Dennis Robbins

Book of Mormon: The Most Correct Book on Earth — Except for the Doctrines That Aren’t in It

Posted on May 3, 2026May 4, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

How the Book of Mormon Itself Refutes the Distinctive Doctrines of Modern Mormonism A Critical Examination of the “Fullness of the Gospel” Claim From a Traditional Christian Perspective Introduction: A Promise on the Sabbath On a Sunday afternoon in late November of 1841, in the parlor of Brigham Young’s modest home in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph…

EVIC Sunday School: How the Bible Was Made and Preserved

Posted on May 3, 2026May 26, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Lesson 1 The Journey of How the Bible Was Made and Preserved The lesson opens a six-week study designed to deepen confidence in the Bible by tracing the remarkable path it traveled to reach modern hands. Pastor Joey reminds the class that Scripture did not fall from the sky, leather-bound and gilt-edged — it came…

Joey Sampaga: Waiting & Working for the Master’s Return, Luke 12:35-48

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 12:35-48 (ESV) Abstract and summary of the pastor’s sermon: Setting the Stage: From Worry to Watchfulness Pastor Joey opens by connecting this sermon to the previous study on worry and anxiety from Luke 12. He reminds the congregation that while life…

Sixty-Five Days, Four Years, and One Young Man: How a 23-Year-Old Could Have Written the Book of Mormon

Posted on May 2, 2026May 2, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

How the Book of Mormon Could Have Been Written Without Plates, Without Angels, and Without Divine Intervention A Literary, Historical, and Archaeological Examination ❦ ❦ ❦ Introduction: A Question of Authorship On a March evening in 1830, the press of Egbert B. Grandin in Palmyra, New York, finished setting type on a 588-page volume bound…

When the Dirt Doesn’t Match the Book: A Historical Examination of the Book of Mormon

Posted on April 30, 2026May 1, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

TWO TIMELINES: ONE CONTINENT Comparing the Book of Mormon Narrative to the Documented History and Archaeology of the Ancient Americas Introduction: A Story That Asks to Be Believed Civilizations do not pass quietly into the earth. They leave signatures—layered, stubborn, and unmistakable—pressed into stone, clay, metal, and memory. Time erodes their monuments, but it does…

Why the Dream of Evolving Artificial Intelligence Cannot Answer the Question Only God Can Answer

Posted on April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

An AI-generated image imagines the old story of a scientist versus God: “Lord, we don’t need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the beginning.” “Oh, is that so?” asks God. “Well,” says the scientist, “we…

The Same Pattern, A New Zip Code: Reading the Mark Driscoll Story Theologically.

Posted on April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

AI-generated image: In the house of God, the highest calling is not to be feared like a gladiator but trusted like a shepherd. The pastor who gathers applause by force may win a crowd for a season, yet only the one who walks in humility, truth, and self-giving love will leave a lasting mark on…

Joey Sampaga Sermon: Anxiety-Free Living, Luke 12:22–34

Posted on April 28, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 12:22-34 (ESV) Abstract and summary of the pastor’s sermon: Setting the Context: From Greed to Worry The sermon picks up where the previous two weeks left off — first the rich fool parable (Luke 12), then Pastor Terry’s message on evangelism….

When a Style Guide Becomes a Liability: The LDS Church’s Own Words in the Mormon Stories Case

Posted on April 27, 2026April 29, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Image: An AI-generated image imagines a group of handsomely dressed lawyers frantically digging a hole near an LDS temple to find archeological evidence against brand infringement. Trademark, Tribe, and Trial A Semi-Legal Analysis of the LDS Church’s Lawsuit Against John Dehlin and the “Mormon Stories” Podcast 1. Introduction: A Suit Born of a Word On…

The Trap of Sacred Certainty: A Psychological Analysis of Moroni’s Promise and Its Hermetically Sealed Logic

Posted on April 26, 2026April 26, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Image: An AI-generated image from Google Gemini imagines a young man sitting on a park bench who has been reading the Book of Mormon, happily looking up at an angelic figure appearing out of the clouds, giving a “thumbs up” sign of affirmation. A Comprehensive Examination of Circular Reasoning, Psychological Manipulation, and Epistemological Fallacies in…

2 Corinthians 11:13-15: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Romans 3:20-24: For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Email: dennis@novus2.com

