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A son in the MTC
S6E33 · Did Brigham Revise Joseph's Journal?
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Standard of Truth · Season 6 · Episode 33 · 1:06:59

Did Brigham Revise Joseph's Journal?

Joseph Smith's own journal for Christmas Eve 1842 says he 'read and revised history,' so if 'revised' means faked, critics would have to accuse Joseph too.

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The question ·
I am wondering if you can tell me why my sister, who was recently baptized as a bickerton, as a bicker tonight, is trying to tell me that Brigham Young revised parts of Joseph Smith's journal and that this revised version is now what the church uses.
Marta (listener)

Gerrit's son has entered the MTC, and Richard reports that the Kyulu Stake set a record of 47 own endowments in one day at the Nairobi Kenya Temple after listeners helped fund their trip. Marta asks why her sister, newly baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), says Brigham Young altered Joseph's journal. Gerrit explains that Joseph rarely wrote his own journal, that 'revised' in the 1840s simply meant editing history in progress, and that Joseph himself 'read and revised' it. He then traces the Bickertonites to Sidney Rigdon's church, reads their beliefs, and argues that accepting the Book of Mormon but rejecting Joseph's later revelations doesn't hold up, since the Book of Mormon and early revelations promise more to come.

Who comes upBrigham YoungJoseph SmithSidney RigdonWilliam BickertonWillard RichardsHyrum SmithJames StrangDavid Whitmer
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A son in the MTC

Gerrit's son is at the MTC on the Tagalog plan, and the hosts remember P-days.

