In this episode of Religion Today, Martin Tanner discussed details about the death of Joseph Smith, including why newspaper editor Thomas Sharp was the one who was responsible.  Information about the "Vanguard Pioneer Wagon Train" and how three black Elders were among those in the Vanguard group is presented, along with the appearance of the Salt Lake Valley when the pioneers arrived.

Host Martin Tanner adds additional depth to your understanding of the words "Elohim" which is a plural derivative meaning "strength" or "power"; "YHWH" or "Jehovah" meaning the one who exists on his own power or who is self-existent; Adam which means "red man" or man made from red soil, the color red being derived from "blood" which another meaning of "Adam" who gives life as does life's blood in living animals. "Eve" which comes from Hebrew "breath" because only living things breath. "Help mete" often misunderstood means one who completes through having a different point of view or opinion.

How could the U.S. Constitution be inspired, since it included the right to have guns and allowed slavery to continue. In this episode of Religion Today host Martin Tanner explains why a citizenry authorized to own guns actually inhibits crime. He also describes how the Founding Fathers were inspired by Isaiah 33:22 to create three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. How this Biblically inspired system creates a balance of power. Martin gives examples of how we know the U.S. Constitution was an inspired document much like the Mosaic law was inspired, but was not perfect. Yet it paved the way for the higher law Jesus brought. 

Independence Day, freedom, patriotism, agency, and God's influence in the founding of the USA.  With its flaws, the USA is the country that formed a new government based on freedom, see D&C 101:77-80, and abolished slavery at great cost. If you look for something, like racism, you will think you found it, even if it is not there. Racism has been illegal since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Anyone who sees institutional racism can find legal representation and end it.  There will always been racist individuals, but Martin Tanner challenges anyone to find a racist institution, corporation or system of government in the USA. May God bless the USA and help us preserve our freedoms.

Host Martin Tanner explains why the words "Jesus" "Messiah" "Baptism" and "Bible" are not anachronisms and are perfectly fine translations of the ancient words on the Golden Plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. A translation is rendering a word or phrase and its their meaning in one language, into a word or phrase in another language, which carries the same meaning, as much as possible. Since Christians believe "Jesus" was the God of the Old Testament, the word "Bible" properly conveys the idea of authoritative religious writings, even pre-Christian ones, and "Baptism" properly conveys the pre-Christian idea of ritual cleansing of sin by immersion in water, these are all proper words to find in the pre-Christian parts of Book of Mormon.

In this episode of Religion Today, host Martin Tanner first describes baptism for the dead as practiced in Early Christianity.  He provides references to vicarious ordinances in the Apocrypha, 2 Maccabees 12:39-46 and the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:29 in the LDS Faith, and among modern scholars. He describes how Joseph Smith's revealed the ordinance of baptism for the dead in an 1840 funeral sermon, as a comfort to a widow in the audience, who's un-baptized son had recently died. Martin describes how the practice is different in a few details from when first practiced. He concludes with some of the many examples of notable, famous and infamous persons for whom baptism for the dead has been performed.

In this Religion Today episode, host Martin Tanner, points out that no LDS Church leader, including Joseph Smith, has ever claimed revelation on where the events in the Book of Mormon happened.  But the text of the Book of Mormon provides inspired details enabling us to make to strong inferences they happened in Central America.  Are there two Cumorah's? How could Moroni get the plates from Hill Cumorah in Mesoamerica to the hill by the Smith Family's farm in New York? These and other questions are answered.

* ALL LISTENERS ARE INVITED TO HEAR A NON-LATTER-DAY SAINT, EMILIE SPEAR, FROM COLORADO SHARE HER NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN WHICH SHE SAW JESUS, WITH DETAILS CONFIRMING LDS BELIEFS."  DETAILS FOR THIS FREE EVENT ON FRIDAY, JUNE 23rd, IN SLC, ARE IN THIS EPISODE.

Where did the events in the Book of Mormon occur?  North America? Mesoamerica? What does the evidence say? Although the LDS Church has taken no official position on where Book of Mormon events happened, it is important to carefully read Book of Mormon passages which help narrow the possible locations. The Book of Mormon describes Jesus healing those with leprosy. Leprosy was found only in Mesoamerica before Columbus, not in North America. The BoM describes cement cities, found only in Mesoamerica, not in North America. In the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites, 240,000 died. During BoM times the largest population center in all of North America, the Cahokia, in present day Illinois, had less than 10,000 inhabitants. 2018 LiDAR scans conducted by the National Geographic Society, demonstrated that between 15 and 20 million people lived on the Yucatan Peninsula during BoM times, easily large enough to support a final battle in the BoM in which 240,000 died. These and many other evidences strongly suggest BoM events happened in Mesoamerica, not North America.

The inspired U.S. Constitution, the religious significance of Memorial Day, and the prophecy of the Constitution hanging by a thread, are just a of few of the topics discussed in this episode of Religion Today, hosted by Martin Tanner

In this episode of Religion Today, host Martin Tanner explains why Walter Martin and CRI (Christian Research Institute) have the wrong Jesus, an un-Biblical Jesus, while Latter-day Saints believe in the Biblical Jesus.  What is the distinction? The CRI believes in the "Trinitarian" concept of God which is not found in the Bible, which is that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are of "one undivided substance" which is an idea not found in the Bible. Also, CRI does not believe or ignores Jesus' statement that, "[T]he Son can do nothing .  .  . but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He [the Father] does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19; emphasis added). CRI twists Philippians 2:5-5 into saying Jesus and God are of the same substance, when even the NIV says they are of the same "nature" just like two people are of the same nature, not of the very same substance.