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Robbed in Missouri
S5E45 · Changes to the Section Headings and Polygamy
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Standard of Truth · Season 5 · Episode 45 · 1:07:30

Changes to the Section Headings and Polygamy

The new heading for D&C 132 no longer pegs the revelation to 1831, and Gerrit explains why it should never have been tied to a single year in the first place.

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The question ·

What changed in the Doctrine and Covenants section headings, and why does the heading of section 132 no longer say 1831?

Richard

Richard's car is broken into on a Church history trip, and the hosts announce a Sweetwater Rescue fundraiser. Kristy's Corner tackles D&C 124, from Nauvoo temple ordinances to the Nauvoo House, which several Saints are commanded by name to fund. After John from Austin writes in Jim Rome style, the hosts open the list of revised section headings, and Gerrit notes most changes come in later sections that the Joseph Smith Papers had studied closely, highlights Emma's role in D&C 89 and the law of consecration, and explains why D&C 132's heading now says only that some principles were known earlier, citing W. W. Phelps's 1861 letter. He closes by warning that discomfort with plural marriage is where people can be led away.

Who comes upJoseph SmithEmma SmithW. W. PhelpsThomas B. MarshBrigham YoungAbrahamJacob
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Robbed in Missouri

Richard's car is broken into after a BYU game and a trip to Liberty Jail.

