God Bless You All!

FromChurch History Matters

Start listening View podcast show

God Bless You All!

FromChurch History Matters

ratings:

Length:

1 minute

Released:

Dec 26, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Church History Matters! We'll see you next week :)

Released:

Dec 26, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (62)

The Church History Matters Podcast features in-depth conversations between Scott and Casey where they dive deep into both the challenges and beauty of Latter-day Saint Church History

Skip carousel

How Do 2nd and 3rd Hand Accounts Add to Our Understanding of the First Vision?: Thousands of people heard Joseph Smith’s testimony first hand. Some of those testimonies included him telling about his First Vision experience. Some of those people who heard his witness wrote down the details of what they heard. Luckily, a few of t... by Church History Matters
47 min listen
Joseph Smith’s Creative Efforts to Outsource the Book of Mormon Translation: After four years of waiting, learning, and personal refinement, 21 year old Joseph Smith was finally entrusted by the angel Moroni with the ancient record that for centuries had lain in waiting in a stone box embedded in a hill near his home. Recalli... by Church History Matters
49 min listen
What is the Best External Evidence for the Book of Mormon?: Aside from the text of the Book of Mormon itself and a personal witness from God’s Spirit, what is the best evidence for the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon? Different people might answer this question in different ways, but in today’s episode of ... by Church History Matters
52 min listen
Q&R! What About Others Who Claimed Similar Visions in Joseph Smith’s Day? Etc.: The more carefully one studies Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the context of his world at that time, the more interesting the questions become. For example, if Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in a vision, does that mean he didn’t ac... by Church History Matters
53 min listen
Why Are There Different Accounts of the First Vision?: Joseph Smith’s First Vision is foundational to our narrative of the Restoration today, but it was not always so from the Church’s beginning. So how did the First Vision go from what began as a very personal experience of Joseph’s, to growing ... by Church History Matters
53 min listen
How Did Orson Pratt Influence Joseph Smith’s 1842 First Vision Narrative?: Did you know that the first time the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision was ever printed was in a pamphlet written by apostle Orson Pratt and published in Scotland while Pratt was on a mission there in 1840? Intriguingly, Pratt's language from this... by Church History Matters
45 min listen
Joseph Smith’s ”Second Vision” and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: About three and a half years after his “first vision,” Joseph Smith experienced his “second vision.” It occurred on the evening of the 21st of September 1823 in Palmyra, New York, when Joseph was only seventeen years old. In this vision he met a stun... by Church History Matters
48 min listen
The Racist American Context the Church was Born Into: There was a season in our Church’s history when members with black African ancestry were unevenly barred from both priesthood and temple privileges. This overtly discriminatory practice is one of the most challenging aspects of our history and, for m... by Church History Matters
49 min listen
Q&R! Tough Polygamy Questions with Dr. Brian Hales!: Did Joseph Smith have any regrets about plural marriage? Like, with full hindsight, if he could go back and change anything about the way he implemented plural marriage, what might he do differently? Also, more and more people are denying that Joseph... by Church History Matters
59 min listen
Why Did Plural Marriage Begin in the Church?: Plural marriage—a form of religious polygamy (or polygyny to be technical)—is one of the most controversial and faith-challenging aspects of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was difficult when it was first introduced... by Church History Matters
42 min listen
Are Criticisms of the Book of Mormon Witnesses Defensible?: How can we confidently discern the difference between a reliable historical claim and an unreliable one? This is what Casey and I discussed in our last episode where we introduced five source critical questions we can all ask to carefully assess the ... by Church History Matters
67 min listen
What’s Unique About Joseph Smith’s 1835 and 1838 Accounts of His First Vision?: In 1835, Joseph Smith shared his second recorded account of his First Vision with an eccentric visitor to Kirtland, Ohio who claimed to be a Jewish minister. How did this fact that Joseph believed he was speaking with a Jewish man shape and influence... by Church History Matters
62 min listen
If Not a Supernatural Translation, Then What? Examining the Other BM Translation Theories: What would you say if somebody told you that a 23 year old farm boy dictated to a scribe a sacred text of 531 pages while looking down at stones placed in the bottom of his hat? And what would you think if they then told you that this book was dictat... by Church History Matters
53 min listen
Plural Marriage Troubles (part 2): Emma’s Fury and Joseph’s Martyrdom: In June and July of 1843 tensions ran high in the marriage of Joseph and Emma Smith. After she had tried but failed to embrace the principle of plural marriage earlier that May, and after Hyrum Smith had tried but failed to convince her of the rightn... by Church History Matters
