Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel Volume 10 Number 2 Article 20 7-1-2009 Vol. 10 No. 2 Religious Educator Religious Educator Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Educator, Religious. "Vol. 10 No. 2 Religious Educator." Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 10, no. 2 (2009). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/re/vol10/iss2/20 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 2 2009 ON THE COVER: Climbing to new heights is symbolized by El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. “As we contemplate the sacrifice and hard work that was required to achieve past goals, let us muster the confidence and determination needed to move on to greater heights.” Elder Robert D. Hales COVER PHOTO BY MIKE MURPHY Editor’s Note One of the expected outcomes or aims of a BYU education is to prepare a student to engage in lifelong learning. Elder Robert D. Hales challenges us all, not just BYU students, to begin a journey of lifelong learning in our lead article based on his talk delivered at Campus Education Week in August 2008. We then turn our attention to another thoughtful essay by Elder Marlin K. Jensen regard- ing “Those Who Are Different.” Elder Jensen challenges us all to be more considerate and kind. In his typical personal and affable way, Elder Jensen convicts us of our past failings while challenging and encouraging us to do better as we meet our brothers and sisters along our busy journey through life. The remaining articles include an interview with Clyde Williams regarding his efforts to collect President Packer’s teachings (published in Mine Errand from the Lord: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Boyd K. Packer [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008]); an examination of the Savior’s last week; the life and ministry of John the Baptist; a per- sonal essay by former Religious Education dean David H. Yarn; a lively debate about the geography of the Book of Mormon by two thoughtful scholars, Andrew Hedges and Mat- thew Roper; and conversations about the Doctrine and Covenants and lessons from the scriptures. Right in the middle we have three essays based on a panel discussion from a recent annual Mormon History Association meeting. Steve Harper and John Thomas, colleagues at BYU and BYU–Idaho, join our non-Latter-day Saint friend and colleague Mark Miller in an intriguing discussion that will cause us to ponder some rather important issues. As we release another issue in the tenth volume of the Religious Educator, we hope these essays will provide you with a variety of experiences that will inspire you to worship, study, contemplate, and apply eternal principles that can enrich those who will take the time to consider them. We are grateful to our authors for providing us some food for thought. Best wishes! Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Editor Contents 1 The Journey of Lifelong Learning Elder Robert D. Hales 15 Those Who Are Different Elder Marlin K. Jensen 19 President Packer’s Teachings Interview with Clyde J. Williams 31 The Savior’s Questions: Teachings from the Last Week of His Life Rick B. Jorgensen 47 John the Baptist: The Miracle and the Mission RoseAnn Benson and Robert J. Matthews 63 Praised Be His Holy Name David H. Yarn Jr. 67 Lessons from the Scriptures: A Conversation with Keith H. Meservy Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson 77 Document Editing: Helping Students Quench Their Thirst Steven C. Harper 87 An Outsider’s Experience Teaching Mormon History in Utah Mark Edwin Miller 97 Sweetwater Revisited, Sour Notes, and the Ways of Learning John C. Thomas 111 Cumorah and the Limited Mesoamerican Theory Andrew H. Hedges The Religious Educator Volume 10 Number 2 • 2009 135 Plausibility, Probability, and the Cumorah Question Matthew P. Roper 159 Problems with Probability: A Response Andrew H. Hedges 163 “Where Is Thy Glory?” Moses 1, the Nature of Truth, and the Plan of Salvation Dan Belnap 181 The Doctrine and Covenants: A Roundtable Discussion, Part 1 Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Grant Underwood, J. Spencer Fluhman, Steven C. Harper, and Robert J. Woodford 193 New Publications 197 Upcoming Conferences 199 Staff Spotlight Elder Robert D. Hales Photo by Mark Philbrick The Journey of Lifelong Learning Elder Robert D. Hales Elder Robert D. Hales is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This devotional address was given on August 19, 2008, during Campus Education Week. Today in this devotional I am honored to be addressing those com- mitted to lifelong learning. Our quest for knowledge and our journey of eternal progression began long before our mortal existence. We are given a clear under- standing that during the Council in Heaven we used our agency, choosing to come to earth and participate in mortality. In choosing to come to this earth, we were choosing the opportunity to progress, to grow, and to gain more knowledge. And in that process of learning and coming to earth, taking upon us a mortal body to gain knowledge and to experience mortality is an essential part of our eternal learning and progression. The theme of lifelong learning is important because for Latter- day Saints the lifelong pursuit of knowledge is not only secular but spiritual. We understand that gaining knowledge is essential to gaining eternal salvation. Brigham Young said, “Should our lives be extended to a thousand years, still we may live and learn.”1 For most worldly and temporal possessions, the old adage is true: You can’t take it with you. However, the intellectual treasures of knowledge and spiritual values hold a promise of eternal significance. We read in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resur- 2 The Religious Educator • vol 10 No 2 • 2009 rection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come” (D&C 130:18–19). So while mortality is only a small moment in eternity, learning throughout our mortal lives is an essential part of our eternal educa- tion. Here on earth, as Brigham Young once observed, “we are in a great school.”2 When we see our learning here as part of our eternal education, we raise our sights for learning. As children, we might have begun learning because our parents coaxed or cajoled us. They wanted us to acquire a formal education with college degrees or technical labor skills, knowing that at the end of our labors we would be rewarded by being self-sufficient, productive, and able to survive in the real world. Some of us studied hard as we became interested in the stiff competi- tion for grades and honors. While these motivations for learning played important roles at dif- ferent times in our lives, if they are our only motivations, we will stop learning when our parents or teachers are gone and our degrees are earned. Lifelong learners are driven by more eternal motives. One of the giant steps in maturing and acquiring knowledge and experience is when we learn for the joy of being edified rather than for the pleasure of being entertained. The goal of the wisest lifelong learners is not so much to impress others but to improve themselves and to help others. Their desire is to learn and to change their behavior by following the sound counsel and example imparted from great teachers around them. Sometimes our learning is limited if we think of it as only one course at a time or getting one degree. But as we look to the scriptures, they give us the curriculum of the lifetime learner: “Things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms” (D&C 88:79). The first verse of the Book of Mormon reads, “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father” (1 Nephi 1:1). Just as Nephi’s field of study was all that his father knew, lifelong learners know no disciplinary boundaries in their quest for greater knowledge. Lifelong learners have an insatiable inner desire to acquire knowl- edge in a broad range of subjects and disciplines. Thus the reward for the Journey of lifelong learning 3 lifelong learners is simply the joy of learning and acquiring knowledge in a wide spectrum of subjects that interest them. Some may wonder whether it is possible to teach lifelong learn- ing or if it is simply a genetic gift. Just as some are born with greater speed, some of us may naturally have a greater desire for learning. Yet just as wise coaches can improve anyone willing to pay the price, in like manner Heavenly Father is eager to bless us with the drive and determi- nation to become lifelong learners if we are willing to pay the price. Oftentimes it takes a great teacher to motivate us and to instill that desire in us.