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Richard's dissertation
S4E44 · Sidney Rigdon's Apostasy Part 2
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Standard of Truth · Season 4 · Episode 44 · 1:09:19

Sidney Rigdon's Apostasy Part 2

Just six months after the martyrdom, Sidney Rigdon, who had seen the vision of the three degrees of glory with Joseph, printed that Joseph had "a whoring spirit" and that the Lord cut him off from the earth.

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The question ·
But I figured that if there were actual historical evidences of some form of mental illness by Sydney, Gerrit might be able to shed some light on that.
Jeremy (listener)

Richard is deep in dissertation misery until he tells how an Argentine travel partner who had never met them paid 35 million pesos for the temple trip flights on their word. Jeremy asks whether Sidney Rigdon was never right in the head after the 1832 tarring and feathering, and Gerrit says the documents don't show it: Sidney stood with Joseph for years, and his break came over doctrine in Nauvoo. A Canadian listener named Charles Jacques, who once wandered into a Rigdonite branch in Maine by mistake, leads into the Bickertonites, Rigdon's spiritual heirs, who keep the Book of Mormon and none of Joseph's revelations. Then Gerrit reads Rigdon's January 1845 Messenger and Advocate, which asks which of "the measures of Joseph" are worth carrying out and says Joseph sinned and God cut him off. Gerrit ends with a call to follow living prophets even when it isn't what we already think.

Who comes upSidney RigdonJoseph SmithBrigham YoungWilliam BickertonJohn TaylorWillard RichardsOrson PrattDavidNathanJudas
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Richard's dissertation

