit for glory if that foundation be laid in a correct understanding.We believe this is true for one simple reason. In that dramatic colloquy in the Tower with his daughter Meg, who complains, 'Haven’t you done as much as God can reasonably want?,’ Robert Bolt’s Thomas More explains, ‘Well finally, it isn’t a matter of reason. Finally, it’s a matter of love.’ Even to begin to know our Heavenly Parents and their Christ, through the prism of the restored gospel is inevitably and irresistibly to love them with a love that is healing, transformative, and redemptive."
Givens,Fiona.The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored The Truth That Saves Us .Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
MORMON’S LETTER
“The letter shocks the reader.Yet, that may well have been Moroni's intent. He offers no explanation as to why he included this letter in his writings. However, as it stands, it provides a striking contrast that enhances Moroni's invitation to come unto Christ.This is what Gerald N. Lund calls a scriptural foil: a technique used by scriptural writers who place ‘two contrasting principles or examples side by side to show even more clearly what they [are] trying to teach.’ Moroni chapters 9 and 10 together contain the last of several contrasts found in the Book of Mormon that illustrate one of its major themes: we are ‘free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.’ Chapter 9 illustrates what happens when we choose ‘captivity and death’ through the power of Satan, while chapter 10 offers hope and encouragement to those who desire ‘liberty and eternal life through Christ.’”
Bruce K. Satterfield, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/archive-files/pdf/ satterfield/2015-12-10/21_bruce_k._satterfield_moroni_9-10_1995.pdf
MORONI’S FINAL EXHORTATION
“Moroni’s relation to his enemies is unusual, even for a prophet.We ought to wonder at his charity, but that charity is a model for what we should imitate in our own lives. It isn’t easy to do that. Anyone who has been humiliated or seriously hurt by another knows how difficult is forgiveness, the love that imitates Christ’s redeeming love. It may be that, except for Jesus Christ, we have no better model than Moroni.As we will see, Moroni takes that love to be the heart of the gospel.”
“Sealings and Mercies: Moroni's Final Exhortations in Moroni 10,”
Read Moroni 10:3-4
1. What does Moroni want the Lamanites (and all of us) to remember and ponder?
2. Why does he want readers to meditate on this topic?
3. Why is an understanding of this topic an essential preface to the exhortation of verse 4?
4. What are “these things” Moroni refers to when he says “ye shall receive these things” in verse 4? 5. Why is God referred to here as “the Eternal Father” rather than by one of His other titles?
6. What is Moroni teaching about the Savior by saying readers must ask “in the name of Christ?”
7. What does it mean to “know the truth of all things?”
MEEKNESS
For further understanding see Doctrine and Covenants 97:1-2. Meekness includes "seeking diligently to learn wisdom and to find truth."
“The point is for us to see God’s long-suffering mercies for his people.As we read scripture, do we see those mercies? As we read of those mercies, do we recognize them as a prototype for what happens in our own lives, or do we see instead only our failures? If the latter, then we implicitly use our own will and power as the measure for our lives and deny the mercy of God. Moroni exhorts—urgently appeals to—the Lamanites to stop looking at the world in terms of their own power and their own will, for if they do they will ultimately see only a record of failure and destruction. But if, instead, they see the mercies with which God has blessed their ancestors and them, they will understand their lives in a completely different way.They will see themselves as children of God rather than masters of their own fate.As children of God, they will experience the happiness brought through his mercy.”
“Clearly Moroni urges his readers to want to know that truth. But their ultimate intent, that on which their gaze should be fixed, is salvation, which is why they must have faith in Christ.The truth of the Book of Mormon may seem irrelevant if we are not concerned about our salvation, and our salvation is impossible if we do not have faith in Christ. So the Lamanites are told to ask God to tell them, in his mercy, whether the record is true, and they must do so with their whole being, with a gaze fixed on salvation and with faith in the mercy of their Savior, Jesus Christ.”
