Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 115-120 Part 1 • Dr. Alex Baugh • Oct 13 - Oct 19 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

How did the Saints’ brief time in Far West shape the future of the Restoration and the present? Dr. Alexander Baugh explores the founding of Far West, the official naming of the Church, and the significance of Adam-ondi-Aham amid the trials of 1838 Missouri.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTS English: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC242EN French: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC242FR German: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC242DE Portuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC242PT Spanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC242ESYOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/TXKS2FSCY28ALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIM.co2021 Episode Doctrine & Covenants 115-120 Part 1https://youtu.be/-j_I2ljmPloFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook  WEEKLY NEWSLETTER https://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter  SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE:00:00 Part 1 - Dr. Alex Baugh01:56 Episode Teaser06:46 Alex Baugh Bio08:52 Shortest section in the D&C12:57 Come, Follow Me Manual16:40 Additional counselors in the First Presidency20:09 First Presidency requirements24:31 The name of the Church30:19 Historical names vs. name of the Church34:02 Church will rise36:51 Why is Far West significant?40:54 The Far West cornerstones 48:24 Far West Temple design51:23 Numbers of Saints56:24 Adam-ondi-Ahman1:00:16 W. W. Phelps poem at Adam-ondi-Ahman1:04:21 Great Council Meeting1:06:05 End of Part 1 - Dr. Alex BaughThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Coming up in this episode on Follow Him. Who comes and joins him but none of than the Son of Man, meaning Son of Man of Holiness Jesus Christ? This is the great council meeting, I guess you might say, at Adam on Diomen, before the Lord's final and last great appearing in the future. This was highly motivating to the Latter-day Saints to think Missouri is a land of promise, and this is where the final events of this, dispensation will take place. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hinksmith. I'm your host. I'm here with my co-host, John, by the way, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yes, I am. I know who I am. I know God's plan.

I can hear the music when you said that. That's so great. John, I'm sure you know this, but Section 115 of the Doctor in Covenants, the Lord says, for thus shall my church be called in the last days, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love it. John, we are joined today by our good friend, Dr. Alex Baugh. Alex, welcome back to follow him.

Thank you so much. I've been waiting four years to come back. We have been waiting four years for you. This is wonderful. Everyone appreciates what you do. It's wonderful. Well, we love you, Alex. In fact, Alex's name, how many times do you think it's been brought up just this year, John? I think maybe almost every episode. Good point. Yeah. Whenever we're making a point. You know, Alex says that makes it authoritative if Alex told us. Yeah. In fact, we don't even need the last name. We just say Alex and everybody knows. Everybody knows who we're talking about. Yeah. For those you who are new this year and you're thinking, I've heard this name many times. Yes, he is finally here, the man, the myth, the legend. We are in sections 115 through 120, Far West, Missouri. Tell me what comes to mind. So many things. When you go to Far West now and you hear that it was once thriving, then you look at it now, that's sobering. You're like, where did everybody go?

One of the reasons I was excited to have Alex on today was we have somebody that is a trusted scholar who probably knows more than anybody on the planet about Adamant Diamon. I'm really excited to have Alex here today to maybe help us understand that place a little bit. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to, but I just know we have the Missouri expert here today. Well, thank you. This last summer, I was at Adam on Diomen, and I'm. met a service missionary who takes care of the grounds there that does such a beautiful job. And he said to me that their area authority told them, listen, if you haven't heard a new rumor by 10 a.m., start one. So I know there's just a lot of rumors about that place. And so I'm

glad we get to address some of those. Yeah, that's great. When you talk about no one on the planet, I wonder if it's even off the planet. If there's anyone who, knows more, right? I think if the Lord gets a question about Adam on Daalman, he might be like, where's Alex? Alex. Go ask Alex. Even Adam himself might say, Alex, what are we supposed to do here? Alex, what are we looking forward to today? We had you on four years ago for sections 121 through 123. We're basically getting a prequel for what you did for us then. Yeah. Today, There's seven revelations that came from far west. You've covered the first two.

We also have, as you've mentioned, an Adam Undiaman revelation, the shortest revelation in the Doctrine Covenants, but there's a lot behind it. There's the Liberty Jail revelation. So there's seven Far West, one Adam-Undi-Aamon, three Liberty Jail.

This is kind of the northern Missouri period. We've been in Missouri for a long time in the sense that the first missionaries get there in 1831. Joseph goes down, dedicates the land of Zion. We have a gathering of about 1,200 saints by 1833 to Jackson County. Then, unfortunately, the antagonists there in Jackson County said, you're not welcome. And there was what we call the forced expulsion from Jackson County.

Most of them went into Clay County, which will be the headquarters of the church in the west in Missouri for, again, about another three years, basically 1834, 35, 36. But in the meantime, we've hired some pretty good attorneys to help us. One of them is my hero, Alexander Donovan. I'd like to think my parents named me after him, but I don't think they knew who he was. Unknowingly. Unknowingly. there is good evidence, by the way, that Joseph named one of his sons, Alexander Halesmith, after Donovan. He's born in Far West on June 2nd, 1838. Donovan is the man who is going to secure through the legislature the creation of Caldwell County for the Mormons,

because by 1836, even the Clay County citizens are getting a little bit anxious going, We allowed you to come here, but we didn't want you here forever. Donovan will, he gets elected to the state legislature. He's one of our four attorneys who we hired in problems associated with the expulsion. Let's see if we can get a county for you. He's quite helpful. In the end, of course, it didn't work out. He ends up having to create two counties, one to the north called Davies,

and we'll briefly talk about that in connection with Adam Unda Amunday. but this Caldwell County was supposed to be for the Latter-day Saints, reserved for them, so those who do come will stay there. But you understand this is a free country. You can go anywhere you want. Some of the Latter-day Saints are going to go up into Davies County and other places that cause some angst among the locals. It will result in eventually the expulsion order by Boggs in 1838.

