Israel Sample Itinerary

The actual itinerary has just arrived.

And the Philos Project has also provided a nifty journal that explains more about the trip.

Christian Students Israel Trip Dates Suggested Draft Itinerary Version 3
Sunday, Day 1	Tel Aviv – The First Hebrew City
PM	Landing at Ben Gurion Airport. VIP assistance through Passport control and baggage claim
	Meet your guide and driver and travel to Tel Aviv
5:00 pm	Begin the visit with a stop outside Independence Hall, the site of the 1948 declaration of the Sate of Israel. Take a short walk along part of Rothschild Boulevard, one of the main streets of Tel Aviv and hear the stories of the visionaries and dreamers who established the State of Israel, as well as the culture of innovation that have created a Start Up Nation.
6:00 pm	Check in to hotel
7:00 pm	Dinner
8:00 pm	Opening Speaker on “The Case for Israel” or “Introduction to Israel”
9:00 pm	Program orientation; group activities in hotel
Overnight	Tel Aviv
Monday, Day 2	A View From the South
7:30 -8:30 am	Breakfast
8:30 – 10:00 am	Jaffa – The Gateway to the Land of Israel: Explore the ancient port, the site from which the prophet Jonah fled from God, and where Peter restored Tabitha to life and stayed with Simon the Tanner.
10:00 -11:15 am	Travel to area of Sderot
11:15 -12:00 pm	Tour of Sderot and overlook onto the Gaza Envelope including a briefing on the geopolitics of the area
12:30 – 1:30 pm	Eat lunch in a kibbutz, and meet with a local resident for insight into life along the border
1:30 -2:00 pm	Travel to Beit Guvrin
2:30 -5:00 pm	Dig For a Day at Beit Guvrin - Participate in a hands-on archaeological excavation in the subterranean complexes of the ancient city of Maresha.
5:00 -6:00 pm	Return to Tel Aviv
7:00 pm	Dinner
8:30 pm	Processing discussion/ Praise and worship
Overnight	Tel Aviv
Tuesday, Day 3	The Mediterranean Coastline
7:30 – 8:30 am	Breakfast; Check out
9:00 -10:30 am	The Palmach Museum – The Palmach was the elite striking force of the “Hagana” – the underground military organization of the Jewish community, its national institutions and the Zionist Movement prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Palmach Museum is an experiential museum, covering the Palmach legacy through the stories of individuals and groups.
10:30 – 11:30 am	Travel to Caesarea
11:30 -1:00 pm	Caesarea – Herod’s legendary Port City: Herod the Great built Caesarea around 25–13 BC as the port city, Caesarea Maritima. It served as an administrative center of the Judaea Province of the Roman Empire, and later was the capital of the Byzantine Palaestina Prima province during the Classic period. The city was first connected to Christianity according to Acts of The Apostles, when Peter baptized Cornelius the Centurion and his household. Archaeological excavations have uncovered remains from many periods, in particular, a complex of Crusader fortifications and a giant Roman city that boasted the largest harbor on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
1:00 -2:00 pm	Lunch in Caesarea
2:00 -3:00 pm	Travel to Nazareth, passing Megiddo along the way
	Megiddo is an archaeologically unparalleled site where one can literally see, touch, and be inspired by monuments from biblical times. It appears in both the Old Testament and the New Testament (Armageddon, Revelation 16:16), and is the only site in the Levant mentioned in all great records of the Ancient Near East: The Old and New Testaments on the one hand, and Egyptian, Assyrian and Hittite sources on the other.
3:30 -5:30	Visit Nazareth Village, reconstructing and reenacting village life in the Galilee at the time of Jesus.
5:30 -6:30 pm	Travel to Galilee; Check in to hotel
7:00 pm	Dinner at hotel
8:00 pm	Processing discussion/Praise and worship
Overnight	Galilee
Wednesday, Day 4	The Galilean Ministry of Jesus
7:30 -8:30 am	Breakfast
9:00 – 12:00 pm	Mt. of the Beatitudes – Remembering the verses of Sermon on the Mount; Tabgha, site of Peter’s Primacy (John Chapter 21) Multiplication of Loaves and Fish and calling of the disciples; Capernaum – The Headquarters of Jesus’ movement and his home during his central Galilean Ministry. Visit the Sea of Galilee Boat, also known as the “Jesus Boat”, a fishing vessel found by two brothers from Kibbutz Ginosar dating to the Second Temple Period
12:15 – 1:15 pm	Lunch
1:30 – 3:30 pm	Hike in Nahal Amud, in the valley beneath the ancient city of Tzfat.
3:30 - 5:00 pm	Leket – Volunteer alongside IDF soldiers to help pick unneeded fruits and vegetables from the fields of local farmers to be donated to Israel’s hungry.
5:15- 6:00 pm	The synagogue of Magdala, reliving the Gospel – visit the newly discovered synagogue in Mary Magdalene’s home town which offers clues about Judeo-Christian worship from the time of Jesus.
6:30 -7:30 pm	Evening cruise on the Sea of Galilee
7:30 pm	St. Peter’s Fish Dinner
Overnight	Galilee
Thursday, Day 5	The Golan Heights – Security in the North
7:30 – 8:30 am	Breakfast; Check out
8:30 – 9:30 am	Travel to the Golan - The Golan Heights form a rocky plateau of great strategic importance with an average altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 ft.) and an area totaling 1,800 square kilometers (690 sq. mi.). The plateau is located at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and straddles the borders of Syria and Israel. Elevations range from 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) in the north, to below sea level along the Sea of Galilee and the Yarmuk River in the south.
9:30 – 11:00 am	"Who do people say the son of man is?" Visit the remains of the ancient Roman city, Caesarea Philipi, where Peter made his declaration about Jesus.  Take a walk through a Nature Reserve along the edge of one of the tributaries of the Jordan River at The Banias.
