Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
“The End from the Beginning”

“The End from the Beginning”

Last updated on: August 9, 2020 at 12:03 am by Dan Peterson

“The End from the Beginning” 2020-08-09T00:03:47-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Concepción Chile Temple. (LDS Media Library)

Today marks the 420th consecutive Friday on which we’ve published at least one article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Now, admittedly, in order to keep that string of consecutive days going we’ve sometimes been obliged to really scrape the bottom of the barrel. Today’s article, the introduction to the thirty-eighth volume of the journal, is a manifest example of just such scraping. But we’ve kept our streak going, and that’s all that really counts:

“The End from the Beginning”

Abstract: We are often at the dubious mercy of people, forces, and events that are beyond our control. But a trust in Providence — a word that is used relatively seldom these days for power that transcends even those people, forces, and events and that can, in the end, overrule them for our good — can nonetheless give us serene confidence. That such providential power exists, that it is personal and caring, is one of the fundamental messages of the scriptures and the prophets.

Please note that the article is, as usual, a hit piece, crammed to bursting with the bitterness, sniping, defensiveness, evasiveness, bullying, and bellicosity that are the hallmarks, according to our critics, of the Interpreter Foundation and, prior to that, of FARMS and the Maxwell Institute when they were still under our malign misrule.

***

When you’ve recovered from the sheer hateful sordidness of “The End from the Beginning” — or, perhaps, even as a means of recovery — you might consider spending six minutes of your time on this wonderfully done, beautifully produced, insightful, and quite informative new video from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which features, among other people, the prominent non-Latter-day Saint scholars Margaret Barker and Craig Blomberg. I hope that many, many people will watch it, and that they will share it:

“Temples Through Time”

“The purpose of going to the temple,” Dr. Barker says fairly early in the video, “was to see the face of the Lord. That means to experience the presence of the Lord”

A column of mine that is scheduled to appear in the Deseret News this coming Thursday will deal with that concept, very specifically, on the basis of some new archaeological discoveries.

“Temples Through Time” is followed immediately — if you simply let your computer continue to run — by a two-minute video of Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that’s entitled “The True Power of Temple Work” and that I also commend to your attention.

Previous Post

August 7, 2020

Revision 3.5 "Paganism Condemned"

Next Post

August 7, 2020 "What makes a human can . . . be scribbled on the back of a napkin"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which chapter in Proverbs is known as the "Virtuous Woman" chapter?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Proverbs 10 Proverbs 22 Proverbs 31 Proverbs 3