Bridge of Reason

  I recently heard of a story attributed to the late John Stott. He spoke of a man who, when ordering his breakfast at the hotel asked for egg and bacon. When his breakfast arrived, there was on his plate egg, bacon and a sausage. The man complained to the waiter pointing out that he only wanted egg and bacon.  The waiter duly took away the plate and returned a short time later with the man’s breakfast. This time there was only an egg on the plate. The man again protested, ‘I asked for egg and bacon’ he said. The waiter apologised, took away the plate, later returning with what the man hoped was the breakfast he had asked for. As the plate was put before him, the man sighed. On the plate was a fish! Credited to the author of the book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey said: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. I can say amen to that. But I do find it ironic that such a statement could come from a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of...

You know those moments when you look at something you’ve looked at a thousand times before and suddenly see something new? I was looking at a blog I found via the Google Blog Alerts service and it told the familiar story of the Mormon “ Plan of Salvation”; you can read it here. There really was nothing surprising until I started thinking about what people might think if a family they knew conducted themselves the way the Mormon “family of God” do in this story. People from abusive backgrounds have problems enough with the idea of God as a Father but this story would put anyone off the idea forever! As I recount this story think about what the typical dad would do as his kids are growing up and compare it with this “exalted man.” According to Mormonism “ God created our spirits” and we lived with him in a pre-mortal existence (Mormons say “pre-existence” but it is not possible to pre-exist, i.e. to exist before you exist. The noun “existence” has to be have the prefix “pre” othe...

The Foundation for Christian Studies at www.studychristianity.org is drawing the attention of an increasing number of Christian apologetics and anti-cult ministries. Typical among the comments from those who have contacted us are: Warning! Pass this on as a warning!!! This is very deceptive. Deceptive Web site! What could be deceptive about a foundation dedicated to the study of Christianity, whose web address is an open invitation to "study Christianity"? Well, this foundation is a thoroughly Mormon institution and the deception is in that this fact is not immediately apparent. Keith MacGregor of MacGregor Ministries commented " It may be hard for many to find out that this is LDS unless one knows Mormonism" Having studied the site we have found that the alarm is justified. I wrote to the founders putting people's concerns and asking why they feel it necessary to be less than frank about their identity and activities. The following is the extent of our cor...

Rick Warren being chosen to pray at the President's inauguration upset some members of the party but he is causing more controversy – this time with some Christians. Daniel Cordell of Love for Truth takes issue with praying in the name of 'Isa' What do you think?

Bob Millet is a professor of ancient scripture and emeritus Dean of Religious Education at the Mormon Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is especially known to us as a distinguished Latter-day Saint author and speaker and apologist whose prolific work includes more than 60 published works on virtually all aspects of Mormonism. He appears frequently in the media and as Manager of Outreach and Interfaith Relations for Church Public Affairs. In these efforts at interfaith he is especially successful in selling Mormonism as a Christian church and in promoting dialogue with Evangelicals. In an April 2008 email to Mormons working on interfaith initiatives with Evangelicals he wrote about the highs and lows of such dialogue, observing: Its hard work Its about understanding, not converting people Trust and respect are paramount People who disagree with you are not necessarily anti-Mormons LDS leaders are getting involved Attack/defence discussion is not good Gordon B Hinckley set a g...