Tag Archives: talk

The Meaning of the Church of the First-Born

I was reading tonight a talk by Truman G. Madsen entitled, “Foundations of Temple Worship,” which he gave at a BYU-Idaho Devotional on October 26, 2004, shortly after the ordination of Elder David A. Bednar to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The talk is excellent, and highly recommended reading (or listening).  There was one point [...]

Liveblog: 178th Semiannual General Conference

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 might turn into something interesting and fun if we start getting other people participating online here (like you!).  You will be able [...]

New Mormon.org Website

Check out the new Mormon.org website that was launched today.  It is very clean and well designed, a big improvement over the former website.  A great new feature of the site that I’m sure will be used a lot is that visitors from anywhere in the world will be able to chat live with [...]

Computer Technology Given to Mankind for Temple Work

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve gave the devotional address at the beginning of Education Week at Brigham Young University today.  Deseret News reported on his talk.
His talk was mainly about gaining knowledge through a lifetime of learning, especially spiritual knowledge.  He used the example of Michael Phelps Olympic gold records [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 7b (Temple in the Modern World)

“We have to try to get through the filter of the later editing… But deep down, there was something there.  I’m mean this [the temple] is a cultural icon, it’s shaped our pictures of the garden of Eden, it’s shaped our pictures of what it is to be a human being.  Because Adam is the [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 7a (Location of the Temple)

“…the building of the Second Temple involved leveling a new site… I mean, as far as I can see, the Zachariah prophesies about the mountain becoming a plain and building all that sort of thing, they are implying that a new mountaintop site is to be used for the rebuilt temple. That suggests to [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 6 (Seeing the Face of God)

“The original purpose of the temple pilgrimage, was that you went to the temple to see the face of the Lord. Yea? In the old calendars ‘each of your males will see the face of the Lord’… By the time you’re reading the Masoretic texts as we have now, ‘each of your [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 5 (Social Implications)

“… the Old Testament describes idolatry as the work of human hands.  So if you worship the work of human hands, the political system, economics, anything like that, that is idolatry.  The consequence of idolatry, according to the commandments, is that the third and fourth generation suffer from their iniquity.”  —Margaret Barker
“A single parent is [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 4 (Environmentalism and the Temple)

Book on Christianity and environmentalism due out by November 2010.
“…is it profitable, is it viable, is this a business proposition? When business propositions have got us into a bit of a mess. There’s got to be other ways of discourse. And the awful thing is, because religion has been so sidelined in [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 3b (Christmas)

“It’s things like that, you know, reading through Matthew as well, all sorts of things, there’s such many stories, and when you stop and read them, you think, ‘Oh, my goodness!’  You know.  ‘I’ve been looking at that for fifty years, and it just never dawned on me what I was reading.’  It is amazing.” [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 3a (Christmas)

Book entitled “Christmas: The Original Story” due to be released in September 2008.
“It’s a lovely early [Christmas] icon, because it shows the three wise men coming, dressed as three high priests.” —Margaret Barker
“Those three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the old tradition was, that Adam, the original high priest, the angels had given him those [...]

Margaret Barker Interview - Part 2 (Temple Studies)

“It’s very interesting, isn’t it? There’s something called the SBL [Society of Biblical Literature] that’s existed all this time with nothing about the central theme of the Bible, which is the temple. I mean, that should make everyone stop and rub their eyes in amazement, I think. But here we are.” —Margaret [...]

William Hamblin Video Interview with Margaret Barker - Part 1

I just received an email from Dr. William Hamblin who is currently studying at a seminar in Oxford, England, and he said he had the unique opportunity to have a lunch today with Methodist scholar Margaret Barker about her intriguing and in-depth research into temple studies.  Barker graciously permitted him to film the conversation, and [...]

Hugh Nibley: The Faith of an Observer

If you have not been able to tell, one of my top role models and mentors is Dr. Hugh Winder Nibley, former BYU professor and highly esteemed LDS scholar.  He was and is still considered the foremost LDS scholar and apologist of this century, and perhaps of all time.  And he was a genius.  Once [...]

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 [...]