Modest are Hottest

“Modest are hottest” was a popular saying among the young men at my high school. They used the slogan to encourage the young women to live and dress in a way that showed that they respected themselves and those with whom they associated.  My girlfriends and I totally bought in to what those guys were advocating because they were the guys who were worth being around.

Modest Prom Dresses

This was especially true when we would help each other get ready for school dances and other group dates and social events. In accordance with the standards in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, we didn’t wear strapless gowns, low cut necklines, belly shirts, short skirts or short shorts, etc. Instead, we covered our shoulders and cleavage, and avoided tight-fitting and sheer clothing.   This freed us up to dance or do other activities and enjoy the company of our dates and friends. We cared about looking fashionable, but also emphasized being comfortable and sufficiently covered.

I loved being modestly dressed on dates in high school because I didn’t have to constantly readjust my outfit. I could simply go from mini-golf to dinner to the dance without worrying about exposing myself. It kept the dates fun and engaging without any embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions.

While it is sometimes difficult to find modest clothing, it is definitely possible. There are all sorts of ways to modify current fashion trends to keep them cute and modest. We have to be creative sometimes! There are some trends, however, that will require personal judgement on whether or not it is acceptable. In those cases, consult with your friends, parents and the Lord to know if following the style would measure up to His standards.

While these guidelines seem targeted mostly at women, men should also keep from wearing clothing that is too tight or too baggy. We have also been counseled by the Latter-day prophets to stay away from tattoos, extreme hairstyles and piercings (one modest pair of earrings for women is fine). Modesty in speech is also important. We are counseled to avoid swearing, gossiping and inappropriate jokes and anecdotes.

5 Browns

I’ve been out of high school for several years now, but the idea that “modest are hottest” has stayed with me. I have  found that dressing modestly helps my dates feel more respected and at ease. They are able to focus on our conversations rather than being distracted or tempted by my body. Being modest keeps me and my friends from objectifying ourselves and giving in to the worldly notion that guys want slutty girls. We know that we are intelligent, humorous and have great personalities–so we put that on display instead!

I dress and speak modestly out of respect for myself, the people I’m around and for God, who created my body in the first place.
See Prophetic Prophets for more on modern counsel

Question Box: Divine Visitations

Question:  Do Mormon’s believe that non-eartly beings, divine or otherwised, have visited the Earth?   Thank you.

Yes, we believe that both God and angels have visited the earth.  All Christians, if they stopped to think about it, believe the same thing.   Some of the most well-known examples are

1) When God visited Moses in the burning bush (Exodus ch. 3),

2) When an angel told Mary that she would be the mother of Christ (Luke ch. 1), and

3) Angels visiting shephards in the fields announcing that Christ had been born (Luke ch. 2).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is unique in that we believe that God still speaks to men today.  In the early 1800’s, a young boy named Joseph Smith was concerned about which church he should join.  After much study, he finally realized that there was no way he could figure it out.  One night he read a verse in the book of James, which stood out to him (James 1:5).  He realized that the only way he could find out what to do would be to pray and ask God for direction.  In response to his sincere prayer, God the Father and Jesus Christ visited him and told him that none of the churches were true.  They told him that they were calling him as the next prophet to restore the true church to the earth again. (To see a short video representation of this story, click here.)

We believe that God has called prophets and apostles again to the earth.  Just as God visited Moses and gave him directions on how to lead His people, He has a prophet on the earth today who can receive guidance on what we should be doing now – President Thomas S. Monson.  Just earlier this month, we had the opportunity to listen to the prophet and apostles in a General Conference of the Church.  I love watching conference.  As I watch and listen, things stick out to me and I write them down, so I can work on them.  I know that God speaks to prophets today, because I receive help and guidance with my life as I listen to their messages.

Question Box: The Mormon Bible

From the question box: Does the Mormon Bible have the book of revelation in it?

Short answer: yes.

