Joseph Smith and Zion’s Camp - Disastrous or Inspirational? John Turner Pt. 15 | Ep. 2064
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 128 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are back again with Dr. John Turner in part 15 of the Joseph Smith Podcast, covering his new book “Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.” Join us as we explore the dramatic events of 1834 when Joseph Smith led Zion’s Camp, from Kirtland, Ohio to Clay County, Missouri. This episode dives deep into the historical and spiritual implications of Zion’s Camp –including Joseph Smith’s controversial prophecies, the hardships faced by the Saints as refugees, the question of prophetic failure, and the lasting theological impact on the Latter-day Saint movement.
Topics covered today include:
-The story of Zelph the White Lamanite
-Joseph Smith’s dog “Major”
-The thunderstorm that may have saved Zion’s Camp
-The tension between Governor Dunclan and Joseph Smith
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Please purchase the book here.
To support this series please donate here. One half of all donations will go to Dr. Turner for as long as he is participating in the series.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host, John DeLinn. It is September 12th, 2025, and today we are bringing to you part 15 of what I'm calling the Joseph Smith podcast or Mormon studies coverage of the history and life of Joseph Smith from a scholarly perspective. |
| 0:23.8 | For those who are following Mormon stories, you'll know that we are covering in-depth |
| 0:28.8 | chapter by chapter, the book Joseph Smith, The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet by |
| 0:34.6 | Professor John G. Turner. Today we are covering chapter 14 of the book, which is covering the period in Mormon history |
| 0:46.0 | known as Zion's camp, which is basically where Joseph Smith pulls together a rag-tag army |
| 0:52.1 | to go from Ohio down to Missouri to try and help and even rescue the Latter-day Saints who are experiencing significant persecution and mob violence in Missouri. |
| 1:05.8 | So that's what we are covering today. |
| 1:08.2 | And we're so grateful to have back on the show professor john turner hey john |
| 1:13.7 | welcome back thrilled to be back with you i was just thinking to myself 15 episodes is a lot um |
| 1:20.7 | i mean it's not 2 000 that you've done in your 20 years of Mormon stories. Congratulations again about that. |
| 1:29.3 | But I'm starting to think we need to devise some sort of certificate program for |
| 1:34.3 | listeners who make it all the way through my book this way, you know, that I should send |
| 1:41.8 | a certificate of completion or something like that |
| 1:44.6 | to recognize those who can endure to the end. |
| 1:49.6 | Yeah. |
| 1:50.4 | Well, I wasn't sure how the audience was going to take this sort of in-depth chapter-by-chapter dive, |
| 1:57.3 | especially because we've covered Joseph Smith so much on the podcast. |
| 2:00.1 | But the truth is, we're developing a loyal and very contented. |
| 2:05.5 | Is that a word? |
| 2:06.1 | Audience, people are really valuing what we're doing. |
| 2:08.9 | So, John, we can't thank you enough for your time. |
| 2:12.6 | Also, we want to thank our donors who make and made all this possible. |
... |
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