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Jesus Christ

Come, Follow Me Week 16 – Easter

April 13, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

by Scott Gordon

This week, with Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Currently, 63% of Americans identify as Christian. This is down from 75% just 10 years ago. Those who are religiously unaffiliated, sometimes referred to as “nones,” has risen to almost 30% of the US population. This is an increase of 6% in the past 5 years.[1]

Does Religion Help? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 16 – Easter

Filed Under: Apostasy, Bible, Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, Conversion, Doctrine, Doctrine and Covenants, Interfaith Dialogue, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, Mental Health, Missionary Work', New Testament, Old Testament, Prophets, Testimonies

Come, Follow Me Week 15 – Exodus 14–17

April 5, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

“Even as Moses Did”: The Use of the Exodus Narrative in Mosiah 11-18

by Sara Riley

(This is from a presentation given at the 2018 FAIR Conference)

In this presentation I hope to answer the following questions:

  1. How is the Exodus narrative used in Mosiah, both structurally and thematically?
    And by that I mean, how is the structure of the book of Exodus similar to these chapters in Mosiah, and how are the Exodus themes used in the Book of Mosiah?
  2. Were these Exodus motifs and allusions intentional?
    And while we cannot necessarily as a reader be 100% positive concerning the intent and purposes of the author or authors of the Book of Mosiah, I hope to establish that these allusions may plausibly have been intentional.
  3. And if it is intentional, why would they use the Exodus narrative for this particular account?

[Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 15 – Exodus 14–17

Filed Under: Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, FAIR Conference, Jesus Christ, Old Testament, Prophets

Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

March 31, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

by Robert Hill

Every six months, dating back to 1840, Latter-day Saints gather as a worldwide congregation to worship, sing and learn at the feet of leaders we consider living prophets. It’s a wonderful time full of the Spirit of God. But recently, I can’t help feeling I miss the way General Conference used to be. I don’t mean the recent changes in whether we get a male priesthood session or the socially-distanced broadcasts necessitated by the pandemic. I mean the feeling of sitting down for it. It wasn’t so very long ago that I looked forward with unalloyed eagerness to gathering with family and food for a joyful weekend of spiritual edification. [Read more…] about Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apostasy, Conversion, Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, LDS History, New Testament, News stories, Old Testament, Prophets, Questions, Revelation, Temples, Testimonies

Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Exodus 7-13

March 28, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

Recognizing and Remembering God’s Hand in Our Lives

By K.T. Martin

This week as we study Exodus 7-13, we get to read through an exciting part of the Old Testament where God shows forth his power to liberate and protect His people. A number of important gospel truths can be pulled from those pages that still apply to us today. We’ll go through some of them below. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Exodus 7-13

Filed Under: Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ, Old Testament

The Motte, the Bailey, and the Gospel of Instagram

March 26, 2022 by Cassandra Hedelius

The world is full of delightful people pursuing delightful accomplishments, and the gospel promotes love, hope, and unity. How blessed the day when we’ll be able to think only of lovely and praiseworthy things! Unfortunately, scripture’s plain warnings about sin and wickedness are still relevant, and we can’t just ignore them no matter how hard the Adversary argues “I am no devil, for there is none.”  

Scriptures warn followers of Christ that evil uses good to deceive us. A devil who only ever said “come be evil!” wouldn’t get far. A devil who makes a persuasive case that evil is actually good is far more dangerous. Even when we know the difference between eternal truth and the philosophies of men, a dash of flattery, a threat to our social status, an accusation that we’re harming others can persuade us to reevaluate.  What used to seem clear-cut can become murky when the lines are deliberately blurred.  [Read more…] about The Motte, the Bailey, and the Gospel of Instagram

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apologetics, Apostasy, Bible, Book of Mormon, Chastity, Doctrine and Covenants, Homosexuality, Jesus Christ, Marriage, New Testament, Temples

Come, Follow Me Week 13 – Exodus 1-6

March 21, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

A Burning Bush and a Pillar of Light: God Remembers His Children

by Ugo A. Perego

Many years ago, when I was a young student at Brigham Young University, I had the unique opportunity to register for and attend the Summer Semester at the BYU Jerusalem Center. To this day, it has been one of the best and most intriguing experiences in my life and I still dream about being able to go back there some future day. Besides the incredible instructors that were able to open my eyes and my heart to the world of the Old and New Testaments and an atmosphere of learning that has been hard to match elsewhere, one of the highlights of being in the Holy Land to study the Bible were the many trips we were able to make to the various places mentioned in the scriptures. It was as if time and space disappeared, and I was catapulted right in to the pages of the biblical accounts. One such trip was at Mount Sinai. When we arrived, we were told that we were going to sleep only a couple of hours and then we were to climb the mountain so that we would be on the top of it shortly before sunrise. It was a spectacular sight and truly a sacred moment as I pondered the meaning of that place in the history of humankind. However, that was just half of the Sinai experience. From there, we walked down the other side of the mountain to the Monastery of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site sacred to Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike. In the court of the monastery, a small plant had a sign with “The Burning Bush” written in reminiscence of Moses’ calling to prophethood somewhere not far from where I was standing. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 13 – Exodus 1-6

