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Doctrine & Covenants 98-101 Part 1 • Dr. Derek Sainsbury • Sept 8-14 • Come Follow Me
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- [00:00]
Hank Smith
Coming up in this episode on Follow.
- [00:03]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Him, they threw out all the other stuff, such as paper and type and tools, printed materials, throwing out the signature sheets of the Book of Commandments. Meanwhile, a separate group went into the house downstairs, ransacked the home, threw all the furnishings into the street. Then, in a final act of destruction, a human wrecking crew deroofs the building, demolishes the walls and and turns everything into a heap of rubble.
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John
Hello, everyone.
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Hank Smith
Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my pure co host, John, by the way. John, section 116 says, I will raise up unto myself a pure people that serve me in righteousness. John, you are a pure co host because you serve God in righteousness.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Pure.
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John
Pure as the driven slush. Thank you.
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Hank Smith
All right. I love it. John, we are blessed. Today we have returning from four years ago, our friend, Dr. Derek Sainsbury. Derek, welcome back.
- [01:13]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Great to be here. Looking forward to learning with you and learning from the scriptures today.
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Hank Smith
We loved it four years ago. John Derek brought out some insights that we still talk about to this day. They'll come up in other episodes, other conversations.
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John
Thank you for coming back.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah, absolutely. Happy to be here.
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Hank Smith
The bar is now set pretty high. You're going to give us some things to talk about for the next four years. The date of section 98 is August of 1833. Now you know the history of the church pretty well. The late summer and fall of 1833, things get really dark in Missouri. What do you think of when I bring that up?
- [01:54]
John
Oh, these are some really wrestle worth. Is that a word? Wrestle worth? Revelation. Say that five times fast. Yeah, my memory is it starts in about July. Press is destroyed, their persecutions, demands to leave. It all happens right there. And as we talk about a lot. Hank, wait a minute. This is supposed to be Zion. Wait, what? Wait. The internal struggle of how to deal with all of that must have been pretty tough.
- [02:21]
Hank Smith
We've been talking quite a bit about how there are two church centers at this time. We have saints in Ohio and we have saints in Missouri. They're a thousand miles apart, trying to communicate with each other, both dealing with difficult problems in different situations. Derek, as you've looked at these sections today in this time period, what are we going to do? What are we going to look at?
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
I want to look at the history of what happens because these sections of the Doctrine and Covenants don't make as much sense if you don't understand exactly what's happening. There's a lot of backstory then. I actually want to look at it through the lens of three couples. We'll look at Sidney and Elizabeth, Gilbert, Philo and Celia Dibble, and John and Julia Murdoch. We'll see them meet on the other side of these sections in Clay County. They'll all be in the same spot when we get there. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk to them about what's happened, maybe then talk to each other and everybody else that's listening today about how we deal with trials and why they happen in our lives. We'll talk a little bit about the verses in these sections that talk about the Constitution, about government, how we're supposed to interact with government, because I think those are important things to talk about as well.
- [03:42]
Hank Smith
Absolutely, John. Like I said, Derek was with us four years ago. There's very few people who know more about the history of the church and especially about Joseph Smith towards the end of his life running for president. But there might be someone listening who thinks, I don't know who Derek Sainsbury is. Do we know anything about this guy?
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Can we vouch for him?
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John
I do it. It just came right out of my printer, what I know about this guy.
- [04:07]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Wow.
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John
Derek Sainsbury grew up in Taylorsville, Utah, and I love this. Sunbury, Australia. He received a bachelor's in Political science from the University of Utah, an MPA from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in American History from the University of Utah. And he's taught in the seminaries and institutes for 27 years before coming to religious education at BYU. Like you said, Hank, he's the author of the first monograph on Joseph Smith's presidential campaign in 1844. Now it's called Storming the the Unknown Contributions of Joseph Smith's Political Missionaries. He's researching a dual biography of Joseph Smith and Robert F. Kennedy. What do they have in common? The only two assassinated US Presidential candidates. So that's fascinating. He married his high school sweetheart, Meredith Pettit, and they are the parents of three sons. They live in Bountiful. He enjoys reading, golf, 80s music. I love this. And playing with his dogs. I was asked recently your favorite 80s band? And I said, toto, just that fast. It says, I don't know what yours is.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
I have a wide taste when it comes to 80s music.
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Hank Smith
That was good music and good movies. The older I get, the more I realize how great it was to grow up in the 80s and 90s.
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John
Those were the days, as we like to say.
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Hank Smith
John, did we talk about Derek's New book.
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John
Tell us some more about that, because that's fascinating. They weren't presidents, but they were presidential candidates, and that's what they have in climate. Can you tell us more about that project?
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Well, it just starts out as a trivia question. Who were the only two assassinated presidential candidates? I did my first book on Joseph Smith's campaign, and then I've dug now into Robert Kennedy's campaign and I went to the archives in Boston, photographed, along with some family members of all this campaign material. And they're taking those names and they've been able to track down and continue to track down people all across the country that are in their 80s, early 90s who are still alive, who campaigned. And so we're doing zoom interviews with them. And the whole idea is just to create this biography back and forth of their lives and some of the things they had in common as far as what they were trying to accomplish. It's been a really fascinating project and hopefully get it out for the next presidential campaign in 2028.
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Hank Smith
Wow, that's fantastic. Derek is always doing the most interesting research on where the church and the government intersect. I think that's why he's going to.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Be great for today.
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Hank Smith
Let's start with the Come Follow Me manual. It says this for the Saints. In the 1830s, Independence, Missouri, was literally the promised land. It was the center place of Zion, the city of God on Earth. And the gathering of the Saints there was an exciting prelude to the second coming. But their neighbors in the area saw things differently. They objected to the claim that God had given the land to the Saints, and they were uncomfortable with the political, economic, and social consequences of so many unfamiliar people moving in so quickly. Discomfort soon turned to persecution and violence. In 1833, the church's printing office was destroyed and the Saints were forced from their homes. Joseph Smith was more than 800 miles away in Kirtland, and this news took weeks to reach him. But the Lord knew what was happening, and he revealed to his prophet principles of peace and. And encouragement that would comfort the Saints. Principles that would also help us when we face persecution, when our righteous desires go unfulfilled, or when we need a reminder that our daily afflictions will eventually somehow work together for our good. I can see why Derek gave us the introduction that he did. It fits right here with what we're going to look at today. Derek, with that, you told us we need some background in order to understand these sections.