11:00 -11:30	Hezbollah, Lebanon and the Iranian connection. Understanding Israel’s strategic challenges along its northern border. An overview of Israel’s border with Lebanon from the peaks of the Galilee.
12:00 -12:45 pm	Ascend Mt. Bental, a former IDF outpost, for an overlook onto Kuneitra and Mt. Hermon. From this point it is less than 40 miles to Damascus, and the road where Saul encountered Jesus. In addition to the ancient connection, hear a geo-political update on the current situation in Syria and their relationship with Israel.
12:45 – 2:00 pm	Lunch
2:00 -4:00 pm	Travel to the Jordan River, stopping at the Baptismal site of Yardenit
4:00 -6:00 pm	Travel to Jerusalem with views of the Eastern Border with Jordan along the way.
6:00- 6:30 pm	Overview and welcome to Jerusalem and from the Mt. of Olives
6:45 pm	Check in to hotel
7:45 pm	Dinner
8:45 pm	Briefing: The Pulse of Israel Today
Overnight	Jerusalem
Friday, Day 6	Jerusalem – The Center for Three Monotheistic Faiths
7:00 – 8:00 am	Breakfast
8:00 – 8:30 am	Praise and worship
8:30 -9:30 am	Briefing: How Wide the Gap – Negotiations with the Palestinians.
10:00 – 11:30 am	The City of David  - King David’s palace and city, and the place of Jerusalem’s historic nucleus including areas recently opened to the general public and the newly opened tunnel ascending toward the Temple Mount.
11:00 – 12:00 pm	Explore the Southern Wall Excavations, including the steps leading to the ancient Temple and the site where Jesus overturned the moneychangers’ tables. End the visit at the Western Wall.
12:00 -1:00 pm	Lunch
1:00 -4:00 pm	Visit the Jewish Quarter including the Cardo, the main square, and the city wall from the time of Hezekiah.  Continue to Mt Zion, St. Peter in Galicantu (House of Caiaphas), King David’s Tomb, Dormition Abbey and the Room of the Last Supper.
4:00 -6:00 pm	Short break
Evening	Welcome the Sabbath at the Western Wall followed by a traditional Shabbat dinner with a Jewish host family.
Overnight	Jerusalem
Saturday, Day 7	Jerusalem – The Holy Basin
7:30 -8:30 am	Breakfast
8:30 – 10:30 am	Join a local Jewish community for Shabbat morning services, including listening to the reading of the Torah.
10:30 -12:30 pm	Visit the Israel Museum - Among the highlights of the Museum’s campus is the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, the Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, which reconstructs the topography and architectural character of the city as it was during the time of Jesus, prior to its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE.
12:30 -1:30 pm	Lunch
1:30 – 3:30 pm	Walk down the Palm Sunday Road on the Mt. of Olives from Bethpage to the Garden of Gethsemane with a short stop at Dominus Flevit where Jesus stopped and wept over Jerusalem See the ancient olive trees at The Garden of Gethsemane as well as the beautiful Church of All Nations where the stone of the Agony of Christ is on display.
3:30 - 6:00 pm	Continue from the Lion’s Gate (St. Stephens Gate), and from the Monastery of St. Anne and the Pools of Bethesda, Walk along the Via Dolorosa to the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, site of crucifixion and burial of Jesus.
7:30 pm	Dinner
Overnight	Jerusalem
Sunday, Day 8	Jerusalem – The New City
8:00 -9:00 pm	Breakfast
9:00 -1:00 pm	Yad Vashem – Remembering the Holocaust: a comprehensive tour of the Historical Museum, The Children’s Memorial and the Hall of remembrance. In addition, visit the Valley of Communities. As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations. Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter. Meet with a Holocaust survivor.
1:00 – 2:00 pm	Lunch
2:30 – 3:30 pm	Tour of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, as well as meeting with Members of Knesset.
4:00 -5:30 pm	The Quest for Peace – A tour and geo-strategic survey of neighborhoods surrounding Jerusalem with stops at observation points overlooking the security barrier as well as checkpoints to the West Bank. Jerusalem is a microcosm of the Arab Israeli conflict, and its human, political, and territorial dimensions.  The discussion will include possible scenarios for the future of this unique city.
7:00 pm	Dinner
8:00 pm	Meeting with IDF reserve soldiers
9:30 pm	Praise and worship/Processing Discussion/Evening Activity
Overnight	Jerusalem
Monday, Day 9	Masada and the Dead Sea
7:00 – 7:30 am	Breakfast
7:30 – 9:00 am	Drive along the western shoreline of the Dead Sea. Along the way, pass Qumran, home of the first century sect of the Essenes, authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and believed to be the influence of Baptism for John the Baptist.
9:00 -11:30 am	Take the cable car to the top of Masada to tell the ancient story of the 960 men, women, and children that were the last to resist the Romans during the Great Jewish Revolt almost 2000 years ago. A story that became synonymous with Israel's quest for freedom and independence in modern times
12:30 – 2:30 pm	Lunch and swim at the Dead Sea
3:30 -5:00 pm	Take a short hike to see the hidden waterfalls at the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.
5:00 – 6:30pm	Return to Jerusalem
7:30 pm	Dinner
8:30 pm	Praise and worship/Processing Discussion/Evening Activity
Overnight	Jerusalem
Tuesday, Day 10	Departure
7:30- 8:30 am	Breakfast
9:00 – 11:00 am	Tour of the Garden Tomb, and time for communion, reflection and prayer.
11:00 – 12:00 am	Travel to Holon
12:00 -1:00 pm	Lunch
1:00 -2:30 pm	Visit the Save a Child’s Heart in Holon and meet the children at their home. This project is dedicated to providing urgently needed pediatric surgery to indigent children from developing countries.
2:30 – 4:30 pm	Discover the Biblical Landscape Preserve of Neot Kedumim, including a walk to an ancient Olive Press.
4:30  - 7:00 pm	Debrief, testimonies, praise and worship at Neot Kedumim
7:00 pm	Festive final dinner at Neot Kedumim
8:30 pm	Transfer to Ben-Gurion International Airport

