FIFTH SUNDAY BONUS: A Table in the Wilderness 9 Jun 2024 1:47 PM (10 months ago)

July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah (where I live) because it is the day that President Brigham Young's pioneer wagon entered the Salt Lake Valley. If you have an upcoming 5th Sunday, you may want to share this with your ward or branch, or with your family for a family home evening, wherever you may live. Understanding the intricacies of the migration of the body of the Church to Salt Lake City is a huge testimony-builder with many working parts that were far beyond coincidental.

Welcome! 2 Apr 2024 12:48 PM (last year)

I highly recommend you use a tablet or a computer to fully utilize this blog, if you have the option. There is an excellent search engine available on the sidebar, so you can search for any scripture story or church history figure, as well as other helpful links and pages. You can also leave comments and questions on those devices. These options are not available on the simplified phone app. 

Use the links at the top of the page to find the appropriate lessons for Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Old Testament, and New Testament, or use the search bar on the side. All four years are available, although the dates may not be current. Also, things may appear differently if you are using a phone, but the options should still be there.

By the way, if you are using a device that allows you to post a comment, please tell me where you teach. In the past, I've had comments from Afghanistan to Brazil to England to the Philippines and it's so fun to feel our world knit together in the love of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Book of Mormon Lessons 2 Apr 2024 12:37 PM (last year)

 Introduction to the Book of Mormon

 1 Nephi 1-7  

 1 Nephi 8-10 

1 Nephi 11-15 

 1 Nephi 16-22 

 2 Nephi 1-5 

 2 Nephi 6-10 

2 Nephi 11-25 

 2 Nephi 26-30 

 2 Nephi 31-33 


 Mosiah 25-28 

 Mosiah 29-Alma 4 

Alma 5-7 

 Alma 30-31 

 Alma 32-35 

 Alma 36-38 

 Alma 39-42 

 Alma 43-52  

 Alma 53-63 

 Helaman 1-6 

 Helaman 7-12 

 Helaman 13-16 

 3 Nephi 1-7 

 3 Nephi 8-11 

 3 Nephi 12-16 

New Testament Lessons 26 Dec 2022 7:26 AM (2 years ago)

Artwork by Matthew Larson, Logan, Utah

Copyrighted, used with permission

Please feel free to leave a comment as you use my lessons: I love feedback! And I love to hear in which part of the world you are teaching. (Commenting is available on tablets and computers where the website is complete. On phones it is a reduction.)

 Overview of the Gospels

 Luke 1, Matthew 1

 Luke 2, Matthew 2

Quick Links 15 Apr 2022 7:35 PM (2 years ago)

 

Teaching Tip An easy and "safe" way to have scriptures read aloud by class members

Exodus 18-20: Chainbreakers 15 Apr 2022 6:39 AM (2 years ago)

The story of the exodus, wanderings, and settlement of the children of Israel into the Promised Land is a lesson about "chainbreakers."  (Teaching Tip: Have the front of the room decorated with gray or black paper chains.)  In Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 14:18; and Deuteronomy 5:9 the Lord says that He answers the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.  The children of Israel were an exception to this rule.  They changed from idolatrous slavery to faithful freedom in only one generation.  They were what we call "chainbreakers."

DRAGGING CHAINS

The children of Israel were freed from bondage by the Lord through Moses and Aaron, but that first generation of free men carried their slavery with them through the wilderness.  They dragged heavy spiritual chains:  fear and criticism and ingratitude.  After 400 years of slavery, they were so used to having their lives dictated to them, and being physically taken care of by their masters that freedom was very frightening.

EPISODES OF FEAR, CRITICISM, AND INGRATITUDE EXPERIENCED BY THE FIRST GENERATION OF THE FREED ISRAELITES DURING THE EXODUS

(Teaching Tip:  Hand out the scriptures quoted in each event to class members at the beginning of class.  As a teacher, read aloud the first part of each of the following events, ask the class member to read the Israelites' statement at the appropriate time, then read the last part.)

At The Red Sea.  The armies of Egypt were in hot pursuit.  The Israelites were backed up against the Red Sea.
"Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?  Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?  For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness"  (Exo. 14:11-12). 
The Lord parted the sea for them, and brought it down upon the Egyptians, completely destroying their army.

At Marah.  After three days of no water, they found poisoned water at Marah. 
"And the people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?" (Exo. 15:24)
The Lord instructed Moses to cast a particular tree into the water, which purified it.  Then, at their next stop, they found an oasis of 70 palm trees and 12 wells of water.

In the Wilderness of Sin.  The Israelites were starving.
"Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Exo. 16:3).
The Lord sent manna from heaven, which was some type of grain that they could grind into flour and cook in a variety of ways.  He also sent quail.  His commandment was that they honor the Sabbath by not gathering on that day, but some went out anyway on the Sabbath, and found nothing.

At Rephidim.  Once again, they were without water.
"Give us water to drink.  Where is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" (Exo. 17:2-3)
They were almost to the point of stoning Moses.  The Lord had Moses smite the rock in Horeb (the site of the temple mountain, Sinai) and a spring flowed from it.

At Mt. Sinai.  The Israelites became afraid when Moses went into the mountain for his 40 days' instruction of the Lord in their behalf.
The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, 'Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him" (Exo. 32:1).
They did not have the faith to believe in a God they could not see, once they thought Moses was dead, so they asked for an idol as reassurance.  The Lord withheld from them the greater law which he had given to Moses, and Moses asked, "Who is on the Lord's side?"  The Levites responded in the positive, and they then put to death 3,000 men who were rebellious.  Then Moses went back up into the mountain to offer an atonement for their sin.  There is no mention that the children of Israel asked forgiveness--just mention that Moses asked it in their behalf.

At Taberah.  The people complained.  (No explanation of why or what about.)  The Lord sent fire among them and burned a number of the camp.

At Kilbroth:  The children of Israel craved meat and vegetables.
"Who shall give us flesh to eat?  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick; But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes" (Num. 11:4-6).
Moses petitioned the Lord because his burden of carrying the people was so heavy.  The Lord told him to set apart 70 more priesthood holders to help him.  As for the Israelites' complaint, he sent quail down among them, enough, he told them, to eat for a month.  All night long and all day long, the Israelites greedily gathered the quail (even though the Lord had said He would send it for a month).  The quail became diseased and the people who ate it suffered a swift and deadly illness.

At Hazeroth.  Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he married a Cushite.  They claimed to be of equal authority to him, and therefore able to condemn him.
"Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?  Hath he not spoken also by us?"  And the Lord heard it (Num. 12:2).
The Lord sent leprosy upon Miriam and required her to be quarantined outside the camp for seven days, at which time He healed her.

At the Borders of Canaan.  After the scouts returned from testing out the land for 40 days, ten of them falsely reported that the inhabitants were too great to conquer and that the land was barren, both of these statements in direct opposition to what the Lord had consistently said regarding the Land of Canaan, and despite their finding a cluster of grapes so huge it had to be carried on a rod between two men.  Two faithful scouts gave a positive report, but the Israelites chose to believe the ten.
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or would God we had died in the wilderness!  And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey?  Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?"  And they said one to another, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt" (Num. 13:31-14:4).
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, "an act of contrition and entreaty [to the Lord], in hopes of avoiding terrible consequences" (Harper-Collins Study Bible). When Caleb and Joshua, the two positive scouts, tried to convince them that they could easily conquer and that the land was wonderful, they started to stone them.  Only the appearance of the glory of the Lord at the Tabernacle stopped them.  The Lord told Moses that this generation would have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and that none of them but Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to enter the Promised Land.  (See "The Importance of the Number 40 in the Bible.")  Their little children would survive the wilderness, despite their parents' fears, and be allowed entry into the land.  All the men 20 years and older were killed by the Lord in a plague, including the ten scouts who slandered the Promised Land.

At the Mountain of the Canaanites.  The Israelites said they were repentant and that they would now go and conquer the Canaanites.  All the soldiers must have been of the younger generation, since all men over 20 had been killed by the plague, although who knows how much time had lapsed between the two events.  Moses condemned them and counseled them not to go to war because the Lord would not back them.  They ignored his command, and were badly beaten.

At the Uprising of Korah and Company.  Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and 250 Levite princes defied Moses' authority.
"They gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: Where then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?  Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?  Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards" (Num. 16:3, 13-14).
Moses fell on his face.  He suggested that the Lord might show Moses' authority by swallowing them up with an earthquake.  An earthquake occurred immediately, and the three men and their kin were crushed in the crevice.  Then fire from the Lord burned the other 250 to death.

After the Earthquake.  The people accused Moses and Aaron of murder.
"Ye have killed the people of the Lord" (Num. 16:41).
The Lord told Moses He would consume them all.  Moses and Aaron fell to their faces.  Moses made Aaron run and take a censer from the tabernacle and hold it up as an atonement for the people's sins.  A plague had already begun.  Where he stood amid the congregation, the plague stopped, but 14,700 people were killed already.