43 min listen
Translating the Book of Mormon with Stones in a Hat?: If we had video footage of the translation process of the Book of Mormon, what would we see? What would we actually watch Joseph Smith “do” during a translation session? Now of course we don’t have video footage, but we do have perhaps the next best ... by Church History Matters
52 min listen
What Do We ACTUALLY Know About the JST?: Aside from his Book of Mormon translation project, Joseph Smith engaged in at least three other scripture production projects that we know of. The first was his ambitious Bible translation project we now know as the Joseph Smith Translation, the seco... by Church History Matters
58 min listen
Was the Racial Ban Church Policy or Doctrine? Setting the Stage for a Revelation (from 1908-1978): In 1907, the First Presidency codified the Church’s official policy about black African participation in both priesthood and temple declaring that, “No one known to have in his veins negro blood, (it matters not how remote a degree) can either have t... by Church History Matters
43 min listen
Joseph Smith’s Trial and Error Approach to Plural Marriage: Did you know that Joseph Smith’s first attempt to obey the Lord’s command to him to practice plural marriage ended quite badly and ended up straining his relationships both with his first wife Emma and with his close friend Oliver Cowdery? And have y... by Church History Matters
59 min listen
Plural Marriage Troubles (part 1): John C. Bennett, Hyrum Smith, & Emma: As Joseph Smith quietly practiced plural marriage in Nauvoo in 1842 and 43, all was not well. Three people in particular complicated things for Joseph. The first was John C. Bennett, a highly gifted convert who’s meteoric rise to civic and church lea... by Church History Matters
48 min listen
How the Priesthood-Temple Ban Became Fully Entrenched Policy in the Church: Once people come to terms with the uncomfortable idea that Brigham Young committed an error in endorsing a priesthood ban on church members with black African ancestry, a puzzling question naturally follows: “If the ban was an error, then why didn’t ... by Church History Matters
52 min listen
The 1978 Revelation of Reversion and Repair: Paul Reeve recently wrote: In June 1978, President Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation which returned the Church to its universal roots and restored what was lost, priesthood and temple admission to people of African descent. This … did not mar... by Church History Matters
57 min listen
Q&R! Tackling Tough Book of Mormon Translation Questions: The more carefully one studies the production process of the Book of Mormon, the more interesting the questions become. For example, since Joseph Smith never could read the original base language engraven on the plates, what did he mean when he said ... by Church History Matters
51 min listen
What Do You Know? And How Do You Know It?: What is truth? What does it mean to really “know” something? And what are the best methods and tools to come to know a thing? In today’s episode of Church History Matters, we begin our new series on Good Thinking where we explore the important role ... by Church History Matters
55 min listen
1852 and The Beginnings of the Priesthood-Temple Ban in the Church: The historical record shows that Joseph Smith did not implement or endorse any practices or policies which specifically prevented Church members with black African ancestry from fully participating in priesthood offices or temple worship. But in 1847... by Church History Matters
63 min listen
The Rocky End to Plural Marriage in the Church: In 1852, only eight years after Joseph Smith’s death, Church leaders in Utah publicly announced to the astonished world what some had suspected—that Latter-day Saints did indeed practice the principle of plural marriage. But now that it was out there... by Church History Matters
61 min listen
Q&R! Tough Questions with Paul Reeve: Some people see a connection between the Church’s past restrictive policy towared blacks in the Church and the Church’s current restrictive policy toward gays in the Church—specifically prohibiting gay temple marriage. In what ways are these two issu... by Church History Matters
74 min listen
Beyond Book of Abraham Controversies: So, the Book of Abraham is the touchpoint of some serious controversies—and we’ve talked about some of those in our last two episodes and we’ll probably talk about them more next week as well. But, to be clear, the Book of Abraham is also the source ... by Church History Matters
64 min listen
How Has Canonizing/De-Canonizing Happened in the Doctrine & Covenants?: Because of our location in time and good record keeping, we are privileged to have an up close and personal view of the production of modern scriptural canon. And it’s a bit of a rollercoaster! From its first publication in 1835 to its current versio... by Church History Matters
62 min listen
Joseph Smith and Black Africans: In the broader American culture in which Joseph Smith lived and led the growing Church of Jesus Christ, white attitudes and beliefs about the inferiority of black Africans dominated the scene. In this pre-Civil War context, exactly half of the states... by Church History Matters
48 min listen
Why Evidence-Based Faith Matters: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” Hebrews 11:1 reads, “the evidence of things not seen.” Hmm. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Does this mean faith is the evidence we have of things not seen? Or could we say it this way: faith is... by Church History Matters
60 min listen

