Light and Truth

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Plural Marriage” was originally recorded in Sandy, UT on March 22, 2015, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

This talk is actually sooner than I would have liked to have given it. It is driven by events that necessitate addressing the subject. I didn’t want to put it off because if I’m going to deal with this in something that’s written it would 18 months or more from now before I could even begin on it, there are so many other projects that I have. The fact is that there are such numbers of those who have been polygamists, who have recently been rebaptized, that there is a need for someone to do the work of clarifying and addressing the subject so that people do not lapse back into mistakes. Therefore, this talk is being given, driven by the needs that currently exist, and not necessarily by whether or not I want to give this talk today. It just needs to be done and so I am going to do it. 

This talk isn’t an attempt to explain what Brigham Young thought, what John Taylor thought, what Orson Pratt thought, or what any of these other men who have gone on the record and elaborated upon this subject, thought. You have all their material in front of you if you want to know what they think; it is available to you. We are interested only in one thing and that is: What did Joseph Smith understand, what did Joseph Smith teach, what did Joseph Smith attempt to establish on the subject of the plurality of wives. 

Joseph Smith’s writings and recorded instructions on plural marriage are limited to the revelation on celestial and plural marriage, Doctrine and Covenant 132, period. That’s it. That’s all we have. Now that we have that we have a series of historical events that have taken place which color our ability to look back and understand what it was that Joseph Smith was revealing in Section 132. Today I am not going to make any attempt to go over all of the stuff that I have covered previously in Passing the Heavenly Gift or on the blog. I printed all of that out and I’ve written a surprising amount on the blog and all of that I believe to be absolutely consistent with my current understanding and consistent with what is in Passing the Heavenly Gift, and consistent with the truth as I understand it. 

Now, I know that there are people who, when it comes to the subject of plural marriage, like the subject for a variety of reasons. They may like it because of historical curiosity. They may like it because their ancestors were involved in the practice. They may like it because they use it as a tool with which to beat up other Mormons. Well, there are a lot of reasons why people enjoy the subject. 

I came to the subject of plural marriage very slowly and very cautiously and completely indifferently. I didn’t have any ancestors that were involved in the practice. I didn’t have a dog in that fight. I didn’t care. The only thing I was interested in was trying to understand it. What became remarkably apparent to me is that what we think we know on the subject of plural marriage is informed almost entirely by events that occurred in history after the death of Joseph Smith, and very little by what we learned during the life of Joseph Smith. 

There is a tendency to attribute to Joseph things that he had no connection to. There is also an enormous distortion to the historical lens as we look back to try and see what Joseph Smith was doing because of a series of events that took place, both during Joseph’s lifetime and after. There is even some amount of historical detritus that’s hanging as far back as the 1600s to the mid-1700s that come from Emanuel Swedenborg, that some people believe inspired Joseph Smith. I don’t believe that. 

There is also a fellow named Jacob Cochran. Jacob Cochran advocated the practice of what he called “spiritual wifery”. He may have had an influence on some people that were involved in Mormonism. He does not appear to have had any influence whatsoever on Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith’s vocabulary never included the term “spiritual wives” or “spiritual wifery”. That was a phrase that was coined by Jacob Cochran, and interestingly enough, was the same phrase that John Bennett would use when John Bennett was practicing what he did in Nauvoo. So while Jacob Cochran had no apparent influence upon Joseph Smith’s thinking, he may very well have influenced the thinking of Mormonism in the person of John Bennett. 

John Bennett becomes the very first historical distortion to our understanding of what Joseph Smith was doing because John Bennett became the mayor of Nauvoo, he assisted in getting the Nauvoo charter done, he was a confidant inside the highest circles of the Church. It was assumed that John Bennett knew what he was doing and talking about and he couldn’t leave the subject alone. So we’re going to talk about John Bennett. 

Before we begin I want to mention that Brian Hales has done a good job in trying to isolate Joseph Smith and looking at the practice of polygamy involving Joseph Smith alone. He’s put together three volumes of material on the subject of Joseph Smith’s polygamy and I’m going to use a couple of those volumes to read historical sources. The good thing about the work that Brian Hale has done is that he has isolated the historic source. He preserves the historic source, and then, when he offers his opinion about it, he makes it clear that this is his opinion from the material. This is how he wants to interpret it, or the suggestion that he wants to make. I like that because I disagree with a lot of the interpretations that he makes. I don’t have any disagreement with his gathering of the historical material or of his quoting of the historical material. 

As we ease into the subject I want to suggest that interpreting the material and making attribution to Joseph Smith of behavior, of understanding, of teaching, and of doctrine, is something that I think we ought to be extremely circumspect about doing. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We sing a hymn that says, “Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.” If that hymn be true, and I think it is, then Joseph Smith is included among those who are anointed by the Lord, about whom we should be very careful of evil speaking. Attributing to Joseph Smith sexual indiscretion that he was not actually involved with, and assuming that you know the heart of that man when you don’t, is something that you ought to be awfully careful about. 

There are a lot of people who, looking at the historical record and accepting the distortions of the various events, think that Joseph Smith was sexually promiscuous, given to having sexual relations with other women, involved in the very kinds of sexual misdeeds that he condemned. All of those who have written about this subject, who have gone to the trouble of carefully examining the record, take the reputation that has been developed through history concerning Joseph’s sexual activity and dialed it back dramatically. Those who have looked at it most carefully become the most equivocal on things that people take for granted that Joseph Smith did. I’m no longer willing to be equivocal. I’m willing to say that, from the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe that Joseph Smith was ever involved in adultery. I do not believe that Joseph Smith was ever involved in bigamy. It would be bigamous to marry another woman for this life when you have an existing wife. Joseph Smith had a wife. 

When he looked around in Nauvoo and said, “There are people here who say I am married to numerous women, and I look around the crowd and I can see but one.” (Meaning Emma.) I think he was telling the truth. First we will look at the record, then we’ll look at the whys. I think what Joseph was really doing was never preserved in the restoration and has not been understood. How far I’ll go in that today, I don’t know. 

Brian Hales invited me to participate with him in jointly writing a book and I actually started on that process. I’ve since changed my mind. I’ve got too many more important things to do and so that won’t happen. I begin… I want to read you some of what I started with.

The talents of the historian, the grammarian, the lawyer and the researcher can lead them to offer conclusions and to attempt to persuade others to agree with their insight. But in the end the answers do not exist. 

All those involved, (and the universe of those that were involved is quite small) died without providing a trustworthy account which would have given us the truth. We can guess to whether they did this wittingly or unwittingly. If it was unwittingly, then we might be encouraged in our quest to reconstruct the events. But if it was instead done wittingly, then we are immediately faced with the issue of why. Why did they deliberately leave an historic lacuna on a subject which would later both jar Mormonism and the United States. Perhaps nothing has so altered the history of the faith established through Joseph Smith than his introduction of plural marriage. It resulted in national scandal, federal legislation, postponement of the statehood for Utah, confiscation of LDS Church property, barring Mormons from voting or serving on juries, schisms and lingering social and familial scars that remain part of the “Mormon landscape” to the present. Joseph’s own sons, David and Joseph III, relied on Emma’s carefully parsed denials, and provoked Joseph F. Smith’s quest to gather affidavits (decades after the fact) to document the earlier practices of their father. The lawsuit over the Temple lot focused in part on this controversy in resolving ownership of property in Independence previously set apart for a Temple to be constructed. Senator Reed Smoot’s election as senator for Utah was stalled for years while hearings were convened to determine his suitability as a United States senator over this issue. President Joseph F. Smith testified in these hearings. In short, the subject cannot be called unimportant. 

If Joseph Smith had the foresight of a prophet, it is reasonable to assume it was a deliberate, witting decision to leave the record uniformed by his own account of the chronology of plural marriage. More interesting still is that likewise neither Oliver Cowdery nor Fanny Alger thought it our business to tell us definitely what went on as plural marriage was introduced, first in theory, and then in practice. 

With this conspiracy of silence by those principals directly knowledgeable about the introduction, it begs the additional question, “if this is deliberate why the silence?” Was it the result of reticence in a prudish society? It’s a reasonable conclusion. But Joseph Smith was a religious revolutionary whose private life, even private thoughts, became relevant “for the record.” He discloses, for example, his own “deep and often poignant” feelings about his encounter with God. Sharing his inner feelings, his nearly unprecedented use of “seer stones” and other difficult to understand, much less believe, information about his life did not deter him in other respects. Yet on this subject we have almost nothing from him. 

Was it because he believed the Lord did not want the information available? There were subjects about which Joseph Smith knew we would very much care, but which he could not provide us with information because the Lord wanted it withheld. For example, during an early church conference in 1831 he was asked by his brother, Hyrum, to explain how the Book of Mormon was brought forth. (It’s actually more than that. Hyrum introduced the subject and said he was turning time over to his brother who would now tell you about the story of the Book of Mormon coming forth.) In response Joseph explained, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; and …it was not expedient for him to relate these things.” (DHC 1:220.) There is no comparable statement made about the origin of plural marriage. Instead we are left with silence and the challenge of deciding what to do about the missing information. 

As a result of this omission we have the freedom to guess if we lack the self-control to refrain from doing so. In a circumstance in which we are left to venture out our own speculation about the matter, I first ask, “why?” Is there a purpose behind leaving us to our own to sort out something so shocking, culturally out of step and deeply personal as plural marriage? I venture to offer it was wittingly done precisely to prove us. Our reaction to this topic lets us put on display what is in our heart. We get to project onto the blank screen something about ourselves as we expose our presumptions, suspicions, and attributions to Joseph Smith. 

In his three-volume work, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, the underlying proof, to the extent it exists, is well gathered and presented. It represents the best to date in reconstructing the fragments from which we can reconstruct a theoretical history; to the extent it can be done at all. I take issue with the speculative chronology in these books, not with the underlying proof gathered by Brian Hales. It is appropriate, in my view, to accept the documentary stage that he sets (with only one addition) as it is set in Hales’ three volumes, and then move on to a discussion, the correct conclusion to be drawn from the available evidence, rather than to dispute the evidence itself.

The only addition I would make to the record is a statement made by Brigham Young on July 26, 1872, in a talk he gave in the Salt Lake City 14th Ward. I’m reading from The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Volume 5: 

Said that while Joseph and Oliver were translating The Book of Mormon, they had a revelation that the order of patriarchal marriage and the sealing was right. Oliver said to Joseph, “Brother Joseph, why don’t we go into the order of polygamy and practice it as the ancients did? We know it is true, then why delay?” Joseph’s reply was, “I know we know it is true and from God, but the time is not yet come.” This did not seem to suit Oliver who expressed the determination to go into the order of plural marriage anyhow, although he was ignorant of the order and the pattern and the results. Joseph said, “Oliver if you go into this thing, it is not with my faith or consent.” Disregarding the counsel of Joseph, Oliver Cowdrey took to wife Miss Annie Lyman, cousin of George A. Smith.

There is a problem with that. First of all, he’s quoting the conversation that takes place between Oliver and Joseph, and apparently quoting this off the top of his head. He was not there. He didn’t hear the conversation. He didn’t know what actually transpired and he doesn’t tell us where he got the information from that he gives to us there. I think that belongs within the record of the chronology because I put the moment in which the first portion of D&C Section 132 was given in 1829 and not in 1932. 

The earliest intrusion of the topic of plural wives that we can find anywhere is in a court proceeding that happened before the Far West High Council in April of 1838, in which there were seven charges that were preferred against Oliver Cowdrey in a Church disciplinary council leading up to the excommunication of Oliver Cowdrey. The second charge – and I’ll read it to you – second: “for seeking to destroying the character of President Joseph Smith jr by falsly insinuating that he was guilty of adultery &c.” In the transcript of the hearing, when you get far enough into the record, one of the witnesses testified concerning Oliver Cowdrey: 

…he seemed to insinuate that Joseph Smith jr was guilty of adultery, but when the question was put, if he (Joseph) had ever acknowledged to him that he was guilty of such a thing; when he answered No.

Then another witness, David Patten, testified: 

…he went to Oliver Cowdrey to enquire of him if a certain story was true respecting J. Smith’s committing adultery with a certain girl, when he turned on his heel and insinuated as though he was guilty; he then went on and gave a history of some circumstances respecting the adultery scrape [alleging] that no doubt it was true. 

Thomas Marsh testified that:

…while [he was] in Kirtland last summer, David W. Patten asked Oliver Cowdrey if he Joseph Smith jr had confessed to his wife that he was guilty of adultery with a certain girl, when Oliver cocked up his eye very knowingly and hesitated to answer the question, saying he did not know as he was bound to answer the question yet conveyed the idea that it was true. 

Joseph Smith testified in the hearing: 

Joseph Smith jr testifies that Oliver Cowdrey had been his bosom friend, therefore he intrusted him with many things. He then gave a history respecting (and these are the words from the record) the girl business. 

The record goes on. I’m only looking at excerpts from these pages. After the counsel deliberated: 

…it was decided by the Bishop and his Council that the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd charges were sustained… 

It was the second charge that dealt with adultery, the false accusation of adultery. Oliver Cowdery – the complaint that he was falsely attributing to Joseph Smith, the charge of adultery – was sustained. Satisfactorily by the circumstantial evidence, the ninth charge was sustained and “was, therefore, considered no longer a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” 

This is the High Counsel record that occurred in the court in 1838. Oliver was excommunicated. Joseph Smith was taken prisoner. He was confined to Liberty Jail. He lost his History of the Church during the same 1838 time frame because other of the three witnesses also left the faith, and so he began to recreate the history of the Church in 1838 after the court involving these allegations, and before he would be arrested and spend time in Liberty Jail. As Joseph Smith was writing his history in 1838 he was writing it in the wake of events including the allegations that had been raised in the Church disciplinary court involving Oliver Cowdrey. The charge of adultery was in front of him. His history begins: 

Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church and its progress in the world—I have been induced to write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts, as they have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my possession.

He goes on to explain within this history written in the wake of that court proceeding: 

I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been.

Joseph is making it clear. He acknowledges his sins, foibles and weaknesses, but he did not commit “malignant sins.” 

Fanny Alger may have been Joseph Smith’s first plural wife. She subsequently married a man. Between her and her husband she bore nine children. Joseph Smith fathered with Emma Smith eight children. But in the prime of their reproductive years, Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger produced no children. 

There is an account that is preserved in a record that Hales assembled about Emma Smith observing “the transaction in the barn”. Once again there is nothing other than those words given to what happened. Emma Smith came to the barn and from an ajar door was able to observe inside the barn, Joseph Smith, Fanny Alger, and Levi Hancock. Levi was given the words of a ceremony to marry the two of them for all eternity. This was “the transaction in the barn” and Emma overheard “the transaction”. 

If you take all of the material gathered by Hales and you consider it as one, “the transaction in the barn” did not involve Joseph in a haystack with a gal, caught in the very act by Emma, as a number of people have asserted. Even good-faith Mormons believe that nonsense. Even people who have the desire to uphold Joseph Smith as a prophet have attributed to him illicit sexual encounter in the barn between Joseph and Fanny Alger, witnessed by Emma Smith, which was the substance that was tried in the Oliver Cowdrey court, and it becomes clear that whatever went on in the barn did not involve adultery. Did not involve adultery. 

Brian Hales goes through and makes an elaborate effort to demonstrate that Joseph Smith may have had sexual relations with, and he takes the entire number of known or suspected wives, and he ratchets this down to a handful and he says, okay, with these it is possible. 

Let me suggest an analytical framework that might be useful. Because I would not want to be someone responsible for attributing to Joseph Smith something which is not true; I would not want to attribute a lie to him. Joseph Smith, if he be a prophet of God, is entitled to only be convicted on the same standard as we would convict anyone else. As a lawyer I know that if you’re going to convict someone of inappropriate conduct boarding on criminality, your burden of proving that is “beyond any reasonable doubt.” If you’ve got a reasonable doubt about it then you don’t go forward and convict. I think a prophet of God on this subject is entitled to the same standard of deference. Therefore, if there is reason to doubt, I say we ought doubt, and we ought not say yes, yes, now we know the truth and we know that we can attribute to Joseph Smith actions which are not his to own. 

Reading from Brian Hales Volume 1 on page 391 he observes: 

None of these women left a specific record of how Joseph Smith explained the principle of plural marriage to them, the specific path they followed to come to an acceptance of the principal, or what exactly it meant to them in terms of their daily lives and activities. 

We don’t have the necessary information from which we can reconstruct it. He does think Eliza Snow may have been one of the women with whom Joseph Smith had sexual intercourse. However, he also quotes an 1877 letter from Eliza to RLDS missionary, Daniel Lund. This is the hand of Eliza R. Snow writing this letter: 

You asked (referring to President Smith), did he authorize or practice spiritual wifery? Were you a spiritual wife? I certainly shall not acknowledge myself of having been a carnal one. 

This is Eliza Snow. If she’s not a “carnal wife” then what does that mean? The term that’s been used in the letters is the term that the missionary wrote to her and inquired of her about, and therefore she used that term. 

In all of the efforts that have been made to try and track down punitive offspring and descendents of Joseph Smith, the DNA testing has resulted in not one child ever having been established as Joseph’s. There are those that say that’s not good enough because some of the DNA testing cannot prove one way or the other. It’s equivocal. But to say that is to concede the point that you don’t have proof. So in the absence of proof, you’re going to attribute? 

One of the best comments that’s most useful to try and resolve the issue is a dying woman speaking to her – she’s now quite elderly – her full-grown daughter on her deathbed, saying to the daughter, on her deathbed, which got repeated in the 1930s: “You (daughter) have Joseph Smith as your father.” So we’ve got that statement. We presume that the dying mother would not die with a lie on her lips, saying, you are a daughter of Joseph Smith. If this woman was sealed to Joseph Smith for all eternity, it would not matter who the biological father of that child was. On her dying bed she would want her daughter to know it doesn’t matter who your biological father is, you are a daughter of Joseph Smith, because she was sealed to Joseph. And there’s no question about that. You can reach a contrary conclusion if you want to do so, but I’m telling you, the proof is not sufficient to justify those kinds of conclusions. 

In Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman writes: 

The husband knew of the plural marriage and proved in cases where Joseph married other women. The relationship would bear fruits in the afterlife. There was no certain evidence that Joseph had sexual relations with any of the wives who are married to other men.  

…The personal anguish caused by plural marriage did not stop Joseph Smith from marrying more women. … 

…Joseph did not marry women to form a warm, human companionship, but to create a network of related wives, children, and kinsmen that would endure into eternity. The revelation on marriage promised Joseph “an hundredfold [more] in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds.” Like Abraham of old, Joseph yearned for familial plenitude. He did not lust for women so much as he lusted for kin.

Romance played only a slight part. In making proposals, Joseph would sometimes say God had given a woman to him, or they were meant for each other, but there was no romantic talk of adoring love. He did not court his perspective wives by first trying to win their affections.

In trying to figure out what Joseph was all about, going back to the record of his talks, when it comes to the subject of sexual relations and the statements that we know that we can attribute to Joseph Smith, they were largely confined to denouncing adultery. They were largely confined to advocating chastity. In fact, at one point Joseph Smith said that an adulterer will not enter into the Celestial Kingdom, even if they enter into any kingdom it cannot be the Celestial Kingdom. You are forced to choose really, between circumstantial proof compounded by conjecture on the assumption that Joseph Smith was a vile hypocrite or take him at his word and accept what he says about himself, and believe and trust in what he said about himself. Well, why would we not? 

One of the obstacles to getting the truth is Mr. John C. Bennett. In the Times and Seasons edition for June 15, 1842 there is a little notice on the last page of the paper, a little notice that appears that says: 

NOTICE.

The subscribers, Members of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, withdrew the hand of fellowship from General John C. Bennett, as a christian, he having been labored with from time to time, to persuade him to amend his conduct, apparently to no good effect.

• JOSEPH SMITH
• HYRUM SMITH
• WM. LAW

The following members of the Quorum of Twelve concur in the above sentiments.

• BRIGHAM YOUNG
• HEBER C. KIMBALL
• LYMAN WIGHT
• WILLIAM SMITH
• JOHN E. PAGE
• JOHN TAYLOR
• WILFORD WOODRUFF
• GEORGE A. SMITH
• WILLARD RICHARDS

We concur in the above sentiment.

• N.K. WHITNEY
• V. KNIGHT
• GEORGE MILLER

Bishops of the above mentioned Church.

Nauvoo, May 11th, 1842

That’s the notice. That was the only thing that was intended to be done to deal with John C. Bennett. John C Bennett ‘did not go quietly into that good night.’ When you get to the July 1st edition of the Times and Seasons, almost the entire edition is devoted to dealing with John Bennett, because as soon as the notice was published he went out of his way to try and make it clear that he was the good guy and that Joseph Smith and the Mormons were the bad guys, and he began to invent and attribute to Joseph Smith and to members of the Church things that he had done. So the Times and Seasons for July 1st, the first lead article says: 

It becomes my duty to lay before for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the public generally, some important facts relative to the conduct and character of Dr. John C. Bennett, who has lately been expelled from the aforesaid Church; that the honorable part of the community may be aware of his proceedings, and be ready to treat and regard him as he ought to be regarded, viz: as an imposter and base adulterer.  

See, the little notice said nothing about this. Now they have to get into the facts. It mentions that, 

…a communication had been received at Nauvoo, from a person of respectable character, and residing in the vicinity where Bennett had lived. This letter cautioned us against him, setting forth that he was a very mean man, and had a wife, and two or three children in McConnelsville, Morgan county, Ohio; …the above letter was kept quiet, but held in reserve.  

They didn’t trust the information in the letter. But they knew it much earlier on, it’s just that Joseph had the problem of John Bennett, and he was always willing to accept repentance. They dealt with him, “finally threatening …to expose him if he did not desist. …He only broke off his publicly wicked actions… …He went to some of the females in the city, who knew nothing of him but as an honorable man, & began to teach them that promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, was a doctrine believed in by the Latter-Day Saints.” He “persuaded them that myself and others of the authorities of the church not only sanctioned, but practiced the same wicked acts; and when asked why I publicly preached so much against it, said that it was because of the prejudice of the public, and that it would cause trouble in my own house.”

The females that he was trying to persuade to participate with him said, okay, but why is Joseph always denouncing this in public? Oh, that’s a sticky piece of pone because he doesn’t want it to get up. 

He “persuaded [them, his victims] that there would be no harm if they should not make it known.” He seduced an innocent female “by his lying. Not being contented with having disgraced one female, he made an attempt upon others, and by the same plausible tale, overcame them also[.]” 

“[I]t was a fact that Bennett had a wife and children living, and that she had left him because of his ill-treatment towards her. This letter was read to Bennett, which he did not attempt to deny; but candidly acknowledged the fact.” 

 “Dr. Bennett made an attempt at suicide, by taking poison. …Without any government over his passions, he was soon busily engaged in the same wicked career, and continued until a knowledge of the same reached my ears.” I [Joseph Smith] “publicly proclaimed against it, and had those females notified to appear before the proper officers that the whole subject might be investigated and thoroughly exposed.” And was, and it goes on. 

John Bennett signed an affidavit. It says: 

John C. Bennett, who being duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith: that he never was taught anything in the least contrary to the strictest principles of the Gospel, or of virtue, or of the laws of God, or man, under any circumstances, or upon any occasion either directly or indirectly, in word or deed, by Joseph Smith; and that he never knew the said Smith to countenance any improper conduct whatever, even in public or private; and that he never did teach me in private that an illegal and illicit intercourse with females was, under any circumstances, justifiable; and that I never knew him so to teach others.   JOHN C. BENNETT. 

Sworn to, under oath, in an affidavit. 

Then, the members of the City Council, in this same edition of the Times and Seasons also signed an affidavit saying – this is them, quoting Dr. Bennett in his testimony when he came before them, quoting him: 

I publicly avow that anyone who has said that I (John Bennett) have stated that General Joseph Smith has given me authority to hold illicit intercourse with women is a liar in the face of God, those who have said it are damn liars; they are infernal liars. He never, either in public or private, gave me any such authority or license, and any person who says it is a scoundrel and a liar.  

Joseph asked him (Bennett) in front of the Council, “Will you please state definitely whether you know anything against my character, either in public or in private?” General Bennett answered, “I do not. In all my intercourse with Gen. Smith, in private and in public, he has been (entirely) virtuous.” 

Then there are affidavits that are signed by George Miller. 

The subject gets taken up again. Almost the entire edition of the August 1st Times and Seasons contains more affidavits, more public statements, more acknowledgements. This time William Law goes on the record, and William Law testifies in an affidavit that is really quite striking in defending the character of Joseph and in condemning what John Bennett attributed to him. 

If you go to the Nauvoo City and High Council minutes and you look at the trials that went on in connection with this, you find out that three days previous to May 14, 1842, Bennett resigned his mayoral post because he had been accused of “adultery, fornication, buggery and miscegenation.” Buggery was the euphemism used in that time for homosexual relations. Miscegenation was the legal status of a white person having intercourse with a black person, because that was mixing the races. He was accused of those things according to the newspaper account at the time.  

So when you get to the minutes of the trial before the (Nauvoo City) Council for July 20, 1842: 

John C. Bennett was not under duress at the time he testified before the city council, May 19, 1842, concerning Joseph Smith’s innocence and virtue and pure teaching. …there was no excitement at the time, nor was he in anywise threatened, menaced or intimidated. His appearance at the city council was voluntary; …Joseph Smith asked him if he knew anything bad concerning his public or private character. He then delivered those statements contained in the testimony voluntarily, and on his own free will, and went of his own accord, as free as any member of the Council.  

WILSON LAW, GEO A. SMITH, JOHN TAYLOR, GEO W. HARRIS, WILFORD WOODRUFF, NEWEL K. WHITNEY, VINSON KNIGHT, BRIGHAM YOUNG, HEBER C. KIMBALL, CHARLES C. RICH, JOHN P. GREEN, ORSON SPENCER, WILLIAM MARKS. 

That is signed in that setting by both Wilson Law, William Law, and William Marks. 

In the fallout from that, “[charges were preferred] as they tracked down what had been going on in Nauvoo. By May 21 of 1842 the High Council met. “[A] charge [was] [preferred] against Chauncey [L.] Higbee by George Miller for unchaste and un-virtuous conduct with the widow [Sarah] Miller, and others. Three witness[es] testified that he had seduced [several women] and at different times [had] been guilty of unchaste and unvirtuous conduct with them and taught the doctrine that it was right to have free intercourse with women if it was kept secret &c and also taught that Joseph Smith authorised him to practice these things &c”.

On May 25 a charge was preferred “against Ms. Catherine Warren by George Miller for unchaste and unvirtuous conduct with John C. Bennett and others. The defendant confessed to the charge and gave the names of several other [men] who had been guilty having unlawful intercourse with her[,] stating they taught the doctrine that it was right to have free intercourse with women and that the heads of the Church also taught and practiced it[,] …learning that the heads of the church did not believe of [the] practice [of] such things[,] she was willing to confess her sins and did repent before God for what she had done and desired earnestly that the Council would forgive her.” She furnished names. 

On September 3, 1842, “[A] charge was preferred against Gustavius Hills by Elisha Everett[,] one of the teachers of the Church[,] for illicit intercourse with a certain woman by the name of Mary Clift by which she was with child[,] and for teaching the said Mary Clift that that the heads of the Church practiced such [doctrine] & that time would come when men would have more wives than one &c”. 

“Esther Smith gave evidence that [the] defendant told her that it was lawful for people to have illicit intercourse if they only held their peac[e] …it was agreeable to the practice of some of the leading men or heads of the Church.”

Another court is held on August 12, 1842. I’m not going to bother reading more of the charges. You get the idea. They round up a significant number of people that are involved in this practice. John Bennett then, in response to the treatment that he received by the Church, sets out to tell another story. I’m reading now from John Bennett’s book, The History of the Saints, or an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. 

…I was, at least for some time, a convert to their pretended religion. This, however, is a very [grievous] error. (He’s saying that he’s been accused of being a member of the Church but it’s an error to think of him in that way.) I never believed in them or their doctrines. This is, and indeed was, from the first, well known to my friends and acquaintances in the western country, who are well aware of my reasons for connecting myself with the Prophet; which reasons I will now proceed to state.  (He writes:) …It at length occurred to me that the surest and speediest way to overthrow the Imposter, and expose his iniquity to the world, would be to profess myself a convert to his doctrines, and to join him at the seat of the dominion. …the course I was resolved to pursue would enable me to get behind the curtain, and behold, at my leisure, the secret wires of the fabric, and likewise those who moved them.

Then he addresses the obvious problem that should present itself to any one of us: Why would we believe a liar on any subject when he’s telling us that he lied in order to get there? 

“What confidence can I place in your statements, when I know, by your own confessions, that you once played a part of the hypocrite?” 

He answers that: “Suppose that by going to them, and professing to be their friends I could find out something that will help deter the evil that they have in mind, then isn’t it worth lying to get in there and doing so.” He explains that he’s really telling the truth this time, in this book, even though he admits in this book lying to the Mormons to get their confidence. That was a necessary lie, in order to be able to furnish you with the truth. 

He goes on to explain the system that he attributes to Joseph Smith. Now, I don’t believe that John Bennett, having invented the system that persuaded a number of people to participate in this sexual licentiousness in Nauvoo would invent still another system to talk about in his book, I think the system that he describes in this book is actually what he was preaching. 

He has three orders of women from the Relief Society. 

The “Cyprian Saints;” this is the first order, it’s the lowest order. She takes the white veil. “[H]er name and failing are stealthily promulgated among the trustworthy members of the Church, at whose command she is, for licentious purposes, forever after.”

The lowest order is the Cyprian Saints, and she’s disgraced, and she just gets to be used, but is given the white veil.  

The next higher order is the “Chambered Sisters of Charity”. 

Whenever one of the “Saints,” (as the Mormons style themselves,) of the male sex, becomes enamored of a female, and she responds to the feeling by reciprocal manifestation, the loving brother goes to Holy Joe, and states the case. It makes, by the bye, no difference whatever if one or both parties are already provided with conjugal helpmeets. The Prophet gravely buries his face in his hat, in which lies his peep-stone, and inquires of the Lord what are his will and pleasure in the matter. …generally, the reply permits the parties to follow the bent of their inclinations, which they do without further ceremony, though with a strict observance of secrecy, on account of the Gentiles, who have no right to the blessings and privileges so liberally granted to the Latter-day Saints.

The Chambered Sisters of Charity are the Saints “of the green veil”. He’s got three orders and when you finally get to the highest order, these are the “Consecratees of the Cloister”, or “the Cloistered Saints.”   

…by express grace and gift of God, through his Prophet the Holy Joe, are set apart and consecrated to the use and benefit of particular individuals, as secret, spiritual wives. They are the Saints of the Black Veil, and are accounted special favorites of Heaven. …Their spiritual husbands are altogether the most eminent members of the Mormon Church… When an Apostle, High Priest, Elder, or Scribe, conceives an affection…

Then he goes on to describe the licentiousness and wickedness of Mormons. 

Those who have grappled with the subject of polygamy, looking back at Joseph Smith, do so through this lens. He devotes a considerable effort in this book to attribute to Joseph Smith improprieties with Sarah Pratt while Orson Pratt was on a mission to England. John Bennett says that while Orson Pratt was on a mission, that Joseph Smith approached Sarah Pratt, and that Joseph solicited Sarah to be a plural wife of his, and that he compromised her. There is another story that got told at the time. That other story was that Sarah Pratt was one of John Bennett’s conquests, and that she did in fact prove to be unfaithful to Orson while on a mission but that she had been unfaithful, not with Joseph Smith but with John Bennett. Sarah Pratt was a loyal wife to Orson, an active member of the Church and a faithful member. She appeared to support everything that was going on until Orson Pratt decided that instead of giving his primary time to her that he was then going to divide his time equally among six wives, and that she would only receive one-sixth of his time. That was too far for her, and Sarah Pratt divorced Orson. She apostatized from Mormonism, and she became the founder of the Anti-Polygamy Society in Salt Lake City. 

However, before she left the Church and became an enemy to plural marriage she had a correspondence with Joseph Smith III. Joseph Smith III wanted to know about his father, and he obviously knew about what John Bennett had said about Joseph compromising Sarah Pratt. So Joseph Smith III, the son of Joseph Smith, wanted to know from Sarah what was going on. She answered his questions. She died, and in the Saints Herald, a newspaper that was printed by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith [III] published this account. These are the questions: 

“Did he ever at such time, or in any other time or place, make improper overtures to you or to proposals of an improper nature? Begging your pardon for the apparent indelicacy of this question.” To this Mrs. Pratt replied quietly but firmly, “No. Joseph, your father, never said an improper word to me in his life. He knew better.”   “Sister Pratt, it has been frequently told that he behaved improperly in your presence, and I have been told that I dare not come to you and ask you about your relations with him, for fear you would tell me things which would be unwelcome to me.” “You needn’t have no such fear,” she repeated, “your father was never guilty of an action or proposal with improper nature in my house, toward me, or in my presence, at any time or place. There is no truth in the reports that have been circulated about him in this regard. He was always the Christian gentleman and a noble man.”

Later, after she’s disaffected, she adopts John Bennett’s accusations. Later she tells a completely contrary story. Just as John Bennett says that he was a liar at one point but he’s telling the truth now, Sarah Pratt adopts his version of the events and there are many people who, because of the integrity with which she had lived her life before, once she decided to tell the contrary story, accepts her story and does something with that. She founded the Anti-Polygamy Society. She was an enemy to the perpetuation of polygamy. She was saying what she needed to do to try and end the order. She had been hurt by the actions of her husband. When people have an agenda you have to realize that that’s going to color what goes on. So you have the interpretive problem of John Bennett. 

The second big problem that we have is that Joseph Smith was dead in 1844 and in 1852 the public was told we do this stuff. Beginning in 1852 the Mormons decide that they’re going to publicly advocate it. Orson Pratt, the husband of Sarah Pratt, moves to Washington DC to advocate for the acceptance of polygamy in the nation’s capitol. Orson Pratt is the one who was asked to get up and give the talk. Orson Pratt’s talk is preserved in the Journal of Discourses. 

Brigham Young spoke immediately after Orson Pratt and he added this to the story: 

The revelations will be read to you. The principal spoken upon by brother Pratt, this morning, we believe in. and I tell you—for I know it—it will sail over and ride triumphantly above all the prejudice and priestcraft of the day; it will be fostered and believed in by the more intelligent portion of the world as one of the best doctrines ever proclaimed at any people. …you need not think that a mob is coming here to tread upon the sacred liberty which the Constitution of our country guarantees for us, for it will not be. The world have known, long ago, even in brother Joseph’s days, that he had more wives than one. One of the Senators in Congress knew it very well. Did he oppose it? No, but he has been our friend all the day long, especially upon that subject. He said pointedly to his friends, “If the United States do not adopt that very method—let them continue on as they now are—pursue the precise course they are now pursuing, and it will come to this— that their generations will not live until they are 30 years old. They are going to destruction; disease is spreading so fast among the inhabitants of the United States, that they are born rotten with it, and in a few years they are gone.” Said he, “Joseph has introduced the best plan for restoring and establishing strength and long life among men, of any man on earth; and the Mormons are very good and virtuous people.”   Many others are of the same mind, they are not ignorant of what we are doing in our social capacity. They have cried out, “Proclaim it.” But it would not do, a few years ago, everything must come in time, as there is a time to all things. I am now ready to proclaim it.

Interpreting that, while they were still in Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, the senator, he was not a senator at the time, he become a senator after. He was a senator at the time of this talk by Brigham Young. Stephen A. Douglas, senator in the United States, encouraged them to go public with polygamy because everyone would see the common sense of it. The health, the people dying, the people being born, that was venereal disease. He was saying, yes, if they could marry more women then they wouldn’t catch venereal disease with the prostitutes, so it will contribute to public hygiene if we can get rid of all of the prostitution by making wives of the women. This is the thinking of Stephen A. Douglas, commended to Brigham Young, repeated by Brigham Young on the day in which the announcement was made. 

Both the talk given by Orson Pratt and the seconding made by Brigham Young says “the Constitution” – the Constitution protects it. 

Orson Pratt went to Washington, DC and he founded a newspaper that was called The Seer. In The Seer he says: 

The doctrine of Celestial Marriage, or Marriage for all eternity, as believed and practiced by the Saints in the Utah Territory, will be clearly explained. The views of the Saints in regard to the Ancient Patriarchal Order of Matrimony, or Plurality of Wives, as developed in a Revelation given to JOSEPH Smith, the SEER, will be fully published. … [That’s the purpose of this newspaper.]  It is hoped that the President elect, the Hon. Members of Congress, the Heads of the various Departments of the National Government, the high-minded Governors and Legislative Assemblies of the several States and Territories, the Ministers of every Religious domination, and all the inhabitants of this great Republic, will patronize this Periodical, that through the medium of our own writings they may be more correctly and fully informed in regard to the peculiar doctrines, views, practices, and expectations of the Saints who now flourish in the Mountain Territory.  Orson Pratt, December 21, 1852 in Washington DC  

The Seer was published and it went in publication from 1852 thereafter for a number of years. All of those have been gathered now into a single volume that is published in a book called The Seer. I don’t know if it’s still in print but in there he advocates it. In the first edition published following the announcement it says: The Constitution and laws of the United States, being formed upon the principles of freedom; [allow for the practice of] …Plurality of wives. He makes this constitutional argument in the first volume of it. It was important to protecting the ability to practice it. It was important for them to establish as a matter of public practice that they did it, and it was an integral and important part of the religion. If it was not a fundamental part of the religion the First Amendment would not protect it. Therefore, beginning in 1852, in order to practice it and in order to win the anticipated legal argument, it was necessary to advocate for it in a way that was wholly beyond anything that Joseph Smith had ever said or done. But for the next 38 years in public what the leadership of the Church did every time they were given an opportunity to do so, was to emphasize that plural wives was an essential part of the religion because they knew if it was not so regarded then they could not be constitutionally protected. 

This is another distortion in the lens of trying to figure out what Joseph was up to. If you take what was said during that 38-year time period and you say, that is exactly what Joseph Smith meant, you’re going to reach a conclusion about what Joseph Smith meant that should not be attributed to him. You can attribute it to Brigham Young, you can attribute it to Stephen A. Douglas. You can certainly say you know what Orson Pratt thinks about plural marriage. You can say all of that. But what you cannot say is that they knew what Joseph was doing. They can’t do that. 

A great deal more could be said about all that but I want to keep this to a reasonable time period and I want to ask the question: What was Joseph really trying to accomplish? 

Briefly, by the time you get to 1890 and the Manifesto, what the Manifesto did I think only makes it more difficult for understanding what Joseph Smith was up to. The 1890 Manifesto was not mirrored in LDS conduct. The 1890 Manifesto was a public relations press announcement saying that they were taking down the Endowment House and that the president of the Church was going to use his influence to discourage the continued practice of polygamy, but polygamy continued. Polygamy and plural marriages did not end. What happened with the Manifesto actually serves the purpose of persuading the Fundamentalists that it needed to continue, even if you have to go once again underground, and even if you have to lie, cheat, steal, and deceive, even if you’ve got to avoid the law, you still need to honor and practice it. 

There is a seven-volume history of plural marriage that’s been assembled by a polygamist, Arnold Boss, in which he walks through the history of what went on. Most of the information that he has assembled in his seven volumes of the history deals with the fact that there was more to polygamy than people knew about before it was announced publicly in 1852. And there was a whole lot more to the continuation of the practice after 1890. The formal LDS Church organization continued to practice plural marriage and to marry additional wives after 1890, including at least one Church president and members of the First Presidency and the Twelve, from 1890 until a second Manifesto in 1904; during the Reed Smoot senate confirmation hearings in which, as a witness, Joseph F. Smith was summoned to Congress, sworn under oath and then interrogated by a congressional committee in which he was asked about the practice of plural marriage, among many other things. I have the transcript of that here too, and those are useful and good reading. He denies that it was going on but he returned and then sent out a second Manifesto to make sure that what he testified to under oath was, in fact, true, and therefore he ended it because he was cornered. 

If you read the diaries and you read the journals of those that were directly involved during the time that the Manifesto was going on, and I’ve got a number of those but we don’t have the time to read all the excerpts, the fact is that when the Manifesto was adopted it was adopted really as a ruse and when the testimony was required by the Special Master, Wilford Woodruff went far beyond where he thought he was going to go before he went in. But they had a game plan going in. The Special Master before the Magistrate Judge in the Federal District Court didn’t give him any wiggle room. They were caught and they had to abandon plural marriage, but the way that they abandoned it was a ruse, and it remained a ruse until 1904. In 1904 Joseph F. Smith sent out a second Manifesto when two of the members of the Twelve were later caught by the Salt Lake Tribune in continuing the practice; the two of them were excommunicated. Well, one of them was excommunicated. Both of them lost their positions in the Quorum of the Twelve. That signalled essentially the end. If you want to know whether or not it continued thereafter then there are commentaries that will relate to you the history. 

Another source of material about the continuation of the practice is the collected works of Ogden Kraut. His son, Kevin Kraut, has given me the first five volumes. It’s anticipated it will be seven in total. What the fundamentalists do is that they come and they tell you about the history that the LDS Church denies. They make it seem as though there is more to the requirement of plural marriage than there ever was, but they have a lot of history that we deny. The continuing splinter groups including Arnold Boss’s works, Ogden Kraut’s works, and others that are out there working to preserve the Fundamentalist polygamy practice have done a job of defending the practice using material that is authentic, it is real, and that justifies the practice. All of which, when you put it together, doesn’t help understand what Joseph Smith was doing or why. You can take all of that stuff from John Bennett. You can take everything that has been said, written, preached. You can take the entirety of The Seer by Orson Pratt. You can read and study it all and it still doesn’t tell you what Joseph Smith was doing or why. 

I read you the statement from Hales. The women who were involved didn’t tell you anything. And Joseph told you nothing. And what you’re left with at the end of all this is Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants which is not an easy section to understand. 

I went to some effort in Passing the Heavenly Gift to show that it is actually not one revelation but several, and that the exalting, eternal principle of marriage is dealt with in the first part of the revelation in which it talks about marriage between a man and a wife, singular, a wife. The revelation is about the eternal nature of the marriage covenant which exalts. Secondarily it answers the question about what happened with David and Solomon and Abraham and these others who had many wives, and then it lists the extremely narrow criteria in which that’s permitted. We don’t have any proof that Joseph Smith had sexual relations with any woman other than Emma Smith. He didn’t produce children with anyone other than her. 

Nauvooan Eliza Jane Churchill Webb wrote in 1876: “Joseph never had any living children by his polygamist women.” When asked on November 1, 1879, “Why did Joseph Smith the Prophet have no children?” Joseph F. Smith responded: “Because it would have been against him and the law of the state against bigamy. The children would have been proven to be his or the mothers would have been condemned for illicit intercourse, polygamous marriages not being considered legitimate marriages.”

Joseph F. Smith says he didn’t have children. You could not have intercourse before Griswold v. Connecticut without risking having children. Therefore, what Joseph Smith was doing with plural marriage may be something altogether different. If you’re going to try and understand what that was about you’re going to have to throw away everything you think you understand about plural marriage and allow some things from the scriptures to penetrate. 

Joseph Smith was doing something which did not just put together a man and a wife. He was doing something that put together families. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a mock-up of a family. It’s a mock-up of the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the First Presidency, and the twelve sons of Jacob in the Quorum of the Twelve, and the seventy descendents who went into Egypt when they migrated into Egypt when Joseph was counselor to Pharaoh that you can read in Exodus 1:5. That’s the church. It is a mock-up, it is an imitation, it is a facsimile of the family of Abraham. It is not the family of Abraham, but it is a powerful evidence that the family of Abraham is, in fact, something Joseph Smith was interested in restoring. Eventually that which is a mockery is going to give way that which is the family. First you have a schoolmaster and then you have the reality. Joseph was headed to the reality but he didn’t get there in his day. 

In the immediate aftermath of Joseph’s death and the completion of the Nauvoo temple there were a lot of questions that could not then be answered because they simply no longer had the keys with which to get the answers to the questions that were pressing upon them. If they didn’t have the ability to ask and get an answer then they couldn’t get direction. And they couldn’t. Therefore, what Joseph was doing was left without a culmination. 

You can go out, and there is physical proof in the restored Nauvoo Temple. You can see this on the website where the photograph was taken and put up, bear record where there’s a place where the brick size changes in the construction of the Nauvoo temple. They were making small bricks and you can see how far up the small bricks run on the outside of the temple. When Joseph was killed, in order to complete the temple in greater haste, the size of the bricks increase and so there’s a point in which the size of the bricks go from small to larger when they are hastening the work in which they’re trying to get the building done. The level at which the temple had been completed at the time of the martyrdom essentially was a repetition of what had been built in the Kirtland Temple. It is the Solemn Assembly room. 

Joseph never lived to tell anyone how to build the top of the Nauvoo temple. So when they got to the point that they were finishing the Nauvoo temple they didn’t have any plans for what happened in the attic area other than the rooms around the perimeter in which the priesthood was supposed to meet. And so to create the ceremonial setting in which the Nauvoo temple endowment companies were taken through they took canvas that Joseph had ordered for a bowery so they could get it out of the weather, and they took the canvas and they made partitions in the attic area to divide the rooms up in which to present the endowment in the attic of the Nauvoo temple. Had Joseph lived he would have been able to finish out that space. He didn’t live, and so they did it with canvas. They did it as a temporary thing, and they administered the endowments in that setting. 

In the process of administering those things there was something that went on that they were trying to imitate what Joseph had been talking about. Brigham Young makes an explanation shortly after they abandoned. The same month that they abandoned Nauvoo and they’re heading west he gives a talk in Winter Quarters in February 1847. This is the 16th of February. They walked out of town on the 9th, so this is a week later. He’s talking about a subject that really defines what the entirety of this topic is really involved with: 

The Lord introduced the law of adoption for the benefit of the children of men as a schoolmaster to bring them back to the covenant of the priesthood, not as some have supposed to add anything to his glory. This principle I answer is not clearly understood by many of the Elders of this church at the present time as it will hereafter be, and I confess that I have had only a smattering of these things; but when it is necessary I will attain to more knowledge on the subject and consequently will be enabled to teach and practice more and will in the meantime glorify God, the bountiful giver.

The rest of that talk is interesting, and I would comment on it but we don’t have time. This is on the 16th of February. On February 23rd, another week later, Brigham Young gives another talk. This talk is pointed to for one purpose. I want to read you a more fulsome account and suggest to you the more important purpose. This is that great occasion on which Brigham Young went to sleep and had a dream in which Joseph Smith appeared to him. Let me read you the account. I’m in the part where he’s already introduced that he’s dreaming, that he’s seen Joseph, and that Joseph is now talking to him: 

I then discovered there was a hand rail between us, Joseph stood by a window, and to the southwest of him it was very light. I was in the twilight and to the north of me it was very dark; 

Joseph is in the light, Brigham is in the dark.

I said, “Brother Joseph, the brethren you know well, better than I do; you raised them up, and brought the Priesthood to us. The brethren have a great anxiety to understand the law of adoption or sealing principles; and if you have a word of counsel for me, I should be glad to receive it.”  

Of all the things about which Brigham Young could be talking to the Prophet Joseph Smith, on this occasion the thing that comes thundering to the foreground that he would like to know about is the law of adoption. He wants to know that, standing as he is in the dark:  

Joseph stepped toward me, and looking very earnestly, yet pleasantly said, “Tell the people to be humble and faithful, be sure to keep the spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small voice; it will teach you what to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction, so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits; it will whisper peace and joy to their souls; it will take malice, hatred, strife and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness and build up the kingdom of God. Tell the brethren if they will follow the spirit of Lord they will go right. Be sure to tell the people to keep the Spirit of the Lord; and if they will, they will find themselves just as they were organized by our Father in Heaven before they came into the world. Our Father in Heaven organized the human family, but they are all disorganized and in great confusion.

Joseph’s answer to the pressing question of how do we go about getting these sealings right, is to say, “Oh, go get the Holy Ghost, and let the Holy Ghost guide you. God will get you organized.” In other words, Joseph punted on the answer. It would do no good for the answer to be given if the authority with which to administer the answer was something that wasn’t there. Therefore, rather than to tell him so that some solemn mockery continued, it was time to bring it to an end. And although they made an effort to continue in that vein for a short while, as I pointed out in Passing the Heavenly Gift everyone talked about they didn’t understand it. And in fact, some of the leading brethren said, “I didn’t believe it when I first heard it and I don’t believe it now,” and the practice of adoption came to an end.

I want to go back for a moment to what we do know from Doctrine and Covenants Section 132, that comes from the Prophet Joseph Smith because that’s it. That’s the entirety of what we have from him. In verse 7 of Section 132 it says: 

I have appointed on the earth to hold this power and I have appointed unto my servant, Joseph, to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred. 

And so on. There is only one. Only one. 

When we go to D&C 107 it talks about the order of this priesthood. I’m reading from verse 40: 

The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made. This order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in the following manner: From Adam to Seth, who was ordained by Adam at the age of sixty–nine years, and was blessed by him three years previous to his (Adam’s) death, and received the promise of God by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth; Because he (Seth) was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age. Enos was ordained at the age of one hundred and thirty–four years and four months, by the hand of Adam. God called upon Cainan in the wilderness in the fortieth year of his age; and he met Adam in journeying to the place Shedolamak.  He was eighty–seven years old when he received his ordination. Mahalaleel was four hundred and ninety–six years and seven days old when he was ordained by the hand of Adam, who also blessed him. Jared was two hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam, who also blessed him. Enoch was twenty–five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam; and he was sixty–five and Adam blessed him. And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated. Methuselah was one hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam. Lamech was thirty–two years old when he was ordained under the hand of Seth. Noah was ten years old when he was ordained under the hand of Methuselah. Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adamondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. 

When you go to the story in Moses chapter 5 and you read about Adam and Eve and their posterity, Adam and Eve have children, and the children are seduced by Satan and persuaded to be led astray. Then they have a son to whom the birthright was going to be granted because he appeared to be interested in the things of God, so much so that he was willing to offer sacrifice. That son, the older one, was named Cain, and the next son born was Abel. But Abel was more attentive to the things of God. Both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to the Lord. However, the Lord approved the sacrifice of Abel. 

At this point in the history of man, if that right of priesthood passed from Adam to Abel it would have displaced Cain. Cain sought for the right where unto he would be the one to hold that priesthood. He was the one who wanted it. The first murder that was committed was committed against the one who would inherit the birthright, done precisely for the purpose of eliminating the posterity of Abel, so that Abel, having no posterity, could not be the one through whom the birthright would be perpetuated. When Cain sought to take what God had instead appointed his younger brother to receive, Cain was deprived of the right of priesthood and it passed over him and his descendents so that Cain did not obtain the birthright. 

And Eve conceived and she bore a replacement son, and that son, Seth, became the one through whom the promises would be given. And Cain was driven out from the people. Now you have to understand that – this is in Moses chapter 6: 

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begat many sons and daughters; (Moses 6:10-11.)

Adam begat many sons and daughters, but the son named Seth was the one to whom this priesthood went because there is only one appointed.

Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begat Enos, and prophesied in all his days, and taught his son Enos in the ways of God; wherefore Enos prophesied also. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years, and begat many sons and daughters. (Moses 6:13-14.)

Seth begat Enos and many sons and daughters. But the right of the lineage and the priesthood went from Adam, to Seth, to Enos.  

This is a description of that priesthood which was briefly restored in one person, Joseph, to be given to Hyrum, because it goes to the oldest righteous descendent. And when it was first restored through Joseph Smith, Hyrum was not yet qualified. But when Hyrum became qualified by January of 1841, in the revelation given then, Hyrum is the one to whom the birthright went, being the eldest and being the one who was qualified. This is why it was necessary for Hyrum to die before Joseph, so that in this dispensation Joseph and Hyrum can stand at the head. Because if Hyrum had not died first but Joseph had died first, Joseph would have died without having had the passing.

Notice that Seth had many sons and daughters. Then you get to the next, Enos. He lived and begat Canaan. Enos also has many sons and daughters but Cannaan was the one upon whom the birthright – this follows all the way down. You can read it in Moses chapter 6 how it descends through the line. This pattern repeats over and over again.  

As I’m talking about this I’m making reference to a diagram that appeared first in The Millennial Star on January 15, 1847. But what you can see in the Joseph Smith Papers on page 298 where they reproduce the same diagram of the “kingdom of God”, the only difference being that I have filled in the names on this chart so that you can see where the names go. 

We get to the point in the history of the world in which, after the days of Shem, who was renamed “Melchizedek”, people fell into iniquity. They fell into iniquity and they lost the birthright. There was no continuation of this. It was broken by an apostasy and it had to be restored again, which ought to give all of us great hope because Abraham sought for this. He sought for a restoration of the kingdom of God. He sought for a restoration of this, which only one man on the earth can hold at a time. Abraham 1:2: 

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.  

When you are in possession of that you have no problem asking God and getting an answer. It is the right belonging to the fathers. After a period of apostasy, and the break of this line, Abraham received it by adoption. Therefore, this power has the ability to cure the break. This covenant making through God has the ability to restore the family of God, even when wicked men kill in order to destroy it, even when a substitute needs to be made, even when the fathers turn from their righteousness, yet God is able to cause it to persist. Joseph Smith was doing something which no one else either understood or had the right to perpetuate.  

This continued through ten generations from Adam to Melchizedek, but through Abraham it continued five generations. It appeared again once on the earth in a single generation that included Joseph and his brother Hyrum.  

Now even the mockery of it has come to an end, because there is no such thing as a perpetuation “in honorable mention” of the descendants of Hyrum Smith in the office of Patriarch in the Church. There have been many signs that have been given by God that He was about to do something new from the time of the death of Joseph Smith till today. All that was left at the end was for a witness to be appointed, to come and to say, “It now has come to an end.” In the last talk that I gave in the 10 lecture series I said, a witness has now come, and I am him. It has come to an end. One of the signs of it having come to an end was the passing of Eldred Smith. There are many other signs that have been given if you are looking for them. You can see them all along the line. 

Emma Smith once said that without Joseph Smith there is no church, and you know what, Emma Smith was right. Because as soon as you remove Joseph Smith out of the picture what you had essentially was a complete overthrow of the church by the Quorum of the Twelve. The Quorum of the Twelve substituted themselves in the place. The First Presidency under Joseph Smith was a quorum that the Quorum of the Twelve may be equal in authority to. But there was never a single apostle taken out of the Quorum of the Twelve moved into the First Presidency by Joseph Smith. These were two independently existing bodies. The Quorum of the Twelve did not occupy the First Presidency, and the First Presidency filled itself without regard to the Twelve.  Similarly, the Quorum of the Seventy formed a quorum equal in authority with the Quorum of the Twelve and therefore with the First Presidency also. None of this survived Brigham Young! The High Councils of Zion, the standing High Councils formed a quorum equal in authority with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. All the “keys” to rule in Israel, one hundred percent First Presidency, one hundred percent Quorum of the Twelve, one hundred percent Quorum of the Seventy, and one hundred percent in the High Councils. After Brigham Young took over that was destroyed and it became an oligarchy in which the Quorum of the Twelve runs everything, even through today. But they don’t run this and they can’t run this, and for this, God alone is in charge. 

There is more to this than you can even begin to imagine. In the last revelation I received on the subject I recorded: 

It has puzzled me how the Lord could go to visit the dead, the dead could greet the Son of God in the Spirit World where He, “declared their redemption from the bands of death. Their sleeping dust was to be restored unto its perfect frame, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them, the spirit and the body to be united never again to be divided, that they might receive a fulness of joy,” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:16-17) on the one hand; but Christ did not go to preach to the wicked, instead, “from among the righteous he organized his forces and appointed messengers clothed with power and authority and commission them to go forth.” Therefore, the very SAME spirits who rejoice at the deliverance from the grave were left in the grave and it was by them “was the Gospel preached to those who had died.” (D&C 138: 30-32). I had wondered how they could be raised from the dead and yet remain to preach to the dead. After inquiring about this matter diligently, I have learned that when the Lord declared the resurrection, He did not resurrect them. He assured them it would come, but comparatively few were resurrected with the Lord at the time He came forth from the grave. This then puzzled me to know who, then, was taken from the grave, as recorded in Matthew 27:52 (“Many of the bodies of the Saints which slept, arose”) and prophesied by Samuel and confirmed by Christ (3 Nephi 23: 9-13). Who arose that were called “many Saints” by both the New Testament and The Book of Mormon. I was shown that the spirits that rose were limited to a direct line back to Adam, requiring the hearts of the fathers and the hearts of the children to be bound together by sealing, confirmed by covenant and the Holy Spirit of Promise. This is the reason that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “have entered into their exaltation according to the promises and sit upon thrones and are not angels but are gods.” D&C 132:37. The coming of the Lord in the future will not bring an immediate resurrection— just as the resurrection of Christ did not empty the world of spirits of even the righteous dead. Those who will be prepared at His coming will remain comparatively few still. Hence, the great need to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children—and this too by covenant and sealing through the Holy Spirit of Promise.

It was abundantly clear, according to Joseph, that the only way in which this kind of a welding link could be accomplished required a temple to be built. Not the temple that was built in Kirkland that was accepted by the Lord, but something different. 

There are at least three stages in the process of restoring knowledge. The first stage is to receive it but that’s just receiving it. Receiving it is not the same thing as the second stage, which is to comprehend it. It is possible that man receives something without understanding what it was that he had received. Time and careful and solemn and ponderous thoughts are required to untangle what has been received in order to comprehend what it is that you have been given. But it is altogether something of a different order of magnitude completely separate from that to teach it. You can receive it, you can comprehend it but you may not be able to teach it. 

When it finally does get taught undoubtedly it will be taught in the manner that Joseph Smith was beginning to work on in Nauvoo that he never finished at the time that he was taken. That is by ceremony, by covenant, and this too by something given by God, and it to be established in a house that is acceptable to Him. If you want to know what Joseph Smith was doing in his efforts apart from the Church in a whole new effort, talking about something involving potentially the plurality of wives, you have to understand the birthright, you have to understand the sealing power, you have to understand he was trying to organize again on the earth the kingdom of god. He was trying to bring back the actual family but he was taken from us at the incipient stage because all that he was sent here today was to lay the groundwork, to lay the beginning, to come as an Elias. To come and to call to the world and to give to them, if they will pay attention to it, a basis upon which they can study and learn and potentially qualify for the Lord to resume the restoration and bring it to a completion. 

All of the work that gets done for the dead, where you seal yourself to your ancestors like they are going to get you anywhere, is the inverse of the model that Joseph was establishing. Joseph had people sealed to him because he had formed a link to heaven. Sealing your kindred dead to be your superior puts you in the spirit world, living among the dead, unredeemed, unresurrected, unreturned to the flesh, where you, like your kindred righteous dead can preach to the people that are in prison but it will never get you up Jacob’s Ladder back to the presence of God. It won’t even get you out of the grave. If you’re going to be part of the family of god there has to be a link and the link has to form in an unbroken chain. 

Joseph was doing something very different than what became essentially a vast wasteland of adulterous relationships unapproved by God, unsanctioned by Him, unmeriting preservation, and essentially hedging up the kingdom of god. I know there were men who received blessings under the hands of Joseph, and that Joseph held the priesthood, and that those people have blessings bestowed upon them by the authority that Joseph held. They had blessings of the priesthood even if they didn’t hold it. He blessed them. I know that Wilford Woodruff received a revelation that insisted on continuation of celestial marriage. So too, the 1886 revelation that John Taylor talks about, he will never revoke the command to practice celestial marriage. 

What is celestial marriage? It’s the first thirty-three versus of section 132. That’s where “a man” and “a woman” are sealed together for eternity. The practice of polygamy was never authorized and the way in which it was taught was not proper. Joseph Smith restored a covenant by which a family could be restored that belonged to God. He did not do it for the reasons that Brigham Young practiced it. What was done was in error, and the perpetuation of it is in error, and those who are in polygamy, who are now being baptized and coming out of it, need to end the practice with them. I do not think it is pleasing to God to tear a family apart. Therefore, no one should be abandoning the responsibility as parents of children or as members of the household, but the children in those families need to be taught that this is not pleasing to God, that it must end in this generation, because the time to end the error has come. If we don’t end the error how can we possibly expect that God will be pleased enough with us to restore the covenant to allow the connection that needs to be made back to the fathers. 

A lot more can be said but I hope that what has been said is enough to point you in a new direction. Because what God is about to do can include a return of that work that Joseph and Hyrum got to. It will not happen if we go charging out, attempting to hasten what is so deadly a proposition that an aspiring man at the beginning of the world murdered in order to interfere with it. There is no reason to charge into that path and be destroyed by the beast that waits there. The best we can and should do, is wait patiently and prayerfully on God and allow Him to determine when we are prepared to receive what He has said so many times: He would gather us as chicks under the wings of Him if we would but respond. Part of responding to Him is to allow Him to do His work in His way, in His time, by His means. 

I bear testimony to you that Joseph Smith was not a wicked man. He was a prophet of God. He was a man who was worthy before God. He condemned adultery, promiscuity, improper sexual relations; he condemned lust. In all of the bible passages regarding sexual transgressions, Joseph Smith in the Inspired Version either left them untouched or strengthened their condemnation and strengthened their advocacy of sexual purity, morality, and avoiding improper sexual relations. Joseph Smith was not the author of what has been adopted in his name.  

No matter how much you may respect Brigham Young, no matter how much you may admire the pioneers in all that they went through, and no matter how much you may respect the sacrifices that were made by good women who were trying to obey God, and put their hearts on an altar, who have earned my respect for what they did. The men were responsible for those errors, not the women, and the men will be held to account for those errors. Women did what they could. They raised their children in righteousness. As has been so often the case, men apostatize from their responsibility and women remained true and faithful to theirs. Mothers were mothers still, even under that pernicious system. But it needs to come to an end. It needs to end in order for something ever so much better to finally return. 

Of that I bear testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The post Plural Marriage appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This presentation of a paper entitled “Cutting Down the Tree of Life to Build a Wooden Bridge” at the Sunstone Symposium by Denver Snuffer was originally recorded in Salt Lake City, UT on August 2, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

Paper

Cathleen Gilbert (Moderator): Welcome to session 351 where we will hear a paper presented by Denver Snuffer entitled “Cutting Down the Tree of Life to Build a Wooden Bridge”. Sounds like an interesting topic for all of us. There will be a response by Dan Wotherspoon after that. 

First of all, I’ve been asked to, in addition to welcoming you to this symposium, I wanted to remind you that this session will be recorded, so if you can please silence your cell phones. Also, I’ve been asked to invite you to attend, if you’re interested in the book sales, because that helps support the symposium, as well. This symposium session will be presentation of a paper by Denver, a response by Dan Wotherspoon, and if there is time at the end, which we anticipate there will be, there will be question and answer also. Let me get started so we have time for our speakers, and introduce them briefly. 

Denver Snuffer is a practicing attorney who practices with the law firm of Nelson, Snuffer, Dahle, and Poulsen in Sandy, Utah. He’s active in the Utah State Bar and has co-hosted two radio programs for a total of eight years. In his spare time he has written and published fourteen books, most of them very lengthy. He is the father of nine children and resides in Sandy, Utah. 

Dan Wotherspoon has a PhD in Religion from Claremont Graduate University, with an emphasis in philosophy of religion and theology. He is a freelance writer, editor, and podcaster. He’s the host of the Mormon Matters podcast, the former editor of Sunstone magazine, and the Executive Director of Sunstone Education Foundation from 2001 to 2008. He is currently co-authoring a biography of Eugene England. He is the father of two children and resides in Bountiful, Utah. 

We will first hear from Denver Snuffer and then immediately thereafter we will hear from Dan Wotherspoon. Thank you. 

Denver Snuffer: Saturday afternoon. This is a paper that has some 160 footnotes. I’m not going to read any of the footnotes, and I’m not going to read all of the paper. I’m going to give you an excerpt from the paper today and then this evening when I return home from here, I’ll put the entire paper up for anyone that wants it as a downloadable online through my blog. 

There are four topics that are discussed in the paper. They are plural wives, ordination of black African men, pressure to ordain women, and same-sex marriage. 

The history of changing LDS doctrine, past, present and the likely future, are illustrated using these four subjects to show doctrinal changes required to build a necessary bridge between LDS Mormonism and the American public. 

Religion moves through two stages. In the first, God reveals Himself to man. This is called “restoration.” It restores man to communion with God as it was once in the Garden of Eden. In the second, man attempts to worship God according to His latest visit. This stage is always characterized by scarcity and inadequacy. 

This second part is called “apostasy,” because apostasy always follows restoration.

Institutions cannot control God. As faith in God is institutionalized, it becomes part of this world and necessarily influenced by cultural, social, legal and economic pressure. Those forces erode faith. Religious institutions are where the ideal comes into conflict with the less-than-ideal. LDS Mormonism illustrates this dynamic. Through compromises of its ideals we see the pattern unfolding in our own lifetime.

Joseph Smith bridged the gulf between man and God and entered God’s presence again. Some few of us, myself included, believe his claim. I regard him the equal of Abraham, Moses and Isaiah. But the various denominations claiming Joseph Smith as their founder again suffer scarcity and struggle to cope with God’s silence.

With time, all religious bodies confront the complex challenge of holding onto God’s word. The ever-changing present causes cracks. Churches try to patch cracks. This leads to fractures, then it leads to defections. Former believers either lose faith in the religion altogether, or faith in the church. Without a restoration’s abundance, pragmatic choices first become policy, then doctrine. God’s silence does not curtail doctrine, but often compels it.

After nearly a millennium-and-a-half, there was a great gulf between God’s last revelation and Catholic doctrines. When Gutenberg’s 1439 press and an increasingly literate population made it impossible for the Roman hierarchy to control information, Catholicism fractured. The Internet is to LDS Mormonism what Gutenberg’s press was to Catholicism. It is no longer possible for an institution to control the narrative.

Catholicism attempted to regain control in two ways: First, the “Dogs of God” (that’s the nickname that was given to the Dominicans) were unleashed to confront heresy and suppress dissent. After two-and-a-half centuries of pursuing this ill-advised course, the failure was recognized even in Rome. Pope Paul III reversed course and he launched the Counter-Reformation. A new order called the Society of Jesus (that is the Jesuits) was established at the Council of Trent to focus on needed reform. The LDS Church is following this pattern. Their first approach is to suppress dissent. The correlation infrastructure of the LDS Church has been put into place to protect doctrine and practice. An LDS group of “Dominicans,” the Strengthening the Members Committee, has been empowered to find and then remove perceived threats. Ironically, as will become apparent as we get into this paper, the original targets of the Strengthening the Members Committee were fundamentalist groups advocating the practice of plural marriage. At one time this practice was the hallmark of orthodoxy for the LDS Church. The juxtaposition of advocacy first, followed by prohibition of plural marriages, illustrates a passage. Brash confidence in God’s restoration makes the organization brave. Then faced with opposition, a quiet and distant God no longer fortifies the church. They appease the worldly forces of government and economics. From heaven’s silence men conjure “doctrines” they attribute to God. Plural marriage bespeaks this larger dynamic.

Because LDS Mormonism has “correlated”, a great deal of what it once was has been trimmed away. History and doctrine have been forgotten or rejected. By reworking history, the LDS Church has managed to brand even those who believe in Joseph Smith, and accept the same scriptures, as nevertheless “apostate” if they also challenge the newly correlated part-truths. Within LDS Mormonism a short memory is necessary to accept the history and the doctrine now taught. Long memories get its members into trouble.

For LDS Mormonism, the Internet is a bastion of unsettling or unwanted information. Some of it is inaccurate. But the more effective challenges come from on-line sources telling the truth. When a false narrative is perpetuated by the institution and then confronted by truth, it is the institution ultimately that loses. At the moment, to deal with this the LDS Church uses “search engine optimization”, meaning the LDS Church pays money to have their site come up first on search engine results. This directs traffic to church approved sources. LDS websites recount history designed to soothe the troubled Saints but it is not effective. All an inquirer need do is press through the first page or so of LDS Church website referrals to locate independent sources.

On their website, “mormonchurch.org” the church states: plural wives “was not mandatory and [is] not required for salvation[.]” This is both true (artfully using the term “salvation”) and false. It is true that plural wives are not necessary for salvation according to LDS Mormonism. But, then again, neither is faith in Christ, repentance, baptism or a good life. All are “saved” in Mormon theology, other than the sons of Perdition. Therefore, this LDS Church on-line assertion is true enough. But the LDS Church once claimed, as a matter of doctrine, plural wives was an absolute requirement for exaltation. A reader lacking familiarity with LDS vocabulary will get the wrong impression. To those who are familiar with the vocabulary, this appears to be purposeful.

Multiple wives doctrine was so secretive during Joseph Smith’s life that his wife could deny it was actually practiced. It was not until 1852 that the LDS Church publicly advocated belief in this form of marriage. The announcement caused national outrage. Abraham Lincoln’s upstart Republican Party denounced it as one of the “twin relics of barbarism,” the other being slavery. Beginning with the Morrill Act signed by President Lincoln in 1862, the full weight of national ire was brought to bear against the LDS Church. The dispute lasted three decades before the church surrendered. The final victory was achieved through the draconian measures imposed on the institution by the Edmunds-Tucker Act. The act dis-incorporated the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, giving their assets to the public school. It mandated an oath denouncing polygamy to be taken before anyone could vote, sit on a jury, or serve as a public official. It removed local judges (who were LDS) and replaced them with federally appointed judges (certain to be anti-polygamy). The act rearranged family law. It required marriage licenses, it disinherited illegitimate children, it abrogated the spousal privilege that prevented wives from testifying against their husbands in polygamy prosecution cases.

Although the LDS Church fought these laws through appeals to the US Supreme Court, they lost the fight. Faced with the dire prospect of remaining an outlaw organization, the church relented. The struggle and surrender inform LDS Church conduct in ways that remain a part of the institutional psyche. 

We begin the story five years after Joseph Smith’s death, when the doctrine of taking plural wives was first made public. Wisely, Joseph deliberately limited the practice and kept it secret. Personally, I believe that plural wives should never have been publicly adopted and preached. It was never essential to “exaltation.” Much of the content when it was preached publicly was based on advice Brigham Young received from a US Senator. To win protection under the First Amendment, it was necessary to portray plural wives as essential to the religion. But it was portrayed as salvific as part of a strategy to win in the courts. When the LDS Church lost the fight, they were faced with the conundrum of undoing an oversold doctrine.

President Brigham Young asserted the practice was constitutionally protected if it was a fundamental part of Latter-day Saint religion. When he presided, he made plural wives essential to the Church. He was encouraged in this view by an unnamed US Senator. The unidentified Senator was likely Stephen A. Douglas who had been elected to the United States Senate in 1846. They made it public in 1852. Mormon leaders defended the right to practice plural marriage as constitutional, [and] delivered sermons for three decades to define the practice as a fundamental part of their religious beliefs. Young continually asserted it was both “wholesome” and constitutionally protected.

When Orson Pratt gave the first talk announcing it publicly, the place he went first was constitutionality. He said, “If it can be proven to a demonstration, that Latter-day Saints have actually embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine of plurality of wives, it is constitutional. Should there ever be laws enacted by this government to restrict them from the free exercise of this part of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional.” That’s the first sermon in the sequence.

The month before this Brigham Young made a similar comment: “There is not a single constitution of any single state, much less the constitution of the Federal Government, that hinders a man from having two wives; and I defy all the lawyers of the United States to prove to the contrary.” It would take three decades but they did. 

President Young frequently declared this practice was essential. He claimed his sermons were “as good Scripture as is couched in this Bible.” Taking him at his word, the following quotes show what the LDS Church believed during its second phase following Joseph Smith’s death.

“Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned[.]”

“The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”

Young preached it was monogamy that was a great evil, imposed by the Romans. Romans were a band of robbers who imposed monogamy to further the Empire’s lust for prostitution. But polygamy was, according to Young, the only religion practiced in heaven. The Romans imposed monogamy in order to produce an excess of unmarried women, and according to Young this was responsible for prostitution and whoredom throughout the Christian world. 

Young warned women that they risked servitude in eternity if they objected to their husbands taking plural wives in this life. They would serve those who lived polygamy in this life, who would be elevated to godhood. 

Even speaking against plural wives could imperil your eternal reward: “Those who spoke against a Plurality of wives & in there [sic] feelings will not receive it will never inherit the Celestial Kingdom of God, for it has always been practiced there and always will be.”

Plurality of wives was obligatory, not optional. If you rejected it, you were damned. Young absolutely rejected the idea of surrendering to the government. Doing so would be surrender to the devil. Polygamy was God’s command and could not be disobeyed. Surrender to man’s law was impossible because only God’s law could save. 

Young called out the hypocrisy of the society condemning the Saints. LDS women were wives and mothers. Congress was against that but tolerated adultery and illegitimacy. This doctrine was essential for the faithful to practice. Mormonism held forth the promise that man could become like God. But becoming gods in the afterlife demanded polygamy in the here and now. The only men who would qualify as “sons of God” were those whose quiver was filled with children produced by multiple women bearing offspring for him.

Brigham Young died August 29, 1877 and was succeeded by John Taylor. When Taylor took over LDS Church history was more the product of Brigham Young than Joseph Smith. Smith led the church for 14 years, Young for 33. The doctrine of plural wives had become public and essential under Young. The doctrine of plurality of wives had become carved in stone. As the Church’s president, Taylor was just as emphatic about plural wives to qualify for exaltation. He had a full quiver of nine wives who bore him thirty-four children. Taylor preached it was apostasy to oppose polygamy.

Facing Federal prosecution under anti-polygamy legislation, Taylor spent the years of his presidency in hiding. He wrote a revelation on September 27, 1886 confirming to his mind the necessity of complying with the practice of plural wives. The revelation does not mention “plural wives” but refers instead to “the New and Everlasting Covenant” which he and Mormon fundamentalists, regard necessarily to include plural wives. He died in exile, firmly defending the practice, and preaching it must be continued. 

Taylor was succeeded by Wilford Woodruff, likewise a full-quivered polygamist, having seven wives (or more, because our history leaves some of that open) and fathering thirty-three children. He was equally adamant about the indispensable practice of plural wives. Mormons would practice it “come life or come death” he declared. Like Taylor before him, Woodruff wrote a revelation confirming polygamy was not to be abandoned. The document was read to the Twelve on December 19, 1889. First Presidency Secretary John Nuttall recorded in his diary: “As I wrote at his dictation, I felt better all the time and when I completed I felt as light and joyous as it is possible to feel, for I was satisfied that Prest. Woodruff had received the word of the Lord.”

Despite heaven urging them to continue, both society and the US Government were pulling in the opposite direction. Legal setbacks continued to accumulate. Reynolds v. United States upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act making it a federal crime to practice plural marriage. The polygamist Church leadership was guilty of a federal crime. Davis v. Beason upheld the Idaho test oath designed to disqualify Mormons from jury duty and public office. The Late Corporation of the Mormon Church v. United States upheld Federal seizure of LDS Church property. It was expected the government would take possession of all LDS Temples.

When The Late Corporation of the Mormon Church decision was announced on May 19, 1890, a member of the Twelve Apostles recorded the internal reaction: “By the provisions of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, the property of the Church was ordered escheated for the use of the [public] schools. In pursuance of this provision some $750,000 worth of church property was seized and placed in the hands of a receiver.”

Events unfolded quickly once the church lost its property. US Secretary of State, James G. Blaine prepared a document on June 12th for Church leaders to sign renouncing plural marriage. There is only one existing document referring to a pre-Manifesto policy change. It was prepared two months before the Manifesto. Abraham H. Cannon’s diary records on July 10th (he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve at the time): “The resolution of the First Presidency of June 30/90 in regard to plural marriages was read. It is to the effect that none shall be permitted to occur even in Mexico unless the contracting parties, or at least the female, has resolved to remain in that country.”

The church’s worst fears were confirmed August 26th when the former Federal receiver, Frank Dyer related the US would soon attempt “to confiscate the Logan, Manti and St. George temples on the grounds that they are not used for public worship.” Keep those dates in mind now. 

Woodruff got the revelation on December 1889. The decision was in May of 1890, and on September 24th Wilford Woodruff issued the press release now called the “Manifesto” in which he denied plural marriages were taking place. The LDS Church would continue to practice plural marriages until a second “Manifesto” issued by President Joseph F. Smith in 1904. Plural marriages came into the LDS Church in secret before it became public. Likewise, it remained in secret after the 1890 Manifesto, ultimately dying sometime after 1904. It is now denounced and those who practice it are excommunicated.

