Just in case you missed it, the Interpreter Foundation’s 2018 public Christmas message, “Christmas in Transition: From Figgy Pudding to the Bread of Life,” was written for us by Elder Spencer J. Condie, an emeritus member of the Seventy.  It appeared on Friday:   “While Christmas traditions around the world have evolved, some losing their focus on the Christ child, there is still need for us to center our thoughts and hearts on his message of forgiveness and redeeming... Read more

    I  published this column in the Deseret News for 22 December 2016:   Behind the tinsel and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, beyond Santa Claus, Christmas represents an enormously serious claim — the incarnation of God or, literally, God’s “enfleshment.” “And the Word was made flesh,” says John 1:14, “and dwelt among us.” It’s a proposition unique to Christianity among the Abrahamic religions; Judaism and Islam make no such claim about the divine. In the first chapter of Genesis, God... Read more

    I published the column below in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News on 23 December 2010:   Today is Joseph Smith’s birthday. Contrary to the claims of our more extreme critics, Latter-day Saints don’t put up “Smithmas” lights, sing “Smithmas” carols, or recite the story of Joseph’s advent. In fact, we generally don’t mark his birthday at all, let alone celebrate it — and not only because it’s swallowed up in the mega-holiday that follows 48 hours later. However,... Read more

    Richard Winmill has kindly alerted me to an interview with the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, Guy Consolmagno S.J., in the Wall Street Journal:   “The Vatican’s Astronomer on God and the Stars: The pope’s chief stargazer, Br. Guy Consolmagno, discusses what the Wise Men saw, how to deflect an asteroid, and why science and faith are more than compatible.”   “The idea that you read the Bible like it was the... Read more

    I published this column on 25 December — Christmas morning — 2014:   Jesus wasn’t born on Dec. 25. Pretty much everybody knows that. But the precise date of his birth scarcely matters, compared to the sheer fact that he was, in fact, born. The notion that Jesus is merely mythical, that no historical Jesus ever actually existed, has gained surprising traction among non-scholars over the past decade or two, especially in certain vocally atheist circles. In an... Read more

    Tomorrow (Sunday, 23 December 2018) will mark the anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth.   You had forgotten?  Maybe you had never thought about it?  Perhaps you never knew at all?   Inconceivable.   For Latter-day Saints, according to a handful of extreme ex-member critics, Joseph Smith’s birthday is the most important, the holiest, the most sacred day of the entire year.   I published the column below (“A modern witness to the baby born in Bethlehem”) back on 18... Read more

    The latest installment of the biweekly Hamblin-Peterson Deseret News column is now available online:   “Christianity in India”   ***   Here’s an article from the very first volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, which was published slightly more than six years ago:   ““I Have Revealed Your Name”: The Hidden Temple in John 17”   “John 17 contains a richly symbolic Last Discourse by Jesus, in which the disciples are assured a place in the... Read more

    We’re a bit later than usual — I’m grateful that our volunteers are doing everything they’re doing, and I certainly don’t begrudge the fact that they have private lives! — but our statement of expenditures for the Interpreter Foundation is now up online for your inspection, should you choose to give it a look:   https://interpreterfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/expenses/3rdQtr-2018-Final.pdf   Please permit me to say a few words about it.   We set out to be open, public, and transparent —... Read more

    I’ll be meeting up in Cairo in just a few days with a tour group organized by the “Cruise Lady” company.  I thought that I would put together a chronology of basic Egyptian history that I might share with participants in the group.  Perhaps they’ll find glancing at it a helpful orientation. I make absolutely no claim to originality here; I’ve consulted several other timelines.  And I’ve included just a bit of biblical and other external history in... Read more

    This year’s special Interpreter Foundation Christmas message has now appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   “Christmas in Transition: From Figgy Pudding to the Bread of Life”   We hope that you’ll enjoy it.  Merry Christmas!   ***   I published the following words in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News on 24 December 2015:   As I write, I’ve just returned from a funeral. Snow covers the ground; the trees are barren, seemingly dead. It’s the season described by... Read more