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Standard of Truth · Mission Prep

Mission Prep

Serving a mission, or about to? Missionaries can’t use podcast apps, but most can open a Google Drive. Send us a missionary email and you’ll get every episode, free and premium, on the show’s Drive. Then take the course: learn it in the order you’ll teach it, with the history behind every lesson.

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The email and mission go only to Gerrit and Richard. They never show on this site.

The course

Line upon line. It follows Preach My Gospel, lesson by lesson, and adds the history behind each one: what was lost, who tried to fix it, and what God restored. Each lesson has key points, episodes that start at the right minute, the Church’s own pages to read, questions to talk over, and a short practice quiz.

In 2016 Elder M. Russell Ballard told teachers in the Church Educational System, “we give medical inoculations to our precious missionaries before sending them into the mission field,” and asked them to prepare students the same way with faithful, accurate teaching. That’s what this is for. Read his talk ↗

Missions of the world →Find your mission on a map, see the Church there, and what the people you’ll teach believe now.
  1. Get readyStart here: why learn this now
  2. Lesson 1: The Message of the RestorationGod is our loving Heavenly FatherThe Great ApostasyCouncils, creeds and the BibleThe Reformers: brave, sincere, and missing somethingThe world Joseph Smith was born intoThe First VisionThe Book of Mormon comes forthPriesthood, keys and a living Church
  3. Lesson 2: Heavenly Father’s Plan of SalvationThe plan: where we came from and where we’re goingWhy do bad things happen to good people?
  4. Lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus ChristFaith, repentance, baptism, and grace
  5. Lesson 4: Becoming Lifelong DisciplesCommandments, prophets and temples
  6. The questions you’ll hearThe questions you’ll hearPlural marriageKeeping your testimony strong

Get ready

Why learn this now, and how this course works.

1Start here: why learn this nowToday

Gerrit knows this history because it was his job. He worked on the Joseph Smith Papers and in the Church History Department, and he teaches religion at BYU. You don’t need a PhD. You need a head start. This course follows Preach My Gospel, lesson by lesson, and adds the history behind each one, so the questions people bring you on your mission aren’t the first time you’ve heard them.

Key points

  1. President M. Russell Ballard asked teachers to “inoculate” young people: let them hear the hard questions first from faithful, accurate teachers. That’s what this course is for.Hear it:S5E40 at 22:16S3E21 at 15:37Read:Elder Ballard’s 2016 talk ↗
  2. You can’t know everything. It helps to know which issues are real issues and which are just bad arguments.Hear it:S3E23 at 4:46
  3. Know the Gospel Topics Essays. They’re there so you can understand your history and not be shaken by people trying to hurt testimonies.Hear it:S3E50 at 24:52Read:Gospel Topics Essays ↗
  4. Context makes scripture come alive. The “Hosanna” shouts when Jesus rode into Jerusalem are rooted in the Feast of Tabernacles.Hear it:S3E40 at 11:49Read:Matthew 21:8–9 ↗
“And so Elder, look, as you go throughout your life, you're going to learn a lot more about the gospel. … But when it comes to, oh, you just don't really know who Joseph Smith really was. I got to tell you, all the arguments are just terrible. … Because the people who knew Joseph best then and now are the people who love Joseph.”
Gerrit, answering a missionary who wrote in · hear it (45:47)

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Talk it over

  • Elder Ballard compared this to the shots missionaries get before they leave. What’s one hard question you’d rather hear first from a faithful teacher?
  • Read Matthew 21:8–9 knowing the crowd is echoing the Feast of Tabernacles. What changes?

Practice

1. The “Hosanna” shouts at Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem are rooted in which feast?
2. What did Elder Ballard say teachers should do for young people, the way missionaries get shots before they go?

Lesson 1: The Message of the Restoration

The first lesson you’ll teach, and the one with the most history behind it: who God is, what was lost, who tried to fix it, and what God restored through Joseph Smith. Read it in Preach My Gospel ↗

2God is our loving Heavenly FatherBefore the world began

Preach My Gospel starts here, and so does almost every argument you’ll hear about whether Latter-day Saints are Christian. We believe God is our literal Father, that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings, and that they are one in purpose. Most other Christians believe in the Trinity: one God in three persons. Know both, and be kind about it.

Key points

  1. We are children of God: not made the way God made a rock or a hammer, but the same type of being God is, with the potential to become like Him.Hear it:S2E52 at 47:23Read:Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1 ↗
  2. “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also.” Revelations like this clarified what was being taught.Hear it:S4E30 at 22:59Read:D&C 130:22 ↗
  3. The Bible itself shows them as separate: Jesus prays to His Father, and at His baptism the voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son.”Hear it:S4E21 at 35:01Read:Matthew 3:16–17 ↗
  4. Know what the Trinity says: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each God, and they are one God, three persons but not individuals.Hear it:S5E14 at 25:37
  5. When Christian friends say we aren’t Christian, it usually isn’t malice. They mean the Jesus we worship is different from the Jesus of their creeds.Hear it:S2E52 at 43:58S6E42 at 33:47Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 58:19
  6. Lots of Christians believe in Jesus. Joseph’s revelations are why we believe in Him the way we do: a premortal life, many kingdoms of heaven, and a chance for everyone to be exalted.Hear it:S1 Bonus 1 at 7:17
  7. In 1841 William Clayton wrote down Joseph teaching that God has a body of flesh and bones, that we came here to get a body, and that beings with bodies have power over those without.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 53:53Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 54:57
“And we are not saying that we're His children because He created us the way He created a rock or a hammer. We are saying that we are the same types of being that God is. That we made a choice to come to this earth so that we could become like He is.”
Gerrit, on what we mean by “children of God” · hear it (48:46)

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  • “So Christians think they own the word Christian? Isn’t that gatekeeping?” How would you answer that kindly?
  • In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” Who was He praying to? What does that tell you?
  • At Jesus’s baptism there’s a voice from heaven, a Son in the river and a Spirit like a dove. How many are there?

