Holy Land

The traditional Jewish celebration of the Passover, which started Monday night, can illustrate the rich symbolism found in the Old Testament and show how the symbolism of the Passover points directly to Jesus Christ.  Please note that the original Passover observance is described in Exodus, chapters twelve and thirteen.  The modern Seder evolved from this [...]

Seth Adam Smith, a private videographer who creates LDS-themed material and makes it available on YouTube, has written about the political and social connotations of being Nephite or Lamanite in a recent blog post. He makes some compelling connections to modern day with Christians and Muslims using the words of modern prophets, as depicted in [...]

Plan A was to have the economy humming by now and see Obama cruise to re-election on the success of Keynesian counter-cyclical stimulus. Hope and change would have proven itself superior to the failed policies of the Republican past and the country would eagerly follow Obama into yet more “transformational” policies in his second term. [...]

Foreword This is the final post of a 4 part series.  Context for this post is provided in part 1, part 2 and part 3. Concluding Observations The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has wisely taken no official position on Book of Mormon geography,89 despite the clear presence of americentric sentiment throughout the Church as [...]

Foreword This is part 3 of a 4 part series.  Context for this post is provided in part 1 and part 2. Moroni and Cumorah Often the first protest directed at the Malay Hypothesis is the issue of Cumorah, New York, and the irreconcilable distances and settings it would require to get the plates from Asia [...]

The United States has been preoccupied with economic issues and domestic politics. So it was shocking to have the Attorney General of the United States call a news conference to announce that Iran’s government was implicated in a plot to murder the Saudi Ambassador to Washington while in the city and (from other sources) conduct [...]

Foreword This is part 2 of a 4 part series.  Context for this post is provided in part 1. Geographic Correspondence At first glance the Malay Hypothesis’ most striking strong point is the peninsula’s correspondence to geographic features mentioned in the Book of Mormon text. The size and relative distances between various points are commensurable [...]

Prologue In 1827, Christian missionaries travelled into the jungles of Burma to bring the gospel to an indigenous group known as the Karen people. As the missionaries began teaching the Karens from the Bible, they were astounded to discover that the Karens already worshipped a deity they called “Y’wa”, had a detailed creation story with [...]

I was listening to the radio yesterday and the topic of Israel was being discussed.  President Obama made a speech the other day to the United Nations defending Israel and warning against the official recognition of a Palestinian State prior to the negotiation of a real peace between the two peoples. President Obama eloquently stated [...]

New York is a city composed of five Boroughs that include dozens of neighborhoods with histories often unrecognized by their modern residents. As the city grew from its origins on the southern tip of Manhattan Island over several centuries, it enveloped and altered what had been separate communities and erased the reasons for their original [...]

The Scriptures picture the final battle of good and evil happening in a real place because many real battles have happened on that spot. The place is Megiddo,  a city — ancient even in Biblical times — that controls a pass through the Judean Hills (Carmel Range) to connect the coastal plain to the Jezreel [...]

Alongside the Atonement, Charity may be one of the hardest concepts to grasp and put into practice. We are taught in the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 8:1 “…Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave [...]

In this final part, I’d like to discuss the Christian things that I experienced in Israel. I didn’t see very much,  just the Old City, Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives. The Christian population Within Israel and the Palestinian Territories has declined significantly over the last 20 years or so. According to Reuters, the Christian [...]

When I was first dating my wife, my future father-in-law said a very strange thing to me. As we were talking one evening, he asked me, “When are you going back?” “Back where?” “To Israel?” “I’ve never been” “Oh, I thought all Jewish people went to Israel?” “Well, I haven’t….yet.” So 29 years later, I [...]