Thoughts on the End of the World
Growing up in the LDS Church, I did not hear the term “rapture” used much, if at all. It certainly wasn’t in the official curriculum. “Second Coming” was the phrase commonly used.
Anthony Larson
Remembering – Myths Are History
This past week brought three impressive celestial events – the vernal equinox, a solar eclipse and a geomagnetic storm caused by major solar flares with CME’s – Coronal Mass Ejections – that lit up the Aurora Borealis in a most spectacular manner. Most people were unaware of any unusual activity in the sky. It was …
Let Them Serve As Signs
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was …
Bringing On the Apocalypse
I was invited to join a panel of fellow authors who enjoy writing about the catastrophes of the last days. Randy Lindsay is the author of a recent work of LDS fiction entitled The Gathering. I must be candid and tell you up front I have not yet read it. I have a copy and …
Divine Discontent and Enduring to the End
The Need for Denver’s Message One of the main ideas Carol and I have discussed concerning Denver Snuffer is the necessity of the message he has delivered. Carol has made it clear she did not and does not feel there was or is any need for someone like Denver Snuffer to remind us how important …
A New Star Will Soon Shine Forth
Denver Snuffer doesn’t need my help. He is controversial enough on his own to get all kinds of attention from members of the LDS Church. But when he wrote recently that a new star would soon appear, troubling all the world, and that it would be a sign that he was the Lord’s servant, I …
And The Moon Shall Turn to Blood
Thirty years ago, I encountered a book that changed my life. It introduced to me a unique way of interpreting and understanding prophetic phrases. Passages of scripture that previously mystified me with their obscurity became clear as day and have maintained that clarity ever since. I know of no other book that has impacted my …
Visions of Glory and the Last Days
Note added 6-11-13: Greg Smith has published a much more complete review on the FAIR website. And I thought I was being a little harsh in my review here. Well, it’s good to have multiple sources to make comparisons. I hope I made it clear that I got a lot of good from the book even though …
Orthodox Mormonism
Is there such a thing as orthodoxy in Mormonism? And who has the right to proclaim what is orthodox in our religion that should or should not be believed? I understand and accept that the men I sustain as leaders in the LDS Church have the right to determine and enforce what should be taught …
When prophets need to know
I have a deep personal interest in the anticipated social response to the upcoming movie, 2012. While it looks to be great entertainment from the fertile mind of Roland Emmerich, I am fascinated by the idea of how our society will react to some sort of a major catastrophic cataclysmic event like that depicted in …
The end of the world is not imminent
Two weeks ago Carol and I traveled to Provo from our home in California to attend a unique symposium on the subject of prophecy and the last days. The presenter was Anthony Larson, an LDS author and publisher of five books on the subject. I read Anthony’s books back in the 80’s when they were …
Gospel Symposia are making a comeback
Carol and I are flying up to Salt Lake on Friday to attend a gospel-related symposium on prophecy and cosmology. In other words, it is a seminar about Armageddon and the last days. It is being held at the Provo Marriott in the Aspen room. Attendance is expected to be several hundred. I am encouraged …
Doctrines of the Book of Abraham
In our Institute class last night we began to study the Book of Abraham. The instructor covered the origins of the book in short order. None of the students had any questions about the papyri or the mummies or the translation process or the discovery of the fragments. Neither did I as I have written …
The Electric Universe – Fact or Fiction?
A new image from the far side of Mercury was released by NASA today. It was taken by the Messenger probe that flew by last week before it begins an orbit of Mercury in a few years. It has been sending back a wealth of data about the planet that was not previously known. This …
Joshua’s Long Day
I’m going nuts with this embedded video thing. It adds so much to my blog. Anthony Larson made a 27-minute video some twenty years ago called Joshua’s Long Day. It is a telling and intrepretation of the events surrounding the day that Joshua commanded the earth to stand still in Old Testament times. Did it …
Embedding YouTube videos in your blog
Anthony Larson has made a series of videos promoting his books and placed them on YouTube. I decided to embed a couple of them here as my first attempt at embedding video. It is not a difficult thing to do. Just highlight and copy the code to the right of the video and then paste …
The desolation of abomination
In my scripture study today I jumped from the Book or Mormon to section 84 in the Doctrine and Covenants, specifically to the last verses 114 to 120. In verse 114 the Lord refers to the desolation of abomination. Is that a typo, a reversal in the mind of the prophet Joseph of the familiar …
Mormon Doctrine – Prophecy and the Last Days
A few posts back I mentioned in passing the ‘Prophecy Trilogy‘ books of Anthony E. Larson. Mr. Larson and I have begun a correspondence that has included discussion of his books, publishing in the LDS market, and the idea of ‘strange doctrine’. He didn’t call it that but I do. It’s strange because it is …