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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Professor Richard LeDuc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life and teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the Church with faith, expertise and humor.
Gerrit Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, and I'm joined by my long-suffering, my crawling across the desert. He doesn't even have a horse with no name. He simply is crawling across the desert, but the desert is also Shards of Glass co-host, Professor, nearly Dr. Richard LeDuc.
Richard Well, Gerrit, thanks for having me back.
Gerrit I notice a, well, a decided lack of oomph from your side of the ledger there, Richard. Normally, you are a happy, I mean, you're essentially Teddy Ruxpin come to life. You bring joy to everyone. And it kind of seems that you're unhappy. How's the dissertation going? How are things going?
Richard You know, I think things are going pretty well. I mean, depending on the situation, implied referrals seem to increase e-mail response by a rate of 20 to 54 percent. So that's good.
Gerrit Now, not one person listening has any idea what an implied referral is.
Richard Yes. Right. And I neither have the time or interest or patience to explain it. They don't care. I've tried explaining it to people before. No one cares about anything. And I am having some issues around the sphericity of my relationship validation. Wow.
Gerrit In layman terms, what is that?
Richard Well, so I've got this two by three factorial repeated measure analysis.
Gerrit And so I said layman's term, not layman like Nephi's brother. I mean, like...
Richard Well, I've got assumed moderation of my conceptual model. That's not working out. Doesn't look like there's an interaction effect with social power. So that's less than ideal. I'm trying to develop a new measure for a sense of obligation, but my M plus license has expired. I need to run mediation and confirmatory factor analysis. Can't do that. And my deadline, they are looming. My marriage hangs in the balance. But overall, pretty good. Things are going pretty well, I think, overall. Thanks for asking.
Gerrit No, I feel like we should probably just close the podcast now. Thanks for listening. This has been Richard's Dissertation, brought to you by Jersey Mikes.
Richard I will tell you, I do take some, I don't know, I have an issue with your Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76 episodes, talking about the presence of no hell. I think you were a liar, I think everyone's a liar, because I'm in it, I'm in it up to my neck.
Gerrit So had Joseph been trying to get a business PhD, he would have been like, you know what, I'm gonna throw a flag on this one. I know I'm seeing it in vision, but also this has to be a trick.
Richard With President Oaks, in what's the, in numbers too few or exceptions too few, what is it?
Gerrit Exceptions too few to mention.
Richard Yeah, I've got one for you. I've got one right here. It is, it is, it is something, man.
Gerrit Now, is your hope to have this all wrapped up before you jet off to Argentina to take hundreds of people to a temple?
Richard Yes, and that actually that did, we mentioned that last episode, we received several emails and we'd like to thank, we received nearly 200 donations of varying sizes and just wonderful kind people everywhere. One thing that was kind of funny, we bought the plane tickets and purchasing plane tickets in another country, where you can't use a credit card, where you're transferring funds. Everything is running money laundering through Cyprus somewhere. The whole thing is a disaster.
Gerrit Are you about to admit to some kind of felony here? We should probably...
Richard Absolutely not. No, no, no. Absolutely not. But so we had the time was about... So the flights are through Argentinian airlines, right? Through the state sponsored airlines. So you know it's run well. And so they give you the price and they give you three days to pay it, or then it expires and inflation in Argentina on ballparking it, but it's going up about 14 trillion percent every second. So these things are about to expire and then the price would have gone up dramatically. So this... So we work with this particular partner who had a partner in Argentina. The partner in Argentina doesn't know us. And he's like, hey, this is about to expire.
Gerrit He's not a Latter-day Saint.
Richard He is not a Latter-day Saint. At least his Facebook suggests that perhaps he enjoys in some of the general niceties and fun aspects of life. And I think he's hoping to be beaten with a few stripes. But in the end, it'll all be well. But anyway, so he's like, hey, this is about to expire. I'm just going to pay it. 35 million Argentinian pesos. He's like, I'm just going to pay it. You guys have money, right? And we're like, sure. In an email, we're like, yes. And he's like, good enough for me, paid it.
Gerrit So he paid the equivalent of $35,000.
Richard US dollars.
Gerrit Because some gringos from a church he doesn't belong to said, hey, we're good for it.
Richard At a hundred percent, that's what happened. It's crazy, crazy. He's like, yep, you know what? You seem like good folks. Good enough for me. Let's do it. We're like, awesome. And it ended up taking us two weeks to be able to get him his money because it's so complex to transfer internationally.
Gerrit The whole time he was thinking, well, the Mormons got me. They got me.
Richard Yeah, he didn't call us Latter Day Saints then.
Gerrit Yeah.
Richard It was just an incredible guy. Incredible guy. He's like, you know what? You seem like good folks. We'll do it. Anyway, incredible.
Gerrit Who has $35,000 laying around?
Richard Not him.
Gerrit Well, not us either. I mean, I just like, if anyone is listening to the podcast, who has $35,000 laying around, we'd like to know you.
Richard Anyway, just the whole thing from beginning to end is just, it's been tremendous. So anyway, we ended up spending like almost three hours yesterday in a planning meeting, finishing everything up, but everything is booked. The flights are booked. The accommodations are booked. The transportation is booked. The food is all ready.
Gerrit We may even have a videographer company, so we can document some of this.
Richard We potentially have something there, which could be really, really cool. We want to do a thing. Now, I am very confident that we have not taken off in Southern Argentina. By the way, we have people that donated from all over the world. We have people from the UK. We have people from different parts of Europe, Canada, South America.
Gerrit That's Zion. Asia. It's Zion.
Richard It's everywhere. Just so stinking cool. No one listens to the podcast at all, let alone.
Gerrit No one is listening to this right now.
Richard No one is. There's a bunch of people that are being sealed. And so, we're throwing a big party that they don't know about to celebrate all these ceilings of all these people. And so, we have people that are being sealed to living family members. We have people that are being sealed to family members that have passed away that have not ever been to the temple. And anyway, it's gonna be just... See, look at that. Now, I'm happy now. I'm no longer like...
Gerrit Once you start talking about the things that actually matter, actual eternity, which is different than the dissertation eternity, which seems... I think you need to read Doctrine and Coven, Section 19 a little bit.
Richard How great you know not.
Gerrit No, no, no. Endless torment. Endless punishment is God's... It's not the same thing as actually being endless.
Richard It doesn't mean forever. Endless is His name.
Gerrit It feels like it's endless.
Richard Well done, Gerrit. You have turned my spirits. I am happy now. I was legitimately in the seventh circle of Catholic hell, but here I am now happy.
Gerrit You know, when we first got together to start, I asked Richard like a casual question to start with, and he responded to me the same way that, I don't know, the same way a waitress who's worked seven straight shifts responds when someone asks if there's any soy in what they just ordered. He was aggressive in his response.
Richard I snapped. I didn't mean to. It was actually a fairly innocent question.
Gerrit I can't even remember what it was. I was like, how are you doing? How dare you ask me how I'm doing?
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit What do you think you are? Living with your, sitting on your ivory tower with your PhD in hand, asking me how I'm doing, like it ain't no thing. So he was having a rough time.
Richard Well, so we are going to get into Sydney Rigdon apostasy, this time spelt with an S, and it was misspelled for a week. I've made the adjustment.
Gerrit It used to be spelled with a C.
Richard That's what I meant. I was trying to harken back to a time long ago. But we do have two emails in the Phebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag that relate to Sydney a little bit. This first email comes to us from Jeremy. Was Sydney Rigdon crazy?