At the Desert of Zin.  Once again, there was no water.  Miriam died and was buried there.  (She was well over 100 by this time.)
"Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!  And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?  And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place?  It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink" (Num. 20:3-5).
Moses and Aaron once more fell on their faces.  The Lord had Moses call water out of a rock again.  Moses by this time was probably very annoyed by the people's lack of trust in his authority, and understandably so.  This once he failed to give the credit to the Lord, and the Lord said that therefore Moses and Aaron would be denied entrance into the Land of Canaan.  This is a message:  No matter how great you are, nothing you do on your own authority will suffice.  You can only enter the Promised Land on the merits of Christ.

On the Journey Around Edom.  At this point, we see a change begin to take place.  Many of the original slaves were dead, if not by old age, then by the curses of the Lord.  King Arad, the Canaanite, came against Israel and fought them and took prisoners.  Rather than fearing to fight the Canaanites, or fighting them on their own, this generation covenanted with the Lord that they would utterly destroy the Canaanites as He had commanded their parents to do, if He would help.  And they did it.  After destroying the Canaanites at Hormah, they journeyed around Edom, a very difficult path.  They became discouraged and once again complained.
"Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread?" (Num. 21:5)
They complained against God and Moses, just as they had learned to do from their parents.  The Lord sent poisonous serpents to bite them and many died.  But this generation acknowledged their guilt, and came to Moses and confessed, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee."  They asked Moses to ask the Lord to take away the serpents.  The Lord told Moses to put up a serpent, as an effigy of Christ.  Rather than healing them as a group through an act of their priesthood leader, as He had done after the earthquake, this time the Lord required an individual act of faith in the atonement of Christ.  Each person had to have the faith to look upon the serpent to be healed.  Therefore, the Lord was able to select all those who exercised faith in Christ to remain alive to enter the Promised Land.

At Beer.  Now when they needed water, there is no mention that they complained of the thirst, or begged to go back to Egypt, or cursed Moses.  The Lord saw their need and freely gave water to them.  The Israelites sang in gratitude and rejoicing for the water they fully expected to receive.  The "nobles" among them dug the well themselves, following the instructions of Moses.  From this point on, the strength of the Lord was with them, and they conquered everywhere they went, until they achieved residence in the Promised Land.

THE CENSUS

When the Israelites left Egypt, there were 600,000 men, or heads of households.  After the lack of faith displayed by the Israelites repeatedly, the Lord said that those unfaithful people would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.  So they had to wander through the wilderness, while all of them were tried and tested, and a whole generation of them died, and many more as well, before the promise of the Lord was realized.  This was a pretty hard way of separating the sheep from the goats, but it was necessary.  40 years later, as the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, the census count revealed almost no generational growth:  601,730.  The purpose of the wandering had not been to increase the size of the nation, but to improve upon the quality of its faith.  (In a very interesting article, the Old Testament Institute Manual states that many numbers in the Old Testament have been translated to be much too large, including this one.  The authors of the manual believe the number of Israelites to have been around 72,000.  However that does not change the point: that the number entering the promised land was about the same number that left Egypt.)

CHAINBREAKERS TODAY

From the 40-year efforts of Moses and the Lord to make the children of Israel a truly free people, we learn that a certain blame for sin can be placed on the environment (slavery in Egypt), or upbringing (idolatrous parents)--things over which one has no control.  Children are very prone to commit the same types of sins as their parents did (criticism of Church authority, discontent with the blessings the Lord has given, memory loss relating to miracles).  But we also learn that the chains of sin or abuse or wrong teaching can be broken by:

1) recognizing the sin as a sin and repenting of it (Num. 21:7);
2) seeking the counsel of priesthood leadership and following it (Num. 21:9);
3) looking to Christ for healing (Num. 21:9);
4) truly changing and remaining on the Lord's side, by digging for Living Water, expressing faith and gratitude to the Lord even before blessings are received, and following the direction of the prophet (Num. 21:17-18).

Although the iniquities of the rebellious can carry to the third and fourth generations (Exo. 20:5), when the rebellious decide to change, "know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations" (Deut. 7:9).

As for Moses, he was blessed to be translated straight out of the temple mount into the heavenly Promised Land (Deut. 32:50) after helping fit his people for their earthly Promised Land.  (Although the Bible says he died,  Deut. 34:6 JST and Alma 45:19 both say he was "taken unto the Lord," or translated.)  He was spared the battles that ensued when conquering the Land of Canaan.  At his death, he was honored and revered by this second generation.  "And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days [the meaning of the Hebrew number 30 is dedication]: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.  And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses.  And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deut. 34:8-10).

Letting Life Break Us, Letting God Rebuild Us: The Seismic Shift of Easter 10 Apr 2022 6:43 AM (2 years ago)

 

THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS

Few things are so closely and exclusively associated with a single figure as is the cross with Jesus Christ. A cross on a necklace immediately identifies the wearer as a disciple. A crucifix in a church immediately conjures up in the mind an image of Jesus hanging in public agony. It’s a symbol that commands attention. It reminds us of Easter. It points us to God. For the Israelite Christians witnessing the crucifixion and death of Christ on Good Friday, however, the cross itself meant nothing but a criminal punishment.

And yet there was a very powerful symbol that stunned the early followers of Jesus Christ that day, something that had never happened before in history. It was completely unique to the death of Jesus Christ. Witnessed by only a few, it pointed dramatically to the eternal significance of the pivotal event of the Savior's death.

“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, saying, ‘Father, it is finished, thy will is done,’ yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent…” (Matt. 27:50-51, Joseph Smith Translation).

To understand the mind-blowing nature of the rending of the veil, we need to know about ancient temples.

THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM

At the time of Christ, the temple at Jerusalem had recently been rebuilt and gloriously fitted and furnished on about 35 acres of a hill inside the city. Multiple walls and courtyards surrounded the temple and prevented anyone from entering without passing through a gate. Gates on the south, on the east, and the main gate on the west allowed anyone to enter the outer area, the Court of the Gentiles, but non-Jews could go no further, on penalty of death.

The Golden Gate still stands, now fitted with doors.

https://www.israelandstuff.com/palestinians-proclaim-victory-after-opening-temple-mounts-golden-gate

Passage into each of the inner courtyards or rooms required increasingly more qualifications as the faithful scaled stairways to pass through gates. Gentiles could not ascend to the Court of the Women. Women could not ascend to the Court of the Men. Ordinary Israelites could not climb to the Court of the Priests which contained the Brazen Sea, resting upon twelve bronze bulls and the altar of sacrifices. Although the people below could not enter this courtyard, they could see the smoke ascending to heaven in their behalf.

“Further steps led up to the actual temple, a comparatively small building. A priceless curtain, embroidered with a map of the known world, concealed from view what lay beyond, and none except the priest on duty was allowed to go farther. It contained the golden altar at which incense was offered and next to it the seven-branched candelabrum and the table with the twelve loaves of shewbread, which were replaced by fresh ones every sabbath.

“Beyond it, behind another large curtain, lay the Holy of Holies, which none except the high priest was allowed to enter, and he only on the Day of Atonement. A stone designated the place where once the Ark of the Covenant had stood [with its mercy seat between the two cherubim]” (https://www.bible-history.com/jewishtemple/).  (See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple#Herod's_Temple).

All of these concentric gates, walls, and courtyards surrounded one central point in this stone temple: the Holy of Holies. Although we don’t know details about the activities in all of the temple courts (they were sacred, exclusive, and guarded even from historians), we do know what happened in the Holy of Holies on that single Day of Atonement each year because it is found in the Bible. (See Lev. 16; 23:26-32.)  The Holy of Holies had only one purpose: Atonement, the reuniting of God and man.

It was in this place that the high priest carried out rituals that symbolically cleansed all of Israel from sin and potentially allowed reconciliation with God.

 

Hindu Temple

The Israelites were not the only people to have a temple. Every great civilization in the history of the world had at its center a temple--the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Turks, the Mayans, the Aztecs, even Native North American civilizations all had temples. On every continent, in every advanced ancient culture, the temple was always the focal point of the greater community. (See, for example https://www.touropia.com/oldest-temples-in-the-world/.)

A temple was (and is), as Hugh Nibley calls it “a scale model of the universe…It is the meeting point of the heavens and the earth…The word for temple in Latin, templum, means the same thing as template…The temple is also an observatory…a place where you take your bearings on things. More than that, it is a working model, a laboratory for demonstrating basic principles by use of figures and symbols, which convey to finite minds things beyond their immediate experience” (Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present, Deseret Book, 1992, 15, 19).

A survey of all of these ancient temples in all of these cultures reveals that they all had a common purpose: “to restore the primordial unity, that which existed before the Creation,…to restore the whole that preceded the Creation” (Mircea Eliade, quoted in Nibley, 380-1). Even though they did not know the God of Israel, they knew they were seeking wholeness, reunification, restoration. Although the rites of temples in various ancient civilizations morphed as well as decayed from the original temple experience God revealed to Adam (Moses 5:4-9), they shared this common purpose of reunification with their Creators or their Divine Parents in eternity.