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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 friend, Dr. Richard LeDuc.
Richard Hello, Gerrit, thanks for having me back. And by the time this airs, my son will be on a flight somewhere headed toward Mexico City, to the Mexico MTC. And you're Your... son is still in the Provo MTC?
Gerrit Yes, we talked to him today because it was P-Day. I don't know that the MTC is the highlight of every missionary's mission.
Richard It was funny when our kids, when our, for Andrew and Rigdon, when they, so they went to Provo MTC. This is our first kid going to a different MTC. And they were there for a short period of time and they were always really busy doing things. It's like, we were so excited to talk to them in the first week of getting a chance to talk to them. And they were doing their laundry or playing basketball or doing whatever. It couldn't be bothered.
Gerrit Well, and for poor Ky, so he has, so, you know, the dirty little secret of the MTC is, you know, everyone has different P-days because they've got a billion missionaries there.
Richard You know what I mean?
Gerrit Well, 30,000, but still, there's a lot of missionaries there.
Richard Yeah, right.
Gerrit And the problem is the worst day to have your P-day is Tuesday.
Richard Why is that?
Gerrit Because they have a devotional on. That's also the day that you can go to the temple. But there is no Provo Temple right now, so you have to commute to a temple somewhere else. So most of the time, he's going to, like, Payson to go to the temple. So he spends somewhere in the neighborhood of three and a half hours just going to the temple, and then the second half of his day gets bookended by the devotional that they have.
Richard Yes.
Gerrit So he loses that, too.
Richard That's funny.
Gerrit So he's doing all right. It's, you know, I think we weren't there very long for our missions. Although I did do the call center. So I was there for a couple of weeks.
Richard I did, too. I did the call center as well. That was enjoyable. I enjoy that very much. But, yeah, no, it's fun. Kai's only there for a couple of weeks and he goes to the Philippines.
Gerrit Four weeks and then he goes to the Philippine MTC.
Richard Right. He's on the 19 month Tagalog language learning plan.
Gerrit Sometime when he has six months left, he goes into the field.
Richard He's getting the dialect specifically.
Gerrit You know the worst part about that is he goes into the field with three months left and his mission baptizes 200 more people than I did on my mission.
Richard Well before we get into the Phebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag, we did want to give an update to the Litners. So the listeners have been beyond, ridiculously beyond generous to Sweetwater Rescue, which is a foundation that we started to help folks get to the temple that live far away from the temple. And our last temple trip was to Nairobi Kenya and helping some folks from the Kyulu Stake get to the Nairobi Kenya Temple. Well, we were able to raise enough funds in that fundraising effort that we were able to actually send a second group to the temple. And they went last week. And we got, we've made nice friendships over there when we went over there and with the person who's responsible for all of the hotels or the temple hotel when people come in from long distances to stay. And so this was the update that we received.
Richard From her, I received a call from the Kenyan Nairobi Temple reporting that from their meeting yesterday, the Kyulu Stake recorded the highest number of own endowment ordinances in African temples done in one day. Yes. The record. Yes. So this was last week. We recorded a total of 47 own endowments in one day. And it's not a very big temple. So that's incredible. So 47. The previous record was held by Ghana Accra Temple at 35. So how awesome. Wow. How cool is that? How stinking cool is that?
Gerrit So you're breaking records.
Richard Oh yeah.
Gerrit The Sweetwater Rescue is like the the Babe Ruth of own endowments.
Richard Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. President Sammy, he pointed a bat toward the stands and then hit a home run. Yeah.
Gerrit There was a kid in the hospital somewhere and he's like, I've got this.
Richard Well, so we have a couple of other temple plans that are are slated for next year and we don't have anything to announce just yet. We don't want to get out of ourselves, but anyway, I just wanted to say just a massive thank you to everybody that donated. And we, again, we raised enough money to send, we were able to send a second group. So anyway, just awesome.
Gerrit That's awesome.
Richard All right. Jumping in, Gerrit, to the Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag. Starting with Evangeline, I hope that I'm pronouncing that name.
Gerrit You know what, even if you aren't, I think we earned the right to say whatever we want, given how she addresses us.
Richard Yes. Dear Pastor Derek and Rick Dukes. Rick Dukes is my alter ego for, now Pastor Derek is when you're on tour in Jerusalem.
Gerrit In Israel, yes, when we went to the Garden Tomb and the Evangelical Christian who was giving us the guide, who himself was a pastor, assumed that I was also a pastor. And I don't know if it's because we talked for a minute and it was clear that I knew the New Testament really well. You know what I mean? And so I don't know if you just, oh, clearly you must be a good Christian pastor leading your people here. And so he started, he thought, but I said my name is Gerrit and I, you know, every time I've ever said my name is Gerrit. Derrick. You mean Eric?
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit Derrick? Yeah, Derrick, whatever.
Richard I mean, just whatever. Sure.
Gerrit So I didn't know this because he had control of my, like we have like these little speaking headsets that you wear when you're walking around. I gave him mine so he could talk to everyone in my group and they didn't all have to be together. They could hear him, right? But I couldn't hear what he was saying. But people kept walking up to me and pushing me and laughing as though I could hear what he was saying. And eventually when we all got back together, eventually we all got back together, he was like, he said, well, you know, Pastor Derek here. And I'm like, oh my goodness. So at this point he's called me Derek and not just Derek, he's called me Pastor Derek. So he thinks I'm an Evangelical Christian pastor. I'm here with a bunch of Evangelical Christians. I didn't have the heart to tell him I was a Mormon. I mean, we said we're from the Church of Jesus Christ, the Latter-day Saints. I don't think he just didn't get it.
Richard Yeah, no, no. The rebrand hasn't gotten back to him yet. Yeah. So, and Rick Dukes is my alter ego when I give top five or top 10 lists on this podcast.
Gerrit We're doing a top 10 list right now.
Richard We are.
Gerrit But we need a sounder. This is Rick Dukes with the weekly tab 12. Yeah.
Richard Welcome back. Well, so the issue here, by the way, there was a friendly wager of no money and no actual money will change hands, but there's an email that I'm going to read after this one, and I don't believe that you're going to actually get the money from Ezra Booth.
Gerrit I am going to do what I believe. I believe.
Richard Okay. Well, I mean, I'm not pushing. When we talked about it before, there's certain things where you're like, hey, I'd like to speak to this, and I'd like to calmly explain why this is a frustrating position.
Gerrit I feel like one of the things that I'm best at is calmly staying on topic. I feel like that's actually, it should be the Standard of Truth podcast, calmly staying on topic. That should be our tagline. That's great.
Richard That's great. I have been litening to the podcast for over three years, mostly off and on because I've been litening to you while walking my dog, and I loathe being cold. Alas, I live in Utah. During the summer, I can get into a whole podcast episode from one walk, but during the winter, my dog is lucky to go three or four houses before I want to go back to the warmth of my house, which means I don't get past the sports picks. I've caught up to the current year because I binged the 2024, 2025 episodes this summer, and my dog, Lily, is quite the gospel scholar now. If only she could talk. I laugh out loud while litening. I love the consistency on litening, by the way.
Gerrit It's very funny every time. I love the fact of mocking our inability to speak. It's the best part.
Richard While litening and enjoy hissing, whenever John C. Bennett's name is mentioned, like a vampire being exposed to direct sunlight, which gets me some interesting looks from my neighbors. I'm writing to you because my niece is going on a mission. Both she and I were hoping that she would go international. She was called to the Minneapolis Minnesota Mission. I don't know. I know it doesn't hold a candle to the story to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania mission. But as soon as she recovers from her first bout with frostbite, you get because the frostbite is already going to be coming in, in August.
