S5E5 Great Rebukes from Church History: Almon Babbitt

Summary

Standard of Truth Podcast Summary: Season 5, Episode 5 – "Great Rebukes from Church History: Almon Babbitt"

Release Date: January 30, 2025
Hosts: Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard Leduc

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Introduction

In Season 5, Episode 5 of the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat, associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, alongside his colleague Dr. Richard Leduc, delves into the fascinating and tumultuous history of Almon Babbitt, a lesser-known yet pivotal figure in early Latter-Day Saint (LDS) Church history. This episode, titled "Great Rebukes from Church History: Almon Babbitt," explores the nature of divine rebukes within the Doctrine and Covenants and examines Babbitt's complex relationship with Prophet Joseph Smith.

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Rebukes in Church History

The episode begins with the hosts discussing the intriguing concept of rebukes within the LDS Church, particularly as documented in the Doctrine and Covenants. Dr. Leduc notes, "I did do a quick search of great rebukes... by my initial count, I had over 22 individual rebukings" (02:34). These rebukes serve as historical testimonies of divine displeasure aimed at guiding and correcting church members.

Dr. Dirkmaat humorously reflects on the abundance of rebukes, stating, "members of the church provided the Lord many, many, many opportunities to rebuke" (02:16), highlighting the theological belief that rebukes are both plentiful and enduring within church history.

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Listener Emails and Interactions

Interspersed with their historical analysis, the hosts engage with listener emails, blending personal anecdotes with scholarly discussion. One notable interaction involves a listener named Gene, who humorously inquires about a Diet Coke offer, leading to light-hearted banter between Drs. Dirkmaat and Leduc (06:43). Another email from Amanda raises a pertinent question about whether Joseph Smith was the most rebuked individual in the Doctrine and Covenants, prompting the hosts to transition into their main discussion on Almon Babbitt (12:00).

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Focus on Almon Babbitt

Almon Babbitt emerges as the central figure of this episode. Described as "one of the great enigmas of early church history," Babbitt's repeated cycles of disfellowshipment and restoration to leadership roles make him a compelling subject. Dr. Dirkmaat provides a detailed chronological account:

• Early Devotion: Babbitt was among the first members baptized during the church's expansion in New York and Ohio. His missionary endeavors and leadership qualities earned him a place in the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1835.

• Disfellowshipment and Restoration: His tumultuous career is marked by successive disfellowshipings and restorations, showcasing his persistent yet flawed dedication to church leadership (20:16).

• Conflict at Kirtland: In 1840, Babbitt's actions in Kirtland sparked significant conflict. He encouraged members to stay in Ohio instead of migrating to Nauvoo, challenging Joseph Smith’s directives.

Dr. Leduc adds depth by elucidating Babbitt's leadership style, comparing him to a "powerful speaker or leader" whose attempts at repentance often resulted in further disfellowshipment (20:16). This cycle underscores the complexities of leadership and obedience within the early church framework.

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Joseph Smith's Response and Church Discipline

A substantial portion of the episode examines Prophet Joseph Smith’s responses to Babbitt’s dissent. Dr. Dirkmaat references Joseph’s letter to Oliver Granger, wherein Joseph expresses dismay over Babbitt’s "strange conduct" aimed at undermining church leadership and sowing discord among the brethren (19:20). Key excerpts from Joseph’s letter include:

“It is all important that the most perfect harmony, kind feeling, good understanding and confidence should exist in the hearts of all the brethren... If there are any uncharitable feelings, any lack of confidence, then pride and arrogancy and envy will soon be manifested, and confusion must inevitably prevail...” (19:27).

These statements highlight the emphasis on unity and the dangers of internal strife within the church community.

Further analysis covers Doctrine and Covenants Section 124, a significant revelation received in January 1841, which contains a stern rebuke of Babbitt’s actions:

“He setteth up a golden calf for the worship of my people...” (56:25).

This metaphor draws directly from the biblical account of the golden calf in Exodus, symbolizing false idols and misdirected worship.

Despite these rebukes, Joseph Smith's actions towards Babbitt reveal a pattern of forgiveness and restoration. After disciplinary actions and reconciliations, Babbitt was reinstated as the stake president of Kirtland, illustrating the complex interplay between correction and restoration in church leadership practices (53:00).

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Insights and Conclusions

Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc extract several key lessons from the Babbitt saga:

1. The Nature of Rebukes: Rebukes are not merely punitive but serve as corrective measures intended to maintain church unity and doctrinal purity.

2. Personal vs. Institutional Authority: Babbitt's challenges to Joseph Smith’s leadership underscore the tension between individual beliefs and institutional authority within the church.

3. Continuing Revelation: The episode underscores the belief in continuing revelation, where modern prophets may issue directives that occasionally conflict with prior interpretations or personal convictions of members.

4. Modern Parallels: The hosts draw parallels between historical rebukes and contemporary church dynamics, cautioning against personal biases undermining prophetic guidance. Dr. Dirkmaat advises, “If you ever find yourself saying, I believe the church is true, but President Nelson or whoever the prophet is is wrong about X, it's time to do some introspection...” (62:12).

5. The Golden Calf Metaphor: Utilizing the golden calf metaphor, the hosts emphasize the importance of aligning personal convictions with divine directives, warning against elevating individual opinions above prophetic counsel.

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Concluding Remarks

The episode wraps up with a blend of humor and reflection, as Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc engage in light-hearted conversation while reinforcing the critical lessons derived from Almon Babbitt’s story. They emphasize the importance of steadfast faith and obedience to prophetic leadership, urging listeners to avoid the pitfalls of personal agendas that can lead to divisions within the church.

Dr. Leduc summarizes:

“It's the mark of discipleship to follow even when it doesn't make sense... It's actually the mark of discipleship...” (63:11).

Dr. Dirkmaat concurs, urging members to prioritize collective harmony over individual dissent, thereby ensuring the church's strength and unity.

