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Doctrine and Covenants

Come Follow Me Week 7 – Doctrine and Covenants 12–13; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75

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by John Gee

Many years ago, a friend reported to me on a mutual friend’s conversation with his bishop. Our mutual friend wanted to ordain his twelve-year-old son to the Aaronic Priesthood. The bishop said to him: You do not believe that angelic messengers appeared to Joseph Smith. What exactly do you think you will be conferring on your son?

I never heard what his answer was, but I have long thought about the question.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a covenant organization. It consists of those who have made at least one specific covenant with God: baptism. This covenant is an agreement between God and an individual whose terms are dictated by God and it is administered by those specifically authorized by God to represent him. Both parties of the covenant need to participate in the covenant for it to be binding. God is party through his representative or agent who administers the covenant on his behalf; they are “agents . . . on the Lord’s errand” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:29). We act as agents on our own behalf, or agents unto ourselves (Doctrine and Covenants 29:35, 39; 58:28; 104:17). [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 7 – Doctrine and Covenants 12–13; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75

Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)

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by Brant Gardner

Section 10 is a new beginning for Joseph Smith. The loss of almost everything that had been translated created a crisis. Doctrine and Covenants 10:2 describes the aftermath of the loss: “And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened.” After what must have been a spiritual feast during the translation, the loss became much more that just the words that were written. The gift itself was lost. The ability to respond to the divine light was lost to darkness. Joseph lived under that weighty cloud for nearly three months.

Section 10 provides a declaration of forgiveness, and this part might have been received in the summer of 1829. With the ability to translate restored, Joseph and Oliver began translating. They started with the small amount of work that had been retained, and continued to the end of Moroni. The rest of section 10 deals with the problem of continuing the translation, of finding a new beginning for what they had translated of Mormon’s record.

Right after the Lord tells Joseph that he may translate again, he is offered sober advice for the remainder of the task, if not for the remainder of his life: “Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end. Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:4–5). [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)

Come Follow Me Week 6 – “the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan” – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11[1]

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by James Perry, PhD, FHEA

At various points in human history Satan, also known as the Devil, has sought to thwart the work of the Lord. One of the earliest efforts was when Satan tempted Cain to murder his brother, Abel. The incitement was an attempt to disrupt mankind and to spawn wickedness amongst ancient humans, but it failed (Genesis 4; Moses 5). Later Satan sought to corrupt the inhabitants of the earth to the point that they would be destroyed. However, through Noah’s righteousness humanity was preserved from complete destruction and Satan’s machinations were frustrated (Genesis 6-9).[2] Such incidents also occurred during the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ. After His baptism and while fasting in the desert Jesus was tempted to worship Satan, which He refused to do (Matthew 4).[3] Satan’s endeavours have continued over the subsequent hundreds and thousands of years and persist to this day.

The loss of the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript is an oft recounted incident in Latter-day Saint history that exemplifies the steps Satan will take to halt the work of the Lord.[4] Lucy and Martin Harris, natives of New England, were early supporters and backers of Joseph Smith and his efforts to translate the Book of Mormon. Although initially supportive Lucy Harris grew sceptical of Joseph’s story. Martin, who had originally been reluctant to back Joseph, soon found himself aiding the young seer in his curious endeavours.[5]

In February 1828, Martin Harris travelled to Harmony to visit with Joseph and to check on the progress being made. The visit with Joseph proved successful and Martin subsequently took some materials to several scholars in New York to confirm the translation. After his experience meeting with Professor Charles Anthon and other academics, Martin returned to Joseph.[6] On 12 April 1828, Martin began working as scribe while Joseph dictated the translation. Prior to Martin’s involvement Emma Smith had been helping her husband with the transcription. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 6 – “the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan” – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11[1]

Come Follow Me Week 5 – Desire and the Long Game: Doctrine and Covenants sections 6-9

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by Terryl Givens

The four sections 6-9 of the Doctrine and Covenants are thematically united by a common refrain: we receive what we desire. However, the complication comes as we learn—as did John the Beloved, Peter the apostle, Joseph the prophet and Oliver the would-be translator—that our true desires are powerful forces seldom fully known even to ourselves.

A distinctive hallmark of the Restoration is the principle of corporate salvation. LDS theology translates the metaphor of a “Father in Heaven” into literal, familial structures that are the enduring elements of a master plan to weld the entire human family into one great sociality. With virtually no Christian precedent, Latter-day Saints geographically gathered to unite their resources and energies into a literal Zion, turning the exhortation to “be one” into a concrete instance of an interdependent body of Christ. And by virtue of a baptismal covenant, enunciated in Mosiah, that emphasizes the tri-partite injunction to share burdens, mourn in solidarity, and provide mutual comfort, the Saints enact a salvation that is absolutely dependent on communal commitments. Together with the prophecy in Obadiah that multiple “saviors [we prefer ‘Healers’] on mount Zion” would arise in the latter days, we begin to more fully comprehend that we are invited—even commissioned—to be coparticipants in, rather than merely passive spectators or privileged beneficiaries of, Christ’s atoning work. A missionary force without parallel, and an astonishingly ambitious program to universalize access to salvation through world-wide family history and temple work, are but two characteristic forms by which the Saints enact that co-participation. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 5 – Desire and the Long Game: Doctrine and Covenants sections 6-9

FAIR Voice Episode #26: Wilford Woodruff Papers part 1

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Podcast: Download (73.7MB)

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This week, listen to this discussion on the Wilford Woodruff Papers and tune in next week for when Hanna will talk to Steve Harper and Jennifer Mackley about this project in more depth. Please see https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/ for more details about this exciting project. This discussion was given to FairMormon by the Wilford Woodruff Papers and features Jennifer Mackley and Steve Harper.

