tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79308657423562285432024-03-05T12:06:03.841+00:00The Mormon ChapbookA Mormon MiscellanyMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.comBlogger200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-54902960239592355322018-10-04T14:53:00.001+01:002018-10-04T14:53:25.209+01:00The Mormon Church is Not Changing it’s Name - AgainTechnorati Tags: Mormon,LDS,Latter-day Saints,Mormon Church NameThe Mormon Church is not changing it's name again, it is making a 'correction.' In an official statement in August new president, Russell M Nelson, said:“The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have work before us to bring Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-10292188145434488132017-08-10T22:37:00.001+01:002017-08-10T22:41:58.298+01:00Mormon ExcomunicationNews broke on 8 August of the excommunication of a high ranking Mormon Church leader. Read the official statement here. The story was covered by major news outlets, but the most frequently cited reports are from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The Tribune reported:'On Tuesday morning James J Hamula was released from his position in the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-40269359990838110302015-08-14T14:01:00.001+01:002015-08-14T14:01:33.970+01:00Mormonism: Joseph’s Real Seer Stone (or ‘Sofa so Good’)Many will be aware of the news story coming out of Salt Lake City about Joseph Smith’s ‘seer stone’ (pictured right, read more here) Conflicting accounts have come out over the years about how the founding prophet of Mormonism translated his seminal work, the Book of Mormon. The original claim was that, buried with the gold plates from which he translated the book, was a device he called the UrimMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-5556952748962700132015-06-26T17:08:00.001+01:002015-06-26T17:08:42.039+01:00Legalism: What Does Grace Say to Legalism?Legalism is defined by Chambers Dictionary as “strict adherence to law…the tendency to observe letter or form rather than spirit, or to regard things from the point of view of law.” It also helpfully illustrates the definition with a reference to the opposing doctrines of salvation by works and salvation by grace. I do like The Chambers Dictionary and commend it to you. But what is wrong with Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-65976985723964152212015-05-14T16:52:00.001+01:002015-05-14T16:52:47.205+01:00Mormons, Gays–and the Easter Story?Easter this year (2015) fell on the weekend of 5th April. This was also the weekend of the Mormon Annual General Conference so you might expect a special theme to run through this conference weekend. A theme did emerge, one that has coloured the whole conference, although not one you might expect. Look at the themes running through the conference: Filling our Home With Light and Truth The Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-33119114815806350242015-04-08T15:57:00.001+01:002015-04-08T15:57:12.657+01:00Mormonism’s ‘Dog-Whistle’ Theology‘I have taught you nothing but God’s holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s holy book I have come hither to seal with my blood’ (Rowland Taylor, to his parishioners at Hadley, [Suffolk, England] before kissing the stake at which he was to be burned February, 1555) ‘We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-91575287229154998772015-03-13T20:10:00.001+00:002015-03-13T20:10:03.320+00:00Another Cross-less Easter for MormonsSome deceptions are so obvious as to be audacious, like the Jehovah’s Witness teaching that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 when he failed to turn up physically, as predicted. Or the Mormon claim that Jesus walked the Americas following his resurrection and spoke to a boy in a grove of trees in 1820. Others are so subtle as to pass you by if you don’t know what you are seeing, what you are Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-7090212981217062572015-01-16T15:27:00.001+00:002015-01-16T15:27:22.838+00:00Twelve Baptisms and a MormonIn ministry the least reliable thing of all is a testimony. I know that sounds a strange thing to say but when people stand up and tell their story you really have little or no control over what they will say, there is often little chance of verifying their back story and, especially if it goes to print, it can be a serious liability. Testimonies can also be heart-warming, encouraging, and Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-53979097617911804202014-10-23T12:23:00.001+01:002014-10-23T12:23:12.777+01:00General Conference October 2014, Saturday Morning Session Welcome to conference A Christian friend once spent some time with