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PODCAST

Church History Matters

Scripture Central

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

religion & spirituality christianity

All Episodes

57:56

Marriage Sealings: A High Fusion of Theology + Ritual

Church History Matters ·

2024/04/16

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 us to enact that very theology. It was in Nauvoo that the picture became clear. Every revealed ordinance builds with deep meaning to the next, until finally reaching the pinnacle ordinance of sealing wife and husband together for eternity. All theological

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01:02:03

An Interview with an LDS Freemason

Church History Matters ·

2024/04/09

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 people have questions about. So we thought you might enjoy hearing from Lon Tibbitts who has served both as an LDS ward bishop and as a Master of his Masonic lodge in Utah. Lon is a keen student of both masonic and LDS history, and in this interview he

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01:15:23

The Kirtland Endowment: What it Was and Why it Matters

Church History Matters ·

2024/03/19

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 endowment, or gift, of power from on high. But what exactly was this endowment? What “power” was given from on high? Was it one thing, or several things? And how was this gift (or gifts) of power received in the Kirtland temple so crucial in the unfolding

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50:20

The Beginnings of LDS Temple Worship

Church History Matters ·

2024/03/12

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 Church History Matters we begin a new series exploring the Development of Latter-day Saint Temple worship. We’re starting at the very beginning and probing questions such as, how early on did Joseph Smith understand the temple-centric nature of

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01:16:44

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

Church History Matters ·

2024/02/27

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 of one-tenth of what they would make in interest annually if they invested their total net worth at 6%. So, when did we shift in the Church away from the payment of tithing in that two-part way to the more general approach today of really

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01:11:38

Modern Church Financial Controversies

Church History Matters ·

2024/02/20

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 just disclose exactly how much they actually have? If it’s anywhere near that number, is it ethical for the Church to continue to ask its members—especially its poorer members—to tithe? Furthermore, what’s the deal with the Church paying a 5 million

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55:11

Zion-Building Through Poverty-Elimination

Church History Matters ·

2024/02/13

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 only assisting the poor and needy, but going even further to help them eliminate poverty from their lives by becoming self reliant.In this episode of Church History Matters we want to trace the fascinating story of our current Church system for

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59:48

Consecration in Nauvoo & Utah

Church History Matters ·

2024/02/06

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 of legally deeding all of their property to the bishop and receiving back from him a legal lease of property known as a stewardship, the Lord asked the saints instead to follow a tithing system of paying “one-tenth of all their interest annually”

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58:32

Did Tithing Replace Consecration?

Church History Matters ·

2024/01/30

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, Missouri. Shortly thereafter, in April 1838, the Lord commanded the saints to build the Far West temple, but charged them not to go into more debt to do so. Church leaders were then already steeped in debts from Kirtland as it was. So in

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50:48

Are Church “For-Profit” Businesses Okay?

Church History Matters ·

2024/01/23

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 focused on bringing people to Christ have any business getting involved in business? Are business ventures like these compatible with the mission of the Church generally and the founding principles of consecration specifically? In this episode of

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57:54

Consecration and the Beginning of Church Finances

Church History Matters ·

2024/01/16

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 accomplishment of its purposes. But it was not always so. There have been some narrow straits through which the Church has had to pass to get to where it is financially today. It is quite compelling history actually—which is why we wanted to dedicate a

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01:00:19

Seekers Wanted: Interview with Dr. Anthony Sweat

Church History Matters ·

2024/01/09

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 Want.” In this book Dr. Sweat offers keen insights into many of the principles of truth-seeking we have been exploring throughout this series as well as many others we didn’t cover! Casey and I were excited to interview Dr. Sweat for this episode of

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55:04

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

Church History Matters ·

2024/01/02

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 truth-seeking we have been exploring throughout this series … and then some! Casey and I were excited to interview Dr. Erekson about his book and to invite him to demonstrate what those principles look like in practice by inviting him to grapple on-air with

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00:53

God Bless You All!

Church History Matters ·

2023/12/26

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

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01:00:25

Why Evidence-Based Faith Matters

Church History Matters ·

2023/12/19

“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 the level of confidence we feel toward a truth-claim or proposed reality which we have not seen based on the degree of evidence we have accumulated of its truthfulness and existence? If so, is this why the Lord’s prescription in D&C 88:118 for

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57:22

Why Contextualizing Facts Matters So Much

Church History Matters ·

2023/12/12

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 fact—especially a potentially shocking or scandalous sounding fact—isolated from its context is a fact certain to be misunderstood. This reality is too often leveraged by critics against Church members as a weapon of mass

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51:06

Why Mental Flexibility is So Crucial for Durable...

Church History Matters ·

2023/12/05

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 learning is all about. Sounds pretty basic right? Well, it is. But it isn’t always easy. Church History can teach us that modifying one’s assumptions can be a challenge for some when it requires them to rethink their ideas about God, prophets, and the

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01:07:20

Are Criticisms of the Book of Mormon Witnesses...

Church History Matters ·

2023/11/28

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 reliability of a historical truth claim. In this episode of Church History Matters, we’re going to practice putting these five questions to work by actually using them to measure and evaluate various historical truth-claims about the witnesses of the

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57:47

How Can We Think Like Historians?

Church History Matters ·

2023/11/21

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 truth tellers who gave honest (though subjective) accounts of what happened. Others emphasized or omitted specific details in ways that would serve their particular agenda. So, how should we think about and evaluate the reliability of historical claims and

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51:15

Workshopping the Three Lenses

Church History Matters ·

2023/11/14

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 we can assess the doctrinal reliability of a truth claim. In today’s episode of Church History Matters, we’re going to practice putting these three lenses to work by actually using them to measure and evaluate various theological truth-claims to

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