Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel Volume 10 Number 3 Article 22 9-1-2009 Vol. 10 No. 3 Religious Educator Religious Educator Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Educator, Religious. "Vol. 10 No. 3 Religious Educator." Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 10, no. 3 (2009). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re/vol10/iss3/22 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Provo, Utah volUme 10 NUmber 3 2009 ON THE COVER: A pillar of light in Antelope Canyon symbolizes God’s presence in our lives. “When we are in even the most troubling of times, ‘Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God.’” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland COVER PHOTO BY LUCAS LÖFFLER iii Editor’s Note As we complete the final issue of the tenth volume of the Religious Educator, I express gratitude to the many individuals who have joined us on this adventure. We begin this issue with a thoughtful talk from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who established the RSC in 1975. Increasingly, Latter-day Saints are learning about an archaeological site in Israel purporting to provide evidence for the story at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. We asked Jeffrey R. Chadwick, the only Latter-day Saint trained in biblical archaeology who is also currently work- ing on a dig in Israel, to provide a thoughtful review of the arguments and the evidence. We then present several articles rooted in the Book of Mormon text: Zachary Nelson’s “The Rod of Iron in Lehi’s Dream,” Deanna Draper Buck’s “Internal Evidence of Wide- spread Literacy in the Book of Mormon,” Anthony Sweat’s “Active Learning and the Savior’s Nephite Ministry,” and “Peaceable Followers of Christ.” Next, Allan Rau helps us with his article, “Fostering Conversion through Faith-Inspired Actions.” John Hilton adds another excellent contribution with “See That Ye Do Them.” BYU continues its efforts to extend its influence beyond the Church audience; in an interview, we introduce readers to James E. Faulconer, who is making a difference in this area. As we conclude our study of the Doctrine and Covenants in Gospel Doctrine, we present several articles explaining medical terms and illnesses in the nineteenth century. Nathan Welch, my former research assistant and now a medical doctor, has examined Joseph Smith’s 1813 illness. Joseph B. Hinckley, another research assistant who is now in law school, has written “Saints and Sickness: Medicine in Nauvoo and Winter Quarters,” which serves as an introduction to a piece called “Medical Terms Used by Saints in Nauvoo and Winter Quar- ters, 1839–48,” by Douglas C. Heiner, Evan L. Ivie, and Teresa Lovell. Ivie and Heiner add another helpful study, “Deaths in Early Nauvoo, 1839–46, and Winter Quarters, 1846–48.” Scott C. Esplin considers how hard it must have been for those early Kirtland Saints to move to Ohio and then on to Missouri. Susan Easton Black then provides insights to the University of Nauvoo. You will then find part 2 of our roundtable discussion on the Doc- trine and Covenants with content experts J. Spencer Fluhman, Steven C. Harper, Grant Underwood, and Robert J. Woodford. N. T. Wright is well known among New Testament scholars and many Protestants, but less known among the Saints. To rectify that, Bob Millet provides us an excellent introduction to one of Wright’s recent works, Surprised by Hope (2008), giving us some food for thought. Finally, we introduce you to Chad H. Webb, the new director of Seminaries and Institutes, with an interview conducted by Kenneth L. Alford. I hope you will find something of value in this issue. Enjoy! Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Editor iv Contents 1 Lessons from Liberty Jail Elder Jeffrey R. Holland 17 Khirbet Beit Lei and the Book of Mormon: An Archaeologist’s Evaluation Jeffrey R. Chadwick 49 The Rod of Iron in Lehi’s Dream Zachary Nelson 59 Internal Evidence of Widespread Literacy in the Book of Mormon Deanna Draper Buck 75 Active Learning and the Savior’s Nephite Ministry Anthony R. Sweat 87 “Peaceable Followers of Christ” in Days of War and Contention Ryan Jenkins 103 Fostering Conversion through Faith-Inspired Actions Allan Rau 115 “See That Ye Do Them” John Hilton III 123 Outreach: A Conversation with James E. Faulconer James E. Faulconer and Daniel O. McClellan 131 Joseph Smith’s Childhood Illness Nathan R. Welch 137 Saints and Sickness: Medicine in Nauvoo and Winter Quarters Joseph B. Hinckley v The Religious Educator Volume 10 