This deal ends on Friday 1/13 at noon PST.
The next book set to come down the community pricing pipe is The Works of the Rev. John Howe (3 vols.).
This 3 volume collection is a steal for only $10, however, if enough Logos users bid before Friday the price may drop to $8.
So I’ve been perusing the logos website and I have been fascinated by their community pricing category. The idea goes something like this: Since it takes considerable resources to create a Logos book (with all of the fancy features) it would potentially tie up the company’s resources until it is finished and begins to sell. If this was the only way that they could produce new e-books then they would only be able to select a few at a time and hope that they will sell enough to turn a profit and stay in business.
Community pricing changes that by allowing users to bid on books that have not been created yet. When enough bids on the same price reach the amount of money they think it will take to produce the book the users are charged and the book goes into the pre-publication section. It remains there until the books in typed out, coded with all the fancy features and integrated into the Logos software. Then everyone who initially bid enough to put it into production gets the book (or books if it is a multi-volume set) for what is normally a very low price.
I say “everyone who initially bid enough” because when you bid a very low amount you are saying you are only willing to pay that much for a book, no more. So if you bid 30 dollars and the bidding closes at 35 you have basically said that you would not pay that much for whatever that book is. But if it goes for 25 dollars your 30 dollar bid will succeed and you will only pay 25 dollars (because if you were willing to pay 30 then it is only logical that you would also be willing to pay 25).
Of the bids I have made so far, two of them have reached %100 and have gone into pre-pub (short for pre-publication). Check out how much I’m paying for them:
Theology: Explained and Defended (5 vols.)
The Expositor’s Bible (6 vols.)
So depending on what they are offering and how interested you are this is a great way to beef up your library for a comparatively low price. The only downside to this deal is that you have to pay for the books before you get them, for example, the Theology: Explained and Defended volume (on top) I paid 16 dollars on Friday 10/28 (along with dozens or hundreds of others). Now we all have to wait while they use our money to fund the production of the books. I’m not sure how long it takes but (lets be honest) i have plenty of other books to occupy myself with in the meantime.
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and visit 180movie.com
If you’ve seen this logo recently then you know someone who is excited about a film which is coming out on Sept. 26. It is produced by Living Waters and below are two of their preview videos:
For more information visit 180movie.com
I mentioned on today’s podcast that there was a penis in Facsimile No. 2 in the Book of Abraham (I might have said No. 1, if so I apologize for my mis-speaking). I feel that this is not a claim which ought to be made and not demonstrated. In the 1851 Book of Abraham (the first printed edition) we see the following:
The Pearl of Great Price, 1851 Original Edition facsimile no 2
The upside down guy in the bottom right area is zoomed in below:
Notice the Phallic object protruding from him. Who did Joseph Smith associate this figure with? He tells us! “Fig. 7. Represents God sitting upon his throne, revealing through the heavens the grand Key-words of the Priesthood…”
The pictorial representation of God, which Joseph Smith toted before the world, was with an exposed, erect penis.
Of course the was no secret to the LDS Church. If you were polygamous then that is an important aspect of your life. But then there was a period of time when such an image of God was undesirable. Below are three different versions of Facsimile No. 2 from 1949, 1973, 1974 (the order below)
In each of these versions there is a a penis-less version of the Facsimile. While we are on the subject, if these facsimiles are part of Scripture, and they can be freely changed, what does that say about the LDS view of God’s word? If God spoke through words and facsimiles then why change them? Is what God says important? If you believe it is shouldn’t you not change what he has revealed?
Below are zoomed in images from the above books:
1949 Facsimile No. 2 with no Phallus
1973 Facsimile No. 2 with no Phallus
1974 Facsimile No. 2 with no Phallus
Something amazing must have happened between 1974 and 1981. The Mormon god became erect yet again!
1981 Facsimile No. 2
And when you zoom in to the image of the God worshiped by Mormons you see this:
1981 Facsimile No. 2 WITH Phallus
This is a visual representation of the ever-changing LDS scripture. It is also a visual reminder that Mormons believe that God has a physical body as a necessary part of his nature. The book I am reviewing says as much.
As I was preparing for today’s podcast I came across a page in Religious Truths Defined, by Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. (the 10th LDS prophet). In this section of the chapter on the nature of the Father he is driving home the importance of the (Mormon) concept that God must have a body. To bolster this point JFS criticized the King James rendering and asserts what he considers to be a correct translation (he calls it an “interpretation” but in light of the use of the term “translation” earlier as well as the nature of the Joseph Smith’s “Inspired Version” it is clear that he means “translation”). Is it any surprise that the King James translators missed an exception to the statement that “no man hath seen God at any time”?
Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Religious Truths Defined, Page 38
The Greek text of this verse has an interesting variant. Prior to the discoveries of P66 and P75 in 1952 the weight of the manuscripts available indicated that the original author had written about an “only begotten Son.” “Only begotten” is a poor rendering of μονογενὴς, as the term means “one and only,” or “unique.” The real word of interest is whether the term which follows μονογενὴς should be θεὸς or υἱὸς, God or Son. P66 (written about 200 AD) and P75 (175-225 AD) both have θεὸς (God) not υἱὸς (Son). Add to that the weight of Codex Siniaticus (א), Codex Vaticanus (B), Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C), and a handful of other manuscripts and you have a very strong case for “the only God” (ESV, for example) being the correct translation.
While there are a larger number of extant manuscripts which contain υἱὸς (Son) this is no good reason side with that translation. The υἱὸς (Son) reading is a distinctly byzantine reading which is found primarily in this text family with a few (late) exceptions (such as miniscule mss 579, an Alexandrian text from approx 1250). Since these texts have been copied from one another and can be traced back to a ‘parent’ text geographically and by textual features which make it distinct from other text families, the large number of manuscripts does not mean it is a better reading.
Below is the textual apparatus from the UBS Greek New Testament, 4th edition:
UBS Greek NT, John 1:18
When you look at the Greek text it is interesting that, while there is a variant with the word “God” there is no variant which introduces an exception clause to tell the reader who can see God. The words in red below represent words in the Joseph Smith Translation which I can not find any textual support for:
And no man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son; for except it is through him no man can be saved. (Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:19 – The verse numbering is not the same as in normal Bibles)
In light of this evidence, I wonder what manuscripts Joseph Smith was using in his New Testament translation? Why are they nowhere to be found today? Why is JFS citing this faulty translation 170 years later to vindicate the current version of Joseph Smith’s 1st vision? Is he, as the LDS Prophet of that time, validating the Joseph Smith Translation? If so, and I ask this again, WHERE IS THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR THE CHANGES IN JOHN 1:18?
This is a testimony of an Ex-Mormon who discovered the grace of Jesus!