Our church has four officially canonized books of scripture, of which the Bible is one. We use and love the Bible because it is a book that contains revealed truth about God and Jesus Christ. No other book in our canon is referred to as a “Bible”, so when you say “the Mormon Bible”, you are really talking about the same Bible used by any other Christian church. In that sense, our Bible has the book of Revelation in it just like any other Bible does.

However, when somebody refers to “the Mormon Bible”, we assume they mean The Book of Mormon, which is another book in our canon of scripture. It is the testimony of Jesus Christ as recorded by a branch of the house of Israel that emigrated from Jerusalem before the Babylonian captivity. It contains many great truths, prophecies and testimonies of Jesus Christ, but it does not have the Revelation of John referred to in the question.

For more information as well as a discussion of our other books of scripture, you can follow the links below:

More Than the Bible?

The Book of Mormon: The Mormons’ Bible?

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

The Origins of God

Q. The origins of God

Wow that’s a big topic; perhaps too big for us mortals to deal with. The creation stories of many cultures begin with the gods already in place. The Jewish/Christian story is one such example Geneses 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Greeks with their highly developed mythology explored the question of where their gods originated; Edith Hamilton in her book Mythology begins by stating: “The Greeks did not believe that the gods created the universe. It was the other way about: the universe created the gods. Before there were gods heaven and earth had been formed. They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their grandchildren. Yet that still leaves the mystery of how the heaven and earth were formed and who might have had a hand in that process.

Every good story needs a beginning. A puzzle I used to present to my high school history students was: “What should the starting date of United State’s History be?” I would get dates  as recent as 1776 and as old as 30,000 BC. Another thing to consider is that for a story to make sense we have to be able to understand it. So the story in the scriptures begins with God in place and creating the world, and there isn’t much detail about the physics of the whole exercise.

Mormons believe in prophets and continuing revelation. From my study it appears that every age or so one of the main prophets gets the “Big Revelation”. They get to take a glimpse of the whole story and sometimes it can help us gain a better understanding of the eternal perspective. One of these revelations was given to Moses and is recorded in the Book of Moses found in the Pearl of Great Price. Allow me to capture the essence of the conversation as it was later revealed to Joseph Smith which is in Chapter 1.

God introduces himself to Moses and tells him that he is eternal and that his works and his words are endless and that no man can behold all his works or his glory and remain in the flesh. The Lord did however show Moses this world and all the children of men which were created. After a brief interlude the vision is again opened up to Moses and Moses begins to question how all these things could be. God then gives him the short answer to the question saying that all these things were created “by the word of my power, which is his Only Begotten Son.” He then says that, “worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose”. Essentially telling Moses that the vision of the earth on which we dwell is all he’s going to go into and that the bigger picture is just too much for Moses to comprehend.

So for our purposes all we need to consider is that God the Father exists and is eternal, that he has created the earth and the people of the earth through the power of the Son. We also know why He did it: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Of course our curious minds want to know more details and some hints are available both in the scriptures and through modern revelation, but it isn’t terribly important to our salvation, which we probably should be more focused on. We are asked to live by faith, which means trusting God before we have all the details.

So that is what Mormons believe…

…as for what they speculate: that belongs on a different website.

The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST)

Q. Why does the LDS use the KJV of the Bible and not the Inspired Version that Joseph Smith translated himself? I am a member of a Baptist church now but  I grew up and was in the RLDS. I still have my three-in-one and and I find that the inspired version speaks to me more and I get more out of it than any other translation there is.  I eagerly await your reply. Oh and although I am a Baptist now, I do not agree with people claiming Mormons and other LDS-based churches are not Christians and I respect what your church as done over the years. Keep up the good work; I know you are winning souls for Jesus. -Ivan

A. Thank you for your kind words, Ivan. I’m glad you are reading from the Inspired Version. I agree that it’s a tremendous resource for Bible study and worship and I pray you will continue to study it.

