What I learned at Church today

Did you watch the Book of Mormon videos as you read through the scriptures over the last two weeks? I thought they were excellent, but we have to be a bit careful to remember what is actually in the scriptures, and what is assumed from the video. So for example, the video shows Lehi instructing Laman and Lemuel to remove all the gold goblets and trinkets from the camel's saddlebag, whereas the scripture only says "he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things". It doesn't say that Laman and Lemuel wanted to take them. Getting the Records I love that the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, which are doubtless the most read chapters of all, given how many people start reading it but don't get beyond the Isaiah sections, tell us immediately how important the scriptures are. When Lehi departs into the wilderness he takes only the essentials, but he soon has to send his sons back to get something vital the...

With only about 23 Sunday School lessons across the year, you might be forgiven for wondering why a whole lesson has been given over to studying the title page, contents, testimonies and introduction which precede the actual Book of Mormon text. Well, I think of it as the pre-title sequence: it sets us up for what is to come. There is important information here. We also talked about the book's provenance. Provenance means the history of something which serves to authenticate it. In art, for example, it might include past owners and valuations. The Bible has a rich and full provenance - we know it is a collection of historical documents and there is no doubt of its authenticity. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, has little to no provenance. Essentially, these introductory pages are its entire provenance. They tell us where it came from, and how, but really its authenticity has to be taken entirely on faith. Personally I find that to be one of its strengths. The reader is the o...