This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Three covers Alma 30 to 3 Nephi 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.

This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Four covers 3 Nephi 8 to Moroni 10.

This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume One covers 1 Nephi 1 to Jacob 7. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.

This four volume work, which was originally created as a university course, is a whole new approach to an advanced study of the Book of Mormon. In a sense, it is a private tutoring course. If the reader will concentrate on one verse at a time, drain the essential message from it, read any background material provided in the book by W. Cleon Skousen, and then apply the verse to his or her own life, they will be richly blessed. By this means, the reader will have a chance to absorb the message far more deeply and make the Book of Mormon a vital part of daily living. These books are easy to read and have proven highly popular with seminary students and those preparing for missions. They are also used as a family home evening course of study. Volume Two covers Enos 1 to Alma 29. This eBook includes the illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the original printed format.

This collection of insights about the Book of Mormon adds to and complements the author’s legal publications about freedom of conscience, evidence and comparative constitutional law. The book includes insights distilled from contemporary anthropology, careful analysis of the doctrine of resurrection taught in the Book of Mormon, philosophical questions about the rule of law which inform life in contemporary society, and how reflection on the pervasive New Testament intertexuality in the Book of Mormon should increase the knowledge of modern readers. Important reading for scholars of religion and faith, and particularly those interested in understanding the beliefs and practices of member of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints around the world.

Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and highlights the way in which Mormon created it to meet his goal of “convincing . . . the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.”

A DIVIDED MORMON ZION: NORTHEASTERN OHIO OR WESTERN MISSOURI? This is Volume III of an epic, multi-volume work entitled The Quest for the New Jerusalem: A Mormon Generation Saga, which combines family, Mormon, and American history, focusing upon how the author's ancestors were affected by their conversion to the Mormon religion. In Volume I, four of the author's ancestral families the Carters, Hammonds, Knowltons, and Spencer's and the ancestors of Mormon Church founders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, are followed from the time they enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in the 1600s down to the early 1800s. Toward the end of Volume I, the focus is upon Joseph Smith and his family, including their move from Vermont to western New York and their religious and occult "magic worldviews." Volume II takes up the narrative at about the year 1820, and involves a detailed, comprehensive, and critical look at the events in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., during the decade in which he purportedly was visited by numerous heavenly messengers, received the "golden plates," translated the writing on the plates to produce the Book of Mormon, received priesthood authority from other heavenly messengers, published the Book of Mormon, and organized the Mormon Church. There is a detailed examination of the contentious debate concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the validity of Smith's 1820s visionary experiences. The later chapters describe the movement of Church headquarters from western New York to northeastern Ohio in early 1831, Smith's interest in western Missouri as the site for his New Jerusalem/Zion, and the conversion of the author's direct ancestor Simeon Daggett Carter. Volume III begins with a detailed look at the life of Sidney Rigdon, who played a significant role in the development of the Campbellite, Reformed Baptist, Disciples of Christ Church. When he became a Mormon in late 1830, he helped bring about the conversion of hundreds of his friends in the Campbellite movement, which caused Joseph Smith Jr. in early 1831 to change the headquarters of his fledgling Mormon Church from western New York to northeastern Ohio. A remarkable fusion then took place between Mormonism, as it had been formulated initially by Smith, and the new Campbellite doctrines, practices, and organization. In the summer of 1831 Smith and Rigdon visited Jackson County, Missouri, and numerous Smith revelations formally designated it as the site for the New Jerusalem/Zion, where, immediately after the city was built, Christ's Second Coming was to occur. The sites for the city and a temple were dedicated at Independence, but Smith returned to Ohio, continued to live at Kirtland, and made the decision to build the first temple there, much to the chagrin of the Mormons who had obeyed his revelations and were "gathering" to Missouri. This led to a serious rift between Ohio and Missouri leaders, many of the latter Smith's earliest disciples from New York. Ancestrally, the focus of this volume is upon the four Carter brothers Simeon, John S., Gideon, and Jared--who joined the Mormon Church in the 1831-32 period. While Simeon (the author's great, great grandfather) did not keep a journal, and Gideon's journal is very brief, Jared's is one of the most important documents in early Mormon history, and John S.'s shorter journal is also very valuable. Jared was a kind of religious fanatic--with utopian views on faith healing, the power of prayer, and prophecy--yet nevertheless he became president of the Kirtland High Council and a member of the prestigious three-man Kirtland Temple (Building) Committee. John S. became a leader of the Church in the northeastern New York/Vermont region and brought a large company of saints to Kirtland in early 1833. All four Carter brothers became important early missionaries, and four separate chapters document their activities.