I believe that it’s maybe time to name your consideration once more to some current merchandise of the Interpreter Basis. Listed here are three of them:
Undaunted Witnesses of the Guide of Mormon
Discover the historical past of the Three Witnesses in addition to different witnesses of the Guide of Mormon with Camrey Bagley Fox, Emma Smith within the film Witnesses, and Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, Affiliate Professor of Church Historical past at BYU, and different students. Have been the eleven official witnesses—twelve in case you embody Joseph Smith himself—of the Guide of Mormon dependable? What in regards to the unofficial witnesses who interacted with the plates in varied methods—together with a variety of girls? Have been the plates truly fabricated from gold? How might witnesses actually hear the voice of God and but come to doubt His prophet? Change into extra aware of these early saints, none of whom ever denied their claims however as a substitute boldly proclaimed their testimonies.
UNDAUNTED: Witnesses of the Guide of Mormon is a companion docudrama to the theatrical function movie WITNESSES. Produced by the Interpreter Basis, UNDAUNTED supplies a deep-dive into the lives of those that claimed to have seen and dealt with the gold plates from which the Guide of Mormon was translated. Be taught extra about UNDAUNTED at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.
That’s the primary of the three. These are the opposite two that I had in thoughts:
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances
Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee, Dictionary of Correct Names and International Phrases within the Guide of Mormon
By the best way: As I write, there are — depend ’em! — just one hundred and twenty-one (121) procuring days left till Christmas. So that you shouldn’t procrastinate any extra. Order a number of DVDs of Undaunted, and huge stacks of Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances, and a number of other dozen copies of the Dictionary of Correct Names and International Phrases within the Guide of Mormon. Give them to your partner, your kids, your dad and mom, your grandparents, your cousins, these to whom you minister, your mailman, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses who knock at your door. And, whilst you’re at it, don’t overlook about Witnesses, and don’t overlook about all the different books that the Interpreter Basis has revealed.
However now for an abrupt change of matter and tone:
We landed this morning in Belfast, Northern Eire, the place, by the best way, C. S. Lewis lived for the primary 9 years of his life and to which he returned many instances even after transferring to England for his schooling and his eventual educational profession. (He was all the time fortunately conscious that he was Irish.) Belfast can also be the town during which the ill-fated passenger liner R.M.S. Titanic was constructed. However we stated and did nothing in the present day about C. S. Lewis, and I’ll return to the subject of the Titanic shortly.
One of many first issues that we did was to drive to the actually fairly lovely seat of the Parliament of Northern Eire, which is usually referred to as Stormont after the portion of Belfast during which it sits. Notably, there aren’t any flags round Stormont. Why? As a result of the bulk get together lately is Sinn Féin, which has given up violence and gone for electoral success. They refuse to allow the Union Jack, the flag of the UK, to fly over their legislative home. And but their opponents is not going to allow the flag of the separate Republic of Eire to fly over it, both. Curiously, too, members of the Northern Irish Parliament are additionally granted rapid membership within the Parliament of the UK that sits in Westminster (i.e., roughly in London), however those that are affiliated with Sinn Féin refuse to take part there since they reject the UK’s dominion over them. However, they do settle for membership within the Oireachtas, the legislature of the Republic of Eire, which meets in Dublin. Against this, members of the principal Northern Irish opposition get together, which favors continued union with Nice Britain, decline membership within the Oireachtas however settle for membership within the British Parliament.
We additionally briefly visited Queen’s College of Belfast and drove round most of the neighborhoods and districts of the town. Our very good information refused to tell apart them as Catholic or Protestant, preferring to time period them “nationalist” and “unionists.” I appreciated that very a lot, since I’ve lengthy argued that the notorious violence during which Belfast and Northern Eire had been embroiled for many years had just about nothing actually to do with faith in any respect. So we drove by means of nationalist and unionist neighborhoods, that are, particularly when a neighborhood professional teaches you to learn them, very straightforward to tell apart. (We’ve visited Belfast as soon as earlier than, however this go to was far, far superior as to readability and content material.)
We had been on our personal for lunch and wandering round for some time. My spouse and I spent the time within the monumental Belfast Metropolis Corridor, the place we walked by means of an informative exhibit on the historical past of Belfast and checked out a monument to the victims of the Titanic catastrophe on the grounds exterior. We might have spent longer there, however that’s just about all the time the case, just about in every single place.
The final a part of our too-brief go to to Northern Eire was spent at a customer attraction referred to as “Titanic Belfast” that was constructed throughout the centennial yr of the ship’s sinking. It’s excellently accomplished, with a mixture of multimedia know-how, museum reveals, and even a Disneyland-like experience by means of the development of the good vessel. “Titanic Belfast” sits on the very website of the previous Harland & Wolff shipyards the place the development and launch happened.
Our information harassed again and again how Belfast has regenerated itself because the finish of the violence roughly a era in the past, and its success at bouncing again is instantly obvious to even pretty informal guests comparable to ourselves. I completely loved our time within the metropolis. And unusually nice climate didn’t harm.
Posted from the Irish Sea
