Archive for category: Mormonism

   Folks, please read this series, even if you live out East where Mormonism is not that big an “issue.” The complicit cooperation of alleged “evangelicals” in deceiving Christians about the nature of Mormonism represents a trend relevant to all sorts of apologetics issues today. Read on!    I have been presenting the statements of LDS leaders (not current BYU academics, but

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 Jesus

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

   I have been providing portions from my book, Is the Mormon My Brother?, which define, from exclusively LDS sources, the teachings of Mormonism regarding the central definitional doctrine of any theistic religion: the doctrine of God. Given the presidential aspirations of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, this topic is once again in the public eye, and sadly, the general ignorance of

   But how can men become gods? This is answered in probably the most famous portion of the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132. This portion, put to paper on July 12th, 1843, speaks directly to the issue by introducing the covenant of eternal marriage. This concept is vitally important to Mormons, and while plural marriage (which was intimately connected with the

   The end result of having canonized revelations that span the period of Smith’s doctrinal development is simple inconsistency. LDS apologists and theologians normally interpret the earlier monotheistic and traditional statements in light of the later, more unique statements. The First Vision story becomes the lens through which all else is seen, so that the unity of the Godhead envisioned in

The latest edition of the Salt Lake City Messenger, #108, May 2007 (which I just received in the mail today) is online. The featured article, which appears to be at least two parts (second part forthcoming), is by Ronald V. Huggins titled Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth. This article is similar to listening to Wesley Walters as he discusses the

   For anyone who has studied the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, listening to talk radio of any kind during this political season is proving painful. Being even a conservative talk show host obviously does not impart to you even the slightest bit of theological or historical knowledge. The flood of utter ignorance of LDS beliefs

   I had never met a Mormon scholar before with an earring, to be honest, but Dr. Dennis Potter broke new ground for me. Dr. Potter is a graduate from Notre Dame, and we debated about four years ago at the University of Utah. The discussion is focused primarily upon the nature of the gospel, God’s grace, etc. Note the last

I do not just do debates with Roman Catholics. In fact, we have done a number of debates in Salt Lake City. Here is the cross-examination period from a debate on the effect of Adam’s fall with Dr. Gilbert Scharffs, the author of the LDS response to the “GodMakers” film, a long time professor and LDS theologian. I had more

   As soon as the music ended, the screaming began. The band of street abusers (they call themselves preachers, but that has a particular biblical meaning that is utterly disconnected from their disjointed harangues) with their barely relevant signs held high began yelling out at those gathered on the front lawn of the LDS Temple in Mesa, Arizona, “Mormonism is a

   As expected, there isn’t any such thing. Student newspaper, reporter without understanding, confusing what they’d like to find with what they have in fact found. Here is a letter from the actual scholars doing the imaging. Of course, that does not really explain the comments of the undergraduate student which still, it seems to me, give an insight into the

   This is interesting in light of the discussion we have been having on the DL about textual criticism. Here is a story that claims that scholars working on the Oxyrhnchus papyri using multi-spectral imaging have discovered “an unidentified Christian apocryphal Gospel, a new ending to the Gospel of Mark, a different version of two verses in the book of Philemon,

   Over the past few years as I have responded to the public statements of Paul Owen my language, and my predictions of his eventual abandonment of any form of evangelical belief, have undoubtedly caused some to wonder. The “behind the scenes” issues, and years of previous private interaction, explain a lot of it. This is not a “I told you

   I guess it fits. With the political situation of Romney running for the presidency, the utter collapse of all meaningful discernment in the culture as a whole in religious matters, we should hardly be surprised that Eerdmans, which broke ground by publishing a work of LDS apologetics (note the discussion here and here), is now putting out a book on

It is funny how things work here. One of the assignments in my current GGBTS class is to write a review of two debates shown in class. After interviewing the students as to where their ministries are and where they think they will be going in the future, I decided a debate on Mormonism, and a debate on Islam, would

   Bill McKeever just forwarded this notice from the Deseret News. Look innocuous? It isn’t. Notice this line, “Along with his wife, Sandra, Mr. Tanner received public criticism after studying the authenticity of the Salamander Letter, which was later determined to be a forgery by Mark Hofmann containing facts about the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.” I don’t know about you, but

   When you go to www.lds.org today you will find a “First Presidency Message” from Gordon Hinckley, printed in the Ensign magazine, July, 2006. Since this is the current prophet writing, being published in the official church publications, and being recommended for use and discussion by home teachers, there is little ground upon which anyone can question that this is official

By Jeffrey Morse Sun Staff Writer (original article) NORWICH – County historians have rediscovered historical records proving the founder of the Mormon Church was arrested on several occasions while living in Chenango County. The papers turned up after a three decade absence, and may prove to be the most historically significant discovery in the modern history of the area. The

Before continuing our response to Paul Owen’s velvet-glove treatment of his former religion, I found it most humorous that he has now complained about being misrepresented in his views of Baptists. If life were not so short, and time precious, it would be enjoyable to go back through just the archives I have kept of his harangues to put together

Paul Owen, a name well known to anyone who has read this blog with any regularity, has one again demonstrated an incredible double-standard in how he deals with theological issues and movements. We know what the young Dr. Owen thinks of Baptists: his language is as harsh as can be and the accusations, insults, and basic ad-hominem flows freely from

Phil Johnson’s last two blog articles are most interesting not only on the subject of Mormonism and the media-oriented use of meetings by LDS scholars with evangelical leaders but, for those of us who have watched Owen undermining anything and everything that is good and godly for years now, for the insight it gives us into just how long he’s

I just finished a little project that did not take long. I sat down with the McConkie/Millet work, Sustaining and Defending the Faith and tested a little theory. See, old-time Mormons did not strive to look like, and sound like, evangelicals. In fact, they worked hard to differentiate themselves, being members of the one true Church. So, given that this

A few days ago we noted the words of BYU professors Millet and McConkie in a chapter titled “The Bible Fraud” in a book titled Sustaining and Defending the Faith. The chapter began with some incredible statements, including: After the death of the Apostles the Bible was taught by the authority of the whip and the sword. To the Reformers

You may recall a few weeks ago I pointed out the publication by Eerdmans of a book by Robert Millet, A Different Jesus? Today a friend from Salt Lake reminded me of a book I have had on my shelf since 1991, but I had forgotten that it was co-authored by Millet. For some reason I had associated the book

The Principles of Eternal Life    The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance

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