A new entry in our series of short video “reels” went up on Saturday evening, Utah time, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 13: Plural Marriage – Part 1 What do we know about the practice of plural marriage in the early Church? Who was Fanny Alger? This is the thirteenth in a series compiled from from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film... Read more
I spoke outdoors this evening to a large group of young single adults (YSAs) at a YSA stake encampment on a private piece of land somewhere between Cardston, Alberta, and Waterton Lakes National Park. I’m still at the gathering; we’re staying in a remarkably nice RV that has been very generously provided for us. There are said to be something like five hundred young Latter-day Saints attending the encampment; I don’t know how many were there in... Read more
Two new articles appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. I hope that you will enjoy them and, moreover, that you will have a very enjoyable weekend: ““This Great Mystery”: Gathering Still Other Sheep through the New Covenant of Peace,” by Matthew Scott Stenson Abstract: The Book of Mormon sheds light on a “great mystery” located in John 10:16 (D&C 10:64). In this paper, using a comparative method that traces intersecting pastoral imagery, I argue that John 10:16–18 (as opposed to... Read more
I was scheduled pretty solidly today — I gave a fireside here at the Calgary Stake Centre tonight for which I needed to create or at least significantly revise my PowerPoint presentation (since the title that had been given out didn’t really fit what I was originally planning to present) and I wrote an article for submission to Meridian Magazine — so I share with you again here a few interesting passages that I marked some time ago... Read more
We’re just back from spending nearly six hours at the Calgary Stampede with a number of Canadian friends. Great fun — including delicious barbecue, chuckwagon races, trick riding, First Nations bareback pony races, country singers, rope tricks, bands, dancers, fireworks, multicolored illuminated drones in spectacular formations, and good conversation. (We never tried any of the carnival rides, though.) Earlier in the day, we enjoyed lunch with friends from our recent Israel tour at the River Café on... Read more
Three new items went up today on the (obviously pretty much moribund and comatose) website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets — Prophets and Scriptures” Between 7 March and 17 October in 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of thirty weekly lectures on KSL Radio that were also published as pamphlets. The series, called “Time Vindicates the Prophets,” was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of... Read more
I find myself deeply moved and profoundly impressed by the images from the new NASA James Webb Space Telescope that are being released. I offer three of them here, with captions from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration itself. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for... Read more
I have a little more information about the talk that I’ll be giving in Calgary on Thursday, 14 July 2022, at 7:30 PM. I’ll be speaking in the building known as the Calgary Stake Centre, for which the address is 2021 17 Ave SW Calgary, AB T2T 0G2. If you’re in the Calgary area, I hope to see you there. I realize that Thursday is a rather unusual night on which to have a church fireside, but, given... Read more
In the portion of my post from yesterday that talked about our visit to Vancouver Island’s famous Butchart Gardens, I commented on the brilliant colors that are often reported in accounts of near-death experiences. I think that I’ll revisit the topic again, briefly. Here are four passages from John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), that report a multi-colored “sky” in heaven,: ... Read more
The Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film project continues to produce. Having completed its theatrical run, the original Witnesses dramatic film is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray and via streaming. Its docudrama sequel, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which came out a few weeks ago, is available on DVD and will soon begin streaming. Our companion website, Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, is up and still slowly growing. And the twelfth episode of our Witnesses-related short... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In