There are various theories about what happened to the 116 manuscript pages that were lost by Martin Harris. Harris apparently broke his promise to only show the pages to his family and they may have been stolen by one of those persons. There has been speculation that the pages were stolen by treasure hunters seeking … Read more
People do not usually grow more open and flexible as they age. We tend to become settled in our habits of behavior and in our opinions. We cluster comfortably into groups of like-minded folks and shake our heads at those who live, think, and behave differently than we do. Because we find safety in the … Read more
This week in Sunday School we discussed the event in Luke 4:16-30 when Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue in Nazareth and announced that the scripture was fulfilled that day in him. Sunday School classes typically emphasize the “no prophet is accepted in his own country” (Matthew 4:24) part of the story and the … Read more
The Book of Mormon did not come to us easily. Nephi hand made a set of plates out of gold (which he had mined and refined) and engraved the record of his people upon them (1 Nephi 19:1-6). He even made a duplicate set of plates, for a reason he did not know, because the … Read more
Early Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt taught that Theology includes “all other sciences and useful arts.” This puts the religion of the Latter-day Saints squarely on the side of science and advanced learning. There is no room for dogmatism, provincialism, or narrow-mindedness in the Church of Jesus Christ. [Theology] is the science of all other … Read more
In the earliest Hebrew religion there were several Gods. El Elyon (God Most High, El), His wife, El Shaddai (Elat, Asherah, Wisdom, Sophia), and their Son, Jehovah (The Lord God). In Proverbs, chapter 8, the female Goddess, Wisdom, speaks about how she, too, was present at the creation. When he prepared the heavens, I was … Read more
This past Sunday, I taught a lesson on the martyrdom of Joseph Smith to the Gospel Doctrine class in my ward. Rather than use the manual, I created a timeline using the History of the Church, Volume 6, as my primary source. (I have added this timeline, and the related class resources I compiled, to … Read more