“Sealings and Mercies: Moroni's Final Exhortations in Moroni 10,” James E. Faulconer https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1509&context=jbms
Sunday, April 26, 2020
ZOOM Invitation for April 28
Below is the link for our ZOOM class on Tuesday, April 28 at 9:30 a.m. This will be the last class of the year. I look forward to seeing you!
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 987 0697 8831
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Meeting ID: 987 0697 8831
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aenDVLwvH
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Moroni 1-7
Following are the quotes and the link for the recording from class on Tuesday, April 21.
We did not get through all of the material on Tuesday, so we will finish up chapter 7 next week.
READING ASSIGNMENT FOR APRIL 28
Moroni 7: 40 - Moroni 10
RECORDING LINK
https://zoom.us/rec/share/-d5INZLiqFJJG4ns5xnuX6MmBp_7eaa813Qf-PFenhpYnSAMS-O04vZ2uf2Vxam5?startTime=1587486666000
MORONI
“The moral of the story comes through loud and painfully clear:‘Give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than that which we have been.’ Just maybe the cataclysms that erase nations and encroach on our own soil are not inevitable. Just maybe we are given reason here for hope.
This is itself an amazing dimension of the Book of Mormon, given its apocalyptic perspective, stark deathbed scenes, dark focus on the gloomy end of all things: the hope that shines through it. I am sometimes given to gloominess and to the pervasive pessimism of my own time, so I harbor a deep respect for hope. If ever hope were earned, it is this optimism pervading the Book of Mormon narrative, even in the face of the end of all things. ... Seeing what he has seen, that Moroni is able to still promote the idea of being ‘holy without spot’ inclines me to think it may be possible.”
Steve Walker, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/archive-files/pdf/walker/ 2016-02-04/07_steve_walker_last_words_readers_book_of_mormon_2008.pdf
THE SACRAMENT PRAYERS
“The sacrament prayers used in the time of Moroni were closely based on the very words that Christ Himself spoke when He visited the Book of Mormon peoples.The words of Christ were likely used to replace the language of an already rich history of covenant making rituals among the Nephites, but the replacement still preserved some of the verbiage from their traditional covenant renewal ceremony.As BYU Professor JohnW. Welch has noted, 'It seems that Nephite texts and traditions have combined and coalesced beautifully into the final sacrament prayers in Moroni 4–5.’”
“One particularly noteworthy phrase appears in the prayers as found in Moroni 4–5 that was not included in the recorded words of Christ in 3 Nephi 18 — “that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son” (Moroni 4:3).As shown in the above table, that phrase parallels King Benjamin’s words as he put his people under covenant to take upon themselves the name of Christ (Mosiah 5:8) about 150 years before the appearance of Christ at the temple in Bountiful.”
“Readers may note that the prayers used by the modern Church today, as found in Doctrine and Covenants 20:76–79, are almost exactly the same words recorded in Moroni 4–5. It is significant that these words are essentially the words that Christ spoke (and perhaps what He would speak if present) when He introduced the ordinance Himself in 3 Nephi 18.The prayers recorded by Moroni demonstrate an effort to keep the prayers as close to Jesus’ own words as possible.
Moroni was careful to record these precious sacrament prayers precisely, because they were sacred, were based on the actual words of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, and conveyed through the sacramental ordinance the powers of the sacrificed body and atoning blood of Christ. In addition, those words also communicated the power of the Holy Ghost and aligned the will of the Father with ordinary men and women who seek to keep his commandment.To serve these holy purposes, Moroni was careful to convey the words of these prayers with solemn exactness.”
https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/where-did-moroni-get-the-sacramental-prayers-from
THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
“The light of Christ is just what the words imply: enlightenment, knowledge, and an uplifting, enabling, persevering influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ. The light of Christ fills the ‘immensity of space’ and is the means by which Christ is able to be ‘in all things, and is through all things, and is round all things.’
The light of Christ should not be confused with the personage of the Holy Ghost, for the light of Christ is not a personage at all. Its influence is preliminary to and preparatory to one’s receiving the Holy Ghost.”
