Category Archives: Church History

“Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” SANE Symposium at BYU

If you’re new here, you may want to sign up for email alerts or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for reading!David Larsen posted a great notice over at Heavenly Ascents of the upcoming “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” Symposium that will be held at BYU on November 7th, 2008.  It is being presented [...]

Job’s Covenant: Hebrew Tav and “Behold my sign!” in Job 31

A few days ago I wrote about a post I read over at Lehi’s Library which quoted a paper by Kevin Christensen in which he referenced Margaret Barker.  The subject was the use of the Hebrew word/letter tau or tav, translated as “mark” in Ezekiel 9:4-6, and what it meant in Ezekiel’s day, and what [...]

Many More Ordinances Including Resurrection

I came across a talk from President Brigham Young that was deeply insightful, and I want to share a portion.  It is from an address he gave on August 24, 1872 in Farmington, Utah, and reported by David W. Evans.  In it President Young describes the ordinances of the temple, and the many ordinances that [...]

The Joseph Smith Papers Volume 1 Available for Pre-Order!

“The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Vol. 1: 1832-1839″ is available for pre-ordering at Deseret Book.  The description reads:
“The Joseph Smith Papers project is the single most significant historical project of our generation.”  —Elder Marlin K. Jensen, LDS Church Historian
Joseph Smith is known to history as the founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus [...]

Harold Bloom on Joseph Smith’s Genius

One of our readers, RBiddulph, recently pointed me to a quote by Harold Bloom, a well-known literary and cultural critic who is currently a Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University, who once said this about Joseph Smith:
I can only attribute to his genius or daemons his uncanny recovery of elements in ancient Jewish [...]

Oh Say, What Is Truth?

What is Truth? I hope this will help shed some light.  The living prophets of this dispensation have spoken the word of the Lord.
From the “Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson” (pgs. 115-121):
Truth is a glorious thing. We sing about it. “Oh say, what is truth?/’Tis the fairest gem/That the riches of worlds can produce.” [...]

Is TempleStudy.com slowing down?

You may have wondered where I’ve been lately.  I haven’t posted any substantial posts over the last few days.  But, no need to worry.  I have assigned myself a fairly large side project that I believe will be of worth to researchers, historians, students, and anyone wanting to learn more about the prophet Joseph Smith, [...]

Promises of Calling & Election in JS Lesson 13

Live in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and walk humbly before Him, and He will exalt thee in His own due time. -Joseph Smith 
Last week was the Joseph Smith manual chapter 13 lesson for Priesthood and Relief Society entitled, “Obedience: ‘When the Lord Commands, Do It.’”  This was an excellent lesson, and I [...]

The Founding Fathers’ Temple Work

Since tomorrow is Independence Day, I thought I might say a word about our Founding Fathers.  We are deeply indebted to all the noble men and women who sacrificed their lives to establish this country of the United States of America some 232 years ago, and to make this country a free land.  Through their [...]

Brief Intro to the Joseph Smith Papyri and Book of Abraham

Note:  This was going to be the next part of the series on the Egyptian ankh, and its relationship with the papyri and Book of Abraham, but I thought an intro to these first would be a better place to start.
Let’s return again to the subject of the ankh, and related symbols, that we’ve briefly [...]

The 1978 Temple Revelation of the Extension of Priesthood

Video created by the LDS Church to commemorate and celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ action in June 1978 to extend its lay priesthood to men of all races - entitled “He Inviteth Us All.”  The revelation from God came quite clear from heaven to prophets and apostles [...]

Washing of Feet

A reader has asked, “Do you have any insight into what happened to the washing of feet? Could the washing of feet have been preparatory to the full ordinance of washing as we now have it in the initiatories?”
The ordinance of washing of feet is still performed in the temple, for it is a restored [...]

School of the Prophets as a Temple Precursor

I hadn’t made this connection before, but it seems to jump out at me now like red ink. I knew that the School of the Prophets was a select group of brethren who participated in an effort to prepare themselves for the missionary work, but it also had a much more spiritual side with [...]

Holiness to the Lord

A member of my ward emailed me this quote from Elder Holland’s April 2000 Conference address.  I thought it was a very good story of dedication, hard work, and faith:
One other account from those early, faithful builders of modern Zion. John R. Moyle lived in Alpine, Utah, about 22 miles as the crow flies to [...]

Olivewood: A Singular Bookstore

I can’t remember where I originally heard about the new Olivewood bookstore. It may have been in the Bloggernacle somewhere - perhaps FAIR. In any case, I had heard enough about this store that I decided that I had to visit it. It is located at 3330 N University Ave. Suite C [...]

Ordinances as Signs

Today in priesthood we talked about chapter 7 in the Joseph Smith manual. It is about “Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.” One thing that struck me as I read the chapter is the number of times that Joseph referred to baptism and some of the other principles and ordinances as [...]

An Even Newer Proposed Daguerreotype of Joseph

Considering all the commotion over the supposed daguerreotype photo of Joseph Smith that has been going around like wildfire (which the Church has not authenticated), I thought I might post this new proposed photo of Joseph Smith. This one actually looks much more how I would imagine the prophet than the first one, considering [...]

The Joseph Smith Papers

Every once and a while something comes along that strikes you as absolutely remarkable. The Joseph Smith Papers that will be published by the Church is one of those things. The Church announced the establishment of The Church Historian’s Press today, the first publication of which will be a 25-30 volume series of [...]

Interview with Professor Andrew Skinner on “Temple Worship”

This morning I heard an excellent 50-minute interview on KSL News Radio on the program “People of Faith with Carole Mikita.” Today, Mikita interviewed Professor Andrew Skinner, Excecutive Director of The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, on his recent publication of the book entitled Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your [...]

Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi - DVD

I just watched an excellent documentary on BYU Television entitled “Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi.” It was all about the building of the Nauvoo temple, and included video of the rebuilding of the current temple from just a few years ago. Here is the description from BYU broadcasting:
In September 1846, the last [...]