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Notre Dame and Vinny
S6E44 · An Angel from Heaven Preaching Another Gospel (Galatians 1-8) Part 3
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Standard of Truth · Season 6 · Episode 44 · 1:09:26

An Angel from Heaven Preaching Another Gospel (Galatians 1-8) Part 3

By the 1850s, a newspaper warning that 'we must put them down, or they will put us down' claimed there were over 2 million Mormons in the world, a wild overcount Brigham Young would gladly have taken.

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The question ·

If Muhammad and Joseph Smith both got a gospel from an angel, doesn't Galatians 1:8 prove Joseph was false?

Natalie (listener)

After college football talk, Betty reports hearing a historian on another podcast praise Gerrit's work debunking a forged letter, and a mother asks for podcast access for her missionary son in Puerto Rico, who is tired of the same five youth theme songs. Then Gerrit returns to the Muhammad comparison with more early newspapers: an 1831 New York report, an Episcopal Recorder piece mocking 'Joe' and his seer stone, and James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, who saw that writing about Mormons sold papers. Bennett compares Nauvoo's blend of religion, politics and military to Islam, and a later editorial warns the Mormons must be put down. Gerrit notes Thomas Marsh will use the same comparison in his 1838 affidavit, and saves that for next time.

Who comes upJoseph SmithMuhammadJames Gordon BennettThomas B. MarshBrigham YoungPaul
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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. Excited to be here. Jumping straight into Galatians after a couple of emails. People are excited.
Gerrit I mean, we derailed a little bit last week. We did.
Richard We talked about the Lord's Prayer, which I thought was interesting, and especially on the heels of the Notre Dame victory a couple of weeks ago. I feel like it was inappropriate.
Gerrit So it was important that we explained how Catholics pray after the BYU victory over Notre Dame.
Richard Yeah. Well, it's just for comfort, for solace. Yes. That's exactly right.
Gerrit Are you surprised that Notre Dame is favored over Miami?
Richard It's actually ridiculous how much they're favored over Miami.
Gerrit It's actually a pretty substantial favored.
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit Well, so now Notre Dame is always skewed on the lines that you should never gamble on. No, well, because we have a lot of Notre Dame homers who just always cheer for them, you know?
Richard And so again, referencing President Hinckley's 2005 April conference address, referencing President Christofferson's October 2026 conference address, the way that bedding lines are established by the oracles from on high in Vegas.
Gerrit You mean Vinny in a back room somewhere. Well, what are we going to do on Notre Dame game? What are we going to do? Let's say, you know what? We've got about 700 Catholics trying to vote, trying to bet on them.
Richard The voice you just used, I imagine that a meatball falls out of the back of his sub, it falls onto his bowling shirt as he's saying that. But the way that it works is that the intent is to get 50-50 bets on both sides. When it opened originally, it was actually before President Hinckley's, or not before President Hinckley's, the best nation.
Gerrit Now that is someone setting an early line before President Hinkley spoke. So in 2004, what was it?
Richard March of 2025.
Gerrit In March of 2025, Vegas was like, guys, I could see it 21 years from now, there's going to be a Miami Notre Dame game and it's going to be big.
Richard It was, it was, yeah. One guy named Vinny, one guy named Sal and one guy named Tony. They were in a milk bath like minority report and they saw it. Yeah.
Gerrit Do you, do you think if Notre Dame beats Miami, that Notre Dame will be the number one team?
Richard I think so. What's Notre Dame now? Like four or five or something?
Gerrit Yeah, they're like fourth, I think.
Richard Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Gerrit I mean, it'd be a pretty impressive victory. So Notre Dame will have lost to BYU, but will be the number one team over the team that beat them.
Richard Yeah. Well, you, you can't lose to unranked UCF that got boat raced by average bailer.
Gerrit Yeah. Well, so now this is all predicated on the idea. I mean, cause obviously it's, it's moot after Utah beats BYU by 45 points.
Richard And Utah looks so good last week.
Gerrit Now what? They looked amazing last week, but this is the only thing giving me hope. I watched the Colorado game and Colorado is terrible. Oh, look, UCF is much better than Colorado. And Colorado completely dominated Utah in the second half of that game. I mean, it was, they were a bouncing ball away from losing to Colorado. And Colorado is terrible. I mean, they are, like, Dionne is going to say, I'm pretty sure I've got more blood clots or something and find a reason to step away because they're so bad. And I'm saying this as a buffalo. I literally am a Ph.D. buffalo. But they are terrible, as Charles Barkley would say.
Richard They're not very good.
Gerrit So that does give me a little bit of hope in the sense that clearly Utah is playing better. I don't think we're going to have LJ Martin back, are we? So BYU has no running game without him. And so I think there's a reason why Utah is heavily favored at home to win that game. I, of course, hope. But all of our Utah fans listening are going to be quite excited probably on Saturday morning and not just because of the cartoons. Okay, well.
Richard I mean, like Mormon, at the end of the Book of Mormon, Gerrit.
Gerrit Yes, we agree to lead the Nephite armies, but not, but we have no hope.
Richard Look, part of the problem is Utah's had a couple of close games, but they've been blowing everybody out. And BYU has looked good. The running game has been rough recently, but they're not really blowing a lot of people away, right? So the games are a little bit closer. And so it's like, you think that Utah's got a... Man, Utah looked pretty stinking good against the Cincinnati team that kind of blew out Texas Tech.
Gerrit Yeah, yeah. And it's going to be in rye cycles. So I think it's going to be tough, going to be a tough one. Now, all the Utah fans are going to be very sad that they beat BYU in this scenario and yet are behind a Notre Dame team that lost to BYU because that Notre Dame team beat Miami.
Richard It's true. The game is bigger for Notre Dame than Miami. The ACC is just the weakest.
Gerrit The sick man of Europe, as they used to call the Ottoman Empire. As people want to do, to make references to the Ottoman Empire.
Richard I think that essentially Miami can lose out and still go to the playoff. I'm being sarcastic or hyperbolic, but only a little bit.
Gerrit Well, they could probably lose out and still go to the ACC Championship.
Richard So for Notre Dame, who has a relatively weak schedule, that loss to BYU, a loss to BYU and a loss to Miami, those are kind of two big games.
Gerrit And their game that they are hoping got bigger, which is SMU, SMU lost, and so now they're no longer at it.
Richard To Syracuse, which is, I mean, that's ritualistic suicide level there. That's the level of depression SMU people must have. I do, is this the most exciting weekend in college football in some time? There are so many top 25 matchups. I will be waking up and just watching football the entire day. I'm very excited.
Gerrit I will be going to watch my daughter cheer and that will be my day.
Richard Ah, well, congratulations, Gerrit. Very exciting. We do have a couple of Phebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag emails to read. The first comes to us from Betty. This is not an email I expect an answer for. Well, those are the kinds that we're going to read then.
