Mark 6:6-13 Luke 9:1-6 Compare Matthew 9:35; 10:1, 7-11, 14   This is a fundamental scripture for Latter-day Saints, and represents, really, the beginning of the Christian Church in the Old World.   Still today, the apostleship is fundamental to the organization and authority of the Church.  Not merely in the historical sense common to Christian churches generally, but as a living reality.   The number twelve is probably connected with the twelve tribes of Israel, just as... Read more

    You can now listen to or download the 10 March 2019 broadcast of the weekly Interpreter Radio Show.  The hosts for this episode were Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen.  They covered “Come Follow Me” Lesson 13 as well as discussing various biblical translations:   https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-march-10-2019/   The 10 March 2019 show will also be included in our podcast feed:  (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast).   ***   If you would like to listen to just the Interpreter Radio (audio) Roundtable for Come,... Read more

    Whereas, in English, we end our prayers with the Hebrew-derived word Amen, Latter-day Saint prayers in Arabic end in the obviously related word Amin (pronounced ah-MEEN) — or, to spell it in the ugly but fairly accurate transliteration system that I’ll be employing in this blog entry, aamiin.   Perhaps some will be interested to learn a bit about the range of meanings, in Arabic, for the root ’mn, which underlies that word amin.   There are two... Read more

    I’m reading Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Studies, 2018).  These notes draw upon it:   Those who are familiar with the story of the recovery of the Book of Mormon know that Lucy Harris, the wife of Martin Harris, became an implacable foe of Joseph Smith’s claims and that her objections to her husband’s involvement with the gold plates and their translation ultimately led to... Read more

    Over the years, I’ve read a great deal about so-called “near-death experiences” (NDEs), which I find both fascinating and, on the whole, believable.  One of the books that I’ve read is by Dr. Penny Sartori.  While working as a nurse in a British hospital for twenty-one years (seventeen of them in intensive care), she became concerned about modern medical treatment of dying patients and began research that would eventually earn her a Ph.D.  In the course of her studies, she became intrigued... Read more

    John 5:1 is so short that I’ll just give you the full text here, in both English and Greek:   “After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”   Μετὰ ταῦτα ἦν ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ ἀνέβη Ἰησοῦς εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα.   I want to concentrate, simply, on the idea of “going up” to Jerusalem.   The city of Jerusalem is situated on a relatively high mountain ridge, with the Mediterranean coast to the... Read more

    New, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Feeding the Multitudes”: A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Lesson 13: “Be Not Afraid”   ***   From the track and field website DyeStat:   “Running on Faith — Inside Casey Clinger’s Two-Year Mission to Japan”   ***   We were out to dinner with a number of valued friends and colleagues tonight — fifteen, in total — all gathered for a tardy celebration of the birthday of Professor Louis... Read more

    Back in January 2018, David Grandy, now an emeritus professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University and the author, previously, of books on such topics as Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (2003), The Speed of Light: Constancy and Cosmos (2009), and Everyday Quantum Reality (2010), dropped off at my office a new, self-published book of his entitled Worlds Without Number: An LDS Perspective on Infinity.   I’ll be down in the San Diego area for several days in April, in connection with... Read more

    While reorganizing books in a part of my library — and, truth be told, while looking for a particular book, though thus far in vain — I came across my copy of F. F. Bruce’s classic New Testament History (New York: Doubleday-Galilee, 1980), and, on a whim, decided to re-read it.  It’s been years and years since I read it and, this being a New Testament year for the curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day... Read more

    This blog’s resident atheist commentator likes to link theists to horrific world-historical violence, as if all or most war and genocide were driven by religion and as if irreligious people and militant atheists had never soiled their hands with such misbehavior and as if even most so-called “wars of religion” weren’t motivated largely or at least to a significant degree by quite this-worldly factors.  The stance is historically ridiculous, of course, and that fact has been pointed out... Read more