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I was teaching The Book of Revelation and I saw how John uses symbols to teach like apocalyptic literature.

Welcome to Part 2 with Dr. Christopher Blythe, Revelation 6-14.

And he said, 'the opening paragraph of the Come Follow Me manual mentions this chapter...'

We read the book of Revelation, we read the scriptures, we know there are calamities coming in the latter days.

He's written many articles and books, including House of Glory, 10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven, Twice Blessed Finding Hope.

He's written many articles and books, including House of Glory, 10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven, Twice Blessed Finding Hope.

Sheri Du wrote this book called Prophets Can See Around Corners and did a talk at BYU Hawaii called Prophets Can See Around Corners. Coming from her perspective, who has written the biographies of President Hinckley and President Benson, it's really fun to hear her testimony of living prophets. We all know as teachers how hard it is to come up with a really good question. She has a series of questions in here. Question number two in her book, is there anyone you would trust to give you better, more inspired advice, meaning counsel unaffected by personal agenda than members of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 apostles?

Sheri Du wrote this book called Prophets Can See Around Corners and did a talk at BYU Hawaii called Prophets Can See Around Corners.

She has a series of questions in here. Question number two in her book, is there anyone you would trust to give you better, more inspired advice, meaning counsel unaffected by personal agenda than members of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 apostles?

I have my preferred authors, Sherry continues, commentators, and experts. I cannot think of anyone I would listen to instead or ahead of the living prophet and the 14 other men ordained as prophets, seers, and revelators.

I love the question, if they really are watchmen on a tower, if they can really see things we cannot, who would you rather have in charge? Who would you rather take advice from?

This starts on page 84. In 1959, Elder Ezra Taft Benson, then a member of the 12, was serving simultaneously in U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's cabinet as secretary of agriculture.

In that capacity, he undertook a trip to Moscow at the height of the Cold War. Think not Russia, think Soviet Union.

Our Heavenly Father is not far away, he promised. He is our Father. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, watches over this earth. Be unafraid. Keep his commandments. Love one another. Pray for peace and all will be well.

I believe very firmly in prayer, he said. I know that it is possible to reach out and tap that unseen power which gives us strength in time of need.

I leave you my witness as a church servant for many years that truth will endure. Time is on the side of truth. God bless you and keep you all the days of your life.

This allegory of the olive tree became a book.

This was the first year I was serving as a missionary in the California Roseville Mission, which I'll hopefully get a chance to say something about because it relates to my whole experience with this text.

Pretty early on in its existence, scholars associated with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies put out that book.

And Paul Hoskison has a study in it where he divides this entire allegory into seven time periods.

This allegory of the olive tree became a book.

It's in this book right here.

Those are the major gathering chapters and everyone's kind of like, oh, Second Nephi, skip that. Oh, Jacob 5, skip that.

I love this tree. I've got to scatter it in order to save it.

For on the other side of the stream there was a huge lion and we know it's Aslan but Jill doesn't know it she says if I run the other way he's going to catch me if I keep going forward I'm going to walk right into his mouth she just stood there still

the lion says are you thirsty and she said yes and he said if you are thirsty come and drink

she's still just sat there frightened and the lion says are you not thirsty and Jill said I'm dying of thirst and the lion says well drink then and Jill said something like do you mind going away while I drink and the lion gave it like a low growl and she said well will you promise not to do anything to me if I drink and the lion said I make no promise and Jill said well I don't dare come and drink and the lion says well then you're you're going to die of thirst and Jill thought oh dear I suppose I must go and look for another stream and then this great moment the lion looks at her calls her name Jill there is no other stream Jill decides to do what she was afraid of doing and comes to the lion and comes to the stream and drinks Lewis writes you didn't need to drink much of it for it quenched your thirst at once that a great story right there is none other way we think to ourselves oh that way of Jesus sounds hard and scary and difficult I don't know if I want to repent or maybe I'll go find another way right yeah and there is no other way I love it that's what the verse is saying and who did CS Lewis have in mind when he was writing about you wonder right you wonder who he had in mind well we hope you enjoyed this story come find us on our full podcast it's called follow him you can get wherever you get your podcasts this week where with doctor Carrie Mielstein incredible mind you're going to love what he does and then come back next week and join us for another follow him favorites

Lewis writes you didn't need to drink much of it for it quenched your thirst at once

there's a girl her name is Jill Pol. Jill ends up in Narnia but away from her friend so she's all alone as she's sitting and waiting and wondering what she should do and if her friends are going to find her she is really thirsty and so she goes in search of water.

she stops dead in her tracks and then Lewis writes this the sight of the water made her feel ten times thirstier than before but she didn't rush forward to drink she stood as if she had been turned into stone.

