My wife’s remarkable father turned ninety-eight at the end of December. Up to just a few months ago, he had been living on his own, in the house that he had shared with my mother-in-law until her death in 2013. He died at 9:30 this morning. He was ready, in fact he was eager, to go. But we will miss him very, very much. Posted just today, a new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and... Read more
Jonn Claybaugh kindly (and regularly) provides notes on the website of the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Church’s Come, Follow Me curriculum. This is the latest installment in his series: Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26 January 13–19: “I Saw a Pillar of Light” Also: Our friends at Scripture Central have created a new video that many, I think, will enjoy. Here is an initial glimpse at it, which... Read more
The Sunday School and personal study curriculum of the Church for 2025 will be turning in February to the translation of the Book of Mormon and to the Witnesses. Accordingly, the Interpreter Foundation is calling attention to materials that we’ve already prepared on the subject, which should be of use to teachers and students who are following the Come, Follow Me program. We hope that you’ll take a look at them and that you’ll spread the word. And more... Read more
This notice went out on the Witnesses Film Facebook Page earlier today: Hey, all you wonderful people! With this year’s Come, Follow Me gospel study centered on the Restoration, Church History and the Doctrine and Covenants, we wanted to remind everyone that in conjunction with the movies Witnesses and Undaunted, we did a series of short videos on the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon that address various questions that arise from the early history of the Church, and... Read more
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will shortly be assaulted yet again by the entertainment media, this time in a soon-to-be-released Netflix series entitled American Primeval. Here’s a piece on it that includes a heartwarming trailer: “How did Kim Coates prepare for his role as Brigham Young in American Primeval? Details explored.” The recent Interpreter Foundation film, Six Days in August — which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book — took a rather... Read more
Christianity Today has an interesting article up, written by Gordon Govier, under the title “Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2024: From a Mediterranean shipwreck to a mosaic on display in Washington, DC, these are the discoveries that made scholars of the biblical world say “wow” this year.” I share two of them here: 4. Redating a Jerusalem Wall A wall once attributed to King Hezekiah is now thought to have been built earlier by King Uzziah. This indicates... Read more
I was out of the house for a substantial part of Saturday, and the power at our house was out for an even longer part of the day, and then it went out again, and then again, and then yet again — and, finally, I lost count, and I don’t know whether there were any further power outages throughout the night nor how many of them there might have been. All of that cut into my productivity just a... Read more
A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It is “Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s),” and it was written by John S. Thompson, who currently serves as a researcher for the Interpreter Foundation’s sister organization, Scripture Central. Abstract: The official account of Martin Harris’s visit to Charles Anthon, canonized in the Pearl of Great Price, suggests that Anthon may have been shown more than one transcript by Harris. The differing responses... Read more
I’m pleased to remind you that both Witnesses (2021) and Six Days in August (2024) are now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book. And I happily point out that each of them would very nicely accompany and complement this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum at appropriate points. In that connection, I received a note this morning from someone back in one of the eastern states — whose name is suppressed here in conformity with my rule of... Read more
First of all, I want to wish everybody who reads this a happy new year, a healthy and prosperous and satisfying 2025. I’m not a big fan of the New Year’s Eve and New Years Day holiday, but I’m pretty positive about such ideas as finding personal satisfaction, prosperity, good health, and happiness, and I would like them to be as widely shared as possible. Here’s an interesting account of a rather unique near-death experience that you might find... Read more
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