Custer’s ‘Lone Survivor’ and Other Tall Tales: Who Was Arizona Bill?
The Tangled Life and Tall Tales of Raymond Hatfield Gardner — “Arizona Bill” (1845–1940) ❖ ————❖———— ❖ On a gray winter morning in 1940, an old man lay dying in the charity ward of a San Antonio hospital. He had no money, no verifiable family, and, the Army insisted, no record of ever having […]
Where the Desert Comes to Life: Inside Life Time Ocotillo — Gilbert, Arizona’s New Athletic Country Club
More Than a Gym: How Life Time Ocotillo Is Redefining Wellness in the Southeast Valley ❖ ❖ ❖ There is a particular hour in the Sonoran Desert when the heat finally breaks. The sun slides west behind the San Tan Mountains, the saguaros throw long shadows across the gravel, and the whole valley […]
The Woman Who Wore the Star: America’s First Female Marshal
The Improbable Life of Phoebe Couzins — Lawyer, Lawwoman, and the West’s Unlikeliest Pioneer 1842 – 1913 ❦ ❖ ❦ A Star Pinned to a Silent Blouse On a raw December morning in 1913, six mourners gathered at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis to bury a woman the nation had once strained to hear. […]
Death in Tunnel 13: The DeAutremont Brothers and the Birth of American Forensic Science
Image: Wanted poster, distributed June 1, 1924. Courtesy Southern Oregon Historical Society 1988.11-8.5, MS 672 (via Smithsonian) A Narrative History of the West’s Last Great Train Robbery ❖ ❖ ❖ On the morning of October 11, 1923, engineer Sidney Bates had exactly one day of work left in him. […]
FROM A PUSHCART BY THE TRACKS: The Improbable Rise of Dutch Bros Coffee
A Narrative History of Brotherhood, Loss, and a Coffee Empire Built on Kindness The railroad tracks ran through downtown Grants Pass like a seam stitched into the floor of southern Oregon, and on a gray morning in 1992, two brothers wheeled a pushcart up beside them and waited to see whether anyone […]
THE LAW WEST OF THE PECOS: Judge Roy Bean and the Strange Equity of the Frontier
The True Story of the Hanging Judge Who Never Hanged Anyone A Saloon on the Edge of the Map Picture the place first, because the place explains the man. Three hundred miles of the Chihuahuan Desert lie between San Antonio and El Paso, and somewhere out in the middle of that emptiness, the Pecos […]
The Long Roll Call of Liberty: A 250-Year Narrative of American Freedom
An American Journey Through Liberty ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: A Republic Still Being Written On the reverse of the parchment Declaration of Independence, in a plain clerk’s hand, someone wrote a single docket line so the document could be identified when it was rolled up for storage: “Original […]
The Gospel of the Gun: John Wesley Hardin and the Myth of the Frontier Shootist
The True Story of John Wesley Hardin: A Narrative History (1853 ~ 1895) ✦ ✦ ✦ A Preacher’s Son in a Burning Land He was named for a man who spent his life trying to save souls, and he spent his own taking lives. The irony was not lost on the people of Texas, and it would not be lost on the […]
Born to Save the World: Tom Cruise, Scientology, and the Smile That Sells
Stardom, Faith, and the Price of the Hero Myth ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: The Man Who Refused to Fall On a warm August evening in 2024, a sixty-two-year-old man leapt from the roof of the Stade de France, abseiled into a packed Olympic stadium, took an American flag from a gymnast and a mayor, and rode […]
Chick Corea, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Long Argument Between Belief and Art
Between the Keys and the Cosmos Prelude: A Child at the Piano When Armando Anthony Corea first sat down at the piano, he was four years old, and the instrument had been set before him by his father, a Boston trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in the 1930s and 1940s. That domestic scene—an […]
Joey Sampaga: The Courageous Compassion of Christ, Luke 13:31-35
Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 13:31-35 (ESV) Abstract and summary of the pastor’s sermon: The Courageous Compassion of Christ — Luke 13:31-35 This sermon on Luke 13:31–35 casts Jesus as utterly ungovernable by human threats and […]
Letters To A Mormon Elder: Chapter 8
Letter 8 — The Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham Vision Letters To A Mormon Elder by James R. White Thursday, July 5 Dear Elder Hahn, I received your note yesterday morning. I have considered just how to respond, and feel that I should indeed continue on and address the topic of the Book […]
EVIC Sunday School – Lesson 4: How the Bible Was Made and Preserved