                         

Knowledge Does Away with Darkness

Joseph Smith

"Knowledge does away with darkness, suspense and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is. … In knowledge there is power." 

- The Prophet Joseph Smith

Deep Down Inside Us There Is Good

President Harold B. Lee

What were young people like in the early 70s? Whippersnappers?  Hooligans?  Full of shenanigans?

Not according to President Harold B. Lee.  In his talk Today's Young People, President Lee recalls that a former educational director of the Boy Scouts of America, Dr. Fisher, complimented the youth of their generation: "If the youth of today were not twice as good as were the youth of two generations ago, they wouldn’t be half as good as they are."

While you're figuring that one out, President Lee drops another: "Our job and your job, my job, is to look after the man behind the one in front of you."

The basic message: Never give up on anyone.  The worth of souls is great.  Even the 3% who are hoodlums are worth saving (and perhaps especially so).  Be anxiously engaged in a good cause. 

It reminds me of President Monson's pithy counsel: "Our youth need less criticism and more models to follow." 

True. 

Just like the Jets in West Side Story, deep down inside us there is good. 

See also:

Better Friedan and Bishop Brown (by Ralph Hancock at The Soul and The City)
Love Fervently (by Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd (By Daniel Ortner at Symphony of Dissent)
Why I support Friends of Scouting (By Michelle Linford at Mormon Women)
God’s Plan to Exalt His Children (By Michael Worley at Michael’s Thoughts and Ideas)
Bites from the April 1971 Priesthood Session (By G. at Junior Ganymede)
Meetinghouse Libraries and UX for Gospel Learning (By J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)

     

Warnings from Warnings from the Past

Elder Mark E. Petersen

Elder Mark E. Petersen was born on November 7, 1900.  That seems like a long time ago.  He was called as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ on April 4, 1944.  That also seems like a long time ago. He gave his talk "Warnings from the Past," in the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April of 1971.  Even that seems like a long time ago.

