The Humility Cycle: Handout
You know that handy diagram that’s made its way around Church publications for several decades now? I first encountered it in high school seminary, where it shows a cycle of righteousness and wickedness, pride and repentance. It was in a seminary video depicting...
Come Follow Me reading schedule: Book of Mormon (2020)
This reading schedule takes the weekly reading assignments from the Come Follow Me scripture study curriculum‘s table of contents and puts them into a weekly chapter checklist, lined up side-by-side with a calendar that allows you to also...
Structured Edition scripture sample: 1 Nephi
Try reading 1 Nephi in this format, and you might be surprised at how you notice new things. Here’s a rough draft of the book of First Nephi from my custom edition of the Book of Mormon that I’m working on. I’ve tried to make it look more like a...
Structural chapter reading chart: The Book of Mormon
This chart helps you track your reading progress in the Book of Mormon by showing the structure of its storyline. It shows the natural major and minor subdivisions of books so that you spend less time orienting yourself and more time gaining insights.
2 Nephi 3—Four Josephs
Here’s a brief PowerPoint slideshow and lesson plan that helps answer, “Who are the four people Lehi talks about in 2 Ne. 3 who are all named Joseph?” I’ve also made a timeline where you can try to figure out what order the Josephs were born in (i.e., who came first on a timeline of world history). Also included are helpful application questions for why this matters today.
The Book of Mormon without punctuation
Here is a Microsoft Word document I’ve created with the full text of the Book of Mormon with all the punctuation removed. I’ve done this because it more closely approximates what the original manuscript (and the printer’s manuscript) looked like as Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. While the translation was performed by a prophet based on inspiration, the paragraphing, sentence breaks, and punctuation were performed by a regular, non-LDS, educated man based on ordinary, mundane principles.
Do-It-Yourself Book of Mormon
Here’s what I learned when I created my own customized the layout of the Book of Mormon from the files on my Do-It-Yourself Scripture page. I created my own personalized edition of the scriptures that is annotated in a way that made sense to me. Since I am sometimes asked this question, let me clarify: I am not talking about writing your own scriptures, or altering the wording of the current scriptures in order to satisfy your preferences. I am talking about choosing fonts and page size, inserting headings where a new section seems to begin, etc.
Interview: Joe Spencer answers questions about Isaiah in the Book of Mormon
In a previous post, I summarized an article by Joseph Spencer entitled “Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.” Recently, I had the chance to email back and forth with Joe and ask him some questions I still had after reading his article, and he gave me permission to post our exchange as an interview.
Joseph Spencer on Isaiah, baptism, and the Godhead in the Book of Mormon
I recently read an article that pointed out some interesting patterns. In 1 and 2 Nephi, Isaiah and several themes related to his teachings are used extensively. Then, suddenly, Isaiah goes completely unused in Enos through Helaman (and the first part of 3 Nephi). Then, Isaiah is reintroduced “with a vengeance” in 3 Nephi by the Savior, almost as soon as He appears to the Nephites. Joe Spencer drew some interesting conclusions as to why that might be.