Equipping Saints • Engaging Culture • Examining Claims
Why the Entire Mormon Restoration Stands or Falls on One Man, Joseph Smith ❦ ❦ ❦ Introduction: The Hinge on Which Everything Else Turns There is a particular kind of theological conversation that, no matter where it begins, ends up in the same place. It may begin with the Book of Mormon. It may begin…
A Traditional Christian Examination of LDS Missionary Authority ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: The Doorstep and the Title Almost every American adult has met them. Two young men in dark trousers, crisp white shirts, conservative ties, and bicycles leaning against the curb. Pinned over their left breast pocket is a black plastic name tag bearing the…
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in the middle of the most aggressive temple-building campaign in its nearly 200-year history. Under President Russell M. Nelson, who has personally announced 200 new temples in just seven years, the Church has transformed the American landscape — quietly, expensively, and with almost no financial accountability…
A scholarly examination of the Book of Mormon’s textual and literary fingerprints ❦ ❦ ❦ Introduction: A Book Worth Examining Honestly On the title page of every modern copy of the Book of Mormon, readers encounter a remarkable claim: that the volume in their hands is an authentic ancient record, translated by the gift and…
From Babel to Bethlehem—Or to Seattle? A Christian Critique of the Jaredite Ocean Journey I. Introduction: A Voyage in Search of a Map There is a particular pleasure in looking at a map and tracing a story. Children do it with adventure novels; theologians do it with the wanderings of Abraham; armchair travelers do it…
EARLY MORMON PERSONALITIES — NINETEENTH INSTALLMENT Emma Smith, Loyalty, and the Limits of Faith ❦ ⬩ ❦ Introduction: A Woman on the Ice In February of 1839, a woman stepped onto the frozen surface of the Mississippi River with two small children clinging to her skirts, two more carried in her arms or strapped to…
EARLY MORMON PERSONALITIES — EIGHTEENTH INSTALLMENT Lucy Mack Smith’s Lifelong Search for Assurance ❝ ❦ ❞ A Voice on the Frozen Shore On a raw morning in early May of 1831, on the wind-scoured bank of Lake Erie, a company of weary religious refugees sat huddled and despairing. The ice had not yet broken on…
EARLY MORMON PERSONALITIES — SEVENTEENTH INSTALLMENT William Clayton and the Records the Church Tried To Lock Away ❖ ❖ ❖ It was past one o’clock in the morning on Sunday, the twenty-third of June, 1844, when the knock came. William Clayton rose in the dark, dressed quickly, and made his way down to the Mississippi,…
EARLY MORMON PERSONALITIES — FIFTEENTH INSTALLMENT Sampson Avard and the Education of a Holy Vengeance Introduction: A Man Looking at the Sky On the last day of October 1838, a tall, restless physician stood near the unfinished temple lot at Far West, Missouri, and turned his face toward heaven. The autumn light was hard and…
EARLY MORMON PERSONALITIES — FOURTEENTH INSTALLMENT He Proved a Prophet Wrong with the Prophet’s Own Bible. ❦ ❧ ❦ On the warm evening of June 10, 1844, a column of nearly one hundred men marched through the streets of Nauvoo, Illinois, toward a modest brick print shop. They carried a sledgehammer. Inside stood a single…