Gary W. Toyn

Summary: Non-LDS scholars didn't set out to validate key doctrines of the restoration. Their research did it for them. Here's something most people never learn in Sunday School: the Old Testament we read today is not a complete record of what ancient Israel believed. This is not an attack on scripture. It is not a claim that the Bible is unreliable. It is simply what the text itself suggests. The Bible openly records that scrolls were found, that kings ordered religious refor

Summary : We've been reading Hebrew scriptures with Greek minds, and it's quietly shaping how we experience faith, repentance, and scripture in ways most of us never notice. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus a question that reveals the classic confrontation between Greek and Hebrew thinking. Jesus spoke of bearing witness to the truth. Of people hearing His voice. Of His kingdom not being of this world. Pilate responded with the most Greek question imaginable: ' What is truth ?' Pil

Joseph Smith Receives the Gold Plates, by Kenneth Riley In a courtroom, attorneys rarely ignore testimony unless they believe it will not help their case. When a witness goes unchallenged, jurors notice. Silence can sometimes be revealing. History is not a courtroom, but the analogy is useful. For nearly two centuries, critics have focused almost entirely on impeaching the Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses  of the Book of Mormon. Entire books and lectures have attempted to

What the Dead Sea Scrolls Reveal About Joseph Smith's Enoch (Because readers approach this question from different theological starting points, I’ve also prepared this companion essay that examines the same evidence using a more neutral historical framework, written for non–Latter-day Saint and critical audiences.) If you have ever wondered whether Joseph Smith was truly a prophet, the story of Enoch offers an unexpected and intriguing place to look. In 1948, more than a cen