Recent Finds at the DI

[SeattleTruthSeeker]

Today, my wife and I went down to the Deseret Industries store in the Seattle, Washington area. There, we were looking for new shirts for me to wear to Church on Sunday. After finding what we needed, I had decided to venture over to the Used Book Section. There, in a small area, I found some significant books that I am wondering if others have on their shelves, heard about, or have had the privilege to read and study from.

The Religion of the Latter-day Saints by Lowell L. Bennion, director of the Institute of Religion, fourth edition, 1955 - originally copyrighted in 1940 by Heber J. Grant.

Extract from Preface:

Many college students of the Latter-day Saint faith sense keenly the need of gaining a comprehensive and whole view of the religious teachings which they live and profess. They discover that their studies and impressions to date in the field of religion often lack integration. Furthermore, as their intellectual horizons are pushed back and their views change, they become aware of the need of orienting their religious faith and background to their expanding world.

Our purpose in presenting this course of study is to help the student gain a larger and more unified understanding of the religion of the Latter-day Saints - an understanding that is related to his present day living and thinking.

The course is a student-guide to the study of the Gospel and Church of Christ. Its chief source books are the sacred scriptures. Frequent references are made also to standard treatises on Mormon history and doctrine. It is assumed that students will read widely in published works of the Church leaders, past and present.

From this cursory reading, I am under the impression that this was an actual Institute Manual (unlike the ones we have today) for those Latter-day Saint College Students. In fact, this may be the type of manual that Dr. Daniel Petersen may have used in his old college student days (I could be wrong and just making an illfounded guessimation here).

Extract from Part 1: Mormon Doctrine - Introduction:

The gospel of Jesus Christ was not revealed to Joseph Smith as a whole at one particular time, such as at the First Vision in 1820 or at the organization of the Church in 1830. His understanding of the Lord's work increased year by year and was still growing at the time of his death in 1844 when he was a young man of thirty-nine years of age. indeed, the religion that came to us through the prophet was not presented as a closed book, as a fixed creed, but rather as an open book, as a religion which contained within itself elements of growth and enrichment, for the Prophet declared that the Lord "will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

The revelations and inspiration recorded in our sacred books were received "from time to time, here a little and there a little," as the need arose and as recipients were prepared and desirous to receive them. It is, therefore, quite impossible for the student to turn to the standard works of the Church and find any one place, in logical and systematic sequence, the gospel of Jesus Christ in an organized form.

It is the objective of Part I to help the student select, from scripture and other writings, basic principles of the gospel which he may build and organized whole view of life, that he may see in his religion not just a set of principles, a serious of commandments, an array of ideas more or less connected, but rather a living, broad interpretation of his own life.

The next book that I found is an old Melchizedek Priesthood Quorum manual. Apostasy to Restoration by T. Edgar Lyon. According to the foreword, this book was actually commissioned by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had asked T. Edgar Lyon to write and publish this particular manual. The most interesting notation is this:

The Lord Jesus Christ established His Church when he was upon the earth.

In the centuries that followed there was an apostasy from this church. The Priesthood was lost, the doctrine was altered, the organization was changed.

In the nineteenth century God again spoke from the heavens, and a new dispensation was opened. The Priesthood was conferred; the doctrine was revealed anew; the organization with apostles and prophets was restored. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was again established on the earth.

Upon these fundamental premises rests the validity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every member, and particularly every man who holds the Priesthood, should become familiar with events and personalities associated with the "falling away" predicted by Paul, and the "times of restitution" spoken of by Peter.

To assist the men of the Church in their study of this important subject, Elder T. Edgar Lyon was asked to prepare this manual for use in the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums.

This study manual used, as a reference, a book entitled Apostasy From the Divine Church, by Elder James L. Barker.

From what I have read so far, this one manual is going to be a very interesting read and study material. I am hoping to convince my wife to help me purchase the book by James Barker (unless someone has a copy that they would like to loan to me).

The Old Testament Prophets by Sidney B. Sperry is an old Gospel Doctrines book that actually is taken from Sperry's published work The Voice of Israel's Prophets.

What is interesting about this manual is this:

The Old testament quotations in this manual have been most often taken from the English language version due to the Jewish Publication Society of America. This version is used for the reason that it adheres more fully to the modern usage of the English language; hence it will be more readily understood than the account as given in the King James Translation. The references given are to the parallel passages int he King James Version of the Bible, so that the student can readily compare the quoted passages with the comparable ones from the Authorized Version.

The other two books are Why I Believe: 54 Evidences of the Divine Mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith by George Edward Clark and The Day of Defense by Elder A. Melvin McDonald.

Regarding the Latter book:

The roots for the "Day of Defense" have their origin in the late 1950's in the Southern States Mission. There a young Salt Lake Missionary named Robert M. McDonald and several of his companions engaged in a series of public debates with ministers from other religions. Elder McDonald's brother, A. Melvin McDonald, heard tapes of the debates only one month prior to his departure for the North Central States Mission.

A. Melvin McDonald began to collect and assimilate the scriptural arguments that detractors would attempt to use against the church during his mission. During the course of his mission, he was called upon a number of occasions to publicly confront these detractors. Elder McDonald felt a need to collect these many arguments and to prepare a written response to these arguments in a book. He created a hypothetical trial setting so that the positions and scriptures used by detractors could be presented in an orderly and interesting format. Three weeks before the conclusion of his mission, Elder McDonald sat down at a typewriter and prepared the book. The first edition, which comprised only 80 copies, was printed from an old second hand printing machine in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. These original copies were distributed by A. Melvin McDonald to his fellow missionaries in the North Central States Mission.

The book filled such a void that original copies printed by McDonald were reproduced and began appearing throughout various missions of the church. The book was so successful that it was published by Peter C. Covino and Alpha Publishing in 1973. "The Day of Defense" has assisted thousands of missionaries to answer questions of both investigators and detractors since its original publication in 1963.

A very wonderful find of used books and they were only a buck or .75 cents a piece.

[Just_A_Guy]

"Day of Defense" was actually banned on my mission--too many elders got Bible-bashing-fever after reading it.

[SeattleTruthSeeker]

"Day of Defense" was actually banned on my mission--too many elders got Bible-bashing-fever after reading it.

I definitely understand how that could happen.

[miztrniceguy]

one of these days i'll have to list the old book we got from my wife's grandmother, some quite old.

[talisyn]

My local D.I. doesn't have books like that, all I've found are old family home evening manuals. Ohh and a lot of college textbooks on chemistry and anatomy, good stuff. You've inspire me to keep looking

[Roseslipper]

youll never know what treasures u will find....

[Moksha]

Lowell Bennion has always been a favorite of mine. Years ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Bennion several times for nice long conversations. Dr. Bennion both founded and became the Director of the Institute at the University of Utah. He later came under fire when his views, that all worthy men should be accorded the Priesthood regardless of their skin color, came to the attention of Joseph Fielding Smith - who at that time had jurisdiction over the Church educational system. Dr. Bennion later went on to found the Boy's Ranch, as well as Utah's first food bank and homeless shelter.

Dr. Daniel C. Peterson would have been too young to have been a student of Dr. Bennion. It was during his tenure of Directing the Community Council, that I had the chance to know him. He was dismayed that I had left the Church due to its racial policy, but he prayed for me that I would return once it had changed - and he firmly believed that it would.

Some men stand firm in righteousness and that puts them ahead of their time. Dr. Bennion was one such man.