- [07:54]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Appreciate them. Yeah. Even before we get into that, I want to go off what you Read from the manual, actually, fast forward to easter Sunday in 1843. Joseph Smith has just received news that Lorenzo Barnes, a missionary, has died in England. He's the first foreign missionary to have passed away. He centers his talk that Sunday on him and on the Resurrection. I just want to quote a few lines because I think they're the core doctrine of what the Lord is trying to help his saints in Jackson county understand. Joseph says this. When I heard of the death of our beloved brother Barnes, it would not have affected me so much if I had the opportunity of burying him in the land of Zion. Would you think it's strange if I relate what I have seen and vision in relation to this interesting theme? Those who have died in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of joy when they come forth, which they possessed or anticipated. Here so plain was the vision that I actually saw men before they had ascended from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly. They took each other by the hand and said to each other, my father, my son, my mother, my daughter, my brother, my sister. Then he says this. Of all the things I know to be true, John and Hank, this is number one in my life. He said, all your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful by the vision of the Almighty. I have seen it, and I hope that today, as we look at real people and think about our own real lives and the difficulties we struggle with, that we can remember that Christ's resurrection has already made it better, has already healed it and fixed it. It's just a matter of timing and that what will come on the other side will be so, so incredible. To get the background here of why they're getting thrown out, we need to know why they're there in the first place. April, 1830, the church is restored. The next month, in May, there's something called the Indian Removal act that Congress passes and that President Jackson signs and then begins to enforce, which starts forcing all of the southern tribes of American Indians west to where the Northern tribes have been pushed, which is west of the state of Missouri. In September of 1830, the Lord gives a revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 28, where he says that the Zion that's talked about in the Book of Mormon that would be built in the last days has not been revealed yet, but that it is somewhere near the border of the Lamanites, which is the word the Lord uses and the Saints use to talk about the indigenous people of the Americas. Of course, that's the first organized mission we have four missionaries that leave in October and head to Jackson county to get to the other side, which is Indian territory. And on the way, they stop in Kirtland. They have a lot of success. Remember that there's three couples that they have success with that will kind of help us understand the story. The first are Sidney and Elizabeth Gilbert. Sidney grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. He was educated, maybe even Yale. In 1817, he moves to Painesville, which is right next to Kirtland, and he starts a store. He hires a young guy named Newell K. Whitney, you may have heard of him, and teaches him how to be a merchant, and they open a store together. He gets married to his wife, Elizabeth, and they have a son named Loyal, who unfortunately passes away the next year. In 1828, Elizabeth's sister, Keziah Rawlins, she passes away and he takes in. He and Elizabeth take in not only Keziah, but their three children, James Mary Elizabeth and Caroline Amelia Rawlins, who will also figure in our story when we get to Jackson County. Sidney and Elizabeth are Methodists. And Mary Rollins, you might remember the story. She's 12, and she hears about the Book of Mormon at Isaac Marley's farm, and she convinces Isaac Morley to let her read it. Well, the person that also reads it that night with her is her uncle, Sidney Gilbert. That ends up leading him and Elizabeth to join the church as well. Then we have Philo and Celia Dibble. Philo's from Massachusetts. He gets married in 1829. His wife owns land near Kirtland. Coincidence? He hears about what's going on at Isaac Morley's farm, and he goes and he listens to Oliver talk about the administration of angels at noonday, and he's totally convinced he wants to get baptized. But he says, quote, my wife thought it was too hasty and said if I would wait a little while, perhaps she would go along with me. I paid her no heed, but went forthwith and was baptized by Parley P. Pratt. She, of course, gets baptized later. But I just think there's a time where to not give heed. That night he has an amazing spiritual experience where he feels the spirit throughout his body. He says, the next morning, I started home a happy man. When Joseph needs some financial things taken care of, he sells 1200 of his acres and gives the $400 to Joseph. Not on loan, just gives it to him. That earning value is about $132,000. Today, there's couple number two that come in at Kirtland. Couple number three are John and Julia Murdoch. John's born in eastern New York. He experiences severe childhood trauma because his mom dies when he's four. And he has an evil stepmom. Okay, like an evil stepmom to the point where. Listen to this story. When he's 17, he has an accident with a scythe that cripples him. He almost dies. He stared it in the face. And I prayed to my heavenly Father that if you preserve my life, I would serve him. Then he says this. I bore up under it well, until my stepmother found fault with me for being careless. I thought it a bad time to find fault, and I could not forbear weeping. But during one year, I remained in my father's house. She would very often find fault with me because I was a bill of expense and not able to work. Things don't work out very well. He said that she made his father and his children rather unhappy the 15 years they were married. And then he said this. Being persecuted by my stepmother and this accident with my wrist made me search for truth. And he does. He starts out as a Dutch Lutheran. Then he becomes a Methodist. Then he becomes a Campbellite. Then he goes to Ohio and he marries. Then he's converted and baptized by Parley P. Pratt and confirmed an elder by Oliver. His first Sunday, he preaches and baptizes five people, including his wife. The next Sunday, he baptizes three more. This guy's a missionary. In the next four months, he baptizes 70 people. He moves into Kirtland, sells his home, moves in. His wife gives birth on April 30 to twins. Most people know the story that Julia passes away on the same day that Emma Smith delivers twins and. And the twins pass away. What John does is he gives those twins to Joseph and Emma, whom they named Joseph and Julia. He doesn't want to get remarried. That's generally what happened. You get remarried when your wife dies in this time period to take care of the kids. He is. So. He says this in his. In his autobiography. He is so terrorized about his stepmother that he doesn't want to remarry and have a stepmother that might treat his children the same way. So I want you to keep that in mind, too, as we go through this, the trauma that he's experienced. Okay. Now, Zion. Jackson County, Missouri. You can't think of a more difficult place to try and build Zion inside the United States. In fact, you can't understand the Civil War if you don't understand the 1850s, the political polarization that happens there. And bleeding Kansas. Can't understand the political polarization of bleeding Kansas. You. If you don't understand the Mormon War of 1838, where we're exterminated from the state, you can't understand that if you don't go back five years earlier and look at our expulsion from Jackson county, which is what our sections deal with today. This is a very difficult place. Missouri is a slave state. Independence is important because the Santa Fe Trail is so lucrative. I need to go back in time, Hank and John, and get in on this. The first return on investment to the Santa fe Trail was 1500% of taking things to Santa Fe and bringing back gold and silver and other things. An economist has done the work that the average return on investment was 200 to 300%. It's a very lucrative trade. Towns are popping up along the Missouri river to get closer and closer to Santa Fe. And Independence is kind of like that last town. And it has an amazing place where they can get steamboat engines in. It becomes very important. But it's only created in 1827, just four years before the Latter Day Saints get there. When Oliver gets there, he says this. We are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. For almost the whole country, consisting of universalists, atheists, Deists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and other professed Christians. All the devils from the infernal pit are united in foaming out their shame against us. God forbid that I should bring a railing accusation against them for vengeance belonging to him who is able to repay. Well, we are blessed to preach the gospel even if earth and hell oppose our way. For we dwell in the midst of scorpions. The people that are there when we show up are people, basically four groups of people. You have a lot of people escaping justice from anywhere in the United States and living on the edge of the frontier. You've got businessmen obviously looking to get rich because it's easy money. A lot of them are coming from poor families in the Appalachian States. They're looking to break out of poverty and they've moved there. And then there's some there that are extending slavery. Another missionary that beats our missionaries there by two years. He writes this. This will just give you a flavor of what the Saints are living among. This missionary wrote back to his missionary society and said this. What I have found here is anything but encouraging. The prospects for our evangelical work appear less likely here than any place I've seen in my westward journeys. Such a godless place filled with so many profane swearers, it would be difficult to imagine it worse. The majority of the people make a mild profession of Christian living, but it is mere words not manifested in Christian living. There are a few so called ministers in the gospel hereabouts, but they are a sad lot of churchmen, untrained, uncouth, giving to imbibing spiritist liquors and indulging as participants in the gambling which accompanies horse racing. There are many suspicious characters who headquarter here, but when intelligence arrives that a federal marshal is approaching this county, there is a hurried scurrying of many into Indian territory on the west side of the Missouri. As soon as the marshal returns downstream, this element is back in the saloons and other centers of sin. There appears to be an overabundance of females here practicing the world's oldest profession. Additionally gouging, which is trying to gouge somebody's eye out. Gouging in more serious forms of violence are common. Finally, the sheriff has little support from the populace except to prevent burglars breaking into merchant shops. He has confided to me that the citizens do not care to have the lawless punished let's build Zion, shall we?
