Temple Study

“Thy Mind, O Man,” photograph of original manuscript. The Joseph Smith Papers.

Friends, many of you have been wondering where I’ve been over the last few years, and what I’ve been up to. I’ve been involved with a variety of projects, and I’ve also been studying. Over the past five years or so I have studied many different subjects, and I’ve studied them deeply. I feel I have learned much, and grown in many ways, and I would like to begin to share what I’ve learned, with you. Although what I have to share has everything to do with the temple, it approaches the subject matter differently. John Welch notes that after Joseph Smith Jr. had been incarcerated in the hellhole of Liberty Jail for almost five months, “the Prophet burst beyond the walls of his surroundings with these expansive words”: ((Welch, John W. (2011) “”Thy Mind, O Man, Must Stretch”,” BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 50 : Iss. 3 , Article 4. Available at: http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol50/iss3/4 or at https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/john-w-welch_thy-mind-o-man-must-stretch/. Welch gave this address as the recipient of the 2010-2011 Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award on May 17, 2011, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.))

The things of God are of deep import, and time and experience and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O Man, if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost Heavens, and search into and contemplate the lowest considerations of the darkest abyss, and expand upon the broad considerations of eternal expanse; he must commune with God. ((“Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839,” p. 12, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 6, 2017, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-the-church-and-edward-partridge-20-march-1839/12. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation standardized. A photograph of the original manuscript can be seen at the top of this post.))

So I thought that I would start a new website at ThyMindOMan.com to better capture this new approach to the subject—exploring the mind’s relationship to God. I will explore how we might be able to use our mind and consciousness to explore those heights and depths that Joseph referred to, and to commune with and ultimately become one with God, something Joseph said we must do. And I want to share my thoughts with you.

Thank you for your dear friendship and conversations that we’ve had on TempleStudy.com. It’s been a truly remarkable decade.