Articles of Faith 5: Kevin Christensen on Inevitable Consequences of the...
Kevin Christensen has been a technical writer since 1984, He has a Bachelors in English from San Jose State University. He has published articles in Dialogue, Sunstone, the FARMS Review of Books, the...
View ArticleNew Gospel Topics Essay: “Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham”
A new essay has been posted on the Church’s Gospel Topics website, this time addressing the subject of the translation of the Book of Abraham. The article begins by affirming, “The Church of Jesus...
View ArticleHow we got the Book of Abraham
[This article was written by Kerry Muhlestein and originally posted at Meridian Magazine. An excerpt is reposted here with permission.] When Napoleon invaded Egypt he opened it up to a wave of Western...
View ArticleFaulty Assumptions about the Book of Abraham
[Written by Kerry Muhlestein] As was mentioned in the last column (link to column here), it was almost universally assumed that all of the papyri Joseph Smith had once owned had been destroyed in the...
View ArticleHow Joseph Smith Translated the Book of Abraham
By Kerry Muhlestein For most people, the idea of translating is fairly straightforward. Conventionally, when someone translates, he reads a document in one language he understands and renders it into...
View ArticleInterpreting the Abraham Facsimiles
By Kerry Muhlestein Many people often ask about how Joseph Smith’s explanations of the Facsimiles compares to those of Egyptologists. This is a question worth asking. As with all things regarding...
View ArticleAdmission and Omission: What Is the Church’s Position on the Book of Abraham?
“Printing Plates of Facsimiles of Papyrus Drawings, Nauvoo, IL, early 1842″ (http://josephsmithpapers.org) [This post originally appeared at Ploni Almoni.] In his March 2015 letter to the First...
View ArticleFaith and Reason 67: More Book of Abraham Evidences
From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith By Michael R. Ash Non-LDS Near Eastern scholar David Noel Freedman said that he had never encountered an Abraham...
View ArticleBook Review: Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World
This book is from the 2013 BYU Church History Symposium, held March 7–8, 2013. The Church History Symposium is a nearly annual (there apparently wasn’t one held in 2015) event that draws speakers from...
View ArticleBook Review: A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine & Church History
In the prologue of A Reason for Faith, the editor, Laura Hales, lays out the purpose of the book. Members of the church sometimes come across new information in an unfriendly setting that damages their...
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Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 5: October 1835 –...
Publisher: The Church Historian’s Press Date Available: May 15, 2017 Number of Pages: 768 Binding: Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1629723129 Price: $54.95 (Page numbers are from an Advance Review Copy, and may...
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Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham
10% off at the FairMormon Bookstore Publisher: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University and Deseret Book Author: John Gee Number of Pages: 197 Binding: Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-9443-9406-6...
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Book Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham
10% off at the FairMormon Bookstore Click to purchase the book. [Another FairMormon member, Rene Krywult, has contributed a second review of this book.] “The goal with the Introduction to the Book of...
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What Was the Nature of Satan’s Premortal Proposal? (Old Testament Gospel...
William Blake, 1757-1827: Satan in His Original Glory, ca. 1805. To highlight Lucifer’s perversity, Blake has conspicuously reversed the hands in which the emblems of British monarchy are normally...
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Why Was Joseph Smith Initially Prohibited from Publishing His Bible...
Liz Lemon Swindle, 1953-: Go with Me to Cumorah, 1997 An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 5: “If Thou Doest Well, Thou Shalt Be Accepted” (Moses 5-7) (JBOTL05A). See the link to video...
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What Is the Meaning of the Samuel’s Reply: “Here Am I”? (Gospel Doctrine...
Eli and Samuel An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 21: “God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him” (1 Samuel 2-3; 8) (JBOTL21A) Question: Within the short...
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FairMormon Conference Podcast #11 – Michael Ash, “After the Manner of Their...
This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. Please join us for the 2018 FairMormon Conference coming up August 1-3! You can attend in person or purchase the video streaming....
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The 2018 FairMormon Conference in Review
We had another great conference last week (it was our 20th!). This time it ran for 3 days. Some of the topics covered were lesser-known women’s stories in church history, the Gospel Topics Essays,...
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Book Review: 1,001 Facts About the Prophet Joseph Smith
Available at a discount from the FairMormon bookstore This is a short (151 pages) paperback book that contains 1,001 numbered paragraphs that chronologically narrate the life of Joseph Smith,...
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FairMormon Conference Podcast #17 – John Gee, “Selling Our Birthright for a...
This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. In celebration of the release of the Facsimile Edition of the Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations Vol. 4: Book of...
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Book Review: Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Vol. 4: Book...
Available in the FairMormon Bookstore This new volume of the Joseph Smith Papers is another Facsimile Edition, which means it is an oversized volume (approx. 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches, matching the other...
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Book Review: We’ll Sing and We’ll Shout: The Life and Times of W. W. Phelps
Available at a discount at the FairMormon Bookstore William Wines Phelps (usually known as W. W. Phelps) is probably most often thought of in conjunction with some of the most beloved hymns of The...
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Jim Bennett: Standing My Ground
[Jim Bennett is the author of “A Faithful Reply to the CES Letter from a Former CES Employee“] So it’s been a few days since Bill Reel published our twelve hours of recorded conversations we had for...
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FairMormon Conference Podcast #48 – Ben Spackman, “A Paradoxical Preservation...
This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2019 conference held in August. If you would like to watch the presentations from our 2019...
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Book Review: The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism’s Most Controversial...
Available from the FairMormon Bookstore Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have probably never thought of the Pearl of Great Price as controversial. The Book of Mormon,...
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FairMormon Conference Podcast #50 – Matt Roper/Kirk Magleby, “Time Vindicates...