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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard LeDuc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life and teachings of the 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 am joined by my, well, temporally poor co-host, Dr. Richard LeDuc, who had an unfortunate incident at a certain sporting event.
Richard I feel like, hello, Gerrit, thanks for having me back. I feel like there is a lost opportunity for the state of Missouri to say, essentially, that they've been robbing the Mormons since...
Gerrit Since 1831. I mean, really, they only robbed us beginning in 1833, but yeah.
Richard When did they become a state? I feel like the moment they became a state, some Missourian is immediately robbing some Mormon somewhere.
Gerrit They became a state before there were Mormons.
Richard Still, I'm going to get to the bottom of it.
Gerrit Okay.
Richard I had a pretty fun and eventful day. I went to the BYU Iowa State game. That was one of the most fun games I've ever been to. It was a blast. Iowa State fans could not have been nicer. They were absolutely lovely, wonderful. When I went to a Texas BYU game, I was offered beer everywhere. When I went to the Iowa State BYU game, I was offered apple pie and cornbread. The fans were wonderful. It was a great experience. The game was a lot of fun. Drove down with my friends to Kansas City, Missouri. We were going to go to a Monday night game, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Commanders.
Gerrit Because Richard's a pretty big Taylor Swift fan. And he was hoping that he would be able to see Taylor and Travis. Did you?
Richard Well, there was a woman that was two rows ahead of me who had her phone and was zoomed in on the suites, trying to find where Taylor Swift was. It was actually funny.
Gerrit Did she find her?
Richard She did not.
Gerrit Okay.
Richard Was she in attendance? I don't know. I don't know that she was or not. I'm not...
Gerrit You're not as much of a Swiftie as my daughter was apparently.
Richard No, I am not. Yeah. So, parked the car. So, on Sunday, we went to Liberty Jail. Gerrit, you just spoke of Liberty Jail last week for the Kristy's Corner. And so we went there and it was good. The missionaries were great. It was lovely. And then Monday, we went to Adam on Diamond. Many of the people in the group had never been. And then we went to Hons Mill. And as we drove up to Adam on Diamond and over to Hons Mill and back, I read the Hyrum Smith affidavit where he was discussing what happened to the Saints back in Missouri.
Gerrit And it's the most terrible thing you'll ever read in your life.
Richard Yes, it was really, really terrible.
Gerrit And it is not a short affidavit. It's like 30 pages of, and then they did this to us, and then they did this, and then they did this, and then they did this.
Richard Jokingly, we've said if we were to ever read it, we would have to mark the episode as explicit.
Gerrit Because he quotes the mom and what their actions are.
Richard Yeah, right. So anyway, that's what you want to do. That puts you in a real good mood for some barbecue and some football. We go to the Kansas City Chiefs game, we park the car. We leave in the third quarter, as I am always wanting to do, to beat traffic.
Gerrit You did not really leave in the third quarter.
Richard We most assuredly did.
Gerrit You bought tickets to an NFL game and left in the third quarter?
Richard Gerrit, all I want to do is beat traffic. It's all I've ever wanted to do.
Gerrit You buy tickets to games just to leave them? Yeah. You don't even want to watch the game. You just want the endorphin rush for you is getting out of the parking lot. Yes.
Richard I want to beat traffic. I want to get home.
Gerrit I've gone to many sporting events with him. And legitimately, it's like halfway through the second quarter, and he starts tapping his watch. Like, you know, guys, we got to, if we're going to beat the rush, well, we got to go.
Richard So if you say that, at the BYU Iowa state game, first play from scrimmage, 80 yard, you know, you're like, well guys, you want to beat the traffic? No, I looked over at my guy, my buddies, and I, you know, I did the lay, let's wrap it up. You guys, I'll go get the car. Let's get out of here. Anyway, we go out to our car and our car, our rental car is one of 12 cars that have smashed in windows and they grabbed my bag that was full of lots of things that are expensive. My passport, that one was kind of a, that one was frustrating, but several thousand dollars in items that were stolen. And then we drove a freezing, freezing drive home. Now, we didn't have traffic, so that helped us to get home quick.
Gerrit Well, I think it would have been better with traffic. You wouldn't have been going as fast.
Richard Yeah. So imagine the day. So get up, we go to Adam-ondi-Ahman, we read the Hyrum Smith affidavit, we go to Hans Mill, we're filled with great sadness of all of the things going on. We go to the football game, and we go out and there were lots of things in the van. The only thing that was stolen was my things. My bag that had all really nice headphones and a bunch of stuff.
Gerrit What about your best of bread CD collection? Was that still there?
Richard Yeah. Baby, I'ma want you. They did leave that. They did leave my coat. And I think that that's almost, that's a stinging indictment of mine.
Gerrit So they're like, we're going to steal all this guy's stuff. But that jacket, I don't care how much it costs. It's not worth even trying to resell it.
Richard I don't want that coat. I don't want that coat at all.
Gerrit And it is freezing. So they should have wanted the coat, right? Because it's freezing.
Richard They should have wanted the coat. But yeah, no, that was that was a bummer. I went through and added it up. It's probably about forty five hundred bucks in stolen items. Kick a kick in the proverbial groin, as they say.
Gerrit They have to come up with a lot more filthy lucre to cover that.
Richard You have the zero dollars an hour.
Gerrit We're going to have to keep giving away more premium subscriptions to missionaries in order to cover that. I'm not sure how the math works, but I know it works.
Richard Well, I will say, now this is a terrible transition because it's going to seem like it's for me, but it's not for me. We actually had somebody reach out to us that was just incredibly kind. And this is relating to Sweetwater Rescue. And it looks like our next place that we're going to be going. We're working out the details, but it looks like that will be the Kenya Nairobi Temple, which will be an incredible experience. It'll likely be toward the end of the summer next year. And so somebody in the ownership from Hug Hess, which is more Davis County, it's more on the northern side of Utah. They have six different locations, and they reached out to us and said, hey, we love this idea, and we'd love to be able to help. And so we kind of went back and forth on, boy, that's so nice of you. How could we do that? And ultimately, what they said is, let's have like three days, there'll be set aside for this, and everybody that comes in to one of our six locations, that they say essentially this is for Sweetwater Rescue, and then 34% of the proceeds from that tab go toward the Sweetwater Rescue to help, in this case, saints get to the temple in Nairobi, Kenya.
Gerrit Which is a massive number, by the way, if you're wondering.
Richard It's insane.
Gerrit It means that the restaurant is losing money on your tab, is what it means. Yes. So there's those six locations. Again, they are all relatively north. I mean, there's one, there's a couple in Ogden, there's one in Syracuse, there's one in Stansbury Park, there's one in Centerville, and there's one in Layton. Great restaurant, incredible food. We don't do advertisements, well, I make it sound like we don't do advertisements because we're pure, we don't do advertisements because no one wants to be associated with us.
Richard I've desperately wanted to be with Jersey.
Gerrit Yeah, we've been asking for advertisements for years. All we get is cease and desist letters, even if we mention something. I'm like, you know, I just really love those people over there at Mod Pizza, and I get a cease and desist letter. Please don't tell anyone you eat here. Our revenue drops every time you do. So we're not, you know, we don't usually do advertising, but if you don't know if this is your first episode you've ever listened to and you're like, when do they actually start talking about anything I care about? We don't. But second of all, the Sweetwater Rescue is a charity that is, you know, affiliated with the podcast that, you know, Richard and his friends run and that goes to some places in the world that it is very difficult for saints to get to the temple. And working with the local church leaders helps pay the cost of getting people to the temple.
