Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 269

Krakatoa, a Comparison, and a Concordance

    Volcanoes have been on my mind of late.  (Oddly, perhaps, when maybe I ought instead to be thinking about plagues.)  That’s why, last night, I watched an interesting 31-minute YouTube item on “Krakatoa — Chronology — 416 AD to 2019.”  I enjoyed it (if enjoyment is actually the right word) and found it […]

For the 2020 “Temple on Mount Zion” conference

    I’m taking the occasion, with his permission, to correct an error (regarding the date of the 2020 Temple on Mount Zion Conference) and to remedy an omission (regarding the submission deadline) in the call for papers that I received from my long-time friend and colleague (and former companion in the Switzerland Zürich Mission) Professor […]

“Moses 7: The City of Enoch”

    Newly posted on the webpage of the Interpreter Foundation:   In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel: Moses 7: The City of Enoch Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel (2014) by Jeffrey […]

Responding to the Coronavirus

    “President Nelson Gives a Message of Hope at This Troubled Time”   ***   Greg Smith, an invaluable contributor to the old FARMS Review and now to Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and the Interpreter Foundation, happens also to be a physician up in Alberta, Canada.  He is giving […]

Geology and Third Nephi (18): Finis

    Today, writing from deep within Fortress Peterson, I conclude my slow-motion promenade through Bart J. Kowallis, “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,” BYU Studies 37/3 (1997-1998):   An explosive volcanic eruption can be an unimaginably terrifying experience.  For instance, Professor Kowallis cites the words of the […]

Two thoughts on heaven

    I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. Nelson that was, I believe, cited in the September 2014 issue of the Ensign:   “We were born to die and we die to live,” he wrote back in 1992.  “As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower […]

William E. McLellin and the Qur’an’s “Challenge Verses”

    I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006):   How were people expected to know that these words of Revelation were indeed of divine origin?  One answer to the question was that the Prophet […]

Geology and Third Nephi (17): “Thick Darkness” (Part Two)

    Here are some of my final notes from Bart J. Kowallis, “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,” BYU Studies 37/3 (1997-1998):   The most detailed accounts of “thick darkness” accompanying an explosive volcanic eruption come from the vicinity of Krakatoa, in August 1883.  This passage, for […]

A call for papers related to ancient temples

    President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has recorded a three-minute video message for members of the Church:   “President Nelson Shares Message of Hope during Coronavirus Outbreak”   ***   A little bit earlier this evening, I received the following call for papers from my long-time […]

Geology and Third Nephi (16): “Thick Darkness” (Part One)

    And then behold, there was darkness upon the face of the land. And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness; And there could be no light, because of the […]