Engaging Gospel Doctrine

Latest Episodes:

401: March 7; True and Living Church (Come Follow Me Week 10, Reissued) Mar 07, 2021

Show notes

It is a shame we shorten this phrase to “The only true Church”, because I think “living” is a very important part of the statement. What does it mean to say the LDS Church is the “only true and living Church”? How do our Heavenly Parents interact with their children? What is the relationship between the different religions of the world? Why does it matter if we are a member of one religion rather than another?

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Come Follow Me Reading: Doctrine & Covenants 20-22

Join a rich and inspiring discussion with Geoff, Mike, and Amber.

You can access my Lesson Notes here.

You can access my Reading Notes here.

Resources:

Updated post here

A Church-produced podcast on the topic.
Mormon Matters episode on the One True Church
Don Bradley, The Grand Fundamental Principles of Mormonism
1978 First Presidency Message, God’s Love for All Mankind
Terry and Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps (see Chapter 4, “None of them is lost”)
Mormonism as the Most True Church
Usage of “only true Church”

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

400: Re-Engaging Gospel Doctrine (Come Follow Me Bonus Episode) Mar 07, 2021

Show notes

Thank you to all of you who have continued to support the podcast! My goal is to create a library of content indexed to scripture sections so that the podcast will be useful for the foreseeable future.

That said, I will also continue to produce the podcast while you continue to support it! This Bonus Episode outlines my plan for this year, as well as explaining what else I have had going on!

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Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

399: Dec 20; Faith, Hope, Love (Come Follow Me Week 50) Dec 05, 2020

Show notes

So much to discuss as we conclude our study of the Book of Mormon this year. Points we will explore this lesson:

Mormon’s sublime letter on faith, hope, and charity in Moroni 7
Moroni’s promise in chapter 10–perhaps the most read section of the Book of Mormon. How do we know what is true? What does it mean if this promise doesn’t pan out?
Relatedly, a discussion of good and evil. How do we discern between the two? What role does intention play? More importantly, how do we “cleave unto every good thing”?
Spiritual gifts
Mormon’s diatribe against the baptism of “little children”. What do we learn about theology from chapter 8? What does this letter teach us about agency, choice, accountability, covenants, and salvation?

Emily, Danny, and Davey provide a satisfying and thoughtful discussion to conclude our study of the Book of Mormon.

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You can access my Lesson Notes here.

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

398: Dec. 6; Remembered and Nourished (Come Follow Me Week 48) Dec 05, 2020

Show notes

These chapters are straightforward–Moroni, shocked he hasn’t been killed yet, shares information about the organization of the church. He introduces:

The Gift of the Holy Ghost
Ordination of priests and teachers
The sacrament prayers
Baptism and Church order

This is an ideal time to discuss the question: Why do we go to Church? What is the purpose and value of a religious community? Why isn’t the increasingly popular “spiritual but not religious” adequate?
Join a satisfying and motivating discussion with Emily, Chelsea, Rolf, and Jared.

Reading: Moroni 1-6

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You can access my Lesson Notes here.

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

397: Nov 22-29; An Eye of Faith (BoM Come Follow Me Week 46) Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

This lesson contains one of the crown jewels of the Book of Mormon–the sublime verse on weakness and strength in 12:27. There are other gems worthy of study, discussion, and application in this chapter. We have the idea that we can be the angels whom God uses to answer prayers, and Moroni comments on how God speaks to us within our language and limitations (12:39; cf. 2 Ne. 31:3), and of course his treatise on faith.

We also have the story of another civilizational collapse: through generations of political intrigue, captivity and war the Jaredites destroy themselves. Other points include the New Jerusalem in Ether 13 and once again the relationship between the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

Open your hearts and prepare yourselves for an amazing and vulnerable conversation with Jessica, Aaron, Brooke and William. It will touch your heart and may change your life.

Reading: Ether 6-11 (7-15 covered in this episode)

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You can access my Lesson Notes here

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

396: Journey to the Promised Land (BoM Come Follow Me Week 45) Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

In this lesson we get to discuss the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon (which made up the bulk of the plates as Joseph described them)! What is contained in the sealed portion? What can we learn from the instructions regarding how to access them?

We are going to examine these chapters on several levels.

Theological: The insights we gain from the brother of Jared’s amazing interaction with the pre-mortal Jesus, especially regarding the relationship between personal responsibility and divine assistance
Allegorical: How we can apply the narrative of the Jaredite journey to our own lives
Historical: How do these chapters relate to the Bible? If the Biblical narratives turn out not to be historical, what does that do to the Book of Mormon?

Other points of discussion include the importance of adversity and the idea of everything good as part of Mormonism.