- [20:28]
John
Here's a perfect spot.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Wow. If the Lord is serious about making us the best we can be, he's going to give us the kind of situations that allow us to prove that there isn't a place more difficult to build Zion than this. Now, in previous episodes you guys have talked about the missionaries that come down in 1831 to find the center place to dedicate the temple. One of those was John Murdoch. He has to leave his kids in the care of someone else. He gets sick for almost the entire mission. In fact, he gets there after they've left. When he finally gets to Jackson county, he's so sick that he's in and out of consciousness for three months. And he said this. I had to share this. He said I was so weak that I could not keep the flies out of my mouth. Oh, just awful miserable.
- [21:28]
John
Oh yeah.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Someone else who went on that journey was Sidney and Elizabeth Gilbert, also the 15 year old nephew they took in, James Rawlins. You'll remember. That's because in section 53 the Lord told Sidney Gilbert that he was to go to Zion to be an agent for the church. As it says here, be an agent unto the church in the place which shall be appointed by the Bishop according to the commandments which I have given. He goes there, which makes Elizabeth his wife, the first female Latter Day Saint in Zion, which is kind of an honor too because she has Jewish ancestry. Promised Land 1.0 to Promised Land 2.0. You'll remember on that visit in section 57, they identify the temple lot. Sidney Gilbert is told to plant himself in this place, to establish a store for the saints, to get all the licensing he needs and be prepared to make Zion work economically. Along with Bishop Partridge, you'll remember in section 58 that the Lord says some hints about what's coming that they don't pick up at the time. When you and I read this, we're in, like, a godlike point of view where we know what's going to happen. They don't look at these clues. The Lord gave he that is faithful in tribulation. The reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of God. Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes for the present time the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. He in section 58 also tells them that they are honored in laying the foundation, that they are there to be obedient, that all things are to be done in order that that gathering be not in haste nor by flight, but be done as counseled by the elders of the churches. Then the last One is section 59, where the Lord commands them to keep all the commandments and to live the law of consecration. Martin Harris, that's actually in section 58 is the first one to consecrate. The Lord says, anyone who comes here must live the law of consecration. When the land is dedicated. Sidney Rigdon says this to the people that are there. Do you pledge yourselves to keep the laws of God on this land which ye have not kept in your own land? And they responded, we do. Do you pledge to see that others of your brethren who should come hither keep the laws of God? And they responded, we do. Then he arose and said, I now pronounce this land consecrated and dedicated to the Lord for his possession and his inheritance. So this is supposed to be something different. Is Zion built on God's laws? And they covenant to do that almost to the day that he does that clear across the country in Virginia, there is a slave named Nat Turner who leads a rebellion where he and some other slaves slaughter about 60 men, women and children in their beds. They're caught, 56 of them are executed, but another hundred or so are lynched. If you had anything to do with anything and you were a black slave there in Virginia, they're lynched. And this causes the south to be in panic all the way to the Civil war. So they start passing laws. Free blacks and slaves can't have education in some places. Missionaries can't preach to slaves without the master's approval, so forth and so on. They're constantly scared about this. And this is important. Right. Because Missouri is a slave state.
- [25:12]
John
Yeah. The article that W.W. phelps is going to write, that's coming up, I guess.
- [25:18]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yep. Absolutely.
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John
Directly confronting that.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. I hope you can see I'm trying to weave together all these things. The match is what you're talking about, John, that we're building all this tinder. What happens with that article is the match that turns everything to fire.
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John
I love what you're saying here about you can't conceive of a more difficult place to try to build Zion than here. That's fascinating. Of why the Lord works that way sometimes.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Well, we can see that in our lives too. Sometimes we get a calling or we get a situation in our life. And like, this is the actual worst thing you could do for me, Lord. This is the most difficult. And it just seems to be part of what we'll talk about today with trials.
- [26:03]
Hank Smith
If you've heard of the tender mercies of the Lord, I call those the bitter ironies of.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah, there you go.
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Hank Smith
This is the absolute worst thing that could happen. I also was thinking, Derek, as you were teaching us, what a difference a year makes for these people. This Latter Day Saint thing isn't even on your radar. Now you're moving to the middle of nowhere, out onto the western part of the country.
- [26:28]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
I just think selling all your stuff.
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Hank Smith
Yeah. How did this happen to me? I was doing fine.
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John
All I did was join a church.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
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Hank Smith
My whole life. Everything about my life has changed.
- [26:43]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
That's what's interesting. The word Zion itself shows up 148 times in the Old Testament. It's a major theme, particularly about in the last days with Isaiah. How many times in The New Testament? 0 in the Book of Mormon, 42 in the Pearl of Great Price. 14 DNC 191 times. Almost as much as all of them put together. What makes us different from the Protestant churches? It's we're building Zion, gathering into one location and literally trying to build a community to receive Jesus Christ. That makes everything we do completely different in some ways very countercultural, very un American, if you will, for the time period that is going to cause some hostilities.
- [27:35]
Hank Smith
I think as a young teacher, a young missionary, I thought this is a restoration of the New Testament Church. Through the years, I've realized it's much, much Bigger than that? Much, much bigger than that.
- [27:48]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
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Hank Smith
Well said a lot of Old Testament. We're going to bring back the Fathers Zion Garden of Eden temples.
- [27:57]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
- [27:58]
John
Ironic Melchizedek. Both Old Testament figures.
- [28:03]
Hank Smith
Let's keep going, Derek. What are we gonna do next?
- [28:05]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Okay, so we. We left John Murdoch sick with flies in his mouth in Jackson county in February of 1832. He and Parley P. Pratt leave on a mission to go back to Kirtland. And they're both sick the entire time. In fact, one time, John Murdoch hasn't been able to get up for days. He said he thought of our calling and resolved to travel and preach or die in the attempt. And he asks for a blessing. It's just enough to get to the next day. It's just like that for them. They're not baptizing anybody in Missouri or in Indiana. One night, they're woken up at midnight. A gentleman named Isaac H. McCann is hollering at the place they're staying at. He had tracked them down 27 miles to get baptized. Then they had another baptism the next day.
- [28:55]
John
Isaac McCann, as in McCann, you baptized me.
- [28:58]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Right. Now that's exactly 27 miles.
- [29:03]
John
Wow.
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Hank Smith
Didn't that happen to you guys on.
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Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Your missions all the time? Yeah.
- [29:07]
John
Please, I insist you administer unto me King Lamonia.
- [29:12]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
That's basically a marathon, right? More than a marathon.
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John
Hank and Derek, we hear this all the time of people being sick a lot. It seems like so much of a way of life, of battling through sickness. Oh, and then. Oh, I'm sorry you're sick and almost on your deathbed, but I'm calling you to go on a mission. Oh, and leave your wife and your kids behind. They're also sick. It's amazing, the sacrifice.