Gerrit She hit the nail right on the head. Now, we know Betty. Betty is awesome. We've spent considerable amount of time with her on one of our tours and she's great.
Richard But I was listening to Latter Daily Saints, last night, and they had a guest, Dr. Blythe, that teaches in the English department at BYU. The topic of the happiness letter to Nancy Rigdon came up, because it was used in an online debate. Dr. Blythe said that, and I am paraphrasing here, there was a brilliant historian at BYU.
Gerrit What, Betty must be really paraphrasing? So by paraphrasing-
Richard Dr. Blythe mentioned BYU and that was it.
Gerrit Yeah, by paraphrasing, she means, I am inventing this entire dialogue.
Richard Really a historian at BYU, Gerrit Dirkmaat, who wrote an article debunking the authenticity of that letter. Then he said a few more sentences praising you and your scholarly work. I don't know if someone already told you or you heard about it in my head. I just kept saying amen and amen. Thanks again for the sacrifices you both make in sharing the gospel. Standard of Truth remains my favorite podcast, which is I'm so glad to hear. I look forward to listening twice weekly and feel strengthening my own testimony from listening to both of you. The podcast would not be the same without Richard. Well, that's very nice. I don't recall her paraphrasing Dr. Blythe mentioning my brilliance, but I'm sure that he did.
Gerrit Well, look, she couldn't paraphrase. I mean, you can only paraphrase it so much.
Richard Without it being lying straight up?
Gerrit First of all, I don't even think I was mentioned. I think this is just Betty, like, well, it is Gerrit's birthday. I just, I gotta tell you. She's a very nice person. It's really like, let's make him feel better.
Richard It grinds my gears that I don't get credit for some of the academic work that you've published independently. It actually really makes me upset.
Gerrit And to be fair, a lot of other people are taking credit for it. So why shouldn't you?
Richard I am so grateful for the skills you teach us so I can continue my own search for knowledge and growth, knowing how to judge the truth of what I am reading and hearing. Thank you so much, Betty. This next one, good afternoon, doctors. I am a long time litner, first time caller, the premium subscriber here in Richland, Washington.
Gerrit Oh, up in the Tri-Cities area where my brother Nathan lives.
Richard Oh, very good. They've got a lovely nuclear power plant up there.
Gerrit Well, that's what my brother does. He doesn't work. He's not like in the core of it. He's Homer.
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit He's a safety inspector in Sector 7G. But he works for a contractor that works with the-
Richard Ah, I see. The podcast has been a blessing to me. It's increased my faith, strengthened my testimony, and insert all other positive things. People say about your podcast, it's all true. Thank you. I'll be brief with my e-mails since you probably have hundreds, if not thousands, more to read this week. My son is about two months into his service in the San Juan, Puerto Rico mission. And Gerrit, we've talked about this for both your son and my son. What happens on a mission around month two, month three, is that our podcast-
Gerrit Becomes suddenly so much better.
Richard You start getting podcast goggles, and you're like, you know what? That podcast is prettier than I thought it was.
Gerrit It's right after you write the letter home to your mom, telling her how grateful you are that she made you food and washed your clothes.
Richard Yes, and apologizing for what a terrible son you are, and that it's that one where you really are feeling the spirit and the spirit's like, you're a pretty terrible child. You need to tell your parents thank you.
Gerrit And then in the aftermath of that, in the aftermath of realizing, oh goodness, I took everything for granted, you then realize that you have nothing left to read. And so you are now looking for something and the podcast is available.
Richard Yes. Like most parents, I subjected him to your podcast on every road trip, and you really enjoyed listening to it with me. Sure. At least for two minutes, he'd be awake. Oh, there it is. I should have waited. I should have waited a beat. Gerrit, it's one of the biggest problems that I have. We were together at something and somebody was explaining something and I made a comment kind of joking about it. And then they said the next sentence, which made the thing I just said more like tragic instead of funny. And your comment to me is, if you just could have waited a beat.
Gerrit If you just take a beat.
Richard Yes, I do need to just take a beat. I should have done that here. Well, now he's in Puerto Rico, stuck listening to the same five youth theme songs on repeat. It's driving him crazy. He asked me to email you and request access to the Google Drive so he can listen to something, anything. Other than those LDS youth theme songs, I tried giving him my collection of EFY CDs. I listened to when I was serving in the Billings Montana Mission back at the turn of the century, but he declined. I can't comprehend why anyone would turn down the opportunity to listen to hits from Treasure of the Truth, the Season of Courage.
Gerrit Oh, Season of Courage. I mean, come on.
Richard Yeah, that slaps.
Gerrit Is your son not a man? I mean, how can he not want to listen to Season of Courage?
Richard Yeah. He gives us his email address and he's grateful that we'll do that. PS, hypothetically speaking, if there were a secret society of stateside return missionaries, would my son be eligible? I know Puerto Rico is a territory of the US and not a state, but they use US currency and mail is delivered via USPS. I feel like it's an exception to be made there, hypothetically speaking, of course. Well, the real answer to that, Gerrit, is he teaching and baptizing? If the answer is yes, then my answer is no.
Gerrit Well, the problem is, there's lots of people who speak Spanish in United States missions who are also teaching and baptizing. I think you kind of have to create like an umbrella group of stateside missionaries, and then underneath it, it's like 1A, foreign language stateside missionaries.
Richard So I actually, I'll give you an example of the difference here. So in my ward, I teach a gospel foundations class that's kind of like a hybrid version of what gospel principles used to be. And by the way, Gerrit, you mentioned gospel principles. Like the end of that book was deep.
Gerrit Oh yeah, super deep.
Richard Yeah, it was like, do you just read an all-king fall at all the time? Like it's deep.
Gerrit It's just like, you know, you just kind of keep pushing forward in faith and you know, and then you'll be a god. And if you have other questions, like it casually, it casually talks about deification. It just like throws it out. As I said, it's like, yeah. And so, you know, you go to the temple and you know, you're just gonna keep your covenants and you know, and then you'll be a god. Anyway, you should probably, you know, pay fast offerings and it just moves right on by.
Richard Well, so what's happened, so I teach this Gospel Foundations class and I bring a lot of treats, like a lot, like a lot, a lot, a lot. And so shockingly, we get decent attendance and we get decent attendance from a lot of the YSA in our in our ward. And so just this last week, the class was on the Atonement and we were discussing it. And there were a couple of things that came up that were tangential to Galatians 1-8. And we had three return missionaries in there, one in Peru, one in Chile, and one in Spokane, Washington, one from Spokane, Washington. The two missionaries from South America had zero experiences like the one in Washington.
