The "Inspired Version" of the Bible - an inspired revision of the authorized version by Joseph Smith

I may be slow or out of the loop, but I honestly didn't know that this book existed! I was so excited when I discovered its existence while reading the beginning of "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith," written by Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. (Another reason I'm grateful for the Sabbath, because I'm pretty sure I never would have been reading that if it weren't Sunday.) Curious about it and knowing the only reason we probably (this is not substantiated by the Church - it is just my assumption) don't use it is because Emma Smith refused to give the manuscripts Joseph had written to the Church when asked for them, and thus, the Church doesn't hold the copyright, I looked it up. I was discouraged when the first listing I found for the book on Amazon cost around $1500, but then I Googled it and found a free e-book version. Success!

In order to introduce you to this book, I'll just say the following: this book was taken from the manuscripts that Joseph Smith wrote while translating the Holy Bible (both Old and New Testaments). There are a lot of changes/corrections/additions that we do not have in the LDS version of the King James version (mostly, I believe, because of the Church's lack of copyright).

I have already had a few things clarified, or at least the knowledge of their rightness intensified, from reading the first couple chapters of Genesis. For instance, the following verses are at the beginning of Genesis Chapter 1 in the Inspired Version (which, by the way, is written by Moses as a dictation from Heavenly Father, so it is in first person - NEAT!):

"And it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven and this earth; write the words which I speak.

I am the Beginning and the End; the Almighty God. By mine Only Begotten I created these things.

Yea in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest."

OK, wouldn't the inclusion of those first few verses in the Bible have cleared up a LOT about the nature of God? I mean, the whole idea of the Trinity blown out of the water in the first words spoken by God to Moses for the world. I don't think He intended that to be a secret!

This is further built upon in the verse where he talks about creating mankind, and says,

 "And I God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning, Let us make man in our image after our likeness; and it was so."

(The Holy Scriptures: Inspired Version, Gen. 1:27)

 Confusion → gone.

Last thought for the day on the awesomeness of the clarifications in this version of the Bible: Plato had it at least partially right! As nicely summarized by Penelope Page at ConsideredCapricious.com,

"Plato believed that this world is an imitation of the ‘real’ one. He believed in a world of ‘forms’ where ultimate reality is to be found: the physical is not to be trusted and is imperfect. This system is known as ‘dualist’ – the imitation world and the spiritual world of ‘forms’. In this spiritual world exists the essence of everything physical - their perfect ‘forms’. He believed that our souls existed before they entered our bodies and that they are eternal."

Correction in the Inspired Version that says that's not so off-base:

"For I, the Lord God, created all things of which I have spoken spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth."

(The Holy Scriptures: Inspired Version, Gen 2:5)

 Yeah, I'm excited about this discovery.

*NOTE* To my knowledge, the LDS Church has never substantiated this as doctrine. I don't believe that there were any changes made to Joseph's original manuscripts, but be aware that I am not claiming that this is sanctioned as scripture by the First Presidency. In my opinion, it has merit, as many good books do, and I personally believe that (as far as I've read - that being 1 1/2 chapters) it is doctrinally inline with the doctrine of the Church, and was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I was really impressed with this book and I really enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's writing style. I'm not going to lie: I usually judge whether a book's worth reading by the first few pages, and this one didn't have me pulled in as much as I'd like at the beginning. However, I'd had it recommended to me by one of my sisters-in-law, so I decided I'd give it a chance. I'm glad I did. A few more chapters in, and I was hooked.

The characters were beautifully shaped and had such different voices! It was wonderful. It was also fabulous how, near the end of the book, as the characters got closer to each other and more united in their purpose, their voices (while still distinguishable) started to blend together. INCREDIBLY written.

I will admit that there were portions of the book that I was uncomfortable with (particularly chapters 24 and 25), mostly due to the graphic nature of the things she was describing. I'm not particularly opposed to the points she was making, or even to the scenes she was illustrating/portraying. More that she spent too much time focusing on and describing things that were distasteful and didn't need as much time and focus spent on them. However, except for the aforementioned chapters and a few other snippets in the book, she handled the material very tastefully.

I didn't look at the author's picture until I was more than halfway through the book, and I found myself wondering what race she was. I was surprised to find out that she was white. She did a fantastic job handling the risky turf of "writing in the voice of a black person," as she calls it.

Sexualizing kids: No child left behind — and fighting back

This article in the Deseret News is intense and there are a plethora of things that I could comment on. But the one quote that got my ire up more than any other was the following:

"Aubrey, the University of Missouri professor who teaches classes to future advertisers, tries to help them see the effect certain images can have on youths. She says some students have a cynical outlook, thinking certain decisions marketers make are purely business, that they shouldn't have to think about ethics."

Hello! In case you didn't know, there is no separation from ethics in any situation, least of all business. Actions are actions, whether they are done in a professional or personal setting, and they should be governed by good ethics. How are you going to sleep at night, if you decide to teach little girls that they are nothing more than a sex object to be used for someone else's gratification, when in reality they are beautiful, intelligent, wonderful, and talented?

I say the same thing that I said during the whole scandal with Clinton and Monica Lewinsky:  Ethics and morals are all-encompassing. You can't just pretend they don't apply when you want to do something that goes against what they proscribe.

1 Samuel 19-22

It says in these verses that the Philistines (who I believe were ruling over the Israelites at the time) did not allow the Israelites to have a blacksmith shop in their lands "lest [they] make them swords and spears." So, the Israelites went to the Philistines' shops and sharpened all of their farming instruments to use them for battle. This is the opposite of what the Lord says is going to happen in the Millennial Day (Isaiah 2:4). I never knew that there was an instance when the opposite of what Isaiah speaks of ("beat[ing]...swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks") had happened. That makes the prophecy of Isaiah that much more powerful to me.