Number 3 • 2009 151 Medical Terms Used by Saints in Nauvoo and Winter Quarters, 1839–48 Douglas C. Heiner, Evan L. Ivie, and Teresa Lovell Whitehead 163 Deaths in Early Nauvoo, 1839–46, and Winter Quarters, 1846–48 Evan L. Ivie and Douglas C. Heiner 175 Why the Ohio? Why Anything in My Life? Lessons from the Command to Gather Scott C. Esplin 189 The University of Nauvoo, 1841–45 Susan Easton Black 207 The Doctrine and Covenants: A Roundtable Discussion, Part 2 J. Spencer Fluhman, Steven C. Harper, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Grant Underwood, and Robert J. Woodford 219 For Heaven’s Sake: A Review of N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope Robert L. Millet 237 Serving Students: A Conversation with Chad H. Webb Chad H. Webb and Kenneth L. Alford 247 New Publications 251 Upcoming Conferences 253 Staff Spotlight Elder Jeffrey R. Holland © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Lessons from Liberty Jail Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This address is from a Church Educational System fireside for young adults on September 7, 2008, at BYU. My beloved young friends, it is a thrill for Sister Holland and for me to be with you tonight for this worldwide satellite broadcast. It’s always a thrill to be in the Marriott Center. I wish it were possible for us to be in each of your individual locations, seeing you personally and being able to shake your hands. We haven’t figured out a way to do that yet, but we send our love and greeting to all of you wherever you are in the world. In spite of the vastness of our global audience, we hope all of you are individually able to feel the love we have for you tonight and that each of you can gain something from our message that is applicable in your personal lives. The Prophet in Liberty Jail One of the great blessings of our assignments as General Authori- ties is the chance to visit members of the Church in various locations around the world and to glean from the history that our members have experienced across the globe. In that spirit I wish to share with you tonight some feelings that came to me during a Church assignment I had last spring when I was assigned to visit the Platte City stake in western Missouri, here in the United States. The Platte City Missouri Stake lies adjacent to the Liberty Missouri Stake, now a very famous location in Church history encompassing 2 The Religious Educator • vol 10 No 3 • 2009 several important Church history sites, including the ironically named Liberty Jail. From your study of Church history, you will all know something of the experience the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brethren had while imprisoned in that facility during the winter of 1838–39. This was a terribly difficult time in our history for the Church generally and certainly for the Prophet Joseph himself, who bore the brunt of the per- secution in that period. Indeed, I daresay that until his martyrdom five and a half years later, there was no more burdensome time in Joseph’s life than this cruel, illegal, and unjustified incarceration in Liberty Jail. Time does not permit a detailed discussion of the experiences that led up to this moment in Church history, but suffice it to say that prob- lems of various kinds had been building ever since the Prophet Joseph had received a revelation in July of 1831 designating Missouri as the place “consecrated for the gathering of the saints” and the building up of “the city of Zion” (D&C 57:1, 2). By October of 1838, all-out war seemed inevitable between Mormon and non-Mormon forces con- fronting each other over these issues. After being driven from several of the counties in the western part of that state and under the pre- sumption they had been invited to discuss ways of defusing the volatile situation that had developed, five leaders of the Church, including the Prophet Joseph, marching under a flag of truce, approached the camp of the Missouri militia near the small settlement of Far West, located in Caldwell County. As it turned out, the flag of truce was meaningless, and the Church leaders were immediately put in chains and placed under heavy guard. The morning after this arrest, two more Latter-day Saint leaders, including the Prophet’s brother Hyrum, were taken prisoner, making a total of seven in captivity. Injustice swiftly moved forward toward potential tragedy when a military “court” convened by officers of that militia ordered that Joseph Smith and the six other prisoners all be taken to the public square at Far West and summarily shot.