Practice

1. Which verse teaches that the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bones?
2. What do Latter-day Saints mean by calling us children of God?
3. Which council in AD 325 condemned Arius and set the line for who counts as Christian?
3The Great ApostasyAbout AD 30–100

Why would the Church need to be restored at all? God has always called prophets. When people reject them, truth and authority are lost. That happened again after the deaths of the apostles. It started sooner than you might think: Paul was already writing warning letters.

Key points

  1. God has always given His authority to prophets, dispensation after dispensation. We live in the last one.Hear it:S1E11 at 22:09Read:Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1 ↗
  2. God’s pattern is to give the truth we need through prophets and apostles, who hold the keys of the kingdom.Hear it:S1E3 at 24:35Read:Matthew 16:18–19 ↗
  3. It started early. Paul writes to the Galatians, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed … unto another gospel.” The apostles were still alive.Hear it:S3E17 at 37:21Read:Galatians 1:6 ↗
  4. Picture the early Church with no prophet to ask, no Bible and no central authority. People filled in the blanks with what their culture already believed.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 5:05Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 6:20
  5. The gospel mostly spread by word of mouth, from friend to friend, not from people who had been with Jesus. Like a game of telephone, the message changed as it went.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 15:03
  6. Protestants are adamant that the Catholic Church went astray. The argument is over how far, and whether authority itself was lost.Hear it:S3E17 at 14:25S3E17 at 25:10
  7. Some reformers, the Anabaptists, also said Christ’s church had been lost and had to be restored. But they tried to restore it by living the New Testament, not by angels bringing back keys.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 39:18Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 40:21
  8. The authority Jesus gave the apostles was taken from the earth when the apostles were killed. It came back when John the Baptist visited Joseph and Oliver.Hear it:S5E31 at 40:35S3E18 at 55:26Read it:Holy Places S1E7 at 13:37

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  • If the Church never went off course, why did Paul, Peter, Jude and John write so many warnings?
  • Your Protestant friend agrees something went wrong. What’s the one thing they don’t think needed restoring?
  • Why might God let an apostasy happen at all? (Hear the Panama missionary’s question first.)

Practice

1. Which letter has Paul marveling that the Saints were “so soon removed … unto another gospel”?
2. What was taken from the earth when the apostles were killed?
3. Who brought authority back “for the first time since the apostles were slaughtered”?
4. In the earliest years, how did the gospel mostly spread?
4Councils, creeds and the BibleAD 100–451

With the apostles gone, Christians still had to answer hard questions: Who is Jesus? Which books are scripture? Without living prophets, they answered by debate, councils and philosophy. Knowing that story helps you teach other Christians with respect, because they inherited it honestly.

Key points

  1. Early Christians argued about Jesus almost from the start. The Ebionites said He was the greatest man who ever lived, but only a man. The Docetists said He was divine and didn’t really have a body.Hear it:S1E15 at 13:32S1E15 at 16:45Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 19:34Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 36:38
  2. When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” He used the name of God, and the crowd took up stones. Latter-day Saints know Jesus is Jehovah, the I Am who spoke to Moses.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 22:48Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 23:56Read:John 8:58–59 ↗
  3. Almost everything we know about the Ebionites comes from their enemies. Think how wrong you’d get Latter-day Saints if you only read anti-Mormon material.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 28:06Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 29:08
  4. Origen, one of the most prolific early church fathers, reasoned that we must have lived before we were born. After his death he was condemned as a heretic.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 55:15
  5. Arius argued that if the Father begot the Son, there was a time the Son didn’t exist. Athanasius said Jesus is eternally begotten. The Council of Nicaea in 325 sided with Athanasius.Hear it:S1E15 at 32:55S4E21 at 42:30
  6. Nicaea didn’t settle it. The very next emperor backed Arius’s side and exiled Athanasius, and the Goths who conquered Rome were Arian Christians for centuries.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 5:47Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 12:13
  7. We aren’t Arians, even when critics call us that. We believe the Father and the Son are separate beings, but we don’t believe Jesus was ever created.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 10:00
  8. The Council of Chalcedon said Jesus is 100% God and 100% man at the same time, not half and half.Hear it:S1E16 at 2:15S1E16 at 3:22Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 46:17
  9. Chalcedon was the last council nearly all Christians accept, Protestants included. Luther and Calvin rejected much of Catholicism, but not this.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 49:25Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E4 at 50:28
  10. D&C 93 gives an answer the councils didn’t: Jesus “received not of the fulness at the first,” but grew from grace to grace.Hear it:S1E16 at 41:24Read:D&C 93:12–14 ↗
  11. The Nicene Creed is from 325. A list matching the books of our New Testament doesn’t show up until 367.Hear it:S4E22 at 40:22
  12. Once people stopped expecting new revelation, they judged whether an apostle wrote a book by whether it matched what they already believed.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 1:00:03Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 1:02:13
  13. Joseph rejected the creeds of Christendom, like the Nicene Creed, as statements of faith.Hear it:S1E20 at 29:38Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 1:02:13Read:JS—History 1:19 ↗

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  • “Why not just read the Bible and follow Jesus?” What did Christians do for the centuries before there was a settled New Testament?
  • Arius read the Father and the Son as separate, and Gerrit says part of what Arius taught was still false. What did he get wrong? Why might his question sound familiar to you?

