Why We Believe

Nathan Gwilliam
  • 5.0 (60)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Why do we believe? What inspires faith, testimony, and conversion in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Dive into the personal conversion stories behind faithful members of the church. Join Nathan Gwilliam, host and life-long member of the church, as he sits down with guests with unique backgrounds and perspectives to discuss the deeply personal and spiritual journeys that led them to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ and why they believe. Through one-on-one interviews, hear firsthand accounts of the life-changing conversion stories and events that ignited and solidified these members' beliefs and personal testimonies. Gain powerful insights into the many unique paths that lead to faith and discover what continues to feed their dedication year after year. Join us each week for inspiring stories from faithful Latter-Day Saints and discuss Why We Believe.

  1. 2d ago

    Bestselling Author Patrick Mason Shares the True Miracle of Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt

    Patrick Mason has spent his career inside the hardest questions of Latter-day Saint history, the ones that shake other people's faith. He holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, and he wrote the book many bishops, stake presidents, and parents now hand to members walking through doubt. But this episode is not really about his scholarship. It is about a woman at a fireside who looked him in the eyes and asked where she could go to read more, and about the years afterward when his own wife, a convert with none of his cultural baggage, kept teaching him what the gospel of Jesus Christ actually is. In this episode of Why We Believe, Patrick shares the prayer in the MTC that became the foundation of his testimony of Jesus Christ, the fireside moment that moved him to write Planted, and what teaching devout Muslim students in Cairo and worshipping with four elderly sisters in a tiny Romanian branch taught him about the gospel and the culture that surrounds it. He talks about the mission companionship he almost let unravel, the lesson in burying weapons of war, and why he believes the Church and the family are the two schools God gives us to learn how to love. Patrick's witness is simple. Faith is a gift from God, and he has spent his life trying to honor it. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to know the difference between the gospel and the culture that surrounds it. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Website: https://podup.com/ Podcasts: Why We Believe: https://whywebelieve.com/ Podcasting Secrets: https://podcastingsecrets.com/ Follow Patrick Mason: X: https://x.com/patrickqmason Faculty Profile: https://artsci.usu.edu/history-cultures-ideas/history/directory/patrick-mason Podcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proclaimpeace/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4O3fIHHqow2YfjWFbgs4Ar

  2. 5d ago

    A Prodigal Son Who Wandered 20 Years & Found The Savior Waiting for Him (with Jeremiah Cronin)

    Jeremiah Cronin was born in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served a two-year mission in Monterrey, Mexico, and came home with a testimony he had earned on his knees. Then he drifted. One skipped prayer, one closed scripture at a time, until a slow wandering became nearly twenty years away from the Church and from Jesus Christ. An Army National Guard veteran, photographer, and father of five, Jeremiah lived through excommunication, addiction, and the end of two marriages before he found his way home. In this episode of Why We Believe with host Nathan Gwilliam, Jeremiah shares the moment on his mission he nearly threw his bicycle in a canal and quit, the morning after his excommunication when he woke to the sound of his father weeping and understood how his Heavenly Father must feel, and the night he stood in a dark temple parking lot and heard the Spirit promise him a sealing years before he was worthy of it. He shares the wife whose response to his relapse left him speechless, the letter from the First Presidency that restored his priesthood, and the sealing that proved nothing in his old life could compare. His witness is simple. No one is ever too far gone, and the Savior is in relentless pursuit of every soul who wanders. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to know they are never too far gone to come home. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Website: https://www.podup.com/

  3. Jul 21

    Bestselling Author Sian Ann Bessey Shares Her Story of Faith God Has Written

    Sian Ann Bessey has written around 40 books. She is a USA Today bestselling author and a Whitney Award finalist whose novels carry her native Wales onto the page. But the book she trusts most is one she did not write. As a working novelist, she knows what it takes to build a story, and she is certain Joseph Smith could not have built the Book of Mormon without God. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Sian to trace a faith forged in the minority, as one of two members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a school of 1,500. She shares the neighbor her mother invited for tea, the coal miners who sang in the dark, and why she reads the Book of Mormon as its own witness of Jesus Christ. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the faith that stands alone can stand through anything. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Sian Ann Bessey: Website: https://www.sianannbessey.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sianannbessey/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sian_bessey/

  4. Jul 16

    Michelle Kaufusi: Mother of 2 NFL Sons Shares Play-by-Play Recap of Her Faith

    On an early morning run, with her heart praying the way it always did, Michelle Kaufusi heard a voice tell her she would be the mayor of Provo and that she would not do it alone. No woman had held that seat in the city's 166-year history. She had been raised by a single mother as what felt like the only divorced family in the whole county, working as a young girl to help put money on the table. The faith that carried her into that office was not handed to her. She built it herself, one hard question at a time, on the rock of her Redeemer. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Michelle to trace the faith behind a lifetime of unlikely callings. She remembers the young women's leaders who kept showing up for a free-spirited twelve-year-old until the Spirit could do its work. She describes the year she spent wearing out a young bishop with hard questions before she felt ready to enter the temple. She explains why she still closes even her public speeches with a testimony, why she told an agent her sons would not leave BYU without a degree, and how the steady faith of her husband holds her when the criticism comes. Through all of it, Michelle keeps pointing back to the same source: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that nothing can move. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that a faith built on the rock of our Redeemer cannot be moved, no matter how hard the storms beat against it. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ.   Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Michelle Kaufusi: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayorkaufusi/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayorkaufusi/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/M_Kaufusi

  5. Jul 13

    This Broadway Tenor Chose the Prophet Joseph Over Phantom of the Opera (with Dallyn Vail Bayles)