Gerrit They've done it in places like Peru, they've done it in Argentina, they've done it in Lithuania. And so this is a super noble cause. This is literally helping saints who otherwise the cost of going to the temple is so prohibitive that they just, you know, it might as well be $10,000 for the cost and the time that it takes. And, you know, you think, well, what is me going to eat going to do? Honestly, if you go and have a healthy meal, you've probably got just yourself someone on the way to the temple. That's how helpful it is to get, you know, dozens and dozens, well over 100 people usually to the temple. So we'll keep reminding you of those days. Well, I mean, maybe we'll drop a bonus or something, but it's November 6th, 7th, and 8th.
Richard Yeah, November 6th, 7th, and 8th, so it's the Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yep.
Gerrit So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, November 6th, 7th, and 8th, find a way to, you know, book a giant party, you know, get everybody, you know, go, go. I need everybody to rent a tour bus, collect their friends, go to your local Hug Hest location. And it's spelled H-U-G-H-E-S, Hug Hest. If you haven't heard of it, I'm assuming that there's some people in, you know, in Utah County that are like, oh, I'd love to help out. What do you mean I have to drive to Ogden? But no, yeah, you can get one in Centerville. Come on. And please go, let them know it's for Sweetwater Rescue when you order. And as Richard has expressed multiple times, it is incredibly humbling to see all of our faithful Litners who are so willing to donate to help people go to the temple that they will never meet, that they will never talk to, who will never know their name, and yet they are absolutely transforming the life of a Latter-day Saint somewhere else.
Gerrit So this, we couldn't be more grateful to the ownership of Hug Hess. And look, you're not going to be making any kind of a sacrifice here. The food's ridiculously good. So you're going to be like, wow, please give us more of these opportunities. So anyway.
Richard And one thing, Gerrit, so 100% of any of the money donated to Sweetwater Rescue goes toward-
Gerrit Goes to replacing Richard's backpack.
Richard Yeah, I was going to be very clear that in no way- No.
Gerrit All of the money donated, there's no overhead here. So there's no, nobody's paid. So there's no one who's like, well, I'm the director of Sweetwater Rescue. And I feel like a director position that on the open market would be somewhere around, you know, $5 million. So, I mean, the director, there's a little bit of administrative cost. There's no administrative cost because nobody paid. So every dollar literally goes to getting a Latter Day Saint to the temple. Not, not to an overhead, not to like paying for a secretary. That's so, no, there's, there's nothing. If, if listening to this podcast hasn't taught you that you can create something with literally no money and no administrative support, this is it.
Richard I was going to say, we just stole this model and applied it to this.
Gerrit It's a great model. Now, it's not a great model for making money. No, no, no, it's not a great model for making good content.
Richard No, this is true.
Gerrit But it is, it's a model.
Richard The particular place that we are looking to go is actually kind of cool. Because we, because the church has a temple patron fund for people first time going through the temple to take out their endowments or for ceilings. This is not to support that we provide the logistical and then the fundraising support for people that haven't been in 10, 20, 30 years to the temple and youth, where the church's temple patron fund is not currently applied toward those individuals. And then sometimes when working with, like to Gerrit's point, we're kind of in the background. We are just in the church news, the trip from Lithuania to Finland. And all that you hear about us or see of us is like Becky and me like waving in the background with a video.
Gerrit There's a caption of the photo that says Sweetwater Rescue, but doesn't say who they are. Yeah, no, no one does.
Richard But the whole idea is that the local leadership, and we'll be working likely with a stake in Kenya. The average income is around $300 a year where we'll be. So the idea of traveling eight to 10 hours to the temple is, it's an exorbitant cost that is very difficult for folks. So anyway, Gerrit, I very much appreciate you allowing the time for us to do this and the fine folks at Hug has very kind of them indeed.
Gerrit Yeah, so remember those dates, November 6th, 7th, and 8th, round up a posse, go buy some food, tell them it's for Sweetwater, and let's maybe dive into Kristy's corner then?
Richard Yeah, let's get right into it. So, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124, Gerrit.
Gerrit Boy, we shouldn't do Kristy's corners of gigantic revelations, especially ones that are about the temple, and especially ones that are so important like Section 124. I mean, Section 124 is the section that outlines what the ordinances are in this new Nauvoo Temple that they're building, because it talks about endowments. It talks about washings and anointings. It talks about baptisms for the dead. I mean, Section 124 is incredible. And so I thought, you know, what better way to talk about it than to talk about something that won't be talked about in your Sunday school. And that will make you... Because look, again, if you want to look smart in Sunday school, if you want your friends to think you're cool, Kristy's Corner exists for you, for it to seem like you have a depth of understanding that allows you to become the Stake Relief Society President. That's, this is, it's all baby steps as you progressed, either to Stake Relief Society President or to MTC District Leader.
Gerrit That you're working your way up by demonstrating your knowledge that you have. There is, they will cover this for sure in whatever class you're in, but it's so cool, we still have to reference it. That is that a lot of the time, I think we try to find exactly, like I'll have people say to me like, so do you think that when Peter went to the temple in Jesus' time, was the temple ceremony for Peter exactly the same? Or was the temple ceremony for Adam, were the covenants exactly the same? Of course, the answer to that is, I don't know, right? And that's the reality. I don't really know, but you do get something very interesting in verses 39, 40, and 41, that suggests that there are some things that are for the last dispensation of the fullness of times.
Gerrit Therefore I say to you that your anointings and your washings and your baptisms for your dead and your solemn assemblies and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, your statutes and judgments for the beginnings of the revelations and the foundation of Zion and for the glory, honor and endowment of all her municipals are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build into my holy name. And verily, I stand you, let this house be built under my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people. For I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Gerrit So, verse 41 of section 120, Vore suggests that there's at least some things revealed that actually haven't been revealed before in the temple, that they pertain directly to the dispensation of the fullness of times, which is the dispensation we live in. So, I always think, you know, it's important not to get hung up on, well, if they change any part of the presentation of the endowment, then how could it possibly be the same as it was in Solomon's temple? Well, the Lord is telling you that he is going to reveal things in this temple that have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world. So, you know, it's okay that God's people make covenants. That is certain. That those covenants have always been made in exactly the same way.
Gerrit Well, of course, they haven't. That God speaks to people according to their own culture, their own life, their own understanding to make those covenants more real. Now, the second thing I want to talk about is the part that I guarantee won't be talked about. I mean, maybe it will. I mean, probably you have like some gospel doctrine teacher who's also like a professor of, you know, church history and doctrine, and they're like, let me tell you something. But if you drop all the way down to verse 111, so I mean, if you're reading through this in class, you aren't going to get to verse 111. But if you get down there, you'll see that it starts talking about that, under whom I've appointed to build a house for boarding, even the Nauvoo House. So you might have heard of the Nauvoo House before, and this is this undertaking in Nauvoo that is designed to build this, well, I mean, gigantic hotel and event center. I mean, for the 19th century purposes, I mean, it's not like they're building the MGM Grand, but that God is commanding them to build this giant hotel.
Gerrit And you can, when you go to Nauvoo, if you're going on our tour with us in Nauvoo, or if you go to Nauvoo, you can see what remains of what they built of the Nauvoo House. They don't complete it, but the saints, there are several saints who are by name commanded to invest in this. What's really interesting, so it's the church is building it, but people are supposed to buy stock into it. And then, of course, they could all make some of the proceeds from it when it's done. But listen to who's allowed to buy stock into the Nauvoo House. If you drop down to verse 119, and again, I say to you, let no man pay stock to the quorum of the Nauvoo House unless he shall be a believer in the Book of Mormon, and in the revelations that I have given unto you, saith the Lord your God, for that which is more or less than this cometh of evil and shall be attended with cursings and not blessings, saith the Lord your God, even so, amen.
