Book of Mormon Lesson 36
“On the Morrow Come I into the World”
(You can look up scripture references here: http://gospelink.com/next/browse?cat_id=1.)
I. Introduction.
A. Today we will be talking about the situation among the Nephites and the Lamanites just before Christ’s birth and the years between his birth and his visitation to the Americas. In these short years the Nephites saw many signs and took many rides on the “pride cycle.” As we read these chapters it is important to liken the scriptures to our own time and lives.
B. Ezra Taft Benson said: “In the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Second Coming.”
1. Just as many signs were given to and ignored by the Nephites of Christ’s first coming, there are many signs that are being ignored today of Christ’s second coming. What are some of these signs?
2. The Bible, the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith all testified of the literal gathering of Israel. 70 years ago during the Holocaust who would have ever believed there would be a gathering of Jews in Palestine? 2000 years ago when the Jews were expelled from Israel who would have predicted that they would even survive as a people. My Hebrew teacher in college was very proud to point out that all the cultures who fought against Israel in ancient times no longer exists, but that the Jews still do. God’s preservation of his chosen people the Jews is one of his greatest miracles that we can see everyday, but the world mostly ignores.
II. Events leading up the birth of Christ
A. Nephi, son of Nephi, son of Helaman, son of Helaman, son of Alma, son of Alma becomes the keeper of the plates and sacred records. 6 generations of leaders of the church from Abinidi’s mission.
B. The elder Nephi leaves Zarahemla and is never heard from again.
C. Read 3rd Nephi 1:4-9
1. Why is it that just when “the prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully” the people began to doubt and persecute the believers more?
2. I am thankful that today, although the church is persecuted throughout the world and Satan continues to stir up the hearts of men against us, at least our lives are not threatened for our beliefs as they were here.
a. But we still face opposition. If you want to see what type of opposition we confront each day just Google “Mormon” and see what comes up. You’ll see that there are very few people who wish us well.
b. There is almost perpetually some anti-Mormon book on the best seller’s list. If you want to make sure a movie makes a profit you make a skin flick or a slasher movie, and if you want to make sure a book sells make write and anti-Mormon book. People like to read things that reinforce their stereotypes and prejudices.
c. I don’t have a television at home, but the other day I was staying at a hotel and saw an advertisement for Bill Mahr’s new movie where her goes around the country making fun of and insulting religion and religious people, including Mormons.
d. I am thankful the Book of Mormon provides us with an allegory for this opposition in the Great and Specious building. “And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river or water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth, and it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers toward those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.” (1 Nephi 8:26-27). We also know the ultimate fate of the great and spacious building. “That great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great.” (1 Nephi 11:36).
e. If we have faith in Joseph Smith as a prophet than we also know that despite this persecution the work of the Lord will continue. “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”
III. The sign of the birth of Christ
A. Nephi was sorrowful because of the threats against the righteous. He prays for his people.
B. Read 3rd Nephi 1:12-14
C. The sign is given. Read 3rd Nephi 1:15-18.
D. How did the people respond to this sign? At first there was amazement. But we see how quickly they forget.
1. Read 3rd Nephi 1:22
2. Read 3rd Nephi 2:1-3.
3. Why would people be so quick to forget such an obvious, unmistakable sign?
4. The Book of Mormon Institute manual notes, “Signs flow from faith and, indeed, are a product of it. They strengthen the faithful but produce faith only in the spiritually responsive. Therefore, their chief purpose is not to produce faith, but to reward it. It is not an uncommon thing in scripture to see the most marvelous signs and evidences of God’s power ignored or rationalized away by those without faith.”
5. Maurine Jensen Proctor said: “Thus, while signs do not deeply move the unbeliever, they play a key role in the life of a believer. God says, ‘and he that believeth shall be blest with signs following, even as it is written’ (D&C 68:10).....Unbelievers may say he desires a sign. These people, however, are generally sign seekers not because they would believe, but because they do not wish to do so. They use their demand for a sign as a way to taunt believers. .
IV. The rise of the Gadianton Robbers.
A. Read 3rd Nephi 2:11.
B. There was a war between the righteous Nephites and Lamanites with the Gadianton Robbers. They were no longer just an underground group but a powerful threat.
C. The leader of the Gadianton robbers, Giddianhi, writes a letter to the chief judge Lachoneus and demands that the Nephites surrender themselves and their lands. The righteous Nephites and Lamanites gather themselves together in the Land of Zarahemla, gather their flocks, grain and provisions together and fortify themselves. The Gadianton robbers come and possess their abandoned lands, but they don’t have anything to live off of, so they are forced to go to battle with the Nephites. They are defeated in a great battle and Giddianhi is killed. A new leader Zemnarihah tries to surround Zarahemla and starve the people out.
1. Read 2 Nephi 4:15-20.
2. Here is an obvious reminder about food storage and emergency preparations. We are lucky enough to have living prophets who do not only give us spiritual counsel but temporal counsel. They have told us repeatedly about food storage. Are we listening? What if these Nephites had not listened to Lachoneus?
3. This is also a reminder that evil groups and secret combinations cannot exist without the complicity of the society in which they reside. Hugh Nibley did a detailed analysis of the Gadianton Robbers in his book Since Cumorah: the Book of Mormon in the Modern World. He concluded that: “they cannot thrive or even survive without the acceptance and encouragement of the society in general. Being predatory and non-productive, i.e., parasites, they must have a complacent society to host and support them. Such a society is one which accepts as desirable the Gadianton goals of power and gain.”
D. The Nephites are able to defeat and destroy the Gadianton robbers. The Gadianton robbers who repent are basically given amnesty and allowed to have land and live among the Nephites again.
V. Inequality in the land destroys the church and the Nephites.
A. They Nephites return to their lands and prosper again without the Gadianton Robbers bothering them.
B. But then there began to be contention and inequality among the Nephites. Read 3rd Nephi 6:10-14.
1. Is there a problem with inequality in the Church today? Is it a threat to the Church today? How can we avoid this separation by rank in the church?
2. Mark 10:44 “And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all.”
a. My brother is an astronomer in Omaha, Nebraska. He went to 4 years of undergraduate school, 5 years of graduate school, 4 years of post-graduate studies and he is constantly doing research today. I would guess that he is the most educated person in his ward in Omaha. Unlike our wards here in Utah, the boundaries of his ward probably take up half the city, so there are very rich and very poor people in his congregation. He was made ward mission leader last year. His ward has already had 18 convert baptisms this year - more than any other ward in the state. My brother invites all the new converts to dinner. Some of them are immigrants from other countries. Many of them are not in good financial situations. He has helped them fill out job applications and immigration forms. He has driven them to work and to school. I think this is a good example of how to avoid these distinctions by rank - by serving everyone.
C. We are told the source of these divisions and wickedness. Read 3rd Nephi 6:15-18.
D. Neal A. Maxwell said: “Unlike Jesus, sometimes we first provide access for and then augment our own temptations. By paying even small heed to a temptation, we thus forget that temptations are like a poison gas–they spread through the time and space available to them. Once inside and rebuked, they are not easily contained. Another advantage of dispatching temptations is this: the human mind is remarkably retentive. We must be careful of what we allow in our mind, for it will be there for a long time, reasserting itself at those very times when we may be most vulnerable. Just as harmful chemicals heedlessly dumped in a vacant lot can later prove lethal, so toxic thoughts and the mulching of the wrong memories in the vacant corner of the mind also take their toll. What happens, of course, when we persist in savoring temptations, whether they are temptations of wealth, power, status, or sensuality, is well portrayed by what we read of another people in another time: ‘Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this—Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.’ This people actually lost both personal and social control, as these words vividly portray: ‘And thus, the commencement of the thirtieth year–the people having been delivered up for the space of a long time to be carried about by the temptations of the devil withersoever he desired to carry the, and to do whatsoever iniquity he desired they should–and thus they were in a state of awful wickedness.’ Surely it should give us more pause that it does to think of how casually we sometimes give to him who could not control his own ego in the premortal world such awful control over our egos here. We often let the adversary do indirectly now what we refused to let him do directly then.”
VI. The Nephite Government is completely destroyed.
A. In Chapter 6 we see that some of the lesser judges misused their authority to execute people who testified of their wickedness. (This sounds familiar to us today where judges misuse their power.) The chief judge tries to put them back in line, but they and their followers protect themselves by starting up secret combinations again.
B. They kill the chief judge and the people divide into tribes. Their government destroyed, an antichrist named Jacob tries to become King, but is only able to become king over one of the tribes. Their government being completely destroyed the Nephite nation is in utter chaos and wickedness just before the visitation of Christ.
VII. Conclusion
A. Consider again President Benson’s statement that within the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for the Second coming.
B. Joseph Smith said: “Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the verge of destruction.”
C. I pray that we can become and remain this stable force in the chaotic world. Amen.
Visitors
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Book of Mormon Lesson 34
Book of Mormon Lesson 34
“How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?”
I. Introduction
A. The Pride Cycle
Righteousness and Prosperity===>Pride and Wickedness====>Destruction and Suffering====>Humility and Repentance===>Righteousness and Prosperity ext, ext.
1. This is the cycle the Nephites go through over and over again in the Book of Mormon. We will be talking about this today.
B. Today we will be continuing in the Book of Helaman. These are the last few decades before the birth of Christ. We will se the Nephites growing in pride and wickedness. We will see the Gadianton Robbers gaining more and more power among the Nephites. We will also see the Lamanites becoming more righteous than the Nephites and we will be able to contrast the two groups. We will see how the Lamanites dealt with the Gadianton Robbers compared to how the Nephites dealt with them.
II. The Lamanite become more righteous than the Nephites.
A. Read Helaman 6:1-2
1. The Lamanites, who just a few years ago were ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ and were at constant war with the Nephites are now more righteous than the Nephites.
2. Is there something similar happening today? The center of Christianity for at least the last Millennium and a half has been the Western World - Europe and the Americas. But now Europe (and to some degree the US and Canada) have become so secular that it is almost impossible to recognize them as Christian Nations. Pope Benedict has lamented this secularization, noting that the Catholic Church has more in common with the Islamic World, as fare as values go, than it does with secular Europe, although the population of Europe is largely “Christian.”
3. Where is the Mormon Church and Christianity in general growing most rapidly today? Africa, Latin America, parts of South East Asia - the Third World . I see parallels here with the Nephites and the Lamanites.
4. In one of Christianity’s largest denominations today a majority of it’s members in Europe and the U.S. would like to ignore some of the moral laws found in the Bible because they no longer fit with their “enlightened” mind set. It is their members from Africa, the Carribean and Latin America that have actually insisted that they maintain some semblance of Biblical Christian morality. I would argue that were it not for these Christians in Third World countries sanding up to their more sophisticated, western counterparts their particular brand of Christianity may well have become completely unrecognizable as such.
B. The Lamanites become missionaries to the Nephites.
1. Read Helaman 6:3-6.
a. How do you thing the more prideful of the Nephites felt about these lamanites coming to teach them? I suspect with bigotry and disdain.
2. We also read that there was peace in all the land and that both the Lamanites and the Nephites traveled freely between their lands. We learn that with this free trade both groups became rich. We will see that apparently the Lamanites handled this prosperity better than the Nephites.
III. The Nephites become proud and wicked.
A. Read Helaman 6:17-18. Notice that at first the Gadianton robbers were stronger among the Lamanites.
B. Read Helaman 6:20-21.
1. How did the Lamanites deal with the Gadianton Robbers? How did this contrast with how the Nephites dealt with them?
2. Read Helaman 6:37-38
3. In what ways are we, as a society, guilty of “building up” the modern equivalents of the Gadianton Robbers?
i. Voting for our own self interest instead of what is best for the country.
ii. The entertainment industry. Are we supporting the production of filth by the type of entertainment we chose. Every time we go to a movie, watch a television program, buy and album or download a song that is of questionable moral value we are voting with our money for them to make more just like it.
iii. Who do we admire as a society? Who do we want to read about in People Magazine? Are the people we admire and “build up” worthy of our praise?
IV. Show Video for Lesson 34.
A. President Ezra Taft Benson said: The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich. The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with the; otherwise, the prophet is just giving his opinion - speaking as a man. The rich may feel they have no need to take counsel of a lowly prophet.”
V. God gives Nephi the sealing power.
A. After this episode some believed Nephi, most ignored him. Nephi prays.
1. Read Helaman 10:3-11. He is given the sealing powers.
B. He asks God to send a famine instead of destruction through war.
1. Read Helaman 11:4
2. The people humble themselves and repent. Read Helaman 11:7. God lifted the famine and they became prosperous again.
3. Just a few years later the Gadianton Robbers rise to power again. Read Helaman 11:36.
VI. Conclusion. Mormon’s Commentary on the Pride Cycle.
A. Read Helaman 12:1-6
B. Gordon B. Hinckley said: “No other written testament so clearly illustrates the fact that when men and nations walk in the fear of God and in obedience to his commandments, they prosper and grow, but when they disregard him and his word, there comes a decay that, unless arrested by righteousness, leads to impotence and death.”
C. What stage of the Pride Cycle are we on as individuals, as a church and as a nation?
“How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?”
I. Introduction
A. The Pride Cycle
Righteousness and Prosperity===>Pride and Wickedness====>Destruction and Suffering====>Humility and Repentance===>Righteousness and Prosperity ext, ext.
1. This is the cycle the Nephites go through over and over again in the Book of Mormon. We will be talking about this today.
B. Today we will be continuing in the Book of Helaman. These are the last few decades before the birth of Christ. We will se the Nephites growing in pride and wickedness. We will see the Gadianton Robbers gaining more and more power among the Nephites. We will also see the Lamanites becoming more righteous than the Nephites and we will be able to contrast the two groups. We will see how the Lamanites dealt with the Gadianton Robbers compared to how the Nephites dealt with them.
II. The Lamanite become more righteous than the Nephites.
A. Read Helaman 6:1-2
1. The Lamanites, who just a few years ago were ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ and were at constant war with the Nephites are now more righteous than the Nephites.
2. Is there something similar happening today? The center of Christianity for at least the last Millennium and a half has been the Western World - Europe and the Americas. But now Europe (and to some degree the US and Canada) have become so secular that it is almost impossible to recognize them as Christian Nations. Pope Benedict has lamented this secularization, noting that the Catholic Church has more in common with the Islamic World, as fare as values go, than it does with secular Europe, although the population of Europe is largely “Christian.”
3. Where is the Mormon Church and Christianity in general growing most rapidly today? Africa, Latin America, parts of South East Asia - the Third World . I see parallels here with the Nephites and the Lamanites.
4. In one of Christianity’s largest denominations today a majority of it’s members in Europe and the U.S. would like to ignore some of the moral laws found in the Bible because they no longer fit with their “enlightened” mind set. It is their members from Africa, the Carribean and Latin America that have actually insisted that they maintain some semblance of Biblical Christian morality. I would argue that were it not for these Christians in Third World countries sanding up to their more sophisticated, western counterparts their particular brand of Christianity may well have become completely unrecognizable as such.
B. The Lamanites become missionaries to the Nephites.
1. Read Helaman 6:3-6.
a. How do you thing the more prideful of the Nephites felt about these lamanites coming to teach them? I suspect with bigotry and disdain.
2. We also read that there was peace in all the land and that both the Lamanites and the Nephites traveled freely between their lands. We learn that with this free trade both groups became rich. We will see that apparently the Lamanites handled this prosperity better than the Nephites.
III. The Nephites become proud and wicked.
A. Read Helaman 6:17-18. Notice that at first the Gadianton robbers were stronger among the Lamanites.
B. Read Helaman 6:20-21.
1. How did the Lamanites deal with the Gadianton Robbers? How did this contrast with how the Nephites dealt with them?
2. Read Helaman 6:37-38
3. In what ways are we, as a society, guilty of “building up” the modern equivalents of the Gadianton Robbers?
i. Voting for our own self interest instead of what is best for the country.
ii. The entertainment industry. Are we supporting the production of filth by the type of entertainment we chose. Every time we go to a movie, watch a television program, buy and album or download a song that is of questionable moral value we are voting with our money for them to make more just like it.
iii. Who do we admire as a society? Who do we want to read about in People Magazine? Are the people we admire and “build up” worthy of our praise?
IV. Show Video for Lesson 34.
A. President Ezra Taft Benson said: The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich. The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with the; otherwise, the prophet is just giving his opinion - speaking as a man. The rich may feel they have no need to take counsel of a lowly prophet.”
V. God gives Nephi the sealing power.
A. After this episode some believed Nephi, most ignored him. Nephi prays.
1. Read Helaman 10:3-11. He is given the sealing powers.
B. He asks God to send a famine instead of destruction through war.
1. Read Helaman 11:4
2. The people humble themselves and repent. Read Helaman 11:7. God lifted the famine and they became prosperous again.
3. Just a few years later the Gadianton Robbers rise to power again. Read Helaman 11:36.
VI. Conclusion. Mormon’s Commentary on the Pride Cycle.
A. Read Helaman 12:1-6
B. Gordon B. Hinckley said: “No other written testament so clearly illustrates the fact that when men and nations walk in the fear of God and in obedience to his commandments, they prosper and grow, but when they disregard him and his word, there comes a decay that, unless arrested by righteousness, leads to impotence and death.”
C. What stage of the Pride Cycle are we on as individuals, as a church and as a nation?
Books I Can Remember I've Read Update
The Great Angel - A study of Israel’s Second God by a Methodist Old Testament scholar from England named Margaret Barker will be of interest to those interested in the Mormon concept of God. In this Book Barker presents detailed evidence that early Israel was not as monotheistic as we suppose today and that early Christians identified Jesus with Yahweh, the son of Elyon (the High God). It also challenges the “higher critisism” idea that the deification of Jesus came from Hellenistic, pagan converts to Christianity. In reading this book I was surprised by how consistent early Christian beliefs about the Godhead were with LDS doctrine. You can visit Barker's website at Margaret Barker Biblical Scholar Some articles about the book are here, here and here. Or you can read the whole book on line if you like at the title link above.
I also finished The House of the Seven Gables this month. It was good. I guessed the ending
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Books I Can Remember that I’ve Read (In no particular order)
I'm only counting text books if I read the entire thing.
I'm counting books that I read more than half of but stopped because I couldn't stomach it (Lolita) or hated (Moby Dick). I'm not counting books that are mostly pictures (The Cat in the Hat) although they are still some of my favorite books. I'm counting books twice if I read them in English and in Spanish. Also, I have not counted all the Bathroom Readers I've read, mostly because I'm ashamed of how much time I spend on the pot. I've read almost all of them however.
***** - I really liked
**** - I liked
*** - OK
** - I didn’t like
* - It sucked.
1. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce**
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen****
4. Walden - Henry David Thoreau**
5. Claudius the God - Robert Graves*****
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez***
7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess****
8. As I Lay Dying -William Faulkner***
9. Animal Farm - George Orwell****
10. The Book of Mormon - Written by the Hand of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith Jr.*****
11. The Holy Bible - King James Version*****
12. The Doctrine and Covenants - Joseph Smith, others****
13. The Pearl of Great Price - Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith****
14. Travels with Charley (In Search of America) - John Steinbeck****
15. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket***
16. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket***
17. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket***
18. Les Liaisons Dagereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos****
19. Tom Sawyer Abroad - Samuel Clemens***
20. The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey****
21. The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell***
22. The Faith of a Scientist - Henry Eyring****
23. The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell****
24. What are People For - Wendell Berry***
25. The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball****
26. The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino***
27. 1984 - George Orwell****
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Samuel Clemens*****
29. On the Road - Jack Keroac****
30. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens****
31. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller****
32. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra****
33. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe***
34. Deliverance - James Dickey****
35. The Best of Edward Abbey***
36. Rosaura a las Diez - Marco Denevi****
37. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow****
38. Tom Sawyer Detective - Samuel Clemens***
39. The Iliad -Homer****
40. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein*****
41. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
42. The Double - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
43. The Trial -Franz Kafka***
44. Moby Dick - Herman Melville**
45. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison***
46. Principles of Surgery Companion Handbook - Schartz, Shires, Spencer*
47. Standing for Something - Gordon B. Hinckley***
48. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis*****
49. The Sound and the Fury -William Faulkner**
50. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck****
51. Slaughter House-Five - Kurt Vonnegut****
52. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
53. Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry**
54. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Samuel Clemens*****
55. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler*****
56. The Call of the Wild - Jack London****
57. Kim - Rudyard Kipling***
58. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens****
59. Howards End - E.M. Forster****
60. Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence***
61. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad***
62. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig****
63. The Stranger - Albus Camus****
64. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf***
65. The Lonely Men - Louis L’Amour***
66. Sacred Clowns - Tony Hillerman***
67. The Covenant - James A. Michener****
68. Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card****
69. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams****
70. The Quick and the Dead - Louis L’Amour***
71. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*****
72. The Gift of the Jews - Thomas Cahill****
73. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis****
74. Iberia - James A Michener**
75. Ender’s Game -Orson Scott Card*****
76. People of Darkness - Tony Hillerman****
77. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis****
78. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis****
79. Memory of Earth - Orson Scott Card***
80. The Odyssey - Homer****
81. The Source - James A. Michener*****
82. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger****
83. The Story of England - Christopher Hibbert****
84. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway****
85. The Changed Man - Orson Scott Card****
86. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl****
87. El Milagro del Perdon -Spencer W. Kimball****
88. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley****
89. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder - LeGrand Richards****
90. A Treasury of Classical Mythology - A.R. Hope Moncrieff****
91. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien****
92. Pure Drivel - Steve Martin***
93. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens****
94. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens****
95. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling*****
96. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling*****
97. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -J.K. Rowling*****
98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -J.K. Rowling*****
99. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling*****
100. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling*****
101. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling*****
102. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis*****
103. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis*****
104. Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis****
105. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis*****
106. The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis*****
107. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis****
108. That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis****
109. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway***
110. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov**
111. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley****
112. I Claudius - Robert Graves*****
113. Anthem - Ann Rand***
114. Lord of the Flies - William Golding****
115. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner***
116. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad***
117. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein****
118. A Room With a View - E.M. Forster****
119. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad***
120. Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein****
121. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesley****
122. Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein****
123. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum****
124. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card****
125. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card****
126. Songmaster - Orson Scott Card**
127. Saints - Orson Scott Card****
128. Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card****
129. Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin***
130. The Great Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
131. Me and My Little Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
132. Jesus the Christ - James Talmage*****
133. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas****
134. Dracula - Bram Stoker****
135. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown***
136. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown****
137. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire****
138. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl**
139. How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill***
140. Fundamentals of Family Medicine - Robert B. Taylor***
141. Medical Physiology - Rodney A Rhoades and George A Tanner**
142. D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aurlaire****
143. El Libro De Mormon - Un Relato Escrito por la Mano de Mormon. Traducido de las Planchas por Jose Smith, Hijo*****
144. Generation X - Douglas Coupland***
145. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe****
146. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice****
147. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde****
148. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen****
149. History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchhill****
150. A Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking - Barbara Bates**
151. Complete History of the World - Richard Overy****
152. The American Religion - Harold Bloom***
153. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck****
154. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote****
155. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo****
156. Religion in the New World - Richard E. Wentz***
157. The Moon Is Down - John Steinbeck****
158. The Pearl - John Steinbeck****
159. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck****
160. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carré****
161. The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter*****
162. The Chosen - Chaim Potok****
163. The Work and the Glory, Pilar of Fire - Gerald N. Lund*****
164. The Work and the Glory, Like a Fire if Burning - Gerald N. Lund*****
165. The Work and the Glory, Truth will Prevail - Gerald N. Lund*****
166. The Work and the Glory, Thy Gold Refine - Gerald N. Lund*****
167. The Work and the Glory, A Season of Joy - Gerald N. Lund*****
168. Stepen King On Writing, A memoir of the Craft - Stephen King***
169. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris****
170. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, The Evidence for Ancient Origins - Edited by Noel B. Reynolds. **** (March '08)
171. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko****
172. Naked Ape : A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal - Desmond Morris****
173. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes****
174. Mormons and Masons, Setting the Record Straight - Gilbert W. Scharffs* (March '08)
175. San Manuel Bueno, mártir - Miguel de Unamuno****
176. Critiquing the Critics of Joseph Smith - Hartt Wixom**** (March '08)
177. Mormon Country - Wallace Stegner****
178. The House of God - Samuel Shem**
179. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler****(March '08)
180. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel**** (April '08)
181. Religions of the World - A Latter-day Saint View - Spencer J. Palmer, Rober R. Keller, Dong Sull Choi, James A. Toronto****
182. Julius Caesar - William Shakespear****
183. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare****
184. Hamlet - William Shakespeare****
185. Macbeth - William Shakespeare****
186. One Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions - Stephen W. Gibson*** (May '08)
187. Jay's Journal - Beatrice Sparks**
188. Blueprints in Obstetrics and Gynecology - Tamara L. Callahan, Aaron B Caughey and Linda J Heffner***
189. Clinical Microbiology Made Rediculously Simple - Mark Galdwin and Bill Trattler****
190. Prescription for the Boards USMLE Step 2 - Radhika Breaden, Charyl Denenberg, Kate Feibusch, Stephen Gomperts***
191. The Instant Exam Review for the USMLE Step 3 - Joel s. Goldberg**
192. Appleton & Lang's Review of Pediatrics - Martin I. Lorin**
193. Pathology - Arthur S. Schneider and Philip A Szanto**
194. Internal Medicine - Edward D. Frohlich**
195. The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien****
196. The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien****
198. The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Juanita Brooks****
198. A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman****
199. Naked Pictures of Famous People - Jon Stewart**
200. La Casa de Bernarda Alba - Federico García Lorca***
201. Why Things Are and Why Things Aren't - Joel Achenbach****
202. Why Things Are - Joel Achenbach****
203. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? And Other Imponderables - David Feldman****
204. First Aid for the Family Medicine Boards - Tao Le, Christine Dehlendorf, Michael Mendoza, and Cynthria Ohata*** (May '08)
205. Why Don't Cat's Like to Swim - David Feldman****
206. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer**** (June '08)
207. Encounters with the Archdruid - John McPhee***
208. Desert Solitaire - Edward Abby***
209. Family Medicine Board Review - Robert L. Bratton, MD*** (July '08)
210. View of the Hebrews - Ethan Smith** (August '08)
211. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle****
212. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens****
213. The Book of Mormon and DNA Resarch - Edited by Daniel C. Petersen**** (Sept '08)
214. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis**** (Sept '08)
215. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson**** (Sept '08)
216. The Great Angel - A Study of Israel's Second God - Margaret Barker**** (Sept '08)
217. The House of the Seven Gables - Nathanel Hawthorn**** (Sept,08)
I also finished The House of the Seven Gables this month. It was good. I guessed the ending
===========================================================
Books I Can Remember that I’ve Read (In no particular order)
I'm only counting text books if I read the entire thing.
I'm counting books that I read more than half of but stopped because I couldn't stomach it (Lolita) or hated (Moby Dick). I'm not counting books that are mostly pictures (The Cat in the Hat) although they are still some of my favorite books. I'm counting books twice if I read them in English and in Spanish. Also, I have not counted all the Bathroom Readers I've read, mostly because I'm ashamed of how much time I spend on the pot. I've read almost all of them however.
***** - I really liked
**** - I liked
*** - OK
** - I didn’t like
* - It sucked.
1. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce**
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen****
4. Walden - Henry David Thoreau**
5. Claudius the God - Robert Graves*****
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez***
7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess****
8. As I Lay Dying -William Faulkner***
9. Animal Farm - George Orwell****
10. The Book of Mormon - Written by the Hand of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith Jr.*****
11. The Holy Bible - King James Version*****
12. The Doctrine and Covenants - Joseph Smith, others****
13. The Pearl of Great Price - Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith****
14. Travels with Charley (In Search of America) - John Steinbeck****
15. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket***
16. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket***
17. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket***
18. Les Liaisons Dagereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos****
19. Tom Sawyer Abroad - Samuel Clemens***
20. The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey****
21. The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell***
22. The Faith of a Scientist - Henry Eyring****
23. The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell****
24. What are People For - Wendell Berry***
25. The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball****
26. The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino***
27. 1984 - George Orwell****
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Samuel Clemens*****
29. On the Road - Jack Keroac****
30. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens****
31. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller****
32. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra****
33. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe***
34. Deliverance - James Dickey****
35. The Best of Edward Abbey***
36. Rosaura a las Diez - Marco Denevi****
37. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow****
38. Tom Sawyer Detective - Samuel Clemens***
39. The Iliad -Homer****
40. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein*****
41. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
42. The Double - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
43. The Trial -Franz Kafka***
44. Moby Dick - Herman Melville**
45. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison***
46. Principles of Surgery Companion Handbook - Schartz, Shires, Spencer*
47. Standing for Something - Gordon B. Hinckley***
48. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis*****
49. The Sound and the Fury -William Faulkner**
50. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck****
51. Slaughter House-Five - Kurt Vonnegut****
52. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
53. Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry**
54. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Samuel Clemens*****
55. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler*****
56. The Call of the Wild - Jack London****
57. Kim - Rudyard Kipling***
58. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens****
59. Howards End - E.M. Forster****
60. Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence***
61. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad***
62. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig****
63. The Stranger - Albus Camus****
64. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf***
65. The Lonely Men - Louis L’Amour***
66. Sacred Clowns - Tony Hillerman***
67. The Covenant - James A. Michener****
68. Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card****
69. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams****
70. The Quick and the Dead - Louis L’Amour***
71. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*****
72. The Gift of the Jews - Thomas Cahill****
73. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis****
74. Iberia - James A Michener**
75. Ender’s Game -Orson Scott Card*****
76. People of Darkness - Tony Hillerman****
77. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis****
78. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis****
79. Memory of Earth - Orson Scott Card***
80. The Odyssey - Homer****
81. The Source - James A. Michener*****
82. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger****
83. The Story of England - Christopher Hibbert****
84. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway****
85. The Changed Man - Orson Scott Card****
86. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl****
87. El Milagro del Perdon -Spencer W. Kimball****
88. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley****
89. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder - LeGrand Richards****
90. A Treasury of Classical Mythology - A.R. Hope Moncrieff****
91. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien****
92. Pure Drivel - Steve Martin***
93. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens****
94. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens****
95. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling*****
96. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling*****
97. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -J.K. Rowling*****
98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -J.K. Rowling*****
99. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling*****
100. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling*****
101. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling*****
102. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis*****
103. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis*****
104. Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis****
105. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis*****
106. The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis*****
107. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis****
108. That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis****
109. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway***
110. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov**
111. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley****
112. I Claudius - Robert Graves*****
113. Anthem - Ann Rand***
114. Lord of the Flies - William Golding****
115. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner***
116. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad***
117. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein****
118. A Room With a View - E.M. Forster****
119. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad***
120. Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein****
121. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesley****
122. Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein****
123. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum****
124. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card****
125. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card****
126. Songmaster - Orson Scott Card**
127. Saints - Orson Scott Card****
128. Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card****
129. Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin***
130. The Great Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
131. Me and My Little Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
132. Jesus the Christ - James Talmage*****
133. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas****
134. Dracula - Bram Stoker****
135. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown***
136. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown****
137. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire****
138. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl**
139. How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill***
140. Fundamentals of Family Medicine - Robert B. Taylor***
141. Medical Physiology - Rodney A Rhoades and George A Tanner**
142. D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aurlaire****
143. El Libro De Mormon - Un Relato Escrito por la Mano de Mormon. Traducido de las Planchas por Jose Smith, Hijo*****
144. Generation X - Douglas Coupland***
145. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe****
146. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice****
147. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde****
148. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen****
149. History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchhill****
150. A Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking - Barbara Bates**
151. Complete History of the World - Richard Overy****
152. The American Religion - Harold Bloom***
153. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck****
154. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote****
155. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo****
156. Religion in the New World - Richard E. Wentz***
157. The Moon Is Down - John Steinbeck****
158. The Pearl - John Steinbeck****
159. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck****
160. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carré****
161. The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter*****
162. The Chosen - Chaim Potok****
163. The Work and the Glory, Pilar of Fire - Gerald N. Lund*****
164. The Work and the Glory, Like a Fire if Burning - Gerald N. Lund*****
165. The Work and the Glory, Truth will Prevail - Gerald N. Lund*****
166. The Work and the Glory, Thy Gold Refine - Gerald N. Lund*****
167. The Work and the Glory, A Season of Joy - Gerald N. Lund*****
168. Stepen King On Writing, A memoir of the Craft - Stephen King***
169. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris****
170. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, The Evidence for Ancient Origins - Edited by Noel B. Reynolds. **** (March '08)
171. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko****
172. Naked Ape : A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal - Desmond Morris****
173. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes****
174. Mormons and Masons, Setting the Record Straight - Gilbert W. Scharffs* (March '08)
175. San Manuel Bueno, mártir - Miguel de Unamuno****
176. Critiquing the Critics of Joseph Smith - Hartt Wixom**** (March '08)
177. Mormon Country - Wallace Stegner****
178. The House of God - Samuel Shem**
179. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler****(March '08)
180. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel**** (April '08)
181. Religions of the World - A Latter-day Saint View - Spencer J. Palmer, Rober R. Keller, Dong Sull Choi, James A. Toronto****
182. Julius Caesar - William Shakespear****
183. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare****
184. Hamlet - William Shakespeare****
185. Macbeth - William Shakespeare****
186. One Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions - Stephen W. Gibson*** (May '08)
187. Jay's Journal - Beatrice Sparks**
188. Blueprints in Obstetrics and Gynecology - Tamara L. Callahan, Aaron B Caughey and Linda J Heffner***
189. Clinical Microbiology Made Rediculously Simple - Mark Galdwin and Bill Trattler****
190. Prescription for the Boards USMLE Step 2 - Radhika Breaden, Charyl Denenberg, Kate Feibusch, Stephen Gomperts***
191. The Instant Exam Review for the USMLE Step 3 - Joel s. Goldberg**
192. Appleton & Lang's Review of Pediatrics - Martin I. Lorin**
193. Pathology - Arthur S. Schneider and Philip A Szanto**
194. Internal Medicine - Edward D. Frohlich**
195. The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien****
196. The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien****
198. The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Juanita Brooks****
198. A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman****
199. Naked Pictures of Famous People - Jon Stewart**
200. La Casa de Bernarda Alba - Federico García Lorca***
201. Why Things Are and Why Things Aren't - Joel Achenbach****
202. Why Things Are - Joel Achenbach****
203. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? And Other Imponderables - David Feldman****
204. First Aid for the Family Medicine Boards - Tao Le, Christine Dehlendorf, Michael Mendoza, and Cynthria Ohata*** (May '08)
205. Why Don't Cat's Like to Swim - David Feldman****
206. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer**** (June '08)
207. Encounters with the Archdruid - John McPhee***
208. Desert Solitaire - Edward Abby***
209. Family Medicine Board Review - Robert L. Bratton, MD*** (July '08)
210. View of the Hebrews - Ethan Smith** (August '08)
211. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle****
212. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens****
213. The Book of Mormon and DNA Resarch - Edited by Daniel C. Petersen**** (Sept '08)
214. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis**** (Sept '08)
215. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson**** (Sept '08)
216. The Great Angel - A Study of Israel's Second God - Margaret Barker**** (Sept '08)
217. The House of the Seven Gables - Nathanel Hawthorn**** (Sept,08)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Book of Mormon Lesson 33
Book of Mormon Lesson 33
“A Sure Foundation”
I. Introduction
A. Before we start the Book of Helaman I just wanted to say a few more words about Captain Moroni. The Book of Alma says that “if all men had been and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have ben shaken for ever, yea the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” No matter how much we study the scriptures and how deep into doctrine we immerse ourselves, the message we ultimately get often comes down to “who do I want to be like?” When we read the scriptures I ask my daughter, “who do you want to be like, Nephi or Laman?....Abinidi or King Noah?” I have a friend who was told by his mother the whole time he was growing up, “everything you have seen your Grandpa Allred (her father) do, you do the opposite and you’ll be OK.” (She’d had a hard childhood.) How do you want to be described when you’re gone? Like Captain Moroni or Grandpa Allred?
B. The Book of Helaman.
1. We are starting the Book of Helaman today. It starts out with Helaman, the son of Helaman, the son of Alma, the son of Alma as prophet.
a. We once again see how important Abinidi’s mission the people of King Noah was (although it didn’t turn out to well for him.) Already 4 generations of leaders of leaders of the church have come from his preaching.
C. Today we will be introduced to Kishkuman and Gadianton. We will hopefully learn how to avoid secret combinations.
II. Succession problem.
A. Pahoran died (he is the one to whom Moroni sent the nasty letter). He had 3 sons that contended for the judgement seat. (We see that although this is described as a democracy, the people still acted as though it were a monarchy - the got to choose from one of Pahoran’s sons).
