Standard of Truth Podcast

Host: Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat

Episode: S5B6 – Kristy’s KorneЯ: D&C 89 Part 1

Date: August 21, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves into one of Joseph Smith’s most well-known revelations among Latter-day Saints: the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine & Covenants 89). Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and his co-host examine the historical context, initial reception, and evolving practical and doctrinal interpretations of the Word of Wisdom, highlighting its status as both a unique religious marker and a principle of continual revelation for Church members.

Main Themes

• Origins and Historical Context of the Word of Wisdom
• Interpretive Evolution: From Principle to Commandment
• Cultural, Social, and Doctrinal Implications
• Comparisons with Other Religious Dietary Laws
• The Purpose and Promises Attached to the Revelation

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Word of Wisdom as a Cultural Marker

Timestamps: 00:11–02:20

• The hosts discuss how abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea has become synonymous with Latter-day Saint identity, serving as a distinguishing religious marker.
• Memorable Moment: Dr. Dirkmaat jokes about misconceptions, "I've been to a stake dance, and you guys really can't dance. That's what they should mean." (00:24)
• Anecdote: A group of Saints at a catered dinner had only iced tea available, confusing hotel staff—illustrating the distinctiveness and social impact of Word of Wisdom observance.

2. Setting and Historical Setting: School of the Prophets

Timestamps: 02:20–08:30

• The Word of Wisdom was received in Kirtland while the School of the Prophets was meeting in a cramped upstairs room in Newel K. Whitney’s store.
• Brigham Young’s Account: (Paraphrased at 03:55) Brigham describes the elders filling the room with tobacco smoke and spittle, which led to complaints—especially from Emma Smith and Joseph himself, who also cleaned the floors.
• Key Insight: The revelation’s proximate cause was practical: “The smoke was so dense that you could hardly see across the room.” (04:30)

3. Broader Cultural Movements: Temperance & Religious Self-Purification

Timestamps: 08:31–13:00

• Dirkmaat situates the revelation within the growing 1830s American temperance movement, noting that:
  • Temperance meant moderation, not abstinence.
  • Full abstinence (teetotalism) was rare; linking tobacco and coffee/tea with alcohol was virtually unknown.
  • Cultural attitudes toward tobacco were mostly positive or indifferent—even some “doctors” recommended it!

4. How the Revelation Was Framed and Initially Understood

Timestamps: 13:01–21:40

• The Word of Wisdom is unique in explicitly stating it is “not by commandment or constraint” (D&C 89:2).
  • Dirkmaat: “One of the most odd features of section 89 is verse 2 that starts off by saying, this is not by commandment...” (19:22)
• Initially, the main concern was limiting tobacco use during meetings, with later, stricter interpretations developing over time.
• Members did not understand it as a call to complete abstinence from alcohol or coffee/tea. Moderation was the guiding principle, especially at first.

5. Anachronisms and Shifting Interpretations

Timestamps: 21:41–30:44

• Latter-day Saints often project current standards back onto the past, wrongly assuming church members have always abstained as strictly as today.
• Dirkmaat notes, “If the gospel is always the same, then that's always going to be a part of everyone’s faith. [But] the Word of Wisdom, at least as it's constituted to us, was given to us in the last days.” (23:00)
• The early Saints continued using wine for sacrament long after the revelation, only moving to water in the early 1900s.

6. Analysis of D&C 89 Verses: What Did They Mean Then?

Timestamps: 30:45–40:00

• Verses 5–7: Alcohol is not good except for sacramental purposes; “strong drinks” (spirits) were reserved for washing, not drinking.
• Verse 8: “Tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly...” – Prophetic for its time, as societal consensus on tobacco’s harms came much later.
  • Dirkmaat: “If you want to prove that [the Word of Wisdom] is from God...you can’t run to verse 8 fast enough.”
• Verse 9: “Hot drinks are not for the body or the belly.” Hyrum Smith later defines “hot drinks” as coffee and tea, but ambiguity persists.
  • “As desperately as Latter Day Saints...want to read verse 8, they just as desperately don’t want to read verse 9.” (38:25)

7. Meat, Herbs, and the Undefined (Verses 10–12)

Timestamps: 40:01–48:00

• The Word of Wisdom recommends eating meat "sparingly," but this is rarely emphasized today.
• Dirkmaat reminisces: “I’m going to guess you can’t remember the last time a prophet...gave a talk about how you shouldn’t eat very much meat.” (44:21)
• Differences in interpretation over time reflect the revelation’s flexible, contemporary application. Leadership emphasis shifts over decades.

