General Authorities

Stand Ye in Holy Places

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Elder Russell M. Nelson said this in a devotional he gave on December 10, 2002 at BYU:

The time is coming when those who do not obey the Lord will be separated from those who do. Our safest insurance is to continue to be worthy of admission to His holy house. How blessed we are to have temples available. The greatest gift you could give to the Lord at this or any other time of year is to keep yourself unspotted from the world, worthy to attend His holy house. His gift to you will be the peace and security of knowing that you are worthy to meet Him, whenever that time shall come.

“Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen” (D&C 87:8).

See this video:

New TempleStudy.com Store!

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I’ve built an online store for TempleStudy.com using Amazon.com, and today is its grand opening!  I did this primarily for three reasons:

  1. Readily available Temple-related Products:  All the products that I’ve been able to find that have to do with LDS temples or ancient temples from Amazon.com I have individually selected and gathered together, sorted, and categorized.  They include temple products from many categories including books (44 items), home & garden (191 items), office (18 items), toys & games (29 items), music (22 items), apparel (8 items), jewelry (32 items), DVD (6 items), and miscellaneous (26 items).  If you are looking for a temple-themed book, tie tack, stationery, photograph, music, game, or other such item, the TempleStudy.com store is a great place to start looking because I’ve already narrowed down the search for you.  The store itself currently includes a total of 376 temple-related products, but there are also many more products available from the “Listmania!” or “Similar Items” links on the right-hand side of the store which change and rotate automatically as you browse the store.
  2. No Anti-Mormon Material: You can browse the entire TempleStudy.com store without a worry of running across any critical propaganda, which can often become a distraction from the positive, faith-promoting material that you’re looking for, and many times it is hard to detect from the cover or description alone.  I have hand-picked every item here, and have filtered out all of that diversion.  Have peace of mind when you are looking for just the right temple product.  Note, however, that I can’t choose what appears in the Listmania! or Similar Items lists.
  3. Supporting TempleStudy.com:  A portion of each sale from this store will go to help support TempleStudy.com.  [Read more…]

Sacrificing our will to the will of our Father

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Offering sacrifice and burnt offeringsI had contemplated entitling this post “A Change in Temple Sacrifice Following Christ,” but since today is Father’s Day, I thought this title was more appropriate.

From the time they left Jerusalem until the time of Christ’s ministry among his descendants in the Americas 600 years later, Lehi and his family offered sacrifice and burnt offerings to the Lord (1 Ne. 5:9; 1 Ne. 7:22; Mosiah 2:3). Such was part of the law of Moses which they sought to keep diligently, as the Israelites had been observing for thousands of years (Mosiah 12:28-29; Mosiah 13:27-28; Alma 25:15-16; 2 Ne. 25:24, 30; Alma 30:3). But even then, they remembered that the law of Moses was in similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was to come to the earth and work out an infinite atonement by the shedding of his blood and body (Alma 34:14).

When Christ visited the inhabitants of the Americas he explained how the law of Moses was fulfilled in him, and how things were to become new:

And he said unto them: Marvel not that I said unto you that old things had passed away, and that all things had become new.
Behold, I say unto you that the law is fulfilled that was given unto Moses.
Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. (3 Ne. 15:3-5)

The law of Moses was fulfilled, but this did not mean that the covenant ended: [Read more…]

The 1978 Temple Revelation of the Extension of Priesthood

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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 of God, gathered in the upper rooms of the Salt Lake Temple.  I imagine the revelatory experience was somewhat like Peter’s when he was commanded by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles, previous to which it had been taken only to the Jews (Acts 10:9-48).  Surely the Lord God has His own timetable (Isa. 55:8).