More Episodes from Church History Matters

Skip carousel

Temple Garments and Temple Changes in the 20th and 21st Centuries: 1904 marked the beginning of what would become a grueling 4-year-long senate hearing of US sentator and apostle Reed Smoot. It is intriguing—and important—to learn how this crucible of intensive government examination into every aspect of the Church ... by Church History Matters
70 min listen
Temple Work Without Temples: Beginning in 1846, thousands of Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo, Illinois and trekked over one thousand miles west to the Salt Lake Valley. Having, of necessity, abandoned the Nauvoo Temple for which they had worked so hard and sacrificed so much, the... by Church History Matters
64 min listen
The Second Anointing, The Law of Adoption, & Non-Temple Prayer Circles: During the last years of his life, the prophet Joseph Smith gave multiple public sermons dealing with 2 Peter 1, wherein the apostle Peter encourages his readers to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (vs. 10). Commenting on this ... by Church History Matters
66 min listen
Marriage Sealings: A High Fusion of Theology + Ritual: The prophet Joseph Smith’s final years in Nauvoo, IL constituted a season of rich theological and ritual convergence. It was a time when various threads of biblical and revealed theology gave birth to the Latter-day temple rituals that would enable u... by Church History Matters
58 min listen
An Interview with an LDS Freemason: Welcome to our special bonus episode where Casey and I interview a friend of our show Lon Tibbitts. In our previous episode we discussed at length the relationship between masonry and the development of the temple endowment in Nauvoo—a topic a lot of... by Church History Matters
62 min listen
The Origins of the Temple Endowment: What Latter-day Saints today call the Temple Endowment was first given by the prophet Joseph Smith in 1842, two years prior to his death, to a small group of nine of his trusted associates in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was a key piece of the larger vibrant... by Church History Matters
74 min listen
Restoration of “the Priesthood” Through Temple Ordinances?: As the climax of the Kirtland endowment on April 3, 1836, Joseph Smith received sacred keys in rapid succession from Moses, Elias, and Elijah. This was the primary purpose for which the Kirtland Temple was built! Joseph had now received all that was ... by Church History Matters
53 min listen
The Kirtland Endowment: What it Was and Why it Matters: In 1831 the Lord promised the New York saints that if they would gather together with Church members in Ohio they would there “be endowed with power from on high.” Trusting this promise most of them moved to Ohio in expectation of receiving this endo... by Church History Matters
75 min listen
The Beginnings of LDS Temple Worship: Temples: It’s difficult to overestimate their importance in the Latter-day Saint movement. In fact, it could be said that what is accomplished inside Latter-day Saint Temples is at the beating heart of the purposes of the Restoration. In today’s epi... by Church History Matters
50 min listen
Q&R w/ Prof. Aaron Miller - Modern Money Controversies: Why did the Church file 13f documents with separate shell companies if there was no tax advantage for doing so? Could there be more to the story than simply saying Church leaders listened to "bad legal counsel" in the context of the recent SEC fine? ... by Church History Matters
68 min listen
Early Church Finance Q&R! w/ Drs. Elizabeth Kuehn & Jeffrey Mahas: Doctrine & Covenants 119 directs Church members to pay essentially two tithings—the first tithing being a one-time donation of all of their surplus property (meaning whatever they don’t have immediate need of), and the second tithing being an ong... by Church History Matters
77 min listen
Modern Church Financial Controversies: How does the Church justify putting over one billion dollars into building a mall in downtown Salt Lake City? And did they use tithing money to do so? Also, is it true that the Church has over 100 billion dollars in reserve? Why won’t Church leaders ... by Church History Matters
72 min listen
Zion-Building Through Poverty-Elimination: Zion has been defined as God’s people being of one heart and one mind, dwelling together in righteousness, and having no poor among them. Since Joseph Smith’s day Latter-day Saints have made continuous efforts toward this Zion ideal, including not on... by Church History Matters
55 min listen
Consecration in Nauvoo & Utah: In his July 1838 tithing revelation, the Lord both affirmed the law of consecration and modified the ongoing way in which the saints were expected to consecrate of their money and property. Rather than following the 1831 system outlined in D&C 42... by Church History Matters
60 min listen
Did Tithing Replace Consecration?: In the aftermath of the significant 1837 failure of the Church’s banking business in Kirtland, Ohio and the subsequent fallout with several Church leaders—including death threats—Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon fled Ohio to be with Church members in F... by Church History Matters