But Elder Petersen's warnings were echoes of warnings that were raised centuries, and even millennia ago.  What were those warnings?  Why were they raised?  Why do they matter today?

In this talk Elder Petersen echoes the warnings of three great civilizations: the Jaredite civilization, the Nephite civilization, and our own.  What caused the downfall of the great Jaredite civilization? What caused the downfall of the great Nephite civilization?  What will cause the downfall of our own great civilization if we fail to learn the lessons of civilizations past?

Like the prophets of old, from the times of the Jaredites and the Nephites, Elder Petersen raises a clear warning voice against the sins of pride, of sexual immorality, of violence, and of idolatry.  Lest we suppose that our own civilization is somehow immune to the self-destructive tendencies of previous civilizations, Elder Petersen reminds us that "Much of the corruption which is common among us today resembles in striking detail the degradation that afflicted them."  What is the striking detail of which he speaks?  A careful study of the Book of Mormon will reveal it to you.

Recently the living prophets and apostles have encouraged members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ by improving Sabbath day worship.  Is this something new?

"The Almighty provided that we should observe a sacred Sabbath each week," declares Elder Petersen.   "We have flouted this law to his face, and most of us have turned his holy day into one of pleasure or of 'business as usual,' and yet the Sabbath was given as a symbol of allegiance to our Creator."  

A symbol of allegiance to the Savior.  That's food for thought.

God consecrated the American continent to the Lord's work, and to the service of the Lord.  The Jaredites failed to heed the warning.  The Nephites failed to learn from the example of the Jaredites. Will we fail to heed the warning, or to learn from the demise of the two great civilizations that preceded our own?

Elder Petersen echoes the voices of a few of the great leaders and statesmen of the past:

• George Washington: "… we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained. …" (First inaugural address, April 30, 1789.) 

• Abraham Lincoln: "told the people of his day that America 'need fear no danger from without. … If danger were ever to threaten the United States, it will come from within. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide...We have grown in numbers, wealth and power. … But we have forgotten God. … It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.'"

• Daniel Webster: "If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no one can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity."  

Elder Petersen then quotes the economist Roger Babson: 

"Only religion can prevent democratic rule from developing into mob rule. A nation can prosper only as its citizens are religious, intelligent, capable of service and eager to render it... Every great panic we have ever had has been foreshadowed by a general decline in observance of religious principles."

Are we religious? Intelligent? Capable of service and eager to render it?  Do we observe religious principles?

Will the warnings of three great civilizations suffice?  Will we listen to the still, small voice?  Or will we listen to the voice of the Lord in tempests, earthquakes and other calamities?

"The extinct civilizations of the past now speak to us out of the dust of the ages, giving warning against the same conditions which brought them down to oblivion." - Elder Mark E. Petersen

Will we listen?  There's no better time to start listening than now.

Other blog posts looking back on the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1971 General Conference:

• "Satan" - Moral Agency and the Problem of Evil (Ralph Hancock at Soul and City)
• Good Timber Does Not Grow at Ease (Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
• The General Conference Project: Controlling the Hulk, Believing the Devil, and Cussing GAs (Walker Wright at Difficult Run)
• LDS Conference April 1971 - The Sexual Revolution and Entertainment Media (J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)
• When Thou Art Converted (Chastity Wilson at Comfortably Anachronistic)
• The Adiabolist, or Jihad of the Heart (G at Junior Ganymede)
• Being Slow to Anger (Daniel Ortner)
• Creativity and Celebrating Success vs. The D.F.T. File (Michelle Linford at Mormon Women)
• 58 years of General Conference: What can we learn?/Messages on morality, religious freedom, and the Sabbath from 1971 (Michael Worley at Michael's Thoughts and Ideas)

Determined to Serve God at All Hazards

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands),which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses...

...Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions--Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the First Born."

- The Prophet Joseph Smith, Instruction on Various Doctrines, June 27, 1839

Service Brings Growth

"In serving others, we 'find' ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives. Furthermore, the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to 'find' ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!