Judges

I just finished my first complete reading of the biblical book of Judges. And my thoughts on the book? It is not something that I would like to read again. I understand that it is a book of scripture and that there are things to be learned from it, but it is also full of descriptions of horrible, abominable acts and it was really hard for me to read a lot of it. Nearly every time I finished a chapter I was disgusted and saddened that such horrible things happened, let alone that they had to be recorded. It makes me even more grateful for Mormon's discretion in the Book of Mormon - saying that there were horrible things going on in his society, but that he was not going to go into detail about them because they were so terrible.

Are you truly religious?

My mother-in-law shared with me a wonderful article by Jewish Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, which can be found at this URL. Not only did it put religions into perspective in relation to each other, but it also put religious beliefs into perspective in relation to beliefs in scientific theories - questioning the rationality of believing in the probability of evolution to the extent that it was the process of forming the life forms on this earth today.

But my favorite quote from his article was the following:

People who are in a relationship with G-d are humble and do their utmost to refrain from judging others. Their proximity to a perfect being reminds them of their own fallibility. Their experience of G-d's compassion leads them to be merciful and loving. But those who worship a religion are arrogant and think they have the only truth. They are dismissive of other people's beliefs and maintain that advancing the cause of their religion is more important than life itself.

(It made me smile that he follows the tradition of not writing God's name out with all letters - to keep it sacred and from being overused.)

I love that quote. It echoes with truth. I have been accused in the past of not giving credence to documents from other people's religions, merely because I don't believe them. I wanted to clarify how I approach anything I read - whether from my own religious leaders or others.

I believe that God is the source of all truth and that he can speak to us in many ways and from many different sources. When I read something - like this article for instance - I try to keep an open mind and heart and allow the Spirit to speak to me. If I get a good feeling from my reading and have the Spirit confirm the truth of what has been said to me, then I believe the truth. It could be a portion of the article or the article as a whole, but the resounding truth confirmed by the Spirit is there. Whether it comes from the Koran, a Jewish Rabbi, a Native American medicine man, or a General Authority of the LDS church.

Once truth has been taught to me by the Spirit, then I try to act on what I have learned. One of the reasons I approach things taught by the leaders of my Church with perfect reliance in their truth is because I have had things confirmed to me by the Holy Ghost. In specific, I have had confirmed to me the truthfulness of Joseph Smith's record of the First Vision and the restoration of the Priesthood and the gospel to this earth and the Book of Mormon as a whole. Not only do I feel the truthfulness of these accounts confirmed every time I read them, but I have taken the matter to God in prayer and He has confirmed to me the verity of their words. Because these things are true, I know that the Lord restored His Church to the earth through Joseph Smith, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that the Lord is at the head of His Church today. He speaks to His prophet at the head of the Church (which was President Gordon B. Hinckley at the time I gained this testimony, and is now President Thomas S. Monson), as well as to the other leaders of the Church. I have the truthfulness of what they say reaffirmed to me as I read and listen to their words, but the Lord has given me His witness that what they say is true, so I do tend to listen to their words with faith in that witness.

Truth comes from all different sources, and I believe that God can speak to us in many ways. It is important for us to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to spiritual truth, no matter what the source. That way, the Lord will have no trouble speaking to us.

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I also really appreciated the rabbi's definition of a cult.

Those who worship their religion evince the classic characteristic of cult members. Whereas a real faith system is empowering and makes one strong and capable of operating outside their own faith community, cult members can only identify with other members of their group and require the environment of the cult in order to function. They don't have beliefs. Rather, they take orders.

This is not characteristic of the religion I observe, of which I am grateful. Thanks for the clarification, Rabbi Boteach.

The Power of Perspective

Lehi was commanded to leave Jerusalem so that he and his family would not be killed, and so that they could raise up a righteous nation to the Lord - away from all the corruption that had filled Jerusalem and away from the destruction that would come upon Jerusalem because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. While the reasons were good, the trip was not easy. He had to pack up his family, pack provisions, and leave quickly. Three days into his journey, they came to a river valley, and the following verse was written:

"And it came to pass that he built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks unto the Lord our God." (1 Nephi 2:7)

While his sons were murmuring about how difficult things were and how they wish they had never left, Lehi was offering thanks to the Lord for his mercies. There were so many things he could have been focusing on that were discouraging and difficult. But he chose, rather, to look to his God and thank Him for His mercies.

I recently had a religious discussion with a person I am very close to. And after our discussion, it became clear that there was only one difference between us, and it made all the difference in the world. It was a difference of perspective.

I know that there is a God, and because of this, I have the power to look and see His hand in my everyday life and I know that He is responsible for all the good in the world around me. This person does not believe or know that there is a God. And they see all the evil in the world around them and take it as evidence that there is no God. From my viewpoint, I can see the evil in its context and still believe in God. I can see the higher views that are given only to those who choose to find out and know.

Now, I do not claim to know everything about everything, or even everything about coming to know God and His plan. But I do know this: I know there is a God, who is our loving Father. He loves everyone on this earth and He has provided a way for us to return to Him and know Him -- to know His love and to understand His plan for us and what we are to do in this world. I know He exists and that makes all the difference. I can see everything differently with that knowledge driving my views. Am I always positive? No. I can tend to be negative at times; but because I know God exists, I have the ability to be positive at all times. Because God is good, and He affects everything. 

As Jamie in the movie "A Walk to Remember" says, "it's the center of everything."

I know, and that's the cream of it all.