But of all these temples, it was in the Hebrew temple at Jerusalem—where the Gentiles were unfit by birth, the women were unclean by nature, the men were unworthy, and even the priests were not holy enough to see into the presence of the Lord—it was here in Jerusalem that all of those barriers were torn away in a moment. God rent the veil of the temple—from the top to the bottom!--as Christ gave up the ghost and ascended into Heaven. Death, sorrow, separation, and sin were conquered. The passageway between heaven and earth was opened. Entrance into the “presence of God” on earth was now not only a possibility, but reunion with Them (God being plural) in eternity was a surety. Man could now sit down on the mercy seat with God or, as Lehi put it, “The Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15).

SEISMIC SHIFTS IN HISTORY

Like the earthquake at the death of Jesus Christ, catastrophic events in history can bring about seismic shifts in doctrine and practice for God’s children.

·         For the Jews, the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the temple forced them to produce the Torah. The Torah preserved their religion which had previously been completely tied to a particular place on earth: the temple at Jerusalem. They could now carry their religious beliefs with them wherever they went.

·         For the Christians, the death of Christ completely changed their understanding of and relationship with God, as shown in the New Testament. Jesus returned and taught his disciples privately, and they changed their old image of God as a fearful punisher, to God as a loving and merciful Parent. This new understanding allowed them to bring heaven to earth in their Zion-like community.

·         For the Nephite colony, the destruction of Jerusalem made them realize they were no longer an outpost, but the home base of Israelite worship on the earth. This led to the recording of doctrine and history that became the Book of Mormon. The only Jewish temples on earth were the ones built in the New World. The Book of Mormon shows us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ existed along with the Law of Moses from the beginning. The Old Testament does not make this obvious. (See Terryl Givens, 2^nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction, Brigham Young University.)

PERSONAL SEISMIC SHIFTS

When cataclysmic events happen in our own lives, our ability to make sense of the universe is shaken. The mountains are in new places, the former home base is gone, some things are broken beyond repair. We don’t recognize the landscape anymore. We have to get our bearings again from a new perspective. But sometimes that is precisely what is needed to allow us to throw off old incomplete beliefs and gain new, more accurate ones.

As the sweet children’s book I just bought my grandson explains it:

“Out of death, comes life. That’s how God wants us to see Easter.”

“I still don’t like dying.”

“Neither do I. We were born to love life. God loves life. But sometimes we have to let go of one thing so we can move on to another” (Lisa Tawn Bergren, God Gave Us Easter, Waterbrook Press).

When we lose a loved one (I attended the funeral of one today), when health crises happen, when people betray us, when hatred and war threaten and destroy, we can remember that good will come of catastrophe, if we let God lead us.

We can remember that the cross became the symbol of faith, hope, and love.

We can remember that the destruction of the holy temple veil symbolized every man and woman’s personal access to God and His mercy. Our temples today are clear in teaching this truth—that we may reach out personally and individually for the hand of Christ and be drawn into his presence thanks to His infinite sacrifice on Easter.

The death of Jesus Christ is the greatest irony that ever was—the seismic shift that provided reunification and wholeness for all, the earthquake that broke everything in order to put it right.

 

 

Wide as Eternity: The Visions of Enoch 28 Jan 2022 7:31 AM (3 years ago)

The Backdrop of the Vision of Enoch

The opening verse of Moses 7 encapsulates the greatest and most persistent problem of the family of God: that “many have believed [the gospel as taught by Adam] and become the [children] of God, and many have believed not, and have perished in their sins, and are looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them.”

Because of this revelation, Enoch began to prophesy from that time forth. (See verse 2.) As he preaches, he tells his audience about the visions he has been shown for their benefit. Those who listened and learned became the City of Enoch and were taken up into heaven. Although the story of the City remained in the Old Testament, the truths learned by them were lost from the earth until Jesus restored them in the meridian of time, and Joseph Smith restored them in the translation of Moses 7.

The vision of Enoch is a revolutionary scripture, overturning concepts that have been the basis of most nations, religions, cultures, and even individuals--that there is an “us” and a “them,” that we are right, and they are wrong, and that we will achieve happiness when we are avenged and triumph over our enemies. The vision teaches the concept that we are all brothers and sisters and only completely uniting the family of God will lead to a fulness of joy.

This concept was revolutionary in Enoch’s day--so revolutionary, it didn’t even make it into the Old Testament. It was again revolutionary in Jesus’s day and formed the basis of the original Christian church. It is revolutionary again in our day as we recover from centuries of misunderstanding about God, about sin, about judgment and salvation, and about the relationship between all the peoples of the earth. In restoring this truth, Joseph Smith upended the teachings promulgated by the greatest “Christian” thinkers and leaders since the apostles were killed. (For the history and details of this loss, I highly recommend the books by Terryl and Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, All Things New, and The Christ Who Heals. Really, every Latter-day Saint should read at least one of these books.)

Revolutionary Concepts #1 and #2: The mighty God of heaven is a PERSON, and He took the time to talk with one of His lowly creations.

“I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another, face, face” (verse 4).

Revolutionary Concept #3: Despite great wickedness and wars on the earth, a group of people could become as holy as heaven.

“The Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness” (verse 16). “The glory [great joy] of the Lord…was upon his people.   “The Lord called his people Zion, because they were on one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (verse 18). “[Enoch, in passage of time] built a city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion. (verse 19).  “Zion, in process of time, was taken up into heaven” (verse 21).

Revolutionary Concept #4: God experiences emotions, including sorrow; He cares about his children. Although they were “looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them” (verse 1), God Himself was weeping at their estrangement. While Enoch was rejoicing that Zion was safe from evil, God was mourning the separation from “the residue of the people” who remained in wickedness (verse 28). (Although God cursed them [verse 20], it is an indirect cursing—simply the natural consequence of breaking His laws.) Enoch is utterly shocked that God, who is all powerful, all knowing, eternal, kind, perfect in every way, and has just seen the success of Zion, is now weeping (verse 31).

Revolutionary Concept #6: Our enemies are not our enemies, but our siblings. There are groups of people mentioned in the chapter who are hateful of each other: the people of Canaan are at war with people of Shum (verse 7). The war brings about a barrenness in the land, presumably from destruction of crops and other plants, and changes the climate of the area (verses 7-8) from which it never recovers. Possibly as a consequence of this--since it is announced in the same sentence--the people of Canaan experience a blackening of appearance that further separates them and causes all other people to despise them (verse 8). Multiple other groups of people in lands that are unknown to us today are mentioned, and the Lord commands Enoch to preach repentance to them (verse 9-10). Enoch preaches the gospel of Christ, encapsulated today in our Fourth Article of Faith, to all of these groups except the people of Canaan (verse 12). No explanation is given as to why He didn’t preach to them.

Because of the terrifying miracles Enoch can perform to protect his people, their enemies “fled and stood afar off and went upon the land which came up out of the depth of the sea. And the giants of the land, also, stood afar off…” (verses 13-15). There are wars everywhere, violence, hatred, bloodshed—separation (verse 16). The seed of Cain still were excluded from other societies because of the color of their skin (verse 22).

Only the people of Zion are spared from war, but whereas Enoch has previously been glorying that his city is rescued from their enemies, the Lord points out that the enemies are Enoch’s brethren.  “The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren… (verse 32).” From this point on, the word enemies disappears, replaced by brethren and children: family members!

Revolutionary Concept #5: Becoming holy does not create complete joy;  instead, holiness brings acute awareness of the suffering of our siblings (our enemies) because of their sins. I gave unto man his agency; and unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me [as] their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood (verses 32-33).” “Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? (verse 37)? It is separation from God and from each other that causes suffering among human beings.

The heavens weep, not for the sin of the people, but for the suffering that sin causes before their redemption (verse 37): “Until that day they shall be in torment; wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea and all the workmanship of mine hands (verses 39-40).

Noah would build an ark to protect his family from the flood, and God would “smile” upon it, but “the residue of the wicked” would perish.

When Enoch saw this, he “wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook” (verse 41). He “wept over his brethren, and said unto the heavens: I will refuse to be comforted; but the Lord said unto Enoch: Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look” (verse 44).

Revolutionary Concept #6: Christ’s atonement will cover even those who did not learn righteousness and unity while on the earth.  Enoch looked and no longer saw the wicked as his enemies, but as the families of the earth, and he asked when Christ would atone for them, and “they that mourn” will be sanctified and have eternal life (verse 45). And then he saw “the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul rejoiced…” (verse 47).

After the agony of the cross and the agony of the earth in response to the crucifixion, not only do “saints” arise and to be crowned at the right hand of God (verse 56), but also “the spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on the right hand of God (verse 57). But a remainder (the word remainder suggests a small number) still waits “in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

Revolutionary Concept #7: A fulness of joy is only achieved with complete unity. The earth will finally rest when Christ comes again and enmity is removed from the family of God. Then “righteousness and truth will sweep the earth as with a flood” just as the waters swept the wicked off the earth previously (verse 52). The City of Enoch will come down to join Zion on earth, the New Jerusalem, “and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other” (verse 63). There will be a thousand years of peace upon the earth. Finally at the end of the world a fulness of joy is finally achieved (verse 67).

What does this mean in your life?

We are confronted many times daily, even hourly, with the temptation to separate. We view others’ successes with jealousy.

