It’s time that you folks out there who accept the authentic antiquity of the Book of Mormon frankly acknowledge your wickedness. This may be strong medicine, but, someday, you’ll thank Steve Smoot for his brutal honesty: “Top 20 Evils You’re Responsible For By Believing the Book of Mormon” I have to admit that I was surprised to see the photo of me that accompanied Br’er Smoot’s article: I make it a firm rule never to reveal... Read more
On Saturday night, we went out with friends for dinner and to see the film Fighting with My Family, produced by (and including) Dwayne Johnson. It’s not exactly the world that I live in, but I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit. We had dinner at Zao’s, in Orem — a place that I’ve grown to like very much. Last night, Monday night, we met with a larger group of friends for dinner and then, afterwards,... Read more
From the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Strait and Narrow Path: A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Lesson 9: “He Taught Them as One Having Authority” *** From the indispensable Jeff Lindsay: “‘A Strange Piece of Work’ Poorly Explained by a Non-LDS Witness of the Book of Mormon Translation” *** I was involved in a small meeting up in Salt Lake City last Thursday afternoon. I was anticipating that Elder Gary Stevenson... Read more
Matthew 6:19-23 Compare Luke 11:34-36; 12:33-34 1. The transience of earthly treasures — referring not only to wealth, but to popularity, power, status, beauty, reputation, pleasure, and other such things — is a staple of religious moralizing, and not solely among Christians. And justly so, because one of the most obvious and undeniable facts of human life is that such things simply don’t last. Fame, beauty, reputation, power, and popularity typically fade — after... Read more
William Hamblin and I published this column in the Deseret News back on 4 October 2014: Amid the recent attention garnered by the barbaric cruelty and spectacular battlefield success of the Islamic State and its new caliphate (on which, see our previous column “Turning the clock back to the 7th century in Iraq?“), the sudden arrival on the scene of a new and very threatening terrorist group called “Khorasan” might easily be overlooked. (In fact, some commentators... Read more
I’ll be returning a bit over the next few days to Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018). Here’s a passage that struck me: The philosophical study of morality — of right and wrong — is ethics. Such study can render us more sophisticated in our choices. Even older and deeper than ethics, however, is religion. Religion concerns itself not with (mere) right and wrong but with good and evil... Read more
I was very pleased with the return of the Interpreter Radio Show to K-Talk (1640 AM) on Sunday night. Steve Densley, Craig Foster, and Matt Bowen did an excellent job of discussing Craig’s recent Interpreter article (“Assessing the Criticisms of Early-Age Latter-Day Saint Marriages”) during the first hour and the Sermon on the Mount in the second hour. *** I published this column in the Deseret News on 22 September 2016: When the Spanish conquistadors returned... Read more
Matthew 6:7-15 Compare Mark 11:25-26; Luke 11:1-4 Today’s reading is “the Lord’s prayer,” as it’s called. It deserves a book. (It’s received books.) And I’ve actually thought about writing one. But not today. Not here. It’s passages like this that tempt me to violate my self-imposed rule not to try to post exhaustive commentary but to limit myself to merely an observation or two. I simply don’t have time to do more, and I would... Read more
Muslim women, even devoutly believing Muslim women, wear a variety of clothing styles. Some follow no particular rules of dress (except modesty), while, at the other extreme, some others believe in covering every part of their bodies — even perhaps including their eyes — when in public or in the presence of unrelated adult men. Here’s a brief guide to some of the chief types of distinctively Islamic dress for women: *** In Qur’anic... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In
New Testament Notes 66-67
Matthew 6:24 Compare Luke 16:13 The admonition against attempting to serve two masters seems obviously, undeniably true, based on personal and universal human experience. I can’t help but think, in this context, of the title of Søren Kierkegaard’s little devotional classic, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. And also of the comment of James 1:8: “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” *** Matthew 6:25-34 Compare 12:22-32.... Read more