The LDS Church was finally motivated by popular disapproval and federal legislation to abandon plural wives. In a sacrament meeting, the First Presidency the Twelve, on April 2, 1891, President Woodruff defended the Manifesto by claiming he had been “inspired” by God to issue the document, but polygamy would yet be restored in the Church.

Resistance to the popular will and Federal legislation had proven impossible. The LDS Church would not have survived as a legal enterprise if their members could not vote, serve on juries, hold public office, and if their temples were taken, their property escheated to the government, and their officials jailed. There was no other choice if the Church wanted to remain a corporate entity, possessing property, and practicing their religion. Polygamy had to go or LDS Mormonism would be obliterated. The Church chose to keep its corporate status and property. It wanted to continue as it had developed. Today likewise the LDS Church wants to retain its tax preference, and it owns much more property than in 1890. A recent acquisition of property in Florida resulted in one newspaper headline: “Mormon Church purchases 2% of the state of Florida for half a million dollars.”

The likelihood of the LDS Church ever becoming embroiled in a similar battle of wills with the US government is improbable. As it did in the past, the church will find some way to bridge the gulf between its teachings and governmental ire. It has much more at stake today than the estimated $750,000 taken at the time of Edmunds-Tucker Act. It would lose perhaps more than that weekly if the Church’s tax-exempt status were now revoked. Today the LDS Church must be more nimble regarding public opinion than ever before because today it has more at risk than ever before.

So we turn to the next subject, which is ordination of black Africans. Another abandoned LDS doctrine involves the status of black Africans. While welcomed as members, blacks were denied ordination. Brigham Young began, and other leaders echoed, teachings relegating black Africans to doctrinally inferior status.

Slavery in America began centuries before the United States. From the late 1400’s African slaves were transported to the Americas. By the end of the 19th Century there had been five times as many Africans brought to the Americas than Europeans. African slavery was a fact of life in the English colonies before the American Revolution. Once the US was independent, it had an economic infrastructure in which African slavery was a fact of life. Before considering or condemning the LDS Church’s teachings, the larger social, legal and economic setting should be remembered. Context is everything. 

In 1856 the Republican Party was formed, in part to oppose the spread of slavery into the property that was acquired through the Mexican-American war. In 1857 the US Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision. The ruling established that blacks free or slave, had no citizenship rights and therefore no standing to sue in Federal courts.

On January 16, 1852, Young explained to the Utah Territorial Legislature Africans were the “seed of Cain” and could not hold priesthood. He described them as black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, wild, and unintelligent members of the human family. (He did acknowledge them as members of the human family.) “[A]ny man having one drop of the seed of [Cain] .in him cannot hold the priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spake it before I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ I know it is true and others know it.”

The curse was not just to protect the right to priesthood; it was also to prevent intermarriage. Said Young, “If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.”

The nation fought the Civil War but slavery was only concluded by the adoption of the 13th Amendment in 1865. To make the 13th Amendment a restriction on State conduct, the 14th Amendment was likewise adopted. The 14th Amendment says: 

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; …nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The post-Civil War constitutional amendments were only the beginning of the process to establish equality for former slaves and their descendants. Segregation in post-Civil War America was legal, having been approved by the Supreme Court.

Although Brigham Young’s comments about interracial marriage seem offensive in 2014, the United States had widespread laws making such marriages illegal. They were referred to as “Anti-Miscegenation” statutes. It was not until 1948 that California became the first state to strike down such a statute. And it took the United States Supreme Court until 1967 to finally decide that in all states of the Union interracial marriage could not be prohibited because that was unconstitutional, 1967.

The civil rights movement, the NAACP, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and the Civil Rights Act, all required to change the status of descendants of former slaves in the American culture. 

While the civil rights movement was gaining momentum, LDS Church leaders remained committed to preserve their racial teachings. Apostle Mark E. Peterson defended the Church’s position at a BYU audience of Institute and Seminary teachers in 1954 at BYU. He said: “No person having the least particle of negro blood can hold the priesthood. It does not matter if they are one-sixth negro or one-hundred and sixth, the curse of no Priesthood is the same. If an individual who is entitled to the priesthood marries a negro, the Lord has decreed that only spirits who are not eligible for the priesthood will come to that marriage as children.”

The question was so well settled that when LDS Church leader Bruce R. McConkie assembled an encyclopedic summary of Mormon beliefs titled Mormon Doctrine, he could state with authority under the entry “Negro” this: “The negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow therefrom, but this inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate.”

The clear legal trends, however, were against discrimination. Institutional racial discrimination had been targeted by the civil rights organizations for years. As would be expected, the LDS Church came to the attention of the NAACP. Efforts were made to negotiate for change. In 1963 the NAACP leadership attempted to meet with LDS Church leaders but the Church refused. A meeting took place two years later in 1965. The LDS Church agreed in that meeting to support civil rights legislation pending in the Utah legislature. They agreed to publish an editorial in the Deseret News. The Church failed to keep the agreement. First Presidency member N. Eldon Tanner explained, “We have decided to remain silent.”

By March of 1965, the NAACP took more public means to pressure the LDS Church. They organized an anti-discrimination march in Salt Lake City to protest the Church’s policies. The next year the NAACP issued a statement criticizing the Church, complaining it “maintained a rigid and continuous segregation stand” and has made “no effort to counteract the widespread discriminatory practices in education, in housing, in employment, and other areas of life.” It’s a really well lawyered statement because if you are discriminating in education, housing, unemployment, and other areas that are constitutionally prohibited from accomplishing, that attacks you indirectly rather than going at your religious beliefs directly. Brilliant piece of lawyering there. 

Although the institution was hesitating, its membership was increasingly willing to see more racial equality. The culture was changing, and change began to exert pressure inside the LDS Church. 

In addition to the Church itself, Brigham Young University offered a visible target for protests. The University of Texas at El Paso was confronted with a protest by their track team. “After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, black members of the track team approached their coach and expressed their desire not to compete against Brigham Young University. When the coach disregarded their complaint, the athletes boycotted the meet.” And that resulted in newspaper headlines. In 1969 members of the University of Wyoming football team intended to protest during a BYU football game by wearing black armbands. The protest was aborted when the university suspended the players. That resulted in litigation that went up through the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Stanford University suspended all athletic relations with BYU in November 1969. Legal pressure on this issue was reminiscent of earlier conflicts with the Federal government. 

There were rumors the LDS Church faced a threat to remove its tax-exempt status. These rumors were denied by an LDS spokesman. However, the issue of racial discrimination was before the US courts for years prior to the LDS policy change. Bob Jones University had a policy against interracial marriage. In order to enforce that policy, if you were a black student they would admit you only if you were married. The Bob Jones University case was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court permitting the IRS to revoke tax-exempt status because of racial discrimination. A direct threat by the US government would not have been necessary in the circumstances. The threat of taxation can ultimately destroy any institution, including the LDS Church. Chief Justice John Marshall coined the truism: “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”

Faced with the obvious national trend against institutional racism, and with the memory of its past conflict with the US, the LDS Church changed its teaching June 8, 1978. Prior to this, efforts to make the change were unsuccessful because Church leaders were unable to get approval from God. President Spencer W. Kimball turned the problem around. He wanted the change. He pondered it for months. He had a growing conviction that it would be a good thing to accomplish. He consulted carefully with the Twelve, he took their comments and he sought their advice. When the day came to decide the matter, he did not pray to have Divine approval, instead he presumed it to be time for changing the Church’s policy and asked to be clearly told not to proceed if the Lord objected. Hearing no objection from the Twelve, his counselors, or heaven, the change was adopted. It was implemented in 1978 and announced in Official Declaration 2, now part of the Doctrine & Covenants.

It is obvious the LDS Church could not admit forfeiting priesthood because African Americans are now ordained. It is equally obvious this change is incompatible with prior teaching. To bridge this gulf, the Church issued a press release titled Race and the Church: All Are Alike Unto God. The contradiction is accounted for by “the absence of direct revelation” to guide the earlier Church leaders. The return of scarcity is blamed. “The origins of priesthood availability are not entirely clear. Some explanations with respect to this matter were made in the absence of direct revelation and references to these explanations are sometimes cited in publications. These previous personal statements do not represent Church doctrine.” This is the process. Scarcity forces the institution to substitute man’s doctrinal innovations for God’s voice. Restoration ends and apostasy begins.

In addition to now denigrating earlier prophets, seers and revelators for not having revelation to guide them, the LDS Church also unequivocally condemned them in a lengthy editorial on their lds.org website: “None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church. …Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.” They attribute their earlier missteps to US history, including legalized slavery, when the LDS Church began. 

Those are two things from the past. Now there are issues upon us at the moment. Homosexuality is a big issue with some of the people in this room, about whom I care a great deal. It’s an issue. It’s a personal issue. 

Latter-day Saint history has surprisingly few teachings addressing homosexuality. It is a topic of only recent importance. There is a timeline published on the website “No More Strangers: LGBT Mormon Forum”, which retells many of the events. The issue did not emerge into direct and regular discussion until the 1950’s. 

Under traditional LDS doctrine recently articulated, homosexuality is sinful, requiring repentance. In Spencer W. Kimball’s book The Miracle of Forgiveness, he wrote: “the seriousness of the sin of homosexuality is equal to or greater than that of fornication or adultery; and that the Lord’s Church will as readily take action to disfellowship or excommunicate the unrepentant practicing homosexual as it will the unrepentant fornicator or adulterer.”

In a chapter titled Crime Against Nature, Spencer Kimball called it “unnatural and wrong.” He elaborated: “All such deviations from normal, proper heterosexual relationships…” (Boy, that reminds me of some of the Church Handbook of Instruction stuff and admonitions from the Church Office Building to make Stake Presidents and Bishops less inquisitive.) “All such deviations from normal, proper heterosexual relationships…” (And I suppose part of the definition of that would depend upon the gymnastic ability and the yoga practices of the couple involved.) “…are not merely unnatural but wrong in the sight of God. Like adultery, incest and bestiality they carried the death penalty under the Mosaic law.” You know, as Latter-day Saints, sex is one of those subjects about which I think you’re all gripping right now. My goodness! What’s he going to say? Well, I’ll keep that to myself. 

A grim milestone was set in 1965 when five young Mormons, all homosexuals, all counseled by Spencer W. Kimball for homosexual sin; and all of them committed suicide. All of them were in their early 20’s. Three had recently returned from missionary service. All had been BYU students. The year that these five suicides took place… Let me read you from Ernest Wilkinson’s devotional talk that he delivered in that same year: “Nor do we intend to admit to our campus any homosexuals. If any of you has this tendency and have not completely abandoned it, may I suggest that you leave the University immediately after this assembly …we do not want others on this campus to be contaminated by your presence.”

In the United States there is a tidal wave of legal activity on homosexual rights, right now underway. Since 2003 every state has either legalized same-sex marriage or adopted laws prohibiting it.

In Utah an amendment was put on the November 2004 ballot. It passed with approximately 66% of the vote favoring the amendment to Article I, §29, adding the following language to the Utah constitution: “Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent effect.” This provision took effect in January 1, 2005. It was declared unconstitutional in December 2013 by the US District Court here in Utah. Last month the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. 

Proposition 8 in California faced the same state electoral vote in November of 2008. The ballot fight was aided by the LDS Church providing both vocal support, and assisting with door-to-door campaign efforts. Before the vote was taken, church leaders David A. Bednar, Russell [Ballard], and Quentin Cook (of the Twelve) and Whitney Clayton (of the Seventy) broadcast video into California urging Church members to be involved in supporting Proposition 8. When the vote was counted, the LDS effort had proven decisive and Proposition 8 passed. A post Proposition 8 statement from the LDS Church made this announcement: “The Church expresses deep appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the many Latter-day Saints and others who supported the coalitions in efforts regarding these amendments.”

LDS opposition to Proposition 8 resulted in an organized effort to revoke the LDS Church’s tax exempt status. A website was established to instruct those willing to protest on how to approach removing the 501c3 status of the church. The protest focused on the Internal Revenue Code provision which limited favorable tax treatment to institutions “organized and operated exclusively for religious” purposes and in which “no part of the earnings” and “no substantial part of the activities involves carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation.” 

The LDS Church has been publicly softening its position on homosexuality since winning the Proposition 8 battle. The Boy Scouts change to accept homosexuals was immediately approved by the LDS Church as a visible mea culpa. This is also true of others involved with Proposition 8. An LDS writer has advocated same-sex temple marriage in a popular Mormon journal.

The Deseret News national web issued an article on Friday saying that the IRS is now investigating political activity by churches. 

The LDS Church is necessarily attentive to legal trends. Its existence was once hanging by the thinnest of threads because of laws targeting it. Lawyers are consistently among the highest leadership of the LDS Church. The legal, economic, [and] social environment in which LDS Mormonism has evolved cannot be divorced from its evolving doctrine, because many changes were adaptations to this environment. 

So we turn to women. 

When Joseph Smith was alive, women had limited property rights. When they married their property became the property of their husbands under the common law doctrine. It was not until beginning in the 1840’s that some states first began to modify the common law in order to protect women’s property from their husbands and their husbands’ creditors.

Women’s right to vote in the US began in 1869 in Wyoming. They were allowed to serve on juries in Wyoming beginning in that year. In 1893 Colorado let women vote. In 1896 Idaho and Utah did likewise. Keep this in mind because you live in a fundamentally different world than the world in which Mormonism began. The National Organization for Women was created in 1966 to pursue equal rights for women. 

The ACLU announces on its website “Forty years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) board of directors determined that women’s rights should be the organization’s highest priority. They created the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and named Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the first director. She is now on the United States Supreme Court, and the Women’s Rights Project (WRP) has won many landmark court decisions, and achieved significant legislative successes. They have shifted public awareness and understanding of women’s equality issues.”

The right to have contraception was determined in the Griswold case written by Justice William O. Douglas, who wrote that the right was found in the “penumbras” and “emanations” of other rights that are enumerated. A penumbra is that hazy place between the lamp that is shining in the darkness beyond; it’s just the gray area in between. That’s where you find these rights. 

The innovation would produce another dramatic penumbral decision in Justice Blackman’s landmark abortion ruling eight years later. In the newly found constitutional “penumbra” Justice Harry Blackmun found the right to privacy also gave women the right to an abortion. Writing for a 7-2 majority in Roe V. Wade, he said: “The right to privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the district court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” At the time of the decision all states limited abortion, and the majority prohibited abortion altogether. The dissenting opinion of Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist lamented the majority exercised improvident and extravagant judicial power to fashion a new constitutional right.

Whether it was improvident or not, the culture of the United States has been shaped by Roe v. Wade from 1973 to the present. At present it is estimated over 56 million Americans do not live today, having been aborted. That holocaust was designed to target an unwanted population, and it has worked as intended. 

In 1986 the US Supreme Court found that sexual harassment is a form of illegal job discrimination. In 1999 the Supreme Court ruled there were punitive damages available for sex discrimination. In 2009 President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. In 2013 Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women serving in combat roles, reversing a 1994 rule. 

All these larger national events affected views of Latter-day Saints. From imposing short haircuts on missionaries and BYU students, warning about “hippies” and drug use, advocating large families and not artificially limiting births, to denouncing rock and roll music, the LDS Church has been reactionary, trying to slow cultural changes. Whether viewed as progress or decay, LDS leaders have fought it.

The Ordain Women organization maintains a website in which Mormons are given a place to advocate change in LDS Church policy. They hope to end “gender inequality” by “calling attention to the need for the ordination of Mormon women to the priesthood.” The public has responded with numerous profiles pleading for change to LDS doctrine. The Church responded through the Deseret News in an article March 17, 2014 titled LDS Church: Aims of ‘Ordain Women’ Detract from Dialogue. But the following month in General Conference, Apostle Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk titled: The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood in which he said, “The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood.” But he added this: “We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. …Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.”

And so according to Oaks, women can use the authority of the priesthood, though not necessarily ordained. Extending this reasoning to its logical conclusion, women will one day be able to baptize with “authority” borrowed from a male key-holder. If institutional discrimination on the basis of sex ever threatens the LDS Church’s tax-exempt status, this seminal General Conference talk by a former Justice on the Utah Supreme Court can be the basis to permit the first female Bishop to serve, using authority borrowed from a male key-holder. In fact, under this paradigm, you really only need one guy and everyone can function. 

In conclusion, LDS Mormonism claims Joseph Smith as its founder. Joseph thought his restoration one day would revolutionize the world. It was a “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” that would roll forth and grind to dust all other institutions. Brigham Young thought one of the necessary obstacles needing grinding was the US Government. However, LDS Church’s history is filled with the contrary process: The US culture has been grinding away at LDS Mormonism’s peculiar doctrines, and pushing it to conform with national cultural changes. It is not difficult to foresee how the present legal and social environment will influence future position changes on women’s rights and more open acceptance of homosexuality. We should all expect that the Church is going to do this. 

There are two possibilities to account for the LDS Church’s history of compromise on their doctrine. The first possibility is these teachings, although once proclaimed to be fundamental, even necessary to obtain exaltation in the afterlife, were falsely portrayed in the first place. The Book of Mormon seems to support this view. That is, if you read what Christ announces as His doctrine. In that statement Christ makes no mention of plural wives, priesthood, priesthood bans, or homosexuality. And Christ’s admonition ends with “whoso shall declare more or less than this and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil.” 

Well, if this is so, then contrary to LDS past claims, no soul was ever damned by refusing to accept the doctrine of plural wives. Nor was God going to take away all priesthood from the church as soon as the church attempted to ordain black African descendants. Nor has Almighty banned women from the priesthood. Nor is homosexuality a serious moral offense before God. God’s silence led the LDS Church to oversell these teachings and therefore they were, and are, free to “correct” them.

The other possibility is they got the doctrine right before, and by accommodating American legal and cultural demands the LDS Mormonism has been cutting down the Tree of Life to build a wooden bridge. If this is the case, then popular will, Federal legislation, and the US Supreme Court will have more to say in the future about LDS Mormon doctrine than the Church’s “prophets, seers and revelators,” just as they have exerted the primary influence after Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Thank you.  

Dan Wotherspoon: Denver’s paper has presented a history of past doctrinal changes along with what he sees as potential changes currently trending within Mormonism. I don’t have much to argue with in terms of his presentation of the historical moments or the leader quotations he cites. I do, however, have great difficulty with the historical narrative that he has told them within, the selection of things to share or not share, and even more with his framing of his story. History…“his” “story”. Certainly it’s a story of many people here. The world is “going to hell in a handbasket,” trending the wrong way. Go back to the source. I challenge that story here. 

His is a story that ultimately culminates in a huge false dichotomy, one that he sets up in the very title as well as the final lines of his paper. Either the teachings at the heart of these four areas he touched [and] toured us through were falsely portrayed in the first place, or they are true revelations that Mormonism once got right but just now has compromised on, sold out for a mess of pottage. According to his tale our tradition has and is cutting down the Tree of Life. Forget its fruit, he seems to say. We want its lumber. We want to put it to use towards a doomed project accommodating to a fallen world. In presenting his tale and his dichotomy he excludes the huge middle, with wonderful other possible framings for this history of change. Two choices are fine in the court of law, where those involved must decide guilt or innocence. Deductive logic can be helpful at times. But the coherence of a case falls apart when there are substantive challenges to the premises one builds from. In my response today I offer an alternative vision that I believe challenges his foundation, and in doing so offer a far more satisfying and capable way of framing the same ground that he has covered. 

First however: where he and I agree. For anyone who has heard my podcasts for even six or seven episodes, or has engaged with me in conversation for a long time, you’ve probably heard me talk about a favorite metaphor and a framing for the power and the fire that is at the base of any revelation that kind of starts a church or that activates us in our hearts. It’s from the Franciscan Father, David Steindl-Rast. He talks about God’s revelation being like; when you receive that you’re in the midst of the churning volcano. It’s active, it’s going, it’s full, it is chaos. But as it erupts and as it flows over the sides we start to see it begin to cool. It is molten lava that is running down the sides but clearly you can still see the fire within it. You can see its origins. By the time it gets down to the bottom and a bit of time after the eruption, what it is? It’s simply cooled rock, very, very difficult to see what is there. 

Stephen Carter, the current editor of Sunstone, also helped to personalize this with me a few years ago, and he talks about our personal spiritual experiences. When we have them, when we are in those modes of wonderful enlightenment, almost out of body, we’re soaring with open hearts, and everything is coming to us all at once; we have that experience. But guess what, soon we begin to say, I don’t know what to make of this, and we begin to start to tell a story about that experience. Maybe we’re going to share it with our friend. “Man, you just can’t believe that I’m so expanded here, and I can’t even convey it to you, but it was kind of like this…” And you begin to tell a story. You begin tell a part, and you begin to tell a part, and then pretty soon Fast and Testimony meeting rolls around and you get up to tell that thing, and by then you’ve nailed it down to just one or two lessons from that story. So from the fire, from the expansiveness, and things like this, we begin to quiet, to tame, to cool that story, and then from that point on, unless we do–I think Denver and I both agree, and I would hope most of us here are clear–unless we continually go back and mine it for something new, we’re going to forever only interact with that story by those two or three things that we had decided to tell in Fast and Testimony meeting. For the next twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, that will be the moment of our experience instead of going back again and again to do that. 

Where he and I absolutely agree is when you get institutions involved with their own needs and with their own ends that they must serve, absolutely, it’s inferior to our direct experience with God, with our direct hearing from the divine source. So we’re one hundred percent in agreement with that. As I wrote down here, and believe I’ve shared with him in an email: “I really wish that you simply would have asserted this, instead of this long history in these four areas . . . . . Simply assert institutions get in our way. They screw up that thing. There’s another layer between us and God, and this need to do it, because if we could then attempt to simply assert it we could have gotten to the more interesting things.” 

How does God actually work with us in our lives? That’s what I hope that perhaps my conversation will prompt as you guys come up here. Certainly there are layers of his paper that I’m not addressing here at all. (Now back to text, sorry.)

I am far less certain than Denver that our societal trends, including and even especially the four areas that he discussed today, are the result of a large scale failure to hear God’s voice, to feel God’s Spirit. As Francis Bacon once observed, “God has two books; the book of his Word (scripture) and the book of his Works (nature).” We must read them both. Societies are comprised of individuals, and God works with individuals. Individuals interact with information from science and observations from nature and their own encounters with it, and with other people, and with what is new and is challenging, and they weigh it out and we weight it out in many deeply spiritual ways. God not only works and teaches us through direct wowee-zowee revelation to either ourselves or His designated prophets. The pronouncements of scripture and ancient prophets are not things that we can fully, and for all time, base our understandings of God and God’s working upon. 

As Adam Miller wrote recently, “God works with whatever small knowledge of the world we’ve already got. He speaks to people in their weakness and after the manner of their language “that they might come to an understanding.” You’ll recognize that from D&C 1. Our sacred texts witness God’s willingness to suffer this weakness. They tell of a mix of stories from many different times and places that illustrate what happens when the strength of God’s polyphonic voice gets funneled into the weakness of our mono channel ears. Miller speaks of the importance of not trying to harmonize scripture to pretend that the voices there do not agree with others. Scripture, he says, is best to meet rough, as uncut, for it is in this form that they bear witness to real revelations given to real people, because they also bear witness to the host of real weaknesses that can help socket God’s world into their worlds.

Are plural marriages, withholding of priesthood from those of certain races and sexes, and full honor of relationship status to those via biology [and] are same sex attracted, really things that we want to hang our hats on as eternal? Are they Tree of Life stuff? I thought Tree of Life stuff was the love of God, was never to exclude. Is the Tree of Life stuff only communicated in face to face direct revelations from God, to us, to our prophets? Can it also be even more reliably available to us in our ongoing and ever unfolding experiences of love? In our relationship with family and friends, in meeting someone and coming to know them such that their divinity and absolute worth and blessedness reveal themselves to us in the ways that we had previously never imagined? 

Revelations of God in such form are Denver’s excluded middle. We are presented with new information, new persons, and experiences. We do fresh dives into the holy fire, and we yield to its burnings. Of course, not everyone does this in a disciplined way or with full consciousness of what they are doing, and they certainly do not do it at the same time or at the same speed. But I read the ultimate story of life in Mormonism–contrary to Denver’s narrative–as one of advance, of ascension, not fall; of expansion, a widening of moral concern, of growth into greater relationship with all of God’s creation, and especially each other. As described by the philosopher Hegel’s powerful framing: “At each and every moment we have active theses and antithesis, antitheses at play.” Denver’s examples–he actually left out some things of hippy culture and free love and illustrating the types of excess that we learned from… Basically the things that so many people, when they present the “going to hell in a handbasket thing,” is excesses and things to avoid. You could call them the antitheses, antithesis, or whatever you’d like to do. But my assertion is that they are among our most powerful teachers. They are essential as well, that we bounce off when the new idea comes out there, we bounce off the rough parts. 

…When the Church talks about John Dehlin’s website and Kate Kelly as leading people away from the Church, to me, the bloggernacle with its free-for-all is absolutely saving the folks, especially in those voices that are so negative, so strong, so unfed-up here. They teach us what we don’t want to be. How we don’t want to be in that pain any more, just as much as they influence people out, I think. (I’ve of course botched where I’m at so hopefully this will pick up with some kind of transition.) 

Although it is halting and frustrating at times, with painful lessons [and] with many growing pains, I trust us. I trust our human hearts. I trust that we’re all susceptible to the influence of the spirit as we find ourselves faced with new questions and experiences. I trust that we are, as Paul urged, “proving all things,” and though it’s ultimately haltingly and with frustrating setbacks, whether it is sexual or other forms of excess, or ugly inspired pronouncements from those who shouldn’t be prophets, we are holding fast to that which is good. What we are seeing in both church and society is a dialectic of creative advance that is far from a compromise of ideals. 

It is many ancients, and we in our day have come to taste the fruit of the Tree of Life. We must understand it is a tree that never stops growing. Each taste can and should be fresh, far more delightful than each past bite because our senses are now better honed. And as the creative advance of the divine is showing us, even more wonderfully, it is a tree that has ever growing new varieties of delightful fruits. Many here testify of the envelopment of spirit as we meet and honor and love persons in depth, persons of all races and sexes, and who, in our encounter with them, bring all of their experiences. In the hugeness of their hearts and the fierceness of their efforts to understand the fullness of sexual identity, along with every other aspect of what it means to be a divine being in human bodies, our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and intersexed brothers and sisters serve us as teachers and prophets. From then we understand even more of creation’s richness, diversity, and goodness as we strive to love more deeply in our relationships with our husbands and wives, whether same or opposite sex as us; God is made manifest. Our hearts swell as we meet women whose gifts of hard won wisdom and leadership have been allowed to flourish. We soar with the angels as we receive the ministry of black men and the blessings from their priesthood hands, and in sitting and learning at their feet. Soon we will know this, and even more sweetness and fullness of joy with our sisters, as well. 

“And the angel said unto [Nephi] …Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all [other] things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” (1 Nephi 11:21-23). Two verses later it is compared to a fountain of the living waters. I testify that it is one that is shedding itself abroad in the hearts of all of us as we meet and ponder the meaning of all that God is showing us, the stirrings and one-on-one changes of heart and mind in these same four areas that Denver bemoans as compromise of revelations, as sure as any received by Abraham, Isaiah, or Joseph Smith. We, individuals, society, Mormonism, are on the journey that is anything but a fall. Thanks. 

———————-

Question & Answer Session

We do have times for questions so I get to make up the rules, and I also get to amend them if I decide they weren’t the best rules in the beginning. What we will do, those of you that are interested in asking a question, if you’d like to line up over here by this wall, this will be on deck in the chair. There’s the microphone, and I will call on the first one. They will be able to ask at the microphone the question. It can be asked of one or both of them. I’d like to ask Denver Snuffer and Dan Wotherspoon to keep their responses to two minutes. I know that’s concise but it seems like we might have more than one or two questions, and that would be helpful. You look like you’re ready to ask the first question. I’ll let you go ahead. 

Question: Dan, thank you for focusing on the fruit of the Tree of Life. I was looking for that in Denver’s remarks, but let me ask this question of Denver. My take away is that you stated that the LDS Church has changed fundamental doctrine, is changing, and will continue to change because of submission to social and governmental pressure for fear of losing tax status. Is that a correct take away?

Denver Snuffer: The definition of fundamental doctrine is not something that I applied to the Church; it’s what the Church has advocated on its own. I’m contrasting what the Church said at one time was fundamental doctrine, with what it has done to abrogate, denounce, renounce and even condemn unequivocally out of their own mouth, a prior practice. The motivation for accomplishing that transition was the focus of the paper. I’m not trying to make a moral judgment. I’m trying to understand the events against the backdrop of why the events took place. Not when they said were they right or wrong, but when they said it, and they said it with the “In the name of Jesus Christ” comment. Brigham Young I read, and I read that on purpose because he was stating, “I’m telling you this as my status as a prophet of God. I’m telling you this in the name of Jesus Christ, and I’m telling you this will never change,” and it’s changed. Now the Church, after making the changes, turned around and said, “We unequivocally condemn that.” That’s the purpose of the paper. The purpose of the paper is also to highlight the fact that institutionally, this is the problem. The problem is that truth and love and purity do exist, but it exists primarily in a form that is not institutional. 

According to the scriptures, one of the criticisms that were made about the paper was, “this is false dichotomy”. According to the scriptures there are only two ways, “there are save but two Churches only.” And one church, if it’s going to subject itself to institutional control, vagaries of the law, the pressure of the tax code, everything else; that church will necessarily become sullied and soiled, tossed and pulled, and ultimately wind up contradicting itself. There is another church. And I agree that that church can remain pure, unsullied, untouched, untaxed, unregulated. That purity can exist in your heart. That purity can be found between you and God. I think any institution is going to suffer the exactly same history.

Question: My question is, if the fruit of the Tree of Life is not available to homosexuals and to women once they are embraced within the Church, what will they find instead?

Comment: I don’t agree with that, that they’re denied. They should be denied. 

Denver Snuffer: The problem addressed in the paper, and the turf on which I feel very comfortable discussing, is the problem of Church doctrine, the legal pressure, fundamental positions being taken as if they were out of God’s mouth itself, and then contradicted later to illustrate the problem of the institution. I don’t think that I can, or ever should, have looked for institutional approval for my relationship with God. There was a time I did. There was a time I cared a great deal about that. But the institution has rendered that now an impossibility because I can’t serve within the Church. That hasn’t done a thing to deter my conviction, my relationship, [and] my fidelity to God. Likewise, I think in every individual’s life, this world is a terrible place and this world is a wonderful place. It is precisely wonderful because it is so terrible. It doesn’t matter what circumstances you find yourself in, everything down here is going to pull away at you. Eventually everything is going to wear out, break down. There are going to be disappointments, there is going to be challenges, there is going to be disagreements and arguments. The comfort that you find, like Joseph Smith in Liberty jail: “Peace my son, this is only going to be for a small moment, and if you endure it well you’re going to be rewarded on high.” I don’t think that an institution can embrace with love, everyone, because some of us hate some others of us, and the institution would like to love us all. And those who get control get to use the bully pulpit for their purposes, and those that don’t have it get to resent it. 

I don’t think, ultimately, that the fix will be institutional. I think it will be personal, and I think it will be individual, and I think there will be a gathering, and that gathering will be called Zion, and it will happen because the prophecies foretell it. But I don’t think it’s going to be after the fashion of something that can regulate or take control of, because anytime you manage to get control you wind up in politics and economics.

Dan Wotherspoon: In his fear of institutions, again, I argue, I asserted the same sort of thing. But I don’t want to lose the fact that it’s important that we work these things out in community with each other. So the fact that we have an institution that provides the buildings, that provides some of the structures in which we meet and interact with each other and learn from each other, to me, shouldn’t be outweighed simply by this. But again, I think both of us would be in agreement that, no matter what is said there, it’s you and your relationship with God. It’s you and the fire, yourself, that has to be able to drive it, to not be just simply interacting with it so far down the mountain to where it’s cooled, that you can hardly even tell it’s there. So I just wanted to shout out that I do think it’s important to work out. Whatever God… The primary actors in the world are not institutions. The primary actors in the world are people, and we’re complex, and we go forward and we go backwards, and we halt and we run fast, and we stumble. When I see an institution changing the way the Mormon Church is, even though it’s frustrating, they are not changing anywhere nearer the directions I want, and when they say stupid things that just make me want to go crazy, I still see it as an advance, because we as people are advancing. We are meeting each other, we are learning from each other, we’re engaging sciences, we are understanding what’s going on, and this is sure revelation. This is sure revelation simply unfolding in just a messier way. So again, I want to get us together as often as possible.

Question: I think we can learn a lot from the community process, and discussing all that, but that’s not revelation. My question is, usually the best we can do to personal revelation, whether it is lay members or leaders, is a yes or no, magic eight ball kind of a thing. And I’m not denigrating that, I’ll take whatever I can get, but how do we move from that, to actually getting a complete sentence out of the Lord?

Denver Snuffer: You go ahead.

Dan Wotherspoon: I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t think the Lord speaks in sentences. Seriously, every powerful spiritual experience I’ve had has been so overwhelming, so much bigger, so much beyond any kind of language. It’s the downhill, it’s the explaining it to you, to my friend, to my congregation or something, is where we put the words on it. And that’s why it’s so important to go back and constantly do the dive. I honor Isaiah. I honor Abraham. In fact, you left out a few references to some of the prophets that you really admire. I admire them because they’re examples to us of Joseph Smith, of going straight to the Lord, of having that face-to-face relationship the way Adam, in Genesis describes, had with God in the Garden. I’m with that process, but I’m with all the time. Just as I don’t accept the cosmology of a flat earth, sitting on waters below and a firmament held up by the pillars of heaven, I don’t accept Abraham’s pronouncements on cosmology. I don’t feel the need to honor everything that they say. I honor their interaction with God, and I try to look at that as a model for my own life. And even in an institutional setting, to all remember this, we have to go straight to the source.

Denver Snuffer: You know, I was raised by a Baptist mother and got Bible verses read at me every morning before I went to school throughout childhood. When Mormon missionaries came and told me about the Joseph Smith story, and when Mormon missionaries assured me that Joseph saw God, and that, if you follow James 1:5 and you ask God, He will give you an answer, and if you will pray about the Book of Mormon, God will make it known to you whether it’s true or not, I accepted that. I was young still, I was still a teenager, but I accepted that as literal. I accepted that as possible. I had faith that that could happen. I’m not a theologian. I do believe God not only talks in sentences, but can make Himself known to man. Literally! I believe all that. I believe that God did appear to Joseph. I believe that He did appear to Isaiah. Having that understanding, I did not think there was anything unusual when an angel appeared to me, because an angel did appear to me. I thought that was the normal, usual, every day way that Mormon religion was practiced. Sitting in a ward as a young teenager, looking out at all these experienced Mormons, listening to the General Authorities, I thought they all were talking to God in the temple every Thursday. I thought this was common, ordinary. It took a long time. I presumed that was what everyone walked around with. It took a long time before I mentioned anything about any of the experience that I had had, before I realized that’s not usual, that’s not normal, and that’s not customary. And so, I’m trying to make it usual, I’m trying to make it customary, I’m trying to say, Yes God is real! Because if I have seen Him, I think you can see Him, and ought to. I think everyone should make the fiery ascent to God’s presence. I think it should not be limited to an occasional “here,” or an occasional “there.” I think we should have an abundance of witnesses. And the prophecy that Moroni spoke to Joseph Smith, that the time is going to come when no one needs to say to anyone else, “Know ye the Lord, for they shall all know Him,” needs to be fulfilled. It is lying dormant.

Dan Wotherspoon: I agree with that principle that, go to yourself. You’re going to go with your symbol system; you are going to go with your expectations. A Buddhist will never go and have the experience with the angel, with Jesus, and things like that. What Denver is having is not the same experience as what Hershel had, what Mohammed had, … and things like this. And so when we talk about whether God speaks in sentences, what language does He speak in?  He speaks in the systems of ours that open up to this sort of level of presence. But it is not… A deep dive through one symbol system is wonderful and it’s pretty hard to get out of it, but I think we need to stay aware that there are so many other people diving and meeting God, meeting the divine and so many other different ways. I honor Denver’s experience, but I can’t limit God to the symbol system that simply we hold in Mormonism or wider. I’m with Mormonism’s expansive views that simply say truth in God is working everywhere. 

Denver Snuffer: This much I know: The angel said, “On the first day, of the third month, in nine years, your ministry will begin, and so you must prepare.” Those are the words! I can quote them still. He spoke in a sentence.

Question: The more these situations are going on, I feel so strongly, more and more, I just keep getting that this is all about unity, and it’s an opportunity for us. And if unity is about “agreeing” then frankly God did a terrible job. So the more I am seeing all of this, what I keep going to is, the quest for Zion seems to me the quest for open heartedness, and charity, and unity. And so in my family and my community, when I see one side that says an actively gay person will never come into the presence of God, or a gay person will go to hell. And then on the other side, I see a person who is an active Mormon, or a person who doesn’t approve of homosexuality, is an awful person, is a hater, and I see those two things. I see Christians say Mormons are going to hell. It seems to me that we more dig our feet in and say, I’m right, and I’m trying to push this agenda in my discussion…we are working away from God, and away from Zion. More and more I think that if we can say, This is where I am, and because of my experiences, which are such and such, this is what I believe, and let me hear where you are, and what you believe, and let’s talk and consider, I think that’s great. Even though I disagree with you and I may think you’re wrong, I trust God to lead you to what is right, and I trust the atonement of Christ, which is my theology, to take care of whatever you’ve got wrong, just like I trust that for me. I think and I believe that truth exists, but I think when we all know all truth, we’ll all agree. And in the meantime we are trying to find our way there. So my question is, first of all, is that possible? I mean, do you agree?

Denver Snuffer: I agree very much. In the first book I wrote I said, “Religion was intended to be applied internally only.” 

Question: Yes, thank you. My other question is, my theology, what I find in the scriptures on the issue of our day of homosexuality, is that I believe that homosexuals are a gift to us, to teach us great things. I think we need to learn charity. I also believe that God does have a standard, but I want to know if those two things can coexist. Can people hear me say, I truly love you, I’m thankful for you, I embrace you, I accept you, but this is my theology and morality? Can we be in this place where we can love each other with our differences instead of seeking agreement? Can we seek unity without seeking agreement?

Denver Snuffer: I grew up in a little town in Idaho. Homosexuality in the 1960s was almost a nonexistent issue. However, there was a restaurant in Mountain Home, Idaho that was owned by a gay man and his boyfriend; they lived together. Everyone knew that they were “funny.” They were comfortable living in a community that was full of a bunch of retired military and active duty military people in Idaho in the 1960s, where I suppose they were just as Republican there and then as they are in Idaho now. It was known. It was not talked about. There might be a passing reference; that was it. I worked in those guys’ restaurant. It was one of my first jobs. I washed dishes in a restaurant owned by a gay fellow and his live-in lover. It was no big deal. There was no politics involved; there was no agitating on the issue.

One of my law school classmates is here. He wound up on a drive to Idaho with a fellow who announced that he was gay and attracted to the man. It was one of those awkward moments. [laughter] When he came back we kind of chuckled about that. But the fact of the matter is that both he and I had business relationships with that fellow. It was essentially a nonevent. It was strange. It was a “thanks, but no.” I think we ought to be ginger about the way in which we deal with one another’s weaknesses and problems. I think we ought to be firm in what we believe, and apply it rigorously internally, and then have compassion on every idiot you are going to meet– because we are all idiots, myself included. I agree with you.

Dan Wotherspoon: I agree with you too, but I don’t think those answers are very fast at all. I am completely willing to live intention with that. Where you pushed a little bit too far, to me, is: “I love you. I love you but these are my standards, or this is that.” To me, I’m willing to simply say, I’m going to hear you, I’m going to be with you, I’m going to see your life, as much as you will show to me, without trying to have a resolution. When I talked about the Hegelian dialectic, it’s a process, and I’m completely fine for it taking forever in my own heart, or a long time. 

Cathleen Gilbert (Moderator): We are out of time. Thank you to Denver Snuffer and Dan Wotherspoon. 

The post Cutting Down the Tree of Life to Build a Wooden Bridge appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Preserving the Restoration” was originally recorded in Mesa, Arizona on September 9, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

This is the concluding part of a single talk. This has been going on beginning in Boise, and now, concluding here. It’s all one talk—and it really helps if you have heard 9/10ths of the talk that preceded today—but they all stand alone; it’s just that you’ll understand things better, I believe, today if you’ve got in mind what went before.

All of this has been about Zion. The whole purpose of this endeavor is limited to that one subject: Zion and seeing that Zion comes again.

I wanna clarify a couple of things preliminarily. If you go to the testimony that John the Baptist gave of Christ that is recorded by John in the third chapter of John—it runs on for a number of verses from 27 to 36, but I want to only take out of that one reference that John makes to our Lord. He says that Christ had the Spirit given to Him without measure (see John 3:34), meaning that when our Lord was down here accomplishing what was expected of Him, He had to have access to the Spirit in a degree to which none of us can equal. That was necessary in order for Him to fulfill His responsibility.

We are in a very different state—all of us, even the very best of us. We are being “proven.” Christ came to prove us; we are here to be proven. As a result of that, all of us (according to the scriptures) are given weakness. You are not going to perform in this estate at the same level as our Lord performed in this estate—period. You are given weakness, and He was given the Spirit without measure.

And so, adding to what went on before (about the ascent up Jacob’s ladder and the arrival to the state at which you’ve completed the course and you’ve “attained unto the resurrection”), understand that our Savior—who accomplished that—did it in this world using a very different criteria and experience by which to live His life from the one in which we live ours. And that’s just the way that the plan operates, the way that the development operates.

Now, it’s clear when it comes to “the gospel” that the gospel has—as its standard—absolutes. Doctrine and Covenants 1 section [verse] 31 says: For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (emphasis added). And if that’s not a troubling enough idea, then if you go to King Benjamin in Mosiah 4, verse 29, it says (this is King Benjamin talking): And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. So, there’s an infinite supply of opportunities with which to commit sin, and God cannot look upon that with any degree of allowance.

It’s sort of a formidable challenge for us to look at, but there is a Divine purpose underlying that. And that Divine purpose is to bring us—in humility—to God, recognizing that there’s a gulf between who and what we are and what it is that is expected of us in order to be truly holy.

Think about all the ways that there are to err. In the warnings that are given in section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants concerning priesthood: [It can] be conferred upon us, [it’s] true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or…gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness… (D&C 121:37, emphasis added). And by the way, “any degree of unrighteousness”—it tells you in verse 41 how power or influence is to be affected, and it is not by virtue of the priesthood; it is only by persuasion, …long-suffering, …gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; [By pure] By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy (D&C 121:41-42).

This presents an opportunity for everyone, every time, to fail. In addition to all this, if you go to Second Nephi chapter 26, at verse 29: He commandeth…there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.

Zion can only come about as a consequence of consecration and sacrifice and not as a result of seeking to get gain. In fact, when you’re in the employ of the Lord, you ought to be sacrificing. It shouldn’t be gainful. It should cost you in order to serve.

To accomplish purity, there are absolutes that are necessary. Sacrifice is absolutely necessary, and equality is necessary as well—or at least there be no poor among us. My guess is that, among us sitting in this room here today, there are those who have significant issues with financial needs—and there are some sitting here today who could help in solving those.

[Phone rings] Oh, hey—hold my calls, will ya? [laughter]

In Alma chapter 1, it talks about a circumstance in which the priests served. Alma 1, beginning at verse 26:

And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did…labor, every man according to his strength. And they did impart of their substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comely. (Alma 1:26-27)

You see, they prospered in this, and they were blessed because of it. We should learn from their example, when they were prospering, about what it was they did that was right that brought it about. The ideal is not to have a professional class of clergymen. The ideal is to have every one of us being equal.

In our own day, in a revelation given through Joseph, Doctrine and Covenants 52, beginning at 39, it says: 

Let the residue of the elders watch over the churches, and declare the word in the regions round about…and let them labor with their own hands that there be no idolatry nor wickedness practiced. (D&C 52:39)

Labor with their own hands means that they’re not professionals—because as soon as you turn them into a professional clergy, people idolize them; and the object is to avoid idolatry, to avoid the professional class of clergy to whom people look for blessings at their hands. That there be no idolatry nor wickedness practiced—“wickedness” because when you have people elevated that have control… Almost invariably, the existence of control tends to lead, invariably—to lead, inexorably—to abuse. Because if all you have with which to work is persuasion, you’re gonna find out that there are a lot of people who you will never persuade. There are a lot of people who will never get aboard.

Therefore, if you’re limited to persuasion alone, you have to afford people the freedom to reject, to be contrary, to raise their hand and make a contrasting point, and not have someone say, “Your point isn’t welcome here. You’re not doing what you need to do!”

And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he that [doth] not these things, the same is not my disciple. (ibid, vs. 40)

And isn’t it interesting that both in the case of Alma (talking about how their system worked with their priests) and in the modern revelation (talking about how things should be among us), there is no such thing as a “professional clergy,” followed immediately by, “remember the poor, remember the needy”—in both instances. That’s not happenstance.

Well, I’m talking about priesthood because I want to remind you of a few things about priesthood conceptually. The priesthood was restored by John the Baptist before there was any organized church. Therefore, it is before, and it is independent and has never required a church in order for priesthood to exist.

If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 84, verse 6: And the sons of Moses, according to the Holy Priesthood which he received under the hand of his father–in–law, Jethro… Now, just to remind you about this, Jethro was a Midianite. He was a descendant of Midian; Midian was the son of Keturah. Keturah was the wife of Abraham after Sarah. After Sarah died, Keturah bore him children, one of whom was Midian. The birthright had already been given to Isaac. 

See, there is so much about the priesthood that has yet to be clarified (and I think that is a good thing, and I’m not going to clarify enough for mischief to ensue). But the fact of the matter is that that priesthood which Abraham handed to Midian—which then descended down and came to Moses—did not possess the birthright; didn’t possess that. Therefore, it was not the same thing as the priesthood that had belonged previously to the Patriarchs. It was something less, and it was something different.

But Moses obtained that priesthood through Jethro, a Midianite—not even an Israelite, because Midian was named at the same time genealogically as Isaac, and it would be Isaac’s son, Jacob, who would be named Israel; and it was Israel who possessed the birthright that descended down. And so, Moses inherited a form of priesthood that was, by its very nature, lesser. It’s one of the reasons why the prophets of the Old Testament all had to be ordained directly by heaven in order to obtain what they obtained.

In any event, this point is only this: priesthood exists independent of Israel; it exists independent of a church; and while the church may be dependent upon priesthood, priesthood is not and never has been dependent upon a church—period. I hope you understand that. Priesthood is not and never has been dependent upon a church! These are two entirely different topics and very important to be understood for our purposes here today.

In addition to this, I hope you all understand that the Holy Ghost can and does speak to everyone—Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics. C.S. Lewis could not have written and comprehended what he wrote and understood unless the light of the Holy Ghost shown upon that man’s mind. Period. There is no organization which controls the Holy Ghost. It is untrue to say that there is some organization(which itself must be dependent upon the existence of priesthood for its order) has the authority to control the priesthood in all the world! That is utter rubbish!

And the practice of the missionaries demonstrates the “rubbish-ness” of it all—because when the missionaries come and teach about the Book of Mormon, they get out Moroni chapter 10, verse 4 and admonish you to pray and ask God…if these things are not true; and …[God] will manifest the truth of [that] unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. To the unbaptized, to the unwashed, to the uninitiated… They’re invited to come and listen to the Holy Ghost. And if they submit and if they do that, the Holy Ghost will speak to them. And the Holy Ghost does, can, will speak to anyone. You need these concepts in your mind in order to understand.

The Holy Ghost and the claim of owning a franchise is hollow, and the idea that the Holy Ghost can be controlled is false. The fact that LDS Mormons have some acquaintance with the Holy Ghost means very little. It does not distinguish Latter-day Saints, and it should not separate you from the Holy Ghost and its ministrations.

The Holy Ghost does not thrill you; it informs you. It gives you understanding. If you want to be thrilled, I can get that from Braveheart (because the Bruces are in my ancestry; Alice Bruce is one of my ancestors, and I was glad to see the repentance of the son who led the rebellion). In any event, thrilling music can do it. A great TV show can get you thrilled and feeling goose-bumps. And that’s not the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost enlightens your mind; it enlivens your senses; it brings light into your life; you understand something anew. There are some people who have the Spirit with them in such a degree that to be in their presence is to understand things better—understanding, comprehension, light and truth.

I have never said this publicly, but because of what I think will ensue after this talk, I’m going to say it (not for my sake and certainly not for the sake of anyone who believes the truth or has the Spirit)—but I say it only to benefit those who may view things completely otherwise. The Lord has said to me in His own voice, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” And therefore, I want to caution those who disagree with me to feel free—feel absolutely free—to make the case against me. Feel free to disagree, but take care; take care of what you say concerning me.

I talked about paying and ministering your own tithes. I wanna remind you if you do that, that none of it should go to the priests. None of it should go to any other than to helping with the poor. And if—after all is done to help with the poor—there’s money left over, well, we’ll talk about that before we finish today too. 

A great deal is made of Joseph’s first vision and almost nothing made of his last one. But I wanna turn to his last one, given on the morning of the martyrdom. Joseph’s last vision, taken from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, beginning on page 393. This is Joseph—it’s being recorded and recounted by someone else, and I’m not sure that they got everything right in the way that they recounted it, but nevertheless, this is the best source we have of Joseph’s last vision. “I…”—this is Joseph speaking: 

I was back in Kirtland, Ohio, and thought I would take a walk out by myself, and view my old farm, which I found grown up with weeds and brambles, and altogether bearing evidence of neglect and want of culture. I went into the barn, which I found without floor or doors, with the weather-boarding off, and was altogether in keeping with the farm. While I viewed the desolation around me, and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it, there came rushing into the barn a company of furious men, who commenced to pick a quarrel with me. The leader of the party ordered me to leave the barn and farm, stating it was none of mine, and that I must give up all hope of ever possessing it. I told him the farm was given me by the Church, and although I had not had any use of it for some time back, still I had not sold it, and according to righteous principles it belonged to me or the Church. He then grew furious and began to rail upon me, and threaten me, and said it never did belong to me nor to the Church. I then told him that I did not think it worth contending about, and that I had no desire to live upon it in its present state, and if he thought he had a better right I would not quarrel with him…but leave; but my assurance that I would not trouble him at present did not seem to satisfy him, as he seemed determined to quarrel with me, and threatened me with the destruction of my body. While he was thus engaged, pouring out his bitter words upon me, a rabble rushed in and nearly filled the barn, drew out their knives, and began to quarrel among themselves for the premises, and for a moment forgot me, at which time I took the opportunity to walk out of the barn about up to my ankles in mud. When I was a little distance from the barn, I heard them screeching and screaming in a very distressed manner, as…appeared they had engaged in a general fight with their knives. While they were thus engaged, the dream or vision ended.

Joseph did not live long enough after receiving this vision to offer up any comments upon it. But I can tell you that if the “farm” is the church he established, that today Joseph would have no welcoming arm within it. It would suffer from a curse in its present state, and they would quarrel with him and tell him to leave if he came among the church today. I believe that the farm in the last vision was the church.

God’s house is a house of order, but that does not mean what you think it means. God follows patterns. He establishes and ordains things according to one pattern, and then He takes them down again according to another pattern, and He does not vary. There is no guarantee when He establishes a house in one instance that that house cannot rebel and reject and be neglected by Him at another. Just because God undertakes one work doesn’t mean that He cannot undertake yet another. And just because He ordains one system at one time it does not mean that, when that system becomes abusive, He will not deal with that system according to its own standards in order to bring about the result that He warned about. He follows a pattern and therein is the house of order.

At the time I was excommunicated, I was in good standing with the Lord. I had nothing amiss in my personal life. There was no sin warranting church discipline. As a former member of the High Council for years, every church disciplinary proceeding I attended that resulted in excommunication, always involved serious moral transgression, betrayal of marriage covenants, and in some cases criminal wrongdoing. In contrast, the reason for my discipline was a book [I’d] written about church history, in which I attempted to align the events of the Restoration to the prophecies of the Book of Mormon and…Doctrine and Covenants. The stake president admitted to me and my wife before the Council began, that I was then worthy of a temple recommend. By any standard of moral conduct, I was an innocent man, whose only offense was believing the scriptures revealed our condition before God. On the evening of May 1, 2014, the Lord gave me further light and knowledge about His work in His vineyard. The Lord is in control over the church, men, and all things. When He undertakes to accomplish something, “there is nothing that the Lord God shall take in His heart to do, but what He will do it” (Abr. 3:17.) Often the means used by the Lord to accomplish His “strange act,” and to perform His “strange work” (D&C 101:95), are very small indeed. “Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small [things] in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” [That’s Alma 37:6 and 7.]

It is almost always the case that the Lord uses simple things to confound the mighty. I can think of nothing smaller or simpler and less important than myself. Inside the great church to which I once belonged, I was obscure. However, I lived my religion, attended faithfully, served to the best of my ability, upheld church leaders with my prayers, paid tithes, fasted, observed the Word of Wisdom, and helped answer questions for those needing assistance with troubling issues. There was no reason to regard me as a rebel who should be singled out for discipline. Nevertheless, the Lord chose to use a faithful and believing member to accomplish His design. Only someone who is devoted to His will could accomplish what the Lord had in His heart. Now He has accomplished it.

The Church has Doctrine and Covenants 121, verses 36 to 40, to warn it about abusing His authority. There is an “amen” or end to authority when control, compulsion, and dominion are exercised in any degree of unrighteousness. Therefore, when using authority, great care must be taken. In any case, the church was careless. Therefore, those involved, are now left to kick against the pricks, to persecute the Saints and…fight against God.

Section 121 is a warning to church leaders. It is addressing the powerful, not the powerless. It is addressing those who occupy the seats of authority over others. Only those who claim the right to control, compel, and exercise dominion, are warned against persecuting the saints, who believe the religion and practice it as I did from the time of my conversion. My excommunication was an abuse of authority. Therefore, as soon as the decision was made, the Lord terminated the priesthood authority of the stake presidency and every member of the High Council who sustained the decision, which was unanimous. Thereafter, I appealed to the First Presidency, outlining the involvement of the 12 and the 70. The appeal gave notice to them all. The appeal was summarily denied.

Last general conference, the entire First Presidency, …12, …70, all other general authorities and auxiliaries, voted to sustain those who abused their authority in casting me out of the church. At that moment, the Lord ended all claims of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to claim it is led by the priesthood. They have not practiced what He requires. The Lord has brought about His purposes. This has been in His heart all along. [He’s] chosen to use small means to accomplish it, but He always uses the smallest of means to fulfill His purposes.

None of this was my doing. The Lord’s strange act, was not, could not, be planned by me. Was not, could not, have been controlled by me. It was not anticipated by me, or even understood by me, until after the Lord had accomplished His will, and made it apparent to me on the evening of May 1, 2014. He alone has done this. He is the author of all this. (Journal of Denver Snuffer, Vol. 8, entry of May 2, 2014, pp. 29-33, emphasis added)

Well, just because something is true at one moment does not mean that it is true at another moment. Things change; decisions matter; what we do matters. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the same thing as it was when I joined in 1973. And at this moment, it is not even the same thing that it was in 2012. 

Now, prophecy… Prophecy is not given so that you know the details beforehand. Prophecy is only given so that after the event takes place, you can look at the scriptures and understand what the Lord meant to accomplish. Its purpose is not to allow you beforehand to know the events with enough specificity so that God’s will cannot be accomplished. If you knew what He was up to, you could prevent it. But because you don’t, when the prophecies are fulfilled, then you know that the Lord has acted. God can use any means He chooses to accomplish His promises. Everything that God is doing is not disclosed at the time He’s doing it.

We all know and accept John the Baptist because history tells us that we ought to accept John the Baptist. But it was not until a revelation was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith that we understood the greatness of the effort behind the scenes that were involved in bringing to pass the mission entrusted to John the Baptist. We knew none of what I’m gonna read to you at the time that John acted, but we know it now.

Doctrine and Covenants section 84, beginning at verse 27:

Which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until John, whom God raised up, being filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb. For he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his [coming], to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is given all power. (D&C 84:27-28, emphasis added)

It was because of this that Joseph observed concerning John: John “wrested the keys, the kingdom, the power, the glory from the Jews, by the holy anointing and decree of heaven.” It’s from the Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith] on page 276.

Did the Jews notice?

In like manner, God’s house is a house of order. He does it according to patterns. It is not God’s purpose to abandon the Restoration; it is His purpose to preserve the Restoration, which at this moment is in terrible jeopardy. The Restoration itself must be rescued. 

Well, baptism has always been required, from the days of Adam until the present. Baptism is always the sign of acceptance of what it is that God is doing, of penitence—that is, turning and facing God and then walking in a new path. From the days of Adam, it will continue through the end of the millennium. And whenever there has been a believing people upon the earth, they have always been invited to partake of the ordinance of baptism as a sign of their faith.

Authority was restored as part of the ministry of Joseph Smith and should be remembered. In fact, everything that was accomplished by the Lord through Joseph should be both remembered and respected. We should not abandon anything that has been given by heaven, but we should also not neglect anything that has been given or commanded by heaven. We should not be forgetful. It is a sign of ingratitude when we forget and neglect.

And no church organization or man claiming authority should hijack your obedience to God. You’re accountable to Him. You’re accountable to only Him, not to me and not to any man. When Joseph wanted to know what his state and standing was before God, he asked God. It is to God alone that you must answer, and it is to God that you must be grateful. And before Him, you must be humble.

That having been said, religion—when it exists—always exists in its true form as a community of believers. Community is required. If we don’t have a community then we cannot be willing to mourn [for] those that mourn. We cannot comfort those that stand in need of comfort. We cannot stand as [a] witness [to one another] of God at all times and in all places. We cannot bear one another’s burdens that they may be light (Mosiah 18:8-9), as is required by the Gospel and by the covenant of baptism. None of this can be done without fellowship.

However, we do not need a new church. The only thing we need is a community of fellowship. Legal entities, when they are formed, become prey to the law; legal entities can become controlled by men who have ambition—sycophants, brown-nosers, people who are willing to do whatever is required of them in order to show that they are desperately submissive to the one above them so that they might join them in having control over others. This is the way that organizations go.

In the “Sunstone Conference,” I wrote a paper; I presented part of it there called Cutting Down the Tree of Life to Build a Wooden Bridge (it’s available on my blog with all of the footnotes—I think the footnote version is much better than what I was able to do verbally). But that process is the inevitable result. Aspiring men will always corrupt whatever there is that is organized on the earth.

So ask yourself, what can remain pure? Even here, in this awful world, what can remain pure? Because there are three things that can remain absolutely unmolested and uncorrupted: the truth, which is fixed and cannot be touched by us; God’s love, which is free and available to all. Neither the truth nor God’s love requires effort on our part. But the third thing that can remain pure here is our desires. That, however, requires effort. Nevertheless, it is possible that perfection can touch each of us, as well, if we have the right desires.

The fact is (as I began), however, we all have weaknesses. We all need rest. We all need food. We all wear down. There are things that trouble each one of us, and even your desires are gonna be better than you are. At least I hope they are.

But these three things can be perfect, and they can be pure: the truth, God’s love, and our desires.

You do not need to leave anything behind that is good or noble or virtuous. And you (and we) do not need to establish another entity. You can serve wherever you are. However, to preserve the Restoration itself, starting now, we need to more closely follow the pattern of scripture. 

The baptism prayer was given by Christ. This is in Third Nephi chapter 11, beginning at verse 19:

And Nephi arose and went forth, and bowed himself before the Lord and did kiss his feet. And the Lord commanded him that he should arise. And he arose and stood before him. And the Lord said unto him: I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended into heaven. And again the Lord called others, and said unto them likewise; and he gave unto them power to baptize. (3 Nephi 11:19-22, emphasis added) 

I’m not gonna take the time to do it, but if you wanna check this out, you can check this out on your own:

Christ did not touch them; He said to them, “I give you power to baptize.” When Christ touches them (which will be later still in the narrative), the fact that He touches them is so remarkable in the narrative that the verse talking about it repeats three times that the Lord touched them. The presence of God touching them being so significant that it’s mentioned three times in the narrative when it happens drives home the point that it’s missing here. 

How then does the authority to baptize come? Well, once John the Baptist came and laid his hands on Joseph, we’ve had a practice of continuing that—and we ought to continue that. But before any of you baptize any other of you, do this. Do this! It’s the same thing that Alma did in Mosiah chapter 18. If you go back to Mosiah chapter 18, before he baptized, Alma took Helam (this is Mosiah 18:12): stood forth in the water, and cried, saying: O Lord, pour out thy Spirit upon thy servant, that he may do this work with holiness of heart. And when he had said these words, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him (Mosiah 18:12-13).

He got the authority to baptize. If you’re going to use the priesthood, (no matter what the Church has told you, and no matter what quorum leaders and respected others—including your own father, perhaps—have taught you), before you do so, ask God to give you the authority. And if you get it, you get it from Him, and then you’re not dependent upon someone else. But get the authority from Him. Power is required. It must come from Christ. The pattern must be followed.

John the Baptist—when he restored the authority (in Joseph Smith verse 69… Joseph Smith History 1:69)—said that it …holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken…from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

The Gospel of repentance is returning to face God. Baptism by immersion is for the remission of sins. And John’s declaration does not say that it will not be taken from the church; it says it will be [not] taken…from the earth. It was restored to remain on the earth. And no matter what happens among those that choose to abuse one another, it needs to be preserved by a faithful few so that it doesn’t cease from the earth. It is still here—though it has been much neglected, and it has been much abused. But with you, renew it. Renew it using Alma’s example. 

He’d been previously ordained as one of the priests in wicked King Noah’s court. And he’d been ordained by him precisely because he was wicked: he qualified; he was corrupt. Noah wanted him, and so he got ordained. But before he undertook to use the authority, he asked God to give him power. And God, seeing penitence on the earth, respected it and poured out His Spirit upon him so that Alma could baptize with authority. And the proof of that consisted not merely in what it was that Alma experienced with the Spirit empowering him to perform the ordinance, but it consisted also in the effect that the ordinance itself had upon both Helam and Alma (who himself went into the water at the same time). The Spirit was poured out upon them. Renew it.

Likewise, we need to renew a community—not an organization, but a fellowship; not a hierarchy, but a group of equals. The community needs to be renewed. Men who have been ordained already should renew this in the manner I just described. 

In my disgust and in my personal preference, I asked that priesthood get extended beyond the confines of the men who have continually abused and neglected it. And I was told that priesthood is confined to men because of the Fall and that until we reverse things in the Millennium, that’s the way it’s going to remain (as to the ordinances thus far given in public). I asked the Lord to change that order. And it’s not going to change. Here is how, then, you should proceed: 

Even if you have already been ordained—as part of the community, the community itself needs to recognize that someone is authorized. However, given the fact that men have abused and neglected the priesthood that they’ve been given, and given the fact that if men are only going to hold the priesthood that there ought to be some other independent check, I would suggest—and it is agreeable to the Lord—that when it comes to sustaining men to perform as priesthood, only women should vote. No man should be allowed to vote to sustain another priesthood holder—period. If only men hold it, then only women should sustain them.

The saying pleased the Lord, but He set a criteria. He said if that is to be the case, then there must be at least seven women who vote. Call a conference. In the conference attended by a minimum of seven women, at least seven women must vote to sustain. When that’s done, all seven who vote to sustain should sign a certificate. If you look in the Joseph Smith Papers, these were just handwritten things. But they did it, and they did it in the early church, and you can look, and it was the practice back then—except back then it was men. We’re gonna change that. Call a conference, at least seven women vote, all seven sign the certificate. If the man is married, his wife must be among the seven women. If his wife will not sustain him, he is unworthy. 

When you ordain, you should ordain no one to an office; you only confer the priesthood. Have no offices among you. Let everyone be equal. Be without ranks. Keep your lines of authority—it reckons from the one ordaining—but power can only come from Christ. And without ratification (from the Spirit) of your ordination, wait until the Spirit ratifies it before you act.

After April 2014… After April 2014 General Conference, only reckon your line of authority in these proceedings—not from LDS Church lines after April of 2014. All ordained keep a record of your line of authority and pass it down. And be prepared to defend your line of authority because of the records you keep. All of the women who vote to sustain: Put it in your diaries and in your journals. Let the records be kept so that if anyone questions, there will be an abundance of witnesses.

Conferences can be called by any who desire it, but you must have seven women if the business includes a priesthood ordination. There’s absolutely no need to purchase a building. You can meet anywhere, including in your own home. You can meet in parks.

Continuing then with what Christ said: 

And he said unto them: On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations among you. Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of his sins through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this wise shall ye baptize them—Behold, ye shall go down and stand in the water… (3 Nephi 11:22-23)

I would recommend, if it is at all possible, that the water for a living ordinance be living water. I would not perform this… I would get out of the buildings that are built by the hands of men, and I would use the things of God. You’re trying to connect to God. Use the things that He has made. I recognize there may be circumstances where that becomes impossible. I‘ve been baptized twice—once in the Atlantic and once in a stream in the Little Cottonwood canyon. Both times it was so cold my lips were blue. And I recognize that some of you hardy people may not want to experience a baptism that invigorates you to the point of turning your lips blue. But I would recommend when you go down and stand in the water that it be living water.

…and in my name shall ye baptize them. …now behold, these are the words…ye shall say, calling them by name, saying: Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. (Ibid, vs. 24-25)

When I was baptized into the LDS Church, the baptismal prayer was: “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father….” When I was re-baptized, I was re-baptized by one who had authority from Christ; therefore, in that baptism the words were: Having authority…of Jesus Christ. If all you’re going to do is baptize someone again according to the LDS pattern, with a commission in a Church, don’t bother doing it. But if you follow these principles and if the Spirit empowers you to baptize, then baptize having authority from Christ, and follow His words. We’ve deviated long enough. It’s time to return.

Then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water. And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one. And according as I have commanded you thus shall ye baptize. (Ibid, vs. 26-28)

I’m telling you, in the name of the Lord, that that commandment is renewed again by Him today to you. This is His command. Do it on this wise. 

And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been. For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another. (Ibid, vs. 28-30)

Do it… Do it in this way. If someone disputes and says, “They ought not be doing it, and you ought not be doing it,” leave it alone. Don’t fight. Don’t quarrel. Invite; persuade. And if they’re unpersuaded, let them go. If you invite and they will not come, let them go. If you entice—if you entreat—and they say, “We will not hear your entreaty…” If they mock you, let them go. There is no need to harbor ill-will and to fight with people.

Any—any—who desire to be baptized, should be baptized. If you have this authority and you practice this and anyone comes to you, baptize them. Refuse no one. Freely you get from God; therefore, freely give to others. Do not charge to perform an ordinance. The ordinance is between them and God. And they need to have it performed between them and someone God has asked to do it. You become the people God asks to do it.

Before baptism, teach them the Doctrine of Christ, which Christ immediately discusses following His instruction on baptism. 

Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will declare unto you my doctrine. And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me. And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost. (Ibid, vs. 31-35, emphasis added)

That’s the purpose of the baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of Christ is connected to this so that, once baptized, you can have the testimony of the Father concerning His Son shed upon you by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

And again I say unto you, [you] must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them. Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth. (Ibid, vs. 38-41, emphasis added)

This is Christ’s doctrine—nothing more and certainly nothing less. This is His doctrine. This is the power of redemption. This is the means by which the Holy Ghost is given. And it is the Holy Ghost which, when given, bears record of all things. It is the Holy Ghost by which you learn.

Believe in Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and become as a little child. There is no more inquisitive a creature on the planet than a little child. That’s who you’re to become. You should hunger and search for understanding. This is all of the doctrine. There is no more doctrine. This is not all of the teachings; this is not all of the tenets; these are not all of the precepts; this is not all of the covenants; this is not all of the commandments; and this is not all of the principles. But it’s all of the doctrine. There is no more doctrine than this.

If you go to Deseret Book and you search the word “doctrine,” they will sell you 791 items. Whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock (ibid). I haven’t titled anything I’ve written “doctrine,” but I do admit that we use the word “doctrine” very sloppily. And sometimes we apply the word “doctrine” when we really mean a tenet, when we really mean a teaching or a precept or principal or a covenant. Well, Christ has sort of narrowly-defined what we ought to be declaring as His doctrine, and I’d suggest that He did that on purpose in order to avoid com[ing] of evil (ibid).

(Do we have to take a break because of the recording? Is that… Oh, okay. We’ve been just a little over one hour. I think we will take a short break in order for them to serve up the next disk in the recording. So, let’s take a five-minute break.) 

[In answer to a question about a single man, and the recording began mid-sentence] …then, I don’t think there’s any impediments to conforming with the pattern and being ordained in the absence of having a wife—but if you add a wife? You better add a wife who’s going to sustain you. But that’s your problem.

“Does this mean you have to leave the Church?” . Of course not. I said this is to add to anything that you already have. There is no reason why you can’t be part of this community and part of a Lutheran community and part of a Catholic community and part of a LDS community. I wouldn’t leave until they throw you out—but they’ll probably throw you out. But I wouldn’t leave. I don’t… If you find value in service there… I think the youth programs are wonderful… 

I sent my son because (the winning-est high school baseball coach moved from Taylorsville High School to Juan Diego Catholic High School)—and I wanted my son playing for him. And so, my son played baseball at Juan Diego Catholic High School. And they had devotionals, and they had, you know, Catholic stuff going on. And while he was at Juan Diego Catholic High School, he heard a bunch of Catholic stuff. And he’d come home, and we’d talk about it. There’s nothing wrong with letting your kids learn within the LDS community. I wouldn’t run away from it. Though, if they find out that you’re participating in another community (particularly one that says that there’s been some loss of authority), my suspicion is that immediately—at a minimum—you’re gonna forfeit a temple recommend, and you may suffer more than that.

“What about ordinations that occurred before April [2014]?” . Yeah, I would respect them and keep them in place. God didn’t do this until April of this year. It’s His act. It’s not mine. It’s His purpose. It’s not a man’s. And so when that’s accomplished… If I had a son and I were still attending, if I were serving in a position in the church and I continued to serve and I ordained my son in the regular course of events in the LDS Church, I’d go ahead and participate in that. And then I’d come to one of these conferences, I’d get the vote for my son (including with my wife being one of those who sustained him), and I would have him ordained again, and I would have the seven women certify the new ordination. And I would tell him this is your LDS Church ordination, and this is your ordination according to the pattern of God. And I would hold onto both of those. I wouldn’t abandon… For goodness sake, some of the people that need to hear what you have to bear testimony to are ideally situated within the LDS church. 

And then the question is… “Do you lay on hands?” Yes, I would follow everything that has been given to this point. We’re “adding to”; we’re not throwing away. We’re trying to preserve, and we’re trying to return, and we’re trying to renew. We are not trying to tread under our feet anything that is useful, laudable, worthy, desirable, or that came down from the Restoration. It is not God’s purpose to abandon the Restoration. But it is His purpose to preserve it. 

There are changes presently underway that are going to jar the LDS community more and more in the coming years. If you are not prepared to preserve what has been given, everything will be lost in what will soon happen. It’s necessary that there be someone who seeks for some community that tries to preserve in its purity what is rapidly becoming at an accelerating pace more and more corrupted. It has to be preserved. Every one of you have some issue that you would say to yourself, “If this, then I would no longer follow.” All of the “if this”-es are in the wings. Inexorably, they are coming. It has to be preserved. And it has to be preserved in a manner in which it can remain pure. 

In modern revelation, once again, the Lord clarified, in Doctrine and Covenants section 10, verses 67 and 68, exactly what He said to the Nephites. Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church. So, if the LDS Church chooses to do more or chooses to do less (and they are choosing to do both), then His church will consist of those who choose instead to do what He says. 

It’s what He said to the Nephites; it’s what He said in modern revelation. It is exactly the same. Not only does it appear there (as if that were not enough witnesses), Nephi taught it as well. In Second Nephi he explained the Doctrine of Christ. Second Nephi chapter 31, beginning at verse 5, he talks about the need of baptism. The Lamb of God…being holy, [He needed] to be baptized; therefore, don’t we likewise need to be baptized? And then after baptism, 

…if [you]…follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that [you’re] willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea… following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and…the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel. But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that [you’re] willing to keep my commandments, by…baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that [you’d] not known me. And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved. (2 Nephi 31:13-16)

Then He goes on to talk about—all the way through—the “way”: 

There is none other way nor name given under heaven… this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and…the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen. (Ibid, vs. 21)

It was what the Doctrine of Christ consisted of at the time of Nephi. It was what the Doctrine of Christ consisted of at the time of the Restoration. It was what the Lord taught in His own voice to the Nephites in Third Nephi. That is the doctrine. Baptize. Preach Christ’s doctrine; any who will receive it, baptize them. I don’t care if they’ve never been a member of any church. I don’t care if it’s a Catholic priest that comes to you. I don’t care if it’s a Mormon Apostle that comes to you. If they come to you and they’ll accept the Doctrine of Christ, baptize them. 

One other thing is required. The other thing that’s required is a record of the names—not email addresses, not vital statistics, not phone numbers, not any contact information—only names. Therefore, after you have complied and someone is being baptized, choose a recorder—someone that has to record who the names are. Faithfully record the names every time there is a baptism. There will be various recorders in various locations. The various recorders need to submit them to a single, central, record keeper on an annual basis. Have the recorders identify themselves (and I can give them some further direction), but there should be annually compiled a single volume which will be deposited in a temple when it is built. Because there will be a temple ultimately built.

Grand Junction had a talk in which I spoke about tithing. I talked about organizing yourselves, collecting your own tithing, and managing it yourselves among yourselves, and for you to assist the poor who are among you and to do this by the voice of your own local group—do it by common consent—and to provide for those who need housing, food, clothing, healthcare, education, and transportation. Do it without a leader but by the voice of the united agreement of you all. Since that time, there have been several groups that have begun. Two groups are assisting single mothers with their needs. One group is assisting a family. One group has no needy among them, and they’ve accumulated for large charitable purposes, and they bought for a quadriplegic a sophisticated electric wheelchair with the tithing money that they’ve gathered.

There is no reason ever to pay for priesthood service. Serving should require sacrifice, always and continually. We do not pay for ministers. I would recommend that if you choose to participate in a tithing group, that you do it in the same manner that was described in Grand Junction, and you do it among yourselves. Community is necessary. I don’t know how you can bear one another’s burdens without administering your own tithes, without administering your own fast offerings, without doing things to help people in need.

It’s hard, I think, to give away what you have to an organization that is purchasing real estate and farms, and purchasing and developing shopping centers—and then have anything left over to assist with the poor among you. But if you choose to do that, that’s fine too—but try and care for those among you who have needs. 

As to the Sacrament, only an anti-Christ would forbid you from partaking of the Sacrament in the way commanded by your Lord. That is an abomination. If you get together, even if it’s only in your own family, partake of the Sacrament together. Let no one forbid you from partaking in remembrance of Christ, because He commanded that you do it. Follow the pattern that is given to us. In Doctrine and Covenants section 20, verse 76, one of the things that used to be practiced (that has since been abandoned and ought to be renewed among you) is that when the Sacrament is blessed, kneel. Kneel. Kneel with the church. Remember it. Keep it. Do the things that have been instructed in the pattern that He commanded that they be observed.

If you partake of wine and for some reason you either are opposed to alcohol or, alternatively, you have some medical condition, use grape juice. Use red grape juice. Use the symbol of the blood of our Lord. I can tell you that, generally, red wine is bitter for a reason. And partaking of that bitter wine in remembrance of the blood that was shed is apt.

Here is the doctrine that is required for us to be gathered. Doctrine and Covenants section 10, beginning at verse 57: Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I came unto mine own, and mine own received me not. I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not (D&C 10:57-58).

Even today, He is the light that shines in the darkness, not comprehended because there’s just too much darkness. We forbid His presence by quenching the Spirit and not allowing utterance in our meetings. That’s where we should be hearing from the Spirit and edifying one another.

Yea, and I will also bring to light my gospel which was ministered unto them, and, behold, they shall not deny that which you have received, but…shall build it up, and shall bring to light the true points of my doctrine, yea, and the only doctrine which is in me. And this I do that I may establish my gospel, that there may not be so much contention; yea, Satan doth stir…the hearts of the people to contention concerning the points of my doctrine; and in these things they do err, for they…wrest the scriptures and do not understand them. Therefore, I will unfold unto them this great mystery; For, behold, I will gather them as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if they will not harden their hearts; Yea, if they will come, they may, and partake of the waters of life freely. Behold, this is my doctrine—[whoso] repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. [Whoso] declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church. And now, behold, [whatsoever is of my church] whosoever is of my church, and endureth of my church to the end, him will I establish upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. And now, remember the words of him who is the [light and life] of the world, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Amen. (D&C 10:62-70)

There is… Priesthood is confined because of the Fall to the way in which it presently operates. But when He gathers… When He gathers them together, every time He refers to that gathering, the identity of the sex changes. It’s not as a rooster; it’s as a hen—and she preserves her chicks. There is something more to be looked forward to, if there should ever be a gathering. 