1. Notice that Pahoran had one of those families where they named all their kids with the same first letter - his sons were Pahoran, Paanchi and Pacumeni. (His other sons were named Pedro and Paco.)
2. Pahoran was chosen chief judge. Pacumeni gave up his claim to the judgement seat.
3. But Paanchi was a sore loser. He rose up in rebellion against his brother and was arrested and executed.
4. We see that this seemingly minor succession crisis will eventually lead to the downfall of the whole Nephite Nation.
B. Followers of Paanchi were angry at their inability to gain power.
1. They had an assassin named Kishkuman dispatched to the judgement seat and he killed Pahoran. Kishkuman was pursued but not caught.
2. He returned to his fellow conspirators and they swore an oath of silence. Read Helaman 1:11.
a. Does it seem strange that such a wicked group would swear by their God?
b. Many evil groups have religion at their pretext.
i. The word Assassin comes from a religious group who killed for political and religious gain in the medieval Islamic world.
ii. Al-Qaeda
iii. Burning saints in the Mafia.
c. What is the significance of this oath? It is the beginning of the Gadianton Robbers.
d. When one person does something evil it does not always make a big impact. But when he gets protection from others it can make societies fall.
3. When I had been on my mission in South Texas for about a year I was zone leader in Brownsville, Tx. We went to a mission conference and as part of the program each zone leader got up and reported their zone’s baptisms from the previous month. I had a greeny companion and we had worked very hard and had baptized a family of 3 that month. But no one else in my zone had baptisms. I got up and reports our success, which was not stellar, but not bad. Then the other zone leaders got up and reported 20-30 baptisms. That was very unusual for our mission. If a zone had 7 that was a usually a good month. I wondered what was going on. After the conference I noticed several of the other zone leaders hanging around together with their heads close together, talking to each other but not to me. Some of them had been my companions and friends before and I felt a little left out. I wondered what they were doing to have such great success. A few months later I found out. There was a popular book for missionaries in the 1980s, written by a prominent LDS leader. It advocated a “big net” strategy of missionary work - get them all in then sort them out. It was interpreted by some as justifications of “day baptism” - meeting people, teaching them the basics of the gospel, and then taking them down to any body of water and baptizing them, even before they had been to church. That is what these guys in the other zones were doing. When the local leaders started complaining that they had never met the people that were now on their ward lists, the elders started destroying the pink slips that went to the wards so they never heard about them. If it had only been one missionary companionship that was doing this the damage would have been small. But there were 15-20 missionaries conspiring to do this and keeping it secret. Before long, because they had the protection of secrecy, they began to break other mission rules. They decided to take a road trip to Monterey, Mexico with some “investigators” who happened to be 18-19 year old girls. Because they had limited miles on their mission cars they disconnected the odometers (breaking a federal law). Then, since they already had unlimited miles and the protection of secrecy they started driving all around Texas and Mexico and getting together as often as they liked. They finally got together at a club at South Padre Island with some “investigators.” They started drinking and hooking up with girls and finally several of them wee sent home dishonorably for sexual immorality. It took our mission several years to recover from this disgrace. We can see from this example how easy it can be to enter into secret combinations and how dangerous and damaging they can be.
III. The Lamanites come against the Nephites.
A. The Lamanites take advantage of the unrest among the Nephites.
1. The king of the Lamanites was Tubuloth - son of Ammoron and Nephew of Amaliki.
2. The Lamanite Army was lead by Coriantumr, another Nephite dissenter.
3. Joseph Smith said: the Messiah’s kingdom on earth is of the kind of government, that there has always been numerous apostates.....Strange as it may appear at first thought, yet it is no less strange than true, that notwithstanding all the professed determination to live godly, apostates after turning from the faith of Christ, unless they have speedily repented, have sooner or later fallen into the snares of the wicked one, and have been left destitute of the Spirit of God, to manifest their wickedness in the eyes of multitudes. From the apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions....When once that light which is in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.”
B. The Nephites were only fortified in the perimeters of the land. Once the Lamanites broke through these fortifications it was as easy for them to conquer Zarahemla as it was for Hitler to march into Paris.
1. But once they did this they were surrounded and could not retreat. So they finally surrendered.
IV. Helaman becomes chief judge.
A. Helaman became chief judge. Things have come full circle. Remember that his grandfather Alma gave up the judgement seat to be full time leader of the church and missionary. Now Helaman has become chief judge and leader of the church - presumably because there was no one else to do the job.
B. Read Helaman 2:3-5
1. We are introduced to Gadianton
2. Helaman had his own intelligence service and one of his spies kills Kishkuman and alerts Helaman to the plan to assassinate him.
3. Gadianton realizes that Kishkuman is not coming back and takes his band and flees.
4. Read Helaman 2:12-14.
a. How did the Gadianton Robbers lead to the end of the Nephites?
b. Are there groups like this today?
5. When I was in college I was a teaching assistant for a research psychology class. My professor warned us to pay close attention to the frat boys because they had very well organized cheating networks. They had files at their frat houses of papers they could copy for different classes. One of my friends who was in a fraternity told me he and a friend took a class together and just took turns studying for the tests and the other would just copy the others. He also told me how one of his frat buddies payed him $500 to take and entire Spanish class for him. This isn’t killing or stealing, but it is in the same spirit as the Gadianton Robbers.
V. Emigration
A. Chapter 3 of Helaman talks about the Nephite’s expanding and migrating. Until now they were in a very small area. It is from this chapter that we get some of the hints to Book of Mormon geography, for better or for worse.
VI. Pride enters the Church.
A. Read Helaman 3:34.
1. Is pride a problem in the church today?
2. Should church membership ever be a status symbol?
a. Recent statistics came out that showed members of the LDS church were right in the middle among religious groups in education and wealth. We are solidly middle class. (The Marriotts and Romneys didn’t pull us up enough.) That bothered me for a while. I thought as a group we would be more educated and affluent. I had to check myself and realize that this was my own pride. I was worried about how my affiliation with the church affected my social standing. We should be in the church only to become better people, to serve others and for our salvation - no for what it does for us socially.
3. Hugh Nibley said: “The worse offenders in those days were ‘those who professed to belong to the church of God. And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, of their oppression of the poor, withholding their substance from the hungry,’ and so on that ‘in the space of not many years’ the Nephites were reduced to a sorry, materialistic people, hopelessly outnumbered by their enemies but with no inclination whatsoever to call upon God. ‘The voice of the people...chose evil,...therefore they were ripened for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted’”
B. How did the humble members react to this? Read Helaman 3:35.
1. There are many opportunities to be offended in the church. It is important that we not allow ourselves to be offended and leave the church to kick against the pricks.
VII. Nephi and Lehi’s missionary work
A. Helaman dies and Nephi becomes chief judge. (5th generation from Alma the Elder).
B. There were more dissensions and wars with the Lamanites.
C. The Lamanites conquer Zarahemla.
1. Where were the Nephites conquered? Read Helaman 4:11-13.
3. Elder Sterling W. Sill said: “in 1835 a French visitor, by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville, made a detailed study of our national operations. Later he wrote in his book: ‘America is great because she is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.’ (That was the last nice thing any Frenchman ever said about America) This is a divine law that applies to all nations and to all individuals. But it applies particularly to us, because our extraordinary power and our extraordinary mission give us extraordinary responsibilities.
VIII. Helaman Chapter 5.
A. Nephi gives up the judgement seat to be a missionary - just like his great-grandfather. He sets out with his brother Lehi.
B. Read Helaman 5:2
C. Nephi and Lehi remember the words of their father Helaman
1. Read Helaman 5:9
2. Read Helaman 5:12
3. On what foundation do we build our lives? Career? Education? The pursuit of wealth? The only “sure foundation” is Christ.
D. Nephi and Lehi have success teaching the Lamanites. This is the first time that the righteousness of the Lamanites exceeds that of the Nephites.
IX. Conclusion.
A. I hope today we have learned how to recognize and avoid secret combinations, apostasy and pride. I testify that it is only through building our lives around Christ that we can have peace in this world and salvation in the life to come. Amen.
“A Sure Foundation”
I. Introduction
A. Before we start the Book of Helaman I just wanted to say a few more words about Captain Moroni. The Book of Alma says that “if all men had been and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have ben shaken for ever, yea the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” No matter how much we study the scriptures and how deep into doctrine we immerse ourselves, the message we ultimately get often comes down to “who do I want to be like?” When we read the scriptures I ask my daughter, “who do you want to be like, Nephi or Laman?....Abinidi or King Noah?” I have a friend who was told by his mother the whole time he was growing up, “everything you have seen your Grandpa Allred (her father) do, you do the opposite and you’ll be OK.” (She’d had a hard childhood.) How do you want to be described when you’re gone? Like Captain Moroni or Grandpa Allred?
B. The Book of Helaman.
1. We are starting the Book of Helaman today. It starts out with Helaman, the son of Helaman, the son of Alma, the son of Alma as prophet.
a. We once again see how important Abinidi’s mission the people of King Noah was (although it didn’t turn out to well for him.) Already 4 generations of leaders of leaders of the church have come from his preaching.
C. Today we will be introduced to Kishkuman and Gadianton. We will hopefully learn how to avoid secret combinations.
II. Succession problem.
A. Pahoran died (he is the one to whom Moroni sent the nasty letter). He had 3 sons that contended for the judgement seat. (We see that although this is described as a democracy, the people still acted as though it were a monarchy - the got to choose from one of Pahoran’s sons).