Gerrit And again, verily, I say to you, let the quorum of the Nauvoo House have a just recompense of wages for all their labors, which they shall do in building the Nauvoo House, and let their wages be agreed among themselves as pertaining to the price they're up. And so it's going to go on talking about this. Well, Joseph Smith receives another revelation that's not in the Doctrine and Covenants a couple of months later pertaining to this Nauvoo House. So what's going on in Nauvoo in 1841? Well, you have thousands of people moving there, and this is going to accelerate over the course of 1842 and 43, and many of them are poor immigrants from Europe, and they're going to arrive in Nauvoo with legitimately nothing. Now, if you go to Nauvoo, you'll notice it's not exactly, you know, a center of manufacturing and industry, right? It's not like, oh, well, we'll just get jobs at the local car manufacturing plant.
Gerrit So you have thousands of people showing up who don't have any money. So how are you going to provide for them? Part of the purpose of God giving this Revelation 124, is this early attempt to provide the poor of the church through work. If you had to trace DI back to its origins, this would be the origin. I mean, obviously not, you know, desert industries is a different corporation. I'm not saying that it is, but this Revelation explains, let my servant William Allred and Henry Miller take stock in the house. Now, why? Why are we building the house? This is this Revelation again, this is not in the Doctrine and Covenants. This is an unpublished Revelation, March 20th, 1841. That the poor of my people may have employment. So part of the reason for spending the thousands and thousands of dollars to build this massive hotel was so that when poor people arrive, well, I don't have any money and I don't have any skills.
Gerrit Can you chop wood? Well, yeah. Okay, we'll go chop wood for the Nauvoo house and we'll pay you for your labor on the Nauvoo house. You'll be able to take that money and you'll be able to start fresh from the bottom up.
Richard That's awesome.
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, like I said, probably not something that's part of every gospel doctrine class.
Richard No, but that's great. That's wonderful. Well, Gerrit, thanks to the five million emails received in the last four days, we will be reading part of one so we can get into the content. We will not be talking about who's dead and in hell, but I think it's a topical thing.
Gerrit I feel like we'll never talk about who's dead and in hell again. I feel like there will be one of those where we start and people just be like, who went to hell? And I'll be like, everyone who asked that question.
Richard It's the Calvinist argument.
Gerrit It's St. Augustine.
Richard It's St. Augustine.
Gerrit Yeah, that's it. Where he says, what was God doing before he created everything and he was creating hell for people who ask questions like that.
Richard So, but because we wanted to talk about the changes to the headings of the Doctrine and Covenants was the main topic, if we have time to get to it. So this email comes to us from, it's John, I believe. Yes, this comes to us from John.
Gerrit Subject, which could be no one else named John of the entire church.
Richard So John, John from Austin, Texas. Missionary email for my son serving in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Spanish speaking mission. My dad is a fellow Jewish convert from Canada like Dr. LeDuc. Well, there's like six or maybe apparently two. So this is an exciting group here. Long time listener, first time caller. Tribute to the good old days of Sports Talk Radio, like Jim Rome. I don't know how many Litners to the podcast are from. None of the missionaries would know.
Gerrit All the missionaries listening are like, what do you mean Sports Talk Radio? You mean TikTok? No, I don't mean TikTok. You mean six, seven? No, I don't mean six, seven.
Richard You mean 41. 41 is the new six, seven, Gerrit.
Gerrit Yeah, 41, 67. Jim Rome, he had a sports talk show and back in the day before the Internet was on everyone's phones, you could have people call in and you could have a pretty workable phone screening. Now, it just went to all prank calls and so no one really does it very much anymore. But Jim Rome, he was a Sports Talk guy and he used to have people call in and they would give rants, they'd give like their epic takes, and they called it him giving them the vine. You're coming in the jungle.
Richard Yeah, you're coming in the jungle.
Gerrit They'd be like, hey Rome, thanks for the vine. I think that until the Dallas Cowboys have different ownership, there's no possible way that they're going to be able to get another Super Bowl. I mean, that's what you'd get. So thank you very much for John for that. That wasn't John's point in emailing.
Richard It was not though, although Gerrit and I smiled at the Jim Rome comment. I hope my subject line had enough interesting hooks to get to get your attention. They asked for the missionary access for his, his sixth son. Back in March, I found the standard truth podcast. When I heard an episode of Voices of the Restoration, you know, Gerrit, you've done really good work on the Follow Him podcast and Voices of the Restoration. Nice job. I mean, it's coming to the end of the year.
Gerrit I sound a lot better over there because they have like, editors and stuff.
Richard Yeah, it's a way better. But you know what? You did a great job this year, Gerrit. I don't say it enough. You knocked it out of the park. Where Dr. Dirkmaat was the special guest expert host. I listened to the first episode of Standard of Truth and I became obsessed. The first episode was terrible.
Gerrit Oh, yeah, because all of the other ones are amazing. Like this one.
Richard Even grading on that curve. The sound quality wasn't there.
Gerrit We had terrible mics. We obviously had no production values just like now.
Richard Well, it was two cans connected by string. I listened to seasons one and two over the next couple of months and I'm now caught up to December 2024. And we'll probably have to bite the bullet and become a premium content litner. When I run out of episodes to listen to at night to put myself to sleep, I, I am a dad of six sons and we are sports nuts and have to go look up some past game, game scores when you were predicting the games. Since I thought I remembered some bad losses for some of those games you pick.
Gerrit Oh, I'm all, I don't think it's got to be like, we're like a reverse Biff, Tannen, Almanac, where like we say like, oh, I think Yukon is going to go all the way this year. And then you go look it up and you're like, no, they aren't.
Richard You don't, you don't have to pretend you don't pretend the best, the best pick we've ever had that I've ever had. I picked Virginia to win the championship and they're the first number one seed to go out in the first round.
Gerrit He legitimately picked Virginia to win March Madness and they lost to a 16 seed.
Richard No one's ever done that before. It's the first time it's ever happened.
Gerrit Yeah. You know what else? No one's ever picked that poorly before. I think, no, there were lots of people, a lot of brackets were busted that year with Virginia.
Richard This is true. I found out of my memory, we live in Texas since 2013 and hope to stay. But all six of our sons were born in Boise, Idaho. There were just the connections, just keep on coming. As we lived there for 16 years, my wife and I met at Rick's college, Go Vikings. Your Idaho stories and towns make me laugh so hard because they are so true. Look, Gerrit and I are killing it in Declo.
Gerrit Yeah. Aramo's got us. I mean, Oakley, people are just like-
Richard Paul, we are number one in Paul.
Gerrit If you could be number one in Paul, I think we're big in Atomic City. I heard that we're huge in Atomic City.
Richard I have a co-worker that is actually from Atomic City.
Gerrit There's like 40 people. And they don't listen to the podcast? Oh my gosh.
Richard With the mullet getting fired at OK State a couple of weeks ago, and how far OK State football has fallen, and listening to your ongoing hope that they might be soon good again. As painful as reading Moroni's Letter to Pahoran every time I get to that part of the Book of Mormon, knowing Pahoran is getting run out of town. My number 6 son Matthew has been on a mission now for one full transfer just outside of Philadelphia. He and I listened to several episodes of the Standard of Truth as we drove all over Texas one weekend for the first endowment sessions in the Houston temple one Friday night and then Dallas temple on Saturday. And then back to Austin that afternoon.
Gerrit That is a temple triangle there.