Christ taught this. Nephi taught this, anciently, at the beginning of the Nephite dispensation. Christ taught the same doctrine, and modern revelation reaffirms it—not only there [in D&C 10] but earlier, in March of 1830. This is in Doctrine and Covenants  section 19: 

I command you that you [shall] preach naught but repentance. (D&C 19:21) 

And then 29: 

And thou shalt declare glad tidings, yea, publish it upon the mountains, and upon every high place, and among every people that thou shalt be permitted to see. And thou shalt do it with all humility, trusting in me, reviling not against revilers. And of [the] tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost. (Ibid, vs. 29-31)

That’s the Gospel. That’s what needs to be preached. That’s what needs to follow. But there are tenets. There are tenets to the faith. And those we’re commanded also to search into but not declare as doctrine necessarily. The things about which we need to have unity and absolute agreement is the Doctrine of Christ. 

Every dispensation of the Gospel has left only a remnant behind. Christ’s work is designed to preserve a remnant and, at the end, gather all remnants together again. The Restoration that was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith has likewise put itself in a position where, now, it can only produce a remnant—but one that will be preserved and not abandoned.

In Third Nephi chapter 21, the Lord talked about some things that become exceptionally relevant in light of what we’ve covered today.

And verily I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that [you] may know the time when these things shall be about to take place—that I shall gather in, from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and…establish again among them my Zion [this is addressing all of those various remnants, wherever that they may be found, so long as they are some residue of the house of Israel]. And behold, this is the [sign] which I will give unto you for a sign—for verily I say unto you that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles [see, the Gentiles had to first receive some things] that they [the Gentiles] may know concerning this people who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this my people who shall be scattered by them [the Gentiles]. Verily, verily, I say unto you, when these things shall be made known unto them[some constituent group of Gentiles] of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father, from them unto you… (3 Nephi 21:1-3)

It can’t come from any source other than from the Father—the Father and Christ being one—the authority to minister and to deliver it coming from Them, the power to baptize being brought forth from some remnant of the Gentiles who care to bear it.

For it is wisdom in the Father that they [the Gentiles] should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted [with this people] with his people, O house of Israel. (Ibid, vs. 4)

“O house of Israel” is much more. “O house of Israel” is that same inclusive of all bits and remnants, wherever they may be found. I talked about covenants when we were in Centerville and about the fulfillment of the covenants. All of the covenants which apply to people scattered everywhere, all of those included within the previous remnants—they need to be gathered into one constituent group.

Therefore, when these works and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter shall come forth from the Gentiles… (Ibid, vs. 5, emphasis added)— 

Not their “book”; their works. Not their “book”; the works: bringing to pass the Doctrine of Christ, establishing repentance, declaring and baptizing by the authority of Christ, having people visited by fire and the Holy Ghost—these are the works. These are the works. 

…shall come forth from the Gentiles, unto your seed which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity; For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power unto the Gentiles. (Ibid, vs. 5-6, emphasis added) 

That’s what He needs now to do. That’s what He intends to do—if you will receive it. 

For this cause that the Gentiles, if they will not harden their hearts, that they may repent and come unto me and be baptized in my name and know of the true points of my doctrine, that they may be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. (Ibid, vs. 6, emphasis added)

You can’t get there except through the power of the doctrine and the power of the ordinance that God has given, in the way that is has been given, performed with the exactness, fidelity, and language that has been given to us by Christ Himself. 

When these things come to pass that thy seed shall begin to know these things—it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he…made unto the people who are of the house of Israel. (Ibid, vs. 7)

All of them. It’s a witness that His work has commenced. 

And when that day shall come, it shall come to pass that kings shall shut their mouths; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and…marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them. But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore they shall not hurt him, although he shall be marred because of them. Yet I will heal him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil. Therefore it shall come to pass that whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring [it] forth unto the Gentiles, (it shall be done even as Moses said) they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant. …[whoever] will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ. (Ibid, vs. 8-11)

These are Christ’s words. We touched on these words all the way back in Boise. It was quoted by the angel Moroni, referring to Joseph Smith. Acts 3, verses 22 to 23:

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

That prophet is Christ. It doesn’t say Christ is going to come and deliver His words; it says, His “words.” Those who will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, …they shall be cut off (3 Nephi 21:11). And the angel Moroni said to Joseph, in verse 40 of the Joseph Smith History, The day had not yet come when ‘they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,’ but soon would come.

That prophet is Christ. His words are what I’ve spoken to you today. 

And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Their hand shall be lifted up upon their adversaries, and all their enemies shall be cut off. Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots; And I will cut off the cities of thy [lands], and throw down all thy strongholds; And I will cut off witchcrafts out of [the] land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers; Thy graven images will I also cut off… (3 Nephi 21:12-17)—

Graven images are people you worship. Graven images include men to whom you submit as objects or idols of authority in whom you trust, thinking that they can deliver you by some magic, using some key that they purport to hold, whether Catholic or Mormon or Fundamentalist. Graven images—they’re going to be cut off. 

...thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands; And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities. And it shall come to pass that all lyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away. For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel [that’s all remnants gathered together]; And I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. But if they [speaking of the Gentiles—if they] will repent and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance. (3 Nephi 21:17-22, emphasis added)—

…because every time there’s a covenant, there is always a land. And this is the land that God covenants He will give. And the people to whom He will give it are those that come back and receive the covenant, including the Gentiles in whose ears this first shall sound…if they will come. And coming unto the covenant—that is not yet possible. It requires more than has at present been given. It is possible to come in and become part of His church. It is possible, if you follow as you’ve been instructed today, to become part of the church He recognizes and will preserve. But coming fully into the covenant… That will require more than has at present be given. It will require a covenant. It will require adoption. It will require sealing. It was what Joseph looked forward to have happen at some point in the future during the days of his prophecy. 

And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem. And then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem. And then shall the power of heaven [in this case, it is the singular—it’s not the “powers”—because when you have Him present with you, you have all the authority—then shall the power of heaven] come down among them; and I also will be in the midst. And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day… (Ibid, vs. 23-26)

Christ will come. Once the covenant has been renewed, the city of Zion will follow. The Lord’s presence will come, and then the final stage begins. 

…even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among…the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem. Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may [be]come [in] unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name. Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall go out from all nations; …they shall not go out in haste, nor…by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward. (3 Nephi 21:26-29)

It’s not gonna happen in haste. And the work of the Father that will commence in those nations, to commence the possibility for the gathering, will involve destroying a great deal of political, social, and military obstructions that prevent the gathering, prevent even the preaching to those that would gather if they could hear. But the work of the Father (and it’s always masculine when it comes to destruction)… The work of the Father is going to bring this to an end. All the scattered remnants will be brought back again. The original, unified family of God will be restored again. The Fathers will have our hearts turned to them because in that day, once it’s permitted to get that far, we will be part of that family again.

Our day is filled with darkness and deception. Our day is the day about which Nephi wrote. If you turn to Second Nephi chapter 28, beginning halfway through verse 4:

…they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance. (2 Nephi 28:4) 

This is why the ordinance has to be renewed. This is why the pattern has to be followed. This is why the light has to be turned on. Because the Holy Ghost has not assisted with the kind of robust assistance that it can if you’re penitent. God cannot dwell in unclean vessels, and so He remedies that by cleaning the vessel, cleaning it in accordance with the pattern that He’s given, thereby making it possible that the Holy Ghost can give to you utterance.

And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold [there’s] no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men [you can hear that every Sunday if you want]; [But] behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they…say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; [for his day] for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work. (Ibid, vs. 5-6, emphasis added)

See, God doesn’t do miracles—but if there’s a miracle done, then that’s the devil. So, the only one that’s responsible for anything miraculous is necessarily the devil, and you’re following the devil. 

…there shall be many [that] shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. (Ibid, vs. 7)

Indulge yourself. You needn’t be caring for the poor,. You needn’t be attentive to their needs. You don’t need to minister to those who are in want. Eat, drink, and be merry! It‘s gonna be well with us!

There shall…be many which [will] say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; …lie a little, take…advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; …do all these things, for tomorrow we die [and that’s, by the way, how you get ahead: digging a pit for your neighbor]; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. (2 Nephi 28:8)

“Don’t worry; there is no hell. There is no hell, no awful pit, there’s just degrees of glory. Don’t worry about it!” …which suffering caused myself, …the greatest of all, to shrink…to bleed at every pore, …how sore you know not…how hard to bear you know not, how exquisite you know not… (D&C 19:15,18). There is no hell. There is no need for repentance. There is no need to come to Him to be redeemed and to seek to remove from us the awful burden of sin: 

…there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord. (2 Nephi 28:9)

How might one better “hide their counsels from the Lord” than to conceal all the money that’s gathered from the tithes, all the revenues that are paid to the authorities of the church, and even admonish the paid mission presidents that they must never disclose the revenue benefits that they are receiving? How better to hide your counsel than to conceal it from the very sheep that are being shorn by the people who sit in positions of authority, claiming they have the right to come to the stake that I lived in, as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and to hand my membership record to the Stake President and insist that there be disciplinary council held against me. Now, I know, President Hunt, that I told you that I wouldn’t mention that, but I have no intention from coming back again. Therefore, for us, it’s over. 

The Church seeks deep to hide their counsels. I participated in that conspiracy when I agreed that I would conceal that Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve came on the day that he called my new Stake President and handed to him my membership record and instructed him that I was to be excommunicated. And to his credit, President Hunt took 18 months fighting that decision (because he knew I was an innocent man) before he submitted. I will no longer participate in concealing the counsels that are kept from the public! It’s wrong! President Hunt shouldn’t do it. Elder Ballard, Elder Russell Nelson should not do it. None of them should do it! They should come clean.

When Elder Neil Maxwell (with whom I had correspondence) died, shortly after the funeral, Elder Dallin Oaks showed up at the widow the widow’s home and demanded the journals that Nelson [Neil] had kept—because one of the conditions of the agreement that General Authorities must sign is that all of their diaries become the property of the Church once they become a General Authority. And Elder Oaks went and gathered back the personal diaries of Elder Maxwell (because a great deal of information about what goes on spilled out into the public when the diaries became public). 

Seek[ing] deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark is exactly what the authorities of the LDS Church now do! It is exactly a description of the hierarchy of Mormonism. Put your budgets online. Disclose your revenue. Show us what you do with the poor. Don’t hide… We don’t even know what the revenue is. 

…seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; …their works shall be in the dark [indeed]. And the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them. …they have all gone out of the way; they have become corrupted. Because of pride, …because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up. They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; …they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up. They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men. (2 Nephi 28:9-14, emphasis added)

The dedication of the first book I wrote, The Second Comforter, Conversing with the Lord Through the Veil, was dedicated to “the few who are the humble followers of Christ,” and it cited this verse. Some people say, “Well, he was, you know, enlightened at one point, and then he fell victim to a dark and evil spirit, and now he’s an apostate!” I’m closer to the Lord at this moment, than I’ve been at any time when I was a member of the Church. I know His will more today, and I understand it better than I’ve ever understood it before. It is not a different spirit than the one that brought me into the church, and it is not a different spirit than the one that animated The Second Comforter, Conversing with the Lord Through the Veil. At the time I wrote that, I was keenly aware of the fact that, from among us, there were only a few who were the humble followers of Christ. And I understood that we were, nevertheless, led that, in many instances, we err.

Working within the system, I did everything I could to preserve the doctrine, to preserve the truth, to testify of Christ, to teach the precepts, to remember the covenant. I would still do that today if I were left alone by them.

Clearly, those of you who think I’m a rebel don’t get it. God knew exactly what He was doing. I would’ve taken a bullet for Spencer Kimball. I was among the most devoted of Latter-day Saints. I viewed the Church as a source that had rescued me from a life that was headed into something terrible. I had friends I grew up with who became alcoholics, drug-abusers, whose lives were in tattered ruins. One of my… One of my good friends in Elementary, Junior High, and High School died, stopped his heart with cocaine abuse when he was 26. The LDS Church introduced me to a form of cleanliness-in-living that I have nothing but high regard for. And if every one of you choose to remain active in the LDS Church while you do these other things, you won’t hear me complaining or criticizing. You’ll hear me praising. It’s a community trying to do good, but they are led, that in many instances they do err, and you should not go partake of that. Accept whatever is good, and hold onto whatever is good, but seek for something higher and better.

These are the kinds of precepts. “Hearken to our precept,” “hear my precept,” “hear my precept.” This is where we get into all of the mischief. The precepts, if they’re not true, are not worth having. And it is the doctrine, above all, that saves.

Go to Isaiah chapter 29—this is beginning at verse 13: 

Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me [that’s where the Holy Ghost must reside, in your heart] and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

“You better stay in line! You better get approval! If the bishop hasn’t authorized that, you’re being… What?—You cannot pass the Sacrament in your ho… You’re an apostate! You‘re just an apostate!” Fear, taught by the precepts of men! Be free. Be free. 

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14)

Their precepts are nonsense, and they don’t save. And they change from handbook to handbook and leader to leader. It is so unstable a reed that if you lean on it, it’ll break and pierce your hand, to use Isaiah’s analogy.

Now, let me remind you of what precepts—false precepts—include, because this is an example Christ gives: 

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?

This is, I don’t know, somewhere in the New Testament. I photocopied and put it in my book, and I didn’t write down the cite. So, you’re just gonna have to trust me and use a word search when you get home to find out where this is at.

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. [And] for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he [said] unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. (Mark 10:2-12)

This is Christ talking about a false precept—the false precept being divorce.

One of the reasons why the wife should sustain in order for a man to be worthy (and one of the reasons for the comments that were made in St. George) are because that is a false precept. And I have to tell you, if you’ve read The Second Comforter, you know that I had a wife divorce me. And you know that I viewed myself as an absolute failure. I was still worthy for a temple recommend, but I had the words of President McKay echoing in my mind—you know, “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.” And so, while I teach this and while I know this to be true, the only thing I can be thankful for is that it was not I who set her aside, but she who chose to do so.

Zion will require a worthy people. There’s a Second General Epistle as we’ve got it preserved for us in Peter 2—Second Peter—in which he talks about what he would like to see. I’m gonna begin at verse 5. 

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they [shall] make you that ye shall [be] neither…barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

This was a great admonition, and this is a great path. And I think Peter thought this through because he knew that this was a progression that actually follows in almost this order in almost every life. However, those Saints of that day did not have Zion, despite this admonition. Therefore, if you’re going to see it in your day, you have to do something more. We have to be more holy than were they. We have to be more disciplined than were they. You see, the word “discipline” and the word “disciple” come from the same word. We need to have greater virtue than they did.

I read this before, and it belongs again right here. This is Joseph Smith, writing from confinement in Liberty jail. This is after Joseph has been confined in the Liberty Jail and had months of opportunity to reflect upon what it was that had gone on among the Saints while he was still free and living among them:

The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men. How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God. (A letter to the church signed by Joseph Smith Jr. and four others on 20 March 1839, from Liberty Jail, Clay County, Missouri)

Don’t waste your time when you’re with one another! Learn, study, testify, search the scriptures. Worship God. If you are still LDS, use whatever good you find there. But I’ll tell you the definition of an active member of the LDS Church: it’s someone who has attended one meeting every ninety days. They measure it every three months. And they only report Church-wide activity based upon two quarters: that quarter which has Easter in it, and that quarter which has Christmas in it. And if anyone comes to one meeting during that time period—that quarter—they’re considered active and will not become inactive until more than ninety days has passed. Therefore, activity rates are skewed and overstated.

The LDS Church claims it has approximately 16 million members. Activity—they claim to be somewhere between 4 and 5 [million] members. That’s less than 33% of the Church in activity rates. People who self-identify (depending upon which poll you look at) are between 3 and 4 million. That means that there are less than 22% who self-identify. Therefore, the greatest majority of Latter-day Saints don’t support the Church or its programs. “Follow the majority.” “Stay with the majority.” I’m quoting them when I say, “Follow the majority.” 

If you choose to remain an active Latter-day Saint and you’re a minimalist (going once every 90 days), just remember you cannot delegate the responsibility that you owe to teach your children to someone else. You have a duty to teach your children, and it is a duty that is imposed upon the parents…in Zion (D&C 68:25); it is non-delegable. You have to do it. In many respects, what I’m doing in these talks is addressed to children who no longer live at home. You cannot delegate the responsibility that you have. 

You do not need buildings to hold meetings. Joseph Smith only built one building— completed the Kirtland temple, got the Nauvoo temple started. Joseph Smith only built a temple.

Tithing is for the poor. It is not designed to pay for a professional-clergy class. If we have no buildings, more money can go to assist with the needs of people. In this day and in this economy, anything that can be done to assist with the poor is a good thing.

If Joseph Smith were here today—looking at the Latter-day Saint church—he would have (and I am quoting from his last vision), “no desire to live upon it in its present state.”

Now, we’ve looked at Joseph’s admonition that people were depending upon the prophet and, hence, were darkened in their minds in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves. Ask yourself this: If Joseph Smith had it all to do over again—and if Joseph Smith had no desire to live upon it in its present state and wanted to avoid the problem that darkened the minds of those he left behind—how could you go about accomplishing that? I mean, there seems to be one very obvious conclusion: Refuse. Just refuse to do so. If he handicapped us by taking too much on himself—and we refused to not handicap him—then the best thing would’ve been if he’d kept riding when he crossed the Mississippi river with Hyrum (and he had his horse)… He should‘ve just kept riding to the Rocky Mountains.

The weak things are always preferred by God because it requires faith for the weak things to succeed. It’s only when you’re placed in the most vulnerable spot that you realize that you’ve got to rely on God. And the only way that you can become strengthened is if you rely on God and not some man. Because when you depend upon a man, what you do to that man weakens him as well. The…  

[It is] by sad experience [we learn that when] men…get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to do things that are inappropriate (D&C 121:39). I’m personally tired of all the sex and all of the wealth and all of the abuse and all of the nonsense that has gone on in the name of religion by people claiming that they ought to be respected as some giant, freaking, priesthood-key-holding, omni-competent bafoon. I’m tired of that. I don’t want any more of that. I’ve had enough, and that’s what you get when you submit to the rule of a man. But when you submit to the rule of God and you place yourself in a position in which you must be dependent upon Him, every one of you realize your own weakness. Every one of you has to grapple with the uncertainty. Is this right, or is this wrong? Every one of you has to grapple with the fact that in answer to some questions there is silence, and you’re forced to choose—and if you choose right, you don’t know that you chose right, because He refused to tell you; and then you act in reliance on that going forward, only later to be told, “If you’d made the mistake, I would’ve corrected you; but you needed that experience.” 

God answers prayers, and sometimes He forces you to make choices. And very often (I can’t tell you how often…), very often I make the wrong choice. It’s almost like I got a compass pointing south; I don’t know what the deal is there. I choose wrong, and then I get an answer—but I got an answer because I made a mistake. I have no clue (other than the fact that I was so converted and faithful to the LDS Church) why the Lord would’ve chosen me to accomplish what He’s accomplished. Because I sincerely believe that most of you here are just  genuinely better people than I am. And that I have nothing but weakness to offer. Weak things are used by God because that requires faith, and faith requires that we have a correct belief and then that we take action. That’s from the Lectures on Faith. “A correct belief,” and then we take action. If you’re converted to everything that is said in this meeting today (and in all nine of the preceding sessions of this one talk) and you do not take action, then you do not have faith. But if you do take action, then you will receive the reward from your faith. Do not rely on man. 

You need to baptize because the LDS church no longer preaches the doctrine of Christ, but they have added to it the commandments of men. In the baptismal interview, the second question that is asked is: “Do you believe that [current church president] is a prophet of God? What does this mean to you?” You can find that on page 206 of Preach My Gospel. As a condition, therefore, today of being baptized into the LDS church, you must offer up, as a catechism, your confession that the current church president is a prophet of God and explain what that means to you. This has been added and, therefore, does not conform. Therefore, you need—as part of preserving the Restoration—you need to practice in the way that we’ve outlined today. 

(Well, there’s one more section of this. This is a good moment to start—I’m getting signaled that we only have a few minutes left on the disk. We’ll take a five-minute break for the disk transition, and then we’ll wrap this up in a final session.)

“What do you do if you’re alone, you’re the only person, and there is no priest available to administer the Sacrament?” 

It’s a commandment that we partake of the Sacrament. It’s a commandment that we do it— and do it frequently. In fact, if you read the record in Third Nephi, one of the things the Lord did was to administer the Sacrament with surprising regularity. One time He did it in a miraculous manner because it was that important an ordinance to have take place. I think if I were alone, and I didn’t have any authority, I think I’d bless the Sacrament and partake and then ask to be forgiven afterwards. I think it’s like the fruit of the Tree of Life—you know, probably one of those things that ought to be done. 

I was also asked, “What do we do to get started?” Look, I mentioned conferences. You can call conferences in your home, anytime, anyplace. All you need is to have a minimum to sustain that will sign and say that they’re sustained. In terms of those who are already ordained? You can function as a priest in the LDS Church. It’s just if you’re going to begin to function under this system among this community with these people, have a conference, and get sustained. You don’t need to be re-ordained if you were ordained before April of 2014. If you were ordained after April of 2014—I don’t care if you got ordained in the LDS Church or not—you should get ordained as a consequence of these proceedings  among this community with any group that has the required number in order to create the vote necessary and to have the signatures to prove it.  

There is nothing special about us…YET. But there can be. We do not need numerous temples, but we will need one to which Christ can come. We do not need to perform endless work for the dead until after there has been a covenant made for us. We must be first connected. Only then can we do something to liberate them. I’ve written so much on that, I won’t repeat it. 

There is so many opportunities to go off the rails that I want to remind you of some of the early problems in Kirtland. In Doctrine and Covenants section 50:

Behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world. And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you. Behold, I, the Lord, have looked upon you, and have seen abominations in the church that profess my name. But blessed are they who are faithful and endure, whether in life or in death, for they shall inherit eternal life. But wo unto them that are deceivers and hypocrites, for, thus saith the Lord, I will bring them to judgment. Behold, verily I say unto you, [that] there are hypocrites among you, who have deceived some, which has given the adversary power; but behold such shall be reclaimed [not the hypocrites; He’s gonna reclaim those that are deceived]. But the hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off, either in life or in death, even as I will; and wo unto them who are cut off from my church, for the same are overcome of the world. Wherefore, let every man beware lest he do that which is not in truth and righteousness before me. 

And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand; Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face. Now, when a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord, reason with you that you may understand. Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question—unto what were ye ordained? To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth. And then received ye spirits which [you] could not understand, and received them to be of God; and in this [ye are] justified? Behold ye shall answer this question yourselves; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong. Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? And if it be…some other way [it’s] not of God. And again, he that receiveth the word of truth, doth he receive it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? If it be some other way [it’s] not of God. Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know, that he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth? Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together. And that which doth…edify is not of God, and is darkness. 

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you; He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all. (D&C 50:2-26)

This is what we should be. This is how we should teach. This is how we should edify one another. This is how we should be preparing our children. This is what we should lay hold upon: truth, light, understanding, edifying, growing in knowledge of the principles of truth. 

You should not waste another three-hour block of time fiddling around with nonsense, because you don’t have permission from God to do that. Preach the principles. And if you don’t think you know enough to do anything else, get together and read the scriptures out loud. In the early church, when  they… In this dispensation, when they got together, one of the things that they regularly did was they got together, and everyone prayed in turn. Everyone prayed. And the meeting would last until all had prayed. They called it a “Prayer Meeting,” oddly enough. One of the early brethren didn’t like that. He didn’t feel like he could pray vocally around other people. There’s a section in the Doctrine and Covenants admonishing him in a revelation that he needs to pray.

If you don’t have any wisdom to impart to one another, get together and pray; get together and read the scriptures; but don’t get together and read out loud out of any recent publication from Deseret Book.

If we are going to begin again, it must be in conformity with the Doctrine of Christ; it must be taught by the spirit of truth; and it must follow the pattern that was given in Kirtland for us to follow.

Now, having said all that, let me read to you some things which the Lord said concerning this moment, because He’s talking about an event that will happen.

This is from Matthew chapter 22, beginning at verse 2. 

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son. And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go…therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So [the] servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:2-14)

Now, several things about this: This is one of those places in scripture in which “remnant” is used in a negative way. A remnant. God invites all to come to the wedding feast of His Son. This is when the kingdom is going to be established in the last days. He invites all to come. And from among all of those people who had been invited, there’s a remnant of those who still hold onto the Restoration, and they are the worst of all. They have the hardest hearts. They are the ones who will not come.

And after the Lord deals with them, then He goes out and invites everyone to come. Everyone! Come in! And included among those that are invited in are as many as they found, both bad and good. They’re all invited to come in. And there’s no excluding the bad (speaking after the judgments of this world). Bad people get invited in! And when they come and when they arrive, it’s not whether they’re a bad person or a good person that determines whether they get to stay or not. It’s the presence or absence of a wedding garment.

Well, turn to Luke chapter 18. This is Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse 10.

Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, …the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:10-14)

Didn’t matter that he was a “bad man.” Didn’t matter that the other was a “good man.” I tell you, at the wedding feast, it would be the publican who wore the “wedding garment.” 

The first wedding garment, if you want to call it that, is the original garment that was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden to cover their nakedness and to cover their shame before God—all of which is an allegory.

The covering required the sacrifice of an animal to teach them the principle of sacrifice and to foreshadow the death of our Lord that would be required in order to restore us back to a state before God. And so, what the covering given to Adam and Eve in the Garden represented was the sacrifice of our Lord. It was our Lord’s atoning sacrifice which makes it possible for us to be covered, so that our shame is no longer there. Instead, God looks upon the righteousness of His Son who has clothed us and not upon our own guilt and our own weakness and our own shortcomings. He beholds the image of His Son in the garment that we have put on.

And so it is that, in the wedding feast to which people are invited, the first who got invited would not come. But even the bad ones, even the bad ones who are out in the byways, even the ones… There’s… There’s about 13 million inactive Latter-day Saints. There’s a lot of “bad ones” out there who are only kept from the truth because they haven’t heard it yet.

If I had the means, I’d buy an ad space in the Los Angeles Times, and I’d say, “Here’s the Doctrine of Christ.” And I would quote Third Nephi. I would say afterwards, “If you believe this doctrine and you want to be baptized and get the Holy Ghost, meet me at…” and I would put a location. And I would hope that included among those who came would be gang members, inner-city people who live lives of desperation and violence who want a way out. Can you imagine what would happen if you sent someone back into an abusive neighborhood clothed with the power of repentance and the Holy Ghost? 

We can’t fix this world by legislating, but we can fix anything by changing hearts. Those that are invited will not come. They’ll even abuse those who try to take them in. But there are plenty of folks in the byways who are only kept from the truth because they don’t know where to find it. This is your responsibility. This is your work to do. This is the day in which these things need to be done.

Oddly enough, in our own day… In our own day, the Lord tells a slightly different version of exactly the same stuff, prophesying how it’s going to happen among us in our day.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 58. This is talking about… Well, I’m gonna begin in verse 7:  

And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand.

I’m gonna put this into some footnotes when I finally get around to publishing, in a book- form, the talk that was given in Grand Junction. But I’ll stick it in here because we’ve touched on the words: the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand. I pointed out there all of the historical reasons why Zion could exist somewhere other than in property owned in Jackson County, Missouri and could, in fact, be constructed elsewhere.

Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, in their first trip out to Jackson County, Missouri, came there in order to confirm and ratify that this was the place where Zion would be built. And they got language and revelation that said this was “the land of Zion.” And so everyone since then ‘til now are all relying upon that language saying, “It’s gonna be Jackson County, Missouri.” That same month that Joseph and Sidney went out, Sidney Rigdon gave an explanation of what the geography of that “land of Zion” was. He said it began at Kirtland, Ohio, and it ran to the Pacific Ocean. So, the land of Zion is rather flexible in where the Lord might choose ultimately to locate it.

So, there’s gonna be some land where Zion will stand. 

And also that a feast of fat things might be prepared for the poor [so the feast that is being prepared has a highly specific audience in mind in the revelation, it’s “the poor”]. Yea, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail; Yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited. First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; And after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come. Behold, I, the Lord, have spoken it. (D&C 58:8-12)

Did you get that? First they invite the “rich” and then the “learned”; and the nations shall all be invited. The “wise,” the “noble”—doesn’t say they enter in. Doesn’t say they’ll partake. It was prepared, after all, for the “poor.” And the people who will enter in?—who do finally make it into Zion where they get to partake?…

Then shall the poor [that’s who it was prepared for], the lame, …the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come. (Ibid)

Every time you partake of the Sacrament, it’s a reminder of the promise that there will, at last, be some great wedding feast. It’s not just in remembrance of the blood and of the body, but it’s also a preliminary to the final feast that the Lord intends to offer. 

Well, who are the “rich?” Who are the “learned”? Who are those that are presently considered “wise”? And who are those that make the claim that they are the “noble,” the “elect”? They do not enter into the wedding feast in Zion.

And who is it that is the “poor?” Who is it that is derided—even in today’s vocabulary—and accused of being “lame”? Who is it that is considered to be “blind” and misled? Who is it that is referred to as being “deaf” because they cannot hear and respect all the great wisdom that pours forth from these empty cisterns, having nothing but drivel to offer, quoting one another endlessly—as if one misled man on a false path can offer light to a fool following after him.

I hope we are the “poor.” I hope I am speaking to the “lame.” I hope you are counted among those that are considered “blind,” and I hope that you have ears not for what any man has to say but for what the Spirit alone has to confirm to you. I hope you’re “deaf” to everything in this world but have ears for what our Lord has to say.

This is the day in which, at long last, it is possible for what God intended to happen before His return to actually begin. The Gospel is not supposed to be merely a record of how God dealt with other people at another time. Joseph Smith talked about how we can’t read the words of an old book and then apply those words (in an old book that were meant for someone else at some other time) to us and then restore ourselves back to God’s grace. That is just as true of the revelations given in the days of Joseph Smith as it is true of the revelations given in the New Testament. 

It becomes really apparent when you read them out of the scriptures. Because all our footnotes and all of our chapter headings and all our cross-referencing, it sort of gives you an impression that this stuff is talking about us—right here, right now. When you read them as they were written in the Joseph Smith Papers, it really becomes clear that when God is talking about how the church is “living” and “alive” and “approved,” it’s because He’s talking to Joseph Smith. And the church is listening to what Joseph Smith had to say. And “rolling forth” is the voice of God in that day. And Joseph Smith commissioned people to go out and to take it. And they took it, and they went out, and they preached it; and when they preached it, others were converted. And the people that were converted actually had experiences and came to know God. But that’s because God acted to set it in motion in the person of  Joseph Smith. Joseph had a covenant given to him by God. Therefore, Joseph could testify to these words, and they were true, and God owned them. And people who follow them received the wages of those who follow God. It worked! We can’t mimic that and have the same effect. 

God has to say, “This is what I want to do.” And if no one else will say it to you, I’m saying it to you. Everything that has been said in this talk—which began in Boise and concludes here today—everything that has been said is, in fact, exactly what happened when God offered something through Joseph. He’s offering something again, right now, in our day, to you—to any that will hear, to any that will listen. The work is beginning again.

I suppose it was necessary that what began in Joseph’s time had to run down to the condition that it’s in at present—that it had to become a leaky ruin of a farm that Joseph himself no longer even wanted—before it was possible for the Lord to say, “At this moment, we turn a new leaf.” But… My word! Can’t you see the signs of the times? Can’t you look about and see that the whole world is waxing old like a garment? Can’t you see that there is right now a balance of things that are kept at bay only to preserve the possibility that a remnant might be claimed? God promised He would do this. 

Until today I really haven’t done anything more than read scriptures and bear testimony to you that they’re true. This wasn’t my idea, and I can’t tell you how happy my wife and I will be when we conclude this and this project is done. There’ll be some… This transcript, and they’ll be… I’m gonna edit them all and put them into a book. And the book, in order to be readable, has to have run-on sentences and grammar and everything fixed, so it has to be readable in its own way. So, there’s that still left to do. But the project and the labor and the work that needs to be done is you.

If you don’t lay hold upon this, if you don’t move this forward, if you don’t rise up, then I suppose He’ll find another people. But you ought to allow yourself to be found, and you ought to allow yourself to be numbered among those who choose to have that Gospel live again. The Gospel shouldn’t be the words of an old book. The Gospel should be alive in you, rolling forth with new vigor, every day a revelation of His involvement in your life and in the lives of those around you.

I know it’s not easy to let yourself stand out. It’s… For some of us, it’s really unpleasant. I’m a trial lawyer, but you have to understand that what that means is I’m usually engaged in an intellectual fight in a room with six or seven people in it. If we have a jury, we may have up to 18 in the room. What I do, I don’t do in front of big crowds. And this is not a pleasant thing for me. I enjoy the law; I particularly enjoy appellate argument, because there it’s just a three-judge panel or a five-judge panel, depending on which court you’re in. It’s just a small, intellectual undertaking in which you’re trying to reason something through.

This is not pleasant for me, but I suppose that what you’re being asked to do will be even more unpleasant for you—because all of you have your families; you have your friends; you have your neighborhoods; and you have your wards. And many of you are faithful members of the church, and I commend you for that. And I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t want to be the source of creating a problem there. But the Lord has in His mind a way of doing things in which, if we follow the pattern, we get authority from Christ. We may get ordained by a line of authority that comes down from another man laying hands on our head, but authority to activate that comes from heaven, by the voice of God. If you follow that pattern, the fruits will follow.

Whether or not these talks make any difference at all does not depend upon how well I‘ve spoken at these things. They depend entirely upon what you now do. If there is any fruit to be born, the fruit of that is not me talking—or CDs, a book, ultimately. That’s not the fruit. The fruit is to be found in your lives. The fruit is to be found in your influence, in your family with your children, in the light that comes into your lives and the lives of those that know you.

This process can be so informal that when we conclude today (if there’s still time left), everyone who wants to can call themselves a conference and begin doing some things right now today. It’s that informal. There’s at least seven women here. And some of you brought your wives. That’ll teach ya, for not bringing her. I brought mine.

Let me end by testifying to you that, however improbable or unlikely all of this may seem to those of you who spend any time at all thinking about this, it was just as improbable when John was baptizing. It was just as improbable when Christ taught. It was just as improbable when Joseph Smith said, I [saw] a vision; I knew it, …I knew…God knew it, …I couldn’t deny it, neither dared I do it (JS-H 1:25). It may seem improbable. It’s true!

Now, in order to conform with the burden that has been laid down, I need to turn time over to Keith Henderson. (Keith, if you’ll come up…) Because he has something which he necessarily must add as part of all this.

So, Keith—it’s all yours.

KEITH HENDERSON: 52 years ago, I came to this area on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I came to bear testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. Today I stand before this people again of this area to again bear testimony. My growth in these 52 years has been great, but my testimony still remains very simple.

My name is Keith Henderson. At the time I bear this testimony, I am still an active member in good-standing with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m grateful for this opportunity that I’ve received to lift up my voice and bear my witness and testimony before the Most High God, before His holy angels, and before all of you who would be witnesses with me that this talk given this day by our friends and God’s servant is a message given from God to all men and women everywhere who will hear or read. I so witness that I know that it is. 

I have attended every portion of this talk, making now ten in total. I have listened time after time to the recordings, and I have read every transcript made up until this one. I bear solemn testimony that I have received a message by God’s voice of their truthfulness and also of His desire for us to believe in and act upon these things that have been spoken.

I stand as another witness with Denver in the law of witnesses that these things are true, and I expect to be held accountable for this in the days and the eternity to come before God and my Father and to all men. 

I bear this testimony humbly and solemnly but in the power of the most holy priesthood, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

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This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Marriage and Family” was originally recorded in St. George, Utah on July 26, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

Okay, this then is the ninth talk in the series (the ninth installment of a single talk), all of which is designed to remind us of what was once given in the Restoration through Joseph Smith. Much of what went on before is intended to be foundational for what comes today and then what comes next when we finish this in Phoenix. 

Today the topic is about marriage and family. And as a consequence of that, I view everything that went on before as foundational to today because of all things that are necessary to understand before we qualify to be like God it is having this subject understood and then this subject incorporated into how we live.

If you go to Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, it says: The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him. If it is not good for man to be alone; you have to necessarily conclude that if you’re going to be “good” (in the sense that God desires for man to be good), you have to be with a woman. There has to be a union of the man and the woman. Otherwise, no matter who you are, no matter what you are, no matter what virtues you may hold, you cannot be—in the eyes of God—“good” (in the sense that God uses the word “good” to describe the condition of man in his separate and in his single state). The work of God, after all, is to bring to pass the immortality and the eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). That is not even a possibility if you do not have the man and the woman together. It’s not “good.”

In the creation (this is the preceding chapter of Genesis chapter 1): So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it (Genesis 1:27-28). You see, when it comes to the image of God, the image of God is both male and female. That is who the Elohim… And a singular verb gets used—the Elohim is (despite the fact that the word “Elohim” is itself plural). Why would you use a single verb with a plural noun? The reason you would do that is because they two are one. It’s because there is no difference between the Father and His Consort, the one about whom so little is said because there is something about Her role that, at this point, has not emerged into our plain view. And that is wisdom in Them.

In the scriptures, very often, the voice of God is heard, and it’s described as the voice that sounds like waters—rushing waters, mighty waters. If I were going to stage the endowment, the voice that you would hear whenever it is Elohim who speaks would be the voice of a man and a woman speaking in unison. It would not be the voice of a man. It would not be the voice of a man in an echo chamber. It would not have sound effects. I would not make some effort to get feedback or make it sound like Charlton Heston’s conversation on the mount in Cecil B. DeMille’s movie; I wouldn’t do that. I would have a man and a woman speaking in unison whenever Elohim were to speak.

If you want to know what the image of God is: In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them(ibid). That is the image of God. That is what God—if you look at His image—looks like. This is the reason why, when you have the Father throughout Scripture on display, it is always a Host. He appears with a heavenly Host. It is because our God, in the end, is not the image of some fellow standing about in a robe. It is this image, male and female. They two are together.

You’ve seen this scripture; it’s been read by Latter-day Saints perhaps more than any other denomination. But it’s in First Corinthians chapter 11, beginning at verse 11: Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God (1 Corinthians 11:11-12, emphasis added). Now, the modifier there, in the King James translation, works marvelously well because think about what is being said here. The woman is of the man, all things are of God, and the man is by the woman. Woman of man, all things of God, man by the woman. That’s how men get into the world—is by the woman. And that is, incidentally, also how the first man got into the world; it is by the woman.

Think of the image of God. And think of what is being said here about it “not being good for man to be alone”—that is, the image of God includes the notion of companionship. Think about multiplying and replenishing. The image of God includes, necessarily, offspring. As a separate and single individual, you are finite; each of us is finite. But when you put together the man and the woman, it is in the image of God because they become—despite the fact that we are in mortality—you become infinite, in that you have no end. Sitting in the room today, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. They are present here today in you because they continue, despite the fact they died. Until they come back from the grave, it doesn’t matter that they are dead; they are yet present through the people who exist that are their offspring. They became in the image of God. 

This is at the core of redemption; this is at the core of the work of God; this is at the core of what it means for God to complete His work and to have the continuation of what it is that God does. 

(There are two empty seats in the front row; they’re not together, but they are in the front row. And if you wanna come up, you can take those; and there were some seats here, but…)

Take a look back in the Doctrine and Covenants at section 132, because we brush up against this concept of the infinite in section 132, as well. Now, I intend to say a good deal about some of the mischief that was introduced to us through section 132—but not now. We’ll return to this. Right now, I wanna focus upon the language and the promises that are extended because they duplicate what you’re seeing in the account of Genesis. This is in section 132 (about which we’ll say more later today), beginning at verse 19: 

And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise… [then they’re promised—about midway through that verse—that they’ll] inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, dominions.

And it goes on to say, they. Notice it’s not “he,” and notice it’s not “she”; it is they because if you’re going to pass by, you’re going to have to be they and not “he” or “she.”

…They shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law ye cannot attain unto this glory. (D&C 132:19-20, emphasis added)

The notion that you are going to succeed in acquiring the glory that is like unto God in a separate and single state is nowhere found as a promise in scripture. It’s not a reasonable expectation. It’s a non-scriptural expectation. It is a foolish hope because it does not reckon to the things God created. Understand, those verses that we read in Genesis—those verses were before the Fall. In the condition in which Adam and Eve found themselves at the time that those incidents took place, they were immortal; they had not yet fallen. The marriage and the union of the two of them was intended to last forever because death had not yet entered into the world. And as God put it, it was “good.” 

All of these words are applicable only to the man and the woman together as one. It’s only applicable to the exalted state of a marriage that is worthy of preservation into eternity.

Now, instead of focusing on this as something you may receive in the great hereafter (as some great reward because you qualified for glory in a parade in the afterlife), why not think about whether the conditions that are being described in the verses that we look at are themselves a reward. Think about this as something to be had now, not something to be postponed and hoped for in the afterlife—not in eternity, but today.

Can it be said, concerning your own marriage, that it is not good for the man to be alone? Are the two of you, together, better than what each of you are alone? Is your marriage a source of joy, of happiness, of contentment, of companionship? The Lord told them to multiply and replenish the earth. Do you find within your family relationship that there’s joy and rejoicing and happiness as a consequence of the environment that you and your wife put together?

Is your relationship… As a woman, is your relationship in the image of God? Is there godliness about the way in which you and your husband interact? If you had to reckon whether or not someone, looking at the two of you, would see within you the image of God, would they do so? 

These aren’t just happy notions for the afterlife. These ought to be descriptions of what your marriage could and should look like. Can you sense the glory of God in your marriage? Remember, we looked at this in [D&C] 93:36. The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth—glory of God being light; the glory of God being truth. Is that something that is present within the marriage that you have? Is your marriage filled with life, with light, with truth, with understanding?

Turn back to D&C section 121. There’s a couple verses there that I wanna suggest, particularly if you view the man and the woman together as one… Read these verses as if it’s descriptive of the “one,” which is you and your wife:

Many are called, but few are chosen. [This is beginning at verse 40 of section 121.] No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile. (D&C 121:40-42)

Within your family/within your marriage are you and your wife learning to use persuasion? Within your marriage are you and your husband learning to use gentleness in dealing with one another? Are the two of you, together, facing one another in all of the difficulties that come as a result of being married? Are you facing that together in meekness? Do you find that in all the relationship troubles, turmoils, and challenges what predominates is kindness? Is there a search for understanding that results in pure knowledge when it comes to a dilemma?

Look at verse 37: 

That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.

It’s been my observation that so soon as the Spirit of the Lord withdraws, that quickly will another spirit step in to assure you that you’re right, you should be vindicated, that you ought to proceed on in the arrogance of your heart to feel yourself justified and vindicated. There are false spirits that go about, but there are no better an audience to receive the whisperings of those false spirits than it is the abusers who, having grieved the Spirit and caused it to withdraw, accept then counsel from yet another spirit that says, “You’re right, press on! Well done! You’re good! You’re right. You’ll be vindicated. This is all God’s work, and you’re a great man because you’re engaged in God’s work! Do not back down. Do not relent. Forget about persuasion. You should never be long-suffering; you should make those under your rule suffer. They should yield to your rule. There is no place for meekness. We believe in a God of strength, a God of power, a God whose work can be done despite the frailties of man! There is no need for men to be meek. And it’s kind in the end, after all, to punish and to force and to coerce, because we have a good objective in mind.” All of the lies and all of the deceit that led, in turn, to Catholicism falling into the abyss that it fell into are presently in play with spirits that worked this out long ago, taking the Restoration of the Gospel as yet another opportunity in which to whisper in once the Spirit is withdrawn.

So, does your marriage help you avoid covering your sins? Does your marriage… Because you’re never gonna solve this problem in the community until you first begin to solve it within the walls of your own home. You’re never gonna have Zion that exists somewhere among a community until first that community is composed of those who have a marriage that is in the image of God.

Does your marriage help you avoid “gratifying your pride”? Does it help hold down your “vain ambition”? Is your ambition to exalt the two of you rather than the one of you? Does it bring you time and time again to not exercise control but to respect the freedom to choose?

Your kids are going to make mistakes. It’s not your job to force them to not make the mistake. It’s your job to counsel them and to let them have the experience by which your counsel makes sense and is vindicated. You hope the mistakes that they make are not too serious. But even if they’re serious and they involve lifelong struggles, it’s their right to choose—and it’s your obligation to teach and to persuade and then to rejoice when they return after they’re tired of filling their bellies with the husks that the pigs are fed. It’s your job to go and greet them and put a robe on their shoulder and put a ring on their hand and to kill the fatted calf. It’s not your job to beat them and to chain them to the farm, so they can’t go away and behave foolishly. They need to know that your bonds of love towards them are stronger than death itself. They need to know that they will endure in your heart into eternity. 

And not only your children but one another—because we all make mistakes. Do not exercise dominion; do not exercise compulsion. Exercise long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and kindness. Some of the biggest disasters come when you do not give people the right to choose freely, and you attempt to coerce them. Be wise, be prudent, be someone that they would respect and they would listen to. 

In Doctrine and Covenants section 130, it says, beginning at verse 18 (we’ve looked at these verses in several contexts, but we need to look at them again today in this context): 

Whatever principle of intelligence [and understand that means Light and Truth] we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he’ll have so much the advantage in the world to come. There’s a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundation of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it [is] by obedience to the law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130:18-21)

Think about those verses and that admonition as an invitation to work this out inside your marriage first, to work out—inside the relationship between you and your wife—the principle of intelligence that gives you the opportunity to be diligent, the opportunity to be obedient, the opportunity to gain experience that will make you more like God. Your marriage is a laboratory to prove you up and to let you be intelligent.

After the creation itself, marriage was the first ordinance. I wanna take an opportunity to look at the way in which this unfolds because it’s a very interesting…  Adam and Eve were sent down here first. Adam and Eve were introduced into the world, and they were presented these challenges. Initially, they were the first ones to face this stuff. And the way in which their story is told is not chronological. You have to go through Moses’ record and you have to go through Enoch’s record within the book of Moses in order to put together the chronology of these things. But when you do that, a story unfolds and a scene unfolds upon us. It’s really rather fascinating. So I wanna take a few moments and do that.

Marriage was the first ordinance. It was introduced before the Fall. It was introduced before man was instructed on sacrifice. Go back to the book of Moses in chapter 4. And in verse 27, after they had transgressed but before they had been sent out of the Garden, we learn, in verse 27 of Moses chapter 4: Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them. Now, it’s important that, while the account sometimes refers to Adam by meaning both Adam and Eve, in this case, it was necessary for a clarification to be made. The garment that was given unto them to clothe their nakedness is also referred to, in the temple, as the garment of the Holy Priesthood. And God wants the record to be clear: Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them. Therefore, Adam was not clothed and then told, “You go and do this, and clothe your wife.” God clothed them both. God did not expect Adam to intercede when it comes to the clothing of the woman. God treated her as if she too were about to embark upon a journey into mortality that would require her, likewise, to understand the principle of sacrifice. Because think about it for one moment, you learn (we’ll look at this in just a moment), you learn that they practiced sacrifice thereafter, but when were they taught the principle of sacrifice? They were taught at this moment.

There are legends about (and they show up in a variety of ways; they even show up in mythical characters), but there are legends about the animal that was chosen by God to slay and to offer as a sacrifice in order to clothe them with the skins of an animal. And I rather like the theme of many of those. The theme is that when the animals were brought to Adam and Adam named the animals, there were some that he’d really liked more than others. But there was one particular animal that he liked above all the rest. It was that animal, and that animal’s consort, who were slain in order to provide the clothing for Adam and Eve—so that Adam and his wife Eve could understand that the principle of sacrifice came at an enormous price. And so, the animal was no longer able to exist in this sphere, having been used originally while yet in the Garden to provide the coats and to drive home the point about the sacrifice that’s required in order to clothe the nakedness of the man and the woman. 

(I’m thinking in a room this warm, some of you might envy the nakedness of Adam and Eve [laughter]. I’m hoping that you refrain [laughter].) 

So, if you turn over to Moses chapter 5, beginning at verse 5, this is talking about after they had been expelled from the Garden. It says,

He gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord. And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me. And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. (Moses 5:5-7)

So, that sacrifice that was performed that brought such sadness (in verse 27 of chapter 4) that occurred before they were driven out of the Garden was simply a commandment to do, which Adam and Eve then did. And it was some time later, many days later… And “many days” is not defined. It appears to me from the context, as we go further, that “many days” in this context means “many years.” In fact, it means more than “many years”; it means many generations. There were many generations of men alive on the earth while Adam and Eve were there before the definition or the explanation of why they were offering sacrifice is finally given to them. (And you’re impatient. And you want to know more, and you want to know it now. And you don’t think that God tries the patience of all those to whom He will eventually come.)

So, this occurs before the baptisms of Adam and Eve. Go to Moses chapter 6. We’re gonna look at verse… beginning at verse 51. This is Enoch now, and Enoch is talking about this stuff. Enoch, in his record, is reminiscing about what went on before. We still don’t have the full record of Adam and Eve, but we have enough snippets. If you begin to gather them together, you can reconstruct the picture. And so, beginning at verse 50: 

God [had] made known unto our fathers that all men must repent. He [that is, God] called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh. And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given unto you. (Moses 6:50-52)

So, this was what God said to Adam, preliminary to Adam being baptized, which was still later than when Adam learned about the purpose behind the sacrifice that he was offering.

So, he’s told about it. Then look at when it happened (which again, this is not Enoch; this is going back to what Moses says about when it occurred. This is the voice of the Lord saying that it’s going to happen). Well, when it happened is in verse 64. And this again is the record of Enoch. And this is still Moses chapter 6, verse 64. We’ll go back to the earlier incident in just a moment. We’ll do that next. Verse 64: 

And it came to pass, that when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord.

Understand, that word “cried,” after what we talked about yesterday, should mean something to you. Because the pattern is the same, and it doesn’t matter which scripture you look at. Adam cries unto the Lord, and 

he was caught away…

(and what he cried unto the Lord is not known, but clearly, when the Lord had told him about baptism, this is exactly what Adam wanted. And therefore, he cried unto the Lord for a purpose. And look what happens): 

He was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water. And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man. And he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father, and the Son, from henceforth and forever; And thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity. (Moses 6:64-67)

This is Adam’s baptism/confirmation. This is Adam’s gift of the Holy Ghost; this is his baptism of fire, and this is his ordination by the voice of God out of heaven, ordaining him after the order of Him who is without beginning of days or end of years. This is all in one, at one moment. And this is many years later. There are generations of descendants of Adam and Eve that exist at the time this takes place, okay?

Well, the effect of that, when it happened, is picked up by Moses. This is in Moses chapter 5, verse 9:  And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I’m the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.

So, these are the events that took place in that first generation of Adam and Eve among their descendants. If you want to have peace and harmony for a community, it has to begin inside strong marriages. Zion necessarily requires holy matrimony. Adam and Eve had sons and daughters at the time this took place.

Chapter 5 of Moses, verse 2: Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply and to replenish the earth. This is an event that occurs because they were married, and they were commanded to, at that point, offer sacrifice, multiply and replenish the earth. So they offered sacrifice, and they multiplied, and they began to have children. And their children began to multiply (in verse 3): From that time forth, the sons and daughters of Adam began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks, and they also begat sons and daughters (emphasis added).

Notice that the image that is created of the man and the woman—that is, Adam and Eve—is now replicated in the children of Adam and Eve to imitate the same pattern: two and two. They’re necessarily male and female if they are going to produce offspring. If they’re going to beget sons and daughters, they have to be male and female. And it’s not one on three; it’s two by two. It is the man and the woman. That is the image of God, and no other image is offered to us in scripture; there simply isn’t. There’s no such thing as same-sex marriage in the scriptural model. There is no such thing as same-sex marriage; else how do they produce offspring? How can you obey the first commandment to multiply and replenish the earth? Because if the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth arises within the context of marriage, necessarily it requires that there be the man and the woman.

Adam and Eve had sons and daughters; their children likewise were married, and they had sons and daughters. They were visited, and they were instructed by the angel (we looked at that). They were baptized, then they received the Holy Ghost. And look what is contained in the Holy Ghost, in verse 66 that we read a few moments ago of chapter 6. They are baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father and the Son from henceforth …forever. It’s also referred to and defined more in verse 61: 

It is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. 

So, that is what is within them. Look what happens once they are so endowed, and they’re equipped? This is Moses chapter 5, verses 10 and 11. I am so glad that these verses were restored to us because contained in this is a much, much greater lesson if you have the eyes to see it: 

And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.

That’s Adam prophesying what is going to befall the future generations. That’s what Adam is doing. Now, look at what Eve does: 

And Eve, his wife, heard all these things [the prophecy comes through Adam; Eve hears them—Eve hears all these things] and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. 

There is a profound difference between the response of the power of the Spirit unfolding upon these two, with respect to its effect upon Adam, on the one hand, and its effect upon Eve, on the other. These are remarkably different reactions. To the man it is that he prophesies; that is, he declares the truth—the ‘truth’ being a knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. That definition is given to us in the Doctrine and Covenants. This is the role of the man, and this is the role that he fulfills. 

But to Eve, on the other hand, she obtains wisdom. The role of the man is knowledge; the role of the woman is wisdom. And you see that on display right here in these verses. It is the role of the woman to have the understanding, to take the prophecy that has been delivered now by Adam, to process it, and to say: “Here is what it means.” This is the role of the woman. This is the gift of the woman. This is eternally the role of the woman. 

This is why there is a male and why there is a female. Because in many respects, the gift of wisdom eludes the male, and in many respects, the gift of knowledge eludes the female. And together the two of them… And I’m not talking about ‘knowledge’ in the sense that a woman can’t have a Ph.D. Two of the brightest people I know are daughters of mine. It’s not that that I’m talking about. I’m talking about knowledge in the godly sense—knowledge in “the gift of God” sense—and I’m talking about wisdom in “the gift of God” sense and in the scriptural sense. This is an example. 

Now, together (look at verse 12): And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God. And how did they do that? They did that by a ritual. They did that by offering sacrifice. They did that by observing what they understood, but they did it together. And they [it is “they”—they] made all things known unto their sons and daughters (Moses 5:12, emphasis added). This isn’t Adam preaching repentance; this isn’t Eve preaching repentance. This is they; this is the two of them. They are equally yoked. This is the two of them joined together to make the declaration—they together. The two of them, however (beginning in verse 12), begin to make all things known unto their sons and daughters, after they had been adequately prepared to understand and to make the declaration.

(I envy you sitting below this level ‘cuz if you think it’s warm there, you should be standing up here.)

They were first prepared before they began to preach.

There’s some eagerness that Father Hyrum had to get busy—before the Book of Mormon was even done—preaching repentance, because he believed it. And the Lord held Hyrum back. If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 11, beginning at verse 13, there’s a revelation given to Hyrum that says, 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, I’ll impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy; And then shall ye know, or by this you shall know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive. But I command you that you need not suppose that you’re called to preach until you are called. Wait a little longer, until you shall have my word, my rock, my church, and my gospel, that you may know of a surety my doctrine. (D&C 11:13-16, emphasis added)

See, Hyrum was being told, “It’s good to be eager, but don’t go out and try to preach something, because you’re not yet qualified. You don’t have enough knowledge in order to do so.” Likewise, Adam and Eve—not because the Lord held back and told ‘em: “Don’t do it; don’t do it.” But because the circumstances of their lives did not prepare them to do it until there were generations already alive on the earth. Then they were given the gifts that were necessary in order to begin their preaching.

Hyrum was told in verse 21: 

Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men. But now hold your peace; study my word which hath gone forth among the children of men, and also study my word which shall come forth among the children of men, or that which is now translating, yea, until you have obtained all that, which I grant unto the children of men in this generation, and then shall all things be added thereto. (Ibid, vs. 21-22)

Hyrum Smith is told by the Lord: “Don’t go out and start preaching yet. You need to learn something first. You need to be qualified first.” In the revelation to Hyrum given in 1829— and in the lives of Adam and Eve—God is in no great hurry to get people running around preaching before they’re qualified.

There’s this comment that Joseph Smith made. He said, “I am learned, and know more than all the world put together. The Holy Ghost does, anyhow, and He is within me, and comprehends more than all the world: and I will associate myself with Him.” That’s in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 350. This is what qualified Adam and Eve to go declare repentance to their children. This is what qualified them to know the truth of all things and have the wisdom with which to impart it so that they could persuade their children to believe in Christ. This is the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You, to be competent in teaching your children, must first have the Holy Ghost as your guide. Then, once you have that, you ought to have command of the Scriptures (just as Hyrum was told to learn what’s in them). Then you’re qualified to go and to teach your children, and you have an obligation to do that. Children are the means to preserve Zion. Without the conversion of children, Zion has no chance of surviving.

Take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 68, beginning at verse 25: 

And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of…hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the head of the parents. For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized. And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands. And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord. And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. (D&C 68:25-29, emphasis added)

Isn’t it interesting that coupled with the obligation of the parents to do this for their children, this is immediately followed by observing the Sabbath day to keep it holy. This is not a delegable responsibility. You cannot take your children and drop them off to someone in an organization somewhere and say, “There you are; I’ll see you in three hours. And I hope that what comes out of your mouth at the end of that bears some remote resemblance to the content of scripture and not merely some warmed-over reiteration or regurgitation of a talk that we all slept through when it was broadcast on TV every six months” [laughter]. It is the same talk, recycled over and over. I can cut-and-paste and give you all the talks that are coming up in the next one [laughter]. That’s what you’re going to use? That’s the basis upon which you discharge your responsibility to your children, to teach them to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost? That’s what you’re going to do to discharge your non-delegable responsibility? You think that enduring to the end is all that needs to be done? If you got the checklist and you’ve got your little pamphlet and you fulfill that, that’s how you discharge your obligation to God? That’s how you mirror what Adam and Eve did when they preached repentance? That’s what you’re going to do to take care of this? 

Well, good luck with that! Because I’m telling you, that is not the way in which Zion is going to be assembled. It’s not going to work. You’re gonna have children who are inadequately educated about the events of this dispensation so that when they become an adult, they’re gonna begin to see all of the holes that exist in the traditional narrative about what happened when God began to work through Joseph Smith. You’re gonna have children that are gonna leave in droves. You’re gonna have children who are gonna say, “I reject you. I reject your Gospel. I reject your Book of Mormon. I reject your Church. And I reject all of the notions that you present to me, because I have found enough material on the Internet to raise serious doubts about all of this stuff.” And so, you—as parents—think you have discharged your responsibility when you’ve let your children grow up in ignorance, hearing a story that is put together to make the Church look good, without any regard for the salvation of the souls of your children? That’s what you’re going to do? And then you’re gonna come to God and say, “Look, they were regular Primary attenders when they were in my house! I mean, look, we did the For the Strength of Youth. We went up, and we did the Trek thing, you know; we drug a bunch of carts around and mirrored carrying the girls across the creek—and we did all that stuff and praised our ancestry and [singing] ‘Blessed, Noble Pioneers.’ We did all that stuff! [Singing] ‘Praise to the Man…’ We stood… We stood when your ‘anointed’ entered the room…”  

My God, people! What are you thinking!? What on earth are you thinking? Do you read these scriptures? Do you recognize that the salvation and eternal life of your children hangs in the balance by the ignorance that you visit upon them? Do you understand that their salvation may be lost entirely because the responsibility devolving upon you to teach, preach, exhort, and expound (both the man and the woman, both mother and father) has been imposed upon you by God?

You have to take time on Sunday (if that’s the way you’re going to spend your Sabbath) educating your children about the foolishness that they just heard and about the vanity and the pride that has just been visited upon them. You need to inoculate them against the errors of our day, and you need to ensure that they understand the truth. Because if you simply turn them loose to hear what they hear there—I don’t care if you go to a Lutheran Church or a Catholic Church or a Baptist Church—you’re not gonna get anything more redemptive out of what now is taught in the Primary programs of the Church than what you can get in these others. And, in fact, some of them may even do a better job because they preach and focus upon Jesus; they don’t have a hierarchy to point to to say, “Look at that man, and he’ll get you somewhere! He’s got a key, and all you have to be is some keyhole” [laughter].

Children need to be taught. Children need to be challenged. Children are the most inquisitive creatures on the planet. Children are eager to learn. They not only don’t know a lot, they know they don’t know a lot. They’re sponges. They want to learn. Boring a child about the gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to the child and an offense to God! Preach the gospel to them. Tell them the truth. Take the material and challenge them to see that this gospel is infinite in scope, that Joseph Smith did not (indeed, could not) have written the Book of Mormon, that there are at least two voices that appear in the dialogue that we looked at yesterday in the book of Ether, that one of them never uses the word “prayer,” and the other one never uses the word “cry.”

Show them from the scriptures what it means to be saved. You will be astonished at how much children are capable of understanding! But I have to warn you, when you begin to teach your children, if you decide to discharge your obligation to them, you’re gonna make them strangers and foreigners and sojourners—and you’re gonna have to find other people who are like-minded and willing to teach their children and discharge their responsibility, so that your kids know that there’s more than just your family that’s interested in comprehending the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Look, go to D&C section 88. I wanna read this and take a slightly different view of it. Beginning at verse 119 of Doctrine and Covenants section 88: 

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High. Therefore, cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings. Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, that every man may have an equal privilege. See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires. Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to your bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated. And above all things, clothe yourselves with a bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace. Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen. (D&C 88:119-126)

Think of this as a description of you (as husband), you (as wife), and your children. And make your house this house. Make this your family: a family of prayer, a family of fasting, a family of faith, a family of learning; therefore, a family of glory—which will bring about a family of order; and therefore, a house of God.

This is seven things. Seven is a symbolic number that gets used to signify the completion or the perfection of something. Finish your house. It has yet to be built if you haven’t built upon that foundation. Let this description not be of some multi-million-dollar building that’s built somewhere using the finances you donate to the organization. Make this you. Make this your people. You should be the temple of God.

That building involves a ritual designed to depict the coming back into the presence of God. Make that ritual a reality in the lives of you and your children. “Where two or three are gathered in my name;” make it possible for Him to come and be with you. Make it possible for Him and the angels themselves to take note and to say, “Look! It’s beginning again! There is faith again on the earth, and the children are being taught. We must act! Let us go down and gather them.” Make yourselves worthy of preservation. Get your own houses in order.

Now, I want to change subjects and talk about something for a moment. 

(How are we on time? Are we good? Oh good, okay.) 

I’ve been asked over and over and over why I don’t talk about some subjects. And therefore, I’m going to talk about this subject only because it fits within the context of what I’m challenging you to do.

I’ve been asked why I don’t speak of the “One Mighty and Strong” and why I don’t talk about a Davidic servant. And there’s plenty of nonsense going on about that. And I don’t wanna take good, honest, earnest people and to criticize them one whit for their best efforts in trying to parse through this stuff. And I don’t blame them for resorting to all kinds of tools and making an effort, and I don’t want anything I’m about to say to be viewed as criticism of anyone. I don’t care to do that. I think there’s some very good people making an effort at least to raise the level of consciousness. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to figure this stuff out and—preliminarily, in good faith—reaching what you think is an honest conclusion, and it’s wrong. As long as you’re willing to hold onto that tentatively, as long as you’re willing ultimately to be taught by the Spirit, I say all those folks that make this their primary thrust, good for them! I’ve avoided it, but in this context on this day, I wanna talk about those verses because they fit.

This is talking about the one who is “mighty and strong” in Doctrine and Covenants 85, beginning at verse 7. First of all, I wanna say, if this is a role to be occupied by a single individual, then no one can claim the role until after he’s done the work. Only fools and knaves and imposters and pseudo-strongmen (who have accomplished nothing) run about proclaiming themselves as possessing the “button.” You know, “Button, button, who’s got the button?” 

“Oh—well, I do!” 

“Yeah? Well, I do—and I’m mightier and I’m stronger than you!” 

What a load of crap! Beginning at verse 7: 

And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the saints whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God; While that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning. And all they who are not found written in the book of remembrance shall find none inheritance in that day, but they shall be cut asunder, and their portion shall be appointed to them among the unbelievers, where are wailing and gnashing of teeth. (D&C 85:7-9)

Okay, so, this is work yet to be done, according to some. According to others, this was fulfilled by Joseph Smith. The narrative the Church would offer to you is that Joseph Smith fulfilled this prophecy. As a result of the Church urging that as the interpretation, I’m very suspect that that is, of course, wrong. Because if he did not, then what is coming will upset the apple cart. And so, the possibility that this is yet to be fulfilled, I think, is the greater probability.

But if this person wants to step forth, then they need to hold the scepter of power in their hand. They need to have light for their covering. Their mouth needs to utter eternal words, and their bowels need to be a fountain of truth. These are the works to be done. So, if someone wants to say, “I, I… Me, me,” then go ahead, and do it. If you wanna do that, once you have, then maybe this was a description of you.

But in our context, in this day, on this subject, I want to invite all of you to set in order your own house. I wanna invite all of you (after putting it in order and making that house of order worthy to be God’s house) for you, all of you, to be this One—to have every one of you have the scepter of power (or in other words, priesthood) in your hand. I want all of you to be clothed with light for a covering; that is, to have the knowledge of Truth and Light, the knowledge of God. I want all of you to be that. I want your mouths to utter eternal words within your families. And I want your bowels to be a fountain of truth. And that as a consequence of that, you are able to set in order your house to make it the house of God. 

Let this begin with you, whoever you are—male or female—sitting today. Let it begin with you! Then, let it extend to your spouse, then to your children. And when your house is in order, look at your extended family, then others who are likewise inclined to believe. 

These are the kinds of preparations that need to precede Zion. We are not going to get there in one step. We’re only gonna get there incrementally. And there’s a great deal of increments yet to be accomplished. It’s not gonna happen by fairy dust. There’s not gonna be someone who comes along and says to you, “Spiritu Sancto, Ave Maria.” You know, get the holy water; get the incense, voodoo—voila, now you’re Zion! It’s not gonna happen. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Dominican in a brown robe or a Mormon Elder with a name tag. You… You must become holy. You must receive the guidance, blessing, benefit, and baptism of the Spirit. You must become the house of God. You’re going to have to be the one that God visits with in order to have the preparations that are necessary take place. This is not something to be accomplished in a single step. Indeed, all of it must precede the gathering.

We looked (a while back, in one of the preceding talks) at how dangerous it would be for an unworthy person to attempt to be in Zion. Because when it finally is acceptable to the Lord—and when His presence does come, finally, to dwell there—it is unsafe for anyone unprepared to face that glory to be in that condition. Therefore, when the gathering takes place and you would like to join in, you do so at your peril if you’ve not accomplished the things that are expected to be accomplished beforehand.

We read those verses in Alma (yesterday) about Melchizedek’s people. Melchizedek’s people—Alma chapter 13—about how the people that Melchizedek gathered had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination and had all gone astray. It doesn’t matter that you look about and see a tattered ruin of the Restoration. And it doesn’t matter that we’re filled with all kinds of false notions, inadequate and incomplete teachings. And it doesn’t matter that we’re a vain and a proud people. It’s even worse when, recognizing that we are a vain and a proud people, we tend to gather together and to think of ourselves as even better than they are. Because we immediately import that same culture of arrogance. We immediately take what is offered, and instead of becoming (as we talked about yesterday) humbled by the greatness of the steps left in front of us, we tend to think that we ought to view this stuff comparatively (“and we are slightly better than them, after all”) when the standard is absolute! And it doesn’t matter if you’re kinda, sorta, a little better. It’s absolute! It’s an on-and-off switch. And if it’s on, it’s on; and if it’s off, it’s off. There is no dimmer. It doesn’t happen that way. And we aren’t better than them. In some respects, we have greater reason to fall into the folly of our own pride. We have greater reason to think ourselves better than the people that think they’re better than the rest of the people. And so, we move along incrementally to become yet further away from God. If we think we’re better than them and they think they’re better than the world, then we oughta become a fool for Christ’s sake and go and serve among them. We oughta do like the missionary who went out and did everything that the king bid him do and did it with such exactness and such fidelity, because he wasn’t trying to serve the king; he was trying to serve the King of Heaven. He was trying to show—in the integrity of his heart and in the integrity of his soul—what was true. Maybe the way to fix some of the problems that exist with your own children is for you to go and ask the Bishop to let you be a Primary teacher. And then you’re not only teaching and ministering to your own children, but you’re teaching and you’re ministering to others as well.

Hearts of people get hard the older they get (although, there is at least one exception, ‘cuz I ran into a guy at my office who was like 85 years old, and he’s still as young and as nimble and as open and as flexible as a child). That’s why we have to become childlike—because we have to be willing to consider these things.

Well, in that Alma chapter 13 material, beginning at 14, it says: 

Yea, humble yourselves even as the people in the days of Melchizedek, who was also a high priest after this same order which I have spoken, who also took upon him the high priesthood forever. And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one–tenth part of all he possessed. Now these ordinances were given after this manner, that thereby the people might look forward on the Son of God, it being a type of his order, or it being his order, and this that they might look forward to him for the remission of their sins, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord. (Alma 13:14-16, emphasis added)

And what is these ordinances that are being talked about? That’s what we looked at in the Orem talk in chapter 13, and we’re not gonna repeat it here. That’s the material that includes: Everything that God does, He does by an ordinance. Everything that He does and every blessing He confers, He confers by a covenant. One of the good news about the absence of a binding covenant is that you can’t damn yourself by taking upon yourself an obligation that you will never honor.

One of the good things about the Restoration is that there are covenantal examples that are given that give you an idea of the kind of behavior that God would want. I wish everyone would go to the temple. I wish everyone would go to the temple and take on them covenants, learn what they are, and then try to live them. But if you fail (unlike the stuff that comes into play with this Melchizedek character), there is no severe penalty, because it’s for your good and for your practice and for your instruction. And if you honor that, there’s no reason why God and the angels cannot ratify whatever it is you do if you qualify for it. The Holy Spirit of Promise is embedded within the architecture of the Church’s teachings. And it was as recent as—what? General Conference before last?—when President Eyring got up, and he talked about how they had the sealing power, and then he threw in that caveat that everything has to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise. I put that up on my blog; I quoted it, and I said, “That’s good doctrine.” And that is good doctrine.

Go to the temple, get your ordinances, and then work to have this Holy Spirit of Promise. Because the Keeper of that Gate is the Holy One of Israel, and there’s no employee there. It is the Holy One of Israel, and you qualify to receive that directly with heaven. There’s no other gatekeeper opening and closing doors—there is the Holy One of Israel; He employeth no servant there. 

Therefore, this stuff is talking about the very things I’ve been talking about since we began in Boise, and now we’ve reached this point. And we need to respond—when repentance is preached—by repenting. Righteousness only comes after that. And this is the only way out of our similarly bleak current condition. This! It’s by remembering. It’s by returning. It’s by finding yourselves (no matter who you live among) being someone that God has accepted, that God has spoken to from heaven, that has taken the Holy Spirit as your guide and has not been taken off task. You set in order the house of God, beginning with your own marriage. You do that.

(Now, we’re gonna change subjects and go back to Doctrine and Covenants section 132. But first, we’re gonna take a break. And hopefully, some of you people will cool down and bring that back in here with you when you return.) 

The next part of this needs to focus on what goes on in section 132. By way of background, section 132 has an uncertain beginning. There are lots of debates about how, when, and where. I have taken the position that during the translation of the Book of Mormon— because Joseph and Oliver prayed to know concerning baptism when they got to those passages in the Book of Mormon—that they would have likewise prayed to know about this subject of plural wives when they got to the translation of Jacob chapter 2.

The way in which the translation took place was that the Jacob chapter 2 materials was part of the Small Plates of Nephi translated at the very last. And so, it would’ve been very late in the translation process of the Book Mormon when they got to Jacob chapter 2—almost the end of the translation process. And I think they would’ve made an inquiry as a result of that. 

Other people believe that it was as a result of the translation of the Bible and that it was during the time that Joseph and Sidney were going through what is now called the Inspired Version of the Bible that provoked the question/that provoked the inquiry.

However, even though it’s not well-known history, those first four missionaries that were sent out… Oliver Cowdery expected to be able to take a plural wife among the Indians. There’s reason to believe that Oliver was involved and had knowledge about it, and he would’ve gained that at the time that the revelation came.

And then I show or quote a comment from Brigham Young, in which Brigham Young says that knowledge of this came about during the translation of the Book of Mormon. And therefore, it would’ve been in the 1829 time frame, when the beginning of section 132 rolled off.

The fact of the matter is that because of the content of section 132, the document was suppressed. We know when it got reduced to writing. The headnote on section 132 says when it got reduced to writing in that July 1843 time frame. ([cough] Excuse me.) And the William Clayton diary also confirms that that was the dating in which it was reduced to writing. And then the subsequent events in the diary about what happened as the section 132 transcript was taken around and Emma’s reaction and Joseph then deeding to Emma the unsold lots in Nauvoo in order to make sure that Joseph’s affairs were not intertwined with other women and all of that… 

There seems to be a pretty good historical basis for saying that section 132 was a document created by Joseph Smith, dictating it to his scribe in July of 1843, just as the headnote says here. And if you look at William Clayton’s journal, you’ll see there’s other contemporary evidence on that date for this happening. But it did not get made public.

Nor does the content of section 132 appear to be a single revelation. It appears to be, at least in my view, at least five different revelations that go all the way back (in the beginning verses) to 1829, and when you get to the end, it’s actually talking about events that were occurring in July of 1843. Okay? So, it’s a series of revelations which were all dictated at one time by Joseph in one document. And therefore, when you look at it, it’s really not clear where the divisions take place. I try to parse through it and give you what I think is a reasonable way to break the chronology off and see what happened in Passing the Heavenly Gift. But you don’t have to have read that. And I’m gonna talk about this revelation just generally:

The brother of Jared, like we saw yesterday, went to the Lord to inquire about a practical matter. And the Lord, in response to the inquiry about the lighting, first of all asks him if he’s going to believe Him—asks the brother of Jared if he’s going to accept the words (in other words, the covenant) which He’s about to put into the hands of this man. And then once he agrees to the conditions, there is this revelation that unfolds to the brother of Jared in which God makes known to him all of His revelations. Okay?

What happens with the brother of Jared once the revelation begins to roll forth has nothing to do with the problem that brought him in prayer to the Lord. He wanted to solve a lighting problem inside a barge. The revelation has nothing to do with a lighting problem inside the barge. It has to do with all of God’s revelations.

Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove trying to find out which church to join. In answer to the revelation about which church to join, he was told to join none of them and that they were all corrupt and that he would be the means of bringing something else about.

When Joseph prayed to find out what his state and standing was before the Lord and the angel Moroni came, perfunctorily, the inquiry that he made was answered: “Your sins are forgiven.” Then he goes on to tell him about everything, including the existence of the plates of the Book of Mormon. Okay? So, the subject about which someone inquires in going to the Lord does not necessarily control the content of what the Lord is going to reveal. 

Likewise, Joseph made an inquiry to find out about the plurality of wives. What the Lord wanted to talk about was eternal marriage. The Lord’s priority is what you see first in section 132. He’s talking about the eternal duration of the marriage covenant. He answers the question (beginning very late in the original revelation) as an afterthought concerning the issue of the plurality of wives. But it is first and foremost a revelation about the eternity of the marriage covenant. You do not get to an answer about the subject of plural marriage until verse 34. Beginning at verse 1 and going through verse 33, all of that is about the eternity of the marriage covenant. All of that is about marriage of a man and a woman, like the marriage of Adam to Eve and like the children of Adam and Eve who went off two by two to create their families.

All of the blessings concerning what you hope to inherit in eternity are tied to the first 33 verses of section 132, dealing with the marriage of a man and a woman. Therefore, when you read section 132, don’t leap to verse 34 and then read retrospectively back into the earlier text that what it’s talking about in the earlier text is something other than the marriage of a man and a woman. The subject matter changes, and the question that was asked begins in verse 34.

So, what was on the Lord’s mind and what the Lord inspired an inquiry to produce is in the beginning of section 132. Look at verse 7: 

The conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment… 

(and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred), are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end have an end when men are dead.

