Informed Saints

Informed Saints

By Informed Saints

The podcast where you can learn about everything from polygamy to gold plates. Hosted by Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, and Jasmin Rappleye.... more
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Best of Informed Saints

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  1. Number 1: What 'Utterly Destroy' Really Means in the Book of Joshua

    When Israel entered Canaan, the Bible says they were commanded to leave "nothing alive that breathes." Did God really command that — and did it actually happen? The Hebrew word behind the command, herem, tells a far more complicated story than you've heard. Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot dig into David Calabro's chapter on herem from From Wilderness to Monarchy (Religious Studies Center) — exploring what the word really means, what the archaeology of Jericho, Ai, and Hazor actually shows, and how Latter-day Saints can honestly face divine violence in scripture. ===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye In this episode: What herem means — and its surprising connection to "harem" and the Arabic haram Herem across scripture: Malachi 4, Numbers 21, Deuteronomy 7, and Deuteronomy 20 Four inconsistent herem cases in Joshua: Jericho (Joshua 6), Ai (Joshua 7–8), the southern cities (Joshua 10), and Hazor What archaeology shows at Jericho, Ai, and Hazor — and why the older conquest model collapsed Competing theories of Israel's origins: conquest, gradual infiltration, peasant revolt, settling nomads Ancient war rhetoric: K. Lawson Younger's Ancient Conquest Accounts, the Mesha Stele, the Merneptah Stele, and a royal inscription from Sheba The moral problem: divine command theory, the wickedness of the Canaanites, Alex O'Connor's critique, and the question of children Nephi's explanation in 1 Nephi 17:32–35 Latter-day Saint tools: Melchizedek as a prophet in Canaan (JST Genesis 14; Alma 13; D&C 84) — and why Latter-day Saints aren't inerrantists The divine warrior motif and the violent world ancient Israel actually lived in Divine violence in restoration scripture and history: Laban, 3 Nephi, and Zion's Camp Read David Calabro's chapter free on the Religious Studies Center website: https://rsc.byu.edu/wilderness-monarchy/thou-shalt-utterly-destroy https://rsc.byu.edu/book/wilderness-monarchy Subscribe to Informed Saints for more faithful scholarship on the scriptures. Study deeply, believe boldly. ===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/ ===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #OldTestament #BibleStudy #Herem #Joshua #ConquestOfCanaan #Canaanites #Jericho #BiblicalArchaeology #AncientHistory #Deuteronomy #MeshaStele #MerneptahStele #HebrewBible #LatterDaySaint #ScriptureStudy #Bible #InformedSaints

    37min
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  2. Number 2: Mi'kmaq vs. the Gold Plates: Does the Comparison Hold Up?

    A widely shared chart in an edition of an annotated Book of Mormon claims the characters Joseph Smith copied from the gold plates match an old Native American hieroglyphic script. But when one researcher traced every glyph back to its source, the trail led somewhere no one expected — to the most infamous forger in Latter-day Saint history. In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Jerry Grover: an independent Book of Mormon researcher, geologist, and author of a book on the "characters document”. They walk through his new paper, published by the Interpreter Foundation, examining the claimed match between the gold plates characters and Mi'kmaq (Micmac) hieroglyphs. ===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye In this episode: • What the "characters document" actually is — and why it isn't the Anthon transcript • John Whitmer's handwriting, an 1887 photograph, and a New York broadside • The documented origin of Mi'kmaq hieroglyphics: a 17th-century Catholic priest, birch bark, and Catholic prayers • Why 10–14 look-alikes out of roughly 4,000 glyphs isn't statistically meaningful • Mark Hofmann's forged "Anthon transcript" — and how its glyphs ended up in a modern comparison chart • The Brazil phone call: "Come authenticate our gold plates" • Wayne May's This Land, the Annotated Book of Mormon, and why citations matter • A hopeful precedent: the photo that was corrected in an earlier edition Read Jerry Grover's new paper at interpreterfoundation.org : https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/mikmaq-meldrum-may-and-mark Further Resources: bmslr.org https://bmslr.org/translation-of-the-caractors-document/ www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-2-document-1-characters-copied-by-john-whitmer-circa-1829-1831/1 ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/The-“Caractors”-Document.pdf www.plonialmonimormon.com/2019/06/a-review-of-the-annotated-edition-of-the-book-of-mormon-part-2.html Subscribe for more faithful scholarship on the Book of Mormon and Latter-day Saint history. Study deeply, believe boldly. ===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/ ===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #BookOfMormon #LDS #LatterDaySaints #ComeFollowMe #Mikmaq #Micmac #AnthonTranscript #CharactersDocument #GoldPlates #JosephSmith #MarkHofmann #ReformedEgyptian #ChurchHistory #BookOfMormonEvidence #InterpreterFoundation #JerryGrover #Nephite #LDSHistory #FaithfulScholarship #InformedSaints

    21min
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  3. Number 3: Song of Solomon: Can Uninspired Writing Be Scripture?