Richard Like their missions, like it couldn't have been more of a contrast in terms of the amount of negative anti-Mormon stuff that the one missionary in Washington got compared to the two in South America. Obviously, I'm not saying that you're catching plenty of strays wherever you are, and there's all kinds of different sacrifices that are made, but there's no question that they had incredibly different experience compared to a stateside missionary. I know it was the same for you, and it was the same for me. I actually resonated more with the Washington person because it was like, oh yeah, no, it was every day, pretty constant, getting kind of bombarded with stuff that, I mean, my son in Peru, he didn't have a hot shower for two years and just ate rice, so it's different.
Gerrit Well, Kai, you know, he just got moved to a different area where there's a Christian college and a very large evangelical Christian presence.
Richard Oh, so now he's getting it.
Gerrit Yeah, so even though he's in the Philippines and yeah, so people aren't really listening, so he's experiencing this. And also he explained that there happens to be one ex-pat American who lives in the town. Some guy who happens to be from Utah. Now, whenever you find out someone is from Utah and you're not in Utah, you immediately know that they either are a member or they hate Mormons. And they're really, I mean, I'm not, that's maybe too broad of a brush, but also a very accurate fine point brush. And he said this guy rides a motorcycle around and whenever he sees them out walking, he turns around and drives by them, yelling anti-Mormon things as he drives by, but he won't stop to actually talk to them, even though he'll turn around multiple times to drive by.
Richard That is pretty funny. For him, it's gotta be funny where it's like, he went to the furthest place from Utah, and then there they are.
Gerrit Well, and it is a new area, so there were never missionaries there before, but now they found him. Maybe for him, it's like the fugitive. He's like, I've got to go where there are no Mormons, no one even knows what they are, and then the next day, missionaries show up.
Richard Well, I imagine it's the scene. In this particular case, the ex-pat is in the sewer tube with the water, whatever, and the ex-pat says, I don't want to be taught about your church, and then your son is-
Gerrit I don't care.
Intro I don't care, yeah.
Gerrit He Tommy Lee Jones it. Well, Kai says we keep trying to flag him down to talk to us. So he yelled one time, he slowed down enough and yelled, I'm from Utah, and I know that everything in your church is false, and then drove off. So they know he's from Utah.
Richard So yeah, I mean, if he got that full sentence out, he's not driving very fast.
Gerrit Well, I mean, Kai has big strides.
Intro Okay, there you go.
Gerrit He's long legs.
Richard Well, so what better transition then into another angel preaching a different gospel, Gerrit?
Gerrit Right. Now, if you recall, now, you'll have to go back a couple episodes if you want to. We read some of the earliest newspaper accounts of people trying to make this comparison to Latter-day Saint theology and to Islam. That was part of what our conversation started with, that people will... It's very common on social media now for people to say, you know, Muhammad got a gospel from an angel, and Joseph Smith got a gospel from an angel. And then, you know, but it says right there in Galatians, if you get another gospel from an angel, then you know it's false. And essentially, I mean, it shouldn't be surprising that evangelical Christians proof-text a passage from the Bible because literally the entirety of evangelical Christian theology is based upon proof-texting individual verses from the Bible and pretending all other verses don't exist.
Richard Well, so one of my favorite proof-texts of all time, I don't know if we've mentioned this before, but it's all scripture is given for, I can't remember the exact verse off the top of my head, but it's the idea that talking about scripture is given, that we might do this and this and know this and this. And the way that it's proof-text is like, we'll know everything we need is, so all the scripture has been given. And it's like, well, that's not what it says at all.
Gerrit Right. So it's either changing the interpretation of what those scriptures mean, providing an interpretation of them that no one ever had before. I mean, even the idea of once saved, always saved, well, you can say, well, that's in the Bible, right? But nobody believed that. And, you know, reading the Bible for 1500 years, nobody believed that. So you at least have to say that even if you have the correct interpretation, it was obscure enough that no one else believed it the way that you believe it for 1500 years. And even more so when it comes to things like if you say the sinner's prayer, that you're saved for all sins, past, present and future, right? Because once saved, always saved. Calvin can say that. Well, because God chose to save you, of course you're always saved because God doesn't make mistakes. But I was going to continue down the line of some of these responses to the early church.
Gerrit Again, trying to contextualize how people were talking about the church when it was first founded. So here is one that's coming from a New York newspaper. It's copied from a copy. I mean, newspapers reprint each other. From 1831, fall of 1831, it is certainly strange, yet nevertheless true, that, sorry, this is titled Mormonism, and then it acts like you know what it's talking about, because it doesn't mention Mormons in the first sentence. Mormonism and then, you know, dash. It is certainly strange, yet nevertheless true, this infatuated people, if we may place confidence in the reports of the newspapers, are becoming more numerous and assuming a more formidable appearance. Now again, this is September 1st of 1831. I mean, how, how formidable can they be?
Gerrit There's, there's maybe, maybe a thousand members of the church in September of 1831. A thousand. There's millions and millions of American Christians. There's 1000 Mormons. Yeah, it's formidable. They are, you know, they are marching through every street. We had hoped that in this, the believers of the Book of Mormon would have been entirely extinct and that no individual, however credulous, could be found so blind to reason and common judgment as to permit himself to be carried away by the absurdities of the Mormon doctrine. The frailties, incident to human nature, have in all ages invariably shown themselves either in remarkable lethargy or an enthusiastic excitement unsanctioned by reason or common sense.
Gerrit But the followers of the Book of Mormon, if the accounts received be not inconceivably exaggerated, are amongst the most blind and deluded people we have upon record. Now, they're then going to go on and claim things that we don't actually believe, but that they are reporting are our beliefs. As we talked about the last time we talked about this, you know, it's always great when someone lets you know what it is you actually believe. They believe that their leader is the real Jesus Christ.
Richard Interesting.
Gerrit Yeah. Now, I have attended a couple of Sunday School lessons in my day, and I have heard all kinds of false doctrine. I mean, I have, there are times that I am sitting in Sunday School just under my breath and I'm like, nope, nope, we don't believe that, nope, nope.
Richard Now, so before you go on, is it possible, now this is an example of me where I should have just take a beat, but is it possible that what they're saying here is that we do follow Jesus Christ and he is our leader? Is that what they mean by what they're saying?
Gerrit No. No, I think they mean that we think Joseph Smith is Jesus.
Richard I see.
Gerrit Okay. That was off.
Richard So close.