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Notable Quotes

• Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat on Babbitt’s fluctuating status:
  “[...] his entire career in the church is one constant disfellowship and then restoration to a stake presidency.” — 20:57

• Joseph Smith on maintaining unity:
  “...true charity, love one towards another, should characterize all their proceedings.” — 19:27

• Doctrine and Covenants Section 124 on Babbitt’s misdirection:
  “He setteth up a golden calf for the worship of my people.” — 56:25

• Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat on contemporary church criticism:
  “If you ever find yourself saying, I believe the church is true, but President Nelson or whoever the prophet is is wrong about X, it's time to do some introspection.” — 62:12

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Final Thoughts

Season 5, Episode 5 of the Standard of Truth podcast offers an insightful exploration into the dynamics of divine rebukes within the LDS Church, using Almon Babbitt’s example to illustrate broader themes of leadership, obedience, and unity. Through meticulous historical analysis and engaging dialogue, Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc provide listeners with both educational content and reflective prompts to deepen their understanding of church history and their personal faith journeys.

For those interested in the interplay between church authority and individual agency, and the enduring lessons from early church conflicts, this episode serves as a compelling listen.

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Thank you for reading this summary of the Standard of Truth podcast's latest episode. To explore more episodes and deepen your understanding of LDS Church history, consider subscribing and listening directly on your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard Leduc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the life and teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the church with faith expertise and humor.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Foreign Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Garrett Dirkmont, and I'm joined by my friend, Dr. Richard Leduc.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Hello, Garrett. Excited? I shouldn't say this because it implies that I'm not as excited by other things, but when you told me the topic for this, I smiled, I got excited.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

And, well, whenever I say things like it'll be on the resurrection, I'll be like, oh no, it's on the first vision. And he like, he'll like hang his head the way that a kid that was waiting to get his chance to bat but. But the game ends before he gets to go out there and just kind of slumps over.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, essentially I'm the, I'm the kid from Angels in the outfield who just keeps waiting for his, his biological father to come pick him up.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, the game. But he's not coming.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

He's not coming. But. So, Garrett, the idea here is great. Rebukes from the Doctrine and Covenants, I believe is what you call, or at.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Least some fun ones.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's kind of a fun topic. Now when I'm getting rebuked, I don't care for it, but when somebody else is, I love it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, it is tons of fun, honestly. Yeah. Whenever you're being chastised for doing something stupid, it isn't as great as it could be. But if you're listening to someone else get in trouble for it. Boy, that's. Get your popcorn ready. You know what I mean? I mean that's, it's good to go.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, I did do a quick, I did do a quick search of great rebukes. Now fortunately, members of the church provided the Lord many, many, many opportunities to rebuke, which is.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

And they still do. That's the best part about being a Latter Day Saint is if what you're looking for is the entertainment value of God chastising us, you can keep going back to that well forever because there is material plenty.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Now, so this is an unofficial count, but by my initial count, I had over 22 individual rebukings. But speaking to the church collectively, there were also several good old fashioned rebukings there as well. There might be way more than that, but that's my initial count.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I can only assume that there, I mean, think of all of the, like, just personal chastisements in the Doctrine and Covenants. I mean, how many of them were. It's just like, well, probably shouldn't have done that, those kind of things. But before we go too much further, I think we should, we should stop. And I need to give a shout out first of all to Barbara, whose son in law is the coach of my daughter's basketball team. And Barbara seems like a very nice woman. Her daughter's a lovely person as well. It's hard to believe that, that, that, you know, that Heather married Sean. I mean, it's, you know, like, where did, where, you know, people make, they make mistakes in life and this is, that's part of what we talk about now. They're great people. But Barbara, one of our great listeners. And then, you know, I was, I was at the Chili's in Spanish Fork last night. You know, as one is want to do.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Oh, and Spanish Fork, yeah, you're gonna hit the chili.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

You're gonna be at Chili's. You're gonna be at the Mod Pizza. That's what you're gonna do. You don't want to, but there you are. And I was there with jobless Rob and Andrew and, and their wives. It was a nice little couple's date. And there is an entire table probably, I don't know, 10, 12, I wasn't counting of, of roughly. I mean, they appear to be, you know, college age young women who come in and they're, you know, having the time of their lives because, you know, life hasn't beaten them down yet the way it has us. So they're laughing and getting on while we're all just staring at one another wondering why we don't have any more salsa. So how's work going? And then you just grunt and keep going. No, we had a fun time. But while we're talking, one of the girls at the table starts looking over a lot and you know, look, that's not something that you or I have ever really experienced that, you know, getting a lot of second looks from a woman. And so I was like, well, this is interesting. And eventually she interrupted us and she said, are you, are you that, that guy with the podcast? And sure enough, true to our demographics, however, she didn't listen to the podcast herself. Her mom did. And. But her mom must have listened to it enough and aggressively enough that she recognized my voice.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Maybe she. Officer R'D her way with her daughter, you know, just in the car.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

That's what I have to believe. I have to believe that she trapped her daughter and forced her to listen to it. So Liz is. Is her mom's name. She then proceeded to. We took a selfie. I mean, which. I don't know how that benefits anyone, but. And then she proceeded to call her mom and I talked to her mom. I talked to Liz over the phone there in the. In the chili. So that was fun. It's fun to. To run into people and you have to choose between running into people who hate you and people who've listened to the podcast, which are usually the same thing. It's good to find those who are at least somewhat positively affected by it.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, those are not mutually exclusive. I did jump the gun a little bit. We did get an email about the rebuke. I'll get to that on the feed.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

So excited. You couldn't even wait.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I was so excited.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Broke format.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

When you told me the name, I was like, that's going to be funny. I'm looking forward to it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Well, let's read our couple of emails.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yes. Yes. This first comes to us from a Gene or a genie. Hope it's Gene. And this is just discovered, you guys. I'm trying to get my family into your podcast. Good luck with that. By the way, Gene, have you tried.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Going to a Chili's?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I signed up for the premium and would like a Diet Coke if that offer has not been discontinued. Thanks. I don't remember. How long ago was that?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I don't know. Is that because you gave Steve a Fresca?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I might have been. You know what, Gene? I don't know about the Diet Coke, but a Fresca on me.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, he's got. He's got lots of. He's got a garage of Frescas.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

My second daughter, Lucy is serving a mission in San Jose, California, and I think she would get a lot from your Joseph Smith and the restoration content. So she gave me her daughter's email. I also served in the Netherlands in the Amsterdam Mission and actually love the Dutch. Dutch mentions. She says something in Dutch. No clue. L, E, U K H O, O, R. That's two words.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Trying to confuse you.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