- [29:37]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Here's from his journal. Murdoch's journal about Parley P. Pratt. I was reading his journal. They seemed to be giving it back and forth to each other. He writes this five miles from any house. Brother Pratt had the chill and then the fever came on. And his strength left him. And he lay down in the two feet of snow with a north wind blowing on him. I asked him if he could travel. He said no. I asked him if he did not believe the Lord would heal him. He said he would heal him according to his faith, but said his faith was weak. I asked him if he wished me to lay hands on him. He said he did with many tears. I fell on my knees and laid my hands on him in the name of the Lord Jesus and prayed for him. We both arose and traveled on and Gave glory to God for his goodness. Sometimes I think, too parley P. Pratt like this big hero for so many of us. Here's a moment of weakness in faith that terrible, terrible. I mean, he's laying down to die. Basically, the priesthood heals him. The faith of John Murdoch heals him. Guess what happens the next night? Murdoch gets it. So he's sick. I want you to keep this date in mind when it's March 29th. He's really sick. In his journal, he says he's really, really sick. We'll come back to that in just a minute. He's on his way up to Kirtland. Well, let's go back to our friend Philo Dibble, who's never left the Kirtland area. On February 16th of 1832, he happens to be watching Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon have a vision of the three degrees of glory. Of course, the famous line, I like it. In this version, the oldest version, after the vision, Joseph appeared as strong as a lion, but Sidney seemed as weak as water. Joseph, noticing his condition, smiled and said, brother Sidney is not as used to it as I am. One of the consequences, though, of that vision, right, as we've already talked about, is that on March 24, Joseph and Sidney are tarred and feathered. And it's an awful experience. They both think they're going to die. Little Joseph is exposed, Remember? And on March 29, when his dad is on his way back and dead sick. Not dead, but dead sick. His son dies. He doesn't even know it. Like you said, John, we underestimate how this was just part of their life and how difficult sickness and death were. After the tarring and feathering, Sidney and Joseph go to Missouri. They take another trip to Missouri because the Lord has asked them to create the united firm connecting the two church centers in Kirtland and in Independence with the two stores and the printing press and all of that, there's an interesting story that happens when they're there. They arrive in April 24, Sidney Rigdon goes on the courthouse in Independence and he preaches a sermon. And according to one of the men that were there, Sidney claimed to, quote, have been to the third heaven and talked with God face to face. It so shocks everybody that someone would say that. The next day, all these different ministers and independents come and talk to him. Basically say, do you realize what you said? Do you know what you just said? He repeats it to them, and then he says, you don't have the truth. You're just the blind leading the blind. Winning friends and influencing people. Not Sidney's style, right?
- [33:05]
John
Not in his playbook.
- [33:08]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
It actually agitates the people. Bricks start being thrown through windows. There's a meeting held to drive the Mormons out of the county. This is clear. Back in 1832, one of the Indian agents that's in Independence, he learns about it. He goes to the meeting. During the meeting, he opposes any such action. I just want to make clear that not everybody in Jackson county was against the Latter Day Saints or even fit into all the four groups, the majority groups we were talking about. In fact, he was quite indignant at the idea of, quote, having the Constitution and the laws set at Defiance and trodden underfoot by anybody. He went to certain influential mob characters and offered to decide the case with them in single hand combat. He said that it would be better for one or two individuals to die than for hundreds to be put to death. And none of them took him up on the offer and things died out. At the end of 1832. There are 800 Latter Day Saints now on 1700 acres in four different independence. And then the three that are on the Blue river, the Prairie, Colesville and Whitmer branches, they're moving in. Sidney Gilbert, excuse me, he's made a high priest, one of the seven high priests that is to take charge of the church there. They want Joseph to stay. They feel like he should be there in the capital. Right. Zion, he's not going to stay. And that causes some heartburn as well as some of the discussions about how to create the United Firm caused a little bit of heartburn. That's important to understand. By this time, John Murdoch has made it back to Kirtland and he stays in Kirtland and gets better from all this that's happened. He writes about having to go get his kids and pay for their care. Law of consecration, be darned. He writes this in his journal. My son Oris, he's seven years old. I had left with brother Benjamin, who had fallen from the faith. And I researched this. It was because of the vision of the three degrees of glory.
- [35:16]
John
Because of the vision. Oh, let's stop there for a second. Because that was so different than anything they were used to in mainstream. The heaven, hell dichotomy. Because of that, couldn't take it.
- [35:30]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Wow. This isn't the first time John Murdoch is going to deal with this. We'll see that a little bit down the road too, in an interesting way. So he said I had to pay for his keeping. Brother Phil Judd, with whom I had Left John had removed to Missouri and taken my cow and bed to pay for the keeping of the boy. And then brother Serene Burnett, with whom I had left my Phoebe, his four year old daughter, would keep her no longer. And I had to pay for her keeping. My little daughter Julia, I found well with brother Joseph. But my little son Joseph was dead when the prophet was hauled out of bed by the mob. The child having the measles, lay in bed with him at the time. They stripped the clothes off the child and he took cold and died. Then he writes this. They, meaning the mobbers, are in the Lord's hands. There are real people that are receiving these affections, that have real trials and struggles that we need to keep in mind. Now we can get into a section. Let's go to Section 99 of the Doctrine and Covenants. He goes to Joseph. What's next on the list? What do I need to do next? The Lord is going to give us section 99. It's kind of out of order here. As far as its placement in the Doctrine and Covenants.
- [36:48]
John
We should probably mention chronologically. 99 should be before 98 as far as when they were given.
- [36:55]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
It got put in the wrong order in 1876 and it's stayed that way even though we've learned since that it was actually a year earlier. In it, the Lord calls John Murdoch his servant. It's time for you to go on another mission to the eastern countries. House to house, village to village, city to city, to proclaim mine everlasting gospel unto the inhabitants thereof in the midst. Notice that in the midst of persecution and witness. In other words, this is going to be a fun mission for you.
- [37:28]
John
Wow.
- [37:28]
Hank Smith
Man, he is quite a missionary. I wonder how many people in the church today are there because of John Murdoch.
- [37:34]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
The Lord says, whoso receiveth you, receiveth me. Who receiveth you as a little child receiveth my kingdom. Now I want us to think about that when it comes to. This is a trial for him. Go back out on the mission. You just came back. You had to pay for your kids. You have zero, almost zero money. Your son died, that you adopted out. Now you're supposed to go back out. And by the way, you're going to go all over the place and by the way, in persecution and wickedness. This is a big trial for him. While the Lord here is specifically talking about the people he preaches to, about receiving him as they receive the Lord and receiving it as a little child. I was thinking this time, reading through, isn't that kind of True about our trials, too. When we think about deciding to receive a trial as a little child, I think about King Benjamin being willing to submit to his father and all things that are inflicted upon him. There's an attitude that I've noticed in the best of us where they are able to receive trials like a child as opposed to fight against them. I see this in John Murdoch. What do you guys think about that?
- [38:49]
John
Reminds me of Job right off that has that Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord type of a thing. The whole book of Job isn't that way, but that idea right there sounds like receiving it like a child.
- [39:05]
Hank Smith
He says, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. What verse is it in Alma, many were hardened because of the length of the war, but many were softened.
- [39:19]
John
Alma 62. Right at the beginning, it's aftermath of the war chapters.
- [39:26]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. It seems that trials are an accelerant in one way or another, depending on how we receive them. How we receive them.
- [39:33]
John
Yeah.
- [39:34]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
- [39:34]
Hank Smith
I don't love that doctrine.
- [39:37]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
No. Well, you don't have to love it. It's just true.
- [39:40]
John
Yeah, that's it.
