“Whitewashing” is an accusatory term often used against the church to describe efforts to gloss over sticky points in doctrine or history. So, does the church engage in whitewashing? Continue reading…
Archive for the 'historicity' Category
Was the Book of Mormon translated? Was the Book of Mormon revealed? Was it inspired? Was it all three, or a combination of the above? How much does it matter?
by Joe Geisner, guest blogger
If one had a camcorder in Jesus’ day and had been at the feeding of the multitudes, would you have filmed Jesus feeding five to twelve thousand people with two fish and five loaves of bread until their bellies were full, with baskets of food left over? Later that night would you have captured on tape the disciples rowing on the Sea of Galilee in a storm and Jesus walking out to them on the water? In this miracle the disciples see Jesus, think he is a spirit, but Jesus calls out to them and tells them not to be afraid. Peter calls back to Jesus asking if he can come to Jesus, Jesus says “yes” but Peter starts to sink because of fear. At this point Jesus grabs Peter’s hand and raises him out of the water and helps Peter back into the boat. On another day with your camcorder would you have filmed Jesus ordering the stone removed from the cave where Lazarus had been dead for four days and Jesus commanding Lazarus to rise and Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead?
If the camcorder did not capture these miracles as described in the gospels, then what would our film have looked like?
I have been under the impression over the last 26 years in the Church that if one had a pretty strong testimony of the Savior, the truthfulness of the Gospel as restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith and other essential doctrines, that if would be enough for the average member to weather the storms of doubt, social rejection and, their discovery of new information that might come along from time to time.
As we know from JS-H 1: 8, Joseph Smith had attended various religious meetings and (in his own words) “In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them.” So, what did Joseph Smith (as a future Mormon) see in Methodism, and what practices in our faith correspond with the brand of Methodism Joseph experienced? Continue reading…
One of the interesting panel discussions at last weekend’s Restoration Studies Symposium was entitled “The Future Status and Use of the Book of Mormon in the Community of Christ.” The essential question raised is: if you aren’t sure (or don’t believe) that the Book of Mormon is a literal history, do you have to throw the book out with the bath water? (Community of Christ leaders apparently don’t think you have to…)
This discussion got me to thinking about scriptures in general and I came up with an analogy that I wanted to bounce off folks. I think that the Book of Mormon’s relationship with the Old and New Testaments of the Bible can be compared to the relationship between the Aeneid (the great Roman epic) and the earlier Iliad and Odyssey (the great epics of ancient Greece). Continue reading…
By Joe Geisner (guest blogger)
No I am not talking about Utah. I left Sam Brannan’s Zion for Joseph Smith’s Zion on April 11, 2008. I arrived at about 4 pm in Kansas City airport and almost froze to death waiting for the rental car shuttle. I had left 80 degree weather for 40 degree weather and began to wonder who really was the prophet? Obviously it was Brannan. The temperature never rose above 45 degrees, and we had snow in April! Continue reading…
Count up all the liberal Mormons you know. Now, compare that number to the number you knew ten years ago. Now multiply the difference between the two by the number of liberal General Authorities, then subtract from that number the number of anti-intellectual General Conference addresses you have heard in the last three years. Continue reading…
The following article, despite appearances, is not about whether or not Jesus existed. I accept that He did exist as an article of faith. This article is actually about a certain flawed way of thinking that we all sometimes fall into. As such, I admit up front that I know next to nothing about the historicity of Jesus. If you think you’re going to learn a lot about this subject by reading my post, you’re wrong. All that I know on this subject I got off Wikipedia from this article. Go read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. Maybe someday I’ll get serious about the historicity of Jesus and actually make a real attempt to study it. But in the mean time, bear in mind that this article has nothing to do with whether or not Jesus existed. And how does this relate to Mormonism? I believe it will apply across the whole Mormon spectrum.
Not long ago I came across someone on the internet on Yahoo Answers asking for evidence that Jesus even existed. Several decent answers were posted pointing to the non-Biblical sources that refer to, or seem to refer to, Jesus. These are: Continue reading…
My uncle emailed me the other day. The bishop in his ward gave a talk about the Kirtland Temple and explained how the LDS church donated $100,000.00 per year to the Community of Christ for its upkeep. My uncle wanted to know, “is that true?”
I knew it wasn’t. My work with the John Whitmer Historical Association for the last few years has allowed me to form close connections with a number of Community of Christ leaders. But since this had been preached from the pulpit as a fact, I wanted to respond with definitive facts. So I talked to my friend Barbara Walden who is the director of the Kirtland Temple, and I put the question to her directly. Continue reading…
Recently, the LDS Church made a change to the introduction page of the Book of Mormon that has garnered much press. The change seems to be intended to dispel common perceptions among LDS folk (leaders and members) that Native Americans are reliably the descendants of the Lamanites discussed in the Book of Mormon.
Is this change a big deal, or much ado about nothing?
Today we hear from Ronan James Head, John Hamer and John Dehlin on this topic.