Just a quick overview there, but meanwhile, will focus on these far west revelations. I think, John, you know this well, how much I admire Alex Baugh in multiple ways, not just as a scholar, but as a friend, as a disciple. He'll be the first to say that I'm wrong about this, but I don't know if they become any more dedicated to the church, to the Lord, than Alex. Do you have any information on him? John, did you uncover anything that we all need to know?

We have a bio. I think what you just said, Hank, is probably better than what I could read. As I was getting ready to record, I remember you telling our audience about a personal trial in your life and in your family and how Alex came out of his way to come and see you, which just says volumes about. Multiple times, John, multiple times. Yeah. But let me tell you about Dr. Alexander Baugh is a professor, former chair of... Church History and Doctrine at BYU. He's been full-time on the faculty since 95, so that's 30 years.

I got married in 95, so we're having our 30-year anniversary pretty soon here. Received a bachelor's from Utah State, Masters and Ph.D. from BYU. He specializes this, what we've been saying, in researching and writing about the Missouri period of early church history. He's been an author, editor, co-editor of 12 books, including three volumes of the document series of the Joseph Smith Papers, that's volumes 4, 5, and 6, published more than 80 historical journal articles, essays, and book chapters. That's a few every month, it sounds like.

We wanted to mention, Hank, there's a chapter he wrote recently called the History and Doctrine of Adamant Diamant. The Religious Studies Center, you'll hear us refer to the RSC sometimes as a new book called Hear the Voice of the Lord, essays on the Doctrine and Covenants. love it when this happens because it is current scholarship. We have some great scholars. I'm really anxious to read that because, as I said before, Adam and Diamant, there's very few written about it.

What did you just say? Alex, it was the shortest section in the Doctrine Convents that brings up the name. But there's a lot behind it. Yeah. Yeah. Alex is going to fill us in on that. We're glad to have you. welcome. John, before I jump into the Come Follow Me Manual here, I have to say there are people

that you cross paths with and it changes you as a person. Alex is one of those for me. I've spent time with him at work. I've spent time with him on the road. I've been with him at some of these sacred sites. I've heard from his academic side where he knows so much, but he cares about these people in history. Even those who were fighting against the saints. To him, they were real people. They're not characters. They're not, look at these evil mobsters. They have their own feelings that they're dealing with. He's not going to excuse their behavior, but he's not going to treat them as if they're like a movie character, all bad. I've appreciated that. And then also, he loves the saints. Sometimes I think Alex lives in the 1830s.

I want him to come and join us here in 2025, but Alex, when did you first get interested in Latter-day St. History, specifically Missouri? Well, that's a great question. I was up at Utah State University. I was actively involved in the Institute program, wanted to be a seminary teacher, which came to fruition. I was in a musical group called Sounds of Zion. And my wife, Susan, was the accompanist, so that's where we met.

Wow. Our director, this brother Bradley, took us to Romania, Bulgaria, for a tour group representing the church in an indirect way. But on the way back, Brother Bradley, he taught LDS Church history. We stopped at all the sites from New York to Missouri. And the last place we stopped, we were in a bus. us was the temple site right there in Independence. There's a plaque or a marker there. It's a historic marker placed there by the city of independence, actually, not us. They've moved it

since, but it's still there, I think, in another location, if I remember right, a couple months ago, but it said on April 3rd, 1831, Joseph Smith, and eight other people dedicated this spot for the temple in Zion, where this church believes the Savior will come in the last days. Boy, that hit me. I'd heard about Zion. We talked about it, but to stand at that site and go, the latter-day Zion will be here someday. The Savior is coming.

Zion will be established. This great millennial city will be part of the final wrapping up scenes. That's what got me. I took as many church history courses as I could from Ken Godfrey and Brother Bradley and others. I ended up majoring in family and human development, but just to make a long story short, my first couple of weeks at Beaumont Seminary, I got a letter saying they were going to have a master's program in history at BYU and invited some of the seminary teachers to come and apply. I essentially was able to get in the program, got a master's, and then went on for a Ph.D.

But it was that experience right there at the temple site that something happened, which was really special. Since then, I felt like I needed to do something to kind of bring to light what happened there so we can have a better understanding of what will take place in the future. Wow. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. For me personally, my association with you has been nothing short of life changing. A beautiful, beautiful thing. Let's jump it. Got the come follow me manual in front of me. The title this week, the title of the lesson is his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase. And here's how it begins. There was a reason for the saints to be optimistic about their newest gathering place, far west Missouri. The

city was growing rapidly, the land seemed abundant and nearby was Adam on Diomen, a place of great spiritual significance in the past and in the future. Still, it must have been hard for the saints not to think about what they had lost. Besides being driven from independence, the center place of Zion, the saints also had to flee Kirtland, leaving their beloved temple after only two years. And this time, it wasn't just enemies outside the church causing trouble. Many prominent members had turned against Joseph Smith, including four members of the Corm of the Twelve Apostles. Instead of focusing on what they lost, the faithful just kept building Zion, this time in Far West. They made plans for a new temple. Four new apostles were called. They understood that doing God's work

doesn't mean you never fall. It means you rise again. No, you'll have to make sacrifices. Those sacrifices are sacred to God, even more sacred than your increase. That's Section 117. A beautiful way to start, Alex. Do we want to jump in? It's April of 1838. That's probably one of the most outstanding introductions to these sections. I think it's the longest one in the entire manual to try to set the stage for this. Joseph had experienced apostasy.