She's trying to Luke or. I'm pretty sure I nailed that pronunciation. My Dutch is on point. Speaking of languages, by the way, Garrett, I've really been working on my. On my Spanish. We are trying. We are efforting to try and look at different languages and it could be an interesting. I have in the missionary folder. Operation Mahan Rai Mori Ankumar. And we're working on some translations. I think we'll have at least one for Spanish speaking missionaries in the next seven months. Wow.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

All right, how about that? We're trying to translate our poor content into another language so that it can, it can quote, unquote, bless the lives of other people in other parts of the world.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, I mean the, the idea, the idea actually came from.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Which is why we need translation, even in English.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

What a perfect way to kick that off. So Angie had kind of the idea. She was working with some of the. Follow him. By the way, great podcast. You should go listen to that one.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. But once you're done with this one or even right now.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Stop it now. Go. Anyway, they're doing some awesome stuff with Spanish and Portuguese and, and with French. It's very popular, especially on, on YouTube. So they're doing some really cool stuff there. And so we're, we're trying to copy them. And anyway, because you know, as an example, my son, he's only had I think one, maybe two English speaking companions in Peru. The rest are, you know, South American Spanish native speakers. So anyway, for the missionaries and for the folks and so if our humor relating to Idaho in the 80s doesn't translate in English, I imagine it'll be translate very, very well into Spanish. I think people really love it. So this next email, actually this comes to us from a missionary and I had it pulled up and then it is gone. But it was very nice from a Canadian missionary. Here I have it here. As I am stalling for time as. Oh my gosh. Elder Allred, there it is. He asks for access to the premium content. Currently serving in Calgary, Canada Mission and the bishop of the ward I'm serving in thinks your podcast is the best thing since Poutine. Wow. Yes, that's. That's high praise by the way.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

That's the best compliment we've received from a Canadian.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's pretty good. Anyway, so we gave it to him. And one of the things that is interesting, we have run out of space on the Google Drive. We have had too many missionaries request. I didn't even know there was a cap to the Google Drive access, but apparently there is. And so we have created additional Google Drives and Google groups and all of the things to then handle so many more potential missionaries. The Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission is still number one, but Tucson is fast on its heels. Garrett's son is making a. He's going hard in the paint.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, I hope he's sharing the gospel as much as he's sharing the podcast.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's actually. Flip that. Reverse it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

No, no. And we've had. We have had some. We've had tremendous success. You know, we're grateful for all the missionaries requesting for the access. And then Richard, as he explains, he can share a Google Drive with them so they can listen to the podcast if it's approved and allowed in their various missions. And we've gotten a ton of great feedback from missionaries on that.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That is true. My favorite is the ap, though, that went through to clean out people's phones and ended up just listening to it himself.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, it was. We were the downfall of his mission. He was assigned to eliminate all of these recordings that were in this. In this file that had been inappropriately or unapprovedly.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Unapprovedly, yes.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Unapprovedly downloaded. And so in his efforts to find out, you know, whether or not this was, you know, I assume, a Marilyn Manson song or this podcast, he clicked on it, listened to it, and that's how we get you. In fact, that's actually our entire growth platform, is we want you to accidentally listen either while being taken to jail, while you're being forced to by your parent when you're a child, while you're a missionary and have nothing else to listen to, or if you're trying to delete this off of a device it's not supposed to be on. Those are our four growth models.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, I put together a SWOT analysis on that. I think it looks pretty, pretty tight.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Once he got his PhD in business, he's just strutting around. Before, he wouldn't even have brought that out. Now he's like, you know, I think I'm writing a textbook on that, going to assign it to all his students.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, so, Garrett, this last email in the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag comes to us from Amanda. Hey, I actually have a real question this time. Normally I'm just baiting with Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Mission or Idaho references and have my son make that silly extra crinkling leaves intro. That's pretty funny. I even became a premium subscriber, so. So many times I almost put down a deposit on a tour. But alas, I guess I will have to plan and execute my own meals and recreation this summer and miss out on a mom vacation. I was listening to Follow him, and one of their latest guests said that out of all the people rebuked in the Doctrine Covenants, Joseph Smith was rebuked the most. Is that true? I know. Dr. Richard. Oh, by the way, by the way, Garrett. So I'm doing some consulting work with a company in the Philippines since my recent PhD.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Right. Or the second you got it. It's just.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, I'm. I'm hitting it up. Anyway, so they call me Doc. It is. It is hilarious.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

The. The people you work with refer to you as Doc.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Doc. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm working with all these different departments. It's a pretty decent sized company. It's about 800.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Did you sign your name? Dr. Richard Leduc.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I think that they. So, Doc, every time I hear. So when you hear Doc, what's the first. First thing to come to your mind?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Glasses. Hurlbut.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's funny. Mine is Back to the Future, but.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Okay, well, also Back to the Future, but I love. I love Christopher Lloyd and I hate Hurlbut.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, it does actually show our level of intellect that you think of someone from history and I think of.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Look, I. Back to the Future series is like the. One of the greatest series of movies ever made. I love them so much.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Anyway, they all just. They don't even say doctor. They just call me Doc. It throws me off every single time. It's very.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I hope they call you Doc Ricardo.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I should. I should request it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. So you know what? Call me Doc Ricardo, not Dr. Richard. Doc Ricardo. Anyway, back.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I know Dr. Richard is good with numbers and has a crack research staff, so I thought he'd be great at giving his top number. Chart of rebukes in the Doctrine Covenants, who was rebuked the most and what are the top reasons why. Thanks for reading my email. Even if you don't respond, you really, really don't have to. You will probably find.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

No. She said.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Oh, I will.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Oh my gosh. See, I poorly read that.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Changed it from her saying I will probably find some real friends soon to just an attack on us. I just like you guys will probably get some friends.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

First of all, we probably won't. I hope. I hope she does. Amanda. I hope you do get some real.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Friends o'clock on a Saturday. Everyone else on Earth is doing things that they want to do. We're recording this.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Right? Because you can only spend so much time at Chili's.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. Where do you think I'm headed right after. Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

By the way, P.S. even before I listen to this year's episodes, I got out my old beach body DVDs to start exercising. I can't handle P90X. These are their T25 videos. 25 minutes instead of 90. Much more doable. For us people who are over 40 plus, which is also Garrett and myself.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, Amanda knows us. I've never done the beach body workouts or any workouts at all so well.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

So Garrett, like I did. I did do some. Just relatively quick work of it. I found about 22 people individually rebuked or chastised. But it depends on how you define rebuking or chastising.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

