“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” Timothy Keller Posted from Jerusalem     Read more

    Today was a simple day.   We passed through the “security wall” into Bethlehem, where we spent a bit of time at the traditional Shepherds’ Field.  Then we visited the Church of the Nativity.  We were obliged to wait for some time while a Greek Orthodox service was conducted in the grotto that tradition identifies as the birthplace of Christ — it is, after all, a functioning church, and only secondarily a tourist attraction — but we were... Read more

    An interesting 22-minute interview that’s available via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/lds-perspectives-podcast-david-f-holland-the-problem-of-pain/   Posted from Jerusalem     Read more

    I met Elder Stevenson before he was a General Authority.  He was also a mission president for one of my sons (and my son consistently predicted that he would someday be an apostle).  Finally, as luck would have it, I found myself sitting with him and his wife at the Church Administration Building just minutes before he was called to serve as a General Authority.  I didn’t know for sure that that was what was about to happen, but... Read more

    This, folks, is a brilliant, brilliant idea:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-muslim-cook-wanted-to-stop-the-hate-so-she-started-inviting-strangers-to-dinner/2017/05/05/370b96ca-30f2-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.04d2d1fbd91a   I love it for itself, and I hope it spreads.  I also think that others — emphatically including Mormons — could use it, or something like it.   Posted from Jerusalem     Read more

    An interesting article that might suggest some ways of thinking about what it means to be a “Mormon scientist”:   What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Catholic Scientist’?   Posted from Jerusalem     Read more

    An interesting point from the Church Commissioner of Education:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865679445/Book-of-Mormon-can-be-a-revelatory-experience-Elder-Kim-B-Clark-tells-young-adults.html   Posted from Jerusalem     Read more

    The prominent evangelical Protestant philosopher J. P. Moreland earned a degree in chemistry before proceeding to degrees in theology and philosophy.   “In Scripture, faith involves placing trust in what you have reason to believe is true.  Faith is not a blind, irrational leap into the dark.  So faith and reason cooperate on a biblical view of faith.  They are not intrinsically hostile.” J. P. Moreland Posted from Jerusalem   Read more

    I’ve loved this song since I first heard it many years ago:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QC8EGnxTw   Our Cruise Lady group slept in until fully six o’clock this morning.  (I worry that we’re being too soft on them.)  Then, after breakfast, we drove up to Jerusalem.   We looked out over the city from the promenade in front of the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives.  Then we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where I spoke to... Read more

    I’m a bit late in referring to this item, but it suggests some good reading:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678621/2016-AML-award-winners-announced.html   I’m pleased to say that, among those mentioned in the article, the late Linda Hunter Adams was a dear friend, a volunteer editor for the Interpreter Foundation, and a fellow member of a reading group to which my wife and I belong; Thomas F. Rogers is also a member of that reading group, and has been a friend to my wife... Read more