Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 990

“The ‘Fiery Darts of the Adversary’ in 1 Nephi 15:24″

    As an additional gift for Christmas, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture offers this piece — our second article today — from Steve Smoot:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-...    

“‘He Did It’: A Christmas Message”

      Late last year, we at the Interpreter Foundation decided to publish a more devotional article at each Christmas and Easter, written especially for Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture.  Our first Christmas piece was written by Orson Scott Card.  A few months later, our first Easter piece came from Mitt Romney.   This [Read More...]

New Testament 346

    Matthew 27:44 Mark 15:32 Luke 23:39-43   Only Luke, of the three synoptic gospels, tells us that one of the thieves was penitent.   The depth to which Jesus had allowed himself to be taken is shown in the fact that even a convicted thief, in the last minutes of his life, as [Read More...]

In the Washington Post: “The latest social science is wrong. Religion is good for families and kids.”

    W. Bradford Wilcox, of the University of Virginia, takes issue with a recently-released and much trumpeted study:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/postev...   Of course, Dr. Wilcox is probably a deceptive Mormon apologist.  After all, there’s a Mormon college out in Virginia and it’s probably the university he teaches at — the same place where BYU’s Bronco Mendenhall [Read More...]

Music of Christmas 18

    This recording or posting has some drawbacks, but Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of The First Noel is exquisitely beautiful, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs it to perfection:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEeT...    

New Testament 345

    Matthew 27:38-43 Mark 15:27-32 Luke 23:35-38 Compare Matthew 27:37, 48; Mark 15:26, 36; Luke 23:33; John 19:18-19, 29   Those who mocked Jesus on the cross presumed that he couldn’t save himself.   But the remarkable fact is that he wouldn’t.   That’s one of the most astonishing and impressive parts of the [Read More...]

“Many of Your Assumptions about Mormonism are Untrue”

    I expect that the votes cast by Mette Ivie Harrison typically cancel mine out, and there are things in this article with which I disagree or, at least, quibble.  Still, I welcome it and the overall spirit of it:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-i...   She’s right.  We’re not the retrograde agents of hate that some of our [Read More...]

“LDS Church video, ‘A Savior is Born,’ reaches millions”

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   If you haven’t been involved in this campaign yet, there’s still time!    

New Testament 344

    Matthew 27:33-37 Mark 15:22-26 Luke 23:33-34 John 19:17-27 Compare Matthew 27:38, 55-56; Mark 15:27, 40-41; Luke 23:38, 49     As some of you may be aware, I doubt very much that the familiar “Garden Tomb” is the actual burial place of Christ.  But I think that the odds are high that the [Read More...]

Jehovah’s Witnesses embroiled in legal difficulties and scandal

    I’m obviously not a member of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as Jehovah’s Witnesses are officially known.  Nor am I a fan of either the organization or its teachings.  But I’m not posting these items out of Schadenfreude.  And certainly not to suggest that no professing Latter-day Saint has ever been guilty of rankly [Read More...]