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  • Book of Mormon YouTube Videos
    Here are the Book of Mormon videos I have been producing for You Tube. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TheBackyardProfessor
  • Lot and his wife in the Bible........
    JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turn ed to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the flea?'
  • We are but dust..........
    The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... this particular Sunday sermon... 'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extend ed toward heaven and a rapturous look on his up turned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'
  • Kerry Shirts author: Mormon Times links to the Internet School of the Prophets -
    I was just notified that the "Mormon Times" has linked to our Internet School of the Prophets showing we are serious about studying Hebrew and recognizing the great Spiritual heritage of Judaism, our Brothers and Sisters in Israel. This is very nice to be specified as the best blog for today. Here's the link. http://mormontimes.com/ME_blogs.php?todayBlog=1

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Interesting websites

Great Books

  • Did God Have a Wife?: William G. Dever

    Did God Have a Wife?: William G. Dever
    Dever, one of the world's most renowned archaeologists has finally asked the BIG question, and his research, archaeology, and scholarship have come up with the most stunning answer. Yes, God was married! His analysis of the folk religion, and how the common folk worshipped was one of the powerful aspects of this book, the stuff that never made it into the Bible, yet is reflected in the archaeology of the people in the countryside. This is archaeology at its level-headed best. A very shocking book, as well as revealing for his amazingly coherent, and provocative challenges, and answers to the nay-sayers of Asherah being God's wife. I highly recommend it. (*****)

  • Giorgio Santillana, Hertha von Dechend: Hamlet's Mill

    Giorgio Santillana, Hertha von Dechend: Hamlet's Mill
    This is not the easiest book to read or understand, but it is by far one of the most influential ones I own for the sheer power of generating ideas and themes to research and write on. It is archeoastronomy detective work like no other text. Scholarly, erudite, difficult, astounding, breath-taking. I also rate this one as one of those books in my all time favorite top 10. I know others have not found their overall thesis convincing, but archeoastronomy is indepted to this book for having a serious start, and it has also come a long way since, especially with John Major Jenkins work on "Maya Cosmogenesis 2012" and "The Galactic Alignment." Archeoastronomy became a hobby of mine directly because of this book. I highly recommend it. It was reprinted for the 3rd time in 1992, and well worth shelling out the dough for it. (*****)

  • Hugh Nibley: The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri
    This 2nd edition has been enlarged, updated, totally checked footnotes for accuracy of quotes and use of sources, all new pictures and more than what the original edition had, and all footnotes put at the bottom of the page for easier reading. John Gee, the LDS Egyptologist at BYU/FARMS (Now the Neal A. Maxwell Institute) spent 17 years checking the accuracy of every single quote and deserves our accolades and congratulations. So does FARMS for putting back all the materials that were supposed to be originally in here. It has gone from a 270 page text to over 600. It is a magnificent tome, very useful indexes, much nicer to read and understand, and is one of my all time favorite top 10 books. (*****)
  • Jason Lotterhand: The Thursday Night Tarot

    Jason Lotterhand: The Thursday Night Tarot
    In his down to earth style and humor, Lotterhand opens up the world of the Tarot symbolisms and what they can mean for us in our every day to day lives. Without stuffy erudition, nor with New Age silliness, Lotterhand goes through the Major Arcana of the Tarot Cards and analyzes their interpretations as he understands things. You can't help but come away from this book feeling good. This is the collection of his classes he has taught for years and years, including questions from many of his students and his responses. I have read it many times, and will continue reading it as a perfect introduction as to what the Tarot symbolisms and use really means, not what phony prognosticators of the New Age Movement have hijacked the Tarot to mean. Their use of it is an "adulterated use" to quote Paul Foster Case, another of the true Tarot interpreter geniuses. The overall view of the Tarot following Lotterhand's interpretation is one of love.... love for God, our fellowman, as well as for ourselves. That Tarot has nothing at all in any form to do with Satan worship, devil loving wickdness, and magic is more than proven by Lotterhand's scholarship in this fascinating area. I highly and strongly recommend this cure for the disease of understanding Tarot as an evil Devil inspired system. (*****)

