Restoration
The Restoration—Step By Step
Marjorie asked me, “Why did the Lord wait so long to bring about the Restoration?”
Good question. In theory, had the Restoration happened hundreds of years before it did, many millions more people could have received its blessings, and things would have been farther along than they are today. That would be one line of thinking, but it wouldn’t be so.
The Restoration Was For Me
The Restoration is an individual thing. Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, “The revelations of the First Vision were not for Joseph Smith alone but are offered as light and truth for any who ‘lack wisdom.'” (Ensign, May 2020, 110).
Read MoreDisoriented
I have prepared a talk this morning just for Jan. She’ll understand it even if the rest of us don’t. She has been a pilot, and none of the rest of us have ever flown a plane.
Read MoreStunners and Blockbusters
Among the basic doctrines of the Church are what Neal A. Maxwell called “stunners.” (Ensign, November 2003, pg.100). President James E. Faust called them “blockbusters.” (Ensign, November 2005, pgs. 21-22). They are monumental, astounding, life changing, and earth shaking. They totally change prevailing religious and philosophical thought. Here is my own collection:
Read MoreRhinahippedeemotapus Complex
Adam showed two-and-a-half-year-old Caleb a picture of a rhinoceros the other day, and asked him what it was. Caleb knew. “That’s a rhinahippedeemotapus,” he said. I like that. As I thought about it, I decided that Caleb’s rhinahippedeemotapus is like other churches. They have many of the right syllables, but no idea how to correctly put them together.
Read MoreThe Light Which Shineth in Darkness
As I have been rereading the Doctrine and Covenants I have been struck by a sentence which the Lord uses repeatedly to describe Himself. He says, “I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” (D&C 6:21, 11:11, 34:2, 39:2, 45:7).
Read MoreA Sample of LeGrand Richards
While I was on my first mission in Holland, I was invited to speak to a Bible class of businessmen in The Hague. They met every week, holding a Bible class.
Read MoreThe Restoration
My noble, non-member grandfather asked an astute question that he had no way of answering, but that you and I can. He asked the question because of some marvelous observations that he’d made. He wrote the following sometime in the decade before his death in 1962:
Read MoreWilliam Tyndale
If I was to make a short list of the individuals who have made the most significant, positive impacts upon the world in the past 2000 years, I would list Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, Christopher Columbus, and William Tyndale.
Read MoreDoctrines Pertinent to the Plan of Salvation
DOCTRINES PERTINENT TO THE PLAN OF SALVATION
AS UNDERSTOOD BY
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
Joseph Smith, The Prophet
I was born in 1947, just over 100 years after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I didn’t know him in life, and I never knew anything about him for the first 20 years of my life
Read MoreAstronomical Questions and Numbers
1. How many people have lived upon the earth? The Population Reference Bureau says 107 billion.
Read MoreBest-Kept Secrets
How long is it possible to keep a secret? I know of several that were kept for thousands of years.
Read MoreFruitfulness
Letters from home are talking about strawberries. It’s strawberry season there. Marjorie is longing to have some fresh strawberries on her cereal in the mornings. In the midst of her longings, she pointed out a very interesting observation.
Read MoreMt. Tambora
The volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa on 10 April 1815 caused devastating effects around the world. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives, and the lives of millions of others were affected.
Read MoreJacob Chapter 5
Each time I reread the parable of the tame and wild olive trees in Jacob chapter 5, I receive more insights, and become more and more impressed with it. It’s a masterpiece. It was written by the prophet Zenos, somewhere in the Holy Land, sometime before 600 B.C. It spells out in some detail what would be the future of the Americas, of all places.
Read More