- [39:44]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
In verse six, though, the Lord says it's not expedient. In other words, don't do this until your children are provided for. Their experience. Wasn't that great, both for you and for them? I love this. And sent up kindly unto the Bishop of Zion. Right. To Edward Partridge. I think that's beautiful. He actually finds someone. Caleb Baldwin, who's a great, great man who's going down to Zion. He pays him $30, which in value, wage value is a lot more than that in our modern time period, for him to take them, but also to get them adopted out and to give money to the people that are going to look after the kids. Guess where little Phoebe goes? She's adopted by none other than Sydney and Elizabeth Gilbert. She joins that family. Isn't that cool? The story blends together really nicely. It would make a good movie. He leaves on his mission on September 27, 1832. He returns on December 22. He only goes into Eastern Ohio. Oftentimes we look at that and we say, oh, that was his mission. That's not his mission. He comes back to spend some time with Joseph Smith and with Julia over the holidays. Then he goes back out for January and then he comes back to go to the School of the Prophets. Then he's going to go back out again after that. He sees this mission as ongoing, but that he can take breaks for Things. That's how he interpreted it, which is great. This same time period, in the fall of 1832, that's when Philo and Celia Dibble decide to go to zion. They send $50, or about $17,000 today for their land. Another $50, 17,000 they give to Parley P. Pratt for whatever needs he has. Then, before he's to leave, Gilbert is going to New York. You remember, they crossed paths and he's like, man, I could use some more money to buy supplies. Philo gives him $300, or about $100,000 in purchasing value today. Just gives it to him. No IOU or anything. They head for Independence. They get there on the 10th of November. They move out to the Whitmer settlement. They build a home, 20 acres of land in a garden, and consecrate to Bishop Partridge to wrap 1832 up. Sidney Gilbert, Remember, he'd gone and gotten all those supplies. He'd adopted little Phoebe to take care of her. Now he buys a lot right next to the courthouse. And you two have been there, I'm sure, many times. The Whitney and Gilbert store and builds a home in the back. He writes a letter on 10 December to Joseph and the other leaders in Kirtland. That really ticks the leaders off a little bit. There's some innuendo. We don't have the letter. It'd be nice to have the letter, but based on how Hyram and Orson Hyde write back, it seems to be that there was some veiled innuendo, that the leaders were mistaken about how to do things with the economic operations of the United Firm. But also as to which of the poor were deserving of assistance. Because people are just showing up without getting a recommend to come to Zion. That's not to be done in haste. But if you're baptized in Indiana and you're poor and you know the law of consecration, Jackson county is looking like a good bet because you're going to get some land and a good start. I'm not saying that's the motivation of everybody, but there's a lot that show up because they can get some land. Sidney Gilbert's not okay with that, it seems.
- [43:23]
Hank Smith
But they're not sending them. They're just choosing to go.
- [43:27]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Exactly. They're just showing up.
- [43:29]
John
Yeah. Derek, you mentioned a recommend. They were supposed to be. It's not like a temple recommend. But you didn't just go to Missouri. You were supposed to be chosen or told or called to go there, and you were given a recommend. Is that right?
- [43:42]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. You were given a recommend by Bishop Whitney or by the president of the church or someone from the First Presidency to take to Edward Partridge. You were supposed to send money ahead as a contribution before you got there to consecrate everything so that there could be land ready for you. Bishop Partridge is writing back to the church leaders and say, stop sending these people. They're overwhelming the system. The church leaders in Kirtland are like, we're not sending them. They're just showing up. It's difficult to communicate when your letter takes two weeks to go back and forth. This isn't talking over the phone. It's overwhelming the system. And it seems like Bishop Partridge is really concerned about it and a little bothered by it. But so is Brother Gilbert, who's his partner in all this because he's the one running the store and also helping purchase lands.
- [44:33]
Hank Smith
That'd be so frustrating.
- [44:35]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
- [44:36]
Hank Smith
Because what are you going to do with them? You can't refuse them.
- [44:40]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Right. You can't say, yeah, never mind. Sorry, go back to Indiana.
- [44:43]
Hank Smith
But at the same time, you weren't called here.
- [44:47]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
- [44:47]
John
And you can't just let me get Joseph on the phone and ask him what to do. You can't do that.
- [44:52]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Right. They're sending letters back and forth. And I don't know about you, but have you guys ever texted back and forth with someone and there's been a miscommunication because there's no tone.
- [45:03]
John
You have to add emojis to give a tone of voice.
- [45:06]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. I looked through all these letters. I didn't see any emojis. You can see why you could easily misunderstand one another when you're writing things back and forth. And that seems to be what's happening between the two groups of church leaders, which is causing some contention between them, as well as the idea that some of the leaders in Missouri are like, why isn't Joseph living here? He needs to be the one here taking care of this. This is Zion Kirtland's a stake. And one of the letters that comes back actually not written by Joseph, I forget who. I don't remember if it was Hiram or Oliver or someone else, but it says, I'm paraphrasing. When you guys get your act together, then he'll come. In other words, it needs to be working and functioning, whereas they're saying, you need to be here to help it work and function better. I don't know if you guys have ever had disagreements with church leaders or seen church leaders have disagreements with each.
- [46:01]
John
Other, but no they're all perfect. Yeah, they're all perfect where we live, right?
- [46:05]
Hank Smith
Good thing this doesn't happen today.
- [46:08]
John
Yeah. I mean, I was just sitting here thinking, these are a bunch of humans causing human problems, aren't they?
- [46:15]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yep. Yeah.
- [46:17]
John
You'd hate to be Bishop Partridge right there, wouldn't you? Just going, how do I do this? Yeah, I want my hat business back. This is crazy.
- [46:26]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Exactly. Things were much simpler before I joined this church, when I just said, are.
- [46:31]
John
You a seven and a quarter? Here, try this one. And, you know, that'll be 50 cents or whatever.
- [46:35]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Why don't they quit? Their testimony of Jesus Christ, their testimony of the Book of Mormon, their testimony of Joseph Smith, whether they always agree with him or not, as being a prophet, it's strong. They don't let that overwhelm who they really are and what they really know.
- [46:56]
Hank Smith
This church leadership thing would be a lot easier if it weren't for the people.
- [47:01]
John
Derek.
- [47:01]
Hank Smith
This is hard. This is hard.
- [47:04]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
And especially for these two. They were both wealthy, successful. Their consecration of everything from their stores to their personal property. They're the backbone of what allows the law of consecration to start and to function in Jackson County. It's their consecration that is paying for the lands. It's their consecration that gives the credit needed to borrow money for other land. You have the story of can't remember if it's Emily or Eliza Partridge, where she's walking down the street, she sees a girl wearing her favorite dress. She's in rags. She's like, I don't know about this. I can understand why our friends, Brother Partridge and Brother Gilbert, would be frustrated because they're really doing the heavy lifting and trying to make this work. When things aren't working, it's gotta be doubly frustrating because, one, you're in charge, and two, you're the backbone of it.
- [48:06]
Hank Smith
That happens today. I've seen people in wards and branches and districts. They carry a lot of the new membership. They carry a lot of the responsibilities.
- [48:18]
John
Yeah, Hank, we've talked to people that say, oh, I have six callings in my ward. You're like, wait, what? Our six callings in my branch, we had a guy in our ward that said, well, we tend to work the workers in our church. That old idea, if you want something done, ask a busy person. It's like, ooh, you. That sounds like Gilbert and Partridge here.
- [48:41]
Hank Smith
Yeah, Derek, we switch now to 1833.
- [48:46]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. Now 1833. Remember, John Murdoch had come back to do the school, the prophets. Then he leaves and starts heading out east, he ends up in Jamestown, New York, with a bunch of other missionaries, including a recent convert named Dr. Philastus Hurlbut, who's out there preaching. His first name is Doctor.
- [49:11]
Hank Smith
His parents named him Doctor.
