Misleading BYU students?

The recent video from the ironically named "Informed Saints" youtube channel suggests that professors at BYU are not educating their students about the facts regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon. Instead, they are misleading them to promote SITH (SITH = stone-in-the-hat theory)

The panel members in this video, like other SITH promoters, ignore the FAITH model and mingle their own assumptions, inferences and theories with actual facts so that it is difficult for people who are not fully aware of the facts to distinguish between the two categories.

My detailed response to the video will come out soon, but for now, here is an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAx1CVPlc0

At the outset, we noted that the American Historical Association Standards for Professional Conduct include these standards. 

Professional integrity in the practice of history requires awareness of one’s own biases and a readiness to follow sound method and analysis wherever they may lead. Historians should document their findings and be prepared to make available their sources, evidence, and data, including any documentation they develop through interviews. Historians should not misrepresent their sources. They should report their findings as accurately as possible and not omit evidence that runs counter to their own interpretation.

Listeners can watch this video and see this panel create and attack straw men while omitting evidence that counters their interpretations. 

They come across as perfectly comfortable with their approach, as though they talk the same way in other settings--including classes at BYU.

Here is Gerrit Dirkmaat relating what he teaches his students in his religion classes at BYU

28:48

I was just rereading for my class on the Book of Mormon I'm teaching this semester, the accounts from Emma Smith and Martin Harris and Emma's accounts 

28:58

especially are some of my favorites because to your point, she explicitly says, you know, my husband would put the 

29:04

stone in his hat and he would look at it and the words would appear and he would dictate hour after hour without any breaks or interruptions. 

Emma's "Last Testimony" is one of Gerrit's favorites, presumably because it confirms his SITH bias. 

We cannot tell from the video whether Gerrit explains to his students the credibility problems with the "Last Testimony" pursuant to the AHA standards, but seeing that this is one his "favorites," he surely relates the "Last Testimony" the same way he presented it in this video and in his books; i.e., as a completely credible account on its face.

Everyone who hears or reads Emma's "Last Testimony" should be aware of at least some of the relevant facts. Emma's son Joseph Smith III ("JS III") visited his mother in Nauvoo from February 4-10, 1879. This was 50 years after the translation took place. There is no known record of Emma relating these so-called details prior to this "Last Testimony."

JS III He recorded the questions and answers. JS III had prepared the questions in advance and avoided follow-up questions for more specificity, possibly in light of Emma's health. She died 10 weeks later on April 30, 1879 (age 74). The "Last Testimony" was published posthumously on Oct 1, 1879.  

In an 1886 article in the Saints' Herald reviewing the evidence about the translation, JS III did not even mention his mother's "Last Testimony." Instead, he relied on what Joseph and Oliver said all along. 

He also rejected the SITH statements from David Whitmer.

Consider this irony: while Joseph Smith III did not cite his own mother's "Last Testimony" as authoritative or even persuasive on how Joseph produced the Book of Mormon, modern SITH proponents such as Gerrit and the other panelists in this video cite the "Last Testimony" as conclusive evidence.

When Gerrit teaches his students about one of his "favorites," he does not have to explain the problems with the "Last Testimony." He does not have to do so when he does podcasts.

But no doubt his students and listeners trust him to do so. As do the professional standards of the AHA.

And we can all see that he does not do it.

For more problems with the "Last Testimony," see 

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/credibility-of-emma-smiths-last.html

Consider another irony. Among other problems with the "Last Testimony," it has Emma denying that Joseph practiced plural marriage. This generated considerable reaction in Utah at the time, with numerous people denouncing the "Last Testimony" as false, possibly not even Emma's actual statement, etc. Nevertheless, the "Last Testimony" is one of the ""favorites" among the polygamy deniers.

Most if not all LDS historians reject Emma's "Last Testimony" regarding plural marriage, but then SITH-promoting historians such as those on the panel in this video consider those parts of the "Last Testimony" as the gospel truth.

This intellectual schizophrenia is common among SITH scholars.

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Similar omissions of relevant facts are found throughout the video, which we will see next.

 

Cumorah confusion, Saints book errors, SITH

We live in fun times. 

