Back in 2018, I shared the platform for a moderately small meeting at Church headquarters with Elders Randy Funk of the Seventy and Gary Stevenson of the Twelve, as well as with Elder Robert S. Wood, an emeritus member of the Seventy, who was the moderator. The only other non-General Authority speaker beside myself was my good friend Dr. Brent Top, until relatively recently BYU’s dean of Religious Education. Brent spoke on near-death experiences, and, knowing my... Read more
An intriguing article, written by John S. Thompson, was posted today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation. It will shortly appear in print form in volume 38 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Lady at the Horizon: Egyptian Tree Goddess Iconography and Sacred Trees in Israelite Scripture and Temple Theology” Abstract: John S. Thompson explores scholarly discussions about the relationship of the Egyptian tree goddess to sacred trees in the Bible, the... Read more
Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin consisting of small white chunks and beads that can easily be ground into a powder. When burned, this powder gives off a pleasant odor like that of balsam. The resin, milky white in color, was probably produced in the central district of Hadramawt, along the Indian Ocean coast of southern Arabia. From there, it was exported to Palestine and other parts of the Mediterranean world. The caravan routes for transporting Arabian incense... Read more
We’re familiar, of course, with Oliver Cowdery as one of the official Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. But his role in the early events of the Restoration, and his experiences with the divine, were broader than that. Here are some rough notes from an incomplete manuscript of mine: A letter of Oliver Cowdery to Phineas Young, dated 23 March 1846, and sent from Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, in which Oliver expresses his wish that, prior... Read more
I share here for your Sabbath reflections a passage that I marked during my reading of David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking: An Exploration into Origins (London and Grand Rapids: Monarch Books, 2001). David Wilkinson is an English Methodist clergyman and theologian who obviously has a special interest in science: There seem to be a number of reasons why physicists have become increasingly open to the ‘God question.’ . . . All of us know that if... Read more
A rim of mountains runs along the western side of the peninsula. These mountains are cut by many valleys, each of which is known as a wadi (pronounced wah-dee), and many of these wadis serve as caravan routes.[1] Plains, usually narrow, are found along the coasts. Oases, where a spring furnishes enough water for at least some vegetation, are found especially along the caravan routes in northern Arabia. No large lakes exist in Arabia, and there is only... Read more
The first question that comes up when we begin to discuss “the Arabs” is what, exactly, we mean by the term Arab. As the word is used today, it refers to people whose primary language is Arabic. This Semitic language, a relative of Hebrew, is the native language of at least three hundred million people and is the official tongue of countries from Iraq in the east to Morocco in the west. The largest Arabic-speaking country is Egypt.... Read more
A new item on the website of the Interpreter Foundation by members of the staff at our sister organization Book of Mormon Central and Interpreter Foundation vice president Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw: “Book of Moses Insights #012: The Defeat of the Gibborim and the Roar of the Wild Beasts (Moses 7:13)” *** Here’s something for tonight (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) that I hope not to miss: “Tabernacle Choir Celebrates 90 Years of Broadcasting with Special Concert: Renowned... Read more
You may have noticed that Istanbul’s magnificent Hagia Sophia has been on my mind of late, since even before the lamentable decision by the lamentable Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to turn the building into a mosque. (I’ve written about it on this blog, here and here, and in the Deseret News.) Janet Ewell has kindly called my attention to this absolutely wonderful, even astonishing, item: “Listen: The Sound of the Hagia Sophia, More Than 500 Years... Read more
Please watch and share these two new videos, which were kindly brought to my attention by Sam LeFevre. They’re only about thirty seconds each: “One Day” “Greater Good” *** And now for some links: BBC: “Coronavirus: How New Zealand went ‘hard and early’ to beat Covid-19” Deseret News: “Why is Utah named on this unpublished White House ‘red zone’ coronavirus report? The 18 ‘red zone’ states also include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida,... Read more
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