So, everything that you hope to receive into the next life, even your expectations, all of that has to be obtained from God by covenant. 

I mentioned in an answer to a question in Ephraim that the role of the woman was significant, even in the life of Christ. I mentioned that she anointed Him preliminary to His death and burial. One of the things that gave Him the expectation of coming forth out of the grave was the anointing that promised Him. Why do you think (in the temple) the rites include preserving some of the functions of the body? It’s not to make you healthy here and now. It’s so that you can lay claim upon this as an “expectation” in the eternities—because if you do not have the expectation conferred upon you by the Holy Spirit of Promise, you’ll have to get that in some other cycle because the only thing you will be able to take with you into eternity you obtain in this manner. Everything has to be obtained by a covenant.

Look at verse 13: 

Everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities… 

It doesn’t matter if it’s ordained by men. And it doesn’t even matter if someone sitting in eternity on a throne who has authority in the presence of God ordains it. Does not matter. 

Or principalities… 

That is talking about angels. That is talking about people from the other side. Even if they are in a position of authority in the presence of God, it doesn’t matter. 

Everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. (Emphasis added)

The Keeper of the Gate is the Holy One of Israel indeed! These words should mean something to you if you’ve listened to or read the text that we reviewed in Orem on priesthood. You should understand what God is saying here. You should understand that when it comes to some things that you hope to have continue into eternity, it is not enough to have even one of the “noble and great,” even one of those who we regard as an Archangel; it doesn’t matter. God and God alone holds the keys of death and hell. Christ paid that price. Christ has to be the One because He is the only one qualified to do this. He has to be the One. This is a non-delegable responsibility by He who—by virtue of bringing you back and promising you—becomes your Father in heaven. If Christ is going to become your Father in heaven, He’s got that same responsibility to you that He imposed upon you as a parent in Zion (that we looked at before the break). He doesn’t spare Himself.

For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed [that’s Christ’s word—that’s what He says is going to happen]. Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world. (Ibid, vs. 14-15)

Although God is talking about the eternity of the marriage covenant, He extends this into everything. Everything—even your associations—all of them are obtained by a covenant from Him. Because His word, and His word alone, will endure.

Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. (Ibid, vs. 16) 

Partners in such marriages become angels that are ministering servants. Angels look to receive the things that God has offered to men, but unless they come down and participate here, they cannot obtain them, for they’re only to be had here. Verse 19: 

And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise [skipping down]… 

they shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths [skipping down]… 

they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as has been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. (Emphasis added)

You cannot receive these things unless you enter in by the Gate, the Keeper of whom is the Holy One of Israel who employs no servant. If you do that however, 

Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. (Ibid, vs. 20)

These are people who have qualified for the kind of trust from God that makes sure that eternity will not be infected by the kinds of abuse, by the kinds of neglect, by the kinds of unworthiness that typifies those things which God wants to throw down, those things that God wants to have come to an end—not because He’s mean, but for the protection of yourself, for the protection of eternity, for the protection of the potential offspring that may arise as a result of the continuation of the seed. This is so that, in the beginning, when life comes into existence as an organized spirit, that spirit is introduced into an environment which is perfect, pure, holy, and like God.

Therefore, when we come—finally—to this topic, we are talking about something which, even if it exists only with you and your spouse, it is Zion. It is eternal. It bears the hallmarks of God’s hand and covenant. It is what this topic is all about. These people have no end; they are everlasting; they have all power. And all of this is a discussion about a marriage between a man and a woman. Plural wives do not get mentioned until verse 34 for the first time. 

Lay aside all the issues that are thundering into your minds right now and ask yourself this: If you’re a man, do you have a wife/If you’re a woman, do you have a husband with whom you are one? Ask yourself, do you and your spouse reflect the image of God? Ask yourself that soberly.

Now, just to rule out what I think needs to be ruled out.. 

And it was in this place that this needed to be declared, because we are now in close proximity to those who have taken what starts at verse 34, and they’ve gone on, believing that it is appropriate to take a plural wife. I wanna ask you, since there is never but one on…earth at a time on whom this power and keys of this priesthood are conferred (D&C 132:7) and since in verse 64: …verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power—this “power” being the power to seal, k?—do you hold those “keys”? Are you that one individual? 

Before you answer that question, I hope you’re aware that every single one of the polygamist sects claims that their particular leader is the one described in verse 7: There is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred. Every one of ‘em.

Here’s the bad news for you. They can’t all be right. But they can all be wrong. And if no one has told you this before, I’ll declare it to you today: No man holds that authority among the various polygamists sects, period. I don’t care what priesthood line of authority they choose to claim. They don’t have it.

If you are wrong and you engage in this behavior, D&C section 132, verses 42 and 43 address the woman and says if she does this without this authority, she has committed adultery. And verse 43 addresses the man and says if he does it without this authority, he commits adultery. It’s interesting in this context (just like when the Lord clothed both Adam and then clothed Eve), He doesn’t leave it with one. This is an important enough subject that He talks to them each and warns them both.

Adultery is one of the things so foundational to society that it is forbidden in the Ten Commandments—Exodus chapter 20, verse 14. In Moses’ day, those who committed adultery were put to death in Leviticus [chapter 20, verse] 10. In our day, we’re told if you do this (I’m gonna read it)—D&C section 16 63 rather, beginning at verse 14: 

There were among you adulterers and adulteresses…

Again, don’t think God has one standard for men and another for women—it doesn’t work that way. He’s always, on this subject, treating the man and the woman the same. 

…some of whom have turned away from you, and others [that] remain with you that hereafter shall be revealed. Let such beware and repent speedily, lest judgment shall come upon them as a snare, and their folly shall be made manifest, and their works shall follow them in the eyes of the people. And verily I say unto you, as [I’ve] said before, he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, or if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they shall not have the Spirit, but shall deny the faith and shall fear. (D&C 63:14-16)

And you oughta fear. Because you should ask yourself: Is this who you are? Is this what you are? Joseph Smith said, “If a man commit adultery, he cannot receive the celestial kingdom of God. Even if he is saved in any kingdom, it cannot be the celestial kingdom” (DHC 6:81). 

We’re supposed to hearken to the commandments. Look at Jacob chapter 2, verses 27 and 28: 

Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and [concubine] he shall have none; For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; …saith the Lord of Hosts.

One wife! Jacob chapter 3 (this is a remarkable, remarkable passage)—3, beginning at verse 5:

Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing[s] which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them. Now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people. (Jacob 3:5-6)

It was the fidelity of the Lamanites to one wife. They rejected the prophets. They rejected Nephi. They rejected the Gospel. They turned to their loathsomeness. They were a wild and a ferocious people. But this preserved them in the eyes of God. This was important enough that they deserved to continue on—unlike the Nephites who had the Gospel, unlike the Nephites who had the prophets. 

Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator? (Ibid, vs. 7)

God doesn’t judge righteousness the way we do. If you’ve read the Tenth Parable, what was it that attracted the attention of the angels? They looked at the marriage, and they said, “This! This looks like what we come from! This! This relationship, this marriage, the man and the woman—this is what heaven itself consists of. And look, look! It’s on the earth!” And the angels go, and they bring the Lord, and they say, “Behold the man and the woman!” And the Lord sets in motion everything that was needed.

What more do you need to see from the theme of the Book of Mormon than this passage in order to realize that when it comes to the relationship of marriage, this is the image of God. This is what God would like to preserve into eternity. It is so much easier to take people who have this kind of a marriage and to preserve them into eternity than it is to take someone who may know all mysteries but whose marriage is a tattered ruin and attempt to preserve them.

Look at the example of your first parents. Moses 3, the last two verses, 23 and 24 (excuse me, the next—there’s one other verse after that): And Adam said: This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.

You may have a spouse who is Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, or Mormon. You may have a spouse who is “Community of Christ” Mormon. You may have a spouse who believes in dancing naked at Wiccan ceremonies while high on peyote. You and your spouse need to love one another. You and your spouse have something far, far greater (potentially) between you and your children than all of the distractions of this world. You and your spouse face the challenge of becoming one. And if you are one… 

The Lamanites were condemned consistently in the Book of Mormon; it came to blows. But they were praised because of their marriages, because of the love of the spouses.

Now, if you claim that you have enough love for two or more women, then I’d ask you: Can you not love your one wife enough to give her your full attention?

Every day, my wife and I get up; we have a four-mile hike that we do every morning before we come back and get ready for work and the day. We spend about an hour doing that that is filled with conversation—every day—about what’s going on in my life, what’s going on in her life, what’s going on in this big problem, what’s going on with our children—every day.

I come home for lunch very frequently, and we spend the noon-hour talking. We probably call each other—I don’t know—four or five times during the day. I drive down to Utah County a couple of times. Driving down, I’m on the phone talking to my wife; driving back, I’m on the phone talking with my wife. We have a lot to talk about.

I do think that marriage can be something that is godlike. And two people can, in fact, become one.

Although Moses permitted a man to take another wife, the law that was propounded through Moses protected the first wife’s rights. Exodus 21:10, If he take him another wife; her food [the first wife], her raiment [the first wife], and her duty of marriage [that is, all of the rights of association, consortium, so on], shall he not diminish. The first wife is referred to in scripture, throughout, as the wife of thy youth.

I wanna go back. Malachi gets quoted by the Lord; he gets quoted by the angel Moroni. Go to Malachi chapter 2, beginning at verse 14. This is talking about “the wife of the youth.” Malachi 2:14, 

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. (Malachi 2:14-16)

 Take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously. 

Only a fool will practice plural marriage. There’s only one, if that, on the earth who can have the required keys. If you err, it is an offense and adultery and an abomination. Your first wife, the wife of your youth, must be unaffected in all her rights.

That having been said, it is possible that some of you are already in such a marriage. If that is the case, do not tear your family apart. That would be worse still. Do not take another wife. But do not abandon any wife you presently have. But teach your children to come out of this system. Teach your children. And if you have a friend or if you have a neighbor or if you have someone in your own extended family who is in this predicament, don’t judge ‘em. Help ‘em. Help them teach their children to come out of the system. Don’t destroy the lives of children that are already in such a community, but let it come to an end in this generation. It would be wrong to destroy families, even if they are peculiarly situated.

Zion is going to require strong, happy, and noble marriages worthy of enduring beyond the grave. I suspect that if someone repents (even if they keep their marriages intact) but teach their children that Zion is going to include among them some who’ve awakened and decided that the practice and the continuation of taking yet more wives needs to end. It would not surprise me to find out that there are those who have plural wives within Zion. But it will not include those who still believe in continuing the practice, perpetuating the practice, or adding additional wives. It will be those who have awakened. 

Look, the practice of plural wives is an abomination. Everyone that says they have the keys to do that, they reckon that authority somewhere downriver from Brigham Young. Okay? I want you to think about all that has been said and all the scriptures that have been read today while I read to you a General Conference talk given by Brigham Young in the October General Conference on October 8th of 1861. And I want you to consider these words, and measure it against the standard of a marriage worthy of perpetuation into eternity.

The second way in which a wife can be separated from her husband, while he continues to be faithful to his God and his priesthood, I have not revealed except to a few persons in this Church, and a few have received it from Joseph the Prophet as well as myself. [This other…] This other path a woman may take, if she can get a chance, and do it in accordance with the order of heaven, if a woman can find a man holding the keys of the priesthood with higher power and authority than her husband, and he’s disposed to take her, he can do so, otherwise she has got to remain where she is. This is the second way in which a woman can leave her husband to whom she has been sealed for time and eternity. 

He goes on to say: “without a bill of divorcement.”

Are you kidding me!? Are you kidding me!? This is doctrine!? I mean, I’m inclined to now engage in a string of obscenities. [Laughter.] You believe this crap!? You think Brigham Young knew what the hell he was talking about!? Oh, he just happened to be the guy who had the most keys. Really!? So, he can fetch the most women? Any woman, to any man, anywhere, at any time, if he could get her to come aboard, he can take her? This is the tenuous thread upon which eternal marriage is to be based!? My God, people! 

Here’s a section of the Doctrine and Covenants that existed in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants while Joseph was still alive. It’s an article on marriage: One man should have one wife, and one woman one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again. It is not right to persuade a woman to be baptized contrary to the will of her husband, neither is it lawful to influence her to leave her husband.

I mentioned Hyrum Smith’s General Epistle to the Church. Do you know what Hyrum Smith said in the General Epistle to the Church, the President we don’t recognize (no one does)? President Hyrum Smith said: “We don’t break up marriages. You stay true to your wife, and if your wife is not a believer, you stay true to her; and if your husband is not a believer, you stay true to him. We don’t do that.”

Well, I guess “we don’t do that” until the “mighty prophet,” Brigham Young, comes along in October 8th of 1861 and says, “Hey, there’s another way you can get a woman without a bill of divorcement from her husband: you can take her if you’ve got the keys. And damn, I’m just loaded with keys!” [Laughter.]

So that this topic becomes clear, I’m not gonna take the time today to address the many foolish things that have been said by the LDS Church and by break-off groups in an attempt to win a lawsuit; that was what happened. I have prepared a paper that I’m going to present at the Sunstone Conference in Salt Lake City on August the 2nd. On the evening of August the 2nd, I’m gonna put that paper up on the blog, and you can download it, and you can read it. And you’ll see in there a discussion that fits right in with this series of talks, right here, at this moment in the content. It deals with the subject, and it’s going to be put up, and you can read it.

When it comes to the subject of marriage (as if all I have said and all that is in scripture isn’t clear enough), Revelation chapter 19 has a description of the culmination of all the Lord’s great work in this cycle of creation. And this is talking about when it all wraps up. In the prophecy, God can’t think of anything better to put into the mouth of John His Beloved (who wrote this stuff) than the analogy that gets used here. John—excuse me—Revelation chapter 19, beginning at verse 6:

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude [that multitude being male and female], and as the voice of [mighty] waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. (Revelation 19:6-9)

Not only does He liken the final triumph of the Lord’s atonement to a wedding feast, but it is, in fact, a wedding feast. For all those who come through the tribulation—male and female, in the image of God—He’s going to put on for them a wedding banquet because they are like Him. And they will see as they are seen because they are like Him. “Male and female created he them, in the image of God created he them” (see Genesis 1:27)

When our Lord’s ministry began, John’s Gospel has (in chapter 1) Christ’s baptism. John’s Gospel has (in chapter 2) the wedding at Canaan. When Christ prepared for His death and burial, it was with a woman. And when Christ was resurrected, the first and (at the moment) only witness was a woman. And when Christ finally got around to seeing His disciples, He upbraided them for not believing the testimony of the woman.

Well, Zion is a distant accomplishment yet to be achieved—but it is before us. 

The next talk is going to be in Phoenix on September the 9th in the morning. I hope before you come (or those who do come and who are hearing this) that they review the first nine talks. This is all one talk. This is all one subject. We’ve been reconstructing the Restoration.

I don’t care who copies this stuff. It would please me if General Conference began to quote this stuff and began to use it. I think that is a fool’s bargain. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. But if you believe the scriptures and if you believe in Joseph and if you believe in the Restoration, then you believe the work is still incomplete. You believe that the challenges lie in front of us. And one of the most remarkable challenges that we face consists in the topic that we addressed today. All of that other stuff is foundational to bring us to this point to talk about this subject—so that in this subject, you can see. 

Now, I know that there are a lot of broken homes. I know there’s a lot of broken families. I know there’s a lot of broken hearts. We’re not given any trouble in this world that we’re not equal to. We don’t get tempted above our ability to withstand. God has something in mind for every single one of us. God has something in mind for each one of you whose marriages may presently be troubled, each one of you who may now find yourself in a broken home. Trust in Him. Trust in His desire for you. Take your problems to Him, and weary Him.

Remember yesterday when we talked about “crying unto the Lord”? When I consider all of the people about whom I care and the problems that they face, I want to cry to the Lord. If your circumstances trouble you, cry to Him. Maybe all of that is one of those weaknesses that has been given unto you that you may be humble so that you might come and cry unto Him.

By the time Adam and Eve knew enough to declare repentance unto their children, their children were suffering from the ravages of the Fall. As soon as they began to declare repentance unto their children and teach them some things about covenant-making, one of their sons took that and turned it into a combination by which inordinate wickedness could be brought to pass. 

And you wonder why God withholds some things from the view of the public? It’s because some things, if abused, can bring to pass such wretched wickedness in the lives of men that you’re better off not talking about ‘em. You’re better off not disclosing ‘em.

Adam and Eve declared and cried repentance together; they labored side-by-side; they received the garment at the same moment; they were instructed on sacrifice at the same time; they were taught and received the Holy Ghost at the same moment; they experienced the baptism of fire, and Adam prophesied at the same moment that Eve (overcome by the Spirit and the Spirit of Wisdom) was able to interpret and define what was going on and how all of this was suitable and appropriate. They two were one.

Don’t think that the heartache that you feel is any less poignant than the heartache of our first parents. This is a place to be proven, and it’s rough stuff down here. You came here full of enthusiasm and confident in your ability to withstand the day. And now the day’s upon us. And it really doesn’t look the same down here as it did up there. 

If you be noble and if you be faithful and if you be true and if you leave witnesses here among us, it just may be that in some other day, when some other rough challenge like this is put to the test, and we are all asked, “Whom should the Lord send?” that some of us will look at one of you and say, “I trust him! I trust her! I know that she will remain true and faithful. I know that he will do so likewise.” Because it will be a great while after we have departed this life before we will have attained to everything that is necessary in order to rise up. It’s what we talked about in Ephraim. 

You need to hear all of these, and you need to hear all of them in one continuous discussion because it’s all one. This isn’t my material; it’s the Lord’s. All we’ve been doing is looking at this stuff… It’s actually color-coded; these are the scriptures… Let’s see, scriptures are color-coded with orange in Boise, and yellow in Idaho Falls, and pink in Logan, and light green in Centerville, and dark green yesterday, and purple today. And you can see the scriptures have become rather littered with markers. 

This is the Gospel of Christ. This is the power of God unto redemption. And this is the stuff that Joseph Smith was attempting to layout when he was taken. There’s a lot left to be done. There’s more left to be done than has been started. There’s more that has not been revealed than what Joseph was able to get on the ground here.

As we’ve gone forward, we’ve taken less and less. And now with the engines of Correlation, we’re managing to trim yet further. The Gospel of Christ is not about “Have a nice day.” The Gospel of Christ is not about being a keyhole [laughter]. The Gospel of Christ is about awakening and arising. It’s about you becoming redeemed. Thank God that before Joseph died, he was able to layout something in the red brick store (through ritual and through ceremony) that described walking back into the presence of God, conversing with Him through the veil, and then entering into His presence. Thank God that in addition to the Scriptures, Joseph left us a ritual testimony.

But do you know why ancient Israel had their temple? It was to have ceremonies to point them to the coming of Christ to the flesh. The Latter-day Saints have been given a ritual ceremony to point them to receiving Christ in the flesh. There needs yet to be another temple built, but it will be in Zion. And those who go there will meet with their Lord because that will be His house indeed. You can build that only if you qualify to do so.

There’s so much left to be done! Right now the only thing that can be done is to remind you of the Restoration, and that is available to all. Everyone’s invited. Everyone. But don’t expect the Lord to give us anything further or permit us to move one inch further until we first remember what we’ve been given. And even if you are in a fallen world among a fallen people who are proud and who are arrogant and who think themselves more than they really are, if you will love your wife and if your wife will love you, you are in the image of God, and that will be preserved unto all eternity. No matter what else you may have to go through between now and then, that’s what He’s trying to preserve. That is the image of God.

I bear testimony of that and hope these words will be allowed to sink into your heart. They come from Scripture, and they come from the Lord. They don’t come from me.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The post Marriage and Family appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “A Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit” was originally recorded in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 25, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

All right, so, let’s begin. I wanna remind you that when we were in Orem, we talked about priesthood, and I’d like you to keep in mind some of the material that was addressed in Orem as we proceed today.

Doctrine and Covenants section 84 has a description of events at the time of Moses, beginning at verse 19 of section 84: 

And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. (D&C 84:19-20) 

And by the way, I should add (as a parenthetical thought), the ordinances thereof is far more expansive than simply a set of rites or rituals—because when the higher priesthood is present on the earth, everything that that higher priesthood does is done as an ordinance—because once it has been ordained by God to take place (and God’s hand is behind what takes place), those events, under the direction of that priesthood, is all an ordinance, and therefore, within them you find the power of godliness.

And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory. (ibid, vs. 21-24)

I remind you (we’ve talked about this before), the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth (D&C 93:36), therefore, the “rest” is to be filled with His glory or, in other words, filled with Light and Truth—or to comprehend things that you do not at present comprehend without the benefit of the glory of God. 

Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also. (ibid, vs. 25)

And thus, at that point ended the expectation anciently that there might be Zion. 

Now, I want you to think about (because this is a topic that’s going to recur throughout today) what the words mean: …his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness. And He did this in His wrath. We tend to think of God as very loving and benign after the sacrifice of Christ. And these words seem to be “Old Testament-like” and not “New Testament-like.”  But understanding, hopefully (when we get through today), more about the nature of God’s ire and God’s approval… Disapproval from God feels terrible.

When we were looking at the reaction that people have (in the last day of judgment) to standing in the presence of a just and holy being and feeling awful, I pointed out to you that in that passage, God was doing nothing other than existing. But the disappointment in the mind of man is so exquisite that it is likened by Joseph Smith to a lake of fire and brimstone.

Therefore, God in His wrath has simply withdrawn. He’s taken a step back because we’re not suited to be in His presence. Therefore, having God withdraw is a matter of feeling keenly that absence, that rejection. 

This incident is being described in modern revelation (in section 84), but the incident itself occurred back in the book of Exodus. This is Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 18:

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21)

They did not want to encounter Him, not because the presence of God is so terrible that it drives men from Him—because Moses approached Him—but because the evidence of His presence makes us internally evaluate who and what we are. And although we can lie to ourselves about how good we really are, when the measuring stick against which you compare yourself is God, all of us come short. Even when the Lord Himself testifies to you that your sins are forgiven, you still recognize that you fall short. To the extent that you have confidence in the presence of the Lord, it is wholly derivative from Him. He has to strengthen you because if He does not, all of us would retire in shame.

Doctrine and Covenants section 124 has a revelation given in January of 1841 to the saints (at that point in Nauvoo), offering something to the saints in that day that is relevant to the history that unfolded thereafter. Beginning at verse 28, the Lord says through Joseph: 

For there is not a place…on earth that he [“He” here being the Lord, God—that he] may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood.

Skipping to verse 31: 

But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me… (D&C 124:31)

See, this commandment was unto everyone who at that point claimed to be a saint. All of them—every one of them—was put under the equal burden to build a house unto me.

…and I grant unto you [all of “you”] a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me. But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. (ibid, vs. 31-32)

It’s interesting that in verse 31, it says your baptisms, and in verse 32, it says your baptisms for your dead—which suggests that after verse 31, if we fail in verse 32, that our baptisms will continue to be acceptable, but our vicarious work would not, and the Church would then be rejected.

If you skip to 34, talking about this proposed temple to be constructed: 

For therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained, that you may receive honor and glory… (ibid, vs. 34)

…honor being the promise from God into the afterlife, respecting what you can expect to receive from God as an oath and as a covenant; glory being intelligence—or knowledge and understanding, Light and Truth—things that were not comprehended but which God hoped to have the Saints, at that point, comprehend.

Well, He gives to us (in this same revelation) a measuring stick by which we can determine if we satisfy the requirements that the Lord has set forth. And the measuring stick is this, beginning in verse 44—well, verse 43, probably, we should begin: 

And ye shall build it on the place where you have contemplated building it, for that is the spot which I have chosen for you to build it. (ibid, vs. 43)

So, they contemplated it, the Lord approved it, and this would become a spot where the Nauvoo temple was to be constructed. 

If ye labor with all your might, I will consecrate that spot that it shall be made holy. And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say unto you, they shall not be moved out of their place… (ibid, vs. 44-45, emphasis added)

…they being the people; they being those that He had chosen to lead them; they being, in this instance, the Prophet Joseph Smith and the one who would be appointed to receive priesthood and be appointed to hold the sealing power in this revelation, Hyrum Smith—the one who was designated to be the successor to Joseph Smith in the event of Joseph’s death, and the one whom the Lord would take first: Hyrum. Joseph died knowing that his successor had first fallen.

If…then they shall not be moved out of their place. But if they will not hearken to my voice, nor unto the voice of these men whom I have appointed, they shall not be blest, because they pollute mine holy grounds, and mine holy ordinances, and charters, and my holy words which I give unto them. And it shall come to pass that if you build a house unto my name, and do not do the things that I say, I will not perform the oath which I make unto you, neither fulfill the promises which ye expect at my hands, saith the Lord. For instead of blessings, ye, by your own works, bring cursings, wrath, indignation, and judgments upon your own heads, by your follies, and by all your abominations, which you practice before me, saith the Lord. (ibid, vs. 45-58, emphasis added)

So, if you get out the history and you look at the events that occured between 1841 and the death of Joseph on June 27th of 1844—and you ask yourself whether or not the Saints went to and built the House that had been commanded and did it with the kind of dispatch and the timeframe that was allowed that allowed the House of the Lord to be constructed—and if you look at the history to find where it was that the Lord came into that House (because it was Him that was required in order to restore what had been lost; because it was Him that was required to be there in order to return the glory to the House of the Lord; because it was Him that would bestow upon the saints the fullness of the priesthood; because it was the Lord, Himself, that required a place at which He could meet with His people)—and then once Joseph and Hyrum were dead, if you look at the history of what occured in Nauvoo and ask yourself, Were they blessed? Were they protected? Or did they experience (in the ordeals that drove them out of Nauvoo and into the wilderness, and the suffering that ensued there)… If, instead, you see cursings, wrath, indignations, and judgments upon the head of the saints, then you can reach a considered conclusion about whether or not we, in our day, mirror what happened at the time of Moses, and we, in our day (just as in the day of Moses) elected to say, “You—Joseph, Hyrum—you go talk to the Lord for us”—because when we consider the glory of the House of the Lord, it is no more desirable to us to go and ascend there as it was for those ancient Israelites to climb up the mountain (where there was thundering and lightnings and earthquakes underway).

Well, I’m going to make some assumptions for purposes of trying to get us back—back, able, and open—to consider some things about our present plight. I know that you think (some of you) that we never denied the idea of “continuing revelation” for even the members of the Church—and that there is some… There is some reason to draw a contrast between the ancient Israelites and ourselves, because we believe that we can receive revelation. But let me read you a quote (a quote that has been used in criticism of me with some regularity). Here’s the quote; it’s from Joseph Fielding Smith: 

When revelation comes for the guidance of this people, you may be sure that it will not be presented in some mysterious manner, contrary to the order of the Church. It will go forth in such form that the people will understand that it comes from those who are in authority… It will not spring up in some distant part of the Church and be in the hands of some obscure individual without authority. (Conference Report, October 1918)

And so it is, that that quote is used to challenge my authority, to preach, teach, exhort, and expound. If you want to lawyer this (as some of those even who preside over the Church want to do), then I would remind all of those who hear or read this that: In the Church, the First Presidency has a quorum which is equal in authority with the First Presidency—and that is the Quorum of the Twelve. And there is a Quorum of Seventy, and that Quorum of Seventy forms a quorum equal in authority with the Twelve. And then there is the High Council that is established as a group equal in authority with the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency. And that all of those are considered to be equal in holding the “keys of the kingdom,” to the extent that such a thing is claimed. And God, in His wisdom, saw fit (before I was thrown out) to call me into a quorum equal in authority with the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Seventy. But unlike them, I did not exercise control, dominion, and authority over another person so that the priesthood I hold could be regarded as having come to an end. “Amen” to the priesthood or the authority of those that exercise unrighteous dominion. And so, if you want to lawyer this, I can tell you, I hold the keys of the kingdom. But I don’t lawyer it. And I make no such claim. You, on the other hand, get subjected to this kind of criticism and this kind of nonsense on a regular basis.

I have one and only one desire: to try to persuade you to believe in the Restoration through Joseph Smith. It is not and has never been completed. It is a work yet before us. It is a work largely neglected since the time Joseph and Hyrum breathed their last breath. The prophecies that were delivered to Joseph Smith, both by Christ in the First Vision and by Moroni on the night of the first visit (which we began this with in Boise, Idaho), are a rallying cry for us to rise up and lay hold upon things. It’s a rallying cry—a prophecy—that does not fulfill itself. It gets fulfilled by what you do. Whether or not you fulfill those prophecies is dependent upon whether you will, like the ancient Israelites, elect not to go up. Or whether you—like Moses, like Joseph, like Hyrum—choose instead to forsake your sins and to move forward, even in the face of your own weakness and unworthiness. There isn’t one of us in this room that should not kneel before the presence of a just and holy being. There isn’t one of us who, if instructed to stand before Him, would not keenly feel the inadequacy of doing so—not one of us. But there are some here who have been in His presence, myself included.

You don’t read my email (…it’s probably a good thing, because if you did, you’d be overwhelmed at the insults that come in). But among all those emails, I can tell you that there are a number who have borne testimony that since reading the book The Second Comforter and since taking seriously the promises that are made through Joseph and in the Scriptures, there are a number who, like me, have a witness of our resurrected Lord. It can and it does happen. And hopefully, as we get through this material today, you’ll have confidence in your own ability to rise up.

Let’s make some assumptions for purposes of what’s going to be said. Let’s assume that we are like ancient Israel. Let’s assume that we too were left outside of God’s presence when He offered to come and dwell generally among the Saints back in Nauvoo. Let’s assume that this was not what God wanted for us.

Let’s assume that these things have, just like they did anciently, kindled God’s anger, like we read in D&C 84:24. Let’s assume that we have now—as a body, generally—been left with something lesser, which is like what was described in D&C 84, verse 26; that is, only the lesser priesthood, which includes within it the ministering of angels. 

Well, assuming all of that, what shall we do? Well, turn to Alma chapter 12 (a great chapter, by the way). And since this is already taking longer than I had hoped, I’m gonna insert in the transcript [paper] the verses in Alma chapter 12, between 9 and 11, that talks about, “if you harden your hearts, you get less; but if your heart is soft and open, you get more.”

You’re the regulator that determines whether, on the one hand, you get more or whether, on the other, you get less. And some of those who have come today with a hard heart are gonna find themselves being condemned in the day of judgment, because you were given an opportunity to have a soft heart, and you elected knowingly not to do so. Can you imagine your shame when you, in a council that includes those who are present today, come back from this experience and say, “Yes, I was there, but I didn’t believe. Yes, I was there, but I wouldn’t accept it.” None of us would vote to sustain you in the coming years, in the coming eons, in the coming experience to be a minister, to bring salvation to pass to others. None of us will have confidence in you. Soften your heart now. Today is the day of salvation. This is the moment you came down here to face. The test is on; the challenge is in front of you. You better have ears to hear. God will judge you, but more importantly, you will judge yourself.

Well, skipping then over verses 9 to 11, I’m gonna go to…  Beginning at verse 28:

And after God had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold, then he saw that it was expedient that man should know concerning the things whereof he had appointed unto them. (Alma 12:28, emphasis added)

He wants us to know! The glory of God is intelligence or, in other words, Light and Truth, which is knowledge of things. He wants us to know these things. 

Therefore [because this is God’s desire] he sent angels to converse with them, who [this is the angels] caused men to behold…his [God’s] glory. (ibid, vs. 29, emphasis added)

So, the office of the angels is to educate and to prepare—and then to cause man, who receive and entertain the angels, to then behold the glory of God (the glory of God being intelligence or, in other words, Light and Truth). 

Ultimately, the greatest truth is God Himself. And if you entertain angels (and if the angels instruct you and if you have been in their presence), you acquire from them the strength, the fortification, the knowledge—or in other words, the ordination—by which you’re able to go on and pass by them (because they surely are sentinels) and enter into the Glory of the Lord. And so, if you will give heed to the process, it really should not matter that you are left in a dispensation in which the only authority gives you the ministering of angels. Because the ministering of angels is sufficient to bring you into the glory of God—if you will receive them, if you will give heed to them. That’s the office of their ministry; that’s what they’re responsible to do. 

And they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore God conversed with men. (ibid, vs. 30, emphasis added)

It’s part of the title to the first book I wrote, [The Second Comforter:] Conversing with the Lord Through the Veil. That’s the object; that’s what the “lesser priesthood” can equip you to accomplish—left behind with nothing but a relic… 

And what did Joseph say about all the prophets of the Old Testament? He said they all held Melchizedek Priesthood, and they were all ordained by God Himself because they functioned inside a society that was defective, limited, excluded from the presence of God. But not those who received and entertained angels. They were brought up to where they need to be, and God Himself ordained them. Should you not have hope? Should you not rise up above the level of those who are content to have less? Should you not be willing to mount up on that fiery mountain, despite the thunderings and lightnings, despite the earthquakes, despite the fact you do not believe yourself to be worthy? You’re still capable of coming aboard.

Look at Moroni chapter 7, beginning at verse 29: 

Because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they [the angels] are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness. And the office of their ministry is to call men [to] repentance [repentance], …to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father… (Moroni 7:29-31, emphasis added)

…because when you move from repentance, you move into covenants (which is why we needed to speak about that in Centerville; which is why this process has been undergoing for the last year, unfolding how you get back into the presence of God—because it surely is necessary for there to be a rescue mission, and the rescue mission is designed to raise you, to elevate you, to redeem you).

…the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him. And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men. (ibid, vs. 31-32, emphasis added)

In a word, those who receive and entertain angels have an obligation, then, to declare the words so that others might likewise have faith in Him. That word, having been declared unto you, gives you the hope, the faith, the confidence that you likewise can do so—so that the covenants that are made by the Father can be brought to pass. Fortunately— fortunately… Aaronic Priesthood is exceptionally durable, fortunately, unlike Melchizedek Priesthood (which can only be exercised with extraordinary care and delicacy—the purpose of Melchizedek Priesthood being, as I talked about in Orem, to bless; the purpose of Aaronic Priesthood being to condemn, and to judge, and to set a law by which men can condemn themselves). Having the authority to do that to yourself is remarkably durable and used with great regularity. And those that have it generally abide by so lesser a law that they wind up judging and condemning one another and parading before God as a… as a… a march of fools, yelling and yammering, pointing and blaming, complaining and bitching about what everyone else’s inadequacies are. The purpose of Melchizedek Priesthood is to sound the signal: “Know ye the Lord.” And eventually, that sermon will be heard by enough that there will be none left who need to be told, “Know ye the Lord,” for they shall all know Him. And everyone will take up with Him their concerns and not with one another.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 93, and look at verse 1. I’ve treated this at some length in what I’ve written, but I just wanna read it because it outlines what’s required: 

VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know [know]that I am. 

Knowing the Lord! This is life eternal to know thee, the only wise and true God and…Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3, emphasis added). Knowledge; knowledge of the things of God—and in this context, this knowledge is salvation; this knowledge is the fullness of the Gospel. Forsake your sins; come to Christ; call on His name; obey His voice; keep His commandments. “Obey His voice,” in your instance, may be very different than “obeying His voice” in my life, because your circumstances are entirely peculiar to you. You’re living your life, and I’m living mine. You’re asked to minister in your family, to minister in your neighborhood, to function among your friends, to deal with people that you know. And I, on the other hand, am required not only to do that but also to come and talk to you good people (which, whether you believe me sincere or not, I would much rather not have been asked to do—but apparently, in the economy of God, no one else is willing to do it).

Go to Ether chapter 3. I wanna define what the promise of know[ing] that I am…  (And by the way, those are the words that He uses in section 93: know that I am. You need to know “the I am.”) Verse 13 of Ether chapter 3:

And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall [there’s the definition; that’s what redemption is]; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. (Ether 3:13-14, emphasis added)

This is the definition. This is what the promise means. And then, look what happens. In verse 18: 

And he ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God, because of the many great works which the Lord…showed unto him. (ibid, vs. 18, emphasis added)

This is the definition of the glory of God. This is the definition of Light and Truth: to know these things… to know these things about God. 

And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting. (ibid, vs. 19, emphasis added)

He had faith yet in things he was commanded to do because they had not yet happened. But he no longer had faith in the existence of Christ—that had been replaced by knowledge of Him. Knowledge supplants faith.

We looked at John’s testimony in Doctrine and Covenants section 93, and we need to look at that again, just to remind you—because this is an important reminder before we get to the next point. Between section 93, verse 7 and verse 20, he describes the process by which Christ was called to be the Son of God. I wanna skip to verse 13 12.

I, John, saw that he received not…the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not…the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not…the fulness at the first. And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, …sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son. And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father; …he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him. And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John. I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and [to] know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness. For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, [that] you shall receive grace for grace. (D&C 93:12-20, emphasis added)

That’s what you do to worship! That is how you are to worship! We grow in grace as we exhibit the grace that has been given unto us. And we do so in order for us to obtain, likewise, the fullness.

Now, here’s a sober moment that I want to remind you about, which need not continue. Go to Ether chapter 12. This is Moroni as he’s completing the translation of the record that his father said would be included within his father’s book, the Book of Mormon, but his father did not translate—and so Moroni translated and included it within the Book of Mormon. And as he’s wrapping up his translation, he includes a dialogue. It’s a very sobering dialogue in Ether chapter 12, beginning at verse 36: 

And it came to pass that I prayed [this is I, Moroni, the translator; this isn’t Ether. This is Moroni’s interlude—I prayed] unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles. (Ether 12:36-38)

Did you see what just happened? Moroni begged the Lord to give unto the Gentiles grace. And the Lord says, “It doesn’t matter to you.” He did not give Moroni what he asked for! He did not promise the Gentiles would receive grace! The Lord could not do that, because it would abrogate both the law (grace for grace) and our agency (because we are free to choose). Therefore, the Gentiles inherited the Restoration with no promise from Christ to Moroni that those who would receive this record would be given the grace of God. That is dependent upon you.

And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment–seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood. …then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he ha[s] talked with me face to face, and that [he’s] told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things. (ibid, vs.38-39)

This is that Lord who, when you get past the thunderings and the lightnings, you will speak with. He talks in plain humility. It is not His position to cause fear in your heart but to bring to you comfort. His purpose is not to leave your comfortless but to come and to comfort you. It’s you that presents the barrier. It’s you that presents the fear—and that rightly so, because we ought to fear. But what we should fear is our own weakness and our own sins. Because our greatest sin is our ignorance.

And only a few have I written, because of my weakness in writing. And now, I would commend you [this is Moroni commending you, the Gentiles, who are gonna receive this book. I would commend you] to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also…Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. (ibid, vs. 40-41)

He asked for grace to be given. God cannot give it. Then he turns, and he says, “You Gentiles, please, seek for His grace; it cannot otherwise be given you.” The Book of Mormon’s assessment of us is sober indeed. And the arrogance with which we read that book blinds us to the predicament in which we find ourselves.

The plea: “seek for grace.” It is through grace that we obtain charity. It is through charity we’re able to bless others. Because the fact of the matter is you can’t bless anyone (nor hold that priesthood that is primarily designed to administer blessings and not cursings) unless you have charity for others, unless you are willing to do things you would rather not do, unless you are willing to subordinate your will to the will of the Father. Because it is the purpose of the Father to bless all of His offspring. Therefore, it is only through grace you acquire what you need to be of use to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

God will make a general appearance to judge the world. You need to seek Him beforehand so that you can rejoice at His appearing. Look at Doctrine and Covenants section 38. Here’s where He promises His general appearing: But behold, verily, verily… This is verse 7 and 8 of D&C section 38: 

But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me; But the day soon cometh that ye shall see me, and know that I am; for the veil of darkness shall soon be rent, and he that is not purified shall not abide the day.

We all will see Him—and some will survive, but some others will not abide the day. But all will know Him. He is coming. You will see Him, but you must be prepared in order to do so.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 67, beginning at verse 10: 

And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears… 

See, on the one hand, jealousies—because we just hate it when someone has anything more than we have. And we ought not be envious; we ought to rejoice in whatever it is that someone else has been given by the Spirit. We tend to be contentious, even in the blessings that we get. We have to strip ourselves from that. And fears, because fear… There really are, in the end, only two emotions: one is love, and the other is fear. And everything that derives from fear is negative, ultimately devolving into hatred. But it’s foundation is fear. And on the other hand, there is love. If you look at the Plan and the squabble in the pre-existence, it was fear that motivated the rebellion. It was fear that motivated the adversary to become the accuser of the brethren and to shout this whole thing down. And it is jealousy that motivates the success that anyone achieves in this life if they happen to repent. Because he seeks the misery of all mankind, that they might be like unto him (see 2 Nephi 2:18). Strip yourselves of jealousies and fears. (Here in the greater Las Vegas city, they do strip themselves, but it’s not jealousies and fears.)

…and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble [ooh… we’re going to have to look at this very carefully in the verses that we consider after this, you’re not sufficiently humble], the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am [God]—not with the carnal neither [the] natural mind, but with the spiritual. For no man has seen God at any time in the flesh, except quickened by the Spirit… Neither can any natural man abide the presence of God, neither after the carnal mind. Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected. Let not your minds turn back; and when ye are worthy, in mine own due time, ye shall see and know that which was conferred upon you by the hands of my servant Joseph Smith. (D&C 67:10-14, emphasis added)

Joseph Smith may have left, and he may have taken authority with him, but he laid hands upon people, and he conferred upon them the blessings of the priesthood. He could not give to them the priesthood itself, but he could confer upon them the blessings of the priesthood, and that persisted for some considerable time.

The Aaronic Priesthood got passed along. The Aaronic Priesthood functions. The Aaronic Priesthood is around (at least until rebellion ends it). But Melchizedek Priesthood is something by order of magnitude that is much greater.

No man has seen God at any time in the flesh, except quickened by the Spirit (ibid) is further elaborated upon in the Book of Moses chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. (I’m not gonna go there. I’ll put it into the transcript [paper].) But the fact of the matter is: One of the keys for being able to distinguish between an appearance of the Lord and the appearance of the adversary is that the adversary may come clothed in white and the adversary may appear to be an angel, but it does not require your transfiguration in order to be in his presence. But on the other hand, in order to be in the presence of God, it requires an alteration in the natural man. Which is why when Paul comes back, he says, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know” (see 2 Corinthians 12:2). It is as real, it is as physical, it is as tangible as the podium. However, the alteration of the man makes what was physical cease to be the same as it was before. I’ll elaborate on that in the transcript[paper]. Look… 

• Strip yourselves [of] jealousies and fears.
• Humble yourselves before me.
• [You’re] not sufficiently humble.

Let’s learn from their failure! Let’s not repeat it! Why do we need to keep plowing the same line over and over, through the same rocky soil, when no fruit has ever yielded from that particular furrow? Strip yourselves! Don’t envy those who sit in the chief seats. They’re rather to be pitied. Gain your own grace with God as Moroni asked you to do. God alone decides when, where, and how He will reveal Himself to you.

Look at D&C 88, verse 68: 

Therefore, sanctify yourselves…

You have to rise up to accomplish that. Sanctify yourselves by your stripping of jealousies and envies, by your humility before Him. That “sanctifies yourself” because you become disconnected from this place. 

…that your minds become single to God… 

…single to God, meaning that He occupies a place of priority in which He is central to you. Not that you neglect your family; you can’t do that. Not that you neglect your labors; you cannot do that. When we talk about families and marriage tomorrow in St. George, you find out just how central that is to all of this. But we needed to lay all this out before we finally get to the topic of family and marriage. If you’ve not noticed, these lectures come in incremental levels of holiness. Therefore, marriage gets left until we get further down. Coming to know the Lord and becoming a suitable spouse are interrelated.

Sanctify yourselves that your [mind] become single to God, and the days will come [when] you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will. (emphasis added)

He is in charge. We don’t dictate this. We prepare, and then we wait. We prepare, and we do everything we know to get ready for it, but He surely will come. And when He comes, He comes suddenly to His temple, which temple ye are. He will come to you. Have faith! Be believing! Seek for Him! This is that day in which these things need to happen.

So that we touch everything, we need to go to the book of John chapter 14—two verses. Chapter 14, verse 18, the Lord says: I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. This is Christ talking to the Apostles about what He intends to do on the other side of his death, burial, and resurrection. He’s saying, “I’m not gonna leave you comfortless; I will come to you!” And then verse 23: Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (emphasis added). Christ is saying that’s the intention.

And so that we can have the definition given through Joseph, go to Doctrine and Covenants section 130 discussing this verse. D&C 130, verse 3: 

John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false. 

The promise was designed to have this actually happen. This is why Doctrine and Covenants section 93, verse 1 says what is says. This is what the fullness of the Gospel consists of. You can take all your rights and ordinances, you can take all your abidingly deep mysteries—Adam God and the topography of Kolob and…  

And by the way, that whole thing about Kolob is so mangled! Kolob was a star. Kolob was a star within sight. From the vantage point of the earth, which is the entire astronomy revealed to father Abraham… It’s entirely earth-based, looking upward. From the vantage point of the earth, looking up at that day—because the precession of the equinoxes changes the alignment of the stars, okay?—Kolob was a star. Abraham knew the name of the star. God said to Abraham, “You see that star? From where you sit, looking there…” It’s like saying, “Okay, from where my thumb is, looking that way, Shay is sitting by my thumb.” That doesn’t mean Shay is on my thumb! He’s some considerable distance from my thumb! K? “Tim is in the direction of my index finger.” He’s not on my index finger! He’s some considerable distance there away from. That’s the direction. So, if you know the typography of Kolob, you still don’t know where God resides. Because where He resides is in a place hidden in the North. If I were telling you where the throne of God is today… I could tell you that, but I would use a different star. Because in our day, it has a different name. And in our day, it has a slightly different alignment because of the precession of the equinoxes. He’s out there, but He’s in a place that is hidden in the North. And it will require the heavens to be rolled to like a scroll before you finally see past the veils that prevent us from seeing it. 

But by that time, if you’re unprepared, it’s too late. Because the glory will be such that you cannot abide it. And when the Lord appears, preliminary to the rolling together of the scrolls, He will appear in a hole that is unveiled, in which the glory of God in His return is behind Him, along with concourses of angels.

(I hate this, because I’m just getting ready to change subjects. And so, now, here we are….)

Now, if you can discover what that alignment is and you can figure out where the Throne of God, that’s up to you. I’ve been given no such either obligation or permission. But I can tell you, there is a location. God exists. And Abraham was walked through the geography of heaven, reckoned from the vantage point or viewpoint of the earth. And when you leave here, one of the obligations that you have is to find your way back. And in finding your way back, you need to be able to avoid those who seek to bring you back into captivity. Because if you’re brought back into captivity, you may find yourself, oh, in a Telestial kingdom or “the world in which you presently reside,” as the [LDS] temple endowment puts it. And that’s a rather unpleasant thing to think about. You may find yourself in a casino in Las Vegas, talking about things that really matter, in the presence of a place in which such things are not at all treasured.

But I have to tell you, some of the people that are driven—in desperation—to try and improve their circumstances (that are sitting downstairs), if ministered to in a kindly way, some of those people have a heart that is better prepared for receiving the truth, more tender and poignant because of the circumstances of their life, than are the hearts of many of us—who, in our plenty and in our conceit about our own goodness, think ourselves better than them, when the truth of the matter is, more than anything else, it is our humility that qualifies us. More than anything else, it is our sincere apprehension of just how weak, how vulnerable, how easily distracted we are.

(I need to have them change the disks. Like I said before, we’re only gonna take a short break; so, if you have business to do, go conduct it. Thank you.) 

In this next increment, I wanna remind you that the account that we’re reading (in the record of Ether) occurred before Christ came. Christ was an expectancy in the future; He was not a historical figure from the past. Okay? The faith that is being exhibited by the brother of Jared in this account is faith in an unfulfilled future-expectancy. If you think that you have a thin basis for faith in Christ because you didn’t live at the time He did, think about how difficult it would be to have confidence in this Redeemer whose life was still future. The details of the date and time of His birth were unknown. The circumstances of Him coming into mortality, the ministry and the sermons that He delivered, the sacrifices and the healings that He made during mortality, the temptations that He faced, the dilemmas that He confronted—all of which are testified of concerning Him now—none of that was known at the time of the book of Ether being composed.

You have greater evidence. You have a greater testimony in front of you concerning Christ than did this man. You have greater reason to believe in Christ than did this man. You have far more witnesses and justification for having confidence in the promises of Christ. You, unlike him, have the New Testament; you have the Book of Mormon, including his record in front of you. You have Joseph Smith’s revelations and Joseph Smith’s testimony. You have the temple rites, with their ceremonial depiction of the return back into the presence of the Lord through the veil. You have restored again to you, partially, the book of Enoch in the Pearl of Great Price. You have restored to you a far more complete account of Abraham’s testimony in the Pearl of Great Price. And you have a great deal more of the corrected and elaborated-upon words of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Therefore, when you read this third chapter of the book of Ether, you should recognize that you come to this challenge with a significantly greater collection of advantages (if you will receive them and use them in that fashion) than the one who composed the record that Moroni abridges here. Okay? Keep all of that in mind.

You should be able to muster “like-faith.” Look at what it says will happen if you do that. We’re gonna turn over to Ether chapter 4. And this is a dialogue between Moroni and the Lord as he’s doing his translation and abridgment of this record. And in verse 7:

And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of…heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are. 

This doesn’t promise you that you’ll receive the record of the brother of Jared. This promises you that what you’re going to receive is: I will manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, [and then I should probably read this again the way I would punctuate it, to be consistent with what I said last time] saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father of…heavens and of the earth.

Well, so, we’re going to look at Ether chapter 3. Remarkably, remarkably, the very first verse gives us something of interest. I’m gonna begin about halfway through the first verse of Ether chapter 3, where it says that he (the brother of Jared)…  

…did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass; and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried again unto the Lord, saying… (Ether 3:1)

So, I did an experiment yesterday while we were walking. And I picked up not 16, but 20. And I figured out what it would take in order to carry 20 small stones in my hand to the top of the mountain, and I’m able to do it. I have 20 stones in my hand. We turn them into like, well, we… Painters and fanciful folk who want to do such things, they turn them into these egg-shaped crystal balls. When’s the last time you came in from the refrigerator in the garage into the kitchen and carried 16 eggs in your two hands? How would you get up the mountain with those in your hands? Okay? They were not behemoths; they were small things.

But even more interesting is what I just read to you. He takes them to the top of the mount[ain], and cried again unto the Lord. This is the tenth time in the record of the brother of Jared in which he cries unto the Lord. Throughout the record of the brother of Jared, never once does the word “pray/prayer” appear. When the voice of Moroni emerges into the narrative, the word “prayed” appears in Mormon’s [Moroni’s] aside, but in the record of the brother of Jared, he does not ever use the word “pray” or “prayer.” He cried.

Consider, for a moment, the difference between being someone who prays to God and someone who cries unto God. Consider the position in which the petitioner has voluntarily placed himself when, instead of coming in prayer, he comes rather “crying out” unto the Lord.

Keep that word in mind. Eleven times it’s mentioned in the book of Ether in the account that’s dealing with the brother of Jared. The only time the word “prayer” appears is in the interlude. That’s the way you can know that Moroni is abridging a record that belongs to someone else. Because he doesn’t use the same word as the person whose record he’s abridging. He uses “prayer”—one time.

This is what he cried out: 

O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant… (ibid, vs. 2, emphasis added)

Crying, asking Him not to be angry, reducing himself to being merely a servant.

…because of his weakness before thee (ibid).

What is this man’s attitude? How is this man approaching the throne of God? What does he view himself as? How does he regard God? Why does this man have such faith? Why does this man attract the attention of God? Why is God willing to speak to such a man, such a vessel as this? What is it about this, this attitude that this man possesses that tells you his heart is right before God?

He is willing to receive. Some of you fear your own weakness. You are closer to God than those who are self-confident, proud of your understanding, and think yourselves better than others.

…for we know that thou art holy [this is the contrast: my weakness/your Holiness] and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires. (ibid)

“I’m doing what you asked because you commanded me. I don’t think myself qualified, but I’m obeying what you told me to do.” This is the attitude of the man. This is what the heart of the man reflects. And these words are why he cries to God.

Behold, O Lord, thou hast smitten us because of our iniquity, and hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock. (ibid, vs. 3)

There is no pride here. There is no resentment for being chastened. There is acceptance of the chastening hand of God. There is no proclamation that this man is worthy. Quite the opposite, he says he is unworthy. There is no resentment for having been punished. It is the opposite—he recognizes that every stumble along the way is justified, is reasonable, is earned, was appropriate because God, who cares for His children, upbraids and disciplines His children.

I have a daughter who has more energy than, um, than she ought. And having finished her undergraduate as a Phi Beta Kappa (again, the product of her energy), she came home and needed a project. And there weren’t enough projects, so she became a foster parent for the Humane Society. And she brought home a big dog, who we all suspected that this guy was pretty intelligent, but man, was that dog stubborn—a very likable, very pretty animal, but stubborn. And he got adopted ’cause he’s photogenic.

Then she brought home a female dog, and this female dog was totally… I mean, I think we should have named her “Tasmanian Devil,” but her name was Blue. She’s a Blue Heeler, and so she has all the attributes of a Blue Heeler (which, really—they do not bite the heels of cattle; they herd cattle; they open their mouths, and they hit with their teeth the heels of the cattle, in order to herd them around).

And she had all of the psychological makeup that’s required in order to engage in that hazardous line of occupation. And this dog, bless its heart, was so eager to please. Disciplining her was simple; you just had to indicate you weren’t happy, and oh, it about killed the poor animal. But she’s so full of energy that she couldn’t help but drag the mulch bag out in the middle of the lawn and reduce it to shreds, and engage in excavation projects to find out exactly “how was the sprinkler system really put together, and do you really needed a valve in that location? And by the way, what would that valve taste like?”

I mean, when she finds out that we don’t like that behavior, oh, she was so apologetic—and I could not bring myself to do anything other than (by the voice) to say, “What are you doing?” And she responded to tone of voice, and oh, she was on her back, “You have to love me still! Please, please,  you have to love me still! Right? You do love me?”

That dog reminded me of the relationship which the brother of Jared recognize exists between even the best-intentioned of us and God. We don’t know enough to be “good” in His sight. We aren’t intelligent enough. We think that some pseudo-virtues that arise out of our culture are good indeed when, in fact, that behavior on display in the halls of heaven would be deeply offensive. And some of the things that we think are offensive to God are not at all. Not at all! And so, our righteousness at best is pseudo-righteousness. And much of what we feel guilty about was given to us in order to give us an experience down here. And it will not last past the resurrection.

Included within the experience of the brother of Jared (as you read verse 3 of chapter 3), is the events that originally separated them from their fellow man at the tower of Babel. Mankind had been engaged in inordinate wickedness, and he doesn’t distinguish between what they had done and what the residue of people had done in their migration. I also want you to notice that nowhere in this verse 3 is there anything like the proud descendants of Nauvoo here. There is nothing that claims that they are chosen or that they are worthy of something other than chastening. There is none of that.

Turn back to Doctrine and Covenants section 121. This is a letter Joseph composed while he was in the Liberty Jail. Mind you, the Liberty Jail… He had been there, suffering, through wintertime; it was now in the spring, when Joseph had no date in mind in which he would go free—or even if he would go free—or whether the original order of execution would be carried out, even though he’d been kept in jail for many years without it having been carried out. In these circumstances, verse 7 and 8 of D&C 121: My son… (that alone ought to be reassuring to Joseph, of course):

My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a…moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. 

Endure it well! Joseph, in the extremity of Liberty Jail being told, endure it well. You think you have challenges, you think you have difficulties, you think you face dilemmas in your life? Endure it well. Your adversity and your afflictions are gonna be for a small moment, and then, if you endure it well, something better is going to come.

And then, as if it weren’t enough reason, turn to 122, verse 8:

The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? 

If you think that your burdens that you carry are great, remember the burdens that were carried by the Son. He faced burdens that were inordinately greater than yours. All of us should be tested to our limits. All of us should be “proven” by the experiences that we endure. The only way to test some things is to destroy them. The only way to test you through mortality is to cause mortality itself—with the eventual coming of death. That’s the way it works.

Look at verse 4 of Ether chapter 3. 

And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou art able to show forth great power, which looks small unto the understanding of men. (Ether 3:4-5)

He’s not asking for this in order to have a light show. He’s asking for this out of pity and concern, charity and intercession for others who will be left in the dark. He is trying to do something to bless and benefit others in a very practical way. He hopes to make the lives of others better. He’s not doing this for himself. He’s doing it on behalf of his people.

Therein also lies something very important about the attitude of this man that tells you why it is that God had respect for this man.

Think about what it means to have the power of God. Think about what it means for God to be able to do all things, including sustaining you from moment to moment by lending you breath. And then for God to say you are free to choose to do with what He’s lending to you whatever it is that you choose to do. Think of the patience of our God. Think of the meekness of our God. And think about the test that you are presently taking to prove who and what you are and whether or not, in the circumstances of this test, you are proving that you can be trusted to have the meekness, to have the patience, to endure in humility what will be done, to endure the abuses that God allows to take place in order to permit His children to gain experience so that, in the long run, they can ultimately know the difference between good and evil and, on their own, choose to love the good and to stay away from the evil.

Think about that. And think about this record, and think about the test that is currently underway. And think about what it is that you, in your life, should be choosing and doing, desiring and holding to your breast.

And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. (ibid, vs. 6)

Now, I wanna pause—because the only thing that the brother of Jared ever sees at this point, the only thing that comes… The Lord may stretch forth His hand, but the only thing that is seen is His finger, okay?

It’s not… I mean… I really love Catherine Thomas. I love her books; I own them; I’ve read them; and I like what she did with the brother of Jared at the veil. But it’s simply based upon a fanciful connection between the dialogue at the veil in the temple ceremony and this incident here.

But the hand of God never emerges. What emerges (and you can read it—it’s in this verse 6; it’s again in verse 9)… The Lord asks him, “Did you see more that this?” He says, “No, it’s the finger.” However, I put one of the stones in my hand. Let’s assume for a moment that I have eight and eight. Okay? And let’s assume that you touch it. It’s impossible to touch the stone that’s in your hand without feeling that the stone has been touched. Okay?

We read this record, and we don’t notice what’s really going on. Here they are, in my hands, eight and eight, and the finger of the Lord touches the stones one by one with His finger. Now, there is nothing in this record that suggests that after the last stone gets touched (or after the stone the Lord was touching at the moment that the finger is seen) that there are any more stones left to be touched. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. This record, read in fairness, suggests to me that the brother of Jared stood there and witnessed 15 of the 16 stones—felt the touch on 15 of the 16 stones—before, on the last stone, he saw the finger of the Lord. Think about that for a moment. Think about coming into contact, admittedly through a stone, but coming into contact with the Lord when He manifests Himself for the first time to man physically. Think about that.

And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood…  (ibid)

That’s the way in which the Lord chose to manifest Himself, because He came into contact with 16 stones.

…and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear. And the Lord saw that the brother of Jared had fallen to the earth; and the Lord said unto him: Arise, why hast thou fallen? And he saith unto the Lord: I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared… (ibid, vs. 6-8)

(Hello? Can you hear me? Yeah.)

I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood.(ibid)

It frightened him to realize that the God who controls all things had flesh and blood. This was a great secret that ought not get out, and now he knows it. And knowing it, it frightened him. He’s intruding into space that he didn’t want to intrude into, and he felt convicted that somehow that was something he ought not know.

The Lord said unto him: Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so ye could not have seen my finger. Sawest thou more than this? (ibid, vs. 9)

…my finger. Sawest thou more than this?

And he answered: Nay… (ibid, vs. 10)

 He didn’t see the hand—he saw the finger, and he didn’t see more than this.

Nay; Lord, show thyself unto me. And the Lord said unto him: Believest thou the words which I shall speak? (ibid, vs. 10-11)

This is a necessary prerequisite, because what the Lord is about to speak to him will be covenantal. When it comes to prophecy, covenants, commitments by God—what He’s about to do requires that the brother of Jared have faith in what’s going to happen. He’s gonna show him “all things.”

…he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. …I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and…daughters. And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image. Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear [to] thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh. And now, as I, Moroni, said I could not make a full account of these things which are written, therefore it sufficeth me to say that Jesus showed himself unto this man in the spirit, even after the manner and in the [same] likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites. (ibid, vs. 12-17, emphasis added)

So, what was the body Jesus showed Himself unto the Nephites in? What is the difference between water as a solid, water as a liquid, and water as a gas? The difference between that, if you want to take a scriptural word, is “temperature” (excuse me, that’s a scientific word)—scriptural word is “quickened.” In one condition, it is quickened; in another condition, it is less quick. But in science, the difference between the two is “temperature.”

God dwells in everlasting burnings. In order to be with or near Him, a man must be “quickened” in order to endure the presence. Does that mean that in a quickened state it is impossible for a quickened being to manifest itself in a solid form? Well, take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 131, verse 7. There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

Doctrine and Covenants section 77:2 includes the statement: …that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; …that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual.

D&C 88, verses 15 to 16: …the spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul. This definition was given by revelation to Joseph Smith in 1832. Three years later in 1835, Chandler came through and sold the mummies to Joseph Smith. He did not bother translating the end part of the book of Abraham, as we have it, until the 1840s in Kirtland (or excuse me, in Nauvoo). But when he translated it in Nauvoo, he knew the definition of what a “soul” was, that is, [a] spirit and [a] body. When he translated the book of Abraham… In Abraham chapter 3, verse 23, speaking of those in the pre-existence, he says: God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These [will I] make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits. They were souls—possessing, therefore, a spirit and a body. And they were spirits because they had not come down yet in the beginning to be in this condition. And it’s speaking about the noble and great (ibid).

By the way, I talked before about the definition of “rulers” in the Gentile world, and that’s someone who exercises authority over them. In the vernacular of both the Book of Mormon and in the vernacular found here, “rulers” in the house of God have nothing to do with dominion over someone else. A “ruler” is someone who teaches. A ruler is someone who is able to give an accurate gauge by which to measure things. A ruler is someone who teaches the truth. If you would want to be a ruler in the house of God, then you have to be someone who declares and teaches the truth.

Take a look at Alma chapter 13—because this is where it becomes very important for us. Alma chapter 13, beginning at verse 17:

Now this Melchizedek was a king over the land of Salem; and his people had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination; yea, they had all gone astray; they were full of all manner of wickedness [this is his audience]. But Melchizedek having exercised mighty faith, …received the office of the high priesthood according to the holy order of God, did preach repentance unto his people. And behold, they did repent; and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his days; therefore he was called the prince of peace, for he was the king of Salem; and he did reign under his father. (emphasis added)

First, he received this priesthood. Second, he preached repentance. But nothing would have happened except for, third, the people who heard him did repent. And because of that, people who are described as having waxed strong in iniquity, people who are described as being captivated by abomination[s], people who have all gone astray turned out to be the very people among whom this City of Peace got established. But they did it. They did it by repentance. This isn’t something Melchizedek pulled off, this is something that the people accomplished, and they accomplished it because of their repentance.

I want you to contrast that with another group. This group is in Mosiah chapter 12. Mosiah chapter 12, beginning halfway through verse 12. This is people reacting to the message that Abinadi was delivering to them. They’re accusing Abinadi, and they’re saying: 

And he [Abinadi] pretendeth the Lord hath spoken it. And he saith all this shall come upon thee except thou repent, and this because of thine iniquities. And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged [by] this man? …now, O king, behold, we are guiltless, and thou, O king, hast not sinned; therefore, this man has lied concerning you, and he has prophesied in vain. …behold, we are strong, we shall not come into bondage, or [being] taken captive by our enemies; yea, and thou hast prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper. (Mosiah 12:12-15)

Here is the pride, here is the vanity, here is the very thing which, had the people to whom Melchizedek spoken, had they done this, there would have been no City of Peace, there would have been no Salem, there would have been no second Zion.

You generally hail from a tradition that assures you that you’re in the right way. You generally come from a tradition that says you’re better than others. You are able to look down your nose at other people who stumble about in the dark because they don’t have all the great truths that you have. The fact of the matter is you (generally, not specifically, because there are some to whom this absolutely does not apply—your hearts are right before God—but there aren’t many)…  

You have been handed this tradition, and the wicked one cometh, and he takes away Light and Truth, and he does it because of the false traditions you’ve been handed. The greatest among us is wholly inadequate. The greatest among us can’t be trusted with the power of God, not yet anyway. The greatest among us is still in need of repentance. Every one of us should walk fearfully before God, not because God isn’t generous, but because what He offers can turn you into a devil. The only way to be prepared and not fall is to realize the enormous peril that you present, potentially, to the universe. Before you get in a position to enjoy the status that God offers to us all, you need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, exactly like Paul said. You need to purge, remove, reprove. 

This attitude we see in this man in this account, this is the man of God! Christ may be the prototype of the saved man, but I know of no record anywhere in scripture that exposes the heart of the real disciple of Christ as well as does this chapter expose the heart of this man. This is what we should become. This is why the Lord could open up to him. This is why this man became, in the history of the world, coming up to this moment—despite the fact the Lord came to Adam-ondi-Ahman and administered comfort to Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman… Here He came and showed Himself as He truly was: as a pre-existent spirit, possessing a soul as tangible as man’s, and ministered to him in a way which (if you understood what it takes for a quickened being to condescend into the presence and make Himself known as He does here) was an enormous sacrifice by our Lord.

Verse 18, He ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God, because of the many great works which the Lord had [shown] unto him (Ether 3:18 emphasis added). This is how God is known: by His works. It’s not the lightning show; it’s not the shaking on the mountain. It’s the great works that proceed forth from Him.

Think about what He did when He appeared unto the Nephites. God introduces Him three times before the people who are there were finally able to listen with their ears and hear the introduction. And then, after the introduction is given, they still see Him descend; and He descends, dressed in white, down and stands before them. Despite the introduction, despite the descent, despite Him standing in front of them, what the people think is, “This must be an angel.”

Clearly, He has arrived in a way that is extra-human. He’s manifested Himself being able to use the law of gravity in a way that we can’t. He descends; He stands there—but none of them are overwhelmed. None of them fall down and worship Him. None of them do anything but look at Him. He’s so plain, so ordinary, so commonplace in the appearance that He makes, that when they see Him, they stand there, and they look (rather like tourists) at this man dressed in white who is now appeared to them. And He says, “Here’s who I am.” He introduces Himself in Third Nephi chapter 11, verse 11 three times. In order to tell you who He is, three times He talks about obeying the will of the Father, suffering the will of the Father in all things, glorifying the Father by taking upon Himself the sins of the world. Even standing in front of them, He bears testimony of someone greater than Him.

It is the humility of the individual standing in front of them and His introduction of Himself in Third Nephi that brings them to their knees. They fall down, at that point, and worship Him. Because when He opens His mouth—and you see what He is and who He is and what proceedeth forth out of the heart of that man—you know you are listening and looking at God indeed. And they fall down, and they worship Him.

…because of the many great works which the Lord [God]…showed unto him [this man knew he was God]. And [then] because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting. Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus; and he did minister unto him. (Ether 3:18-20, emphasis added)

God is known by his many works. Faith gives way to knowledge. He ministers to him. Notice that verse 18, ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites. Verse 20: …he did minister unto him. Christ has a ministry. His ministry is not yet complete. His ministry includes coming and bearing testimony; and that ministry continues, as we looked at. Turn to chapter 4, verse 7. 

And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the [Son of God the Father of Heaven and of Earth], and all things that in them are. (Ether 4:7)

This is the ministry of the Lord. This is the comfort that He would have that He promises to bring us.

This text that we’re looking at in Ether chapter 3 is probably the best single text in existence to study about gaining the knowledge of God and the process by which it is gained. But most importantly, it exposes the attitude that is possessed by the person who comes back to be redeemed. It tells you, not directly—it tells you indirectly by telling you what he did. Go, thou, and do likewise.

Everything that you have been put through and every challenge that you have been given and every weakness that you possess have been given to you in a studied way to bring you, hopefully, to your knees; to bring you, hopefully, to feel the chastening hand of God so that you (in your day, in your circumstance) can look upon that as a gift—because it surely is.

‘I give unto men weakness that they may come unto me, and if they’ll humble themselves and come unto me, I’ll make weak things strong.’ That’s also… (Excuse me, did I just knock it? Okay.) That’s also in the book of Ether. And that’s in an aside in which Moroni is complaining that the Gentiles aren’t gonna believe this book; the Gentiles aren’t gonna believe this record; they’re gonna say this stinks; they’re… Ether chapter 12, verse 26: 

And when I had said this, the Lord [God] spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. (Ether 12:26-27) 

That’s an unavoidability. That’s an inevitability. You stand in the presence of a just and holy being, you’re gonna realize your weaknesses. You’re gonna recognize what you lack.

I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (ibid, vs. 27, emphasis added)

How do weak things become strong? Not by fighting the battle that you’re going to lose. It’s by appreciating, as the brother of Jared did, the fact that none of us can come into the presence of God without feeling keenly this scripture. But it is given unto men… Fools mock, …they shall mourn. I…  This is Christ speaking: “I give unto men weakness for one purpose.” I give unto them weakness that they may be strong.

The anvil you’re dragging around? That anvil was given to you. Don’t curse it. Pray for God to come and lift it. You’re never gonna be able to get far carrying it anyway. You may not even be able to lift it, but in the economy of God, that is a gift. It’s a gift—not for you to act upon and surrender to but for you to fight against, in humility and meekness, and to say, “I’m not winning. I haven’t won. It goes on and on, and yet still I fight against it.”

When will you finally come to Him and cry out? When, in the bitter anguish of your soul, (like Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail), “How long must I endure this? How long do I have to suffer from the abuse of the guards? How long do I have to sit inside a gated room, in a dungeon, to hear stories about the rape of the people who followed me? And the murder of the people that believed what I was teaching?”

How long did Joseph’s heart break in Liberty Jail? He emerged from that ordeal a fundamentally different man than the man who went in. There are people who say, “Oh yeah, in Nauvoo he got carried away with all kinds of things…”  We’ll talk more about that tomorrow. We’ll talk more about this idea of marriage, and we’ll touch upon the notion of plurality of wives. We’ll brush up against that tomorrow.

Look, these Scriptures, these invitations, these prophecies, and this message—that began in Boise and will conclude in Phoenix—this message is inviting you to do what was originally prophesied as this dispensation began that we looked at, at the beginning in Boise, Idaho. The game’s afoot. The challenge is underway. The opportunity is here. There was a price that had to be paid—it involved several generations. You do not kill a man like Joseph (by the conspiracy of his followers) without forfeiting an opportunity. 

But that moment has come to an end. And a new moment is upon us. And if you’ll hear it, I can declare to you, in the name of our Lord, that the day of salvation has once again arrived! Have faith! Be believing! He’s real! I gave you a description of His demeanor. I gave that last time, and I’m reiterating again, here, some of the things about His attributes. Come to Him! Seek for Him! Have faith in Him! You have more reason to have faith and confidence in Him right now than the brother of Jared did in his day to have faith and confidence in Him.

(So, we’ll take a 5 minute break—and we’ll then finish this up.) 

Here, in moments, you’ll be able to go feed the one-armed-bandits [slot machines], and I’ve seen the photos on the wall as I walked up here. Some guy won 48 thousand dollars in a slot, and the look on his face was ecstasy. So, you’ll be released to engage in that folly shortly.

There’s an incident that I think… One word… One word in this incident really explains a great deal of what I have been talking about in this last installment. This is an event that occurs within the Book of Mormon that may seem otherwise quite puzzling. But now that we’ve looked at the Ether chapter 3 material and we go back and we look at this incident, it suddenly begins to have a connection to it.

This is in Alma chapter 22; it involves Lamoni’s father, the king. I want you to look at the father, beginning in verse 17 of Alma chapter 22: 

And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even [did he] prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried, [and cried] mightily, saying… (Alma 22:17)

It’s not the words of the prayer that provoked or gathered the attention of heaven (though the prayer is in fact needed, relevant, and exactly what the Lord answered). It’s what came before.

This is the king. This is the king that can have people killed if he chooses to do so. This is the one who—like God—among his people exercises the power of life and death. This is the one who can exact from them taxes. This is the one who has absolutely no reason to do what he’s doing here. But look what he does. He prostrates himself upon the ground, and he “cries out mightily.” He doesn’t pray. He mirrors exactly what the brother of Jared did when he approached God in the depths of humility and in the sincerity of his heart, showing absolutely his appreciation for the difference between himself, on the one hand, and God, on the other.

Don’t mistake me, I do not think it is necessary to physically engage in this kind of display. When the display is an extension of what is in the heart, that is absolutely fine. But when what is in the heart is right, it doesn’t matter how it’s displayed because God looketh on the inner man. This King was so overtaken by what he had heard that he was not ashamed to prostrate himself in front of the missionaries. He was not ashamed to cry out in the depths of humility. He didn’t care who saw it. He didn’t do this for to be seen. He didn’t care that he was being seen. He did this because, at that moment, that was what he was: he was seeking grace from the throne of grace.

O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God… (ibid, vs. 18, emphasis added)

Do you see this? This isn’t someone who’s certain. This is someone who is convicted of his own inadequacy. It may not be that you don’t know enough; it may actually be that you know too much that’s wrong. It may be that what you lack… It’s all gonna be erased and started over anyway. If you could gaze into heaven for five minutes, you’d realize that people that have been writing about this stuff since the beginning of time (who haven’t gazed into heaven) don’t know what they’re talking about. The suppositions and the connections and the ideas that get floated around are not only false, many of them are offensive to God. They’re not right. The board’s gonna be erased. God’s gonna re-order it. You’re gonna see things in a completely different light when it happens. It’s not that you’re brilliant and a shining light of knowledge. It’s what’s in your heart, and how has your heart been prepared, and if your heart is open to receive.

Sometimes I’m amazed by my own idiocy—because I have argued with God, preferring Mormon doctrine to the truth! Sometimes I think that the Lord had that in His heart all along. He wanted to qualify me in a way that would make me typical of every man who finds himself in the predicament that the Latter-day Saints really are. He wanted to qualify me to say, “You claim to hold authority. I held authority equal. If I did not abuse mine, and you abused yours, then the kingdom has been taken from you. But it’s been taken from you and not left. It still exists.”

And I’m not gonna start another church, and I don’t intend to compete with the Latter-day Saints, and I don’t intend to overthrow them. That’s God’s work, and it’s up to Him. We do not need another church. The only thing we need are penitent people. The only thing we need are people with their hearts right. Go attend… There’s someone here from the Baptist church; go attend your Baptist Church. Go attend your Mormon church. There’s good in all churches. But study the doctrines of the Restoration, and get to know God, and then go and do what He would have you do.

I was pointing out in the break that at the end, the people that were invited to the wedding feast aren’t gonna be ready and aren’t gonna come. They’re just gonna be indifferent. It’s gonna be the byways. Right now there’s one group that the Lord wants to have my voice sounding to. That’s in a corridor, and it’s very narrowly confined. And they’re the first ones to hear what I have to say. We’re gonna put it on the Internet. It’s available for anyone. I don’t care where you are in the world, when you read the words that I’m speaking (or you hear what is recorded in the materials that Doug is kind enough to put together), the message is to all. It begins here; it sounds here, but it will echo outward.

And I don’t care if no one gives me credit for any of this stuff. It is the truth that matters! It’s never been about me. It’s been about the doctrines of the Restoration. It’s been about the truth that rolled forth through the prophet Joseph Smith. And it’s been about the act of God in offering salvation in our day. Ultimately, it will be about the establishment of a city of refuge—not now, but by and by. There aren’t enough converted yet; it’s too weak. But in that day, there still won’t be need for another church. There still won’t be some reason to say, “I want to sustain someone.” God and God alone will be sustained in that day—not me and not any man—nor do I anticipate that there will ever be another need to rename the priesthood. My belief is that, should we have Zion, the priesthood ought to return to its original name, “The Holy Order after the Son of God.” If some great man wants to step forward and rename it after himself, I’m not going to gather.

I will give away all my sins to know thee, …that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead. (ibid)

And then look what happens when he recovers—because as he was struck as if he were dead, he’s converted. The Lord ministers to him! And in verse 23: 

…the king stood forth, and began to minister unto them. And he did minister unto them, insomuch that his whole household were converted unto the Lord. (ibid, vs. 23, emphasis added)

This is what happens when converted to the Lord. You can’t stand to look about you and see other people who are left in the dark. You want to invite them, rather as Nathaniel was invited, “Come and see for yourself.” You come to the Lord; you come, and see for yourself. This little bit of skeptical praying, if [there’s] a God, …if thou art God, will [you] make [your]self known to me—that worked—not because this is a magic incantation… 

Those folks who go through ceremonies think that ceremonies have some powerful mojo, some compelling voodoo. But the purpose of the ceremony is to teach you a precept. The precept is what you ought to find within your heart. Rites and ordinances are intended to testify to a greater truth. It was anciently among the Jews; it is an Aaronic priesthood function to turn around and look at the ordinances as if it were an end in itself, It is not an end in itself. It is intended to be a symbol reminding you of some great truth concerning our God.