Gerrit Oh, well, so it kind of relates to Sydney.
Richard Sure. Okay, so I carelessly blew through all the free content, showing a wanton disregard for all things I could have done with my time that have actual value.
Gerrit You just blew through another 10 minutes, Jeremy. Hate to break it to you.
Richard I am now faced with the prospect of having to sign up for the premium content, thus wasting my money as well as my time. My wife will attest that doing so would be somewhat on-brand since it took me nine years to finish and defend my dissertation, sending checks to USU every semester for the privilege of not being on campus and using the facilities that our money would pay for. Maybe I can convince myself that Richard will be able to use some of that filthy lucre to placate his long-suffering wife. She has been a real mensch through this, my gosh.
Gerrit I don't think that she'd make it nine years though. So I think Jeremy's wife would be the award.
Richard Yeah, it is quite the scam. Hey, you haven't defended the dissertation, you still owe us X amount every semester. I don't know if Utah State did this, but Oklahoma State counts the summer as a semester as well.
Gerrit The University of Colorado had a countdown clock, like it was down to the missile launches where it was like, yeah, oh yeah, you were enrolled every semester. And they took a pound of flesh and they were fine with it. So.
Richard If only I'd had a worthless podcast that people would pay money for back in the day. I did have a question for you. I'm listening to the Sydney Rigdon apostasy episode part one. And maybe this will come up in part 17. But I remember an Institute teacher years ago postulating that Sydney Rigdon might not have been in his right mind after Joseph's death. He used as possible evidence the fact that Sydney suffered head injuries the night of the mob, tarring and feathering of Joseph and Sydney with his head striking the steps of the house. And then the grounds as they dragged him out. I can't recall the remaining evidences that the Institute teacher mentioned. But he proposed that the loss of Joseph might have been the last straw in breaking Sydney's mental health. So that his behavior after the martyrdom is at least partially excused. This seems like the same type of rationalization that people engage in with regard to Judas, supposing that maybe Jesus was okay with Judas' betrayal given that Jesus told Judas to do quickly what he was planning on doing.
Richard But I figured that if there were actual historical evidences of some form of mental illness by Sydney, Gerrit might be able to shed some light on that.
Gerrit Well, I am not a... So while I am a doctor, I hate to say that to Richard, I'm not that kind of doctor. So look, it's impossible to medically diagnose someone or psychologically diagnose someone from the past. We have a good friend of the show actually sent in a psychological analysis. He actually is a trained counselor. And so he sent in a psychological analysis of like John C. Bennett, which is quite fun, and Flassie Hurrell. But I haven't shared with you yet. I'll have to share that with you, Richard. You'll love it. Our friend, Andy. And he, of course, would caveat it. Of course, you got to interview someone, know somebody. So this is a pretty common thing. In fact, I hear every time Sydney Rigdon is discussed, I hear someone say that.
Gerrit For those of you who watched the movie, Six Days in August, did you think that that was portrayed, at least in the movie, Richard?
Richard Yeah, I felt so when he's in his bed and his wife's there by his side and Joseph comes to kind of comfort him and see how he's doing. And he kind of has a psychological break, not knowing that it's Joseph and trying to attack him. Yeah, I mean, that seems like they're trying to be a little softer.
Gerrit Yeah, set up, hey, maybe Rigdon was never the same after this. Now, where does that really come from? Well, later in the Utah period, when people are trying to describe what happened with Rigdon, you do have a quote attributed to... It's a third-hand thing. It's someone saying that Sydney Rigdon was never the same after the tarring and the feathering.
Richard Well, in fairness, Gerrit, like, I mean, that seems like a pretty brutal thing to go through, right?
Gerrit I mean, but people generally are saying, well, he hit his head when they drug him out, and that's the... So, there was head trauma that caused him to act the way that he did. And I think that Jeremy's probably right here, that it sometimes used as a way to try to explain Sydney Rigdon's apostasy, right? How do you get around the fact that this person who saw Jesus and saw the kingdoms of glory and participated in all these great things, apostatizes? And I can only give my personal opinion on it. And my personal opinion is that I just don't see a whole lot of evidence for that. I mean, that happens in 1832. Sydney Rigdon is still rolling around doing all the Sydney Rigdon type stuff all throughout the rest of the Ohio period, all throughout the Missouri period, all throughout the early Nauvoo period.
Gerrit And if the argument is, well, it just made him so he was so unstable, he couldn't support Joseph, well, that's just not true. I mean, he supports Joseph all the way through the Kirtland Safety Society debacle. You have all the witnesses of the Book of Mormon apostatized, and here's Sydney Rigdon, the Three Witnesses. Obviously, the Eight Witnesses didn't all apostatize. I mean, Father Smith wasn't like, that's it, Joseph, I'm out. But Hiram was still there, okay? The Eight Witnesses, many of them stayed in. Unless you were a Whitmer or, you know, Hiram Page, then you're gonna be out. So, I don't see that. Now, I could see why people make the argument, I understand that they're trying to create a kind of softer landing for Sydney. But frankly, to me, it appears far more doctrinal than mental illness.
Gerrit And Sydney continues to live a long life, in which, yes, I think it's pretty crazy, the fact that he rejects many of Joseph's doctrines and teaches his own stuff. But it certainly doesn't seem to be because he's unhinged. And so, look, does that play a role in it? I mean, frankly, all of the saints who endured the trauma of the violence in Missouri, and at least this violence in Ohio, and the violence in Illinois, of course, there's going to be some long-term effects of any type of trauma, even if it's just psychologically, and it's not on the basis of having your head bashed in. But I personally don't find it a convincing argument. I don't think you have any sense of Sydney Rigdon unraveling in 1834 or 1835.
Gerrit And maybe it's a slow burn, but Sydney Rigdon is right there with Joseph being arrested. When Joseph was in Missouri, Sydney Rigdon is absolutely supportive of Joseph. When so many other members of the church turn against him and the extermination order is levied. And that's part of the reason why we're doing these episodes. So you have a claim that, well, Sydney Rigdon just was never right mentally after that. But that's not what Sydney Rigdon says. It's not what the historical record seems to indicate. So I realize why we want to believe that. And it might, look, it might very well be true. Well, you know, we'll all die and you'll find me there weltering in spirit prison. And you'll come visit me. And when you get there, you'll be like, hey, I talked to Sydney and he said totally cause his head hit the ground.
Gerrit So fine, okay. You have the ability to come lord this over me at that point. But that's what you see of all the things.
Richard It's like, hey, that was a real jerk move you played on Sydney.
Gerrit Yeah, that. And if you describe the endowment improperly, those are the two things people are coming for you in the next, in the next life. But so I don't see that I don't see evidence for that. Sydney Rigdon was already always a very passionate, argumentative man before he ever had any mobbings and tarrings and featherings. He was already his personality was already this kind of meteoric personality. And I don't really see a big change in that. When do I start seeing a change? When I start to personally see a change is in Nauvoo. Because remember in Missouri, which is five, six years after this debacle that happened in Hiram, that the mobbing, the tarring and feathering, it's in Nauvoo when Joseph starts to reveal his most radical doctrines, that there seems to be a lessening and a lessening and a lessening of Sydney Rigdon's adherence to Joseph.
Gerrit Which, by the way, is literally what Sydney Rigdon said to Brigham Young that the Church had not been led by the Spirit for a long time. Right? That's what he's telling Brigham Young in the immediate aftermath of Joseph dying. So you have it in private record that Sydney Rigdon doesn't think the Church in 1844 is doing what's right. Now, we talked about last episode about how initially because he's making claims that require the revelations to support him, that he's initially going to not levy any direct criticisms at Joseph Smith, not publicly. He's going to criticize Joseph in private to Brigham Young, but he doesn't say anything publicly because he's arguing that he's the successor to Joseph, that he's who Joseph would have wanted, that he's who the Doctrine and Covenants says it should be.