Jennifer has been an attorney for 24 years and is currently in private practice. She has authored or edited 21 books including Wilford Woodruff’s Witness: The Development of Temple Doctrine (2014). She has made numerous presentations and podcasts based on her research of Wilford Woodruff’s life and his pivotal role in the restoration of temple worship in the nineteenth century. She was asked to serve as the Historian for the Wilford Woodruff Family Association in 2014 and co-founded the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation in 2019 with Donald Parry. Her hope in transcribing and publishing Wilford Woodruff’s Papers is to help Church members and historians alike understand the importance of the temple and gain insights into the Restoration through Wilford’s unique perspective of the revelatory process.

Steve is a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. After graduating from BYU with a BA in history, he earned an MA in American history from Utah State University, and a PhD in early American history from Lehigh University. He began teaching at BYU Hawaii in 2000, then joined the faculty at BYU in 2002, and taught at the BYU Jerusalem Center in 2011–2012. He became a volume editor of The Joseph Smith Papers and the document editor for BYU Studies in 2002. In 2012 Steve was appointed as the managing historian and a general editor of Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, and was named editor in chief of BYU Studies Quarterly in 2018. He has authored numerous books and dozens of articles including: Promised Land (2006), Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants (2008), Joseph Smith’s First Vision (2012), and First Vision: Memory and Mormon Origins (2019).

Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5

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by Fiona Givens

D&C 3:2: “God is constant”

In his paper, delivered to the Mormon History Association conference in June of 2016, John Rogers argued that “the central influence on the New Religion’s [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] theology was Milton’s Paradise Lost. While Rogers argues that the LDS practice of polygamy and of baptism for the dead emerged from Joseph Smith’s engagement with a perhaps adumbrated version of Paradise Lost, I wish to suggest that John Milton’s portrayal of the character of the Father and Son had equal if not greater impact on Joseph’s theological thinking by way of resistance rather than absorption. In D&C 3:2, we learn that “God is constant.” Indeed, in Milton’s poem God is, described as possessing the constancy of a despot. In a fit of juvenile rage following the ingestion of the fruit of good and evil from the Tree of Knowledge, which could be transmuted into The Tree of Wisdom, “th’incensèd deity” explodes at the weakness of man, whom He had created and for whose actions he, therefore, should be responsible. “For man will… easily transgress the sole command,/Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall/He and his faithless progeny: whose fault?/Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me/ All he could have” (Milton, Paradise Lost, book III 93-97). Because “man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead… unless someone can be found sufficient to answer for his offense, and undergo punishment” all humankind must perish (Paradise Lost, Introduction). At this point, God’s Son, apparently is not of “divine similitude” with the Father. Unlike the Father, the Son of God is seen “Beyond compare… most glorious… In his face/Divine compassion visibly appeared,/Love without end, and without measure grace.” (Paradise Lost, Book III:138-142). In this portrayal, the character of the Father and Son are very different. The merciful Son steps into the breach created by Eve and Adam’s eating of the “interdicted” fruit to protect them and their posterity from His Father’s rage and eternal damnation. The Father and the Son’s characters are so disparate. One is full of wrath and the other full of divine love. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5

Come Follow Me Week Three: The Turning of Hearts

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Come Follow Me – Doctrine and Covenants 2; Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65

by Kerry Muhlestein, Ph.D.

Malachi’s promise of Elijah’s return must be of great import, for it is cited in every book of scripture. The version recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, found in Section Two, is a very small paraphrase of what Moroni told Joseph Smith when he first appeared to him. It is also found in the Joseph Smith History account of that visit (JSH 1:38-39). There is a significant difference between how Moroni quoted it to Joseph Smith and how it is preserved in Malachi or the Book of Mormon. That difference has to do with the use of the word “promise.”

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints typically think of the promise that Elijah would come to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children as being primarily fulfilled in doing what we typically speak of as family history work. This is true, but it is only part of the picture. As we see more fully what is intended by that prophecy, an increased power can flow from doing our Family History work.

For a number of years now I have been intensively studying the Abrahamic Covenant, also known as the New and Everlasting Covenant. This research has turned into several articles[1] and a book on the blessings of the covenant and the gathering of Israel, due to be released in mid-February of 2021.[2] While doing that research and writing about it, I came to realize that when you are familiar with the Abrahamic Covenant you recognize that it is referred to in the scriptures far more often than we usually suppose. The promise about Elijah is one of those times. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week Three: The Turning of Hearts

Willing to Be Weak

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Come Follow Me – Doctrine and Covenants 1

by Wendy Ulrich, PhD

Have you ever done anything that left you feeling foolish and weak? Something for which you hadn’t fully anticipated the consequences in time to avert them? Something that brought disapproval from your friends or contempt from your critics that even you had to agree might be warranted? Something that happened because you didn’t see the big picture, lacked experience with the problem at hand, lost your temper in the heat of a battle, or lost your prudence in enthusiasm for some new, shiny idea?

Yes, you have.

As have I.

How comforting the assurance that whatever others may think, whatever we may think, Jesus Christ is not alarmed by human imperfection and weakness (1 Corinthians 4:3-5; Ether 12:26-27). In fact, His preface to the Doctrine and Covenants asserts that He chooses and uses “the weak things of the world. . . [to]  break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellowman, neither trust in the arm of flesh – but that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:19-20, 23). He throws the door wide open for every weak, ordinary person to speak in His name and participate in His power. What might weakness have to do with that power?

“Calling All the Weak!” [Read more…] about Willing to Be Weak