For the rest of our readers, let me explain a few things about your question before I get to the answer:

RLDS is an acronym for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ, an off-shoot religion based on the one Joseph Smith founded in 1830. When the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. was martyred in 1844, there was some confusion among the latter-day saints who should rise to lead them as the next prophet and president of the Church. A majority recognized the prophetic mantle had fallen upon Brigham Young and followed him west to the Utah desert. Some believed that eleven-year-old Joseph Smith III was supposed to succeed his father; this group remained in Illinois and eventually coalesced into the RLDS Church in 1860.

The Inspired Version of the Bible is also known as the Joseph Smith Translation (JST). It is an English-language translation of the Holy Bible based upon the King James Version (KJV). More details to follow.

A Three-in-One is a printing of the RLDS scriptures, including the Inspired Version of the Bible (JST), the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. It is similar to an LDS Quad, except we have four books (including the Pearl of Great Price), our Doctrine & Covenants is a bit different, and our Bible is KJV instead of JST. This is what prompted Ivan’s question (why don’t Mormons use JST?)

The Joseph Smith Translation

When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he learned that the Bible was incomplete. An angel taught the Book of Mormon prophet-king Nephi that, “when [the Bible] proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, [but corrupt groups] have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away” (1 Nephi 13:24,26). In other words, the Bible lost some of its original teachings over the centuries and it needed to be corrected.

Fortunately, God’s work cannot be thwarted. Jesus taught, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). After Joseph had completed his translation of the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, the Lord instructed him to do a similar work on the Holy Bible, but instead of being a translation from one language to another, it would be a translation from corruption to purity by the gift and power of God. In many instances, the original writings of the ancients were restored. Some of the changes Joseph implemented were meant to give verses a “plainer” meaning (clarifying archaic phrases or harmonizing doctrines), and a majority were simply grammatical improvements.

One of the most significant changes was made to Genesis. Instead of starting with “In the beginning…”, the JST opens with an encounter Moses had with God on Mount Sinai. Moses asks the Lord about the earth and why it was created. The Lord shows Moses a vision of the seven days of creation, and of Adam and Eve, etc. At this point, it jumps into the familiar KJV story, and it also includes more details on various other things, including the mysterious character named Enoch, who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). This section of the JST is included in the Pearl of Great Price and is known as the Book of Moses. You can (and should!) read the Book of Moses. It gives wonderful insights into the fall of Adam and Eve, knowledge of the plan of redemption in ancient times, the purpose of life and much more.

There are many other JST changes throughout the length of the Bible. Most of the doctrinally-relevant ones can be found in the LDS edition of the Bible (in the footnotes, or in an appendix for lengthier passages). The full text is also available online at this link.

How Do Mormons Use the JST?

The Joseph Smith translation is not the official Bible of the LDS Church; the King James Version is. Among the reasons for this are the following:

  • It was never formally published by Joseph Smith. Although he clearly worked his way through the entire Bible by 1833, he was still making minor edits at the time he was killed in 1844, and it is unclear in some cases whether the notes he left in his margins and on his manuscripts were private thoughts or revealed truths.
  • At Joseph’s death, the manuscripts for the JST were in the possession of his widow, Emma. As Brigham Young was preparing to move the latter-day saints west, he requested that she provide them to him but he was denied (Emma had some animosity toward Brigham that led her to stay in Illinois; she became part of the RLDS Church when it was formed).
  • When the RLDS Church began publishing the Inspired Version, LDS Church leaders in Utah were suspicious that the RLDS publishers may have made some illegitimate changes. Decades later, they finally allowed the Utah Mormons to examine the original manuscripts and their fears were allayed.
  • For many years the RLDS Church maintained the copyright.

Even though the KJV is the LDS official Bible, the Book of Moses and the JST of Matthew 24 are officially canonized in the Pearl of Great Price. And, like I mentioned above, we have footnotes (I highlighted all of mine with green colored pencil) and an appendix full of JST notes as valuable resources to study. So, Ivan, we do believe in and study the Inspired Version.

The JST is a tremendous blessing for anyone seeking a better understanding of Bible teachings; I encourage you to use it often in your Bible study.