Anna Jones Buttimore

The Book of Mormon. I grew up with the Bible alone as scripture and assumed, as do many Christians, that the canon of scripture is closed. After Revelation was written God wrote "The End", put down his pen and closed the book. And that's it. We have a Bible and there cannot be any more Bible. (See 2 Nephi 29:3) However, Biblical Studies at A level showed me that actually the canon of Scripture has only recently stopped changing and evolving, and there was much debate over which books to include and exclude. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches use different books in their Bibles. Even then I found myself wondering who drew the line under the Bible. Who said "God has finished speaking to man" and decreed that no-one else was permitted to write down what God had said to them and call it scripture? Why is something God said to an apostle in 75AD called scripture, but something He said fifty years later not  called scripture? ...

The Trinity A while ago I received an invitation to buy an extremely expensive “Book of Little-Known Facts” published by Reader’s Digest. The leaflet listed several of these facts to whet my appetite, one of which stated, “The doctrine of the Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible, but was invented in 325 AD”. I had known this for some time – but many in mainstream Christian churches are not aware of it. The problem facing the early Christian church was that it believed that there was only one God, but Jesus also appeared to have claimed to be God and was believed to be divine. To further complicate matters, the Holy Spirit was given to the believers, which again appeared to be a god. How could there be three gods when Judaism’s primary tenet is that there is only one God? Under the Roman Emperor Constantine the matter was addressed in the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon, attended by around 300 Bishops – a fraction of the total. Various solutions were put forward, and eventually...

See the links on the left for previous posts in this series of personal apologetics. 3: Attitude of Evangelicals towards Mormons One major reason why I could never be an Evangelical is what I see as the very unchristian behaviour of some (but by no means the majority of) Evangelicals towards Latter-day Saints. I have already mentioned in a previous post that I was forbidden from attending a Bible Study group . In addition, Christian bookshops stock books which misrepresent, mock and insult my beliefs; Christian ministers warn their congregations against the “cult”, and Christian groups will even protest at Church buildings and try to disrupt Church meetings. This does not endear them to me any. It happened this past weekend, in fact. It was General Conference weekend, which means no church since the Conference Broadcast doesn't begin until 5 p.m. our time. I usually take the opportunity to visit other churches on these occasions. This Sunday I went to an Evangelical c...

This post is the third in a series. Click here to read part 1 , and here to read part 2. I'm saved already! The Evangelical message of salvation (from death, sin, hell and separation from God) is that everyone must to repent, turn to Christ and accept him as Lord of their lives. Thus far it is the same as the message the LDS Missionaries preach (see Article of Faith 4 .) However, in the Evangelical version, salvation is then guaranteed for life. As a teenager I clarified that with my sister – did this really mean that I was saved eternally, whatever I might do in future? She assured me that it did; salvation is a gift, and God does not take a gift away once it is given.  [Quick aside here: The Mormon version of salvation is slightly different. We believe that salvation is a covenant. That in order to be saved we must repent of our sins, turn to Christ and follow him. Following him includes enduring to the end and striving to live righteously.   W...

First off, go here to read part 1. And now that you've read that, here's the first reason I am not an Evangelical. 1. Jamie Bulger and the Bible Study Group While living in Criccieth, North Wales, and attending the Criccieth Family Church (an independent evangelical church run by some Scripture Union Beach Mission staff) I went along to their evening Bible Study group for almost a year, which was held in a hotel owned by the church. I rather enjoyed it, and I learned a lot and took part in some interesting discussions. One one occasion we were having a discussion about the recent (then) news that the teenage killers of toddler Jamie Bulger had been released from prison. One of the ladies present remarked how sad it all was but that the poor little boy was now in heaven. The pastor corrected her, saying that since Jamie Bulger had not been old enough to make a confession of faith in Jesus, he was therefore in hell. The ensuing debate made it quite clear that Evangeli...

I found this document on my computer recently. I wrote it a couple of years ago to clarify why I have made the decisions I have, and chosen the path I am following, rather than the oh-so-easier one of being part of the biggest and most dynamic and popular Christian movement today. I think I wrote it with Betrand Russell's 1927 essay, "Why I am not a Christian" in mind, although of course I am  a Christian, however much people may try to claim otherwise. I'm sorry that it's so long that it has to be posted in seven parts. Well, not all that sorry, as it gives me a break from having to come up with topics to blog about each week, and I need that time to actually write and edit at the moment as I have a deadline looming. Comments welcome, although I reserve the right to gleefully delete any I don't like. Introduction Since becoming a Christian at the age of 14, I have attended various churches. Starting off with the Brethren congregation where I attend...

In writing, as in so many areas of life, we all have strengths and weaknesses. Even a really good writer will have elements of the craft that he or she is not particularly good at. Tolkien, for example, wasn't very good at battle scenes, and the film-makers charged with bringing his books to life for the big screen reported that they relished the opportunity to fully create a dramatic and authentic fight because there was so little to work with in the books. A friend of mine is currently editing a book. She says that the writer is extremely good at writing interpersonal relationships and she is often moved to tears as she read these powerful sections, but is very poor at creating a fully visualised and relatable setting. I'm not particularly good at characterisation or dialogue, but readers of my books have said that they like my descriptive scenes. I'm also a bit of a horror for writing myself into a corner. I'll have my character say something like, "I...