A lot of collective chastisement in there.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

The church, obviously, it's a little. I mean, Joseph's going to get rebuked a lot, but he's also, you know, the. The object and the subject of most of the revelation. So it's like, you know, like, Willie McClellan shows up a couple of times, and every time he's getting rebuked. So, you know, I mean, I think while I don't have those numbers. Do you have the numbers of. Did you. The crack research staff, did they give you those? The.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

The total. Well, so I do. Yeah. Yeah, we had them working overtime. Depends on how you define it. To 22 total people. I think, in terms of total chastisements, though, boy, I've got 11 with two or more. I've got 10 with at least one. I've got all the different sections here also where those rebukings happened. I feel like that was a lot. I mean, like I said, the church gave. I mean, it's one of those things. So we've talked about Doctrine and Covenant, Section 1, speaking of the Church collectively and not individually. He's also rebuking collectively and not individually as well. So, I mean, the rebukes are legion.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. I mean, and I think it's safe to say that he's pretty unhappy with a lot of things. You know, I mean, like, man, you guys can't do anything, right. That's what I would assume.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. No, that's absolutely the case. I can put this. I can put a link to this list on the description, or just trust me.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

That'S probably better. We prefer to not have any sources. So I think this kind of leads us into our discussion of some of these great rebukes, and I thought I'd share at least a couple that I want to share now. First of all, one of the people that is, to me, one of the great enigmas of early church history. Someone who is really hard to figure out is Almond Babbitt. Now, did Alan Babbitt come up on your list?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Let's see. Almond Babbitt. Let me see.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

He probably flew under the radar a little Bit.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, I think he did, actually. I don't see him here.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

And that's exactly what Almond Babbitt would want you to believe.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Hiram's all over the place or Martin's all over the place. Place.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

William McClellan.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

The first several sections are not a good place for Martin Harris because he's. There's some pages that no Walgreen, and that's gonna come up a few times. And Martin is constantly trying to get signs to prove to his family that. That the Book of Mormon's true. And he's pushing the envelope.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, now, is Babbitt. Is he the one. I'm trying to remember, is he the one that treats his membership like a turnstile and he's just going through among them, but he's such a powerful speaker or leader that every time he slightly repents, it's like, all right, come on.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

