Where To Start

[snipe123]

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So what would you all suggest as a general path to follow in trying to gain a greater understanding of the Church?
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A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker
Adventures of a Church Historian by Leonard Arrington
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon Part's One through three by Royal Skousen
Anchor Bible Dictionary
An Exhaustive Concordance of the B of M, D & C, & P of G P by Shapiro
Ancient Texts and Mormonism by Eugene Seaich
B.H. Roberts: Studies of the Book of Mormon by Brigham D. Madsen
Backgrounds of Early Christianity by Everet Ferguson
Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era by J. E. Esslemont (might seem like a strange suggestion, but it has the "Grand Fundamental Principles of Mormonism" written within many of its tenets).
Barbarian Philosophy: the Religious Revolution of Early Christianity by Guy G. Stroumsa
Biblical Nonsense by Dr. Jason Long
Book of Mormon Authorship by Noel Reynolds
Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins by Noel Reynolds
Building the City of God by Arrington, Fox, & May
By Study and Also by Faith by John Lundquist and Stephen Ricks
The Bible Says 1830 by Chris Tolworthy


Hopefully the A's through B's will keep you busy for at least a little while.
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LoL---I think you may want to direct him to a little milk first, before choking him with meat...or did you miss the part where he said he was new? Geez...

[Jason]

http://www.journalofdiscourses.org/

The only site you need.

[Canuck Mormon]

What I do FrankJL is pick a certain topic, then research that topic. When I feel I know the topic pretty well, I pick a new topic. I felt that looking at the whole gospel was a little overwhelming, so I broke it down into little pieces. I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I only recently returned to activity after many years. I have learned a lot more in the past 4 years than I did while I was growing up in the church. That's my suggestion, but do what works best for you. Good hunting & learning.

[snipe123]

http://www.journalofdiscourses.org/

The only site you need.
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"Waiter! Can I get a steak over here please? I have an infant at the table here that needs something to choke on!" LOL

[sixpacktr]

FrankJL,

Another thing that has worked very well for me is to mark up my scriptures by color code (red is general, green is priesthood, blue is Christ, yellow is AoF 4 and HG), and to also take copious notes in the columns/sides/bottom/top of the page, how that particular scripture or passage relates to me, how it relates to other scriptures, etc. I marked up a BOM last year and intend to do at least two more that way and give them to my kids for Christmas presents sometime in the future so that they can see my testimony of the BOM thru my markings and notes...

Another way to read the scriptures is to do as Nephi said: liken them to you. Find the Nehors, Korihors, and Gadiantons around you. Find the Captain Moronis and Nephis, etc. Relate the times of the Nephites to us and to you and how you fit in. It really makes the scriptures very relevant to your life more and helps me feel the spirit...

It works well for me, has for many years, and it is interesting to read back thru side notes to see how a scripture affected me at one time that it may not at this time.

[Gwen]

What I do FrankJL is pick a certain topic, then research that topic. When I feel I know the topic pretty well, I pick a new topic. I felt that looking at the whole gospel was a little overwhelming, so I broke it down into little pieces. I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I only recently returned to activity after many years. I have learned a lot more in the past 4 years than I did while I was growing up in the church. That's my suggestion, but do what works best for you. Good hunting & learning.
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this reminds me of a lesson we had awhile back on how to improve scripture study. one of the suggestions made was from an ensign article. lol yes i'm one of those that can say who or where. but anyway, as best i can recall, the suggestion was made to take a clean inexpensive set of scriptures (or just the book of mormon or whatever you want to read that yr) and pick three personal questions you want answers to. get colored pencils and write those questions in different colors in the front. each time you sit down to read; get your pencils, read your questions, pray, and then read for the answers to your questions; as the insite comes mark the scripture (and make any notes in the margin that you like) with the same color of the question the scripture relates to. when you are done you will have a manual from the scriptures for your very personal questions. each yr you can pick a new set of questions that are most pertenant to your life at that time.