In this episode we welcome a listener Sarah Bateman to Outer Brightness She recently shared with us that she has listened to about minutes of the podcast She joined us to talk share her experiences meeting with LDS missionaries and sharing the good news with them She also posed some questions to us to get our insights as former LDS missionaries into how best to reach those young men and women with the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ Coinciding with this episode we are running a giveaway of five copies of Micah Wilder's book Passport to Heaven The True Story [... more]

In this episode we welcome Sandra Tanner to the podcast She joined us earlier this year to discuss her transition from Mormonism to Christianity Many who go through an LDS faith crisis end up jettisoning Christianity and religion altogether We asked Sandra to talk about why she kept Christianity after deconstructing Mormonism It was a pleasure to have Sandra on Outer Brightness and to have had the opportunity to meet her in person at the Utah Lighthouse Ministry Bookstore in Salt Lake City in September [... more]

Hey Fireflies Long time no post Big apologies In this episode Matthew and I give an update on what's been going on in our busy lives and talk about the relaunch of Outer Brightness From Mormon to Jesus We're glad to be back and hope to hear from you soon [... more]

Michael swung by Outer Brightness to discuss the LDS Gospel Topics Essay on the LDS doctrine of a Mother in Heaven In this first part of the conversation they discuss how they viewed thsi doctrine when they were LDS and whether or not they felt an affinity for the doctrine Finally they discuss each of the passages from LDS canon that are cited in the essay as supportive of the doctrine [... more]

If we keep going and keep trusting God that's when we'll begin to understand more of His goodness and faithfulness even though we didn't receive what we asked [... more]

This week Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist and the Apostate Paul welcome Aaron Shafavaloff 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 second [... more]

If God wants to hug me I am gong to let Him I am going to lean into him [... more]

In this episode The Apostate Paul and Matthew the Nuclear Calvinist welcome Latter-day Saint Jaxon Washburn back to Outer Brightness They discuss Episode 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 would be a good opportunity to discuss the differences and similarities between LDS and Christian views on this topic We hope you enjoy this conversation [... more]

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 Trinity and ask Tarik what other moral or philosophical questions about non-LDS Christian beliefs he thinks are the most difficult for LDS to understand or make it difficult for them [... more]

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's omniscience Compatibilism is the position often taken by Calvinists Latter-day Saints are typically Libertarian when it comes to the concept of free-will and some even adopt the Open Theist view which holds that God does [... more]

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 installment we introduce ourselves to each other to give context to the topic and begin the discussion of Biblical Inerrancy with a conversation about the eighth LDS Article of Faith and a proper definition [... more]

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 interested in Mormon history He has shown that it is possible for Christians and Mormons to dialogue in respectful ways We hope you enjoy this conversation Link to our episode on Steven's Channel Mormon Book [... more]

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 the state of affairs has changed So in this intro I'm going to provide a quick timeline In or the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays designed to allow church members to learn about difficult topics in LDS Church history and doctrine directly from the Church's official website rather than other online sources These essays have the imprimatur of the [... more]

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 the state of affairs has changed So in this intro I'm going to provide a quick timeline In or the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays designed to allow church members to learn about difficult topics in LDS Church history and doctrine directly from the Church's official website rather than other online sources These essays have the imprimatur of the [... more]

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 the state of affairs has changed So in this intro I'm going to provide a quick timeline In or the LDS Church began publishing Gospel Topics Essays designed to allow church members to learn about difficult topics in LDS Church history and doctrine directly from the Church's official website rather than other online sources These essays have the imprimatur of the [... more]

From Mormon to Jesus Real authentic conversations among former members of the Church Of Latter Day Saints [... more]

In this episode we bring you part two of an interview we conducted with Fred Anson Fred is the driving force behind Beggar's Bread a Christian blog where Beggars share the bread that they've so freely and graciously received Before Fred converted to Christianity in the 's he was an atheist Early in his life as a Christian he became enmeshed in a high-demand Christian cult called the Shepherding Movement Fred visited Outer Brightness to share his story and what he learned about mind-control from his time in the Shepherding Movement and from leaving that movement Read Beggar's Bread here [... more]

Stu is talking with businessman Scott Reid and Director and President of the Ukraine Partnership Foundation Joe Privott about the work they're doing in Ukraine teaching entrepreneurs and small business owners sound business practices from a western perspective while also sharing the Gospel [... more]