It is one of the weirdest things. His entire career in the church is one constant disfellowship and then restoration to a stake presidency. I mean, it is. It, you know, much like. Much like our friend Brady, it is just. It is from disfellowship to bishop to. You know, he's unlike our friend Kyle that we were talking to earlier this week, who just goes from bishopric to stake presidencies. He's probably one of the quorums of the 70 at this point. We don't know he's.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Because I think. Because I think he's. Was he bishop multiple times or at least multiple bishopric?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I don't know. Whatever it is, he had the look in his eyes of someone who's been beaten down through several bishoprics but still trying to have a good attitude.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's kind of like the scene of the end of the Green Mile. I'm tired, boss. I'm tired.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. Yeah, that's what it looked like. So, yeah, Baba is. Like I said, he's an enigma because he's an early member of the church. I mean, he's one of the first people baptized in the whole expansion of the church in this early New York, Ohio period. So, I mean, he's probably among the first couple hundred of people that are members of the church. He immediately starts serving missions, and he's apparently pretty good at it. People are being converted by it. He's one of the people who's on the Zion's Camp expedition to go Redeem Missouri in 1834. He gets appointed to be a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1835. And I don't know if it was just that. That little taste of power. But things are going to go downhill for him and then back uphill and then downhill for the remainder of his time in the church. He gets disfellowshipped in 1835 and then gets restored to fellowship almost, you know, immediately thereafter In January of 1836, he, among all the people that are apostatizing, he sticks with Joseph and actually leads a group of saints out of Ohio to Missouri, primarily leading Canadian Latter Day Saints, many of whom he'd converted from Canada to Missouri. And so it seems like things are solid again. Okay, you had the one little hiccup. I mean, what's one disfellowshipment among friends? You know? I mean, we all. We all have that friend, of course. Yeah. Are you a member? Not this year. Next year, maybe. Well, he is. He's made the president of the stake of Kirtland in 1840. And this seems to be where things really start to go awry. And it's going to lead to some of the great, perhaps, as far as I'm concerned, poetically, the most poetic or lyrical condemnation in the Doctrine and Covenants of somebody. So he's appointed to be the president of the Kirtland stake. And after. Well, actually, let's talk about. Let me back up a little bit. First of all, he's just out serving in Kirtland. He's not the president of the stake yet. He's one of the members that's there in. In May, June, July of 1840. Now, of course, the church's headquarters have moved not only from Kirtland to far west now, they've been driven out of Missouri. Now they're in Quincy and then into Nauvoo. And so you still have many members that are converted in places like England and Canada and all over the East. And, of course, there are many of them that kind of flow through Kirtland on their way to Nauvoo. And it's in this summer of 1840 that Joseph Smith is going to respond to several letters that he gets talking about Almond Babbitt's conduct in Kirtland. And this is a. It's a little bit lengthy, but I'll read it anyway. He says, while you are endeavoring, this is Joseph Smith writing to Oliver Granger. Okay, he's writing to Oliver Granger, who's actually the one in charge of Kirtland at this time in the summer of 1840, while you're endeavoring to do so and attending to the duties laid upon you by the Authorities of the Church in this place. I am sorry to be informed, not only in your letter, but from other respectable sources, of the strange conduct pursued in Kirtland by Elder Almond Babbitt. I am indeed surprised that a man having the experience which Brother Babbitt has had should take any steps whatsoever calculated to destroy the confidence of the brethren in the presidency or any of the authorities of the Church in order to conduct the affairs of the kingdom in righteousness. It is all important that the most perfect harmony, kind feeling, good understanding and confidence should exist in the hearts of all the brethren, and that true charity, love one towards another, should characterize all their proceedings. If there are any uncharitable feelings, any lack of confidence, then pride and arrogancy and envy will soon be manifested, and confusion must inevitably prevail and the authorities of the church set at naught. So this is a pretty good counsel already, right, that there needs to not be conflict among the leaders of the church. Whatever you think you're standing on business for, it probably doesn't rise to the level of having contention or speaking badly of these other leaders. Under such circumstances, Joseph continues, kirtland cannot rise and free herself from the captivity in which she is held and become a place of safety for the Saints, nor can the blessings of Jehovah rest upon her. So this idea of the Saints that were still in Kirtland, because not all of them made it to Missouri before the extermination order in Missouri in 1838, well, for a while, it was very uncertain where the church would go. And the church still had buildings in Kirtland. There were still many members there. And, of course, many of the early members still had family there. They were mainly from Ohio. So there was still a considerable presence of the Saints in the Kirtland area. And Joseph here seems to be expressing that the hope is that maybe there might be a resurgence there in Kirtland, but not if people like Hellman Babbitt are going around doing what they're doing. A great example of this is what Heber C. Kimball wrote to his wife. And he basically said, look, I came to Kirtland hoping that I would find, you know, saints that were unified and that we're together. And instead, he said that he found that they were all broken up and divided into several different parties. You know, George A. Smith said something very similar. He said that instead of holding each other up through prayer and faith, the elders are pulling each other down. So it kind of gives you an idea. There's this infighting now, a Lot of that is going on in the aftermath of both the commandment to leave Kirtland in January of 1838, and then the destruction of the church in Missouri and just the widespread violence. You have these mass excommunications and apostasies from people like, you know, all of the three Witnesses, part of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It is a very unsettled and unstable time. And apparently in Kirtland, there was a great deal of infighting among the leaders who were there. And one of those leaders, Alma Babbitt, Joseph goes on to say, if the revelations we've received are true, who is to lead the people? If the keys of the kingdom have been committed to my hands, who shall open out the mysteries thereof? As long as my brethren stand by me and encourage me, I can combat the prejudices of the world and can bear the calumny and abuse of the world with joy. But then he goes on to say, but when my brethren stand aloof, when they begin to faint and endeavor to retard my progress and enterprise, then I feel to mourn, but am no less determined to prosecute my task, being confident that although my earthly friends may fail and even turn against me, yet my heavenly Father will bear me off triumphant. However, I hope that even in Kirtland there are some who do not make a man an offender for a word, but are disposed to stand forth in defense of righteousness and truth and attend to every duty enjoined upon them, and who have wisdom to direct them against any movement or influence calculated to bring confusion and disorder into the camp of Israel and to discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So you can already tell that we don't have. Unfortunately, we don't have the letter that Oliver Granger wrote to Joseph Smith talking about Alman Babbitt. So all we could do is kind of read between the lines as Joseph's responding to these various things. So what seems to be clear is Almond Babbitt is not accepting some of the revelations that Joseph Smith has received. He's criticizing the leadership of the Church generally, but also Joseph in particular. And where Almond Babbitt is, this member of the first Quorum of the Seventy, he's clearly in a position of power and authority. So that's kind of an issue. Joseph goes on in his letter, it would be gratifying to my mind to see the saints in Kirtland flourish, but think the time has not yet come, and I assure you it will never until a different order of things be established. And a different spirit be manifested when confidence is restored, when pride shall fall, and every aspiring mind be clothed with humility as with a garment and selfishness give place to benevolence and charity. And a united determination to live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of the Lord is observable then. And not until then can peace and order and love prevail. So again, you don't. We can't tell exactly what's going on, but clearly what Joseph is responding to here is part of what Oliver Granger is telling him is that there's no unity. We get that from the letters of George A. Smith and Hebrew C. Kimball. There's a lot of infighting, but the infighting appears to be of the nature of whether or not they should follow everything that Joseph is saying. And notice that last chastisement there, whether you should proceed to live by determination to live by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. And not until then can peace, order and love prevail. I've thought about this multiple times in my life, going back to this letter that Joseph wrote, because we live in a time right now where there are supposedly, or at least avowedly faithful Latter Day Saints who thump their chest and tell everyone just what a great believer they are and at the same time talk about how President Nelson is wrong because of X or the church is wrong because of Y. Look, I'm a believer. I absolutely believe. It's just that President Nelson shouldn't have done this. I mean, how often? I'm not encouraging anyone, certainly not the missionaries listening to go to an X feed. But for those of you who are on any type of social media, how often do you hear people publicly? I mean, social media is by definition public. And. And not just public, it's publicly random. This isn't just like me saying to Richard, hey, you know what, Richard? I've got a mind that President Nelson's wrong about two hour church. I think it should be seven hour church. Only Seven hour church will do. Now, I don't know what Richard's response to that would be, except he's in a bishopric. So he's like, church is already 13 hours. Thanks. I love how you think increasing church, the church service itself, would have any effect on how long I'm in the building.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I can't tell you how many times it's been funny we've had conversations about that. And either myself, one of the counselors, Bishop, whatever, is like, I'm here for 10 hours. Anyway, what difference what time do we do it? I don't care. I'm here all day. Whatever you want.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I hope we get. I hope we get back to 9am Church. It makes no difference if I get here at 6am If I get here at 7am I'm missing the playoff games. It makes no difference to me.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

