Gospel Cogitations

Moroni Appears to Joseph Smith In His Room Picture Credit: Tom Lovell The other day as I sat waiting in the temple, I had the idea come into my mind to read the words that the angel Moroni said to Joseph Smith the first time he visited him.  I had read this passage before, but had not gone to the effort to visit all of the verses that Moroni referenced.  As I read through the verses, it was very inspiring to see what prophecies are being fulfilled in these last days.  I hope my thoughts can lead others to also feel the spirit of the Restoration. This will contain a lot of text quoted from the scriptures (bold-face), so sit down, get comfortable, and maybe pull out your own scriptures/study journal and take notes of thoughts and impressions that come into your heart.  If you are adverse to lots of reading all at once, this post is broken up into sections, so you can study it over time. Context The visit of Moroni to Joseph is recorded in Joseph Smith History ...

Isaiah - Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier Photo credit: The Wallace Collection The other day, I was studying the Book of Mormon, and I read this in the footnotes for 2 Nephi 12: "Comparison with the King James Bible in English shows that there are differences in more than half of the 433 verses of Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon, while about 200 verses have the same wording as KJV." And being the engineer that I am, I thought - "I bet I can figure out exactly  what the differences are between the King James version and what Nephi wrote down from the Brass Plates." For those of my audience who don't have experience reading diff files, the text highlighted in blue are the characters/words that are different between the two columns, and the text in black is the same.  Because of the nature of the algorithm, sometimes there will be a few characters in black while the rest is blue.  Usually, unless the whole word is black, there isn't a noticeable simi...

At the beginning of the year, President Russel M. Nelson invited church members to prepare for the upcoming April General Conference by studying the account of Joseph Smith's First Vision as found in the Pearl of Great Price .  To enhance that study, I have decided to make a brief comparative analysis of the different recorded accounts of the First Vision.  I will limit this study to those written or dictated by the Prophet Joseph himself. About a 10-15 minute read.  The PDFs will be difficult to read on a mobile device. Stories Copyright 2019 Benjamin James Imagine you are on a nature hike, and you come across an amazing vista.  You stand there for a few minutes, trying to take in the wondrous beauty of the earth.  When you get back home, you tell your family how the sun in the sky was a blazing ball of fire, and the trees waved in the wind so beautifully, and how the mountains stood like an impenetrable fortress.  You tell them how glad yo...

A few days ago, many people celebrated the Day of Pentecost.  This Christian holiday is derived from the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, also called the "feast of harvest" or "feast of weeks."  (see Bible Dictionary, Feasts , 7th paragraph).  In Acts 2 , we get an account of the first Christian celebration of Pentecost following the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  One of my favorite things about this story is what we can learn about continuing revelation. The story starts with a group of saints gathered together to celebrate the Pentecost.  All of sudden, there was a rushing noise, and "cloven tongues likes as of fire," which came upon those sitting in the building.  This is similar to Jesus' statement that those who are baptized will be visited "with fire and with the Holy Ghost" ( 3 Nephi 11:35 ).  This makes sense: all of those there were previously baptized, but Jesus said that he had to leave them so the Spirit could come and dwell with them...

About a year ago, I created a version of the Christmas story that combined different accounts of the birth of Christ into one place.  This year I would like to present a similar amalgamation, this time of the story of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, in commemoration of Easter.  The words highlighted in blue represent changes made by the Joseph Smith translation. The story begins with soldiers standing guard at the tomb of Jesus: The First Visit to the Tomb And behold, there had been a great earthquake; for two angel s of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Matt 28:2 And their countenance was like lightning, and their raiment white as snow; and for fear of them the keepers did shake, and became as though they were dead . Matt 28:3 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulche...

A few weeks back someone in Sunday school posed the question: when is the veil lifted from our minds, so that we can remember our life before this earth?  Although I do not have a definite answer, I was able to find some sources on the subject. First, let's define what the "veil" is: We define the veil as the border between mortality and eternity; it is also a film of forgetting which covers the memories of earlier experiences. This forgetfulness will be lifted one day, and on that day we will see forever—rather than “through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12). Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign Oct 1980 So the veil is how we are able to walk by faith and not by sight ( 2 Cor. 5:7 ).  If it weren't for this, then we would still remember the life before earth, and it wouldn't be much of a challenge to choose the right.  The veil is necessary for us to learn and grow here on earth.  As Pres. Brigham Young said, It has also been decreed by the Almighty that spirits, upon ta...

By this time of the year, most ward choirs are preparing Christmas music to sing in December.  I have been singing with my ward's choir over the past few weeks, and I have always left the rehearsal feeling uplifted.  Music has great power and can help lift us closer to God. In old times, music was very important to people in their worship of God.  In the Old Testament we read: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation" ( Psalm 95:1 ). In these last days, the Lord commanded Emma Smith to make a "selection of sacred hymns."  Following this commandment, the Lord declared, "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads" ( D&C 25:12 ). We have had a tradition of keeping a hymnal ever since then.  In fact, the Church is currently in the process of producing an updated version of the hy...