Joseph Smith

And the key now is that these texts change the way I experience the present moment, how I live my relationships with people that I love, and whether I feel that I am being open to growth in my own life.

What about Joseph Smith?

So I feel like Joseph Smith was really a talented, charismatic youth.

You know, a force, a force for sure.

Beyond that, I feel like history, it's too hard to read into much more than that.

And so it was this mixture of like extreme loss and also really wanting to be present to what you were telling me and to offer companionship and be there for you.

And so I remember you going into rough, like a really, I remember really roughly that you talked about Joseph Smith a little bit.

I think you talked about how many women he was married to, how young, some of the circumstances around that, a lot of the DNC, some of the DNC sort of background things you would have learned looking into the DNC.

And I remember at that moment also feeling this resonance and that was really confusing and it but it made me in that moment say you know what does this mean do you know what this means like what does this mean for us what what do you want to do and what what should i read what can i like if i want to learn too what should i read and at that point you said von brody no man knows my history and i did i read it

Was apologetics in any way a part of your grappling with the church?

So the way I view that is I feel like I got a lot of apologetics at BYU, actually.

I feel like many of my religion classes approached polygamy that way or, you know, the life of Joseph Smith that way.

And what I knew was it didn't satiate me.

You're saying this character, when you're looking at Aslan, that's Jesus.

Now you're playing with fire here because you're more than welcome to take it in a rock and roll direction and have Aslan be inspired by Ziggy Stardust But like, be careful, you know what I mean? Because, and I would say this if, I would say this if Aslan was Buddha, or Joseph Smith, it's like, listen, you're more than welcome to interpret this however you want, but just be careful, because now you're playing with people that have like fundamental beliefs that the reason they're hearts are invested in this story to the point where this was an IP you got hired to remake.

The reason they're that invested is because of their belief system.

Just be careful, you know what I mean?

Isaiah describes a sealed book, a learned man, okay? I cannot for it is sealed.

And centuries later, events surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon remarkably make this so true and so, like, oh, Isaiah saw Joseph Smith.

You, so it's Isaiah, in case you want to read it on your own, it's Isaiah, 29, 11-12, 2 Nephi 27, and then Joseph Smith History 1, 63-65.

So Isaiah says in 29-14, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder.

The restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith and the golden plates is church history.

The restoration...

And it is still happening today.

This one will be a bit hard.

Joseph.

Same page.

Same page.

Boxing.

We're on a boxing theme here.

Smith.

It's a few things going deeper and deeper into the soul.

And a teenage boy named Joseph Smith lands on James 1, 5, and 6 and says, you know, never before had any passage of Scripture come to the heart of man with more power than this did at this time to mine.

It seemed to enter into every fiber of my being." And if the Holy Ghost can do that with one verse, then again, that's what I want to have for my students.

And I've found that it That actually requires slowing down, covering less, looking them in the eyes.

And it was really compelling.

Like I wanted to represent the other side of the equation just a little bit for the sake of those listening who have hangups.

But man, I can't argue with what you were saying about Joseph Smith, never had a scripture come to me with such force.

I'm like, we all wanna have that kind of experience.

Like Lazarus came out of the tomb because Jesus stood there and called him out.

Now the Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel, actually they were raised not by the power of themselves, but by Ezekiel's prophetic word and by the power of God himself.

Like...

Every resurrection throughout the history of the world has happened because of outside influence.

This one was public, printed, and circulated.

Joseph Smith presided over the celebration, promoted the published speech afterward, and clearly endorsed its message.

Rigdon said that if another mob attacked the Mormons, quote, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, end quote.

He said they would pursue their enemies until one side was destroyed and would, quote, carry the seed of war to their own houses and their own families, end quote.