In this episode, Skyler flies solo and covers a bunch of things that could've been covered in the lesson material for three past episodes, and yet could be covered in much more detail than even in this episode.
Please bear with the lack of editing on this one!
1) Seminary Manual: Matt 8; Luke 7:11-17
Words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 59-60; compare with Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.180 -181 - where, for example, Joseph Fielding Smith leaves out the fact that Joseph Smith said that John C. Bennett was "a superior orator" than the apostle Paul.
It is worth including section from footnote 9 (in WPJS, p. 83-84 - though I have changed the format), discussing the theology in this material from Smith which is still being included the above-linked seminary manual:
"This is the first mention by the Prophet Joseph Smith of the extremely important concept in Mormon theology that God the Father once had a mortal probation and was resurrected with a body of flesh and bones...The following syllogistic argument used today for Mormonism's concept that God the Father once lived on an earth was not used or understood by the early Saints. The basic reasoning used today is as follows:
- All men are raised with their physical bodies in the resurrection (Alma 40:23, printed in 1830)
- Jesus, the Son of God and the great prototype (John 14.6-9), was the express image of his Father (Hebrews 1:3) and was resurrected with his corporeal body.
- In the celestial resurrection men can become gods (D&C 76:58 [51-58], 1832 revelation)
- Therefore, God the Father must have a body of resurrected flesh and bones that he obtained following his own earth life."
2) Seminary Manual: Matt. 8:23-27; Mark 4.35-41
Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us by Michael Horton
Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord by Michael Reeves
What Is Faith? by J. Gresham Machen
3) The Parable of the Sower (Dallin Oaks)
Faith - The Choice Is Yours (Richard Edgley)
D&C 6.7; Jacob 2.18-19
American Gospel: Christ Crucified
What is the Gospel? (Voddie Baucham)
Terry Johnson (here)
Mark 1-8 by Joel Marcus
4) Seminary Manual: Matt. 13:3-8, 18-23
1 Ne. 8:19-34; Alma 32:26-43
"Huldah's Long Shadow" by Julie M. Smith (footnote 13), found in A Dream, a Rock, and a Pillar of Fire, ed. Adam Miller
Temple Theology: An Introduction by Margaret Barker
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, ed. Marvin Meyer (specifically On the Origin of the World, also here)
No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie (pp. 58-59)
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith
Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn
Conflict in the Quorum by Gary Bergera
Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner
The Mound Builder Myth: Fake History and the Hunt for a "Lost White Race" by Jason Colavito
When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger
D&C 130 (expectation that Jesus would come back in around 1890)
- Prophet/President Wilford Woodruff, alone, predicted British LDS would remain on earth "until the coming of Christ" (Jan. 26, 1840); told the LDS in northern Arizona "There will be no United States in the year 1890" (June 28, 1879); stated (by revelation) that the second coming was "nigh at the door" (Jan. 26, 1880); promised LDS in Manti "that thousands of the children...would not die but would live to see the Saviour come" (Aug. 14, 1881); told LDS in St. George that "there were thousands living in [the] mountains at [that] time that would see the son of God come and many would not taste death" (Mar. 20, 1881) - and similar predictions on Dec. 31, 1885, and then on Feb. 16, 1886. And that is just one of the early apostles/prophets! (As a Thief in the Night by Dan Erickson, pp. 83, 187-88, 190-191, 197)
It should be noted that this is the context for the Manifesto on polygamy - esp. in light of Wilford Woodruff (then senior apostle!) even prophesying in the Manti Temple that "we are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the coming of the Son of man." (ibid., p.200, also here)
Against Heresies by Irenaeus
Confessions by St. Augustine
What Is Faith? by J. Gresham Machen (also here)
The Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison
The Origins of Science and the Science of its Origins by Stanley Jaki
The Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer
Greg Bahnsen v. Gordon Stein debate
Moses warns against false prophets who lead people after other gods (Deut. 13.1-5; 18.20-22); and Paul warns in Galatians that "even if we or an angel from heaven" preach a different gospel, let him/her be anathema, as well as warning against false apostles, men who preach "another Christ" - saying that "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." (Gal. 1.7, 2 Cor. 11.4,13-14) And of course, the apostle John warns against "false prophets" and commands we "test the spirits". (1John 4.1-3)
5) Seminary Manual: Matt 13:24-30, 36-43
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 97-99; where Joseph Smith teaches that "the Church is in its infancy, and if you take this rash step, you will destroy the wheat, or the Church, with the tares; therefore, it is better to let them grow together until the harvest, or the end of the world..." Yet, if that is the case, where is the basis for this including the notion of the disappearance of the Church, as in the Great Apostasy?
