Republicans render unto Trump that which is God’s

August 28, 2020 by
Photo by Brad Dodson on Unsplash

Scripture is replete with warnings about placing faith in political leaders above God.

God repeatedly calls the faithful to reject kings and idols, to disperse power away from any singular charismatic personality.  “Ye shall have no king nor ruler, for I [God] will be your king and watch over you.”  (D&C 38:21). 

Why?  Because we know from sad experience that as soon as men “get a little authority, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.”  (D&C 121:39).  Kings, with their greater authority, wreak greater unrighteousness.  

[Read more…]
Filed Under: Current Events, Economics, Friday Firestorm, Mormon, Politics, Rants, Religion, Society & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Informal Gospel Study Groups

October 16, 2018 by

sarah-noltner-749896-unsplash

“Do you have Priesthood approval for that gathering?”

It’s a question I’ve heard numerous times, and it’s always bothered me.

Over the years, across the country and even the world, I’ve participated in many informal gospel study groups.   They’ve often sat at the core of my social circles and been the site of some of my powerful spiritual insights. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Church Programs, Doctrine & Policy, EQ/HP, General Conference, Mormon, Relief Society, Scriptures, Sunday School, Theology, Theology, Doctrine & Policy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Protestant Oktoberfest 

October 2, 2017 by

Germany has a major celebration every October — but this year is special.  500 years ago, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of Wittenberg Church.  This symbolically launched what later historians would dub the Protestant Reformation.

As a lover of religious history — and appreciator of the LDS Church’s indebtedness to many things Protestant — I hereby proclaim October to be Protestant Reformation month at By Common Consent.  I hope you will enjoy and contribute to our celebration of Protestant hymns, quotes, churches, leaders, theologies, and other snippets of history.  I pray that through this celebration, we can all rediscover a love of scripture and delight in faith.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Comparative/Ecumenical, Mormon Lectionary Project, Music, Religion Tagged With: , , ,

How Do You Solve a Problem Like the JST?

August 18, 2017 by

One of the most important facets of Mormonism that sets us apart from other faiths is that we don’t believe the Bible to be inerrant. We believe that it contains errors. This belief alone causes us to be viewed as unChristian by many evangelicals and other sola scriptura believers who consider any alteration of the Bible to be heretical. Reformists, in breaking with the Roman Catholic church’s authority, placed greater weight on scripture as the sole voice of God (not through the filter of papal authority, but accessible to all believers directly through reading the Bible). For some, if the Bible is fallible, then Christianity has no leg to stand on in proclaiming it has access to God’s truth. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Books & Journals, General Conference, Joseph Smith Era, Media, Modernly Revealed, Mormon, Religion, Scriptures, Society & Culture, TCoJCoLDS, Theology Tagged With: , , , ,

What I Learned from the Old Testament

December 13, 2016 by

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res]

Recently a friend of mine shared a story with several of us about how he, while on vacation and with some spare time on his hands, decided to re-read some parts of the Old Testament. His strongest impression of what he read, he said, was that these were the records of a people struggling to understand what it means to no longer be God’s chosen people–or, if they were still chosen, why being chosen did not protect them from being defeated, occupied, and driven into exile, their temple desecrated and their community destroyed. He commended a reading of the Old Testament to us all, saying that it would remind us of the importance of humility, and endurance, and maintaining faith and hope even while our assumptions about the world all around us are being shattered.

(Please, no 2016 elections jokes. I’ve heard enough already. Besides, my friend is a Republican.) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Mormon Tagged With: ,

Why I Use Other Bible Translations in Gospel Doctrine

July 8, 2015 by

I routinely give some version of this spiel both when I teach Gospel Doctrine and in the hallway conversations that follow. Several friends have suggested that I blog it, so here goes. I’m aiming for brevity rather than thoroughness, since the point of the spiel is to give people in class who might be wondering why I tend not to use the KJV a short and accessible argument explaining my reasons. Even though we’re currently doing the New Testament, I’ll also include my bit on the Old. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Mormon, Scriptures, Sunday School Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Religion of Peace?

January 15, 2015 by

This guest post is by long-time friend of the blog Michael Austin.

I read the Qur’an often because it speaks peace to my soul.

