What Can be Learned by Parsing the Scriptures: a Mental/Spiritual Exercise
This posting covers 1 Nephi 1:20–ch. 2. (The chapter division between chapter one and chapter two, unfortunately, breaks a literary unit.) This posting does not include chapters three through five even though the somewhat forced chiasmus outline of 1 Nephi militates in favor of considering chapters two through five together. Chapter is different than chapters three through five, so there […]
Quite a few have asked for an explanation of my view of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon: his eidetic memory. So here it is. As always, you should consider this my strong opinion, loosely held. I really am interested in comments about this subject. The translation of the Book of Mormon has been the subject of a […]
Careful study of 1 Nephi will allow the reader of the Book of Mormon to better understand what is happening in the rest of the book. Glossing over this important chapter will lead to the same treatment of the rest of the book, a superficial reading that is not so profitable. Therefore, analysis of 1 Nephi is presented alone, notwithstanding […]
Hebrew metaphysical paradigm. The word metaphysics originated with Aristotle, circa 322 BC. It is a division of philosophy that deals with ontology—the science of being. The Greeks viewed a physical object as something different than the idea of or word for the physical object. The Hebrews viewed reality and truth differently than this Greek metaphysical construct, because the Hebrew paradigm […]
The Testimony of the Witnesses. There were three witnesses of the golden plates who received the ministration of the angel Moroni, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer. In addition, there were eight that viewed the plates when Joseph Smith, with permission of Moroni, showed them the ancient record. There is not space in this posting to consider the eleven […]
This posting begins what I hope will be the first of many postings associated with the Come Follow Me lessons for 2020. A resource for those wanting more than the lesson manual provides, and a way for me to get criticisms of my thoughts about the Book of Mormon. The is posting relates to the first lesson to be given […]
This overview of 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi is because I have been asked to post things that will run with the course of study for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for this upcoming year. The subject is the Book of Mormon, and it begins with Nephi’s writings. Those who follow this blog who are not members of […]
This posting is adapted from a Sacrament Meeting talk. It explains the importance of Isaiah 11. Why the angel who appeared to tell Joseph Smith about the gold plates quoted this scripture to Joseph Smith. This is a very important scripture on the restoration of the gospel in our day. What is learned from Isaiah 11 is compared to […]
This is an excerpt from my Exegesis of Hebrews, a 500-page manuscript yet to be edited for publication. I publish this introduction to Hebrews in this blog because I have been asked to give a lesson on Hebrews in my ward’s Gospel Doctrine class on November 17, 2019. Of course, there is not time to cover Hebrews in less […]
This is the conclusion to the twelve-part essay on the Operations of the Spirit. This is an important topic, so that there will be more postings about the Spirit. This is, then, is just a conclusion to what will be the most comprehensive series of postings on the Spirit. PART 12: CONCLUSION Figures of speech and the tenor of metaphors […]
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