I’ve been thinking a bit about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s of late. They were clearly deep in sin, in particular murder. They had killed a lot of people for bad reasons and, with the introduction of the Gospel into their lives, they realized what the price to be paid for that really was. Think about this as you’re reading Alma 17-22. Have you noticed that the first thing on the lips of Lamoni and his wife is gratitude for the mission and... Read more

Well, the will of the people has been made known and the goatee was too important to be ignored. I’m sure this will come up in Relief Society in a couple of years. This week, we will try something a little different:Historical Mormon Doctrine Smackdown! Which of the following two uncanonized yet influential bits of prophetic discourse is more influential in the church nowadays: The King Follett Discourse or The Family: A Proclamation to the World?The King Follett Discourse has... Read more

Sometimes I wonder if I am going about all of this all wrong. Take Adam, for instance. He is told to sacrifice animals, so he does. He doesn’t bother to ask why; He doesn’t care to ask for how long. He just sacrifices animals.For that matter, Adam doesn’t really seem to bother with trying to work things out on his own at all. He just humbly does what he is told and operates on the belief that at some point... Read more

My predictive abilities were better this past week as I had thought the Prophet would prove to be more influential than the Apostle (shocking, I know). But, on to this week’s match-up: Which is the more important, little-known, latter-day prophet:President George Albert Smith or President Howard W. Hunter?G. A. Smith: I think he was an eagle scout.H. W. Hunter: May have also been an eagle scout. In addition to voting in the poll on the right, please impress me, your... Read more

Not to be overly literal, but the Book of Mormon has a notion in it that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around: faith in the name of Christ.Let’s look at a couple of passages:Mosiah 1:11 – 12 11 And moreover, I shall give this people a name, that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I do because they have... Read more

Well, the ‘nacle has spoken and it turns out the Eliza was a greater historical figure. Who knew? I certainly didn’t, I predicted a runaway for Emma. In this week’s version, we ask the following question: Who has had a greater effect, internally and externally, on how the Church is perceived: Ezra Taft Benson or Bruce R. McConkie?Ezra Taft Benson, a prophet of the Lord, Eisenhower’s agricultural secretary (at a point when people cared about the agriculture secretary), member of... Read more

A few week’s back there was a discussion on Issues in Mormon Doctrine regarding the relative number of revelations and signs in the church nowadays as opposed to during the Joseph Smith period. One of the fundamental questions asked was, to paraphrase, why has the initial outpouring of revelation stopped?I don’t know. To be honest, I am not entirely certain it has. There is Geoff J‘s take and there is Ben S‘s. But, in reading the Book of Mormon today,... Read more

Blogger had a big ol’ hardware failure yesterday. But their feeling much better today and, as a result, we are back up and running. Thanks to those who emailed with concern! On an unrelated note, I am now the #1 reference on google for “Faith Promoting Rumor”. Yea for me! Read more

I am being given a tryout at BYU this fall in the religion department. Good or bad, it won’t necessarily turn into a job, but it could. Anyhoo, I have been thinking over my BYU religion class experiences, what was good and what was bad. I had two classes from religion professors, two from a language professor, and two from grad students. My first class was horrible, my remaining classes were better, because I got better at choosing them. I... Read more

This past Sunday, our stake high council speaker said something that struck me as interesting. I should be clear that I am not a high council speaker basher and therefore I will not point out that this is a rare enough occurance to warrant its own post. Instead, I will focus on what he said, sort of. In the course of his sermon, he brought up the miracle of feeding the multitude. Generally, when people talk about this miracle, they... Read more