As I have been preparing the first Come Follow Me Gospel Doctrine lesson for 2026, “Introduction to the Old Testament,” I have been struck by the things Joseph Smith may have learned from Moroni and from the Prophet's translation of the Book of Mormon about the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which included the endowment and sealing ordinances, as it was taught and administered in its purity by Moses and his prophetic successors to the Israelites. The Book of Mormon’s

In Part 1 of this blog, I suggested several questions: Who assembled at the Bountiful Temple and how were they “chosen” to be there (did they simply “self-select” or randomly show up or were they invited)? Why were they at the temple (as opposed to some other place)? Did Mormon use an ancient Israelite temple rite to structure his composition of Third Nephi? If so, why? Did the Lord reveal to and authorize His servants to administer, as part of the Law of Moses-prescribed New

Today is Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, as I send out the next installments in my on-going study of Joseph Smith’s restoration of temple ordinances and doctrine (to be delivered in three parts). It is fitting that the signs given on the American continent of our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem have increasingly been the subject of apostolic Christmas testimonies in recent years. [1]   Each of these blogs explores and asks what the Prophet Joseph Smith might have learned—as he

As we conclude our review of the priesthood and temple themes Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery learned about in their translation and transcription of Alma 12-13, it is worth contemplating what this revelatory process might have looked like. For starters, it must have been intellectually and physically exhausting. Brother Welch calculates that between April 7 and the end of May 1829, “Joseph translated and Oliver wrote” “about 75 percent” of the roughly 390-page Book of Mormon

It has been gratifying to watch as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have rallied behind their new leader, President Dallin H. Oaks. Equally noteworthy to me has been the way in which President Oaks, both in his General Conference message after President Russel M. Nelson’s passing and in his first public statements, has subtly but firmly affirmed the LDS Church’s view of the nature of God, which is unique among all Christian denominations—indeed among

It is easy, I think, to feel that Book of Mormon stories about the “mighty change of heart” experienced by King Benjamin’s people (Mosiah 5:2), Alma and his people (Alma 5:12-13), and Alma the Younger (Mosiah 27), do not apply to us, our families or our wards and stakes. It is even harder for many of us, myself included, to equate these experiences with our temple worship. Painting by Jeremy Winborg* While I always feel lifted, even changed, in my temple service, too often wi

President Thomas S. Monson announced the Lisbon Portugal Temple on October 2, 2010. On June 24, 2012, then Elder Russell M. Nelson set me...

In the Service of Your God, by Walter Rane. Copyright By the Hand of Mormon Foundation. Joseph Smith’s unparalleled mortal achievements...

“I am a rough stone. The sound of the hammer and chisel was never heard on me until the Lord took me in hand. I desire the learning and...

“These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the  inspiration  of heaven, awakened the utmost...

The Doctrine of Christ is temple doctrine. Earlier in my life I viewed the first principles and ordinances of the gospel as the...

Latter-day Saints are familiar with the story of Martin Harris’s loss of the first 116 manuscript pages containing the translation of the...

Joseph commences translating the Book of Lehi. Upon returning to Harmony, Pennsylvania from his February 1828 trip to show the “learned”...

No doubt that the promise my maternal grandfather made to me in my patriarchal blessing when I was 13—that I would have “a pure knowledge...

Elijah Restores the Power to Seal Families for Eternity, by Gary E. Smith c. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints In contemplating...

Nothing focuses the mind upon your mortality (and the ultimate purposes of life as taught us in the temple) quite like attending a...

Like many of you, I find myself at this point in the new year taking one last look over a pile of Christmas cards and letters...

At this writing the Christmas season is on full display, so naturally the film “Mary,” released December 6, 2024 and reportedly “one of...

In May 2019, President Nelson boldly declared that “Adam and Eve, Noah and his wife, Abraham and Sarah, Lehi and Sariah, and all other...

During another fitful early morning, wrestling with unwanted anxious thoughts, the refrain from the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” came...