Gerrit That both he and his disciples, Joseph Smith and his disciples have infinite power to work miracles, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers. And they testify that Joseph has cast. They say he, but I'm putting Joseph in there because they wouldn't say Joseph. They'd say Joe. So they testify that he has cast out many devils. Now, of course, Joseph has cast out devils at this point. That the millennium is nigh and that Philadelphia is the place where Jesus Christ will meet his disciples and followers. Now, that's news to me. I will say, though, if you've ever been in the bad part of Philadelphia, you will at some point say, I think we need Jesus to come soon. You will say that.
Richard Yes. Yes. If you're in Camden, New Jersey at the Donkey Place getting a Philly cheesesteak, you want the Second Coming and you want it now.
Gerrit You're like, you know what? What's keeping things back? Let's go. So yeah, so there's claim that they're saying that the Second Coming is going to happen in Philadelphia. It is just like Philadelphians, though, to find out that there's a new religion claiming Jesus is coming and to say, yeah, it's obviously here. He's gonna grab a cheese stick, here, it's obviously here. You know what I mean? Like, when you meet people from Philadelphia, they are, they're inexplicably proud of the fact that they're from Philadelphia.
Richard I don't know that I mentioned this on the podcast before. I think I might have, but Philadelphia is one of the greatest, as a salesperson, I love selling in Philadelphia. And the reason is-
Gerrit Because you're selling handguns.
Richard Handguns?
Gerrit AK-47s?
Richard So, when you're in sales and you sell in Utah or in the South or even in the Midwest, people are really nice. And so, they will just, even though they have no intention of buying from you-
Gerrit Right, they'll listen to your pitch even though they were never going to buy it.
Richard Yeah, so you have them in your pipeline longer, whatever. Philadelphia, they're going to tell you to go to the horned one immediately.
Gerrit So, the moment you're like, hey, I'd like to sell you some gloves and then say, I would like you to and then X would have X would have X would have, and then you move on.
Richard Yeah. New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore are three of my favorite states, cities to sell into because how direct the people are and you don't waste any of your time. It's great.
Gerrit Yeah. So I'm not aware of Joseph ever prophesying that the Second Coming is going to happen in Philadelphia, but I digress. There are now removing to the promised land some indefinite spot on the Mississippi. So they've heard tell of people going to Missouri at this point. Now, unfortunately, they don't realize the difference between the Mississippi River and the Missouri River, but some have gone and others are disposing of their property often to an immense pecuniary sacrifice that they may join their companions gone before. To such an enthusiastic pitch, have they raised their imaginations that the entreaties and persuasive arguments of friends have no weight whatever. Their religious ceremonies and observances are forms of obsceneness and blasphemy and are conducted in a manner shocking to the sense of rational creatures.
Gerrit In their excesses, unrestrained by the presence of the opposite sex, and in one assembly, they roll naked on the floor and exhibit a variety of grotesque and unseemly forms which humanity would blush to name. Really, one of the things I want to get across as we're talking about, you know, Galatians and another gospel is just how early, how widespread, and how profligate the lies are about what Latter-day Saints believe, right? So the person reading this who doesn't know anything about Mormons because there aren't any in their town, is coming away from this believing that part of the Latter-day Saint worship process is naked people rolling on the floor in front of each other.
Gerrit Now, first of all, attendance would go up in church for men. But obviously, there's no actual source underneath this. And yet, it's used as evidence of how ridiculous the religion is.
Richard So, but you have talked about how similar vitriol for Islam, similar vitriol for Catholics. Is this that much more pronounced than the negative things said about those other faiths?
Gerrit Oh, well, no. I mean, if we were to go through it, I mean, you would find things very similar in the sense of, of mocking the other religions by presenting as fact, things that are so far beyond what a believer of that faith would actually say they believe. So it's a, it's going to come as a shock to everyone listening, but it's actually a, a long-held American tradition to completely exaggerate and falsify the beliefs of the people that you don't like as a means of making, I know it's hard to believe as we're recording this on election day, right, right. That, that someone might put out into the media claims that are basically untrue in order to win votes. But, but it happens in some very few places it happens.
Richard That's, that's, I mean, I've never seen it, but that is so sad that someone might do that.
Gerrit At some point in your life, Richard, you're going to come face to face with campaign commercials that are not as interested in accuracy and truth as they are in votes. And it, it will shock you when that happens.
Richard Wow, that is a sad state of affairs. I hope I never see that.
Gerrit Well, so that's another example of some of these early reactions. Let's, let's listen to what, now, now this comes from the Episcopal Recorder newspaper. Now, probably the, this Episcopalian newspaper, not very likely to be super pro-Latter-day saint, is what I'm guessing. What are your, what are your thoughts on that?
Richard It's called the Episcopal Recorder? Yes. Is that what, where, where is it at? I want to, I want to go through its volumes.
Gerrit Well, it's published in Philadelphia. You know, where Jesus is coming. Where we've long said, and every revelation has always said, that Jesus is coming. Probably because Jalen Hurts was injured. That's probably why. That was what brought it. They say, say, Juan Barclay, Jalen Hurts injured, here he comes.
Richard The same three Italians that predicted the game, the same three oracles of, that predicted the, the point spread in the Notre Dame-Miami game. Yes. 20 years in the game.
Gerrit There's a second meatball sub, is what I'm saying. So, I noticed a few weeks since in your paper, a brief account. So there's someone writing to the paper. A brief account of a sect or gang in this vicinity are called Mormonites. Now this is from June of 1831. Okay. So the church is even smaller than the September one. I presume that there's not less than five or 600 of these deluded beings in the towns north and west of this. And they have in the town north of this, what is called the Big Family. Now, what they're reprinting is a letter from someone in Ohio. Okay. So this is coming from Ohio. That's why he's saying north and west of this town, from Chester, Ohio. Where no one says that ought of things that he possesses as his own. They have all things in common. There are many who are respectable and intelligent, who are now following these wretched imposters and these pretended prophets.
Gerrit Joseph Smith Jr., author of The New Revelation, is now the head man in the big family. He pretends that he goes to the Lord occasionally for advice, and they think, yay, they know they have it in italics. They have all their orders from headquarters, even from the Lord Almighty. Through the mouth of his holy prophet, Joe, so they listen to his full name, but now they're back to Joe. Joe pretends to cast out devils, to give the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, to heal the sick. He has ten years translating to do. He looks in a small stone that he has, and there reads the will of the Lord and writes it for the good of his fellow man. He can read a person's heart by looking in his face. Some lie in trance as a day or two and visit the unknown regions in the meantime.