The church had tremendous apostasy in Cortland. It was time to move on. And fortunately, there was one place he could go, and that is to the St. in Far West. And he left with Sidney Rigdon on January 12th, 1838. He got the revelation. It's not canonized, but it's in the Joseph Smith papers. It says, leave. Leave right now. The dead of winter, he and his family arrive in Far West on March 14th. It's a two-month journey in the dead of winter. But he gets there, and fortunately, they have a place for him. I won't go into all that, but he's going to board with a family named George M. Hinkle for a little bit, but

the Saints in Missouri are happy as can be that, okay, Joseph's come here, church headquarters now is here in Far West. When we talk about the significance of Far West, we have to say it is the church headquarters for 11 months, from March until March 1838 until February 1839 when the evacuation has basically finished. And again, it's a temple site, which has been dedicated and consecrated for a future temple. Joseph F. Smith is born here, a Hiram's son. By that time, Hiram is in prison, and he doesn't get to see the birth, but little Joseph F will be brought to Liberty Jail. It's just a tremendous place in church history, because at least there is a place Joseph and the church could gather, but little did they know that the storm winds were going to

hit even harder. Unfortunately, there are those who are going to cause some problems. Like the introduction said, we're going to lose some of the key apostles, but the ones who replace them take the torch, they are stalwart, stalwart men. You already discussed the fact that Joseph Smith gets there and they want to have a little discussion of some Isaiah chapter. who doesn't yeah who doesn't but it's a nice little Q&A that helps us understand a few passages very important ones in Isaiah and then David Patton needs to know what's going to he wants to have a personal revelation given to him and unfortunately he's going to pass away during the Missouri period in a few months from the wounds of a Crooked River battle but section 115 is

monumental. This is given, as you can see, on April 26th. So Joseph's been there a little bit over a month. Wow, I really am moved by this. The revelation opens by Joseph and the Lord explaining to Joseph and the church. Here's my leadership. I do need to make a note of the change. If you'll notice here, it's Joseph Smith Jr., Sidney Rigdon, and Hiram Smith. Just a few months earlier in November of 1837, Frederick G. Williams fell into, I guess you'd say, he just wasn't sustained. He had had some of his own personal problems. Hiram is now in the first presidency, and as you know, he'll remain in that presidency until his martyrdom there. He's the replacement for Frederick G. The great thing about Frederick G. is he comes back. We've got to give him credit there.

interesting verse also because it says He says Sidney Rigdon, Hiram Smith, and your counselors who or shall be appointed hereafter. I think most Latter-day Saints probably don't know that Joseph and the first presidency at this time consisted of not only Joseph, Sydney, and Hiram, but two additional counselors. They were none other than his father, Joseph Smith, Sr., and also his uncle, John Smith. The first presidency and his counselors were not only first and second counselors, but additional counselors in the first presidency. So I'm going to quiz you just a little bit here, Hank and John. Can you ever recall another presidency, first presidency, in which there was additional counselors? I remember that was a president,

Kimball that had an extra counselor? That's correct. Do you remember who it was? And it was President Hinckley. It was. It was President Kimball, President Tanner, and President Romney. President Tanner died, and then President Hinckley was called in as the second counselors. That's the most recent one.

Interestingly enough, David O. McKay had three additional counselors, Joseph Fielding Smith, Thorpe B. Isaacson, and Alvin R. Dyer. When that presidency was dissolved by the death of President McKay, those counselors were obviously moved back into their other quorums. Then I think Joseph Fielding Smith became president of the church. Just on a side note, do you have to be a member of the 12 to be a counselor in the first presidency? And the answer is no. Both Thorpe B. Isaacson and and Alvinar Dyer were not, I'm just giving them as an example. Dyer was a member of what they called the assistant to the corm of the 12th.

Thorpe B. Isaacson was in the presiding bishopric, I believe. It's kind of unusual, but it could happen. I think Joseph set the precedence here, and he actually called John Smith and Joseph's father, Joseph Smith, Sr., back in Kirtland. I just wanted to make a clarification that First Presidency doesn't always consist of three singular high priests, as outlined in Section 107.

But anyway, the revelation is addressed to them, this presidency. Then it says, and also unto you my servant, Edward Partridge, and his counselors, well, everybody knows Edward Partridge is the bishop in Zion. His first counselor at that point of time is Isaac Morley. His previous counselor was a man by name of John Coral. But he's been released from that, and now it's a guy by the name of Titus Billings and some of our Latter-day Saints might be familiar with his name. He's addressing this presiding Bishop Brick, or the, I shouldn't say the presiding bishop,

but he was addressing this to the Missouri Bishop Brick. Then it also says about the High Counselors. This would have been the 12 counselors who operated in the High Council in Missouri. I won't go through their names, but anyway, it's an introduction to basically the leadership of the church as it existed at that point in time. I failed to mention Brigham Young at one time had six additional counselors. Let's go find that. That's in these later years beginning in 1873.

Albert Carrington was one of my point. The point again I'm trying to make is there could be a time when additional counselors are called outside the first and second counselor there. You mentioned Alvin Ardair. David O. McKay loved Alvin R. Dyer. And one of the reasons was he was the mission president of the central state's mission there in Missouri from 1954 to 58. He fell in love with LDS history and wrote a book called The Refiners Fire. That's one reason why David O'May loved him.

