About the blog name: "Gently Hew Stone" is a pun on the author's name. Michelangelo said that while carving his statue of David, he envisioned the finished statue inside the block of raw marble and just chiseled away the pieces that weren't part of it. Writing this blog is like that: I picture myself sitting before a hunk of raw possibilities with this keyboard as my chisel, and my labor of love is to reveal the beautiful ideas inside, to hone it to perfection by peeling away layers of ordinary thought and, ultimately, to bring to light the masterpieces just below the surface of it all.
The lesson for priesthood in church today was chapter 44 from the manual, about the dispensation of the fulness of times. Much of the lesson was directed towards helping us understand exactly what that phrase means, and why it’s so important.
I remember when I first realized that importance myself. When I first really started studying the scriptures, about ten years ago, I had only been active for a few years, and still had some skepticism and rough edges to my faith. One aspect of that was wondering if maybe the church’s interpretation of some Biblical verses to refer to the establishment of the church in these last days was, perhaps, wishful thinking, a kind of forced interpretation done out of narcissism. “How convenient,” I thought, “that all these ancient prophets were so obsessed with us.”
As I read the Bible, though, I saw that my assumption was ironically mistaken. It was I, not the church, that was interpreting the Bible based on a viewpoint too focused on the present. As I studied entire books whole, I saw the contexts that those prophets wrote from, the needs of their times and places, and it became very clear why they so often wrote about the “dispensation of the fulness of times.”
Because it gave them hope. They taught their people about our age so that they might know that their work wouldn’t be in vain, that they were part of an ongoing work that would culminate in the triumphant spread of the gospel in this generation. We today, our families and stakes and communities, we are the reward that saints and prophets of all ages have sacrificed and struggled for. Knowing that our time would come helped give them the strength to go on.
Finding that idea throughout the Bible and other scriptures showed me that there’s nothing proud in seeing our day predicted in ancient writings. To the contrary, it makes me profoundly humble, and grateful.
“The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung and written and prophesied of this our day; but they died without the sight; we are the favored people that God has made choice of to bring about the Latter-day glory; it is left for us to see, participate in and help to roll forward the Latter-day glory, ‘the dispensation of the fullness of times, when God will gather together all things that are in heaven, and all things that are upon the earth, even in one’ [see Ephesians 1:10].” –Joseph Smith
Three intense interests of mine have intersected lately–literacy, religion, and U2 (I’ll be seeing them in concert Friday night). Ah, leave it to the Irish to combine literature and religion!
U2 has always been a great example of that trait of their people, and I fear that much of it is lost on us. (I just found this great site summarizing some of the many Biblical allusions in their work.)
Case in point: 1991’s “Until the End of the World,” from the Wim Wenders film of the same name, and U2’s album Achtung Baby. At first glance, it’s just another conflicted love song (as every true fan knows, even after 30 years, U2 has still never written a purely positive love song). But if you’re familiar with the Bible, it’s clear that this is Judas Iscariot confessing the betrayal of Jesus Christ. Even the title takes itself from a famous promise made by Jesus to His followers, which ends the Gospel according to Matthew: “…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Here are the lyrics, with my explanations and links to relevant Biblical text (mostly from Matthew, since that’s the reference in the title):
One day in the temple this summer, I wondered if there might be any useful correlation between the clothing associated with the modern LDS endowment and Paul’s “armor of God.” The concurrence between modern temple clothing and the vestments worn by Aaron in the Old Testament are obvious and commonly referenced in LDS literature on the subject (including Boyd K. Packer’s The Holy Temple), but I’ve never heard anyone mention the armor of God in connection with the temple.
I looked up some scriptures and made the chart below. My notes don’t seem to suggest any useful relationship–only three things had any kind of real parallel–but it was still interesting to research. My private copy of these notes includes a final column for modern temple clothing items, which wouldn’t be appropriate to include here. Endowed Latter-day Saints might enjoy trying to fill in that last part themselves, though.