Gerrit Some are taken with a fit of terrible shaking, which they say is the power of the Holy Ghost. I attended one of their meetings about two weeks ago. A woman was shaken, was taken shaking, was not a Mormonite, and she shook the greater part of the time since. She is not inclined to join them yet, says she feels not different in her mind from what she did before. Would you believe me if I told you that many Methodists and Methodist ministers and some Baptists and Presbyterians have joined them? Now, it's interesting, the person writing this is a Presbyterian. They actually signed their name a Presbyterian. So it doesn't escape me that he wants to put it out there very clearly. It's Methodists and Methodist ministers that join these people. Right? Because as far as a Presbyterian is concerned, a Methodist is preaching a kind of false gospel, right?
Gerrit They're preaching that you choose to accept the grace of Christ and that you have to maintain that faith throughout your life or you go to hell. And a Presbyterian is preaching that it's a gift from God, has nothing to do with yourself. You can't in any way fall from salvation. There is no throughout your life. It's just either you're saved or you're not saved. So not surprising to me that he's putting a little shot in there, right? There's Methodist ministers that are believing this, you know, and a couple of Presbyterians. Anyway, there's mostly Methodist ministers that are believing. Such is the fact, sir, they have been down through the ice in the mill pond and their sins are all washed away and they are clothed with self-righteousness as with a garment. One half has not been told, but I must close. So early, early reaction to the saints there. Now, when Mormonism Unveiled, you know, our good old, our favorite...
Richard Neighborhood abolitionist.
Gerrit Yes, you know, he had some good parts of them. Ibrahim is going to multiple times in his book, make reference to Joseph Smith and Muhammad as a way to compare the two unfavorably again. Cause you know, again, you're comparing, oh, I know you think these Mormons are just another group of Christians, but they're actually more like Muslims than they are Christians. Right? That's the attempt. He says, talking about the violence happened in Missouri, he's writing the book in 1834. About a year previous, a small newspaper had been started at Independence, Missouri, in which were published monthly, the Orders and Decrees of the Prophet, which were called Revelations, together with all the other wild and fanatical dogmas of the sect, like Pilgrims to the Tomb of Muhammad, Jesus, and others.
Gerrit They continued to wend their way from the different parts to the promised land. To accomplish this journey was the height of their ambition. They really supposed that their prophet had at that place opened the very gates of heaven to them, and nothing else was necessary to ensure all temporal and spiritual blessings, but their arrival there. So again, the comparison, you know how Muslims are fanatics and they crazily all have to go to Mecca and they'll sacrifice everything in order to go there. Well, just like that, so are Mormons going to Missouri, right? So these continual comparisons. And you know, some of these comparisons, they become pretty standard. Now, one of the people who makes the comparison the most is one of the most powerful newspaper editors in America at the time.
Gerrit His name is James Gordon Bennett, and he founds the New York Herald. The New York Herald is going to become one of the most popular newspapers in America. And James Gordon Bennett is this powerful New York City newspaper editor. And he will write about Mormons a lot. First of all, he realizes very quickly that writing about Mormonism sells papers. Again, hard to believe that any newspaper owner would publish articles on the basis that it would sell papers alone more than it being newsworthy. But imagine a world where media personalities would deliberately stoke controversy in order to sell. Now, it's a different time. The past is a different country.
Gerrit 19th century, we hardly could possibly understand it. But James Gordon Bennett is going to constantly talk about it. Let me give you an example. 1843, March 6th, 1843. This is how he highlights this article. Highly important and curious from Nauvoo, the capital of the Mormon Empire. We received by yesterday's mail, I kind of like the idea of Mormon Empire. I think we need to, you know what? Let's go back to that. Let's call this podcast, The Mormon Empire. And then just move from there. We received by yesterday's mail a whole batch of dispatches from Nauvoo, the city, the beautiful city of God in the far west, the headquarters of the New Revelation, the stake ground of Joe Smith, the prophet and Muhammad of these latter days.
Gerrit So you can see there, he's then going to go on and make several negative comparisons between Latter-day Saints and other new religionists like Millerism, Fourierism, these other new transcendentalists, things like that. What's really interesting, though, is because he's just publishing things that he gets. Here in this national newspaper, he is going to publish Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76. Because the Times and Seasons page that he is copying from has a vision of Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Latter-day Saints, and it's the version of D&C 76 that Joseph rewrote into poetic verse, and it was published in the Times and Seasons. And here the New York Herald publishes the entire thing.
Gerrit So, you know, thank you for trying to mock us so much that you got one of the greatest revelations ever put out. So, there's one example of him doing it. Let me give you another one here from 1842. He talks about how there's anti-Mormons trying to hurt Mormons. In connection with this, we have the following letter from the headquarters of Joe Smith, the prophet and second Muhammad himself. James Gordon Bennett is going to repeatedly, in this most popular national newspaper, repeatedly refer to Joseph Smith as the Mormon Muhammad, or the second Muhammad, or just calls him Muhammad altogether. Who do you think that...
Richard I got to imagine that Islam doesn't smile kindly upon that. That would have to be incredibly offensive.
Gerrit Yeah, there's not a ton of Muslims in America that aren't slaves. There are a very, very small minority of Muslims in America. They're almost entirely among the enslaved population because they're taken from Africa where they were Muslims. But even then, there's so few. Yeah, if people were asking Muslims do you like it when people compare Joseph Smith to the Prophet Muhammad, my guess is the answer would be no, they don't.
Richard Oh, you're saying no. Okay. All right. That's good.
Intro I appreciate that.
Gerrit You would think the answer would be yes, but apparently the answer is no.
Richard Well, it's the highest form of flattery.
Gerrit Yeah. Imitation. So again, from 1842, important from the far west, an explosion among the Mormons, singular disclosures all around, the rapid progress of Joe Smith, the Mormon Muhammad. So you can see this. They're doing a dump of all the news from Nauvoo regularly over and over and over again. It is this Mormon Muhammad, this Mormon Muhammad, this Mormon Muhammad. Here you have again, yesterday, this is from January 10th of 1842. Yesterday, we receive highly important dispatches from our correspondent who resides in Nauvoo, the chief city of the Mormons on the Mississippi, called by the Latter-day Saints, the beautiful city of God. This intelligence is the most interesting and curious character. The Mormons, under the guidance of their great prophet and seer, the famous Joe Smith, are organizing a religious empire in the Far West that will astonish the world in these latter days.
