Houston, You Have an Opportunity

Last updated on: January 6, 2025 at 11:36 pm By Dan Peterson

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will shortly be assaulted yet again by the entertainment media, this time in a soon-to-be-released Netflix series entitled American Primeval. Here’s a piece on it that includes a heartwarming trailer: “How did Kim Coates prepare for his role as Brigham Young in American Primeval? Details explored.” The recent Interpreter Foundation film, Six Days in August — which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book — took a rather... Read more

Two discoveries in biblical archaeology from 2024

Last updated on: January 5, 2025 at 5:13 pm By Dan Peterson

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Christianity Today has an interesting article up, written by Gordon Govier, under the title “Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2024: From a Mediterranean shipwreck to a mosaic on display in Washington, DC, these are the discoveries that made scholars of the biblical world say “wow” this year.” I share two of them here: 4. Redating a Jerusalem Wall A wall once attributed to King Hezekiah is now thought to have been built earlier by King Uzziah. This indicates... Read more

“We all have the same thing in common . . . we are dead.”

Last updated on: January 5, 2025 at 10:47 am By Dan Peterson

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I was out of the house for a substantial part of Saturday, and the power at our house was out for an even longer part of the day, and then it went out again, and then again, and then yet again — and, finally, I lost count, and I don’t know whether there were any further power outages throughout the night nor how many of them there might have been. All of that cut into my productivity just a... Read more

“Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s)”

Last updated on: January 3, 2025 at 2:34 pm By Dan Peterson

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A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It is “Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s),” and it was written by John S. Thompson, who currently serves as a researcher for the Interpreter Foundation’s sister organization, Scripture Central. Abstract: The official account of Martin Harris’s visit to Charles Anthon, canonized in the Pearl of Great Price, suggests that Anthon may have been shown more than one transcript by Harris. The differing responses... Read more

Gratitude, and “Prayer with Uplifted Hands”

Last updated on: January 2, 2025 at 5:24 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’m pleased to remind you that both Witnesses (2021) and Six Days in August (2024) are now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book. And I happily point out that each of them would very nicely accompany and complement this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum at appropriate points. In that connection, I received a note this morning from someone back in one of the eastern states — whose name is suppressed here in conformity with my rule of... Read more

Welcome to 2025!

Last updated on: January 1, 2025 at 12:09 pm By Dan Peterson

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First of all, I want to wish everybody who reads this a happy new year, a healthy and prosperous and satisfying 2025. I’m not a big fan of the New Year’s Eve and New Years Day holiday, but I’m pretty positive about such ideas as finding personal satisfaction, prosperity, good health, and happiness, and I would like them to be as widely shared as possible. Here’s an interesting account of a rather unique near-death experience that you might find... Read more

“Ring Out, Wild Bells!”

Last updated on: January 1, 2025 at 11:17 am By Dan Peterson

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What better words to end the year with than those of Alfred, Lord Tennyson? Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the... Read more

“We’re captive on the carousel of time”

Last updated on: December 31, 2024 at 12:35 pm By Dan Peterson

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Here is an interesting article by my friend Brian Hales and Michael Peterson (no relation) that was brought to my attention by another friend, Scott Gordon, the president of FAIR: “Doubt in the Digital Age: How a Perfect Storm of Random Forces Inflated the CES Letter Beyond Its Merits: What triggered the wide dissemination of the CES Letter? Examining a perfect storm of tech, naivety, and scholarly silence.” I agree with their analysis. The “CES Letter” is a very... Read more

In the bleak post-Christmas midwinter

Last updated on: December 29, 2024 at 9:15 pm By Dan Peterson

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When I was young, the weeks-long build-up to Christmas was always followed — usually by the afternoon of 25 December — by a severe let-down. After at least a month of mounting anticipation, Christmas was done. The presents had arrived, which was wonderful, but the surprises were past. There was nothing left for me to look toward. (I’ve never cared much about New Year’s Eve.) My relationship to Christmas is substantially different than it once was. I’ve long since... Read more

Rating the Book of Mormon

Last updated on: December 28, 2024 at 10:20 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’ve had a long and busy day today. I’ve scarcely been home and it’s late, so I think that I’m going to repost something that I originally put up several years ago. I still hold to it: There was considerable buzz back in 2014 about the results of a Facebook survey asking people which books had “stayed with you.” A writer for Salt Lake City’s Deseret News emphasized the fact that both the Bible (which came in sixth) and... Read more

Which Christian group traces its roots to John Calvin’s teachings?