We polarize ourselves into political groups.

We struggle to view other races and cultures as less than ours, even when we are trying to be kind.

We have no idea how to feel about people with nonbinary sexual orientations.

We may think our country is the greatest.

We may resent immigrants or refugees or people who don’t learn to speak our language.

We may be suspicious of those who are different.

We may have struggles to forgive those who have wronged us.

We may say that everyone is a child of God, but we feel that perhaps our group contains the best children of God, as if the rest are a different class of family members.

In all of these daily situations, we are only free to be truly happy when we unite ourselves with our Heavenly Father and view all “others” as our suffering siblings. Once we have this view, the Holy Ghost can guide us in how to love and accept others and how to share the gospel with them so that we can be one.

2022 Supplements 24 Dec 2021 7:42 AM (3 years ago)

Christmas Lessons 12 Dec 2021 7:35 AM (3 years ago)

The Purpose of Christmas

Unto You Is Born a Savior

The Measure of Our Faith

Bonus Lessons, vaguely related to The Family Proclamation 9 Dec 2021 8:30 PM (3 years ago)

I don't have time or ability to put together a lesson on The Family Proclamation right now, but here are some great lessons that are vaguely related to it.

The Family Proclamation gives us the ideals for family life. But...what if your family is dysfunctional? Is there hope for you? Well, there was for Vaughan J. Featherstone and Abraham the Prophet.

And I just really love sharing this story from Church history of a family man who turned his life over to God, helped many families, and promoted family values among all his employees: Jesse Knight

Official Declarations 1 & 2 6 Dec 2021 8:16 PM (3 years ago)

 OFFICIAL DECLARATION 1: “THE MANIFESTO”

After living the law of plural marriage for several decades, it was shock to members of the Church in Utah to have the practice halted by President Woodruff. They had sacrificed so much to live this law!

“It was just a coincidence that the doctrine of polygamy was abandoned on my birthday,” writes polygamous wife Annie Clark Tanner. “My first birthday was an event made possible by it [having been born the child of a polygamous union]; my whole life had been shaped according to it; and my faith that it was Divine and everlasting was so strong that I compare it with the faith of the three Hebrews who were to be cast into a fiery furnace for their convictions.

“But now I was beginning to wonder: Is God ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever?’

“I can remember so well the relief that I felt when I first realized that the Church had decided to abandon its position. For all of my earlier convictions [that polygamy was necessary for highest exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom] a great relief came over me. At that moment I compared my feelings of relief with the experience one has when the first crack of dawn comes after a night of careful vigilance over a sick patient. At such a time daylight is never more welcome; and now the dawn was breaking for the Church. I suppose its leaders may have realized, at last, that if our Church had anything worthwhile for mankind, they had better work with the government of our country rather than against it” (Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography, Tanner Trust Fund, Salt Lake City, Utah: 1991, 129-130).

Annie Clark Tanner

(“Come,Follow Me” has links to many excellent, frank, scholarly essays on the topics of both polygamy and the Manifesto. It is well worth reading every one of them.)

From our vantage point 130 years in their future, we have no difficulty accepting the Manifesto—instead, we have difficulty accepting the practice of polygamy to begin with. Some of us would like to forget it ever happened.

Later in life, Sister Tanner explains to her posterity why so many members entered into plural marriages:

“If one can picture the sociological conditions in Utah Territory when the principle of polygamy was openly endorsed by the Church in 1852, one can better understand the reason for its development. Hundreds of young women came from the overcrowded section in the old country. They were thoroughly converted to the Gospel. To be the wife of a fine leader in Israel was the height of their ambition. Perhaps too, the effect of the increase in numbers it furnished to the Church was considered of some advantage.

“It must be remembered that the western immigration movement brought to Utah all kinds of people. Concerning some of the men folks, girls comparing their chances for matrimony, often said of a Mormon leader, ‘I’d rather have his little finger than the whole of a man outside the Church...’

“Many of the finest characters in Utah and surrounding states owe their existence to this doctrine of the Mormon Church. It is often remarked that all the headaches and heartaches caused by polygamy have, in some measure, been compensated by the fine…results [in the children].

"The women of the Church living this principle felt themselves greatly favored above nonmember women of other parts of our country. They felt it a great privilege to have a husband of their choice, a home, and a family" (Tanner, 23-24).

Sister Tanner noted that leadership and success was generally observed in the children of a polygamist’s family. And as those practicing polygamy were highly religious, “religious training was the rule in a polygamous home” (Tanner, 25).

THE ABRAHAMIC SACRIFICE OF PLURAL MARRIAGE

Although she boldly asserted (and evidence of the day agrees) that “No one could make the women of Utah feel that they had an inferior position,” she also acknowledged the extreme difficulties of living in polygamy.

“I am sure that women would never have accepted polygamy had it not been for their religion. No woman ever consented to its practice without a great sacrifice on her part” (Tanner, 132).

I’m not sure we will ever be able to understand why God commanded the practice of polygamy among the Latter-day Saints in this life, but the best thoughts I have found on it are offered by the extremely bright mind of former BYU professor, Valerie Hudson Cassler:

“God is not indifferent concerning how his children marry.  He actively and severely restricts the practice of polygamy, while leaving monogamy unrestricted. One can be ‘destroyed’ for practicing polygamy without God’s sanction, becoming ‘angels to the devil’ and ‘bring[ing] your children unto destruction, and their sins heaped upon your heads at the last day,’ but no such punishment attends the practice of monogamy (Jacob 2:33; 3:5-6, 10-12)…

“Joseph Smith restored marriage for ‘time and all eternity’ (D&C 132:18), which we now colloquially call ‘temple marriage.’ In restoring the principle of temple marriage, Joseph Smith restored both the general law of marriage and the lawful exception [of polygamous temple marriage] as elucidated by Jacob centuries before...

“No matter what the human inventory of emotions toward polygamy--joy, sorrow, or joy and sorrow mixed--the most mature and most knowledgeable viewpoint is that of the Lord, who appears to be stating that he views it as an Abrahamic sacrifice.” https://www.squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleCasslerPolygamy.html

For more on what an Abrahamic sacrifice is, please go to the link to read the rest of the article; it is too dense with scriptures for me to justly write an overview of it, but it is the best explanation I’ve ever read and was a great comfort to my mind.

OFFICIAL DECLARATION 2: THE REVELATION ON THE PRIESTHOOD

Please see my previous post on Blacks and the Priesthood here: https://gospeldoctrineplus.blogspot.com/2009/11/lesson-42-continuing-revelation.html

Sadly, there was much persecution, abuse, and racism in the United States during the now 191 history of the Restoration, including among the highly-imperfect members of the Church. Although some of the few Latter-day Saints who were slaveholders were "kind," (if such a thing cane be said of someone who is a slaveholder), some were not. But, acknowledging this, I would like to face forward in this blog post and focus on how we can be united. I hope the day comes that we don’t even use the word “race” in referring to different colors of skin and different ethnic backgrounds. We are all one race, the human race. For the solution to the problem labeled "racism," there is no better source than Elder Ahmad Corbitt, Philadelphia native, convert to the Church along with his parents and 9 siblings, former trial attorney, past director of the New York Office of Public and International Affairs for the Church, and presently First Counselor in the Young Men's General Presidency.

Ahmad Corbitt

Speaking on a podcast posted this week Elder Corbitt said, “I believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…is the most empowered and best positioned to bring to pass racial unity and harmony throughout the family of God, among all the international organizations in the world.” [Firstly,] our apostles and prophets have the power and the keys to unify all of God’s children throughout the world of whatever background to become one in Christ. Secondly…the Church is…authorized, empowered, and positioned to effect [the] gathering [of Israel]…from all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.” (See D&C 45:69,71.)

“If we, together, look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, ‘having our hearts knit together in unity and love one toward another,’ we…can create a culture of total unity and inclusivity in the Lord’s church in preparation for the Second Coming…[See Mosiah 18:21.] Look forward with an eye of faith and see it! It’s prophesied and it’s promised!…Then do the things that lead to that kind of outcome…

"Be careful of a lot of online stuff which can be very strident and bitter and purport to be…carrying the banner of unity and racial harmony but kind of go about it in the world’s way rather than in the Savior’s way…Unity among God’s children (think of 4^th Nephi, think of Moses 7, and the City of Enoch and so on)—that’s God’s work!”

Elder Corbitt points out that the Book of Mormon is the one book of scripture in which God tells one group of people “to reach across a color barrier” to another group of people. The sons of Mosiah reached across the barrier to the Lamanites to bring them to Christ, and the prophet Samuel reached across the barrier back to the Nephites to do the same. They always referred to those “others” as their “brothers.”

“So a telltale sign of a truly converted person who really is seeking the mind of Christ is that they will see people of different backgrounds, different appearances as their brothers and sisters and they will refer to them as such.” (Ahmad Corbitt, with Hank Smith and John Bytheway, “Follow Him: A Come Follow Me Podcast,” Episode 50, Part II, available to watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwlz5uqK3Q&t=20s or listen to it on any podcast app.) Conversely, f you catch yourself calling another political, cultural, religious, or ethnic group "them" and feeling at enmity with "them," you have some changing to do in order to build Zion. 

