Another project announcement: The Standard Works, a web-based keyboard-controlled scriptures reader (the Book of Mormon, the Bible, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price).
The app itself is located at https://bencrowder.net/scriptures/ and is about 90% done, but I’m not sure when I’ll have time to finish it up so I’m kicking it out of the nest and getting it out there.
Back in May, I posted about Words of the Prophets: Selected Sermons from the Book of Mormon, a book I was typesetting. Well, it’s done. It’s available as a PDF from my website or on Lulu as a perfect-bound paperback.
The Lulu edition is 5.5×8.5″ and uses publisher-grade paper (it’s white, pretty much like standard printer paper, and happens to be a bit cheaper). Eventually I’ll do a 6×9″ edition using Lulu’s standard cream-colored paper, but for now this will have to do.
I’ve been working on a new book for the past little while, and it’s almost done. The book is called Words of the Prophets: Selected Sermons from the Book of Mormon and is (as the title makes pretty clear) a compilation of sermons from the Book of Mormon — twenty-two, to be exact. I’ve pulled out the verse and chapter numbers and reparagraphed the text, so it looks like this:
Once it’s done, I’ll release it on my website (in PDF and EPUB) and put it up on Lulu as well so people can get hard copies (both paperback and hardcover) if they want.
Hugh Nibley’s got a riveting bit in “Zeal Without Knowledge” on our ability to only think of one thing at a time:
What would it be like if I could view and focus on two or more things at once, if I could see at one and the same moment not only what is right before me but equally well what is on my left side, my right side, what is above me and below me? I have the moral certainty that something is there, and as my eyes flicker about, I think I can substantiate that impression. But as to taking a calm and deliberate look at more than one thing at a time, that is a gift denied us at present. I cannot imagine what such a view of the world would be like; but it would be more real and correct than the one we have now….
Why this crippling limitation on our thoughts if we are God’s children? This puts us in the position of the fairy-tale hero who is introduced into a cave of incredible treasures and permitted to choose from the heap whatever gem he wants—but only one. What a delightful situation! I can think of anything I want to—absolutely anything!—with this provision: that when I choose to focus my attention on one object, all other objects drop into the background. I am only permitted to think of one thing at a time; that is the one rule of the game.
…It is precisely this limitation that is the essence of our mortal existence. If every choice I make expresses a preference, if the world I build up is the world I really love and want, then with every choice I am judging myself, proclaiming all the day long to God, angels, and my fellowmen where my real values lie, where my treasure is, the things to which I give supreme importance. Hence, in this life every moment provides a perfect and foolproof test of your real character, making this life a time of testing and probation.
Fascinating. I think he’s right, too. (Thanks to Jeff Thayne for the heads-up.)
Back in May, I decided to start digitizing the Welsh Book of Mormon (Llyfr Mormon), dubbing the endeavor Project Cymru. It was going along pretty well for a while, but then I got bogged down over the summer and kind of forgot about the project. I did (and still do) have two volunteers helping me, so we made some headway, but overall the project’s been hibernating.
Not for much longer, though. I’m working on getting a spit-and-barbed-wire version of Unbindery up soon so we can do the OCR clean-up easily, and even get more people to help out. Once that happens, it won’t take long to finish the text. And then I’ll be typesetting it into three different versions: one similar to the original Welsh text, one versified (ala the Doubleday edition of the English Book of Mormon), and a parallel English-Welsh text.
Here’s a page from the versified 1 Nephi:
And here’s a page from the parallel edition:
I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis’s Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer lately, and I came across this passage which really spoke to me:
It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at that moment, we expected some other good. Do you know what I mean? On every level of our life…we are always harking back to some occasion which seemed to us to reach perfection, setting that up as a norm, and depreciating all other occasions by comparison. But these other occasions, I now suspect, are often full of their own new blessing, if only we would lay ourselves open to it. God shows us a new facet of the glory, and we refuse to look at it because we’re still looking for the old one. And of course we don’t get that. You can’t, at the twentieth reading, get again the experience of reading Lycidas for the first time. But what you do get can be in its own way as good….
It would be rash to say that there is any prayer which God never grants. But the strongest candidate is the prayer we might express in the single word encore….
And the joke, or tragedy, of it all is that these golden moments in the past, which are so tormenting if we erect them into a norm, are entirely nourishing, wholesome, and enchanting if we are content to accept them for what they are, for memories. Properly bedded down in a past which we do not miserably try to conjure back, they will send up exquisite growths. Leave the bulbs alone, and the new flowers will come up. Grub them up and hope, by fondling and sniffing, to get last year’s blooms, and you will get nothing. “Unless a seed die…”
Last night at ward prayer one of our Relief Society presidents (there are two) read this quote by Parley P. Pratt:
“An intelligent being, in the image of God, possesses every organ, attribute, sense, sympathy, affection, of will, wisdom, love, power and gift, which is possessed by God himself. But these are possessed by man in his rudimental state in a subordinate sense of the word. Or, in other words, these attributes are in embryo, and are to be gradually developed. They resemble a bud, a germ, which gradually develops into bloom, and then, by progress, produces the mature fruit after its own kind. The gift of the Holy Spirit adapts itself to all these organs or attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being. In the presence of such person, one feels to enjoy the light of their countenances, as the genial rays of a sunbeam. Their very atmosphere diffuses a thrill, a warm glow of pure gladness and sympathy, to the heart and nerves of others who have kindred feelings, or sympathy of spirit.” — Key to Theology, pp. 96-97.