For on the other side of the stream there was a huge lion and we know it's Aslan but Jill doesn't know it she says if I run the other way he's going to catch me if I keep going forward I'm going to walk right into his mouth she just stood there still but she was so thirsty she kind of wanted to run away and then the lion speaks I don't know if you know John but in this world animals guitar well not our world but in Narnia.

Right the lion says are you thirsty and she said yes and he said if you are thirsty come and drink she's still just sat there frightened and the lion says are you not thirsty and Jill said I'm dying of thirst and the lion says well drink then and Jill said something like do you mind going away while I drink and the lion gave it like a low growl and she said well will you promise not to do anything to me if I drink and the lion said I make no promise and Jill said well I don't dare come and drink and the lion says well then you're you're going to die of thirst and Jill thought oh dear I suppose I must go and look for another stream and then this great moment the lion looks at her calls her name Jill there is no other stream Jill decides to do what she was afraid of doing and comes to the lion and comes to the stream and drinks Lewis writes you didn't need to drink much of it for it quenched your thirst at once that a great story right there is none other way we think to ourselves oh that way of Jesus sounds hard and scary and difficult I don't know if I want to repent or maybe I'll go find another way right yeah and there is no other way I love it that's what the verse is saying and who did CS Lewis have in mind when he was writing about you wonder right you wonder who he had in mind well we hope you enjoyed this story come find us on our full podcast it's called follow him you can get wherever you get your podcasts this week where with doctor Carrie Mielstein incredible mind you're going to love what he does and then come back next week and join us for another follow him favorites

She is really thirsty and she finds a clear bubbling stream. But to her horror, blocking her path to the stream is a huge, terrifying lion.

And the lion says, are you thirsty? She says, I'm dying of thirst. Then drink, said the lion.

May I? Could I? Would you mind going away while I do? Said Jill. The lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.

Jill was so thirsty now without noticing it, she had come a step nearer to the lion. Do you eat girls? She said. He answered, I swallow them up. I have consumed girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms, said the lion.

I don't dare come and drink, said Jill. Then you will die of thirst, said the lion. Oh dear, said Jill, coming another step nearer. I suppose I must go and look for another stream then. And in this great moment, Aslan says, Jill, there is no other stream. There is no other way whereby man can be saved.

I think you also have another one coming out called A Word in Season, which the University of Illinois Press did about Isaiah's reception in the Book of Mormon.

What I'm trying to do in that book is look at not just what does the Book of Mormon do with Isaiah? How does Nephi read Isaiah? How does Abinadi read Isaiah? How does Jesus Christ himself read Isaiah? But also try to put that in conversation with the long history of how Jews and Christians of various types have read Isaiah.

Where Abinadi is reading Isaiah 53, does he read it in a way that's totally unique? Does it sound like other Christians? Trying to put it in a big, broad context and ask how the Book of Mormon sounds in the conversation.

His latest book is called A Word in Season, and the subtitle is Isaiah's Reception in the Book of Mormon. And that will be published in November.

Yeah, I mean, the question I'm trying to sort out in the book is just how unique is the Book of Mormon's handling of Isaiah, if you put it in conversation with the larger history of Christians and Jews and reading Isaiah and making sense of it.

He wrote a book years ago called Hasten My Work.

On the bus, he started to read the old beaten Book of Mormon.

This fellow got all the way to 2 Nephi 2, when something strange began stirring within him.

2 Nephi 2 is probably the single most doctrinally profound, deeply philosophical and spiritually potent chapter in the entire volume.

There's a couple of books in that box over there. Yeah, it's the cheapest one. You can have any one of those for a quarter.

You might remember the name Elder Robert E. Wells. He wrote a book years ago called Hasten My Work.

Yeah, it's the cheapest one. You can have any one of those for a quarter.

There's a couple of books in that box over there.

Do you remember Elder Robert D. Wells years ago? He wrote a little book called Hasten My Work.

Now, that's why I do have a book called Choosing Glory and the podcast.

To me, that is what we are doing every day.

We are choosing which glory we are preparing for.

It's our choice.

God is not going to assign us or condemn us.

It is our choice.

What we want is what we get.

President Oaks got a lot of negative response to his last conference talk... I have a book called Choosing Glory and the podcast.

Her book, Choosing Glory, is available in paperback and in Kindle.

I've got a book on my shelf called David Whitmer Interviews that Lyndon Cook put together.

I've got a book on my shelf called David Whitmer Interviews that Lyndon Cook put together. It's about this thick and it's just his interviews on the Book of Mormon and he is crystal clear.

it's a remarkable read first of all for consistency but also because David gives more details about those early days and about the appearance of the angel Maron I even any other person does

As Joseph McConkie and Robert Millet have pointed out in their book, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, and I'm quoting them, in the strictest sense no one can work out is for her own salvation.

in the strictest sense no one can work out is for her own salvation. No person can create himself or herself, resurrect himself or herself, ransom himself or herself from sins, or clean their own heart from the taints of the world.