Practice

1. Who argued that the Son was created and “had a beginning”?
2. Which council said Jesus is fully God and fully man?
3. Which section says Jesus “received not of the fulness at the first”?
4. What did the Ebionites believe about Jesus?
5. Why aren’t Latter-day Saints Arians?
5The Reformers: brave, sincere, and missing something1370s–1619

Long before Joseph Smith, good men saw that something had gone wrong, and some paid with their lives to say so. They translated the Bible, fought the sale of indulgences and argued over grace. They fixed what they could. What they couldn’t do was bring back authority they didn’t have.

Key points

  1. John Wycliffe, an English Catholic in the late 1300s, pushed back on the power of priests and bishops and wanted the Bible in English. Jan Hus was promised safe conduct to a council, then imprisoned, condemned, strangled and burned.Hear it:S5E26 at 25:51S2E30 at 16:09S5E26 at 45:17
  2. Purgatory, in Catholic belief, is for people headed to heaven who still need small sins purged. The saints’ extra merit could be applied to them to shorten their time. That’s what indulgences drew on.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 13:37Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 35:26
  3. Johann Tetzel sold indulgences, years off purgatory for a price: “Every time a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.”Hear it:S2E30 at 25:26S4E12 at 17:15
  4. Luther, troubled by his sins, found his answer reading Paul. His 95 Theses weren’t a declaration that he’d left the Church. They were points for debate.Hear it:S5E27 at 7:58S5E27 at 47:39Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 38:44
  5. Protestant Theology 101: saved by faith alone, by grace alone, and scripture alone is the only source of truth. Almost every Christian friend you meet builds on these.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 7:00Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 9:23Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 1:00:48
  6. Scripture alone didn’t bring agreement. Luther and Zwingli read the same Bible and fought over the Lord’s Supper, and Luther kept infant baptism though the Bible never commands it.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 21:10Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 29:49
  7. The Anabaptists (“rebaptizers”) took Luther further: only believing adults should be baptized, so they rebaptized. Catholics and Lutherans both persecuted them.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 38:22Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 43:59
  8. Calvin started with God’s absolute sovereignty. If God is all-powerful, everything that happens is His will, either because He caused it or because He allowed it.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 15:21Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 16:42Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 23:06
  9. Calvinism dominated Protestant America: total depravity, predestination, and a limited atonement, in which Jesus died only for those God had already chosen.Hear it:S1E15 at 1:04:56S1E9 at 19:06Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 34:33
  10. Calvin’s five points spell TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints (once saved, always saved).Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 6:30Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 8:36Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 37:51Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 38:54
  11. Latter-day Saints don’t believe in the total depravity of man. We believe God so loved the world, and that we are free to choose.Hear it:S3E10 at 54:22Read:2 Nephi 2:27 ↗
  12. Jacobus Arminius said we have a part to play and Jesus died for everyone. Methodists followed him, and Joseph’s mind became “somewhat partial to the Methodist sect.”Hear it:S1E6 at 1:02:41S2E48 at 15:16
“People like William Tyndale and these other great reformers, they certainly faced the difference between abandoning faith for the world and embracing it.”
Gerrit, on the Reformers · hear it (50:55)

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  • You’re teaching someone raised on “once saved, always saved.” How do you talk about covenants without attacking what they love?
  • If God chose who would be saved before anyone was born, who is responsible for sin?
  • Would you have nailed up the 95 Theses? What would it have cost you?

Practice

1. What was Johann Tetzel selling?
2. In Calvinism, what is a “limited atonement”?
3. What were Luther’s 95 Theses?
4. What are the three “alones” of Protestant theology?
5. In Calvin’s TULIP, what does the P stand for?
6. What does “Anabaptist” mean?
6The world Joseph Smith was born into1805–1820

Joseph grew up in upstate New York when preachers competed for converts and families split between churches. His own family did. With Calvinist preaching on one side and Methodist preachers on the other, you can see why a 14-year-old took his question into the grove. A few years later, his brother Alvin’s funeral showed the family what that preaching could mean.

Key points

  1. Many Americans were caught up in religious excitement, and so were the Smiths. Joseph’s mother was a strong Presbyterian; Joseph felt partial to the Methodists.Hear it:S3E44 at 31:18S1E18 at 22:54S2E48 at 15:16Read it:Holy Places S1E6 at 49:52Read:JS—History 1:5–8 ↗
  2. Joseph’s America was Calvinist, or Reformed, Protestant. Most American Lutherans came later, in the big Nordic migrations of the late 1800s.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 4:39
  3. The Smiths bought their farm on credit in 1819, at the top of a wheat boom. Then the Panic of 1819 hit, and by 1820 wheat was nearly worthless. Joseph carried his family’s welfare into the grove too.Read it:Holy Places S1E6 at 45:33Holy Places S1E7 at 3:55Holy Places S1E6 at 56:40
  4. In that Calvinist world, people often read poverty as a sign you didn’t have God’s favor.Read it:Holy Places S1E6 at 56:40
  5. In the Calvinist world, a young person asking “How can I know I’m saved?” often heard: you can’t.Hear it:S1E18 at 25:01
  6. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” Joseph believed the Declaration of James, and he went to ask.Hear it:S1E19 at 5:15S1E18 at 53:38Read:James 1:5 ↗
  7. At Alvin’s funeral, the Presbyterian preacher of the church Lucy Mack Smith belonged to told the mourners Alvin was burning in hell, because he hadn’t been baptized. Years later Joseph saw Alvin in the celestial kingdom.Hear it:S3E24 at 23:16S5E50 at 25:49Read:D&C 137:5–7 ↗

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  • Joseph was 14. What questions were you asking at 14? What did you do with them?
  • The story of Alvin’s funeral comes from William Smith, told long after and published in 1894. How should that change how you tell it?