- [49:14]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yep, keep him in your mind. Around this same time, section 90 that we've already covered talks about, I am not well pleased with many things. I am not well pleased with my servant William E. McClellan, neither with my servant Sidney Gilbert and the bishop also, and others have many things to repent of. But verily I say unto you that I, the Lord, will contend with Zion and plead with her strong ones and chasten her until she overcomes and is clean before me. He sends this revelation to Missouri, but he sends a separate letter to Sidney Gilbert. And I just want to give you a quotation out of that. He says, we are aware of the great care upon your mind in consequence of much business, but you must put your trust in God and you may rest assured that you have our prayers day and night, that you may have strength to overcome every difficulty. We have learned of the Lord that it is your duty to assist all the poor brethren that are pure in heart and that you have done wrong in withholding credit from them as they must have assistance. And the Lord established you in Zion for that express purpose. To his credit, Sidney Gilbert writes back and apologizes and does what the prophet asks him to do. He's like 13 years older than Joseph, very successful businessman, which Joseph isn't. It shows you his humility. On May 7th, Sean Murdoch is in Dansville, New York. This is what he writes in his journal. Quote, preached in the evening. The men behaved decently, though the most ungodly set of young females I ever saw or preached to. I rebuked them sharply, but the devil was so in them that I dismissed the meeting sooner than I otherwise would have. Only one man said anything to me. He tried to excuse the devil, but I told him I thought they were old enough to know good manners. Meaning the girls. I heard them. The girls next morning try to excuse themselves. Before I was even out of bed, I heard one man say to me that I had done well, that I had put it on them just right. I, like, really want to be there to see what these young women were doing. Yeah, yeah. What does that mean?
- [51:35]
John
Young women's activity gone awry.
- [51:37]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Right.
- [51:39]
John
Whose journal was that again?
- [51:41]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
That's John Murdoch's journal from May 7, 1833. Now to another experience from him on May 23. That's more important to our story. He finally arrives at his hometown of Courtright, New York, where he had all that trauma from the past with his stepmom. By the way, I didn't mention earlier, but he ran away a couple of times. His dad came and got him and brought him back. If you can imagine him going back to this spot now with the everlasting gospel and wanting to preach. Not a lot of people are listening. I want to pause here and tell a personal story. I hope that's all right. When my family moved to Australia, I was 11 years old. I didn't know it at the time, but my parents marriage was on the rocks and that's the reason we moved there. My mother's Australian. We moved there to get a new start. I started seventh grade there in a school that was seven through 12. I was the only young Latter Day Saint. My cousins were there, but I didn't have much to do with them. They didn't have much to do with me. I was the only American. Like nobody ever bothered to learn my name. They just called me Yank. Even the teachers would be like, Matthew here, Yank here. I was physically. Any kind of abuse you can think of happened to me that year that I was there in Australia. It was awful. It was the worst year of my life. I turned 12. I was 11 turning 12. In fact, I still deal with some of the stuff that happened there. My point is this is I felt a lot for John Murdoch as I was reading through his journal. Because recently I had the opportunity to go back to Australia for the first time in 40 years since I left to take my kids back, actually have dual citizenship. I went back to Sunbury. I got up early, like five o' clock in the morning. I went to that school and I walked around it. I was so grateful. The school wasn't in session that day. It was their Labor Day. I walked around it and I did a lot of praying and a lot of casting out of demons in myself. I want to just testify of how good the Lord is to us in healing us. To also be able to say to people that experience some difficult things in life, some difficult trauma. On Section 93, which we've already covered, obviously this year, the Lord says that he places all truth and light and intelligence independent in the sphere in which it's placed. We're learning through psychology and through neuroscience that when someone young experiences trauma, they're living in a different sphere than other people mentally. The word that repent comes from that metanoia that President Nelson talks about all the time. One of its kind of More ancient. In some of the ancient manuscripts, someone taught me that it's change of mind, but it's also coming out of your little mind, meaning you've seen something bigger and better and now you embrace it. Well, sometimes for those that struggle with trauma or with mental health problems, it's hard to repent because you can't break out of that mental sphere that you're in. I'm so grateful for modern technology. With medicine, I'm medicated. I see an amazing. A Latter Day Saint therapist who's changed my life. At 50, I was 51 when. When I finally was able to do that. And I've been able to break out of some stuff that happened there. And then later in my teenage life, I'm thinking about John Murdoch going back to this place of such hurt and bringing the gospel. And initially no one is listening. Later, it's kind of out of the storyline chronologically, but because we're talking about this, I'll bring it in. He finally in 1836. So this mission keeps going to 1836. He takes a break for Zion's camp, but then comes back. So this mission that started in 1832, that we looked at section 99, he goes all the way to 1836. In 1836, he decides finally to remarry. And he remarries someone who he had converted a couple of years earlier in his hometown. I bring that up because after we moved back from Australia, my parents got divorced. And I lived in 18 different homes before I was 18, on two different continents, experienced in one form or another every kind of abuse that you can think of. My senior year of high school, I took seminary, not because I was a huge believer, but because I got out of class. My friends were at seminary, and I remember the winter of my senior year, they did an activity where they did the plan of salvation, where you were playing all these games and stuff. And then they said everybody died. And then they judged you and sent you to different rooms. Celestial room, terrestrial room, telestral room. And everybody got different rewards. I was the only kid in that 200 people in that hour that got sent to outer darkness, which was a closet where they opened the door and a heat wave came out because there were two industrial space heaters in there. One of the seminary teachers in a devil suit with k bear rock 101 blaring, which, that was the good part, the K bear. I got pushed into this closet maybe 5ft deep, 3ft wide if that, and spent 15 minutes locked in with this seminary teacher, drinking diet Coke and laughing at me as the only one that got sent to outer darkness. Now I was already in a really bad place in my life, probably as bad as it's ever been. This cemented to me that, yeah, you're really not that worth it. You're really not that great. I can't remember how long, how many days or weeks after that, I wrote to my seminary teacher. A young seminary teacher's name was Pete Sunwall. And I said something very flippant about taking my life. He called me that that day. He lived in Sugar House. I lived out in Taylorsville, for those of you familiar with Salt Lake Valley. And he called me and talked with me on the phone for about a half hour. He felt impressed to leave his wife and his young little son and drive from Sugar House out to my home in Taylorsville. I didn't want him to come inside because I was embarrassed. We sat on our little couch that was out in the yard. We talked for about an hour. When he left, I knew two things. Well, I knew one thing and I knew I wanted to believe in another thing. I knew that there was this adult outside my family who actually cared about me as a person. And the second was this whole Jesus thing. It might be real based on how I felt with him. That started me on a path of reconciliation with heaven, of healing, of. I met with him sometimes at lunch. A couple weeks later, I met this girl in high school. Her name was Meredith. She in person was everything that I was lacking. He started me on that turn and she kept me going. I ended up going on a mission when I was almost 20. She waited for me and we got married between Pete Sunwall and Meredith Pettit. I was brought to Christ and I got on my mission, man. I was the reason they raised the bar. I hadn't read the Book of Mormon. I didn't know all the stuff that everybody else knew. But I fell in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I didn't baptize anybody except for an eight year old member. But I fell in love with working for Jesus and loving Jesus and being able to embrace his gospel. When I came home, the only thing I wanted to do with my life was to do for others what Pete Sunwall had done for me. And that's how I got involved in seminary and where I'm at today. I can feel a kindred spirit with John Murdoch. He is healed in trauma by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and by marrying one of his converts, a woman that helps him get over the whole issues that he has with his stepmom. I know there's lots of people, as I work with my students, who struggle with mental health, who struggle with decisions that they made or that other people made, that has really kept them from being able to come out of their little mind, repent and bigger idea of things. And I just want to witness that we can help each other, whether it's spending time with someone, whether it's marrying them, taking a chance on them. Jesus is working through lots of means to bring us home and to heal us in our trials. And so I share that in the spirit that it's intended and hope that that might help others to realize that there's good things down the road.