When God knocks, don't creep to the door and look through the peephole to see if he looks like you thought he would. Rush to the door and throw it open.

You don't need to hide from him. He wants to bless you.

Dr. Adam S. Miller is a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas...The author of more than 10 books including Letters to a Young Mormon...

Adam Miller's Letters to a Young Mormon frustrated me. Not that I didn't like it because I enjoyed it immensely. No, it frustrated me because I only wish I had had such a book to read when I was a 1960s teenager with racing mind and hormones.

I just love your writing style. It's beautiful and it's fresh and honest.

In this great book, Our Latter-day Saint Hymns, Carolyn Davidson sought out the kind of the backstory of every one of our hymns.

There is a book, Desert Book Sells, our latter day hymns, and it gives the stories for all of them. It's a good one.

There is a book, Desert Book Sells, our latter day hymns, and it gives the stories for all of them. It's a good one.

He wrote this book, an author's diary about his experiences the first six months after Rough Stone Rolling was published.

Richard Bushman has a little quote where he says you have to ask yourself what are the consequences of these beliefs meaning the beliefs of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ have they resulted in good in your life and the life of others you have known if they have then you want to treat them with respect as with science a religion that works and produces results has to be taken seriously

Dr. Adam S. Miller is a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas...The author of more than 10 books including...Mormon, A Brief Theological Introduction.

A couple of years ago, the Maxwell Institute at BYU published a new series of books on The Book of Mormon called The Book of Mormon Brief Theological Introductions and the Ether volume by Rosalind Welch.

She has a chapter where she explores this.

Many of our listeners will remember he was the co-editor of that book, From Creation to Sinai.

a lot of our listeners have this book, From Creation to Sinai, which a Deseret Book published recently, which is really helpful in making the Old Testament language symbolism and history putting those together in an easier way to understand.

Dan, you co-wrote that book with Aaron Shade?

Yes. From Creation to Sinai.

From Creation to Sinai, right where we are today.

This is a brand new book that just came out from the religious study center at BYU. It's called From Creation to Sinai, the Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration edited by Dan Belknap and Aaron Shade.

This just came out. And this is in a lot of ways, a landmark book. It's really, really thick and big. It's got, I think, 17 chapters written by some of our best Old Testament scholars that we have.

I'm reading this bio from the back of one of her many books called Women of the Old Testament.

That's why I think we wanted her here today, Hank, because we're talking about some of the women in the New Testament a little bit in these chapters.

I mean, the paper, the illustrations, Hank, they don't publish my books like this. I get recycled newsprint in my books. And these are gorgeous, beautiful, illustrated,

I love that she has done so much on women in the scriptures and in the Old Testament.

I mean, the paper, the illustrations, Hank, they don't publish my books like this. I get recycled newsprint in my books. And these are gorgeous, beautiful, illustrated, but I love that she has done so much on women in the scriptures and in the Old Testament.

Doctrines of Salvation, Volume1, page61. He said, No person was foreordained or appointed to sin or to perform a mission of evil. No person is ever predestined to salvation or damnation. Every person has agency.

This is from Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 1, page 61.

Every soul coming into this world came here with the promise that through obedience he would receive the blessings of salvation. No person was foreordained or appointed to sin or to perform a mission of evil. No person is ever predestined to salvation or damnation. Every person has agency. Cain was promised by the Lord that if he would do well, he would be accepted. Judas had his agency and acted upon it. No pressure was brought to bear on him to cause him to betray the Lord, but he was led by Lucifer. If men were appointed to sin and betray their brethren, then justice could not demand that they be punished for sin and betrayal when they are guilty.

He said, 'I'm convinced in my own mind that when the Savior took the three disciples up on the mount, I'm just going to stop and say here, when you get someone saying, "I'm convinced in my own mind," I think that's their way of saying, "I'm not pronouncing this as official doctrine. This is what I, as a very informed believer, believes." All right?'

That when the Savior took the three disciples up on the mount, which is spoken of as the Mount of Transfiguration, He there gave unto them the ordinances that pertain to the house of the Lord and that they were endowed.

There's two deaths, second Nephi nine, spiritual death and physical death and sins.

It's a lie. It's absolute deception. Isn't that second Nephi? He leadeth their souls carefully down to hell.

Those are the major gathering chapters and everyone's kind of like, oh, Second Nephi, skip that. Oh, Jacob 5, skip that.

It's from, if I remember right, it's from your book Born This Happy Morning. It's a little Christmas book, right?

I wrote a little book called Born This Happy Morning, which is one of my favorite lines from a song ever.

Brad wrote a book about Christmas and so did you, John. You wrote a book about Christmas called Born This Happy Morning. Tell me about it.