Filed Under: Bible, Come Follow Me, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, New Testament, Old Testament, Prophets, Revelation, Temples

Come, Follow Me Week 11 – Genesis 37–41

March 8, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

“The Lord Was with Joseph”: A Scriptural Case Study in Why the Lord Allows Bad Things to Happen to Good People

by Matthew L. Bowen

Bad things happen to good people, of course. What’s more, sometimes terrible things happen to the best people even when they are striving with the utmost diligence to do what is right. The entire book of Job is “the paradigmatic literary case of the innocent sufferer, afflicted by the Deity through no fault of his own, and forever kept in the dark concerning the actual cause of his misery.”[1] Nobody ever suffered more for doing so much good for so many than Jesus Christ himself, who never once committed sin.[2] Like Job, Joseph in Egypt represents an antetype or foreshadowing of the Savior with respect to unmerited suffering. As with Jesus and his atoning sacrifice, what happens to Joseph ultimately sets up the divine means of saving the house of Israel alive. This short study will explore the typology of Joseph as the life-saving sufferer (as opposed to a hapless victim of suffering) and the far-reaching impact of the divine deliverance accomplished through him. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 11 – Genesis 37–41

Filed Under: Bible, Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, Languages, Old Testament, Prophets, Revelation

Come, Follow Me Week 10 – Genesis 28–33

February 28, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

Becoming Israel: Learning How to Prevail with God Through Covenants

By Steve Densley

The stories we find in Genesis 28-33 are rich with covenant imagery, from Isaac’s blessing that Jacob would receive the promises of the Abrahamic covenant in the first verses of chapter 28, to Jacob’s building of an altar in the last verse of chapter 33. In between, we find the dramatic stories of Jacob’s vision of the ladder to heaven and Jacob’s wrestle with God, both episodes that remind us of the temple. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 10 – Genesis 28–33

Filed Under: Bible, Come Follow Me, Conversion, Jesus Christ, Lesson Aids, Old Testament, Prophets, Revelation, Temples

Come, Follow Me Week 9 – Genesis 24–27

February 22, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Jeffrey-Thayne.mp3

Podcast: Download (10.9MB)

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Worldview Apologetics: Revealing the Waters in Which We Swim

by Jeffrey Thayne

(This is from a presentation given at the 2021 FAIR Conference)

Introduction

Let’s imagine two roommates, James and Greg, who both attend BYU. They live under the same roof, they are both practicing Latter-day Saints, and they both claim to believe in the doctrines taught by the Proclamation on the Family about sexuality and gender. However, despite these shared beliefs, the way they experience Church culture, policies, practices, and traditions couldn’t be more different. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 9 – Genesis 24–27

Filed Under: Apologetics, Come Follow Me, Doctrine, FAIR Conference, Faith Crisis, Homosexuality, Jesus Christ, Perspective, Philosophy, Podcast

Come, Follow Me Week 8 – Genesis 18–23

February 17, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ValerieHudson.mp3

Podcast: Download (10.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Polygamy as an Abrahamic Sacrifice

by V.H. Cassler

(From a presentation originally titled “A Reconciliation of Polygamy,” given at the 2011 FAIR Conference; edited here for clarity and length)

Today we are going to talk about polygamy but probably in a different way than you have heard about it before. That is, we are going to talk about the doctrinal ins-and-outs of it rather than historical practices.

During the period of time when the restored Church was commanded by the Lord to practice polygamy, some practiced it without any discernible hardship and still others with great pain. Contemporary Church members may look back upon that period with acceptance, or indifference, or discomfort, and I would like to say at the outset that I don’t see that diversity of feelings is harmful that people differ in their reactions to polygamy I don’t think is the issue. Rather, since the new and everlasting covenant of marriage is at the heart of the work of eternal life and godhood; confusion about the nature and form of lawful marriage ordained by God is harmful. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 8 – Genesis 18–23

Filed Under: Bible, Come Follow Me, Doctrine, Doctrine and Covenants, FAIR Conference, FAIR Conference, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, LDS History, Marriage, Old Testament, Perspective, Podcast, Polygamy, Prophets, Women

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