Author Archive for: DrOakley

Mans Spirit Eternal and Uncreated Smith then goes on to lay the foundation of the LDS denial of creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, the historic Christian belief that God did not create the universe out of pre-existing matter, but solely by His creative power and will.    Now, I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who

The Council of the Gods At this point Smith goes into a fascinating discussion of Genesis 1:1 and how this passage supports his theology, but we move past this to remain focused upon ascertaining the what of his theology more than the how at this point.    Oh, ye lawyers, ye doctors, and ye priests, who have persecuted me, I want

Learning to be a God     Smith’s attempts to defend this doctrine from the Bible are enlightening with reference to his claimed abilities as a Scriptural exegete, but we must pass over them lightly at this point, since we have much material yet to admit into evidence before getting to an evaluation of these claims.    The Scriptures inform us that

God is an Exalted Man God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make

The King Follett Discourse     It is quoted hundreds of times by LDS General Authorities in their sermons and books. So often is one section of it cited in Mormon history that even Stephen Robinson, a Mormon scholar who insists that critics of Mormonism stick to a narrow spectrum of official teachings of the Church, admits that this one statement

I have mentioned the fact that the person Paul Owen is in writing an article, for example, is not the person he is in “regular life” when interacting, especially, with those he considers non-scholars. The posting of the previous two articles, which I intended to be the end as far as my time currently allows, has led Owen to correct

But let us look at the specifics of this anti-apologetic, anti-evangelical position. First, Owen says Mormonism “allows” “certain heresies” in its system. No, Mormonism is based upon, and flows from, fundamental, foundational falsehoods, specifically, that God is an exalted man; that men can become Gods, and that God “became” a God through the eternal law of progression. These beliefs are

The letter came to my office via the CRI Journal. I had been asked to write an article for the journal on the apologetic errors of FARMS in the space of about 4800 words as I recall, and I did. The letter was from Paul Owen and Carl Mosser, two students at Talbot. I had never heard of either of

Roger Overton of Ambassadors for Christ received an e-mail this morning from Richard Mouw. Roger had quoted the line from my blog wherein Mouw says he believes Millet is believing in the Christ of the Bible for salvation. Mouw asked him to at least provide the context. Since Roger was quoting me, and then kindly himself provided the context, let’s