(You may also want to check out "Making Sense of the Church's History on Race," by W. Paul Reeve.)

GOD IS THE SAME TODAY, TOMORROW, AND FOREVER, EVEN IF THE CHURCH IS NOT

Revelations will change the Church, alter our belief systems, implement new policies and remove old ones as we are ready for more light and knowledge and as circumstances in the world change. Of course, they will! We would have no need of a prophet otherwise. But the doctrine of Christ is solid (2 Nephi 31) and His love is sure (Romans 8:35-39). If we pray to be strive to obey to the best of our ability, and if we seek to be filled with His love, we will be blessed.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Wherever we find ourselves in life and in the history of the House of Israel and the Restoration of the Church, whatever color our skin or whatever principles and practices are in force during our lives, we will be blessed if we keep the commandments to our best ability. (See Galatians 3:26-29.) Any sacrifices we make will be compensated so that we can feel satisfaction in our efforts in the things that mattered most. As Annie Clark Tanner wrote:

"It is but a small part that the average person contributes to improve mankind. My life has been simple, full of love, devotion, and service for my family. I might have thought mine a hard row to hoe had not the plants I cultivated responded so magnificently to the culture I gave them" (http://www.byhigh.org/Alumni_A_to_E/Clark-Tanner/Annie.html). 

Doctrine and Covenants 138 30 Nov 2021 1:27 PM (3 years ago)

(Originally published October 24, 2009--my very first blog post!)

Doctrine and Covenants 136, part 3: The Miraculous Story of Latter-day Saint Migration West 24 Nov 2021 8:27 AM (3 years ago)

There are dozens of stories of miracles that occurred in the lives of individual Mormon pioneers. These build our faith, and encourage us to know that God is there for us in our personal challenges. But when my brother laid out, in a sacrament meeting talk, the overall picture of the Latter-day Saint Migration--how Heavenly Father arranged for different groups involved in different journeys from different places to work together in an intricate and complicated fashion to accomplish the establishment of Zion in the Great Basin--my faith was strengthened exponentially! Each of these groups--the overland pioneers, the ocean pioneers, the southern pioneers, and the Mormon Battalion--went through their own excruciating trials and terrors, and yet the Lord was working through them all to create a giant miracle.

I wanted to see this miracle visually, and I wanted to be able to comprehend and remember it, to be able to tell it from memory, so I laid it out in a timeline with maps. I color-coded the groups on the map and in the text (blue for the seafaring saints, red for the main body of overland pioneers, gold for the Mississippi saints, and green for the military group). I filled in more details as I discovered them, and each time, my faith was strengthened. Once I saw the timeline of the Latter-day Saint Migration, it became very difficult to believe that it could have been accomplished without Divine planning.  I recalled times in my own life where I was stuck crossing a trackless prairie of problems, entirely unaware of the benevolent machinations of my Heavenly Father in other places and in other people's lives that would all come together to create a miracle that I would later see and comprehend.

My trust and faith in my Heavenly Father has been strengthened through this study, and I hope yours will be as well.

Doctrine and Covenants 136, part 2: Rescuing the Saints 24 Nov 2021 8:15 AM (3 years ago)

• 11 broken wagons
• bar-iron and steel
• large blacksmiths’ anvils and bellows
• crowbars
• drills
• augers
• gold-washers
• chisels
• axes
• lead
• trunks
• spades
• ploughs
• large grindstones
• baking-ovens
• cooking-stoves “without number”
• kegs
• barrels
• harness
• clothing
• bacon
• beans

Doctrine and Covenants 136, Part 1: Black Saints; Choosing Joy in Hard Times 24 Nov 2021 7:54 AM (3 years ago)

 MOVING ON FROM TRAGEDY

Doctrine and Covenants 135 21 Nov 2021 7:03 AM (3 years ago)

PARALLELS IN THE LIVES OF JESUS CHRIST AND JOSEPH SMITH

I suggest you read the list below without the title and ask your class who is being described.  If you want more participation, print out and cut up the items and pass them among class members to read aloud.

• He was foreordained and his mission was prophecied of thousands of years before his birth. 
• He was born of goodly parents and raised in a righteous home.
• He was born into poverty and stayed poor all of his life.
• He had many siblings.
• As a young teen, his spiritual vision confounded and surpassed that of religious leaders of the day.
• He traveled through the country preaching the new truths of the gospel.
• He depended upon others for room and board.
• He trained twelve apostles to help in the ministry.
• His actions directly affected our salvation
• He called those who followed him "brothers" and "friends."
• He treated children, women, and minorities with unusual kindness (for the culture in which he lived).
• He revolutionized religion and by so doing alienated himself from religious leaders.
• He was subject to temptation but was not overcome.
• He was never allowed much privacy because of his fame.
• He performed many miracles: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, casting out devils.
• He was visited by angels.
• He was betrayed by friends.
• He was tried illegally and unjustly, convicted of crimes he did not commit.
• He prophesied of his own death repeatedly, yet it was still a shock to his followers.
• He went of his own free will to his death.
• He was comforted by friends and the singing of hymns in his last hours.
• He was martyred in the prime of his life, leaving his widowed mother to the care of others.
• The church was in turmoil at his death.
• At the time of his death, his vision for the church was only in its infancy.
• After his death, he appeared to church leaders to give them added counsel and direction.
• No one who met him had a neutral opinion of him: they either loved him or despised him, or sometimes they did both--one after the other.
• Some who testified passionately of his divine calling later denied the testimony.
• He forgave even those who turned against him or persecuted him even unto death.

EYE-WITNESS DESCRIPTIONS OF JOSEPH SMITH

Parley P. Pratt described Joseph Smith thus:

"President Joseph Smith was in person tall and well built, strong and active, of light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, very little beard, and of an expression peculiar to himself, on which the eye naturally rested with interest, and was never weary of beholding.  His countenance was ever mild, affable, beaming with intelligence and benevolence; mingled with a look of interest and an unconscious smile, or cheerfulness, and entirely free from all restraint or affectation of gravity; and there was something connected with this serene and steady penetrating glance of his eye, as if he would penetrate the deepest abyss of the human heart, gaze into eternity, penetrate the heavens, and comprehend all worlds.

"He possessed a noble boldness and independence of character; his manner was easy and familiar; his rebuke terrible as the lion; his benevolence unbounded as the ocean; his intelligence universal, and his language abounding in original eloquence peculiar to himself--not polished--not studied--not smoothed and softened by education and refined by art; but flowing forth in its own native simplicity, and profusely abounding in variety of subject and manner.  He interested and edified, while, at the same time, he amused and entertained his audience; and none listened to him that were ever weary with his discourse.  I have even known him to retain a congregation of willing and anxious listeners for many hours together, in the midst of cold or sunshine, rain or wind, while they were laughing at one moment and weeping the next.  Even his most bitter enemies were generally overcome, if he could once get their ears" (Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 31-32).

A former mayor of Boston, Josiah Quincy, who visited Joseph Smith just a few months before Joseph was killed wrote:

"It is by no means improbable that some future textbook for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?  And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written:  Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.  And the reply, as absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants...Fanatic, imposter, charlatan, he may have been; but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents to us.

"Born in the lowest ranks of poverty, without book-learning, and with the homeliest of all human names, he had made himself at the age of 39 a power upon earth, His influence, whether for good or for evil, is potent today, and the end is not yet.  If the reader does not known just what to make of Joseph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty.  I myself stand helpless before the puzzle"  (B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 2:349-50, also quoted in Kelly, Latter-day History..., p. 271).

A correspondent to the New York Herald stopped by Nauvoo, a place he called the nucleus of a Western Empire, and wrote the following description of the prophet:

"Joseph Smith, the president of the Church, prophet, seer and revelator, is 36 years of age, six feet high in [heels], weighing 212 pounds.  He is a man of the highest order of talent and great independence of character--firm in integrity, and devoted to his religion; in fact, he is a per-se, as President Tyler would say.  As a public speaker he is bold, powerful and convincing...as a leader, wise and prudent, yet fearless as a military commander; brave and determined as a citizen, worthy, affable and kind; bland in his manners, and of noble bearing.  His amiable lady, too, the electa cyria, is a woman of superior intellect and exemplary piety--in every respect suited to her situation in society, as the wife of one of the most accomplished and powerful chiefs of the age.

"Hyrum Smith, the patriarch of the Church and brother of Joseph, is 42 years of age, five feet, eleven and a half inches high, weighing 193 pounds.  He, too, is a prophet, seer and revelator, and is one of the most pious and devout Christians in the world.  He is a man of great wisdom and superior excellence, possessing great energy of character and originality of thought"  (Holzapfel, A Woman's View: Helen Mary Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History, p. 147-148).

There is an excellent church video that coordinates with this lesson that could be played at this point:  "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" from the video collection "Teachings from the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History."  (This is not the hour-long movie the church made, but a 13-minute clip.  Please see Lanise's comment at the end of this post for directions on downloading it from the Church's website. Thanks, Lanise!)