This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2019 conference. If you would like to watch the presentations from our 2019 conference, you can...
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FAIR Voice Podcast #2 – Sunday Special: Overview of Historicity, and Come...
On this first Sunday segment, we begin with a discussion of what historicity is as a preview for future interviews that will address Book of Abraham historicity. We talk about the methods of...
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Q&A with editors of Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation...
Available from the FairMormon Bookstore This book includes a mixture of scholarship about all of Joseph Smith’s translation projects, including the highly anticipated paper by Thomas A. Wayment and...
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FAIR Voice Podcast #5: Interview with John Gee on the Book of Abraham
Please register for the FairMormon Conference that is on August 5-7. It’s a great opportunity to support FairMormon, hear from amazing speakers, and ask questions directly to speakers! Today, Hanna...
View ArticleScholarly Support for the Book of Abraham
Cross-posted from The Interpreter Foundation See also: Raising the Abrahamic Discourse: An Essay on the Nature of Dialogues About the Book of Abraham [Kerry Muhlestein also gave a presentation at the...
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Raising the Abrahamic Discourse: An Essay on the Nature of Dialogues About...
by Kerry Muhlestein Cross-posted from The Interpreter Foundation See also: Scholarly Support for the Book of Abraham [Kerry Muhlestein also gave a presentation at the recent FairMormon Conference on...
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Update from Kerry Muhlestein re: Raising the Abrahamic Discourse
[This is an update to a post from August 25, Raising the Abrahamic Discourse: An Essay on the Nature of Dialogues About the Book of Abraham] UPDATE I believe that academic dialogue is important and can...
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Book Review: The Joseph Smith Papers, Documents, Volume 11: September 1842 –...
Available from the FairMormon Bookstore This volume of the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers covers a period of time when Joseph Smith hid from attempts to arrest and extradite him to...
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“The Book That Answers All the Questions”: Hugh Nibley and the Pearl of Great...
Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4 | Post 5 | Post 6 | Post 7 | Post 8 | Post 9 Post 4 of 9 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ This...
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The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 12
Part 12: CES Letter Book of Abraham Questions [Section C] by Sarah Allen As the beginning of the next question in the CES Letter is basically a retread of the previous one, I’m just going to skim...
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The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 13
Part 13: CES Letter Book of Abraham Questions [Section D] by Sarah Allen Today, we’re going to start talking about the facsimiles, beginning with Facsimile 1. Facsimile 1 is pretty unique, not just...
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The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 14
Part 14: CES Letter Book of Abraham Questions [Section E] by Sarah Allen We’re talking about Facsimile 2 today. I’ll have to discuss the facsimile explanations next time, since there’s background...
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The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 15
Part 15: CES Letter Book of Abraham Questions [Section F] by Sarah Allen I’m going to dive in and start discussing what Joseph’s interpretations of what the figures on Facsimile 2 mean compared to...
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The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 16
Part 16: CES Letter Book of Abraham Questions [Section G] by Sarah Allen Facsimile 3, like Facsimile 1, is difficult to classify because it doesn’t have the standard features that it should if it...
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FAIR Conference Podcast #66 – Mike Ash, “Rethinking Revelation and the Human...
This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference held in August. If you would like to watch the presentations from the conference, you can...
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“Ask the Egyptologist” Virtual Fireside for Sustaining Members on Dec. 1
The Book of Abraham is an incredible book that contains many truths about the gospel. But there are often questions about the Book of Abraham that can be difficult to understand or answer. There is a...
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Inspiration, Intellect, and Rethinking Revelation
by Michael R. Ash for FAIR Newsletter 2021 1211 Inspiration and Intellect are two sides of the same coin in how Latter-day Saints believe that God communicates with His children. We know that the...
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Rethinking Revelation and the Human Element in Scripture
Available in the FAIR Bookstore by Michael R. Ash Those who have read any of my writings in the past several decades will know that I’ve been a volunteer for FAIR for more than twenty years. I’m an...
View ArticleCome, Follow Me Week 1 – Moses 1; Abraham 3
How did we get the books of Moses and Abraham? The Come, Follow Me manual poses this question and gives links to articles on the Church’s website about the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible and the...
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Come, Follow Me Thoughts to Keep in Mind – The Covenant
The Abrahamic Covenant, Its Influence on Scriptures, and What that Has to Do with Us by Kerry Muhlestein, author of God Will Prevail: Ancient Covenants, Modern Blessings, and the Gathering of Israel...
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Come, Follow Me Week 7 – Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2
Abraham 1:1–19 God will bless me for my faith and righteous desires. by Jennifer Roach In my day job I’m a mental health therapist. My specialty is helping people recover from trauma. I sit with the...
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FREE BOOK CHAPTER: “‘Translating’ Restoration Scripture”
Can the Book of Mormon be the Word of God and inspired fiction? Did Joseph Smith’s cultural worldview influence the way he understood the relationship between New World people and the 10 Lost Tribes?...
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Answers to a Few Questions for Black History Month
for FAIR Newsletter – Black History Month Edition 4 2022 I am a white male. Well, I really have more of a ruddy complexion that looks red most of the time, but that still counts as “white.” I have...
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“Bamboozled by the ‘CES Letter'” by Michael R. Ash now available on audiobook!
We are pleased to announce that Michael R. Ash’s book, Bamboozled by the “CES Letter”, is now available in audiobook format from Audible and iTunes! We’d especially like to thank Derrick Duncan for...
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President Harold B. Lee Testifies about Revelation in Book of Mormon Translation
by Dennis B. Horne In late 1973, only two months before he passed away, President Harold B. Lee visited Rick’s College (now BYU-Idaho), where he attended a luncheon and then gave the college devotional...
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