Richard My goodness. For a couple of Matthew's friends who were leaving close to his departure date for their missions, I kept asking as we drove, do you want to listen to something else or another standard of truth episode? He kept choosing or another. Yeah. Some other thing. They kept choosing standard of truth. So please send him access. He will love it. And the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission will have to do some work to catch up to Pittsburgh. That is so true. My son could be the first to start throwing back starfish in Philly. He goes on to tell an incredible story of his father and some of the conversion there. But he goes on to say, thanks for all you do. I have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as prophet for what he did to bring forth the Book of Mormon. But my testimony and appreciation for and love of Joseph Smith now is like the light of the sun compared to the light of the stars of my prior testimony of Joseph.
Richard I had light, but nothing like now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's beautiful. That is beautiful. I talk about subjects from the podcast all the time in ward council a couple of months ago. They asked me to lead a discussion with the ward on answering hard gospel questions. The church website.
Gerrit Please tell me you led with King Fawad's sermon. If you've learned anything from this podcast, they asked you and they were like, well, you suppose God was God from all eternity?
Richard I love the idea of everything that anyone ever like, hey, all right, dad, you've got family night. All right, I got the lesson.
Gerrit King Fawad's sermon. But you know, my brother, Dallin, often said if every single lesson in church was just the plan of salvation, if that's all you did was talk about the plan of salvation and God's work through Christ to help bring us to exaltation, it would be great. It'd be a great lesson every single time.
Richard Every single time.
Gerrit Same thing with the King Fawad sermon. You know, they're like, hey, should we talk about tithing? I'll tell you what we should talk about. Let's talk about the King Fawad sermon and just go right into it.
Richard I recommended to all the Standard of Truth podcast. I felt the fire in my soul to share it. We need people to prepare ahead before the ex-Mormon radical TikTok influencer flies by them doing a 720 off of mogul and yelling, Joseph Smith married other men's wives. I saw it on the internet. I will send you the link. Your podcast has made me go from not really interested in church history to want to learn and understand more and more, and even American history, thus my future subscription to the premium. Anyway, thank you so much, John, for the incredibly kind-
Gerrit Great email, great references too. Nothing's better than the extreme anti-Mormon that we have turned into someone at the X Games who's a Mountain Dew sponsor.
Richard He's doing some ridiculous flip and yelling kinderhook plates or something.
Gerrit He's going off of a half pipe while we sing, what about Orson Hyde's wife? We think that that's good. The church released, and we'll put a link to this. We won't, but we'll say that we'll put a link. We'll put a link to this. There won't be a link to this. In the description, the church released the updates that they're making to primarily the section headings of the Doctrine and Covenants. There are two section or chapter headings in the Book of Mormon that they made changes to. So let me ask you a question, Richard. You're looking at that list, the list that's on the link that we absolutely posted.
Richard No, and the joke is that we always say we're gonna do stuff we never follow through on, almost anything that we do. But on this one, I will post the link for sure.
Gerrit It says that, but if it's not there, I want everyone to email the podcast directly to Richard. Hey, Richard, where's the link you said was there for sure?
Richard Yes, it's like six pages long. Yes, I've got it here, it's going in.
Gerrit As you go to that first kind of list, it has a breakdown of the sections and the changes to the wording. What do you notice about this list just in general?
Richard The majority of the changes are later in the Doctrine and Covenants, I suppose.
Gerrit That was pretty amazing. I did not give Richard any insight into that, but that's exactly what he came up with.
Richard Well, your standard for what is good for me is so low.
Gerrit I just want you to feel good after you had your car broken into and everything stolen.
Richard Again, they just stole my stuff.
Gerrit So they didn't steal Brian's stuff?
Richard There was other people's stuff in the van, and they just left it there? They both stole my stuff and then didn't steal my coat, which means, hey, we're going to take this thing, but we think your coat is pretty ugly.
Gerrit I've seen your coat.
Richard All right, fair enough. It's a nice coat.
Gerrit But if you'll notice, most of the changes are in this, essentially the second half of the Doctor, not even the second half, really from 98 on.
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit And so let me give you a perspective on that, okay? In 2013, so roughly 12 years ago, well, roughly, I mean, yeah, in 2013. I mean, I don't know exactly what part of the year they released it. The church made changes to the Doctrine and Covenants section's headings then. But most of those changes, again, not all of them, but many of them, were from the first portion of the Doctrine and Covenants. And you'll notice on the church's release, they explain that many of those of the Doctrine and Covenants were occasioned by the changes, were occasioned by findings from the Joseph Smith Papers Project. So in 2013, only a few of the documents volumes, which are the meat volumes, the volumes of where these revelations would be covered and the letters surrounding them, only a few of them had already been published by 2013, or completed, the work on them completed.
Gerrit And so there were changes made to some of the other section headings from things that we already knew. But the bulk of the big changes were to the sections that had already had a thorough historical going over. And again, the Joseph Smith Papers volumes are reviewed by the Quorum of the Twelve and by the First Presidency. So it's not just like some guy by himself sitting in a closet somewhere at the church, like, I don't know, like, what if we said Fishing River here? No, it's, there's a huge process to this. And so what's really interesting is that most of the changes in 2013 were to the first part of the Doctrine and Covenants. And most of the changes now that they've completed all of these other documents volumes is to the second half of it. And look, some of them are just minor, you know, like you can see on that on that chart, you know, section 98, it used to say in July of 1833. Now it says exactly when, July 20th, 1833.
Gerrit Right. Well, and how could I maintain my testimony? Would you lie to me and said that it was in July before instead of July 20th? You know, because we have a better clarification on some of these chronologies and dates, you know. So for instance, if you see section 107, it used to say May 3rd. It now says May 4th, because now we know when that took place. We have a better understanding of it. Some of the things like we just talked about last week with Doctrine and Covenants section 121, 122 and 123. One of the things that I always had to teach my students and that we tried to talk about last week with our giant Kristy's Corner, that was really a Kristy's Highway or Kristy's, you know, long, you know, giant Empire State Building wasn't really a corner. Was that these are all excerpted from too much longer letters.
Gerrit And so before it used to say that it was written by the Prophet Joseph Smith and an epistle to the church. Now it tells you directly that it's excerpted from two epistles. Now you might think that doesn't make any difference, but it actually does because most people that I tell that D&C 121, 122 and 123, that they come from a larger letter. They don't, they're surprised. They're like, it does? Now it's directly in the section heading where someone reading the section heading will go, oh, this is only part of what Joseph wrote. They know right away it's only part of what Joseph wrote. Now they may still want to go out and find what else Joseph wrote, and that'll make them mad.
Richard The Crack Research staff came back, it was March of 2013, so.
Gerrit Oh, okay, yeah. So, almost 12 years, more than 12 years. I don't know how that helps us. We still can't do math. No, no, it doesn't.
Richard But just, you know, we're giving, the Crack Research staff did all the work. They want to just squeeze it in there.
Gerrit Right. So, look, some of the section heading changes, if you drop down further, you'll see in some of the introductions, like section 89, that's changed to directly include the fact that all of our accounts of why Joseph asked this question involve Emma Smith being a part of saying to Joseph, hey, are they really going to spit tobacco juice all over my floor when we come and talk about God? I mean, so they not only show you what's changed, but you see that's really great there. They kind of give in the parentheses this kind of explanation for why it was changed. A great example of something that doesn't seem like it's a big deal, but kind of feels like it's a big deal is section 98. In section 98, it didn't used to give a time relationship to win when the mob demanded that the Saints leave Jackson County, right?
