Stay ConnectedGet help answering some of life’s most challenging questions with Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones. This Scripture Central original series offers practical insights and ways to navigate life’s challenges and heaviest questions through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The show covers various topics, from life skills, personal development, Church history/culture, service, and personal relationships, all through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Temple changes don’t just appear overnight. They are often preceded by thoughtful conversations in leadership councils where perspectives are shared and revelation is sought.
In this episode of Let’s Get Real, former Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham offers a rare glimpse into those councils, including discussions that helped refine temple language to reduce misunderstandings and better reflect gospel truths.
She also shares what it was like to work with apostles and prophets, and how revelation unfolds through careful deliberation, unity, and spiritual insight.
The conversation explores how Church leaders, including President Dallin H. Oaks, have emphasized the value of women and helped deepen understanding of priesthood power in the lives of all covenant keepers.
This episode offers a thoughtful look at how the Lord leads His Church, how sacred decisions are made, and why the voices and contributions of women matter.
Which chapter of scripture includes a vision of God, an attempted human sacrifice, and a phrase many believe justified a racial priesthood ban?
And have we been reading it wrong?
When Abraham 1 describes Pharaoh as “cursed as pertaining to the priesthood,” what did that actually mean? Was it about race? Was it restriction? Or have later generations read their own assumptions back into the text?
Latter-day Saint historian, Don Bradley, explores how Abraham 1 reshapes our understanding of Abraham’s story, why he was nearly sacrificed, and what Joseph Smith may have understood about Pharaoh’s “curse” that radically challenges modern interpretations.
What if the passage that has caused so much confusion and pain was never saying what we thought it was?
The prophet Brigham Young did not become controversial because he was simple. He became controversial because we stopped allowing complex people from the past to be understood as human beings.
In this conversation, Dr. Dan Peterson, noted Latter-day Saint scholar and historian, helps us follow one question from beginning to end: What do we lose morally, culturally, and spiritually when we replace understanding with judgment?
Brigham Young is often reduced to labels. Authoritarian. Racist. The “fall guy.” A symbol to argue over. But history is rarely that tidy. As the discussion unfolds, Brigham shifts from being a lightning rod in modern debates to a real human life shaped by faith, pressure, frontier leadership, blind spots, loyalty to Joseph Smith, and deep devotion to building Zion.
But this conversation is not only about Brigham Young. It is about us. About how we judge. About how we interpret the past, and what's lost when we're quicker to judge than to understand.
What if the Bible’s most dangerous distortions don’t come from bad intentions, but from skipping its preface?
Many people experience faith as exhausting. Commandments feel heavy. Scripture feels fragmented. And belief slowly collapses into rules.
This conversation challenges a core assumption: that the Bible explains itself from page one.
Without a restored frame of identity—without knowing who you are before being told what to do—the Bible can be misunderstood, misused, and even weaponized.
This episode reframes the Old Testament through a single, often-overlooked key that changes how scripture reads, how God is understood, and why faith so often turns into burnout.
If you’ve ever felt tension between obedience and relationship, this conversation may change how you read everything that comes next.
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What if the reason you’re not seeing miracles is that your goals don’t require them?
Blake Erickson details a counterintuitive principle taught in the restored gospel: God gets involved when your goals are bigger than what you can accomplish on your own.
From missions and business to family, faith, and personal growth, Blake shares why “realistic” goals often keep us spiritually stagnant and how setting goals that force dependence on God changes everything.
This isn’t about hustle. It’s not prosperity theology. And it’s not passive faith.
It’s about aligning ambition with belief, letting go of control, and discovering why miracles tend to show up only after faith is stretched.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, if you’ve wondered why effort alone isn’t enough, or if you’re trying to live your faith as a Latter-day Saint in a demanding world, this conversation will challenge how you think about goals, faith, and what it really means to “let God in.”
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Every day, millions of people around the world are turning to FamilySearch, not because of marketing or trends, but because of something much deeper happening beneath the surface: a global movement of identity, belonging, and human connection.
In this conversation with Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, former Executive Director of the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we explore why 98 percent of the people who use FamilySearch are not Latter-day Saints, yet are contributing to one of the most ambitious projects in human history: building the family tree of humanity.
This is not just a story about genealogy. It is a story about roots, memory, resilience, and what unfolds when technology, spirituality, and human longing intersect.
Inside this episode, you will learn:
• Why hundreds of millions use FamilySearch every year
• How global archives, AI tools, and more than 130 years of record gathering fuel the world’s largest family history database
• The emotional science behind family narratives and resilience
• How wars, disasters, and endangered archives have created urgent preservation efforts
• Why nonreligious users are powering a movement with profound spiritual implications
• What “gathering Israel” looks like in the digital age
• How African oral genealogies, Ukrainian archives, and worldwide records are reshaping family identity
This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered:
“Where do I come from?”
“Who do I belong to?”
“And why does family history matter now more than ever?”
Whether you are religious or not, whether you have used FamilySearch or are hearing about it for the first time, this conversation looks at what it means to be human and why the world is suddenly flocking to discover its story.
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Have you ever wondered how the early Saints understood the temple?
Or what the Kirtland Temple dedication can teach us about Christ today?
In this conversation, Don Bradley walks through some simple but powerful connections between the temple, scripture, and the Savior. He also shares openly about his time away from the Church, his involvement in the "ex-Mormon" community, and the experiences that led him back to faith.
This episode isn’t dramatic or sensational — it’s just thoughtful, clear, and centered on Christ.
I’m grateful for Don’s honesty and the insights he brought to this discussion.
Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants is one of the most talked about and debated revelations in scripture. Some people say it just doesn’t sound like Joseph Smith, which has left a lot of questions about who actually wrote it.
Dr. Paul Fields, an expert in stylometry — the statistical study of writing style — joins Stephen Jones to take the emotion out of the debate and look at the evidence. Using data, history, and faith, he puts this revelation to the test to find out who really wrote Section 132.
What he discovered might not just answer a question about authorship. It might change the way we think about revelation itself.
Knowhy:
https://scripturecentral.org/knowhy/what-does-the-science-of-stylometry-indicate-about-the-authorship-of-doctrine-and-covenants-132
It blew our minds when we found out this connection President Oaks has to church history.
Don Bradley—a Latter-day Saint historian who once left the Church and became an atheist, then found his way back—joins us to talk about some mind-blowing connections between Martin Harris and President Dallin H. Oaks.
Don walks us through hidden pieces of Church history that show how God’s hand was moving in more people than just Joseph Smith. We talk about Martin Harris’s early revelations before the Church was even organized, the meaning behind the Feast of Tabernacles, and how those same patterns show up again with President Oaks.
It’s one of those conversations that makes you realize the Restoration isn’t just a story from the past.
It’s still unfolding today.
What’s it really like to sit across from a living prophet and give him feedback on his words?
In this episode of Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones, Sister Reyna I. Aburto, former Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, opens up about her deeply personal experiences with President Russell M. Nelson—moments that changed how she sees revelation, leadership, and discipleship forever.
She shares what it felt like the day President Nelson unexpectedly invited her and the other sisters of the presidency into his office to read and critique his upcoming talk—“Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel.” From his humility and love to the way he truly listened, Sister Aburto saw firsthand how revelation unfolds at the highest levels of the Church.
She also reflects on her gratitude for President Dallin H. Oaks, the tenderness behind his often “stern” demeanor, and her confidence that the Lord continues to guide His Church through inspired servants.
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