“You may say I’m a dreamer; but I’m not the only one.” John Lennon.
Acts 2:17: “. . . your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
Archive for the 'scripture' Category
Something I have mentioned before is that I believe many members don’t really understand what the Book of Mormon actually says about many things - just like few Christians really understand what the Bible actually says about many things. Much of my perspective on this issue stems from my belief that it is a natural reaction to accept what others say about topics with which we do not feel comfortable claiming to be experts. As long as the explanation we hear sounds good - as long as it makes sense to us - we often take it at face value and don’t examine it closely and critically. This is true especially when the one giving the interpretation is in some position of authority.
This is my first “Common Scriptures in Review” post - something to consider as an alternative reading to what many assume. Continue reading…
Andrew wrote a beautiful and moving post recently - “Dark Night of the Soul“. In reading that post and the subsequent comments, I had an epiphany about my own experience with certainty and doubt. I have been thinking about how to explain the difference between my experience and Andrew’s - and, even more interesting, the similar result from such different experiences. I will not try to summarize Andrew’s post here; that would not do it proper justice. What I will post here is the epiphany that struck me as I read it and the comments about it.
I have not experienced the “dark night” Andrew describes. Continue reading…
(The following is a re-post of something our “son” wrote on his blog last year - and that I posted at T&S when it occurred and I was guest blogging for a couple of weeks. I was struck immediately by the similarities between his experience and the parable of the Good Samaritan. I cleaned up the language a bit for those who don’t want the full linguistic brunt of his ire on his own blog.)
“Today, I lost my faith in humanity. Continue reading…
What constitutes swearing? Is it always wrong? If so, why? Continue reading…
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?
As a child, the story of Moroni visiting Joseph Smith seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on just why. Only later, on reflection, did the mythic aspects of the story stand out more sharply.
Now that we’ve discussed the nature of the First Vision, what did it mean?
There are many meanings, the most vital being those which each person can discover for herself or himself. Here are those we are most familiar with, because they have been written and spoken about at length in the official media of the institutional LDS Church:
And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Exodus 33:23
The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:22
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16
“We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Many of us seem to break out into hives when this scripture is mentioned. A while back I read a comment about this scripture (by a member of the church) that suggested the “after all we can do” should be left off the next time someone uses it in a talk. What does “all we can do” mean, and why does it bother us?
How much does God intervene in our lives? More than we give credit to Him or less than some would like to believe? Why do some require evidence of God’s will in even the most mundane aspects of life? Is this seeking for a sign?
glurge (GLURJ) n. A sentimental or uplifting story, particularly one delivered via e-mail, that uses inaccurate or fabricated facts; a story that is mawkish or maudlin; the genre consisting of such stories. Continue reading…
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 most unseemly and disturbing images in the Book of Mormon is when Nephi is commanded to cut the head off of Laban who lies drunken at his feet. So, what did Laban do to get on God’s hit list? Did he deserve it? Was it necessary? And how did some of the other deserving baddies (such as Laman & Lemuel) escape with their heads intact? 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…
Is it ever appropriate to intervene when someone “unworthy” is going to take the sacrament? What level of “unworthiness” makes such intervention justified?
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…
1 Kings Chapter 18 tells the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal. We read that Elijah and Ahab confront each other, and Elijah challenges Ahab’s new god, Baal, and his priests in showdown of divine power. After the priests are unable to summon Baal’s power to burn their scarified offering, Elijah succeeds in doing so by engaging the powers of heaven. Everyone learns a good lesson about not trusting in idols and the need to serve God, but a rather disconcerting detail about what Elijah does next is often overlooked. Continue reading…
Orson Scott Card has written some on King Mosiah, but I’ve got another point. He flees the land of their first inheritance. He arrives in the midst of a people who have fought many wars. Next thing you know, and the narrative doesn’t mention it at all, a Nephite faction leaves to go back, because they think they are strong enough to retake their homeland. That they come to grief surprises no one, but what should take your attention is that they think they can do it at all.
Think: Mosiah, Benjamin, Mosiah, three kings, in parallel, somewhat, to the King Noah and Alma, Alma the Younger story. Somewhere in there they gain enough additional strength and numbers that they think that instead of running away to avoid destruction, they are powerful enough to visit destruction instead. Continue reading…
A few months ago, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting in which I discussed how studying other religious faiths and their scriptures had enriched my life. When the meeting was over, a couple approached me and said they wanted a copy of the talk to give their daughter because she described herself as a “Buddhist Mormon.” The couple said their daughter couldn’t decide whether to be a Buddhist or a Mormon, so she was trying to be both.
