Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Travel and Religion
This is a banner day!

This is a banner day!

Last updated on: March 5, 2024 at 3:34 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

This is a banner day! 2024-03-05T15:34:30-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Kirtland Temple, in a fairly standard, almost iconic, view — this one from the visitor center of the Community of Christ.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

For anybody who cares about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, today’s news is absolutely thrilling. I have been hoping for these developments for a many decades:

“Responsibility and Ownership of Sacred Sites and Historic Documents Transfer to Church of Jesus Christ: Acquisitions include Kirtland Temple, historic buildings in Nauvoo and manuscripts of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible”

“Frequently Asked Questions Clarify the Transfer of Sacred Sites and Historic Documents: Appendix lists items transferred”

The first Latter-day Saint temple was dedicated in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836, but the Church was driven from the area shortly thereafter lost ownership of it for nearly two hundred years.

(LDS.org public domain photo)

Here’s a little story that I can share that might have some slight relevance:

For its first several years, the old Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, or FARMS — the forerunner of what then became the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and, organizationally speaking, of the post-2012 Maxwell Institute — was a fairly humble little operation running on a shoestring budget.

Then we received a huge donation, several orders of magnitude greater than anything we had ever received before.

The big question was what to do with it.

One suggestion, advanced only half-seriously, was to make an offer to purchase the Kirtland Temple from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also now known as the Community of Christ. I was the one who made the suggestion.

We knew that they were in financial difficulties, and we had watched as they had distanced themselves more and more from Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. More to the point, one of their officials — a paid employee, not one of their ecclesiastical leaders — had actually approached us for a donation to cover much-needed repairs to the building. (He had apparently gotten wind of the huge donation.)

So I suggested, half in jest, that we offer to buy it altogether.

A prominent leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now deceased, somehow heard of that idea all the way up in Salt Lake City, and called down to tell us that it was inappropriate for a rogue band of scholars to own a temple.

But, of course, we were fully aware of that. My idea, to the extent that it was serious at all, wasn’t that we would own it. My thought, rather, was that the Reorganized Church might not want to sell the Kirtland Temple directly to the Utah Church, but that, as a face-saving measure, they might perhaps be willing to sell it to a third party. And, if we were that third party, my notion (again only half serious, if that) was that we would immediately turn around the next day and transfer ownership of the temple in Kirtland to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its proper custodian.

I, too, didn’t think it appropriate for private people or a private organization to own a temple. But, I thought, if we needed more money in order to complete the transaction, we would be able to raise the necessary sum within twenty-four to thirty-six hours at the most. There would be such enthusiasm among the membership that it would be an easy pitch. In fact, I doubted that a pitch would even be required at all.

Nothing came of the matter, of course. But I’ve never lost my hope that, someday, the Kirtland Temple, where so many important events had occurred and where so many divine manifestations had been received, would again belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I’m ecstatic that the temple in Kirtland — along with several other artifacts and properties, including some in Nauvoo, Illinois — will now be back in the appropriate hands. (That’s right. I’m not neutral in that regard.) I couldn’t possibly be more pleased.

The Kirtland Ohio Temple
Dedicated 27 March 1836

In the meantime, the website of the Interpreter Foundation continues to post interesting material, including the following:

Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 11 “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder”: 2 Nephi 26-30

During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.

This week, we have lecture 21, “2 Nephi 25-30, Nephi’s Prophecy of Our Times” and lecture 22, “2 Nephi 29—31, Scripture and Canon.”

All 112 lectures are immediately available in PDF, audio, video, and electronic formats, as well as in paperback books that are available for purchase. Links for all of the available online sources can be found in the Complete Bibliography for Hugh Nibley at https://interpreterfoundation.org/bibliographies/hugh-w-nibley/lectures/.

Ron Romig, the former archivist for the Community of Christ who was then serving as its historic sites specialist for the Kirtland area, took this photograph of some of us in front of the Kirtland Temple when we were back there in Ohio doing some filming several years ago. From left to right, the Heart of Darkness and his wife; Karl Ricks Anderson (aka “Mr. Kirtland”) and his wife; Mark Goodman, with his wife; and Russell Richins, with his wife. (I follow my longstanding policy of not naming people here unless they are already more or less public figures, lest they become targets of the kind of anonymous online abuse that has been continually directed at me over the past fifteen to twenty years.)

And these two items have gone up, as well:

The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 11: “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder”: 2 Nephi 26-30

For the 18 February 2024 Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, Bruce Webster and Robert Boylan and Kris Frederickson joined together for a discussion of Book of Mormon lesson 11 in the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder,” covering 2 Nephi 26-30.

The other segments of the 18 February 2024 radio show can be accessed at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-february-18-2024.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard each week on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.

Come, Follow Me — Study and Teaching Helps (2024): Lesson 11, March 11-17: 2 Nephi 26-30 “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder”

Editor’s Note: Four years ago, Jonn Claybaugh began writing the Study and Teaching Helps series of articles for Interpreter. We now have these wonderful and useful posts for all four years of Come, Follow Me lessons. Beginning this year we will be reposting these articles, with dates, lesson numbers, and titles updated for the current year’s lessons. Jonn has graciously agreed to write new study aids for those lessons that do not directly correspond to 2020 lessons.

Travel and Religion

History and Religion

Previous Post

March 4, 2024

"The Easter Connection"

Next Post

March 6, 2024 A few more thoughts on the Kirtland Temple deal

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"PL: "Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."I have to frankly confess that a few ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."

Phil Leaning

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"PL: "The layers are peeling back."He appears to be suffering under an odd but powerful ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which chapter in Proverbs is known as the "Virtuous Woman" chapter?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Proverbs 10 Proverbs 22 Proverbs 31 Proverbs 3