Gerrit Now, we got one more email related to this that will answer because it will also play into what we're going to say. But I just want to set the stage for that. Remember, last episode, we talked about how Sydney in his newspaper in the immediate aftermath of the martyrdom just goes full attack on the 12, the 12, the 12, the 12, although there are some intimations that it really isn't just the 12.
Richard Okay. So this next email comes to us. Now, I'm not sure how the name is pronounced, and so as a LeDuc and a Dirkmaat, we are sensitive to this, and so I apologize if in any way that this is mispronounced, but I assume it's Charles Jacques. I assume it's a soft Charles. Charles Jacques, I assume.
Gerrit Like Charles de Gaulle?
Richard Yeah, Charles de Gaulle. Yeah. Charles Jacques.
Gerrit So he's either French or just an American with a French name is what you're saying.
Richard That's what I'm saying. It's a very good email, very well-written. He talks about a tour, a self-guided tour that he took, which we have no interest in reading because we don't want people to know that you can do that.
Gerrit Yeah.
Richard We don't want-
Gerrit How are you going to fill up those last spots of the bus?
Richard That's what we're saying. Wait, a self-guided tour. That's not possible. Those things don't exist. So we're obviously cutting that part of the email out. Very well-written though. So it's going to take up in the middle where it says because, but hey, here we are. Because of the release of Six Days in August, which my wife and I saw today on your specific recommendation thus cementing your reputation as LD as influencers.
Gerrit Well, that is a good joke right there.
Richard Shawl. I was disappointed that Richard's suggestion, which I may have misunderstood, that there would be Apostles and Cold Stone, Creamery Freebies available, notwithstanding. It too was very faith-promoting experience and deeply appreciated, definitely enriched by being able to say, hey, we've been there. I remember that. Much to the annoyance, I'm sure of the other theater goers. Our decision to add a Nauvoo swing to our summer trip and to see Six Days in August, both were strongly influenced by being fans of the podcast and premium subscribers to boot. So now it's possible as a Canadian that boot means about, and but contextually it might mean actual to boot or boot.
Gerrit Yeah. They could be from Wisconsin.
Richard That's true. So we want to thank you both for the fine work you do. A thought, let's assume our Nauvoo in August experience was atypical. Do you think that perhaps Sydney Rigdon's crankiness about the succession crisis might have been influenced by the fact that he was a Nauvoo in August. He might be struggling with a heat rash. By the way, our tour will be leaving in June for Missouri and Nauvoo. Yeah.
Gerrit We were avoiding August. Although they did say that they had incredibly great weather for their trip, which is, look, occasionally there is a cold front that comes through, but you better not plan on it.
Richard August and Nauvoo.
Gerrit You're going to see north of 100 and you're going to know about it.
Richard You will get yellow fever. One last thought on Sydney and the crisis. When we lived in Maine, we took new jobs several counties closer to the coast from where we were living at the time, and so moved to be closer to our new employment. As faithful Latter-day Saints in the digital age, we Googled Church of Jesus Christ in our new address, and we're thrilled to locate a branch of the church within 15 minutes of both our work and home. We showed up the first Sunday. We arrived still on packing boxes to find church clothes and something immediately felt off. Turned out that Latter-day Saints suffix is super important. Turns out we were at a branch of Sydney's breakaway movement. In retrospect, pretty funny, given that the actual church is hardly huge in Maine, but we were hoping to find out that both major apostate breakaways that survive count Maine as fertile soil for locations, the community of Christ also being also big thereabouts, relatively speaking.
Richard It was very awkward to figure it all out in about 10 minutes into the service and then have to discreetly exit stage left. Almost as embarrassing as when we came to Utah on vacation for the first time before moving here and ended up going to a YSA ward on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake. On the first Sunday we were there, we were far and away, the oldest people in the congregation, even exceeding the bishopric. But that is a story for another time. Thanks again and keep up the good work, Brother Jacques.
Gerrit Very nice, very nice. Well, so that's something that we'll also be covering here. That suffix does matter. We'll talk about the church that Sydney Rigdon is going to establish. He's going to try to maintain the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's claiming that he's the rightful leader of it. Well, then, over the course of time, that's going to change. But what actually happens? I mean, this is kind of a spoiler alert for what comes next. Rigdon tries to kind of pressure the members into moving to a communal type of society, and it doesn't work out too well. And so his congregation actually excommunicates him. Now, that's a real blow. That's tough. Yeah, when you start it, and the entire basis of you starting it is that you're the First Presidency, and so therefore you're the only one who has authority, and then those people excommunicate you, that is going to hurt.
Gerrit And it's actually one of his converts who was never a Latter-day Saint. William Bickerton is someone who converts to Sydney Rigdon's church. So he was never a member of the Nauvoo Church. He's someone who, through their own missionary efforts, joins Rigdon's already broken off church, and then he becomes the new leader of this group. So they're sometimes called Bickertonites, and they do have, I mean, their main area of headquarters is in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, where they are called the Church of Jesus Christ. That's what they're called. But if you'll see them, it'll say Bickertonite sometimes. They don't like that. They don't like the term Bickertonite. They hate the word Mormon. So if anyone ever refers to them as Mormons, they get really upset. They have the only aspect of our theology that they maintain is they believe the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.
Gerrit And they don't accept any of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. None of them. That's fascinating. They are literally, take the Bible, take traditional Christianity, mix in Book of Mormon, and seen. And that's it. So, you know, it's too bad you crept out to go try to find a non-apostate branch to have a service in, Charles, because you, you know, it's not a bad service to go to. I've been to several services, and I got to tell you that it happens that I went to two different services over the course of several years. I mean, between one another, both times I went, the topic of the sermon was on the brother of Jared seeing the finger of God, like both times. So, so I don't know if this is just like a super important part of Church of Jesus Christ slash Bickertonite worship, but they love that story and they told it with pizazz.
Richard They have a Trinitarian belief?
Gerrit Yeah, they maintain essentially traditional Christian beliefs plus Book of Mormon. I mean, obviously there's gonna be nuances. There's nuances between every sect of Christianity.
Richard Oh, sure, sure.
Gerrit But so they believe, I mean, and if you could talk to a follower, they would tell you what they believe and what they believe might be more particular than other things. But they've come to the belief that Joseph Smith was inspired to translate the Book of Mormon. And that's it. That this was additional scripture and that's it. So it's one of the reasons why I know we say all the time when we're missionaries or when we're teaching Sunday school, that if you gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, then you know the church is true. Well, that's not a very good argument if you're talking to one of the 20,000 members of the Bickertonite branch of, you know, Reformation theology. Because they absolutely believe in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon all day long. They quote from it. They preach from it. They don't accept any of Joseph Smith's revelations. Nothing. Nothing else. Just the Book of Mormon. So imagine where that would put you theologically. Now, you'd have a lot of great truths, because the Book of Mormon has a lot of great truths in it.
