Equipping Saints • Engaging Culture • Examining Claims
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 heartbreakingly unwilling to abandon Jerusalem to its chosen ruin. Pastor…
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 theology but historical literacy: helping believers articulate not only…
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 Harvard Law School,…
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 torn open again in upstate…
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 LDS Church, sometimes still called the Mormon Church) and…
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 13:10–21): Jesus heals a woman bent over…
Why Biblical Faith Is Not Blind, Why It Is Not a Feeling, and How a Modern Disciple Can Walk in Both Reason and Trust Introduction: A Bandage Tied Across the Eyes Somewhere along the way — between the Enlightenment’s confidence and the modern internet’s noise — the word “faith” acquired a bandage. The bandage covered…
The Covered Contract: Answering a Christian’s Refusal to Pray for the “Unspoken” Few small phrases spoken in the gathered life of a local church carry more freight than the single word “unspoken.” It surfaces in midweek prayer meetings, in Sunday school circles, in Facebook posts and small-group text threads, and it tends to land with…
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” study. The aim is not deep theology but historical literacy: helping believers articulate…
The Quiet Erosion of LDS Sunday School, Home Study, and Tithing ❦ ❦ ❦ I. A Headline the Church Did Not Want to Write On April 16, 2026, The Salt Lake Tribune ran a sentence that, in any prior year of Latter-day Saint history, would have been unthinkable. Independent demographer Matt Martinich, summarizing Church-released data,…