Practice

1. Which verse sent Joseph to pray?
2. Which revelation shows Joseph seeing Alvin in the celestial kingdom?
3. What hit just after the Smiths bought their farm on credit in 1819?
7The First VisionSpring 1820

Joseph told of his First Vision more than once, to different people at different times. Critics say the accounts don’t match. Think about how you tell the story of a big day: one way in your journal, another to a friend, another to a stranger who asks. Same day, different details for different listeners. Learn how the accounts fit together, so you can teach it with confidence.

Key points

  1. The earliest account is from 1832. It’s the only one Joseph wrote in his own hand.Hear it:S1E18 at 8:09S4E28 at 44:44Read:Essay: First Vision Accounts ↗
  2. The 1832 account is personal. Joseph is aware of his own sins and cries “unto the Lord for mercy.”Hear it:S3E44 at 32:25
  3. The 1842 Wentworth Letter was written for a newspaper editor who wasn’t a Latter-day Saint: what should outsiders know? Different audience, different details.Hear it:S1E19 at 0:56S1E19 at 2:00
  4. Weigh what Joseph said himself above what someone else thought they heard him say, the same way you’d weigh Paul’s own words about the road to Damascus.Hear it:S1E19 at 30:09S1E18 at 8:09
  5. The 1838 account, now in the Pearl of Great Price, was written to be published to the world, to answer the false reports others were spreading.Read it:Holy Places S1E8 at 22:04Holy Places S1E8 at 23:17
  6. Joseph didn’t walk out of the grove a trained theologian. Brigham Young said the Lord could mostly tell him that God had a work for him and his sins were forgiven. Like a patriarchal blessing, he understood more over the years.Read it:Holy Places S1E8 at 8:33Holy Places S1E8 at 9:50Holy Places S1E8 at 10:52
  7. We don’t know the exact spot in the Sacred Grove, and we don’t need to. Joseph went to where he’d left his ax, likely near the edge of the woods. The miracle is that God and Jesus appeared, and God speaks again.Read it:Holy Places S1E7 at 23:19Holy Places S1E7 at 14:46

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  • Paul’s own words about the road to Damascus, or what someone else said Paul said: which would you trust more, and why? Now try it with Joseph.
  • Why would Joseph tell the story differently to a newspaper editor than he wrote it in his own journal?

Practice

1. Which First Vision account is the only one in Joseph’s own handwriting?
2. Which account is in the Pearl of Great Price?
3. Brigham Young said that when the Lord first appeared to Joseph, He could mostly tell him…
8The Book of Mormon comes forth1823–1830

Moroni, the plates, the seer stone, and the witnesses who saw and handled them. This is the keystone you’ll invite everyone to read, so know how it came to be, including the parts that surprise people, like the hat.

Key points

  1. The first time Joseph went to the hill, he failed. He thought of what the gold was worth, couldn’t take the plates, and the angel said he hadn’t kept the commandments. Four years of learning followed.Read it:Holy Places S1E8 at 36:23Holy Places S1E8 at 38:29Holy Places S1E8 at 53:07
  2. Joseph married Emma in January 1827 and got the plates that September. Gerrit calls Emma a stalwart who helped him see it through.Read it:Holy Places S1E1 at 5:28Holy Places S1E2 at 27:08Holy Places S1E2 at 17:47
  3. In the summer of 1828 Martin Harris lost the 116 pages, Joseph and Emma’s first son died, and Emma nearly died. Then came D&C 3, the first recorded revelation: God’s work can’t be frustrated, God is merciful, and Joseph was still chosen.Read it:Holy Places S1E2 at 40:58Holy Places S1E2 at 51:43Holy Places S1E2 at 53:54Holy Places S1E2 at 57:43Read:D&C 3 ↗
  4. Joseph Knight Sr. believed before there were any plates to see. He kept the translators going with food, including a barrel of mackerel, and paper.Read it:Holy Places S1E4 at 14:18Holy Places S1E4 at 16:32
  5. There were two translation instruments: the interpreters the Book of Mormon describes, and a separate seer stone. Early on, people often called the interpreters “spectacles.”Hear it:S1E13 at 33:54S1E13 at 39:56
  6. The stone in the hat was never hidden. Critics like Eber D. Howe made fun of it in print in the 1830s.Hear it:S1E14 at 42:48S1E14 at 48:24
  7. A Shaker journal from Ohio in 1830, found by a scholar who isn’t a Latter-day Saint, records Oliver Cowdery describing the translation.Hear it:S1E13 at 40:59
  8. Even Jonathan Hadley, the Palmyra editor who mocked the “Golden Bible” in 1829, reported the translation story.Hear it:S1E20 at 14:53
  9. The Three Witnesses saw the angel and the plates. The Eight Witnesses lifted and held the plates in their hands, not in a box, not under a cloth.Hear it:S3E47 at 54:37S5E11 at 52:41Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 33:54Read:Testimony of Three Witnesses ↗Testimony of Eight Witnesses ↗
  10. An angel showed the plates to Mary Whitmer, worn out from feeding a houseful of guests. She’s the only woman we know of who saw them.Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 59:05Holy Places S1E11 at 1:01:17
  11. Printing cost $3,000, about ten years of a worker’s wages. After D&C 19 told him to impart his property, Martin Harris mortgaged $3,000 of his land in August 1829 to pay for it.Read it:Holy Places S1E9 at 20:47Holy Places S1E9 at 54:17Read:D&C 19:26, 34–35 ↗
“We have it from multiple historical sources. We have it from literally every single scribe he had. From Oliver Cowdery, from Martin Harris, from Emma Smith.”
Gerrit, on Joseph using seer stones to translate · hear it (1:00:35)

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  • Someone laughs: “He put a rock in a hat?” What do you say first? (Try: the hat was to block out the light, the way you shade a phone screen in the sun.)
  • Why might the people closest to Joseph, like Emma and Oliver, be the best witnesses of how the translation worked?

