Category: General Authorities
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Sally Chase and Joseph Smith
Sally Chase was a young woman living near the Smith family in New York, who served as a village “glass-looker” or seer using a green glass stone.
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Q&A: Joseph Smith’s “Sermon in the Grove”
Printed in History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 473-479. Meeting in the Grove, east of the Temple, June 16, 1844. President Joseph Smith read the 3rd chapter of Revelation, and took for his text 1st chapter, 6th verse—"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and…
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Obituary: Jeffrey R. Holland
Jeffrey R. Holland, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later its president, passed away on December 27, 2025, due to kidney disease.
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Dallin H. Oaks named the 18th President of LDS Church
Dallin H. Oaks, 93, who served since 2018 as the First Counselor of the First Presidency, has been named the 18th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He takes over for 17th President Russell M. Nelson who passed away at the age of 101. “I accept with humility the responsibility that…
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17th LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson, 101, Passes Away
Russell M. Nelson (9/9/1924-9/27/2025) passed away at his Salt Lake City home on Saturday night, September 27, 2025. He will be replaced by 93-year-old First Counselor of the First Presidency Dallin H. Oaks (born August 12, 1932), most likely at the October General Conference scheduled for this weekend. Nelson served as President of the Quorum…
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Q&A: John Taylor’s 1886 Revelation on Polygamy
On September 27, 1886, John Taylor received a revelation on the permanence of the doctrine of plural marriage. In 1933 the First Presidency denied its existence and called the “purported text” for it a “pretended revelation.” The LDS Church finally conceded its existence on June 14, 2025.
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3 Absolute Imperatives
NOTE: This article was published in the March/April 2025 Mormonism Researched newsletter, a free publication. To subscribe, please visit the registration site. Over the years, Latter-day Saint leaders have been very bold when it comes to some non-negotiable imperatives regarding the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The argument goes, and I…
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As Transparent as They Know How To Be
NOTE: This article was published in the January/February 2025 Mormonism Researched newsletter, a free publication. To subscribe, please visit the registration site. On November 19, 2017 apostles M. Russell Ballard and Dallin H. Oaks (later to become a member of the First Presidency) addressed an audience of young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of…
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The Presiding Patriarch Problem
In October 1979, Eldred G. Smith, the patriarch of the LDS Church, was summoned to the office of President Spencer W. Kimball in Salt Lake City. For more than three decades, Eldred Smith had served as a general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During his tenure, he gave “Patriarchal Blessings”…
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The Boast of Joseph
Joseph Smith has been portrayed by LDS Church leaders as a humble man. Yet was the Mormon founder as humble as he has been made out to be? Actually, Smith said that he has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world” than anyone. Let’s take a closer look at…
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Joseph Smith’s Most Famous Sermon: The King Follett Discourse
The King Follett Discourse is Joseph Smith’s most famous, well-recorded, and controversial sermon. It was the last General Conference talk Joseph gave before his death, and its teachings on the nature of God and man are among the most controversial things Joseph ever taught.
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Q&A: The King Follett Discourse
The sermon “is widely recognized as his single most important preaching event and perhaps the most important Mormon sermon of all time.”
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New York Times 1912 Exposé of the Book of Abraham
The New York Times produced this 1912 exposé based on the three facsimiles included with the Pearl of Great Price within the Book of Abraham.
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“A Look at the Newly Discovered Joseph Smith Manuscripts”
This 1980 issue of Ensign celebrates a manuscript that was later discovered to be a fraud.
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Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates
Note: The following was originally printed in the July/August 2024 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are told by church leaders that Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of their religion, had been given the ability by God to make reliable translations…
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Joseph Smith and His Top 10 Boastful/Arrogant Claims
Many of us struggle with pride. As the Bible teaches in Proverbs 16:18, “pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before the fall.” In my life I’ve learned that pride gets me into more trouble than any other sinful attribute ingrained in my sinful life. Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus…
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M. Russell Ballard (1928-2023)
M. Russell Ballard (1928-2023), a prominent leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served as an apostle and President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.