59 min listen
Are Church “For-Profit” Businesses Okay?: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today owns and operates several successful for-profit businesses, from livestock and agriculture to publishing and digital media to real estate and many others. This has caused some to wonder, does a Ch... by Church History Matters
51 min listen
Consecration and the Beginning of Church Finances: In the last few years the finances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been in the media spotlight—and not always in positive ways. It’s no secret that the Church today has amassed an impressive financial reserve to ensure the acc... by Church History Matters
58 min listen
Seekers Wanted: Interview with Dr. Anthony Sweat: What kind of thinking skills do we need to develop in order to gain and maintain the kind of robust faith we desire? This question is the central subject of a book by Dr. Anthony Sweat entitled, “Seekers Wanted, the Skills You Need for the Faith You ... by Church History Matters
60 min listen
Real vs. Rumor: An Interview with Dr. Keith Erekson: In this episode of Church History Matters, we are joined by special guest Dr. Keith Erekson, a Church Historian. Dr. Erekson wrote an important book entitled “Real vs. Rumor: How to Dispel Latter-day Myths.” It embodies many of the principles of trut... by Church History Matters
55 min listen
Why Evidence-Based Faith Matters: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” Hebrews 11:1 reads, “the evidence of things not seen.” Hmm. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Does this mean faith is the evidence we have of things not seen? Or could we say it this way: faith is... by Church History Matters
60 min listen
Why Contextualizing Facts Matters So Much: Facts don’t interpret themselves. People interpret facts. And the people best equipped to most accurately interpret facts are those who understand the contexts in which those facts were originally embedded. This is especially important in understandi... by Church History Matters
57 min listen
Why Mental Flexibility is So Crucial for Durable Discipleship: A fundamental moment in all good learning is that moment where we modify our assumptions about the world as a result of acquiring new and more accurate knowledge. This in turn hopefully primes us to make better decisions. On one level, it’s what lear... by Church History Matters
51 min listen
Are Criticisms of the Book of Mormon Witnesses Defensible?: How can we confidently discern the difference between a reliable historical claim and an unreliable one? This is what Casey and I discussed in our last episode where we introduced five source critical questions we can all ask to carefully assess the ... by Church History Matters
67 min listen
Learning to Think Like a Historian: How can we know what actually happened in the past? Whose stories are true? Piecing together accurate history can be tricky business. People in the past, like people today, were diverse. Some were honest. Some were not. Some were straight shooting tr... by Church History Matters
58 min listen
Workshopping the Three Lenses: How can we confidently determine what is and what is not reliable doctrine so we can decide what to believe? This is what Casey and I discussed in our last episode where we introduced what we called the Three Doctrinal Lenses, or criteria, by which w... by Church History Matters
51 min listen
How Do We Become Doctrinally Confident?: Just before he left home for college, eighteen year old Henry Eyring, the future world renowned LDS scientist, was invited by his father, Edward Eyring, to sit down for some fatherly counsel. After sharing his firm conviction that Joseph Smith was a ... by Church History Matters
61 min listen
What Do You Know? And How Do You Know It?: What is truth? What does it mean to really “know” something? And what are the best methods and tools to come to know a thing? In today’s episode of Church History Matters, we begin our new series on Good Thinking where we explore the important role ... by Church History Matters
55 min listen
Q&R with Dr. Kerry Muhlstein! Tough Book of Abraham Questions: There was in 2nd Century BC Egypt an indisputable multicultural sharing of religious ideas between Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians. How should that fact influence how we evaluate Joseph Smith’s interpretations of the Abraham facsimiles in general and ind... by Church History Matters
70 min listen
Beyond Book of Abraham Controversies: So, the Book of Abraham is the touchpoint of some serious controversies—and we’ve talked about some of those in our last two episodes and we’ll probably talk about them more next week as well. But, to be clear, the Book of Abraham is also the source ... by Church History Matters
64 min listen
The Abraham Facsimile Conundrum: Is it All or Nothing?: In Joseph Smith’s interpretations of the facsimiles found in our Pearl of Great Price he ties all three of them to Abraham; yet, when some modern Egyptologists look at those same facsimiles today they say they have nothing to do with Abraham: one is ... by Church History Matters
56 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

Christmas Campfire 2023 (Part 1): Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you so much for your kind support throughout the year, to wrap us up for Christmas, here is this years campfire stories episode. There were loads of great submissions again this year, certainly enough for two episodes,... by Dark Histories
56 min listen
Son Rise Morning Show 2023.11.06 by Son Rise Morning Show
180 min listen
Dawson's Critique—Happy New Year From Us To You: Happy new year, y'all! We will be back next week … by Dawson's Critique: A Dawson's Creek Podcast
27 min listen
GRACEPOINTE - April 23, 2017 by GracePointe Church | Nashville, TN
49 min listen
Episode 22: Scott Sauls: He's about to pastor you. Prepare yourself. by That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs
66 min listen
T10 Why We Married in the Temple After 20 Years in Same-Sex Relationships | An Interview With Bennett & Becky Borden: This is a rebroadcast. The episode originally ran in August 2017. - Bennett and Becky Borden are a married couple who both experience same-sex attraction and who were both in same-sex marriages and relationships for many years prior to returning to th... by Leading Saints Podcast
74 min listen
Season 3 Trailer: We’re back on track and actually have a date for our third season! by Compelled - Christian Stories & Testimonies
4 min listen
June 7, 2022, Holy Rosary (Sorrowful Mysteries) | Pray for Nigerian Christians by Today's Holy Rosary
32 min listen
Ep 89: Reflect on God's Faithfulness with This Christmas Tradition: A million years ago, before I was married, had kids, and before life got so busy, my mother encouraged me to try a new Christmas tradition—one she’d been doing most of her life. I quickly adopted the idea and have been faithfully doing it for more tha by Christy Wright Podcast Channel
14 min listen
Son Rise Morning Show 2023.09.25 by Son Rise Morning Show
180 min listen
How To Make Your Christmas Brighter by The Kris Krohn Show
12 min listen
Living the Liturgical Year as a Protestant Family: How to use the Christian Church Year to focus your heart and mind on Christ as year long! Get my Liturgical Calendar Guide for Protestant Families ! use code: LITRURGY10 for 10% off! FREE Liturgical Calendar Wheel - Resources mentioned: by Martha... by Raising Arrows - Large Family Homeschool Life
20 min listen
CHINA WEEK: Day 2: It’s Day 2 of our special China Week here on VOM Radio as we look into the increasing persecution of Christian brothers and sisters in China. New laws went into effect in February that greatly affect our Christian brothers and sisters in China and... by VOMRadio
30 min listen
Whence Came You? - 0427 - Mystic Perspectives: Episode - 0427 - Mystic Perspectives by Whence Came You? - Freemasonry discussed and Masonic research for today's Freemason
76 min listen
WOF 279: Overcoming Disagreement Fatigue: From politics to COVID, this past year has been filled with disagreement. That led Christian apologist Natasha Crain to write an article titled Bishop Barron and Brandon discuss the article, focusing on three of Crain's predictions for 2021: more... by The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
32 min listen
Episode 133: Addressing Systemic Racism with Guest Theon Hill: It's Christmas! Check out the new fun ways our atheist and satanist friends are celebrating Jesus's birth this year! Then Phil and Skye are joined by guest Theon Hill to discuss the church's role in addressing systemic racism in a post-Ferguson... by The Holy Post
57 min listen
Episode #9 - Stevie's Conversion Story by Latter Day Bridge Builders
74 min listen
Is Santa A D*ck?: Happy New Year!! This week’s episode is a big Christmas recap for allllll of us. We discuss Bethanie’s surgery, our Christmas, and then we discuss all of YOUR Christmases and the drama that went down! And there was a looooot, including baby’s... by The Garcia Diaries: Unfiltered
61 min listen
Christmas Eve Podcast Special: Merry Christmas, Y’all! All of us at My Campaign Coach hope y’all are having a blessed holiday season and enjoying some great time with family and friends. Wanted to give y’all a little look behind the scenes at how the past year has been and what we’... by How To Run For Office
10 min listen
170. The Disappearance of Joan Risch by Creeps and Crimes
124 min listen
Happy Holidays 2020 by Fossil Huntress — Palaeo Sommelier
1 min listen
Evidence of the Resurrection: Friends, a very happy and blessed Easter! We come to the climax of the Church’s year, the feast of feasts, the very reason for being of Christianity. Everything in Christian life centers around the Resurrection. And the Church gives us, every year, t... by Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies
15 min listen
Spiritual Rhythms: Worship Recap: Happy Thanksgiving week! Are you putting up your tree this week and getting a jump on Christmas decorations? Or are you a Thanksgiving loyalist who refuses to address the Christmas chaos until after the bird is consumed? I’m a... by MESSmerized
19 min listen
Bonus Episode: A Year in the Bible: What to Expect in 2023!: On this bonus episode, Tiffany Dickerson, your new host for The Year in the Bible Podcast, let’s you know what to expect in 2023. This year, we will walk through the Bible chronologically. Join Tiffany as she shares more details about this exciting... by Daily Grace
6 min listen
Bonus Episode: A Year in the Bible: What to Expect in 2023!: On this bonus episode, Tiffany Dickerson, your new host for The Year in the Bible Podcast, let’s you know what to expect in 2023. This year, we will walk through the Bible chronologically. Join Tiffany as she shares more details about this exciting... by A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace
6 min listen
Marcellus and Stephanie Casey - Kansas City Chiefs chaplain on the 2023 season and Super Bowl LVIII by Sports Spectrum Podcast
29 min listen
Bonus: We Wish You a Merry Christmas...and a Happy New Year of Books: Bonus: We Wish You a Merry Christmas...and a Happy New Year of Books by Fated Mates - A Romance Novel Podcast
21 min listen
#841 - A Prophetic Response to 2020: Jon Tyson: The Podcast of Preston Sprinkle by Theology in the Raw
20 min listen
Convo with a Cradle Copt by What God is Not
68 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

God Bless You All!

God Bless You All!

Description

Titles in the series (62)

More Episodes from Church History Matters

Related podcast episodes