Practice

1. What did early sources often call the interpreters?
2. Why did Joseph put the stone in a hat?
3. What did the Eight Witnesses say they did?
4. Which revelation, received in Harmony after the 116 pages were lost, says the works of God cannot be frustrated?
5. About how much did the first printing of the Book of Mormon cost?
9Priesthood, keys and a living Church1829–1836

Authority came back step by step: John the Baptist, then Peter, James and John, then Moses, Elias and Elijah in the Kirtland Temple. The Church was organized in 1830, and apostles were called in 1835. You’ll be asked how we know, and why it matters.

Key points

  1. Joseph and Oliver prayed about baptism, and John the Baptist came and gave them the authority to baptize, for the first time since the apostles were killed.Hear it:S3E18 at 55:26S2 Bonus 2 at 14:04Read it:Holy Places S1E7 at 13:37Read:D&C 13 ↗
  2. Why did they pray? Translating the Book of Mormon, they learned baptism is essential and the Lord gives the authority to baptize to only a few. Most Protestants taught baptism didn’t save you.Hear it:S3E18 at 45:47S3E18 at 49:02
  3. Peter, James and John restored apostolic authority. We don’t know the exact date, partly because of how the early history was written.Hear it:S1E24 at 9:19S2E25 at 21:13Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 30:47
  4. The Church was organized in Fayette, New York, in 1830. By then the largest group of believers was there, around the Whitmer family.Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 17:37
  5. In August 1830, on his way to buy wine for the sacrament, Joseph met a heavenly messenger. That revelation, D&C 27, also tells that Peter, James and John had come and given keys.Read it:Holy Places S1E5 at 17:33Holy Places S1E5 at 18:38Read:D&C 27 ↗
  6. In 1829 Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer were told they would find the Twelve. In 1835 the Three Witnesses laid their hands on each new apostle’s head.Hear it:S3E26 at 23:51S3E26 at 35:34Read:D&C 18:37 ↗
  7. In the Kirtland Temple, Joseph saw the Lord, and Moses, Elias and Elijah came and gave essential priesthood keys.Hear it:S2 Bonus 2 at 29:08S1E24 at 25:47Read:D&C 110 ↗
  8. A testimony of Jesus isn’t complete without the keys He directed be given to Joseph and to the apostles and prophets who followed.Hear it:S4E19 at 20:11

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  • Your friend says, “I don’t need a priest. Every believer is a priest.” What did Joseph and Oliver do when they wanted to be baptized, and why?
  • Why does it matter that authority came back from the people who last held it?

Practice

1. Who restored the authority to baptize?
2. Who laid hands on the first apostles in 1835?
3. Where did Moses, Elias and Elijah give keys to Joseph and Oliver?
4. Where was the Church organized in 1830?
5. Which revelation came when Joseph set out to buy wine for the sacrament?

Lesson 2: Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation

Where we came from, why we’re here, why life hurts, and where we go next. Read it in Preach My Gospel ↗

10The plan: where we came from and where we’re goingBefore birth to after death

Jonathan Edwards, the great colonial preacher, told sinners they hung over hell “by a slender thread with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it.” That was the kind of hell many in Joseph’s world grew up with. The Restoration teaches a Father who made “provision for every spirit,” a spirit world where the gospel is preached, and kingdoms of glory. It’s not a softer hell. It’s a bigger, more loving plan.

Key points

  1. We lived before this life, and we chose Jesus there.Hear it:S1E6 at 55:22S1E17 at 25:08Read:D&C 93:29 ↗
  2. Latter-day Saints honor Adam and Eve; other Christians believe they wrecked paradise. Calvinists say the Fall must be good because God decreed it, but can’t say why. We can: it’s why we came here.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 2:12Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 50:39Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 51:51Read:2 Nephi 2:25 ↗
  3. A loving Father, with a loving Heavenly Mother, sent His spirit children here, not to suffer, even though we do.Hear it:S1E7 at 27:13
  4. While His body lay in the tomb, Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison. Temples let us redeem those who have waited a long time.Hear it:S1E28 at 22:05S3E40 at 41:33Read:1 Peter 3:18–20 ↗
  5. Many Protestants believe you go straight to heaven or hell the moment you die. Then why be resurrected? Catholics answered with purgatory, a place to have small sins purged before heaven.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 3:12Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 7:10Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 11:21
  6. Doing something for the dead is an old idea. In 2 Maccabees, Jews pray and offer a sacrifice for fallen soldiers, and Paul mentions baptism for the dead as if everyone already knew about it.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 26:08Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E6 at 44:24Read:1 Corinthians 15:29 ↗
  7. Everyone will be resurrected, with different kinds of bodies: celestial, terrestrial, telestial. D&C 76 is radical Christian theology.Hear it:S1E7 at 8:27S3E16 at 19:31Read:D&C 76 ↗
  8. “Endless is my name.” Eternal punishment is God’s punishment, not punishment that never ends.Hear it:S3E32 at 30:42S5E17 at 16:13Read:D&C 19:10–12 ↗
“It's not a failure because I lived my life in accordance with the light and knowledge that I had. And the best part about our judge is that he is not the angry arbiter who's slamming his fist down on the temple demanding his pound of flesh.”
Gerrit, on the God who judges us · hear it (52:07)

What you’ll hear

“There’s only heaven or hell.”

