Winter Classes

It's time to make your plans for our 2012 classes.
I am excited to announce a new class starting. It is right downtown near the Church Office Building and used to be taught by Lee Donaldson.

The NEW CLASS starting on Wednesday mornings in the Ensign Stake Center will begin at the beginning of Genesis with the creation and Adam and Eve, repeating what the other 4 classes studied in 2011.

NEW! 1. Salt Lake Ensign Stake
Wednesday mornings, 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
January 25–April 18, 2012 (Class will not be held on April 4.)
Ensign Stake Center
135 A Street, Salt Lake City, Utah
Register online at ce.byu.edu/re/ or at the door.


The four already existing classes will all be continuing our study of Genesis : Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the Exodus.

2. Springville Hobble Creek Stake
Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8:00 PM
January 24 - April 17, 2012 (Class will not be held on April 3.)
Canyon Chapel
1965 East Canyon Road, Springville UT 84663.
Register at the door.

3.Salt Lake Sugar House
Wednesday Evening, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
January 25–April 18, 2012 (Class will not be held on April 4.)
Salt Lake Sugar House Stake Center
1681 South 11th East (17th South at 11th East), Salt Lake City.
Register at the door.

4. Sandy Utah Granite South Stake
Thursday morning, 9:00-10:30a.m.
January 26–April 19, 2012 (Class will not be held on April 5.)
Sandy Utah Granite South Stake Center
2126 Gyrfalcon Drive (10000 South), Sandy, Utah 84092
Register at the door.

5. South Jordan : Thursday mid-morning, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
January 26–April 19, 2012 (Class will not be held on April 5.)
South Jordan Stake Center
2450 W 10400 S. (South Jordan Parkway) South Jordan, Utah 84095.
Register online at ce.byu.edu/re/ or at the door.


If you sign up for ONE class, you are welcome to attend ANY class (or ALL of them if you want to) at no additional cost.

Seals and Bows

In class last week we talked about being "sealed" in the covenant. I passed around a book with images of ancient seals - often cut into stone - from the British Museum. Here are some of those images.




I also pointed out that the 'rainbow' - sign of the covenant with Noah - is actually the weapon BOW. Here are images from cylinder seals and ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Hittite and Greek carvings showing the King in his chariot with his bow. In virtually all of these images, the king is said to be the son of god.













And, finally, here is information on seals from the website thesealmaker.com :




One of the earliest examples of Seal Engraving has been found in the form of Babylonian cylinder seals which were engraved around 3200BC. The seals were cut into a wide variety of hard stones using wheels in very much the same way that stones are engraved today. The seals were used as personal imprint signatures or symbols of officials and important families for edicts and contractual agreements. The seal was pressed and rolled into the inscribed clay tablets to produce an easily recognisable impression. Since each seal had been uniquely engraved it was virtually impossible to forge. The use of the seals spread throughout Mesopotamia, Egypt and Asia.
In the reign of Edward III, figures of every kind, architectural, heraldic and other devices were introduced into seals. The use of seals in England became general within a few years of the Norman Conquest, and early in the 12th century they were universally adopted for the purpose of authenticating documents. Signet rings were made either by engraving the design on gems, agates and other hard stones, or by cutting into the metal of the ring. Larger seals, desk seals etc., were engraved on gold, silver, brass or steel. The seal was pressed into coloured wax, the wax impression was then attached to the document, but not stamped directly on to it.
Early heralds adopted the use of seals and due to their tremendous detail we are able to follow the history of heraldry with accuracy. The Royalty of England had the various Royal Arms as a seal. Each subsequent monarch changed their Royal Arms and doing so changed their seal.
Every seal is hand cut, preserving the unique quality of the completed article.
After a seal was cut into a ring, the seal engraver made many wax impressions which were given to the owner of the seal along with the signet ring. The owner then distributed the waxes among family, friends and officials, so that when an important document was sent the recipient could check the unbroken seal against the wax impression to ensure that the document was genuine. After the death of the owner of the seal, the signet ring used to produce the seal was cracked to prevent further use.
neil@thesealmaker.com
thesealmaker.com

No Classes Next Week

So sorry.