Mormons in New Zealand researching a paper. He visited with Christian friends there and asked them how they felt being surrounded by so many Mormons. His question mystified them. The Mormon community was so small, they insisted, as to be negligible. He realised that spending time surrounded by Mormons, listening to their Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-21735024672113765412014-08-22T22:48:00.001+01:002014-08-22T22:48:31.042+01:00Mormons and the Perils of Social MediaThose of us who have been around social media for a long time know too well the perils of ‘sharing your faith’ online. We are familiar with robust exchanges of view, from thoughtful comments to ill-considered plaudits and brickbats, the angry exchanges, and the downright rudeness. Whatever your position on issues of faith, when you step into this arena you must be prepared to take the rough with Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-53931891544030828622014-08-04T18:10:00.001+01:002014-08-04T18:10:53.798+01:00The Purpose of MormonismThe August 2014 Ensign magazine of the Mormon Church carries the theme of missionary work and an article by Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explains Why we Share the Gospel. There is a helpful summary here. He begins, reasonably enough, by drawing a distinction between purpose and planning and it would be right to say he is warning readers that the map is not the Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-10264466529554435952014-07-06T16:39:00.001+01:002014-07-06T16:55:39.165+01:00Mormonism Misusing Scripture 2: The Case of the Absent AtonementI wonder would you do something for me? Read through the following brief account of a little adventure I had recently and then answer the two questions at the end. Its a true story, I know because I made it up myself: I recently bought a car because I planned to go on a road trip with a friend and my old jalopy simply wasn’t up to it. It surprised me that, within my budget, I was offered a greatMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-4514902079323842372014-07-04T23:56:00.001+01:002014-07-04T23:56:48.048+01:00Mormonism Misusing ScriptureI want to show you, from chapter 9 in Spencer W Kimball’s The Miracle of Forgiveness, how Mormonism misuses the Bible, misapplies its texts, and rips them from their natural context. I have noted down and counted the relative Mormon and biblical texts in this chapter and discovered that a total of 29 Mormon sources are quoted compared with a total of 13 Bible texts . That is more than twice as Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-21991469438212985912014-07-02T19:32:00.001+01:002014-07-02T19:32:39.635+01:00Chiasmus in the Book of MormonThis is an article I posted in 2011 on the fascinating subject of Chiasmus. It is found in the Bible and Mormons will argue that its presence in the Book of Mormon is evidence of its authenticity – read on: Chiasmus is “a figure of speech by which the order of the words in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second” (Oxford companion to English Literature, 1985 ed.). One way of Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-57641219732924874272014-06-17T17:17:00.001+01:002014-06-17T17:17:56.214+01:00The Miracle of Forgiveness, Ch. 8: As a Man Thinketh This post was originally a guest post in Mormonism Investigated UK, always worth a visit. Every generation of Mormons joins a different church. For example, in the earliest, frontier days it was blood and thunder, ‘thus saith the Lord’ hellfire preaching. conquest, gods, defiance and determination, building-a-kingdom thinking prevailed. Folk crossed oceans and continents to be part of it. TheMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-25394501739808261262014-05-27T15:43:00.001+01:002014-05-27T15:43:54.111+01:00Mike and Lynn Wilder Our very good friend Bobby Gilpin over at Mormonism Investigated has been busy (really, when does he sleep?) arranging for the visit of Mike and Lynn Wilder, recent converts from Mormonism to the Christian Faith. It is a truly remarkable story and if you can make any of the dates and venues it will be well worth your time. Here is a  little blurb from Bobby’s website and a link for you to Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-9859223112154948042014-05-24T00:20:00.001+01:002014-05-24T00:22:10.309+01:00Conversation with a Mormon–Paul’s Defence of GraceNote: Back in 2009 I wrote a short piece, more to get something off my chest than anything, and called it Conversation with a Mormon – Good Works. I recently dug it up and worked it into a different ending explaining from the apostle Paul’s perspective how we meet the charge of easy-believism and this is the result.   