Start Thinking Blog

What Are We Seeing? The Book of Mormon starts with accounts of Lehi and Nephi seeing visions of things to come. In each case, the visions are preceded by faith, pondering, and prayer. In Nephi’s case, an angel starts a conversation by asking questions. For some reason, this struck me as odd. It seems to […]

Pay Attention to the Prophets The first ten chapters of 1 Nephi describe what happens when righteous people heed the warnings of living prophets. Nephi describes the effect of failing to listen to those who speak by the spirit of God. The problems came when the people of Jerusalem rejected the prophets, which caused the

What Makes the Book of Mormon True? Over the past couple of weeks, my YouTube feed has been inundated with videos dedicated to providing evidence that the Book of Mormon is not a fraud. The claims deal with counteracting criticisms leveled at the church, covering various topics, from the lack of archeological evidence to linguistics

Making Mountains Into Molehills Reading great stories can provide us with hours, days, months, and years of escape, reflection, and entertainment. Scripture contains many of the greatest stories ever told. The narrative of sacred literature is massive in its scope. The extremes described in the events of the people in these works make our lives

Real Intent Last week, I wrote about the nature of reality regarding what we choose to believe. There is great power in belief to the point of physiological changes in ourselves and others. The miracles the Savior performed had their foundation in faith and intent. Jesus used miracles to convince others that he was the

The Santa Effect So, it is Christmas Eve! It has been a long time since I felt a child’s excitement at Christmastime. The anticipation of a new toy under the tree is long gone. I think I can relate to Ebenezer Scrooge at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. It’s not that I am actively

A Summary of The Revelation For the past three weeks, I have discussed some ways to interpret the symbolism in the book of Revelation. It has not been comprehensive in its scope but focused enough to make the text much easier to understand. So today, I will attempt to summarize the main concepts and doctrines

The Revelation Continued This week, I will attempt to cover chapters 6-15 of the Book of Revelation using the same methods of interpretation I used last week. Once again, the use of numbers and periods of time are as symbolic as the use of beasts and creatures in the revelation. I am more and more

Understanding Apocalyptic Literature The Revelation of Saint John the Divine, or the Apocalypse of John, is considered the ultimate apocalyptic literature of the Bible. The term “apocalyptic” refers to a genre of literature that often involves visions, symbols, and revelations about the end times, divine judgment, and the ultimate victory of good over evil. Some

Keep The Faith The common theme that runs through the books of 1-3 John and Jude have a common theme with a few gems of wisdom and doctrine. The conditions of the time prompted the authors to warn the people of the corruption and doubt that was seeping into the church. One verse in Jude