Gwenevere, Dave, and Lisa join the class.

Reading: Ether 1-5

You can access my Lesson Notes here

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

395: Last Nephite Standing (BoM Come Follow Me Week 44) Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

After Mormon’s final plea to the House of Israel, Moroni takes over the record. His despair and loneliness is palpable and touching in the beginning of Mormon 8. There are several thought provoking gems in these chapters about weakness, pride, caring for the needy, and theological points about the nature of God and judgment.

Moroni’s main points present more of a challenge however. These chapters are filled with judgments and warnings. He condemns latter day Churches and those who do not believe in Christ or miracles. Who makes up the audience for these warnings? What can lessons can we learn from the final Book of Mormon prophet’s inaugural words?

Amanda, Derek, and Laura join the class discussion.

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You can access my Lesson Notes here

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

394: The Problem of Evil (BoM Come Follow Me Week 43) Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

Poignantly placed after the description of the Lehite utopia, these are the darkest, most disturbing chapters in the Book of Mormon. It seems a fitting time to wrestle with the human potential for evil, the reality of the terrible things we do to each other, almost as a rule. And after reading his life’s work, we get to meet Mormon as a main character. He reluctantly leads the Nephites in battle, refuses, and then returns. This is the end of the Book of Mormon civilization. In addition, we also read a haunting letter that I don’t think Mormon actually intended to include in the Book of Mormon (If you notice, Mormoni has an inferiority complex and actually contributes very little to the Book of Mormon. Most of his content is letters from his dad and then he edits Ether because his dad said he would and never was able to). We will also look at what we learn from Mormon’s shining example in the midst of such terrible circumstances.

This is not going to be a pleasant lesson, but it should be an important one. What is the root of human evil? Why do we commit such sickening atrocities? What factors remove our native empathy? When is rehabilitation possible? Is there hope to become better as cultures and a species?

Reading: Mormon 1-6

Natasha, Emily, and Allen provide able discussion of an extremely difficult topic.

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You can access my Lesson Notes here

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

393: Utopia and Collapse (Come Follow Me, BoM Gospel Doctrine Lesson 42) Nov 11, 2020

Show notes

These chapters include an account of the happiest, most righteous, productive years in all of Book of Mormon history, the model utopian society that endured almost two hundred years after Jesus’ appearance. Unfortunately, we only read about that time period (which surpasses the time covered by Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, and 3 Nephi!) for eighteen brief verses. Why don’t we have more about this ideal period? How much could we learn from such a successful society? What can we apply from the details we have?

In addition to talking about this Zion society, we will also discuss:

The Three Nephites!
Fun thought exercise: If you could ask God for any “desire of your heart”, what would it be? What do you think are reasonable constraints for this question?
The idea of “gospel” and “Church” of Jesus Christ
The sobering end-times admonitions in 3 Nephi 29-30

This episode is longer than the rest, but the wide ranging, engaging and satisfying discussion with Sara, Jenne, and Carl is worth “staying after class” for!

Class Reading: 3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi

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You can access my Lesson Notes here.

Here are links to some of the things mentioned in our conversation:

William Wilson’s entertaining and insightful Dialogue article about the Three Nephites.
Terryl and Fiona Givens: The God Who Weeps
Peter Diamandis: Abundance
Half the Sky documentary on Netflix. Here’s some additional material (though not the movie) on PBS.
For those who are interested in more ideas about the value of religious myth along the lines of the Paul Tillich quote I mentioned, this site with sermons by Richard Holloway is great.
Peter Singer: The Life You Can Save
The Bodhisattva Vow
Lake Baikal
Jainism

Engaging Gospel Doctrine is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://engaginggospeldoctrine.org/

392.2: All Things Revealed (Come Follow Me, BoM Gospel Doctrine Lesson 41, Part 2) Nov 11, 2020

Show notes

These chapters function as a sermon and reflection about the scriptures. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54 and Malachi 3-4. He recommends the writings of Isaiah and urges Nephi to supplement his own records. Then in a bittersweet twist, we are excluded from the climax of the story–Mormon tells us that Jesus reveals all things, that the mouths of children and infants are opened and they also teach the people. But he is forbidden to record these sublime teachings even though he wanted to.

In addition to going over the meaning of these quotes both in their Book of Mormon and Biblical context, we will take this opportunity to explore the question of scripture. What is scripture? What are the implications of our “open canon”? Can we have personal scripture? How do activities like journal writing and family history tie in? Oh, and we talk a bit about the end of the world and tithing too.
Join an engaged discussion with Emily, Whitney, Michael and Jeff.

Class Reading: 3 Nephi 22-26

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