He brought David O'Mekeh back to see Far West and Adam on Dauman and said, we've got to do something here. This is where it's all wrap up. he takes him back there. And after that, they decide to actually develop the Far West Temple property. So what we have today is because of Alvinar Dyer. Alex, versus 1 through 3, a quick question. You've got the first presidency, as we would call it, a bishop Rick. And then you've got basically a stake high council.

I notice there's not a stake presidency. Is that something we have at this point? Or is that not happened? Great question, actually. I didn't talk about this, but what ends up happening is we lose the presidency of the church in Missouri. That is David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and WW Phelps. Those are the two counselors. They've been all excommunicated. Phelps is coming back. We get, again, another revelation for him that is not canonized, but he's coming back. Because of that, Thomas, B. Marsh of the quorum of the 12, David Patton, and I think we can include Brigham Young, the three senior members of the quorum of the 12 are called Presidents Pro Tem, or Pro Tempor. We could probably include them in that group, but they're not specifically mentioned as the presidency because they're apostles, but they've taken an additional role as kind of the

temporary stake presidency. They are working through a lot of complications during this. There's very numerous changes in the leadership of the church as we move into this period. It is complicated, but it gets all sorted out. Yeah. It works out okay. Let's keep going. What's next?

Well, in the latter part of verse three, the Lord is given us a little prelude by saying, I'm going to tell you the name of the church, he does so. then he says more adamantly for thus shall my church be called in the last days even the church of jesus christ of latter day saints i think our hearers and listeners and viewers need to understand that the name of the church when it first was organized on april 6th and 1830 was called the church of christ now that's an appropriate name in every sense of the word but there's another group out there called the Camelites who are known as the disciples of Christ. That's causing some confusion, particularly in Ohio. Interestingly enough, on May 3, 1834, in the evening and the morning star, is a pronouncement

that the name of the church will now be the Church of the Latter-day Saints. That's the second name of the church. We're not sure why the change, but you can see what's happening here. We've got the Church of Christ. Then they alter the name enough to say, well, we're distinguishing ourselves by calling ourselves the Church of the Latter-day Saints. But now the Lord says, it's about time you use my name. Again, I guess you could say the full reference to Jesus Christ, for barely thus shall my church be called the church. The is a definitive article. I love that.

Not a church of Jesus Christ, or just the church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That to me is so significant. I am just so grateful for President Nelson and his recognizing we need to come to full grips with the name. we've always been proud of our heritage our Mormon heritage and I'm almost using that in vain by saying that but we've got to change it I think we need to talk about that just for a minute president Nelson was sustained on January 14th 2018 2018 this is what six seven months later

he calls a press conference and he emphasized the importance of using the correct name of the church and clarified the matter two days later on August 18th, during a visit to Montreal, Canada, stating that it was a course correction, not a name change. The name has been there. It's a course correction in the fact we're going to use the authorized most important name, and that's the name of the church, is given by Revelation. Not surprising, on October 6th, 2017, 2018, the Sunday morning broadcast, he explained why it was important that we use the proper name. And I'd like to read that.

He said, so this is starting to hit, get everybody's attention. And now he's going to tell us like it is and does so wonderfully. I did this because the Lord impressed upon my mind the importance of the name he decreed for his church, even the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day. saints. The name of the church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of his church should be and even precedes his declaration with, thus shall my church be called, he is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, he is offended. What's in a name or in this case a nickname? When it comes to the nicknames of the church

such as LDS Church, the Mormon Church, or the Church of the Latter-day Saints, the most important thing in those names is the absence of the Savior's name. To remove the Lord's name from the Lord's Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior's name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us, even His Atonement. It doesn't get any plainer than that. What happens? we change the logo, the Tabernacle Choir's name has changed to reflect again what it really is,

and that's a choir that's on Tabernacle Square. It's not a Mormon choir. I think this is one of the most electrifying moments in our most recent church history. We even got the Church of Jesus Christ.org. This is a terrific contribution from the president of the church, when he sees we need to re-identify ourselves the way we're supposed to be identified. And it's made a world of difference in this world of the Internet and in every aspect of our lives. They even asked the press, please use the full name of the church.

Be respectful. This is our name. That was an earth shaker. One important part of this is to see that President Nelson wasn't saying, look, everything we've done before this, President Monzen, President Hinckley, was some sort of mistake. He says, I realize with profound regret that we, including him, have unwittingly acquiesced in the Lord's restored church being called by other names. We did it unknowingly. This wasn't something we did intentionally. It was a course correction. I like the way he put that. Now we can't go back and say trail from Navu to Salt Lake is the Latter-day Saint-P pioneer trail. He's not saying that.

That's in the history books. We identified ourselves because of our religious affiliation with the Book of Mormon as Mormons. People knew us by that name, but there's time for a change. The emphasis, like I say, the past is the past. That's the way it was. But now we can make a difference by using the proper name. I have, even in my writings, I have to use the name Mormon when we're talking. about some of the problems because that's historically the way we were referred to.

If I can get away with it, I'll always use the proper name of the church there. I belong to the Mormon History Association. Well, they still have to use that name. I wish they could be a better one, but that's just the way we have to refer to it sometimes, but not the church. Yeah. Shout out to Mormon. Yeah.

Boy, if we had to be nicknamed me. after anybody. But I think he too would point us to Christ. It's a mouthful to say the full name of the church. It's one of the longer names of any church I can think of. But I love the ownership implied. It's the church of Jesus Christ, but then it's his church, but then it's my church too of Latter-day Saints. I love that idea. It's his, it's mine, it's ours. I think it's beautiful. Of course, we get a book of Mormon, the early church after Christ brought his gospel to the Nephi. I'll be at my church, save it be called in my name. We have scriptural justification for always calling it after him.