Gerrit Here you get it now in the section, three days later, church leaders sign an agreement to do so, right? So it's giving you a little bit of a time element so you have a better understanding of what's going on. Well, what are some of the big ones? One of the biggest ones, I think, is one of Richard's favorite sections and that we spent a lot of Kristy corner time on. And that's section 110. You always used to have to explain to people, you know, when this took place, it now says directly on it that this was on Easter Sunday after a Sabbath day meeting, rather than, you know, you having to say to people, hey, just so you know, this was also over Easter when Joseph had these departed saints come and give him the keys, Moses, Elias and Elijah.
Gerrit I think the context that's added to section 112 is pretty interesting as well. We added a bunch of this context. So what's funny is I didn't know what this was coming out. Obviously, I'm not in the loop. I'm not important. No one cares about me. No one's asking my opinion. No one cares about me. But we spent time when we went over section 112 on the podcast. We spent time talking about the fact that there was a lot of dissension going on, that there was a lot of people that had apostatized. And so what did they do? They added at this time, there was a significant dissension in the church over Joseph Smith's leadership, including among some of the apostles. And so, now that same context that we were trying to kind of give, I mean, frankly, what the church is doing is they're killing Kristy's corner. I mean, they're just, they're giving you all the information. And now we're gonna have to go to like Kristy's super corner.
Gerrit It's gonna have to be like the most obscure thing ever. Like what was the middle name of Thomas B. Marshall? You don't know that, do you? And now make me a mistake Sunday School present. So that one's very interesting. One of the ones that I think is really key and will affect how we look at things going forward is there are a few things more misunderstood in the church, more commonly misunderstood than the law of consecration. Now the law of consecration, I think most people think they know what it is, but almost invariably, when someone talks about the law of consecration in early church history, what they mean is the consecration of properties. That's what they mean. They'll be like, oh, yeah, well, the saints, they were living the law of consecration in Missouri. What do they mean? They mean that the saints were giving all of their property to the church and the church was giving them back a stewardship.
Gerrit The problem was that made things kind of unclear. You know, this used to say that, you know, they had the law of consecration. God took it away and gave them the law of tithing, as if the law of tithing somehow replaced the law of consecration. Well, that can be a little bit confusing, given some of the covenants that people make, right? So given the covenants people make, they're like, you know, I'm pretty sure I am still covenanting to consecrate, right? And so the new wording kind of eliminates that connection, right? And it even says that in the parentheses, this removes the implication that the law of consecration was replaced by the law of tithing and is no longer in effect. Obviously, the law of consecration that you're willing to give everything to God that God asked for is part of being a saint.
Gerrit In fact, you can do a self-evaluation real quickly just by asking yourself, what would you actually be willing to give up for the church and for God? And you start going through that mental list in your mind, would you really be willing to give up everything? The idea that God asked us to consecrate everything, meaning if it's needed, we give everything. The idea that it was replaced by the law of tithing really wasn't terribly accurate. And so now it's there. And plus, it's positioned in this timeframe of this financial crisis for the church and for the country, right? That things are really bad in the country at the time. They are really bad financially. So I think that change is going to have a long lasting impact because section 119 often you've heard people say, Oh, God gave people the law of tithing to replace the law of consecration.
Gerrit I've heard that literally dozens and dozens and dozens of times, but that's not the case. One other change that I think people might notice, maybe they won't, maybe they should, I don't know, is to section 132. Now, section 132 is the revelation on plural marriage. So look, I start talking about this, and we're immediately going to be inundated by 75 emails from people who didn't listen to the rest of the episode, but somehow some AI chat bot caught this part, and they're going to be responding to that. But it used to say that, it used to say as early as 1831, in when did Joseph Smith know about these principles. So it used to say that, although the Revelation was recorded in 1843, evidence indicates that some of these, the principles involved in this Revelation were known to the Prophet as early as 1831.
Gerrit That's what it used to say. It now says, evidence indicates that some of the principles involved in this Revelation were known by the Prophet earlier. So not as early as 1831, but also, you know, one of the problems with pegging it to 1831 is you're saying that that thought had never crossed Joseph's mind before that, right? And since you don't actually have a document that says when Joseph understands this, you do have other people, secondhand accounts of people who say, well, Joseph told me that when he was translating the Old Testament, this and that, right? So you have later accounts of when people are saying, clearly Joseph Smith understands the principle of plural marriage before July 12th, 1843, because he's already marrying people before July 12th of 1843.
Gerrit He's already in his own plural marriages before July 12th, 1843. And when we have our record of this revelation being written down, it's the writing down of it, July 12th of 1843, not when Joseph first received it. I mean, Joseph could have been thinking about these things as early as translating the Book of Jacob and the Book of Mormon in 1829. He could have been thinking about these things as early as receiving the Book of Moses in 1830. One of the reasons why I think 1831 became a little bit problematic is a lot of that, I think, was tied to what W. W. Phelps claimed happened in July of 1831. We've actually referenced it on this podcast before, that in July of 1831, so very early in the church, Phelps claimed that Joseph received a revelation that commanded them, even though they were married men, to marry among the Lamanites and Nephites, to marry among the Native Americans.
Gerrit And he also claimed, after that, so he claims that there's a revelation. He claimed after that, that about three years after this was given, I asked Brother Joseph privately, how are we, how is it that we are mentioned in the revelations could take wives from the Natives as we are all married men? He replied instantly in the same manner that Abraham took Hagar and that Jacob took Rachel and Billa and Zilpah by revelation. So this is recorded in a letter that WW Phelps writes to Brigham Young, August 12th, 1861. So he is looking back on what he says happened 30 years earlier. Now I am not saying that it didn't happen, but the way that he writes this out, he writes it out as a revelation that's versified. I mean, it's, it is, it looks like it's coming out of the book of commandments and revelations.
Gerrit It is ready to rock and roll. But even Phelps himself in presenting this to Brigham Young says, I have the pleasure of sending you the substance of a revelation by Joseph. Meaning this was the gist of it, even though it's phrased as if it was literally written down by Joseph.
Richard So what you're saying makes a lot of sense. It seems like though, like anything polygamy related, that critics of this would point to, oh, so they're they're softening this instead of the date to say earlier, instead of it seems like that critics might pounce on something like this.
Gerrit Oh, for sure. I mean, at the same time, like, okay, so let's say you're a member of an apostate group or you're a member of the church is about to become an apostate because you believe the church is lying about Joseph Smith practicing plural marriage and that Brigham Young was a false prophet. And yet somehow we still have a true prophet today, even though those keys go through Brigham Young. It's very convoluted mess that you end up in when you try to make those arguments. But there are multiple prominent apostate groups right now that make the argument that Joseph Smith never taught or practiced polygamy. They will certainly say, Ah, yes, they're doing this to, you know, to soften, to ease us into eventually the church saying that Joseph Smith never taught it at all. Well, the easiest way to do that would be to not have Doctrine and Covenants section 132 is scripture, because the section heading, which is not scripture, has no bearing on whether or not this is scripture. It was so difficult for people to believe that some people gave away their membership over it.