1. Notice that Pahoran had one of those families where they named all their kids with the same first letter - his sons were Pahoran, Paanchi and Pacumeni. (His other sons were named Pedro and Paco.)
2. Pahoran was chosen chief judge. Pacumeni gave up his claim to the judgement seat.
3. But Paanchi was a sore loser. He rose up in rebellion against his brother and was arrested and executed.
4. We see that this seemingly minor succession crisis will eventually lead to the downfall of the whole Nephite Nation.
B. Followers of Paanchi were angry at their inability to gain power.
1. They had an assassin named Kishkuman dispatched to the judgement seat and he killed Pahoran. Kishkuman was pursued but not caught.
2. He returned to his fellow conspirators and they swore an oath of silence. Read Helaman 1:11.
a. Does it seem strange that such a wicked group would swear by their God?
b. Many evil groups have religion at their pretext.
i. The word Assassin comes from a religious group who killed for political and religious gain in the medieval Islamic world.
ii. Al-Qaeda
iii. Burning saints in the Mafia.
c. What is the significance of this oath? It is the beginning of the Gadianton Robbers.
d. When one person does something evil it does not always make a big impact. But when he gets protection from others it can make societies fall.
3. When I had been on my mission in South Texas for about a year I was zone leader in Brownsville, Tx. We went to a mission conference and as part of the program each zone leader got up and reported their zone’s baptisms from the previous month. I had a greeny companion and we had worked very hard and had baptized a family of 3 that month. But no one else in my zone had baptisms. I got up and reports our success, which was not stellar, but not bad. Then the other zone leaders got up and reported 20-30 baptisms. That was very unusual for our mission. If a zone had 7 that was a usually a good month. I wondered what was going on. After the conference I noticed several of the other zone leaders hanging around together with their heads close together, talking to each other but not to me. Some of them had been my companions and friends before and I felt a little left out. I wondered what they were doing to have such great success. A few months later I found out. There was a popular book for missionaries in the 1980s, written by a prominent LDS leader. It advocated a “big net” strategy of missionary work - get them all in then sort them out. It was interpreted by some as justifications of “day baptism” - meeting people, teaching them the basics of the gospel, and then taking them down to any body of water and baptizing them, even before they had been to church. That is what these guys in the other zones were doing. When the local leaders started complaining that they had never met the people that were now on their ward lists, the elders started destroying the pink slips that went to the wards so they never heard about them. If it had only been one missionary companionship that was doing this the damage would have been small. But there were 15-20 missionaries conspiring to do this and keeping it secret. Before long, because they had the protection of secrecy, they began to break other mission rules. They decided to take a road trip to Monterey, Mexico with some “investigators” who happened to be 18-19 year old girls. Because they had limited miles on their mission cars they disconnected the odometers (breaking a federal law). Then, since they already had unlimited miles and the protection of secrecy they started driving all around Texas and Mexico and getting together as often as they liked. They finally got together at a club at South Padre Island with some “investigators.” They started drinking and hooking up with girls and finally several of them wee sent home dishonorably for sexual immorality. It took our mission several years to recover from this disgrace. We can see from this example how easy it can be to enter into secret combinations and how dangerous and damaging they can be.
III. The Lamanites come against the Nephites.
A. The Lamanites take advantage of the unrest among the Nephites.
1. The king of the Lamanites was Tubuloth - son of Ammoron and Nephew of Amaliki.
2. The Lamanite Army was lead by Coriantumr, another Nephite dissenter.
3. Joseph Smith said: the Messiah’s kingdom on earth is of the kind of government, that there has always been numerous apostates.....Strange as it may appear at first thought, yet it is no less strange than true, that notwithstanding all the professed determination to live godly, apostates after turning from the faith of Christ, unless they have speedily repented, have sooner or later fallen into the snares of the wicked one, and have been left destitute of the Spirit of God, to manifest their wickedness in the eyes of multitudes. From the apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions....When once that light which is in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.”
B. The Nephites were only fortified in the perimeters of the land. Once the Lamanites broke through these fortifications it was as easy for them to conquer Zarahemla as it was for Hitler to march into Paris.
1. But once they did this they were surrounded and could not retreat. So they finally surrendered.
IV. Helaman becomes chief judge.
A. Helaman became chief judge. Things have come full circle. Remember that his grandfather Alma gave up the judgement seat to be full time leader of the church and missionary. Now Helaman has become chief judge and leader of the church - presumably because there was no one else to do the job.
B. Read Helaman 2:3-5
1. We are introduced to Gadianton
2. Helaman had his own intelligence service and one of his spies kills Kishkuman and alerts Helaman to the plan to assassinate him.
3. Gadianton realizes that Kishkuman is not coming back and takes his band and flees.
4. Read Helaman 2:12-14.
a. How did the Gadianton Robbers lead to the end of the Nephites?
b. Are there groups like this today?
5. When I was in college I was a teaching assistant for a research psychology class. My professor warned us to pay close attention to the frat boys because they had very well organized cheating networks. They had files at their frat houses of papers they could copy for different classes. One of my friends who was in a fraternity told me he and a friend took a class together and just took turns studying for the tests and the other would just copy the others. He also told me how one of his frat buddies payed him $500 to take and entire Spanish class for him. This isn’t killing or stealing, but it is in the same spirit as the Gadianton Robbers.
V. Emigration
A. Chapter 3 of Helaman talks about the Nephite’s expanding and migrating. Until now they were in a very small area. It is from this chapter that we get some of the hints to Book of Mormon geography, for better or for worse.
VI. Pride enters the Church.
A. Read Helaman 3:34.
1. Is pride a problem in the church today?
2. Should church membership ever be a status symbol?
a. Recent statistics came out that showed members of the LDS church were right in the middle among religious groups in education and wealth. We are solidly middle class. (The Marriotts and Romneys didn’t pull us up enough.) That bothered me for a while. I thought as a group we would be more educated and affluent. I had to check myself and realize that this was my own pride. I was worried about how my affiliation with the church affected my social standing. We should be in the church only to become better people, to serve others and for our salvation - no for what it does for us socially.
3. Hugh Nibley said: “The worse offenders in those days were ‘those who professed to belong to the church of God. And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, of their oppression of the poor, withholding their substance from the hungry,’ and so on that ‘in the space of not many years’ the Nephites were reduced to a sorry, materialistic people, hopelessly outnumbered by their enemies but with no inclination whatsoever to call upon God. ‘The voice of the people...chose evil,...therefore they were ripened for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted’”
B. How did the humble members react to this? Read Helaman 3:35.
1. There are many opportunities to be offended in the church. It is important that we not allow ourselves to be offended and leave the church to kick against the pricks.
VII. Nephi and Lehi’s missionary work
A. Helaman dies and Nephi becomes chief judge. (5th generation from Alma the Elder).
B. There were more dissensions and wars with the Lamanites.
C. The Lamanites conquer Zarahemla.
1. Where were the Nephites conquered? Read Helaman 4:11-13.
3. Elder Sterling W. Sill said: “in 1835 a French visitor, by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville, made a detailed study of our national operations. Later he wrote in his book: ‘America is great because she is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.’ (That was the last nice thing any Frenchman ever said about America) This is a divine law that applies to all nations and to all individuals. But it applies particularly to us, because our extraordinary power and our extraordinary mission give us extraordinary responsibilities.
VIII. Helaman Chapter 5.
A. Nephi gives up the judgement seat to be a missionary - just like his great-grandfather. He sets out with his brother Lehi.
B. Read Helaman 5:2
C. Nephi and Lehi remember the words of their father Helaman
1. Read Helaman 5:9
2. Read Helaman 5:12
3. On what foundation do we build our lives? Career? Education? The pursuit of wealth? The only “sure foundation” is Christ.
D. Nephi and Lehi have success teaching the Lamanites. This is the first time that the righteousness of the Lamanites exceeds that of the Nephites.
IX. Conclusion.
A. I hope today we have learned how to recognize and avoid secret combinations, apostasy and pride. I testify that it is only through building our lives around Christ that we can have peace in this world and salvation in the life to come. Amen.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Books I Can Remember I Read Update - September
Because I gave money to the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship I got a copy of the new book The Book of Mormon and DNA Research in the mail last month. In the introduction Daniel C. Peterson Quotes Hugh Nibley: “The normal way of dealing with the Book of Mormon ‘scientifically’ has been first to attribute to the Book of Mormon something it did not say, and then to refute the claim by scientific statements that have not been proven.” This book shows how the recent “DNA evidence” against the Book of Mormon does exactly this. It contains 10 essays, many by renowned geneticists and biologists. It challenges the conclusions of those who have tried to disprove the veracity of the Book of Mormon by comparing the DNA of modern Native Americans with that of modern Jews and Middle Easterners. It shows how the Book of Mormon provides no testable hypothesis for DNA research. At best, DNA evidence has disproved the Global Colonization Hypothesis, that every Native American in North and South America at the time of Columbus was a direct descendant of the groups in the Book of Mormon, a hypothesis that no serious student of the Book of Mormon has believed for years. I recommend this book to anyone who has had questions about DNA and the Book of Mormon. I also recommend the DVD DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography for anyone who is interested in speculative evidence that may actually support the Book of Mormon (although FAIR and FARMs are attacking this poor guy like sharks now).