Bible Dictionary, Gospel Library,“Light of Christ”
“The light of Christ is the means by which members of the Godhead are omnipresent, and also the means through which the Holy Ghost communicates gifts and blessings to all mankind.”
Joseph Fielding Smith, 1:40, 54
We did not get through all of the material on Tuesday, so we will finish up chapter 7 next week.
READING ASSIGNMENT FOR APRIL 28
Moroni 7: 40 - Moroni 10
RECORDING LINK
https://zoom.us/rec/share/-d5INZLiqFJJG4ns5xnuX6MmBp_7eaa813Qf-PFenhpYnSAMS-O04vZ2uf2Vxam5?startTime=1587486666000
MORONI
“The moral of the story comes through loud and painfully clear:‘Give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than that which we have been.’ Just maybe the cataclysms that erase nations and encroach on our own soil are not inevitable. Just maybe we are given reason here for hope.
This is itself an amazing dimension of the Book of Mormon, given its apocalyptic perspective, stark deathbed scenes, dark focus on the gloomy end of all things: the hope that shines through it. I am sometimes given to gloominess and to the pervasive pessimism of my own time, so I harbor a deep respect for hope. If ever hope were earned, it is this optimism pervading the Book of Mormon narrative, even in the face of the end of all things. ... Seeing what he has seen, that Moroni is able to still promote the idea of being ‘holy without spot’ inclines me to think it may be possible.”
Steve Walker, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/archive-files/pdf/walker/ 2016-02-04/07_steve_walker_last_words_readers_book_of_mormon_2008.pdf
THE SACRAMENT PRAYERS
“The sacrament prayers used in the time of Moroni were closely based on the very words that Christ Himself spoke when He visited the Book of Mormon peoples.The words of Christ were likely used to replace the language of an already rich history of covenant making rituals among the Nephites, but the replacement still preserved some of the verbiage from their traditional covenant renewal ceremony.As BYU Professor JohnW. Welch has noted, 'It seems that Nephite texts and traditions have combined and coalesced beautifully into the final sacrament prayers in Moroni 4–5.’”
“One particularly noteworthy phrase appears in the prayers as found in Moroni 4–5 that was not included in the recorded words of Christ in 3 Nephi 18 — “that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son” (Moroni 4:3).As shown in the above table, that phrase parallels King Benjamin’s words as he put his people under covenant to take upon themselves the name of Christ (Mosiah 5:8) about 150 years before the appearance of Christ at the temple in Bountiful.”
“Readers may note that the prayers used by the modern Church today, as found in Doctrine and Covenants 20:76–79, are almost exactly the same words recorded in Moroni 4–5. It is significant that these words are essentially the words that Christ spoke (and perhaps what He would speak if present) when He introduced the ordinance Himself in 3 Nephi 18.The prayers recorded by Moroni demonstrate an effort to keep the prayers as close to Jesus’ own words as possible.
Moroni was careful to record these precious sacrament prayers precisely, because they were sacred, were based on the actual words of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, and conveyed through the sacramental ordinance the powers of the sacrificed body and atoning blood of Christ. In addition, those words also communicated the power of the Holy Ghost and aligned the will of the Father with ordinary men and women who seek to keep his commandment.To serve these holy purposes, Moroni was careful to convey the words of these prayers with solemn exactness.”
https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/where-did-moroni-get-the-sacramental-prayers-from
THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
“The light of Christ is just what the words imply: enlightenment, knowledge, and an uplifting, enabling, persevering influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ. The light of Christ fills the ‘immensity of space’ and is the means by which Christ is able to be ‘in all things, and is through all things, and is round all things.’
The light of Christ should not be confused with the personage of the Holy Ghost, for the light of Christ is not a personage at all. Its influence is preliminary to and preparatory to one’s receiving the Holy Ghost.”
Bible Dictionary, Gospel Library,“Light of Christ”
“The light of Christ is the means by which members of the Godhead are omnipresent, and also the means through which the Holy Ghost communicates gifts and blessings to all mankind.”
Joseph Fielding Smith, 1:40, 54
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