Gerrit But for instance, does the Book of Mormon teach you about pre-existence?
Richard No.
Gerrit Does the Book of Mormon teach you about the three degrees of glory?
Richard No.
Gerrit The Book of Mormon teach you about a Heavenly Mother. Does the Book of Mormon teach you about about eternal ceilings? Does the Book of Mormon, right? The Book of Mormon really gives you a foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't put up the nice pillars on that foundation that are required to build the temple that's going to take you back to the presence of your Heavenly Father and exaltation. It's absolutely true. But the very prophets who wrote it knew that there would be modern prophets who would receive more truth who would expound on it. And so, like I said, it's fascinating. If you meet someone who is a Bickertonite, so called, they are going to believe the Book of Mormon as much as you do. And that's it. They don't believe it.
Gerrit They're not D&C 19, not 93, 76, nothing. It's all right out, which you'd think being kind of a break off of Sydney Rigdon's break off, that Doctrine and Coven, Section 76 would be front and center. It is not.
Richard Well, I mean, he was kicked out of that church.
Gerrit That's why. They're like, you know what? We don't like your vision either. So when last we left you talking about the dissent of Sydney Rigdon and if you, you know, if you're Jeremy into madness because of that, of course, Jeremy kind of was skeptical of that. Or just his dissent into apostasy, which is what is verifiable, right? For a historian, I can't tell you what his mental state is, but I can tell you what he says. And we can go off of that. So in the first couple of months, his paper spends most of the time attacking the 12 over and over and over and over again. Now, Brigham Young, of course, has publicly stated, because look, there's a ton of people who once Joseph is murdered, they feel like the other shoe is about to drop. Hey, they just murdered Joseph and Hyrum and nearly killed John Taylor and Willard Richards, and nobody is doing anything about it.
Gerrit All these newspapers are saying they want us exterminated. We got to get out of Dodge. We got to leave now. And Brigham Young is adamant, no, that's not what we're going to do. Joseph Smith said that we're going to finish the temple, so we're going to finish the temple. So a quote from Brigham Young is in the Council 50, they're talking about doing what Joseph wanted them to do because there are people saying, well, should we leave even sooner? No, we need to finish the temple. And Brigham Young says, to carry out Joseph's measures is sweeter to me than honey or the honeycomb. While Joseph was living, it seems as though he was hurried by the Lord all the time, and especially for the last year. It seemed as he had laid out work for this church, which would last them 20 years to carry out. I used to wonder why it was that he was hurried so, not supposing that he was going to die. But now I understand the reason.
Gerrit Anyway, for Brigham Young, from the beginning, it was whatever Joseph taught, that's what we're going to do. We are going to carry out the measures of Joseph Smith. Joseph is the prophet of the Restoration. He said this temple needs to be built. He said these people need to receive their endowments from God. That's what we are going to do. And so by January, so Joseph's murdered in June. The whole kerfluffle about succession takes place in August and September. By January of 1845, so only a few months later, just a few months, just a few bad Christmas presents later. This is what Rigdon is publishing in his paper. And as a direct attack on the Twelve, but listen to how this attack goes.
Gerrit The headline is, quote, carry out the measures of Joseph Smith. They're clearly quoting what Brigham Young has publicly said. We are going to carry out the measures of Joseph Smith. How might Rigdon respond to that? Now, maybe if it was his first issue of this paper, he would respond by saying, oh, they're not the ones who know Joseph's measures, I am. This is what Sydney Rigdon says. As there is much foolish declamation on this subject of carrying out the measures of Joseph Smith, by those whose zeal is not according to knowledge, we wish to put the matter in a correct position. What measures of Joseph is it desirable to carry out? Now, first of all, this is a question that you could not even conceive of Brigham Young asking.
Gerrit What measures of Joseph is it desirable to carry out? Brigham Young's response would have been, whatever Joseph said. Yeah, but that'll be like really hard. Uh-huh, that's why we're going to do it. Well, I don't really believe in that. I don't care. For Brigham Young, if Joseph revealed it, that was the end of the conversation. That's the reason why he said that it was a test of fellowship to believe that Joseph Smith died in full fellowship as a prophet of God. If you think he died a false prophet, then I don't want you in the church. Well, here's Sydney Rigdon. Initially, no criticism of Joseph, but here you can tell just within a couple of months, because his position is essentially untenable. You actually find this with a lot of apostates. People who claim like, I'm just asking questions.
Gerrit I just think that President Nelson needs to do a better job of doing X or Y. They claim that they're somehow even better members than you are because they're asking questions of the current prophets. But it's really, really difficult to sustain that position very long. Because you're in direct doctrinal opposition to them. So what measures, so let me go back to Sydney. What measures of Joseph is it desirable to carry out? We reply, those only which are according to godliness. If we have shown that Joseph Smith departed from the living god, that like David and Solomon, he contracted a whoring spirit, and that the Lord smote him for this thing, and cut him off from the earth, who that is wise would approve of carrying out such measures?
Gerrit So, Sydney Rigdon has, at least for me, he has crossed a Rubicon that he doesn't get to come back across. He just said that Joseph Smith had a whoring spirit. Those man-worshippers, this is Sydney Rigdon, who contend for the measures of Joseph Smith, irrespective of the law of God, are in love with the spiritual life system. To such a great and glorious doctrine, to use their own language, as we have heard them express themselves such a darling principle, so much in accordance with their feelings, so exactly suited to their nature, that they cannot give it up if it leads them to hell. No marvel then, that God has sent them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they might be damned, because they believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Gerrit You can see another reason why, as I pause here for a minute, don't worry, it goes on. You're going to get a lot of Sydney Rigdon today. You're going to say, I've had enough of that miserable little creature. You can see that he is taking issue with the idea that the word of the prophet trumps written scripture. And that what a prophet teaches, that is what you do. And mocking this very thing. It's part of the reason why historians not, you know, Latter-day Saint, YouTube enthusiasts. It's part of the reason why historians see this as even greater evidence that Joseph Smith instituted and practiced plural marriage. Because if you're Sydney Rigdon and your entire basis of your authority comes from claiming you were a First Presidency member to Joseph Smith and Joseph's dead and now you have that authority, then the way you would do it is by claiming that every heretical doctrine, polygamy, for instance, came from the Quorum of the Twelve.
Gerrit And that's certainly how his paper starts out. It is, you know, the Twelve this, the Twelve that, the Twelve this. But, but Rigdon also knows that the thousands of people in Nauvoo are well aware where Joseph Smith's teachings are coming from. And so instead of claiming that the Twelve invented all of it, because he knows that's not a winning argument, he moves one further rung down that ladder and says, which of these measures of Joseph are you going to follow? You're certainly not going to claim that Joseph's teaching about polygamy came from God. And so here he's gone from, I am the successor to Joseph, because I'm going to do what Joseph wanted, to saying publicly finally, what he was already saying privately. And that is Joseph taught false doctrine.
Gerrit He goes on in his tirade here to say, this ranting about the measures of Joseph Smith is the ebullation of apostasy, which by the way, they spell with a C, Richard. That's the reason why you spell it with a C. It was spelled with a C all throughout the 19th century.
Richard So, Gerrit, you know what? Thank you. That's the tip of the cap that I needed here. And now I'm on my way. That's great.
Gerrit Yeah, I believe that you were just reading some of these 19th century documents, and that's what caused you to spell it that way.
