We end 2008 with our annual Church Educational System special issue containing several articles focusing on the upcoming 2008–9 academic year curriculum, the New Testament. This important contribution is facilitated through the efforts of Thomas R. Valletta, who heads the CES committee; Karen Peisley, CES secretary; and Aaron L. West, editor. Additional members of the committee are Brett T. MacDonald, Bruce L. Andreason, Bruce G. Stewart, Douglas J. Geilman, Brian C. Theurer, Carl D. Grossen, Robert E. Lund, Mark D. Ellison, and Paul E. Spackman. We are grateful for their efforts.

We begin this issue with a timely and thoughtful essay that all teachers will want to consider by Elder Paul V. Johnson, “The Dangers of Priestcraft.” Blair G. Van Dyke, Jared M. Halverson, Sidney R. Sandstrom, and Eric-Jon K. Marlowe follow with their insights to a variety of New Testament topics. John Hilton III concludes the CES segment of this issue with his essay, “Helping Students Ask Questions.”

We jump from the world of the New Testament and issues relating to teachers and teaching to former Utah State Representative Jordan Tanner, who tells the story of his effort to make a difference in “Smoking and Health: Showdown on Utah’s Capitol Hill.”

We redirect our attention to the classroom with an important discussion on the internationalization of the Church. This aspect of the Restoration is manifest not only in the increasing number of missions beyond English-speaking nations, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States, and United Kingdom, but also in the internationalization of the Church in those nations. Nick Eastmond’s “Beneath the Surface of Multicultural Issues” will raise some questions that every teacher will want to consider.

We then move to a series of articles on various topics by Clyde L. Livingston, A. Paul King, Casey Paul Griffiths, Stephen J. Fleming, and Andrew H. Hedges. This section is topped off with an interesting interview with H. Curtis Wright, “Evidence of Ancient Writing on Metal.”

Fittingly, we conclude this year-end issue with Donald Q. Cannon’s “Lessons Learned at BYU.” A well-known historian and important BYU professor, Don muses on his university experience at the time of his retirement from the Church History and Doctrine Department in 2007.

We hope 2008 has been a year of blessing to you. Enjoy!

Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

Editor