Rough Stone Rolling

Rough Stone Rolling: Daniel 2, The Church, and Joseph Smith

November 9, 2026 / / 5 Comments

Today we focus on Daniel 2, a vision.  The story goes like this.

In King Nebuchadnezzar’s 2nd year, he has a dream. According to Daniel 1:1-2, Daniel and friends don’t get carried off until Neb’s third year, although they’re present here. Either Neb can’t remember what it was (like many of us with our dreams) or he’s being unreasonable. Either way, he demands all his wise men tell him both the dream itself, and the interpretation. When they can’t, he wants them all killed for incompetence. Daniel hears about this and offers to interpret (like Joseph in Egypt), which he does, thus saving everyone.

The content of the dream involves a statue representing various political/national entities, and a stone cut out of the mountain, which smashes them all.

Easy enough, right?
As it turns out, the books written just on Daniel 2 could fill an entire library, arguing over what exactly it’s referring to. Continue reading

Four in the Furnace, by Ted Larson

Come Follow Me: Daniel 1,3,6 AND Esther 3-5, 7-8.

November 9, 2026 / / 13 Comments

Obviously from the fact that the chapters I’m covering today don’t match up, I haven’t had time to revise these. 

Today we are rushing through an intro to Daniel AND Esther, and the next post is devoted solely to Daniel 2. What’s interesting is how the comparison between Daniel and Esther actually serves the manual’s purpose, which is to “help class members have the courage to live according to gospel standards.” How so?  Continue reading

Tales from the Archives— William D. Sill: Harvard GeologyPhD, Yale Professor, and LDS Institute Director

October 16, 2026 / / 1 Comment

William D. Sill (no apparent relation to Sterling W. Sill) had a very interesting life, but is very little known to the general public. I draw the summary below from his donated papers, journal, and obituary, some of which I discovered with a research grant from the Church. (Notably, as is often the case in history, there are little inconsistencies in dating, titles, etc.)

Continue reading

Come Follow Me: Isaiah 22, 24-26, 28-30.

September 27, 2026 /

My pic

I’m pretty sure I’m off the 2026 calendar, but I’ve been too busy to do a thorough update.

First, to continue from last week, is Isaiah’s love of wordplay and pun, which drives much of Isaiah’s word choice. Although we call this “wordplay” in English (or paronomasia, if you’re being technical) this was for literary effect and making it memorable; not for cleverness or frivolous entertainment. For example, in 24:17 we read Isaiah speaking of “terror, a pit, and a snare.” These nouns are pachad, wa-pachat, wa-pach (wa meaning “and” here, a conjunction) See the  Anchor Bible Dictionary article, “Wordplay”. Continue reading

Come Follow Me: Isaiah 1-6

September 19, 2026 /

Normally I’d begin with a link to my podcast and transcript… except it appears that while I wrote 90% of a podcast in 2010, I never recorded it. Amos was the last podcast I put up. Consider this an intro to Isaiah.

I have a confession. I’ve never really cared much for Isaiah. Continue reading

Proverbs 31

Come Follow Me— Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

September 7, 2026 /

This is the lesson you’ve all been waiting for. Most scripture wasn’t written for the purpose of “daily application” or even “how to live a righteous life.” If that’s what you’ve been looking for in the Old Testament, it’s probably been difficult. Matthew Schlimm calls this the “Searching for Saints” model of reading; it doesn’t work very well, because scripture was rarely intended to provide ideal models to emulate and liken.

That’s what makes this lesson the motherlode, because the chapters in question WERE intended to teach daily application and how to live right!

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.
Continue reading