Old Faith Blog

I helped my son prepare and deliver this short talk in Primary: Heavenly Father created all of us. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. If we love them, then we will keep their commandments. To know their commandments, we must read the scriptures. If we keep their commandments, they will send us blessings. The greatest blessing of all is to become like God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

My LDSLiberty.org colleague and National LDS Examiner Greg West wrote a fine piece in 2009 explaining what qualifies as "any other gospel" whose preaching of was warned about by Paul the Apostle. An excerpt: At this point, it is clear that "another gospel" was actively being preached by antichrists--predominantly Gnostics--while the apostles yet lived. That other gospel, from the end of the first century into the fourth century, overtook and corrupted the simple gospel taught by Jesus and the apostles. That "other gospel" is what is taught by sectarian Christian churches today. Those who accuse Latter-day Saints of teaching "another gospel" are actually the historical heirs of the other gospel of which Paul and John warned their contemporaries. Mormonism is the restoration of the teachings of the primitive Church in its infancy, before this apostasy occurred.

Steven Peck wrote a fantastic post at his blog, The Mormon Organon , on the fear of science: There are still those trying to separate science and religion. Who try desperately to dichotomize and put up barriers between the two. To rank order ‘ways of knowing’ into absurd hierarchies in which one trumps the other, or one is more important than the other, or where one wins always and the other loses always. Certainly science will never teach us all truth, but to ignore the things it does teach is a descent into superstition and foolishness. Likewise religion has taught us little about how the universe is constituted or provided models and theories of how material things work in the universe, yet it has provided the source of the reasons that such a universe exists, our place in it and what is expected of us.

My initial study of the Gospel quickly turned to reading various works of scholarship. I've read 90% of Hugh Nibley's works, and many other Mormon scholars. An interesting new website was just launched titled " Mormon Scholars Testify ". I don't know how often it will be updated, but I'll be following it anyways. Check out these excerpts from a couple of entries: Royal Skousen [My] personal testimony of the Book of Mormon is independent of my work on the critical text project. The Book of Mormon stands on its own and is ultimately not dependent on how that text may vary in printed editions or in the manuscripts. Moroni promised that the Lord will give a testimony of the book to the prayerful reader – irrespective of any infelicities and errors in the text (which Moroni recognized could be there, as he himself noted in the last part of the title page of the Book of Mormon). I received my own personal witness of this book long before I ever began work on this...

The BYU Religious Studies Center just published a short column by Jeffrey Chadwick, a professor at the Jerusalem Center, on the importance of Hanukkah to Jews, Christians and Latter-day Saints. The introduction: Hanukkah, the Jewish Feast of Dedication, begins this Friday night at sundown. The Hebrew word Hanukkah actually means “dedication.” The eight-day festival in 2009 runs from Saturday, December 12, to Saturday, December 19. It is a holiday period of considerable significance, both religiously and historically, to Jews the world over. But it should also be of some importance to Christians, including Latter-day Saints, for without the events celebrated in Hanukkah there would have been no Christmas. Here’s the story. ( Read the rest. )

I just received today my 2 complimentary, author-signed copies of "Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Why did I receive these complimentary, you ask? Because on page 73, the author used two of my photographs of the Mexico City Temple . Get your very own copy  here ! (It would make for a wonderful Christmas gift.) The official description: For more than 150 years, missionaries have traveled the world, spreading the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). In their wake, beautiful temples have sprung up on nearly every continent. These buildings are the heart and soul of local LDS congregations and represent much more than places of worship. Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is both an architecture and history book that chronicles the growth of the LDS faith as it spread around the world. With their elegant spires reaching to the heavens and massive square footage, Mormon temples are majestic struc...

A couple of Latter-day Saint missionaries set out to proselytize on the sidewalk, literally. More images found here .

I ran across a seemingly useful site called OpenLDS.com that has compiled and sorted LDS resources on the web. From the site: Thanks for stopping by- Open LDS is an effort to organize the abundance of good LDS information that is available online. Our purpose is to help you find interesting and useful LDS sites quickly and easily.

Early on, my study of the Gospel began as a study of the life of Joseph Smith. The first book I read was called "Journal of Joseph". It was basically an abridged version of the first few volumes of the History of the Church set. It helped me to see him as a person, as someone real and genuine. I've always enjoyed studying his life and teachings. Whether or not the work he performed was true, I have a very deep and sure testimony that Joseph Smith believed the work was true. There was no conspiracy or design to fool anyone into believing he was a prophet. There was only a man who truly believed he was called of God, and suffered from that time until the end of his life testifying of that calling. There isn't a single shred of evidence that he was anything less than sincere in his work. This must be understood if you want to know what he taught, and whether or not it's true. Feast Upon The Word blog publishes commentary on each chapter studied in Priesthood quo...

I just ran across this website that has some pretty amazing posters of Book of Mormon and Bible heroes. The digital artist is Steve Nethercott : With his new release of Real Hero Posters, Steve has chosen to use various digital illustration techniques to achieve the look and feel he desires. With these posters, he wishes to touch the heart of everyone, but especially the youth. "In a world full of fantasy heroes and pop-stars, we should never forget the real heroes, with real courage, real strength, and real stories," says Steve. Through his artistic talents, Steve strives to capture the spirit of real heroes, the uniqueness of their world, the strength of their character, and the reality of their heroism.