Richard That's right.
Gerrit Were you casually reading the messenger and advocate of the Church of Christ Rigdonite from 1845?
Richard Is that what you're doing? Why do you think I'm so behind on my dissertation, Gerrit?
Gerrit Ah, see? Now we can't tell your chair that, because I don't think he would be quite as supportive. He goes on to say, the measures of Joseph, it has no reference to the law of God. It is a false footing, a sandy foundation, a broken read at the best. The Spirit of God would dictate a very different course. The first inquiry of the possessor of the Spirit of God would be, what doth the Lord require at my hand? What are the provisions of the law of God relative to the matter to be acted upon? There is no resting place short of the Word of God for the man of faith. So what is Rigdon claiming? Well, I don't want to strike a little bit too close to home for some people. But after every single general conference, you will, if you visit the social medias at all, you will find someone criticizing what either the prophet, members of the apostleship, members of the general presidencies, you will find someone criticizing what they said, what they taught, what point they made by quoting from the Bible or quoting from the Book of Mormon.
Gerrit Well, Elder so-and-so said this, but in Isaiah, it says this. They all think that what they're doing is new and pithy and I just am closer to the scriptures than you are. It's always been that way. The most radical aspect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is something that we actually don't want to admit because we are so steep in our Protestant culture around us that it actually terrifies us to say the words that when the prophet teaches something that can't be found in the scriptures, we follow the prophet. Even me saying those words, I'm telling you right now, there are dozens of people listening to this podcast right now who feel uncomfortable with that because no, no, the scriptures trump that. We believe the scriptures to be the Word of God, but also we believe the Word of God to be that God has prophets who continually lead us.
Gerrit And Rigdon here is saying, how do you decide whether or not what Joseph taught is true? Can you prove it in the Word of God? You shouldn't be saying, what did Joseph teach? You should be saying, what does the Bible say? Now, it's also very convenient for him, right? Because he is a biblical scholar. He's someone whose church was based on the Bible. But it's also a way that he can reject the teachings that Joseph Smith is giving that are too radical. Let me go back to his letter here. To show most clearly that the phrase we quote is instigated by an apostate spirit, we must observe that the law of God given through Joseph Smith is discarded entirely. The organization of the Church of God, as received by Revelation through Joseph, is thrown away as valueless, and all of it's really contended for is the loathsome, disgraceful, and destructive spiritual wife doctrine.
Gerrit The truth is, these revelers wish to skulk off on the credit of the measures of Joseph Smith. We shall permit them to do no such thing, but shall strip them of their false covering, and when divested of that, you will find in legible characters written upon the brow, apostate. If Joseph Smith sinned, which he did, the Lord has cut him off from his stewardship, and put another in his place.
Richard So let me... Go ahead. No, no, no, no. Hold on just a sec. Hold on, wait.
Gerrit Yeah, no, I told you. You think I'm mad. I have a hard time, obviously. People listening are like, uh-oh, Gerrit's getting angry.
Richard Okay, all right, so let's say... I'm just looking at this even practically. Does he think that the Saints have turned against Joseph? Like, he's going hard in the paint against Joseph, like... A month after his death?
Gerrit Well, no, this is, you know, five months, six months after.
Richard Oh, never mind. Sorry. I take it back.
Gerrit Yeah. So that's totally fine. Yeah. No, but what I'm saying like, it would be totally wrong for me to say that President Nelson is a false prophet while he's alive. But like, you know, six months after he passes away, I got to tell you, that goes, total false prophet. Yeah. I mean, but so that, yes, that's what's going on.
Richard But Joseph's beloved by the saints, no?
Gerrit Well, so here's the, this is the reason why polygamy deniers. Okay. This is one of the reasons why people who claim Joseph, who never taught or practiced polygamy, it's part of the reason why contemporary sources clearly say the opposite. Sydney Rigdon is not going to win any more followers by claiming that Joseph Smith sinned by instituting polygamy. So why didn't he just say the Quorum of the Twelve instituted polygamy? Why doesn't he just say that?
Richard Why is he coming after Joseph so hard?
Gerrit Because he knows that too many people know that Joseph Smith instituted polygamy. It's not... Well, so first of all, he's being honest in the sense that he knows Joseph Smith taught him. So Sydney Rigdon would have to be deliberately dishonest if he claimed Brigham Young invented it. And so I think the reality is Sydney Rigdon knows exactly where it came from. And remember, he told Brigham Young that the church hadn't been led by the Spirit for a long time. And this is clearly one of the things that he thinks, that Joseph had a whoring spirit and that he sinned. If Joseph sinned, which he did, the Lord has cut him off from his stewardship. It'd be different if he said, if Joseph sinned and was cut off.
Gerrit No, if Joseph Smith sinned, which he did.
Richard Wow.
Gerrit He goes on to say, we have too much respect for the good which he was instrumental in accomplishing to permit a combination of men who disregard the principles of truth and virtue to shelter themselves from the odium of acts committed since his death under the mantle of Joseph Smith. So here Sydney Rigdon is clearly stating, it was false for Joseph to teach the doctrine of plural marriage. God killed Joseph because he was teaching that false doctrine. And so when people say they're going to carry out Joseph's measures, which is exactly what Brigham Young says. Brigham Young, I mean, Oh, are you going to stop teaching plural marriage? Well, Joseph's the one who taught it. So, no, I mean, I mean, it's very easy to figure out what it is Brigham Young is going to do. Did Joseph ever teach whatever is taught? If Brigham Young ever heard Joseph Smith say something that was taught, then that was what it was for him.
Gerrit I mean, this is for Brigham all the way into the Utah period. At one point, Orson Pratt trying to figure out how it is that, he's trying to figure out in his mind as a thought experiment, how it's possible that there would be people that don't have, you know, access to the priesthood or temple covenants in this life, trying to deal with the race restriction that existed. And so Orson Pratt opined that perhaps it was because of the pre-existence, which is only something you can come up with when you're, when you're a Latter Day Saint because no one else believes in a pre-existence, right? And that that's the reason why some people were born of different races and didn't have the ability. And Brigham Young shuts that down, says that is not true.
Gerrit There were no neutral spirits in the war in heaven. Everyone took a side. And, and he says specifically because Joseph told me that. So for Brigham Young, whatever he believes Joseph taught, that's what he's going to do. And here's Sydney Rigdon saying, Joseph Smith taught things that were false. Joseph Smith was a sinner by the time he died. If Joseph Smith sinned, which he did, the Lord cut him off and put another in his place. And who's that other? Sydney Rigdon is claiming he is that another put into his place. Now, I mean, I know you want to talk more about Sydney Rigdon, Richard. I feel it from you.
Richard I do. This is, this is, yeah, this is, this does blood or blood, the boil. This is blood, the boil, Gerrit.
Gerrit That's how you know. That's how you know, A, that you're almost done with your dissertation and B, that you've just read someone say that Joseph Smith was a sinner and God killed him for it.
Richard Yeah, that's, that's pretty infuriating.
Gerrit I mean, it's, it's pretty rough. And, and notice what is the standard that Sydney Rigdon is using? Well, whatever I think is virtuous. Right. Okay, well, Sydney, that's, that's great. That's wonderful that you are now the one who decides what that is. But as a Bible scholar, it's a pretty difficult thing to argue that God hasn't ever commanded people to practice plural marriage. It's a pretty hard thing to argue. So what do you just argue? Well, they, they were all sinners too. Well, at some point, you know, you're basically calling all of the early prophets sinners rather than coming to the terms with what the Bible actually says. The Bible commands people to practice polygamy at times. So this idea that, well, it was just some sinfulness that God winked at. Okay, well, that's not what the Bible says.
