One of the most prominent and difficult issues in philosophy of religion addresses the dilemma that arises when one asserts the existence of an all-powerful God who is also perfectly loving, while also asserting the presence of genuine evil in the world. As David Hume puts the case: “Either God would remove evil out of this world, and cannot; or He can, and will not; or, He has not the power nor will; or, lastly He has both the power and will. If He has the will, and not the power, this shows weakness, which is contrary to the nature of God. If He has the power, and not the will it is malignity, and this is no less contrary to His nature. If He is neither able nor willing, He is both impotent and malignant, and consequently cannot be God. If he is both willing and able (which alone is consonant to the nature of God), whence comes evil, or why does he not prevent it?” There have been many attempts through the centuries to address this dilemma, ranging from denial of the logical problem that seems apparent when trying to hold to all three assertions, to giving reasons for God allowing evil for some larger goods: because love requires free will, which opens the door to the possibility of us choosing evil, or because the presence of evil creates ideal conditions for “soul making,” our proving ourselves through how we respond to it.

Alicia couldn’t hold or nurse the newborn because of her radiation treatments.

Get the full lesson material at LDS.org.

Everybody’s heard of Lazarus. You know the one—the brother of Mary and Martha who died and was left in his tomb for four days, even until he smelled bad, and was then miraculously raised from the dead by Jesus. He’s at the center of one of the most stunning and jaw-dropping of Jesus’s miracles.

Not too long ago, there was an apostle by the name of Bruce R. McConkie who gave us some of the most doctrinally rich sermons we have in the Church. Some of you might remember him!

The Las Vegas Sun recently wrote a featureshowing a new side to Las Vegas, one different from the glitzy, shiny, and new super-casinos most visitors see on the Strip.

Professor William J. Hamblin has offered some good starting points in considering the relationship between the ancient Israelite temple ritual and the modern day LDS temple endowment. It is from this vantage point that we should approach trying to understand these ancient ritual systems and the connections they might have with the Latter-day Saints temple ritual.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on LDSLiving.com in August 2019.

You may have noticed the Church’s Instagram account sharing a number of beautiful art pieces along with quotes from general conference talks over the weekend. But who were the artists featured and are any of their pieces available through Deseret Book? We wanted to know the same thing. Here’s what we found out:

Recently, I experimented with diving a little deeper into the Book of Mormon, reading, experiencing, and examining it in an entirely new way—through text analysis.