What a, what a sacrifice.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. Well, the reason why I call back to this is that there are a lot of people who want to do some heavy lifting for God. I see them post about it all the time. But in their attempt to demonstrate their religious gravitas for either political or social or sometimes personal reasons, they will publicly criticize the current leadership of the church. The church isn't doing enough to stop liberal influences inside of it. The church isn't doing enough to prevent environmental destruction. The church isn't doing enough to X. The church isn't doing enough to Y. President Nelson should never have said this. The church should never have included this in its curriculum. And the reason why it's frustrating is we've already got every single cannon that can be pointed pointed at us and our church. And the crazy part is inside of that ring of fire where every cannon is pointed at us. Instead of standing next to one another and next to the prophet half of the time, we create our own circular firing squad and try to argue that our point about what is most important in the gospel matters more than any other point. So it's time to do a little bit of a self check. If you ever find yourself saying, I believe the church is true, but President Nelson or whoever the prophet is is wrong about X, it's time to do some introspection. Why do you think that you know that the prophet or the church is wrong about something? And I'll tell you what, 11 times out of 10 it will be because it's something that you don't personally for political, social, economic reasons, that you don't personally believe. And you find yourself in that same place that every other person who's ever had a prophet throughout the history of the world is in. And that is, do you believe and follow even when it doesn't make sense? Do you believe in following even though you're super experienced in this and you know better about the way we should have done X? It's actually the mark of discipleship. It's not a great mark of discipleship to follow only when everything's exactly what you would have done. And, and, and I think that's part of the reason why this letter touches me as much as it Does Alvin Babbitt, outside of his hiccup in 1835 and given what's going to come later, is like a coughing fit. But he obviously was right with the church. And frankly, to me, it's impressive that in the midst of all of this apostasy from all of these great men in the church, Alan Babbitt, who clearly considers himself a great man, he stayed with Joseph, so there's some props right there. Right? He didn't set himself up like Warren Parish did, starting a new church. He didn't claim that Joseph was a fallen prophet like William McClellan did. Spoiler alert. He followed. But still, while he's at least technically, you know, in the church, he's. He's clearly making commentary, rejecting some of Joseph's teachings and rejecting some of the decisions that the church has made. Joseph says it's in consequence of aspiring men that Kirtland has been forsaken. How frequently has your humble servant been envied in his office by such characters who endeavored to raise themselves to power at my expense and, seeing it impossible to do so, resorted to foul slander and abuse and other means to effect my overthrow. Such characters have ever been the first to cry out against the presidency and to publish their faults and foibles to the four winds of heaven. I cannot forget the treatment I received in the house of my friends. These things continually roll across my mind, and they cause me much sorrow of heart. And when I think that others who have lately come into the church should be led to Kirtland instead of to this place by Elder Babbitt, and having their confidence in the authorities lessened by such observations as Elder Babbitt has thought proper to make, as well as hearing all of the false reports and exaggerated accounts of our enemies, I must say that I feel grieved in spirit and cannot tolerate such proceedings. Neither will I. But I will endeavor to disabuse the minds of the saints and break down all such unhallowed proceedings, you can really tell this is kind of. It's cutting Joseph personally here. He's been in jail for six months, separated from his family. He's desperately trying to dig the church out of a hole as they. As they newly move to Nauvoo, maybe I should say dig out of the swamp, because they literally have to try to drain the swamp. You know, swampland cheap come to Nauvoo. But here we get into some specifics. So clearly, Elder Babbitt is encouraging people to settle in Kirtland and not go on to Nauvoo that's one of the things he's doing. He's clearly rejecting some of the revelations that Joseph has given and he's clearly setting himself up as a greater leader. At the same time, he's denigrating Joseph and the other. The other leaders of the Church. This is what Joseph said. It was something new to me when I heard that there had been secret meetings held in the Lord's house and that some of my friends, faithful brethren, men enjoying the confidence of the Church, should be locked out. Such like proceedings are not calculated to promote union or peace, but. But to engender strife and will be a curse instead of a blessing to those who are young in the work. I know they are calculated to and must be injurious to them, those who've had experience and who should know better than to reflect on their brethren, there is no excuse for them. If Brother Babbitt and the other brethren wish to reform the Church and come out and make a stand against sin and speculation and whatever etc is what it says, they must use other weapons than lies or their object can never be affected and their labors will be given to the house of the stranger rather than to the house of the Lord. The proceedings of Brother Babbitt were taken into consideration at a meeting of the Church at this place when it was unanimously resolved that fellowship should be withdrawn from him until he makes satisfaction for the conduct he has pursued, of which circumstance I wish you to apprise him of without delay and to demand his license. So you get a. I know that one's not in the Doctrine and Covenants, but that's the backstory. What we like to do here on Standard of Truth is give a backstory so large that you no longer care about the actual story. It's kind of like, you know, the Hobbit being split into multiple movies.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. So this would be the desolation of almond. Is that what this is?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Desolation of almond. Smog the dragon. So this letter he sends in in mid July or late July? Mid to late July, 1840. So Alma Babbitt is disfellowshipped by that proceeding? Well, he apparently makes his way to Nauvoo to defend himself. So should we hear what happens with that? Well, he's going to come to Tunauvu. And these are the proceedings, the minutes of the meeting where his case is considered. So that was July of 1840. This is September of 1840. And these are the. His. Well, his church Discipline Minutes. September 5, 1840. High Council met in the Council at the office of Joseph Smith Jr. The Joseph Smith Jr. Against Almond Babbitt. The charge was predicated upon the authority of two letters, one from Thomas Burdick and the other from Levi Richards and Oliver Granger. Again, this is a. A non extant letter. So I, I can't tell you exactly what he says in there, but you get a little bit of the taste from both Joseph's response and from these minutes. First, for stating that Joseph Smith Jr. Had extravagantly purchased. I'm going to put a number. He's claiming that Joseph purchased three changes of clothing.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Okay.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Extravagantly. I don't know what. There isn't a number there. But, but he purchased three suits of clothes while he was at Washington City. Remember, Joseph goes to go meet with, with Martin Van Buren. And you know, possibly having lived in a dungeon for six months prior in Liberty, maybe he does need a new outfit.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Now, my, my understanding is that that meeting went pretty well. Is that correct?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. I mean. Oh. Oh, man. Nothing. You would be stunned at just how well people listen to the Latter Day Saints complaints. I mean, just President Van Buren was like, you know what? I'm going to do everything I can to help you people. No, obviously he said there's nothing he could do.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I would have liked it if you would have been able to say, you know what? That's a. That's a snappy suit. You know what? You got it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

It would have been great. Martin Van Buren was like, I want to help your people, but I'll lose Missouri. But that is a seafoam green suit if I've ever seen one. And the next thing you know, you know, militia was marching to help rather than to slaughter. It's not enough that he purchased three suits. He also claimed that he bought four suits while he was at Washington. That's a lot of suits and dresses and cloths. I think it's supposed to be clothes for their families in profusion. Now, Joseph has like, no money when he goes to D.C. it's actually one of the big problems of his whole trip is they can't afford to go and he has no money. So my guess is he's not wasting a whole bunch of money. In fact, one of his letters that he writes back from D.C. is that they're taking the cheapest housing they can possibly find in D.C. which is probably what people who go to D.C. now say. What's the cheapest housing I can possibly find? And when can you move the body out and erase the chalk line? It was, it was not as well. It Was. It was still a rough place. This is New dc So that was the first claim. So he's claiming that Joseph's buying all this clothes, which we don't really have any evidence for. And our other evidence from Joseph is they don't have any money even to get a rent in a place that is, you know, not a dumpster fire. Second, second charge for having stated that Joseph Jr, Sidney Rigdon, Elias Higby had stated that they were worth $100,000 each while they were in Washington, and that Joseph Smith Jr. Had repeated the same statement while at Philadelphia, and for stating that Oliver Granger had stated that he also was worth as much as they were. A hundred thousand dollars. I mean.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

