Simple Utah Mormon Politics

The award for the most depressing chapter in the Book of Mormon goes to...envelope please...Mormon chapter 6. If you think your life is going poorly with first-world problems, it might help to read that chapter.

Three Distinct Patterns of Beginning Books of the Book of Mormon With few exceptions, depending on whether the Book of Mormon writer is giving his own account or giving an abridgement of an existing account, the book will begin with one of two patterns. Personal Account : The author opens the book by introducing himself. Abridgement : The book begins by stating the time period in which the account begins. The exceptions are Mosiah and Ether. But Ether is really just a variation of Moroni giving his personal account.  So the only odd-ball beginning of a book in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah. Why is Mosiah unique?  The answer is below.

Why did Enos, Jarom, Omni, and others only give us what amounts to about 8 pages of writing in our Book of Mormon?. Between Enos and Ameleki (the final author in the book of Omni) a period of about 300 years elapsed. Were they lazy? Were they lacking in revelation, spiritual experiences, and testimonies of Jesus Christ? My cursory reading of those chapters had led me to wonder that. But I was wrong.

It's not necessary to know all of the place names in Isaiah 20 and where they are on a map, although like the last pieces of a finished puzzle, it certainly makes the picture more clear that Isaiah is describing. What is most important to know about Isaiah 20 is that God is infinitely stronger than any of the kingdoms of the earth. Isaiah 20 illustrates an example of this by showing the historical sweep of the king of Assyria and his armies hundreds of miles from the north down toward Jerusalem where, after having made a systematic progress of destruction for most of that distance, he is stopped in his tracks just short of Jerusalem.

God wasn't talking so much about buildings in 

What happened after the 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon were lost stolen? First a pause, where Joseph Smith was not allowed to translate. And then, with his new scribe, Oliver Cowdery, the translation resumed at the book of Mosiah. The Books of 1st Nephi through Omni were translated last.

Like no other country, the Ukraine has a special place in the heart and the security interests of Russia.

I spent a couple of hours studying chapter 4 of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament this morning.  Here are some of my notes.

Here are my notes from the devotional address given today at BYU by Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Critics of the LDS Church think that phraseology from the King James Version of the BIble in the Book of Mormon indicates that it is a fraud. I disagree. Here's why.

Many Christians use Matthew 7:14 in the Bible to claim that few people will make it to heaven.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a different perspective on this issue.

I put a lot of these articles into a Facebook post.  I'm putting them all together here, so that they'll be easier to find.

John 11:35 of the New Testament is one of the shortest verses of scripture: “Jesus wept.”  The scene was one where his dear friend, Lazarus, had died. Two days earlier, word had come to him from the town of Bethany where Lazarus and his sisters--Mary and Martha-lived, that Lazarus was on the verge of death, but for much of that time, Jesus pretended to no urgency to go to minister to Lazarus.

We usually think that because Nephi in the Book of Mormon was the gallant Nephi that he never did anything wrong.  For example, we take at face value that his claim of having been inspired by the Lord to take the life of Laban, when in reality his passion may simply have overcome him.

A lot of what you hear from Islamophobes in the United States and the West.  They give only one side of the story, and it's not usually very accurate.  In this article, I will explain, based on a video interview of Sheihk Hamzi Yusuf by Chris Hedges, some of the fundamental ideas that many Americans don't understand about the world as it relates to Islam.

In this article are the important points that I gathered from watching " PBS Frontline: Terror in Europe ". "As Europe reels from a terror onslaught, top security officials describe their struggle to contain the unprecedented threat revealed by attacks in France and Belgium."

Because infant baptism was a topic of discussion in the prophet Joseph Smith's day, critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Book of Mormon claim that revivalist America is where Smith got the idea to discuss infant baptism in the Book of Mormon.  I think that's a short-sighted claim, and in this article I explain how opposition to infant baptism likely came from the prophet Mormon, and why it could just as easily have been a topic of discussion in late Nephite society.

"For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire."   Sounds about like right where we are in the world today, doesn't it? Refugee crises abound, due to the confused noise of despotic governments and the lust for power among terrorist groups.  As a result, refugees are spilling into Europe, causing anger there as it seems there are too many new-comers to assimilate.  The Zika virus, once a fairy tale that only affected other people, has now arrived in America.  Economies are either near or in tailspins all across the globe.  Angry Brits recently decided they weren't getting what they wanted out of the European Union, so they voted to leave, and that made other Brits angry.  In America, angry Donald Trump supporters vowed that they would not accept the election results until-shockingly and suddenly--they had won, which in turn caused angry Hillary Clinton supporter...

In his book The Sins of Scripture,  John Shelby Spong points out that Christianity   has interpreted the Bible in ways that have allowed Christians to do much violence--to women, to children, to gays, and to nations and peoples in general.  In this article, I will talk about two lost doctrines that have actually resulted in what are  misinterpretations  of scripture in the name of violence.

It's easy to make a superficial reading of the Book of Mormon and think that Joseph Smith made it all up. But please don't dismiss the power and authenticity of the Book of Mormon. It is far more intricate than most people imagine. For example, here's something interesting that shows why the witness of the biblical prophet Isaiah is so critical to the Book of Mormon.