The 2013 Joseph Smith Lecturer, Dr. Kerry Muhlestein, associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU–Provo, knows a lot about the Book of Abraham, and he used this scripture story as the context for teaching a lesson on how to really “know” something. Students and the campus community came together to listen to him speak at the November 12 Devotional on the relationship between knowledge and revelation. His talk, titled “The Book of Abraham, Joseph, Revelation, and You,” focused on having a greater understanding of the duty that we have to gain an education and also treasure revelation.
Encouraging the practice of thinking about the methodology used in the pursuit of knowledge, Muhlestein pointed out lessons found in the Book of Mormon. He spoke of Jacob’s warning to the learned that they must not ignore the counsels of God. Many times, the learned of the world choose to follow their own idea of what is correct instead of relying on the words of God as taught through the prophets. Too often scholars make mistakes by following assumptions that they made, sometimes ignoring or putting aside revelation and replacing it with the academic process. He gave the example of “Facsimile One from the Book of Abraham” and how assumptions about its message and translation had affected the faith of scholars in the Church. He stated that many people let the controversy of the subject get in the way of the revelations and teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. Later discoveries revealed that the controversial assumptions had been incorrect, but those people had already lost their testimonies.
Muhlestein warned, “If something you learn from the world seems to contradict what you have learned through revelation, carefully question all your assumptions, but never forget the validity of what God has taught you through revelation.” This address was the first of three talks Muhlestein gave on campus as part of the Joseph Smith Lecture Series. The full text and video of this address is available online at http://devotional.byuh.edu/media131112
University Devotionals are held each Tuesday at 11 AM in the Cannon Activities Center. Previous Devotionals can be viewed at devotional.byuh.edu