George McDonald observed that 'it is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another' (George McDonald Anthology, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1970). Of course, we all need to be loved, but we must be giving and not always receiving if we want to have the wholeness of our lives and a reinforced sense of purpose." 

- President Spencer W. Kimball

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; 

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am? 

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

- Christina Rossetti, In the bleak midwinter

To Love at All Is To Be Vulnerable

C.S. Lewis

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." 

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future

One of the many excellent features of the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that it includes all of the talks from the general conferences of the Church from April 1971 to the present. 

I have always been impressed by how seamlessly the voice of living prophets confirms the truths that were taught by ancient prophets.  This seamlessness is also discernible in the living prophets' witness in relation to their more immediate predecessors.  In other words, the voice of the living prophets takes precedence over any previous prophets, but there is a seamlessness to the message that they proclaim, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.

To illustrate the truth that the living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works, President Ezra Taft Benson remembered that President Wilford Woodruff once told of an interesting incident that occurred in the days of Joseph Smith:

"I will refer to a certain meeting I attended in the town of Kirtland in my early days. At that meeting some remarks were made that have been made here today, with regard to the living prophets and with regard to the written word of God. The same principle was presented, although not as extensively as it has been here, when a leading man in the Church got up and talked upon the subject, and said: ‘You have got the word of God before you here in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants; you have the written word of God, and you who give revelations should give revelations according to those books, as what is written in those books is the word of God. We should confine ourselves to them.’

"When he concluded, Brother Joseph turned to Brother Brigham Young and said, ‘Brother Brigham I want you to go to the podium and tell us your views with regard to the living oracles and the written word of God.’ Brother Brigham took the stand, and he took the Bible, and laid it down; he took the Book of Mormon, and laid it down; and he took the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid it down before him, and he said: ‘There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day. And now,’ said he, ‘when compared with the living oracles those books are nothing to me; those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet or a man bearing the Holy Priesthood in our day and generation. I would rather have the living oracles than all the writing in the books.’ That was the course he pursued. When he was through, Brother Joseph said to the congregation; ‘Brother Brigham has told you the word of the Lord, and he has told you the truth.’ (Conference Report, October 1897, pp. 18–19.)"

The same principle applies to the living oracles today.  One thing that is clear, however, is that there is a continuity and a consistency between ancient and modern scripture, and between past and present prophets.  It is a continuity worth paying attention to.

During the Saturday morning session of the General Conference of April 1971, President Spencer W. Kimball delivered an address entitled "Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future."  This talk is a perfect example of the seamless continuity and consistency in the voice of the Lord as revealed through ancient, modern, and living prophets.  In fact, President Kimball begins his talk with the following observation: 

"History repeats itself, and we need only return to the past to learn the solutions for the present and the future. The Corinthians seem to have been troubled by the same conflicting messages we hear in our own time. Paul told them:

'For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?'"

During the most recent General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy declared:

"The Apostle Paul taught us about comparing communication to musical instruments when he wrote to the Corinthians:

'And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

'For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?'2"

Elder Schwitzer, like President Kimball, and like the Apostle Paul, helps us to discern the voice of the Lord amidst the cacophony of different voices in the world.  (Elder Oaks has also spoken eloquently on a similar topic).  

Like Paul before him, and like living prophets after him, President Kimball does not mince words. He reminds his audience of Paul's prophecy that some would depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1).  He warns of the variety of voices that promote hedonism, sensuality and sin.  He warns against violations of God's law of chastity and punctuates his warning with a memorable punchline: "Strange, the proponents of depopulating the world seem never to have thought of continence!"

Although President Kimball spoke with a raspy voice, his message could not have been clearer: "Why do we speak in this vein? Why do we call to repentance when there are such pleasant subjects? It is because someone must warn the world of its doom if life does not change directions."

President Kimball then recalled to mind the classic lines from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man:

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

I cannot count on one hand, or two for that matter, the number of times that I have heard our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, recite these same lines (click here for just one example).

Just as his warning and rebuke of sin is firm, President Kimball's love and kindness is deep in the invitation that he extends at the conclusion of his talk:

"We extend to every listener a cordial invitation to come to the watered garden, to the shade of pleasant trees, to the unchangeable truth.

Come with us to sureness, security, consistency. Here the cooling waters flow. The spring does not go dry.

Come listen to a prophet’s voice and hear the word of God.

The Lord does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His church stands firm and unchangeable. Sin will not be tolerated, but sincere repentance will be rewarded with forgiveness."

The words of the living prophets, those whom Brigham Young called the "living oracles," take precedence over previous prophets and scripture, but there is a seamless continuity and a consistency of truth that commands our attention, and persuades us to sincere repentance and obedience.