Capstone of the ceremonies that were restored through Joseph—involving a dialogue between you and the Lord in which you’re brought back into His presence, and then, following that, you’re taken away, and you’re sealed for eternity—those are lofty concepts. They are powerfully portrayed in the ordinances and the rites. They are intended to convey to you the reality that all of this is possible because God does, in fact, intend to preserve you and all those associations that you prize, so long as they’re worthy.

Don’t think that you lack the faith! If this king, with this prayer, can go to God and can ask and get an answer—that’s not the impediment. The impediment is the pride of your heart, the hardness of your heart, the self-reliance that you think that you own, the traditions that bind you down, the arrogance of your heart, the unwillingness to cry-out mightily to God, and then to be open to receiving an answer. This was enough, and you too can do enough.

The Lord tells a story in Mark. This is Mark chapter 9. In… Beginning at verse 17, there’s this fellow who comes to Christ and says, 

Master, I have brought…thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; [the spirit overtakes him]: and he foam[s at the mouth], [he] gnash[es]…his teeth…I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; …they could not. [And Christ says], O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? [they brought the boy unto Him and He] saw him, straightway the spirit [tore] him; and he fell on the ground, …wallowed foaming. …he asked [the] father, How long [has it been] since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it…[casteth] him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on [him], and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. …straightway the father of the child cried out, [cried out] and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:17-24)

Help thou mine unbelief. You don’t need more of what you already have. Why are you here? 

(Well, most of you. Some have come only to criticize and gather information. Some of you—in the hardness of your heart—are going to come to the point where, in the day of judgment, you will look back on this moment and realize, “I damned myself by the hardness of my heart and the bitterness of my soul because I came to judge a man whose heart was right before God, and mine was not.” Your heart will be broken in that day.)

But look at this man whose heart was broken on this day. He cried out: Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. I have a desire; I have a willingness, but it is so fragile! It is so frail. I don’t think it’s enough! 

That’s not the problem. Cry out! Ask Him! Remember, His disciples who’d been following Him, His disciples who were His faithful followers—His disciples couldn’t fix this boy. And they’d given up everything to come and follow Him.

Jesus healed him. After the incident the disciples came to Him and said, Why could [we not] cast him out? [Christ answered to] them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but…prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:28-29, emphasis added)

Why do you have to be afflicted by prayer and fasting (if you’re a follower of the Lord) in order to get to the point that you can accomplish this?? 

Because you don’t fall prostate, crying out with tears. If this man, in this condition, can say, I believe, help thou mine unbelief… If this man can do this and have the Lord on his behalf work a miracle, you too can believe enough; you too can accomplish what you desire; you too can come to Him.

Matthew covers the same incident, but in Matthew he picks up… This is Matthew chapter 17, beginning at verse 19: 

Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind [come] not out but by prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:19-21)

Faith as a grain of mustard seed was what the Lord said they needed. The defect does not consist in the absence of faith in the Lord. The defect consist in the arrogance and hardness of the heart that prevents you from crying out, in the realistic and anguish of your heart, looking to God who is trying to bring you to Him. That “depths of humility,” that status of being someone who is utterly harmless, that condition in which you present no threat to the righteous (you are harmless as a dove; you seek only the betterment of others)—that is who God is and what you must become in order for God to be able to redeem you to be like Him. That’s you voluntarily changing to be that person by your submission to Him—because there is no reason to give to the proud, the vain, and the warlike the ability to torment and to afflict others. There is every reason to give to someone who would ultimately be willing to “give the rain to fall on the righteous and the wicked and make the sun to shine on both the righteous and the wicked” the power of God, because the power of godliness consists in this kind of a heart—and in this kind of a heart, God can accomplish anything.

All of these examples… The petition that is made to God is not prayer. All of these examples are crying out to Him. In Romans—Romans chapter 4—he’s talking about father Abraham; and in verse 3, he talks… Abraham believed God, …it was [ac]counted [un]to him for righteousness. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Verse 13: a promise, that he should be [an] heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Because Abraham believed in God, he trusted in Him; therefore, he inherited… He inherited it all, the world—he’s the father of the righteous! Beginning with verse 17: 

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which [were] not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4:17-21)

There was no proof that an aged, “dead” (that is, now impotent), old man, could sire a child with a barren, post-menopausal Sarah. But Abraham doubted not. And you have before you promises spoken by the voice of an angel concerning the things God has in store for your day, and you doubt? And you question? And you think God not able to bring about what He has said He intends to do?

The very day that they have looked forward to, from the beginning of the days of Adam down ’til now (as we looked at in Centerville)—you doubt that God can bring this to pass? You doubt that what I have been talking about since we began in Boise and have now arrived here…? If God can send someone to declare these things to you, in the confidence and the faith and the knowledge that I’m speaking to you on His errand, and I can do it in this room, in this building, in this city… Salvation comes to you today by the word of God, and you doubt that God cannot make a holy place somewhere that has not been trodden under the foot of the Gentiles? You doubt that God cannot bring to pass His work in culminating the ages? Have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, because it is coming; it is going to happen; and if you lack the faith, you will not be invited.

This required Abraham to endure the test of his faith. It is not easy. I want to take you back into an incident—remarkable in its own way, really. In First Samuel chapter 17: the entire armies of Israel had been put to shame. And David (bringing cheese and bread to his brothers) hears what’s going on, and he says, “Well, I’ll go out, and I’ll smite that godless Philistine.” And so it was that in verse 34 of chapter 17 of First Samuel:

David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by [the] beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath [defiled] the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of [the] Philistine. (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

So, this is David, who had every confidence—despite everyone else hanging back, looking across the valley, and saying, “Um… I’ll pass.” David says, “Yeah, I’ll go out. I’ll take care of him. I’ve killed a bear; I’ve killed a lion; I could kill this guy. I mean, there’s no difference here, really.” Because David did not see this necessarily as a conflict between man and man, mano a mano. He saw this as a conflict between man and God. And all that was required was that someone go out there who believed in God, and God would take care of the fight. The battle is the Lord’s! It always has been. The battle is the Lord’s, and therefore, the Lord is able to deliver. But here is where it gets interesting. Skip to verse 39:

David girded his sword upon his armor, and…assayed to go; for he had not proved [them]. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him [he got rid of the sword, got rid of the armor, he got rid of everything]. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, …put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. (ibid, vs. 39-40)

So, on his way out to the battle, he stops at the brook, and he picks up five stones. Okay? Skip ahead to verse 49: 

David put his hand in his bag, …took thence a stone, …slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead. (ibid, vs. 49)

He needed one. David needed one. David approached him by picking up five. David believed that the Lord would kill Goliath, but David picked up five stones. He had enough faith, but it doesn’t mean he had such confidence that he armed himself with one stone—’cuz when you cross the brook and you head on in, where are you gonna find another smooth stone? And it’s a smooth stone—preferably round—that’s gonna carry the trajectory true. He’s a slinger. He knew that he needed that kind of a stone. So, as he crossed the brook, he picked up five.

Don’t think… In all of these examples, you see exactly the same thing! You see you. That’s what you see. Oh, the great and the mighty and the powerful and the miraculous and the wonderful and the ones about whom we read… They’re you. They have the same insecurities as you. “I’ll give away all my sins to know you.” That’s a bargain worth making, and then it’s a bargain worth keeping.

Be believing. You have faith enough but also have faith enough in what we read earlier. I want to read it again. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, …the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, …it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, …according to his own will (D&C 88:68). He and not you control that.

I remarked during the break to someone, and I’ll reiterate it again here. Many of those to whom these promises are made will receive the vindication of the promise in the last moments of their life. Alvin, as he lay dying, had angels come minister to him. Joseph would later see him in the Celestial kingdom, but it was in the throes of death when angels ministered to brother Alvin.

Stephen, when he was being stoned, had the heavens opened to him. In the last moments of his life, suffering a brutal form of execution, he’s praying—because he’s so filled with the spirit by what he’s beholding, having the heavens open to him—that he’s praying for those who were in the process of killing him.

St. Francis of Assisi, living in an apostate era, in an apostate church, believed and followed the Sermon on the Mount. His heart was pure, and as the last month of St. Francis’ life drew to a close, angels came and ministered to him. Our idea of what it takes to be pure before God is not the same thing as God’s view of what it takes to be pure before Him.

Turn to Luke chapter 18, because there the Lord pretty much tells you how it is He evaluates whether someone has purified themselves before Him. This is a story that the Lord makes up in chapter 18 of Luke, telling a parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Beginning at verse 10. 

Two men went…into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, …the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift…so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:10-14, emphasis added)

God can only exalt the meek because only the meek can be trusted. This is what it means to sanctify yourself. Our idea of purity and Christ’s idea are entirely based on different criteria. Why is meekness required of a God by a God? What would happen if God Himself were not patient, willing to suffer abuse, and be rejected? What would happen if God were egotistical? What would happen if God did not return blessings for cursings? What would happen if God were not exactly what He preached in the Sermon on the Mount? What if God did not bless those who despitefully used and abused Him? What would happen if God did not submit Himself to fall into the hands of wicked men to be despised and rejected? And then to be killed in shame, hanging naked on a cross, in full view of the world, while people spit upon Him, and while they mocked Him and they ridiculed Him saying, “If you really are what you say you are, come down from the cross; then we will believe”?

Woe unto all those who say, “If you really are who you say you are…” when the voice of God is sounding in their ears. They would have rejected the Lord as well. They would have crucified the Lord as well. They are not His sheep because they do not hear His voice. If they were His sheep, they would hear His voice.

If we’re required to develop the attributes of Christ, how is it possible for us to do so, unless God patiently tries to persuade us to voluntarily be like Him? And how can you hope to be like Him, if you refuse to be persuaded?

God came as one of the weak things of this world. The only way He’s ever going to invite you is through one of the weak things of this world, speaking in weakness, asking you to be persuaded. It doesn’t matter how earnest I am, I know my standing before God. What matters is your willingness to be persuaded—over that I have no control and want no control; over that I simply put the case as the Lord has put it to me, in the hopes that what He has to offer and what He says needs to be said will get through to you. But your relationship and your accountability is not to me; it’s to Him. Therefore, be persuaded. Be persuaded.

Now I want to cover a couple things that may seem disconnected, but they’ve come up:

We don’t have opening hymns, and we don’t have closing hymns; and we don’t have prayers. You can read the sermon of the Lord, and He didn’t have opening prayers before He delivered His sermon. He came, He delivered a sermon, and He left.

There’s no… There’s no choir to get you ready. There was no opening prayer or closing prayer. I thought we should do that; I was told, “No, we don’t do it.” He didn’t do it; I’m on His errand; I’m doing it His way.

When we are on the Sabbath (which has happened on one occasion in these talks and will not happen again), we did have an opening song; we did have an opening prayer; we did have a closing prayer to honor the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. So, someone was put out—if they listen to this tape, they get an answer to their “put out.”

In Christ’s example of praying (I’m talking about His example now; I’m not talking about what He said)—Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, told you that prayer ought to be done in secret. When thou prayest… This is Matthew 5 [6], beginning at verse 5. 

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. …when ye pray, [do not use] vain repetitions, [and so on]. (Matthew 6:5-7)

So, look, I’ve given opening prayers in sacrament meeting. I’ve given opening prayers in High Council meetings. I’ve given opening prayers in Stake Conferences. I’ve given opening prayers one time in a meeting Bruce R. McConkie was the visiting general authority for. I’ve given opening prayers in a lot of settings, and I have to tell you, when praying in secret, I don’t have to worry about what anyone else thinks about my vocabulary, content, incomplete sentences, dangling participles, stupid notions. I don’t have to worry about any of that. It is between me and God. But when I’m standing on the corner or in the pulpit or before people and praying… You may be better than I am, but I have never been able to pray in public in those settings without at least some concern about the words coming out of my mouth and their effect upon the audience. I have always felt like I was delivering more of a sermon than a prayer to God. That’s a weakness I have; you may have, too. Christ deals with that by how He teaches us to pray.

Our Lord’s example of prayer was so private that His disciples had to come to Him and say: “Lord teach us how to pray.” They witnessed Him praying. (I’ll insert it in the transcript [paper]. I’ll give you the examples.) When the Lord went to pray, He went out alone, apart. Sometimes He spent all night praying. But the fact that He prayed, while that was known, the content of the prayer was gone. What He said was not known. There are two examples that we have. 

• We have the example that He gives us in the Sermon on the Mount, which is largely in response to the question of “Teach us how to pray.” He tells you how to pray. 
• And then there’s the forlorn prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He’s begging to have the cup removed from Him.

When our Lord prayed, even though prayers might have lasted overnight, they were in private. He lived what He taught. He did what He said. And I don’t want to tempt people to surrender to the same weakness I have and that is to do so for to be seen of men, simply because men are listening.

Go to John chapter 17. This is another thing about the prayer/the prayers of Christ. John chapter 17, verse 1—this is the “great intercessory prayer”: These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven. When Christ prayed, He didn’t bow His head or fold His arms. He addressed His Father who’s in heaven, and He looked… His eyes were lifted up.

Go to John, back to chapter 11 again. This is in John chapter 11, verse 41: Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me—again, addressing His Father by lifting His eyes up.

Now, I understand in some of the examples of contrition that we’ve looked at that they fell prostrate onto the ground. I know that they had bowed themselves saying that they didn’t (in Christ’s example) not so much beat on their breast and not so much as lift their eyes up to heaven. But the presumption implicit in the example the Lord gives is that His eyes should be lifted up to heaven when He’s addressing the Father.

How would you like it [Denver turns to the wall and talks with his back to the audience, very muffled] if I talked to you like this? Maybe I’ll finish the talk this way. [He returns to the microphone.]

Look, pray to Him. Pray to Him, and realize that as you reach up to Him, He would rather reach down to you with greater enthusiasm than any of you can muster. But in order to establish the necessary conditions for our development, there was a law ordained before the foundation of the world upon which all blessings are predicated. And that law is as easily accessible by the father of king Lamoni as it is accessible to the father of the young man who was overtaken and fell into the fire and fell into the water. It is as accessible to the brother of Jared as it is accessible to you. Because when the law before the foundation of the world was ordained, it was intended for all men to possibly receive of God’s fullness. And if receiving of His fullness required a course in rabbinical reasoning or an advanced theological degree, there would be almost none who are saved. But the Book of Mormon gives us account after account. And what happens to those who do not possess the required soft heart and willingness to bow? They come away saying, [God] maketh no such thing known unto us (1 Nephi 15:9). And like Laman and Lemuel, they establish for themselves, with their iron necks and their brass brows, an inability to look up unto God and be saved.

Look, I’ve finished the content that I’m required to deliver. I hope some of you come to hear what I have to say tomorrow. I understand it’ll be a tighter fit. (Of course, I don’t know that all of you have any intention of showing up.)

But let me end by bearing testimony to you that this is not so far away that you cannot lay hold on it. This is not so far away that you can’t likewise receive it. This is not so distant.

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

Receive the holy ghost, and it will reside in you. Receive what God offers, and then you don’t need any man to say unto you, “Know the Lord,” for you’ll all know Him.

I end in the name of Jesus Christ. (And I apologize, but we have a sick daughter that we need to get back to who is about two hours away by drive, and my wife and I are gonna  take off. I hope not to have to do that tomorrow—maybe hang around a few minutes—but today I need to take off.) Thank you all.

The post A Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Christ: Prototype of the Saved Man” was originally recorded in Ephraim, Utah on June 28, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

The topic that we’re going to discuss in this get-together is Christ. In the next talk, we’ll be addressing the subject of coming to Christ, but in this talk today, it is about… it is about Christ Himself. You know, very often it is easy to have confidence in a subject—in circumstances where something has happened, and you have evidence of His existence, and you feel a closeness to Him. But as soon as the cares and troubles of this world interfere and the moment passes, you wind up wondering, “Is it all true? Am I believing a myth?”

Jesus Christ came into the world unexpected and unannounced by men—unanticipated by men—but fully expected by the Heavens themselves. There were signs in the heavens, but men were oblivious, largely. And when the shepherds keeping watch over the flocks by night were interrupted, it was not by an earthly herald; it was by those from beyond the veil. The Savior crept into the world with Heaven taking notice, but precious few paying attention to what it was that was afoot in His day.

It’s so easy to overlook Him in the cares of this world. I want to assure you that He’s real. He exists. He was a man, every bit a man as any of us. He had flesh. He had blood. He dwelt among us. Don’t doubt that. For purposes of the talk I’m going to give today, trust in Him, believe in Him, have confidence in His existence.

If I can help you envision our Lord a little more, let me describe Him in terms of His characteristics. Our Lord was and is affable, but He is not gregarious. He was approachable, and He is approachable, and He’s not aloof. He’s patient. He’s willing to guide, and He’s willing to teach. He’s intelligent, but He is not overbearing. He’s humble in His demeanor, even though the power that He possessed and possesses is undeniable. He is, therefore, both a Lamb and a Lion.

I want you to entertain three truths about Him in your mind as we begin the subject today. Those three truths are:

In some respects, our own respect for (or our disrespect for) ourselves is the impediment in coming to Him, because we tend to think that we aren’t good enough. Because He is quick to forgive sins, it really doesn’t matter if you’re not good enough, because one of the first orders of business when you come into His presence is He forgives you. He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, but He has the capacity and the ability to forgive sin. Therefore, although your sins may be as scarlet, He can, He will, and He does make you white as snow, no longer accountable. Therefore, you needn’t fear, but you can approach—boldly—our Lord. 

So with that prelude, it was a little over 40 years ago when I finally began to take seriously the offering that the missionaries were making to convert me to this religion of Mormonism that I’d grown up near in Idaho and knew was populated by ‘nut jobs.’ When I finally got around to taking it seriously and I finally got around to hesitatingly praying about whether or not this stuff I had been hearing was true… And you need to understand, I had been visited and pamphlet and filmstripped back in those days for about nine months before this. So I’d heard a lot of the message that the missionaries wanted to deliver. It didn’t “take.” I wasn’t particularly interested. I was merely polite, but I’d heard a lot.

So, when I finally got around to praying about it, the fellow who had originally… I’d made the mistake of complimenting, loaned me his journal. And he wanted me to read about his conversion, because in his journal he had his testimony of how he had come to realize that it was the truth.

I was in the military at the time, and Steve (whose journal had been loaned to me) was converted while he was serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. I don’t think he was in Vietnam-proper; I think he was in Cambodia. But he was in an outpost, and it was under fire. And he was converted on the night of a firefight, while he’s on the perimeter, praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true.

And I had this journal, and I was alone. I was in a military barracks at night and reading the journal and felt again inclined to pray and ask if this stuff was true. And so I knelt, I prayed, and then I got up from the prayer, and there was no pillar of fire, and there was no, you know, conduit into heaven. In fact, it was rather uneventful at the moment. And I sat on the bed and just thought about what the missionaries had been saying and what they’d been asserting and the verses that they’d encouraged me to read.

Back in those days, there were quite a few Biblical sources used by the missionaries. If you haven’t read, you should read the book A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards. He was the Presiding Bishop of the Church, and then he was the a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. And his book, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, was really written while he was a mission pres… Well, it was developed while he was a mission president as a way to introduce and discuss, systematically, Mormonism. And the missionary discussions in those days were really based upon A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, the title of which is taken from a verse in Isaiah. And so, if you read A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, you essentially get the program of the Church back in those days, and you’ll see the missionary format that I was taught.

So, after praying with nothing happening, I sat down, and I contemplated what it was the missionaries had been saying. And I first concluded that Joseph Smith couldn’t be a prophet, because there weren’t gonna be any more prophets. I mean, that’s Bible stuff. That’s not today. That doesn’t happen.

As I thought about that, a verse and a question came to mind—the verse being, By [your] fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:20), from the New Testament, and the question was, “Well, if there is a test to imply to apply in order to determine whether or not this is a prophet, the presence of the test suggests the possibility of a prophet.” I mean, why would you give a test if there is not going to be another prophet? So, by their fruits ye shall know them suggests the possibility that there will, in fact, be someone you better apply that test to, someone about whom that test will become both relevant and important. So I couldn’t categorically dismiss… Okay, I can’t say Joseph’s not a prophet because there’s not going to be another one. Therefore, what is “his fruits”?

Now, I had… I had no universe to draw from to apply the test of Joseph Smith’s fruits other than the missionaries that had been teaching me and those families whose houses I had been taught in, K? Now, you have to understand, I’m young; I’m still a teenager. I’m sitting in a barracks, and I’m trying to figure this stuff out. And I apply the “fruits” test to what little sampling I had. And you know, those missionaries were so earnest, and they were my age. And they were giving up two years of their lives. I was serving in the military, but they were serving in a church organization without being paid.

They had the same military haircut I had. They had a disciplined life. They didn’t smoke, and they didn’t drink—and I couldn’t say that, at the time, about myself or about the people I associated with. But I could tell the difference between the lives of these young men and the lives of those that I served with (and myself). I also could see a difference between the families whose houses I’d been taught in and the families I knew from my background, although I had a wonderful family that I grew up in. I’m the son of a man whom I regard as heroic. My father was really the exception and not the rule among my friends. My father’s families were populated by abusers and alcoholics and a variety of other shortcomings, none of which I saw in any of the families whose houses I had been taught in.

So, my conclusion was, well, there’s some fruit. I don’t know what the standard is by which you measure fruit, but there’s some fruit that suggests that Joseph Smith had a rather positive influence on these people’s lives.

Well, then I went on to think, “Wait a minute! The last verse of the New Testament says you can’t add to the Bible. So, Joseph Smith added a whole lot to the Bible. I mean when they carry their Scriptures, the Mormons bring the Bible, and then they bring this other thing that’s almost the same size! And Joseph did that, so you know, that can’t… There’s something wrong with that.”

So, I got the verse out. I looked at the verse. I thought about it. And what became apparent to me was that the verse doesn’t say that God can’t add more scripture whenever God chooses to do so. It says man is not supposed to do this. And so, if God, through Joseph, chose to add, then He certainly has the ability to do that.

Well, to make a long story short (and I give an account of this in the little vignettes in the book The Second Comforter), after about a little over two hours of sitting on the bed and going through doubt and question after doubt and question, and each time being able to come up with an answer to or a solution… a solution from the scriptures themselves to every doubt, to every apprehension, to every question that I had, my final question sitting alone that night was, “How do I even know there is a God? I could be spending this whole wasted effort, and there isn’t even anyone up there!” And that quick [Denver snaps], as soon as I finished the thought, the thought came to me: “Who do you think you’ve been talking to for the last two hours?” It was a startling thought—

And I need to confess a weakness to you. The account that appears in the book The Second Comforter misquotes God. Because the statement that was made (and I can still remember it distinctly) was, “Who do you think you’ve been talking to for the last two and a half hours?” I was so apprehensive and weak-willed when I submitted the first book I’d ever written to a publisher for a publication that they wanted to correct the English and change… Because it’s not “to.” The correct word was “with.”  So, when you read the account in The Second Comforter, the question that comes into my mind is: “Who do you think you’ve been talking with?”—which just goes to show you that God speaks to us in our own language, in our own tongue, according to our understanding. And He doesn’t use an editor. He talks to us the way we talk. So, if I ever do a third edition of The Second Comforter, I now have the confidence and the resignation to just tell the truth. And I don’t care if there’s a modern Simons Ryder who says, “Well, God uses incorrect grammar.” I don’t care about that anymore. I’m past the point where I fear what men think. I’m past the point where I worry about your own doubts. I’m simply willing to declare to you what I know to be true, and then I leave it up to you. And frankly, you become accountable for your reaction to it.

But having confessed that weakness (and correcting the record of what you will read in The Second Comforter account in those little vignettes), let me tell you, the thought that I had been talking with and had received an answer from God was a startling moment to me. It was startling, first of all, because it suggested that God was willing to talk to even some guy sitting in a barracks in New Hampshire, long away from where they grew up, on the topic of whether or not Mormonism was true. 

It was followed immediately by the realization that what this answer was going to cost me was every childhood friend I had grown up with, every associate that I was associating with at that time (because about the only thing we had in common was beer and pizza); it was gonna require my life to change. If I had not acted on that answer on that occasion, I don’t think that anything that followed thereafter could have happened.

At that moment, the thinnest of threads existed for me to believe in the Restoration of the Gospel, in the Book of Mormon, and in God’s willingness to speak. It had all of the substance of a spider web, easily broken. The only way to hold onto that was to have faith and to trust it. And so I did.

But having faith and trusting that required me to act. I was gonna have to follow through. I was gonna have to be baptized. I was gonna have to join this group of eccentric people. I was gonna have to become one of them, with all of the absolute insecurity about whether I could ever measure up to being one of that, with all of the self-doubt about my own personal strength and vitality as a convert to some religion. I, nevertheless, had faith that God had spoken, and that imposed upon me an obligation—and so I acted. And when I acted and when I was baptized, it was as if a light had been turned on in the room. Everything changed. From that moment ’til now, everything has been different.

It has not been a struggle to live the life of a Latter-day Saint. It has not been a struggle to be a disciple of Christ. My life has been easier as a Latter-day Saint than it was as a godless Gentile. It’s been more fun to live a life of faith than it was to hang around with a bunch of schlocks, getting drunk and doing stupid stuff. I laugh as much now as I did then, except what I’m laughing at isn’t someone else’s pain; it’s funny stuff. (I do have a perverse sense of humor, I have to tell you that.) 

So, two hours—my first encounter getting an answer from God, and the two hours was spent going through answers from God found in the Scriptures. You keep that in mind.

On the day that the Lord was resurrected, there’s an account we find in the book of Luke. It begins at verse 13 of chapter 24 of the book of Luke, talking about two people that went walking to the village of Emmaus from Jerusalem. And they were talking about the things that they had seen happen in the preceding days. 

[And] Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? (Luke 24:15-17)

This is the Lord, and although they didn’t recognize or know Him, He surely knew them. But He didn’t want them to recognize Him, and so they did not. This is our Lord. He sidles up beside them, walks with them, and says, “What are you talking about?” as if He didn’t know. You see how gently He inserts Himself into the conversation. You see how unwilling He is to come and pontificate. You see how amenable and how approachable and how utterly unpretentious the Lord is.

What manner of communications are these…? And that produces almost a rebuke from Cleopas: 

Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days? (Ibid, vs. 18)

Are you utterly ignorant of what’s been happening here? Are you inattentive? Are you just a new stranger? He may have even bristled a little when He asked the question, as if this guy who had been in this area during these few days had been so inattentive to the significance of the man who had just died that he took some umbrage.

And look at the Lord’s reply. He says, What things? (Ibid, vs. 19), as if He hadn’t lived them, as if He hadn’t accomplished them.

And they [now it’s the plural—it’s no longer Cleopas; it’s both of them—start talking to] him [about this] Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. (Ibid, vs. 19) 

So essentially, they are acknowledging Him as at least a prophet.

And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: [besides] all this, today is the third day since these things were done. …and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; …when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. (Ibid, vs. 20-24)

So, they trusted that it should have been Him who would redeem Israel. This is the day of His resurrection, and they’ve heard rumors from women that He was risen. But these were, first of all, merely rumors, and second of all, they were rumors attributable to women—and we all know that women are hysterical and, therefore, require hysterectomies in order to rein them in and turn them into something credible and believable. (I put a comment up on this a few days ago about women as witnesses, and this is a reflection of that same phenomenon. Doubt is easier when the source of the information is the testimony of a woman, even though it ought not be so.)

If you trusted this was Him who should have redeemed Israel, did He? Did He redeem Israel? He came. He taught. He submitted. He was killed. It’s three days since. There are rumors. Did He redeem Israel? If you’re part of that population, in that group, on that day, sitting in that environment, did He redeem Israel? The Romans are still there. Annas and Caiaphas are still faring sumptuously. Christ is dead. The disciples have been scattered; they even go to return to their work even after they see Him. Did He redeem Israel? You can get together on Sunday, and you can sing hymns about “Redeemer of Israel,” with all of the confidence that you know what you’re talking about, as if it were so apparent! It is no more apparent in this account in Luke that the redemption of Israel had been accomplished than it is apparent to you what God is doing now, today, sounding in your own ears!

He came, and He redeemed Israel, and all the world ignored it. It would be hundreds of years before the world would come around to acknowledging Him. And by the time the world would come around to acknowledging Him, what He left behind would be inadequate to redeem.

The day of salvation appears tenuously, almost as gossamer as a spider web. And if you don’t lay hold of it, it is lost. And generations can come and go and sing hymns to the pride of their ancestry and the greatness of their religion—and go to Hell. Because when the Lord sets His hand, He sets it exactly the same way every time. And it requires faith to come aboard, and it requires faith to believe. 

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe. [Slow of heart to believe] all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? (Ibid, vs. 25-26)

You don’t understand. You don’t understand, because the prophets have said this is exactly what our Lord would do. Shouldn’t He have suffered? Shouldn’t He have come in apparent weakness and vulnerability? Shouldn’t He have come in the very manner in which He appeared and to have suffered? 

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Ibid, vs. 27)

Right here—right here—is how the New Testament got framed. When you go to Matthew, when you go to Mark, Luke, and John, you are seeing an echo in each of them what the Lord did on the road to Emmaus with these disciples. He proved that Christ came and suffered as He ought to had done, because all that the prophets have spoken were fulfilled in Him. Therefore, He opened unto them the scriptures that they might understand.

Our Lord, who could’ve borne testimony of Himself, revealing 10,000 new truths—our Lord, who could’ve disclosed and preached and delivered practically any new content He chose to deliver—our Lord expounded the scriptures concerning Himself. That should tell you something.

When the Lord first spoke to me, He expounded the scriptures concerning the Restoration. When He appears on the day of His resurrection, His visit with everyone that day was brief, was perfunctory, included a small amount of information—and here we have the Lord taking hours, walking and talking, opening up: he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. They don’t recognize who He was. He came in; they asked Him to stay (and you can read the rest of it there). But at the end of all this, after everything that had gone on that day, 

…they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Ibid, vs. 32)

I don’t believe it is necessary to reveal any new thing in order to be able to teach in a manner that opens eyes to everything the Lord has and is doing, other than to expound the scriptures. He didn’t think it was necessary.

If you go to verse 19 of the Joseph Smith History and you read the words that come out of the Lord’s mouth when He speaks to Joseph, He quotes or paraphrases Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Paul. In just one short, run-on sentence, the Lord talks about the doctrines that they teach for commandments the doctrines of men, they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof, they draw near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (JS-H 1:19). Once again, when He appears to Joseph in the First Vision, our Lord is expounding the scriptures. He picks and puts it together and says, “This is the condition in which you find yourself.” This is what the prophets were speaking about. This is that day about which mankind would search the earth and not find the word of God.

When Moroni comes to visit with Joseph Smith, what does Moroni do in order to qualify Joseph for the ministry that he’s about to embark upon? Moroni quotes prophecies from Malachi, from Isaiah, from Peter, from Joel. 

And so, it took a long time for me to be able to see the pattern. But the pattern in which the Lord reveals and discusses new truth is the same in every generation. And so, when He came in answer to prayer and spoke to me sitting in a barracks—despite the fact that there were no fireworks, no pillar of fire, no shining man in a robe—He used the scriptures and expounded them to increase my understanding. 

So, today I wanna use the scriptures in order to bear testimony of who our Lord is and how significant His example is for us. And I told you before in Idaho Falls that in my view the Lectures on Faith are scripture—they were adopted as such, and I’m gonna read from the Seventh Lecture on Faith, paragraph 9, about Christ: 

Where shall we find a saved being? for if we can find a saved being, we may ascertain without much difficulty what all others must be in order to be saved…. We think that it will not be a matter of dispute that two beings who are unlike each other cannot both be saved, for whatever constitutes the salvation of one will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved. And if we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be or else not be saved. We ask, then: Where is the prototype? Or where is the saved being? We conclude as to the answer of this question there will be no dispute among those who believe the Bible that it is Christ. All will agree [with] this, that he is the prototype or standard of salvation, or in other words, …he is a saved being. And if we should continue our interrogation, and ask how [is it] that he is saved, the answer would be, because he is a just and holy being. And if he were anything different from what he is he would not be saved, for his salvation depends on his being precisely what he is and nothing else. For if it were possible for him to change in the least degree, so sure he would fail of salvation and lose all his dominion, power, authority, and glory, which constitutes salvation. For salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power, and dominion which Jehovah possesses, and in nothing else, and no being can possess it but himself and one like him.

We read this, and then we immediately gloss over it as if what salvation consists of is Him and “fairy dust,” which He can distribute to make us like Him. This teaching that appears… This was what Joseph Smith worked on editing for the months prior to the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835. He doesn’t say in his diaries that he spent any time on the revelations—that was trusted to a committee, and the committee was responsible for getting those ready for publication. And they did a bunch of freelancing and embellishing and expanding; and some of the stuff they added to the revelations was remarkably more expansive than what Joseph had received revealed to him. That’s not where Joseph spent his time. He spent his time on the Lectures on Faith. And this is early in his ministry—this is when he wanted to make sure that the doctrine was correct. And this is the doctrine that came rolling out in that first publication. And yet, despite that, we tend to read this and not take it seriously. If you are going to be saved, you must be exactly, you must be precisely what Christ is and nothing else. K? You! At that moment, that is when you are saved. 

As a consequence of that, to speak of Christ is necessarily to speak of salvation. To understand Christ is to understand salvation. Despite how plainly this has been put, we still stop short of comprehending the doctrine. Joseph Smith’s mind returned to this topic again, all the way down at the end of his ministry in April of 1844—the last General Conference of the Church that Joseph Smith would be alive for. And in April—April 7th of 1844—Joseph gave a talk. I’m gonna first read to you the version that appears in The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. But then, to make sure that you realize how important the point was, I’m gonna go back to the talk as recorded by various of those who were present that day, because one matter in this is picked up by every one of those who was present in recording what was said in their diaries. Joseph says,

I wish I was in a suitable place to tell it, and that I had the trump of an archangel, so that I could tell the story in such a manner that persecution would cease forever. What did Jesus say? (Mark it, Elder Rigdon!) The Scriptures inform us that Jesus said, As the Father hath power in Himself, even so hath the Son power—to do what? Why, what the Father did. The answer is obvious—in a manner to lay down His body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life as my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not believe it, you do not believe the Bible. The Scriptures say it, and I defy all the learning and wisdom and all the combined powers of earth and hell together to refute it. Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you [you] have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead… (TPJS, pg. 346-347, emphasis added)

“Exaltation to exaltation”; “grace to grace”; “until you attain to the resurrection of the dead.” Christ said, I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). You must be precisely what He is and nothing else.

You hear those who say, “The Church has all the keys.” But we do not yet have the keys of the resurrection. That’s because even when you are resurrected, you will not have the keys of resurrection until you, like Christ, have gone from exaltation to exaltation, until you likewise attain to the power to resurrect all that depends upon you.

John 5:19, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. And the Father went before, and the Son follows after. And if you think that you can, at some point, like Him, attain to the status of godhood, then you’re going to have to do precisely what it is that the Gods do. Therefore, to understand Christ is to understand the challenging destiny about which Joseph Smith is speaking in this last Conference talk given in 1844. 

Until you attain to the resurrection of the dead and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. (TPJS, pg. 347)

Even what we envision as the highest heaven is a condescension for those who sit enthroned, able to dwell in everlasting burnings. Else why in section 132 [130] would you be given a white stone that reveals things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms (D&C 130:10) when you are in the Celestial Kingdom! It’s because where you are now (at this moment, in this meeting, hearing my voice in this room today) is about halfway to where you need to grow (and it’s been almost infinite in getting you here—today) in order to arrive at the point that you might be able to be as Christ. And where Christ arises to, in everlasting burnings, is about halfway to where things ultimately can go. You say it’s necessary in this condition to have a physical body in order to come down here and perform, and you say that rightly. But there are other places beyond. 

I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me. (TPJS, pg. 347) 

That’s Joseph talking. We preach, and we exhort; and largely we do so vainly, having not power—not having been asked and not teaching what ought to be. 

But “to attain to the resurrection of the dead” means you have the power to resurrect—and not yourself, but those who are dependent upon you. It’s a ways off yet. 

Now Joseph says something in 1844 that’s remarkable:

These are the first principles of consolation. How consoling to the mourners when they are called to part with a husband, wife, [daughter], mother, child, or dear relative, to know that, although the earthly tabernacle is laid down and dissolved, they shall rise again to dwell in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or die anymore; but they shall be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before. What did Jesus do? Why; I do the things I saw my Father do when the worlds come rolling into existence. My Father worked out his kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall also present it to my Father, so that he may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt him in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the tracks of his Father, and inherits what God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all his children. It is plain beyond disputation, and you thus learn some of the first principles of the Gospel… (TPJS, pg. 347-348, emphasis added)

You heard that right. 

It is plain beyond disputation, and you thus learn some of the first principles of the Gospel, about which so much hath been said. (Ibid)

Now, the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: faith, repentance, baptism, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We know that, because Joseph wrote that in The Wentworth Letter. We lifted it out of there, we put it in the back of The Pearl of Great Price, and it’s now The Articles of Faith, right? The first principles and ordinances of the Gospel. Now he’s talking about “about which so much [has] been said.” That’s because in the Restorationist environment in which the Gospel was restored, everyone was talking about the first principles of the Gospel. “The first principles of the Gospel are…”—and you could’ve gone to Sidney Rigdon long before Sidney was baptized a member of the Church of Christ (when that was what it was called in Joseph’s beginning era), and Sidney Rigdon would’ve told you that the Restorationist movement all believed that the first principles of the Gospel are faith, repentance, and baptism. That was a mantra. Parley Pratt, who was also one of the Restorationist Campbellite ministers, would’ve told you the same thing. That was a rallying cry for people that said that “the New Testament needs to be restored; the New Testament church needs to be returned; it needs to be revitalized; it needs to be restored and reconstituted. And the first principles, as we find in the New Testament church, are these…” And so Mormons, largely, were drawn out of the same environment, and they’re talking about it, and Joseph conceded the point, and he used that. That’s what he put into The Wentworth Letterwhen he sent The Wentworth Letter off. 

But now, we’re far along in the process. Now, we’re in 1844, and Joseph will be dead about 60 or 90 days after this talk is given. This is the end of his ministry. This is not the beginning of his ministry. And so, now, he’s talking to people that had been aboard for awhile. They’ve heard him preach. They know something more about what God intended. They had the Book of Mormon—they’d been converted through it. They had more revelations that had rolled forth. They’d been taught for awhile. And so, he returns now, and he says that… that “first principles about which so much has been said,” now let me tell you what they really are. They really are this:

This is the first principles of the Gospel! That’s why he wished he had the trumpet of an archangel with which to declare it. He didn’t have that. But I read his words as if they came from an archangel.

You thus learn some of the first principles of the Gospel, about which so much hath been said. When you climb a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you’ve learned them [all]. It’s not all to be comprehended in this world; it’ll be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave. (TPJS, pg. 348, emphasis added)

Wilford Woodruff recorded the same talk. And in the Wilford Woodruff account: 

You’ve got to learn how to make yourselves God, king and priest by going from a small capacity to a great capacity, to the resurrection of the dead, to dwelling in everlasting burnings. I want you to know the first principle of this law, how consoling to the mourner when they part with a friend to know that though they lay down this [he misspells “body”], it will rise and dwell with everlasting burnings to be an heir with God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ and join the same rise, exaltation, [and] glory until you arrive at the station of a God. What did Jesus Christ do? The same thing as I see the Father do. See the Father do what? Work out a kingdom. When I do so too, I will give the Father which will add to His glory, He will take a higher exaltation, I will take His place, and am also exalted. These are the first principles of the Gospel. It will take a long time after the grave to understand the whole. If I should say anything but what was in the Bible, the cry of treason will be heard. 

Thomas Bullock Report—he also says:

This is eternal life to know the only wise and true God. You’ve got to learn how to be Gods yourself, and to be king and priest to God, the same as all have done by going from a small capacity to another, from grace to grace until the resurrection and sit in everlasting power as they who have gone before. And God in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming His name is not trifling with us. All earthly tabernacles should be dissolved, that they shall be heirs of God and joint-heirs of Jesus Christ to inherit the same power and exaltation until you ascend the throne of eternal power the same as those who have gone before. You thus learn the first principles of the Gospel. When you climb a ladder you must begin at the bottom.

This is the basics of the Gospel. This is the foundation upon which salvation itself rests. This is the way through which you must tread in order for you to be like Him. If you understand Christ, you understand salvation. He’s the prototype, and therefore, you must be like that prototype in order for you to be saved. 

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 93, and you’ll encounter some language there that sounds familiar because of what Joseph just chose to say in that General Conference talk. Doctrine and Covenants section 93, beginning at verse 7—

And this is a restoration of a part of John’s record. The fullness of the record is yet to be revealed. Despite the fact that this reads very much like John the Beloved, somehow the position got taken by a number of Church leaders (and then ultimately declared to be so by Bruce R. McConkie) that what you’re reading in section 93 is really the testimony of John the Baptist, and that John the Baptist was a disciple of… oh, excuse me: John the Beloved was a disciple of John the Baptist. So, when John the Beloved wrote his testimony, he began his testimony rather like the person who had mentored him, John the Baptist. And so, when you read John the Baptist’s testimony here, you’re getting second-hand, warmed-over John the Baptist through John the Beloved, and that’s why it looks similar. I did not take issue with Bruce R. McConkie in one of the things that I’ve written along the way. And I simply accepted that this was a testimony of John the Baptist. Once again, it’s one of those things that you do, and then you later say, “I wish I hadn’t done that.” I really—at that time and today—I don’t believe that this is the testimony of John the Baptist. I think it’s the testimony of John the Beloved and a restoration of part of John the Beloved’s record. But be that as it may, it’s the testimony of John. 

He bore record, saying [this is verse 7 of 93]: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was; Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men. The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him. And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us. And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at first, but received grace for grace; And [that] he received not…the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not…the fulness at…first. (D&C 93:7-14, emphasis added)

John bearing record of what he saw concerning our Lord before He entered into this world. This is what He did before He came into the flesh to dwell among us. This is who He was before the world was. He went from grace to grace until…He was called the Son of God.

(Now, because of the way we do these tape recordings, we take breaks in order to change/move CDs over. We’re gonna pick it up right there with that thought and continue in section 93.) 

But I want you to remember that Christ went from grace to grace (before this world and before He entered into the flesh here) through a long enough period of development that He had sufficient grace to be called the Son of God. And this is the prototype of the saved man! This is what you must be or else not be saved. This is the first principles of the Gospel, about which we’re going to spend some time today so that you might understand who it is  you worship and how it is you’re called upon to worship Him. Because as long as you’re down here in this veil, clothed in this flesh, with the capacity to make sacrifices and the ability to exercise faith in Him, you will be amazed at the grace you can acquire, if you will only do so while in this dark place. You’re here to accomplish a great deal. And I hope by the time we finish today, you’re more fortified against accomplishing it.

There was a great question asked by one of the women who came up and said, “Prototype of the saved man, saved man—I mean you’re sort of Y-chromosome oriented. What about the prototype of the saved woman, saved woman?” The best way to explain it without saying something inappropriate would be this: Christ could not—could not—have done what He did if He had not had a woman who fulfilled a role in relation to Him. She anointed Him preliminary to His death and His burial. She was the first one to encounter Him in the resurrection. You do not get Him through what He needed to go through without the presence of the woman taking care of some needful things in connection with that. If it was important for the details of those kinds of things to be available to us, then the scriptures would be talking about ’em. But because that is not germane to what the challenge is that we confront (and the terrible burdens that we have to bear in order to get from where we are to where we need to be), I think the scriptures wisely allude to (but do not elaborate upon) those kinds of things. And so far, those who have been in a position to talk about it have never felt they had any right to do so. 

So, our Lord (and we’re talking about Him in the beginning, before the world was), received not the fulness at first but received grace for grace. And we think grace for grace consists of, “I’m going to now obey a principle, and as a result of obeying that principle, I will receive the benefit of the grace that flows from doing so.” And that is true enough. That is a true enough principle. But it is also truer and more accurate to say: in connection with the long preparation that preceded the call of Christ to be the Son of God, that grace to grace is also something that involves the upward scale of a ladder, as Joseph alludes to it.

He was called the Son of God because He received not of the fulness at…first. He was called to be the Son of God because that wasn’t His status before. Therefore, He had to be called to be the Son of God. And that was true because He received not of the fulness at…first.

And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were [open], and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son. And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father; And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him. And it shall come to pass, that if [you’re] faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John. I give unto you these sayings that [ye] may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness. For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace. (Ibid, vs. 15-20, emphasis added)

Long before the Lord assumed the role and the responsibility of descending here and being the Redeemer of this world, He qualified by grace, doing things that proved—while He was behind the veil, as you presently find yourselves situated—that demonstrated graciousness and faith by obedience to the commandments of God. Even though it would be a great while yet before He (and now you) would rise up to that level, still He lived His life with such grace that He qualified to receive more and to develop and to move up. Now, in the next talk, it’s gonna be necessary to spend more time on this. But today we’re simply alluding to this. 

And I wanna move to Alma chapter 13—because in Alma chapter 13, we run up against some of the other suggestions in the scriptures about what it takes to move from grace to grace. Beginning in chapter 13 of Alma, verse 1:

…I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people. And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption. And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world… (Alma 13:1-3, emphasis added)

Did you get that? We’re talking about priests. And look, his Son…his Son…his Son. So that you can understand who His Son is, there are gonna be some people who qualified before the foundation of the world that will be qualified to come and to teach about some things. And they’re gonna be called before the foundation of the world (like His Son was called before the foundation of the world) to be pointing to his Son who will come into the world. And this qualification occurs before the world is. But it’s done so that you can understand and have faith in His Son.

Being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God… (Ibid)

Why does God have foreknowledge about these things? Why does God know that, given the trust, they will be true to it? Why does God know that these are the kinds of people to whom trust can be given, and it will not be broken? Why does God have such foreknowledge? It’s not based upon conjecture. It’s based upon proof. It’s not based upon merely hope. It’s based upon the knowledge of God because He’s not asking lead to do what He knows only iron can accomplish. Therefore, He chooses a suitable instrument, based upon His foreknowledge, prepared from the foundation of the world.

And what is God’s foreknowledge known? 

…on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place [that is, before the foundation of this world; in the first place, long ago on some other rung of this ladder; long ago, a great while in the past. In the first place they were] …left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising [exceeding] great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such. (Ibid)

You have to redeem them in order to have them reclaim so that they can come back and perform what they need to do. There has been a preparatory redemption. They have chosen what’s right. And the game’s afoot, and you’re in it, and you’re here, and this is now. And you have the opportunity, on account of your own—being left to choose between good and evil, having the opportunity to choose good. And at this moment, you have the opportunity to exercise—exceedingly—faith. And you have the opportunity, at this moment, to be identified and proven by God so that His foreknowledge of you hereafter includes within it a record of your exceeding faith and good works.

And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and [the] blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great [a] privilege as their brethren. (Ibid, vs. 4)

Don’t have a hard heart. Don’t be blinded by the lies, the half-truths, and the incomplete things that you are taught. 

You may disagree with me, and you’re entitled to do so. But I declare the things that He’s declared to me. There are arguments that have been made; there are reviews that have been written about the things that I say. There is no criticism that has been offered against me, no scriptural exegesis that an orthodox member of the Church cannot advance that I did not advance in argument with the Lord! I made better scriptural arguments than those that have been leveled at me. I had more scriptural proof to discourage the Lord from asking that I do any of this stuff. I argued with Him! And the Lord has explained to me, using the scriptures, the things which I declare to you. 

I’m not here on my own errand. If I were doing what I wanted to do today, it wouldn’t include any of you—well, her [indicating his wife], but [laughter]… I mean, the weather’s nice. I have a Harley sitting in the garage that’s on a recharger that needs to be ridden, and here I am doing this. And I’m not doing this because I think it oughta be done. And I’m not explaining these scriptures to you because I think this might be the way it fits together. Like Paul, I can declare, “He whom ye ignorantly serve declare I unto you.” I’ve read all of the accounts that Joseph has left behind of his visits with the Lord. Add them all together, and He’s spent more time with me than He did with Joseph. I attribute that to the poorness of my learning, my inadequacy as a pupil, my stubbornness, and my stupidity. I was a bigger defender of the Church to the Lord, a bigger defen…. I was a Pharisee, explaining why He needed to honor the Church and… And let me do so too! And so, when people shake their head and say, “What a shame! What a shame! He fell off the rails. He went his own way. He’s filled with pride….”

Look, growing up in Idaho, I would have said that’s utter bullshit. Here, I will say it’s bovine feces. There’s nothing to that [laughter]. That’s not who I am! That’s not what’s in my heart. It has never been what’s in my heart. And I know what I’m talking about. And I don’t care about your theories to the contrary. Because He who is more intelligent than them all has declared to me what the truth of these things is. Resist it, if you want. Reject it, if you want. But you can read right here what the consequences are, though—

…others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and [the] blindness of their minds, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren. Or in fine, in the first place [that is, before they ever got here, in the first place, long ago, far away] they were on the same standing with their brethren [exactly the same place]. This holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared— …thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto [this] high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest—This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, according to his foreknowledge of all things [this has been underway a long time; this has been underway a long time]—Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end— (Ibid, vs. 4-8, emphasis added)

You say a man must be ordained by someone here in the flesh, and I say that may be true enough. But if he is not ordained, at some point, in eternity that is without [a] beginning, you might as well ordain a sack of flour. Because if it does not reckon from some place in eternity, it is inadequate to compensate or deal with eternal things. 

You say you want to create an “expectation” into the next life; and I say, if it did not exist and the authority by which to declare it was not handed down from before in eternity, then it will not last after. Joseph held up a ring and said, “There is no beginning, and there is no end, it is one eternal round.” I’m telling ya, you are only on part of the cycle here. But you are on part of the cycle, here. Therefore, what you do here matters—infinitely, eternally, everlastingly. It matters! You have your doubts; weigh them in the balance. 

The Gospel is delicious. Get rid of that stale, wretched stuff that you consume, and go on to find the Life, the Light, and the vigor that is contained in the words that we have in scripture. This stuff is delicious! If you’ll partake of it and prepare yourself, you can improve this estate in a way that will reflect credit in the next estate. Don’t forfeit the opportunity.

Thus they become high priests forever. (Ibid, vs. 9)

They become high priests forever. They had it before the foundation of the world. They come here. They have authority here. And that authority began there, and it will continue into the next life. Therefore, they can bless, and you’re blessed indeed.

Thus they become high priests forever, after the order of the Son, [of] the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen. Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish; Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. (Ibid, vs. 9-11)

You say you want to be baptized and to be cleansed from all sin? I say have at it! But in addition, this “prototype of the saved man” requires that you do something in addition. You may only achieve a limited amount of grace in this life, but that limited amount of grace you must hold fast to. You cannot receive more if you will not receive what’s offered now. And if you’ll receive what’s offered now, [long pause] you’ll be added upon.

Oh, E.B. Grandin had an employee; he was a teenager when he did the typesetting for the Book of Mormon. His first name was John; I don’t remember the last name. But I was looking at his picture the other day—they had a picture of him in 1890. He wasn’t a teenager anymore in 1890. He was holding one of those poses like they did back then with the photography, and he looked dreadfully uncomfortable. I showed the picture to my wife, and she said, “Man, he looks like he’s never recovered from the trauma of typesetting the Book of Mormon.” [Laughter] Just this severe…with wild white hair (it’s in the Joseph Smith papers), this big gray, white beard. John… Anyone remember the name? What is it? Anyone remember the name of the guy who set the type on the Book of Mormon? Anyway, whoever that guy John was that worked in E.B. Grandin’s bookstore printing press, he got the printer’s manuscript to the Book of Mormon, and he punctuated it. And we still live with his punctuation.  The commas that you got in your text? They’re all derived from this guy, the trauma of punctuating the Book of Mormon lasting with him some 60 years after the fact and making him look like a fretting chap because he knows, oh, he may have screwed up a comma or two. And I’m gonna suggest another way to read a bunch of verses. And I’m gonna lift out his commas and throw ‘em on the floor. I’m not gonna use them anymore. 

I’m gonna read you a description of Christ in 2 Nephi 25:12. And this is the way I would read it with my punctuation: “The Only Begotten of the Father yea even the Father of heaven and of earth.”

The way it’s punctuated today is: The Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of [the] earth. The way it’s punctuated, it reads that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father, and Jesus Christ is the Father of heaven and of earth. The way I would punctuate it is that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father who is the Father of heaven and of earth. Mess around with the commas and, all of a sudden, a bunch of Trinitarian theology (which was in the mind and heart of John as he typeset) suddenly becomes a whole lot less Trinitarian in the Book of Mormon. ($&!!**#!) Really screws up a bunch of people who wanna argue about theology among the Mormons. Throw out the commas. 2 Nephi 25:12, Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father. He’s the Only Begotten of the Father, who is the Father of heaven and of the earth. That’s who His Father is.

Mosiah 3:8, And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.

What if we move the commas around, and we say: “He shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.” 

We’ve looked at language in the Lectures on Faith. We’ve looked at the statement that was made in the April General Conference. In them… And we’ve looked at D&C section 93, and in them they’re talking about how the Father came and dwelt in Him, K? And every week you hear a sacrament prayer in which it’s petitioned that you, O God, the Eternal Father (Moroni 4:3), will send Christ to have His Spirit come and dwell in you. And the Spirit that comes and dwells in Christ is the Spirit of the Father, and Christ’s Spirit is going to come and dwell in you. And whose Spirit is it that dwells in Christ? And so, they all become one.

(I think that phone call I got a few moments ago was my daughter, ’cause my wife’s out there talking on a cell phone. I don’t know if any of you heard my bag buzzing, but now she’s talking. So I can talk about her for a minute, and she’ll never hear it [laughter], ’cause she doesn’t listen to these recordings. Well… Although, she does read the transcripts. Well, I better… [laughter].)

So, if you go to Helaman 14:12, you see the same thing: And also that ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and that ye might know of the signs of his coming, to the intent that ye might believe on his name. Helaman 14:12.

Again, what if we change the commas? “That ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; that ye might know of the signs of his coming.” K?

I tend to view things in a way that makes sense. And I really like what happens with Abinadi. Because Abinadi gives us an explanation of Christ in which he… I think he nails it. This is in Mosiah chapter 15, verses 2-5— 

Now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth. And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people. (Mosiah 15:1-5)

Abinadi knew these things. And he testified of these things to a wicked group of men that would ultimately kill him. But he declared what it was and how it was. 

If you read the Lectures on Faith and the definition of the Holy Ghost, what you read is that the Holy Ghost represents the mind of the Father and the Son, and They together are one. And this mind of God—this Spirit that emanates from Them—fills the immensity of space; it is part of God too. And that is as accessible to you, if you will receive it, as it was accessible to Christ—which is how you can become one with Them. Father, I pray…for [these] whom thou hast given me…that [they] may be one [as thou and I art one] (3 Nephi 19:29; see also 3 Nephi 19:23). “They may be ‘one,’ like us because They share the same mind.” And you likewise can do so.

Christ said of Himself (and I’m reading from Ether chapter 3, verse 14)—Christ said of Himself: 

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and…daughters… 

…so that you also might become a son of God, as the One who redeems you becomes your Father, so that He who is the Only Begotten of the Father might in turn beget many sons and daughters Himself.

If you will receive it, faith in Him comes by hearing the word of God—not by a pretender, not by someone guessing, not by someone offering up their theory of how this stuff ought to be understood, not by someone citing you a bibliography—but hearing the word of God delivered as He would have it delivered, by whomever it is that He may choose to deliver it.

If you receive it, then you might have faith and that, too, in the Son of God that you might receive Him. But if you will not, if you will harden your hearts, if you will blind your minds, if you will not receive what He offers from His mouth in your day, then you don’t have faith in Him. And you will fall short of that faith which will bring you to become His son and His daughter. It is that way; it has always been that way; it will always be that way. There is no other test.

Therefore, either I am a liar, and you oughta forget everything I’ve said, or I have been sent by someone who is greater than I, and you reject and you quibble over the things I declare to you at your peril!

And it oughta be that way. And I oughta be damned if I’m a pretender. And I ought to be damned and rejected by God if I’m saying things about which I do not know anything. But I bear testimony to you, I know what I’m talking about. 

He (Christ) was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. And why did the world not know Him? The world did not know Him because—the same reason why people would not know a messenger if one were sent today—because our Lord was so very ordinary. For all the world he was just another itinerant preacher. There had been so many pretenders in the days before then. The Maccabean rebellion… The family of David had fallen into great disrepute by the time the Lord arrived. When the census was taken and everyone had to go to their own city and he went to the city of David to be enumerated, there was no room for them in the inn. It was… It was in His day as it is in ours. 

The Lord Omnipotent who [reigns], who was, and is from all eternity…shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay…(Mosiah 3:5). Father is a tabernacle of Spirit and Glory. The Son descended to be among us in a tabernacle of clay. To the extent that you can receive our Lord (though He was here, like you are), the only way you could tell the difference was He declared things that were filled with light.

How was the Lord able to accomplish all that He did? Abraham 3:19, the Lord tells you. He says, I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. Why is the Lord able to say that He is more intelligent than they all? Because our Lord went from grace to grace to the point in which He understood all things because He had been through all things; He had descended below all things, and He had risen above all things—therefore, He comprehends all things. He’s more intelligent than us all, because He’s more experienced than us all. He has arrived at a state in which He is worthy, holy, sanctified. Having been left to choose between good and evil, He has chosen good. He declared who He was when He introduced Himself to the Nephites, and He said He suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

From what beginning? For you, why can that not be a beginning that starts now? For you, why can you not, from this beginning—at this moment, in this place—go forward saying that you will follow the will of the Father in all things, from this beginning? Why will you refuse to rise up and to receive grace for grace?

This is how you worship who you worship, because He was the Word of God, the embodiment of what the Father’s will was. The Father declares what is true, and the Son does it. And thus the Son became the Word of God because He did what the Father bid Him do. Would you be a son or daughter of God? Do what He bids you do. This is how the Son worshipped. This is what you must do if you will worship Him also.

I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all (Ibid). D&C 93:36, The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.

The light [shines] in darkness and the darkness [comprehends] it not (D&C 88:49) because in the darkness, there are things that are forgotten; but in the light, there are things that are exposed and seen. Light and Truth: because you see things as they really are, because you judge things as they really are (not after the manner of men but according to the light that God shines upon it)—so that you can see and you can feel that the heart that is speaking to you is pure; that the words that are being spoken are given by the grace of God; that it doesn’t matter how flawed a vessel the Lord chooses, He can cleanse any of you, every whit; that He has such power as that—so that He can take what is broken and mend it; and He can take what is unclean, even scarlet in color, and make it white as snow by His word, which is the word of the Father—because the two of Them are One.

And so comes this sobering verse two verses in D&C 130, verses 18 and 19: Whatever principle of intelligence…

Remember, I’m the Lord thy God, [I’m] more intelligent than the[m] all (Abraham 3:19). The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth (D&C 93:36). 

So now you: Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come (D&C 130:18-19, emphasis added)

How will you gain intelligence? How will you gain knowledge? It says right here: you gain knowledge and you gain intelligence by your diligence and obedience. The words that are spoken are intended to cause action. When that answer came to me in the barracks, if I’d done nothing, my life would’ve continued as it began. And there would’ve been no difference the next day. And today I would be in a far different place than I am at this moment.

Hearing without heed and diligence, obedience to the things that God asks you… I mean, what good does it do you to know more about the scriptures than another person if it does not affect your behavior? What good does your knowledge give you if your knowledge is not employed to bring you and others who hear you closer to the Lord? Knowledge can be used as a point of vanity. It can be used to make you seem bigger, better, brighter. It can be a point of pride. It is power. And wielded in the wrong hands, it abuses; it subjugates; it humiliates.

The Lord is not like that. He lifts. He raises. He elevates. He endows you. He blesses your lives. If you will receive it and act upon it, if you will soften your heart, if you will allow His Spirit to enter in, if you will receive the light that comes from Him, you will receive grace, and you will be more like Him, and you will be more gracious and patient with others—and you’ll view them in their fallen state, and you’ll hope for them better. And to the extent that you’re able to do so, you will offer them better.

Joseph Smith, The Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith]:

Knowledge saves a man; …in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge… So it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on [until] you learn all the principles of exaltation… A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power. 

I read those to you on the very first day that we began these series of talks in Boise, Idaho. Now that we’ve come to the subject of our Lord, we get back to the topic of intelligence: “A man is saved no quicker than he gains knowledge,” but knowledge requires you to act because it doesn’t become part of you until you have lived it. Therefore, unless you’re willing to live it, you can’t receive it.

Our religion is centered in Christ. Therefore, our religion is centered in intelligence. It is not enough to know what Christ knows; we must also be loving or charitable as He is. He not only created this world, He also suffered to save it.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 53, and let’s look at some old familiar verses. This is Isaiah writing long before the event, but the context is almost an echo of the quizzical nature of Christ on the road to Emmaus saying, “What are you talking about?” And they’re saying, “Are you dumb? Are you ignorant? Are you oblivious to what’s been happening?” Isaiah in 53: Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? (Isaiah 53:1).

See, it always gets delivered in a manner that it is possible to absolutely dismiss it. There needs to be an entire chorus of people who are yelling in opposition. There needs to be smooth arguments. There needs to be opponents who are standing there. There needs to be institutional opposition. There needs to be rejection. There needs to be an entire augmented army of skepticism opposed to whenever the Lord is doing anything so that it can always be equal. 

Who’s gonna believe the report? And who’s gonna see the arm of the Lord? For Christ is gonna grow up before [God] as a tender plant, …as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there’s] no beauty that we should desire him (Ibid, vs. 2). I really dislike the way in which that’s been translated—because those meanings are possible with those words, but that is absolutely not how I would render them.

Chamad [חָמַד, Strong’s Concordance 2530]… All Hebrew is based on…  Well, almost the entirety of the Hebrew vocabulary is based upon a three-letter root. And the root of the word that gets used for “beauty” really is talking about something to be coveted, desired; some kind of precious thing that you want.  Hadar [הָדָר, Strong’s Concordance 1926]: ornament, honor, splendor, majesty. If I were rendering a translation on this… 

I went and I looked this morning to see how Gileadi rendered this in his Apocalyptic Book of Isaiah. And Gileadi rendered it: “He had no distinguished appearance that we should notice him, no pleasing aspect that we should find him attractive.” I would render it differently still. I would say, “He had no bona fide authority that we should submit to it; He had no standing, credibility, bona fides. He had no position that we should acknowledge Him.” 

Because you can throw around the words, and you can go to the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth definition, and you can mess with it. But when you miss the fact that we’re talking about Christ; we’re talking about Him growing up in a place that is essentially barren, devoid of the knowledge of God; and we’re talking about Him coming along, and those that are in this barren wasteland looking at Him and saying, “Why should we believe you!?” Then you have to go to the definitions that let you say, “authority, majesty.” I mean, “majesty” or “a desirable thing”? What do men covet more than a position of rank and authority? And Christ didn’t come that way. He came “beneath all things.” He came as someone that was considered renegade, an outsider; someone that was easy to dismiss; someone that it was easy to look at and say, “For that, I’m having none of it. It’s too great a risk to believe this stuff.”

This is the seventh of ten talks I’m going to give. I’m bearing testimony of the truth. There’s no reason to think that this endeavor is anything other than some person trying to call attention to themselves, unless what I’m declaring to you is truth and is light. And if I am, then how you respond to that… 

You do not need to respond to me. You don’t need to like me, and you don’t ever need to mention my name again. But what I’m saying, you need to respond to—between you and God, between how you live your life from this day forward and the Lord who is going to come to judge the quick and the dead. You need to get right with Him. I’m not going to be your leader. I’m not going to form a church. I’m not gonna do that. It wouldn’t work anyway. But you can be healed. And you can come to the Lord. And you can live your life differently. And you can look at these same scriptures in a new light, and let His Spirit to fill you. And you can make a difference in the lives of others.

I don’t trust myself to do anything other than to say what I’ve been told. I fear my weakness, my inadequacy. I fear offering up my own ideas. I don’t wanna rely on me; don’t you do that, when I’m asking you not to. You rely on Him.

But just remember, when He speaks, this is how He came! He’s not gonna do it differently. He’s not gonna make it easy for you. He’s not gonna tell you: “I’m gonna put my thumb print on this, and here’s the hall pass. Who wants the hall pass? That guys got the hall pass! Follow him! He can never lead you astray. And if he were to do so, I will remove him! I am the great and powerful” [laughter]. Now I’m borrowing both from Cecil B. DeMille and The Ten Commandments and TheWizard of Oz, and I’m mingling those to present to you false doctrine offered by institutions who claim they possess keys of salvation that will redeem you. 

I offer you no such keys. I offer you a Lord, and I would have you give heed to Him. And I’ll tell that no man can be trusted. Even Peter (the night of the Lord’s trial) was a broken reed. If you put your weight on that, it would pierce your hand. That’s what men are—but not our Lord.

[He’s] despised and rejected of men… (Isaiah 53:3), and that will be true. That will be true of whomever; they will be despised and rejected of men.

He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… (ibid). It’s necessary for Him to be so, so that He might know how to understand us. He grieved because of the things He knew He had to offer, and none would receive it. It was necessary for Him to experience sorrow and be acquainted with grief.

We hid as it were our faces from Him… (ibid); that is, we turned from Him. We would not give heed to what it was He offered.

He was despised, …we esteemed Him not (ibid)—the only person who’s ever lived who deserved to have respect given to Him, and we esteemed Him not. 

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (ibid, vs. 4). See, smitten of God, smitten of God—He was cast out of the synagogue. They were looking to stone Him. I mean, why would you expect that God would honor a man who’d been cast out of the synagogue? Smitten of God; afflicted. 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; …with his stripes we are healed (ibid, vs. 5). You know, don’t think you’re going to follow that Master and then be spared. He’s gonna let you understand what it means to follow Him. And that understanding is gonna come by the experiences that help you relate to and understand our Lord in a way that you don’t understand Him at present. If you’re comfortable, He will make you uncomfortable. If you’re certain, He will make you uncertain. If you think you’ve got it all figured out, He will offer up a contradiction, and then He’ll leave you to struggle with it. And then when you can bear the contradiction no more, and in the agony and anguish of your uncertainty, He’ll delay the answer a little further still, until your heart is finally soft enough to come to Him in meekness. And then He’ll speak to you the words that you need to hear. Sometimes only just in time.

All we like sheep have gone astray; [we’ve] turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (ibid, vs. 6). All of those variances from the path, He bore that.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: [he’s] brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. …he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him…. (ibid, vs. 7-10)

You know, that statement, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Can you imagine? 

In the Enoch account (I wasn’t going to do this, but I think it’s an appropriate juxtaposition), Enoch is in heaven, and he’s being shown in vision this last days’ event. And Enoch is talking in the bitterness of his heart as he’s looking at it. This is Moses chapter 7, verses 44, 

…Enoch saw this, he had bitterness of soul, …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. And it came to pass that Enoch looked; and from Noah, he beheld all the families of the earth; and he cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the day of the Lord come? When shall the blood of the Righteous be shed, that all they that mourn may be sanctified and have eternal life? And the Lord said: It shall be in the meridian of time, in the days of wickedness and vengeance. And behold, Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul rejoiced, saying: The Righteous is lifted up, …the Lamb is slain. (emphasis added)

Weeping in the bitterness of his heart: I will refuse to be comforted. All this loss, all this waste, all this death, all this wickedness! So much reason to mourn: I will refuse to be comforted.

And the Lord says, “No, no, no! Be happy! Be happy!” (That song, you know.) “Be happy! See? The Lamb is slaughtered!” 

It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Is there no other way? No, there’s no other way. 

He hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see…the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:10-11).

He gains the knowledge by which redemption comes through the things that He suffers. Because in suffering for sin, He overcomes and finds the path back from sin. So far as He is cast out, that is how far He knows the path back, to return. There is no burden you bear that He does not know how to solve. There is no dilemma that you confront that He has not already found the way to resolve and come back to peace with God.

Read the chapter on “Gethsemane” in Come, Let Us Adore Him, and you’ll read an eyewitness account of how our Lord was smitten and afflicted, even beyond what man can endure. And each time, He was able to find peace and reconciliation and love, despite what He was put through.

This is the One about whom the scriptures are speaking. This is the Lord who’s asking you to come to Him. He’s not aloof, and He’s not distant. If He’ll speak to someone in a military barracks, He’ll speak to you—every one of you. And what He has to say to you is far more important than anything I can say. But I can bear testimony of Him. And I can assure you that He will not leave your petitions unanswered. And I can also assure you that today is once again a day of salvation. And He has set His hand again—no matter how unlikely it may appear, no matter how much reason there is to be skeptical, no matter how many more signs you think may need to be fulfilled, I’m telling you, He has set His hand again. The heavens are open for business, and the question is whether you’re interested in becoming a customer or not.

I got a question during the break about the punctuation in the Book of Mormon, and what I’ll do (instead of backing up and talking about that) is in the transcript [paper], I will elaborate on that. It was John Gilbert; I just remembered his name. John Gilbert was the one that did the punctuation. When I do the transcript [paper], I’ll just add additional explanations, cite you to some places where you can go read more about that. But the punctuation of the Book of Mormon was not put there by Joseph, Oliver, or anyone else. It was one long sentence. There weren’t paragraphs; there weren’t verses; just words. And when they brought in the printer’s manuscript, that got typeset; and John Gilbert was the one who did the typesetting, and John Gilbert provided us with the punctuation to the Book of Mormon. So every comma, semicolon, period, verse in the Book of Mormon, you can rearrange; no one did that. I mean, the next guy to mess with it would’ve been Orsen Hyde and Pratt in the 1878 or…  You know, I have to… Dates are not one of those things I keep on the top of my head.

Christ’s suffering was redemptive. It lifted the Creation as a result of what He was able to do. And if you think about it in physical terms, if you’re going to use a fulcrum to lift an object, it’s necessary to put the fulcrum underneath the whole thing. You can’t lift it unless you put the fulcrum beneath. Christ is, in effect, the fulcrum which lifted the entirety of Creation. So, in lifting the entirety of the Creation, it’s necessary for you to appreciate the extent to which Christ is bonded to all of this and, therefore, all of you.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 88. This is a marvelous transcript. This is a description that you need to keep in mind when you’re trying to understand who our Lord is. Beginning in verse 6: 

He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth; Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made; And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. Now, verily I say unto you, that through the redemption which is made for you is brought to pass the resurrection from the dead. And the spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul. And the redemption of the soul is through him that quickeneth all things, in whose bosom it is decreed that the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it. (D&C 88:6-17, emphasis added)

Between verse 6 and verse 13, rather like bookends, the connection of Christ to all things appears seven times. It appears at the beginning and appears again at the end. Christ is in all things. Everything that you’re acquainted with in this creation is sustained by the light of Christ. He occupies, He brings the light into, He is more intelligent than it all, and He keeps its organization together by the light that emanates from Him. This is why it is possible for redemption to come through Him. Because when He descended below it all, including death, He has the power then to bring it all with Him back into life. He is the fulcrum. He is the one which must permeate all things, in order for Him to be able to lay hold upon all things and in order, therefore, to bring you back from the grave—which means, at this very moment, you are in contact with Him through His Spirit. He is giving you the life which you are presently living.

He is not a distant God. He is an immediate and an intimate God. You say He knows your thoughts, and that is true enough! Because He is giving you the ability and the freedom to entertain the thoughts. Therefore, He knows how to judge you—because everything that you have done, you have done using the power and the light He lends to you. You have the illusion of privacy. You have the actuality of agency, but that agency is being employed by you, using an instrumentality that belongs to Him.

And the scriptures make it abundantly apparent that that is in fact the case. Mosiah chapter 2, verse 21:

I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say [unto you] if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants… 

…because the energy being used at present to power this life that you’re living is borrowed from Him; it is His light. It is His light; it is His truth; it is His intelligence. He is sustaining you from moment to moment.

Verse 25: 

Now I ask [you], can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you. 

So, this mortal frame that you’re walking about in temporarily, belongs to Him. And ultimately, He’s gonna take it back, and reduce it back to dust, and re-form it in something else, and do something else with it. And someday He will resurrect you, but when He does that, that’s Him also—because it will be a long time before you “attain to the resurrection of the dead” (TPJS, pg. 346). You’re gonna borrow this from Him for yet some time. 

Look in Alma chapter 7, beginning at verse 11. This is Him descending below all things. Alma 7:11, 

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. …he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; …he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if [you’re] not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. (Alma 7:11-14)

He did this stuff precisely so that whatever it is that is infirm in you, He can blot it out. Whatever it is that you need to have “succor” to remedy, He has the knowledge required to do that. He is not experimenting when He deals with us. He knows what He is doing. He has descended below it all in order to acquire the capacity to lift it all. And the things that He intends to lift back include all of you. He intends to save everything—and by saving everything, allow it to continue on in its course. 

Those who will receive less, will continue on in a lesser course. Those who will receive more, will continue on in a greater course. But all will continue on, freely using what God freely gives to both the righteous and the wicked. He makes the sun to shine on the righteous and the wicked. He makes the rain to fall on both the righteous and the wicked. And He does so while merely asking you to repent and turn to Him. He does not demand obedience. He offers you, if you will obey, grace for grace, that you too might receive more of Him in you, and that you might be better animated by a higher source than the one that animates you at the moment. No matter where you are situated, He continuously offers you more.

Now we go back to Abinadi. And I said a few moments ago that he knows what he’s talking about. Let me read you just how very much Abinadi knows. This is Mosiah chapter 15, beginning at verse 8:

And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion toward the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice. …now I say unto you, who shall declare his generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed. Now what say ye? And who [are] his seed? Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. (Mosiah 15:8-11, emphasis added)

A while ago we read a quote from Joseph [Smith] in Orem about where the kingdom of God is. And Joseph said, “If you can find anyone sent by God, there is the kingdom of God.” It was good doctrine when Joseph declared it. It was good doctrine when Mosiah [Abinadi] declared it. It’s good doctrine when I declare it. Because any of you who will hear and then who will hearken unto their words, you become His seed. You have to hear it. You have to hear it from someone who has been sent. But it does you no good at all if you will not hearken to it. Because it is in the hearkening that you will meet God. You will find redemption. You will hear His voice, and you will become a holy vessel because His word will be animated in you. And you will have no doubts about your salvation, because you will hear Him declare it in His own voice. And you will know that He’s no respecter of persons. And you’ll know that you, like any other person, can come unto Him, and look to Him (and Him alone) for your salvation, and not be dependent upon any other person or system. And you too can join in singing the song of redeeming love.

We will get to more of this as we move along. But today it’s only necessary that we begin to introduce the fact that Christ is the redemption of all. When His religion is here, then His religion, when it appears, is the same in every day. 

Turn to Mormon chapter 9, beginning at verse 7: 

And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healings, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues; Behold I say unto you, that he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the [scripture]; if so, he does not understand them. For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? …now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is [a] shadow of changing, then [you have] imagined…unto your[self] a god who is not a God of miracles. But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is [the] same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man. And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord. (Mormon 9:7-13)

It’s true that that will happen in the resurrection, but I wanna pause on that. Because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are bought back into the presence of the Lord, yea this is wherein all men are redeemed…. If I were punctuating it, I’d put a period there, and I’d start a new thought in a new verse.

Now is the day of redemption.  Because of the redemption of man which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord, yea this is wherein all men are redeemed.

What is the fall of man? It’s to be cast out from the presence of God. What is the redemption of man? It’s to be brought back into the presence of God. Today is the day of redemption. Today is the day of salvation. Come back into His presence.

Ether chapter 3, beginning at verse 13: When he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. 

This is the gospel of Christ. What is it that you know? You know Him. And this is life eternal that you might know [Him] (John 17:3). “Because you know these things, I’m coming to see you. I return you to my presence. I redeem you from the Fall—because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall.” This is Christ speaking in the first person. He’s defining redemption. Who better is able to define what it means to be redeemed than the Redeemer? Reconciliation comes through Christ. Reconciliation comes with Christ. Reconciliation is by Christ. And Christ has the power to redeem you all.