In this episode and the next we bring you an interview we conducted with Fred Anson Fred is the driving force behind Beggar's Bread a Christian blog where Beggars share the bread that they've so freely and graciously received Before Fred converted to Christianity in the 's he was an atheist Early in his life as a Christian he became enmeshed in a high-demand Christian cult called the Shepherding Movement Fred visited Outer Brightness to share his story and what he learned about mind-control from his time in the Shepherding Movement and from leaving that movement Read Beggar's Bread here [... more]

In this episode two of the scions of light Briana and Matthew interview Matt Wilder of Adam's Road Ministry Matt composes beautiful original piano pieces and adds to them spoken word readings from Scripture Adam's Road Piano is one of his creative outlets He visited Outer Brightness to discuss his journey from Mormon to Jesus and what he's currently doing with the Adam's Road Ministry We hope you enjoy this interview Learn more about Adam's Road Ministry here Check out Adam's Road Piano here Subscribe to Adam's Road Piano on YouTube here [... more]

In this episode two of the scions of light Michael and Paul interview Micah Wilder of Adam's Road Ministry Micah's book Passport to Heaven will be released on June He dropped by Outer Brightness to talk about his story his ministry and his book We hope you enjoy this interview [... more]

In this bonus episode the scions of light announce the addition of Bri the Christ-Warrior Princess to the Outer Brightness They also look back on Year of the podcast and share some of their favorite moments that made it into episodes as well as some that didn't Finally they share some exciting news about current developments related to distribution [... more]

From Mormon to Jesus Real authentic conversations among former members of The Church Of Latter-Day Saints [... more]

From Mormon to Jesus Real authentic conversations among former members of The Church Of Latter-Day Saints [... more]

From Mormon To Jesus Real authentic conversations among former member of The Church Of Latter Day Saints [... more]

James Robby are talking about distractions and prayer - and how to seek God's help with it [... more]

Former Mormons share their journeys to Jesus [... more]

We like to think of prayer as our idea But it isn't really - prayer is God's idea And that makes all of the difference James Robby explore this idea [... more]

Former Mormons talk about their journeys to Jesus [... more]

LDS Apologist Brett Dennis joined Outer Brightness for a formal debate with Paul The topic was Is the Book of Abraham Ancient Scripture [... more]

In this episode the sons of light discuss some of their favorite Christmas music and memories of celebrating Christmas as young latter-day saints Because this is The Outer Brightness Podcast they discuss their journeys related to Christmas and what new traditions they enjoy now as Christians We hope you enjoy this episode and may the peace of Christ be with you in this wonderful season [... more]

The sons of light are joined by The Street Apologist a k a Vocab Malone Vocab recently debated Mormon apologist Kwaku El on Marlon Wilson's The Gospel Truth YouTube channel Vocab came on The Outer Brightness Podcast to debrief the debate You can watch the full debate between Vocab and Kwaku here https youtu be bJRf Vew You can connect with Vocab's channel Street Apologist Live here https www youtube com c VocabMalone [... more]

The sons of light wrap up their discussion of Original Sin a topic that represents a stark contrast between Mormonism and Christianity Here they talk about what the Bible says about the effects that sin has on the human will Augustine's analogies about the effects of sin with a detour into the humor of sleep deprived minds the effect of recording late on Friday nights whether this doctrine was a hard one for them to accept as they transitioned to Christianity and LDS objections the doctrine of Original Sin [... more]

The sons of light round out a discussion on how the concept of identity relates to their faith journeys In this first part they discuss how their sense of self has changed since going through their faith transition if they would say they are still Mormon in any sense and what the Bible has to say about identity [... more]

In this episode Michael the Ex-Mormon Apologist takes some time out from his universe-wide book tour to stop in at the Outer Brightness studio He talks with Matthew and Paul about his new book Falling Into Grace How A Mormon Apologist Stumbled Into Christianity Pick up your copy here Amazon Link [... more]

In this episode the sons of light tackle questions that Michael The Ex-Mormon Apologist used to toss at Christians to try to undermine the Doctrine of the Trinity They talk about their own struggles with understanding this doctrine and what ultimately convinced them that it is a biblical doctrine and led them to accept it The questions here stem from LDS Article of Faith [... more]

The Sons of Light discuss some questions that all questioning Latter-day Saints or post-Latter-day Saints have to grapple with after they have crawled over or under or around the Book of Mormon What About Scripture Is there such as thing as a written Word of God If so where can it be found This is part of our Articles of Faith Series Here we discuss questions for post-Latter-day Saints stemming from LDS Article of Faith [... more]

The Sons of Light Paul Bunyan Matthew the Nukular Calvinist and Michael the Ex-Mormon Apologist begin their discussion of the question What if Mormonism isn't true [... more]