  • John W. Welch, David & JoAnn Seely, editors: Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem
    The most complete, insightful look into Jerusalem as she existed in 600 B.C. just before the Babylonian captivity. It analyzes and looks into the social life, economic, political, physical, spiritual, archaeological, and in every way possible to understand what life was like for Lehi as a parent, and Nephi as a child. The updating of the Lachish Letters, of the reform of King Josiah, the Rechabites, International affairs occurring, Egyptian connections, etc., is powerfully transforming our understanding on the very real background and pathbreaking work that the FARMS group (now called the Neal A. Maxwell Institute) is performing on all aspects of the LDS scriptures, culture, doctrine, and history. A most delightful read! (****)
  • Kevin Townley: The Cube of Space
    This book (Archive Press, 1993) is the singular most comprehensive description, discussion, meditation, and writing of the Sefer Yetzirah's description of the Cube of Space in existence. Townley has written a book like no other, although his followup book "Meditations on the Cube of Space" (Archer Books, 2003) is also in-depth and provocative. David Allen Hulse's book "New Dimensions for the Cube of Space," Samuel Weiser, 2000) is a simpler guide, with different developments, discussions and assignments for the Tarot Card symbolisms on the cube however. Townley has discussed every single available notion of the cube, its symbolisms, significance, and interest in both the Jewish Kabbalistic texts, as well as for us in our modern meditations for further understanding of the cosmos. His two books are nothing less than a tour de force, which gives years of pleasant reading. (****)
  • Leonora Leet: The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah

    Leonora Leet: The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah
    This book just simply stunned me. It is one of the most fascinating analysis of Sacred Geometry and modern Quantum Physics along with a detailed discovery after discover after discovery of the Jewish religious system called Kabbalah. Leet's geometric charts make the book even easier to understand, but the depth of her cogent reasoning concerning the cosmos, geometry, and music is a sight to behold. Her follow up book "The Universal Kabbalah" is quite interesting in the first few chapters and then bogs my mind down with so much detail and analysis that it is far over my head, though I am working on deciphering it. Leet spent over 20 years analyzing and writing about her discoveries. The most significant one concerns the Kabbalah Tree of Life diagram which is remarkably elucidated by Leet, both in the historical aspects of its changes, as well as the reasons why it is the shape and form that it is, and the meaning of sacred geometrical extensions of the already existing lines of the Tree of Life. A most significant contribution, not only to my own understanding of Kabbalah and Geometry, but for my own enthusiasm of learning more about the Kabbalah (****)

  • Margaret Barker: The Great High Priest

    Margaret Barker: The Great High Priest
    With her astonishing range of scholarship and working with ancient archaeological and linguistic data, Barker has changed our understanding of the ancient Hebraic Priesthood as well as religion. This book is a milestone. (*****)

  • Menas Kafatos, Robert Nadeau: The Conscious Universe

    Menas Kafatos, Robert Nadeau: The Conscious Universe
    The Quantum Physics notion of Complementarity (two particles being connected, no matter how far apart they are in the universe), as well as understanding how the part relates to the whole is what is explored in this gem of a little book. This is no spiritual guru linking of science and religion together by mis-representing one or the other or both of the disciplines, but a sober, real look into the ideas of consciousness, and how Quantum Physics has come around to recognizing the universal aspect of consciousness in *all things*. An amazing book, quite technically written, but with amazing conclusions. The main conclusion being that consciousness can no longer be separated from the problem of the way science operates. (****)

  • Robert Eisenman: The New Testament Code

    Robert Eisenman: The New Testament Code
    Again, with his impeccible schoalrship and thirst for detail Eisenman extends his analysis and evidence for a First Century Early Christian provenance for the Dead Sea Scrolls using the internal materials of the scrolls themselves, their literary usages, their dramatis personae, and their descriptions of what sins abound with the wicked foreign leaders, which can only possibly apply to the Herodians. I wish Eisenman's writing style was easier however. For this reason I can't give it a 5 star rating. His information is astonishingly useful however, and rather controversial, my kind of book! (****)

  • Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism: Howard Schwartz

    Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism: Howard Schwartz
    Magnaminous! This compilation from all periods of Jewish mythology, using hundreds, if not thousands of the texts, shows without doubt or question that there was a Jewish mythology, and its power of presentation for relevance is unsurpassed in all of mythology. From the Creation, the the Shekhinah as the wife of God, to Israel's woes, and successes, this detailed, and humorous, insightful, powerful book has so much in it from the lives of the Patriarchs, the prophets, and the rabbis, that it will take many months to read all the way through it. I have referenced it several times, and spent not a few very delightful evenings (even rainy days) browsing through its pages, and the excellent scholarly discussions by Schwarts itself placing things in context. This is a book I turn to again and again and again with new "Aha!" insights from every single page. (*****)

Archives

May 15, 2008

Brent Metcalfe's Positivistic Assumptions Exposed

Alan Goff has handed Brent Lee Metcalfe his hat and taken him to the woodshed on his positivistic assumptions of his revisionist historical claims against the Book of Mormon. This is one of the finest and most stunning reviews I have ever read. Alan Goff, you get 5 stars! Using Metcalfe's own sources which he proposes refute the apologetic method of understanding the Book of Mormon, Alan Goff shows those same sources destroy Metcalfe's own "ideology" and methodology! It is a masterful exposition against the assumption that history and literature are separate categories, and that if the Book of Mormon appears Biblical then it can just simplistically be labeled plagiarism. This assumption is naive according to the most recent and update Biblical scholarship. Read this review and ENJOY!

http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=179

Posted at 11:39 AM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

April 28, 2008

Aha! A Klue!

Yes, I stole this directly from Jeff Lindsay's website. Yes he can sue me for untold of horrendous damages, but it's still good enough I used it. Love ya bro!

http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2005/05/aha-interesting-evidence-in-national.html

The April 2005 National Geographic provides at least two facts of interest to students of the LDS scriptures. Look at their Web page for the April 2005 issue. Notice especially the opening and closing sentences. Do you see the relevance? Here is an excerpt:

King Aha, "The Fighter," was not killed while unifying the Nile's two warring kingdoms, nor while building the capital of Memphis. No, one legend has it that the first ruler of a united Egypt was killed in a hunting accident after a reign of 62 years, unceremoniously trampled to death by a rampaging hippopotamus. News of his demise brought a separate, special terror to his staff. For many, the honor of serving the king in life would lead to the more dubious distinction of serving the king in death. . . .

x

Continue reading "Aha! A Klue! " »

Posted at 11:34 AM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 02, 2007

Ten, not Nine, not Eleven, but Ten, Seriously So in the Book of Mormon Scripture as Authentic Numerology

Jack Welch has written a stimulating article on numerology in the scriptures, concentrating on the number 10, emphasizing the significance and prominent usage in the Book of Mormon. While he cautiously says he’s not into numerology or Cabalistic numerical significance (the silly, wonderful man, it’s staring him right in the face! And its so prominent he cannot ignore it, so he writes on it anyway!), he does bring out some seriously delightful...

Continue reading "Ten, not Nine, not Eleven, but Ten, Seriously So in the Book of Mormon Scripture as Authentic Numerology" »

Posted at 12:18 AM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (71) | TrackBack (0)

December 25, 2006

Deseret Honeybee Analysis: Etymological & Linguistic Ideas

Here is a link to an insight into the Book of Mormon name, or word, "Deseret" which being interpreted means Honeybee. Kevin Barney, like Blake Ostler, always has good insights and makes ya go hmmmmmm.

http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/11/bcc-papers-1-2-barney/

I also have done some research into this Deseret idea here:

http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/tobeeor.htm

Posted at 01:01 PM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 03, 2006

Bill Hamblin's Analysis of the Book of Mormon Bow & Arrow

I think one of the most powerful and interesting insights into the Book of Mormon (hereafter, BofM) authenticity of the 600 B.C. milieu is his (Bill Hamblin's) article: "The Bow and Arrow in the Book of Mormon," in the FARMS book Warfare in the Book of Mormon, Farms/Deseret, 1990: 365-399.