Gerrit Civil, religious, military, judicial, social, moral, advertising, commercial organizations are all embraced within the comprehensiveness of their new system. Or, their new revelation fresh from God himself, in their own enthusiastic language. The astonishing mixture of worldly prudence and religious enthusiasm, of perfect system and wild imagination, of civilized reason with ancient ideas, of religious observance and military organization, is without parallel in the history of nations since the time of Muhammad. So, again, what are the Mormons like as they build up their city in Nauvoo? They are like Muhammad. Right, so, the model of Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, seems to be the great Jewish legislator, Moses.
Gerrit Both combine religious, political, moral, and social institutions in one massive legislation and empire. The Savior of the world and his disciples separated these awful elements of despotism and gave to religion a separate, distinct, intellectual, ethereal, moral impulse of its own, fit to promote happiness here and the beatitude hereafter. I mean, there's probably people who died in the Crusades who might say, well, you know, I think there might be a military aspect. Yeah, point of order. What about all the people that were slaughtered in the Albigensian Crusade? You know, there's that. The corruptions of the Church in the time of Constantine the Great united all these under the general name of councils.
Gerrit This baneful combination produced the awful and despotic Roman hierarchy. Till the majestic genius of Luther, like another apostle of Paul, rose up and separated the elements again and reestablished the principles of Jesus of Nazareth. It's very interesting to read this in the sense of, you know, obviously as a Protestant, he's explaining, you know, sure, there was a time that Christianity was corrupted, you know, a thousand years of it, but, but don't worry, things are fine now. And, and, you know, that, that, that you need to get out there. The numerous sects, the contrarity of opinions, the corruption of the times have increased to such a degree that every now and then, the master spirits in religion are rising up everywhere and attempting to unite the same elements that the Roman emperor did, and to frame an empire that can be controlled by religious opinions alone, such as the policy of the right Reverend Bishop Hughes of this city, and such as the direction which his holiness, Joseph Smith, president of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, gives on their beautiful banks of the Mississippi.
Gerrit This country, this singularly constituted republic, is the field for these isolated and wonderful efforts of religious genius and religious ambition. The revelation or the development or the system of the Mormons is the most original of the present age. It is far more adapted to the present century and the modern civilization than the Romish system. It combines simplicity, good sense, belief in any quantity, love, morals, energy, industry, liberty of the press, moderation, singleness of purpose, enthusiasm, devotion, temperance, imagination in one vast and massive system. Their progress corresponds with their principles. In two years, the holy city of God, Nauvoo, has risen from a few houses to possess 10,000 souls, besides much cattle, all animated by the same spirit, believing the same faith, obeying the same moral rules, and combined in the same great purpose of regenerating the race of man on earth.
Gerrit They believe they possess a direct revelation from heaven. And who can gainsay them? Who can say thou liest? Has not Joe Smith as good a right to be considered the vice regent of God as the Pope of Rome? With these remarks, we read the following curious intelligence showing the progress of the new religious, moral, and social empire that must one day control the whole valley of the Mississippi, from the peaks of the Alleghenies to the pinnacles of the Rocky Mountains. And then, you know, it goes on to, to, to, to quote this. Well, and he, he provides numerous reports coming out of Nauvoo. But again, all headed under this, hey, I'm going to tell you how powerful the Mormons are and in telling you how powerful they are, I'm going to say, you know, Joseph Smith, the Mormon Muhammad is, is leading his people and they're creating an empire and they've combined military and religion and going on down the line.
Gerrit And then of course, a few shots in there at the Catholics as well. So this is all this, it's all this attempt to try to make it seem like the Latter-day Saints are something completely different than Christianity. Here's another article where they're criticizing an English, they're criticizing an English Lord that's come to visit the United States, right? He is now probably going out to Nauvoo to see Joe Smith and the modern Mecca and the modern Muhammad in his paradise on earth in this life on the lovely banks of the Mississippi. Even when the New York Herald is trying to talk about how there's problems inside it. So look, in 1842, your personal favorite friend and mine, John C. Bennett, is excommunicated for multiple adulteries, for preaching all kinds of false doctrine.
Gerrit And then he goes on this public anti-Joseph Smith anti-Mormon campaign. And so it gets national negative press. And even in the midst of that, so again, he just barely told you, Joseph Smith is like Muhammad, and he controls everything, and he controls everyone, and everything's controlled by him. Well, you know, here a couple months later, this is how he now, James Gordon Bennett, styles this excommunication of Bennett, and his, you know, lashing out. We have received the annexed intelligence from Missouri and Illinois, disclosing more of the character and morals of the great Mormon movement. Joe Smith seems to be in the same predicament which Muhammad found himself when the Quarkish tribe repudiated his mission and attacked his person.
Gerrit The present explosion has probably grown out of the jealousies and ambition existing between Cook Bennett, the general, They just leave John out of there, just his middle name. I'm not gonna call him Joe, I'm just gonna call him Cook. Between Cook Bennett, the general and. Joe Smith, the prophet of the saints. So even here, I'm already negatively undermining and attacking the lottery saints. I'm going to claim that even when Joseph has lost control, it's just like when Muhammad lost control. I'm going to claim that even when Joseph lost control, it's just like when Muhammad lost control. So it is a recurring, repeating theme. Now, here, let me fast forward a little bit for The New York Herald, because James Arlington Bennett doesn't stop using this comparison just because Joseph Smith gets murdered.
Gerrit He's going to keep using it. And so here's an example of him using it in Brigham Young's era, in 1855. Okay, so at this point, people know that Latter-day Saints are practicing polygamy. And as you can imagine, that's going to lead to comparison. So this is February 14th, Valentine's Day, 1855. The Mormons and Their Destiny. We published elsewhere another singular Mormon sermon or lecture delivered by Elder Orson Hyde at Deseret on the 6th of October last. It appears to contain nothing particularly new, but read rates almost in the same old language, the same old fallacies about the Bible and polygamy, which have been in the stock and trade of Mormons, Mormon orators, for some time past. Now, it's going to go on, providing other details on that.
Gerrit And then it says, It is pure folly to talk of the Mormons contemptuously and slightingly. They are a great fact, a living body, growing greater and more formidable by the day. While thoughtless people here are sneering at their polygamy, they are adding to their numbers by the thousands, and becoming more zealous in proportion to the slights put upon them. Planted in the heart of the continent, and acknowledging some sort of dependence upon the United States, they still regard themselves as a race apart. They talk of the American people as they would of foreigners, and evidently look forward to a separate and distinct destiny of their own. We may laugh at them, rail at them, threaten them as we please. They are growing all the better for our ill will, and gaining proselytes from all parts of the world.
