Historical Background to Section 111 After the great spirit that was felt at the dedication of the Kirtland temple in the spring of 1836, missionaries for the church left in every direction to go and preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Bishop Edward Partridge, who had come north toContinue Reading

D&C 64 During this time the Church at Kirtland, Ohio, experienced a limited apostasy. In addition to the problems of the Saints in Ohio who were seeking after signs and suffering the spiritual weaknesses caused by immorality (see D&C 63), Ezra Booth returned from his mission to Missouri, discontented withContinue Reading

The Peaceable Followers of Christ Entering into Rest – Several Ideas in Code If we read Moroni 7.3 looking for clues, we can start to see some things coming together. When we look at Matthew 5.48, we see that the Savior is telling his followers that if they hearken untoContinue Reading

In general, Docetism was the view that Jesus Christ was not really human. Docetism comes from the Greek word dokeo, which means “to seem.” It was a “high Christology,” meaning a higher view of Jesus, as opposed to a “low Christology,” which would see Jesus as merely human and notContinue Reading

This is a very difficult passage in the New Testament. My contention is that the earliest Christians were Jews, otherwise Christianity would not have evolved in the synagogues for the first decades of its existence. Christianity came out of the Jewish synagogue. These were the very people that Paul preachedContinue Reading

The story of the apostasy and return to the faith of Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde is a complicated one. When teaching about the history of the church in 1838, I find that it is vital to emphasize the humanity of all of the people involved in this conflict,Continue Reading

The Baal-Peor Incident – Problems with Numbers 25 Who caused the Israelites to worship the false god of Baal of Peor: the Moabites or the Midianites? (Numbers 25:1-2 vs Numbers 25:16-18, 31:15-16) Numbers 25:1-5 is a Yahwist text, and Numbers 25:6-18 is a Priestly account, which helps to explain theContinue Reading

Compare Numbers 22-24 and Micah 6:5 to Numbers 31:8, 16; Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 24:9-10; Nehemiah 13:2, 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, and Revelation 2:14 Numbers 31:16 (a priestly text) is the only verse in the Old Testament that attributes the apostasy of Baal Peor to Balaam’s doing. Deuteronomy 23:4-5 saysContinue Reading

This excerpt from Mike Wilcox’s book “Who shall be able to stand: Finding personal meaning in the Book of Revelation” is just pure gold. He is a brilliant writer, if you haven’t read anything by him, you need to go and pick up one of his books. Revelation 12:6-13 VersesContinue Reading