    There's a book in your scriptures that Joseph Smith flagged as "not inspired," that Elder Bruce R. McConkie once called "biblical trash," and that the Come Follow Me manual skipped over entirely. It's also quoted three times in the Doctrine and Covenants — including in the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer. So what exactly is the Song of Solomon doing in our canon? Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot work through Dana Pike's chapter on the Song of Solomon in From Wilderness to Monarchy: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, published by the Religious Studies Center at BYU — a volume of essays walking through the Old Testament from a Latter-day Saint perspective. ===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye In this episode: What Shir Hashirim asher lishlomo actually means, and why the lamed preposition (le) makes the authorship question harder than it looks Why biblical scholars date the Hebrew — including its Persian loanwords — well after Solomon's reign How the book traveled into the canon: the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, and Rabbi Akiva's insistence that it is the holy of holies Why the Song of Solomon is one of the few Old Testament books the New Testament never quotes, alongside Judges, Esther, and Ecclesiastes The striking parallels with New Kingdom Egyptian love poetry — including calling the beloved "my sister" Dana Pike's three-point case that the song didn't originate as inspired scripture Tremper Longman III's alternative: that its place in the Bible testifies that God cares about our most intimate relationships Joseph Smith's JST notation, what it tells us about the nature of the Joseph Smith Translation, and what "not inspired" most likely meant Song of Solomon 6:10 in D&C 109:73, "Rose of Sharon" as a title for Christ in Elder Holland's teaching, and the little foxes in the Nauvoo Relief Society The bigger question: what do we do with uninspired writing inside an inspired canon — and why Leviticus raises the very same problem Read Dana Pike's chapter in From Wilderness to Monarchy: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration from the BYU Religious Studies Center: https://rsc.byu.edu/book/wilderness-monarchy Joseph Smith Papers Source: www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/old-testament-revision-2/104 Subscribe for more faithful scholarship on scripture, history, and the ancient world. Study deeply, believe boldly. ===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/ ===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #SongOfSolomon #SongOfSongs #OldTestament #ComeFollowMe #LDS #LatterDaySaints #BibleStudy #ScriptureStudy #JosephSmith #JST #DanaPike #HebrewBible #BiblicalScholarship #DeadSeaScrolls #Septuagint #RabbiAkiva #Solomon #DoctrineAndCovenants #InformedSaints

    27min
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  4. Number 4: Mesoamerica vs. The Heartland: The Book of Mormon Geography Debate

    Where did the Book of Mormon actually take place? It's one of the most divisive internal debates among Latter-day Saints — and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Brant Gardner — author of the six-volume Second Witness commentary on the Book of Mormon and one of the most widely published Book of Mormon scholars working today — to lay out the methodological, archaeological, anthropological, and textual case for Mesoamerica, and why the Heartland model doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Read Brant Gardner's "Heartland vs. Mesoamerica" article series at The Interpreter Foundation, and check out his brand new book The Record and Explorations in Book of Mormon Authenticity, published by FAIR. Use discount code INFORMED15 for 15% off at the FAIR bookstore. https://fairlatterdaysaints.org/store/product/the-record-and-the-reading-explorations-in-book-of-mormon-authenticity/ ===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye Episode Resources: www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/book-of-mormon-geography https://bhroberts.org/records/HcTowb-KL5WGb/observer_and_telegraph_reporter_mentions_the_three_witnesses_and_reports_on_lds_missionary_activity_in_ohio https://news.artnet.com/art-world/guatemala-mirador-calakmul-karst-basin-lidar-maya-settlements-2235254 https://www.newsweek.com/hidden-ancient-mayan-megalopolis-60000-structures-discovered-guatemala-using-797865 arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/lidar-reveals-hundreds-of-long-lost-maya-and-olmec-ceremonial-centers/ www.sci.news/archaeology/lidar-olmec-maya-ceremonial-complexes-mexico-10206.html www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/world/maya-civilization-causeways-lidar-discovery-scn scripturecentral.org/knowhy/why-did-nephis-people-want-him-to-be-a-king https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/unavailable-genetic-evidence-multiple-simultaneous-promised-lands-and-lamanites-by-location-possible-ramifications-of-the-book-of-mormon-limited-geography-theory scripturecentral.org/knowhy/what-was-the-nature-of-nephite-fortifications https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/archaeological-trends-and-the-book-of-mormon-origins?post_type=article&p=8754 scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/archaeological-trends-and-book-mormon-origins bookofmormonresources.blogspot.com/2011/09/water-fight-on-river.html scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/hypothesis-concerning-three-days-darkness-among-nephites scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/in-thethirtyandfourthyearageologistsviewofthegreatdestructionin3nephi bmslr.org/geology-of-the-book-of-mormon/ scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/another-noteonthethreedaysofdarkness www.sci.news/othersciences/linguistics/science-tempest-stela-ahmose-worlds-oldest-weather-report-01826.html scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/another-noteonthethreedaysofdarkness en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Martin_Tuxtla bmslr.org/geology-of-the-book-of-mormon/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_relics scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/mormonisms-encounter-michigan-relics scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/mormonisms-encounter-michigan-relics byustudies.byu.edu/article/tools-leave-marks-material-analysis-of-the-scotford-soper-savage-michigan-relics bmslr.org/ziff-magic-goggles-and-golden-plates/ interpreterfoundation.org/journal/a-combinatorial-approach-to-modeling-all-possible-golden-plates bhroberts.org/platemath/ www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/book-of-mormon-1830/56 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tikal_Stela_31.jpg interpreterfoundation.org/blog-the-heartland-versus-mesoamerica-part-1 Subscribe to Informed Saints for scholarly-grounded discussions of Latter-day Saint scripture, history, and archaeology. Study deeply, believe boldly. ===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/ ===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #BookOfMormonGeography #Mesoamerica #Heartland #HeartlandVsMesoamerica #BrantGardner #InformedSaints #LatterDaySaints #HillCumorah #JosephSmith #BookOfMormonEvidence #LDSScholarship #Mormon #ScriptureStudy #LDSChurch #AncientAmerica #Teotihuacan #Maya #FAIRMormon

