Tag Archives: discussion

Liveblog: 178th Semiannual General Conference

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In my most ambitious liveblogging yet, I’m going to attempt to liveblog General Conference.  I must admit, this will probably be more of a notetaking project for me than anything else, but it [...]

Third Nephi Conference at BYU September 26-27

The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies at BYU has announced that they are sponsoring a conference next month devoted to Third Nephi.  The conference is entitled “Third Nephi: New Perspectives on an Incomparable Scripture.”  It will be held in the Wilkinson Center at BYU on September 26th and 27th, and will [...]

Temple imagery in “Gabriel’s Revelation” Discovery

The scholarly world is aflutter over the latest discovery of a 3-foot tall tablet being called “Gabriel’s Revelation,” “Hazon Gabriel,” or the “Vision of Gabriel.”  It contains 87 lines of Hebrew text written in ink on stone, and has been dated to the first century BCE.  The tablet was found near the Dead Sea in [...]

Is the Temple Troubling?

Someone recently asked me the following:
Perhaps you can explain how a person who finds the [temple experience] to be … troubling should express those feelings.
This was my reply, with additional edits: 

What Do You Want To See on TempleStudy.com?

Some of you may remember the survey I posted here on TempleStudy.com back in May.  It was a huge success.  Many of you responded to my request for feedback, even those of you who don’t normally comment.  Some of you gave me great compliments, for which I am very thankful, and many also gave suggestions [...]

Added ShareThis to TempleStudy.com

I have added a new feature to TempleStudy.com.  It is called ShareThis.  This is a really great tool for sharing things about the temple that you read here with your friends, family, coworkers, associates, ward members, and anyone else you might like to pass along these articles to.  Each article now has a little green [...]

Regarding the Sacred of Others

In my interactions with the critics of the LDS Church, and in reading their arguments, I’ve taken note of something that I believe to be of immeasurable importance in our dialogue with and about other faiths.  Indeed, I believe it is a key by which the judgment of one’s character can be quickly discerned (D&C [...]

Opening up Comments at TempleStudy.com

When I first started TempleStudy.com I wanted to be absolutely sure that this blog would not turn into a place of defamation and profanation. I take my temple covenants very seriously, and did not want detractors from posting comments that would destroy the Spirit, the Gospel message, or the insightful discussions that would take [...]

Elder Christofferson on the Sacred

I received this quote today in my inbox by Elder Christofferson, our newest apostle, in a talk he gave to the CES on November 7, 2004:
The importance of having a sense of the sacred is simply this–if one does not appreciate holy things, he will lose them. Absent a feeling of reverence, he will grow [...]

Heavenly Ascents - A New Blog by David Larsen

Our long-time reader and commenter at TempleStudy, David J. Larsen, has begun a terrific blog - “Heavenly Ascents.” David received his BA from BYU in Near Eastern Studies in 2001, and is a current graduate student in Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, studying under Dr. Andrei Orlov who is a prominent Enoch [...]

TempleStudy Feedback

It’s been about four months since I began the TempleStudy.com blog. During that time I have made many new friends, and have become acquainted with many new people. It has been a great learning and growing time. I have found that I learn much more about the temple as I research these [...]

Educating the Media (and Others) about the LDS Temple

The television station KREX Channel 5 from Grand Junction, Colorado, aired a news piece yesterday about the “Sacred Secrets of the LDS Church.” You can see the video above.
I think that the news anchors, save being as objective and unaffected as anchors could possibly be, did a decent job of trying to understand what [...]

Non-Temple-Goers as Swine and Dogs?

I posted my thoughts a couple days ago as “Approaching the Temple” on the Mormon Apologetics & Discussion Board (MADB), which concerned what is appropriate to discuss and talk about with temple subjects, and what is not, and how we might find that voice. A reader responded:
You said, “The temple ceremonies and ordinances are [...]

“You Don’t Speak About the Temple” Says Bushman

I have just recently begun reading Dr. Richard Bushman’s prominent Rough Stone Rolling biography of the prophet Joseph Smith. I have found it very insightful and excellent, and I’m sure I will share things here that relate to the temple as I come upon them in the book.
This morning, I read a Deseret News [...]

Talking about the Mormon Garment

There was an article published yesterday on Beehive Standard Weekly by Emerson Chase on the subject of “The Sacred Garment of Mormon Theology.” I think that the author is generally sincere in his object of attempting to combat the barrage of criticism and ridicule that the members of the LDS Church receive for what [...]

FARMS Review notes lack of Mormon Ritual discussion

A recent post from the Summa Theologica blog highlights a note in the latest FARMS review article “The Study of Mormonism: A Growing Interest in Academia” by M. Gerald Bradford, Associate Executive Director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. Bradford recognizes that there is a general lack [...]

Talking about the LDS Temple

It has been the conversation of many lately of what members of the church should and shouldn’t discuss about the LDS temple while outside of the temple. Here are some of my thoughts.
What can we talk about?
There is a lot that we can share with others about the temple. The main doctrines that [...]