I'm fine with people believing whatever they want, but people in positions of trust and responsibility have an obligation to be open, transparent, and accurate. They should separate facts from their assumptions, inferences, theories, and hypotheses (the FAITH model).

And they should pursue clarity, charity and understanding.

Instead, our SITH and M2C scholars continue to promote their theories by misleading their Latter-day Saint students and followers.

They keep repeating the same mantras as they seek to persuade Latter-day Saints to embrace their theories instead of what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught. 

Lazy learners simply accept what these scholars say. But Latter-day Saints who accept responsibility for their own decisions and education can see how SITH and M2C 

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Saints book. Latter-day Saints around the world rely on the Saints book as their primary, and basically only, source of information about Church history. But volume 1 is replete with misinformation. 

For the first of several suggestions for improvement on the Saints books, see my comments here:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2025/09/improving-saints-example-1.html

M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory). The Hill Cumorah dedication has generated considerable online comments. Here is an example of the confusion and ignorance produced by our M2C scholars:

(click to enlarge)

As exemplified in these Instagram comments, few current Latter-day Saints know what Joseph, Oliver and their contemporaries taught about Cumorah. Joseph Smith and his contemporaries had no confusion about the Hill Cumorah. Everyone knew it was a fact that the hill where he found the plates was the same hill referred to in the text as Cumorah/Ramah.

But, as Brigham Young feared, this knowledge has been lost to modern generations, thanks to the efforts of the M2C scholars who have repudiated what Joseph, Oliver, and their contemporaries and successors taught.

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SITH. People have sent me links to an audacious SITH-promoting video by the usual suspects, now on a channel ironically called "Informed Saints." I'll have more detailed commentary in a few days.

Your jaw will drop when you watch the way they manipulate the historical sources in the guise of "following the sources."

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAx1CVPlc0

The video includes bragging about teaching these things to BYU students who are defenseless against the onslaught of SITH and M2C.

In my opinion, this is shameful. People can believe whatever they want, but it would be more useful for BYU professors to teach facts and then let students make informed decisions instead of promoting their own theories by omitting facts that contradict their theories--facts such as what Joseph and Oliver explicitly taught.

Stay tuned.

Countdown to Cumorah - September 2025

Some readers here don't know about my blog on Cumorah on www.lettervii.com.

On that blog, we're doing a countdown to the rededication of the Hill Cumorah in New York on September 21st. 

Check it out.

A tribute to Charlie Kirk

I posted this here:

https://dailyjonathanedwards.blogspot.com/2025/09/charlie-kirk-and-other-saints.html

But I'm cross-posting it here.

For Charlie Kirk and everyone else who has been murdered, this is an excerpt from the funeral address for David Brainerd, by Jonathan Edwards:

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As if he had said, 

"This is not the time and place for that freedom, your love to me desires: that is appointed in heaven, after my ascension. I am going thither: and you that are my true disciples, shall, as my brethren and companions, soon be there with me in my glory. 

And then there shall be no restraint. 

That is the place appointed for the most perfect expressions of complacence and endearment, and full enjoyment of mutual love." 

And accordingly the souls of departed saints with Christ in heaven, shall have Christ as it were unbosomed unto them, manifesting those infinite riches of love towards them, that have been there from eternity: and they shall be enabled to express their love to him, in an infinitely better manner than ever they could while in the body. 

Thus they shall eat and drink abundantly, and swim in the ocean of love, and be eternally swallowed up in the infinitely bright, and infinitely mild and sweet beams of divine love; eternally receiving that light, eternally full of it, and eternally compassed round with it, and everlastingly reflecting it back again to the fountain of it.

http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4yNDoxNC53amVvLjY4MDQ4My42ODA0ODg=

End of M2C, blog purpose and Church History conference

The end of M2C is accelerating as more and more Latter-day Saints make informed decisions.

I'm fine with people believing whatever they want, but every scholar owes it to readers to provide all the relevant facts. That's why I urge people to use the FAITH model, which separates facts from assumptions, inferences, theories, and hypotheses.