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, yeah, sometime around September is the first freeze.
Richard It's like Star Valley, Wyoming. You can't grow tomatoes. You have a foot of snow by September.
Gerrit You get half a cutting of hay, a whole year, half a cut.
Richard We used to joke about how cold things were by how many cuts of hay. It was such an inaccurate measure, but that was anyway fine. I am sure she will love it. I told her about your podcast, telling her it would help her understand the people she is teaching on her mission. But really, it's so I have someone to make snide inside jokes from the podcast with. I just have to wait a year and a half for this dastardly plot to come to fruition. Her mission or email is such. By the way, my aunt served her mission in the same mission. So there you go. My aunt Jan.
Gerrit Well, it borders the Wisconsin mission. So I feel like I have a good idea of what her mission is going to be like.
Richard Just how cold it is.
Gerrit I think cold will be the least of your concerns.
Richard They don't call it a bubbler there, or do they?
Gerrit I don't know in Minnesota.
Richard In Wisconsin, they call a drinking fountain a bubbler.
Gerrit They call a drinking fountain a bubbler, which is ridiculous. That's hilarious. And the stop and go lights. You go up to the stop and go lights, which is crazy. Like if you didn't say stop and go, you just know you're there. You just can't ever move.
Richard Calling a drinking fountain a bubbler suggests that you're unfamiliar with water as a liquid. You choose another liquid as a group.
Gerrit Because so much of the water they see is frozen in the water buds, but they're like, no, this is like liquid water. It's running.
Richard It's either frozen or filled with hops and barley.
Gerrit That's how they prefer their water most. They prefer their water with a slight 12 percent of alcohol in it.
Richard 12 percent!
Gerrit Jeez!
Richard For a beer, that is an aggressive... We'll get the correct research staff on alcohol content by Likour is here. Thank you for your faith and the downed Earth way. I don't know why that's funny to me, downed Earth way. That reminds me of something my mother said to me like 10 years ago or something like that. We were home for a holiday or something. She had talked about a book that she had just read. She said to me, her son, her oldest son, oh, Richard, you would like it. It's a real easy read. I was like, what?
Gerrit This is before you had the problem seeing things that weren't 94 font.
Richard I had perfect vision at that time.
Gerrit Yeah.
Richard It's a real easy read. I'm like, what's that supposed to mean? She's like, you know, it's doing.
Gerrit I mean, it's like, it's like when I'm teaching people a game, it's like, this game's like so easy, like even Richard could learn it.
Richard Yeah. It's what Guy Cooke did to the cavemen. Yeah.
Gerrit You're like, mom, I have a PhD. I could probably figure it out.
Richard I only had a master's degree. Before I listened to the podcast, I didn't realize we really didn't believe in hell. That's unfortunate because I know a few people that long in Protestant hell present company excluded. I also didn't realize that other Christians didn't believe God was a man before he became God. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Gerrit gave the King Follett sermon at the door approaches in Wisconsin. Few things make me happy just thinking about it. Happier than just thinking about it. That is one of the things that does. Thank you for everything, although you didn't mention BYU football enough in 2025, by the way, we're 14, 14 pre-season polls, depending on the poll, tied with USC in, I believe it was the AP poll. And I mean, our quarterback is some sort of, you know, some sort of like Roman mythological character.
Richard It's like, was it, someone called him a centaur? Or what was it?
Gerrit Oh, really? Because he's half horse?
Richard Yeah, he's half horse. It's just crazy. Anyway, so I'm very excited, by the way, Gerrit. It's gonna be a great year. Just saying, by the way, season starts in a few weeks. I'm very well aware of that. So go Cougs, thank you very much for the email. Now this next email comes to us from Marta. So let's, let's see how we do. Okay.
Gerrit This is what everyone wants.
Richard Yeah. Did Brigham change records? That's the subject of the email.
Gerrit I wish we had a visual of the dander meter.
Richard If you want to get Gerrit to work that, put that in the subject. I am wondering if you can tell me why my sister, who was recently baptized as a bickerton, as a bicker tonight, is trying to tell me that Brigham Young revised parts of Joseph Smith's journal and that this revised version is now what the church uses. I know it's not season 38 yet, but I'm assuming she is trying to prove that Joseph did not practice polygamy. She thinks Brigham Young is evil. But where is she getting this idea that the records were changed? And is there any truth to this? Thank you, friend of the show, Marta. Now, it's important to say also that everything that Gerrit is about to say is not toward Marta. We love Marta, friend of the show.
Gerrit Yes, Marta, the unfortunate part about kicking a hornet's nest is sometimes hornets live there. And look, this has become a cause de jure lately, especially among people in the polygamy denialism movement. Who are using the kind of conspiracy theory tactics to try to make an argument against the entire academic world, right? And your sister joining the the Bickertonites, you know, is saying to you, oh, well, Brigham Young changed some of the sources. Now, the reason why they do this is because there are multiple places in Brigham Young's office journal, which they wouldn't even be able to tell you what that was, which is actually the first place that you know that the person giving you the information doesn't know what they're talking about.
Gerrit I mean, if someone were to say to me, oh, this person changed Joseph Smith's journal, my first question would be who was the scribe for that portion of Joseph's journal? Cause you know, Joseph didn't actually write it, right? So, I know we call it Joseph's journal. There is precious little that Joseph himself wrote in his own handwriting in his journal.
Richard So, maybe just a quick, I mean, you've talked about the Bigger Tonight's in the past. Maybe just a quick explanation. Oh, I'm going to get there. Don't worry. Oh, yeah.
Gerrit Don't worry.
Richard Okay. Very good.
Gerrit We're going to talk. But I wanted to set the stage on our side first.
Richard Very good.
Gerrit Okay. Because this claim is made by far more than just someone who's affiliated with the Bigger Tonight's, right? There are multiple, in fact, every major modern apostate movement, whether they're the snufferites, whether they're the people following Justin Griffin, whether they are people that are being let off by, I guess, various other influencers, things like that. This is a fairly common claim. Now, you also have people that are denying that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, who some of them are still in the church, and then some of them have been excommunicated for preaching false doctrine and refusing to stop. I mean, when the crux of your message is that Doctrine and Covenant, section 132 is not actually scripture, and it's a forged revelation, and Brigham Young invented it and forged it, and well, that's, I know you might think, well, I'm just asking questions. Well, no, you're not. Once you make a declarative statement that a part of scripture is forged, well, then you're not just asking questions anymore.
Gerrit You know, and look, we've talked about this before. Sometimes people hide behind the fact of like, well, you should be able to think whatever you want without getting excommunicated. And you know what? That's actually true. You can think whatever you want. The problem is, if I know what you think, it isn't just what you think. If I know what you think, it means you're telling somebody about it. So you can have all kinds of questions in your mind. We all do. If I know that you're claiming a part of the scriptures is a forgery, well, then that's not something that you are just thinking to yourself. It's something you're teaching. And that's actually the definition of teaching false doctrine. The church has doctrine. The church tells you where doctrine comes from. You're like, yeah, no, no, I'm a believer.
Gerrit I'm a believer. I'm a believer. It's just the church is totally wrong about this. I don't think you understand what teaching false doctrine actually means. The way that the false doctrine meter works is you don't get to be like, I'm like totally right on like 85% of what the church teaches. It's just 15% is just all made up lies. But other than that, I'm like totally straight. No, that's not how that works. We have a prophet who declares what doctrine is. And even though every person making this claim sure thinks they know more than the prophet, that's not how that works. This claim is made by lots of people. And what they do is they take something, so there are multiple places in Brigham Young's office journal where he says, spent the day reading history, spent the day revising history. And they go, oh, oh really? Revising the history, you say.