Exodus 28
Item
Description
Order of wearing in Exodus 29:5-6
Ephesians 6
Item
28:4,13-30
Breastplate (including wreathen chains and Urim and Thummim)
Job 1:1 says that Job “was perfect and upright.” Perhaps part of that is due to his exemplary parenting as shown in Job1:4-5: “And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”
I see six aspects of Job as a father that are worthy of emulation here:
He “sanctified” his children, which probably means he performed priesthood ordinances directly for them.
He “rose up early in the morning,” showing his commitment to sacrifice his comfort and serve his children seriously. This appears to be a formulaic commandment to disciples to prepare them and for them to show their devotion to the Lord in the scriptures (see fo example Exodus 8:20 and 1 Samuel 29:10).
He offered burnt offerings for them, another example of his gospel-oriented labor for them.
He offered those sacrifices for all of them–there were no favorites and no empty chairs.
Job said that he did these things because they might have sinned. This was preventive maintenance. No matter what their actual spiritual status may have been, Job wrestled spiritually for them as much as he could so that they might have all the4 blessings they might receive, for when they might need it.
And Job did these things “continually.” He didn’t let discouragement get to him, he didn’t let his own trials slow him down, and he never, ever gave up.
When I find verses of scripture that I really like, I’ve started looking them up on BYU’s excellent “Scriptural Index to the Latter-day Prophets,” where they show each instance of every verse of scripture being quoted in official teachings by church leaders, from Joseph Smith and other 19th century leaders in the Journal of Discourses, to more recent leaders in General Conference. Strangely, Job 1:5 seems to have never been referenced in a major teaching setting.
I hope that other parents will see counsel and comfort in this verse in the future.
I’m in a position of leadership in a classroom and in a church. In both of those areas, I get to know people pretty well, and I see how they interact as peers. And I’ve been surprised to see the same basic human drama in each. Whether it’s school or church, everybody is trying to find a little slice of joy while struggling with their trials in life, and keeping up a brave front for public show. Truly, the same human drama exists in every community.
Those efforts at a brave front may have more to do with not wanting to derail the smooth machinery of the community’s activities by drawing undue attention than it does with embarrassment or pride, but it is sadly counterproductive in at least one way: our stoic repression of the heartaches we’re dealing with puts up a wall and stagnates our connection to others. I’ve seen too much hurt and misunderstanding caused by it.
People try to go about their daily lives, doing their jobs and doing things with their friends, often very unaware of just what these friends are suffering through. The hidden stress that we all keep inside often keeps us too focused on ourselves, unable to reach out to others, and constricted in our ability to express real charity.
Not that I’m suggesting that we all have more weepy pity parties. One Breakfast Club was enough, thank you.
What we seem to need even more of between the people in our schools, our churches, and indeed in every community–our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods–is empathy. Read the rest of this entry »
When I taught a lesson to the youth in our church last year about the Word of Wisdom, I asked them why we don’t drink or smoke. “Because it’s unhealthy,” they droned, parroting the expected answer by rote.
“Nope,” I said. “That has nothing to do with it. Let me ask you this: is drinking alcohol, for example, a terrible thing that immediately brings misery?” “Yes,” they replied, this time sounding pleased to be giving back the obviously righteous response.
“Not likely,” I answered. “I don’t know know for myself, but I imagine that getting drunk must be a lot of fun, since millions of people volunteer to do it in their spare time. So why don’t we drink alcohol, then?”
At this point, perceptive people will chime in with something like, “Because the Lord said not to.”
“Exactly,” I say. “That’s the difference between whether or not something is a sin.”
I approach subjects this way because I worry that when we demonize everything that we want people to avoid, we give those things a power that they don’t deserve; we glamorize them and set them up as the standard objects of indulgence when rebellion will rear its ugly head. A little more honesty strips them of that power.