DISCUSSION

What impresses you the most about Joseph Smith?

THE PROPHET'S HYMN

In conclusion, you may want to sing, or have performed, the hymn "Praise to the Man."  The lyricist of this hymn was William W. Phelps.  Brother Phelps had been a stalwart member of the church, helping to print The Book of Commandments, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the first hymnbook, contributing $500 to the building of the Kirtland Temple, and writing "The Spirit of God" for its dedication, but when questions arose regarding his mismanagement of the purchase of lands in Missouri for the Saints, he was excommunicated.  For two years, he was one of the Prophet's bitterest enemies, inflicting great harm upon the church and contributing substantially to a sentence to prison.  But Brother Phelps fast realized his error and sought forgiveness in a letter to Joseph Smith.  President Smith read the letter to the congregation of the church and then sent this reply to him:

"It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior--the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us...'Had it been an enemy, we could have borne it'...'Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first, are friends again at last..."  (quoted in Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2006 General Conference; also see Susan E. Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, p. 224-225).

Elder Phelps once again began publishing for the prophet, served as his spokesman, and rode with the prophet to Carthage, also visiting him in the Carthage Jail on the morning of his death.  Shortly after the martyrdom, he wrote this hymn.

Praise to the Man is Hymn no. 27 available at this link.  Many lovely recordings of the hymn can be found on YouTube, including one by the MTC Choir (5 minutes long).

FURTHER RESOURCE

Wikipedia has an article which contains a lot of historical details about the martyrdom at this link.

Doctrine and Covenants 133-134 15 Nov 2021 1:48 PM (3 years ago)

THE ELEPHANT IN THE SECTION

Rather than providing lesson material for all of Sections 133-134, this post will focus solely on the verse in Section 134 that "Come, Follow Me" did not mention: 

"...we do not believe it right to interfere with ^bbond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in ^cservitude" (D&C 134:12).

I'm sure you all know that "bond-servants" is a euphamism for "slaves." 

Wow. 

I don't feel competent to address this topic. I'm Danish and English. I don't have the perspective of Black or Native American Saints. None of my ancestors were enslaved. I recently discovered one was a slaveholder, which appalls me! But despite my lack of experience, I feel it would be worse to ignore this verse than to write something with flaws. So if you are Black or Native American, please give me your grace as you read my bumbling efforts, and please feel free to share any helpful insights or perspectives in the comments (if you are on a computer--phones don't have the option).

THE CRIME OF SLAVERY

Today when we discover someone has been held captive and forced to labor for another (a case of which was just discovered today by police in my home state of Utah), we are aghast, appalled, incensed, and our stomachs literally turn. And rightly so! It's insane for "civilized," "cultured," rich, educated people to think that it is okay to enslave others to do their bidding.

And yet, in 1835, not only tradition but scientific evidence supported the "fact" that there was a natural human hierarchy: that whites, Blacks, and Native Americans were all completely different "races," and one of those was fit to be the master (even master/benefactor!) of the others, one was fit for hard labor, and one was simply savage. And since the Bible advised slaves to obey their masters, religion could back it up as well. (For example, see Ephesians 6:5.)

The truth is that the economy of the cotton plantations and a few other industries absolutely depended on free labor to flourish. The truth is that the white colonists needed free land upon which to expand their farms and cities. The truth is that when a civilization thinks it needs something morally reprehensible, it finds justification for it. And the truth is that when an ethnic group is oppressed, they behave in a way that justifies the belief that they are inferior. For example, it was illegal in almost every state of the Union to teach an enslaved person to read, for fear that they would be able to use words as tools and weapons to rise above their "station." (See, for example: North Carolina law.) White people knew in their hearts that their slaves had reason to be deadly angry with them. If Latter-day Saint missionaries shared the gospel with slaves, they would teach them to read the Book of Mormon, they would give them potential tools of rebellion. The economy absolutely required Blacks to remain illiterate. And since enslaved Blacks remained illiterate, they seemed less intelligent.

In many ways, the world has become more evil as time goes on. But in many ways, it has become much, much better. The fact that a scripture like this would never, ever be found among the writings of the leaders of any but the most extreme religions today is reason to rejoice. The fact that a religion in most countries of the world, certainly in the western world, would never need to consider how to deal with converts who had not the legal freedom to choose anything but their own thoughts is reason to rejoice. Although I would love to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith, I would never want to live in the society of Joseph Smith's day. Joseph Smith became more and more opposed to slavery as his life progressed, making manumission (the gradual freeing of enslaved people--considered by many a safer and more manageable solution for both Blacks and whites than abolition) part of his platform as a candidate for United States President, but the membership of the Church was still mostly European. He had a pretty homogenous population to work with. 

SLAVERY IN UTAH

When Brigham Young led the Church, the issue of racism became more pronounced because there was a large group of Southern families from Mississippi who joined the Church. Naturally, they had slaves. Slavery was the biggest political issue in the United States--so big that it would later cause the deadliest war in the United States. Although the body of the Church moved west and completely escaped the horrors of the Civil War, they took some racist ideas with them. In fact, they took some actual slaveholders with them: those Mississippi Saints. Some of these Church members did not free their slaves. They had never known life without servants; perhaps they did not know how to live without them. Definitely they were wrong in keeping slaves--all of us know this today--but even Brigham Young thought slavery had Biblical precedence and went with the prevailing opinion that slavery was okay with God, as long as masters treated their slaves kindly.

Crazy, right?

Blacks were not the only enslaved people in Utah. 

"The arrival of the pioneers in 1847 disrupted a thriving trade in Native American slaves. Utah-based Indians, particularly Chief Walkar’s band of Utes, served as procurers and middlemen in a slave-trading network that extended from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, and involved Spanish, Mexican, American, and Native American traders" (History To Go).

 Brigham Young advised the Saints to buy Native children who were offered for sale in order to give them a better life and raise them in the gospel. They were going to be sold anyway, and this way they would be in a safer, kindlier place. One chief brutally murdered an infant in front of settlers when they refused to purchase the child, then blamed them for its death. No one wanted that to happen again! But by buying the children--into either adoption or temporary servitude--the white Utahns unwittingly increased the slave trade.

THE PRIESTHOOD BAN

The policy that evolved into banning Blacks from priesthood ordination, including temple familial priesthood, was based on racist traditions and interracial conflict. It was unfair. It was hurtful to many. It took place within a society that was poorly informed and ill-equipped to be fair.

We know that Church leaders have made mistakes because they are imperfect humans, but we beg to ask, "Why would God not intervene and give a revelation on it?" My best answer is that He did intervene, but in His timeframe, which seems really, really slow in our timeframe because His intervention will not supercede agency, even the agency of an entire culture. (Read my thoughts on the priesthood ban here.)

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

It is absolutely impossible to understand the past without living in it. And yet we must learn from the past in order to improve the future. We Saints are sorely flawed and will continue to make mistakes as did the Saints of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Let's just make sure they are not the same ones. Look around your ward, neighborhood, school, workplace! Make sure everyone is valued, everyone is included, everyone is heard. Sometimes the best thing we can do is consider that our assumptions or traditions might be wrong, and then listen without our defenses up.  

One thing is sure: The gospel is the way to lasting joy for everyone. We are more alike than we are different, and in 2021, with global travel and instant communication, we are more alike than we have ever been throughout history. We must avoid polarization. There is only one race of humans. There is only one family of God. We are all on the same team. Let's embrace everyone equally and celebrate the uniqueness of each child of God. In the heavens, all will be made more than fair--all will be made glorious through Christ.

Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 7 Nov 2021 2:11 PM (3 years ago)

Section 130 contains one of my favorite scriptures of all time:

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (D&C 130:20-21).

I love how this scripture teaches that God rewards those who keep His laws, even if they do not know they are keeping God's laws. Many people consider they are being rewarded by "the universe" or by the "Law of Attraction," but they are merely receiving the fruits of obeying the laws set in motion by God. He loves all His children and provides means for them to learn His laws and obtain as much happiness as they are willing to receive. His children in all cultures and times learn a measure of these laws as they see the results. I love knowing that we are not the only people who are blessed by keeping God's laws.

God rewards those who keep His laws even if those laws are temporary, as in the case of plural marriage. This was an extremely difficult commandment to obey, and many people obeyed it even though doing so demanded that they give up some of their dearest hopes and dreams.

For Section 132 and the practice of plural marriage in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I point to contributions by three women scholars--one in a written essay, one in an audio podcast, and one in a YouTube video. All three have come to the same conclusion after their studies on the subject--that polygamy was a temporary exception to the Lord's law of monogamy, an "Abrahamic sacrifice"--and I invite you to choose any one of the three to read, hear, or watch. 