Gerrit So you know what he was doing when he was revising the history? He was going back and putting in a bunch of polygamy stuff and taking out all of the proof that Joseph Smith never practiced it. Now look, there are a few places where, you know, there's certainly what was once said is condensed down. For instance, Hyrum Smith gives a public sermon where he denounces the idea of spiritual wifery. And when it's published in the revised history of the church, it simply just says Hyrum spoke on multiple other topics. Like it doesn't go into the whole thing. See, that proves it. That proves that Hyrum Smith never practiced polygamy, even though Mercy and Mary Fielding both say that he did, but they're both liars and we know they're liars because what they said is what we don't want to believe. So they've taken this unfamiliarity with the documents.
Gerrit I don't know where the journals came from. In fact, your sister, Marta, actually said that. Oh, that he took Joseph's journals and revised them. No, Brigham Young didn't go through Joseph's journal and start crossing words out. Portions of Joseph's journal and primarily his letters and some of his sermons and things from other people's journals, like William Clayton's journal, by the way, which definitively discusses Joseph Smith and Hyrum practicing plural marriage. Portions of that are excerpted out to create some of the sections that we have, like section 129 and section 130 and section 131. So, that's the argument they make, that because it says revised, that proves that Brigham Young is changing things. Now, what they don't tell you is, well, they're working on the history of the church when Joseph is around too. Let me read you something from Joseph's journal, since we're used to changing everything in it.
Gerrit This is December 24th, Christmas Eve, 1842. PM, Read and Revised History. So now we know that Joseph Smith was also lying in changing the history. Now, of course, they don't actually share that with anyone. Why? Because they want the terminology revised to carry the super negative connotation that it does in today's world, when in fact all it really means is they're going over the history that Willard Richards is working on right then. And he's adding stuff in or taking stuff away. And you actually don't know what portions Joseph is saying, add this and take this. You don't actually know that. So I'm going to make the same type of argument they make. Yeah, right then, Joseph had just been sealed to someone for one of his plural marriages. And they had written that into the history. And so Joseph told them to take it out.
Gerrit And that's why he said, revise the history. Only I don't have any evidence of that, right? And that's part of the problem when you're dealing with something like this. When people, when anyone presents you with something like this, the church is wrong about everything. All of the historians are wrong about everything. Every person who's ever researched, written, and talked about this with any kind of PhD degree at all is wrong about everything. It's important to stop and ask that person, what would you take as evidence? Because you won't take Clayton's Journal. You're saying, well, that must be a forgery. Why? Well, because I don't like it. Okay, well, what about George A. Smith talking about, well, he's obviously in on it. Okay, well, what about Hebrew C. Kimball? He's obviously in on it. Okay, well, what about the hundreds of men and women who were taught plural marriage by Joseph Smith and practiced it in Joseph Smith's time?
Gerrit Well, they're all in on it too. Okay, so I can't use any source. None of them count. So I can only use sources that say what you want, right? I'm more than willing to admit that there's some confusion when it comes to sources because Joseph is making public denials, carefully, carefully worded denials of plural marriage because polygamy is against the law in Illinois. So I'm more than willing to admit. I get it that it's muddy. And Emma does say that Joseph didn't teach or practice it. Okay, at the same time, does Emma trump dozens and dozens and dozens of other sources? That's the reason why historians go, well, no, she doesn't. That's not how that works. She doesn't get to, by her one interview, given decades and decades after the case and in a position where she's being interviewed by her son, who's the prophet of the reorganized church, whose entire claim rests on the fact that Joseph never would have taught polygamy.
Gerrit Any one who teaches polygamy is a false prophet. Therefore, Brigham Young is a false prophet and he's a true prophet, right? So it's important to ask because you're just gonna run your head into the wall. What would you take as evidence? Because you won't take the current prophet and quorum of the 12 apostles. They put out a statement just last year. Definitively, did Joseph Smith teach polygamy or did Brigham Young teach it? Joseph Smith introduced the practice of plural marriage. Well, they're just wrong about that. Or, they've been deceived about that. Or they're lying about that. Okay, so they won't take the church as authority. They also won't take any of the historical community. And again, not someone who has a YouTube. Someone who's been published by an academic press on the topic. So they won't accept either the church's authority or the historical community's authority. At that point, you now know that they won't accept any source that doesn't agree with what they believe.
Gerrit And so now, back to your particular question though, Marta. Let me tell you the reason why my dander went up just a little bit. Your sister is claiming that Brigham Young altered something that Joseph Smith said and changed Joseph Smith's teachings. I'm going to try to do this very, very, very delicately. And I've already failed by the very fact I had to say that. The Bickertonite Church, their name is the Church of Jesus Christ. We've talked about them a little bit before when we talked about Sidney Rigdon. This is where Sidney Rigdon, when he leads and goes and starts his own church after Joseph is murdered, and then will eventually claim that Joseph became a fallen prophet. Very, very interestingly, the founder of what will later become the Church of Jesus Christ, Sidney Rigdon, himself attacks Joseph Smith for practicing plural marriage.
Gerrit So you have to now eliminate that from your source, right? But Rigdon eventually gets excommunicated from his own church. I mean, it's sad, but also kind of hilarious.
Richard Sweet justice, yes.
Gerrit I mean, he goes and found the church, and then the church cuts him out. The leader is someone that he ended up baptizing a guy by the name of William Bickerton.
Richard So why did they kick him out?
Gerrit He was trying to create a commune. He was trying to, where they held property in common, and he was really pushing it on the church. And the members of the church believe that he wasn't doing it appropriately. And so they refused to go forward with him as their leader.
Richard So rather than going with all property being everybody's, it was like, yeah, but not with you.
Gerrit So they didn't, and the Church of Jesus Christ today, the Bickertonite Church, they're based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. They don't call themselves Bickertonites any more than we call ourselves Mormons. And in fact, if you ever want to see people who are most mad at anyone being called Mormon, it's them. They lose their minds. They hate it so much. Now, look, there is a lot that is pretty awesome about the Church of Jesus Christ in Monongahela, the Bickertonite Church. They are devoted believers of the Book of Mormon. And I mean just absolutely devoted. If you go to a worship service, you are going to have people quoting from the Book of Mormon in ways you wish people were doing in your Sunday school, instead of telling a travel log. Although I did hear a travel log once when I was there. But I mean, they love the Book of Mormon. It is, and they believe it is absolutely the Word of God.
Gerrit So it can be a very attractive in that sense, like you're going to feel right at home there. But that's the end of what they accept. They believe that Joseph Smith had a vision. They believe that Joseph Smith was called by God to translate the Book of Mormon. But let me read you something from their own website. Again, I'm not going to do anti-Bickertonite stuff here. I'm going to read to you from their website so that you know what we're talking about here. What are the scriptures that the Church uses? The Church of Jesus Christ accepts the Bible, the King James Version, and the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired, holy scriptures. You know what? Sounds good. We're on board with it. Yep. Yeah. Question. If you believe in the Book of Mormon, doesn't that make you a Mormon?