Christian: Where do you get the idea that “Christians don’t believe in Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-18898594094929890572014-04-28T21:03:00.001+01:002014-04-28T21:03:52.585+01:00Book of Mormon Origins – If Not Angels Then Who? This post appeared originally on Mormonism Investigated UK Anyone who has expressed doubts regarding the story of the Book of Mormon will probably have been met with the question, "Well if Joseph didn't get it from the angel how do you explain the Book of Mormon?" Today the Book of Mormon does seem an unusual book that appears to have sprung from nowhere. Certainly the Mormon Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-27340147374815021342014-04-12T13:47:00.001+01:002014-04-12T13:47:14.092+01:00General Conference, April 2014 – Saturday Morning (This was originally a guest post on the Mormonism Investigated site where you will find a team of writers producing commentary on all the proceedings of the conference weekend) This session was presided over by Thomas S Monson and conducted by Dieter Uchtdorf, affectionately dubbed 'the silver fox' by some, and second counsellor in the first presidency. Boyd K Packer of the twelve apostles isMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-25319116964179295702014-02-01T20:39:00.001+00:002014-02-01T20:39:20.669+00:00Does DNA Disprove the Book of Mormon?Over at the Salt Lake Tribune resident writer Peggy Fletcher Stack has written a helpful piece summarising a larger piece on the official Mormon web site addressing the question of DNA and the book of Mormon. They conclude, DNA doesn’t prove or disprove the Book of Mormon.” I wrote this post back in 2009 and thought it would be timely to repost it here today. I hope some find it helpful. Dear Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-14503035171559070932014-01-30T21:47:00.001+00:002014-01-30T21:47:38.017+00:00The Miracle of Forgiveness Ch.1 Life’s Divine Purpose?I wrote this  by way of an introduction to the 2014 series on The Miracle of Forgiveness, on Mormonism Investigated UK. Its a series well worth following. Here is a brief introduction to the book’s author, Spencer W Kimball. Ten Things You Should Know About Spencer W Kimball He was born 28 March 1895, the grandson of early Mormon leader Heber C Kimball and nephew of Joseph Smith Jr. Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-12488409949501938782013-11-28T19:02:00.001+00:002013-11-28T19:02:33.935+00:00Mormons and CS Lewis: Virtue by AssociationNovember 22 marked the 50th anniversary of CS Lewis’ death. The great man is being honoured with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey. The CS Lewis Foundation is marking the anniversary with a series of events celebrating his enduring legacy. Belfast city council has funded a festival celebrating his life and a 50th anniversary memorial weekend was held on 22-23 November. All in all, ChristiansMike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-63046280447427120612013-11-25T22:21:00.001+00:002013-11-25T22:21:34.755+00:00Mormon Women: “Wear Pants to Church”–or Nothing at All?What is happening in the Mormon Church? For a second year Mormon women are being encouraged to wear pants (trousers) to church to support a feminist drive in Mormonism. What is it about? According to the Pants to Church official website: “Mormon feminists, women and men, wore dress pants and the color purple to their local LDS Church services on December 16, 2012. People wore pants for many Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-68458182323040027182013-11-21T22:56:00.001+00:002013-11-21T22:56:13.499+00:00Lorenzo Snow Tells Mormons: Don’t Copy Joseph Smith Lorenzo Snow was the fifth president of the Mormon Church (1898-1901) and presided over a period of enormous upheaval and change. His predecessor, Wilford Woodruff, had, in 1890, officially declared the Mormon practice of polygamy heterodoxical. Mormon men were still being arrested, or living in hiding because of their polygamous lifestyles. Legal problems over polygamy had almost bankrupted Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7930865742356228543.post-78156040923260446952013-11-14T22:15:00.001+00:002013-11-14T22:15:02.648+00:00Mormons and TithingThe law of tithing is one of the most important ever revealed to man. . . . Through obeying this law the blessings of prosperity and success will be given to the Saints.” Lorenzo Snow A Revelation It was in early May 1899, we are told, that president Lorenzo Snow ‘felt prompted to visit the city of St. George and other settlements in southern Utah.’ The president, the story Mike Teahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505904110015305223noreply@blogger.com0