And it's just been a wonderful change. The mindset is well ingrained now in the Latter-day Saints. Wherever you can, use the name. Hank, a few weeks ago, we told the story of Gladys Knight, who was singing at Disney World and somebody said they'd noticed a new light about her. She gave a very general answer, and then they asked again, and Gladys Knight, announced at Disney World, I've become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When I think about that, I love that she was the full name of the church there. It just wouldn't have been the same had she said, I become a Mormon. there. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love it. Thank you,

Sister Knight. In this situation, I see a very merciful teacher in the Lord. April 6, 1830. We're going to call this the Church of Christ. I can see him saying, okay, that's good. 1834. Well, it is our church, too. We're going to call it the Church of the Latter-day Saints. I can see the Lord going, oh, okay. And then I can see him saying, well, how about it's mine and yours? the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then I can see him letting time pass and watching us drift into nicknames. Then he comes around. You know, it's a true and living church.

I like to see him saying, all right, we're far enough along. Let's get back to that name that I gave you. I don't know. I see him very merciful through this whole process, but also have accountability. Yeah. That was very profound. Lord lets us grow into things. Yeah.

Sometimes it takes a little longer time than probably he would want, but his church is guided by living prophets, and we'll make the necessary changes when the time's right. The time was right. The reason it's right is really because of the next verse. Look at the struggling saints in Missouri. Look at verse 5 and 6. Maybe John, you could read that.

I would love to. verse 5 Verily I say unto you all Arise and shine forth That thy light may be a standard For the nations And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion And upon her stakes

May be for a defense And for a refuge from the storm And from wrath when it shall be poured out Without mixture upon the whole earth The great statement This church is going to arise And shine forth We're born in a day and age

when the church is highly visible. It's well respected. Sure, we have our antagonists, but quite frankly, we ain't seen nothing yet. The best is yet to come, the hardships as well, but this church will arise and shine forth. I have a statement here by Harold B. Lee, this people must increase in beauty before the world,

have an inward loveliness which may be observed by mankind as a reflection in holiness and in those inherent qualities of sanctity. The borders of Zion, where the righteous and pure and heart may dwell, must now begin to be enlarged. The stakes of Zion must be strengthened. All this so that Zion may arise and shine by becoming increasingly diligent in carrying out the plan of salvation throughout the world.

The missionaries, the temples, we're on the maps in a lot of places. More is yet to come. It's shining forth, but the bright light will get brighter and brighter until the Savior comes. Every Latter-day Saint ought to have such optimism for where this church is headed. It is a marvelous work and wonder. It will only grow in strength and power and influence. In verse 7, the Lord says, Far West is a pretty holy place. Probably the reason it's a holy place is because we're going to put a temple here. He announces, the need for them to gather, to unite, and begin laying the foundation of the church

and building up the church in Far West. Now, this is a pronouncement of a temple to be built here. As anyone who knows who's been back to Missouri, there is a temple site there that you can visit that was dedicated as a place for a temple, but it never got built. But I think there might be another reason that Far West is a holy place. There's a man by the name of Reed Peck, a very faithful early Latter-day Saint. He's part of the Colesville branch. He comes to Jackson County. He's faithful.

He's pushed with the rest of the saints into Clay County. He comes to Far West. After the expulsion order, he decides to return to New York. He's been hammered. He writes a letter. to his friends back east. He describes some of the things he's been through, and it's sad that he decides to leave the church.

But in part of his letter, he talks about these sacred sites, Adam on Diomen and so on. But then he says that far west was the place where Cain killed Abel. Now, it's only one account. As a historian, you kind of have to go, that's one person.

There's no other collaborating evidence. But where did he get that information? I think we can safely say Joseph Smith. But there's not a lot of other evidence for it. But if that's the case that Adam on Diamond is where Adam lived and Kane slew Abel at Far West, perhaps that's why he's saying the blood of the first martyr was shed right here where you've settled. Now, that's highly speculative, I admit, but it is part of the historical

record that somewhere he learned that and i have to think that joseph smith may have been teaching it but not necessarily didn't capture a lot of attention wow that's cool that verse five arise and shine forth at thy light that was a theme for the youth there's so many things that i love about that thy light i remember reading it and thinking wait a minute i thought jesus is the light of the world. But then Jesus himself comes and says, ye are the light of the world. It's one of the only nicknames I can think of that we get to share with the Savior, which is a wonderful thought. And then in Third Nephi is at 18, Hank and Alex, where he says, I am the light which he shall hold up. Our light is his light type of a thing. But what I wanted to share with you that I think is such a parallel

verse is in Isaiah. Listen how closely this sounds like the same verse. 1115, verse 5. This is Isaiah 60, verse 1 and 2. Arise shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isn't that impressive? It sounds like the same thought. It is footnoted there.

I thought about Gladys Knight. People saw a light on her, and look what it says in verse two. His glory is seen upon thee. Hey, what is that? What happened to you, Sister Knight? I just had to throw in that Isaiah verse that sounds like, same thought almost. That's terrific. It shows you, Joseph had to be a...

inspired and would have come across that maybe at some point in time in his maybe his translation or other kind of things that's really good. Alex, I have been with you, I think twice in my life to far west Missouri, a holy consecrated land, it says in verse 7. It shall be called most holy for the ground upon which thou standest is holy. There you have this temple site, a beautiful memorial there. How do you feel about it? I think our listeners be interested. When you walk around places like this, what goes through your mind? As John said earlier, this was a huge city.

