Scot Facer Proctor, publisher of Meridian Magazine, is now releasing the 2022 Come Follow Me Old Testament Calendar. To order yours (and gifts) today, please CLICK HERE.
You realize that our next course of study in Come Follow Me is The Old Testament, right? Does The Old Testament sometimes seem a little daunting? Are the ancient ways hard to understand? Have you had a hard time relating to “the God of the Old Testament”? Do you sometimes feel like, “If I can just make it through this year of study, well, at least next year is the New Testament and I know a lot about that.”? Well, if any of these things strike a resonant chord with you, help is at hand. I’ve created a visual aid to hang in your home, office, bedroom and hall that will help bring this ancient world to life.
I have been photographing sacred sites around the world for fifty years now. These past few months, with the careful and skillful talents of a gifted designer, Myntillae Nash, I have put together the 2022 Come Follow Me calendar on the Old Testament. You’ve seen my other calendars on the First Vision (2020) and Church History (2021). Now you can have scenes and inspiration from the Old Testament hanging on your wall all year long that will help immerse you in that ancient world.
Many of you have followed my photography over the years. It is my greatest desire to make these places come alive for readers and viewers everywhere. Maurine and I were blessed to do “the light series” beginning over 30 years ago. Witness of the Light centered on the Prophet Joseph. Source of the Light was our witness and testimony of Jesus Christ. Light from the Dust helped readers visualize the lands and times of the Book of Mormon. The Gathering followed the Mormon Pioneers from the British Isles and Nauvoo to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. All of these books contained my photography.
The Old Testament might more clearly be referred to as the Old Covenant. From the beginning of time, God has bound His children to Him by covenant and this holy book of scripture documents this relationship for four millennia. I’ve always taken God’s covenants and commandments as a sign of His extreme care and love for us. He sent us to this faraway planet with a veil placed over our minds, causing us to forget our glorious past, and yet through the unfathomable drop from that eternal world, He didn’t really drop us, he belayed us with these binding covenants. At times we think we might fall, but every covenant daughter and son have a grounded partner who skillfully belays us and can absolutely be trusted and relied on to catch us every time the need arises.
You can take a look at and then order your 2022 Old Testament Come Follow Me Calendars right now by CLICKING HERE.
I know from having taught institute for so many years that the 39 books, 929 chapters and 1,184 pages of the Old Testament can be overwhelming for most students. Relatively few have ever read it through. As in our extremely practiced knowledge of First Nephi in the Book of Mormon, most Old Testament students know Genesis way better than Habakkuk. I had not read the Old Testament all the way through before my mission to Germany, but because of so many ministers and religionists in that beautiful land challenging me in my teachings and asking simply: “Haben Sie die Bibel schon einmal ganz durchgelesen?” “Have you ever read the Bible all the way through?” I had read the New Testament many times by then, but I could not honestly respond in the affirmative for the entire Bible. I couldn’t resist it any longer so I took the plunge and read and studied the Old Testament, by course, for my first time, all the way through there in Germany. It was a glorious experience.
Because of the translation from the ancient Hebrew tongue, sometimes the student may miss in the text that all things in the Old Testament point to the God of the Old Testament, who is named Yahweh or Jehovah and is the very Jesus Christ of the New Testament. His name is used 235 times in Genesis alone. So, though it may not be readily seen in the English, everything in the Old Testament, not just the law of Moses, points to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Mount Sinai (the cover image of the calendar) was one of the heavenly hinge points of that ancient world. Here Moses and Jehovah met and conversed. “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” (Exodus 33:11) Here, Moses received the Law. Here Moses was shown all the inhabitants who had ever or will ever live on this earth. Here he was shown every particle of the earth, discerning it by the Spirit of the Lord. Here Moses experienced having the Lord’s presence withdrawn from him and it took him many hours to “again receive his natural strength.” “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.” (Moses 1:10) To realize that man was nothing meant that before this experience, having been raised in the riches and courts of Egypt, he thought man was something. What a humbling, revelatory experience!
The hope I have for this year’s Come Follow Me calendar is that you will be more immersed in the ancient world of the Old Testament, that the very presence of these images in your home or office (or bedroom or hall or mudroom) will carry your mind to a place of richness and remind you of the binding covenants of a loving, caring God who has not only never forgotten you, but is always with you.
I will do a series of articles that cover some of the adventures behind many of the pictures used in this year’s Old Testament calendar. Stay tuned.
To order your 2022 Old Testament Come Follow Me Calendars today (they make wonderful gifts) CLICK HERE. And tell your family and friends to go to latterdaysaintmag.com/2022 and order theirs today.
