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Running Champion Bernard Lagat and Nandi Initiation

U.S. professional running champion, Bernard Lagat

It is fascinating to me all the places that I hear or see or read glimpses of temple theology, the “scattered fragments” of ritual tradition.  As Nibley found out, and taught extensively, these remnants are found all around us, everywhere.  My wife was listening to the radio on the way to the grocery store last week, and heard part of a program on Classical 89 that related to the Creation song.  She came home and told me about it, and I was immediately interested, and tracked down the transcription.  I’m still studying that, and will write about it soon.  But today, again, I was reading the February 2010 edition of Runner’s World, of all places, and came across references to ritual initiation and rites of passage.  Read More »


Store Owner Commands Robber to Leave in the Name of Jesus

I received an email today of this interesting video clip.  It is a news story from earlier this month of store owner Marian Chadwick from Frisco, Texas, who encountered a hooded robber that entered her store with a gun.  The gunman walked up to the store counter and demanded money.  The store owner pointed at him and commanded him, in the name of Jesus, to leave the store immediately.  The gunman took a step back and told a customer to drop to the floor.  The store owner repeated the commands.  The robber slowly backed up and fled the store.

In an interview the store owner said that when the robber was leaving he started cussing at them, “as if Satan was walking out the door.”


Hugh Nibley Weekly Lecture Series Beginning Tonight at BYU

Dr. Richard Bushman

The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), in conjunction with Religious Education and the Harold B. Lee library, are hosting a weekly lecture series that begins tonight, January 14th, 2010, at 7:00pm, and extends through Winter Semester 2010 on Thursday evenings in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium at BYU.

This lecture series is in honor of the 100th anniversary of Hugh Nibley’s birth this year.  Hugh Nibley was born on March 27, 1910.

The presenters at these lectures will include Richard Bushman, Robert Millet, Terry Ball, Daniel Peterson, Zina Petersen, Ann Madsen, Alex Nibley, Bert Wilson, John Welch, Marilyn Arnold, Eric Huntsman, and Gaballa Ali Gaballa.

Tonight’s lecture is by Richard Bushman, biographer of Joseph Smith (Rough Stone Rolling), and an editor of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.  His topic is “Nibley and Joseph Smith.”  Next week’s lecture, January 21st, will be by Robert Millet who will present on “Nibley and the Church.”

I’m looking forward to these lectures.  Hugh Nibley catapulted LDS scholarship and apologetics into a new dimension, and his work will affect many generations of Latter-day Saints to come.  His work on the temple has particularly influenced me, and many others I know.

Update 1/15/10: The lecture was wonderful last night.  And there’s good news!  There were three cameras there filming it, which I think they will continue for the series, which means that they are planning on putting it all on TV or making it available somehow for later viewing (perhaps online).  They also gave the rest of the series schedule of lectures:

  • 14 Jan – “Nibley and Joseph Smith” – Richard Bushman
  • 21 Jan – “Nibley and the Church” – Robert Millet
  • 28 Jan – “Nibley’s Early Education” – Zina Petersen
  • 4 Feb – “Nibley as Apologist” – Daniel Peterson
  • 11 Feb – “Nibley and the environment” – Terry Ball
  • 18 Feb – “Graduate School through BYU” – Alex Nibley
  • 25 Feb – “Nibley on the Bible” – Ann Madsen
  • 4 Mar – “Folklore on Nibley” – Bert Wilson
  • 11 Mar – “The Lasting Legacies of Hugh W. Nibley” – John W. Welch
  • 18 Mar – “Nibley and Classical Scholarship” – Eric Huntsman
  • 25 Mar – “Nibley on the Book of Mormon” – Marilyn Arnold
  • 1 Apr – “Nibley the Mentor” – Wilfred Griggs
  • 8 Apr – “Nibley, Egyptology & the Book of Abraham” – TBA

These lectures will all be held in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium (Level 1) at 7:00pm.  This is a great lineup!  If you plan on coming to these lectures, make sure you come early to get a seat, as the room was filled to overflowing last night.


New WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin for Bloggers

Example of a popup using the new Wordpress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

Example of a popup using the new Wordpress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

For some time I’ve been using the excellent LDS Linker WordPress plugin, developed by Joey Day, to automatically link all scripture references on TempleStudy.com directly to the Church’s online scriptures at scriptures.lds.org.  It worked very well, and continues to be one of the most popular WordPress plugins for LDS bloggers to link their scripture references to the online scriptures.

Recently I was thinking how much easier it would be to just hover your mouse over a scripture reference and see a popup with the scripture reference written out.  It would make reading the scripture references that much quicker in a blog post, rather than clicking a link to another site.  Read More »


Who were the Shepherds in the Christmas Story?

Annunciation to the Shepherds, Abraham Hondius, 1663, oil on panel.  Note the cherubim forming circular ring dances (ancient temple prayer circle) in the heavens, praising God.

Annunciation to the Shepherds, Abraham Hondius, 1663, oil on panel. (Click image for a larger view)

The Christmas story from Luke 2 reads in part:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another,

Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:8-20)

Most of us are very familiar with these scriptures, as it is tradition in many families to read this story at Christmastime every year to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

But who were the shepherds?  Have you, like me, considered the angelophany to the shepherds in their fields something that was completely random?  Were the angels announcing the birth of the Savior abroad in the land, and this was just one of the accounts that was recorded in scripture?  Or was there a greater purpose to the angelic revelation specific to these shepherds?  Read More »


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