Here is my 2019 Easter column for the Deseret News: “Can modern people believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?” *** I published the Easter article below in the 24 March 2016 issue of the Deseret News: Since the appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820 and its formal organization in April 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has resounded with testimonies of... Read more
I published this article in the Deseret News on 13 April 2017: A decade ago, in February 2007, came the dramatic announcement that Jesus’ ossuary or “bone box” (and perhaps even his bones) had been found in Jerusalem’s southern neighborhood of East Talpiot. Scholars overwhelmingly rejected the claim, and it’s largely forgotten today. Briefly, though, it enjoyed a flurry of media attention — including an interview with Larry King, then a major television celebrity. “Is this the end of... Read more
The Interpreter Radio Show for 24 March 2019 is now archived, stripped of commercial breaks, and available for listening at no charge on the website of the Interpreter Foundation. Co-hosts Steve Densley and Matt Bowen discuss the New Testament with Professor Eric Huntsman: https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-march-24-2019/ But that’s not all: “Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 15 Easter: ‘O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?’“ The audio roundtable above — extracted from the 24 March 2019 broadcast of... Read more
First, two items about water or water-like liquid in space: “Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon” “Saturn’s moon Titan sports phantom hydrocarbon lakes: Three features that were filled with liquid appear to have dried up” When I was a kid, thinking (perhaps not seriously enough) about a possible career in something related to astronomy — see “For me, the horizon was a bit too close” — detailed information like that above about Titan simply... Read more
Winning the Nobel Prize is a remarkable achievement. But sometimes . . . umm, well, mistakes are made. Here’s a possible example: During the Second World War, Irena Sendler, a Polish Roman Catholic, received permission from the Nazi occupation authorities to travel into and out of the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing and sewer specialist. That’s an odd specialty for a woman who was a social worker by training. German officials were concerned about a... Read more
A significant passage from Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (Oxford University Press, 2019), 31-32: Mormons who are divorced or separated are more than twice as likely to be doubters as those who are married (28 vs. 12 percent). . . . The factor that makes the most difference, though, is not about age or political affiliation or marital status. It has to do with the people around you. . .... Read more
Luke 14:34-35 Compare 5:13; Mark 9:49-50 If we become bland, wholly conformed to the society and culture around us, in complete sync with surrounding social trends and current fashions, thinking just the thoughts that everybody around us thinks, desperately trying to ape the socio-cultural elite, there’s no reason for us to exist and no reason to call us the Church. Luke 15:1-10 Compare Matthew 18:12-14 There are at least three points to be drawn from these... Read more
St. John Chrysostom (ca. AD 349-407), archbishop of Constantinople, delivered this Eastern sermon around AD 400: Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If... Read more
I’m trying to get these things clear in my mind for a long-term project, so here is a first sketch. Comments and corrections welcome. This isn’t exactly my field of specialization: The term Big Bang was coined by the great English astronomer and astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle. “These theories,” he said during a BBC radio broadcast in 1949, “were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a... Read more
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New Testament Notes 223-225
Luke 16:10-12 Some of the Lord’s commandments, critics occasionally point out, seem so . . . well, so small. And, in a sense, they are. I remember once being asked whether I thought that a single cup of coffee would keep me out of the celestial kingdom. And, in a sense, I don’t. But if I were to adopt the attitude that the Lord’s will is unimportant to me, a matter of no consequence, that might.... Read more