And you go out there now and there's, it's just fields. Yeah. Yeah. Far West became quite the gathering place, but was short-lived, as you know. The thing that always comes to me is the disappointment that must have happened. When there was so much optimism, here's Joseph Smith. this is where we can probably at least stay in Missouri and build up the kingdom. And then within less than a year, the enemies came against us.

I think the Latter-day Saints were very, very disappointed that Zion was not established. In Jackson County or temporarily in Clay or in far west, I can just imagine their disappointment. And unfortunately, for many Latter-day Saints, they gave up some Latter-day Saints anyway. but the ones who stuck with him, stuck with Joseph Smith, stuck with the church, they will move forward and build that beautiful city with a temple on the hill in Navu. They put Missouri behind him and move on. I admire those Latter-day Saints who tried with all their heart to build Zion, to establish something in Missouri.

It didn't happen, but they continued to be faithful. I think of those who suffered so much in terms of privation and hardship and persecution. I'd tell you one time I was sitting at the temple site, and a bus came with a whole bunch of teenagers on one of these tours. They were coming and came off the bus. Finally, one teenager, he says, gosh, there's nothing here. Let's just go. We're on our way to know. We need to get to Navu.

And I just sat there and I go, oh, we only knew the back story. of these people. It is a sacred place where the Latter-day Saints lived for a time trying to do what they were commanded. We figure there was

over 200 people who died during the short time they're in Caldwell County in the far west area. Of course, some of the most tragic being at the Hans Mill.

But that's what runs through my mind when I see this emptiness, this place. To them, it was sacred and hoped to be where they could

live out their lives in peace, had to move on. But they did. Yeah, there's the four cornerstones now there. And the church has a nice little monument with some of the sections that we're looking at today, some of those verses, a really well-ar-conditioned restroom that the church built there. My bus wanted to stay in the restroom. Because it can be pretty hot there. I'm intrigued by the name of the place, far west and it's just a reminder well for them that was pretty far to the west right that was frontierish i would love to know what's the future it's a question i got there and i probably didn't give as good of an answer as you can give us right now what's going to happen to that site

well again we just don't go around dedicating temple sites and not have something there again there is a glorious future for Missouri we all know that the church is very strong in Missouri we have a temple down the road in Kansas City but it's almost liberty we have a temple going up in Springfield Missouri we have a temple in St. Louis we're establishing Zion in a different way in Missouri like I say wonderful Latter-day Saint Church is very well respected there as a really strong presence. We'll have to wait and see. We'll probably have to catch it from Spirit World Camera, but Lord has his plan for the saints in Missouri, for those sacred places in Zion. We'll let him fulfill his purposes in his own way, in his own time.

Tell me time-wise, how long has the Independence Temple site been abandoned until they start the one in far west. It was dedicated August 3rd, 1831. By this time, it's what, 1838, so it's been seven years. A long time, giving temple sites that we haven't built temples on. There's a couple in a row there.

The Clay County citizens got a little bit anxious that we're continuing to come there. Now, there was only about 1,500, 300 more than what we had in Jackson County. But they said, we didn't really plan on you staying forever, but let's see if we can find you a place. And Donovan says, okay, I think I can help them. And he does when he's elected the legislature. He creates

actually two counties, one Davies County, which we're going to be talking about, but also Caldwell. Again, the expectation was they have a right to be here. Let's see if we can at least give them their own territory. He does and creates this county and they immediately begin moving in there. By the end of 1836, the county is created on December 26. The county is created on December 26th, 1836. But most of the saints had already left Clay County. They had their crops and things. They had to survive. So they move in the winter come spring on April 7th celebrating another year of the church. There's a decision by the church leaders in Missouri, we're going to build a temple. They think, well, why not? We need a place to worship. I can tell you it would have been a temple much

like Kirtland, they say, let's get a committee together and form a committee to superintend the building of a temple. Well, what better time to do it than in July, they decide to actually have a groundbreaking. And Joseph doesn't know this. We're still going, well, let's do this. They did it prematurely, but I have that account. Phelps decides, to write Joseph Smith and say, well, by the way, we're going to build a temple. And here it is. Monday, the 3rd of July, 1837 now, was a great and glorious day in far west. More than 1,500 saints assembled at this place, and at half past 8 in the morning, after prayers singing in an address, they proceeded to break ground for the Lord's house.

the day was beautiful the spirit of lord was with us listen to this and excavation for this great edifice 110 feet long by 80 feet broad was nearly finished there was a non-member there on Latter-day saint and he said i couldn't believe it using scrapers and shovels and pickaxes in one day i mean they didn't have any backhoes or i mean but now i have to say the ground is very pliable. It's deep, rich soil, not rocks. It's 10, 12 feet deep, rich topsoil. But the point is they're going, this is a good thing. I think we're doing the right thing. Joseph doesn't condemn them at all or say anything. Now, he does come out real quickly for a short visit in November of 1837. He does say, maybe we ought to hold on this until we get a revelation on the

subject. That's this revelation. So he goes back, and by the time he gets back, this is when he almost turns around immediately and comes back to far west. That's going to be his permanent move. Yeah, he's no longer Kurtland's gone. He's not upset with it. I guess he was pleased with their ambition to have something there. This is the revelation confirming this is okay. In fact, he says, Therefore, I command you to build a house unto me. This is the formal injunction. So he says, we've got the general outline of the building. We've got to have some time, but let's next July 4th to have an actual formal construction beginning.