Gerrit Now you're about to get an angry answer because they hate that word. This is one of the most frequently asked questions about the Church. You can tell already, their dander meter is up. If someone believes in the Old Testament, that does not automatically make that person a Jew. Similarly if someone believes in the Bible, that doesn't mean that the person is Catholic, Baptist or Pentecostal. The Church of Jesus Christ has no affiliation or connection with Mormonism. Many aspects of Mormon doctrine are not supported by the Book of Mormon, nor are they part of our beliefs. The Book of Mormon is a record of Jesus Christ in the land of North Central and South America. It's scriptures go hand in hand with the Bible as Christ set up his church in the same in Palestine as he did in the Americas. Why do you accept the Book of Mormon as the Word of God, but not the other texts specific to Mormonism?
Gerrit The Bible prophesies of the Book of Mormon. The other Mormon texts are comprised of various revelations of Joseph Smith that do not coincide with either the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Now, were I in a debate, I would take incredible exception to that wide-ranging statement, right? But for your sister, Marta, I hate to break it to you. But she couldn't be more disingenuous if she tried. She's worried that there's a possibility that maybe Brigham Young changed some of the teachings of Joseph Smith. But she just got baptized into a church that specifically rejects all of the revelations that Joseph Smith received.
Gerrit You know what's worse than changing some of the teachings of Joseph Smith? Rejecting them. So yeah, a little bit more important than crossing out a line or a paragraph here is rejecting everything that Joseph taught.
Richard That one is interesting to me, where the Book of Mormon comes forth through the gift and power of God, through Joseph Smith. But that's the end. Because for Sidney Rigdon, his claim was that Joseph was a fallen prophet, right?
Gerrit Eventually, his claim was Joseph was a fallen prophet. It starts off with, what's Brigham doing? I'm the greatest guy ever. And then a year later becomes, by the way, Joseph became a fallen prophet.
Richard But that's a stunning thing to me, that how the Book of Mormon comes forth is not in... I mean, they would believe the same things relative that we believe as far as the Book of Mormon coming forth.
Gerrit Oh, yeah. In fact, I mean, you know, to do justice to their church, I should, you know, I mean, like I said, I have enormous respect. Every member of this church that I've ever met is an amazing person and a great Christian. Obviously, I'm sure they have terrible people in their church just like we do in ours. I'm just saying the ones that I've met, so impressed. And why am I so impressed? Because they live their lives like every word in the Book of Mormon. I mean, they are like fundamentalist Baptists with the Bible. That's what they're like with the Book of Mormon. Like every word in the Book of Mormon is the only thing that matters. Now, they also believe in the Bible too. But here is a list of their beliefs. Again, I'm on their website. I'm not going to do the whole like anti-Bickerton site that someone's like, yeah, and then you know what else William Bickerton did.
Gerrit I'm not doing that. I'm reading it from their site. Okay. We believe in God. The Father, His Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. These three are the great matchless power who created the universe and who rule all things. God provides everything for this life and eternal salvation. And in between, they have a whole bunch of scriptures cited from First Nephi and from Exodus. God is a personage of glory. The Son was with the Father from the beginning. The Son was born of a Virgin Mary. Jesus became a man, established His church and suffered and died for the sins of mankind. I mean, I think we're okay with a lot of things here, right? Jesus resides at the right hand of God. Jesus is the head of the body, His church. Jesus will return to earth in a Second Coming. I mean, again, I think a lot of people are like, sign me up. Yeah, right. The Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost, is the mind of the Father and of the Son.
Gerrit The unseen power and glory which emanates from God and can manifest in various forms and is a witness and a gift from God. So they are not Trinitarian, let's put that that way. They claim that the Holy Spirit is the power of God, not a personage of spirit. How do we know that the Holy Spirit is a personage of spirit? Because Joseph Smith taught it. That's one of the things that we're going to say, put that on the side and say that it's not.
Richard Right? Right.
Gerrit Okay. We believe the Book of Mormon, we believe the Bible and the Book of Mormon are one. The Book of Mormon, so in a list of all the things they have from this, the Book of Mormon does not support polygamy in any form. That's a little bit of a stretch, given what Jacob 2 actually says, for if I will raise up seed into me, I will command my people. Otherwise, they will, I mean. Many pure and precious tenets established by Christ were changed or lost during the early centuries of the church. So again, they believe in an apostasy. God continues to reveal his will. They don't say through prophets. He continues to reveal his will through divine revelation.
Gerrit These are given in dreams, visions, signs, gifts, and his word to whomever he chooses. We believe in eternal life. Jesus' resurrection was to eternal life and immortality. The righteous who believed in Christ through his prophecy before his birth expected to resurrect with him. Many of them were seen at the time of Jesus' resurrection. At the time of Christ's Second Coming will be another resurrection of the righteous who have died or will die since. The Second Coming of Christ will occur at the end of the world in sequence with the peaceful reign. Christ will wed his bride, the church, gathering himself, and all the righteous, those who have resurrected, those resurrecting with his coming, and all those alive at his coming will be converted to the resurrected state to dwell with him for a thousand years. So this millennial reign, very similar, right? We believe that marriage is ordained between man and woman. Marriage is instituted by God as a covenant between one man and one woman for life.
Gerrit I mean, so look, there's a lot of things that we believe that you find that we believe them because they come from the Book of Mormon.
Richard You said for life, right?
Gerrit Yes. They don't believe in eternal marriage.
Richard Well, yeah, because it's not in the Book of Mormon.
Gerrit Why would you believe in eternal marriage?
Richard Yeah, it's not in the Book of Mormon.
Gerrit You would either receive a revelation, explaining it, which you don't accept, because it's a revelation. Anyway, I mean, we could go through all of them, but I mean, I was trying to do a little justice to what it is their church believes. Oh, and you can see so many of them emanating from the Book of Mormon. But as it relates to Marta and her question, look, you don't have to study a whole lot about Joseph Smith to know that the doctrine he loves more than any other doctrine is the doctrine of baptism for the dead. He loves it. It is a doctrine he cherishes. He talks about it all the time. He repeats it over and over again. He is giving sermons all throughout his Nauvoo period about how God can only be just if everyone has an opportunity. And your sister just joined a church that doesn't believe that baptism for the dead is a true doctrine.
Gerrit But yes, lecture us on how Brigham Young changed what Joseph taught. There are lots of teachings from Joseph Smith that we have literally dozens and dozens and dozens of sources, contemporary sources on, that the Church of Jesus Christ, the Bickertonites, that they reject because they reject revelation. They reject the Doctrine and Covenants. Now, I very much appreciate what they do believe. I appreciate them as fellow Christians. I love the fact that they love the Book of Mormon so much and they defend it so much. But boy, of the people who can make an accusation, that you're not teaching what Joseph once taught. Bickertonites are not the right people to be making that argument. Because we have 12,000 Joseph Smith documents and nearly every one of them, they are rejecting as authoritative.
Gerrit Even though Joseph is saying, this is authoritative. So, how do you decide that Joseph is authoritative when the Book of Mormon is being printed, but he's not being authoritative when he says this revelation is being printed? Well, because that's what I think. And that's not really the best place to be. And I've said this before. The only schismatic group that maintains everything that Joseph taught is Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve. Have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that only Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve go to Utah? There is no question among scholars. Zero, zero question about whether or not Joseph Smith was anticipating going out of the country. In 1843, he's talking about the fact they need to leave the country.