Gerrit We cannot either by contempt or violence evade the solution of the problem, which is every day drawing nearer and nearer, and which someday must be solved if it costs the union its existence. What is to be done with the Mormons? What? Yep. What? The closer the problem comes, the more interesting grows the resemblance, so often noted between the followers of Muhammad and those of Joe Smith. Events we know repeat themselves in a never varying cycle. He's now stealing the title of our podcast that we stole from George Santayana. But those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
Gerrit Events we know repeat themselves in a never varying cycle. And it does seem on reading the lives of Muhammad and of Joe Smith, as though the latter had been intended to play in the 19th century, the part that the former did in the seventh. Both founders of new religions, a striking similarity in the times at which they flourished, afforded both a favorable prospect of success. He's going to then go on to quote about what the world was like when Muhammad appeared. By what the ambition of clergy, and this is quoting a writer, and what the drawing abstrusist niceties into controversy, and dividing and subdividing about them into endless schisms and contentions. Men had destroyed that peace, love, and charity from which the gospel was given to promote.
Gerrit They had lost the whole substance of the religion while they thus eagerly contended for their own imaginations concerning it. And in a manner quite drove Christianity out of the world by those very controversies in which they disputed about it. Would it be possible? This was said of Asia in the 6th, not America in the 19th century. Then it goes on to give you know that the disagreements in Christianity led to rise of sex. But this passage might find a very fitting place in any history of the United States. We are too near the days of Joe Smith to judge him fairly yet. And it is quite impossible to find out the truth concerning Brigham Young. But there is a striking analogy between their religion and that of Muhammad. The latter came at a period when men were distracted by discussions on subordinate points of theology and built his system in the simple formula.
Gerrit There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet. Everyone understood this at a glance. The Mormons, as it will be seen by the sermon published elsewhere, aim at a similar simplicity. Muhammad appeared to the passions of the people and turned their vicious propensities to his own advantage by legalizing polygamy and setting the example himself. So did Joseph Smith. And who shall say that the passions are less powerful today than they were 12 centuries ago in the deserts of America than in those of Arabia? There are many people who know and who will smile at historical parallels of this character. Perhaps think them singular, but bestow on them no lasting attention. This may be error. The time is at hand when we shall be bound, yes bound, in spite of ourselves, to dispose of the Mormons.
Gerrit How is it to be done? Shall we reestablish the intolerant laws of other ages and abolish liberty of conscious? The spirit of the present time is opposed to any such thing of that kind. But shall we coalesce with the Mormons and give them the right hand of friendship and sit down besides them as brothers? Impossible. If John Smith the Mormon has six wives, we cannot send John Brown the Christian to jail for having two. There must either be no Mormons among us, or we must all be Mormons. There is no way out. So notice he's making this very stark comparison. There is no way out of the Labyrinth, but by over the corpse of Mormon, or over the corpse of Christianity. Yikes.
Gerrit Sooner or later, the conflict must come. We must put them down, or they will put us down. This may seem ridiculous at present when a company of infantry could, on a pinch, set Deseret to rights. But there are over 2 million Mormons in the world. That's an exaggeration. But you know what? Brigham Young would have taken it at that point. He would have, yeah, there are 2 million of us. Sounds good.
Richard How in the world did they come up with a number that was so insanely far off?
Gerrit Because they're not keeping really membership records. The church isn't publishing them. And so what they're doing is they're trying to estimate by what they pick up from newspapers. Like, you got English newspapers saying things like, 2,000 people became Mormons over the last month. And so they're, but also when someone is trying to convince you that their town is at risk because of the recent number of Muslims that have moved to it, are they going to under count the numbers there or are they going to over count the numbers there?
Richard They're going to over count, but usually not in functions of tens, exponentially higher.
Gerrit It is exponentially higher. But let me go back to his argument. Sooner or later, the conflict must come. There are over 2 million Mormons in the world, all of which have become Mormons within the past 10 or 15 years. Anyone can calculate at this rate of progress how many there will be in the year 1875. At a time when the slavery question is distracting the Union and every man's hand is turned against his neighbor. And when it does come, who will fight the best? Think you, men, who are you fighting for their church, their faith, their homes, their rights, their social existence, or men who are fighting for the maintenance of an abstract law and the upholding of intolerance? It is a subject for grave and anxious thought. I mean, James Gordon Bennett is calling for, if necessary, the military extermination of Mormonism.
Gerrit And all the while, using the justification, look at Muhammad and look what happens if you don't kill it at its root.
Richard That is aggressive language.
Gerrit It is. Now, I don't know that we are going to get a whole other episode out of the other things I still want to share because there's one thing I haven't got to. We're completely out of time. In fact, I think Richard reached for the keys.
Richard I did.
Gerrit He reached for them, but he's on location.
Richard Yes.
Gerrit He's out of pocket, as the saying goes.
Richard I'm in Miami, and so we did have a couple of where we had to stop recording and then re-record for different reasons. And so it's difficult to know exactly where we're at. So I'm in Miami. You know, my favorite quote about Miami is the best thing about Miami is how close it is to the United States. It's my favorite quote. It's very funny. Yeah. It's very funny.
Gerrit I wonder if you can find some Hurricane fans who also believe Notre Dame is going to win by four or five.
Richard I think I could find a couple.
Gerrit Okay. All right. Well, so I do want to get to, let me just give the teaser. When Thomas Marsh, who may or may not make our apostate Hall of Shame, I mean, it's, we're going to have to argue about it because he does come back, right? So then, so what do you do with that? Right?
Richard It's got to hurt him in the rankings.
Gerrit I mean, that's the problem, right? It's kind of, it's kind of like, you know, you beat a top 25 team and then you lose to someone unranked, you know, even if you win again, that loss is, it's there with you.
Richard It hurts, yeah.
Gerrit Yeah, it's there with you. When Thomas Marsh swears out his affidavit in Missouri that is used as the justification of much of the Missouri violence and the incarceration of Joseph Smith, he is going to use this well-worn analogy as a means of inspiring greater fear against Latter-day Saints and justifying the violence against them. But we'll share that on our next episode. 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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In March of 2025, Vegas was like, guys, I could see it 21 years from now, there's going to be a Miami Notre Dame game and it's going to be big.

