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In Andy Skinner and Kelly Ogden's book, they referenced an interview between Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed and Dr. Paul R. Cheeseman who taught at BYU...But this was in 1945 at UCLA and it's in Richard Lloyd Anderson's book, Understanding Paul as well, page 413.

I love the words of Richard Lloyd Anderson who called this section...Romans 12, 1 through Romans 1513, Paul's sermon on the mount in the epistles.

That work by Richard Anderson was so impactful to me when trying to understand the epistles, but it helps give us a little bit of clarity and help connect us to something that we maybe are a little more familiar with is Jesus's teaching of the sermon on the mount.

Our friend, Dr. Robert L. Millet, a friend of the podcast who's been on a couple of times, he has a book called Becoming New that's all about the epistles of Paul.

Language like I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas and appropriately, I am of Christ suggests that different factions or schisms had developed.

The situation might be analogous to a group of Latter-day Saints sitting around a table and expressing who their favorite general authorities are.

Let us suppose that certain members of the restored church choose to study and teach and focus solely on the words of their particular champion.

And that's where Paul is, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's the eyes on Jesus idea.

Chapter seven of Romans has resulted in more misunderstanding about Paul and about the human race in general than almost any other chapter of Scripture. A cursory reading will cause most persons unfamiliar with the Pauline epistles to shake their heads and wonder how in the world the Apostle Paul managed to garner so much attention through the years, as well as how he could possibly have been so admired and respected by Christians through the centuries.

As it reads in the King James Version or for that matter, most any other translation, we see poor old pitiful Paul, a weak, simpering and pathetic excuse of a man whose life is completely out of control. Man who never does what he should do and always seems to be doing what he shouldn't.

My late colleague, Robert J. Matthews wrote, quote, as rendered in the KJV, Paul is sinful, carnal and wicked even after years in the apostleship and knows not how to do good or even what is good. The JST rewords the passage in such a way as to show the difference between Paul's life before under the law of Moses and his life after he found and obeyed the gospel of Christ.

In the Joseph Smith translation, Paul explains that when he was living under the law of Moses, he was carnal, but through the gospel, including receiving its covenants and ordinances, he has become spiritual. Most important, the Joseph Smith translation states that it is only in Christ that he learned how to be a good man and that through the assistance of Christ, Paul subdues the sin within him.

And I've even written and published a short paraphrase of Paul's letter to the Romans called Grace Is Not God's Backup Plan.

I have a little paraphrase of the book of Romans where I try to render the epistle into contemporary English in a way that makes the logic of the argument as clear as I can.

It's called Grace Is Not God's Backup Plan.

I was going to say, I have a book on my shelf called Living a Covenant Marriage. I think it's Kenneth Matheson's chapter where he asks a series of questions. My favorite one is the one you just mentioned, what is it like to be married to me?

I just remember underlining in Kenneth Matheson's chapter, I believe he said, if I can just get a couple to apologize to each other, no, my problems are almost solved. If I could get that spirit of repentance in there.

I'm just going to throw that out there as a good general piece of advice.

Maybe I'm just like super covenant focused right now and I'm seeing it everywhere and you'll have to tell me if I'm seeing it where it's not but I think being super covenant focused is probably a good thing.

And frankly it's why the book I just wrote on the Abraham coming and I call God Will Prevail because this ideas that when you make this covenant with God. You are allowing him to prevail in your life and as a result he will cause you to prevail and that's that's what Jacob's name has changed to

I hope you do and I may put you to sleep but I hope not.

And for today, I wanted to mention his book, Learning to Love Isaiah, a guide and commentary has been helpful to so many.

I just love the title, Learning to Love Isaiah.

I think if anybody wants to hear Anthony talk more about that, these are basically the chapters of his book, Christ in Every Hour.

Also, he's been very helpful in my family, my kids that have gone to the temple. I got this form, the Holy Invitation and recently he just wrote a follow-up called the Holy Covenants. And another one we've got, Christ in Every Hour.

He said, go get this book by Philip Yancey, a fine Christian author called The Bible Jesus Read.

go get a book by Philip Yancey called The Bible Jesus Read

every single person I interviewed told me that the tragedy they had undergone pushed them to the wall with God. Sadly, each person also gave a devastating indictment of the church. Christians, they said, made matters worse. One by one, Christians visited their hospital rooms with pet theories.

God is punishing you. No, not God. It's Satan. No, it's God who handpicked you to give him glory.

It's neither God nor Satan. You just happened to get in the way of an angry mother bear.

As one survivor told me, the theories about pain confused me and none of them helped. Mainly, I wanted assurance and comfort from God and from God's people. In almost every case, the Christians brought more pain and little comfort.

the best and clearest indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming to Christ is the way we treat other people.

the best and clearest indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming to Christ is the way we treat other people.

this brother had never been truly converted despite his church activity.

the gospel had not penetrated his heart.

How can you become converted?

How can you make the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just an influence in your life, but the controlling influence, the very core of what you are?

Boyd K. Packer referred to that in his book, Teach Ye Diligently as perhaps the most repeated of all gospel admonitions was to knock, to seek, to ask.

Boyd K. Packer referred to that in his book, Teach Ye Diligently as perhaps the most repeated of all gospel admonitions was to knock, to seek, to ask.

And I did want to mention he's the editor of a book called New Testament, History, Culture, and Society, a background to the text of the New Testament.

That's a religious study center publication. We've talked about that before.

It is a big book and it is worth your time. If you want to know about the New Testament, this will give you...

New Testament History, Culture, and Society, a background to the text of the New Testament came out in 2019.

It's healthy to look for symbolism and likenesses, things that point you to Jesus, to his ministry, to his life.

Once the Lord laid his hands upon me on October 12, 1972, by the hands of his servant, President Herobili in ordained me to the Holy Apostleship.

I'm going to read a short bio from the back of one of my favorite books, The Miracles of Jesus. That it's a beautiful book too. It's full color, gorgeous illustrated.

I wrote a book some years ago called Worship Adds In-depth to Your Devotion and I talked about this wonderful Jewish concept called Kavanah, which is the idea of truly orienting yourself to God.

And this one, Becoming the Beloved Disciple, Coming unto Christ Through the Gospel of John.

That was the basis for your book, right? Eric, Becoming the Beloved Disciple.

Yeah, exactly.

But it ended up being a book about discipleship.

I thought when I finally write a book about John, it's going to be about the high Christology of John. It could be about the divine Jesus.

In fact, I noticed this might be the most recent Becoming the Beloved Disciple coming unto Christ through the gospel of John. Is that your most recent?

Yep. Yep.

he just wrote a fantastic book chapter on Micah here in third Nephi and how it's used. It's in this new book that just came out They Shall Grow Together, The Bible in the Book of Mormon, which is just full of fantastic articles about the dynamic between the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

That's printed by the RSC. Yeah, Religious Study Center and Deseret Book.

We want our listeners to know about a book called, and They Shall Grow Together the Bible in the Book of Mormon.

And it's published by Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book.