To read more about the general conference talks from 1971, see the following blog posts:

• Beginnings and Endings (by Nathaniel Givens at Difficult Run)
• The Voices of the Prophets (G at Junior Ganymede)
• LDS Conference April 1971- Hippies, Drugs, and Failure in the Home (J. Max Wilson at Sixteen Small Stones)
• Custodian and Dispenser of Saving Truth (Daniel Ortner at Symphony of Dissent)
• April 1971: Nothing New Here – Just Same Ol’ Mormonism (Ralph Hancock at Soul and City)
• Our individual battles to overcome our worlds (Michelle L at Mormon Women)
• The General Conference Project: The End of the World, the End of Death, and the End of Shame (Walker Wright here at Difficult Run)

The Greatest Power the World Has Ever Known

Leo Tolstoy

This morning in sacrament meeting one of the speakers made an interesting reference to Leo Tolstoy. The story that was shared probably contains folkloric elements, but it is still a good story. Even if the account isn't entirely and historically accurate, the observation is nonetheless true (for more detailed explanations, see here and here):

"Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and statesman, in conversation with Andrew D. White, United States foreign minister to Russia, in 1892 said, “I wish you would tell me about your American religion.”

“We have no state church in America,” replied Dr. White.

“I know that, but what about your American religion?”

Dr. White explained to Tolstoy that in America each person is free to belong to the particular church in which he is interested.

Tolstoy impatiently replied: “I know all of this, but I want to know about the American religion. … The church to which I refer originated in America and is commonly known as the Mormon Church. What can you tell me of the teachings of the Mormons?”

Dr. White said, “I know very little concerning them.”

Then Count Leo Tolstoy rebuked the ambassador. “Dr. White, I am greatly surprised and disappointed that a man of your great learning and position should be so ignorant on this important subject. Their principles teach the people not only of heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless.”

Tolstoy continued, “There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.”

One Gleam of the Glory

Dante Alighieri

"O somma luce che tanto ti levi

da concetti mortali, a la mia mente
ripresta un poco di quel che parevi
e fa la lingua mia tanto possente,
che una favilla sol de la tua gloria
possa lasciare a la futura gente;
ché, per tornare alquanto a mia memoria
e per sonare un poco in questi versi,
più si conceperà di tua vittoria."

- Dante, La Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXXIII, 67-75

"O Highest Light, You, raised so far above
the minds of mortals, to my memory
give back something of Your epiphany,

and make my tongue so powerful that I
may leave to people of the future one
gleam of the glory that is Yours, for by

returning somewhat to my memory
and echoing awhile within these lines,
Your victory will be more understood." 

- Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradise XXXIII, 67-75 (translated by Allen Mandelbaum)

A Prayer Before Study

St. Thomas Aquinas

A Prayer Before Study

Ineffable Creator,
Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom,
have established three hierarchies of angels,
have arrayed them in marvelous order
above the fiery heavens,
and have marshaled the regions
of the universe with such artful skill,

You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
The goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May You
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man,
who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.

Ante Studium

Creator ineffabilis,
qui de thesauris sapientiae tuae
tres Angelorum hierarchias designasti,
et eas super caelum empyreum
miro ordine collocasti,
atque universi partes elegantissime disposuisti,

tu inquam qui
verus fons
luminis et sapientiae diceris
ac supereminens principium

infundere digneris
super intellectus mei tenebras
tuae radium claritatis,
duplices in quibus natus sum
a me removens tenebras,
peccatum scilicet et ignorantiam.

Tu, qui linguas infantium facis disertas,
linguam meam erudias
atque in labiis meis gratiam
tuae benedictionis infundas.

Da mihi
intelligendi acumen,
retinendi capacitatem,
addiscendi modum et facilitatem,
interpretandi subtilitatem,
loquendi gratiam copiosam.

Ingressum instruas,
progressum dirigas,
egressum compleas.

Tu, qui es verus Deus et homo,
qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

The Pure in Heart

C.S. Lewis

"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

The Character of God

The Prophet Joseph Smith

"Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. … God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but … the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs." 

- Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 257, 240–41.

Man Approaches God

C.S. Lewis

"Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?" - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

A Great Secret

“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

On Children

C.S. Lewis

"In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are 'good,' it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding. In the first place, most children show plenty of 'prudence' about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St, Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves,' but also 'as wise as serpents.' He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

G.K. Chesterton

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we." - G.K. Chesteron, Orthodoxy