I’m reminded of some people I’ve known who might fit this cautionary pattern: the high school-age boy who suddenly stopped being a role model of righteousness because he tried and suddenly realized the pleasure of popular sins (“Hey guys,” a typical discussion around that period might go, “our leaders were totally wrong about how awful sin is; it rocks!”), or the girl described as the “sweet spirit” of the singles ward who got tired of being passed over and changed her wardrobe and standards; as soon as she started sleeping with guys–surprise!–she had a serious boyfriend within a month.
The phrase “Mahan principle” was coined by Hugh Nibley to denote the discovery made by Cain in Moses 5:31 (“I may murder and get gain.”). Read the rest of this entry »
[For an introduction to the Book of Moses, please read this.]
Genesis 4:19-24 tells the story of Lamech, who had “slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.” Other Bible translations I looked at word this declaration to say that Lamech killed the young man because the young man had inflicted an injury on Lamech. A footnote in the NIV Study Bible explains these verses as a cautionary tale about revenge.
But where Genesis moves on to another story in the next verse, the Book of Moses continues further. And that’s where his wives Adah and Zillah shine.
Moses 5:49-59 adds material that says that Lamech killed the young man (named Irad, this text tells us) because the young man had learned the secret oaths that Satan had taught Cain, and which Lamech had also learned, but Irad had exposed those oaths, spreading them to the general public.
But that’s not my focus here. What impresses me most about this story is the reaction of Lamech’s wives to his confession to them of his infernal conspiring and homicidal treachery. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes I’m tempted to pull my head back into my shell and call it quits as far as the world is concerned. I think we all feel that way sometimes. Work is stressful–or lost, finances are tight, illness is soaking up strength, family problems are heartbreaking, addictions are threatening, or a combination of these or any of a thousand other adversities conspire to drag us down. Often we may feel that the best option to preserve what little sanity we have left is to circle the wagons and just worry about yourself, and let the rest of the world go its way.
When this temptation surfaces, it’s good to remember how the Savior conducted himself in the midst of the Atonement. In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus Christ felt infinitely for “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and…the pains and sicknesses of his people…their infirmities…[and] the sins of his people” (Alma 7:11-13)–truly, every negative experience every mortal has been, will be, or even could be called to pass through–a sacrifice so profound that the “suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit–and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:18), He did not pull his head into his shell, or circle the wagons, or give Himself up to worry or self pity, letting the rest of the world fend for itself.
I’m a big fan of the Qur’an. Like a lot of other people, I read it after 9/11, taking tons of notes. Though there were some things I didn’t understand, and others that I disagreed with, my overall impression was very positive. For every verse that seemed to promote violence of any kind, there were twenty others that clearly demanded peace. The most famous example of a “jihadist” verse–Sura 9:5–is obviously, when read in context, a limited injunction pertaining to one certain time and place.
Among my many notes on the Qur’an I included comparisons with LDS doctrine and scriptures where similarities were strongly evident. (For some of these notes, please see the charts at the end of the article posted here.) However, the strongest parallel isn’t with “scripture” at all.
In the Qur’an, Sura 7, verses 16-18, one reads this portion of the story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden:
He said: “Because thou hast thrown me out of the way, lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way:
“Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor wilt thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for thy mercies).”
(God) said: “Get out from this, disgraced and expelled. If any of them follow thee,- Hell will I fill with you all.
There are two major elements there that should make LDS readers sit up straight and pay attention (and the next few verses after that continue to present a version of the Fall that sounds very comfortable to Latter-day Saints): Satan, angry at being chastised by God, threatens to subvert God’s work with humanity, and God responds by sending Satan away. Now, the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon are clear that Satan is a deceiver and tempter who opposes God–and the Book of Mormon emphasizes that Satan wishes to make mankind miserable by separating them from God (2 Nephi 2:18,27)–but these specific elements of the Fall aren’t mentioned in either of those holy books. They’re not even hinted at, anywhere. In the Bible and in the Pearl of Great Price, for example, God curses “the serpent” after he gets Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, but nowhere else do we see God expelling Satan after he threatens to sabotage God’s work with humanity.