All right, I'm going to do some quick math on what a hundred thousand dollars is in today's money. Basing it off.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah, the problem is that only does it by like inflation. If you just did it by.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

No, I'm doing it based on. On like an average wage in a. In a year.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

$250 is an average wage for someone then.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yep. Working it up. Hold on.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. The third charge is one of those that came out in the letter for holding a secret council in the Lord's house in Kirtland, for locking the doors of the house for the purpose of prohibiting certain brethren in good standing in the church from being in the council, thereby depriving them of the use of the house. Now, this is, I think, especially bothersome or problematic because when they first are being driven out of Kirtland, remember a group of apostates does the same thing. They kind of commandeer the temple and then claim that they are the actual purveyors and the actual leaders of the church. So the very fact that Babbitt appears to be using the temple as a private meeting place to talk about the issues he has with Joseph with those who follow him. And of course, people like Oliver Granger, who's 100% on the Joseph train, is barred from being allowed into the meeting. So this, it's this secret meeting. So that's another, another thing to take away from this. Anything that you think that you're doing for the benefit of the church that you are hiding from the church or your leaders, you are not doing it for the benefit of the church. I, I know you might think you are. We've got all kinds of people who think all kinds of things, but there isn't a reason why you would need to have a secret meeting with people talking about where the church is wrong about X. If, if if or why the church is wrong about. About Z or Y or whatever. Anyways, the council continued. It adjourns. And when the council met according to adjournment, the evidences were all heard on the case pending, and the council closed both on both sides. The parties spoke at length, after which President Joseph Smith Jr. Withdrew the charge and both parties were reconciled together, things being adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties. And here you have again this example of Joseph Smith just at the slightest inkling that someone is trying to repent. I mean, this was serious enough that Joseph's writing that letter to Oliver, that they hold a council, that Baba is clearly subverting Joseph Smith's authority, that he's clearly making slanderous statements up about Joseph. And they meet. And I don't know what Almond Babbitt says, but rather than follow through on continuing that excommunication or that disfellowshipment, Almond Babbitt is restored to fellowship. And not only is he restored to fellowship again, there are times when you are dealing with the. With the history that you. You shout at the page and wish that Joseph would not be so forgiving. But almost immediately after this, that was in September, Alman Baba is sent back to Kirtland as the stake president of Kirtland. So Joseph not only forgives him for trying to usurp this power, he then places him in a position of power that is a bridge too far.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I will tell you, I wish that all people would forgive and forget like that. Right. I mean, as it relates to me specifically. Well.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Well, I'm not going to forgive you regardless.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I mean, it is really incredible. Even. Even when you forgive a person. I am. I am generally slow to. I mean, it's quite the. It's quite the statement of Joseph Smith to, To do that. By the way, I do have the. I do have the number. And it does explain how he could afford to buy seven suits if he does have this much money. Now, if you rate it against the average income in the United states, that's around 59,000. So that'd be $23.7 million. If you do it to household income, it'd be $32.2 million. So Joseph's killing it right now.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Yeah. Then, which is why you're buying seven suits and four of them in dc.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's right. They're going to have so many buttons, it's going to be incredible.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Well, so you're thinking we're almost through with the podcast and you haven't got to the great Rebuke. Well, it comes in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124. He goes back to being that stake president. So it's October that he's called to go back there. Apparently, while Joseph has the greatest of trust in people and is always trying to look on the bright side, it's not going very well. Because doctrine, covenant, section 124 is the great revelation that Joseph Smith receives when they first get to Nauvoo. I mean, it's not when they first get there. They've been there for a couple years at this point. But it's one of the longest revelations in the Doctrine and covenants. It's received January 19th of 1841. And it outlines that you need to build the. The Nauvoo Temple and what you need to build it out of and why you need to build it. There are incredible things in. In section 124. We won't go into all of them, at least not right now, but we will at some point. But part of that is. Is verses 83 and 84. Verse 83 says, I, the Lord will build up Kirtland, but I the Lord have a scourge prepared for the inhabitants thereof. And with my servant Almon Babbitt, there are many things with which I am not pleased. Behold, he aspireth to establish his council instead of the council which I have ordained, even that of the presidency of my church. And he setteth up a golden calf for the worship of my people. Let no man go from this place who has come here as saying to keep my commandments. If they live here, let them live unto me, and if they die, let them die unto me, for they shall rest from all their labors here and continue their works. So it's that phraseology, to me, the most poetic of the condemnations that he setteth up a golden calf for the worship of my people, which is, of course, a reference to, you know, Richard, you would know this from your family heritage, right?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yes, we're very fond of talking about golden calves. Every time that my mother or father would come with a set of rules for our house, my sister or I would be fashioning a golden calf to worship.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Right? So that's funny. We need to have. We need to check with Sarah and see if that's the case. But it's this reference to. I mean, probably the best visual of it you have is. Is Charlton Heston in. In the book. In the movie Ten Commandments. And. But it comes from Exodus, chapter 32. And this is, you know, Moses is. Is up on the mountaintop. He's up there talking with God. He's communicating with God face to face, as we're told. Right? But he's up there a long time. And verse one. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together into Aaron and said unto him, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. We don't know what's become of him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears. And they brought them unto Aaron, and he received them at their hand, and he fashioned it with a graving tool. And after he had made a molten calf, they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they arose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now, I. I get it that it's a lot to be stranded in the Sinai and not know where Moses is. Having been near the Sinai, if it was summertime, I could see after, you know, the first couple of weeks, no word from Moses. What are we going to do? Just sit here and die? But what happened was the people immediately having left this land of idolatry, having watched the billions upon billions of gallons of water part and Pharaoh's armies destroyed, knowing that manna is coming from heaven, all of these miracles that the Israelites are experiencing, boy, in just a few weeks, they are building an idol, and they are calling the worship of that idol worshiping the Lord. That's how quick is the problem with the golden calf. It isn't just, hey, we're worshiping a graven image. I mean, that's. I mean, when Moses comes down with the tablets, I mean, let's check and see whether or not you guys have violated any of these new commandments we've received. Okay, one and two are right out. We've already got some real problems. It's the claim that you're worshiping the actual Lord by worshiping this false idol. So it's actually worse than saying, you know what? We should start worshiping Moloch and Ashtaroth and the other gods of the Canaanites, they're actually claiming that the worship of this golden calf is actually the worship of the Lord. They're perverting the proper worship of God. It's interesting because that's the exact same thing that Jeroboam does, right? When the kingdom split and Jeroboam, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah, and the 10 tribes go north to Israel and the two tribes to Judah, the temple, Solomon's temple, is still there in Judah. And Jeroboam quickly comes to the realization, look, if all the people culturally are tied to Jerusalem and all of the people are religiously tied to Jerusalem, I'm not going to have much of a kingdom if I don't do something about it. And so what does Cheroboam do? Eat Sets up golden calves on the border heading into Judah and tells the people that worshiping at these golden calves is the same thing as going down to the temple and worshiping in the temple, trying to. A misdirection of it. Clearly, part of what Almon Babbitt is doing is again telling people that they don't need to go to Nauvoo. God's commanded the whole church to gather in Nauvoo. He's telling them, no, it's actually okay to stay here in Kirtland. God's commanding them that they should do X and Y. And Almond Babbitt is saying, no, you don't understand. It's actually better if we do this or if we do that. So this illusion that is made in Doctrine and covenants section 124, that he's setting up a golden calf for the worship of his people, is the Lord saying that Here is Almon Babbitt, who supposedly a member of the church, supposedly a leader of the church, he's using his power and authority not to build the kingdom of God, but to misdirected. And it just so happens, how is he misdirecting it toward himself having more power? It's a crazy thing about people who love to criticize the church. It's the craziest, craziest thing. They all have one thing in common. They criticize the church on the basis of what they personally want. It's.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

