In this episode, Skyler flies solo and goes over a few things that had stood out to him in the curriculum so far (Jan-Feb) - which had not yet made it into the standard episodes.
The table of contents for the Come, Follow Me manual.
Some resources:
Reformed Dogmatics by Geerhardus Vos
Sermon by Pastor Ed Romine on Mark 1
1) Does the Book of Mormon (BOM) teach the Trinity?
No. Joseph Smith went from teaching the heresy of modalism in the BOM to rejecting that very heresy (which he teaches in the BOM!) during the Nauvoo period (as if it was the Trinity) and transitioned into teaching open polytheism. To my knowledge, there is no source in which Joseph Smith communicates an informed understanding of what the Christian doctrine of the Trinity even is - even if only to then reject it. Smith may never have understood the Trinity - but he wasn't shy about teaching that the Trinity is a "monster".
Though not seeming to see that "modalism" is an outright heresy to creedal Christian thought (w/ the unfortunate use of the expression "lay trinitarianism") - the treatment on the issue (as far as the BOM is concerned) by Charles Harrell was helpful, and included the excellent quotation by Dan Vogel. ("This Is My Doctrine": The Development of Mormon Theology, pp. 109-112, 121)
Mosiah 15:2-5, Mosiah 16:15, Alma 11:38-39, Ether 3:14, Ether 4:12
Dan Vogel: "The Book of Mormon therefore violates a major tenet of Trinitarianism by confusing the persons of the Father and Son and by referring to Jesus as the Father."
Joseph Smith - between the 1830 original (first edition) and the 1837 edition changed several passages that originally said "the Eternal Father" to say "the Son of the Eternal Father" - and Mary from "the mother of God" to "mother of the Son of God". (1 Ne 11. 18, 21, 32, 13.40)
Joseph Smith even changed Luke 10:22 to read: "No man knoweth that the Son is the Father, and the Father is the Son, but him to whom the Son will reveal it." (click footnote b)
In the basics of any articulation of orthodox trinitarianism, the non-negotiables are that 1) God is One - and 2) The Father is not the Son or Holy Spirit, The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. The Nicene Creed honors the non-negotiable of monotheism, as well as the non-negotiable of the distinctions scripture reveals of the Persons of the Triune God.
Joseph Smith's King Follett Discourse and Sermon in the Grove
Heavenly Mother (here, and here)
Keep in mind, even those who debated and disputed the full-deity of Christ in the early Christian church were doing so thinking they were defending monotheism. Not even the early christian heretics believed God could change at all, let alone was once a man and became god by obedience to self-existent eternal laws - and that all men have that potential just as all the gods before them did. At that time, the reason the full-deity of Christ became an issue (at all) was because of his full humanity, and the changes that occurred by virtue of that human nature. Thus, in some ways, the reasoning of the damnable heretics were still closer to orthodoxy than the overt polytheism of Mormonism/LDSism.
The Forgotten Trinity by James White
Core Christianity by Michael Horton
Simply Trinity by Matthew Barrett
None Greater by Matthew Barrett
The Trinitarian Theology of Cornelius Van Til by Lane Tipton
On the Incarnation by Athanasius (also here)
2) Who is Elias? What is the spirit of Elijah? Malachi's Prophecy and John's Fulfillment -
Though in the Bible Elias and Elijah are the same person, with just a difference in the transliteration of the name - Joseph Smith claimed they were different people, and that they (both) appeared to him. In other words, Elias is simply the Greek form of the OT prophet Elijah's Hebrew name. They are the same person. Yet, according to Joseph Smith, they are two different people who both appeared to him.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 335-338; D&C 110
Why did Moses, Elias, and Elijah appear in the Kirtland Temple? (Notice the footnotes on Elias)
Not only do LDS see the coming of Elijah as actually fulfilled in the Kirtland Temple (though some, including a Mormon prophet outside the LDS church, dispute this) - but they connect the "spirit of Elijah" to temple work (including vicarious rituals for the dead). One irony about this is that John (who is biblically associated with Elijah and the prophecy of Malachi) is born to parents of a priestly lineage (of Aaron) - and yet, one of the LDS distinctives is that the Aaronic priesthood is unable to do sealings, and thus, John would not have qualified in their system.
The Malachi prophecy that the Bible teaches as fulfilled in John the Baptist preparing the way for The Lord features in a key place in Joseph Smith's story (JSH 1. 38-39, D&C 2:1-2); and the spirit of Elijah is described in ways linked to genealogy and temple work, such as: "Elijah would restore the sealing powers so families could be sealed together. He would also inspire people to be concerned about their ancestors and descendants." (here, here also here)
Yet, Jesus says this prophecy of Elijah/Elias (who are one and the same) was fulfilled in John the Baptist. (Matt. 11. 13, 17.12-13). In fact, the prophecy - including the language about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa (language of covenant, and covenant-faithfulness, in context) - is literally stated by the angel Gabriel to Zechariah in Luke 1:13-17 to be about the mission of John, specifically.