I wanna pay attention to the coming again of the Lord, and if you read about His return in the Doctrine and Covenants…. Maybe we oughta pick a couple of these just to look at. D&C 45, verse 16; let’s look at that one. He says, I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples as I stood… This is verse 16 of D&C 45. I’m sorry—verse 16. I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples as I stood before them in the flesh, …spake unto them, saying: As ye have asked…me concerning the signs of my coming, in the day when I shall come in my glory in the clouds of heaven, to fulfill the promises that [I’ve] made unto your fathers…(emphasis added). This is a description of how He intends to return. 

If you go to 49, D&C 49, beginning at verse 22, He says: 

Verily I say unto you, the Son of Man cometh not in the form of a woman, neither…a man traveling on the earth. Wherefore, be not deceived, but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken, and the earth to tremble and…reel to and fro as a drunken man, …for the valleys to be exalted, and for the mountains to be made low, and for the rough places to become smooth—and…this when the angel shall sound his [trump].

And this is how He intends to come. He may send people who are messengers. He may send people who have things to say from Him. But when He returns, He’s going to return in glory.

Section 133, if you go there and you read, beginning at verse 46:

And it shall be said: Who is this that cometh down from God in heaven with dyed garments; yea, from the regions which are not known, clothed in his glorious apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? And he shall say: I am he who spake in righteousness, mighty to save. And the Lord shall be red in his apparel, and his garments like him that treadeth in the wine–vat. (D&C 133:46-48)

I just add, parenthetically, that His apparel is red, period. Period. He will be clothed in red. And if someone offers you a vision in which they vary from this, I’ll add my voice to Joseph’s and bear testimony that when He appears, His apparel—apparel—will be red.

And so great shall be the glory of his presence that the sun shall hide his face in shame, and the moon shall withhold its light, and the stars shall be hurled from their places (ibid, vs. 49).

Doesn’t sound to me like an event that is going to take place in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah [laughter]. 

But as I’ve said, hearken to whatever voice you wanna hearken to. Chase every tempting tattletale that you hear from someone. The Lord has expounded to me the scriptures. I have no interest in telling you all the things I’ve been shown. I’m interested in you going and being shown them by Him. He’s the Keeper of the Gate. He’s the One who’s mighty to save. He can tell you what He thinks you need to know, as He has told me what I need to know.

But there will always be 10,000 voices that rise up in opposition to say, Lo here, lo there; come and hearken to my precept (see JS-H 1:5). I don’t ask you to hearken to anything other than what we find in the scriptures. But you should ask yourself the same question that Malachi posed, Who may abide the day of his coming? …who shall stand when he appeareth? for [he’s] like a refiner’s fire, and like [a] fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver(Malachi 3:2-3). Yeah, who shall stand? The day [comes] that shall burn them up [so] that it shall leave them neither root nor branch (3 Nephi 25:1). And who shall abide that day?

Well, we have an answer to that, I guess, in Third Nephi chapter 9—which the Book of Mormon was designed as the scripture, as the foundation, as the keystone for our day. Go to chapter 9 of Third Nephi, and read what is said there. And this is the Lord speaking. Third Nephi chapter 9, verse 12 and 13:

Many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land, and upon this people, because of their wickedness and their abominations. O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

These people were more righteous not because they were sin-free. They were more righteous because they hearkened to what the Lord was telling them to hearken to. It didn’t mean that they weren’t a project, that they weren’t a work-in-process. It simply meant they did, in fact, hear His voice and, therefore, responded to it. These were the people who were spared. 

Go to chapter 10 and verse 12: And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared (3 Nephi 10:12). Did you notice that? It’s the definition. This is how you get spared. This is how you become His seed. They who received the prophets and stoned them not.

Understand, this is Christ speaking. And put it in the timeframe in which He is speaking by looking at Third Nephi chapter 9, verse 22: Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved. The Lord has achieved the triumph of the resurrection from the dead at the time that He’s saying these words. And in that state, in that condition, He has destroyed the wicked. I read it a little while ago. Look, let’s read those words again: “I want you to know that God, in the[se] last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me” (TPJS, pg. 347). K? He is going to come. He’s going to come in judgment. There are gonna be those who pay the price. He told them how they could be the more righteous and be spared.

Do not think for one moment that Christ’s coming judgment will not be terrible. Do not think its scope will not be cosmic. Do not think that all things are going to continue as they always have been. Do not be misled by thinking that you can hearken to just any principle and listen to any false, unredemptive gospel proclaimed by any pretender and survive the day of His coming. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. And the word of God comes only when He is the author of it.

Well, remember that you should not look for a Messiah to come which has already come, and the Son of Man cometh not in the form of a woman, neither a man traveling on the earth. He is going to come down in heaven from the presence of [God] and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire. That’s D&C section 63, verse 34.

Listen. Religion is, or ought to be, deeply personal. Religion is not something that… At its most intimate level, it’s not even something that can be shared.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 76. There’s some closing verses in the vision in 76. Beginning at verse 114:

Great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion; Which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter; Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory. (D&C 76:114-118, emphasis added)

I have been in that world of glory. I have abided in His presence. I know things not lawful to be uttered. But everything I’ve uttered today is lawful to be said, is contained in scripture, is the Lord’s invitation to you. 

And you need to realize that this language is your invitation. Because God did not say, “There’s some folks I don’t love.” He says He bestows it on any who love Him. The question isn’t His love of us; that is a given. Those few of you who are sitting in this room with a hard heart, rejecting what I have to say, He loves every bit as much as those of you whose hearts are soft and are open and are willing. It is not that God loves one more than another; it is that some of you love Him, and others do not. And by this He knows whether you love Him: it’s whether your heart is soft and willing to receive, or you deliberately choose to be blinded by the false traditions that you’ve studied through and hold fast to because you have not faith.

Religion is intended to be between you and God, deeply personal, individually redemptive. Christ is as accessible to you as He was to Moses on the mount. And what was Moses’ ambition? It was to bring everyone up on the mount to see God too. And what did the children of Israel say? “No, you go talk to Him. We don’t want to.” And why don’t we want to? “Because I can study about God, and I can develop a set of authorities, and I can expound upon the history of the church, and I can parse through the vocabulary of the Restoration, and I can prove, I can prove what God is going to do next and that what’s going on right now today in Ephraim, Utah isn’t it.” And in the pride of your heart, and in the blindness of your mind, and in the hardness of your soul, you will not receive God saying, “Ignore the man with the microphone, and come to Me.” You will not say, “Perhaps the words of scripture mean something different and more intensely personal than I have ever taken them to mean before.” 

I’m not the best messenger. I wish I had the voice of an archangel. I wish I could do something to soften the heart. Christ is, in fact, holy. And I’m deeply aware of the fact that I am not. I can’t redeem any of you, but He can. I can testify of Him, but when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, you can feel faith, and you can feel that something important is being communicated by God to you. 

But if you read in the Doctrine and Covenants, look at the process: the wicked one comes, and he takes away the light from you, and he does this through your disobedience. And what is your disobedience? That wicked one cometh and take away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers (D&C 93:9). My voice is gonna fall silent in your ears in a few moments. And you’re gonna leave here, and you’re gonna go on, and there are gonna be a thousand voices and traditions that intervene. And come the morrow, you’re going to attend meetings in which you’re gonna hear a lot of things expounded that just aren’t true. And their traditions will take over, and your families are gonna impose upon you the traditions that they have handed down, and you’re going to sing about “blessed, noble pioneer.” And the cacophony of voices will rise. And the critics will chirp up. And the wicked one will come and take away light and truth.

And I cannot be with you always. And if I were, it would only cripple you. And I’m not here to cripple you. I hate the fact that these are ten talks given by me. I wish they were ten talks given by ten different people. That way you wouldn’t say, “Well, he’s, you know, something.” I’m nothing. I’m keenly aware of my own limitations. But I am keenly aware of our Lord. When I have had discussions with Him, they have invariably been parsing through the scriptures, explaining things. When I have inquired and gotten answers, it has been because of things that are in the scriptures that I do not understand.

I bear witness of Christ. I have seen Him! I know He lives! I know He is coming in judgment. And I know that before His coming, He has wanted some things to be declared. I have been as faithful as I can be in declaring the things that I’ve been asked to declare. I sense keenly my own inadequacy. I beg you to overlook all that. Look at the scriptures. Look at the words of Christ. Look at the explanations we got from Joseph. Look at the things that are true, and go to Him in faith believing.

When I started out, I gave you a description of Him. I wanna repeat that: 

The Lord is affable, but He is not gregarious. He is approachable. He is not aloof. He is patient, and He is willing to guide, and He’s willing to teach. He is intelligent, but He is not overbearing. He is humble and approachable in His demeanor, even though His power is absolutely undeniable. Therefore, He is both a Lamb and a Lion. And if you come to Him in the day that He offers redemption, you will be coming to the Lamb. But if you wait for His coming in judgment, you are waiting on the Lion, and you will not like what it is that you will see.

I asked you to remember: He is quick to forgive sin. He allows all to come to Him. He is no respecter of persons. I said that when I began; I’m saying it again as we end today.

He is real! He lives! His work of redemption continues right now, just as it continued throughout His mortal life, just as it continued as He hung on the cross, just as it continued in His resurrection in Palestine and as He came to visit with the Nephites. He ministered to other sheep. And for the life of me I can’t understand why the Nephites didn’t ask Him about those other sheep. It’s one of the things about which mankind has had absolutely no curiosity, for some reason. He’s ministered to other sheep. He’s called other people. And there are, in fact, holy men [whom] ye know not of (D&C 49:8) that still remain.

If there was anything more I could do or say that I thought would convince or persuade you to believe in Him, I would do it, or I would say it. But despite it all, I realize some of you are gonna walk out of here thinking that I’m just another one of these latter-day blowhards. And that’s all good and well. Please, however, give heed to the scriptures I’ve read, the words of Joseph I’ve quoted, and the fact that I do have a witness that He’s approachable, and that He’s every bit as much alive today as He was when He walked on the road to Emmaus. And He’s every bit as much willing to come and redeem you from the Fall as He is willing to redeem anyone. His work and His glory is culminated in you. His success is redeeming you. 

If you think that, “Well, He’s aloof; He’s distant; and this is an impossibly high thing to achieve,” the fact of the matter is, it is a greater achievement on His end to redeem you than it is at your end to be redeemed. There’s more anxiety, there’s more desire, there’s more rejoicing in heaven when He redeems someone from the Fall than there is here.

He came. He suffered. He lived. He died. He did what He did in order to lift all of Creation, and you are inextricably connected to Him. Therefore, trust that. Receive Him. It may start very slow, very small, very distant. Act on that! Hearken to that! It gets louder. You will never wind up in the company of Gods and angels, if you’re not willing to have faith in those preliminary things that you receive that ask you to go and to do.

When I first got an answer to prayer sitting in a barracks in New Hampshire, if I hadn’t acted on that, if I hadn’ta gone and done, I would never have beheld the Lord, much less been taught by Him. But I did—and I do. And whatever He asks of me, that’s what I do now. And it doesn’t matter how unpleasant I may find it or how reluctant in my heart I may be to go and do. I go, and I do. 

You need to do that. May not even make much sense to you when you’re going and you’re doing. You may think you’re giving offenses where you absolutely do not intend to do so. You may find the people that you love rejecting you, finding a new family and then having that family reject you again. I’ve laid it all on the line for the Lord, and I’ve done it twice now in a single lifetime. I can’t tell you what sacrifices He may ask of you. But whatever He asks of you, that do you.

Let me end by bearing testimony and witness to you, that the things I’ve been saying (beginning in Boise and going on through Phoenix), the beginning date, the ending date, the content, the fact that there are ten of them, the timeframe in which they’re being delivered, the fact that He wanted this to begin on the “first day of the 40th year,” and He wanted this to end on the “last day of the 40th year”—those things are not my doing.

Hearken to the word of the Lord. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The post Christ: Prototype of the Saved Man appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Zion” was originally recorded in Grand Junction, Colorado on April 12, 2014, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

This is a series of talks given in connection with 40 years of membership in the LDS Church. At about this moment at about 40 years ago, I had been responsible for a number of conversions and baptisms into the Church. I was one of those obnoxious missionaries, you know. I kinda confronted you with my zealotry back in those days. And there’d been, by this point, a series of baptisms that had taken place. The first one was 18 days after my own baptism, and that involved Ron Mahle—I mentioned that earlier in the second talk that was given in Idaho Falls. There was a Jewish fellow named Shapiro that converted. There was Pitman. There was Ford. There was Manchester. 

There were others, but at about this moment, on a Saturday or a Sunday (I don’t recollect which, but it was nearly this point in time back in that calendar), there was a fellow who was in the military barracks where I was staying who left his door open. I got up early in the morning. I was going to some church-related activity, as things were wont to be back then. The church was everything. I mean, it was your Wednesday; it was your Tuesday; it was your Saturday, and it was certainly your Sunday. And as I was leaving, his door was open, and he was sitting on his bed in the barracks. And I said, “Hey, Mike, what’s going on?” And he said, “Oh, there are no good people left in the world today.” And I said, “Yeah, there are! Hey, get your stuff; come with me; I’ll show you some!” So, he said, “Where am I going?” I said, “Don’t worry about it. You’ll know. You’ll find some good people when we get there.” And so, he got his shoes on and put a shirt on, and he came with me. And we were doing some kind of gosh-awful activity like we did back in those days. And I introduced him to the Elders (‘cause the Elders were always there), and that was the end of that. Mike Kirby is now… He’s living in Colorado, been married in the temple, has several generations of his descendants who are members of the Church. 

And so, let me tell you, missionary work is (and has been from the day I was baptized through today) the easiest thing of all to do. And I would encourage any of you who run into someone that’s curious about Mormonism— 

And it’s even easier today because people know a whole lot more about Mormonism today than they’ve ever known before. They know Mitt Romney. I mean, when I began, the world did not even know Donny and Marie. But now they know David Archuleta. I mean, there’s a thousand things to talk about. And then there’s all that anti-Mormon crap (which, by the way, if you approach that, that is the best entré). When they’ve got some complaint, some “absolute, demonstrable proof that…” and, you know, choose your bad issue: book of Abraham; Joseph Smith and plural wives—choose whatever you want. That’s an invitation to talk. And by the way, the more upset someone is about Mormonism/the more angry they are/the more emotionally connected they are to denouncing Mormonism, the easier it is to have a conversation with them, and (as it turns out in my experience) the easier it is to make a convert—because they care. And so, I would encourage all of you to share your religion. 

Zion is not just a topic. Zion has occupied the attention of every prophet from the days of Adam down to today. When I talked about covenants in Centerville—ultimately, many of the covenants that were made throughout history had, as their bedrock, the assurance that, in the last days, God would bring again Zion. That was a critical component of the covenant that was made in the days of Adam. That was part of the covenant that was made with Enoch. To understand Zion is to necessarily comprehend that there were covenants made by God which He intends to vindicate. 

To understand Christ’s Gospel, it requires you to understand Christ’s Zion. Zion can not— can not—be brought through a ‘Strongman.’ The talk I gave about the Priesthood in Orem was given, in part, to inform you about what’s necessary, as a Priesthood component, for the existence of Zion. But a Strongman will not work. 

If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 84, beginning at 19, it says:

And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof [and in the ordinances thereof], the power of godliness is manifest. [And I would note, as a parenthetical, that you have to have  Priesthood in order to have the ordinances.] And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh… 

And Zion is a fleshly endeavor. It is to involve living, breathing people. Therefore, as you read these verses, you oughta recognize that the power of godliness being manifest to men in the flesh through the ordinances, as a component, is talking about the rudiments that’s required for Zion. 

For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought…to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory…

The glory of God is intelligence. The “rest of the Lord” is the fullness of His glory or, in other words, light and truth—or in other words, it requires a people that are competent in the things of God who have an understanding which will reach into Heaven. 

Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the holy priesthood also… (D&C 84: 19-25)

Thus ended Zion—because Moses went up the mount, and Moses talked with God, and he spoke with Him face-to-face. He wanted to bring the people with him up there so that they (like he) would speak with God and be in His presence face-to-face. That’s what Moses sought after, at which point Moses’ status as a leader ended because no one would need to say to another, “Know ye the Lord,” for they all would, therefore, know Him—a prophecy about Zion in the last days. That is an accomplishment that requires people and not individual. When this event occurred, that ended it. It did not end the Strongman, ‘cause they kept Moses for another 40 years—wandering about in the wilderness, as they did; wearing out their Adidas and their Nikes, as they did; eating manna from Heaven, and grousing and bitching about it, as they did. But they had a Strongman! So, what? You can’t get there through the Strongman model. 

Here’s the incident—Exodus 20, And all the people… This is 20, beginning at verse 18:

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be [proved] before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21)

You can’t have a model of Zion in which there is ‘some big Strongman’ leading you. Moses is the perfect example of one of the greatest Strongmen in history. And Zion failed in his day precisely because they wanted him to go speak to God for them, rather than they going to speak to God directly. Zion requires a people to rise up, and it cannot come otherwise. 

It will require you to have faith, which was the subject that we addressed in Idaho Falls. And it was addressed in Idaho Falls precisely for the reason that it was necessary to get that on the table before we begin to introduce the topic today. 

It will require that you repent to know God, which was the topic that we covered in Logan, which was required for an understanding of the subject today.

If you do not comprehend the foundation, you will not understand the subject. You’re not just going to walk into Zion and take up residency there. You must have sufficient intelligence in order to be comfortable there. Its glory must be within you. As I read a minute ago, which rest is the fullness of his glory—in other words, you, you have to be the possessor of light and truth, which is the glory of God. 

Moses saw Zion. If you go to Moses chapter 1, verse 8, it tells you that Moses— 

It came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; …Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.

It’s actually amusing to me when I encounter Moses dealing with what he just told you about in one verse. Nephi made a valiant effort to hint around it, and then he defaulted back to the words of Isaiah to try and convey what it was that he saw. Isaiah made an enormous effort to put into epic poetry what it was he saw. And Moses, when he’s given that same opportunity, his response in his record is that—I just read it to you—[he] beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created. Well put, Moses. I get why you did it that way. Another one of the prophets: [I] saw and [I] heard much (1 Nephi 1:6; see also 1 Nephi 1:3 RE). [Laughter.] I get why they do that, and there’s a reason for that. Therefore, Moses understood. Moses knew what it would take because he saw it. 

If you go to Numbers, there’s an incident that happens in chapter 11. Two of the men in the camp (Eldad and Medad), the Spirit rested upon them that they began to prophesy. They prophesied in the camp, and a couple of young men run and told Moses. And I’m beginning at verse 28:

Joshua…son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of [the] young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. …Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and…the LORD would put his spirit upon them! (Numbers 11:28-29)

Moses was not jealous of someone having revelation. He welcomed it. He understood what it would take in order to create a people of God. And he was not jealous that there happened to be two of the people of God within the camp demonstrating the gifts that are given to the people of God. 

The Strongman model will not work.

I’m reading from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I want to draw a contrast. I want to draw a comparison between the attitude that we found at the beginning of the Restoration, and the attitude that subsequently took over. 

President Joseph Smith read the 14th chapter of Ezekiel—said the Lord had declared by the Prophet, that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church—that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls—applied it to the present state of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall—that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves, envious towards the innocent, while they afflict[ed] the virtuous with their shafts of envy. (TPJS p. 237-238)

That’s in The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph, pages 237-238. That was a call by Joseph Smith for the saints to rise up. That was a call by Joseph Smith for the saints to realize the prophecies that he had heard from Moroni (that we began talking about all the way back in Boise)—to rise up and to become something: a people of God, a people of holiness; those who could and would commune with God. This is Joseph, and late in the ministry, too.

I want you to contrast that with this statement: “We can accept nothing as authoritative but that which comes directly through the appointed channel, the constituted organizations of the priesthood, which is the channel that God has appointed, through which to make known His mind and will to the world.” That’s on page 42 of Gospel Doctrine. 

Unlike every other dispensation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims it cannot lead you astray. This is again reading from the Gospel Doctrine:

If any man in that position [referring to the Church President], should become unfaithful, God would remove him out of his place. I testify in the name of Israel’s God, that he will not suffer the head of the Church, whom he has chosen to stand at the head, to transgress His laws and apostasize. The moment he should take a course that would in time lead to it, God would take him away. [That’s from page 44.]

I don’t know… I get in trouble when I’m tempted to say things like what I’m going to say next. My wife has counseled me… 

I’ve spoken with brother Joseph F. Smith, and he rues having taught that. I can tell you if he were here today with what he now knows, he would not declare that doctrine. And he would retract it and repent of having used the name of Israel’s God in connection with a false doctrine.

The Strongman model constructs the opposite of Moses’ desire for all men to be prophets. It constructs the opposite of Moroni’s prophecy when he quoted from Joel. It is the opposite of Joel’s prophecy, which says:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh [again, the flesh! Here! Now! You! Living! Breathing! In the flesh!]; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaid[ens] in those days will I pour out my spirit. …I will shew wonders in the [heaven] and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and…terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. (Joel 2:28-32)

The Strongman model is the opposite of that prophecy. It would prevent Zion precisely because God must dwell among the people. If He does not dwell among the people, it is impossible to have Zion—because Zion is a place where God comes to dwell among them. And if God is dwelling among a people, no one need say, “Know ye the Lord,” for everyone shall know Him who is there. The false construct of ‘the Strongman’ has got to be replaced.

Zion will require a covenant. It will require authority from God for that covenant. And it will require a level of conduct that meets the requirements or honors the covenant. 

There’s this curious incident, and I want to point it out in Acts—because before you get too enthusiastic about signing up to join up for what the Lord is about to bring, I want to remind you of what happens when a covenant is established, and it is done authoritatively, and it is approved by the Lord and then people neglect to perform it. 

If you turn to Acts chapter 5, beginning at verse 1: 

But [there was] a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. 

And it was about the space of three hours after, that his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answer[ing] unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. (Acts 5:1-10)

It’s a good thing that we forfeit the power to make authoritative covenants from time to time. Because if we had everything that we claim we had, and if we lived under an obligation that God would honor, and if we chose to violate that—as will be the case when we have Zion. You cannot endure a Terrestrial glory in a Telestial state. Lying, and stealing, and deceiving, and adultery, and whoremongering (all of the abominations that people prize in this generation), your lusts, your ambitions, your desires to lord it over one another (the common affliction of the Gentile)—all of those things are a level below what Zion requires. And so, if one happily strolls into Zion while profaning the conditions upon which it will be established, they subject themselves to the penalty of being where they should not be, in a condition in which they cannot endure. 

The destruction that occurred at Christ’s death on the Americas was the destruction of the wicked only. If you look at 3 Nephi chapter 10, verse 12, you find out that the more righteous were saved. Those who live a Telestial law will be destroyed.

Turn to Doctrine and Covenants section 76. I wanna begin at—well, I may as well back up. I was gonna begin a little later on. I want you to remember the chant, “Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet,” which we can drill in mindlessly to the youth with a drumbeat cadence that sounds rather like [Denver makes Native American chanting sounds]; you know, “Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet”—you do that. “Follow the Brethren, Follow the Brethren.”

The glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one; for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world; For these are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas. These are they who say they are some of one and some of another—some of Christ, …some of John, …some of Moses, …some of Elias, …some of Esaias, …some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch; But received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant [yet to be established]. Last of all [and this is a general description of those who have Telestial behavior], these…are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up unto the church of the Firstborn, and received into the cloud. These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. These are they who suffer the wrath of God on earth. These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. (D&C 76:98-105)

That is a broad description of those who can not be in Zion. And, notably, it begins with a list of those who “follow the prophets,” almost as if the Lord (in the revelation to Joseph Smith) anticipated your day and warned you: “Do not go thither! Do not partake of that! Receive the testimony of Jesus! Prepare when He offers the Everlasting Covenant! Do that!” To the extent that a church or an organization worships or trusts a man in lieu of Christ, it will lead you to Telestial destruction. It will not… Those who believe in it will not survive the destruction of the wicked that precedes the Lord’s return.

I’ll tell you what you get from a Strongman model. What you get from a Strongman model is a multibillion-dollar shopping mall. What you get from a Strongman model is a red Cadillac Escalade stopped on a back road in Nevada with $54,000 of cash in the back of the car when ‘the prophet’ is arrested for child abuse and child sexual exploitation (that’s Warren Jeffs). I’ll tell you what you get with a Strongman model: You get pretenders, and you get fools. You get people who hold onto their power (like the LeBaron’s did) by murdering one another so that they can claim that they have ‘the keys.’ I’ll tell you what you get with the Strongman model: You get Brigham Young who takes a woman who was alreadywho takes women who were already married to another man (and not divorced), seals them to himself with keys,’ and then proceeds to father children with them (and Brigham Young condemned Parley Pratt for doing exactly the same thing—and even observed at Parley’s death that he probably deserved to be killed by the jealous husband because it was adultery for Parley to have done what he did). And what then is the distinction between the conduct of Brigham Young, on the one hand, and the exact same conduct by Parley Pratt, on the other hand? The difference lies in the fact that Brigham Young claimed to have the keys. If keys allow adultery, I want no such keys! If keys allow adultery, then I say, Damn me now, because I want nothing of it!

I don’t think that the pretenders in the Strongman model have any clue what it would take to bring again Zion, because they do not kneel down to serve and elevate the least. The only way to bring again Zion is if you—you—rise up; is if you come to know the Lord! Not me! The only way is if you comprehend the Gospel of Christ, accept the invitation, prepare your heart, prepare your mind, prepare your soul, clean yourself up, leave behind your sins, and come and face the Lord.

Zion is a level. It is an absolute level. Here’s a description of the level. This is Moses chapter 7, verse 18, And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and of one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there were no poor among them. There were no poor among them because it’s intolerable for your sister to suffer in want if you have enough and to spare. There were no poor among them because you cannot dwell in righteousness if you find a need, and you’re unwilling to fulfill it.

Here’s how you destroy Zion (we know, because there was an abortive attempt made during the time of Joseph Smith): Doctrine and Covenants 101:6. This is after it failed. This is the Lord explaining why. Here’s why; this is how you avoid Zion. Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances. That’s how you destroy Zion. It’s a fairly simple thing to accomplish because we all jar one another. We all contend one with another. And if you’ve gotta Strongman, we all envy him. We have our lusts (which means ‘ambitions’ in this context). Lusts and ambitions are the same thing: “I really want to get ahead in the organization.” Covetous desires—inequality. Inequality invites lusts. Inequality invites covetous desires. To be one, you must have… You must have equality. You can’t have one heart, one mind, and no poor among us if you have a stratified group of people. There can’t be any rich or poor. As a consequence of what it takes to have Zion, you cannot have a Strongman model. It will not work. As Gentiles, you are prone to this; you crave a Strongman. Therefore, you seek what cannot be in Zion.

If we go to Luke chapter 22, this is Christ making an observation. Luke chapter 22, verse 25: 

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: [for] he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. 

The Gentile affliction—with the desire to have someone rule over them and to call such nonsense a “benefactor”—is precisely the motivation (that stems from the souls of those who have inherited this land) that creates so many of our current political problems: “Take care of us. Rule over us. Rule with a strong hand. Take away things from us that we shouldn’t have. Curtail our liberties, and show us the right way.” And yet, many of you can look at the government and detect that something is very much amiss, but you look at your own religious structure and you’re entirely oblivious to it. Governmental paternalism is “deeply offensive.” Church paternalism is “good, and right, and righteous, and holy, and wonderful and I just thought it was so special, the things that they said.” [Laughter.]

Turn to 2 Nephi chapter 10, beginning at verse 11:

And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no [king] upon the land, who shall [rise] up unto the Gentiles. And I will fortify this land against all other nations. And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith [the Lord]. For he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words. (2 Nephi 10:11-14)

We (if we’re gonna have Zion) must reject even the idea of a king. I know that embedded in the doctrine of the Restoration is the notion that we’re gonna become Kings and Queens, Priests and Priestesses. I want to suggest to you, when Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), and He gird Himself with a towel, and He knelt down, and He washed the feet of those that He was ministering to, that implicit within that is the kind of conduct that the real King (and those who are His kings and priests) put on display. If He said, My kingdom is not of this world, here He came merely to be a servant, how much more should we, gratefully, look at the opportunity to kneel and to serve rather than to say, “I want the chief seats,” rather than to say, “I want to be upheld and sustained and lauded and praised—and if you can, would you mind throwing a big musical celebration at my next birthday? [Laughter.] 

Christ is our only King, and His kingdom is not of this world—John 18:36. He said, If I…have washed your feet; ye [ought also] to wash one another’s feet. For I have given unto you an example, …the servant is not greater than his lord—that is John 13, verses 14 and [to] 16.

The twin of kingship is priestcraft. In 2 Nephi chapter 26, verse 29 (by the way, the denunciation of kingship came from the same prophet who denounces priestcraft; he hit ‘em both)—2 Nephi 26:29, He command[ed] that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.            

Just so you know, no one is subsidizing anything that’s going on in these series of talks. We lose money every time we offer one of these. We estimated what we thought the crowd would be in this venue, we paid for and rented (personally, out of our own pocket) this, as we’ve done the other venues, and we underestimated—but I thought we would be safe because there’s always been extra room in other places. I don’t charge anyone to attend these things. I don’t ask anyone to help me pay for them. I don’t charge you an admission fee. I don’t try to sell you anything. Doug is recording this stuff. He comes here; he pays his own way. He does what he has to do in order to create a record, and then he sells the recordings that are made to defray his costs. All of the recordings are gonna be turned into a downloadable MP3. The only way I can get it into a form that preserves it so I can give it away is if Doug spends the money in order to make the record. He charges you, and he collects from you, and I don’t see one penny of it. When there was enough and to spare, and he said there’s some money for me, he used that money to help some missionaries. I got nothing. Just so you’re clear on the concept, if anyone wants to go out and make themselves a big, popular speaker ‘like me’ [laughter], then you go waste tens of thousands of dollars out of your own pocket in order to accomplish what I’m doing to give away information—which ought to make you somewhat wary of anyone who is inviting you to come unto the Lord in exchange for an entrance fee.

The twin of kingship is priestcraft, and the purpose of priestcraft is to set themselves up that they may get gain. It’s not that they set themselves up for a light unto the world, but they set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain. 

Can’t tell you not only the losses I suffer, but also the insults I endure. I mean, you people… You  people have one attitude. I have to tell you, when I put up a comment about “Stop… Stop praising me; stop quoting me; go to the content; go to the scriptures; go to the doctrine. Leave me out of it; I’m not a big man. Don’t use my name to make you credible,” I got a bunch of comments and emails that said, “I would never use your name because everyone I know hates you [laughter]. Everyone I know thinks you’re a lunatic; an exploiter; and that, sooner or later, you’re gonna have your own church, and you’re gonna be driving a red Escalade [laughter], and having $54,000 in cash.”

I want to be perfectly clear right now about something which has not and will not ever change about me. I am unwilling to give you commandments. (When have I ever commanded you?) I am unwilling to lead. (When have I ever said, “Follow me”?) I am unwilling to organize you. (When have I ever said, “I want to lead an organization”?) I am unwilling to accept money. (When have I ever said, “Pay me”?) We have enough Gentile leaders. We have a good-enough church or churches already. When those churches err, they suffer the consequences of doing so. We do not need another church or churches. We do not need a king. We do not need more priestcraft.

I read you a little bit ago from Doctrine and Covenants section 76: They are they who are the church of the Firstborn. They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things— They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of His fullness, and of His glory (D&C 76:54-56). If I could pray, if I could beg, if I could entreat for you to have one thing, it would be His fullness, it would be His glory—nothing from me, something from Him. He’s the One who is mighty to save.

Changing the leader will not fix our problem. The problem is the people. The problem is that we need to rise up individually—and having risen up individually, then we have the potential for having a gathering. But changing the leader will not accomplish a thing. It’s just another delay. It’s just another stall. It’s just another perversion.

The change that is coming at the Lord’s return is going to alter the Telestial condition to a Terrestrial condition of the entire world. To the extent that any church tries to convert you to follow men (as I read you just a few moments ago), if you are of Paul, or if you are of Peter, or if you are of Cephas, or if you are of Spencer or Howard or… No, no, it was Spencer, and then it was Ezra, and then it was Howard, and then it was Gordon, and now it is Thomas. If you’re of them, you will not survive the Lord’s return. 

You will not survive the Lord’s return, period. 

And a revelation was given to Joseph Smith that informs you of that. I am not… I am not, I never have been, and I never will be of Thomas, or of any of those who follow and sit in that same chair. I would recommend that you hesitate being so.

I have to tell you, though (and this is one of the ironies of the Second Coming—ironies, you know, the Lord’s big on that sort of stuff), if you look at the description of… (Where is that? Alright.) This is a description of those in the Terrestrial condition, from Doctrine and Covenants section 76. It begins at verse 71, but that’s just talking about the glory that they have. Verse 72 says,

Behold, these are they who died without law; And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto…that they might be judged according to men in the flesh; …they…are the honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men, …who receive not his glory of his glory, but not of his fullness. (D&C 76:72-76)

So, if you’re in the world, and if you’re blinded by the preaching of false ministers and you live honorably according to that—but you don’t follow them; you don’t worship them; you simply do the best you can—you will survive the Lord’s coming. But if you are worshipping a man as your leader (to whom you look for your salvation, who holds ‘keys’ to take you away from death and hell and put you on a throne somewhere in heaven), that group of people have gotten too close to the truth to be excused for their error. They are idolaters. Blinded by the craftiness of men, without idolatry—they’re simply confused about the nature of God—is different from approaching nigh unto it and then following and idolizing a man. I don’t know that you can create idolatry outside of a religion claiming keys: the Catholics, the Mormons. (Now I’m thinking about Joel Osteen. He seems affected to me, anyway.)

Zion cannot come with the minimum. Zion has to be at the forefront. Because Zion is required to be at the forefront, it must be the invitation for the Lord’s return. Until that exists, the invitation on this earth does not exist for His return.

But here’s a description given through the Joseph Smith Translation of Exodus chapter 33, verse 20. (And since it’s the Joseph Smith Translation, you’re gonna have to look there for it.) Here… Listen to this verse: 

And he said unto Moses [this is the Lord speaking], Thou canst not see my face at this time, lest mine anger be kindled against thee also, and I destroy thee, and thy people; for there shall no man among them see me at this time, and live, for they are exceeding[ly] sinful. And no sinful man hath at any time, neither shall there be any sinful man at any time, that shall see my face and live. (Exodus 33:20, emphasis added)

You might catch a glimpse: “Whoa! Just before I ignited, I think I saw Him!” [Laughter.] That’s not Zion. 

D&C 1, verse 31… Oh, here the Lord says it right to us again, right now in this dispensation. D&C section 1, verse 31: For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. So, contrast that with “I cannot look at myself without the enormous latitude of allowance because I’m very forgiving of myself.” You would be better off saying, “I will recognize, I will admit, and I will hold myself to every failing that I am prone to make. But as for all the rest of you, I don’t see anything wrong with any of you. I can’t detect a flaw in the least, because I’m gonna judge you with the standard by which I would like to be measured, which is: I take no offense; I freely forgive.”

One of the greatest sins that the Lord says that we are culpable of, in a revelation that was given about the Law of Consecration (another notion that only rears its ugly head one time these days—and that’s as you’re making covenants in a temple)… But take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 70. This is about our failure to live the Law of Consecration, which brings us all under condemnation. Beginning at verse 14 of D&C 70:

Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld. Now, this commandment I give unto my servant my servants for their benefit while they remain, for a manifestation of my blessings upon their heads, and for a reward for their diligence and for their security; For food and for raiment; for an inheritance; for houses and for lands, in whatsoever circumstances I, the Lord, shall place them, and whithersoever I, the Lord, shall send them. (D&C 70:14-16)

Here we have, separate and apart from the description of Zion (they’re one heart; there are no poor among them; they’re one people), a commandment that says, “In your temporal things, you’re going to need to be equal. Otherwise, the abundance of the manifestation of the Spirit is going to be withheld.”

In a section about Zion (this is Doctrine and Covenants section 59, beginning at verse 18), the Lord has this to say—beginning at verse 18:

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use [by] man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. (D&C 59:18-20, emphasis added)

Or, in other words, excess meaning ‘wealth’; extortion meaning ‘to compel the poor.’ “I am willing to give unto you some charitable thing if you will….” The poor are not to be extorted. I see little difference between the extortion that was exerted upon the heroine in Les Miserables, which sent her into prostitution—an exploitation that compels the single mother to do what she would rather not do, to take time away from her child in order to satisfy the demands of those who would extort.

It pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; …unto this end [they were] made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments. (Ibid, vs. 20-21)

It’s all His! And He gave it for our use, and our enjoyment, and our betterment, and our blessing. He did not give it to give me power over you! He did not give it so that I can say, “Well, now that I’m in charge, I like children if you cook ‘em right!” [Laughter.]  

Consecration was given to remove or end poverty, and it was given in 1832. Let’s go to Doctrine and Covenants section 78 (this is 1832), beginning at verse 3:

For verily I say unto you, the time has come, and is now at hand; and behold, and lo, it must needs be that there be an organization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people, both in this place and in the land of Zion— For a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church, to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven; That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things. For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things; For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you. And now, verily thus saith the Lord, it is expedient that all things be done unto my glory, by you who are joined together in this order. (D&C 78:3-8)

Moses 7:18, we read before—one heart, one mind, dwell in righteousness, no poor among you. 1832…? 2014…? Where? Where is your unity? Where is your equality? I know you’re all very religious, or you wouldn’t be here. “How can you say unto me, Lord, Lord, but do not the things that I say? Why call you me Lord?” It’s almost like Christ anticipated the Gentiles making such a mess of what He gave us. Now, if we’re going to crawl back out of the mess, the only way to do so is carefully, incrementally, and by small measures. The Lord has a way of bringing great things through small measures. 

Can you be one because you believe… Can you be one because you believe in the theory of equality? Can you be one because you believe in the theory of sharing with one another? Can you be one because you believe in the doctrine? Or must you act?

James chapter 2—James, the culprit of the Restoration—James chapter 2, beginning at verse14:

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and [have] not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, [and] be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. (James 2:14-18)

Well, if he was good enough to prime the well to get the Restoration started, I would suggest that he’s good enough to give us advice about the practicalities of the conundrum that we currently face. There is an enormous gulf between the content of the material that was revealed to us in the Restoration and the religion that you practice daily. That gulf is going to need to disappear. And you think… You think you’re trapped because of the FLDS Church, or the Community of Christ, or the RLDS Church, or the Church of the Firstborn— 

Now that was an interesting incorporation because that’s just… There’s some things that to me are like fingernails on a chalkboard (although I have to confess, fingernails on a chalkboard don’t bother me, but I understand it bothers most other people, so I use that). There’s some things that I find deeply grating and profoundly off-putting. Incorporating an institution and calling it the “Church of the Firstborn” to me is one of those profanities that’s like, you know, “We’re going to a Latter-day Saint nudist colony.” [Laughter.] Just, they don’t work. “Endowed members only.” [Laughter.] See, that has a couple of [laugh] potential interpretations. [Laughter.] 

So now, get your mind back with me here. [Laughter.] In order to get from where we are to where we need to be, you can’t do it inside the institutions that have trapped your minds. I am not preaching against your faith—if you’re some Fundamentalist, some RLDS member, some Latter-day Saint; honor your churches. But by degrees, you need to begin the process of by your works, showing what your faith is.

(And that’s the topic we will turn to next. I understand we’re changing the discs. I’m hot. I wanna go find something to drink. And we’ll take 5 minutes.)

(You ready? Okay, we’re recording.)

One of the things that happened as a substitute for the Law of Consecration was a replacement commandment that required the payment of tithes. Doctrine and Covenants section 64, beginning at verse 23 says:

Behold, now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man, and verily it is a day of sacrifice, and a day for the tithing of my people; for he that is tithed shall not be burned at his coming. [This is the statement from which that cliché that tithing is “fire insurance” is drawn from, because if you’re tithed you won’t be burned at His coming.] For after today cometh the burning—this is speaking after the manner of the Lord—for verily I say, tomorrow all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up, for I am the Lord of Hosts; and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon. Wherefore, if ye believe me, ye will labor while it is called today. (D&C 64:23-25)

I want to, therefore, encourage you to pay tithing. And I want you—if you are satisfied in paying that tithing to whatever church or organization you belong to—to continue doing so. The act of giving that as an offering to the Lord I don’t think requires you to supervise what happens with it once you give it to someone. I think they become accountable. For you, it is an act of faith. For them, it is a matter of accountability.

However, some of us are forbidden from paying tithing to our church of choice. Some of us simply refuse to pay tithing because they don’t trust the church. Some refuse because they believe the church has neglected the poor. Some refuse to pay tithing because church leaders of the LDS Church treat the return that they get on the tithing as investment income and then use it to build shopping malls and buy landholdings. And, by the way, on that, I believe the Lord anticipated that notion in one of the parables that He taught. In Matthew chapter 25, He says,

The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, [and] to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded…the same, and made them other five talents. [The one] that had…two, [he went and he traded; he got] two. [The one] that had…one, [he] went and [buried it] in the earth.  (Matthew 25:14-18)

He tells this parable, and then His disciples want Him to explain it, but He says…  He comes back. The one that turned the five into another five, He says,

Well done, thou good and faithful servant: [you’ve] been faithful over a few things, [I’ll] make thee ruler over many things. (vs. 21)

The one that did two, he gained another two. He commended him:

Well done, [thou] good and faithful servant; [you’ve] been faithful over a few things, [I’ll] make thee ruler over many things. (vs. 23)

And then the one that had the one that buried it and didn’t do anything to get a return for the Lord, he said,

I knew thee that thou art [a] hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, [I] went and [I] hid [my] talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 

…Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest…I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. (vs. 24-27)

In other words, in this parable, He owns it. He owns it. He owns the interest; He owns the investment. He owns it. In this parable, there is no such thing as investment income. So far as I know, the purpose of the Lord is not well served by importing Tiffany’s to Salt Lake City, or Porsche (or Porsche Design), or the Rolex outlet in the shopping mall. I can’t even afford—

I guess if I took all the money I’m spending in doing these lectures and put it together [laughter], I could go shop an afternoon. That’s about how long the burn rate at that place [City Creek Center] is.

There is no divine purpose in neglecting the poor. The purpose, primarily, of collecting the tithes and of the yield upon it, is to bless and to benefit the lives of those who are in need. So, given the fact that you are commanded to pay tithing (and some of you refuse to do so because of the particular circumstances you see out there), and given the fact that the Lord has said, “Organize yourselves,” I would suggest that one small increment that you could begin is for you to collect your own tithing. You manage it yourselves, among yourselves. You assist the poor who are among you. You, as a group of common believers, pay your tithing into a common fund. And then, by the voice of your own group, dispose it by common consent so that everyone knows everything that comes in and everything that goes out. And you begin to have no poor among you. You provide for those who need housing and food and clothing and healthcare and education and transportation. And you do it without a leader. Do it by the voice of your own common consent, by your unanimous approval. You do it by united agreement. If you do that, you will not be paying a qualified 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 institution to earn for yourself a tax deduction for doing so. Ohhh… ‘Tis a terrible thing. You don’t get a benefit. [Laughter.]

Tell us…what thinkest thou [Christ]. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought…him a penny. And he said unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he… Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesars; and unto God the things that are God’s. (Matthew 22:17-21)

Christ had no problem paying the tribute. Don’t think that the purpose in paying tithing is to earn for yourself a deduction on your itemized deduction schedule. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. (It’s almost as if the Lord anticipated all of the latter-day circumstances in the teachings that He gave to us in His parables and His statements in the New Testament.) You might even have negative tax consequences because the benefit of your united group, using your tithing to benefit someone, may disqualify them from government eligibility. Do it anyway. Become independent.

Now, if some of you who hear this decide to begin to do this, you will learn firsthand in a pragmatic, lab experiment just how very difficult it is to become ‘one.’ You will learn how greatly this world opposes the idea of Zion. You will all learn how weak we all are. You will learn exactly what the Lord said was the problem with the first effort. 

In D&C 101:6 (I read it to you before), I just want to refer to the words: jarrings, …contentions, …envyings, …strifes, …lusts, …covetous desires. You wanna know why the early Saints failed? You wanna know how far you are at this moment, and you want an accurate barometer of ‘what lack you yet?’ Then organize yourselves; and you, unitedly, gather your tithings into the storehouse that you maintain; and you, by your common consent, take care of those who are poor among you. And you will receive an education like none other in the reasons why men fail. But the fact that men fail doesn’t excuse you from your own failure. And unless you rise up… 

And this is a very modest, little thing to begin with. You will learn so much, so quickly that it will astonish you. You don’t need or want a Strongman. And the woman’s voice should be equal with the man’s. There should not be some ‘ruler’ among you Gentiles saying, “It’s this way; it’s gotta be this way! I prayed about it. Lord said I get the money. I prayed about it, and the Lord wanted me to have a new Porsche—and I got the down payment, but I don’t have the monthlies. And therefore, ‘Hear ye the word of the Lord, Give Fred a Porsche!’” [Laughter.] If that’s the way in which you conduct it, you’re no better than the rest of the Gentiles. You may as well stay in whatever organization you have at present. You may as well pay to support red Cadillac Escalades and shopping malls. You may as well just do that. Dump your money where it does no good. 

I know, I know, there are lots of people that get benefited in lots of ways. But that doesn’t excuse the money that those Strongmen spend on themselves. The highest-paid clergies in the world manage the various denominations of the Latter-day Saint movements. It’s just the way it is. I hate to break it to you.

Take the money that the Lord intended for the poor, and you administer it for the poor among you. If you try this experiment, and if there is someone among you who receives rather than gives because they have not, then let me remind those who receive of another statement made in the revelations of this dispensation in Doctrine and Covenants section 42:42 (you should be able to remember that, 42:42): Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer. If you’re the beneficiary, not only should you be grateful, but do what you can in turn.

There is absolutely no reason to gather in order to fail again. We do not need another Jerusalem. We do not need another Rome. We do not need another Antioch. We do not need another Kirtland. We don’t need another Jackson County. We don’t need another Nauvoo. And we certainly don’t need another Salt Lake. We need Zion. And there’s no reason to gather if the gathering is going to be to fail again. Stay home, serve in your callings, and be happy. But—if you will rouse yourself to an experiment upon His words, you will find that it begins to grow within you. And you will find that it begins to be delicious to you.

It’d be wonderful if, at some point, out of the overwhelming majority of those who have been baptized and are regarded nominally as Latter-day Saints (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)—if the roughly 9 to 11 million completely inactive Latter-day Saints found renewed life and vigor by practicing the religion in this manner, the day might come when the other active 3 to 4 million members of the Latter-day Saint Church would be able to have something good come of their organization as well.

I want to remind you however that throughout the scriptures, when it comes to the establishment of Zion, there is no such thing as ‘hastening the work.’ [Laughter.] It can’t be done in haste. I’m just gonna lift a few out for you:

• 3 Nephi chapter 20, the Lord’s speaking. 3 Nephi chapter 20, verse 42: For ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the [Lord] God of Israel shall be your rearward. This is the Lord speaking. He’s quoting Isaiah, but it is the Lord speaking.
• Doctrine and Covenants section 63—I’ve read that; I’m not gonna do that one again. 
• Doctrine and Covenants section 101, verses 68 and 69: Nevertheless, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, let not your gathering be in haste, nor by flight; but let all things be prepared before you. And in order that all things be prepared before you, observe the commandment which I have given concerning these things— Which saith, or teacheth, to purchase all the lands with money, which can be purchased for money. There’s gonna be an excess, ultimately, from your gatherings if you will undertake it. And there will be a place prepared, but not in haste.
• Going back to 3 Nephi,  in chapter 21, verse 29: And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward. 

It cannot be done in haste. But look at what gets done if it is done in the way in which the Lord would have it be done. Doctrine and Covenants section 133, beginning at verse 25 is a description of the results if there is a people who get prepared. This will be the result (133, beginning at 25):

And the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of his people, and shall reign over all flesh. And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; …they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory [in this context, it’s an ordinance], even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim. And they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows. (D&C 133:25-34)

Ephraim the proud. Ephraim the headstrong. Ephraim—the one who is constantly in rebellion. Ephraim must come back, must heel to, must at last allow the Lord to rule over him, because Ephraim has got to rise up in order for this to happen—not in haste; never in haste. 

Crowned with glory or in other words “with intelligence” or in other words “light and truth” or the “knowledge of God” so that no one need tell you Know ye the Lord—because you’re all going to know Him, from the least to the greatest.

Going back to 3 Nephi chapter 21:

But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this…remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance…

They are the Gentiles. They are Ephraim—you. 

And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem. …then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, …unto the New Jerusalem. And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I [will also] be in [their] midst… 

The word “Powers of Heaven” is talking about the angels. In this circumstance, the power is singular. Not only because they are one, but because among them will be our Lord Himself. And where He is, there is the Power of Heaven, and it is singular.

And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people… 

Because when you gather to hear what you’re going to hear there, this is the final stage in the Father’s work. This is the work that requires holiness to accompany even its teaching.

Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem. Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name. Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward. (3 Nephi 21:22-29)

Again and again, the notion that this work can be hastened is denounced. Again and again, it’s to be a place in which the preparations are done first. Again and again, it suggests that before we can gather together, we must have that heart/that mind which can make us one.

Turn back and look at the results—Doctrine and Covenants 45, beginning at verse 65:

And with one heart and with one mind, gather [you] up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you. And it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God; And the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord also shall be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion… 

They won’t come unto it because to go there is like Acts chapter 5. You cannot endure that environment if you’re abiding a Telestial law. You’d be consumed.

And it shall come to pass among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for safety. And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another. And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand. And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy.  (D&C 45:65-67)

Think about what it would take to transplant various populations, from various locations (not in haste), with everything having been prepared in advance. And in our currently fragmented society, unless you’re willing to experiment with your own effort to live the Law of Tithing by organizing yourselves and governing yourself… Miscellaneous groups will never make it—but people of God will.

Doctrine and Covenants section 65, verse 5: 

Call upon the Lord, that his kingdom may go forth upon the earth, that the inhabitants thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to come, in the which the Son of Man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God which is set up on the earth. Wherefore, may the kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of heaven may come, that thou, O God, mayest be glorified in heaven so on earth, that thine enemies may be subdued; for thine is the honor, power and glory, forever and ever. Amen. (D&C 65:5-6)

If you read that and you know that the Lord is going to come to that, you realize that He cannot come unless it exists. If it doesn’t exist, He cannot come to it. If He cannot come to it, then He delays the day of His coming. And generation after generation may come and go, never having accomplished what the Lord invites us to do, what the Lord invites us to be. 

Moses chapter 7—This is the Lord speaking to Enoch in a vision (recorded subsequently by Moses, by revelation), but it is a restoration of the book of Enoch, and the conversation and the speaker is the Lord. Beginning in Moses chapter 7, verse 60:

And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfil the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah… 

This is the Lord’s oath to Enoch. He’s going to come. He’s going to come in the last days.

And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be [had] among the children of men, but my people will I preserve; And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood [a thing that is possible now by you sitting at a keyboard anywhere in the world—you can cause the truth to flood the earth], to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle [in this context, the tabernacle to be built is His house], and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, 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 [this is the second return of Enoch, as well—first, His house; then Enoch]; And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. And it came to pass that Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, in the last days, to dwell on the earth in righteousness for the space of a thousand years. (Moses 7:60-65)

Zion exists before these things can happen. If Zion does not exist, these things will be delayed. They will not be prevented, because the Lord has, by a covenant, insured that they will happen. But the fact that the Lord has, by a covenant, insured that it will happen, is no guarantee that we will see it. Because we will only see it if we undertake to abide the conditions by which He can accomplish His work.

This is a Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 9:

And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself. And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy; And the general assembly of the church of the first-born shall come down out of heaven, and possess the earth, and shall have place until the end come. And this is mine everlasting covenant, which I made with thy father Enoch. (JST Genesis 9:21-23)

…the covenant that God made again with Noah; the covenant that He made originally with Adam; the covenant which some generation will rise up to receive. Whether that’s you or whether you go to the grave without realizing it or not is entirely up to you.

Now, I need to read you something. This is Ezekiel, beginning in chapter 33 at verse 25 [heavy exhale]:

Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and [ye] lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land? 

Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the [mountain] of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. 

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak[ing] one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. 

AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, …say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be [un]to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the [flock]? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty ye have ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. 

Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; 

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. 

For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, …where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and…all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie [down] in the good fold, and in a fat pasture [and they shall] feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. 

And as for [thou], O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [will] judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk [from] the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; …they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. 

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with [the] side and with [the] shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; [for] I the LORD have spoken it. 

And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them…the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing[s]. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand[s] of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I [am] the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 33:25-34:31, emphasis added)

I was required to read that, but I am not required and, therefore, will not comment on that.

Zion has been the promise of the Lord since the beginning:

• Adam foretold it at the great meeting in Adam-ondi-Ahman. I’ve spoken of that previously. I referred to that in a talk I gave in Centerville. I won’t read it again. You can find it in Doctrine and Covenants section 107, verse 56.
• Enoch foresaw it; he prophesied concerning it. I’ve read that to you again today, even though I read it previously. 
• Noah had it revealed to him by covenant. I read that to you today from the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 9.
• Moses was shown that it would be accomplished. I read that to you earlier today.

Now I want to change your view of one scripture, if I might. I want to take you to Luke chapter 9. You all think that the Mount of Transfiguration had a whole lot to do with Elijah, Moses, and keys, and the Kirtland Temple, and so on. And it didn’t have anything to do with that. It had to do with the head of the dispensation—Moses—and the one who brought that dispensation to a close—John the Baptist—appearing to Christ on the Mount to hand off for the new dispensation. But it also had… It had the purpose of fulfilling the covenant, the promise, the word of the Lord—Christ—who spoke concerning Zion. The Mount of Transfiguration is about Zion, as it turns out. And I can prove it from your scriptures.

Christ, in Luke chapter 9, beginning at verse 27—Christ prophesies: 

But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God… 

That’s the latter-day kingdom. That’s the one that Christ said was not of this world that He’s going to come and inherit at the end. So, He says, “Some of you who are alive today will not die until you see Zion.” (The gymnastics that have gone into trying to explain that by both Christian and Catholic and even Mormon commentators is rather amusing.)

Keep reading though:

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:27-31)

So, He says, “Some are living; they’re not gonna die until they see the Kingdom of Heaven.” And then He takes those three up on the Mount, and they see some things.

Turn to Doctrine and Covenants section 63, beginning at (this is talking about Zion), beginning at verse 20 of section 63:

Nevertheless, he that endureth in faith and doeth my will, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come; When the earth shall be transfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the mount; of which account the fulness ye have not yet received. 

He promised them that they would get to see the latter-day triumph. He took three of them up on the mountain, and He showed them the latter-day triumph. Therefore, there were those that were standing in that generation who did not die until they had seen the latter-day triumph of the Kingdom of God. He fulfilled His own word. And it was put into the gospel in that fashion for that reason.

It will happen! But it requires an awakening, and it requires an arising. It does not require a leader—a servant, maybe; not a leader. It does not require a president. It requires your common consent by your deeds—not only to say, but to do. It will not be achieved by control. It will not be achieved by coercion. It will not be achieved by force. It will not be achieved because there’s some big Strongman among you. It will only happen if each of you are strengthened in your faith and know the Lord. It will be achieved by humility. It will be achieved through meekness. It will be achieved by love which is unfeigned—the real thing.

One of the things I do some evenings (though I haven’t done it for awhile)—one of the things I’ve done in the evenings is to teach a graduate class on leadership. It’s a well-studied, well-documented, well-understood phenomenon: leadership, as distinguished from mere managerial behavior. Leaders have a set of things that they do. And the purpose behind teaching the leadership class is to equip those who are not leaders with the ability to mimic leadership behavior in such a way as to inspire the misapprehension that what they’re looking at is, in fact, a leader—rather than someone merely skilled in the art. I teach this class as a complete obscenity to me. It grieves my spirit as I teach this stuff. And I try (although they won’t pass the course if I don’t give them the material), I try to give a little bit of my own view about how repugnant this stuff is. Because really what we’re talking about is the ability (having used studies and social sciences to figure out what appeals to people)—how you can mislead them into thinking that something that is not authentic is in fact authentic. It’s really using behavioral conduct as a form of sheep’s clothing in order to conceal what is either altogether missing (it’s sheep’s clothing on the empty suit) or, alternatively, it’s sheep’s clothing on the wolf. Today we manufacture leaders. Today we produce them as a result of a skill set. And they will mimic it, and they will appear as though they are something that they are not. 

So, when I say, “love unfeigned,” it cannot be feigned. There cannot be anything about the establishment of Zion that is inauthentic, illegitimate, or insincere. You have to be your own judge about who you are and what you’re about. But to the extent that you think you can behave and imitate and get in, all you would do is jeopardize your life. You have to be it; you can’t feign it. Because if it is feigned, it will not satisfy you.

(Now there’s a big topic that I want to cover, but I want to cover it on the last tape. Tell me where we are—how many minutes do we have? Okay, I wanna talk about one thing, and then we’ll save the… It’s a big topic, and it needs to be addressed, and I don’t want someone getting that break in the middle of it.)

Some of you read my blog and saw that post I put up about a talk that was just given in General Conference. And it’s important… It’s important, because of the dynamic that is on display, to talk about that for just a moment. When Joseph Smith established the Relief Society, he established an independently-functioning woman’s organization that the women controlled and ran. They were an auxiliary to the church, to be sure, but it was a women’s organization. Today, we like to say that it is the longest-lived, oldest women’s organization on the earth. And that was true at one point, but it is no longer true. Through the process of correlation, the Relief Society (which once had its own budget; it once had its own checkbook; it once had its own control; it once had its own magazine; it once had its own lessons—it was a women’s run organization)—what happened was through correlation, the women’s organization was brought into the correlated authority of the local priesthood that’s gonna run everything. As a result of which, the women lost their budget. The women lost their magazine. The women lost control over their curriculum. The women lost their Relief Society. And what it became was an appendage to the correlated priestly control.

As a result of it being an appendage to the correlated priestly control, it’s just a matter of time… Just, I mean, start the watch… Start… You can measure it. It’s just a matter of time. Sooner or later, some woman, as a Relief Society President, knowing what needs to be done, will want to do what needs to be done, and some priesthood local authority (Bishop or Stake level/Stake President) is going to say “no.” And he’s gonna say “no” for not a very good reason. And before long there will be an accumulation of incident after incident, problem after problem, disappointment and frustration after disappointment and frustration, to the point where, in the natural chain of events, there will be women who say, “We’ve got a problem.” And the solution to the problem in the correlated church consists in obtaining possession of the right to be the one with the thumb; to be the one who is asserting the thumb, not the one that is under the thumb. So, the solution to the problem is, “We can’t govern ourselves because it’s now a man’s organization populated by women.” It’s no longer a women’s organization; it is man’s organization populated by women. So, what do the women say? The women are saying, “The problem here is that we want control back, and the way we get control back is (since it’s a correlated deal and that means priesthood)—we want to fetch for ourselves priesthood so that we can get control back.”

And the oblivious correlators, not recognizing that the problem is correlation itself, have determined that “We have a solution! The solution to the problem is that we have key holders. We have Thomas Monson; he’s chief key-holder—belt is completely full of those things [laughter]. And then we got the Twelve, and then we got Seventy, and we got Area Seventies, and we got Stakes, and we got Bishops. And when we get down to Bishop, he’s got like four or five keys left on his key chain.” But they got key-holders, and with that key… And it’s on a retractable… [laughter], I mean, you can’t drop it. You can hop on your Harley, and you can go to Sturgis, but you’re not gonna… Every time you drop it, it’s retracting right back on. You’re gonna hold on to them keys. I can take that key—I can take it out, and I can touch, touch the little lady, “There you go, little lady, now you have the authority from the key-holder! Voilà, I have brilliantly… I have solved the problem! The women agitating for ordained women are now empowered by the authority of the Priesthood.”

That was what Elder Oaks’ talk was all about: giving them the authority of the Priesthood so that they can go out, and they can perform a function like as if they were a priesthood holder. Misses the point! Swoosh, went right over! I would say gave him a haircut [laughter], but he’s like my friend Jon here; he’s follically-challenged. Went right over the head of the one who was given the responsibility of announcing the new program that will allow women to exercise the authority of the priesthood, because that’s not what they want! They would like to get back their organization. And I don’t blame ‘em. 

And therefore, if you decide to experiment upon the words we have found in scripture today, and if you decide that you’re going to try and together collect your own tithes and administer to your own poor among you, I would suggest that not only should women have an equal voice, but that Joseph Smith was really on to something. Long before the notion of a Bishop controlling a storehouse, and even after the existence of a storehouse, the Relief Society was a lively partner in the process. I would suggest when you are ‘one,’ and when there is relief that is needed, and when as a result of what the Lords needs to have happen is for people to gather with love unfeigned, forget the nonsense about who is greater and who is less. Look among whatever group you participate in and ask yourself, “Who’s more compassionate, and who loves more?” And listen to her [laughter]. And listen to all of the ‘hers,’ because when it comes to the home and the hearth and the needs of children, there is a competency among the women that is innate. And love can be feigned by the presiding authorities. But women generally have a difficult time pulling that kind of nonsense off. Men can pretend to many things—

I saw Bill Clinton at a funeral, laughing and carrying on until he saw the camera, and then he was right back to grieving. [Impersonating Bill Clinton’s voice] “Oh, I feel so bad.” I think he feigns so well; that’s why women like him. “I care, I care a lot…  Is that a D-cup?” [laughter] (I… I’m gonna face this way [laughter]. Yeah, we’re gonna have to edit this [laughter].)

One or two other little trifling matters that I wanted to mention, and then we’ll close for this part of it. In my view, the word and the title of “Prophet” to me is something that is hallowed and sacred and, like the name of the Son of God, probably ought not to be repeated too often. And I don’t think you can take the measure of a man until he finally lays his life down. And I think how he lays his life down matters in the aggregate as well. I don’t think that someone who fares sumptuously and receives accolades during his lifetime is ever much in a position to understand the rigors of obeying God and the difficulties of being thought a wild man, or preposterous, or everything that you are not. And so, when we use the name “Prophet”—and we use it casually—to me that seems to take something that ought to be spoken with a great deal of care and turn it into more or less a calling card. I find it offensive. I find it cheapens something, and it grieves… It troubles me. 

When I think of the word “Beloved,” I think of the word “Beloved” exclusively in the context only of the Savior: This is my Beloved Son. And the One who is doing the loving in that context is the Father, making that all the more a term that oughta be used with extraordinary delicacy and reserve.

When you take those two words and you couple them together—“Beloved Prophet”…  My sensibilities are such, at this point in my life, that when you say, “Beloved Prophet,” you are not appealing to me; you are repulsing me. You are not persuading me; you are offending me. You are not converting me; you are driving me away. 

I don’t say this to be critical of anyone. I say this because despite everything I would like to be able to tolerate, despite my best efforts to try and make allowances, there are some things which, when I hear, I simply cannot control. My repugnance at the notion that there is one that walks among us who oughta be called “Beloved Prophet” is something I simply cannot control. I don’t invite you to join me in that, but I want you to understand that in some respects, we talk across a gulf.

I think I understand who our Lord is and why He was Beloved. I think I understand what it is that He requires of someone when they will hear His voice and do what He says. And I can think of nothing more superfluous or offensive than praise. I can think of nothing that would offend the Lord more than a mere man inviting adoration of himself. It is wrong. 

I don’t want anything but your criticism. Don’t think you’ve got to defend me. I would rather hear what they have to say—not because what they say is true, but because it gives me an opportunity to understand what their fears are. Much of the criticism that gets leveled at me is leveled at me because they fear I’m something that I’m not. 

We’ve got so many pretenders. There’s some guy out in some new iteration of some form of Zion that is on YouTube giving School of the Prophet lectures, and he’s a faux General Authority. You look at him, and he looks like a General Authority. He dresses like a General Authority. I’ve had enough General Authorities for a lifetime. I’ve seen enough Strongmen come and go for a lifetime. I’m not anyone’s Strongman! I will never be anyone’s Strongman—period! It is repulsive to me! It is morally corrupt. And in this world, as soon as you create an institution, as soon as you have anything other than people voluntarily (together) working towards an end, as soon as you have anything other than an idea, you have corruption.

I will leave no seat for another man to occupy. I will leave no institution for another man to compromise. You will not have another person that says, “I sit in his seat.” I won’t even explain to you what seat it is I occupy. I want you to occupy, not as my equal, but as my better. 

I think there are many people here (and there have been at every one of these) who are, literally, better people than I am. And I don’t say that to feign something. There are some of you people that have lived lives of devotion and goodness and honesty. I came to the missionary discussions drunk. I mean, I grew up in Idaho, and we were bored [laughter]. And the stuff you do when you’re a bored, young man, you know—there it is. It required the Atlantic Ocean for my baptism and not a drop less [laughter]. 

So, when I preach these things, it does not mean I model these things. There is so much about this that is for me an aspiration and not a reality. I live in constant fear of my own failure. I don’t think I belong up here talking to you about this stuff, because I don’t think I’m the most worthy in the room. I can tell you that the Lord forgives sins and, therefore, makes allowances for those who are inadequate to fulfill what He would like to have done. It is perhaps because I recognize (#1) I am not well qualified, and (#2) I fear my own failure more than everything else that perhaps He trusts me. Because He knows I’m not going to go out and freelance—and I have not, and I do not, and I will not. 

Therefore, I don’t need or want or even welcome your admiration or your praise. You’re probably more admirable than am I. I’m not telling you these things because I can do these things. I’m telling you these things because this is what the Lord would have us do. He’s told us what’s on His mind and here it is; it’s laid out for us. The question is not, “Who’s great and noble and gonna stroll in there?” The question is, “Who’s meek? Who’s humble? Who’s appreciative of their inadequacies? Who’s willing to say, ‘When I count up all my foibles and failings and I look at them, I don’t think I have any ground upon which to criticize anyone else.’” 

And I hope none of you think I’m criticizing Elder Oaks; I am not. I’m explaining the dilemma that the church has put itself into. I’ve corresponded with… He’s Professor Oaks—I mean, he was the Trust Professor while I was in law school. He was the President of Brigham Young University, but when he crossed the street to the law school, he became ‘Professor Oaks.’ And the Dean was Dean Lee—Rex Lee; he was our Dean. Dallin Oaks was a Trust Professor—Professor Oaks. I’ve been taught by him. I’ve sat in a moot courtroom with him. I heard him at a number of occasions. I’ve been invited up during General… They still invite me up during General Conference to attend a reception on the Saturday afternoon because I’m a graduate of Law School. I don’t go; I can imagine the horror. I went down to the Marriott Center, and one of the Seventy were down there and introduced himself. And I shook his hand and told him how glad I was to be there. I didn’t want to put him to any discomfort by telling him my name. 

But I do think that if we’re going to have Zion that someone (inadequate though they may be) needs to point out that if you’re hoping some Strongman’s gonna come along and take you by the hand and lead you to the Promised Land, watch your wallet—and if you’re a lady, watch your zipper or buttons. Because I’m telling you, Strongmen have an insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement, and that’s not me. I don’t want that. I don’t welcome that. I don’t advocate that, and I warn you against it. If someone came up and hit me in the head with a hammer, and six months from now I’m organizing a church, and I’m asking you to give me women for multiple wives and pay me your tithing, you remember what I said today before they hit me in the head with a hammer. Because I’m intact mentally today. I may be crazy then. But it’s wrong to do the things that have been done, and it’s wrong to preach and practice the things that get preached and practiced in the name of the Lord.

It is right to expect Zion, but it is right to expect Zion upon the conditions that are laid out for Zion and on no other basis. It is right to expect Zion on the terms the Lord has ordained and none other. You won’t be able to cheat your way in there, and a group of people will not be able to accomplish it apart from the conditions the Lord has ordained.

So, this brings us then to the subject I’m going to talk about for the final third of this talk, which is “Where is Zion?” ‘Cause I imagine lots of you think you’re gonna go back to Independence, Missouri and find yourself a location there and build yourself a Zion. And I’m gonna talk about the ‘wheres’ of it all when we wrap this up in the next third. Thanks.

(Are we good? Okay, we’re gonna start this last part, and the tape is rolling. It’s like a wall of heat when you step in this room. It’s cooler out in the hallway than it is in here).

You know, the subject of where Zion will be is something that there’s a lot of eagerness about and a lot of confusion concerning. And I wanna talk about the topic of the location of Zion just generally. 

The last days’ Zion is connected with the rights of the Fathers. And I talked about covenants. And I talked about the preliminaries. And in Centerville there was some material that is relevant to this topic. From Adam to Noah and then to Melchizedek there was an unbroken chain of both priesthood, on the one hand, and father-to-son descent, on the other hand. There was literally “a family of God” that began with Adam as the son of God, and it descended then, generation after generation, until Melchizedek in an unbroken chain. But then there was an apostasy from that Order. As a result of the apostasy from that Order, the chain got broken. And because the chain got broken (like we looked at in Centerville), it was the hope of Abraham to reconnect that chain. 

I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same [that is, the rights of the fathers]; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge and [possess a greater knowledge, be a greater follower] and to be a [and this doesn’t make much sense unless you comprehend what it was that he was looking at, and you are convinced that what he was looking at is exactly that Order that began with Adam; he was desiring to be a] father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or the first father, through the fathers unto me. (Abraham 1:2-3)

This is what Abraham sought. And the reason Abraham sought that was because he understood that once that connection had been broken that he needed to turn his heart to the fathers so that he, Abraham, would not be smitten with the curse of apostasy. Therefore, he sought for the “blessings of the fathers.”

Now, in this late moment in time—in this late period of the generations of humanity—I don’t think we can much aspire to being one of the Fathers because, well, they were established long ago. But we ought to be turning our hearts to the Fathers. And we ought to be seeking also for what it was Abraham was seeking for… Not to become, ourselves, but to become connected—not as a Father but as a descendant, as a son or daughter. 

When Abraham reconnected into the Fathers, Abraham was again able to perpetuate an unbroken chain from himself to Isaac, and Isaac in turn to Jacob, and Jacob in turn to Joseph, and Joseph in turn to Ephraim, to whom passed the right of the Fathers or the right of the firstborn—even though Isaac wasn’t firstborn; Jacob wasn’t firstborn; Joseph wasn’t firstborn; and Ephraim wasn’t firstborn. And yet they were all the firstborn because they received the inheritance by right, and it was conferred upon them by right. Therefore, they were the firstborn. Five generations in which the ancient pattern, through the faith of Father Abraham, returned and “took”—it actually endured for five more generations. 

Well, Jacob gave a blessing to Joseph that we find in the book of Genesis chapter 49, verse 26: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. As a consequence of that, the latter-day Zion must be brought through Joseph. He’s the one upon whom the blessing devolved, and interestingly enough, he passed that on to Ephraim, not to Manasseh. And interestingly enough, though Manasseh was the lineage through which Lehi’s family descended, the prophecy I read you about the blessings being conferred in the last days are to come through the hand of Ephraim. (There’s something afoot.) And it’s going to come through Joseph at “the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.”

I don’t know how many of you’ve spent much time in Missouri, but the hills there aren’t “everlasting.” They’re almost so diminutive as to be undetectable. And if you happen to be in a cornfield or around some trees, they’re altogether gone. Because that terrain was never the terrain prophesied as being the location when the blessing was given by Father Jacob to Father Joseph.

Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2 and 3: 

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it…  

In this context, in this prophecy, “all nations” is not Russia and China and Ethiopia and Uzbekistan and Turk-crap-istan and I’m-a-nut-istan [laughter]. “All nations,” in this context, means all the 12 tribes of Israel. The “nations” are the 12 tribes of Israel, period. That’s it. That’s who’s gonna flow unto it. So, you won’t need an international airport. Nor will you need to host the Olympics. 

The mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, …let us go up to the…house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths…  

The paths of God lie in the heavens. So, if you’re going to learn to walk in His paths, you’re going to have to learn how to walk in the heavens.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)

The “ensign” that is prophesied to be established—in the context, in the meaning of that day—had reference to a zodiacal, a constellation, a depiction of the heavens themselves. So, when an ensign is going to be reared and it’s going to tell you about how to walk in the paths of God, this is talking about something very, very different than what most of us today would envision. Zion is going to be a connection between heaven and earth. And at that place, you will learn of the God of Jacob’s ways, and you will walk in His paths—because Heaven and earth will be connected, and the stairway connecting the two will be open. And the heavens and the earth will be reunited again. And this is going to happen in the top of the mountains. 

In March of 1831, there was a revelation given that we can read in D&C 49, verses 24 and 25: But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. Zion shall flourish upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed—the mountains. These were the prophecies at the beginning, as the Restoration was starting to roll forth. 

Joseph Smith said this: “Our Western tribe of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them. And unto it, all the tribes of Israel will come with as many of the Gentiles as shall comply with the requirements of the new covenant.” That’s a letter that Joseph Smith wrote to N.C. Saxton that can be found in The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, compiled by Dean C. Jesse, at page 273. But he’s talking about the Western tribes of Indians in that comment, which will make more sense as we get further into this material. He really did mean “out West.”

Doctrine and Covenants section 133, verses 26-34 talks about Zion in the Western mountains, the descendants of Joseph being responsible to build it, and there being crowning by Ephraim. And we read that a little while ago. I don’t think I’m going to read it to you again, but you can read it—D&C 133:26-34.

Now, there was a revelation that was given in which the first group of missionaries were sent out. And this is a nearly preposterous proposition to consider unless Joseph Smith was called to do something very, very different than what ultimately wound up happening in the Restoration. Because when the church got founded, when the Book of Mormon came forth, and when there were a small band of believers and there was going to be a mission, the first mission to be sent out… The first mission to be sent out was called to be sent to go “among the Lamanites.” Didn’t have anything to do with finding more Gentiles. It didn’t have anything to do with going to England. It didn’t have anything to do with going to Europe or the Eastern seaboard. It was sent out among the Lamanites.

Doctrine and Covenants section 28, beginning at verse 8:

And now, behold, I say unto you…you shall go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them; and inasmuch as they receive thy teachings thou shalt cause my church to be established among them; and thou shalt have revelations, but write them not by way of commandment. And now, behold, I say unto you that it is not revealed, and no man knoweth where the city of Zion shall be built, but it shall be given hereafter. Behold, I say unto you that it shall be [in your current version, it says] on the borders by the Lamanites. (D&C 28:8-9)

If you go to the Joseph Smith Papers and you look at the original revelation, and you look at the revision that was made to the revelation, you find that what Joseph Smith received as a revelation says, “it shall be among the Lamanites.” And in the handwriting of Sidney Rigdon, “among” is eliminated and “on the borders by” is inserted. And so, the first missionaries were sent out to be “among” the Lamanites. An odd priority, indeed, for a fledgling church that Joseph Smith presided over in upstate New York. 

Unhappily along the way, they managed to convert an entire congregation in Kirtland, Ohio that already knew that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel were faith, repentance, baptism, and laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost—and that you needed to have a New Testament Church, and that God was all about restoring the New Testament church, and ‘Restorationism’ was the key of the day. And they had everything they needed except for one missing ingredient, and that one missing ingredient was they needed priesthood. And now, here’s a character, Joseph Smith, that could furnish them that. And so, if they go and they get Joseph Smith to sidle up with them, they could turn this Restorationist movement into a priestly congregation. And so, one of their ministers, Sidney Rigdon, came aboard as one of the earliest converts. He first went up to upstate New York and inspected Joseph Smith, in person, to make sure he was a suitable sort of prophet for Sidney to tolerate. And he was. And he came aboard. And sooner or later, an organization began to emerge, and as it did, Sidney Rigdon became “Number Two”—Counselor in the First Presidency, number two to Joseph. First Counselor in the Presidency and Second Elder of the Church—Oliver Cowdrey—became less and less. And so we’re off to the races with Kirtland, and strange things happen.

On their way out, however, and before they managed to get to the congregations that already existed in Kirtland, Ohio…  The first missionaries did not set out for Independence, Missouri. There’s a report in the Painesville Telegraph on December the 7th of 1830. The missionaries said they were headed for (and this is a quote from that group Oliver Cowdrey was leading as they went out) “some unknown region, where God will provide a place of refuge for his people called the New Jerusalem.” The missionaries said that they were “bound for the regions beyond the Mississippi, where he contemplates founding a city of refuge for his followers in converting the Indians under his prophetic authority.” The “he” that they’re referring to in the interview is Oliver Cowdrey, Second Elder of the Church. Another edition of the Painesville Telegraph reported, “The four persons who were here, have proceeded on their mission to the Indians, or Lamanites as they term them, in the far West, where they say a Prophet is to be raised up whom the tribes will believe.”That’s a report on November the 30th of 1830. 