I’ve read this quote many a time before, but in the past I just glanced over it, seeing it as a nice list of things but not really paying attention to it. Hearing it read aloud made quite a difference, and it quickly earned a spot as one of my favorite quotes ever.
Got an e-mail today from the Mormon Artists Group announcing a new book called On the Road With Joseph Smith. It is “Richard Lyman Bushman’s private account of the events surrounding the publication of his great work, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling,” and one of the excerpts was striking:
August 9, 2005
[In response to a Presbyterian critic’s query about believing scholarship]
I wish I could strike a responsive chord in Christians like you. We wonder why all Christians don’t understand that we believe in the Book of Mormon on the basis of a spiritual witness. It is very hard for a Mormon to believe that Christians accept the Bible because of the scholarly evidence confirming the historical accuracy of the work. Surely there are uneducated believers whose convictions are not rooted in academic knowledge. Isn’t there some kind of human, existential truth that resonates with one’s desires for goodness and divinity? And isn’t that ultimately why we read the Bible as a devotional work? We don’t have to read the latest issues of the journals to find out if the book is still true. We stick with it because we find God in its pages or inspiration, or comfort, or scope. That is what religion is about in my opinion, and it is why I believe the Book of Mormon. I can’t really evaluate all the scholarship all the time; while I am waiting for it to settle out I have to go on living. I need some good to hold on to and to lift me up day by day. The Book of Mormon inspires me, and so I hold on. Reason is too frail to base a life on. You can be whipped about by all the authorities with no genuine basis for deciding for yourself. I think it is far better to go where goodness lies.
I keep thinking other Christians are in a similar position but they don’t agree. They keep insisting their beliefs are based on reason and evidence. I can’t buy that — the resurrection as rational fact? And so I am frankly as perplexed about Christian belief as you are about Mormons. Educated Christians claim to base their belief on reason when I thought faith was the teaching of the scriptures. You hear the Good Shepherd’s voice, and you follow it.
I guess we could go on and on. I hope I am telling you the truth about myself. The fact is I am a believer and I can’t help myself. I couldn’t possibly give it up; it is too delicious.
A light from heaven, a door unlocked, The floodgates are open, for God has now spoken. A map we’ve been given, the path Jesus walked, Leads us and guides us, for He is beside us.
The silence is broken, the way is clear, And through modern prophets we know He is near.
What do Mormons believe? It’s certainly difficult to summarize an entire religion in a single article, but I think it comes down to a central point: Jesus Christ.
We believe in Jesus Christ, that he was and is the Son of God. We believe he is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord. And because we believe him, we believe that what he taught was true — that we came from God and will someday return to him if we do what’s right. Christ’s teachings are the way.
Beyond that, we also believe Christ when he says he can make us whole, that he can heal us. We can indeed become new creatures in Christ, casting our old, worldly ways aside and learning to enjoy a rich, deep existence full of life and light. His Atonement makes it possible.
We believe that Christ gave power to holy men to administer the affairs of his church. Prophets receive revelation from God and guide us as a body. Not only were there prophets back during the Old Testament and the days of the New Testament, but there are prophets today. We believe Joseph Smith did see God and Jesus Christ and that they called him as a prophet. Through him they restored the true church of Jesus Christ, complete with all the authority to officiate in the name of God — authority that had been lost after the original Twelve Apostles were slain. Also through Joseph, the Book of Mormon was brought to light. We believe it’s the word of God, and that it brings us closer to Christ. “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Nephi 25:26)
We believe in doing good, because that’s what Christ did. We believe in making the world a better place, because that’s what Christ did. We believe in love, compassion, kindness, peace, mercy, integrity, courage, forgiveness, and righteousness, because that’s what Christ taught.
We also take seriously Christ’s mandate at the end of the Gospel of Matthew: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” The light of the gospel makes life meaningful, turning it into a deep well of living waters from which we can drink happiness and joy. When you have something this good, this dependable, you naturally want to share it with others. We send missionaries out because the restored gospel of Jesus Christ truly will solve all the world’s ills. It’s not about us — it’s about Christ, about the things he taught.
To put it in a nutshell, we are servants and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his example and teachings are the reason for everything we do.
For further reading, see What Mormons Believe at the Las Vegas Temple website.
I fell asleep while doing homework this evening, and when I woke up, I knew I had to finish the Plan of Salvation. So, two hours later, here it is:
I’ll have the multilingual editions up soon, along with printable PDFs for full-size and card-size.