Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave one of his most famous talks in history in 1980 named “The Seven Deadly Heresies.” RFM and Bill Reel break down this talk, exposing not only what Elder McConkie says, but why he says it; together with the things Elder McConkie doesn’t say at all! This one you won’t want to miss!

Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave one of his most famous talks in history in 1980 named “The Seven Deadly Heresies.” RFM and Bill Reel break down this talk, exposing not only what Elder McConkie says, but why he says it; together with the things Elder McConkie doesn’t say at all! This one you won’t want to miss!

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Tonight on Mormonism Live, we examine a recurring pattern in Joseph Smith’s prophetic career: when he encountered something mysterious, incomplete, inaccessible, or simply unknown, he rarely seemed content to say, “I don’t know.” Instead, he supplied an answer—and often an extraordinarily detailed one.

A skeleton becomes Zelph, complete with a name, identity, history, and ancient associations. Egyptian papyri become the writings of Abraham. Egyptian figures become Abraham, Pharaoh, Shulem, Olimlah, gods, and cosmic teachings. The Kinderhook Plates produce an ancient genealogy. A stone becomes a seer stone capable of revealing hidden knowledge. Native Americans become Lamanites. Landscapes become Cumorah, Zion, the Garden of Eden, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and the “plains of the Nephites.”

And the pattern extends beyond objects and geography. Where scripture appears incomplete, Joseph supplies the JST, Book of Moses, Enoch material, and D&C 7’s hidden parchment. Where ancient language is unknowable, he supplies the “Pure Language” of Adam. Where the universe remained largely mysterious, Joseph supplies an elaborate Abrahamic cosmology involving Kolob and an entire hierarchy of named heavenly bodies.

But this raises a more important question than whether any single claim sounds strange: How reliable was Joseph Smith’s method of knowing?

We separate these claims into those that eventually became independently testable, those where some physical evidence exists but Joseph’s specific identification remains difficult to test, and those constructed around realities essentially beyond external verification. And a troubling pattern emerges: where later evidence allows us to check Joseph’s extraordinary claims, serious problems repeatedly appear.

So what should we make of the claims that remain safely beyond our ability to test?

This episode explores the possibility that Joseph Smith’s greatest prophetic advantage may have been the unknown—because the less anyone around him could verify, the more room he had to “know.”

Joseph Smith Always Had an Answer: The Pattern Behind His Claims

This time the LDS Church has gone too far! Lying to its membership is one thing, because the members know better than to criticize the leaders of the Church, even if the criticism is true. But this is in a court of law! Judge’s are not famous for taking it well when lawyers lie to their face. We’ll have to see what happens in this lawsuit once that realization starts sinking in! Here it is. The whole story of how the LDS Church just got caught lying in their lawsuit against John Dehlin! (This podcast contains material previously released on the 8-31-26 Mormon Newcast; substantially streamlined through editing for your pleasure.)

In a strange turn of events, Mormon apologist Cardon Ellis is helping John Dehlin fight the LDS Church in the lawsuit the church is bringing to try to shut John down! It appears that religion, as well as politics, can make for strange bedfellows! You have to watch this to believe it! (Contains outtakes from previously released material.)

In this amazing episode of RFM, we get three podcasts in one! The first deals with comments collected from apologetic podcasts that may end up being useful to John Dehlin in defending himself in court against the Mormon Church! The second deals with the 600-Year Prophecy of Christ’s Birth found in the Book of Mormon, and how a close examination of that one prophecy can clarify how we read the Book of Mormon. Finally, RFM tells the story of how it is he actually changed a word in the text of the Book of Mormon! This is not clickbait. This really happened! This one you won’t want to miss!

RFM and Bill Reel are joined by Dr. Thomas Murphy to discuss what the presence of Native American myths, individuals, and stories in the Book of Mormon means. Are these evidence the Book of Mormon is true? Or do they give us an insight into some of the creative grist Joseph was using to compile his narrative of ancient American inhabitants? World-renowned expert in the field Dr. Murphy helps us find the answers!

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The Mormon Church is claiming their lawsuit against John Dehlin has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Of course not! They are just trying to sue John Dehlin into oblivion so he will agree it is wiser and less-expensive to stop criticizing Mormonism. It is so obvious that even church members are noticing and beginning to turn against the church. And the clumsy filings of the church, together with an even clumsier press conference, go a long way toward proving the Mormon Church is suing John Dehlin for all the reasons they say they are not. Listen and see if you agree! (This material originally aired on the Mormon Newscast on August 24, 2026.)

Mormon apologist Jacob Hansen has chosen the hill he wants to die on. That hill is his unusual position that even though prophets can be (and have been!) horribly wrong about doctrinal issues, they can still be trusted to teach us the truth. I know. I know. It doesn’t make any sense to me, either! But in this episode, we will demonstrate that not only is this actually Jacob Hansen’s position, but that he will in fact die on the particular hill. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Radio Free Mormon.

In June 1834, while marching with Zion’s Camp through Illinois, Joseph Smith and his followers came across an ancient Native American burial mound. Members of the group dug into the mound and uncovered a human skeleton—with what appeared to be an arrowhead among its ribs.

According to multiple members of Zion’s Camp, Joseph Smith then received a vision revealing the identity of the dead man. His name was Zelph. He was described as a “white Lamanite,” a warrior and “man of God” who had fought under a great prophet named Onandagus. Wilford Woodruff recorded that Onandagus was known across a territory extending from “the hill Cumorah” to the Rocky Mountains and that Joseph received this information “in a vision.”

But the story gets considerably more interesting when we dig deeper.

In this episode of Mormonism Live, we examine the earliest surviving Zelph accounts from Wilford Woodruff, Reuben McBride, Levi Hancock, Heber C. Kimball, and others. What did these witnesses independently agree Joseph said? Which details appeared later? And how did the story change as it was edited into the official history of the Church?

We also explore Joseph Smith’s own remarkable letter written during Zion’s Camp describing the group as wandering across the “plains of the Nephites,” examine the possible connections between Zelph, Cumorah, the Land of Desolation, and Book of Mormon geography, and look at what modern archaeology has discovered about the mound where the skeleton was reportedly found.

Was Zelph simply an unusual nineteenth-century frontier story? Or did Joseph Smith make a specific prophetic claim about an actual ancient person—one that potentially tells us where Joseph believed Book of Mormon peoples lived?

Zelph the White Lamanite: Digging Up Bones

This is where archaeology, Mormon history, Book of Mormon geography, and Joseph Smith’s prophetic claims collide.

RFM and Bill Reel host an august panel of Sunstone Symposium presenters and attendees, as they tell us fun and fascinating stories about what goes on behind the scenes of Sunstone! Join us! Mormon Studies were never so much fun!