Moreover, Luke's presentation of John the Baptist fulfilling prophecy in 3.4-5 is changed by Joseph Smith in order to make these verses about events associated with the second coming. (JST Luke 3, D&C 49.23)
Even the utilization of the ministry of Elijah by Jesus in Luke 4 (where Jesus reads from Isaiah 61) is likewise obfuscated in Mormon teaching - since they have historically treated Isaiah 61 as about liberating spirits from spirit prison (also linked to their temple rituals). (here, D&C 128, D&C 138) Harrell states, relative to this, "Of course, in Mormonism it is more than hearing the gospel that delivers spirits from spirit prison." And "In current LDS discourse on salvation for the dead, Isaiah 61.1-2 is interpreted almost exclusively as having reference to the liberation of spirits from spirit prison, or hell, into paradise once the living perform saving ordinances on their behalf." (p.344)
Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn
Temple Made With Hands? (Jason Wallace)
"Most modern KJV's follow the revision made by Benjamin Blayney in 1769." (There was the original 1611, the 1612, 1613, 1616, 1629, 1638 - and then in 1769 Cambridge Edition of Benjamin Blayley; The King James Only Controversy by James White, pp. 124-126; also see p. 288, and footnote 13 on that page)
On the LDS version of the KJV - "Leaders took steps in the early 1970s to produce their own edition of the KJV that would fill such desires, completing the effort in 1979...[Their] new Bible boasts seven major features distinguishing it from other editions of the KJV..." (Mormons and the Bible by Philip Barlow, pp. 227-228, also here)
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson
In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath
3) Jacob's "Ladder", the Heavenly Temple, the Son of Man - and the Gospel of Jesus on the Cross
Kingdom Prologue by Meredith Kline
Who Is God? by Richard Bauckham (also here, and here)
The Jewish Gospels by Daniel Boyarin (also here, and here)
Ziggurats (here, here here)
From pp. 22-23 in Bauckham, on Matthew and the parallel correspondences between the beginning and end of the gospel, and how they should inform each other:
1- Jesus is a ruler: he is king of the Jews (2:1-6) and has authority over all things in heaven and earth (28.18);
2- Jesus is the Messiah for the nations as well as for the Jews (1.1; 2.2-11), and the nations are to be baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (28.19);
3- Jesus is worshipped (2.2,8,11; 28.17);
4- Jesus is "God with us" (1.23; 28.20)
Bauckham then states: "There [1.23] Jesus was said to be 'God with us'; here [28.20] he says, 'I am with you.' God's presence is equated with Jesus's own presence. He speaks as God, giving the assurance of divine presence with God's people that throughout the story of Israel had been given by God. Indeed, careful readers of Genesis might well be reminded of God's promise to Jacob at Bethel ('Behold, I am with you' Gen. 28.15)"
Not only Gen 28.15 linking with Matt. 28.20 (in light of Gen. 48.15-16, identifying that angel with "The God") - but the promise of Gen 28.14 linking with the commission of Matt. 28.19 as well.
4) Faith as a "power" - and prayer a means of "power"?
Matthew 4:1-11, Part 1 (seminary manual for teachers)
"How can these principles help you access the Savior's power to help you and others resist temptation?"
Faith in Him Will Move Mountains (Russell Nelson)
Speaks of faith as a "conduit of power"; and states "It is our faith that unlocks the power of God in our lives." Later: "Faith always increases our access to godly power." Also connects it with "Ordinances unlock the power of God for your life."
Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives (Russell Nelson)
"Faith that motivates us to action gives us more access to His power. We also increase the Savior's power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision. Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power."
Sweet Power of Prayer (Russell Nelson)
Notice the tendency to de-personalize, to abstract, and to assume the self is the central purpose and the goal, rather than God. Man is not for the glory of God; rather, the gods are there for the glory of man - as long as we just work hard enough. And Christ (as maybe one of those gods) is a means of "godly power" - rather than the unique God who is both the means (who is personal), and the end (who is personal).
For Mormonism - Jesus is ultimately an "example of faith", rather than the object of our faith (regardless of how subjectively "strong" that faith feels at any given moment); Jesus reveals abstract principles (even secret restored "truths") - rather than being the personal savior of even the thief on the nearby cross.
Mormonism, at it's core, is not taking a real God (biblically-defined, classically-understood) - and confusing His nature by adding more persons to it than scripture reveals and reason would demand. Rather, it is atheism - with imagined evolving gods and men being mirrors of the immanent-mundane, an MLM ladder of eternal progression, and the material universe being a theatre for the self-improvement of truly-autonomous agents. Thus, faith is a power - and prayer, a means of power....and Christ, a means of power.
Compare this to the words of J. Gresham Machen, a creedal-Christian professor and pastor who was a NT scholar committed to the scriptures and the historic Christian faith, in his great book What is Faith?:
"Bring even modern men to a real sense of sin, and despite all the prejudice against the gospel story, they will be led to cry at least: 'Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.' That cry of the distressed man in Mark was not the cry of perfect faith. But through it the man was saved. So it will be today. Even very imperfect and weak faith is sufficient for salvation; salvation does not depend upon the strength of our faith, it depends upon Christ. When you want assurance of salvation, think not about your faith, but about the Person who is the object of your faith. Faith is not a force that does something, but it is a channel by which something is received. Once let that channel be opened, and salvation comes in never to depart. It is a great mistake to suppose that Christians win salvation because they maintain themselves by their own efforts in an attitude of faith. On the contrary, saving faith means putting one's trust once for all in Christ. He will never desert those who are committed to Him, but will keep them safe both in this world and in that which is to come...
Such is the blessed end of the man even of little faith. Weak faith will not remove mountains, but there is one thing at least that it will do; it will bring a sinner into peace with God. Our salvation does not depend upon the strength of our faith; saving faith is a channel not a force. If you are once really committed to Christ, then despite your subsequent doubts and fears you are His forever." (pp. 250-251)
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
When Grace Comes Alive: Living through the Lord's Prayer by Terry Johnson
The Lord's Prayer by Wesley Hill
