Easter
Easter Mourning
A 73 year old man with arthritis, failing kidneys, and other health problems died last Tuesday. I didn’t know him very well (I’ll call him Gene), but I knew his daughter. During the funeral yesterday, his daughter recounted his life and said she was glad that he had left his bodily prison, but at the […]
Reassessing the Birth of Jesus
In a 2010 article in BYU Studies, Professor Jeffrey R. Chadwick of BYU made the case that Jesus was born in December of 5 BC. In the most recent issue of BYU studies, professors Lincoln Blumel and Thomas Wayment review Chadwick’s article and make the case that “his handling of certain ancient sources, including the […]
New Theories on the Crucifixion
With Easter upon us, I wanted to talk a bit about the death of Christ. Â Traditional images of the Crucifixion look similar to this one (pictured on the left.) Â National Geographic has put together 10 videos in a 3-DVD set called Science of the Bible that looks into various aspects of the life of Jesus. […]
Good Friday, Easter, and Mormons
As Easter approaches every year, it seems that many people type “do mormons celebrate easter†into Google. If you do that right now, you will see that my post from 2008 is the #1 result on Google: Why Don’t Mormons Celebrate Easter? Frankly it’s shocking to me that my post is ranked so high on […]
Were Israelites Not Slaves to the Egyptians?
With Passover beginning on April 19, I thought it might be nice to look at a new theory of the Exodus. Â If you want to see some of the previous theories, click here for my post on Questions about the Exodus. Â I just reviewed a video from the History Channel called Bible Battles. Â The film […]
The Week of Holy Days: Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter
Today begins is an interesting week of Holy Days: Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter. Today is Palm Sunday. Passover begins Monday night at sunset, and of course Easter is next Sunday. I thought I’d do a post which ties all of these related holidays (or stated better–Holy Days) together. Palm Sunday
What if Christ's Bones Were Found?
I don’t know why, but I love to learn about archaeology, especially religious archaeology. A few years ago, Simcha Jacobovici came out with a documentary and book called The Jesus Tomb. In it, he makes a claim that the bones of Jesus may have been located in a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem. Of course, the […]
Academic and Mormon Views of Easter
So, I’ve been checking my blog stats, and with Easter upon us, it seems my post from last year about why Mormon’s don’t celebrate Easter is getting the most hits. While last year’s post was a little negative-that I think Mormon celebrations of Easter are lacking compared to other Christians’ Easter celebrations, I hope to […]
The Story of St. Patrick
With St Patrick’s day being here, I wanted to tell the story of St Patrick. Mormons love good missionary stories, and I think the story of St Patrick is a wonderful missionary story. The information below comes from a DVD titled, Christianity-The First Two Thousand Years. (It was originally aired on A&E.) If you want […]
Does Tablet Predict Christ's Death and Resurrection?
I came across an article in the NY Times about a tablet dating from before the time of Christ, that “may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.” This would be a major shift in understanding of Jewish thought at the time of Jesus. The discovery is being called […]
