Canon

Pres Veazey on Scripture Literalism

By Mormon Heretic July 11, 2009 79 Comments

Thanks to FireTag for letting me know about a recent statement by the current prophet of the Community of Christ.  He talks about scriptural literalism.  The videos can be found on the CoC website, and this quote comes from Chapter 4.  Let me quote from Pres. Veazey directly:

Comparing the Book of Abraham and the Gospel of Judas

By Mormon Heretic June 24, 2009 82 Comments

Ok, comparing these two books might seem a bit odd, but let me explain.  First of all, I’ve already done a few posts on Abraham.  In the first, I compared the Book of Abraham to the Koran, and wondered if Joseph might have translated an Islamic text, because the story found in the Book of […]

Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess

By Mormon Heretic March 12, 2009 7 Comments

A few weeks ago, I read this humorous article in the Deseret News which basically said the men don’t attend book clubs. I loved this quote: “Men realize that they are only allocated a certain number of spoken words in their lifetime, so being of a cautious nature, they choose not to waste words on […]

Baptism for the Dead – So What?

By Mormon Heretic March 4, 2009 26 Comments

Recently, there has been some news where Jews object to the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead, especially for Holocaust victims.  Catholics have also objected to the Mormons use of old church records for the purpose of baptism for the dead.   I came across an Irish Columnist who basically says, “Why do they […]

The Story of Hanukkah

By Mormon Heretic December 21, 2008 1 Comment

My little boy is in kindergarten. Along with the normal Christmas decorations he has been working on, he came home with a menorah, the candle Jews use to celebrate Hanukkah. (Now that I’m finally out of school myself, I plan to post more frequently–it was a tough semester.)

Bible Controversy

By Mormon Heretic November 30, 2008 17 Comments

Many critics of the Book of Mormon claim there is no archaeological evidence.  The Bible is assumed to be completely true.  MSNBC has a link about a PBS show about archeaology of Bible that recently appeared on Nova. William Dever, from the University of Arizona, is one of my favorite scholars.  Let me quote from the PBS […]

Joshua’s Unholy War

By Mormon Heretic August 19, 2008 71 Comments

When most of us hear the word “jihad” or “holy war”, we immediately know that a jihad is not what God wants.  Most of us feel the same when we hear the word “crusade.”  Really, does anyone think God wants people to fight in his name? In the book of Joshua, Joshua claims to be […]

Eastern Orthodoxy: Theosis/Deification

By Mormon Heretic July 30, 2008 33 Comments

I’ve learned some interesting concepts from class #23: Eastern Orthodoxy.  The podcast is one from the Ancient and Medieval Church History class from Covenant Theological Seminary.  First, let’s have a little background.  (Incidentally, the seminary is a Presbyterian seminary.) The Eastern Orthodox Church officially split with the Catholic Church in 1054.  The Pope excommunicated the […]

History of Baptism/Mikvah

By Mormon Heretic July 17, 2008 10 Comments

The history of baptism is quite interesting, and much more complex than most people know. Baptism seems to be related to the ancient Jewish rite called “mikvah”, which was/is used for conversion to Judaism, ritual cleansing (Law of Moses type things, childbirth, women’s menstruation, and other things.) If you go to this link at Wikipedia, […]

How Should We Define Scripture?

By Mormon Heretic June 22, 2008 10 Comments

I posted previously on the topics of Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Montanism in my previous three posts. While discussing Marcionism, there was a debate about the apostasy. The topic got sidetracked into a discussion of the definition of scripture, so I thought I’d post a new topic regarding that topic. Falcon makes the case that Joseph […]