After our classes this week, I am off to Missouri to meet my new granddaughter, Amelia Jane, who decided to come 5 weeks earlier than expected.

So, NO CLASSES on NOVEMBER 1 (Springville), NOVEMBER 2 (Sugar House), or NOVEMBER 3 (Sandy and South Jordan).

Please call your friends and share this information with them!

Thanks.

See you next month.

My favorite internet read in a long time

Who says Mormons aren't Christians?

By Dean Obeidallah, Special to CNN

updated 11:19 AM EST, Wed October 12, 2011

The Rev. Robert Jeffress of the Texas megachurch First Baptist Dallas called the Mormon faith a "cult."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Rev. Robert Jeffress recently called Mormonism "a cult"
• Jeffress has a long history of hateful proclamations, Obeidallah says
• Many Mormons are caring, compassionate people, Obeidallah says
• Obeidallah: Isn't compassion what Christianity is supposed to be about?

Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah is an award-winning comedian who has appeared on TV shows such as Comedy Central's "Axis of Evil" special, ABC's "The View," CNN's "What the Week" and HLN's "The Joy Behar Show." He is executive producer of the annual New York Arab-American Comedy Festival and the Amman Stand Up Comedy Festival. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) -- The Rev. Robert Jeffress, a leading evangelical minister,claimed last Friday that Mormons are not Christians. Jeffress went on to declare that Mormonism is "a cult," meaning it's not a "real" religion, and he implored his followers to reject Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as a candidate for president because as Jeffress sees it: "As Christians, we have the duty to prefer and select Christians as our leaders."

Jeffress is infamous for his past "Christian" comments such as: Jews, gays, Muslims and Mormons are all going to hell; Islamencourages pedophilia; and that gays should be banned from the military because 70% of the gay population has AIDS.

At the time of Jeffress' comments about Mormons, I happened to be in Utah, the state with the largest percentage of Mormons in the nation. I'm not Mormon, meaning I'm not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And prior to this trip, I had met only a few members of the LDS Church.

I was in Salt Lake City because I'm performing as part of a stand-up comedy tour called "The Muslims Are Coming," featuring American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the country as a way, we hope, to counter misinformation and build bridges with our fellow Americans.

There we were -- Muslims and Mormons -- bonding on some level because we were both the subject of attacks from people on the far right. Earlier in this presidential campaign it was our time, withHerman Cain essentially arguing for discrimination against American Muslims simply because of our faith. Now the voices of hate had turned their focus to Mormons.

Over the last four days I have spent a great deal of time with members of the LDS Church. I'm not saying that I'm an expert on their teachings and, to be honest, I had some apprehension about Mormons because the LDS Church had publicly funded opposition to marriage equality in California, which I disagree with because I oppose discrimination against any American.

But I can now say without hesitation that the LDS Church members we met represented the best of Christianity. They were truly caring and compassionate people.

And perhaps it's overly simplistic to define an entire religion by the few hundred we met, but let's be honest: many define religions, races and ethnicities by a few of their worst examples. I prefer instead to define minority groups by their best examples.

While it probably doesn't matter to a person like Jeffress, the LDS members we met proudly consider themselves Christians. After all, the full name of their religion is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." If your religion has the words "Jesus Christ" in its name, it's kind of a tip off that Christ's teachings are important to you.

In contrast to the hate spewed by Jeffress, we found that the Mormons we met truly represent the Christian ideal of loving your neighbor. One of the best examples we found of a true Christian was Andrew Kosorok, a proud member of the LDS Church and a talented glassmaker who created an awe-inspiring glass exhibit called "99 Most Beautiful Names: A Sculptural Presentation of the Names of God from the Quran." Kosorok had sacrificed hundreds of hours of time from his family and friends and spent more than $7,000 of his own money to create this exhibit.