Lesson 4 The Incredible Cost of Preservation of the Bible Introduction and Purpose of the Study Our study is a six-week informational series intended to strengthen the class’s confidence in the Bible as God’s Word before transitioning to a longer “real-life discipleship” […]
EVIC Sunday School – Lesson 5: How the Bible Was Made and Preserved
Lesson 5 The Dramatic Journey of the Bible to Modern Believers Introduction and Purpose of the Study Our study series has been to strengthen the class’s confidence in the Bible as God’s Word before transitioning to a longer “real-life discipleship” study. The aim is not deep […]
“Ye Shall Be as Gods”: The Serpent’s Promise as the Blueprint of LDS Cosmology
The Garden’s Oldest Whisper: How LDS Cosmology Repackages Genesis 3:5 ❦ ❦ ❦ I. The Architecture of an Older Whisper Of all the doctrines a religion must defend, the doctrine of God is the one upon which everything else turns. As Latter-day Saint Apostle Dallin H. Oaks once told an audience at […]
Restoration or Appropriation? How Mormonism Borrows Its Bible, Its Art, and Its Credibility from “Apostate” Churches
The LDS Church claims to be the only true restoration of Christianity, Yet it can’t stop borrowing from the very traditions it condemns. Image: Side‑by‑side, it’s hard to miss! If this is a uniquely “restored” church, why does its official emblem look like a line‑drawing photocopy of a […]
THE PROMISE THAT CANNOT KEEP ITS WORD: Are “Revelations” Still Being Revealed in Modern Mormonism?
A Theological and Historical Examination from a Traditional Christian Perspective ✦ ✦ ✦ INTRODUCTION There may be no claim more central to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than the claim that the heavens, sealed shut for nearly two millennia after the death of the apostle John, were […]
A Faithful Black Saint, an Unprecedented Temple Ordinance, and the Unhealed Wound of Mormonism’s Racial Theology
The 1894 “Servitor” Sealing of Jane Manning James: A Theological and Historical Examination ❦ ❦ ❦ Introduction: A Question Echoing Across the Centuries On a December day in 1884, an aging Black widow in Salt Lake City dictated a letter to the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day […]
The Seal That Never Was: Why Isaiah 29 Does Not Foretell the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith’s Golden Plates, and the Anatomy of a Repackaged Prophecy ❦ ❦ ❦ A Critical Theological Examination INTRODUCTION: A PROPHECY IN SEARCH OF A FULFILLMENT In the centuries since the Latter-day Saint movement first appropriated the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah as a foretelling of […]
An Island Among Continents: Why the Latter-day Saint Movement Remains Largely Unaccepted by the World’s Religious Traditions
The Doctrinal Architecture That Keeps the LDS Church Alone Introduction: A Quiet Standoff in the World’s Religious Landscape Few religious phenomena of the modern era are as instructive — or as misunderstood — as the relationship between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the […]
Conjured into Existence: Joseph Smith’s 1842 Temple Ordinances
Image: A digitally enhanced photo by this author of the Gilbert, Arizona LDS Temple. A Historical and Theological Examination of the Most Sacred Mormon Rituals ❦ ❦ ❦ Introduction: A Cathedral Built in Seven Weeks On the second floor of a modest mercantile building in Nauvoo, Illinois, on the warm […]
THE MORMON GODS OF MANY WORLDS: The Unresolved Contradiction at the Heart of Latter-day Saint Exaltation
A Theological Examination of Eternal Progression, Premortal Life, and the Eternal Presence of Heavenly Father I. Two Promises, One Soul: The Knot at the Center A faithful Latter-day Saint who has knelt at a sealing altar in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been given […]
Summary and Analysis: The Book of Mormon Verified (A. B. Phillips, 1912)
Bibliographic Context The pamphlet, No. 231 in the Herald Publishing House series (Lamoni, Iowa — then the RLDS headquarters), was written by Elder A. B. Phillips and printed in 1912. Phillips’s central thesis is that forty “eminent archaeologists and authors” had, by the early […]
The Latest on the Mindanao Earthquake.
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck offshore Sarangani province in Mindanao, Philippines, on Monday, June 8, 2026, at 7:37 AM Philippine Standard Time (PST). The epicenter was located approximately 32 km west of Maasim, Sarangani (or roughly 8–26 km southwest/west-southwest of General Santos […]
Joey Sampaga: The Narrow Door, Luke 13:22-30
Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 13:22-30 (ESV) Summary of Expository Sermon: Luke 13:22–30 Strive to Enter the Narrow Door Opening Review and the Growth of the Kingdom Pastor Joey begins with a review of the prior week’s text (Luke […]