Gerrit He starts the Council of 50 with the express purpose of negotiating with Texas, of planning out maybe going to Oregon or going to Mexico. Well, why is it then that Sidney Rigdon doesn't take his followers to Mexico? Why doesn't James Strang take his followers to Mexico? Why doesn't David Whitmer take his followers to Mexico? You can tell just by where the church goes who is following Joseph and who isn't. Joseph thinks the temple is so important that he wants the temple done before they leave. And everyone else who breaks off stops thinking that the temple is important at all. But who do you think really maintains the faith that Joseph Smith had? Now, you can take the claim, like, look, David Whitmer is similar.
Gerrit He argued Joseph was absolutely a prophet, the Book of Mormon is absolutely the word of God. And then at some point, Joseph Smith became a fallen prophet and started teaching things that weren't true. Now, when that point that Joseph fell became, David Whitmer keeps changing that over the course of his life. He's like, well, it was 1837. Well, it was actually, I could tell, in 1835. Well, it was really in 1831. It's like, I mean, so as he looks back, he can't even figure it out, but he knows at some point Joseph fell. And so he absolutely believed the Book of Mormon was true, but rejected nearly every revelation Joseph Smith had received because he was a fallen prophet. And so, you know, again, respect your sister. I'm glad she's finding a faith. I hope she's happy. I'm glad that she still believes the Book of Mormon's true. I'm glad she's concerned about Joseph Smith. But the question to ask her is, why are you only concerned about one paragraph of Joseph Smith's teachings?
Gerrit Maybe you should be concerned about the other 12,000 documents. Because we don't believe that the Book of Mormon has everything that we need to know. The understanding of the afterlife, the three degrees of glory, the idea of work for the dead, the idea that every person will have an equal opportunity to be saved, the idea that marriages can be sealed for eternity. All of those things come later. And yeah, you know, you can be mad enough at Brigham Young that you say, well, I don't care, I'm going to reject everything. But you can't pretend you're not rejecting what Joseph taught, at least be clear about what you're doing. You are saying that even though Joseph declared all of these revelations to be scripture and then expounded upon them publicly dozens and dozens and dozens of times, that all of that was wrong.
Gerrit People are welcome to believe whatever they want to believe. But you can spare me the pearl clutching that you're worried Brigham Young is changing Joseph Smith's teachings because you just joined a church that has rejected all of them in total. Now, again, doesn't mean that someone's a bad person, but we are different churches for a reason. People can be wonderful, great people and not agree on the same things about religion. But we do need to not be hypocritical about it. If we're going to claim the reason I have a problem with the church is Brigham Young changed aspects of Joseph's teachings, well, then you better have a real problem with anyone who changes aspects of Joseph's teachings, regardless of who they are. Not just, you know, what you think you can score as an easy point.
Gerrit Now, Richard, you said I wouldn't get to Ezra Booth.
Richard I did have 13 more minutes of questions about The Bigger Than That.
Gerrit Okay, well, go ahead and ask those. We'll see what happens.
Richard Well, no, I just, it is an interesting thing to me that is, I struggle understanding this, especially with the Book of Mormon. And I'm just asking the same question in a different way, but if I have as a scripture the Book of Mormon, look, I understand the polygamy aspect to it. And so maybe that's the thing that makes it the easiest break, is that if I don't accept these other teachings, then I don't have to accept it. But I mean, the Book of Mormon is such a miraculous thing to come forth. I mean, they believe the same general history of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, correct, with angels and First Vision experience?
Gerrit Oh yeah, and you can read sermons from there. They have a quorum of the 12 apostles, and you can read sermons from them where they quote from Joseph Smith history about the First Vision and about Moroni coming. I mean, they certainly believe that Joseph was divinely inspired to get the gold plates and to translate them into English. But you notice why they said they rejected all the other teachings, right? That they said they reject them because that those teachings are not in the Bible and Book of Mormon.
Richard It's fascinating though, because for us, for us, I mean, obviously we love the Book of Mormon. And to your point, I love that they love the Book of Mormon as much as they do. I mean, they are some holy, some holy envy, right? Like I wish that our Sabbath day observance was more like the Jews. And I wish that we loved the Book of Mormon as much as the Bickertonites. But at the same time, though, for us, while the Book of Mormon is obviously, we believe it to be scripture, the Book of Mormon acts as the keystone of our religion as it is the thing that is the work of a prophet, right? Coming forth of the Book of Mormon is the thing that allows for us to say, well, is the Book of Mormon true? Yes, the Book of Mormon is true. If the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a prophet. Joseph Smith is a prophet. Then the Lord had things that he taught him. And maybe it's just in my mind, that's the missionary explanation of these things, right?
Richard And so that's the part that I'm having a difficult time understanding where they're coming from. Because for us, the Book of Mormon is one thing that shows all of these other things. But for them, it's kind of a stand-alone... I mean, the First Vision occurred?
Gerrit Yeah. Oh, yeah. They believe in the First Vision.
Richard What about D&C 76? Because that's...
Gerrit So, frankly, they don't really get into those things. So, they don't spend a lot of time, because if it's not in the Bible and it's not in the Book of Mormon, then it's not essential for salvation.
Richard So, I don't know the Latin for two, instead of sola, sola scriptura.
Gerrit Right. That it's not sola scriptura, it's what duoscriptura is.
Richard Yeah, duoscriptura, right.
Gerrit And that's essentially it. I mean, we've talked about this on the podcast before, that there were people who joined the church, who adopted their same Christian idea, that the Bible is the only source of answer, and that there were early members who joined, who believed the Book of Mormon, but started treating the Book of Mormon the same way they treated the Bible, to try to trump what Joseph said.
Richard Well, so, by the way, that actually makes sense to me, though, right? The reason that that makes sense to me is because if you're coming from a place where scripture is the thing that tells us what to do and what things are and how things are to be, it makes sense to me that I could say that the Book of Mormon is scripture, but hey, Joseph, why don't you dial it back on some of your thoughts, because, you know, it's scripture. I mean, I can understand how coming from that world, how you're used to that idea of, hey, this is additional scripture, but let's not mess it up with a bunch of things that we think.
Gerrit Yeah, and here's one of the great failing points, I think, of that argument. Let's just say...
Richard For the record, I don't agree with that, by the way.
Intro Yeah, no, well, I feel like we're gonna...
Gerrit I'm gonna need to talk to your bishop, they're gonna have to be a membership council. Let me give you a reason why this is a problematic thing. Many of the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, and we will just leave Joseph's letters out of this, many of them are received while Joseph is translating the Book of Mormon.
Richard Wait.
Gerrit So you're saying that Doctrine and Covenants section three and section five are not authoritative, even though Joseph is receiving it, while he is translating the text that you are claiming are authoritative.
Richard In the same way, though, right?
Gerrit In the same way, at the same place. I mean, Doctrine and Covenants section five. You have a gift to translate the plates, and this is the first gift that I bestowed upon you. Speaking in the name of the Lord here, Doctrine and Covenants section five. And I've commanded you that you should pretend to know other gift until my purpose is fulfilled, for I will grant unto you no other gift until it is finished. Sure sounds like there's gonna be another gift when it is finished though, right? Right. Okay, Verily I say unto you that woe shall come upon the inhabitants of the earth that you do not harken unto my words, for hereafter you shall be ordained and go forth to deliver my words to the children of men. Behold, if they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all the things which I have committed unto you. Oh, this unbelieving and stiff-necked generation, my anger is kindled against them.