How about that?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

It's. It's like I said, out of 10 times, it's 11 out of 10 times. It is always what that person personally thinks and personally wants that drives their criticism. And yet when that same prophet happens to say something that goes along with the things that we believe personally or socially or politically. Boy, we can't. We can't share that post enough. We're quoting it everywhere. We're raising our hand in Sunday school and. Well, and that's the reason why. And the reality is when we do that, when we only support prophetic leadership utterance when it agrees with what we already want to believe, we, like Alman Babbitt, are building a golden calf. We are saying that whatever our pet belief is, politically, socially, personally, we are saying that it trumps the revelation that comes to the church from his established prophet. Alvin Babbitt is going to. After the the condemnation in Doctrine and Covenant Section 124, he is going to be brought up on charges again. This is the October Conference, 1841. October 15, 1841. So. So DNC 124 was January. This is October. Brother Hyrum Smith made some remarks disapprobatory of the course pursued by some elders in withstanding the efforts of the presidency to gather the saints and enticing them to stop in places not appointed for the gathering, particularly the conduct of Elder Almond Babbitt of Kirtland. Brothers Lyman White and Henry Miller, having traveled in places where Brother Almond Babbitt had been in his journey eastward from his visit to Nauvoo, testified that he had in many places taught doctrine contrary to the revelations of God and detrimental to the interests of the church. Alan Babbitt is from Ohio. Alan Babbitt actually is someone who is politically important guy in Ohio. He is someone who's built a practice in Ohio. It just so happens that Alvin Babbitt wants the church to stay in Ohio. And as he's sent out there, instead of using his office to help speed people who are converted onto Nauvoo, which is the whole point of still having a stake there, he's instead saying, you know what? You don't need to go to Nauvoo so quick. You know, look, the temple's here. The Kirlin temple's right here. Let's build this temple up before we go build another one. Let's take care of this one. And of course, that's a pretty enticing argument coming from a leader of the church. I can go to the swampland where everyone's dying in Nauvoo and spend years building a new temple, or I can just stay right here in Kirtland where there's not as many mosquitoes and there's already a temple built. Of course, it's what people would Rather do, especially if you have family in and around Ohio. The way that Satan deceives us is by convincing us that the thing that we think is very important, that we like it, has more importance than the church places on it. And, and this happens all the time. I know we've talked about this before another podcast, but if we're going to do great rebukes from the Doctrine and Covenants, it's going to come up a lot. Because fundamentally the rebuke is always going to go along the lines, you are not following the current prophet and you're encouraging other people to not follow the current prophet. And you thump your chest about what a great member you are. All the while you say, well, yeah, but the church never should have done this. The Lord is asking you to put your faith in the prophet. He's not asking you to figure everything else out. He's asking you to put your faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has called prophets and apostles in our day. You don't want to be the Almond Babbitt. You don't want to be someone who's hearkening back to an earlier time, quoting from prophets in the past in a way to undermine the ones in the future or the current ones. You don't want to be the one saying, well, that's not how we used to do it and therefore the church is wrong because of X. Believe me, as a church historian, I could see all kinds of differences in the way things are done now as the way that they were done back in Joseph time. The fact that there are differences, the fact that the church is not exactly the same is proof of continuing revelation. And as I've often said, we all say we believe in continuing revelation right up until what it says is not something we agree with. And then, well, yeah, President Nelson's going to realize how wrong he was about that. Or just maybe, just maybe, maybe we're wrong. Maybe, however wonderfully informed we think we are on that topic, political, social, personal, that's why God calls prophets, he calls them so that in an uncertain world, in a world where there are many possible answers, you can get what your Heavenly Father wants you to know by listening to what the prophets and apostles today have to say. I know we didn't get to very many more rebukes, which is probably very sad.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, no, actually, I think it's extremely exciting. I think we, we create kind of. We have unsung heroes or lesser known heroes from the, from church history. And now I think we have great rebukings from or great rebukes quickly merge.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Into great apostates, apostles, and apothecaries.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Garrett, you're giving it away. We only have kind of one thing. We just call it different stuff.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

I see. So. So we are what Jim Gaffigan said Mexican food was when he worked at a Mexican restaurant.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. Tortilla with meat, cheese, and vegetables. That's right.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Right. And. And then people are like, well, what is a tostada?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's a tortilla. Tortilla with cheese, meat, and red vegetables.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

What about a taco Tortilla?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Tortilla with cheese, meat, and red veget and vegetables.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

So the Standard of Truth podcast, we're going to call it Different Things. It's the same thing.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's a tortilla with cheese, meat and vegetables.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

We're a tortilla with cheese, meat, and vegetables. Thank you so much for listening.

[Narrator]

Thank you for listening to this Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmont and Dr. Richard Leduc. If you know of anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them until next time.