- [60:47]
John
Beautiful.
- [60:48]
Hank Smith
Thank you for that, Derek.
- [60:50]
John
That's very personal, but probably a lot of folks out there will be blessed by that. I'm sitting here, Hank, thinking seventh grade is such an easy time of life.
- [60:59]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Isn't it like fifth grade? Anyway, let's get back to our narrative now so we can finally get to section 98. So in June 25, Joseph Smith and the church leaders, they mail the plat of Zion to the Missouri leader. You may remember the plat that draws out what the city should look like. The 24 temples in the center, they mail that on the 25th to Zion. June is the critical month we talked about earlier, that Zion and Jacksonian America are at odds with each other. In Missouri, it's even bigger. We know from the revelations that Zion is one in heart, one in mind, dwelling in righteousness, no poor among them. Let's look at each of those individually, what Zion's trying to do and what Jacksonian America in Jackson county is trying to do. One in heart. Social. Let's look at that as a social thing. For the locals, there is a strict racial hierarchy. White, red meaning American Indian, and black meaning enslaved peoples that you don't mix. They're also there to get away from community. A lot of them, they don't want community. Either they're fugitives from justice or they've had a bad experience with community and they're out there on the frontier. What are we trying to do? Even if we don't all believe it? Our scriptures are saying all are alike unto God, black and white. We're saying that American Indians aren't savages. They're actually the remnant of the House of Israel and are going to help us build the new Jerusalem. In fact, we, or at least W.W. phelps in the Evening and Morning Star. He sees the Indian Removal act and all these tribes gathering Near Jackson County. As part of the fulfillment of this, he writes, we continue to glean items of Indian news and it is really pleasing to see how the Lord moves on his great work of gathering the remnants of his scattered children. He's printing about this and we're talking about this. That's so different from the people that they're living among. This idea of all are alike and that the American Indians are part of God's people. One in mind political or governing in Jacksonian America. This is individual liberty. It's just past the 50 year anniversary of the founding of the nation with the Declaration of Independence. It's kind of in the air, if you will. It's in the stories, it's in the monuments. Politics is really starting. More people are now allowed to vote by two elections. 1840, so two presidential elections away. For every one man who's on the roll of a church, there are 10 men on the rolls of the political parties. Politics is a big, big, big thing. More and more people are getting involved. A French philosopher comes here and writes about democracy and he basically says that the religion of America is politics. That we don't have a state religion, our religion is politics. What's Zion trying to do? We're trying to build our own kingdom separate from the world. To get ready for the second coming. We vote together. In 1832 we all voted Democrat basically, both in Kirtland and in Jackson County, Missouri for Jackson, that the county's named after Andrew Jackson. What about dwelling in righteous? Well religiously, We've already talked about how we're so different. They only believe truth is in the Bible. They're less religious. On the frontier, it's preached on Sunday and then you live your life. We're talking about new scriptures, prophets, visions, priesthood, authority that tells you everything you need to do. Economically, it's so different then finally economically, no poor among them. This is the time of the market revolution. Rivers and canals and now railroads are creating these bigger and bigger markets. And people are moving from subsistence farming to cash crops, from artisan to manufacturing. There's a chance to make a buck. That's what we talked about earlier. A lot of people are in independence to do. That's kind of the western capital for making a buck. What are we doing in Zion? Law of consecration. Stewardship, not ownership. Run by religious leaders. Insular. We're trading amongst ourselves. We're not buying stuff from their goods. We have our own store. That's the storehouse. We're not really using cash. We're trading. So we're not contributing to the local economy. And as people are leaving and we're getting bigger, fewer and fewer customers for them, they have a huge flood that spring of 1833 that wipes out the Independence landing for steamboats, and it changes the course of the river. A little town further upstream called Westport and has a better landing. The steamboats start going past Independence, guess who gets the blame. The Mormons, of course, is they're easy.
- [66:03]
John
To blame, always out there moving rivers.
- [66:06]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah.
- [66:07]
John
Yes.
- [66:07]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah, exactly. Well, Enoch did move rivers, Right? So the other element, before the fire starts, is this idea of vigilante justice on the frontier. This is celebrated as. This is. This is what it means to be American. If there's something that's unjust, if democracy moves too slow, you take it into your own hands and you have some of us being very unwise and saying, yeah, this land's for us and American Indians and us, we're going to take it over. You might as well sail or leave some of us, not all of us, but some of us are saying these things. It's just a matter of time before there's a spark. Here comes the spark. There is a local preacher named Benton Pixley who really doesn't like us. Newell Knight wrote his talk was of the bitterest kind, and he appeared to have an influence among the people to carry with him. In his hellish design, he actually sends reports, not to the papers back east, about how terrible and awful we are. He puts together a pamphlet called Beware of False Prophets. He's writing this at the end of June. It's time for Phelps to print his evening and Morning Star for July. It comes out about July 10th. We think, guess what the first article is Beware of False Prophets. He takes Pixley's line and he flips it around and says, no, actually, you are. Here's some quotes. There cannot be but one Church of Christ, as there is one Lord and one faith and one baptism. And then he claims that all the other ministers, including Pixley, are just doing their work to, quote, be supported by large salaries, quote unquote, striving shrewdly to maintain the systems invented by men since they rejected the gift of the Holy Ghost. They are wolves in sheep's clothing, full of pride, full of contention, fond of vanity. Yeah, not helping. The other article that he writes is Free People of Color. In it, he basically quotes Missouri law. There's nothing really controversial about the first part of it. He. He quotes law because he knows that some free blacks in the north have joined the church. And if they were to come to Missouri, which is a slave slate, to gather to Zion. That's tricky. He's putting out the laws about if you're a free black person who decides to come to Jackson county, here's the laws you have to obey to get here. Here's the paperwork you need. And then at the end of that article, he writes this. Slaves are real estate in this and other states. And wisdom would dictate great care among the branches of the church of Christ on this subject. So long as we have no special rule in the church as to people of color, let prudence guide. And while they as well as we are in the hands of a merciful God, we say, shun every appearance of evil. He seems to be saying, don't come. Be careful. But it's taken the other way. That's it. The fire is lit. The mob manifesto is signed by over a hundred of the local leading men as well as your common ruffians. Here's some things from that manifesto. We the undersigned citizens of Jackson county, believing that an important crisis is at hand as regard to our civil society in consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that has settled and are settling in our county, styling themselves Mormons and intending, as we do, to rid them of our society peaceably if we can, forcefully if we must, and that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guarantee or at least a sufficient one against the evils which are now inflicted upon us, we're going to act. Here are some of the other accusations they converse face to face with the most High God. Remember the preaching two years earlier of Sidney Rigdon? We have every reason to fear that with few exceptions, they're the very dregs of society. Lazy, idle and vicious. Instead of being chosen ambassadors of the most high, they should be inmates in solitary cells. More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had been tampering with our slaves. Not a true story. And endeavoring to sow dissensions and raise seditions amongst them. Think of the Nat Turner revolt. There is an article in their paper inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become Mormons and remove and settle among us. The introduction of such a caste among us would corrupt our blacks and instigate them to bloodshed. Then it's signed by the leading citizens of town and other riffraff. Our friend Phelps puts out a little handbill, little five by seven hand bill, that says, no, no, no, no, that's not what we meant it's too little, too late. A meeting is set up for the 20th of July for anyone in the county who wants to. As this thing has been circulating, this petition, they show up. David Pettigrew. I