From time to time, when I’m commenting about the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, a critic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will respond with a dismissive and vague remark about the well-known weaknesses of eyewitness testimony. Now, it has always seemed obvious to me that such responses are transparently ad hoc, that such comprehensive rejection of eyewitness accounts is only selectively invoked: Nobody can really live a life based on the notion that... Read more
Here are some notes on the earliest Christian disciples and the raising of Jesus from the tomb: The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity. . . . There can be no rational doubt that they occurred, and that the main reason why Christians became sure of the resurrection in the earliest days was just this. They could say with assurance, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ They knew it was he. (Michael Green,... Read more
I threatened to tell this story the other day. So here it is: Back in the early 1890s, when I was in high school, my teacher in a class in either American government or American history — I can’t recall which it was, nor his name, though I think it was more likely American government — was a specimen of that rara avis, a card-carrying member of some socialist political party or other. Literally. He showed me... Read more
I received this note from my former dean in the BYU College of Humanities, and thought that some of you might be interested in it. If so, be sure to mark your calendar. The lecture will be given next Tuesday, 17 November 2020: Dear Colleagues, We invite you to join us for our University Forum on Tuesday (11:05 a.m.). The Forum and Q&A may be viewed on the BYUtv app; the Forum without the Q&A will be broadcast... Read more
Of late, it is has become fashionable in certain circles — overwhelmingly not among people, whether believers or not, in relevant academic fields or with relevant scholarly training — to claim that no actual historical Jesus ever existed. This is a topic that I have discussed and will discuss elsewhere but, for now, I’ll let a statement from the eminent Princeton Theological Seminary biblical scholar and textual critic Bruce M. Metzger (1914-2007) suffice on the topic: The... Read more
From Jeff Lindsay: “Video of My Presentation with Noel Reynolds, “’Strong Like Unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses”” *** Up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 45 “That Evil May Be Done Away” Ether 6-11 The discussants in the Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 45, “That Evil May Be Done Away,” focused on Ether chapters 6-11 were Terry Hutchinson, John Gee,... Read more
Still drawing on Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove: IVP and Nottingham: Apollos, 2011), 338-341: Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that moral standards are simply a function of culture — that is, that moral “truths” are relative to particular societies. Such an assumption renders the concept of moral “progress” quite empty. Moral standards or ideals may change — e.g., with regard to slavery or the treatment of women, or... Read more
I often encounter religious skeptics who declare that, unlike theists, they live in “the fact-based universe” — as if there exists only one such place and as if they hold a monopoly on reason and objective fact. And they commonly point to science as not only a paradigm for knowing “just the facts, ma‘am,” but as the ideal or even as the only genuinely valid avenue to knowledge or — a rather distinct concept, though its distinctness sometimes... Read more
It has been a long-standing policy of mine to refrain from political posts on the Sabbath Day. Some may be unaware of that, so I’m restating the policy now. I intend to maintain it. I firmly believe that there are things that are far more important than partisan politics, important as I consider those to be — and this is very much a part of what motivated me to post my blog entry on charity, civility, and community... Read more
I share with you here the concession speech that Mitt Romney offered following his lamentable loss in the 2012 presidential election: I also found this note, which I received yesterday (Friday) afternoon from my friend Tom Pittman, of considerable interest. I share it with his kind permission: Ready for two ironies? (1) In electoral votes, the most likely scenario is President Trump will lose by the same number of electoral votes that he beat Hillary... Read more
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