Read: 1 Corinthians 15:40–42; D&C 76

Many Christians can accept three degrees of glory. What they struggle with is the idea that hell isn’t forever for everyone outside heaven. Paul himself describes different glories.

Hear it:S1E2 at 10:40

“There’s no second chance after death.” (Hebrews 9:27)

Read: Luke 23:43; 1 Peter 3:18–20; 1 Corinthians 15:29

Jesus told the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,” and Peter says Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. Paradise isn’t heaven, and the gospel is preached in the spirit world.

Hear it:S6E4 at 24:36S3E24 at 48:45

“Mormons deny hell.”

Read: D&C 19:10–12; D&C 76:84–85

We believe in real punishment. D&C 19 says “endless” is God’s name, so endless punishment is God’s punishment. It doesn’t mean everyone outside heaven suffers forever.

Hear it:S3E32 at 30:42

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  • If all the dead will be resurrected, where are they before that?
  • Why would Christ preach to spirits in prison if they had no hope of answering?
  • If there are only two destinations, why does Paul describe three glories?

Practice

1. Who did Christ preach to while His body lay in the tomb?
2. Per D&C 19, why is it called “endless punishment”?
3. Which revelation is Joseph and Sidney’s vision of the kingdoms of glory?
4. In Catholic belief, who goes to purgatory?
11Why do bad things happen to good people?Every day

The first hard question many people ask isn’t about Joseph Smith at all. It’s this: if God is good and all-powerful, why is the world so full of suffering? The plan of salvation is where the answer starts.

Key points

  1. It’s a real problem. Look around: this world can be a dumpster fire on its best days. If God is all-good and all-powerful, why?Hear it:S1E15 at 52:12
  2. Every Christian asks, “Why did God let this happen?” Calvin answered that everything is God’s will, caused or allowed. Gerrit says Calvin had to answer without the revelations Joseph would receive.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 27:18Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E10 at 32:23
  3. We existed before this life, saw the plan and chose to come. That changes what this life is for.Hear it:S1E17 at 25:08Read:D&C 93:29 ↗
  4. Christ suffered so that He would know how to succor His people.Hear it:S5E53 at 55:20Read:Alma 7:11–12 ↗
  5. Everything that has been taken from us will be recompensed. There will be no more tears.Hear it:S1E9 at 1:18:20
  6. Elder Orson F. Whitney taught in 1929 that wayward children may tread a thorny path, but if it leads them home like the prodigal, “the painful experience will not have been in vain.”Hear it:S1E7 at 16:06S1E7 at 19:27

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  • Someone you’re teaching just lost a child. What should you NOT say? What could you say?
  • Gerrit calls the world a dumpster fire on its best days. How does knowing we chose to come here change how you’d answer “why does God allow this?”

Practice

1. Which verse says Christ suffered so He would know how to succor His people?
2. According to Elder Whitney (1929), what happens to the pain of a child who wanders and comes home?

Lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring, and how to talk about grace with people who were taught grace alone. Read it in Preach My Gospel ↗

12Faith, repentance, baptism, and graceFor every one of us

Preach My Gospel Lesson 3 is the doctrine of Christ: faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. In Joseph’s world, most Christians believed salvation came by grace alone, with no works needed, not even baptism. You’ll meet their great-great-grandchildren. Here’s how to talk with them.

Key points

  1. From the start, the Restoration taught that baptism by immersion, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, by proper authority, is essential.Hear it:S1E9 at 25:58Read:Preach My Gospel, Lesson 3 ↗
  2. We are saved by the grace of Christ, and the gospel has conditions. Jesus taught we must be “born of water and of the Spirit,” and at Pentecost Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.”Hear it:S3E4 at 31:30S3E32 at 53:22Read:John 3:5 ↗Acts 2:38 ↗
  3. Ephesians 2:8–9 is about grace. A billion Catholics and many Bible scholars don’t think it overrules the rest of the Bible, and Jesus keeps talking about works: not everyone who says “Lord, Lord.”Hear it:S6E27 at 47:02S6E4 at 24:36Read:Ephesians 2:8–9 ↗Matthew 7:21 ↗
  4. Baptists immerse too. Where the Restoration differs is authority. And while Christians argued about infant baptism, the Book of Mormon settled it outright.Hear it:S2E14 at 24:31S1E20 at 35:17Read:Moroni 8 ↗
  5. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, the only way to be saved, just not by faith alone. Like Catholics, we believe grace is applied through what we do.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 59:09Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 1:00:10
  6. For Luther, baptism doesn’t save you. You’re baptized because Jesus commanded it, as a sign you have faith. The Book of Mormon taught Joseph and Oliver that baptism is essential.Hear it:S3E18 at 45:47Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E9 at 27:30
  7. Predestination is in the Bible: Paul uses the word in Ephesians 1 and Romans 8. Calvin’s version follows if God made us out of nothing. No one in his world believed in a premortal life.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 8:03Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 13:22Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 31:53Read:Ephesians 1:11 ↗Romans 8:28–30 ↗
  8. “Once saved, always saved” is Calvin’s perseverance of the saints. Many evangelicals today mix it with the Arminian idea that you choose Jesus.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 38:54Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E11 at 45:38
“And when you say, well, there's no way, I'm just too much of a sinner, that's when you lean in to the grace of Christ and into the atonement. If you believe that Christ and his atoning power is all powerful, then that means over the course of however long it might take in this life or the next, you actually can become something different.”
Gerrit, on grace and becoming like God · hear it (1:18:40)

What you’ll hear

“Salvation is by grace, not by works.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Read: Matthew 7:21; Acts 2:38; John 3:5

Agreed: nobody earns heaven. But the New Testament never says obedience is optional. Grace changes us, and it shows in what we do.