Gerrit The Bible doesn't say, well, I know you're sinful and you're doing this and that. In fact, when David has the conversation with the prophet Nathan, boy, it couldn't be more clear. Where God is angry at him for what he did with Uriah and Bathsheba and says that he's the one who gave David his wives, right? Well, yeah, but the prophet Nathan was obviously wrong about that because I feel like it. I mean, it's a weird. It's a very weird thing that Christians culturally are certain that God never could have commanded anyone to practice polygamy, even though the book that they hold as scripture that cannot in any way be refuted. Has prophets practicing polygamy at the command of God.
Gerrit It's a crazy, it's one of, honestly, one of the most crazy things that exists in religion. That Christians who hold the Bible to be every single bit the word of God will at the same time say that God could never have commanded anyone to practice polygamy. Well, apparently God could have. That seems to be the case. So the last thing I want to share, we could go through a lot of things. But this is one of the last issues of Sydney Rigdon's paper before it goes into eclipse with his own problems in his congregation and he's going to be cut off. And I think because it is so important, I think we might have to do a part three on this, Richard.
Richard Oh, yeah, no, I assumed from the beginning, from the premoral existence, I assumed this would have been a part three.
Gerrit So before you were ever formed in the belly, you knew.
Richard Yeah, this is going to be, I'm predicting a part four. I'm predicting it.
Gerrit I think we'll only do a part three, but there's a couple of more things I want to share. One of them is what Sydney Rigdon has to say after the saints leave Nauvoo. And if you think the last thing that I read will cause you to be upset, you just wait. The January 1st, 1845 messenger and advocate has got nothing on what his statements will be in June. And I also want to spend a little bit of time sharing some of his private later correspondence to give you an idea of what he's talking about later. Again, one of the things I find fascinating in that whole account that we just read, you'll notice that while he makes a reference to Joseph's revelations whereby the church is founded, he's not quoting from them.
Gerrit And it's actually, it's actually an odd thing. And we're going to see that continue going forward to the point where I'm not terribly surprised that when William Bickerton forms his own church out of the ashes of Sydney Rigdon's, that Joseph's revelations are not part of it because the trajectory is already that they weren't. And you can, you know, do the thought experiment for our listeners, you know, before you tune in again next week. If you're saying that at some point, Joseph Smith became a sinner and the teachings that he gave were no longer revelations from God, even though he declared them to be revelations from God, how do you decide when that point is? How do you know? Well, because I mean, oh, well, because I mean, as soon as you started teaching about polygamy, then he was, okay, well, that was in 1841.
Gerrit And he's talking about plural marriage, knowing that he asked to practice it as early as 1831. So when are you going to draw that line? Is that the reason why temple endowments are a problem? See, for Rigdon, the Kirtland Temple that was just a meeting house, that was fine. That was like other Christian denominations. The Nauvoo Temple, that has initiatory rooms and endowment rooms and ceiling rooms, all based upon the idea that there's something called exaltation. And that doesn't make its way into Rigdon's church. That's the reason why when people, when Jeremy asks, you know, was he really crazy? I mean, maybe, but he doesn't seem crazy.
Gerrit It seems like so many other people actually like ourselves if we don't actually humble ourselves. We cannot afford to say, I believe whatever the church teaches when it suits me. I believe whatever the church teaches, as long as it's what I already believe. I believe whatever the church teaches, as long as I can work it out in my head and I know exactly how it worked. We have recent examples of this, where people claim to be absolutely devoted to the church right up until the prophet teaches something that they don't like, or right up until Resident Ballard, you know, issues a PR statement about someone that they are, that they find beloved.
Gerrit It causes people to place things above the church and its prophets. So if you're sitting there thinking, well, that's not me, but the church is wrong about this, you're exactly who I'm talking to. It is actually not your place as a member of the church to decide what it is the church is right or wrong about. I know that's tough because we want to believe that we are so well-informed and we love the church so much and we want that. But the reality is we are called to be sheep. It's what we're called to be. It's actually what we covenant to be, that we will follow God. And it isn't, we will follow God when what God teaches matches up exactly with what I already want to believe.
Gerrit That's not a religion, by the way, if you're wondering. That's you creating a social club that has all of the aspects of it that you want to be in there. As long as the church has all the political beliefs that I have, well, then the prophets called of God. Or if only the church wasn't being misled by these people telling the church these wrong things, then I would believe. God has called all of us to follow living prophets, to not be like Sydney Rigdon and say, well, all these other doctrines are true, but this one isn't. And it's more than one as he gets further into it. So I think everyone listening should run a self check. Is there a political, social, religious belief that you have, that you hold above your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Gerrit Is there a position that's so important to you that if President Nelson were to tomorrow come out and speak directly against it, would you follow the prophet or would you start thumping out Bible scriptures to prove that you were more right and President Nelson must just be getting bad advice from bad advisors? Well, he couldn't possibly say that if he wasn't tricked. Look at the slippery slope that you're on when you're trying to claim that the prophet is deceived. Because if the prophet is deceived, then what is he deceived on and what is he not deceived on? And you know how you always answer that question? Well, whenever he teaches things that I like, then it's like totally the prophet. And then when he teaches things that I don't like, well, he's wrong. That's not what the scriptures tell us about the prophet.
Gerrit You are to follow the prophet of God in all patience and faith. Meaning, if you don't know why he's teaching it, you follow it. And if it's not what you would have done, you follow it. And if you don't like it, you follow it. And it doesn't matter, you follow it. We live in an age of increasingly loud voices where people are claiming that they have the real truth, that the prophets are misguided. Oh, the church was true right up until this point, and now it was misguided. But don't worry, I'm the new prophet. There's all kinds of people putting themselves forward as actually having the authority, just like Sydney Rigdon. And every one of them is rejecting what the church has taught to some degree in order to make their argument. Don't allow yourself to be seduced by these voices. If someone is ever trying to persuade you, here's where the prophet is wrong, it's time to take a step back from that person.
Gerrit And think about Sydney Rigdon, who went from seeing God and Jesus, and having the greatest vision of all, seeing the entirety of the afterlife, the celestial, the terrestrial, the telestial kingdom, learning the great truth that all mankind would eventually go to heaven. That same Sydney Rigdon is only a few years later going to be claiming that Joseph Smith was killed by God because he was a sinner. Why? Because Sydney Rigdon decided that there was a Rubicon that he wasn't going to cross. He decided that, yeah, everything Joseph teaches is true right up until it disagrees with what I think is true. And that's not how you can have a real testimony. To have a real testimony, you have to be willing to follow the prophet when everything inside you says, that's not what I think.
Gerrit So stew on that for a week. By the time we get back next week, Richard won't have finished his dissertation. He'll be more snippy and angry. I'll probably say, hey Richard, and he'll just immediately cut off the feed. But thank you so much for joining us.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth Podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources, visit standardoftruth.com. Until next time.