The purpose of this blog parallels what Elon Musk is doing with Grok:

ELON MUSK: Grok uses massive inference compute to scan the corpus of human knowledge - books, PDFs, websites, detecting falsehoods, fixing half-truths, and adding missing context. “It’s like rewriting Wikipedia, but accurate.”

The scholars who promote M2C and SITH consistently omit important, relevant context, including fundamental historical records and extrinsic evidence. But their monopoly over LDS scholarship has eroded to the point where even ordinary Latter-day Saints like me can learn what they've tried to suppress for so long.

Basically, like many other Latter-day Saints, I believe Joseph and Oliver told the truth about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. Their teachings are explicit, unambiguous, and consistent. Plus their teachings are corroborated by extrinsic evidence.

Recently people have asked me to apply the FAITH model to more of the M2C/SITH narratives. Regular readers of this blog can do that for themselves because they have the information that most Latter-day Saints do not have.

One ongoing project is organizing the content of these blogs to make them more accessible. Details coming.

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The Church History Department sponsored an exceptional conference on Sept 5-6, 2025. The theme was  "I Am in Your Midst" Jesus Christ at the Center of Church History.

https://churchhistory.cventevents.com/event/2025conference/speakers

I commented on the conference here with some suggestions for improvement next time:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2025/09/church-history-conference-sept-2025.html

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An excellent summary by Jacob Hess was published in the Deseret News:

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2025/09/07/jesus-christ-at-the-center-of-church-history/

The byline: 

An exclusive focus on human struggle in the past misses the most important action taking place, say historians with the Church of Jesus Christ

I completely agree with that byline and the theme of the conference. I'm incorporating that theme into my presentations and publications going forward, and I hope everyone else does as well.

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Some classic memes

For new readers, M2C is the "Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs" theory that rejects what Joseph and Oliver taught about the New York Cumorah/Ramah.

E.g., see Letter VII, here: http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90

This is a collection of memes from the past.

 

M2C, SITH, and de-correlating Joseph and Oliver

The ongoing "de-correlation" of what Joseph and Oliver taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon continues to pose problems. 

A recent Wall St. Journal story titled "‘Exmo’ Influencers Mount a TikTok War Against the Mormon Church" claims that these influencers "question some of the Book of Mormon’s claims, pointing to a lack of archaeological evidence, dissect leaders’ efforts to modernize, and share snapshots of the happier lives they find outside the church." 

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ex-mormon-tiktok-creators-e9a5b00e?mod=hp_lead_pos9

While several issues are discussed in the article, the article and comments refer to SITH and M2C, which are the focus of this blog.  

Think how different the conversation would be if faithful LDS influencers supported and corroborated what Joseph and Oliver taught instead of refuting and arguing against what they taught.

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One useful response to the article is here:

https://x.com/TeeplesCY/status/1963294345206825202

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The article juxtaposed images of two well-known influencers, the exmo Alyssa Grenfell and the faithful Latter-day Saint Jasmine Rappleye.

Jasmine is awesome. She promotes positive messages and gives faithful explanations. 

Except that she, too, has repudiated what Joseph and Oliver taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

Let's start with SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative).

Jasmine used Anthony Sweat's illustration of the 1834 Mormonism Unvailed SITH narrative to refute what Joseph and Oliver taught about the translation.

Jasmine promoting SITH

She's far from alone. 

Sweat's illustration of Mormonism Unvailed dominates the presentations by leading LDS scholars who, like Jasmine, reject what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Somehow, they have rationalized that promoting Mormonism Unvailed is a good idea. They are enthusiastic and happy about it. 

But for many Latter-day Saints, it is cringy to see these scholars smiling as they promote Mormonism Unvailed while they de-correlate what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Background. When critics such as the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed claimed that (i) Joseph used a "peep stone" to produce the Book of Mormon without even referring to the plates, and that (ii) the Book of Mormon was fiction based on Solomon Spalding's book, Joseph and Oliver responded promptly, clearly, and specifically--in formal publications.

Their explanations were reiterated by their contemporaries and successors in Church leadership for decades. Their explanations are corroborated by extrinsic evidence.

