Church History Matters

050 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 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 helping the poor—beginning at its origins where it was serendipitously born of necessity in the mind of a Stake President amidst the Great Depression, to its current multi-pronged offerings where, though most of it goes unseen, it quietly blesses countless lives.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

049 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 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” (D&C 119:4). Only months after this tithing revelation was received, however, the saints were violently expelled from Missouri and, just over a year later, found themselves as refugees settling a swampy piece of land in Illinois they would call Nauvoo. 
In this episode of Church History Matters, we begin by diving into what consecration looked like in Nauvoo and then trace the practice into Utah. And rather than seeing a clean linear break from the D&C 42 financial consecration system of stewardship to the D&C 119 consecration system of tithing, we instead see in the historical record what appears to be various forms of overlap between and hybridization of these two systems. We’re talking about united orders and business cooperatives Brigham City, Orderville, how the federal government broke up these cooperatives, and finally how we as a Church came to settle more exclusively on the tithing system. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

048 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, 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 response to Joseph’s prayerful plea in July of that year as to how to fund the various needs of the Church, the Lord revealed what we now know as the law of tithing.  
In this episode of Church History Matters we discuss several of the fascinating details from this history and grapple with a few fundamental and slightly controversial questions about tithing.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

047 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 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 Church History Matters, we go back to the beginning of the Church to discuss its very first consecration-based business ventures—the Literary Firm and the United Firm, or United Order. Specifically, we’re interested in the founding revelations that justify these ventures and how the principles found in these have paved the way for the Church’s very successful business ventures today.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

046 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 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 whole series to exploring this fascinating and important topic.  
In this episode of Church History Matters, Casey and Scott go back to the beginning of Church finances to explore the undergirding principles in the original revelations that have gotten us to where we are today. And among them all there is one particular principle that looms larger and is more responsible for the Church’s financial success than any of the others, and that is consecration—a law shrouded with some degree of mystery and confusion in the minds of many. So, we want to at least begin dissecting what it is and what it isn’t in this episode.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

045 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 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 Church History Matters to discuss his book and to dig deeper together into what good thinking looks like—especially regarding doctrinal seeking. And, as usual, we were not disappointed.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

044 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 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 some challenging Church History questions. And we were not disappointed.

043 God Bless You All!

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

042 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 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 those who “have not faith” is for them to seek learning? Is he suggesting that by diligently studying wisdom from the “best books” we will find evidences of the unseen that will enlarge our faith?
Today on Church History Matters Casey and Scott explore this idea of evidence-based faith-seeking as a way to understand each of the thinking skills and mental frameworks they've explored throughout this series. Could it be that for some of us at least, the best way to strengthen our faith is to gather evidences of the unseen by combining good thinking tools with a study of great source material? Quite possibly. But as today’s discussion makes plain, there is also a deep need to add to this approach a few crucial attributes as well. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

041 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 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 deception which has troubled many a testimony.
This is why in this episode of Church History Matters we discuss the crucial skill of properly contextualizing facts so we know what kind of meaning to give them and how to feel about them. We then demonstrate how this skill works with some real-life, potentially shocking examples.  
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/