Gerrit There is no possible way that hell doesn't exist, because every Christian who has ever lived says that it does. And now Joseph Smith says that it doesn't. Well, obviously, people would say, well, polygamy is much, that's much more difficult. Well, it's honestly not that much more difficult. In fact, if you had to weigh the two together, claiming that eternal hell doesn't exist, I mean, Martin Luther even opines that plural marriage is ratified by the Bible, right? But he isn't going to opine that hell doesn't exist. Hell not existing is the most radical of those two viewpoints, right? If you're going to say like, there's no possible way that God would ever commend anyone to practice polygamy, the problem is the Bible exists. I heard a very popular street preacher. He's all over the the internets and the YouTubes. He's a popular guy.
Gerrit And he made the statement, how could polygamy be true? Where in the Bible does it say that you can practice polygamy? And I thought to myself, what a crazy argument for someone who's client, because this guy is all about every word in the Bible is actual, absolutely written by God. Really, a better question would be, so since the cultures involved in the time of the Bible being written are all polygamous cultures, if God has a problem with it, period, why isn't there a single verse in the Bible in which God says no one is ever allowed to practice this ever, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and also Moses and Isaiah?
Richard Right. Versus the bishop of the husband of one wife, which they...
Gerrit Which is a really weird thing to write. Why in the world would you write, they should be the husbands of one wife? Are you... Are you... Baptizing people that have more than one wife? It would be a very weird commentary to make. Like, it would be like me saying like, look, when you call a bishop, he has to be, guys, he needs to be someone who believes in the Book of Mormon. Oh, okay. No, no, he... Look, he's got to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, or he can't be a bishop.
Richard He can't chop wood for the church, or he can't buy stock in the...
Gerrit Yeah, he's got it for the Nauvoo House. I mean, it's a very... And you can run this through chat, GPT and Grok and all those, and you'll find that while it will initially say, oh yeah, the Bible is totally against plural marriage, that if you ask the question, well, show me where, it can't. That it'll come back eventually and say, well, it's a cultural thing, because the Bible at the very least does not make any pronouncements against plural marriage. And in reality, some of the Mosaic Law talks exactly about how to deal with plural marriages. And so, look, this is not a plural marriage advocacy show. That's a different podcast. That's for after we get excommunicated, but it is a very destructive and seductive argument. That is being made by many people.
Gerrit And the sad part is that there are very good people, believing people, people who want to do what's right, who themselves are very uncomfortable with polygamy. Look, every person should be uncomfortable with polygamy. If you're not uncomfortable with it, then I have to start asking questions about what part of Orderville do you live in? Because if you have no discomfort over it at all, that's very weird because in America, in Canada, in the Western Hemisphere, in Europe, polygamy is seen as something that is horrifically wrong always. Now that same culture has no problem at all with infidelity, rampant infidelity. That, oh yeah, sure, you probably shouldn't do that, but there's nothing horrific about it. And so it is a very natural reaction to feel very uncomfortable about plural marriage.
Gerrit That's why the church produced its Gospel Topics essays about it. So here's the problem. When we have a discomfort about some aspect of what the church teaches, that's when someone can come along and say to you, Oh, I love Joseph Smith. Oh, I love the Book of Mormon. Nothing matters to me more than the gospel. The gospel is the most important thing to me in the world. And oh, by the way, you know, they found that Joseph Smith never practiced polygamy, right? And then they'll take you to a YouTube channel, which will not have a historian on it. Well, it'll have someone claiming they're a historian. And what they mean by that is, I like history and I'm talking about it. But they won't have a PhD historian. They'll show a couple of documents and they'll say, see, see, Joseph never taught it. And then they'll go on to malign the dozens and dozens and dozens of men and women who testified that Joseph Smith taught them to practice plural marriage.
Gerrit The very women that they claim they care about, they will call liars because they say that God told them to practice plural marriage. So please don't fall under that seduction. I know it's seductive. It's the most seductive when someone is telling you exactly what you want to hear. Just like the saints who were told by Hiram Page's revelations that they wouldn't have to move to Missouri. Richard, right now, that'd be the most seductive thing you'd ever hear. Hey Richard, you don't have to move to Kansas City.
Richard Yeah, right now? Yeah, that's about the best.
Gerrit This moment, Richard's now on board. He's now a part of an apostate group just because of that. I mean, and I don't want to make lie to it because I know it's deadly serious for a lot of people. I think almost everyone listening knows someone who might be struggling with this. And you need to know when someone says, oh, look at the new documents, there is nothing new. These arguments that Joseph Smith never taught or practiced polygamy, that doctrine coming to section 132 is somehow a forgery, and on and on and on. Those were all made by the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 100 years. Guess who no longer makes those arguments? The reorganized church. They don't make them because they're not historically viable arguments to make. But people who haven't heard them before think, wow, this is a really good argument. And the person who I'm talking to, they just keep saying how they know the Holy Spirit's told them and they really strongly believe in the Book of Mormon.
Gerrit Remember that all of the people that have been deceived in this dispensation, many of them, the ones that have been truly deceived, they think that they're doing right. That's what being deceived is all about. That's why God told us, you follow the Prophet. You don't follow me. You don't follow some YouTube sensation. You don't follow a TikTok reel. You don't follow some really cool influencer, some great religion professor who sounds really smart. The Prophet of God is the only person who has the ability to determine what scripture is and what the doctrine of the church is. And that Prophet and every Prophet since Joseph Smith has said that section 132 is a revelation from God and his scripture. And that's what all of the historical evidence points towards, that Joseph Smith received revelation to practice plural marriage.
Gerrit It's what all of the religious evidence points towards. And it's what the key holders of this dispensation continue to maintain. So yeah, they might have taken the word earlier, as early as 1831 out so that we're no longer pegging it to a certain date. But the very fact that that's all they changed is kind of a reiteration that this is still scripture. So don't let someone who claims they have your best interest try to talk you out of what the church just released through its prophets. So I think that we've covered a lot. We've probably gone way over time. Richard, are we always over time?
Richard We are over time, but that was great. It was very helpful to get the additional context for some of the different headings.
Gerrit And now you get to put the word polygamy in the title and it'll drive sales.
Richard We get way more hits.
Gerrit So I'm sure that that's what Hug Hess wants. They want the title to be Hug Hess and polygamy. Is that what they want the title to be?
Richard We're going to bury one of them. We're not going to do-
Gerrit Well, we're not burying polygamy. So thank you so much for joining us. And we promise, we shouldn't promise. We are going to get back to Who's Dead and in Hell at some soon, soon.
Richard You're close to wrapping it up, Gerrit.
Gerrit I mean, within seven episodes of finishing.
Richard By some time in 2026, we're going to know.
Gerrit I mean, the ride's been fun though. Everyone wants to know who got condemned to hell. And I was ready to read William Smith's Remonstrance to the Congress.
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit Didn't everybody want to hear that?
Richard Everyone still does.
Gerrit Well, maybe next time, maybe not. We won't even promise it anymore because something else might happen between now and then. So thank you so much for joining us.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard LeDuc. If you know of anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. Until next time.

