Author: Aaron Shafovaloff
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New Mormon manual promotes doctrine that “has no functioning place” in present day Mormonism
What Gordon B. Hinckley said is “just a couplet”… What BYU professors say is a thing of the past… What Richard Mouw says we should apologize over… Is what the new 2012 Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society Sunday Curriculum manual promotes. We believe that we are here because we kept our first estate and earned…
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What do you think of people in your own life that are unwilling to listen to criticism?
One of the oddest things about modern culture is the tendency to criticize others for the act of criticism. Imagine a man sitting on the end of a tree branch. He looks around at others, telling them that they shouldn’t cut off their branches. Meanwhile, this man is sawing his own branch off. That is…
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Should one limit consideration of “Mormonism” to what minimalists deem “official” and “binding”?
When comparing and contrasting Biblical Christianity with Mormonism, should one limit consideration of “Mormonism” to what minimalists deem “official” and “binding”? I answer “NO” for a number of reasons: Mormonism sees power in ambiguity, strength in ambivalence, solidarity in equivocation, and encouragement in non-officiality. But Christ says, “and you will know the truth, and the…
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Оставление Мормонизма (Leaving Mormonism–Russian)
Оставление Мормонизма Эрик Джонсон Для любого Святого Последних Дней (СПД), идея стать “бывшим мормоном”, вероятно, самое страшное, самое трудное решение, которое он или она когда-нибудь сможет сделать. Принятие этого решения может стоить высокой цены, что повлияет не только на духовную жизнь, но и на социальную. Это особенно верно для тех кто работает на принадлежащие или…
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Will Exalted Mormons Govern Their Own Spirit Children and Worlds?
Mormon blogger Joanna Brooks complains that the idea that righteous Mormons will one day get their own planets is “folklore.””Sure, it’s a distorting and sensationalistic caricature of Mormon beliefs to say that all of us believe we’re going to get our own planets. You could sit in your local Mormon Church for a month of…
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Does Lack of Conscious Focus on Exaltation Excuse the Mormon Expectation of Being Worshiped?
When the Mormon concept of eternal progression unto Godhood is exposed (i.e. brought out of relative obscurity to explicit consideration), one common response from Mormons is that it shouldn’t be made such a big deal because common Mormons don’t think about it very often. There are some big problems with this: 1. The issue matters…
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Exchanging Mystery for Mystery
People who leave traditional Christianity for Mormonism often think that in doing so they are having big mysteries solved and gaps filled. In reality, they are exchanging one set of mystery and certainty for another set of mystery and certainty. The question is whether a given set of mystery and certainty is acceptable. Mormonism says…
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The Cruelty and Cold-Heartedness Mormon Neo-Orthodoxy
Let me intensify/exaggerate things for a moment for the sake of a point: Imagine you are in a room with a dozen people deeply, negatively, emotionally, spiritually impacted by Kimball’s The Miracle of Forgiveness, and you are the only Mormon who outright rejects the book and understands that the real repentance that brings forgiveness is…
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BYU Professor Announces Significant Textual Discovery from the Jordanian Plates
There was much ado this week about “a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus’ life.” Mormons around the blogosphere showed immediate interest over the plates, suggesting it…
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One argument that I no longer use against the “royal line of sinless saviors”
One argument that I no longer use against RLSS (see background here) is the argument that Mormonism essentially yields a small proportion of never-sinned Gods in ultimate reality. Put your thinking caps on. This argument works if all you have in each generation of the Gods are singular eternally-sinless firstborn spirit sons and then other…
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The Christ of Mormonism vs. the Christ of the Bible
Written by a local ex-Mormon Christian friend of mine: — This is the Christ of Mormonism: 1. He lives as a humanoid god on a star near Kolob along with his father god, bound by the physical world; he does not transcend the material. 2. He is the brother of satan. 3. He had to…
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Even Unique Mormon Scripture Teaches That Remission of Sins Is Prerequisite to Baptism
In Acts 17:28, Paul quotes from pagan poetry to make a point that ultimately contradicts pagan theology. He makes a point of connection useful for a larger point of contention. One among other things we can observe from his sermon is that Christians can wisely use non-Christian literature in our endeavor to communicate Christian truth.…
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Do you want to know the truth more than you want Mormonism to be true?
(From an e-mail I sent in December) K., An honest question for you: Are you of the mindset that even if the LDS Church isn’t true, it still might be worth believing in? Have you ever seen the Southpark Episode on Mormonism? I don’t watch Southpark (it’s a crass, raunchy show), but I have seen that…
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Shame, Shame, Shame: Forty Years Later And Still No Apology
By Aaron Shafovaloff
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Mormonism’s Grinch and a Response to James of Lehi’s Library
Mormonism’s Grinch smiled and said, “‘Only Begotten Son.’ Only Begotten in the flesh, meaning in mortality. This designation of our Lord signifies that he was begotten by Man of Holiness as literally as any mortal father begets a son. The natural processes of procreation were involved; Jesus was begotten by his Father as literally as…
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Book Review: Gethsemane
Reviewed by Aaron Shafovaloff According to BYU professor Andrew Skinner, the centerpiece of Heavenly Father’s plan was a “singular moment in a specific time and place on this earth in a garden called Gethsemane… The events that occurred in Gethsemane were part of the atonement of Jesus Christ—not preparatory to it, nor secondary to it,…
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The Comfort of Knowing God Was a Sinner
Kathryn, a local Mormon, wrote to me on November 7: “We believe that [God] was in our same situations. I don’t want someone judging me, until they have walked in my shoes. I am sure God has sinned. How else would he know and understand that he didn’t want his children to feel that pain.…
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Gospel Principles 2009 as a Significant Perpetuation of Traditional Mormon Theology
My research article on Gospel Principles now online at UTLM. I put a lot of work into it (comparing a bunch of Gospel Principles editions took forever, and my wife is glad it’s over!), and I hope it’s helpful to others. To get your started: “Outsiders learning Mormon theology afresh are better suited starting with…
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Daniel Peterson Isn’t Sure if Muhammad Was a False Prophet
Apparently for Daniel Peterson—Mormonism’s most prominent living apologist who is also the leading LDS scholar on Islam—denying that Jesus is the Lord and Savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead isn’t enough to make one a false prophet. He writes, “I’m not sure whether Muhammad was a prophet or not.” Yes, he really…
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CNN Drops Embarrassing Educational Bombshell: Roots of Mormon Polygamy and Continuation in the Afterlife
The article is here. “Among those revelations recorded in 1843 in the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of Mormon scripture, were teachings about plural marriage [link to D&C 132).” Section 132 actually wasn’t added until 1876. Until 1876, then-section 101 (removed in 1876) actually forbade polygamy. In 1843 the “revelation” was still secret, and Smith was vehemently…