Equipping Saints • Engaging Culture • Examining Claims
A Theological Essay from a Traditional Christian Perspective Introduction: A Different Starting Point When Elder Ronald M. Barcellos rose to address a gathering of Latter-day Saint students, he opened with a premise that most Christians in the room would have found jarring — had they been there. With warm pastoral affection and the cadence of…
Overview and Purpose Published in 2020 by Deseret Book, 175 Temple Symbols and Their Meanings is a 310-page reference guide by Donald W. Parry, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brigham Young University and a contributor to the Dead Sea Scrolls translation project. The book draws on President Russell M. Nelson’s teaching that “each temple is…
A Shockwave Through the Hierarchy On August 8, 2017, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a brief, carefully worded statement: James J. Hamula had been “released as a General Authority Seventy… following church disciplinary action by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” That sentence — understated and clinical —…
Brigham Young’s Race Theology and the Murder of a Black Mormon Prologue: A Body on the Hill It was the afternoon of December 11, 1866, and a group of boys playing on the rocky bench above Salt Lake City stumbled upon something that would haunt Utah’s history for more than a century and a half….
The Shelf: When Faith Meets Unanswered Questions For many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), faith is a carefully constructed edifice. Beliefs are meticulously placed upon a mental shelf, each one bolstering the others. But what happens when troubling questions begin to accumulate, threatening the stability of the entire…
In the power vacuum following Joseph Smith’s murder in June 1844, a little-known convert named James Jesse Strang made an audacious play for control of the Latter-day Saint movement. Producing a letter he claimed Smith had written before his death — naming Strang as successor — he launched one of the most brazen religious confidence…
Part 1… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are-Mormons-Christian-Part-1. Part 2… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are-Mormons-Christian-Part-2. Part 3… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are Mormons Christian Part 3.
Place two of America’s most controversial religious movements side by side under the cold light of honest scrutiny, and what emerges is not merely comparison — it is a mirror. The parallels between Scientology and Mormonism are nothing short of startling. Both organizations guard their most unconventional teachings behind carefully constructed layers of secrecy, revealing…
The Vast Wealth of the LDS Church, the Doctrine of Tithing, and the Biblical Mandate of Stewardship Introduction: The Widow’s Mite and the World’s Richest Church Imagine a widow in rural Mexico. She is a faithful Latter-day Saint, a convert of ten years. She earns the equivalent of $3.50 a day making tortillas. She has…
Jesus casts out the devils. Artist: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Engraver: W. Am[l?]and, inscribed lower left. Source: Die Bibel in Bildern, Plate 191. Mormon Apostleship. In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the…