I also read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis this month. It’s not a marriage counseling book as you would assume. It is about the divide between Good and Evil. It is a surreal allegory of the afterlife. It supposes that those who remain in “hell” do so by choice and because of pride. In true Lewis fashion it presents very difficult theological ideas in an easy to read and understand fantasy.
I also got through Treasure Island yesterday. What a fun book. I tried reading it when I was about 10 but never finished it.
I read Huckleberry Finn for the 5th time in my life last month. Reading it as an adult it’s like a completely different book because you understand Mark Twain’s sarcasm and social commentary, particularly about American race relations.
I just started The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorn yesterday. I like it so far. I’m still trying to get through The Great Angel too.
===========================================================
Books I Can Remember that I’ve Read (In no particular order)
I'm only counting text books if I read the entire thing.
I'm counting books that I read more than half of but stopped because I couldn't stomach it (Lolita) or hated (Moby Dick). I'm not counting books that are mostly pictures (The Cat in the Hat) although they are still some of my favorite books. I'm counting books twice if I read them in English and in Spanish. Also, I have not counted all the Bathroom Readers I've read, mostly because I'm ashamed of how much time I spend on the pot. I've read almost all of them however.
***** - I really liked
**** - I liked
*** - OK
** - I didn’t like
* - It sucked.
1. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce**
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen****
4. Walden - Henry David Thoreau**
5. Claudius the God - Robert Graves*****
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez***
7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess****
8. As I Lay Dying -William Faulkner***
9. Animal Farm - George Orwell****
10. The Book of Mormon - Written by the Hand of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith Jr.*****
11. The Holy Bible - King James Version*****
12. The Doctrine and Covenants - Joseph Smith, others****
13. The Pearl of Great Price - Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith****
14. Travels with Charley (In Search of America) - John Steinbeck****
15. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket***
16. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket***
17. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket***
18. Les Liaisons Dagereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos****
19. Tom Sawyer Abroad - Samuel Clemens***
20. The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey****
21. The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell***
22. The Faith of a Scientist - Henry Eyring****
23. The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell****
24. What are People For - Wendell Berry***
25. The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball****
26. The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino***
27. 1984 - George Orwell****
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Samuel Clemens*****
29. On the Road - Jack Keroac****
30. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens****
31. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller****
32. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra****
33. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe***
34. Deliverance - James Dickey****
35. The Best of Edward Abbey***
36. Rosaura a las Diez - Marco Denevi****
37. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow****
38. Tom Sawyer Detective - Samuel Clemens***
39. The Iliad -Homer****
40. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein*****
41. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
42. The Double - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
43. The Trial -Franz Kafka***
44. Moby Dick - Herman Melville**
45. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison***
46. Principles of Surgery Companion Handbook - Schartz, Shires, Spencer*
47. Standing for Something - Gordon B. Hinckley***
48. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis*****
49. The Sound and the Fury -William Faulkner**
50. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck****
51. Slaughter House-Five - Kurt Vonnegut****
52. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
53. Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry**
54. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Samuel Clemens*****
55. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler*****
56. The Call of the Wild - Jack London****
57. Kim - Rudyard Kipling***
58. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens****
59. Howards End - E.M. Forster****
60. Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence***
61. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad***
62. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig****
63. The Stranger - Albus Camus****
64. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf***
65. The Lonely Men - Louis L’Amour***
66. Sacred Clowns - Tony Hillerman***
67. The Covenant - James A. Michener****
68. Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card****
69. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams****
70. The Quick and the Dead - Louis L’Amour***
71. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*****
72. The Gift of the Jews - Thomas Cahill****
73. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis****
74. Iberia - James A Michener**
75. Ender’s Game -Orson Scott Card*****
76. People of Darkness - Tony Hillerman****
77. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis****
78. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis****
79. Memory of Earth - Orson Scott Card***
80. The Odyssey - Homer****
81. The Source - James A. Michener*****
82. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger****
83. The Story of England - Christopher Hibbert****
84. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway****
85. The Changed Man - Orson Scott Card****
86. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl****
87. El Milagro del Perdon -Spencer W. Kimball****
88. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley****
89. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder - LeGrand Richards****
90. A Treasury of Classical Mythology - A.R. Hope Moncrieff****
91. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien****
92. Pure Drivel - Steve Martin***
93. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens****
94. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens****
95. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling*****
96. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling*****
97. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -J.K. Rowling*****
98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -J.K. Rowling*****
99. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling*****
100. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling*****
101. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling*****
102. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis*****
103. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis*****
104. Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis****
105. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis*****
106. The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis*****
107. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis****
108. That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis****
109. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway***
110. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov**
111. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley****
112. I Claudius - Robert Graves*****
113. Anthem - Ann Rand***
114. Lord of the Flies - William Golding****
115. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner***
116. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad***
117. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein****
118. A Room With a View - E.M. Forster****
119. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad***
120. Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein****
121. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesley****
122. Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein****
123. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum****
124. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card****
125. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card****
126. Songmaster - Orson Scott Card**
127. Saints - Orson Scott Card****
128. Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card****
129. Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin***
130. The Great Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
131. Me and My Little Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
132. Jesus the Christ - James Talmage*****
133. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas****
134. Dracula - Bram Stoker****
135. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown***
136. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown****
137. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire****
138. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl**
139. How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill***
140. Fundamentals of Family Medicine - Robert B. Taylor***
141. Medical Physiology - Rodney A Rhoades and George A Tanner**
142. D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aurlaire****
143. El Libro De Mormon - Un Relato Escrito por la Mano de Mormon. Traducido de las Planchas por Jose Smith, Hijo*****
144. Generation X - Douglas Coupland***
145. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe****
146. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice****
147. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde****
148. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen****
149. History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchhill****
150. A Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking - Barbara Bates**
151. Complete History of the World - Richard Overy****
152. The American Religion - Harold Bloom***
153. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck****
154. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote****
155. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo****
156. Religion in the New World - Richard E. Wentz***
157. The Moon Is Down - John Steinbeck****
158. The Pearl - John Steinbeck****
159. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck****
160. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carré****
161. The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter*****
162. The Chosen - Chaim Potok****
163. The Work and the Glory, Pilar of Fire - Gerald N. Lund*****
164. The Work and the Glory, Like a Fire if Burning - Gerald N. Lund*****
165. The Work and the Glory, Truth will Prevail - Gerald N. Lund*****
166. The Work and the Glory, Thy Gold Refine - Gerald N. Lund*****
167. The Work and the Glory, A Season of Joy - Gerald N. Lund*****
168. Stepen King On Writing, A memoir of the Craft - Stephen King***
169. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris****
170. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, The Evidence for Ancient Origins - Edited by Noel B. Reynolds. **** (March '08)
171. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko****
172. Naked Ape : A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal - Desmond Morris****
173. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes****
174. Mormons and Masons, Setting the Record Straight - Gilbert W. Scharffs* (March '08)
175. San Manuel Bueno, mártir - Miguel de Unamuno****
176. Critiquing the Critics of Joseph Smith - Hartt Wixom**** (March '08)
177. Mormon Country - Wallace Stegner****
178. The House of God - Samuel Shem**
179. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler****(March '08)
180. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel**** (April '08)
181. Religions of the World - A Latter-day Saint View - Spencer J. Palmer, Rober R. Keller, Dong Sull Choi, James A. Toronto****
182. Julius Caesar - William Shakespear****
183. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare****
184. Hamlet - William Shakespeare****
185. Macbeth - William Shakespeare****
186. One Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions - Stephen W. Gibson*** (May '08)
187. Jay's Journal - Beatrice Sparks**
188. Blueprints in Obstetrics and Gynecology - Tamara L. Callahan, Aaron B Caughey and Linda J Heffner***
189. Clinical Microbiology Made Rediculously Simple - Mark Galdwin and Bill Trattler****
190. Prescription for the Boards USMLE Step 2 - Radhika Breaden, Charyl Denenberg, Kate Feibusch, Stephen Gomperts***
191. The Instant Exam Review for the USMLE Step 3 - Joel s. Goldberg**
192. Appleton & Lang's Review of Pediatrics - Martin I. Lorin**
193. Pathology - Arthur S. Schneider and Philip A Szanto**
194. Internal Medicine - Edward D. Frohlich**
195. The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien****
196. The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien****
198. The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Juanita Brooks****
198. A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman****
199. Naked Pictures of Famous People - Jon Stewart**
200. La Casa de Bernarda Alba - Federico García Lorca***
201. Why Things Are and Why Things Aren't - Joel Achenbach****
202. Why Things Are - Joel Achenbach****
203. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? And Other Imponderables - David Feldman****
204. First Aid for the Family Medicine Boards - Tao Le, Christine Dehlendorf, Michael Mendoza, and Cynthria Ohata*** (May '08)
205. Why Don't Cat's Like to Swim - David Feldman****
206. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer**** (June '08)
207. Encounters with the Archdruid - John McPhee***
208. Desert Solitaire - Edward Abby***
209. Family Medicine Board Review - Robert L. Bratton, MD*** (July '08)
210. View of the Hebrews - Ethan Smith** (August '08)
211. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle****
212. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens****
213. The Book of Mormon and DNA Resarch - Edited by Daniel C. Petersen**** (Sept '08)
214. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis**** (Sept '08)
215. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson**** (Sept '08)
I also read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis this month. It’s not a marriage counseling book as you would assume. It is about the divide between Good and Evil. It is a surreal allegory of the afterlife. It supposes that those who remain in “hell” do so by choice and because of pride. In true Lewis fashion it presents very difficult theological ideas in an easy to read and understand fantasy.
