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March Mormon Doctrine Madness: Bracketology

Ever since I started the Historical Mormon Smackdown thing last year, I have had a dream. I have entitled it: March Mormon Doctrine Madness.

We have painstakingly come up with 64 influential forces in current Mormonism, have divided them into 4 categories, and have ranked them from one to sixteen. We now present them to the bloggernacle world to vote upon. The criterion: Which is the more influential force in Mormonism today?

Having said that, I think it will be a vote for #2. I am going to explicitly take Jesus Christ and the Atonement out of the voting because I think that they would win hands-down. I am leaving Joseph Smith because every bracket needs its Duke or UConn.

There is the possibility that some will be offended by this and see it as trivializing the gospel. While there is some truth to that, I also think being forced to make hard but nonsensical choices is a good way to get at what we (individually) really believe and why.

So, starting forming pools and start making predictions. For that matter, start talking about the obvious biases of the selection committee. We may even offer a prize to the most accurate amongst ye.

Click here to see the bracket

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Does anyone ever humble themselves?

RoastedTomatoes recent post on Times and Seasons (look here) reminds me of a point that I have been making in my class, but which I am not sure results in actual doctrine. As always, when faced with the possibility of having taught false doctrine in my class, I turn to the faceless opinions of the internet for correction.

RT cites Alma 32:13-16 wherein a dichotomy is established between those who are compelled to be humble and those who humble themselves. I have a notion that God is primarily speaking rhetorically when he brings up the second group.

I don’t believe that humans are particularly good at humbling themselves. I do believe that this is why we have such things as sin, poverty, cancer, paper cuts, etc. Although some acts may constitute a minor humbling of oneself (baptism comes to mind), I don’t know that humanity (as presently constituted) is actually capable of it. While it is the sort of thing that is possible on paper (or, in the case of Christ, in reality), it doesn’t work out in the vast majority of our real lives.

Things that are truly humbling in the sense that they cause us to turn to God are humiliating. Serious degenerative disease that causes a person to rely on others for bathing or the removal of bodily waste. The impotence of parents when they are unable to protect their children. The shame of being caught by loved ones or civil authorities in the midst of an addiction. These are the sorts of things that really put someone in a crisis of faith.

People who believe that they humbled themselves by accepting a church calling believed beneath them or by accepting a deserved scolding are, to my mind, simply puffing up their pride. There is the oft repeated joke in church wherein someone proclaims their own humility. There are people who wear their “humility” on their sleeve, demanding our appreciation of their meekness.

God demands that we be humble. In the comments to RT’s post, someone pointed out Ether 12:27 which we frequently read for the end, while forgetting the beginning. We are weak because God needs us to be humble. If we are humble, God will make us strong. But he won’t make us proud. Only we do that.

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Historical Mormon Smackdown: Relative General Authority Edition!

Last week, blogpoll went nuts and I made a mistake which meant that the people say that a member of the Presidency of the Seventy has more impact on the church than the general Relief Society President than the general Sunday School President.

In a further effort to fill out my flow-shart of popular understanding of church hierarchy, we have the following:
Which priesthood body has a greater impact on my church experience: the Presiding Bishopric or the Presidency of the Seventy?

The Presiding Bishopric is the governing body of the Aaronic Priesthood (but are overseen by the Quorum of the Twelve and God). They are primarily concerned with overseeing the physical and financial needs of the church.

The Presidency of the Seventy is concerned with overseeing the growth and maintenance of the worldwide church in a more ecclesiastical sense (but are overseen by the Quorum of the Twelve and God). I believe that they also preside over the other seventies in the same limited sense.

Please click on the link below to vote and comment below. I will post daily results and try to figure out how to do screen captures so you can see the final results yourself.

Click here to take survey

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“A” is for Adam “in whose fall we sinnéd all”

My GD class was hinting around last week that there is a firm distinction between the terms “sin” and “transgression” when talking about Gen 3. Of course, Gen 3 makes no claim about the event, either way. And it seems to me that such terminological precision is not a feature of Paul’s original comparison of Christ and Adam in Rom 5:12-21. When Paul does make a distinction it is transgression, not sin, that is the stronger term.

Continue reading ““A” is for Adam “in whose fall we sinnéd all””

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Historical Jesus 4: More Criteria

Since the majority of our information about Jesus comes from the Gospels, when we try to work out the details of the historical Jesus, we are obliged to sift and weigh these sources. In Part 3, we opened a discussion of John Meier’s ten criteria for this effort with the three strongest. Today, we continue with the remaining two strong criteria, then summarize the five weak ones.

Continue reading “Historical Jesus 4: More Criteria”