8. The Promise of the Word of Wisdom

Timestamps: 48:01–54:00

• Verses 18–21: The famous promises—health, wisdom, strength, and spiritual protection, likened to the Passover (destroying angel passing by those who keep the law).
• Key Analogy: Like the Israelites’ blood-marked doors, Word of Wisdom observance outwardly marks Saints as followers of God. Obedience isn’t about scientifically “proving” the law’s merits but about faith and covenant loyalty.
  • “Even if the only reason you had lamb's blood on your door was very begrudging...you still had lamb’s blood on your door.”

9. Jewish Dietary Laws as a Point of Comparison

Timestamps: 54:33–59:53

• Anecdote: Co-host shares his Jewish background and experiences with kosher laws, highlighting how Jewish adherents typically don’t rationalize their rules beyond “God told us not to.”
• Dirkmaat: “The point isn't trying to find the latest study that shows how bad pork is for you...the main reason why we follow the word of wisdom is because God told us to.” (59:53)

10. The Danger of Over-Scientizing Religious Law

Timestamps: 59:54–End

• Caution against relying solely on scientific or health-based justifications for Word of Wisdom adherence.
• Final Perspective: Obedience is an expression of belief in living prophets; the “why” is ultimately because God commands it through his servants, regardless of arguments about health, science, or social practicality.
• Preview: The next episode will trace how the Word of Wisdom moved from advice to a binding commandment and temple recommend requirement.

Notable Quotes

• On Social Peculiarity:
  "It does make us a little bit of a peculiar people... every event that I have ever attended, ever in the history of ever relating to business has a tremendous amount of alcohol." — B, 01:26

• On Revelation’s Practical Genesis:
  “This is not a lightning bolt revelation in a vacuum... There’s a really practical concern going on. It is really, really annoying how much smoke is in their room.” — Dr. Dirkmaat, 07:27

• On the Evolving Nature of Doctrine:
  “Our tendency as Latter-Day Saints is to desperately try to make the past equal our present.” — Dr. Dirkmaat, 21:41

• On Defending the Word of Wisdom:
  “If my response is, 'Well, we believe that God has prophets on the earth today, and one of those prophets received revelation that we shouldn't consume alcohol,' that person might think that that’s strange, but there won’t be a challenge to that.” — Dr. Dirkmaat, 59:40

• On Faith and Obedience:
  “The main reason why we follow the Word of Wisdom is because God told us to.” — Dr. Dirkmaat, 59:53

Key Segment Timestamps

• 00:11 – Introduction to Word of Wisdom as a Mormon marker
• 02:20 – Historical context: School of the Prophets and Brigham Young’s account
• 13:01 – “Not by commandment or constraint”: Initial ambiguity
• 21:41 – The mistake of projecting current standards backward
• 30:45 – Discussion of sacrament wine and early interpretation
• 44:21 – “Meat sparingly” and flexible interpretation over time
• 48:01 – The promises and the Passover analogy
• 54:33 – Jewish dietary law perspectives
• 59:53 – Concluding counsel: Focus on obedience, not only scientific justification

Summary Takeaways

• The Word of Wisdom arose from immediate social and practical concerns, then developed into a core marker of Latter-day Saint identity and obedience.
• Early Saints practiced moderation, not strict abstinence, and the doctrinal understanding has evolved through continued prophetic guidance.
• The meaning and application of many aspects (e.g., alcohol, meat, hot drinks) have shifted over time; the revelation is living, interpreted by current leaders.
• Faithful obedience—not just scientific or practical arguments—is the true bedrock of adherence for Latter-day Saints, paralleling Jewish and Islamic dietary observance.
• The larger point: the Word of Wisdom is a covenantal way to mark oneself as a follower of God, distinct from the world.

Next Episode Preview:
Part 2 will explore how and why the Word of Wisdom transitioned from counsel to strict commandment and temple requirement in the Church.