Author: Chad Nielsen

For generations, English-speaking Latter-day Saints have relied almost exclusively on the King James Version of the Bible, often wrestling with its archaic language and 17th-century translation choices. But as the Church increasingly opens the door to modern Bible translations—highlighted by recent updates to the General Handbook in late 2025—how can members start exploring these resources…

For decades during her lifetime, Eliza R. Snow was known primarily as “Zion’s Poetess,” lifting the Saints through her private writings and hymns while remaining safely behind the scenes. But when Brigham Young called her to reorganize the Relief Society across Utah Territory in 1868, she was forced to step out of her comfort zone…

With a new, global hymnbook on the horizon, Latter-day Saints are currently buzzing about what will be added and what might be lost. We tend to view the current “green book” (1985) as the definitive standard of our musical worship, but in reality, the solemn, organ-centric sound we associate with Sacrament meeting is a relatively…

For millennia, the story of Abraham binding his son Isaac—known in the Jewish tradition as the Akedah—has stood as one of the most sublime and deeply troubling narratives in scripture. We often read Genesis 22 as the ultimate test of devotion, a story where blind obedience rightly triumphs over human ethics, but does this traditional…

In the turbulent aftermath of Joseph Smith’s death, the Saints were forced to choose sides, and history has largely been written by those who followed Brigham Young. But what about the men who didn’t? William Marks is perhaps the most significant “forgotten” figure in this drama. As President of the Nauvoo Stake, he held a…

To most Latter-day Saints, J. Golden Kimball is a folklore figure—the “swearing apostle” (who was actually a Seventy) whose colorful language and irreverent pulpit humor provide comic relief in a culture that often takes itself very seriously. But who was the man behind the myths? In a revealing new interview over at the Latter-day Saint…

The Salt Lake Temple is the supreme architectural icon of the Restoration, a stone fortress that took 40 years to complete. We know the dates (1853–1893) and the legends (buried foundations, granite hauled by oxen), but we rarely ask the human questions: Who actually cut the stone? How did they interpret Brigham Young’s visionary but…

When we think of the 19th-century gathering to Zion, our minds usually go straight to handcarts and covered wagons struggling across the plains. Yet, for the tens of thousands of European converts who heeded the call to gather, the “trail” was only the final leg of a much longer, more complex journey by rail and…

For many Latter-day Saints, the opening chapters of Genesis, with their creation accounts, are a battleground. We try to map the “days” of creation onto geological eras, reconcile a localized flood with global stratigraphy, or fit evolution into the rib of Adam. But what if we are asking the text to do something it was…

This Christmas Day marks exactly 100 years since the continent of South America was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel. Today, with millions of members and dozens of temples from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego, it is easy to view this growth as inevitable. But in 1925, when three General Authorities arrived in Buenos…

For many Latter-day Saints, the idea of using a “Study Bible”—often written by non-LDS scholars and using modern translations—can feel like stepping onto shaky ground. We love the King James Version; it’s the language of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and our temple liturgy. Yet, most of us have also experienced the “hypnotizing monotony”…

For generations of Latter-day Saints, the story of John Taylor’s pocket watch stopping a bullet at Carthage Jail has been a defining symbol of the Martyrdom, seemingly frozen in time at 5:16 p.m. However, for nearly as long as the watch has been displayed at the Church History Museum, questions have persisted: did a bullet…