    Dallyn Vail Bayles has one of the most recognized tenor voices in Latter-day Saint music. He has sung the Phantom on a national tour of Phantom of the Opera, led Les Mis as Enjolras, made his Carnegie Hall debut, performed at the Kennedy Center, and stood beside the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Then a call came from New York offering him the Phantom tour again, right as rehearsals began for a small pageant in Nauvoo, Illinois. Any performer would take the tour. Dallyn turned it down to play the Prophet Joseph Smith instead. It was the kind of choice that could quietly end a career, and it is one he has made more than once. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Dallyn to trace the faith behind those choices. Dallyn shares the counsel of an apostle who told him on a film set that he did not have the talent to portray the Restoration, that none of us do, and that he would need to rely on the Lord. He describes leaving Broadway to move his family back to Utah and teach seminary, a sacrifice that opened the door to the most sacred work of his life. He talks about the strength he draws from his wife Rachel and the sealing that binds them, and he closes with the reason he keeps choosing the Savior: to whom shall I go? Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that giving your best gifts back to God is never a loss. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Dallyn Vail Bayles: Website: https://www.dvbayles.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallynvailbayles/

  6. Jul 10

    The 'Unshaken': What to Do When Your Faith is Shaken (with Jared Halverson)

    Jared Halverson spent his doctoral years at Vanderbilt reading the sharpest attacks ever aimed at religious belief, and he walked out with a stronger testimony than he carried in. Today he teaches ancient scripture at BYU and leads Unshaken, a ministry reaching people in faith crisis worldwide. But the test that mattered most was waiting inside his own home. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Jared to trace where that conviction was forged. Jared shares the one attribute of God his father-in-law prizes above all others, the answer he gave his wife when she apologized for her illness, and the pandemic that turned his classroom into a worldwide ministry. Through it all, one anchor holds. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the hardest trials can be God's quiet vote of confidence. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Jared Halverson: Website: https://www.unshaken.org/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/unshaken Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unshakensaints/

  7. Jul 6

    Faith and Reason Are Not Enemies. This Scholar Spent His Life Proving It. (with Casey Griffiths)

    Casey Griffiths has spent his career helping thousands of students face the hardest questions in church history without losing their faith. He is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, has published dozens of books and articles on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, co-hosts the Church History Matters podcast, and even holds a Guinness World Record. For fourteen years he lived inside the papers of a forgotten Apostle named Joseph F. Merrill, a physics professor who, Casey says, believed science and faith were two sides of the same coin. Casey came away convinced that faith and reason were never meant to be enemies, and that the people who lose their testimony over church history are usually the ones who know too little of it. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Casey to trace the faith behind a lifetime of study. Casey shares the story of Joseph F. Merrill, who knelt as an eight-year-old boy to ask if the Church was true, heard nothing, and kept asking every night for ten years until the answer finally came the night before he left home. He explains why a cardboard version of perfect prophets does more harm than the real, flawed history ever could, and why he came to relate to the Apostle Peter more than he expected. He walks through the imperfect Saints who became his stepping stones to Christ. And when Nathan asks him why he believes, Casey does not reach for evidence or theology. He says the gospel of Jesus Christ makes him a better person, and that is reason enough. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that deep faith and honest questions can live together. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Casey Griffiths: Website: https://religion.byu.edu/directory/casey-griffiths

  8. Jul 3

    The Sacred Records That Deepened This Church Historian's Faith (with Keith Erekson)

    For seven years, Keith Erekson directed the Church History Library, the official archive of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and home to more than 20 million records. He holds a doctorate in history, spent years as a tenured professor in Texas, and wrote the go-to book for members who want to engage their own history honestly. Once people learned what he did for a living, they kept asking him the same thing: did anything in those archives ever shake your faith? The question confused him at first. Nobody had asked it when he taught secular history. The answer he landed on surprised even him, and it had nothing to do with facts. In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Keith to trace a testimony that grew long before he ever set foot in an archive. Keith shares the priesthood blessing that healed him as a sick boy in Baltimore, the witness that came at twelve when his family finished the Book of Mormon, and a woman in Brazil whose dream taught her the plan of salvation before the missionaries said a word. He explains why prophets point people to Christ and never to themselves, and he describes the morning a letter from Joseph Smith passed into his hands and filled an archive room with the Spirit. Church history, Keith says, did not give him his testimony, so he cannot see how it could ever take one away. Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who wonders if hard questions about Church history have to cost them their faith. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere! Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ. Follow the Why We Believe Show: Website: https://www.whywebelieve.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeBelieveShow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6T9DjmWBXJZPFyIFXUCdhm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-believe/id1751537256 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/why-we-believe-show/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whywebelievepodcast/ Follow Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathangwilliam/ Follow Keith Erekson: Website: https://www.keitherekson.com/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/KeithAErekson

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About

Why do we believe? What inspires faith, testimony, and conversion in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Dive into the personal conversion stories behind faithful members of the church. Join Nathan Gwilliam, host and life-long member of the church, as he sits down with guests with unique backgrounds and perspectives to discuss the deeply personal and spiritual journeys that led them to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ and why they believe. Through one-on-one interviews, hear firsthand accounts of the life-changing conversion stories and events that ignited and solidified these members' beliefs and personal testimonies. Gain powerful insights into the many unique paths that lead to faith and discover what continues to feed their dedication year after year. Join us each week for inspiring stories from faithful Latter-Day Saints and discuss Why We Believe.

Information

  • Creator
    Nathan Gwilliam
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    92
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2024 Why We Believe. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Why We Believe