For years, my wife and I have had regular Book of Mormon study with our older children, but as our younger children have grown, we’ve tried different ways to do scripture study just with them. Last year, we finally struck upon a method that works very well. Though they’re each a year older now, they were two and three when we started.
We base our study on the Church’s Old Testament Stories picture book (which can be ordered on the Distribution Center site here). For the “chapter” we’ll do on a certain day, one of us starts by reading a couple of verses from the KJV that are related to the story, then the other parent “fleshes out” that introduction by reading the whole picture story with the kids. We trade roles each day: I’ll read the actual scripture verses and she’ll read the story one day, the next day we switch. During the reading and/or after, we try to point out the spiritual lesson in the story.
We close with a Primary song and prayer. The whole process takes only about five minutes a day, and we’re finding that it’s a productive way to begin family scripture study with the very young. After we finish Old Testament Stories, we’ll move on to New Testament Stories, then Book of Mormon Stories, etc.
Over at By Common Consent, they run a regular feature where controversial questions are thrown out there and the community is asked to chime in. Because nothing establishes sound doctrine like an online free-for-all.
I figured if we’re going to indulge in some irreverent navel gazing, we might as well do it right. In a 13th season episode of The Simpsons called “Weekend at Burnsies,” Homer puts the following theological query to Ned Flanders: “Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that even he couldn’t eat it?”
This question has been used in polls elsewhere, and most people tend to say no, as they claim that God has no corporeal body (alas, in sharp contradiction of Luke 24:39-43). So, any LDS readers won’t have that convenient cop out.
I read William J. Bennett’s Book of Virtues to my children once. Well, by “once,” I mean for a year and a half, but it was worth it. As we read, I was intrigued by how much I was learning: I started the project to help my children develop character with good literature, but I had no idea that this collection could form the rudiments of a decent liberal education.
Bennett’s anthology presents an assortment of world literature that ranges deep and wide, giving us the greatest hits of history better than any of the college texts with which I’ve worked, and it plainly shows how morally didactic the classics are. I read something that referred to this book as an arrogant attempt to indoctrinate people with right-wing beliefs. Really? Where does Bennett twist a text to mean anything other than that for which it was clearly intended? Which of the virtues in here are peculiar to conservatives? Honesty? Patriotism? Faith? (Now, now, no cheap shots. Although, I would defy any socialist liberal to write a similar book that made such extensive use of classics to promote, say, the social and governmental experiments that their philosophy favors.)
As I read The Book of Virtues, I saw so many wonderful works that I’d never read or even heard of before (The Athenian Oath, the story of Cincinnatus, the funeral oration of Pericles, Roosevelt’s speech on “The Strenuous Life,” etc.) that painted such a glorious picture of our civilizational heritage, that I wanted to organize them into a timeline for use in instructing my children (I had also just read The Well-Trained Mind and loved it, hence my list’s preponderance of important texts). Bennett’s thematic chapters were appropriate for his purpose, but I wanted a way to use the text for a more academic setting.