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Make a share card from any line

You buy tickets to games just to leave them? Yeah. You don't even want to watch the game. You just want the endorphin rush for you is getting out of the parking lot.

GerritBanter

So they're like, we're going to steal all this guy's stuff. But that jacket, I don't care how much it costs. It's not worth even trying to resell it.

GerritBanter

We don't do advertisements, well, I make it sound like we don't do advertisements because we're pure, we don't do advertisements because no one wants to be associated with us.

GerritBanter

If, if listening to this podcast hasn't taught you that you can create something with literally no money and no administrative support, this is it.

GerritBanter

Well, the Lord is telling you that he is going to reveal things in this temple that have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world.

GerritInsight

So part of the reason for spending the thousands and thousands of dollars to build this massive hotel was so that when poor people arrive, well, I don't have any money and I don't have any skills.

GerritInsight

In fact, you can do a self-evaluation real quickly just by asking yourself, what would you actually be willing to give up for the church and for God?

GerritInsight

If you're not uncomfortable with it, then I have to start asking questions about what part of Orderville do you live in?

GerritBanter

It's the most seductive when someone is telling you exactly what you want to hear.

GerritInsight

Remember that all of the people that have been deceived in this dispensation, many of them, the ones that have been truly deceived, they think that they're doing right. That's what being deceived is all about.

GerritInsight

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
The Church gave the Saints the law of tithing to replace the law of consecration.
Removing '1831' from the D&C 132 heading means the Church is easing away from Joseph Smith teaching plural marriage.
New documents show Joseph Smith never taught or practiced polygamy.
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

D&C 124:41 says the Lord would reveal in the temple things kept hid from before the foundation of the world, so differences from ancient temple worship are expected.

The Nauvoo House was partly a jobs program: an 1841 revelation says it was built "that the poor of my people may have employment."

The new D&C 119 heading drops the idea that tithing replaced consecration. Ask yourself what you'd actually be willing to give up for God.

Discomfort with plural marriage is natural, and it's exactly where people get told what they want to hear; the section heading changed, but section 132 is still scripture.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Robbed in MissouriRichard's rental is one of 12 cars broken into at the Chiefs game, and Missouri has 'been robbing the Mormons since' 1833; they took $4,500 of his stuff but not his coat (0:57, 1:13, 5:17, 6:49, 38:21).
Beat the trafficRichard leaves NFL games in the third quarter and taps his watch by the second (4:28, 5:00).
Held together with spit and gumNo ads because no one wants to be associated with them, just cease and desist letters; Sweetwater Rescue copies the podcast's no-money model (9:14, 9:52, 14:38).
Kristy's CornerBaby steps to stake Relief Society president or MTC district leader (16:46); last week's was 'Kristy's Highway' (41:03); the new headings are killing Kristy's Corner, so next comes Kristy's super corner (45:30).
Dead and in Hell series'I feel like we'll never talk about who's dead and in hell again,' says Gerrit, who is 'within seven episodes of finishing' and still holding William Smith's remonstrance (26:29, 1:06:33, 1:06:42).
The only true missionJohn's son in Philadelphia will have to do some work to catch up to Pittsburgh (33:22).
The crack research staffComes back mid-episode with March 2013 for the last heading revision (42:57, 43:12).
Bad picksRichard picked Virginia to win March Madness the year they became the first number one seed to lose to a 16 (31:03, 31:16).
We're huge in…Killing it in Declo, number one in Paul, huge in Atomic City (31:34, 32:12, 32:16).
Lead with the King Follett sermonAsked to teach hard gospel questions, John should have opened with King Follett, and it works for tithing lessons too (34:40, 35:24).
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 132Come 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.October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 107The Gift of TestimonyElder Gérald CausséElder Caussé, recalling the scripture that comforted him at two calls to serve, teaches that bearing witness of Jesus Christ belongs not only to apostles but to every disciple who has taken His name by covenant.October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 121Jesus Christ Is the Great Deliverer!Elder Kevin J. HathawayElder Hathaway testifies that Jesus Christ is the great deliverer and that the question for the faithful is not whether He will deliver, but how and when.

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
Read the full list of revised section headings side by side with the 2013 headings, and see which Joseph Smith Papers volumes drove each change (37:12).
The Nauvoo House, its stockholders and the unpublished March 1841 revelation about employing the poor (21:08).
W. W. Phelps's 1861 letter to Brigham Young about a July 1831 revelation, and how much weight a 30-year-old recollection can bear (52:01).
Hyrum Smith's affidavit on the Missouri persecutions, read on a visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman and Haun's Mill (2:53).
How the Reorganized Church argued for a century that Joseph never practiced plural marriage, and why it stopped (1:02:54).
SOT Litner · S5E45.