Valerie Hudson Cassler, "Polygamy," Square Two Journal: Volume 3, Number 10, Spring 2010

Kate Holbrook, "Follow Him" podcast, with Hank Smith & John Bytheway, November 6, 2021

Lynne Hilton Wilson, "Hard Questions in Church History, Episode 46b: The Law of Plural Marriage," Doctrine & Covenants Central, October 28, 2021

I have great-grandmothers in my family tree who were second or third wives in polygamous families. Their lives were very difficult, but they still experienced the blessings of the gospel and the joy of the Saints. Their children were great blessings to them and grew to live righteous and faithful lives. These women lived as they believed and were blessed by the Lord for their sacrifices. I honor their lives. I wouldn't trade places with them, however I'm not sure they would trade places with me. Each of us has our own challenges in this life, but one thing is sure: the Lord blesses us as we seek to obey his commandments.

I'm grateful that today the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage has reverted to the standard of one man and one woman, and I'm grateful for the sealing power of the temple in making those marriages eternal. I recently discovered this darling photograph in my mother-in-law's photo album, depicting my husband (the oldest child) and his family just after they were sealed in the Logan Temple. I am also grateful that there are so many more temples today that a struggling young family living in Delaware is no longer in the Logan Temple district, and I'm so happy that 134 more temples are being built or planned in the world today.

Doctrine and Covenants 125-128: Baptism for the Dead 31 Oct 2021 6:58 AM (3 years ago)

July 22, 1839 was the day of miraculous healing at the site of the future town of Nauvoo. Many, many of the saints were deathly ill with malaria. Joseph Smith called upon the Lord in mighty prayer, and went forth to heal all those that he and his wife were caring for in their home and in tents in their yard. Then he continued on through the makeshift community and into Montrose. He went to Brigham Young’s and healed him; he called Wilford Woodruff along after passing by his door. Without a word, they crossed the city square and entered the house of Elijah Fordham. Elijah was within minutes of death; he was speechless and unconscious. After rousing him and speaking with him briefly, Joseph commanded him in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to rise up and walk. Elijah immediately was healed, and jumped up out of bed, kicking off his foot poultices, asked for some bread and milk, and after consuming it, put on his hat and continued along with them down the street to heal others.

Doctrine and Covenants 124-128 31 Oct 2021 6:57 AM (3 years ago)

Rather than posting a new lesson for these sections, I'm sharing links to old related posts. I so enjoyed researching and writing about these topics! I hope you will find them useful.

 Nauvoo

Doctrine and Covenants 121-123 30 Oct 2021 6:57 AM (3 years ago)

EXAMPLES OF FEAR

James Campbell:  "Zion's Camp was located on the bank of the Grand River.  After the meeting in Liberty, James Campbell, one of the residents of Jackson County, decided to return to Jackson, raise an army, and go out and meet Joseph Smith and Zion's Camp.  Campbell vowed, 'The eagles and turkey buzzards shall eat my flesh if I do not fix Joe Smith and his army so that their skins will not hold shucks, before two days are passed.'  

"They went to the ferry and undertook to cross the Missouri River after dusk, and the angel of God saw fit to sink the boat about the middle of the river, and seven out of the twelve that attempted to cross, were drowned.  Thus, suddenly and justly, went they to their own place.  Campbell was among the missing.  He floated down the river some four or five miles, and lodged upon a pile of drift wood, where the eagles, buzzards, ravens, crows and wild animals ate his flesh from his bones, to fulfill his own words."  (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 2:99)
 
Mr. Bazill:  "A young lawyer named Bazill, who came into Independence and wanted to make himself conspicuous, joined the mob, and swore he would wade in blood up to his chin.

"He was shot with two balls through his head, and never spoke.  There was another man, whose name I fail to remember, that lived on the Big Blue, who made a similar boast.  He was also taken at his word.  His chin was shot off, or so badly fractured by a ball that he was forced to have it amputated, but lived and recovered, though he was a horrible sight afterwards."  (Philo Dibble, quoted in Brian and Petrea Kelly, Latter-day History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) 

Church Leaders who were excommunicated:

John Whitmer, misused Church funds (see Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 184-185)

W.W. Phelps, misused Church funds, and later returned dramatically and wrote "Praise To the Man"--more on that in another lesson. (ibid.)

Oliver Cowdery, sued Church leaders, sought to destroy the character of Joseph Smith, disobeyed Church leaders, sold Jackson County lands (later returned). (See CHFT, p. 186-187.)

David Whitmer, broke Word of Wisdom, usurped authority, wrote letters of dissension to apostates. (See CHFT, p. 184.)

Lyman Johnson, "brought distress to the innocent," assaulted another brother, skipped meetings, broke Word of Wisdom, conducted himself "unrighteously" (Susan Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, p. 159).

Thomas Marsh (D&C 112:1,2,10)  When his wife got in a dispute with a neighbor over cream, and it seemed quite obvious that she was lying, he "declared that he would sustain the character of his wife, even if he had to go to hell for it" (George A. Smith, quoted in Black, p. 159) (later returned).

Orson Hyde "affixed his signature to a slanderous affidavit of Thomas B. Marsh that villified the Prophet" (Black, p. 142).  When he returned to the Church just a few months later, he said, "Few men pass through life without leaving some traces which they would gladly obliterate.  Happy is he whose life is free from stain and blemish...I sinned against God and my brethren; I acted foolishly...I seek pardon of all whom I have offended, and also of my God" (Quoted in Black, p. 142).

 D&C 105:24-25

"We all felt more sorrowful at seeing Apostles leave the Church than we did over our trials and persecutions"  (Elizabeth Barlow, quoted in Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 190).

The four apostles who apostacized were replaced by John Taylor, John Page, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards.

EXAMPLES OF FAITH

Alexander Doniphan, non-Mormon general and lawyer:  Defended and aided the saints and saved the life of the Prophet at risk of a court-martial.  When commanded to shoot the Prophet and others, he refused, calling it cold-blooded murder.  "He warned the general who commanded the militia that if he continued his efforts to kill these men, 'I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God'" (Our Heritage, p. 49).


Philo Dibble, a church member, was mortally wounded in a battle with the mob in Independence, shot with a ball and two buckshot in the belly.  Taken to a former war doctor the next day, the doctor replied it was a worse wound than he had ever seen in someone who lived, and told him he would definitely die.  David Whitmer, however, sent word that he would live.  A blessing was given by Newel Knight, after which Brother Dibble felt a powerful energy course through his body from his head to his toe in a ring.  He felt the ring encircle the bullet holes.  He immediately rose up and "discharged three quarts of blood or more" including some fabric from his clothing that had entered his body with the bullets.  He got up, dressed himself, and went out.  The next day he walked around a field, the second day he rode a horse eight miles, and the third day he walked three miles (Kelly, Latter-day History, p. 131).

Benjamin Johnson, a 20-year-old church member, was shot at three times at point-blank range, and the gun did not discharge. On the fourth try, the gun exploded and killed the mobster instantly (See Our Heritage, p. 49).

David Patten, mortally wounded at Crooked River battle.  At his death-bed, he said of those who had apostacized, "O that they were in my situation!  For I feel that I have kept the faith."  Turning to the men in the room, he begged, "Brethren, you have held me by your faith, but do give me up, and let me go, I beseech you."  He very shortly passed on. (See Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 200 or Our History, p. 46-47.)

Amanda Smith's husband and son were killed at Haun's Mill.  In the carnage, she found her littlest son, still alive but with his hip shot out.  She begged the Lord to show her how to heal the hip, which she was told in great detail by a voice, and which instructions she followed exactly.  She promised her son that the Lord would make him a new hip.  Five weeks later, he was able to walk; his body had grown a flexible gristle in replacement of the hip socket and joint. (See Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 204 or Our History, p. 47-48.)

Joseph Smith, of course, endured great trials, and although he nearly despaired, he never gave up.

ANSWERS REGARDING TRIALS

D&C 121:

• v. 1-6 Joseph's faith in God.  He knew God was in charge and the saints would triumph; his only question was when.
• v. 7-10 Words of comfort from God; promise
• v. 11-15 Why the persecution was allowed to continue
• v. 13-25 Consequences to the wicked
• v. 26-32 Consequences to the faithful
• v. 33 Reassurance that God and Zion will prevail 

Our blackboard chart, in God's words (add each reference to the appropriate spot on the chart):

• v. 34-36 How do we approach life? 
• v. 37-40 Fear, Despair Hatred
• v. 41-46 Faith, Hope, Charity

D&C 122:9  "Their bounds are set; they cannot pass."  There is one thing that could not be taken away by the mob, and cannot be taken away from us, whatever our trials may be: Our right to choose which side of the line we will be on.  If we "hold on [our] way...the Priesthood shall remain with [us]," and "God shall be with [us] forever and ever."
 

General Conference 3 Oct 2021 2:25 AM (3 years ago)

 Fun facts about General Conference:

"A Brief History of General Conference"

Doctrine and Covenants 109-110 27 Sep 2021 9:21 AM (3 years ago)

THE TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH OF THE INDEPENDENCE AND KIRTLAND TEMPLES

(See Kirtland Temple.)

Doctrine and Covenants 106-108 20 Sep 2021 9:00 AM (3 years ago)

Rather than focus specifically on the verses and history of Sections 106-108, which are about priesthood and its order, I am going to focus this post on how to use priesthood in our everyday lives as women and men of God. (Also because I spent all my time this week preparing this for a sacrament meeting talk in the married student ward in which I serve and received a great deal of enlightenment personally as I did so.)