As I made a list putting my favorite items in chronological order, I rounded it out with other historical events I deemed worthy for my children to study, including major historical events narrated in the scriptures. I also added some family events, such as the birthdays of my wife and I, and our children, though I deleted those from the copy below. For your entertainment and edification, here it is. (If I ever have a ton of time to kill, I’d reformat this with links to all these texts online.) References to page numbers in italics are to Bennett’s Book of Virtues; underlined references are to scripture:
Ancient World
5,000,000,000 BC Earth formed Moses 2, Abraham 4
64,000,000 BC Dinosaurs extinct
9000 BC Ice Age ends
2925 BC Egypt—Menes, first king of the 1st Egyptian Dynasty, Memphis
2570 BC Egypt—Great Pyramid of Cheops
2500 BC Egypt—Sphinx built to guard Great Pyramid
2300 BC Ur—Abraham Genesis 11-25, Book of Abraham
2000 BC Sumeria—Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest story
1780 BC Babylonian text, Code of Hammurabi, world’s first written law
1500 BC England—Stonehenge completed after hundreds of years of building and use
It’s surprising how few resources are out there for putting the massive Old Testament in chronological order. As it stands, we have the books of Moses (the law), then the historical books, followed by sections of literature and the books of individual prophets. The problem is, those historical books in the middle cover the rest of the time period of the Old Testament, with everything afterwards fitting back into that timeline. I’ve always wanted to break it down and read it in chronological order: not necessarily the order of date of composition, but the order in which the events treated in the text happened.
The best list I found online was available here and here. I adapted it by integrating some scriptures from the LDS canon whose events bear on the Old Testament timeline (but not those that are just commentary or minor variations–hence, no additional Isaiah stuff). Those are in italics on my list. I’m not sure if this list is exactly what I want, but comparing it to a timeline in a church student manual for the Old Testament made it look good, and a perfect list is impossible, since so much Old Testament material overlaps, having multiple books occupying the same time period (perhaps an even more specific “OT harmony” is called for?).
At any rate, as I study the Bible using this chart, I’ll modify it as needed.
This morning I finished a project I’ve been working on for a long time; in fact, it’s the product of the bulk of my personal scripture study in 2008. Last year, my stake president advised all Latter-day Saints in our areas to read the New Testament so we could renew our devotion to the Savior.
Inspired by that, I started taking notes on everything I could recognize that Jesus said or did, in the spirit of “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21) and “the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do” (3 Nephi 27:21). My goal now is to practice imitating the items on this list, integrating them into my own character.
As I’ve worked on this, I realize there are two serious limitations. The first is my own spiritual imperfection, which hinders the degree of light I can discern in the scriptures and obscures my perception of what I do understand. The second is my intellectual immaturity, which leaves much truth in the text uncovered. (I suppose factors such as being tired or in a hurry at times also contribute to failings in the notes.) A better person surely would have made a much longer list, and worded them in a far more profound manner.
For my study of the gospels this year, I used Bruce R. McConkie’s Doctrinal New Testament Commentary Volume I: The Gospels, a harmonized text that I’ve studied before and with which I am very comfortable. Because I used a gospel harmony, references in the notes to items that occur in one or more of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), are usually represented only with a citation in Matthew, hence that book’s disproportionate standing in the notes.
I also elected to include a “gospel” from the Book of Mormon in my notes, 3 Nephi. The personal ministry of Jesus Christ to the ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere shortly after his ascension is a true record, and invaluable for its additional insights. In the notes, I’ve italicized items that include Book of Mormon references, putting those that are exclusive to the 3 Nephi text at the end.
This exercise provided its own lessons: the nature of the Savior’s work in the West was much more simple and positive than the dramatic epic of the Holy Land, but adds only a little major doctrine to that main ministry: truly, the Book of Mormon’s primary purpose is to testify of truths in the Bible. 3 Nephi strikes me now as a surprisingly prophetic and didactic document, in the best possible way.
I consider this a first draft, to be revised over a lifetime:
Notes on the ministry and character of Jesus Christ
Be in the temple often. Luke 2:46, John 7:14, 8:2, 10:23, Mark 12:35, Luke 21:37-38
Both hear, and ask, “the doctors” questions. Luke 2:46
Achieve understanding. Luke 2:46 (2:40, 52)
“Wax strong in spirit” Luke 2:40
Be subject unto your parents. Luke 2:51
Be baptized. Matt. 3:13
Do everything that fulfills all righteousness. Matt. 3:15, Matt. 26:51-56, John 19:28
Be with God, alone, in wilderness and mountains. Matt. 4:1, Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12, Matt. 14:13, Matt. 14:23, John 8:1, Luke 22:39, Matt. 26:36, John 18:1-2, Matt. 28:16, 3 Nephi 19:19, 27, 31
Presented here for your convenience, for the first time ever and after countless hours of painstaking research by eavesdropping on actual cafe conversations and Internet chat rooms, are the top ten reasons I overheard secular Americans give for dismissing faith.