Gerrit Behold, verily I say to you, I have reserved those things which I have entrusted unto you, my servant Joseph, for a wise purpose in me, and it shall be made owner to future generations. But this generation shall have my word through you. So, the same person who just gave you Alma, Chapter 5, is the same person at the same time who just said the Lord declared, this generation shall have my word through you. Now, I mean, I suppose someone could say, well, what they meant was just through him bringing forth the Book of Mormon, okay, that's not what it says. And look, even the testimony about the Book of Mormon, about the Three Witnesses, that their testimony shall go forth under the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts.
Gerrit You have this statement of ongoing revelation that's a part of the narrative of what's going on surrounding this. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 10, something very similar, right? Where God is talking to him about the translation. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 19. You know, again, are we saying that none of this is the word of God, even though it's literally being written down at the exact same time that Joseph is writing down the words of the translation of the Book of Mormon? Those, the word of God. These, wherever we want to classify them, they aren't the word of God, even though the Revelation themselves is saying that they are the word of God.
Richard What about the priesthood? They believe in that? The coming forth of Peter, James and John, John the Baptist?
Gerrit I'd have to ask them specifically what they think is going on with those things. But yeah, I mean, they certainly are organized with Quorum of the Twelve.
Richard Yeah, that is, it's a fascinating thing to me. And again, I think it's wonderful. The things that they do that are great is just awesome. And I guess it's my, I have the problem the opposite way because I've always thought about it this one way. And because I've always thought about it this way, it's difficult for me to see the other perspective. I'm sure if I was raised the other way, perhaps I would have a difficult time, perhaps the other way. But man, all just the best stuff that we believe.
Gerrit I mean, well, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 19. Martin Harris, I command you to repent and keep the commandments which you have received by the hand of my servant, Joseph Smith, in my name. I mean, very difficult to argue that Joseph is not having written down that the words he's receiving in Revelation are authoritative. They are commandments. I mean, I think that's actually the hardest place to be. Is Joseph was a prophet for something, but he wasn't a prophet for these other things, especially when those other things are things that he is saying as a prophet are from God. I mean, like Joseph says, I never told you I was perfect, but there is no error in the revelations I have received. I have taught, right? So Joseph is declaring that these are from God.
Gerrit Joseph is teaching that they are from God, and the revelation themselves are saying that they are from God. To say, yeah, but they are not really from God, the way the Book of Mormon is, is to draw an imaginary line the same way that someone does with the Bible and revelation after it. Well, there can't be any revelation after the Bible. Well, where does the Bible say that? Well, we just wouldn't need it. Yeah, I didn't ask that. I asked, where does the Bible say that? Well, we know that that was just all done away with the prophets and apostles. Well, where does the Bible? You just said the words, if it's not in the Bible, it's not true, and then you just said, my church can't be true because of something that's not in the Bible. So, well, you know, I mean, there's no revelation of any man to add to or take away from, okay, all right, no scholar believes that that's what that is saying, especially since there's New Testament books likely written after that, right?
Gerrit So, I know the proof texting you're doing, but you're saying to me a couple of things. One, if you don't believe in God the right way, not just a confession of belief, because Paul did not say, you know, if you confess with your mouth, you know, and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. What Paul meant to say was, and that you understand the divine essences and the way that the three persons interact with one another in one God, then you will be saved. That's what Paul meant to say. What he did say was, you just have to have faith in Jesus to be saved. But what he meant to say was, if you don't understand Trinity doctrine, then you're not saved. And I think that's the frustrating aspect of all of this is, if I play by your rules, and that is we don't believe in anything that isn't in the Bible, then why are you believing something that's not in the Bible?
Gerrit Why are you saying if I don't believe something that, and you'll say, well, you can find it. There are places in the Bible that talk about it. You're telling me I'm going to burn in hell over this. We're not having a dispute about how big the pieces of bread should be in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. You're saying because I don't properly understand the philosophical essence of God in relation to Jesus, that even though I'm certain that Jesus is my Savior, I am going to writhe in hell forever, even though I know Jesus died for me. Seems like out of the thousand pages in the Bible then, maybe there could be something that says something about that. Right? I mean, and back to this point, it is not possible to make a historical argument that Joseph Smith did not equally believe that these revelations were scripture.
Gerrit So in arguing that they are not scripture, you have to say Joseph was right about the Book of Mormon, but he was wrong about everything else. How do you know he was wrong about everything else? I mean, they kind of dismiss it with a little blithe, you know, statement about it, that the teachings of Mormonism aren't found anywhere in the Book of Mormon. Right? The Mormon texts are comprised of various revelations of Joseph Smith that do not coincide with either the Bible or Book of Mormon. Really? None of them do? Not one of those revelations, even the revelations that are about the Book of Mormon? Doctrine and Covenants Section 3, Doctrine and Covenants Section 5, Doctrine and Covenants Section 10 are literally about the Book of Mormon being translated, but they don't coincide with the Book of Mormon? Look, again, all respect for anyone who believes whatever they believe. But I am saying that is not a historically consistent position to take.
Gerrit If all you can believe in is the Book of Mormon, God love you and more power to you. If everyone believed in the Book of Mormon, we'd have a wonderful world. But Joseph Smith was also a prophet of God. And there's a reason why Brigham Young said that Joseph Smith, that to maintain a membership after he died, after he was murdered, that you need to believe that Joseph lived and died as a prophet. That we don't want anyone to fellowship with us who doesn't believe that. And frankly, I feel the same way today. And this dander meter brought to you by anyone claiming that Joseph Smith stopped being a prophet.
Richard And Jersey Mikes.
Gerrit But the point being, this is a dangerous place to play in. And the people who are making their, contrary to all church teaching and doctrines, their polygamy denialism videos, they can say all they want that they're trying to bring people the truth. Well, guess what? You just brought someone to the Church of Jesus Christ, Monongahela. That's what you just did. You can say that's not your fault. Well, pretty sure that they weren't going through trying to find the word revised in the office journals. You told them that. Now, this person is still accountable for their own stuff. But there's a reason why teachings come from the prophet. If things don't come from the prophet, then things end up in a bad way. So, please don't allow yourself to be deceived.
Gerrit And as we keep saying over and over and over again on this podcast, you are most likely to be deceived when someone is telling you what you want to believe. Run from those people. Whether it is political in nature, whether it is social in nature, whether it's historical or doctrinal in nature, if someone is trying to convince you of something that you already want to believe, but it is directly refuted by the current teachings of the church. Don't walk. Run. You are in grave peril because it's easy to be deceived when you want to be deceived. So we're out of time. We would have gotten to Ezra Booth, but Richard came back at me. This was his fun with numbers.
Gerrit See whether or not I could, how many minutes? But thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. And please keep the faith. Stay close to the prophet. Don't get deceived by the YouTube warriors and Instagram prophets. Thanks 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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You know the worst part about that is he goes into the field with three months left and his mission baptizes 200 more people than I did on my mission.