    1h 15min
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  5. Number 5: Most LDS Faith Crises Start in the Wrong Place. Here's Where to Begin.

    Most people having a faith crisis are fighting on the branches — polygamy, DNA, the Book of Abraham, race and the priesthood — when the actual problem is buried somewhere underneath. What happens if you go all the way down to the roots and ask why anything exists at all? Use discount code INFORMED15 for 15% off Walker Wrights Book! https://fairlatterdaysaints.org/store/product/nourishing-the-roots/ Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Walker Wright, author of Nourishing the Roots: Seeking the Foundations of Latter-day Saint Testimony, published by FAIR. Walker takes a faith crisis apart from the bottom up — existence, intelligibility, morality, consciousness, God, the Resurrection, and the gold plates — and closes with the story of losing his sister at 11 and the years of atheism that followed. ===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye In this episode: Elder Uchtdorf's roots-and-branches metaphor, mapped onto the first three temple recommend questions Why a branch you're struggling with can sometimes just be pruned — and why you still have to face the hard issues eventually Larry Corbridge's primary vs. secondary questions, and why an organism explains it better than concentric circles Why no artifact from the ancient Near East or Mesoamerica will move a committed skeptic — and what "lucky guess" really means Why nothing can predate existence, and what that implies about something self-existent, necessary, and eternal Laws of nature, why math matches them, and Joseph Smith's revelations on the light of truth that was not created or made Where objective morality comes from, and why the Holocaust is the test case Andrew Ferguson on Thomas Nagel: why no materialist actually lives like a materialist Fine-tuning and Martin Rees's Just Six Numbers — expand slightly faster or slower and there's no you The multiverse, the inverse gambler's fallacy, and why it's fine-tuning with extra steps The hard problem of consciousness, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?", and how Mind and Cosmos got Nagel ostracized Philosophical zombies, the China brain, and Alvin Plantinga on other minds and properly basic belief Eternal intelligence, the mind of man, and the hierarchy of intelligences in Abraham 3 Miracles, divine healings, and what an exorcism implies about a hierarchy of spirits Are Latter-day Saints materialists? Goodness, truth, beauty, and the telos of eternal progression The Resurrection as the decisive revelation — Paul's undisputed letters, the Gospels as Greco-Roman biographies, and a crucified messiah nobody expected Why the eleven witnesses come up in every Christian-atheist debate, and why William Lane Craig and Trent Horn brush past them Oliver Cowdery's hand in the printer's manuscript, Martin Harris's matter-of-fact language, and how early those sources really are What kind of person could have written the Book of Mormon — Tolkien after twenty years at Oxford, or a farmhand with a stone in a hat? John Clark's 1% problem and Matt Roper's work on anachronisms Why Moroni's promise is a targeted spiritual experience and not Pam feeling God at Chili's Walker's sister Nicole, the MTC moment that changed everything, and why a faith crisis is like a horror movie Further Readings: Use discount code INFORMED15 for 15% off! https://fairlatterdaysaints.org/store/product/nourishing-the-roots/ https://scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/archaeological-trends-and-book-mormon-origins https://juvenileinstructor.org/1829-mormon-discovery-brought-to-you-by-guest-erin-jennings/ https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/467 https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/october-2019-general-conference-temple-recommend Our earlier episode with Josh Gehly on the gold plates and the Resurrection: https://youtu.be/8u2LssCP2vo Subscribe for more faithful scholarship every week. Study deeply, believe boldly. ===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/ ===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #FaithCrisis #InformedSaints #WalkerWright #NourishingTheRoots #FAIRLDS #LatterDaySaints #JosephSmith #GoldPlates #Apologetics #Testimony #Doubt #ChristianApologetics #Consciousness #FineTuning #ThomasNagel #AlvinPlantinga #Resurrection

    1h 9min
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