Baptismal Regeneration and Transformative Justification in Mosiah 18:16

I have written a great deal on the biblical and patristic evidence for baptismal regeneration, such as:

Christ’s Baptism is NOT Imputed to the Believer

The Book of Mormon is a great witness to the truth of this doctrine. In the following, we read of how, at baptism, one is infused with God’s grace (and therefore, serving, not just as a witness of baptismal regeneration, but also of the transformative [not merely declarative] nature of justification):

And after this manner he did baptize every one that went forth to the place of Mormon; and they were in number about two hundred and four souls; yea, and they were baptized in the waters of Mormon, and were filled with the grace of God. (Mosiah 18:16)

Adolf Von Harnack on the Pre-Christian Origin of the Church

I have had no proper Internet access for the last few days, and posting this and the following from my local Church building, thus the reason why this blog has been silent recently (hopefully there will be a long-term fix early next week!). Fortunately, I have a number of posts that will be posted on this blog in the next day or two based, in part, on my reading the past few days. The following is a rather nifty insight from Adolf Von Harnack:

The Church is younger and older than Jesus. It existed in a certain sense before Him. It was founded by the prophets, in the first place within Israel, but even at that time it pointed beyond itself. All subsequent developments are changes of form. It came into being at the moment when a society was formed within Israel, characterized by universalism, which strove to rise out of darkness into light, from the popular and legalistic religion to a religion of the Spirit, and saw itself led to a higher stage of humanity, at which God and His holy moral law reign supreme. (Adolf Von Harnack, The Constitution and Law of the Church in the First Two Centuries [trans. F.L. Pogson; London: Williams and Norgate, 1910], 4 n. 1)

A Note on Book of Mormon “Trinitarianism”

Stephen Smoot just posted a very interesting post that discusses the "Trinitarian" language in the Book of Mormon and its background in the Ancient Near East and Mesoamerica:

A Note on Book of Mormon “Trinitarianism”

Request for sections from a forthcoming volume against Christian Universalism

There is a forthcoming 2-volume work critiquing Christian Universalism, Michael J. McClymond, The Devil's Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism (Baker, 2018). One can pursue the table of contents here, and the Amazon listing is here.

As a lot of the work deals with debates within Protestant circles about universalism and other topics (frankly, I do not have a huge interest in such, in light of the cost of the set), I am requesting that if any reader of this blog who is planning on purchasing the set, if they could send me the following sections of the volumes as they deal, directly or indirectly, with topics that Latter-day Saints would be interested in:

2.9. Multilevel Heavens in Swedenborgianism and Mormonism

12. The Eclipse of Grace: An Appraisal of Christian Universalism
12.1. The Cumulative Argument: A Survey of Preceding Chapters
12.2. The Problem of God in Christian Universalism
12.3. The Problem of Grace in Christian Universalism
12.4. The Problem of Belief in Christian Universalism
12.5. Christian Universalism and the Challenge of Evil
12.6. Christian Particularism and the Call to Hope

Appendix B: Zoroastrian Eschatology

Appendix J: Words and Concepts for Time and Eternity

Appendix K: Mormon Teachings on God, Cosmos, and Salvation

Alternatively, one can send an amazon voucher my way to preorder the set ;-)

Either way, if one can scan them and/or photocopy (or wish to send an Amazon voucher . . . ) the sections and send them my way, you can email me at IrishLDS87ATGmailDOTcom (if the latter, I will send you my home address to send the photocopies of the relevant pages).

Divine Deception and St. Bridget's Revelation about the Immaculate Conception

During the Medieval period, there was a great debate within Catholic circles between those who believed that Mary was exempted from Original Sin (the position that would become the defined, dogmatic position in 1854) and those who, while holding Mary was free from personal sin, contracted original sin, at least during the first moment of her conception.

During this time, too, there were conflicting visions and revelations between saints and theologians who held conflicting opinions. While reading a volume on the Immaculate Conception today, I encountered the following discussion and text of a vision of St. Bridget who held to the “Immaculaist” position:

At the time when this mystery was most questioned, St. Bridget was writing her revelations, than which none since the apostles, none that are not of divine faith, have received more striking testimonies of authenticity. In these revelations the Blessed Virgin is introduced as speaking to the saint:

“Know that my Conception has not been known to all, for God so willed it, that as the natural law and the voluntary election of good and evil preceded the written law, and afterwards came the written law, which restrained every inordinate emotion; so has it pleased God that even my friends should have pious doubts concerning my Conception, and that each should display his zeal, until at the preordained time the truth shall shine forth” (Book vi, 55). (William Bernard Ullathorne, The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God [Westminster, UK: Art and Book Company, 1904], 157)

In other words, according to the theology of Bridget’s vision, the Immaculate Conception, which would later become a de fide dogma of the faith, one that would result in one being condemned by God if one rejected it, even just mentally, was not revealed, even to close friends and associates of Mary, which would the disciples of Jesus(!)--a classic instance of "divine deception." If anything, such is further proof that the Immaculate Conception of Mary is not an apostolic tradition; instead, it is a man-made dogma that falls under the anathema of Gal 1:6-9. Latter-day Saints and others are on sound footing, biblical and historically, in rejecting such.

I have two chapters on the Immaculate Conception in my book, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology (pp.35-81). For an online resource, see, for e.g.:

Answering Tim Staples on Patristic Mariology and the Immaculate Conception

The Doctrine and Covenants vs. Progression between Kingdoms

Speaking of those who will inherit the Telestial Kingdom, we read:

But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore; And heard the voice of the Lord saying: These all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever; For they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared; And they shall be servants of the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. (D&C 76:109-112)

Elsewhere, we read:

For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever. (D&C 132:17)

It strikes me that these, and other texts, that speak of one’s inheritance in the hereafter to be fixed to refute the concept, popular in some circles, that there will be progression between the kingdoms of glory. While I would not go as far as Bruce McConkie in condemning such a view as a “heresy” (at least in the sense of something being damnable and resulting in one being, ipso facto, excommunicated in the eyes of God), it is a false doctrine (so “heresy” in that sense).

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? David Wood vs. Shabir Ally

The following is the video of the debate between David Wood (Evangelical) and Shabir Ally (Muslim) addressing the question of the historicity of Jesus' resurrection:

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? David Wood vs. Shabir Ally