Now, unfortunately, we're going to have the problems that we'll encounter with the northern Missouri. And then he says, but labor diligently and see if we can finish that. Don't go in debt like we did in Curtland. but I'll show a pattern to you about this temple, but John Wycliffe Rigdon, son of Sini Rigdon, said that this building was to be patterned much like after the Kirtland Temple, with two auditoriums, upper hall, upper lower hall, so on. They were basically planning on an additional structure,

much like the Kirtland Temple. That probably gave them some real hope, but the interesting thing is these latter verses, and this is what's going to cause problems. Joseph is told, and the church, this is verse 17, and again, verily I send to you, it is my will that the city of Far West be built up speedily by the gathering of my saints, and then look at verse 18, and also at other places should be appointed for stakes in the regions round about, as they shall be manifest unto my servant Joseph from time to time. thinking big time here. We'll, far west will be the center place for a gathering, but there will be

other places. Now, that plays into the very next section, which is the revelation regarding Adam and I'm so glad you answered that question. Well, are we coming back or did we do something wrong? And so the Lord is saying, well, we're going to build up Zion someplace else, but I like the way you answered that. Look, you don't dedicate a temple site. and then undedicated, I guess. I'm just curious about the future of that place because there's nothing there. Right now, there's a community of Christ Church across the street. Yeah.

It's hilly and the buses get lost half the time. Yeah. If you're ever there with Alex, you'll tell you about the dedication of the memorial and how Joseph F. Smith looked like he had a bad burrito for breakfast. Yes, you remember that. He looks grumpy. It was August 3rd, 1968. They had a bunch of apostles there.

Yeah, he was not a happy boy. Can you tell us, Alex, at its height? What was the population of far west of members of the church at its peak there? It's hard to determine, and partially because we're only there a short time, relatively. They start coming in latter part of 36, get the county created, but then we are expect. My estimates are that we probably had between 5,000 to 6,000 Latter-day Saints gather to northern Missouri. How do I get that? Unfortunately, they're right in the middle of a census period.

There's no census during this period of time. But one thing I have to go by is what I call Mormon defenders. When the Latter-day Saints are going against these Missourians, are coming against them, we have about a thousand Mormon defender, 900 to 1,000 in far west and a couple of hundred in Adam and de Amman. The average Mormon household is about five people per adult male. A few times 1,000 by five, you've got 5,000, plus you have the saints up in Adamonday almond, probably about between five, maybe six, maybe at the high point seven thousand.

Now, that correlates with when we go over to Quincy, there's about 5,000 Mormons in Adams County when the survey is taken in 183940. We're going to move up. Quincy grows by about 5,000 people. Well, most of those are Latter-day Saints. Low end five, maybe high-end six to seven. But it's not 15,000 or 12,000 that every, now this is the whole county.

This is Ones Mill. This is Gaiman's horse mill. This is all over. But Adam on Dauman adds a little bit more to that. It doesn't sound like much today, but then, four to five thousand in a general area? That's a lot of people. Section 116 is the shortest section in the doctrine of comments, as we've mentioned. To understand that, we have to realize that Joseph is now in far west.

The leadership of the church is in far west. It's time to clear out Kirtland. Joseph is encouraging anyone who's not followed some of those apostates in Kirtland. Now we've got a place established, come to Missouri. Well, we have a problem, and that is that a lot of these saints coming from Ohio are poor. Well, in creating Davies County and Caldwell County, Caldwell County had been surveyed by the government. Since it was surveyed, you had to have the money up front to buy acreage. So it was a dollar and a quarter per acre. In Davies County, the government had not surveyed Davies County.

Anyone could go up to Davies County, stake a claim of up to 160 acres. You don't have to pay anything until the survey is taken place. This is why Joseph goes on an expedition in May. He's going to go up there and see what the possibilities are. And we have one rogue Latter-day Saint. Most people have heard his name, and that's Lyman White. He's going to be an apostle,

but he got the idea, I'm going to go up there. I like it up there. he actually purchases a preemption claim, meaning someone had already staked out the property, but if I guarantee that I will buy it from him, I'll get the property. That was none other than Adam Black. I won't go into that, but Adam Black is going to be a leading antagonist up there. Lyman White is up in Davies County. He moves up there in February of 1838, so he's the first Latter-day Saint.

But if Latter-day Saints are coming from Kirtland, Joseph's going to say, well, hey, if you don't have any money, go right up to Davies County. There you can settle. You can improve your farm, build structures, but then you can file a preemption claim, and then when that comes due, you'll need to pay. That was favorable for many people who didn't have any means to actually buy property in Caldwell County. The problem is there, there are some people up there who've already settled. In fact, that's one reason why there was a division between Davies and

Caldwell is because Donovan felt like he needed to create two counties, one exclusively for the Mormons, because there was some others up there that would not want to be attached to the Latter-day St. County. There are some people up there that did not want to be part of that. He created two counties to see that the bill would pass. But that doesn't mean it's a free country. You can go anywhere you want. Lyman White's one of the first ones to go up there and establish this small home and he operated a ferry on the Grand River. What does Joseph do? Well, the saints are going to come from the east and from Kirtland. We need to scout out and see if there's land up here that we can see as a possibility for occupation. So on the 19th of May, he heads up with a small party. This is where

he learns about this sacred place called Adam Ondayamon. To help us understand Adam on Diomon, we have to understand how this understanding of a place where Adam lived actually came about. That begins in 1831, Joseph Smith is doing a revision of the Bible, which we call the JST, and you've talked about that on your podcast many times. Moses 5 and 6 in the Pro Great Price corresponds with Genesis 4, and it talks about Adam and Eve and their posterity in the lone and dreary world, which surely took. took place at Adam-on-Diamondy. After they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they went to Adam-on-Diaman. I think it's important to mention that Brigham and Norse and Hyde and some others

