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Can Non-LDS Obtain Salvation? Of Course!

Posted by Mormon Heretic on May 7, 2010 in Christian, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith, Resurrection, Theology

I’ve been having a heated discussion over at Christian Forums.  Someone there linked to my article on Theosis.  I was a bit nervous, as these types of forums can be not only heated, but strongly biased against our church.   I decided to jump into the fray, and while there are some people there with some strong knowledge of ancient church history and the Bible, there are quite a few that seem intent on distorting and misrepresenting LDS theology.  So, I don’t really recommend participating there.

I did learn that it’s not just the LDS that are picked on, so at least they have that going for them.  When I complained that another person by the handle of Pheobe Ann posted a distorted view of LDS theology, another person there by the handle Skylark said,

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50 Best Blogs About Mormon Living

Posted by Mormon Heretic on May 2, 2010 in Christian, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith

I have to thank Ray for sending me an email with this link from a website called Online Christian Colleges.  They listed a  post on their blog titled, 50 Best Blogs About Mormon Living.  Ray let me and Clean Cut know that our 3 blogs were list.  I hope Ray doesn’t mind me sharing his observation:

I have no idea how they came up with this list, but all three of us are on it!  (and I like the descriptions of the blogs, which means someone actually has read them closely enough to describe them)
Ray
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Biblical Justification for Exaltation

Posted by Mormon Heretic on April 25, 2010 in Christian, Early Christian History, Marriage, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Scripture, Theology

I received a pingback from my previous post on Theosis from someone at Christian Forums.  I have another post on President Lorenzo Snow’s famous couplet, “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.”

I’ve had a few exchanges with people over there.  Since I spent so much time, I thought I would highlight some of these exchanges here and show a Biblical basis for Exaltation.
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Book of Mormon on the Baja

Posted by Mormon Heretic on April 18, 2010 in Archeology, Book of Mormon, Central America, Geography, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Science, Scripture

When I think  of the Baja California Peninsula, I think of the Baja 1000 off-road race where people take lots of vehicles and cross the deserts in all sorts of vehicles.  However, the father-son team of David and Lynn Rosenvall believe the Baja Peninsula (south of California in Mexico–its most famous city you may recognize is Tijuana) could be the location of Book of Mormon lands.  I’ve been promising to do a post on this theory, and it is time to review it in more detail.

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Questions About the Exodus

Posted by Mormon Heretic on April 11, 2010 in Archeology, Christian, Early Christian History, Geography, History, Intellectualism, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Old Testament, Science

Sorry there was no post last week.  I had planned to put this one up, but this has turned out to be one of my longest posts since my Priesthood Ban post.  This post is over 6000 words (14 pages), so be forewarned.  I’ve combined three different videos, so that’s why it took so long.  I’ll color code these quotes so you know which videos these quotes come from.   The videos are Science of the Exodus, by National Geographic; Exodus Decoded, by Simcha Jacobovici; and Exodus Revealed, by Discovery Media Group.

What I found interesting was the fact that there were many similarities.  The same experts and evidence often appeared in multiple videos, yet often different conclusions were provided.  It reminds me of the debate concerning Book of Mormon evidence.

During Passover celebrations in 2001, Rabbi David Wolpe created international headlines in Israel by proclaiming to his Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, “the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all.”

For more than 1700 years, Christians have been looking for Mount Sinai, the place where Moses received the 10 Commandments.  Constantine’s mother, Helena was probably the first Christian in search of Christian artifacts in the 4th century.  Continue Reading »

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The Week of Holy Days: Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter

Posted by Mormon Heretic on March 28, 2010 in Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Easter, History, Holiday, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Old Testament

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

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Has Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on March 21, 2010 in Archeology, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Old Testament, Science, Scripture

Dr. Carole Fontaine of the Andover Newton Theological School said, “Archeologists often find themselves hooted and hollered out of town, when they first suggest things like, ‘I’ve found Troy, or look, we’ve found Sodom and Gomorrah.’  But history has shown that in fact, the more you dig, the more you find.  It’s amazing how accurate the Bible sometimes turns out to be.”

This quote comes from an episode of History’s Mysteries: Sodom and Gomorrah.  It was originally aired in 2000 on the History Channel.  Continue Reading »

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War and Prayer

Posted by Mormon Heretic on March 11, 2010 in Death, Early Mormon History, Ethics, History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews

Religion is supposed to be about peace, but often it is about war.  Some of the worst religious wars include Islamic Jihad, Christian Crusades, and Joshua’s Unholy War.  I wish Mormons didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, but I’ve been reading The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks.

One of the things I didn’t realize about this shameful episode is the Utah War.  It wasn’t much of a war, but it was one of the leading causes of this tragedy.  In 1857, President Buchanon sent 5000 troops to Utah to put down a supposed rebellion in Utah.  Exaggerated reports of rebellion had come to Washington, DC.  The US had just finished the Mexican-American War in 1848, and Civil War rhetoric would boil over into war just 4 years later.

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Dueling Wordprint Studies

Posted by Mormon Heretic on February 28, 2010 in Book of Mormon, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Science

This is the 3rd post reviewing By the Hand of Mormon, by Terryl Givens.  I’ve taken a bit on an interest in wordprint studies.  Givens explains wordprint studies on page 156.

Computational stylistics is based on the premise that all authors exhibit subtle, quantifiable stylistic traits that are equivalent to a literary fingerprint, or wordprint.  The method has been used to investigate other instances of disputed authorship, from Plato to Shakespeare to the Federalist papers.  Continue Reading »

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Are Mormon Academics Winning the Debate with Evangelicals?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on February 22, 2010 in Archeology, Book of Mormon, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews

It’s time to get back to Terryl Givens book, By the Hand of Mormon.  While acknowledging archaeological data isn’t as strong as other aspects of the Book of Mormon, Givens seems to feel Mormon academics have made some impressive contributions.  Givens starts with Hugh Nibley on page 118:

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