Words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 13
Joseph Smith's Commentary on the Bible, pp. 95-97
New Testament Made Easier by David Ridges
D&C 86; D&C 88.96
Terry Johnson (here, here, here and here)
Stories With Intent by Klyne Snodgrass
The Challenge of Jesus' Parables by Richard Longenecker
A Case for Amillenialism: Understanding the End Times by Kim Riddlebarger
6) Seminary Manual: Matt 13; Matt 13: 24-30, 36-43 (also here)
Joseph Smith and World Government by Hyrum Andrus (e.g. on p.9 - he includes a quote from President George Q. Cannon stating: "We are asked, Is the Church of God, and the Kingdom of God the same organization? And we are informed that some of the brethren hold that they are separate. This is the correct view to take. The Kingdom of God is a separate organization from the Church of God.")
Brigham Young: JD 2. 310
The Council of Fifty (also here)
The Great and Abominable Church of the Devil by H. Verlan Andersen
This is very different than the view taken by James Talmage in his book Jesus the Christ
And all of this is different than the Kingdom of God, biblically understood:
Divine Government: God's Kingship in the Gospel of Mark by R.T. France
The Kingdom of God and the Church by Geerhardus Vos
The Coming of the Kingdom by Herman Ridderbos
Kingdom Through Covenant by Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum
An Earnest Plea to LDS (Jason Wallace)
Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner
7) Bearing Up Their Burdens With Ease (David Bednar)
"Today is April 6. We know by revelation that today is the actual and accurate date of the Savior’s birth. April 6 also is the day on which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized."
D&C 20.1; Messages of the First Presidency 4.28; No mention here
Jesus the Christ by James Talmage
"Dating the Birth of Christ" by Jeffrey Chadwick
The Origins of the Liturgical Year by Thomas J. Talley
Calendar and Chronology by Roger T. Beckwith
"Calculating Christmas" by William Tighe
"Sol Invictus, The Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas" by Steven Hijmans
"Calculating December 25 as the Birth of Jesus in Hippolytus' Canon and Chronicon" by Thomas C. Schmidt
Reversing Hermon by Michael Heiser
Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton (though, in response to his dismissal - here and here; also New Testament History by F.F. Bruce)
The specific example of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" was inspired, in part, by "The Art of Scripture and Scripture as Art" by Boyd J. Petersen and David W. Scott, found in the book The Expanded Canon.
8) Interpreter Show
Preface to JD 8 states: "The Journal of Discourses deservedly ranks as one of the standard works of the Church, and every rightminded Saint will certainly welcome with joy every Number as it comes forth from the press as an additional reflector of 'the light that shines from Zion's hill.'"
Brigham Young stated:
- "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture." (JD 13.95)
- "when they are copied and approved by me they are as good scripture as is couched in this Bible" (JD 13.264)
Michael as Adam is agreed upon by all sides of Mormonism.
Joseph Smith: Sermon in the Grove; JST Rev. 1; Moses 6.8
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 157, 167
A must-read is this Brigham Young sermon: JD 1.50f (And notice to whom he is addressing, where he is addressing them and the obvious lack of words like "my opinion" or any sense of this being a mere hypothesis, policy, or guess.)
Brigham Young even calls him "Yahovah Michael" several times (October 8, 1854 Conference Report, also The Essential Brigham Young, p. 94)
He stated in a "Discourse on Marriage" that: "Some years ago I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our Father and our God. That will be a curse to many of the elders of Israel because of their folly with regard to it...It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold it in derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of the baptism for the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith, there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until doomsday, but they are ignorant and stupid, like the dumb ass."
Brigham Young stated that "Joseph said that Adam was our Father and our God." (Journal History, May 14,1876) He also stated that "[I]t is most significant that in the Hebrew language the word for man is Adam, hence in the some-odd 84 passages in the gospels when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, it can be taken quite literally as a claim on Jesus' part that he was the son of Adam." (Teachings of President Brigham Young, 3:327)
The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship by David John Buerger
Conflict In the Quorum by Gary Bergera
Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner
The God of Brigham Young (Jason Wallace)