Well, now, I wanna back up a little bit and set the stage for what was going on in 1830. Because when you look at the micro history of what was happening in the Restoration against the macro history of what was happening inside the boundaries of the United States (continental—it was beyond the borders, but the continent that the United States would be formed upon in its current form), there’s a lot going on.

Joseph Smith was born in 1805, but in 1803 there was the Louisiana Purchase, “Loozana.” So, Louisiana was purchased in 1803. We fought a war in 1812, and those dirty rascals from Great Britain managed to co-opt the Indian tribes as their ally in the War of 1812. I mean, we fought those guys back in 1776. Now we’re fighting them again in 1812, but this time they managed to persuade the Indian tribes to come aboard. So, we’re fighting Indians, in addition to the Brits (we can’t have that). 

On September the 21st of 1823, through the night, to September 22nd, the angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith—September. By June of the next year—June of 1824—the Reverend Isaac McCoy was in Washington D.C. lobbying for a new law to be adopted. He would stay. He would lobby. He would irritate. He would agitate. He would persuade. He would convince that there needed to be something done to prevent anything like the Indian alliance with a foreign power from ever threatening the United States again. We’ve learned by sad experience that when Indians get a foreign power, as they are pleased to call it, they will immediately begin to excise Americans.

And so, Isaac McCoy made his case. In April of 1830, the church was organized—April of 1830. Six weeks later, after the organization of the church, the Indian Removal Act was passed in May of 1830. The work that the Reverend McCoy had been undertaking had borne fruit. With the adoption of the Indian Removal Act, all Indians—all Indians—inside the borders of the United States (as it was then configured) were forcibly removed from the Eastern United States and placed into part of the property that had been purchased in the Louisiana Purchase, which assumed the name “the Indian Territory.” All Indians were relocated west of Missouri on a north/south line that divided the United States from Indian Territory. 

Just as the mission among the Lamanites began, President Andrew Jackson (on the basis of the law that had been adopted in 1830)—by 1831, he was forcibly moving all of the Indians—the Trail of Tears, all the rest of that. Now, why are the Delawares in the Louisiana Purchase? President Andrew Jackson was relocating all Indians to just beyond the western border of the Missouri line. Therefore, at that moment in time, when you send the first four missionaries out on their mission, at that moment in time, if they were going to locate any of the American Indians, they had to go to Missouri—because that is the first moment at which you would encounter them. There was no other choice; you had to go there. 

And as it turns out, the location of the town Independence, Missouri was exactly in the middle of the various areas that had been allocated to the various tribes. The center of the land adjacent to the place where the Indians were then located (the center spot) was Independence, Missouri. It would also happen to be the trailhead for the only trail that came out West, which was the Santa Fe Trail. They embarked from Independence, Missouri to come out West. At that moment in time, when the first missionaries went out, it was the center place.

The Delawares (we have a state on the East Coast named after their tribe) were sitting out there on the other side of Missouri in the Louisiana Purchase property, and Parley Pratt (as one of the first missionaries) went and preached to the Delawares. Have you ever scratched your head and wondered what the heck is the Delaware tribe doing sitting on the other side of Missouri’s Western boundary for Parley Pratt to go minister to? Chief Anderson (that was his American name)… Parley Pratt taught Chief Anderson of the Delaware tribe and gave him a Book of Mormon. You’ve read about that in The Autobiography of Parley Pratt.

Well, the Indian agent was Richard W. Cummins, and the Indian agent forced the missionaries to leave the Indian territory. In fact, he threatened to take them to Fort Leavenworth and incarcerate them if they didn’t leave the Indian territory. 

Delilah McCoy Likens, who was the daughter of the Reverend Isaac McCoy (Isaac McCoy being the one who was responsible for the adoption of the Indian Relocation Act), was happy to inform her father in a letter she wrote on July 31st of 1831 the following: “The Mormonites are about to take the country. They are preaching and baptizing through the country; are trying to proceed West to find the new Jerusalem, which they say is towards the Rocky Mountains. The agent has driven them off this side of the line and forbids their crossing it.”

K, it’s impossible because of the law, because of the agents, because of the circumstances, because of the threat of arrest for “Mormonite” (as they were called then) missionaries to get any closer to the Indians than Independence, Missouri. If you stepped beyond that boundary, you will be arrested—you’ll go to Fort Leavenworth. 

Reverend Isaac McCoy is quoted in the daily Missouri Republican on November 28th of 1833 as saying, 

The Mormons as I suppose from information, came here so ignorant of laws regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes, that they expected to pass on into the Indian Territory, procure lands of the Indians, aid them in adopting habits of civilization, and attach them to their party. At the western line of Missouri they were arrested by the proper authorities of government.

It becomes increasingly clear that the target of the first missionary effort had nothing to do with stopping at Independence, Missouri. It had a great deal to do with going into the Western mountains (the Rocky Mountains) and establishing Zion. But the good Reverend Isaac McCoy (the father of the Indian Relocation Act)—whose daughter was there on the scene, who was married to a minister—who had a grievance motivated by false religious ideals (and the best way to oppose Zion is always to have false religious ideas) were right on the spot at the very moment when, at its incipient stage, under the guidance of Joseph Smith, some effort could’ve been made to establish the New Jerusalem, but they couldn’t. 

If you take a look at Doctrine & Covenants section 124… Joseph was told that when they had located in Kirtland that it would be temporary. And the location in Kirtland was temporary. When they went out and they found the center place—and that was found not by Joseph Smith; that was found by the four missionaries (five, because another guy joined ‘em as a result of proselytizing in Kirtland, so they had five when they got there)—they said, “We can go so far and no further, and at this spot we are in the center.” And so, that spot, given all of the legal entanglements and prohibitions, that spot became as close as you could get. They established a trading post where they would trade with the Indians. And the idea was that since they couldn’t go into the Indian Territories to proselytize them, that if they established a trading post and they traded with them fairly, that the Indians would cross the border (which they were not prohibited from doing), and they could come to their trading post and get a fair price. And so, if the Mormon missionaries established a trading post and dealt with the Indians fairly, they’d have a chance to proselytize when they came to them. These are not ideal circumstances, and as it turns out, not much was able to be done. 

Later (and this is during 1841; this is in Nauvoo, and a temple is being required of the saints in Nauvoo), there’s this interesting statement within the revelation about constructing the temple in Nauvoo: 

And ye shall build it on the place where you have contemplated building it, for that is the spot which I have chosen for you to build it. If ye labor with all your might, I will consecrate that spot that it shall be made holy. And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say unto you, they shall not be moved out of their place. (D&C 124:43)

So, what this opportunity in the Nauvoo temple represents is…  We’d lost Kirtland; we’d been forcibly expelled from Missouri; we had attached the idea of a center temple where God would come to dwell with His people at a place that would be a refuge that would be preserved by the power of God to that location, but we got kicked out of there; and we went back across the Mississippi to Nauvoo, and the Lord said, “You gonna build a temple in Nauvoo, I’ll command you to do that. You build it; I’ll give you sufficient time within which to do it. And if you go to and you do it, I’m gonna consecrate that spot. And I will make that spot holy to you. And I will make it so that you cannot be moved out of that spot by your enemies. And I will come there, and I will restore to you what has been lost: the fullness. I will give that to you, and I will do it in Nauvoo.” And it didn’t happen. And the flow of events took over. 

I wanna read you from Joseph Smith’s History. At the very end of his life—on Saturday, June 22nd, five days before he would be slain—June 22nd of 1844 (you can read this in The Documentary History of the Church at volume 6, page 547)—Saturday, June 22nd 1844 about 9 PM:

Hyrum came out of the mansion and gave his hand to Reynolds Cahoon, at the same time saying, “The company of men are seeking to kill my brother Joseph, and the Lord has warned him to flee to the Rocky Mountains to save his life. Goodbye brother Cahoon, we shall see you again.” In a few minutes afterwards Joseph came from his family, his tears were flowing fast. He held a handkerchief to his face, followed after Brother Hyrum without uttering a word.

So, Joseph received a revelation on June the 22nd of 1844, telling him, “Now, now go to the Rocky Mountains.” 

When we have an opportunity to accomplish something with the approval of the Lord, the Lord is going to be the one who ultimately decides where the actual accomplishment will take place. When it takes place, it’s going to be in the mountains, and you needn’t guess which mountains. The mountains are gonna be out here in the West, exactly where the first missionaries were sent to try and find it but were hedged up by the confluence of what was happening in the law and in society and in the management of the Indian tribes in 1831, when they tried to cross and go out West and were told they can’t. Well, if we can’t go out there and find that New Jerusalem city, if we can’t go out there, then we’ll settle here and we’ll take these local Indians, these relocated Indians, and we’ll fetch ourselves a Zion right here in this spot. And the Lord gave a series of revelations in which He said, “If you can do that, you do that. And that is acceptable to me, and that will be Zion. Go to! Have at it!” And then He says, “Here’s why you didn’t pull it off: your jarrings, your envies, your lusts, your contentions. That’s why you didn’t pull it off.” And He has said repeatedly in one of those extraordinarily clever things that the Lord has done throughout history: “Zion will not be moved out of its place.”

Oh I know, I know! I got the answer! The answer is: What is Independence, Missouri? That’s a daily double, and Alex is telling me I’m wrong [laughter]. I just lost everything I bet.

Oh, oh, I know! It’s Nauvoo, and it’s Nauvoo because the Lord changed His mind and said He would accept Nauvoo as a substitute Zion and not move the Saints out of that place if they would do what He said. Wrong again! Wrong again!

“Zion will not be moved out of its place,” which place you know not yet. But Joseph knew it was in the Rocky Mountains, and he intended to go there. And the Lord knew it was in the Rocky Mountains when He revealed that to Isaiah in his prophecy. And Father Jacob knew it when he was prophesying and blessing his son, Joseph.

Now let me give the Lord the latitude that the Lord is entitled to have because of a statement that Joseph Smith made. Joseph said, “Oh, you know nothing more than a baby in a cradle, because the whole of North and South America are Zion.”

K, so if the Lord says, “Yeah, you can build it in Missouri; that’s copacetic. Go for it! Go for it my son!… Oh, big booboo, my son.” 

“How ‘bout here?”

“Ok, Ok. Go for it, my son, there!… Oh, big mess, big mess!” Plagues, locusts, starvation; yeah, that’s not good, not good. [laughter]

Time and time again, the location of Zion is approved by the Lord in different spots, precisely because the entirety of North and South America would be an acceptable place to found Zion. But within those general, geographic parameters:

• it must be in the mountains;
• it must be among the natives who were originally here;
• it must be established under the guidance of someone who hails from both the tribe of Ephraim and is a descendant of Jesse (you can read that in the Doctrine and Covenants);
• and it will surely come.

There is absolutely no reason for the Lord to tell you another place to go and pollute if you don’t rise up to bring with you the worthiness necessary to turn, at last, a place into the New Jerusalem: 

• where the Lord can come and dwell among you,
• where you can be of one heart, 
• where you can be of one mind, 
• where there are no poor among you, 
• and where you have all things in common; 
• where you meet the requirements.

And there’s no reason to assemble you together at any spot. You can do everything that needs to be done preliminarily from wherever it is you dwell at present. And you can prepare your hearts, and you can prepare your minds, and you can begin to understand the difficulties. And instead of judging our failure that went on before, you can rather empathize with the failures that went on before and come to some appreciation for the fact that it’s not gonna be any easier for you than it was for them. It’s not gonna be any less filled with the temptation to be envious and filled with lust and have jarrings and contentions for you than it has been for those that went and attempted before.

The fact of the matter is that we tend to want that Strongman. We tend to want that ruler, that presiding authority. We tend to want someone to take control, precisely because we don’t want to go through the effort that’s involved in the common consent and the common sense of governing ourselves. It is just so much easier to pay and pray and obey than it is to go and to do and to rise up and to be one with our Lord and our God. 

Now, we’re out of time. There was one other thing I was going to do, but we can do that happily at any moment. I wanna end this by bearing testimony to you that I use the scriptures because the scriptures are the standard by which you should judge the truth. I use the scriptures because they say the things the Lord would want to have said right now today. I don’t need to appeal to having any authority, because I can read you the scriptures and point you to the things that have already been revealed. I know these things are true. You would not believe me if I told you all I know. And it is not necessary for you to do so. If the words I speak do not convince you, let the scriptures convince you. And if the words in the scriptures don’t convince you, then get on your knees and pray and ask God, who giveth to all men liberally. Do the same thing Joseph did at the beginning to start the ball rolling, because Zion will come. And whether it comes in your day or not is entirely dependent upon you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

The post Zion appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Priesthood” was originally recorded in Orem, Utah on November 2, 2013, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

Oh, welcome, welcome Saturday morning. I guess in some parts of the world, in some groups (subgroups), it’s Sabbath morning even still.  40 years ago, I had been a member of the Church for almost 2 months. Bishop Ernie Ellsworth (he would be transferred—he worked for the Navy, although he was a civilian—he would be transferred to Hawaii shortly after I left New Hampshire, but he was still Bishop at that point), and he called me to be the ward newsletter writer for the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Ward. That was the first calling I had in the Church. Although, before that, I had… 

The fellow who ordained me to the Aaronic Priesthood (George Hoger, he was the Elders Quorum President; he ordained me—I mean, his line of authority… A topic that we might look at a little today…), and he had made me a home teacher, and then he took me home teaching. And I had a route that required that I leave the state of New Hampshire in order to go home teach (’cuz the wards and stakes back in New England, particularly in those days, were enormous). And so, I had to leave the state in order to home teach.

I had a fellow who was inactive and kinda hostile and lived up in Maine. And I went to home teach him with George, and he was kind of angry and upset and hadn’t had a home teacher in a while and wanted to know what the crap we were invading his privacy for. Ya know, this was, ya know, my first impression of what home teaching was all about. And after he had vented a little while, and me (in the zeal of my recent conversion), I asked him, “Well, why the hell are you a damn Mormon, then, if you’re gonna act like this?” Well, he showed up in the Portsmouth Ward shortly thereafter, and he said, “I got home taught. My home teacher wanted to know why the hell I was a damn Mormon.” He said he thought that was interesting enough that the Church probably has some new characters in it. He was gonna show up and see what this was all about.

Well, today we’re talking about priesthood—a topic about which probably everyone in this room thinks they know a whole lot and can recite a whole lot of history and give a whole lot of details and explain everything there is to know about it, in so far as the Restoration and what Joseph has said and what the scriptures tell us are concerned. And I’m gonna ask you, for purposes of today, to assume that what you know is riddled with incompletions, omissions, gaps in the storyline. And, in fact, Joseph Smith never set out to give—ever—a comprehensive accounting of the subject of priesthood. He gave snippets. He gave a grab here and a grab there. And in the process of doing so, he left things that have been filled in by the imagination of people—but not necessarily by anyone who, like Joseph, knew what he was talking about. Therefore, as you run into (and you will throughout the talk today) things that you think I’m off-base with or I’m making a mistake because it doesn’t agree with what you think you already know, I would ask you to be patient enough to hear the whole matter through today. And then be further patient enough to take it back into the scriptures, and prayerfully look at it. Because it’s just possible—in fact, in my view, it is probable—that you know things that are wrong, and you need to abandon them. And so, I’d ask you to be patient as we go through this today, and at least… at least try it on for size, and see if something doesn’t click.

Joseph Smith said, “All priesthood is Melchizedek, but there are different portions or degrees of it. That portion [which] brought Moses to speak with God face-to-face was taken away, but that which brought the ministry of angels remained. All prophets [had] the Melchizedek priesthood and were ordained by God himself.” That’s in The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on pages 180 to 181.

Ask yourself if there is a possibility that when Joseph speaks about “different portions or degrees” of priesthood, that he’s talking about something altogether different from the offices in the Church of Elder, Priest, Teacher, Deacon, Bishop, Seventy, Apostle, High Priest, yada, yada… Because even in the understanding of the Church, the way in which we ordain today (and the way that we once ordained, before an interruption that lasted over two decades) was to lay hands upon someone and to confer upon them, alternatively, either the Aaronic priesthood or the Melchizedek priesthood; and then to ordain them to an office. And the way we phrase it today is an “office within that priesthood,” but they confer, on the one hand, Aaronic or, on the other hand, Melchizedek priesthood. I would like you to entertain the idea that Elder, Priest, Teacher, Deacon and so on aren’t priesthood at all; they are offices in the Church—and that they occupy the position in the Church (of these various offices) with or without the presence of priesthood.

When the first missionaries went out and preached, teached, exhorted, and expounded, they did so because they had been sustained by common consent to an office within the Church. And since the Church had been organized by the command of God, the offices within the Church had the authority to go and to implement the program of the Church. 

Therefore, I would like you to entertain the idea that an office in the Church is not coincidental with priesthood. There is no such thing as the priesthood of Deacon. There is no such thing as the priesthood of Teacher. There is an office in the Church called “Teacher.” There is an office in the Church called “Deacon.” And the occupant of that, out of tradition, is supposed to have Aaronic priesthood in order to discharge that. 

However, within the Church, we also sustain as “teachers” (for example, Gospel Doctrine teachers) females who hold the office of “Gospel Doctrine teacher” within the Church. What is the difference between the office of Gospel Doctrine teacher (that we sustain by our common consent), on the one hand, and Teacher in the Aaronic priesthood (Teacher held by someone with the Aaronic priesthood), on the other hand? We make a big deal out of the offices in the Church which are associated with Aaronic priesthood. However, they are offices in the Church. They were offices in the Church to begin with; they are offices in the Church yet today. And priesthood and offices in the Church are not necessarily coincident with one another.

So, when Joseph says that there are different portions or degrees, that all priesthood there is… All priesthood is Melchizedek, but there are “different portions or degrees” of it—I wanna suggest to you that he is not talking about offices in the Church. I wanna suggest to you that, instead, what he’s talking about is a continuum that I hope, by the end of today, we have some greater appreciation or understanding of.

So, if we turn to the oath and covenant of the priesthood that’s contained in Doctrine and Covenants 84—and that’s something about which we all think we know because, as parents, we’ve heard our kids go through this; as adults, we’ve had it parsed through—but if you look at it with the idea that all priesthood is singular and that there are merely different portions or degrees of it, starting at verse 33 of section 84: 

For whoso[ever] is faithful unto the obtaining [of] these two priesthoods… (D&C 84:33)

Now, I wanna pause there for a moment because here (in revelation, given through Joseph Smith) is a statement by the Lord in revelation to Joseph in which he calls it two priesthoods. And yet Joseph explains there’s only one. There’s only one, and the one is Melchizedek, but there’s different portions of it. Here in the revelation, it’s dividing it into two. Therefore, there are two portions of it or two distinctions. And the possibility that those two distinctions are significant enough that they warrant treatment in the plural instead of the singular shows up right here in the revelation. I think Joseph knew what he was talking about. And I think the Lord knows what He’s talking about. Because they’re trying to get ideas across into our minds that we tend to resist. 

Now, I should mention as a footnote that there were… There were discussions in the leadership of the Church about what was required in order to pass along priesthood. And during the administration of Heber J. Grant, for a period of over two decades, he ceased the practice of conferring priesthood upon people—but he had them only ordained to an office in the Church. Therefore, whenever someone was ordained to priesthood during that two-decade-plus time period, they were ordained to an office. After the death of Heber J. Grant, the practice was reverted again, and they began to confer priesthood in addition to ordain into office. But that is something that Heber J. Grant, at least, did not think occupied any significance. So, when I tell you there is a difference between an office in the Church and the priesthood, Heber J. Grant, at least, would say that I’m dead wrong on that point, and I don’t know what I’m talking about. But entertain the idea, and see where it takes you.

There are in the church, well… 

Whoso is faithful unto the obtaining [of] these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling… (Ibid)

See, priesthood is not simply “yada, yada, yada”; “ipso facto”; “conorus mundorum”; there you are! It requires… See, ya get it, but then, “faithful to obtain”; and then, “faithful to magnify”—and faithful to magnify it as a calling (calling being an operative word there that means service)…  

…are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies…  (Ibid)

“Sanctified by the Spirit”; “renewing their bodies”—these things have meaning. Perhaps we’ll get to that at some point.

They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God. (Ibid, vs. 34)

See, they become—but they become as a consequence of having been sanctified. They become sanctified because they magnify their calling. They had to first obtain the priesthood, and the obtaining of the priesthood requires something that is “faithful.” And you oughta ask yourself, Faithful to what? And always it is faithful to Him, to our Lord, the One who redeems. All of these things flow together as one continuum. It’s not just “I got ordained.” Doesn’t matter that you got ordained. There’s a process that’s involved after ordination in which you follow these steps. We read it as one sentence and say, There it is; he was faithful. I mean, he passed the Bishop’s interview; he obtained it. That is, he sat down there, and they got a certificate. I mean, when I was on the High Council, I was the one responsible for fetching the Melchizedek priesthood certificates and delivering it to ’em. And that was a definite point in time at which we could point and say, On this day, this person gave this authority to this guy on this occasion… And when that happened, he also got a line of authority. 

When I got ordained to be a High Priest, the Stake President handed me a line of authority which, when I looked at, I found mistakes in. And I went back, and I did the research, and I corrected the line of authority. Then I went back to my Stake President, and I said, “You gave me your line of authority, but it was wrong; here’s the right one.” And then he had to go find all of the people that he had ordained and correct that. (Some fellow in the line had thought it would be more commendable to have been ordained by Marion G. Romney after he was an apostle rather than as he was: when Marion G. Romney was called to be the Bishop. And he called this fellow to be his counselor, and so Marion G. Romney was ordained to be a High Priest, to be the Bishop, and he ordained this other fellow to be a High Priest and his counselor. And then, subsequently, when Marion G. Romney got to be an apostle, this guy hailed his priesthood line from the date on which Marion G. Romney became an apostle, which screwed the whole line up.) And therefore, I had to fix that, and President Pugh was grateful. But it imposed upon him the obligation, then, to go back and straighten out all those whom he had ordained. Well, that’s neither here nor there.

They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God.  (Ibid, emphasis added)

I spoke in Centerville about what it meant to be the seed of Abraham. You ought to listen to that talk. We don’t have time. We have to accumulate, we have to aggregate information. And we gotta assume that you’ve “got” what we’ve talked about before, so that we can press on. 

Once you have done those, 

…also all they who receive this priesthood…  (Ibid, vs. 35)

Now it’s in the singular; now it has been reduced back to the unitary. Now we’re talking about that which is the fullness—we’re now talking about something other than the different portions. We’re talking about this priesthood.

…receive me saith the Lord. (Ibid)

We take that to mean that not actually the Lord, for goodness sake—but to mean, rather instead, that if you have this priesthood, somehow the Lord has received you. Somehow, if you’ve got this, you belong to Him in some metaphysical sort of fashion in which, “On account of having priesthood, I am received of Jesus.” Take the words literally, and say to yourself: if you’ve got this, if this is what you have managed to accumulate, then one of the evidences of having accumulated it will be receiving the Lord.

For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me. (Ibid, vs. 36)

I suggested in Centerville that the word “servants,” in this context, meant angels. An “angel”… The word is derived from a Greek word that simply means “messenger.” And the messenger can’t be on their own errand. They have to have a message that is being brought from another, the other being the Lord. Therefore, if the message originates with the Lord, and the message is delivered by a messenger, it does not matter if the one delivering the message is a mortal, as we find in the Book of Mormon where someone says, Last night… King Benjamin, I believe, said, Last night the Lord told me this; or, Last night the angel taught me this, and so today I’m going to teach you this (see Mosiah 3:2-23). In that context, King Benjamin was the angel. And therefore, as long as they bear a message from the Lord, they fit the definition.

…he that receiveth my servants receiveth me. (D&C 84:36)

That is, if it’s the voice of God and it’s coming to you from Him and it’s authentically His message and you receive it as if it were from His own mouth, then you’ve received from Him at least His voice. But it doesn’t end there.

He that receiveth me receiveth my Father. (Ibid, vs. 37) 

In this context, what he’s talking about is the same thing that you find in the 14th chapter of the book of John, in which Christ says that He will not leave you comfortless, but He will come to comfort you. And then He and His Father will take up their abode with [you] (John 14:23). This is not an abstraction. The idea that this is something that happens in your heart (you can read in the Doctrine and Covenants) is an old sectarian notion and is false (see D&C 130:3). It means a literal appearance of these holy beings to minister, to comfort, and ultimately, to take up their abode.

…he that receiveth my Father [and I would add, while yet “in the flesh”] 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. (D&C 84:38-39)

And what is that oath and that covenant? It is the Father’s word which cannot be broken. It’s not something you aspire to, but it’s something that you accept by the conditions that are set out in Doctrine and Covenants section 84. It is something which, received by an oath and a covenant, given by the One who can give covenants (just as we talked about in Centerville)… It’s a covenant which originates from God. It is His word which cannot be broken (see Ether 3:12). Therefore, when the Father covenants that you’re going to inherit, it is a covenant that will surely come to pass.

Therefore, all…who receive the priesthood [singular, implying it in its fullest manifestation], receive this oath and covenant of my Father… (D&C 84:40, emphasis added) 

This is not talking about abstractions, quorums, churches, organizations, orders, choruses. This is talking about a direct, covenantal relationship established by the Father with this—this priesthood—the one about which today I would like to speak—this priesthood… 

…which he [the Father, he] cannot break [because if He were to break this once He has made this covenant with someone, He would cease to be God, and He cannot do that—therefore, this covenant cannot be broken by Him] neither can it be moved… (Ibid)

That is, once the Father has made that covenant, earth and hell cannot make it otherwise.

But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor…the world to come. (Ibid, vs. 41)—

…a curious statement if your view of “this priesthood” is the mechanism you understand through the agency of the Church and the various quorums that result in someone becoming Melchizedek priesthood holder and an Elder. Does that mean that when an Elder drifts off into inactivity in the Church that he is not going to have forgiveness of sins in this world or the world to come?! It doesn’t mean that at all. It’s not talking about what has gone on in the Church, and it’s not talking about receiving an ordination and participating in an Elders Quorum or (thank God) a High Priest group. The string of obscenities that parse through my mind during any given High Priest group just… It’s a good thing that you’re not always talking out loud. Sometimes I want to and then say, “Did I say that? Or did I just think that?” I bite my tongue.

But here in 42, now… 41 is talking about the condition of having arrived at the point in which the covenant has been established with the Father—that covenant. If you turn from that (because you are turning from the Father), you’re in a state, at this point, of willful rebellion against He who has called you to be His son—against Him who sits on the Throne, in the midst of all eternity, from whose Throne He sustains everything that exists, including everyone in this room and this creation itself (see Mosiah 2:21). You have been in contact with Him, and you’ve turned from Him. It’s not the same thing as an Elder drifting into activity [inactivity]. It is standing in the light of the noon day sun and denying that it is light. It is rebellion—and it is rebellion against knowledge. That’s what that verse is talking about.

But look at verse 42: 

And wo unto all those who come not unto this priesthood… (D&C 84:42, emphasis added)

So, there is a “wo” associated with that. It is not: “wo, wo, wo.” It’s not a threefold condemnation. It is not a dreadful, despicable, wretched outcome. It’s simply disappointment because the invitation has been extended to you, and if you do not rise up to receive that invitation, then you will suffer disappointment. You will come to the point in which your condition is woeful, because there’s something that you know that you might have obtained, and you did not.

Then we get to some words which I think are critical to understanding the topic, and we’re gonna spend a lot of time on today: 

…which ye have received, which I now confirm upon you who are present this day, by mine own voice out of the heavens; …even [as] I have given the heavenly hosts and mine angels charge concerning you. (Ibid) 

Oh my! You see, the priesthood is being conferred—and the priesthood is being conferred, not by the laying on of hands, but by the voice of God given to those who were present on this day.

On another occasion (this is section 84, which is in September of 1832)… On another occasion, there was a conferral of priesthood (in June of 1831). One of those upon whom it was conferred on that date, by the voice of God out of heaven, was Ezra Booth—Ezra Booth, who would later drift off into inactivity and write a series of nine letters that were published in a newspaper explaining why he rejected Mormonism. And so, he had had the conferral—by the voice of God—in June of 1831, and we get all the way down to January 1841 and we find out that the fullness had been taken away, at least as it pertained to the Church (see D&C 124:28). 

Well, so we wanna focus on those words in [D&C 84:]42, but we’ve got some other things to look at in order to get there. First of all, I want to go to Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 14, which… I’m gonna need to borrow from someone. Does someone have Old Testament that I can use? (Yeah. I’ve taken that, and I’ve stapled it separately, and apparently, it’s in my bedroom. I blame my briefcase.) 

So, in Genesis chapter 14… This is in the back of your Bible. Verse 26: 

Now Melchizedek was a man of faith… (JST Genesis 14:26)

By the way, Melchizedek is a title; it’s a name-title. It’s a compound of two words. One is “king,” and one is “priest”—and therefore, in one sense, it’s a name-title, and in another sense, it’s a new name. And it’s not the birth name given to someone, rather it is the new name/title which is fashioned after Christ because Christ is the great King and the great Priest who’s the King of Kings, and He is the Great High Priest. And so, Melchizedek is really a name-title that belongs to Christ, it being used as a substitute to prevent the frequent repetition when you’re talking about the Holy Priesthood—that the correct full name would be the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God. But to prevent the too frequent repetition of that, Melchizedek (which is a name-title for Christ) got used as a substitute.

But Melchizedek—that is, the person who grew up to become the one that got that name-title, 

…was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire [this is Melchizedek as a child; this is Melchizedek doing something by faith]. And thus having been approved of God, he was ordained [that is, ordination occurred after faith]… (Ibid, vs. 26-27, emphasis added)

Can a man heal by faith without priesthood? Of course they can. Can Melchizedek, as a child without priesthood, stop the mouths of lions? Yes, the scriptures say so. Can “by faith” a man (Melchizedek being one who did so) quench the violence of fire without priesthood? Yes. Therefore, is it evidence that… 

Oh, what was the guy’s name in Oklahoma? The evangelical minister whose ministry was largely based upon healings? Can he heal? Can he do so without priesthood? Yeah, of course. I mean, these are two different things. These are altogether two different things.

So, Melchizedek accomplished these things by faith. And then, having accomplished these things by faith, God ordained him: 

[a] high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch. It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man nor by the will of man… (Ibid, vs. 27-28)

That is, we can’t vote in that guy. We can’t ‘hope and pray and sustain with our prayers and faith and confidence’ that guy. We can’t have our will bundled into that guy. That guy comes as a consequence, exclusively, not of father, not of mother, not of the will of man, but by the will of God. This is, after all, sons of God that we’re talking about.

… neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God… (Ibid)

…because God is endless; therefore, His word is endless, and His covenants are endless, and His commitments are endless. And if you lay hold upon it, you lay hold upon something which is itself endless.

And it was delivered, just as we saw in Doctrine and Covenants section 84: 

And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name. For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course; To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God. (Ibid, vs.29-31)

Now, take that impressive list of things, and read it in light of this: 

…to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world. (Ibid, vs. 31)

See, such persons holding such power are not freelancing. And in fact, evidence of the possession of this power does not come as a consequence of someone displaying every one of these things, but if they display any one of these things… For example, Nephi (when he was bound in the desert and left to die by his brothers) broke every band that bound him, having been strengthened by God (see 1 Nephi 7:16-18). And that same Nephi, bound to the mast when the storm came that threatened the survival of the ship, not only could not break the band, but when they finally got around to relieving him, he said his hands were much swollen as a consequence of the trauma that he’d suffered (see 1 Nephi 18:15). Nephi—who had power given to him by God to break the bands that would’ve cost him his life—was left subject to the bands because it was not according to the Father’s will or the word of the Son when he was bound to the mast. And so, had Nephi called upon that power and not suffered, Nephi would’ve been offending—and not conforming to—the will of God. And he would have had to suffer some loss. 

Moses had power to divide the seas. And he did that by the word of God (see Exodus 14:15-16, 21). And yet, when Moses used the power to cause the rock to bring forth water (and not at the command of God), he suffered some loss. Possession of the power does not mean you freelance. Because in the very statement about the possession and the capability and the capacity, it says it’s according to His will. Therefore, in order to be someone who can be trusted, you have to be someone who will subordinate to His will.

The Lord was not mis-stating the case, when He said, “No man takes my life,” because the Lord had the capacity, at His own word, to prevent the entire armies of Rome from doing any harm to him. “Don’t you know,” he asked Pilate, “if I asked, there’d be twelve legions of angels?” (see Matthew 26:53). You know, you don’t even need a legion of angels to take on a legion of Rome, much less a little Centurion’s cohort in Galilee (or in Judea, rather).

When you have someone who arises to this point and can be trusted, they nevertheless can be slain. Because, like our Lord, they don’t get to use… Well, they are trustworthy enough so as not to misuse what has been entrusted to them. Therefore, the fact that they can “hold at defiance the armies of nations” means that they will do so only in accordance with His will—because sometimes it is His will to destroy the children of Israel, when they have sinned against Him. And then, they have to detect the error and repent of it before they can go forward. Well, 

[all] men having this faith, coming up unto this order…were translated and taken up into heaven. (JST Genesis 14:32)

…that being a statement about not today but the moment of Melchizedek’s ordination, his day, and those that had lived before him, in their day. Translated and taken up into heaven—we will get to the point later where we’ll find out that this same authority that was in the beginning is going to return at the end of the earth, also. But its return at the end of the earth has a different purpose. At the beginning of the earth, this was the purpose. 

And now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, …was called the Prince of peace [that is also is one of the titles given to the Lord, the Prince of Peace]. …his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world. (Ibid, vs. 33-34)

See, and you wonder what they’ve been doing for lo these many thousands of years; and yet, if you understood the physics of it all, you’d realize that you can go out and back in a hurry, and it’s overnight if you travel fast enough and far enough and return.  There’s really… Ah, well, that’s another matter altogether. 

And [He] hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together… (Ibid, vs. 35, emphasis added) 

See, they… That city of Enoch is reserved until the latter days of the end. It was separated from the earth, but it’s going to come again in the latter days. And the Lord swore, 

…with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so as by fire. (Ibid) 

…meaning that when they return again, those sons who remain standing are going to have to be able to endure the fire that is coming. They who come shall burn them up—we talked about that briefly in Boise, and we’ve been trying to track that down through Idaho Falls, and now we see it again here. Therefore, this priesthood has something to do with all of the talks that I’ve been giving up to this point and where we go from here.

And this Melchizedek, having thus established righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace [because he brought peace to them]. And he lifted up his voice, and he blessed Abram, being the high priest, and the keeper of the storehouse of God; [whom] Him whom God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor. [And] Abraham paid…him… (Ibid, vs. 36-39)

…and so on. In any event, Melchizedek established priests/established righteousness; his city was a city of peace.

(And if you don’t mind, I’m gonna hold onto this for a minute ’cuz we’re gonna go back there, and so… Is your name on it? Oh, good; your name’s on it. I’m using Carol’s scriptures. And if you see me walking around with a set of scriptures that have Carol’s name on it, you know I’ve stolen them.) 

Priesthood is not a franchise. Priesthood is not something that is given in order to control others. Priesthood is an opportunity—afforded you by God, in its highest form—to serve and to bless others. (That’s not true of it in other forms, and we’ll get to that.) But in its highest form, it is a call to service. It is a call to save; it is a call to redeem; and it is a call to rescue. 

Now I want to suggest a new definition for priesthood. And I wanna go to Doctrine and Covenants section 121 and read some old familiar words—and then see if today we can pour some meaning into this. 

This is Doctrine and Covenants section 121, verse 36: 

That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. (D&C 121:36)

I wanna suggest to you that the word “powers of heaven” is a proper noun and not just a phrase incorporatingencompassing some abstraction. Powers of Heaven: oooo yada yada, can you feel it? Go get a pyramid, put it over your head. Ohmmmm, got some, got some… I can feel it! That’s not it. 

Powers of Heaven is actually a proper noun. If you are an Elder or you are a High Priest or you are a Seventy or you are a member of the Quorum of the Twelve… Whatever that office is, it is appropriate to refer to you by the nomenclature “Elder.” “Elder” LeGrand Richards, “Elder” McConkie, “Elder” Nelson. (Hmm. Good thing we can’t hear thoughts.) In any event… There is—within the structure of the afterlife—different rungs on Jacob’s ladder. And they leak through in our scriptures, though Joseph never bothers parsing them. And whether you are talking about an Angel or an Archangel or a Principality or a Power or a Dominion or a Throne or a Cherubim or a Seraphim, it doesn’t matter which one you are referring to, it is appropriate—just like it is appropriate to refer to all those offices as Elder—to refer to any and all of them as Powers.

The Powers of Heaven: Whatever rung these ministers may be upon, they are all Powers. So, I wanna suggest to you that the real definition of priesthood is an association between mankind, on the one hand, and those on the other side of the veil, on the other hand. It is a brotherhood.

Oh my! And it is potentially also a sisterhood. And it is a fellowship. And it is a ministry, if you will, in which there is connected together (and the real definition of priesthood is the connection between) a fellowship between the Powers of Heaven, on the one hand, and you, on the other.

We can form a fellowship—and have, among ourselves. And we’ve ordained one another in our various fellowships, and we’ve called ourselves Elders Quorums. And we’ve called ourselves High Priest Group. And we have called ourselves all kinds of different bodies of fellowship. And they are, I suppose, a form of priesthood. There are others who have formed different kinds of associations, and they are a form of priesthood. 

But the scriptures are talking about a relationship between Powers of Heaven and the recipient of authority—that is, priesthood is fellowship. And when you do something to sever that fellowship, then you have done something that damages, injures, hinders, or altogether departs from the fellowship that you had. 

and…the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon…principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us, [it’s] true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; [and] the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. (Ibid, vs. 36-37)

So then, if one has this fellowship and has this authority (or is in fellowship with that group from which such power reckons), how is it, then, that you exercise that authority? Well, the answer’s also contained in the same revelation. 

No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, …by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile. (Ibid, vs. 41-42) 

So, if you find someone who is armed with this, what you’re gonna find is someone whose tool is persuasion and who offers knowledge—and whose knowledge will not reckon merely from the writings, the theories, and the philosophies of men, but it will reckon, rather, from a higher place.

I wanna turn to Doctrine and Covenants section 132 and take a look at that because in here we then run into a brief description of some of that “Powers” that exist. This is in Doctrine and Covenants section 132, verse 19. And it’s about in the middle of that verse. It says you come forth in the first resurrection [to] inherit [and here are the words] thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths. Those are, in fact, referring to different steps in the process of rising up to the place where God is. This is telling you something about the map to the afterlife. This is telling you something about how there is a hierarchy that is organized there. And you proceed, as Joseph said, from one step to the next. When you begin to climb a ladder, you always begin at the bottom, and you go step-by-step until you reach the top. 

Well, there are those… And I’m not gonna vouch for this, but I’ll find it useful to use today. And I use this not because I’m trying to originate anything, but rather, this is already out there, and so I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn. Rather like what Nephi did with Isaiah, if I can lay it at the feet of someone else, I can say, Well then, I didn’t break any confidences.  

In any event, the ranking goes: 

(The Seraphim being those who dwell in everlasting burnings, the glorious ones, the ones who are flaming. For a description of them, we’ve already looked at that in Doctrine and Covenants section 109, [verse] 79. I’m not gonna go there.) 

But in any event, here you have (in section 132) a listing of some of the things which get inherited. And you think that we have a singular afterlife that consists of heaven and hell or —oh, no! You’re Mormons; therefore, you got three of them. You got your Telestial  (which kingdom you’re presently occupying, by the way). You’ve got your Terrestrial (we hope to manage to get there sometime during the Millennium, also occupying this same globe). And you got your Celestial (which you know, apparently, you’ll be all garbed up and glowing and wearing a robe and nicely put). However, this is suggesting a much more complex afterlife in which, literally, the ascent is by degrees as you move upward. As Joseph said (and I read that in Boise), it’ll be a great time after we have crossed through the veil before we will have learned all that needs to be learned in order to qualify for our salvation and exaltation.

Well, let’s go to Moses chapter 7. This is Moses chapter 7, verse 27: Enoch beheld angels descending out of heaven, bearing testimony of the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion (Moses 7:27, emphasis added). There they show up again—“the powers of heaven”—plural, in the same verse where it’s talking about angels descending. This is the kind of thing that is littered throughout the scriptures if you have the eyes to see it. Because there is actually a structure there. 

There are, within what we regard as priesthood, two brotherhoods or two fellowships: 

And by and large, when the scriptures speak about priesthood having authority/priesthood having power, that is connected by a mortal with a fellowship that extends into the immortal, to the other side. It’s a relationship with the “Powers of Heaven.”

So that you can be clear in your own mind about this, let’s look at Doctrine and Covenants section 107, and go to verse 52: Noah was ten years old when he was ordained under the hand of Methuselah. Okay? So, Moses [Noah] got priesthood as a consequence of the hand of Methuselah having ordained him. That is a priesthood (or fellowship or brotherhood) on this side of the veil.

Now, go back to Moses chapter 8. In Moses chapter 8, verse 19, it says, And the Lord ordained Noah after his…order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch—or in other words, in the case of Noah, the fellowship that originated as a relationship between him and his older brethren here [was] extended by God ordaining him also to a fellowship on the other side. Therefore, he belonged not merely to the priesthood held by men but to the priesthood held by the immortals.

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 107, and look at verse 48:

Enoch was twenty–five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam. (D&C 107:48)

So, he got that when he was 25. But look at what happened when he was 65:

He was sixty–five and Adam blessed him. And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty–five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated. (Ibid, vs. 65)

And so, there is the ordination at 25, which allowed him to join in the fellowship (the brotherhood, the association, the priesthood) that involved men. And then at 65, there is another priesthood, there’s another association, there’s another fellowship.

Jethro, the father-in-law, ordained Moses—D&C 84. Look at that. D&C 84, verse 6: 

And the sons of Moses, according to the Holy Priesthood which he [that is, Moses] received under the hand of his father–in–law, Jethro. (D&C 84:6)

Okay? Then go over to verses… Beginning at 21: 

…without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. [For] this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory. Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also. (Ibid, vs. 21-25)

If you go to Moses chapter 1, beginning at verse 1: 

The [word] of God, which he spake unto Moses at [the] time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high mountain, …he saw God face to face, …he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence. And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty [threefold; three titles], and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless? And, behold, thou art my son. (Moses 1:1-4)

And so, he was ordained by man, and he was ordained by heaven. 

You can see it in the case of Jacob. We’ll look at that, and then we’ll stop. Jacob—go to 2 Nephi chapter 5, verse 26, And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people. Then, if you go to Jacob chapter 1, and you look at verse 17 of Jacob chapter 1, you see Jacob saying, Wherefore I, Jacob, gave unto them…words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord—because Jacob didn’t go out and commence a ministry of teaching (even to his own people over whom he had been consecrated as a priest) until he had first obtained that second ordination.

Well, you can find it throughout if you look for it. The fact is that there are two levels, one of which requires a connection beyond the veil and one of which is here. It is not enough (and you ought never be content) to simply have the association that exists here. 

If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 84, verse 26, it talks about the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel. Even the lesser priesthood holds some connection with heaven. Even the lesser priesthood holds forth the opportunity to have some link with the Powers of Heaven. Therefore, in the lesser priesthood there is an association—a fellowship—that is anticipated.

And, of course, the greater priesthood (that we looked at before in those verses describing what Moses…) is that a priesthood that has a power of godliness that gets manifest unto men, in the flesh—For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live (D&C 84:22)—

Don’t let anyone deceive you into believing that this association is merely meant for the afterlife. If it were so, the wordsin the flesh would not appear here and other places in the scriptures that I pointed out to you as I’ve gone through these various talks. It was meant to be laid hold upon here. And as a consequence of laying hold upon it here, you qualify to receive that in the world to come (see D&C 76:118). And if you fail to lay hold upon that here, then wo unto [you]. That doesn’t mean that you are condemned forever. That just means that you’ve wasted an opportunity—and therefore, the struggle for you will continue. Put it away; get it done.

The question was asked, and I read it before (I read the answer, not the question). The questions was: “Was the priesthood of Melchizedek taken away when Moses died?” 

Joseph said (and it was in this context where I began earlier): “All priesthood is Melchizedek, but there are different portions or degrees of it” (TPJS, 180-181). I’m hoping that now when we read that, you say to yourself, “Different portions of degrees of it has reference to these different fellowships, these different associations that one can have with those Powers of Heaven which exist on the other side”—because there is a level of growth, a level of development, and an entrustment of the authority and the power of godliness that continues on into eternity, until at last you arise at the point… Joseph calls it “attaining to the resurrection.” And attaining to the resurrection, in that context, means to inherit everlasting burnings so to be able to dwell in a position of glory, from which descent is well-nigh impossible.

But remember, “all priesthood is Melchizedek but there are different portions or degrees of it. That portion which brought Moses to speak with God face-to-face was taken away but that which brought the ministry of angels remained” (ibid). Then he added, as I read, “All the prophets had the Melchizedek priesthood and were ordained by God himself” (ibid). 

Possible, I suppose, to pass along “Melchizedek priesthood” in a fellowship between men, but invariably, it is the case that when you find someone in possession of the Melchizedek priesthood in the form in which Joseph was referring to it in this answer, it is always the case that all prophets had the Melchizedek priesthood and were ordained by God Himself. Always the case. 

Now, all priesthood is perishable. We saw that in Doctrine and Covenants section 121, verse 37: That [it] may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, …gratify our pride, our vain ambition, …to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness… And let me couple that with: What is the tool? How do I get to use the priesthood? How is it that I do get to exercise some influence? No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned (ibid, vs.41).

I thank God I do not preside over any of you. I thank God I have no responsibility for any of you, my family aside. (Yeah, okay. We’re getting close to the first break.) Let me tell you that even within my own family, I don’t feel it is my prerogative to do anything other than to use persuasion, to use long-suffering, to use gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned, and to try—kindly—to use pure knowledge to lay the matter out. But it is ever so much better to lay that out when the question is asked rather than it is to lay out the answer and force-feed it to someone who doesn’t even have the idea occur to them that there’s an issue to be discussed. One of the reasons why I solicited questions was to find out to what extent you’re ready to hear something about something that confuses you. And some of the questions are quite poignant, and we’ll hopefully be able to solve a number of them as we go along.

Priesthood is perishable. Even that priesthood conferred by the voice of God is perishable, if you are unwilling to restrain and to contain yourself within the bounds which the Lord has prescribed.

As we get to sealing power (and we will get there before the day is up), there are some things about that you need to have parsed, and you need to understand. But the fact of the matter is that when we talk about priesthood, we throw about lavish claims among ourselves because we have a vocabulary. And as a consequence of possessing that vocabulary, we think, then, that we have understanding when, in fact, the scriptures are telling us a whole different story. And that whole different story is what we’re pursuing here today. Hopefully, when we get to the end of this today, you’ll walk away saying, “I need to go back and study my scriptures, ’cuz it sounds like there’s a whole lot in there about priesthood that makes distinctions which I had not heretofore appreciated.”

(So, what we’re going to do is take…? What? Five minutes? We’re gonna take five minutes, and when they signal me, we’ll begin again.) 

(Okay, we’re good to go.)

As a reminder that all priesthood is perishable, if you look at Doctrine and Covenants section 124, verse 28, it says, There is not a place found on earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood. Now, that’s a verse that (at this moment) I’m not prepared to get into all of the implications of. I just want to use it as a reference point for the proposition that something given can be taken away—that priesthood is, in fact, perishable. While we are here in the mortal realm, it is possible that a person fall away.

(Carol, I returned your scriptures because I found it on my iPad. So, even though I resist the iPad as a source of scriptures—and mocked those who were early adopters in the lessons I taught—I nonetheless have a set of scriptures on my iPad.) 

Okay, so, this then leads me to the next topic that I wanna try and get through—a topic about which some of you may be completely unaware, but one that has occupied a lot of attention of a number of very careful and thoughtful people (and with whom I will probably disagree—but it’s not because I don’t view their efforts to parse this topic as unworthy or worthless; it’s because I reckon my understanding from a different point from which I triangulate on this topic—and not merely the record that we have before us). 

This is from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. And The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith were a reduction (into a singular account) of a variety of note-takers’ accounts of Joseph’s words. The original note-takers’ accounts have been gathered together in Andy Ehat’s book, The Words of Joseph Smith. And so, if you go to the Andy Ehat version and you look at what all the note-takers say, you can see—and you can contrast—what the note-takers have and then what The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith have.

For my purposes, it’s not important today to parse all the different accounts. It would take too long, and I find what’s inThe Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith]  to be adequate in order to talk about the topic. But it doesn’t mean that I commend this as a great reconstruction—because, in fact, in many cases there’s doctrinal significance to the difference between the note-taker’s accounts; and you can almost feel that (from the varying accounts) that they’re listening to Joseph and then recording their notes based upon their understanding, measuring Joseph’s words against what they believed the doctrine to be—as opposed to, instead, allowing the words of Joseph to inform them. And then the compiler of The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith has made his own consolidation. But once again, this is adequate for my purposes today. I’m reading from page 322 of The Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith]. Beginning there:

Respecting the Melchizedek Priesthood, the sectarians never professed to have it; consequently they never could save any one, and would all be damned together. There was an Episcopal priest who said he had the priesthood of Aaron, but had not the priesthood of Melchizedek: and I bear testimony that I  [have never] found the man who claimed the Priesthood of Melchizedek. The power of the Melchizedek Priesthood is to have the power of “endless lives”; for the everlasting covenant cannot be broken. (see also DHC 5:554-556; August 27, 1843)

See, Joseph here is referring to that covenant given when you obtain that priesthood by the Father who swears by Himself about the results of having attained unto that priesthood. So, it holds that power of endless lives—for the everlasting covenant made by the Father cannot be broken.

The law was given under Aaron for the purpose of pouring out judgments and destruction. (Ibid)

So, the Mosaic law was given, and the priesthood was accommodated in order to pour out judgments and destruction. 

If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 1, there’s this interesting set of verses beginning in verse 8 of D&C 1: 

And verily I say unto you, that they who go forth, bearing these tidings unto the inhabitants of the earth, to them is power given to seal both on earth and in heaven, the unbelieving and rebellious; Yea, verily, to seal them up unto the day when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon the wicked without measure—Unto the day when the Lord shall come to recompense unto every man according to his work, and measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured to his fellow man. (D&C 1:8-10)

These are all negative. These are all sealing up unto destruction. These are all condemnations. These are all, in a word, Aaronic. But bear in mind, the Aaronic priesthood is not without hope, because within it is the power to baptize, which is an ordinance of hope. Primarily, however, the purpose of the Aaronic priesthood is to condemn. 

There are three grand orders of priesthood referred to here. 1st. The king of Shiloam (Salem) had power and authority over that of Abraham, holding the key and the power of endless life. Angels [now, remember what I said earlier about there being different ranks, Angels] desire to look into it, but they have set up too many stakes. (DHC5:554-556; August 27, 1843, emphasis added)

See, the angels were unwilling to receive what they might have received, and as a consequence of that, they could not go. 

Look in Doctrine and Covenants section 132, verse 16: Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. Angels, in this context (if you will hear it), are included within Joseph’s description of “angels desire to look into it, but they have set up too many stakes,” as a consequence of their unwillingness to receive what God freely offers to all. And they’re hedging up their own way by their failure to develop that faith and confidence necessary to lay hold upon the blessings of heaven, because they believe that those blessings are reserved for others and not for them; because, as the (de-canonized now) Lectures on Faith suggest, they fear that they do not have the power to lay hold upon all the blessings which were entirely reserved and promised to them (see Lectures on Faith, Lecture Third, paragraph 23). Because they have not that faith required, they become limited in what they seek for and, therefore, what they obtain.

God cursed the children of Israel because they would not receive the last law from Moses. The sacrifice required of Abraham in the offering up of Isaac, shows that if a man would attain to the keys of the kingdom of an endless life; he must sacrifice all things. When God offers a blessing or knowledge to a man, and he refuses to receive it, he will be damned (DHC 5:554-556; August 27, 1843)—

…which is why when the Lord sets something in motion and begins to declare the truth again (and He offers a message that needs to be received, and it is not received by those to whom it is offered), the results are ‘they refuse to receive the blessing or knowledge that is offered to them, and therefore they will be damned’—damned in the sense meaning that they hedge up the way, that they limit the ability of God to confer upon them what they might have received. They partake of, ultimately, the sufferings of the damned because the pain of the mind is exquisite when they realize that they have not laid hold upon what God freely offered to give unto them, and therefore, they are their own condemnor, and they are their own judge.

The Israelites prayed that God would speak to Moses and not to them; in consequence of which he cursed them with a carnal law. (Ibid) 

Can you imagine?! If the children of Israel in that day were cursed by God because they said Moses must talk to God and not us, how much greater must be the damnation upon those who say, “You must not talk to God, because we have one who does so for you! And you’re not entitled to receive anything beyond the bounds of your limited position in this beehive we’ve constructed!” Damnable heresy! Doctrines of devils! Propounded by those who are purveyors of a false priestcraft! Unauthorized by God! Unsanctioned by Him! They suffer not themselves to enter in, and they will hedge up the way if you will heed them. There is no man… There is no man on his own errand in this world who can offer to you salvation. But if God sends a message, you’d better heed it, even if you find it difficult to hear.

What was the power of Melchizedek? ‘Twas not the Priesthood of Aaron which administers…outward ordinances, and the offering of sacrifices. Those holding the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood are kings and priests of the Most High God, holding the keys of power and blessings (Ibid)— 

…because the Aaronic holds and is given for judgments and destruction. The Melchizedek is given for blessing. And when someone claims to hold Melchizedek priesthood and they use it in order to offer up judgment and condemnation and control and compulsion and authority over the souls of men—and they refuse to constrain themselves, to use persuasion only and gentleness and meekness—then you know you’re listening to an Aaronic and not a Melchizedek authority. Because the office and the authority and the keys of the Melchizedek is to bless; it’s to enlighten; it’s to raise and to bring to you light and truth.

In fact, that Priesthood is a perfect law of theocracy, and stands as God to give laws to the people, administering endless lives to the sons and daughters of Adam. (Ibid)

Because, once again, it is always genealogical. It is always familial. It has always been “turning the hearts of the children back to the fathers”—the final father in that chain being Adam.

Abraham says to Melchizedek, I believe all…thou hast taught me concerning the priesthood and the coming of the Son of Man; so Melchizedek ordained Abraham and sent him away. Abraham rejoiced, saying, Now I have a priesthood. Salvation could not come to the world without the mediation of Jesus Christ. How shall God come to rescue…this generation? He will send Elijah the prophet. The law revealed to Moses in Horeb never was revealed to the children of Israel as a nation. Elijah shall reveal the covenants to seal the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers. (Ibid) 

This talk, on this day by Joseph Smith, is seven years after the 1836 Doctrine and Covenants section 110 incident. So, 

Elijah shall reveal the covenants to seal the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. The anointing and sealing is to be called, elected, and made sure. “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, …made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.” The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right from the eternal God, and not by descent from father and mother; and that priesthood is as eternal as God Himself, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. (Ibid)

That is not to say that because one receives that priesthood that they cannot fall from that. Because while you are in this world, as Paul put it, you stand in jeopardy every hour. Here is the place in which the trial, the test, the temptation, the burden of mortality exists. And it exists for so long as you have the flesh. You do not… Even if you possess the authority, you do not have that abide with you continually on into eternity until you have finished the course, until you have resisted the temptation, until you have completed the race and finished the work. Only when you lay down the burden—here—successfully having completed it, are you permitted then to take it up there, as a matter of right. But here, although the priesthood is endless, although the covenant of God is eternal, a man may fall from it; and therefore, you proceed recognizing that you proceed with eternal peril.

The 2nd Priesthood is Patriarchal authority. Go to and finish the temple, and God will fill it with power, and you will then receive more knowledge concerning this priesthood. (Ibid)

Now, there is a controversy in which, almost to a man, all of those who have researched the subject have reached the conclusion that Melchizedek priesthood is greater than Patriarchal priesthood and that Levitical priesthood is inferior to them all. So that if you were (as those who have researched it) ranking them, you would say it is Levitical and then Patriarchal and then Melchizedek. And that that’s the way in which it’s parsed. I disagree with that. 

I disagree with that for two reasons. First of all, I do not believe that this talk, given by Joseph Smith, in the order in which he expresses it is top, middle, bottom. I believe it is middle, top, and then he picks up the bottom (with Levitical). 

The other reason why I think Patriarchal ought to be viewed as the highest form is because the priesthood which began with Adam was priesthood which was after the Order of the Son of God. And that that priesthood after the Order of the Son of God descended from Adam down to the time of Enoch, and then it got renamed the Priesthood after the Order of Enoch.  And then later it got renamed the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek or the priesthood of Melchizedek. 

When Adam promises that the priesthood that was in the beginning is going to return at the end of the world also, he is talking about a return at the end of the world of that priesthood which was held by the original patriarchs—a time when, for generations, it was unitary (there was only one) and that the designation (the correct designation) of that priesthood is the “Holy Priesthood” or the “Holy Order after the Order of the Son of God.” It’s a long name, but it was that priesthood that was held by the patriarchs. As a consequence of it being that priesthood, held by the original patriarchs, which was in the beginning of the world and is to return at the end of the world also, I prefer to regard the highest order under the name designation of Patriarchal priesthood. And so, when I use the term, I’m referring to that priesthood originally held by Adam, that priesthood held by Enoch, that priesthood which is more correctly called the Holy Order after the Order of the Son of God. Therefore, if you are going to say Patriarchal priesthood as a scholar and parse the words differently, you need to understand that I’m using them in this way. And I disagree with you. And I have my reasons for doing so. And I think that Joseph had reasons for doing so also, because of what I just read you. 

Go to and finish the temple, and God will fill it with power, and you will then receive more knowledge concerning this priesthood. (Ibid, emphasis added)

I’m suggesting to you that something which, by its nature, required the completion of the temple and required the presence of God, which relates to the revelation given in January of 1841 that I read a few minutes ago—For there[‘s] not a place found on the earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fullness of the priesthood (D&C 124:28). It requires Him—God—to come to that place, and for Him—God—to restore to you that which has been taken away—the fullness. Go to, and God… You finish the temple, “God will fill it with power…you will then receive more knowledge concerning this priesthood.”

Even in the words of Joseph, taken together with Doctrine and Covenants section 124, [verse] 28 that I just read to you, it suggests that the highest form—the one which brings you into contact with God in His holy temple—that one, that priesthood, is correctly designated “Patriarchal.” 

Therefore, in this talk, I don’t think he’s enumerating them by priority. I think he’s just giving you a list. He’s not trying to prioritize that list.

The 3rd is what is called…Levitical Priesthood, consisting of priests to administer in outward ordinances, made without an oath; but the Priesthood of Melchizedek is [made] by an oath and covenant. (DHC 5:554-556; August 27, 1843, emphasis added)

But the “oath and [the] covenant” is the oath and the covenant that is given by the Father—it’s not what we read to the newly-ordained Elder; that is an aspiration, and it’s very good to have aspirational notions preached to us in connection with the priesthood, but aspiration is not reality. And “knowledge concerning the content” is not possessing the same thing as the covenant itself. And therefore, if you’re going to receive the covenant which cannot be broken… The covenant which cannot be broken is obtained by—and from—the Father.

The Holy Ghost is God’s messenger to administer in all those priesthoods. (Ibid)

You see, it was by faith and the power of the Holy Ghost that Melchizedek did all that he did. And if someone gets possession of any or all of these priesthoods, the way in which the priesthood proceeds is in accordance with the power of the Holy Ghost. Joseph just said: it’s by the power of the Holy Ghost.

So, let me ask you the question, and you answer it yourself: Let us assume the case that a woman is filled with the Holy Ghost—rather like Anna in the temple when Christ was brought; and Anna, by the power of the Holy Ghost, prophesies concerning the young boy, the babe, that was brought to the temple. Given the fact that the authority by which priesthood is to become operative (as Joseph just explained) is the Holy Ghost, what possible difference does it make if the prophetess Anna, standing in the temple, prophesying concerning the child who is brought in, cannot grab a knife and go over to the place they tied the animals and cut the throat of the sheep? And then divide it up and carry part of its carcass over and drop it on the iron at the top of the ramp on the altar where they burned? And can’t take the bowl and hyssop and walk around and splatter the four corners of the altar at the bloodline of the altar? Why would it be more significant that Anna was deprived of the outward ordinance performance than that she, as a prophetess, filled with the Holy Ghost, spake and prophesied concerning the Son of God on the day that He was brought to the temple, for the offering of the cleansing of Mary, having completed her day? You see, the Holy Ghost is God’s messenger to administer in all these priesthoods. 

Well, you envy the unenviable, and you focus on the irrelevant because, quite frankly, given the fact that the purpose of that Aaronic priesthood is to pour out judgments and destructions, and its purpose is to seal people up to condemnation, I can’t imagine… Well, I take that back—I can imagine why a woman would want to possess that. I have a partner who does divorce work. So, I can imagine. And she’s a female too.

Jesus Christ is the heir of this Kingdom—the Only Begotten of the Father according to the flesh, and holds the keys over all this world. Men have to suffer that they may come [up unto] Mount Zion and be exalted above the heavens. I know a man that has been caught up to the third heavens and can say, with Paul, that we have seen and heard things that are not lawful to utter. (Ibid)

Well, I believe that the purpose of the heavenly association is to accomplish two things: One is to have valid ordinances, and the second is to obtain answers or direction. I wanna read from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Where did the kingdom of God begin? Where there is no kingdom of God there is no salvation. What constitutes the kingdom of God? Where there is a prophet, a priest, or a righteous man unto whom God gives His oracles; there is the kingdom of God and where the oracles [of God] are not, there the kingdom of God is not. In these remarks, I have no allusion to the kingdoms of [this] earth. We will keep the laws of the land; we do not speak against them; we never have, and we can hardly make mention of the state of Missouri, of our persecutions there, but what the cry goes forth that we [were] guilty of larceny, burglary, arson, treason, murder…which is false. We speak of the kingdom of God on the earth, not the kingdoms of men. (TPJS, 272; see also DHC 5:256-259)

If you’ve read that paper I wrote, Brigham Young’s Telestial Kingdom, you’ll recognize in that that Brigham Young thought that the kingdom was to be an earthly institution. Joseph was denouncing that. He denounced a lot of things that we have subsequently taken up and said is really our cause.

The plea of many in this day is that we have no right to receive revelations; but if we do not get revelations, we do not have the oracles of God; and if they have not the oracles of God, [then] they are not the people of God. But say you, What will become of the world, or the various professors of religion who do not believe in revelation and the oracles of God as continued to His Church in all ages of the world, when He has a people on earth? I tell you, in the name of Jesus Christ, [that] they will be damned; and when you get into the eternal world, you will find it will be so, they cannot escape the damnation of hell. (Ibid)

…the “oracles of God” (meaning the revelations of God). And the revelations of God were given to us from Joseph Smith as the foundation, as the font from which we draw. But it was always intended that there should arise in you the power of obtaining oracles for yourself.

As touching the Gospel and baptism that John preached, I would say that John came preaching the Gospel for the remission of sins; he had his authority from God, and the oracles of God were with him, and the kingdom of God for a season seemed to rest with John alone. The Lord promised Zacharias that he should have a son who was a descendant of Aaron, the Lord having promised that [this] priesthood should continue with Aaron and his seed throughout their generations. Let no man take this honor upon himself, except he be called of God, as was Aaron; and Aaron received his call by revelations. An angel of God also appeared unto Zacharias while in the Temple, and told him that he should have a son, whose name should be John, and he should be filled with the Holy Ghost. Zacharias was a priest of God, and officiating in the Temple, and John was a priest after his father, and [he] held the keys of the Aaronic priesthood, and was called of God to preach the Gospel of the kingdom… The Jews, as a nation, having departed from the law of God and the Gospel of the Lord, prepared the way for transferring it to the Gentiles. But, says one, the kingdom of God could not be set up in the days of John, for John said the kingdom was at hand. But I would ask if it could be any nearer to them than to be in the hands of John. The people need not wait for the days of Pentecost to find the kingdom of God, for John had it with him, and he came forth from the wilderness crying out, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of…[God] is nigh at hand,” as much as to say, “Out here I have got the kingdom of God, and you can get it, and I am coming after you; and if you don’t receive it, you will be damned”; and the scriptures represent that all Jerusalem went out into John’s baptism. There was a legal administrator, and those that were baptized were subjects for a king; and also the laws and oracles of God were there; therefore the kingdom of God was there; for no man could have better authority to administer than John; and our Savior submitted to that authority Himself, by being baptized by John; therefore the kingdom of God was set up on the earth, even in the days of John. (Ibid)

John was a legal administrator. Christ recognized him, even though there was an existing priestly authority He also respected who were in control of the temple at Jerusalem. (That’s me—I’m inserting. That’s not reading from TheTeachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith].)

There is a difference between the kingdom of God and the fruits and blessings that flow from the kingdom; because there were more miracles, gifts, visions, healings, tongues, &c., in the days of Jesus Christ and His apostles, and on the day of Pentecost, than under John’s administration, it does not prove by any means that John had not the kingdom of God, any more than it would that a woman had not a milk pan because she had not a pan of milk, for while the pan might be compared to the kingdom, the milk might be compared to the blessings of the kingdom. John was a priest after the order of Aaron, and had the keys of that priesthood, and came forth preaching repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, but at the same time cries out, “There come[s] one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose” and Christ came according to the words of John, and He was greater than John, because He held the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood and kingdom of God, and had before revealed the priesthood of Moses, yet Christ was baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness; and Jesus in His teachings says, “Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What rock? Revelation. Again he says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter…the kingdom of God;” and, “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” If a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he can get into the kingdom of God. It is evident the kingdom of God was on the earth, and John prepared subjects for the kingdom, by preaching the Gospel to them and baptizing them, and he prepared the way before the Savior, or came as a forerunner, and prepared subjects for the preaching of Christ; and Christ preached through Jerusalem on the same ground where John had preached; and when the apostles were raised up, they worked in Jerusalem, and Jesus commanded them to tarry there until they were endowed with power from on high. Had they not work to do in Jerusalem? They did work, and prepared a people for the Pentecost. The kingdom of God was with them before the day of Pentecost, as well as afterwards; [as] it was also with John, and he preached the same Gospel and baptism that Jesus and the apostles preached after him. The endowment was to prepare the disciples for their missions unto the world. Whenever men can find out the will of God and find an administrator legally authorized from God, there is the kingdom of God; but where these are not, the kingdom of God is not. All the ordinances, systems, and administrations on the earth are of no use to the children of men, unless they are ordained and authorized of God; for nothing will save a man but a legal administrator; for none others will be acknowledged either by God or angels. I know what I say; I understand my mission and business. God Almighty is my shield; and what can man do if God is my friend? I shall not be sacrificed until my time comes; then I shall be offered freely. All flesh is as grass, and a governor is [no] better than other men; when he dies he is but a bag of dust. I thank God for preserving me from my enemies; I have no enemies but for the truth’s sake. I have no desire but to do all men good. I feel to pray for all men. We don’t ask any people to throw away any good they have got; we only ask them to come and get more. What if all the world should embrace this Gospel? They would then see eye to eye, and the blessings of God would be poured out upon the people, which is the desire of my whole soul. Amen. (Ibid)

This is Joseph in January of 1843.

Joseph Smith also said, “John wrested the keys, the kingdom, the power…the glory from the Jews…by the holy anointing and decree of heaven.” That’s The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 276. Doctrine and Covenants section 84, verse 28 points out that John was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is given all power. John was sent forth and, in part, was sent forth to be rejected of the Jews so that he could wrest “the keys, the kingdom, …the power and the glory from the Jews, and this by the holy anointing and decree of heaven.” Because an angel had established it and because it was the Powers of Heaven that were behind it.

Well then, we have this also from Joseph: 

All men are liars who say they are of the true Church without the revelations of Jesus Christ and the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God. It is…the order of heavenly things that God should always send a new dispensation into the world when men have apostatized from the truth and lost the priesthood, but when men come out and build upon other men’s foundations, they do it on their own responsibility, without authority from God; and when the floods come and the winds blow, their foundations will be found to be sand, and their whole fabric will crumble to dust. Did I build on [an]other man’s foundation? [I’ve] got all the truth which the Christian world possessed, and an independent revelation in the bargain. 

That’s The Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith], on pages 375 and 376. 

There are three priesthoods. There are three orders of priesthood. And if you turn to Doctrine and Covenants section 107, that same prophet (who described the existence of three priesthoods) said in the opening verse of Doctrine and Covenants107, There are, in the church, two priesthoods, namely, the Melchizedek and Aaronic, including the Levitical Priesthood(D&C 107:1, emphasis added). This is yet another reason why I think the third priesthood ought be called Patriarchal. And it’s not priesthood which one obtains by going and being sealed in the temple. It‘s one [that] one obtains by going and meeting with God in His temple. That greatest priesthood… Before [the days of Melchizedek] it was called [this is verse 3 of section 107]  the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God. My view is that we’ve had enough… We’ve had enough name changes—that when the priesthood returns again in the last days, it will no longer be called after a man (or men or those who have held it in the past), but it will be called the Holy Order after the Son of God—that being, at the end of the world, in conformity with that which was in the beginning.

Even Christ… Even Christ had to be ordained to this order. Look at Matthew; chapter 3 of Matthew, verse 16: And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased  (Matthew 3:16).

The other night, Margaret Barker suggested that if she were describing the voice, she would have that voice be the voice of a woman saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Which—I didn’t say it at the time—but if I were staging it, I would have the voice of a man and a woman, speaking in unison the words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”…if I were staging such a thing or attempting to portray it.

Which reminds me of a conversation I’d had with her earlier that evening. They’re doing a conference on weaving and sacred fabrics, and she’s going to try and put together a veil—and was suggesting the depiction of cherubim as a winged disc (“winged disc” being the symbol of the feminine). And I suggested to her that if I were using that as a representation, I would have six feathers or six flutes on each wing to depict the state of ascent. And she liked that idea. So, if in her next presentation in the veil of the temple there is a winged disk cherubim being depicted and it has six flutes, I told her she can own that. That’s her idea. She can have it from me.

Again, in the book of Hebrews chapter 5, verse 4, beginning at verse 4: And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him… (Hebrews 5:4-5). You see, Christ didn’t do this. It was done by he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day I have begotten thee (ibid, emphasis added).

Okay. Just… I’m gonna do this. It’s a complete aside, but I really like the work that Bart Erhman has done because he’s tried to reconstruct the Christological debates of the Second and Third Century, in which they rewrote the New Testament in order to conform with their false Christological ideas and arguments. See, when Christ was baptized, the statement that was made to Christ (Bart Erhman has shown) is the statement that you find in Psalms chapter 2, verse 7, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, which was changed to, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17) in order to solve a debate going on in the Second Century over the idea of adoptionism (that Christ was merely mortal, and He was adopted by God through that statement). And so, that statement—which appears in Psalms chapter 2, verse 7—was really what was one time in Matthew in the words I read you before. But it got changed. And Bart Ehrman points, in part, Thou art my son, [to]day have I begotten thee… This is the Hebrew statement, because Paul was writing the book of Hebrews at a time… 

And I recognize there’s an argument over whether Paul is the author of Hebrews, but we’re just gonna take it as a given. Joseph didn’t quibble over it. I’m not gonna quibble over it. I don’t wanna go there; it’s a whole ’nother argument. Leave that to the damned scholars, because they surely are damned.

This writing came at a time before the revisionism that occurred in those debates. And therefore, the words that we find here in Hebrews are the words that mirror the statement that you find in Psalms. It’s an earlier record. The Deuteronomists were busy not only during the time of the Old Testament Second-Temple-Period; they were busy post-New Testament era, before the formation of the great harlot. (And they are surely busy even today—we call them “correlationists.”) And so, He was begotten by the Father. That is a statement that was made to Christ at the time of His baptism. 

Go back to Moses chapter 1. I’ve already read it, but I wanna remind you that it’s there. In Moses chapter 1, it is the Lord speaking to Moses: 

Behold [this is verse 4], thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all… (Moses 1:4). 

Look, this is another astounding example of what the purpose of God… The purpose of God is to bestow upon people the glory of God. And what is the glory of God? The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth (D&C 93:36). And what is truth? It is the knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come (D&C 93:24). Those are all in the scriptures, and you ought to all know that. That’s the purpose of God. And the glory of God is reflected when you know something (which is why I am trying to communicate something—so that you might have glory).

Look what happens to Moses: 

Behold, thou art my son; wherefore look…I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease. (Moses 1:4)

Look at that! God’s words never cease. Even when silence is caused to reign because the Powers of Heaven are so disgusted with humanity that they withdraw themselves, God’s words don’t cease at all. His words do not stop. And even if the angels refuse to minister, communicate, visit… Yet, will God still speak unto men.

Some people asked the question about God speaking to Cain (as a result of the talk I gave in Idaho Falls referring to your privilege of talking to God because He spoke to Cain). It doesn’t say that God appeared to Cain; it says that God spoke to Cain. Cain heard the voice of God speaking to him. He didn’t get caught up to the throne of God; he did not have a throne theophany; he was not brought back and redeemed from the fall—but he heard the voice of God. God spoke to Cain after the murder of Abel. The angels withdrew from him. The angels were grieved. They would have nothing to do—and yet, God still spoke to him.

His words are endless. I don’t care what malignancy you think you carry around within you. The fact is, none of you have done the same crap that Cain did, because Cain possessed greater knowledge than you did at the time of the murder that he committed. And yet, God spoke to him still. Therefore, have the confidence—even if you grieve angels—that God will talk to you. …My words, for they never cease (ibid). 

Yeah, God is talkative. God desires us to know more than we know—if we will receive it. And the minute we tell Him to be quiet and withdraw and leave us alone, we are in the very act of damning ourselves. Because what we’re saying is, “That which You offered unto us, we would prefer to be silence, instead.” Don’t do that.

Abraham chapter 3, verse 12, we encounter God [Abraham] saying, And he said unto me [Abraham saying]: My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), behold I will show you all these. And he put his hand upon mine eyes, and I saw those things which his hands had made, which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof (Abraham 3:12). Once again, you have (at the same instance that he is being acknowledged as a son) the outpouring of the intelligence of God, the glory of God, light and truth—knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.

Joseph—Joseph Smith—in Doctrine and Covenants section 121, verse 7: My son, peace be unto thy soul. Okay, if you view priesthood as a brotherhood or an association, then I want to suggest that the way in which you should parse the three orders of priesthood is to parse them this way:

Go to Moses chapter 5 [6]. This is a prophecy given by Adam which constituted one of the covenants which I referred to in the talk given at Centerville. Moses… (Oh, excuse me; it’s chapter 6, verse 7): “Now this same Priesthood”—this is Adam speaking: Now this same Priesthood which was in the beginning, shall be in the end of the world, also. Now this prophecy Adam spake, as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost (Moses 6:7-8). Therefore, it was the power of the priesthood, animated by the Holy Ghost, which established, as a matter of right—and therefore, of covenant—the promise that this thing, this authority, this power, and this relationship which once existed in the beginning of the world is to exist again at the end of the world. And that that, too, arises as a consequence of the covenant given in the beginning.

So, what kind of person receives that ordination? I’m going back to the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 14. This is the kind of person: Melchizedek was a man of faith who wrought righteousness. You have to have faith. You have to wrought perform righteousness, which is not the same thing as virtue. Virtue… Virtue can be offended by righteousness. Virtue is… 

Virtue would never kill, okay? It just never would. But it is righteous—in the case of Nephi, at the command of God—to slay Laban. Virtue would never do any number of things, say any number of things, or behave in any number of ways in which John the Baptist behaved. [You] generation of vipers (Luke 3:7). Look, we translate that as if what we’re reading is some nicely-phrased King Jamesian version of an insult. If you were trying to put it into modern English… This is John the Baptist (a righteous man with whom the kingdom of God existed) essentially, in the language of their day, saying, “You sons of bitches!” Because in our vernacular, by saying, “…sons of bitches,” what you’re saying is your mother is a female dog; and therefore, you are a dog; and since you’re a dog, you are a cur, and you are unworthy. This is guttural language. We read, “You generations of vipers!” and we say, Oh, isn’t that a nice way to parse out that John’s thinks he’s talking to the bad guys. And yet, we look sometimes at righteousness, and we say it can never be so because it is not virtuous. Because we overlay virtue atop righteousness—and it does not work and never has worked that way. Righteousness controls, and virtue surrenders. And virtue yields every time to righteousness—else Abraham could never have been commanded to slay his son. Because that was not virtuous. Therefore, 

Melchizedek was a man of righteousness; …when a child he feared God [not man], …stopped the mouths of lions, …quenched the violence of fire. …thus, having been approved of God [not man]… (JST Genesis 14:26-27) 

In fact, to be approved of God, in many cases, will make you offensive to man. But the opinions, and the vagaries, and the fashions of men, the opinion-polling and the drifts of what is and what is not popular at one point or another are damnable. They ought not even be considered. Righteousness does not give any regard to such things. And yet, it may be virtuous… It may be virtuous to be a limp-wristed, weepy, happy-go-lucky, “have a nice day” kind of chap… But righteousness will kick his ass everyday.