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So had Joseph been trying to get a business PhD, he would have been like, you know what, I'm gonna throw a flag on this one.

GerritBanter

Are you about to admit to some kind of felony here?

GerritBanter

The whole time he was thinking, well, the Mormons got me. They got me.

GerritBanter

I was legitimately in the seventh circle of Catholic hell, but here I am now happy.

RichardBanter

So while I am a doctor, I hate to say that to Richard, I'm not that kind of doctor.

GerritBanter

But frankly, to me, it appears far more doctrinal than mental illness.

GerritInsight

The Book of Mormon really gives you a foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't put up the nice pillars on that foundation that are required to build the temple that's going to take you back to the presence of your Heavenly Father and exaltation.

GerritInsight

And my deadline, they are looming. My marriage hangs in the balance. But overall, pretty good.

RichardBanter

The most radical aspect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is something that we actually don't want to admit because we are so steep in our Protestant culture around us that it actually terrifies us to say the words that when the prophet teaches something that can't be found in the scriptures, we follow the prophet.

GerritInsight

That's not a religion, by the way, if you're wondering. That's you creating a social club that has all of the aspects of it that you want to be in there.

GerritInsight

You are to follow the prophet of God in all patience and faith.

GerritInsight

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Sidney Rigdon was never right in the head after the 1832 tarring and feathering, which explains his apostasy.
If you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you will accept the Church.
Brigham Young invented plural marriage after Joseph died.
Take it to classReady to use in a lesson or a talk.

Take it to class

Ready to copy into a lesson or a text

Sidney Rigdon's break looks doctrinal, not mental. He accepted Joseph's teachings right up until they disagreed with what he already thought.

Rigdon asked which of Joseph's measures were "desirable." Brigham Young's answer was simple: whatever Joseph taught.

The Book of Mormon is a foundation. The pillars of the temple and exaltation came through Joseph's later revelations.

Run a self check: is there any political, social or religious belief you hold above your testimony? Follow the prophet in all patience and faith.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Richard's PhD, any day nowSphericity, interaction effects, an expired license, and "my marriage hangs in the balance" (1:35, 2:26).
Brought to you by Jersey Mike's"This has been Richard's Dissertation" (2:59).
Doctor inflation"Professor, nearly Dr. Richard LeDuc," and Gerrit is "not that kind of doctor" (0:39, 13:52).
Dead and in HellRichard says the D&C 76 episodes lied about hell, because he is in it; Gerrit prescribes D&C 19 (3:15, 8:41).
The Mormons got meThe Argentine partner waits two weeks for his money (6:46).
Gerrit's self-guided tour problemThey cut that part of the email so no one knows self-guided tours exist; how else to fill the bus? (24:11, 24:16)
LDS influencersCharles Jacques says they cemented their reputation as influencers by recommending the film (24:16, 24:41).
Apostasy with a CRichard misspelled it for a week; Gerrit says Rigdon's paper spelled it that way too (10:22, 44:36).
Angry Gerrit"Uh-oh, Gerrit's getting angry," and Richard's blood boils (49:50, 55:24).
Part three, or fourRichard knew from the premortal existence there would be a part three, and predicts four (58:37, 58:47).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

Your question could be next week’s episode
Questions from Litners drive a lot of episodes. Send yours. If it makes the show, Richard reads it on air.
General ConferenceGeneral Conference talks that cite a scripture read in this episode.

In General Conference

Talks from the latest General Conference that cite a scripture this episode reads or names on air
October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 76Come to the Lord in His Holy HouseElder Gerrit W. GongElder Gong lays out three doctrinal foundations for temple worship: eternal families, moral agency, and the Holy Spirit of Promise, which makes honored covenants binding.

Summaries, themes and lessons for every talk are on What Did They Say?

Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
The 1832 mobbing in Hiram, Ohio, and what the records show about Rigdon afterward (15:24).
William Bickerton's Church of Jesus Christ in Monongahela, Pennsylvania (29:19).
Sidney Rigdon's Messenger and Advocate, January 1, 1845 (37:56).
Brigham Young's "sweeter than honey" in the Council of Fifty minutes (35:44).
Part 3 picks up Rigdon's statements after the Saints leave Nauvoo, and his later letters (58:51).
SOT Litner · S4E44.