GerritBanter

It's right after you write the letter home to your mom, telling her how grateful you are that she made you food and washed your clothes.

GerritBanter

Is your son not a man? I mean, how can he not want to listen to Season of Courage?

GerritBanter

He's like, I've got to go where there are no Mormons, no one even knows what they are, and then the next day, missionaries show up.

GerritBanter

If you're in Camden, New Jersey at the Donkey Place getting a Philly cheesesteak, you want the Second Coming and you want it now.

RichardBanter

Philadelphia, they're going to tell you to go to the horned one immediately.

RichardBanter

just how early, how widespread, and how profligate the lies are about what Latter-day Saints believe

GerritInsight

it's actually a, a long-held American tradition to completely exaggerate and falsify the beliefs of the people that you don't like

GerritInsight

So, you know, thank you for trying to mock us so much that you got one of the greatest revelations ever put out.

GerritInsight

You know, my favorite quote about Miami is the best thing about Miami is how close it is to the United States.

RichardBanter

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Comparing Joseph Smith to Muhammad is a new argument.
Early reports of strange Latter-day Saint beliefs and worship must have had some basis.
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

From the first year of the Church, papers printed wild claims about what Latter-day Saints believed. Check sources before believing what others say we believe.

The Muhammad comparison was used to frighten people, from 1831 newspapers to an 1855 editorial calling for the Mormons to be put down.

Fear sells newspapers. James Gordon Bennett knew stories about Mormons sold papers, and modern media still runs on that.

Even critics sometimes help: the New York Herald's mockery spread the full text of the vision in D&C 76.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Refer to President Hinckley's 2005 addressAnd President Christofferson's October 2026 address, before discussing betting lines (1:51).
Vinny, Sal and TonyThe Vegas oddsmakers in a back room, meatballs falling on bowling shirts, who foresaw the Notre Dame-Miami game in 2005 (2:11, 2:26, 3:16, 35:14).
Colorado is terribleGerrit says so as a PhD Buffalo (4:12).
Mormon at the end of the Book of MormonLeading BYU's armies with no hope against Utah (5:51, 5:55).
Gerrit's birthdayBetty's paraphrasing may have been a birthday present (9:27, 10:27).
Podcast gogglesAround month two of a mission the podcast suddenly gets better (12:22, 12:24).
Take a beatRichard admits he should wait a beat before joking, then doesn't (13:20, 27:02).
Kai's motorcycle hecklerAn expat from Utah drives by yelling, slowly enough to get a whole sentence out (18:46, 20:41, 21:00).
PhiladelphiaThe supposed site of the Second Coming, where Richard loves to sell because people tell you to go to the horned one (27:26, 29:00, 34:50).
The Mormon EmpireGerrit wants to rename the podcast after the Herald's headline (42:47).
Condemned to Repeat ItThe 1855 Herald steals the title of the hosts' other podcast, which they stole from Santayana (59:53).
Thomas Marsh in the Hall of Shame?He came back, so it hurts him in the rankings like a loss to an unranked team (1:07:43, 1:08:10).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

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

In General Conference

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

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

Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald's coverage of Nauvoo (41:45).
The poetic version of D&C 76, "A Vision," published in the Times and Seasons in 1843 (43:48).
Gerrit's research on the happiness letter to Nancy Rigdon (8:54).
Thomas B. Marsh's 1838 affidavit and its role in the Missouri violence (1:08:24).
SOT Litner · S6E44.