Original title: Does man seek God? or does God seek man?

In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the nineteenth lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (May 1-7) is titled "Rejoice with Me; for I Have Found My Sheep Which Was Lost", and covers Luke 12-17 and John 11.

We invite you to worship with us on any Sunday - either at First Baptist Church of Provo or Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna. We welcome visitors!

Kyler T. Wakefield; Native American Voting Rights in Utah: Federal Policy, Citizenship, and Voter Suppression. Utah Historical Quarterly 1 January 2023; 91 (1): 4–22. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/26428652.91.1.01

*The paper, specific to Utah - does speak of broader issues that have affected Native Americans throughout the continental US and Alaska. Utah was the last state in the union to lift restrictions on voting for Native Americans in 1957 - though barriers have persisted in ways the article documents and discusses.

• Also see A History of Utah's American Indians, ed. by Forrest Cuch

1984 by George Orwell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman

The Age of AI by Jason Thacker

LDS Sources:

D&C 131.20-21

Sunday School Manual: Luke 17.11-19 (wherein Nelson states: "As a doctor I know the value of good therapy..."); Luke 15

Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan For Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt

Faith In Him Will Move Mountains; Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives (Russell Nelson)

New Testament Made Easier by David Ridges

The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner (Ezra Taft Benson)

Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation by Gina Cerminara

Brigham Young: JD 1.93; JD 4. 218; JD 10.5; 10.355; JD 18.260

Heber C. Kimball: JD 1. 355-357; JD 3.108; JD 4.329

Wilford Woodruff: JD 6.120

Note 1: Charles Harrell points out the shift in Mormon/LDS theology in the Nauvoo Period: "In the book of Abraham, the basis of foreordination shifts from God's knowledge of a person's future righteousness in mortality to a knowledge of that person's premortal righteousness...(cites Abraham 3.22-23) Thus, foreordination is explained as being based on premortal nobility...Today, Mormons generally follow Joseph Smith's later teaching that the foreordination of prophets and other individuals called to fill special missions is based on premortal worthiness." ("This Is My Doctrine": The Development of Mormon Theology by Charles R. Harrell); This was the foundation of the famous racial priesthood and temple restrictions. (see pp. 388-391; also here and here) In the Gospel Principles manual it states: "the prophets prepared themselves to become leaders on earth while they were still spirits in heaven."

Note 2: On a "plausible example of how Joseph may have used his biblical knowledge" to write the Book of Mormon - using a comparison of John 11 and Alma 19 as the example, see An Insider's View of Mormon Origins by Grant Palmer, p. 48f

Religion of a Different Color by W. Paul Reeve

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

Resources:

"Yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image of their several kinds." Xenophon, Fragment 15; see Classical Philosophy by Peter Adamson, pp.16-22 and Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World by Carl Richard, p. 20

Christianity and Liberalism; The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen

Thanksgiving (NSBT) by David Pao

Stories with Intent by Klyne Snodgrass

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes; The Cross and the Prodigal; Poet and Peasant and through Peasant Eyes by Kenneth Bailey (also here)

Christless Christianity by Michael Horton (also here, here)

The Attributes of God: An Introduction by Gerald Bray

All that is in God by James Dolezal (also here, here)

WHI on Hell (here and here)

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson

On David Alexander (Aaron Shafovaloff)