THE ORDER OF THE PRIESTHOOD

The oath and covenant of the priesthood can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-44. Here is the first part of it.

“For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken [Melchizedek and Aaronic], and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.

“They become the sons [and daughters—the present temple ceremony shows us this term is neutral] of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God.

“And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;

“For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

“And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

“And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

“And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.

“Therefore, all those who receive the priesthood, receive this oath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved” (D&C 84:33-41).

Elder M. Russell Ballard has told us, “The blessings and promises of the oath and covenant of the priesthood pertain to both men and women” (M. Russell Ballard, Visiting Teaching Message, Ensign, April 2014).

SO WHAT IS THE OATH?

The oath comes from God our Father, an immutable promise that the ordinances that issue from the Melchizedek Priesthood will save and exalt us. (See Heb. 7:21.)

THE COVENANT

The covenant is the promise we make with God to use priesthood power to gather, unite, and sanctify our family and His entire family through the saving ordinances offered through His Restored Church. This is the New and Everlasting Covenant of the Gospel, the highest order of which is the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Adam and his posterity were commanded by God to be baptized, to receive the Holy Ghost, and to enter into the order of the Son of God… This order is…an order of family government where a man and woman enter into a covenant with God—just as did Adam and Eve—to be sealed for eternity, to have posterity, and to do the will and work of God throughout their mortality” (ETB, August 1985 Ensign).

President Oaks tell us, “The Church exists to provide the doctrine, the authority, and the ordinances necessary to perpetuate family relationships into the eternities” (DHO, April 2020 General Conference).

My husband created this visual of the scaffolding currently around the Salt Lake Temple which illustrates this idea perfectly. The scaffolding is like the Church priesthood organization that supports and strengthens the family priesthood organization.

FAMILIAL PRIESTHOOD

When we enter into the Fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood in the temple, we enter into a Family Priesthood and we covenant, with our temple sealing, to bring spirit sons and daughters to earth and nurture them to return to our Heavenly Parents.

Elder Oaks said, “The greatest power God has given to His sons cannot be exercised without the companionship of one of His daughters, because only to His daughters has God given the power ‘to be a creator of bodies’” (General Conference April 2014). But His daughters also cannot do it without His sons.

In the conception of a child, a mother and a father are the conductors of priesthood power, connecting heaven and earth and physically facilitating the entry of a spirit child into an earthly body. In pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy, ideally, a mother’s body creates an environment of safety and nourishes the baby as it grows through the power of God.

My husband and I have had the marvelous privilege of being parents through biology, through adoption, and through guardianships. In every instance, we can testify that priesthood power accompanied the entrance of that child into our family.

ECCLESIASTICAL PRIESTHOOD

Just as priesthood power in the family brings spirit children to earth and ideally into family life, priesthood power in the Church brings humans back to God. As there is only one way to enter earth life—in a family—there is only one way to enter the Celestial Kingdom: being reborn into the Family of God, the House of Israel. We do this by entering into the New and Everlasting Covenant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and accepting all the ordinances carried out by those authorized and ordained with priesthood authority. After this life (which includes earth life and spirit world life), Christ’s ultimate priesthood power allows the spirit to re-enter a now glorified resurrected physical body.

PRIESTHOOD AUTHORITY

Priesthood authority is an order of stewardships that helps you know who you can trust as authorized leaders to receive revelation for the Church or for you. It also makes sure that everyone has a link to priesthood blessings.

Priesthood keys are the authority to give authority. “Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties” (DHO 2014).

For example, our ward chorister can receive revelation by virtue of priesthood authority about which hymn to sing when it is particularly important. Last week in our ward, the speaker had hoped and prayed that “Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?” might be sung in the meeting to emphasize the message of her talk, but asking for a hymn change at the last minute is insensitive to the practice efforts of the organist. The chorister, however, had previously been inspired to choose that very hymn. This is priesthood authority exercised in a Church calling.

As spouses and parents, we also have familial priesthood authority. We can receive revelation for our family members and the spirit can ratify it to them. Can you think of times in your life that those in stewardship over you have guided you through revelation?

HOW PRIESTHOOD OPERATES

To the woman at the well in Samaria, Jesus Christ offered living water. Water was the greatest force known to ancient Israel. They didn’t know about electricity or jet propulsion. But they knew about water and its mighty power—to heal, to give and sustain life, and to change the shape of the land.

The Priesthood is a living power, a flow from God through humans to other humans, linking them back to God. A person ordained to the priesthood is not really a priesthood “holder” but a priesthood bearer, a conductor through which God’s power can flow to others. Knowing this is essential to understanding how to call upon this power. You have never heard anyone—not even a prophet of the Lord—say, “I was terribly sick, but fortunately I hold the Priesthood so I gave myself a blessing.”

The key to using priesthood power is the desire to bless others. It’s an inverted pyramid scheme, with Christ at the point on the bottom serving everyone who ever lived. In our ward, the Bishop and the Relief Society president are at the bottom. In the home, it’s the parents, forgoing their wants for their children’s needs. You are more like Christ when you are at the bottom, washing feet and faces, stopping issues of blood, looking for those on the fringes, watching for prodigals to return, giving even your body for others. This is where the real joy is: in helping others to progress. This is God’s work and His glory.

The rules for using priesthood power are clearly laid out in D&C 121:

The short version is to:

“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly;

“THEN shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall FLOW unto thee forever and ever” (D&C 121:45-46).

PRIESTCRAFT

Satan will try to influence you into abandoning your covenants, your priesthood power. I guarantee it. He will do this through priestcraft. Priestcraft is not a flow of power to others but a hoarding of power to oneself. This is contrary to the nature of God. Study the Book of Mormon carefully to recognize priestcraft. Never give up your covenants, no matter what!

Signs that you are being influenced by priestcraft include desires that are focused on yourself.

• The desire to have more authority.
• The desire to refute, negate, or counter those authorized by Christ
• The desire to keep autonomy rather than basing your life’s purpose on the growth of your family.
• The desire to be negative: cynical, critical, sarcastic, pessimistic.
• The desire to be seen in a positive “light” by those of the world, rather than by the light of Christ.
• The desire to think in terms of “us” and “them.”
• The desire to rush revelation rather than study, prepare, and wait for it to come in the Lord’s time.
• The desire to avoid forgiving offense and hold onto pain instead of handing it to Christ. 

Rather than being shocked by new information that challenges your viewpoint of the Church or the gospel, get excited! Revelation comes in response to questions. This is your chance to “level up!” If you are interested enough to ask and motivated enough to study and trusting enough to wait for answers, God knows you have the capacity to receive and be responsible for the answers.

In a similar vein, do not think there is something wrong when you have problems. You will have lots of big problems! Our purpose on earth is to solve problems as we covenant with God, receive priesthood power, use it to bless others, and draw heaven and earth together in one eternal family. This brings great joy (eventually if not immediately).

CHALLENGE

General Relief Society President Linda K. Burton issued this call to every female member of the Church through the Visiting Teaching Message in April 2014: “I invite you to memorize the oath and covenant of the priesthood, which can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-44. By doing so, I promise you that the Holy Ghost will expand your understanding of the priesthood and inspire and uplift you in wonderful ways” (Visiting Teaching Message, Ensign, April 2014).

President Linda K. Burton

To ensure that this call reached every woman in the Church, President Burton’s invitation and promise was quoted in General Conference that month by Elder Oaks (April 2014).

President Nelson restated the call to women to study the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood in the October 2019 General Conference. You men, of course, have also been encouraged to memorize the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. If we have the oath and covenant memorized, we can take it to the temple with us and learn more from the blessings there.

Recently President Nelson has said, “The heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood. I pray that truth will register upon each of your hearts because I believe it will change your life” (RMN, “Spiritual Treasures,” October 2019 General Conference).

THE MELCHIZEDEK FAMILIAL PRIESTHOOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

After his resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to his followers and invited them to accept “the promise [the oath] of the Father” if they would tarry in Jerusalem until they were “endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

“[The 11 remaining disciples then] went up into an upper room [and] continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren” (Acts 1:13-15). The congregation numbered about 120. They kept their sacramental covenant to meet together to worship and remember Christ.

At the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover during which Jesus was crucified, this same group “were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1). The sound of the power of God came as a rushing wind and filled the house where they were sitting and “cloven tongues like as of fire…sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4). Word of this spread and many came to see.

Peter announced to them, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit…” (Acts 2:16-18).

“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added about 3,000 souls” (Acts 2:41). Notice the genderless term “souls” instead of “men.”

TESTIMONY

I add my testimony to President Nelson’s, President Oaks’, and President Burton’s that an ongoing effort to better understand and experience priesthood power in our families and in our callings will change our lives and the lives of those we influence. It will insulate us against the power of the Adversary and fortify us to meet the challenges life will hold for us with faith and confidence in the Lord. If we cling to our covenants, we will experience the incredible joy of union with our Heavenly Parents and family.

Additional source: Barbara Gardner, The Priesthood Power of Women: In the Temple, Church, and Family, Deseret Book, 2019