Hear it:S6E27 at 47:02

“Baptism isn’t required. Look at the thief on the cross.”

Read: John 3:5; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3–4; 1 Peter 3:21

The thief shows Christ is merciful. It doesn’t cancel the command. And we believe the dead can receive baptism by proxy, so no one is shut out.

Hear it:S5E42 at 59:15S6E4 at 24:36

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  • Someone asks, “Have you been saved?” Answer in one sentence they’ll recognize, then one sentence that’s ours.
  • Why might a Calvinist and a Methodist both say you don’t need baptism to be saved, even though they disagree about almost everything else?

Practice

1. Who said “Repent and be baptized” at Pentecost?
2. Which chapter in the Book of Mormon settles that little children don’t need baptism?
3. Which 1998 conference talk answers “Have you been saved?”
4. Latter-day Saints believe we are saved by…
5. Which point of Calvin’s TULIP became “once saved, always saved”?

Lesson 4: Becoming Lifelong Disciples

Commandments, prophets, and temples, with the history of how some of them came to be. Read it in Preach My Gospel ↗

13Commandments, prophets and temples1830–today

Lesson 4 is about becoming a lifelong disciple: prayer, scripture, commandments, service, temples. Expect questions like “If Jesus made wine, why can’t you drink it?” and “Is iced coffee a hot drink?” The history helps, and so does knowing why God speaks through prophets.

Key points

  1. From the Church’s first day, the Saints were told to receive the prophet’s word “as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.”Hear it:S1E2 at 4:14Read:D&C 21:4–6 ↗
  2. The Word of Wisdom came in 1833, “not by commandment or constraint.” It was urged for decades and became a requirement in 1921.Hear it:S1E11 at 18:56S1E12 at 27:46Read:D&C 89 ↗
  3. In Joseph’s day the Saints used wine for the sacrament. So don’t project the present backward. The revelation is for “the last days.”Hear it:S1E11 at 30:26S1E11 at 25:32Read it:Holy Places S1E5 at 17:33
  4. Hyrum Smith described “hot drinks” as coffee and tea.Hear it:S1E11 at 37:09S1E12 at 19:02
  5. Yes, you have to keep the law of chastity. Temple recommends also ask for tithing and the rest of the gospel.Hear it:S6E13 at 59:27S1E12 at 26:43Read:Preach My Gospel, Lesson 4 ↗
“You don't need a prophet to tell you to stay in Jerusalem. You were always going to stay in Jerusalem. It's where your family lives. It's where your riches are. It's where your house is. It takes a prophet to tell you to leave.”
Gerrit, on why we need prophets most when they tell us what we wouldn’t already believe · hear it (1:14:50)

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  • Which commandment would be hardest for someone you know to accept? How would you introduce it with love, not pressure?
  • Name a time a prophet asked something you wouldn’t have chosen on your own. What happened when people followed?

Practice

1. When the Word of Wisdom was first given, it was…
2. D&C 21 says to receive the prophet’s words…
3. Who described “hot drinks” as coffee and tea?

The questions you’ll hear

Hear the hard questions first from faithful, accurate teachers. Then end where every mission day starts: with your own witness.

14The questions you’ll hear1829–today

Sooner or later someone will hand you a pamphlet, a meme, or the CES Letter. Most of it isn’t new. The attacks started in 1829, before the Book of Mormon was even off the press. Start with the Church’s own answers, then learn to check a source before it checks you.

Key points

  1. Always check the source. Was it written by someone who was there, or by someone who heard about it? Was it written down soon, or 70 years later? Do other sources back it up?Hear it:S1E13 at 42:24S1E1 at 43:11
  2. Weigh an affidavit by when and why it was written. Emma’s father, Isaac Hale, signed his in 1834, angry that his daughter had married Joseph and that people were now following him.Read it:Holy Places S1E1 at 34:17Holy Places S1E1 at 47:20
  3. If all you knew about Latter-day Saints came from anti-Mormon material, you’d get the emphasis wrong. Critics highlight what’s controversial, not what’s central.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 29:08Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E2 at 30:10
  4. Some critics are sincere and still wrong. A person can say something in good faith that isn’t true.Hear it:S2E37 at 32:41
  5. The CES Letter was styled as a letter to a CES director, but it’s a collection of old claims. About 250 claims and subclaims, and roughly 75% are about history and sources.Hear it:S6E13 at 5:56S6E13 at 15:16
  6. The Solomon Spaulding theory came from Philastus Hurlbut and Eber D. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed in the 1830s. The View of the Hebrews argument is a 20th-century one.Hear it:S1E21 at 30:52S1E21 at 31:56S1E21 at 34:18S1E22 at 35:44Read it:Holy Places S1E1 at 46:17
  7. Don’t argue to win. Gerrit admits he had to learn about the spirit of contention himself.Hear it:S6E11 at 2:52Read:3 Nephi 11:29 ↗
  8. Pointing out a reformer’s sins rarely moves a Protestant: everyone is a sinner, they’ll say, and they follow the Bible, not Luther. Ours is a historical claim, that God and Jesus appeared to Joseph and gave him authority, so attacks on Joseph’s character raise a question we have to answer.Read it:Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 55:59Joseph Smith and the Restoration S1E12 at 56:59

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  • Take a claim you’ve seen online about the Church and run it through the five questions. Which one breaks it?
  • Someone hands you the CES Letter. What’s the first question you ask them, before you answer anything?

