Bible

The Scriptures on Religion

November 7, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion. (Alma 43:47)

We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul. (Doctrine and Covenants 134:4)

Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist. (Joseph Smith — History 1:5)

Behold, we have not come out to battle against you that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. But this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion.

But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith. (Alma 44:2-4)

Scripture Links

August 10, 2008 by rickety 2 Comments

Note: Since lds.org was redesigned many of these shortcuts do not work. Check back for updates.

Studying from my scriptures is a great way to improve my life. I want to know how to quickly get to them online, and it has been useful to me to learn these shortcuts.

To link to a scripture so that it is highlighted use:

scriptures.lds.org/en/hel/13/26-30#25
where:
en = English (de=German, es=Spanish, fr=French, it=Italian)
hel = Helaman
13 = chapter
26-30 = verse range
#25 = starting verse at the top of the page (not highlighted).

Notes:
When no language is specified, defaults to English.
Here is a list of abbreviations. This is about all you need to know except for a few additional ones I list.

To refer to separate verses use commas:
scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/89/1,4-5#1

To refer to the study helps indexes:

scriptures.lds.org/en/gs links to Guide to the Scriptures. Substitute for gs bd, tg, in, jst, biblemaps, or chmaps for the other helps. Add a through z to access the contents, for example scriptures.lds.org/en/gs/d lists all topics beginning with d. This works for the other helps except for the JST which uses a number to refer to select passages. biblemaps, in addition to a through z, also accepts a map number from 1 to 14 as does chmaps with map numbers from 1 to 7. biblephotos and chphotos only accept numbers 1 to 32 and 1 to 18 respectively.

Old Testament

Example: scriptures.lds.org/en/ps/127/4-5#5

Only use ot for contents (ot/contents) or The Epistle Dedicatory
(ot/epstlddc)

Genesis gen	Ecclesiastes eccl
Exodus ex	The Song of Solomon song
Leviticus lev	Isaiah isa
Numbers num	Jeremiah jer
Deuteronomy deut	Lamentations lam
Joshua josh	Ezekiel ezek
Judges judg	Daniel dan
Ruth ruth	Hosea hosea
1 Samuel 1_sam	Joel joel
2 Samuel 2_sam	Amos amos
1 Kings 1_kgs	Obadiah obad
2 Kings 2_kgs	Jonah jonah
1 Chronicles 1_chr	Micah micah
2 Chronicles 2_chr	Nahum nahum
Ezra ezra	Habakkuk hab
Nehemiah neh	Zephaniah zeph
Esther esth	Haggai hag
Job job	Zechariah zech
Psalms ps	Malachi mal
Proverbs prov

New Testament

Example: scriptures.lds.org/en/eph/4/32#32

Only use nt for contents (nt/contents)

Matthew matt	1 Timothy 1_tim
Mark mark	2 Timothy 2_tim
Luke luke	Titus titus
John john	Philemon philem
The Acts acts	To the Hebrews heb
The Epistle to the Romans rom	The Epistle of James james
1 Corinthians 1_cor	1 Peter 1_pet
2 Corinthians 2_cor	2 Peter 2_pet
Galatians gal	1 John 1_jn
Ephesians eph	2 John 2_jn
Philippians philip	3 John 3_jn
Colossians col	Jude jude
1 Thessalonians 1_thes	Revelation rev
2 Thessalonians 2_thes

Book of Mormon

Example: scriptures.lds.org/en/moro/10/32-33#32

Only use bm for the first seven items below

Book of Mormon contents bm/contents
Title Page bm/ttlpg
Introduction bm/introduction
The Testimony of Three Witnesses bm/thrwtnss
The Testimony of Eight Witnesses bm/eghtwtns
Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith bm/jstestimony
A Brief Explanation about The Book of Mormon bm/explanation
First Nephi 1_ne	Alma alma
Second Nephi 2_ne	Helaman hel
Jacob jacob	Third Nephi morm
Enos enos	Fourth Nephi 4_ne
Jarom jarom	Mormon 1_ne
Omni omni	Ether ether
Words of Mormon w_of_m	Moroni moro
Mosiah mosiah

Doctrine and Covenants

Example: scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/121/46#46

Doctrine and Covenants contents dc/contents

Explanatory Introduction dc/introduction

Chronological Order of Contents dc/chrono

Official Declaration—1 od/1

Official Declaration—2 od/2

Pearl of Great Price

Example: scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1/13#13

Pearl of Great Price contents pgp/contents

Introductory Note pgp/introduction

Selections from the Book of Moses moses

The Book of Abraham abr

Facsimile No. 1 abr/fac_1

Facsimile No. 2 abr/fac_2

Facsimile No. 3 abr/fac_3

Joseph Smith—Matthew js_m

Joseph Smith—History js_h

The Articles of Faith a_of_f

One Nation Under God

July 5, 2008 by rickety 4 Comments

In my childhood in England I belonged to no church and religion was not part of my life — except in school. Religion was a required subject and it was in school that I learned many Bible stories. I didn’t believe in God and to me these religion classes were merely educational. However, I would be a poor, rickety specimen of manhood if I had not learned about the courage of David and Daniel, the history of the Jews, and the great moral lessons that flow from Christianity. In my Mormon faith some of my favorite hymns are those I would sing long ago at school assembly each day. Hymns such as All Glory, Laud, and Honor, Onward, Christian Soldiers, and Angels We Have Heard on High.

In some American schools the Pledge of Allegiance is recited complete with the 1954 addition of “under God.” In some quarters this is seen as very distasteful. But to me the addition seems to be more of a correction, an alignment with history. Consider the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. I direct you to a part of the fourth verse:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’

So it seems the Pledge was lacking until it was configured to reflect our dependence upon our God. Further, with the numerous times daily one is subjected to the taking of the Lord’s name in vain just one positive reference to God should be welcomed by all. I would hasten a guess that all this fuss about trying to remove, or not to hear two words would boggle the minds of my school friends, now grown, back in England.