A few years ago the Church began including nativity scenes from various nations and cultures in its Christmas display at Temple Square. While the traditional nativity has always been a central piece of Temple Square at Christmas time, these other depictions of the crèche demonstrate the worldwide adoration for the Savior Jesus Christ.
In his Washington Post "On Faith" forum column this week, Michael Otterson, Public Affairs managing director of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explains that "countless Christians have wondered what it was truly like, not only on that most holy of nights, but later in Jesus Christ’s life." He explains that the Church began a new significant effort this year to depict the life of the Savior with the construction of a movie set representing scenes from Biblical times and the production of the beginning of many videos depicting Christ's life as taught in the Bible.
While the primary intent of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was to produce these videos to help teach our own people about the life of Christ, there is nothing in them that precludes their use by other Christians. No one owns the stories in the New Testament. The Bible stories are a priceless treasure, to be shared with everyone. Consequently, the new videos are available free of charge to anyone who wants to use them in conjunction with their scriptures. They are also available through a free mobile app in the iTunes app store called “Bible Videos.”