mentioned that Jackson County was the place where the Garden of Eden was, and after their expulsion, Adam-on-Diamondi-A-Mond is where they lived. Moses 7, for example, is a record of Enoch and his people and his creation of the city of Enoch. Was the city of Enoch close to Adam-on-Diamon. Manda Amin? Well, we don't know. But we do know, based upon this revelation, that this is the place where Adam and Eve went to following the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Well, in 1835, Joseph Smith asked W. W. Phelps, I want you to come back to Kirtland. We need you to print the doctrine and covenants that didn't get printed in Jackson County in Independence, which was, again, the evening and the morning star.

trying to publish the Book of Commandments. We're going to try again. We need you back here for your printing expertise. Phelps takes his son Waterman. Don't you love that name? Waterman. Guess who he lives with? Well, none other than Joseph and Emmett

in that home that's now been rebuilt, reconstructed in 1835, that's where he would have lived with Joseph Smith. He's sitting there a couple of months into it, Lo and behold, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cadre Craft, what is today, Section 107 of the Docter and Covenants on priesthood and church government. What is mentioned in there? Section 107 is this outline of ancient priesthood government, the patriarchs, and all of this. It's a fantastic section on priesthood.

Then we read now in section 107, verse 53 through 57. One of you read that. 107, starting verse 53. Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Canaan, Mahalalal, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests with the residue of his posteri, who were righteous, into the valley of Adam Andai Amon,

and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. and the Lord administered comfort into Adam, and said unto him, I have set thee to be at the head, a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever. And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation,

and notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation. These things were all written in the book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time. Now, can you imagine there is no manuscript for this revelation. It's the actual printed document is all we have. Can you imagine Phelps coming home every night from the printing office and talking with Joseph and going, this is incredible, what is this Adam Andai Amit?

This is fantastic. He's so enamored by that. He creates a poem and puts it in the newspaper, the messenger and advocate, which was called at the time. he puts this poem and it's fantastic the world was once a garden place with all her glory's common and men did live a holy race and worship Jesus face to face at adam on diomed that's him number 49 in our hymnal i hope it's still there in the new one he's enamored by that and he's so enamored, he probably had to get permission from Emma to put it in the, her 1835-36 hymnal,

but he puts it in there, makes just a couple of minor changes. Well, what happens on May 19th, Joseph Smith of 1838? He goes up there. He's with George W. Robinson, who's keeping his scriptory book. And what does he say? The Lord revealed to him that the place, which is now called, Well, how does it read? Let's just read that section. Hank, it's really short. You could almost memorize it. Right. That makes a lot of sense, Alex. So this had been mentioned way back in 107. When you see this short section, you're going, well, where's the context? It's back there. Section 116, verse 1, only verse. Spring Hill is named by the Lord Adam on Diomen. Because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people

or the ancient of days shall sit as spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Okay. This gets people excited. The entry is written by George W. Robeson. I can only imagine that when Joseph went back and mentions to people, we found the place where we learned in section, it was their section three of the 1835 edition,

but our section 107, that we know where Adam lived. Boy, that gets people excited. There's two reasons now people can go up there or want to go up there. It's where Adam lived. It's land is temporarily we don't have to pay for it. It's pretty motivating. He mentions about the ancient of days. Now, we're going to go jump back to your Old Testament.

I don't know if you discussed this in Daniel chapter 7, but here's verses 9 through 10 and 13 through 14. Notice, again, the key phrase here is, who is the ancient of days? We clearly know from Joseph Smith for this revelation. It's Adam. Now, I think a lot of people, a lot of biblical scholars wonder who the ancient of days is.

Well, we know. The Latterty Saints know because of this revelation. But go ahead. Daniel 7.9, I beheld, till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times

ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set and the books were opened. John, do you want to take the other two? Thirteen fourteen. I saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom

that all people, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. You read that we understand who the ancient of days was was Adam. Who comes

and joins him but none of the than the Son of Man, meaning Son of Man of Holiness, Jesus Christ. This is the great council meeting, I guess you might say, at Adam on Diomen, before the Lord's final and last great appearing in the future. This was highly motivating to the Latter-day Saints to think, Missouri is a land of promise, and this is where the final events of this dispensation will take place. Elder McConkey has written a lot on this in his book,

millennial Messiah. He even says, what's 10,000 times 10,000? That's 100 million. This is maybe figurative, but a lot of people. When I tell my students, there's going to be a lot, they go, well, it's really 100 million. I said, well, it kind of be hard to fit, but you've got to remember who's going to be there. Well, mortals and spirit world people and resurrected beings, and the resurrected beings can hover. Like, I don't know. Balcony seating. Yeah, yeah.

It's descriptive, but at the same time, I think we have no idea how this is going to play out other than the fact that this will be a grand council in which the final keys are delivered back to Adam, who will deliver them to the son of man himself as part of that great final wrapping up scene of this earth's history. I wish we knew more about how that was to take place, but it got the Latter-day Saints excited, and I think we can understand that this was very important to them, and this was their hope and expectation. Coming up in Part 2.

They had 16 miles to go before they arrived at Far West, and they were the last company to leave, Kurt Land, they were stopped en route by a number of antagonists who ripped on a little bit. and tried to discourage them. It was really frightening to them, but they got to Hans Mill.