found this interesting. Some of them come across the river from other places and he said they had a solemn and determined look. I saw several women in their company who seemed to be more interested in mobbing than even their husbands. Found that kind of interesting. I'd never read that before. First on the agenda was to create a committee and to write out a formal thing that they were going to give the church leaders. They're all drinking whiskey while they do it. They talk about the Mormons as being ignorant, superstitious, a little above the condition of blacks in regard to property or education, which is kind of funny since we have the only school in Jackson county so poor that they're unable to buy 15 acres of land and destitute of means to even get bread or meat. Then they hit these five. One, no Mormon shall be permitted to settle in the county. Two, those who pledge to move out of the county will not be molested and will be given sufficient time to sell their property. Three, the Evening and Morning Star and the church storehouse must cease operations. Four, church leaders must use their influence to prevent any further Mormon immigration and encourage church members to comply with our stated requisitions. And five, anyone refusing to comply with these requisitions must be referred to and brought to the attention of church leaders. Then they send men out to go round out the leaders of the church that live in that area. Edward Partridge, W.W. phelps, Sidney Gilbert, John Whitmer, John Corl and Isaac Morley. And they drag them to Independence and they go and meet with them in Sydney Gilbert store. This is what Edward Partridge says about the meeting. They demanded to have the printing office and indeed all our other mechanic shops belonging to our people, together with Gilbert, Whitney Storr, close forthwith and the society to leave the county immediately. We asked for three months to consider upon their demand, which was refused. We then asked for 10 days. When we were informed, we had 15 minutes being driven to the necessity of giving an immediate answer and being interrogated separately. We all answered that we could not consent to their demands. Lewis Franklin, the county jailer, then turned and said, I am sorry. The work of destruction will then commence immediately. The men went back to their families. Sidney Gilbert's family's there. He stays at the store. Phelps goes down to his family a block down the street because the printing press is also their home. Bishop Partridge and John Corl and others go back towards the temple property to their homes. The committee goes back to the citizens in the courthouse and starts saying, okay, this is what's happened. There's a man in that group whose wife had just given birth to. To a child, healthy, both of them, which wasn't always the case, right, in those days. Who was the midwife? Sally Phelps. He sneaks out of the meeting, even though he's a member of the mob. He sneaks out of the meeting, goes down and tells Phelps what's happening, that they were going to be here very soon. Phelps takes some copies of the Book of Commandments. John Whitmer, who's there, grabs Revelation, book one that they're using to print the Book of Commandments. They take off, leaving the children in the care of Sally. She starts dressing them. The littlest one, James, is sick. She prepares to ride off in a wagon when they knock at the door. She was threatened with death if she didn't get out and leave immediately in the bustle. According to family sources, she inadvertently left two of her sons, Waterman and Henry, in the building. The mob rushed up the outside stairs to the second story. Once inside, several men pushed or lifted the press, which weighed several hundred pounds, across the floor and out the door and onto the ground. They threw out all the other stuff, such as paper and type and tools, printed materials, throwing out the signature sheets of the Book of Commandments. Meanwhile, a separate group went into the house downstairs, ransacked the home, threw all the furnishings into the street. Then, in a final act of destruction, a human wrecking crew deroofs the building, demolishes the walls and turns everything into a heap of rubble. Mary Rollins, remember who's staying with the Gilberts, and her little sister Caroline, are watching from across the street through a fence. Mary, who's 14, says, I'm determined to have some of them, meaning the Book of Commandments. My sister said she would go, but added, they'll kill us. When the men's backs are turned, they dart out and grab a bunch of those sheets and take off for a nearby cornfield. It's a very famous story that we love to tell. What we don't tell is that there was also a boy there, 20 year old man named John Taylor. Not the John Taylor, but John Taylor who also did it, who also grabbed some stuff and ran off. But since so many stories in church history about men, we'll just leave it with the two sisters, right? They risked their lives literally and laid down on them in the cornfield and saved them.
- [76:30]
John
Do you know what I love about this, Derek? This is the same Mary Rollins who goes up to Isaac Morley, can I borrow your Book of Mormon? And he says, I haven't had a chance to read it. Okay, you can have it overnight. I mean, I've seen the video depiction of this. She is up most of the night reading it with Sidney Gilbert, who becomes a convert. What I love about this, she loves books. Now, what is she seeing, this potential book being thrown out there in the street? She already has a love for the scriptures. She sees that. And what is it that you said she said to her little sister?
- [77:03]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
I am determined to have some of them.
- [77:07]
John
I just think, whoa, that's a connection there.
- [77:10]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
Yeah. Let's connect it even further. The Saints would often meet in the Gilbert home at the store. Right. It was a convenient place. W.W. phelps would often print some of the revelations, which they called commandments in those days. They would sit and read them together. Someone starts speaking in tongues, and Mary translates. She's got the gift. She has this amazing experience. Again, she's 13 or 14 when that happens. This is a young girl who loves God's word and is willing to sacrifice for it. And she's Sidney Gilbert's niece that's living in Sydney Gilbert's home and store. When that's over, meaning the destruction of the press, they march up to the Sydney Gilbert store. Sidney Gilbert somehow persuades them that he will close it. He'll ship all the goods away. He won't reopen it if they just won't destroy it. So they don't. Another group had been sent out to go find the church, other church leader that had gone back towards the temple lot, and Oliver Cowdery and William McClellan, who they had not been able to find. Who they do find is Edward Partridge. And let's again take it from his words. I was taken from my house by the mob, George Simpson being their leader, who escorted me about a half mile to the courthouse on the public square of Independence. So right across the street from the Gilbert store. And then and there, a few rods from the courthouse, I was surrounded by hundreds of the mob. I was stripped of my hat, coat and vest and daubed with tar from head to foot, and then had a quantity of feathers put upon me. Of course, this also happens to Charles Allen, who is not one of the church leaders, but who just happens to get caught. And all this because I would not agree to leave the county and my home where I had lived for Two years before tarring and feathering me, I was permitted to speak. I told them that the saints had suffered persecution in all ages of the world. That I had done nothing with which ought to offend anyone. That if they abused me, they would abuse an innocent person. And that I was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. But to leave the county. I was not willing to consent to it. By this time, the multitude made so much noise that I could not be heard. Some were cursing and swearing, saying, call upon your Jesus. Others were equally noisy in trying to still the rest of them. That they might be able to hear what I was saying. Until after I had spoken. I knew not what they intended to do with me. Whether to kill me, to whip me, or what else. I knew not. I bore my abuse with so much resignation and meekness. That it appeared to astound the multitude who permitted me to retire in silence. Many looking very solemn, their sympathies having been touched, as I thought. And as to myself. I was so filled with the spirit and the love of God. That I had no hatred towards my persecutors or anyone else. It seems his resignation and his humility, as we talked about earlier in receiving this trial, that seems to defuse the situation for the next few days. By the way, according to the family sources, two men going through the rubble of this print shop. Find the two kids unhurt, but stuck under rubble and get them back to the Phelpses. To me, Bishop Partridge is a perfect example of someone who's not perfect, but in the moment is a perfect disciple of Jesus Christ.
- [80:56]
Hank Smith
Coming up in part two of this episode.
- [80:59]
Dr. Derek Sainsbury
I was explaining the story, explaining what had happened here, all the difficulty, all of that. The gentleman gets out of his house and gets on his four wheeler and starts speeding down to us. I'm like, oh, well, I'm going to give him a real Missouri experience. I'm like, gathering together. We're in six cars. I'm like, okay, everybody start getting into our cars. He starts waving us down. And I'm thinking, oh, boy, you know, here we go.