 However, he and his followers maintain that most, if not all, of these doctrines are truth given to them through divine revelation and/or inspiration, and do not contradict but rather amplify the teachings in the Bible.The earliest known doctrinal teachings by Joseph Smith were in the context of a probationary Methodist class he took in his adolescence, where he was described by one of his associates as a "very passable exhorter".His interpretations of scripture were sometimes considered "blasphemous", and eventually he withdrew from the class after announcing that "all sectarianism was fallacious, and all churches [were] on a false foundation".