I also got through Treasure Island yesterday. What a fun book. I tried reading it when I was about 10 but never finished it.
I read Huckleberry Finn for the 5th time in my life last month. Reading it as an adult it’s like a completely different book because you understand Mark Twain’s sarcasm and social commentary, particularly about American race relations.
I just started The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorn yesterday. I like it so far. I’m still trying to get through The Great Angel too.
===========================================================
Books I Can Remember that I’ve Read (In no particular order)
I'm only counting text books if I read the entire thing.
I'm counting books that I read more than half of but stopped because I couldn't stomach it (Lolita) or hated (Moby Dick). I'm not counting books that are mostly pictures (The Cat in the Hat) although they are still some of my favorite books. I'm counting books twice if I read them in English and in Spanish. Also, I have not counted all the Bathroom Readers I've read, mostly because I'm ashamed of how much time I spend on the pot. I've read almost all of them however.
***** - I really liked
**** - I liked
*** - OK
** - I didn’t like
* - It sucked.
1. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce**
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen****
4. Walden - Henry David Thoreau**
5. Claudius the God - Robert Graves*****
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez***
7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess****
8. As I Lay Dying -William Faulkner***
9. Animal Farm - George Orwell****
10. The Book of Mormon - Written by the Hand of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith Jr.*****
11. The Holy Bible - King James Version*****
12. The Doctrine and Covenants - Joseph Smith, others****
13. The Pearl of Great Price - Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith****
14. Travels with Charley (In Search of America) - John Steinbeck****
15. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket***
16. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket***
17. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket***
18. Les Liaisons Dagereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos****
19. Tom Sawyer Abroad - Samuel Clemens***
20. The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey****
21. The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell***
22. The Faith of a Scientist - Henry Eyring****
23. The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell****
24. What are People For - Wendell Berry***
25. The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball****
26. The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino***
27. 1984 - George Orwell****
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Samuel Clemens*****
29. On the Road - Jack Keroac****
30. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens****
31. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller****
32. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra****
33. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe***
34. Deliverance - James Dickey****
35. The Best of Edward Abbey***
36. Rosaura a las Diez - Marco Denevi****
37. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow****
38. Tom Sawyer Detective - Samuel Clemens***
39. The Iliad -Homer****
40. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein*****
41. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
42. The Double - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky***
43. The Trial -Franz Kafka***
44. Moby Dick - Herman Melville**
45. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison***
46. Principles of Surgery Companion Handbook - Schartz, Shires, Spencer*
47. Standing for Something - Gordon B. Hinckley***
48. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis*****
49. The Sound and the Fury -William Faulkner**
50. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck****
51. Slaughter House-Five - Kurt Vonnegut****
52. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald****
53. Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry**
54. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Samuel Clemens*****
55. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler*****
56. The Call of the Wild - Jack London****
57. Kim - Rudyard Kipling***
58. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens****
59. Howards End - E.M. Forster****
60. Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence***
61. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad***
62. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig****
63. The Stranger - Albus Camus****
64. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf***
65. The Lonely Men - Louis L’Amour***
66. Sacred Clowns - Tony Hillerman***
67. The Covenant - James A. Michener****
68. Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card****
69. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams****
70. The Quick and the Dead - Louis L’Amour***
71. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*****
72. The Gift of the Jews - Thomas Cahill****
73. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis****
74. Iberia - James A Michener**
75. Ender’s Game -Orson Scott Card*****
76. People of Darkness - Tony Hillerman****
77. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis****
78. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis****
79. Memory of Earth - Orson Scott Card***
80. The Odyssey - Homer****
81. The Source - James A. Michener*****
82. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger****
83. The Story of England - Christopher Hibbert****
84. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway****
85. The Changed Man - Orson Scott Card****
86. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl****
87. El Milagro del Perdon -Spencer W. Kimball****
88. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley****
89. A Marvelous Work and a Wonder - LeGrand Richards****
90. A Treasury of Classical Mythology - A.R. Hope Moncrieff****
91. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien****
92. Pure Drivel - Steve Martin***
93. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens****
94. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens****
95. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling*****
96. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling*****
97. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -J.K. Rowling*****
98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -J.K. Rowling*****
99. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling*****
100. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling*****
101. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling*****
102. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis*****
103. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis*****
104. Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis****
105. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis*****
106. The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis*****
107. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis****
108. That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis****
109. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway***
110. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov**
111. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley****
112. I Claudius - Robert Graves*****
113. Anthem - Ann Rand***
114. Lord of the Flies - William Golding****
115. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner***
116. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad***
117. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein****
118. A Room With a View - E.M. Forster****
119. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad***
120. Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein****
121. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesley****
122. Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein****
123. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum****
124. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card****
125. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card****
126. Songmaster - Orson Scott Card**
127. Saints - Orson Scott Card****
128. Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card****
129. Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin***
130. The Great Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
131. Me and My Little Brain - John Dennis Fitzgerald****
132. Jesus the Christ - James Talmage*****
133. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas****
134. Dracula - Bram Stoker****
135. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown***
136. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown****
137. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire****
138. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl**
139. How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill***
140. Fundamentals of Family Medicine - Robert B. Taylor***
141. Medical Physiology - Rodney A Rhoades and George A Tanner**
142. D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aurlaire****
143. El Libro De Mormon - Un Relato Escrito por la Mano de Mormon. Traducido de las Planchas por Jose Smith, Hijo*****
144. Generation X - Douglas Coupland***
145. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe****
146. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice****
147. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde****
148. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen****
149. History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchhill****
150. A Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking - Barbara Bates**
151. Complete History of the World - Richard Overy****
152. The American Religion - Harold Bloom***
153. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck****
154. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote****
155. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo****
156. Religion in the New World - Richard E. Wentz***
157. The Moon Is Down - John Steinbeck****
158. The Pearl - John Steinbeck****
159. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck****
160. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carré****
161. The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter*****
162. The Chosen - Chaim Potok****
163. The Work and the Glory, Pilar of Fire - Gerald N. Lund*****
164. The Work and the Glory, Like a Fire if Burning - Gerald N. Lund*****
165. The Work and the Glory, Truth will Prevail - Gerald N. Lund*****
166. The Work and the Glory, Thy Gold Refine - Gerald N. Lund*****
167. The Work and the Glory, A Season of Joy - Gerald N. Lund*****
168. Stepen King On Writing, A memoir of the Craft - Stephen King***
169. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris****
170. Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, The Evidence for Ancient Origins - Edited by Noel B. Reynolds. **** (March '08)
171. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko****
172. Naked Ape : A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal - Desmond Morris****
173. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes****
174. Mormons and Masons, Setting the Record Straight - Gilbert W. Scharffs* (March '08)
175. San Manuel Bueno, mártir - Miguel de Unamuno****
176. Critiquing the Critics of Joseph Smith - Hartt Wixom**** (March '08)
177. Mormon Country - Wallace Stegner****
178. The House of God - Samuel Shem**
179. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler****(March '08)
180. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel**** (April '08)
181. Religions of the World - A Latter-day Saint View - Spencer J. Palmer, Rober R. Keller, Dong Sull Choi, James A. Toronto****
182. Julius Caesar - William Shakespear****
183. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare****
184. Hamlet - William Shakespeare****
185. Macbeth - William Shakespeare****
186. One Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions - Stephen W. Gibson*** (May '08)
187. Jay's Journal - Beatrice Sparks**
188. Blueprints in Obstetrics and Gynecology - Tamara L. Callahan, Aaron B Caughey and Linda J Heffner***
189. Clinical Microbiology Made Rediculously Simple - Mark Galdwin and Bill Trattler****
190. Prescription for the Boards USMLE Step 2 - Radhika Breaden, Charyl Denenberg, Kate Feibusch, Stephen Gomperts***
191. The Instant Exam Review for the USMLE Step 3 - Joel s. Goldberg**
192. Appleton & Lang's Review of Pediatrics - Martin I. Lorin**
193. Pathology - Arthur S. Schneider and Philip A Szanto**
194. Internal Medicine - Edward D. Frohlich**
195. The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien****
196. The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien****
198. The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Juanita Brooks****
198. A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman****
199. Naked Pictures of Famous People - Jon Stewart**
200. La Casa de Bernarda Alba - Federico García Lorca***
201. Why Things Are and Why Things Aren't - Joel Achenbach****
202. Why Things Are - Joel Achenbach****
203. Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? And Other Imponderables - David Feldman****
204. First Aid for the Family Medicine Boards - Tao Le, Christine Dehlendorf, Michael Mendoza, and Cynthria Ohata*** (May '08)
205. Why Don't Cat's Like to Swim - David Feldman****
206. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer**** (June '08)
207. Encounters with the Archdruid - John McPhee***
208. Desert Solitaire - Edward Abby***
209. Family Medicine Board Review - Robert L. Bratton, MD*** (July '08)
210. View of the Hebrews - Ethan Smith** (August '08)
211. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle****
212. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens****
213. The Book of Mormon and DNA Resarch - Edited by Daniel C. Petersen**** (Sept '08)
214. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis**** (Sept '08)
215. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson**** (Sept '08)
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