Here is the post:  “Christians’ Rejection of the Bible.” (more…)

Susan Easton Black authored this book (Millennial Press, 2007).  It is part of a series.  With all the misinformation accessible to journalists, this series is suppose to provide truth.

I read the book.  Here are some interesting questions in the book.

Did Joseph Smith prophecy that members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be in the millions? (p. 31) (more…)

Join together our nation’s president and our nation’s pastor and you have even some stirring toward a great emergence in the new age.

But what do we do with all the critics?

And what do we do with LDS in the Great Emergence? (more…)

In the book, The Temple Where Heaven Meets Earth (Deseret Book, 2008), Truman Madsen writes:

In the Gospel of John we read that in an upper room Jesus said to Peter that the acceptance of the ceremonial washing of feet was essential.  Peter’s refusal would mean that “thou hast no part [elsewhere translated inheritance] with me” (John 13:8).  That is strong language.  Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible notes that this washing “was the custom of the Jews under their law; wherefore, Jesus did this that the law might be fulfilled” (JST, John 13:10).  Some scholars see this as a custom that Jesus replaced.  In the Restoration, the washing of feet is both a preface to and an echo of sacred temple rites, a proper prologue to Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 (which is a prayer for unity of Master and disciple as well as of disciple and disciple), and an example of subservience by a true and suffering servant.  But it is more.  It was given that they might “be clean every whit,” a condition which apparently neither their faith nor their baptism had thus far fully achieved (127).

If you are going to be clean, according to Joseph, you had better be in your regional temple for washing.  Didn’t you know that is what Jesus was trying to teach on his last night with the disciples?  Never mind his repudiation of the temple system in the earlier part of John’s Gospel.

Secondly, Truman states emphatically,

Jesus, in the book of John, as well as in the epistles of John, bears God’s name to the point that He can say, “the Father and I are one” (John 10:30.  Does this mean their names are one?  The specific divine name that is assumed in these passages is a matter of controversy.  Perhaps it is the divine name in Exodus 3:14: “I am.”  But the Masoretic text can be read to mean “I will become what I will become.”  This is compatible with the view that Yahweh became the messianic figure of the New Testament.  But it is incompatible with the philosophical thesis that God is exclusively “being” without the dimension of “becoming” (148, emphasis mine).

Plato’s god?  Yes.  The Christian God?  No.

All those involved in evangelical and LDS conversation should read this latest article, “Facing Islam” by Marvin Olasky in World magazine (December 13/20, 2008).

Marvin quotes Mark D. Siljander and highlights Siljander’s latest book, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide.

Here are a just a few quotes from the article to spark your interest:

Thus Siljander believes it’s fine for a Christian, one who has surrendered to God, to call himself a Muslim (55).

And this . . .

Siljander defended his exegesis by telling WORLD that he’s trying to start among evangelicals “not a theological discussion but a strategic one. . . . Facing massive cultural differences, how do you present Jesus in a way that will open minds and hearts?”  He argues that the primary goal of evangelicals should not be to convert Muslims to Christianity, but to awaken in them the desire to follow Jesus that Siljander says is embedded in Islam (56).

Would you recognize similar discussion over the same heart issues pertaining to the I-15 LDS Corridor in America?

For this month, Today’s Pentecostal Evangel magazine (World Missions edition, dec-07-08) has the theme, “The Missionary”.

They also gave a sneak peak for next week’s theme: 

Sometimes a warm cup of coffee is a church’s best outreach tool.

(Chuckling)  It really depends . . .

Live from Hua’s Mongolian Grill . . .

dw_a0001

My first testing. 

Tell me what you think.

The CD is sitting here in my home office.  These three hymns are remarkable.

1. In the Bleak Midwinter
2. Mitt hjerte alltid vanker
3. Vitae lux

Sample them.

Beautiful.