But eventually certain RLDS and LDS scholars decided that Joseph and Oliver, either ignorantly or intentionally, misled everyone about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. For years, they have taught their theories to innumerable Latter-day Saint students, to the point that now, what Joseph and Oliver taught has vanished from Church curriculum, the Gospel Topics Essays, and the narratives promoted by even faithful social media influencers.

This opens the door for the exmo influencers and leaves Latter-day Saints confused.

Think how different the situation would be if instead every Latter-day Saint knew and believed what Joseph and Oliver taught and how they responded to the critics.

Origin of the Book of Mormon

Joseph and Oliver explicitly explained that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.

Some examples.

Joseph Smith: 

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the Book of Mormon?

Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the Book of Mormon   was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me and told me where they were and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the Book of Mormon.

Oliver Cowdery: 

He [Moroni] said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.

Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’

(Joseph Smith—History 1:71, Note, 1)

Modern scholars: 

Although Joseph and Oliver explicitly explained that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, they were wrong. Church members should not even know what they taught. Instead, Latter-day Saints should accept the scholarly theories.

Royal Skousen: 

"Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading."

Gospel Topics Essay:

- omits everything in JS-H, Note 1 after "heaven" to censor what Oliver said about the Urim and Thummim

- omits everything Joseph and Oliver taught about the Urim and Thummim and instead falsely claims that (i) "Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon" and (ii)"Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters." 

Anthony Sweat:

Illustrates the Mormonism Unvailed narrative which becomes ubiquitous.

Gerrit Dirkmaat:

Promotes SITH by publishing an imaginary narrative about the 1829 Jonathan Hadley article on the first page of this book.

Rough Stone Rolling. The book Rough Stone Rolling promotes SITH with selective edits and omissions of original sources, as discussed here:

https://www.mobom.org/rsr-review

There are many more examples of scholars promoting SITH in the pages of the Interpreter, the FAIRLDS website, Meridian Magazine, etc., as well as in some faithful and exmo podcasts and other social media influencers.

Despite the efforts of the critics and faithful scholars to de-correlate them, the teachings of Joseph and Oliver are also available for everyone to see.

One compilation is here: https://www.mobom.org/church-history-issues

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Setting of the Book of Mormon

The question of Book of Mormon historicity was raised in Mormonism Unvailed, which promoted the Solomon Spalding theory (that Joseph and Sidney Rigdon produced the Book of Mormon by adapting a novel by Spalding, which Joseph then read from behind a curtain or "vail.")

Oliver Cowdery explicitly refuted the Spalding theory when he explained it was a fact that the hill Cumorah in New York is the same hill Cumorah/Ramah mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Oliver explained that Moroni told Joseph the history was "written and deposited not far from" Joseph's home near Palmyra. Oliver also explained that the repository of Nephite records was in the same hill, but in a separate location from Moroni's stone box. 

Anyone can read this in the Joseph Smith Papers and other sources, such as these:

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90

https://www.mobom.org/cumorah-overview

We can all see that Joseph Smith learned the name of the hill directly from Moroni before he even got the plates, that he and his family referred to the hill by name before he translated the plates, that the messenger to whom Joseph gave the abridged plates before leaving Harmony went to Cumorah before bringing the plates of Nephi to Fayette, etc. 

This was all well-known during Joseph's lifetime, just like the Urim and Thummim narrative was.

But an RLDS scholar named L.E. Hills rejected the New York Cumorah and published a map in 1917 that became the basis for the Mesoamerican/Two-Cumorahs theory (M2C) that has been widely adopted by LDS scholars such as John Sorenson, Jack Welch, and Dan Peterson, which they have heavily promoted in their various publications.

These M2C scholars have successfully mainstreamed the narrative that Joseph and Oliver either ignorantly or deliberately misled everyone about the setting of the Book of Mormon, specifically the hill Cumorah/Ramah in New York.

Jasmine has heavily promoted M2C. Her followers are very familiar with her M2C beliefs.

Other prominent LDS scholars continue to promote the M2C narrative that Joseph and Oliver misled everyone about Cumorah.

The different approaches boil down to this:

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Think back to the Wall St. Journal article. 

Think how different the conversation would be if all the faithful LDS influencers supported and corroborated what Joseph and Oliver taught instead of refuting and arguing against what they taught.