This was, however, not the last time that apostles of the Lord would visit Palestine in this dispensation to dedicate the land for the return of the Jews. Altogether, there seem to have been at least ten separate dedications of the Holy Land under apostolic authority. (No clearer illustration than this could possibly be provided of the urgent interest with which the prophets and apostles of this dispensation have watched events in the Holy Land.) Elder Anthon H.... Read more
This is a last-minute reminder of the Interpreter Foundation’s imminent next conference. As we commonly do, we offer this to all who are interested The Fifth Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference Saturday, November 7, 2020 Presented by The Interpreter Foundation Brigham Young University College of Humanities Due to the COVID-19 situation, this will be a live-streaming-only conference. The conference is free and open to the public, with no RSVP or entrance fee. Saturday November 7,... Read more
A new article — this one by the notoriously vicious and always angry proprietor of Sic et Non hisself, one Daniel Peterson — has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “It Came from Beyond” Abstract: The early Latter-day Saints viewed the Book of Mormon not only as a symbol of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling but also as the most powerful evidence for that calling. However, perhaps because they were ardent believers in the Bible who had been... Read more
The latest installment of my bi-weekly column has appeared in the Deseret News, and this one is accompanied by some especially nice illustrations: “When a religious building has been repurposed by another faith: From the ancient Aztec in Tenochtitlan, modern Mexico City, to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, there are many religious sites that have been repurposed by another faith with a conquering army” ... Read more
Please note that “The Temple on Mount Zion,” the Fifth Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference — jointly sponsored by the Interpreter Foundation and the Brigham Young University College of Humanities — will be held this coming Saturday, 7 November 2020, and will be streamed online, accessible at no charge: 2020 Temple on Mount Zion Conference *** Also now available from the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — October 18, 2020 The 18 October 2020 broadcast... Read more
I’m a bit behind on my self-assigned task of keeping you informed of new publications from the Interpreter Foundation. Yesterday, we were driving back from St. George, and we took our time to do it. We spent some time in the always-glorious Snow Canyon State Park, paid our sobered respect at the various Mountain Meadow Massacre National Memorial sites, and visited with friends in Cedar City. So I’ll try to catch up. Here are the new articles: ... Read more
We had an enjoyable time last night with our monthly reading group (via Zoom, in our case from St. George), discussing R. Lanier Britsch, Moramona: The Mormons in Hawai’i, 2d ed., updated, revised, and enlarged (Laie, HI: The Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies, Brigham Young University-Hawai’i, 2018), with its author, who is part of our little group. Here’s a wonderful story, already familiar to some of you perhaps (as it was to me), that he... Read more
I continue my account of a party sent in 1872 by President Brigham Young to rededicate Palestine for the return of the Jews. It included George A. Smith of the First Presidency, Lorenzo Snow and Albert Carrington of the Twelve, and the poet and Relief Society president Eliza R. Snow: Their travels took them to England, Holland, Belgium, France, Bavaria and other parts of Germany, Austria, Russia, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and Syria. The journey was strenuous, but... Read more
This passage in David Jewitt and Amaya Moro-Martín, “Everything Scientists Know So Far about the First Interstellar Objects Ever Detected: Strange bodies from beyond the solar system have defied predictions,” Scientific American 323/4 (October 2020): 42-49, caught my attention. For one thing, it tacitly acknowledges that the origin of life on earth remains an unsolved mystery. But we should note that the idea of panspermia, or even of directed panspermia, doesn’t ultimately answer the question of how life arose at all;... Read more
Drawing on R. Lanier Britsch, Moramona: The Mormons in Hawai’i, 2d ed., updated, revised, and enlarged (Laie, HI: The Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies, Brigham Young University-Hawai’i, 2018), 131-133: In accordance with the doctrine of the physical gathering that was so prominent a feature of the nineteenth-century Church, early Latter-day Saint leaders in Hawai’i sought a gathering place for its members there. For a while, they settled on the island of Lānaʻi. But... Read more
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