Why did Kosorok do this? Because he believed that fostering understanding and countering negative misconceptions about another faith -- in this case Islam -- was part of his duty as a Christian.

This passage from the New Testament is often cited as one that articulates Jesus' philosophy: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

In comparing the hate-filled language of Jeffress with the words and good deeds of the Mormons we met, it is clear to me who is best following the teachings of Jesus Christ and truly deserves to be called a Christian.

Please go vote for FAIR LDS podcasts: they are great!

THE FAIR JOURNAL SPECIAL EDITION October 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a SPECIAL EDITION of the FAIR Journal. We are sending out this
special edition to notify you of something that cannot wait until the
next FAIR Journal is readied and sent out--it will be too late by that
point.

The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known simply as the Podcast
Awards, are an annual set of awards given to the best podcasts as
voted on by listeners. This year, 1,441,712 listeners nominated 2,698
shows. Ten shows were chosen as nominees in each of 22 different
categories.

Our Mormon FAIR-Cast, which is located at www.fairblog.org, has been
nominated to receive a Podcast Award in the "Religion Inspiration"
category. We consider this nomination a great honor.


How We Were Nominated
------------------------------
Nominations were open for 15 days in September. Podcasts that received
votes were reviewed by a 22-member committee that took a variety of
factors into account. The total number of votes a podcast received
accounted for only 40% of the grading, with the quality of the
website's design (15%), quality of sound (15%), quality of deliverance
and show format (10%), and relevance of content (20%) also being
considered.


What We Would Like You To Do
------------------------------
Final voting for the awards began today, October 12th, and will end on
October 27th at 11:59pm HST. Each person (verified by IP address) may
vote ONCE EACH DAY during the 15 days that voting is open. In other
words, a single person can cast 15 votes if he or she votes once each
day.

Please support the Mormon FAIR-Cast by casting your vote at this
address:

http://www.podcastawards.com

Remember, you can vote once each day for the 15 days voting is open,
and voting only takes a moment.

To vote, go to the podcastawards.com and find the Mormon FAIR-Cast
entry. It is listed under the Religion Inspiration category, which is
near the bottom of the page on the right. It is the third category up
from the bottom. Click on the Mormon FAIR-Cast entry. Then scroll down
and enter your name and email address. Click on the button that
describes you best (Listener, Podcaster, or Both.) For most of you
that will be "Listener." Then click on the submit button on the right.

Please spread the word by telling your friends. Even if we don't win
the voting, we hope this will raise awareness of the great resources
we have. If we do win, it is even better. You can post a link with
instructions on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. Remind your friends
to vote each day, and thank you for your continued support of FAIR.

-Allen Wyatt
FAIR, VP Operations

The Intertestamental Period

In class as we drew Margot Butler's Timeline into the Chronology section of the Bible Dictionary, I mentioned a book covering the time between the Old and the New Testaments : the Intertestamental period. These are both versions of that book. The newer one, "The Lost 500 Years", has more pictures, but the text of the two books is very much the same. Both are written by S. Kent Brown and Richard N Holzapfel.

Here is the official blurb from Amazon.com:

"You’ve studied the Old Testament. You’ve studied the New Testament. But what do you know about the nearly five hundred years of history between those sacred books? Now, in The Lost 500 Years (a special illustrated edition of the book formerly titled Between the Testaments), Kent Brown and Richard Holzapfel illuminate this little-understood but vital era. The book discusses the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha; key political, religious, and cultural groups mentioned in the New Testament; Jewish feasts and festivals; Jewish law; and the hope for a Messiah. Understanding this watershed period of history will set the stage for you to fully appreciate the events and teachings of the New Testament!"

2011 Fall Review

I recommend that all students go back and reread all of the posts on this blog from February 2011 as a review of what I taught this week in class.

All of the handouts are there in pdf form for you to download.