Hard Questions in Church History: A New Video Series to Enrich Your Faith In Joseph Smith and the Restoration

Book of Mormon Central has teamed up with Doctrine and Covenants Central to present a new video series on Church History and the Doctrine and Covenants. Dr. Lynne Wilson, one of Book of Mormon Central’s founders, has taught Institute for many years and wanted to reach members of the Church who have questions about the doctrine and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this new video series entitled “Hard Questions in Church History,” Lynne will dive deep and walk users through some of the trickier moments in Church History, as well as expounding on well-loved stories.

Each video lesson comes with a supplementary handout that you can use in your personal study. Each handout will be linked in the video description on YouTube, and you can also find the handouts on the Book of Mormon Central Archive here.

In 2013, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught that it is natural to have questions. Sometimes, members have questions on sensitive topics, or begin to experience doubts. Elder Uchtdorf encouraged us to “doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.”1

In this same spirit, Lynne Wilson seeks to bring viewers on a journey of questions, curiosity, and inquiry, while strengthening testimonies and bolstering faith. Seekers with questions are not alone. Joseph Smith had questions. Those questions drove him to ask of God and receive the First Vision. Questions prompted him to also receive dozens of treasured revelations now canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants. Lynne Wilson explains,

Joseph’s hard questions always were asked in a spirit of meekness, of humility, of faith, of hope, and also of charity. He had a forgiving heart, but when he asked God the hard questions, he learned over time, to make great sacrifices. He learned how to control his thoughts, how to make his will the Lord’s will, and how to put everything else at the feet of our Savior.

Lynne Wilson’s video series will help viewers appreciate and love to study the history of the Restoration. She says,

I want to go down into the history of the Church as if we were walking back into the 19th century. As an American religious historian, I feel that understanding the culture makes an enormous difference at having empathy to history, and understanding why and how God chose to work with the people of that generation.

I also feel very strongly that as we look at history, we need to realize that everyone’s questions are different, and what might be a hard question to me is not a hard question to you. I even thought of calling this session “answers to hard questions,” but then I realized that wouldn’t do any good. What I hope happens here, is that you might be motivated to address your hard questions. I feel my testimony grow, I feel the Spirit more, and I want to draw closer to my Savior, when I understand history. The deeper I dive, the more I love it.

To watch Lynne Wilson’s series on difficult questions in Church History, subscribe to Doctrine and Covenants Central, and click on the video links below.