Practice

1. Which source usually deserves the most weight?
2. Who published Mormonism Unvailed?
3. About what share of the CES Letter’s claims are about history and sources?
4. Isaac Hale’s harsh affidavit about Joseph was written…
15Plural marriage1830s–1904

You will be asked about it, probably early and often. Be honest, teach what the Church teaches, admit what’s hard, and let the Spirit testify of the Restoration, not of polygamy. The points below are what Gerrit teaches on the show; the Church’s Gospel Topics Essays are linked to read.

Key points

  1. Jacob 2 isn’t a ban on plural marriage. Critics leave out the line, “For if I will … raise up seed unto me, I will command my people.”Hear it:S5E46 at 48:00S6E33 at 38:33Read:Jacob 2:27–30 ↗
  2. Joseph wasn’t practicing it in 1830. Even the earliest plural marriage, in Ohio, is poorly documented. By Nauvoo it’s clear: William Clayton describes it, and Joseph authorized him to practice it too.Hear it:S6E13 at 18:35S6E13 at 19:37S6E13 at 21:52
  3. In one account, an angel appeared to Joseph with a drawn sword and told him to teach it or be removed from his place.Hear it:S2E41 at 27:18
  4. It was hard for those who lived it. William Clayton’s journal records Joseph and Emma weeping over the revelation. Women like Lucy Walker said a spiritual witness convinced them.Hear it:S2E42 at 40:44S2E42 at 48:09
  5. We don’t fully understand the nature of some of those sealings. Be careful with anyone who tells you it was obviously sinister. Helen Mar Kimball wrote a book defending plural marriage, and critics rarely mention it.Hear it:S2E42 at 39:41S2E52 at 35:07
  6. The 1890 Manifesto ended new plural marriages in the United States, and President Joseph F. Smith’s Second Manifesto went further.Hear it:S2E48 at 20:12S2E29 at 3:02Read:Official Declaration 1 ↗
“I don't know why God commanded plural marriage. I don't know how that will work out. I don't know how God will recompense all those who suffered under it. But I know the church is true. … Don't allow the fact that you don't fully understand a practice from the past to destroy your eternal future.”
Gerrit, answering a book that claims Joseph never practiced plural marriage · hear it (1:07:48)

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  • Someone asks, “Did Joseph Smith have a lot of wives?” Practice an answer that is honest, short and doesn’t dodge.
  • Why does it matter that the women who lived it, like Lucy Walker, left their own accounts?
  • Someone says Joseph was sealed to women who were already married. What does Gerrit say we do and don’t know about those sealings?

Practice

1. Which part of Jacob 2:30 do critics usually leave out?
2. In one account, what did the angel carry when it told Joseph to practice plural marriage?
3. Which statement ended new plural marriages in the United States in 1890?
16Keeping your testimony strongEvery day of your mission

Information matters, but it isn’t what holds a testimony up. History can show what Paul wrote; it can’t prove what Paul saw. Faith is a choice you keep making, and the Holy Ghost is how you come to know. End the course where your mission will start every day.

Key points

  1. Kneel down and, with real intent, ask your Father in Heaven: is this true? The Spirit will tell you.Hear it:S6E11 at 1:25:41S6E19 at 40:59Read:Moroni 10:4–5 ↗
  2. When doubts come, go back to the witness you already have. The Lord asked Oliver Cowdery, “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?”Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 39:20Holy Places S1E11 at 46:23Read:D&C 6:22–23 ↗
  3. Try Gerrit’s chart. On one side, what you know because Joseph Smith was a prophet. On the other, the questions that trouble you. The first list will be much longer.Read it:Holy Places S1E11 at 43:17
  4. “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” What do you actually want: to have faith, or to have a reason not to?Hear it:S3E50 at 44:45S6E26 at 1:04:46Read:Come, Join with Us (October 2013) ↗
  5. Be wary of answers that just tell people what they want to hear, like “Joseph never practiced plural marriage.”Hear it:S2E3 at 38:13
  6. No pile of sources will prove the resurrection. Ultimate truth comes from the Holy Spirit.Hear it:S3E8 at 57:20
  7. When you make a mistake, Satan tells you you’re worthless. Joseph saw God, failed at the hill, repented and still did the Lord’s work.Read it:Holy Places S1E8 at 50:56Holy Places S1E8 at 53:07
  8. The Colesville Saints were driven out again and again, and most stayed faithful. A testimony doesn’t have to depend on things working out: “I’m going to believe because it’s true.”Read it:Holy Places S1E5 at 52:02Holy Places S1E5 at 54:19
“You're never going to be able to find enough sources or enough historians with PhDs who agree to prove the resurrection. Now, you can find lots of very believing Christians who believe the resurrection occurred, but they believe the resurrection occurred not because they can prove it. They believe it because they believe. That kind of sounds like a tautology, but it's also the truth.”
Gerrit, on what history can and can’t prove · hear it (57:20)

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  • What’s one thing you know because the Spirit told you, not because you read it somewhere?
  • Write your testimony in three sentences. Which sentence would you say first to someone you just met?

Practice

1. Moroni 10:4 says to ask with a sincere heart and…
2. Who said, “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith”?