Well, not really, but it sounds about right.
10. “If there truly is an infinitely powerful and all-knowing God, then why can’t I easily understand him right away? He may well be an omnipotent and eternal deity ruling over a universe larger and more complicated than the mortal mind could ever possibly envision, much less comprehend… but I do read The New York Times, you know.”
9. “Why are all Christians such closed-minded morons? Their attitude towards atheism is marked by perpetuating generalized misconceptions about honest seekers of truth like me… often in the form of pitifully sterile insults. They should celebrate those whose opinions differ from their own, like we do. Stupid Christians.”
8. “Completely unlike us, Christians never demand any more evidence for the validity of their belief than bandwagon appeals to common knowledge. Everybody knows this is true. How could anybody even entertain conclusions drawn about an opposing point of view from such ridiculous ignorance? Hypocrites!”
7. “And what about the Bible? If there is a God, reason dictates that the Bible should have compelling, dynamic theological and ethical innovations unlikely to be conceived by human beings alone. It should also offer strong circumstantial support for divine inspiration. Of course it does not. I know this because I heard somebody quote a verse from it once.”
6. “The Bible has been proven many times through scholarly critical analysis to be nothing more than a biased collection of fairy tales written for the sole purpose of subjecting the superstitious masses under a code of moral liberty and civil enlightenment. This conspiracy is what allows monsters like Mother Teresa to rule as the despicable despots they are, breaking the spirits of proactive altruists everywhere.”
5. “Why is there any degree of disorder and injustice in the world? It’s not like a perfectly black and white world would make the existence of God obvious, thus removing our crucial need to develop faith in God and would reduce us to mindless automatons forced into conformity!”
4. “The complex worldview that Christianity posits suggests that humanity is an intricate tapestry of interdependence working towards a fundamentally greater collective good. That selfishness cannot distract us from the more neutral, objective conclusion that life is simply a series of random events, the inevitable result of a physical system that developed completely by chance and that ends in death, rendering life ultimately pointless and devoid of any obligation to improve ourselves or the world in general. I know how ennobling this sounds, but it is merely a fact, unadulterated by any ulterior motive.”
3. “‘By their fruits you will know them?’ So has anyone ever abandoned a materially abundant lifestyle or altered behavior inconsistent with their beliefs because of religious conviction? Nobody that I know of! This is because religion is only a selfish delusion of convenience, not a vigorous and vital dimension of life whose empirical validity empowers adherents to make vastly positive personal change. Their wanton mental self-indulgence is starkly revealed when placed in contrast with those of us who so stoically bear the Spartan torch of atheism.”
2. “I read this in the correspondence of a European philosopher and scientist to his brother in 1895: ‘If there were in existence some Supreme Being, why has he then withheld from his own children that most natural of blessings, automated wheeled transportation? For, as any fool can see, such a marvel absolutely must be commensurate with the existence of God. If not for this insurmountable flaw, however, I would gladly become a Christian.’ This perfectly logical query was never satisfactorily addressed, and he died a happy atheist in 1948.”
1. “Clearly, belief in God amounts to no more than wishful thinking. Simply put, while those of us who accept atheism only do so after the most stringent open-minded research into every possibility, and then often reluctantly, those who embrace any faith-based belief system always do so blindly. The more they explain their opinion, the more they reveal their fundamental ignorance.”
For years, my wife and I have had regular Book of Mormon study with our older children, but as our younger children have grown, we’ve tried different ways to do scripture study just with them. Last year, we finally struck upon a method that works very well. Though they’re each a year older now, they were two and three when we started.