Five areas he found which were included in the BofM, almost as just side snippets without going into details, were:

1. There were "steel" bows

2. Steel bows can break

3. Bows do lose their "springs"

4. Bows and arrows could be made of wood

5. Nephi certainly knew how to make them

Continue reading "Bill Hamblin's Analysis of the Book of Mormon Bow & Arrow" »

Posted at 12:38 PM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

November 19, 2006

Phenomenal Internal Consistency of the Book of Mormon

A little known and greatly under-appreciated study of the Book of Mormon by Dead Sea Scrolls International Team member; BYU scholar, and FARMS contributor, Donald W. Parry is found in the compilation by Susan Easton Black, Expressions of Faith, Deseret/FARMS, 1996. I excerpt parts hence the footnotes begin with #5 in [ ]’s

The Book of Mormon "contains 337 proper names and 21 gentilics (or analogous forms) based on proper names."[5] Of the 337 proper names, "188 are unique to the Book of Mormon": for example, Abinadi, Amalickiah, Amulek, Morianton, Mormon, Moronihah, Kishkumen, Helaman, Hagoth, Gadianton, Omni, and Riplakish; 149 of the 337 proper names are common to both the Bible and the Book of Mormon: for example, Samuel, Isaiah, Gideon, Benjamin, Aaron, Noah, Shem, Timothy, and Jacob. Typical of the ancient Semitic languages from which the Nephite record is derived, the Book of Mormon does not use surnames[6] or attach modern titles to its names, such as Mr., Mrs., Dr., Professor, Reverend, Count, or Earl.[7] The names, as transcribed into the English language, do not use the letters q, x, or w,[8] nor do the names begin with either the characters W or F,[9] a fact shared with the names of the Old Testament. Much can be learned from a study of the names, as Paul Hoskisson has shown, for they may provide an indication of the types of languages used by the Nephites, Jaredites, and Lamanites; present a picture of Book of Mormon civilizations and cultures; and provide external clues about when the Book of Mormon record developed in the ancient world.[10]

Continue reading "Phenomenal Internal Consistency of the Book of Mormon" »

Posted at 04:56 PM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Internal Evidence for Book of Mormon

Hugh Nibley in “The Prophetic Book of Mormon,” p. 65 made an argument that I think is largely unappreciated which I think is worth exploring just a bit.

“Internal evidence is almost the only type ever used in testing questioned documents; it is rarely necessary to go any further than the document itself to find enough clues to condemn it, and if the text is a long one, and an historical document in the bargain, the absolute certainty of inner contradictions is enough to assure adequate testing.”

Through the last several decades, research within the Book of Mormon has demonstrated, at least for now, that the BofM internal consistency is very strong. Consider just an single example which I have found quite persuasive.

Continue reading "Internal Evidence for Book of Mormon" »

Posted at 04:28 PM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 12, 2006

More evidence for Goddess in Book of Mormon

In conjunction with my Mother Goddess in the Book of Mormon podcast I produced on Nov. 11, 2006, and posted today, I mentioned in the podcast how the number 7 is associated with the Goddess in antiquity, and also how she is associated with lunar time keeping.

The number 7 is amazingly and consistenly displayed in the BofM, as I noted, but I just found and re-read Randall P. Spackman's very intriguing article "The Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar," in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 7/1 (1998):49-59, which shows through a careful analysis of the evidence in the Book of Mormon, it is consistent to infer a lunar month time keeping with the Nephites as well.

Another one of thos little ditties that, with all the other little ditties I present in the podcast affirms the Book of Mormon to be an ancient historical text.

Posted at 04:55 PM in Book of Mormon | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)