GerritBanter

The Sweetwater Rescue is like the the Babe Ruth of own endowments.

GerritBanter

I feel like one of the things that I'm best at is calmly staying on topic.

GerritBanter

Calling a drinking fountain a bubbler suggests that you're unfamiliar with water as a liquid.

RichardBanter

There is precious little that Joseph himself wrote in his own handwriting in his journal.

GerritInsight

The problem is, if I know what you think, it isn't just what you think. If I know what you think, it means you're telling somebody about it.

GerritInsight

It's important to stop and ask that person, what would you take as evidence?

GerritInsight

You know what's worse than changing some of the teachings of Joseph Smith? Rejecting them.

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And I wish that we loved the Book of Mormon as much as the Bickertonites.

RichardInsight

You are in grave peril because it's easy to be deceived when you want to be deceived.

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More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Brigham Young revised Joseph Smith's journal, and the revised version is what the Church uses.
You can accept the Book of Mormon as scripture but reject Joseph's later revelations.
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

Joseph wrote very little of his own journal. Before believing someone changed it, ask who the scribe was and what "revised" meant in the 1840s.

When someone rejects every source that disagrees with them, ask, "What would you take as evidence?" If nothing counts, it isn't a history question anymore.

Worrying that Brigham changed one paragraph of Joseph's teachings while rejecting all of Joseph's revelations isn't a consistent position.

We are most easily deceived when someone tells us what we already want to believe. If it runs against the current teachings of the Church, don't walk, run.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Two sons, two MTCsParker heads to the Mexico MTC while Kai is on the 19-month Tagalog plan with Tuesday P-days (0:45, 1:39, 3:11).
Pastor Derek and Rick DukesThe hosts' alter egos from Israel and from Richard's top-10 lists, and a new sounder for "the weekly top 12" (6:17, 6:34, 8:31).
Calmly staying on topicGerrit's proposed tagline, just before Marta's email raises the dander meter (9:21, 15:55).
LiteningRichard keeps saying "litening," and Gerrit loves the consistency (9:40, 10:24).
The John C. Bennett hissA listener hisses like a vampire in sunlight whenever Bennett is mentioned (10:32).
The only true missionA Minneapolis call doesn't hold a candle to Pittsburgh (10:32).
Bubblers and stop-and-go lightsWisconsin words, plus Star Valley's half a cutting of hay (11:14, 12:15, 12:34).
The Ezra Booth wagerRichard bets Gerrit won't get to Booth, keeps 13 minutes of extra questions in reserve, and wins (8:39, 48:28, 1:05:13).
BYU footballRichard notes a 14th preseason ranking and a quarterback someone called a centaur (14:13, 15:15).
The dander meterBrought to you by anyone claiming Joseph stopped being a prophet, "and Jersey Mike's" (15:55, 1:04:11).
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 132Sealed by the Holy Spirit of PromiseElder David A. BednarElder Bednar, using the image of a damaged passport rejected at a border, teaches that ordinances and covenants are our credentials for returning to God, and that their integrity must be maintained through ongoing faithfulness, ratified over time by the Holy Spirit of Promise.October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 19You Are Good Enough to TeachBrother Gabriel W. ReidBrother Reid, newly called to the Sunday School General Presidency and once described in a headline as an NFL player, admits wondering whether he is good enough to teach the gospel.

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
How the History of the Church was compiled from journals, letters and sermons, including William Clayton's journal for D&C 129 to 131 (22:58).
Sidney Rigdon's church after 1844 and how William Bickerton's followers ended up leading it (28:25).
The Council of Fifty and Joseph's plans for Texas, Oregon or Mexico, and which groups actually went west (43:07).
David Whitmer's shifting dates for when he believed Joseph fell (45:15).
The revelations received during the translation, D&C 3, 5, 10 and 19, read alongside the Book of Mormon text (53:58).
SOT Litner · S6E33.