Outer Brightness: From Mormon to Jesus

This episode, we kick off our short, “Things Mormons Hate” series. Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul discuss Jonathan Edwards’ important sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” There are two parts to our discussion. In this first part, we talk about our understanding of God’s wrath when we were LDS, passages in LDS canon that reference the wrath of God, how we understand...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul discuss the proof texts that are used within Latter-day Saint teachings regarding the LDS testimony. They ask questions of the texts, such as: Are they being used in context? What might they mean if they mean something different than how they are used in LDS teachings? Come along with us for the ride.

Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul were invited by our friend Jeremy Howard to go on the Do Theology Podcast to answer some blunt questions. This is the second part of that interview.

Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul were invited by our friend Jeremy Howard to go on the Do Theology Podcast to answer some blunt questions. This is the first part of that interview. In this installment, Jeremy asks us to revisit our transitions out of the LDS Church, and then asks us if we really experienced a burning in the bosom in our efforts to gain a testimony of the LDS Chu...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul wrap up their conversation with Aaron Shafovaloff. Here they discuss a number of dilemmas that Aaron has documented but not yet written into article form. Our goal here is to think through LDS theology, taking it out to its logical conclusions. We hope you enjoy this episode.

This week we continue our discussion with Aaron Shafovaloff about his article Dilemmas of Mormon Exaltation . We cover wrap up a dicussion of his second dilemma, "2. Expanding Godhead vs. overlapping godheads" and cover his fourth dilemma "4. Exhaustible vs. infinite pool of coeternal intelligences," and wrap up with his thrid dilemma "3. Shared vs. independent dominion between gods."

This week Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul welcome Aaron Shafovaloff to Outer Brightness. He joined us to discuss his article “ Dilemmas of Mormon Exaltation .” Aaron spent nearly three hours with us, and we’re excited to share these with you. In this first installment, we introduce Aaron and his article and discuss the first dilemma he enumerates and begin a discussion of the s...

In this episode, The Apostate Paul and Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist welcome Latter-day Saint, Jaxon Washburn, back to Outer Brightness. They discuss Episode 37 "The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ" from Y Religion, the podcast of the BYU Religion Department. In that episode, Professor Jason Combs is interviewed about an article he wrote. Jaxon sent us the podcast episode and we thought it w...

In this episode, we welcome a Latter-day Saint guest to Outer Brightness. Tarik D. LaCour is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Texas A&M University. In this second installment of our conversation with Tarik, we discuss the LDS view of eternal laws that are external to God, and ask Tarik what he thinks about the Christian view that morality is rooted in God’s perfect nature. We also discuss the Trin...

In this episode, we welcome a Latter-day Saint guest to Outer Brightness. Tarik D. LaCour is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Texas A&M University. The topic of free-will (or moral agency) is deeply intertwined with LDS theology. Philosophically, Tarik holds to the position of soft determinism. That position is often called Compatibilism, and is the view that human free-will is compatible with God...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul continue the conversation with Steve James. In this final installment, we continue the dialogue around the definitions of “inspiration” and “revelation,” the idea that the use of Ancient Near Eastern texts by Old Testament writers is “polemical,” the Divine Council Worldview of Dr. Michael S. Heiser. We also begin discussing the...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul continue the conversation with Steve James. In this second installment, we continue the conversation of the eighth LDS Article of Faith as it relates to the claim in 1 Nephi Chapter 8 in the Book of Mormon that plain and precious truths were removed from the Bible after the Early Church received the Hebrew Bible from the Jewish p...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul welcome Steve James to Outer Brightness. Steve is a Latter-day Saint that we have dialogued with in various Facebook groups. Steve and Paul were having a spirited dialogue about the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy in one of the groups and we decided to invite him on the program to continue the conversation. In this first installme...

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul read and respond to the LDS Gospel Topics Essay titled, Are Mormons Christian? Covered here are the "Introduction" and first main section, "Latter-day Saints Do Not Accept the Creeds of Post-New Testament Christianity". We hope you enjoy this conversation.

In this episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul read and respond to the LDS Gospel Topics Essay titled, Are Mormons Christian? Covered here in Part 2 are the other two main sections of the article "Latter-day Saints Believe in a Restored Christianity" and "Latter-day Saints Believe in an Open Canon," as well as the "Conclusion." We hope you enjoy this conversation.

In this bonus episode, Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul sit down to discuss why we study theology.

In this final episode of Season 5 of the Outer Brightness podcast, Michael & Briana join Matthew and Paul to discuss Michael’s article “The Iron Rod and the Escalator of God.” In this article, Michael focused on the topic of sanctification and how that plays out in the Christian’s life. We hope you enjoy this conversation! Michael’s article can be found here: https://fromwatertowine.org/the-iron-r...

It's the end of an era, the beginning of something new. Bye, Flournicia.

This week the Apostate Paul and Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist welcome Steven Pynakker to Outer Brightness. Steven is a charismatic Christian whose YouTube channel, Mormon Book Reviews, has taken off over the past few months. Steven has an interest in Mormon history and is very well read. He reviews books about Mormonism on his channel and interviews Mormon authors and historians, as well as others...

This week the Apostate Paul and Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist welcome Steven Pynakker to Outer Brightness. Steven is a charismatic Christian whose YouTube channel, Mormon Book Reviews, has taken off over the past few months. Steven has an interest in Mormon history and is very well read. He reviews books about Mormonism on his channel and interviews Mormon authors and historians, as well as others...

This week, you get to join me (The Apostate Paul) as a (fire)fly on the wall for a conversation between Michael the Ex-Mormon Apologist and his brother David, a Latter-day Saint. They talk most days during their commutes, and we think that this models how to how to have effective conversations about the gospel and doctrine with family, while maintaining those important relationships.

This week, you get to join me (The Apostate Paul) as a (fire)fly on the wall for a conversation between Michael the Ex-Mormon Apologist and his brother David, a Latter-day Saint. They talk most days during their commutes, and we think that this models how to how to have effective conversations about the gospel and doctrine with family, while maintaining those important relationships.

Hey Fireflies! Welcome to this bonus episode of Outer Brightness: From Mormon to Jesus. The Apostate Paul here. I’m recording a new intro for this episode, because since Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and I recorded this episode on July 1, the state of affairs has changed. So in this intro, I’m going to provide a quick timeline. In 2012 or 2013, the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays...

Hey Fireflies! Welcome to this bonus episode of Outer Brightness: From Mormon to Jesus. The Apostate Paul here. I’m recording a new intro for this episode, because since Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and I recorded this episode on July 1, the state of affairs has changed. So in this intro, I’m going to provide a quick timeline. In 2012 or 2013, the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays...

Hey Fireflies! Welcome to this bonus episode of Outer Brightness: From Mormon to Jesus. The Apostate Paul here. I’m recording a new intro for this episode, because since Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and I recorded this episode on July 1, the state of affairs has changed. So in this intro, I’m going to provide a quick timeline. In 2012 or 2013, the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays...