Church History Matters

By Scripture Central

What's Church History Matters about?

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

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Church History Matters episodes:

04.30.2024
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, they...
04.23.2024
Discontinued/Obscure Temple Rituals
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...
04.16.2024
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...
04.09.2024
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...
04.02.2024
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...
03.26.2024
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...
03.19.2024
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...
03.12.2024
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 episode of...
03.05.2024
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...
02.27.2024
Q&R! On Early Church Finance 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 ongoing payment...
02.20.2024
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...
02.13.2024
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...
02.06.2024
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...
01.30.2024
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 Far West,...
01.23.2024
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 Church...
01.16.2024
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...
01.09.2024
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...
01.02.2024
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...
12.26.2023
God Bless You All!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Church History Matters! We'll see you next week :)
12.19.2023
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...
12.12.2023
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 understanding Church History because a...
12.05.2023
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...
11.28.2023
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...
11.21.2023
How Can We Think Like Historians?
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...
11.14.2023
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...
11.07.2023
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...
10.31.2023
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...
10.24.2023
Q&R with Dr. Kerry Muhlestein! 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 individual hieroglyphics on...
10.17.2023
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...
10.10.2023
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...
10.03.2023
The Book of Abraham: Origins and Controversies
The book of Abraham, Joseph Smith’s final translation project, is easily one of the most controversial books of scripture in the Latter-day Saint canon. And we want to talk about it. In this episode of Church History Matters, we dig into...
09.26.2023
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...
09.19.2023
Exploring the Divine-Human Partnership in Scripture Creation | Featuring the D&C
One of the biggest criticisms of scripture generally is the extent to which humans were involved in its production. On the one hand, we can’t really expect scripture to be effortlessly beamed down from heaven to flawed and imperfect humans...
09.12.2023
Q&R! Tough JST Questions with Kent Jackson
Did Joseph Smith ever consider his Bible translation work finished? Will the JST ever be canonized and replace the King James Version as the official Latter-day Saint Bible? Why haven’t any other of our prophets since Joseph Smith engaged in...
09.05.2023
Did Joseph Smith Plagiarize Part of the JST?
In his Bible translation project did Joseph Smith plagiarize the work of a prominent British scholar named Adam Clarke? Or, if you don’t want to call it plagiarism, did Joseph Smith “borrow” or appropriate phrases and ideas from Adam Clarke’s...
08.29.2023
The JST as Revelatory Springboard?
Because there are no explicitly stated purposes of Joseph Smith’s Bible translation project—either by him or in any of his revelations—all explanations offered about or criticisms leveled at his Bible translation are based on assumptions and best guesses at best. But...
08.22.2023
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...
08.15.2023
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 issues similar and...
08.08.2023
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 mark...
08.01.2023
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...
07.25.2023
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...
07.18.2023
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, only three years...
07.11.2023
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...
07.04.2023
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 many,...
06.27.2023
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...
06.20.2023
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...
06.13.2023
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...
06.06.2023
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...
05.30.2023
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...
05.23.2023
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 in...

What's Church History Matters about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Church History Matters episodes:

Temple Work Without Temples

Discontinued/Obscure Temple Rituals

Marriage Sealings: A High Fusion of Theology + Ritual

An Interview with an LDS Freemason

The Origins of the Temple Endowment

Restoration of “the Priesthood” Through Temple Ordinances?

The Kirtland Endowment: What it Was and Why it Matters

The Beginnings of LDS Temple Worship

Q&R w/ Prof. Aaron Miller - Modern Money Controversies

Q&R! On Early Church Finance w/ Drs. Elizabeth Kuehn & Jeffrey Mahas

Modern Church Financial Controversies

Zion-Building Through Poverty-Elimination

Consecration in Nauvoo & Utah

Did Tithing Replace Consecration?

Are Church “For-Profit” Businesses Okay?

Consecration and the Beginning of Church Finances

Seekers Wanted: Interview with Dr. Anthony Sweat

Real vs. Rumor: An Interview with Dr. Keith Erekson

God Bless You All!

Why Evidence-Based Faith Matters

Why Contextualizing Facts Matters So Much

Why Mental Flexibility is So Crucial for Durable Discipleship

Are Criticisms of the Book of Mormon Witnesses Defensible?

How Can We Think Like Historians?

Workshopping the Three Lenses

How Do We Become Doctrinally Confident?

What Do You Know? And How Do You Know It?

Q&R with Dr. Kerry Muhlestein! Tough Book of Abraham Questions

Beyond Book of Abraham Controversies

The Abraham Facsimile Conundrum: Is it All or Nothing?

The Book of Abraham: Origins and Controversies

How Has Canonizing/De-Canonizing Happened in the Doctrine & Covenants?

Exploring the Divine-Human Partnership in Scripture Creation | Featuring the D&C

Q&R! Tough JST Questions with Kent Jackson

Did Joseph Smith Plagiarize Part of the JST?

The JST as Revelatory Springboard?

What Do We ACTUALLY Know About the JST?

Q&R! Tough Questions with Paul Reeve

The 1978 Revelation of Reversion and Repair

Was the Racial Ban Church Policy or Doctrine? Setting the Stage for a Revelation (from 1908-1978)

How the Priesthood-Temple Ban Became Fully Entrenched Policy in the Church

1852 and The Beginnings of the Priesthood-Temple Ban in the Church

Joseph Smith and Black Africans

The Racist American Context the Church was Born Into

Q&R! Tough Polygamy Questions with Dr. Brian Hales

The Rocky End to Plural Marriage in the Church

Plural Marriage Troubles (part 2): Emma’s Fury and Joseph’s Martyrdom

Plural Marriage Troubles (part 1): John C. Bennett, Hyrum Smith, & Emma

Joseph Smith’s Trial and Error Approach to Plural Marriage

Why Did Plural Marriage Begin in the Church?

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