Jeff Durbin is a master of biblical eisegesis and circular reasoning 😂
First, Durbin keeps repeating that "the Bible is clear" but simply declaring a passage clear doesn't make your interpretation correct. Every Calvinist, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Orthodox Christian, and Catholic claims the Bible is clear when it supports their theology. The question is not whether Durbin feels the text is clear. The question is whether the text actually teaches what he claims.
Take Psalm 90:2. Durbin quotes, "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God," as though that settles the debate. It doesn't. The verse says God is God throughout all ages. It says absolutely nothing about divine embodiment, divine progression, creation ex nihilo, timelessness, immateriality, or any of the philosophical baggage Durbin smuggles into the text. He is pretending the conclusion is already in the premise.
Then we get John 4:24: "God is spirit." Again, Durbin simply assumes that "spirit" means an immaterial, bodiless metaphysical essence. Where does the text say that? It doesn't. The passage is about worship, not ontology. Durbin reads centuries of post-biblical metaphysics into a single sentence and then congratulates himself for finding it there.
Even worse is his appeal to Luke 24. Jesus says a spirit does not have flesh and bones as He does. Notice what that actually proves: resurrected persons have bodies. Congratulations. Latter-day Saints agree. The passage says nothing whatsoever about whether the Father possesses a glorified body. Durbin is answering a question the text never asks.
What's especially ironic is that Durbin constantly accuses Latter-day Saints of rejecting Scripture while he spends most of his time defending concepts that are nowhere stated in Scripture. Divine simplicity? Not in Scripture. Pure actuality? Not in Scripture. Timelessness? Not in Scripture. An immaterial essence without body, parts, or passions? Not in Scripture. These are philosophical conclusions inherited through later theological development, not straightforward biblical teachings.
Durbin also wants everyone to believe the Bible is so crystal clear that disagreement is inexcusable. Yet Protestantism itself is fragmented into thousands of competing interpretations. Calvinists can't agree with Arminians. Baptists can't agree with Presbyterians. Reformed theologians debate other Reformed theologians endlessly. Apparently the Bible is only "perfectly clear" when Jeff Durbin already agrees with the interpretation.
The reality is that Durbin is not comparing Joseph Smith to the Bible. He is comparing Joseph Smith to a particular Reformed reading of the Bible. Those are not the same thing.
The fundamental weakness in his argument is that he never demonstrates that Scripture teaches classical theism. He assumes classical theism, reads it into every verse, and then declares victory. Embarrassing.