God loves all of his children, even those who have sinned grievously or who have rejected him.  He is, after all, our Heavenly Father, and his love is deeper and richer and more constant than any love of which we imperfect and unstable mortals are capable.   In Moses 7, we see God weeping — to the utter astonishment of Enoch — over the suffering of those who have turned their backs on him and on his other... Read more

    I had personal reasons to be absolutely thrilled — as, in fact, I was — with the announcement of a temple to be built in the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.  And now, at last, the design for that new temple has been released.  I’m very pleased:   “Richmond Virginia Temple Renderings Released: Design plans and renderings have been released for the new Richmond Virginia Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”   ***   If you’re... Read more

    I’ve sailed past the island of Stromboli, off the coast of Italy.  Neighbors of ours sailed by it just last week.  In Jules Verne’s 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth — I was a really, really devoted Jules Verne fan when I was a kid — it was via Stromboli that the heroes, having descended into a volcano in Iceland, finally managed to return to the surface of the Earth.   Anyway, here’s some fairly... Read more

    Well, we’re preparing to launch into the new academic year at Brigham Young University.  Today, while on campus for our fall college and department meetings, I was pleased to discover two new arrivals in my office — volumes 12 and 13 of The Medical Works of Moses Maimonides, a publication series that I launched many years ago with Gerrit Bos, who is now Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany:   Maimonides, On the... Read more

    A video supplement created by Dr. Hales Swift for Come, Follow Me Lesson 34: “‘Ye Are the Body of Christ” is now available on the Interpreter Foundation website:   “The Importance of Christian Unity in 1 Corinthians”   ***   From the invaluable Jeff Lindsay:   “Is There Direct Evidence that the Early Saints Had Heard of Champollion?”   “Dealing with “Friendly Fire” on the Book of Abraham”   ***   From South America:   “Prophet Encourages Ecuadorian Saints to Make... Read more

    As always, the Middle East is in flux and a focus of differing opinions and controversy.  Here’s some recent news regarding Israel:   “As U.S. Jews Cool To Israel, Evangelicals Flock There As Tourists”   The baptismal site shown in the photos accompanying the article above is known as “Yardenit” and is located on the River Jordan just south of Lake Kinnereth. (Lake Kinnereth, also called “the Lake of Tiberias” is known among many Christians — though typically... Read more

    I’ve lately posted a loosely related series of four blog entries:   “The Thin Blue Line (1)” “The Thin Blue Line (2)” “On solid ground? (1)” “On solid ground? (2)”   Continuing in the spirit of those four entries, which attempt to sketch how thin the inhabitable circumference of the Earth is, I turn my attention to something much thinner still:   Soil is the loose, upper, “weathered” layer of Earth’s crust that is capable of supporting plant... Read more

    I believe that I’ve already posted my basic fall teaching schedule.  But just in case there’s anybody who’s interested and who is unaware, here is a summary:   MESA 320 T-Th 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM The Qur’an in English   IHUM 242 T – Th 12:05 PM – 1:20 PM Introduction to the Humanities of Islam   MESA 250  T – Th 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM Introduction to the Religion of Islam   It’s possible, even... Read more

    Continued from “On solid ground? (1)”:   The Earth’s crust is much like the skin of an apple — which is to say that it is very, very thin in comparison to the overall radius of our planet.  The oceanic crust, the crust under our major oceans and seas, is only about 8 kilometers (3-5 miles) thick and the continental crust, under and including the terrestrial land masses that extend above sea level (e.g., the seven continents), is about... Read more

    The 18 August 2019 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show, featuring Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Mike Parker, is now available and accessible — at no charge, of course, and shorn of commercial breaks — on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  The panelists’ topics of discussion included the Word of Wisdom, the teachings of church leaders, and, in their second hour, the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #35 on 1 Corinthians 14-16:   Interpreter Radio Show —... Read more