I know that sounds kooky, but I promise I’m not a hippie or anything. I don’t burn incense or wear sandals. I wouldn’t even call it a spiritual experience. It’s more like a calming effect. I love to read the text, and I love to listen to the recitations of a talented qāri’ (which I am doing even as I write). It’s not the meaning of the words that does the peace-speaking; it’s the words themselves. I have long been deeply affected by the way that the Qur’an represents the voice of God. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Comparative/Ecumenical, Religion, Scriptures Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Book Review: Re-reading Job, by Michael Austin

August 4, 2014 by

Austin_Job_largeRe-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem
Michael Austin
Greg Kofford Books, 2014
$20.95

Academic approaches to scripture sometimes arouse suspicion in LDS circles, especially when they include the Higher Criticism (“Moses didn’t write the five books of Moses?”) or reading the Bible as literature (“So you think this is a work of fiction?”). People using or advocating these approaches often draw charges of privileging the intellectual ways of the world over the pure spiritual truth of God, of trusting in the arm of flesh, or of kowtowing to secular disbelief in the interest of seeming more acceptable.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Books & Journals, Mormon, Scriptures Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Mormon Lectionary Project: Mohandas K. Gandhi

January 30, 2014 by

With this post, we’re taking the Mormon Lectionary Project into new territory, using the genre to write about figures without days in the Common Lectionary. Most of these will be LDS, but Gandhi comes first because of his death date, 30 Jan. 1948. Just as we’ve been adding LDS scripture to previous posts, it seemed appropriate to include the Qur’an and the Bhagavad Gita in this one.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Dan. 6:10-11, Matt. 5:38-42, 1 Cor. 13, Qur’an 4:256-57, Bhagavad Gita 2:55-57, Alma 24:20-27 [Read more…]

Filed Under: Comparative/Ecumenical, Liturgy, Mormon Lectionary Project Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Seeker: KJ Bible finds new life in Mormon Church

May 2, 2011 by

Beginning in 1604, 54 scholars labored for seven years under the sponsorship of King James I to produce a new translation of the Bible. While the influence of that text over the past 400 years is unquestioned, what is the place of that venerable old version in the actual life of the church today? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Books & Journals, Scriptures Tagged With: , , ,

Your Friday Firestorm #57

March 11, 2011 by

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

(Luke 16:9)

Discuss.

Filed Under: Features, Friday Firestorm Tagged With: , ,

BCC Papers 6/1: Hardy, The King James Bible

February 15, 2011 by

You can read the full paper here.

Grant Hardy, “The King James Bible and the Future of Missionary Work”—Synopsis

The King James Version of the Bible has a long and storied history, but the LDS Church is entering a period when the drawbacks of that 400 year old translation will become more and more apparent, for several reasons: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, BCC Papers, Features, Guest Post, Missionary, Scriptures, Theology, Doctrine & Policy Tagged With: , ,

On the Name “Jimmer”

February 9, 2011 by

Matt B.’s excellent post requires, I believe, a footnote on the name “Jimmer.” Inasmuch as that proper name has now invaded the lexicon, being used as noun, verb, adjective and even adverb, surely interested persons are going to come looking here, in the Mormon blogosphere, for a lexical treatment of the word. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Mormon, Pop Culture, Scriptures Tagged With: , , , ,

Born Again

February 6, 2011 by

In Sunday School recently we discussed the story of Nicodemus, whose encounter with Jesus is depicted in John 3. In this famous encounter, Jesus tells Nicodemus that being “born again” (or “born from above,” as most interpreters probably correctly argue) is a prerequisite for “see[ing] the kingdom of God.”[1] A member of my ward argued against a view he sees as prevalent in which being “born again” is seen in typically evangelicalistic terms as a one-time event at which time a person is first and finally saved. This class member worried that a) not every LDS has such a powerful spiritual experience, and b) even those who have such a powerful spiritual experience will often waver in their sense of having been born again.

I agreed with this gentleman, a view that has been strengthened by my study of early Mormon adoption theology. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Mormon, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation, Scriptures Tagged With: , , ,

Did John the Revelator See My iPhone?

June 8, 2009 by

Kyle M, is a Senior Editor at PC Magazine and bassist for the band Mere, returns for another guest post here at BCC (previous post here).

Happy iPhone Launch Day, everyone! Hopefully it’s a day of jubilation and good tidings of great joy from Cupertino. Maybe Apple will add video-recording abilities, and perhaps a compass function, along with the cool iPhone 3.0 software.

Or course, this is not the forum for that kind of speculation—this is the forum for a different kind of speculation: Is the iPhone foretold of in the scriptures?
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Mormon Tagged With: , , , , ,