…having been approved of God… (Ibid)

It is God—and God’s approval alone—that matters. It is what God regards of you. It is what is in your heart, because God can detect what is in your heart. God knows why you do what you do. God knows why you say what you say. God knows what is in your thoughts. Therefore, to be approved of God is to be weighed against the standard of righteousness and not the whims of fashion. Fashion will come and go. Ideas will be popular or unpopular. Righteousness will endure forever. This. This. This is the kind of man upon whom the words get spoken, “My Son.” 

The fathers (about whom I spoke in Centerville) had this association with God. They had this fellowship with God. They had this sonship with God. And they had this priesthood from God. And the hearts of the children need to turn to the fathers, and that, too, because Elijah is coming to plant in the hearts of the children the promises that were made. 

Now, I wanna take another detour into parsing things in a way that you might not have considered before, and for this I wanna go to Doctrine and Covenants section 128, and I wanna look at verse 21. This is Joseph… This is Joseph writing a letter that got canonized. And he’s talking about all of the stuff that had gone on in the process of getting the Restoration fully established on the earth, and he mentions in this letter that he writes these things: 

And again, the voice of God in the chamber of old Father Whitmer, in Fayette, Seneca county, and at sundry times, and in divers places through[out] all the travels and tribulations of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! [So the voice of God has been there throughout all of this, as Joseph presided and as the Church rolled forth.] And the voice of Michael, [Michael], the archangel; the voice of Gabriel [“El” being the name of God], and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time, all declaring their dispensation, their rights, their keys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood; giving line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, …there a little; giving us consolation by holding forth that which is to come, confirming our hope! (D&C 128:21)

So, I wanna suggest to you that Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are known to us as those who have come—though they were part of the El (or, in the plural form, the “Elohim”)—they came, and they served here. They came, and they ministered here:

Adam is the one in the East, the angel who was considered the one who presides over and has control of the air—which is apt because unto Adam was given the breath of life in the beginning. 

Raphael is in the South, and he is associated with the power of fire—which is apt because of his fiery ascent with his people into heaven. 

Gabriel is the angel in the West who has the power over water—which is apt because, in mortality, he managed through the Flood. 

And Uriel, though not mentioned, is the one who, in the North, has the power over the earth—which is apt because he remains upon the earth, and he is the guardian at one gate, with Elijah at the other end. 

But you can take and leave all that as you will. I find the mention here (in this letter by Joseph) of these individuals and these powers—and these four (three of whom are named; the fourth of whom, potentially, is unnamed)—to be interesting, though he does mention divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time (ibid).

Now I wanna focus on… Are we out? Five minutes still? Okay. Now I wanna focus on… 

You think, and you hear, and you get beaten into your head on a continuous drum beat… I know, ’cuz I go to your meetings too. And I know this ’cuz you broadcast your general conference, and so, I can hear what you guys think. And—ohmm—here’s what you think: “Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! We got keys! We got keys! We got… We got… We’re bustling with keeeeeeys! We got your keys!” 

Now, you tell me, Mormons… You tell me—you declare to me—what are your dispensations? Tell me what your rights are. Tell me what your keys are. Even John Taylor tried to develop the Book of Keys because he didn’t know what they were. You tell me what they are. Stop proclaiming that you own them, and tell me what the hell they are. If you got ’em, you oughta understand ’em. Tell me what your honors are. Tell me what your majesty is. Tell me what your glory is. Tell me, then, what the power of your priesthood is. Because if keys alone were sufficient, I rather think that Joseph Smith (who understood what he was writing) would not have gone to the trouble of parsing through the words dispensation…rights…keys…honors…majesty…glory, and…power (ibid) if it was all speaking to exactly the same thing. It is not speaking to the same thing. There is so much more that has to go on and be understood if you are going to save yourself and any soul in this generation in that kingdom which we claim we would like to inherit. And w  e claim we would like to inherit it without any idea of the consequences of what it would take in order to ascend there—or without any regard to the fact that you don’t take one of the El and bring them down into mortality pain-free. You say that the Son of God condescended to come and be here. And I say, so did Michael, and so did Raphael, and so did Gabriel—because coming down and condescending to be here (on a rescue mission) by those who dwell in glory is an act of service and sacrifice that we simply take for granted out of the abundance of our ignorance. 

(Well, we’re in need of another break. We have to change the disk, so another five minute break, and then we’ll try and finish it.)

(Should we start? Okay.)

If you go to and you look at Doctrine and Covenants section 76, beginning at verse 50, and you read through the list of things that are descriptors of those that are going to inherit Celestial glory… Beginning at verse 50—and we don’t have time to go through all of the things that are there—but in 51 it says that these are people: 

…who received the testimony of Jesus [that is, Christ testifying to them that they’re saved], …believed on his name[these are people who]…were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in…water in his name, …this according to the commandment which he has given—

That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, …receive the Holy [Ghost] by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power [that sounds a little different than what we do]; And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth…on all those who are just and true. [These] are they who are the Church of the Firstborn. [These] are they into whose hands the Father has given all things—

[These] are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory [I hope you read those words now with a little different meaning than you did from before 9:30 today]; And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods… 

…all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs…they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. …they shall overcome all things [that’s in the future].

…let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies under his feet. These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever. These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his people. These are they who shall have part in the first resurrection. These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just. These are they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all. These are they who have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn. These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all. …just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…  

…[bodies] whose bodies are celestial, …glory…of the sun [those who inherit everlasting burnings]… (D&C 76:51-70, emphasis added)

These are those who are referred to as the “El.” These are those that were referred to when Moroni said that Elijah will come to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the father (D&C 2:2) and when Joseph spoke in August the 27th of 1843 that Elijah will come. He will come. I’ve written a paper on this, and I’m not gonna repeat that.

I do wanna talk about sealing authority because there have been questions asked about sealing. I intended to address that, in any event. And I wanna suggest to you that there are three kinds of sealing authority which are given.

There is a first form of sealing power (and I’m talking about the kind of power not that can seal you up unto condemnation or judgment; I’m talking, instead, about Melchizedek sealing power, the kind that was designed to bless and to preserve). The first kind of sealing power is that kind which is given to someone when there is a dispensation of the gospel being founded. An example of that you can find in Exodus chapter 34 (involving Moses as a dispensation head) where, in verses 27 and 28, the Lord says, And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights… (Exodus 34:27-28) and so on. And so, as a dispensation head, a form of sealing power is given to that person which establishes a covenant that was intended to go beyond that individual alone.

Take a look in Second Nephi chapter 1. And in Second Nephi chapter 1, we find Lehi speaking, 

Notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord. (2 Nephi 1:5, emphasis added) 

This is a covenant made by God with Lehi as a dispensation head, the beneficiaries of whom are beyond merely that dispensation head. It includes all those who come thereafter. They are beneficiaries of that. The covenant gets established through one; it is intended for others.

Joseph, in Doctrine and Covenants section 22: BEHOLD, I say unto you that all old covenants have I caused to be done away in this thing; and this is a new and…everlasting covenant, …that which was from the beginning (D&C 22:1). So, through Joseph there was a covenant formed which would be binding beyond the person with whom God covenanted directly.

Dispensation heads are given the power—the sealing power, the authority—the ability to use the power to “seal up” by embodying the covenant that is given to them by God into an ordinance. And that ordinance remains in effect after the death of Moses, after the death of Lehi, after the death of Joseph Smith, so long as it remains embodied within the ordinance. This kind of ordinance—or this kind of sealing authority—then requires, and gives rise to, the second kind.

And the second kind is a sealing power that is embodied within authoritative ordinances. All dispensations of the gospel follow the covenant-giver’s ordinances. For so long as the ordinances that were handed to you through the dispensation head are kept intact, the covenant is kept intact. And the second form of sealing power is a sealing power which is not dependent upon the persistent presence of a dispensation head. It is only dependent upon keeping faithfully the ordinance that has been established and handed down by God through covenant.

This second form of sealing power is the sealing authority which the Church claims to possess. It is the sealing authority that was referred to by Henry B. Eyring in the General Conference talk he gave in April 2012, “Families under Covenant,” in which he proclaimed that the Church has the authority to seal families together by using the ordinances that have been handed down. I’m quoting from his talk:

The Holy Spirit of Promise, through our obedience and sacrifice, must seal our temple covenants in order to be realized in the world to come… “The Holy Ghost is one who reads the thoughts and hearts of men, and gives his sealing approval to the blessings pronounced upon their heads. Then it is binding, efficacious, and of full force” (Melvin J. Ballard, quoted by Harold B. Lee, in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 111). 

I agree with what he has said. I believe that is a correct way to explain the limited authority to seal enjoyed by the Church and the condition that remains, even in the ordinance, requiring the faithfulness and the subsequent sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise in order for those ordinances to endure. Nevertheless, the Church possesses that second kind of sealing authority, and it uses it in the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The second form of sealing authority, however, has conditions upon it—because God is not bound by anything that differs one iota from His word. And that doesn’t matter who it is. God is bound by His word, not by man’s. Therefore, when you handle such ordinances, you need to keep in mind the admonition that was given in the prophecy of Isaiah: 

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Isaiah 24:5-6) 

It’s talking about a future time that is coming. But it’s lamenting a condition that you have to decide about its currency. That’s Isaiah chapter 24, verses 5 and 6.

So, when you have possession of that second form of sealing authority, you have to recognize that the covenant handed down from the dispensation head can be broken. It was broken rather abruptly in the case of the covenant given to Lehi when, at the death of Lehi, his family fragmented into two groups—one of whom desired to preserve the covenant, and one of whom rejected it and walked away from it. Therefore, it was not to the ones that had rejected the covenant that the Lord would subsequently come to appear—but they, by and large, would have been destroyed. So, handling the second form of the covenant, after the dispensation head has established it, is a matter of fidelity to the word of God and faithfulness to the word of God and faithfulness in preserving and practicing the ordinance that has been established.

There is a third kind of sealing power. And this third kind of sealing power goes beyond either of the first two. And it has absolutely unique application, and it is given only in rare circumstances and for highly specific purposes. That third form involves giving the authority to control the elements. This was authority that was possessed by Enoch. This was authority that was possessed by Melchizedek. This was authority that was possessed by Christ. This was the authority that Christ had to suspend (or not employ) in order to permit those who would kill Him to kill Him. This is the kind of authority which, in the case of every such individual, they give their lives up willingly. Their lives cannot be taken.

An example—and it’s a good example, because it gives you insight into why such authority would ever be given to a man—is found in Helaman chapter 10, beginning at verse 5. This is the Lord speaking to Nephi, son of Helaman, son of Helaman. To Nephi he says: 

And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness… 

And the “unwearyingness” is described in verse 4—that is, Nephi has gone, and he’s declared what the Lord has asked him to declare, and he hasn’t feared them, nor has he sought to protect his own life, but he has instead sought to keep the commandments of God. Therefore, because he has done this with such unwearyingness… 

…behold, I [this is God speaking to Nephi] will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. (Helaman 10:5, emphasis added)

That’s not a commandment. That’s a description of the character and the nature of Nephi. That’s not saying, “I’m giving this to you, but be careful how you use it. Please don’t do anything that isn’t according to my will.” That’s the Lord saying, “I, God, have faith in you, Nephi—that you, Nephi, will not do anything other than my will.” You see… The whole thing turns on its head, at this point. You see, this is God having faith in a man. What manner of man, then, does God have faith in?

Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels. (Ibid, vs. 6)

Because this decree in this circumstance may require those who are watching to obey the word of the man. Therefore, the angels (the Powers of Heaven) must give heed—because God is declaring it in the presence of the hosts who are standing before Him. 

I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people. Behold [that is a rather Aaronic behavior… Behold] I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye…seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; …whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people. (Ibid, vs. 6-7)

This is rather Melchizedek because you can seal up unto eternal life. This is the positive side. This is the thing which those who are given this authority seek earnestly to do. 

…thus, if ye shall say unto this temple it shall be rent in twain, it shall be done. (Ibid, vs. 8)

…because the temple is subordinate to the word of God. The temple is not the place that controls the word of God, the temple is the place which most of all ought be subject to the word of God. It’s not a place to innovate in ordinances. It’s a place to obey, to follow, to give strict heed unto, and to not vary. 

And if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou cast down and become smooth, it shall be done. And behold, if [thou shalt] say that God shall smite this people, it shall come to pass. (Ibid, vs. 9-10)

And then, because he knows the nature and the character of the man involved in giving this authority, God commands him. He has to go out and deliver the message:

…Except ye repent ye shall be smitten, even unto destruction. (Ibid, vs. 11)

He didn’t wanna do that, because that’s not in the character of the person who, with unwearyingness, would go out and declare the word of God—because such people have in their heart one and only one objective, and that is the salvation of the souls of men. But now this troubling message has to be given. And when he goes and he delivers it, he doesn’t even use the authority that he’s been given. He simply  asks the Lord if the Lord will smite.

Look at Enoch in the book of Moses, chapter 6—because, once again, we’re looking at someone to whom this authority was given. Moses chapter 6, verse 34 (God speaking to Enoch): Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me (emphasis added)—because it was Enoch’s purpose to abide in God. Therefore, when he speaks and the elements obey, they obey precisely because it is the word of God which Enoch is speaking. It is not Enoch out there innovating. Enoch would have forfeited his life before he would have said or done anything that was not in accordance with the will of God, as would have Nephi. Therefore, they are trustworthy.

And then, we looked at Joseph Smith translation of Genesis chapter 14. 

As to these three kinds of authority, 

Now, I wanna talk for a minute about sealing (as it manifests itself in some of the records of the Church) and parse some things that we find in the scriptures. Because in the minutes of Far West in October of 1831, Brother Joseph Smith, Jr. said that “the order of the high priesthood is that they have power given them to seal up the Saints unto eternal life. And said it was the privilege of every elder [present to be] ordained to the high priesthood,” which led everyone to think that they had the power to seal, and they ran about doing all kinds of sealing things which, again, I reckon that as authority given to a dispensation head, which at that point had not been embodied into an ordinance, and he was simply saying: We can do this stuff. At which point, those who thought they had that authority ran about doing that. 

Well, if you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 68, first verses 3 and 4: This is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation. Then go over to 12: And of as many as the Father shall bear record, to you shall be given power to seal them up unto eternal life. Amen. 

So, this is talking in the context of someone having authority to seal when moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And that is authority which anyone of you (and the prophetess Anna, in the temple at Jerusalem, when Christ came into the temple—a woman can use) when moved upon by the power of the Holy Ghost. And it is the word of God, and it is the power to seal if it originates from God. That doesn’t mean it’s the same thing as a dispensation head. It doesn’t mean it’s the same thing as an ordinance. And it doesn’t mean that it’s the same thing as the control of the elements, given in those rare cases. But what it does mean is that the word of God will always be respected, both in time and in eternity, if it is given by God, if it is the power of the Holy Spirit.

There are those who have heard that their calling and election is made sure. And they’ve heard that as a witness from God. Don’t doubt the word of God given to you. However, don’t think for one moment that’s the end of the matter. Remember (that in the cases that we looked at before) that one of the purposes of ascending up into the presence of the Father is to be endowed with knowledge, with light and truth, and with intelligence, to possess a God-like mind and a God-like understanding. Therefore, no matter what you receive, you ought to always search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of God. Indeed, we’re commanded to do so, as I reminded you in Boise and won’t repeat again here. I’ve also read you previously and won’t repeat it again here—Doctrine and Covenants section 1, verse 8… 8 thru 10, the sealing power manifested in an Aaronic setting, in which it is sealed up unto condemnation.

I want to mention that beyond there being a fellowship of man (or males) and a brotherhood, there is also a fellowship that is extended, as well, to women. If you find a woman in scripture who has had the ministry of angels, you have a sister who has joined in that association. I won’t take time to do so, but if you look in Judges chapter 13, verses 2 to 5, you have Samson’s mother being ministered to by an angel promising the coming of the one who would be a judge in Israel. You have in Genesis chapter 18, verses 9 to 15, Abraham’s wife with angelic ministrants. And the most obvious case being Mary in the book of Luke, chapter 1, verses 26 to 31, in which Mary is ministered to by Gabriel, one of the Elohim, who came to announce that she would conceive and bear a child, though she knew no man.

Boy… Take note that there are, on a number of occasions, women who conceive and bear children, but the births are miraculous. In the case of Mary, the child that was born was conceived in a miraculous way. As also was Samson. As was John. Whether it’s infertility and barrenness, whether it’s being past the age of menopause, or whether it’s not having had intercourse, there are these beings who come into the world as a consequence of something other than the normal manner of conception. And yet, everything else unfolds biologically the same as a normal birth. The child that is born, obviously, inherits mortality and blood from the mother.

Parse that in your own mind, and then take a look at what the Lord says in Abraham chapter 3 about the “souls” in the pre-existence who were good. And recognize that the definition of the soul (given in the Doctrine and Covenants) is both the spirit and the body. And yet, they are “souls,” and they’re coming into this world, but…

Most people think of priesthood in a model that is given by the Church: that is, something that is passed from man to man; that it is something that involves a brotherhood among men; and that it can be removed by institutional shunning.

It is probably better to think of priesthood in terms of—at one degree (that we would call Aaronic or Levitical)—possesses an association with angels. And another order that possesses an association with the Son of God. And yet another level at which the association is one that makes you a son of God, which is the Holy Order after the Son of God; that is, the status of the individual involved has been changed to themselves being a son of God, a bar-El.

Now, how is priesthood communicated in every instance? If you go to Doctrine and Covenants section 20 to find out how you do ordinations… Ordinations (in section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants): Every elder, priest, teacher, or deacon is to be ordained according to the gifts and callings of God unto him; ….he is to be ordained by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him (D&C 20:60, emphasis added). And so, it’s the power of the Holy Ghost that animates the one doing the ordination, and that ordination is to one of the offices in the Church that consists of Elder, Priest, Teacher, or Deacon. And that’s the manner in which these offices are supposed to be filled. 

In Moroni chapter 3: After this manner did they ordain… This is chapter 3, verse 4:  After this manner did they ordain priests and teachers, according to the gifts and callings of God unto men; …they ordained them by the power of the Holy Ghost, which was in them (emphasis added). And therefore, if they have the power of the Holy Ghost, they had the power to ordain.

At the beginning, when the Church was first formed, the notion that there was this integrated priesthood that animated everything was not present. And those that went out, went out because they had been chosen by common consent and ordained by those— through the Holy Ghost—to have the authority to go out and do these things. And they were supposed to preach, teach, exhort, expound, and so on. And they did so. And their baptisms had the required effect.

When we… When you read the Book of Mormon, and you look at the baptismal prayer that’s furnished in the Book of Mormon, it says: Having authority of Jesus Christ I baptize you in the name… (3 Nephi 11:25) and so on. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we say, Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father and…the Son and…the Holy Ghost (D&C 20:73, emphasis added). That was actually a word change. It’s a word change instituted by Joseph Smith, and it ought to give you confidence that since the Lord, in the first instance, commissioned The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (and He did so at a time in which priesthood had not been generally disseminated), that by commissioning the Church and giving to it the authority and the commission to go out and baptize, that the Church possesses the authority to baptize still. 

Also, when John came (and it doesn’t matter if you read the account that is given by Joseph in the Joseph Smith History, or you get it in the footnote in the Joseph Smith History, written by Oliver Cowdery—the words are, in effect, the same), that authority by Aaron to baptize, that’s going to linger. That is a far more persistent form of priestly authority. It’s gonna  be around.

But it’s a question that had been asked I want to answer; it’s been asked by a variety of people in a variety of ways, and probably the most blunt way of posing the question was this, “Is there any priesthood authority or power in most of the LDS Church?” 

I wanna remind you of an incident that we find in First Samuel—this is First Samuel chapter 1. Now, remember that Hannah is barren. Hannah cannot have a child. And Hannah is a faithful woman. She is a faithful, believing woman. And she goes up to the tabernacle presided over by Eli. (Eli, who raises despicable children, who will ultimately be slain by God; Eli, who will be replaced by Samuel—and replaced by Samuel on the same day that his two sons are slain in battle, the Ark is lost to the Philistines, his daughter—who was pregnant—miscarries the child, and he—Eli—falls over backwards and fractures his skull and dies; the whole family wrapped up in a holocaust of death on the same day. This is Eli. This is oft-times called the “wicked priest Eli.”)

Well, Hannah goes up to the Tabernacle; and Hannah, in faith, is praying at the Tabernacle. And to give you an idea of the lowly state of the Tabernacle in that day, it’s so common-place a thing that when Eli sees her praying, her mouths lips moving but no words coming out, he assumes she’s like the rest of them there; she’s just drunk. And so, he’s a little upset that a drunken woman has joined in and is now here in the Tabernacle; and so, he complains. And she says… 

Well, Eli (in verse 14 of the first book of Samuel first chapter): How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah says, “No, I’m not. I’m not. I’ve come here to pray.” And verse 17, Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

A faithless, wicked, insubordinate priest (who will be slain by the hand of God with his sons and his grandson, all on the same day) is able—because of the worthiness of Hannah—to give to Hannah—because of her faith—a blessing from God. 

Because in the ordinances, the power of God is manifest; not because of some white-shirt wearing, dark-suit clad, institutional chap with a certificate and common consent is doing something; but because you come in faith to God, believing, and you wrestle a blessing from God, through the means that He has allowed it to be bestowed: by your faith. And you have God take note of your diligence and your faith.

I want to suggest that if you go to a patriarch in the Church, in faith, believing that God is able, through any inspired man giving a blessing by the power of the Holy Ghost, without regard to priesthood—because priesthood is animated by the power of the Holy Ghost—therefore, if they have the power of the Holy Ghost, it comes from God.

In large measure, your faith matters far more than you think it does. I know a great deal more than I knew at the time I went to the Jordan River temple to perform vicarious work for deceased ancestors, an incident that I recorded in one of the little vignettes in The Second Comforter. I went to the temple—in faith, believing—and I met eleven of my ancestors who were redeemed because of my faith. And they could use any condition in which they can find the rites, any tattered ruin left they could use, so long as there was faith upon the earth to act in their behalf.

We think there’s some magic, whammy voodoo in possession of a franchise which the franchise-holders are able to use in order to push away or gather in, and so that their families and their insiders and their beneficiaries and their cronies can get supercharged Celestial blessings. And “the least” can be shunned and held away. And all they are doing is behaving like a parade of fools. Don’t be taken in. Your faith matters. Your confidence matters. Your driving the power of the Spirit into your life matters. You want an authoritative baptism? Go get someone to baptize you who claims that they know the ordinance and can perform it. And you go in faith, believing, and let the Holy Ghost ratify the event.

The first missionaries sent out by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were not ordained to anything. And they baptized, and their names are on the record of the Church, and we’ve done some revisionism with our history, and we kinda, kinda, sorta put priesthood on ’em now. But if you go to the contemporaneous stuff, it wasn’t present. And yet, their baptism mattered—because the people came in faith, believing, repenting of their sins, and going before God to shed their sins. And they emerged from the waters of baptism, having been cleansed of their sins by the power of the Holy Ghost.

At the end of the day, the ordinance that you receive by the laying on of hands is simply an admonition for you to go get it! In fact, if you pay real careful attention to the scriptures…  You look this up; prove it one way or the other—the only ones that have the power to give the gift of the Holy Ghost in all of scriptures are apostles. Now, we conflate it—because in the same verse it says apostles, it says elders (D&C 20:38). An Apostle is an Elder, and we can go on…yadda yadda…and we say, “Gift of the Holy Ghost.” But the purpose of establishing the apostleship was to give someone (who had contact with the Second Comforter) power to be able to give the Comforter. And so, the laying on of hands authoritatively was originally restricted. But the admonition is given to all; and therefore, all have the ability to lay hold upon it by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Lay hold upon it.

So, well. Joseph Smith said on page 308 of The Teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith], “If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments, and by obeying all the ordinances of [the house of God] the house of the Lord.” 

I wanna suggest that if you define the house of God as a temple—a building with walls and a spire and an angel on top—if that’s your definition, okay, then there are an infinite number of things that can interfere with your ability to accomplish this, one of them being that the temple has been defiled. Another one of them being that the ordinances have been changed; and therefore, the covenant has been broken. Another of them being that the officiator who shows up has left his adulterous paramour to come in and perform the sealing. And so, there’s any number of ways in which you—at the altar, kneeling in good-faith—have no way of knowing whether or not you can do this, and therefore…  Oh, oh, oh, you can let your doubts lay hold upon you.

Let me read it to you again though and offer another definition. “If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments, and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.” I wanna redefine that “house”—not in terms of physical structure, but in terms of familial relationship, in which God alone establishes His house, and that too, by acknowledging who His sons and daughters are. That house can never be overtaken, touched, trampled, broken, forsaken, compromised, or adulterated, because man is powerless. And so, when the house of God is to be set in order in the last days, don’t think of that as a movement that you’re awaiting for someone else to accomplish. How do you not know that the One Mighty and Strong, to be sent to set in order the house of God, is not Jesus Christ himself, waiting to minister to all those who will come to Him? Because receiving our Lord is, in itself, an ordinance.

Now, keeping in mind everything I’ve said, now we’re really gonna parse the scriptures in a way that may not yet have occurred to you, but I find perfectly delightful. Doctrine and Covenants section 132; I wanna begin at verse 8. And I want you to remember what I’ve said the house of God is. 

Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion. Will I accept…an offering, saith the Lord, that is not made in my name? Or will I receive at your hands that which I have not appointed? And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was? I am the Lord thy God; and I give unto you this commandment—that no man shall come unto the Father but by me or by my word, which is my law, saith the Lord. And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, [or] by thrones, or [by] principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in [or] after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed (D&C 132:8-14, emphasis added).

The Powers of Heaven. And this is the reason why that third form of priesthood is so rare a commodity—because even the angels desire to inquire into it, but the angels don’t possess it. And it doesn’t matter if, in that hierarchy of those that exist on the other side of the veil, you manage to wrestle something from those who are powers there and possess thrones or principalities. God is saying in this revelation—if you understand the words—that even His angels (and those who have ascended far up) must, in every case, only establish that which comes by the will and covenant of the Son and the Father: the Son, because He possesses the keys to do so; the Father, because He is the one from whom the original covenant began in the pre-existence. So, don’t think, because you’ve had an angel promise you something… In Doctrine and Covenants section 132, you have to connect up with the Father.

In the first meeting at Adam-ondi-Ahman, Adam was not considered to be among those who were mortal because Adam had begun life in the Garden in the presence of God. Therefore, mortals who were born into the mortal realm in that meeting began with Seth. The seven who gathered at Adam-ondi-Ahman were mortal because they were born outside of God’s presence. And they were restored again into God’s presence at the meeting at Adam-ondi-Ahman.

The fact is that that same thing that was in the beginning will be in the end of the world, also. That’s the covenant; that’s the promise; that’s the destiny—and God will surely fulfill that.

I also think… We take a lot of comfort, and we spend a lot of money buying all of the stuff around Springhill, Missouri (valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman) because that was a place where Adam was. And it’s the place where God will come to once again. I wanna suggest that the wicked, the knavish, the proud, the boastful, those who seek the honors of men will never have possession of and be able to control or prevent the unfolding of God’s work. The words Adam-ondi-Ahman mean “Adam in the presence of the Father.” Therefore, any place that the Ancient of Days comes to, while Christ is there also, is by definition “Adam-ondi-Ahman.” Therefore, it doesn’t matter if a fallen and corrupt society owns a piece of real estate that they claim. God is not bound by the stratagems of men. Nor are His purposes controlled by the vanities of men.

And yet, if they will repent and if they will hear what the Lord has to say, He can still work with them. But if not, then He’ll work with you—assuming you came and you’re willing to hear, and assuming your heart is soft and you’re willing to take in the things that God required to be included in what I’m saying today (some of which came as recently as this morning).

I’m doing this to be faithful to the things that have been asked of me—not by man or men, but by God. I don’t even control the content of this material. I’m not parsing these scriptures because I think they are nice. I’m telling you what I know to be true, because it’s what I’ve been asked to declare by Him whose presence I have been in.

In The Second Comforter, I told you that shortly after being baptized into the Church, I was told by an angel: “On the first day of the third month in nine years, your ministry will begin, and so you must prepare.” Well, a couple things about that: “On the first day of the third month in nine years,” I was called to be Gospel Doctrine teacher. And so it began, then and there, and in that setting, and among you good people! But it has never ended. It began by a calling from an angel; it continues still. And therefore, don’t think… Don’t think I’m just some vain fellow hoping to attract notice. Most of what I attract in my universe, in my setting, it’s… It’s negative, as some of you know. It has not been the source of delight. It’s been the source of profound discomfort.

But there was a question I was going to answer: “How are you and your family doing since the excommunication? We worry about you.” Great. The blessings of God are without constraint. And you do not have, and no man can control, the outpouring of blessings upon those who will give heed to Him. And therefore, I’ve been surprised at how much of a rather non-event it has been, in many respects.

There are a couple things that are a little different, and that is that I really gotta go out of my way to make some people feel comfortable inside my own ward, because they just don’t know how to behave. It’s the damnedest apostate they’ve ever run into, ’cuz “he still has a testimony and attends his meeting and all the rest of that.” But I feel worse for other people and their awkwardness. It’s like “Ummmmmm… What do we talk about now? ’Cuz we used to, like, talk about doctrine and stuff, and we’re not so sure that maybe your doctrine might be, like, like toxic waste. And so, if you say something, I might get poisoned by it. And so, ya know… How ’bout them Sox?” [laughter]

Hey, how ’bout them Sox? I mean really! They were supposed to be last place, and they won it all. I mean, Farrell, that guy… He’s legit. Batting coach last year. World series manager this year. 

Things are great, couldn’t be better. We continue to preach, teach, exhort, believe, teach our children, go to Church, make compensation for the awkwardness with which people approach it. I even… 

Look, if I had not been excommunicated, in the chili cook-off I was going to make the habanero chili, and I was gonna win the “hottest chili” award. My wife—wise counselor that she is—suggested that that might be viewed by some as retaliation [laughter]. And so, that’s a difference. I toned the chili way down; we still had people, like, dancing around saying, “Oooo, ahhhh, oooo, ahhhh.” I mean, it was like the background to some of those do-wap songs.

But, I mean, things are fine. Things couldn’t be better. And you know, my Little Leaguer is trying out again for the boys’ baseball team, having dabbled once again in softball and found them unworthy of her presence. She’s gonna go back to baseball, and so, we have things to do. And stuff to do. 

I wanna thank you for coming. We’ve gone on way too long. Doug wanted to make an announcement, but I’m disconnecting all the paraphernalia and going.

The post Priesthood appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Covenants” was originally recorded in Centerville, Utah on October 6, 2013, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

It’s almost serendipitous: 40 years ago—tonight—I was in Centerville, Utah. Elder Brian Black (who baptized me) had a family in Centerville, Utah, that was still here. And the fellow who gave the opening prayer, Mel, was in the military with me. He got baptized the same year as I did, and he and I—I think we were barracks roommates at the time. 

The way that the military operates is that they only deal with you by giving orders. And I found out that the military had provisions that allowed you to ask to attend a—what they called—a “religious retreat.” Having found out that they would allow you to attend a religious retreat, I applied for—and Mel did, also—and  I was “ordered” by the United States Department of Defense to attend General Conference in October of 1973. And so, under orders from our government, I attended General Conference in this city, 40 years ago this evening. 

Back then, it was a Saturday—October the 6th. General Conference would end on Sunday, October 7th. In the closing talk that was given by Harold B. Lee (it was his last talk in General Conference because he died in December of that year; I think he died December 14th, but I may be wrong on that—he died in December of that year; it was his last General Conference talk)—he spoke about the Yom Kippur War that had commenced during General Conference that year and gave some closing remarks about how things were. 

In any event, I was looking through the names of those who spoke that General Conference. Now you have to understand,I had been baptized on September 10th; we were now October the 6th, less than a month. I looked through the list of names of those who spoke in General Conference. 

Because I had orders, and if you wore a uniform (and we wore uniforms), there was a door in the Tabernacle that was for active-duty service people only. And when you lined up outside that door, unlike folks that lined up other places, they let you in. And we occupied— there were either two or three rows in the tabernacle, but they were on the right-hand side, and they were very close to the front. And so I got a good look at who the Church leadership was back in those days, and I was impressed. 

Harold B. Lee, H. Burke Peterson, Marion D. Hanks, James E. Faust, and Boyd Packer spoke on Friday morning, and we were there. Thomas Monson, Rex Pinegar, L. Ray Christiansen, Henry D. Tailor, O. Leslie Stone, David B. Haight, and Delbert Stapley spoke in the afternoon on Friday, and we were there. (Delbert Stapley had a grandson, Elder Stapley, who had participated in the missionary discussions. He was one of those missionaries I “used up” in the process of finally being converted and joining the Church.) Eldred G. Smith spoke on Saturday afternoon. In the Priesthood session, Marion G. Romney, N. Eldon Tanner, and Harold B. Lee all spoke. Spencer Kimball didn’t speak until Sunday afternoon. And in all candor, he didn’t leave an impression. Now you have to understand that later on, Spencer Kimball was someone that I had enormous respect for. But I came and I went from General Conference having heard him talk, and it never even registered. And so when we rolled around, finally, to another General Conference and I couldn’t remember who he was—though I had seen him—and I heard his voice, I wondered why on earth didn’t I remember him, because his voice was as we all recall. 

Well, tonight we’re gonna talk about covenants and, in particular, covenants that are being referred to in a verse that we find in the Joseph Smith History, verse 39—Moroni changing the content of the text of Malachi to render it to Joseph Smith, on this fall equinox occasion, to read this way: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. 

So, there is some peril if we do not have our hearts turned to these fathers. That peril is that we will be utterly wasted at his coming if we fail. But His coming is not limited merely to the singular “Him”—being the Lord. If you go back to verse 37 it says: they that come shall burn them. And therefore, when He comes, they that come with Him shall burn those who are unprepared, those who are scheduled for being utterly wasted at His coming. And so, we need to inquire into what exactly it is the promises were, who the fathers were that the promises were made to, and then avoid this peril of those who come burning them, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch (ibid), terms which, in Boise, I referred to as being genealogical, because it becomes the end of the line at that point. 

In looking at the promises that were made, I want to go back to Second Nephi chapter 3 and begin there, which we also referred to earlier. Because when we’re tracking back the covenants that were made, and we’re talking about the promises that were made to the fathers, and we’re trying to identify who the fathers are, we get a real advantage in making thedetermination by what we have in Lehi’s blessing to his son, Joseph. Beginning at verse 4 of chapter 3 of Second Nephi, Lehi says: I am a descendant of Joseph who was carried [away] captive into Egypt. And great were the covenants of the Lord which he made unto Joseph.  

As soon as you encounter the word “covenants,” an alarm ought to go off, because much of what’s going to go on in the history of the world is gonna go on as a consequence of these covenants that have been made—one of the possessors of those promises and covenants being Joseph, who had been carried away captive into Egypt. 

Wherefore, Joseph truly saw our day [meaning Lehi’s day—and when Lehi is talking, he’s talking about eventsthat he believed that Joseph of Egypt had foreseen about what would happen in his own day].…he obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness….Joseph truly testified, [verse 6:] A seer shall the Lord…God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins. Yea, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins… [and he goes on to talk about this choice seer is going to bring] them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers. 

So the assignment that is given to this choice seer, descendant of Joseph, is that this person is going to bring to the world, to us, to the descendants, to the people in the last days knowledge [concerning] covenants which [God had] made with thy fathers—“thy fathers,” in this statement, being: thy fathers, Joseph of Egypt. So the promises that God made to fathers before Joseph of Egypt—a seer is going to restore the knowledge about that. It may be complex wording, but it’s dealing with very simple events, and the identities are important. 

I will give unto him [that is, this choice seer] a commandment that he shall do none other work…. That is to say, he will not cause Zion to come. That was not the assignment of the choice seer. Joseph Smith was not in charge of, and not required to do, the work of bringing again Zion. 

…none other work, save the work which I shall command him…I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work…he shall be great [and] like unto Moses, whom I…said I would [deliver] up [verse 11:] But a seer [I will] raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; …unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—

In verse 12 it talks about how there’s gonna be this restoration of knowledge of their fathers in the latter days…also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord. And then in 15 it says, his name shall be called after me…it shall be after the name of his father—after “me” being Joseph of Egypt; so the name should be Joseph. That will also be the name of his father—he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord [God] shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation.

And then he goes on, and he tells Lehi [Joseph], he tells his son in verse 23: Because of this covenant [that is, the one that was done with Joseph of Egypt], he [the son of Lehi] is blessed, for his [the son of Lehi’s] seed shall not be destroyed, …they shall hearken unto the words of the book. And there shall rise up one mighty among them. I talked about that in Boise. 

And so, if Joseph Smith fulfills the prophecy that was delivered to Joseph, that is recovered, in part, in the Book of Mormon, in this third chapter of Second Nephi, then Joseph Smith should give to us the ability to know something about these covenants that were made with the fathers.

Well, we do not have to rely upon merely what we have in Second Nephi chapter 3. Nor do we have to have the Brass Plates, as it turns out. Because Joseph Smith restored the prophecy of Joseph of Egypt, and you can read it, right now, in the Joseph Smith Translation, beginning in Genesis chapter 50 at verse 24. It reads slightly different than Lehi’s summation given—and Lehi’s choice of what he adds in, and what he selects out, and what Joseph says have some interesting things… It’s absolutely worth your time to study out all the differences and to pick apart what it is that Lehi did because it tells you much about father Lehi—what he chose to include and what he chose to pass over. 

However, for our purposes tonight, I want to look at what was said to Joseph that we find in the Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis chapter 50, beginning at verse 24. Joseph of Egypt says: The Lord [hath] visited me and I have obtained [a]promise of the Lord. This is what Lehi will refer (to in his prophecy to his son Joseph) as a covenant. Because when the Lord delivers a promise to someone, He delivers it by way of covenant. God is bound by His word. Therefore, when He delivers a promise, it is a covenant. 

I have obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of my loins [this is the covenant with Joseph of Egypt—out of his loins], the Lord God will raise up a righteous branch out of my loins [so that is talking about Joseph of Egypt, one of the sons of Israel, one of the twelve tribes]; And [now we’re changing topics—and] unto thee, whom my father Jacob hath named Israel [so this is not just the descendants of Joseph, this is all of the twelvetribes, raised up unto all of the twelve tribes] a prophet; (not the Messiah who is called Shilo;) and this prophet shall deliver my people out of Egypt in the days of thy bondage [that’s a covenant about deliverance to be had for all the tribes of Israel, not merely the descendants of Joseph]. 

And it shall come to pass that they [that is, all of Israel] shall be scattered again; and a branch shall be broken off, and shall be carried into a far country; nevertheless they shall be remembered in the covenants of the Lord, when the Messiah cometh; for he shall be made manifest unto them in the latter days [now, when is that? Is it when he was resurrected, and he appears in Third Nephi? Or is the “latter-days” some other time?], in the Spirit of power; and shall bring them out of darkness into light; out of hidden darkness, and out of captivity unto freedom. 

A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my [that is, Joseph’s] loins[different topic, different person, different time frame].

Thus saith the Lord God of my fathers [this is Joseph speaking—his fathers would include, at a minimum, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; his “fathers,” in the plural] unto me [so the Lord God of Joseph’s fathers said unto him], A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy [that is, Joseph’s] loins…he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy [that is, Joseph’s] loins; and unto him will I give [a] commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy [that is, Joseph’s] loins, [and] his brethren [that is, other members of Israel]. 

And he shall bring them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers…. (JST Genesis 50:24-28, emphasis added)

Now we’re beginning to have laid out in the restoration through Joseph Smith, part of what it is that we need to know in order to avoid being utterly wasted. 

He [the seer] shall do whatsoever work I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes, for he shall do my work; and he [that is, Joseph of Egypt’s descendant—“seer”] he shall be great like unto him whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel [ “him” that he’s going to raise up is Moses, okay?] …for a seer will I raise up to deliver my people out of the land of Egypt [this is Moses]; he shall be called Moses. And by this name he shall [be known] that he is of thy house [that is, “O, house of Israel”— that’s the house, not Joseph’s—the House of Israel]; for he shall be nursed by the king’s daughter, and shall be called her son. 

And again [so we’re changing topics again] a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy [that is, Joseph’s] loins, and unto him [that is, this seer] will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins [that’s Joseph’s seer—and he’s to give us God’s word]… (ibid, vs. 28-30) 

And then he goes on to say in verse 31: 

The fruit of thy loins [that is, Joseph’s loins] shall write, …the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; …that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, …also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together unto the confounding of false [doctrine], …laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins [a yet future event], and bringing them to a knowledge of their fathers in the latter days; and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.

Joseph’s seer is to do this. This is what Moroni is telling Joseph in verse 39 of the Joseph Smith History. 

Out of weakness shall he be made strong, in that day when my work shall go forth among all my people [“all my people” include all of the various branches of Israel], which shall restore them, who are of the house of Israel, in the last days. (JST Genesis 50:32, emphasis added)

That’s the objective. To fix and reconnect the house of Israel, restoring them in the last days. 

And that seer will I bless, and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise I give unto you[Joseph of Egypt]; for I will remember you [Joseph of Egypt] from generation to generation; and his [that latter-day seer—his] name shall be called Joseph [as if the Lord Himself wanted to be had in remembrance in all generations—Joseph of Egypt: Joseph of Egypt who was sold into slavery; Joseph of Egypt who kept his faith; Joseph of Egypt who was sold into slavery by the jealousy of brothers whom he only sought to declare the truth to—His name shall be called Joseph] …it shall be after the name of his father [so his father shall be that, too]; and he shall be like unto you [that is, like unto Joseph of Egypt]; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand shall bring my people unto salvation. 

And the Lord sware unto Joseph that he would preserve his [Joseph’s] seed forever, saying, I will raise up Moses, and a rod shall be in his hand, and he shall gather together my people, …he shall lead them as a flock, …he shall smite the waters of the Red Sea with his rod…

He shall have judgment, and [he] shall write the word of the Lord….he shall not speak many words, for I will write unto him my law by [my] finger of mine own hand. And I will make a spokesman for him, and his name shall be called Aaron. 

And it shall be done unto thee in the last days also, even as I have sworn. (ibid, vs. 33-36)

So the Lord to Joseph is swearing. It is from this text that father Lehi lifts out what father Lehi lifts out, in order to write what he composes in Second Nephi chapter 3, in the patriarchal blessing he gives to his son Joseph—the names “Joseph” and the son named Joseph, commending to the mind of Lehi attention to this very material that we’ve just looked at. 

And so, if the seer of the last days, who was responsible for completing this assignment and fulfilling this foretold opportunity is Joseph Smith, then through Joseph Smith we should be able to say: We can learn something about knowledge of covenants—covenants that were made with the fathers. And the seer will do none other work.

• He will have power to bring forth God’s words. 
• He will restore knowledge of their fathers. 
• He will restore knowledge of God’s covenants. 
• He will restore, ultimately, a basis that makes the House of Israel alive again. 
• His name will be after Joseph of Egypt. 
• It will be the same name as his father—that is, Joseph. 

And in every particular, Joseph Smith seems to be the one about whom this is written. And therefore, doesn’t seem thatwe need to look for another. 

Chapter 4 of Second Nephi talks about (this is Nephi, now, interjecting): He [that is, Joseph —verse 2 of chapter 4—he, Joseph of Egypt] truly prophesied concerning all his seed.

“All his seed” include not just the folks that were included in the tribe of Manasseh and through others that joined the party, Ephraim—descendants of Joseph in the Book of Mormon—but it includes, as well, other portions of the tribe of Joseph, scattered wherever they were throughout the world, many of whom may be here among us tonight, in your bloodlines. 

Well, it’s not a prophecy about Joseph’s seed only. It’s talking about the ministry of this latter-day prophet—and this latter-day prophet restoring knowledge. Through Joseph, then, we should be able to find knowledge of covenants made to the fathers and to identify who the fathers are. 

In order to know something about covenants, Joseph Smith needed to give us some material about that. And I want to refer you to section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, beginning at verse 8, where the Lord tells Joseph:

Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord…and not a house of confusion. Will I accept…an offering, saith the Lord, that is not made in my name? Or will I receive at your hands that which I have not appointed? And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was? (D&C 132:8-11)

See, everything proceeds according to law. And the government of God is not necessarily limited to an organizational structure, but it hails back to things that were committed, by God—in promises made to the fathers—which have to be fulfilled. And it doesn’t matter if we try to capture that. God’s purposes are ordained according to a law that was ordained before the world was. 

I am the Lord thy God; and I give unto you [a] commandment—that no man shall come unto my Father but by me or by my word, which is my law, saith the Lord. (ibid, vs. 12)

In other words, if you are going to come—whoever you are—unto the Father, the only way you are going to get there will be through the Son. 

And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; …whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed. (ibid, vs. 13-14)

This is another way in which we can know that the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there (2 Nephi 9:41, emphasis added). Because when it comes to this kind of material, involving this kind of salvation—for any of the children of men—God is hands-on. And our Redeemer is the one who not only keeps the gate, protects the way, but greets those along the way whom He is going to introduce to the Father. 

And it has to be by me, or by my word, saith the Lord…. If it is not, then it shall be thrown down [and it] shall not remain (D&C 132:13). Only God can, or does, ordain covenants. We do not make covenants. Covenants come as a consequence of God’s will, and only as a consequence of God’s will. We can accept them, or we can reject them—but we cannot create them. He does. Our participation is limited to acceptance of—or rejection of—what He offers. 

The way in which we accept the covenants is set out in Doctrine and Covenants section 130: 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). Therefore, what is important for you to understand and to know is whatever it is that law consists of. Because the way in which you accept the covenant that has been offered to you is by learning the principle or the law upon which the blessing you seek is predicated. And then, having learned what law that is upon which it is predicated, obeying it.

We learn all of this through the revelations given to us through Joseph Smith. 

Before Joseph of Egypt, one of the fathers that we need to look at is Abraham. And therefore, I want to turn to Abraham chapter 1, beginning at verse 2:  

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers...

Once again, now we have Abraham, and we’ve gone all the way back to him generations before Joseph of Egypt, and weencounter the same thing—that is, searching for the blessings which belong to the fathers—Abraham looking for the blessings of the fathers, hoping to find, thereby, happiness; hoping to find peace and rest for himself.

…and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge…

You know, when I spoke in Logan, I talked about repentance being related to knowledge and that it’s our ignorance that damns us, most of all. Abraham perceived the same thing. And Abraham believed that redemption and possessing great knowledge went hand-in-hand. And if he could obtain that great knowledge, then he wanted to be:

a greater follower of righteousness, and [as a consequence of that] to possess a greater knowledge…

Because this is one of those laws upon which blessings are predicated. Knowledge, light, truth, the glory of God—all of those things are obtained by obedience to law. And Abraham sought for and desired to possess more light and truth. And as a result of that, he wanted inevitably to become:

…a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and [he desired most of all] …to receive instructions, and to keep…commandments of God. [As a result of all that desire, he] became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or [the] first father, through the fathers unto me. 

All of this ties back, necessarily, to Adam.

I sought for mine appointment unto the Priesthood according to the appointment of God unto the fathers concerning the seed. (Abraham 1:2-4)

Everything about the original form of priesthood, everything about what it is that Abraham was seeking, all of this ties together because there is only one gospel. 

In the Lectures on Faith, the Second Lecture paragraphs 37 to 53, there is a chronology given. I’m not gonna go through the chronology, and you needn’t have brought it with you tonight. But that chronology is listed in the Lectures on Faith in order to save you the trouble of going through and tracking it yourself. But it was important enough to Joseph Smith to put it into the Lectures on Faith so that you know how to reconstruct the fathers— who they were. 

Noah was 502 years old when Shem was born. 98 years later the Flood came. Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came; Shem was 98. (You can see that in paragraph 45 of the Second Lecture.) Shem lived to be 600. Shem was 448 years old when Noah died. Shem was acquainted with both Noah and Abraham. Abraham lived to be 175 years old, and Shem was alive and a contemporary with Shem [Abraham] for 150 of the 175 years of the life of Abraham. Shem knew Noah. And Shem knew those on the other side of the Flood, having lived with them for 98 years before the Flood. 

Abraham had the records of the fathers. Look at Abraham chapter 1, verse 31: 

But the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs, concerning the right of Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, have I kept even unto this day, and I shall endeavor to write some of these things upon this record, for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me. 

Since Abraham was acquainted with the priesthood that belonged to the fathers—and since Abraham had a knowledge that was reckoned from priesthood, that goes back to the time of the patriarchs—he, as a consequence of possessing that, knew about the beginning of creation, knew about the planets, knew about the stars as they were made known unto the fathers. 

Go back to Doctrine and Covenants section 121; it’s talking about our dispensation. I want to look at—beginning at about verse 28: 

A time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest [because that’s included within the knowledge that the first fathers had—that’s included with what was here at one time]. All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And also, if there be bounds set to the heavens or to the seas, [and] to the dry land, …to the sun, moon, or stars—All the times of their revolutions, all the appointed days, months, and years, and all the days of their days, months, and years, and all [the] glories, laws, …set times, shall be revealed in the days of the dispensation of the fulness of times—According to that which was ordained in the midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was, that should be reserved unto the finishing and the end thereof, when every man shall enter into his eternal presence and into his immortal rest. (D&C 121:28-32)

Abraham is not merely talking about something—both in this verse, Abraham 1:31, as well as what we encounter later onin the Book of Abraham about the various stars that were shown to him and the relationship between them and his Facsimile #2, as I recollect—that is, an effort to lay out a relationship in the heavens between certain positions of glory and authority. But Abraham is testifying that it was part of the original gospel that was entrusted to the fathers and that those records were handed down to him. In Doctrine and Covenants section 121, we find out that that’s part of what is supposed to have been included within, and is ultimately scheduled for revelation to, those that will receive the restoration of the Gospel, when it is fully upon the earth in the dispensation of the fullness of times. 

Abraham received his priesthood ordination through Melchizedek. You can see that in Doctrine and Covenants section 84, verse 14: Which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah. Now, Bruce R. McConkie reads that verse, and he disagrees with what the church had previously taught;that is, that Melchizedek was Shem. He takes the position that this 14 means that Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah, means that there were fathers between Melchizedek, on the one hand, and Noah, on the other—and therefore, Melchizedek could not be Shem. I take the view, instead, that it was received through the lineage of his fathers even [until] Noah, meaning from Adam down to the time of Noah, the priesthood was preserved,and that Melchizedek—that is, Shem—received it from Noah. In any event, it’s clear in verse 14 that Abraham received it from Melchizedek. But if you go to Abraham chapter 2, in the Book of Abraham, beginning at verse 6: 

But I, Abraham, and Lot, my brother’s son, prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord appeared unto me, and said unto me: Arise, and take Lot with thee; for I have purposed to take thee away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land which [will I] give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice. For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains—Depart hence— …behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, …I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; …I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father.

“Ordination” and “confirmation by the voice of God” are two separate events. We’ll speak more about this in the next talk, which will be on Priesthood. But it’s enough to simply take note of that here. 

Jehovah, speaking directly to Abraham, tells him that from this moment—from the moment God spoke to Abraham before his departure—Abraham would now become the father of all the righteous. Now you ought to ask yourself: Why would that be the case? Why is it that Abraham becomes the prototype of who will be saved and the father of whomever is saved from that point going forward? When you go back to the fathers and you begin with Adam—although there were apostasies (and apostasies began immediately—it was generations before Eve bore Cain and thought she had a son that would, at last, be faithful. They were grandparents when Cain was born. And then Able was born.  And Cain slew Able. And Seth came as a replacement to the grandparents, Adam and Eve. And from Seth reckons then the seed of the righteous)—

Father to son to grandson to great-grandson—when you look at the list of those that are gathered together into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, in the first Zion, where the Lord came and dwelt among them—And he rose up and he called Adam, Michael [El being the name of God]—Jehovah appeared in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and you have— seventh from Adam being Enoch—you have a line of continuity from Adam, directly down all the way until you arrive at Shem. 

But when you hit Shem, it interrupts. There is a complete falling away. There are no righteous fathers for Abraham. His fathers had turned to idolatry. Abraham is the prototype of the saved man and the father of all who would be righteous thereafter because Abraham represents coming to the truth in a generation of apostasy. Abraham represents coming back to the light, despite the fact that his fathers taught him idolatry. Abraham represents the challenge that every man who would be saved from that point forward must find themselves within and then overcome: the idolatry of their fathers. Abraham is the prototype. 

And so Abraham is acknowledged by that same Jehovah who visited with the fathers in Adam-ondi-Ahman and identified Himself again to Abraham who—after apostasy— becomes, literally, the first—the first to return to the righteousness of the first fathers; the first to return to the religion that belonged in the beginning to mankind; the first to discover a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, [as] also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers (Abraham 1:31).

Abraham was the one who desired to be a follower of righteousness, …one who possessed great knowledge, …to be a greater follower of righteousness and to possess…greater knowledge still (Abraham 1:2). It is this which made him a candidate the Lord could speak to. It’s this that made him the prototype in his generation of what it takes to turn away from idolatry, to turn away from the kind of corrupt and degrading religions that were then in play on the earth—the fertility cults and the human sacrifices and the vileness that surrounded him. And then, having done so, to be asked by God to slay his son, as if there was some legitimacy to the rites that were practiced all around him. 

Now in the version that we have in the King James Bible, Isaac is not slain. There is an older tradition—that you can find in the book of Hebrews, and you can find it in the Book of Mormon—where Isaac is slain, and he’s brought back to life, rather like Lazarus is brought back to life. But it’s clear that the Old Testament version that we have in King James: he raises his hand with a knife to commit the act, and then the ram is found in the thicket to deliver him. Sometimes, as it turns out, rams are not found in thickets, and the sacrifice will be required. 

The Lord says:

I will bless them that bless thee, …curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) [becausefundamentally, what distinguishes Abraham and what distinguishes the covenant is the knowledge that he has—Abraham is in possession of something because Abraham knows some things that are true that relate back to the very beginning; and as a consequence of that, those who are given the same knowledge necessarily have to belong to the same priesthood] …in thy seed (that is, [in] thy Priesthood) [because you become a son of Abraham if you take upon yourself the requirements for the covenant; you inherit that, just as Abraham inherited it—it comes down from the beginning from the fathers], for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or…seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal. Now, after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking [un]to me, and withdrawn his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee. (Abraham 2:11-12)

And there again, Abraham stands as the prototype of the saved man, the father of the righteous, the example of all those who, coming out of apostasy, find themselves redeemed—because all the servants that will be acknowledged by Him must seek Him earnestly and will, as the Lectures on Faith promise, assuredly find Him. Everyone who receives the gospel, this gospel (verse 10 of that Abraham chapter 2): As many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name. You ought to ask yourself: What is this Gospel? And are you yet in possession of it? Because it would appear that the promises made to the fathers includes rather more than what we know about, as yet. 

But it is, nevertheless, the case that it is through Joseph and Jacob, Isaac and Abraham that the promises remain. You can see that in Doctrine and Covenants section 27. We only need to look at verse 10 of section 27: [As] also with Joseph and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, your fathers, by whom the promises remain; that is, promises are still in play, right now, as a consequence of what God did in covenant with Joseph and covenant with Jacob and covenant with Isaac and covenant with Abraham. Those promises are still in play. This is what Moroni was talking to Joseph Smith about. And[verse 11] also with Michael, or Adam, the father of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days. Promises that are in play today go all the way back to them. 

The covenant which we receive will come as consequence of them. What they got secured for us promises which the Lord intends to honor. Therefore, when we are the beneficiaries of those covenants, we are going—like Abraham—to have restored to us a knowledge of the beginning of creation, …the planets, …the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, and as Section 121 tells us is going to be the case in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Time. 

Go to Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 14, beginning at verse 25: 

Melchizedek lifted up his voice and blessed Abram. Now Melchizedek was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, …quenched the violence of fire. …thus, having been approved of God, he was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch, It being after the order of the Son of God. (JST Genesis 14:25-28)

There is an order that is after the son of God. But there was a covenant that preceded even the days of Melchizedek; it came down as a consequence of what happened with Enoch. 

It was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name. For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas…dry up [the] waters, …turn them out of their course; To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, …break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things…according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world. (ibid, vs. 29-31, emphasis added)

See, it’s not your will. Even if you’re given this ordination, it is by the will of the Son of God. That is to say, nothing getsbroken, nothing gets held in defiance, nothing gets done except by the will of the Son. 

Men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven. …now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of peace…his people [his people] wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world; And hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so as by fire. (ibid, vs. 32-35, emphasis added)

These are they who are coming, whose glory and brightness will burn them up who are on the earth, who are unprepared to receive them. These are they about whom Moroni was speaking to Joseph Smith. 

And this Melchizedek, having thus established righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace….he lifted up his voice, …he blessed Abram, being the high priest, and the keeper of the storehouse of God; Him [unto] whom God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor. Wherefore, Abram paid unto him tithes of all…he had, of all the riches which he possessed, which God had given him more than that which he had need. And it came to pass, that God blessed Abram, and gave unto him riches, and honor, and lands for an everlasting possession; according to the covenant which he had made, …according to the blessing[s] wherewith Melchizedek had blessed him. (ibid, vs. 36-40)

Joseph Smith restored this information—as he restored the rest of what he gave us—in order for us to understand that when God swears by Himself to the Fathers about what it is He intends to accomplish in the last-days, and we get near enough to that event so that we’re over the horizon and inevitably going to fall into that dark day, some few will take it seriously enough to say, like Abraham, “I would like to seek for the blessings of the Fathers. I would like, also, to have from God a covenant. I would like to inherit what it was that was given in the beginning.”

God alone makes the covenant. We accept it by abiding the conditions. The only thing we can do on our own is attempt to make vows. We can make vows, but Christ discouraged us from doing that in Matthew. Go back to Matthew chapter 5—this is in the Sermon on the Mount (you read the same thing in 3 Nephi chapter 12). But look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 33: 

[And] again, ye have heard…it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but [thou] shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black [well, cosmetically some of you women can, but…]. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. 

He’ll say the same thing in 3 Nephi chapter 12, verses 33-37.

The fact of the matter is that you can make a vow to God, but you can’t make a covenant with God. God can make a covenant which you can fulfill by your performance. God can offer you something; it’s up to you to accept it. And you accept it by what you do. It’s not enough to say, “Yea, Lord; I’ll go out, and I’ll do as I’m bidden.” You have to do it—because it’s only in the doing that the covenant is kept. It’s only in the doing that the covenant is able to be empowered sufficient to give you the blessing upon which a law has been established for the blessing to be predicated. You can’t get there without God offering and you accepting. 

So now we should realize, I hope, that that city which Melchizedek, the King of Peace, was able to teach righteousness sufficiently so that it was taken up from the earth, reserved to the last days of the end of the world—

The next time we have such an event on the earth, the next time there is this kind of gathering and this kind of a population anywhere, it will not be for the purpose of going up. It will be for the purpose of permitting those who have gone up to come back down. It will be for the purpose of having those who can endure the presence of those who comebecause those who come will burn up all those who are unworthy. And therefore, some few need to be gathered so that the earth is not utterly wasted at His coming. 

As it was in the days of Noah, so [also shall it be] at the [time of the] coming of the Son of Man (JS-M 1:41). How many people were required in order to have the Ark be an acceptable place in which God could preserve all of humanity? It was a portable Ark of the Covenant in which the family was preserved. And so, if it’s going to be as it was in the days of Noah—

There is this net that has been cast out to gather together all manner of fish. But as the Lord tells the parable, the angels are going to come, and they’re going to pick through all manner of fish, and they’re going to keep the good, and the rest are going to be scheduled for burning. And so the question is, how diligent ought the search be into the things of God? How carefully ought we to consider the things that have been restored to us through the Prophet Joseph Smith? 

The fact is that this stuff is assigned to our dispensation. And I’m reading from the Book of Mormon, which the world does not have or accept. I’m reading from the Book of Abraham, which the world does not have or accept. I’m readingfrom the Joseph Smith Translation, which the world does not have and accept. All of you have this information in front of you. All of this material has been restored through someone that we claim we honor and regard as a prophet. 

Well, they who come will burn up those who are unprepared. And therefore, what should we be doing in order to make sure that we are included among those who are prepared? 

Well, I wanna look more into Enoch. So let’s go back to the book of Abraham—oh, excuse me, the Book of Moses. Moses chapter 7, beginning at verse 60: 

And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live [this is covenant language—this is God swearing by His own life. This is God promising that if He lives, so shall this word live; if He’s alive, He shall vindicate what He’s about to say—As I live], even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfil the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah; And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve; And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, [even] unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there [these are they who, when they come, will burn up those unprepared for their coming so that it leaves neither root nor branch], …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; And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be [called] Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; …for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. And it came to pass that Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, in the last days, to dwell on the earth in righteousness for the space of a thousand years; But before that day he saw great tribulations among the wicked; …he also saw the sea, that it was troubled, and men’s hearts failing them, looking forth with fear for the judgments of the Almighty God, which [shall] come upon the wicked. (Moses 7:60-66, emphasis added)

This is the Lord describing to Enoch what would happen by way of covenant, the Lord swearing as I live, even so will…and He tells him what’s going to come to pass in the last days. This is among the promises that were made to one of the Fathers—and this is one of the Fathers, and these are the covenants whose time is now upon us. This is the day in which we need to be prepared, so that those who went before and ascended up the ladder can return and fall upon your neck and kiss you, and you fall upon their neck and kiss them—a sacred embrace through the veil, evidencing fellowship between you here and them there, the Lord promising and covenanting these things are gonna happen. 

But notice—there has to be a tabernacle; He has to come and take up His abode. There has to be preparation made. These things require some effort to be made here, in order to prepare for His return. If there is no one here who is willing to engage in what’s necessary to bring this to pass (because everyone looks around and expects someone else to do it), then you’re neglecting a duty that’s devolving upon you as one of those who was assigned to come down, in this day, in order to honor the fathers and honor the Lord, by allowing the covenants that have been made to be fulfilled.

Take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 107, because in this we see that first Zion: 

Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth [his son], Enos [his grandson], Cainan [the son of Enos], Mahalaleel [son of Cainan], Jared [son of Mahalaleel], Enoch [son of Jared], and Methuselah [son of Enoch], who were all high priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. (D&C 107:53)

This is the original, first, patriarchal blessing being given by Adam, he having summoned them there. And as he’s giving his last blessing, three years previous to his death: the Lord appeared unto them. So the Lord comes to dwell with these seven high priests and Adam:

The Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him [Mich-a-el] Michael, the prince, the archangel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam [Ask yourself, what comfort is it that the Lord administers?], and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, …thou art a prince over them forever. And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation; and, notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation. These things were all written in the book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time. (ibid, vs. 54-57)

This is the original covenant. This is the first father. This is what was set in motion before the death of Adam, under the binding influence and ratification of the Holy Ghost (or the mind of God), in which Adam, under the influence of that Spirit, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation. This is the original covenant. This is the original father. Words spoken as a consequence of the influence of the Holy Spirit become the words of God. They will not fall to the ground unfulfilled. The everlasting covenant in our day is “new” only as a consequence of it having been restored to our attention recently—it is not a new thing; it is a very old thing, going back to the days of Adam. It was known to him. You were known to him. What was going to happen in your day was predicted and promised as a consequence of him. 

Prophecies, as I’ve said before, revolve around two (and primarily two) events only—one being the first coming of the Lord; the other one being the coming of the Lord in judgment at the end of the world. Now, there are plenty of prophecies that reckon to other events that are intermediate. However, the primary focus is the first and the second coming of the Lord—the vindication of the promise that the Father made in the beginning that He would redeem us all from the grave, and the vindication of the promise that, at some point, the world would come to an end as to its wickedness, and there would be peace again on the earth. Everything revolves around those two prophetic events. 

The seed that’s to be preserved—and the effort that the Lord has made to try and preserve the seed that He needs to have in order to establish a population on the earth at His coming—is a topic about which Zenos prophesied, an allegory that was picked up by Jacob; and Jacob preserves it in his testament, the Book of Jacob, in chapter 5. Nephi wrote the first books in the Small Plates of Nephi, and in there is his testimony, is his prophecy. What he did was he adopted the words of Isaiah in order to explain what it was that he, Nephi, had seen. But he used Isaiah’s words as the means to do that. And Jacob does the same thing. 

Jacob says, “I want everyone to come up to the temple; I’m gonna deliver to you a prophecy.” And when they get there and he delivers his prophecy, he reads them the allegory that’s taken from Zenos, which goes on and on about the history of God’s chosen people. And when he finishes reading this lengthy chapter from Zenos, he says, “Here’s the words of my prophecy ‘cause I told you I was gonna give it. Here it is; it’s coming: What I just told you is true!” And that’s Jacob’s testimony. Jacob adopts the words of Zenos in order to bear testimony of the things which he, Jacob, had been taught by the Lord when the Lord spoke to him face-to-face.

Jacob didn’t invent a new allegory. Jacob didn’t invent a new narrative. He didn’t invent a new story. And he didn’t invent new scriptures. He simply took the words of prophets that went before, and he said, “Here they are. The words of my prophecy are: They are true.”

Nephi had done the same thing. Jacob does the same thing. And so in Nephi, Jacob saw the example which he chose to follow, and he did follow. And we’re gonna look at this prophecy, which, delivered by Zenos, is reaffirmed, ratified, renewed, and a second witness is given to us, in the form of Jacob in the fifth chapter of Jacob. 

Alright, so I want to skip to the time period that is relevant to our day in Jacob chapter 5, beginning at verse 48—because all the rest of that stuff is past history, and what we’re trying to do now is to figure out, from where we are, how we get to the spot in which we might not be burned up, root and branch. 

Beginning at verse 48: And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of [the] vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? That is to say, the roots, the original covenant, the original stock from which we reckon—they were good. But we’ve become lofty in the way in which we approach things, and as a consequence of that, we have done something that has so cumbered the construct of where we find ourselves, that we’ve essentially destroyed the ability of the roots to do us any good. 

And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves [that is, their pride, their haughtiness; they decided that they were driving this and not the covenants that were originally made in the beginning], Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have [all] become corrupted? And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Let us go to and hew down the trees of the vineyard and cast them into the fire, that they shall not cumber the ground of my vineyard, for I have done all. What could I have done more for my vineyard? But, behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer. And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard. (Jacob 5:48-51)

See, the Lord (despite the fact that He can’t think of anything else that He’s left undone in all of His preparations—and it is only that; it is only His preparations)— 

Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 19, and look at what it is that the Lord did for us in the atonement. In describing what He went though—in verse 19 of section 19 of the Doctrine and Covenants—the Lord says: Glory be to the Father, …I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men (emphasis added). That’s what He did! And He has finished that. He finished His preparations. But 20, now, is us: Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power. That’s us. He’s done His part. What more could He do? Well, the only other thing He could do is rob us of our agency, and He’s not prepared to do that because our existence then would come to an end—because without the freedom to choose, we don’t have existence. Therefore, what more could He have done? But it does grieve Him that He’s going to lose the trees of his vineyard. 

Wherefore [the Lord says], let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard [that’s where we find ourselves], and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came [that is, let’s restore the covenant—or at least make it possible for it to be so]; and let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter [that’s coming], and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof. And this will I do that the tree may not perish, that, perhaps [perhaps; on the off chance that; that without the ability to control the outcome; that depending upon what you decide to do; perhaps] [the Lord may preserve unto Himself]the roots thereof for mine own purpose [that is, some of the promises that were made back to the Fathers (that their seed would not be utterly destroyed), might be fulfilled…perhaps]. (Jacob 5:52-53, emphasis added)

How great a number is required in order for the Lord to vindicate His promise? It’s not numerosity. It’s never been about a big volume. It’s the quality of the salvation. Because if you can save but one, what you have saved is infinite and eternal. And therefore, it continues on forever. 

Behold, the roots of the natural branches of the tree which I planted whithersoever I would are yet alive… (ibid, vs. 54). Those promises remain; they are still in play. What the Father promised—what the covenants that were established did—remain in play. It is yet possible for the Lord to vindicate everything that has been given.

Wherefore, that I may preserve them also for mine own purpose, I will take of the branches of this tree, and I will graft them in unto them (ibid). This is the process by which the house of Israel is restored, not in the way that you mass-produce, but in the way in which some rise up and lay hold upon that original religion that belonged to the Fathers, that came down from the beginning, that existed one time—that is to exist again. 

Yea, I will graft [into] them the branches of their mother tree, that I may preserve the roots also unto mine own self….Notice the word “mother” appears in there, too—the mother tree. …when they [may] be sufficiently strong perhaps they may bring forth good fruit unto me, [that] I may yet have glory in the fruit of my vineyard (ibid).

And then they go through things, verse 61: …call servants, that we may labor diligently with our might in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit…. That’s the whole purpose of the endeavor. And when they call servants in order to help them, the labor of the servants is confined to trying to make the vineyard finally produce fruit again. 

Verse 62: Let us go to and labor with our might this last time, for behold the end draweth nigh, and this is for the last time that I shall prune my vineyard. 

He tells them again in verse 64: …the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it [so be] that these last grafts shall grow, and [shall] bring forth…natural fruit, then [ye shall] prepare the way for them, that they may grow.

Again in verse 71: 

For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh… the season speedily cometh; …if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come. And it came to pass…the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them…

Because the Lord, in the last effort, is not going to leave the servants (that He sent) unattended to by His ministration. This is why—in the verses we’ve been reading and every location we’ve been at—we find the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ: direct, immediate, and involved. He continues to remain personally in charge of what is going to happen. But as it begins to happen, They have to sit back and watch—because the question isn’t: Is the laborer any less, any well prepared, any less capable, any less complete? The question is: What are the branches going to do?

You can minister all you want to the tree, but the tree has to respond, sometimes to what they view as offensive pruning, offensive digging, offensive conduct of cutting and moving and grafting—and saying, What you have here is error; what you have here is a bundle of false tradition that will damn you. 

You can plant the doctrine; you can restore the truth; you can have the Prophet Joseph Smith declare to you that he wants to be held to account for every word of the testimony that he delivers to you in a canonized set of scripture. But if you decide that you’re going to throw that away—and you will not allow it to graft in and inform you about the nature of God and the nature of the religion that God is seeking to deliver to you—then the ministration and the pruning and the care does not result in fruit. It simply results in a rather damaged vineyard, continuing to produce precious little—other than what is suitable to be gathered in bundles and burned—the loftiness of the people.

Grafting is to restore, to reconnect, to return, or in other words, to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to [the] fathers. That’s what Moroni said. That’s why Moroni reworked the language of Malachi in verse 39 of the Joseph Smith History: He shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. The work has been for one purpose. Joseph Smith began it. And he laid out all the information necessary for you to be able to identify who the Fathers are. And he laid out all the information necessary for you to be able to identify what the covenants were. And now the question is, Are we able, at this point, to preserve the roots, which is the Lord’s purpose, by producing fruit in our day? 

Well, I’m hoping, as a consequence of the things that we’ve looked at tonight, that you conclude that the choice seer in Second Nephi chapter 3, verse 7—and in Genesis chapter 50—was more than answered by the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith. And I hope that you conclude that the knowledge that was supposed to be restored through Joseph—of the Fathers and the covenants given to the Fathers, that will ultimately result in restoring Israel, that’s referred to in SecondNephi chapter 3, verse 15—has also been something that Joseph Smith accomplished. 

Now, I want to change subjects only slightly, in order to address something that we have all been fixated upon. And one of the problems with understanding the will of God is that religion was always intended to be proven—and provable—personally. I cannot prove it to you. You cannot prove it to me. But God can prove it to both of us. 

When it comes to the proof of the things of God, it is necessarily anecdotal. Anecdotal proof means that someone went out and they had an experience, and they come back and they tell you, as an anecdote, that that is what happened to them. You cannot know whether—when they tell you what happened to them—they are telling you the truth or not. What you can do is say, “Joseph Smith seems to persuade me; Joseph Smith seems to have arrived at a point in which the things that have come to us appear to be beyond the capacity of a man to accomplish; Joseph Smith seems to say things which—because of their volume, because of their consistency, because of their apparent purity—appear to me to be something which hails from God.” But you must trust him. 

The only way in which you can know for yourself is if you go out and you encounter something for yourself—in which you come back from that experience and say, “God spoke also to me. Therefore, as a consequence of God speaking to me, I now know something which—independent of Joseph Smith and independent of these scriptures—God has covenanted with me, and I know now to be true.” Your knowledge of God is necessarily anecdotal. Your knowledge of God is necessarily yours and yours alone—your property, belonging to you; your covenant, in the final analysis, in which God promises, by His own voice to you, in words that He cannot break (because He is a God of truth, and He is the same God today as yesterday and will be the same tomorrow; He does not change). When you fall into His orbit, you are now revolving around the center, in which all truth is to be found. 

All the answers to the dilemmas that you have are to be given. But they’re to be given to you, individually, by Him and not by another. Even if a man has power to declare things that have been kept hidden from the beginning of the world until now, it’s of no use if it’s mere voyeurism, if it’s just entertainment; it’s not supposed to be entertaining. It may appropriately be inspiring. But if it is inspiring, it’s only so if it results in you taking action. Because the action that’s required is for you to go out and to acquire for yourself your own anecdote, your own experience—if you will, your own testimony; or more correctly, your own knowledge of the things of God. 

One of the reasons why we look at the scriptures is because these are evidence of how often the Lord has—and how frequent He does—covenant with those who seek after Him. When the restoration began through Joseph Smith, there was already in place a restorationist movement; it was all over frontier Ohio, moving into upstate New York. That restorationist movement already knew that what was wanted was a New Testament church—what was needed was a New Testament church that was modeled, governed, patterned, and authorized in the same way in which Jesus had authorized a New Testament church in the meridian of time. 

But what was Jesus up to in the meridian of time in establishing that church? He was about to launch the Gospel into the Gentile world, in which you would not find those who could organize themselves as the House of Israel. Therefore, in order to accomplish that, as a substitute for the twelve princes of Israel (the twelve sons of Jacob), He called twelveapostles to model that family. And they called 70 others, because the family of Israel included 70 others—in Exodus chapter 1, verse 5, you’ll find that when they went into Egypt, the family of Israel consisted of 70. And so He remodeled the ancient family of Israel in the New Testament church. 

But the restoration of the Gospel in the last days is not reaching back to the meridian of time. The restoration of the Gospel in the last days is reaching back, at a minimum, to the time of Enoch. Because what you have to have is not the center. You have to have—walking back in a mirror image to—the beginning, so that the symmetry of the history of mankind matches at the end as it was in the beginning. It’s unfolding according to a pattern. It’s unfolding according to a plan. It is vindicating the promises and the prophecies that were made, beginning with Adam in the first days. 

And what is wanted in the last days are those who will at last say: “I am not satisfied with my Sunday School lessons and the disappointment that I see all around me. I’m not prepared to wait on another before I rise up to know God myself.” If any of you lack wisdom, ask God. He gives to all men liberally. He does not upbraid; that is, He doesn’t send you away discouraged, telling you, Don’t do that; don’t ask me that. 

We saw in that first talk in Boise that we were commanded to pursue after the mysteries of God. What is more mysterious than what went on in the beginning generations? Because we have so little left from which to reconstruct that. And yet, we have enough to know the pattern that the Lord intended the last days to unfold in accordance with. And that pattern was to return us, in the end, to what was here in the beginning—to return us to a state of knowledge about things that He has always had in His heart as the goal, as the ambition, as the desire to fulfill—not a New Testament church, though a New Testament church is absolutely part of the pattern. 

When the Lord hung on the cross and the sun was darkened at noon, if you looked up in the sky to see what was overhead, you would see the sacrificial lamb in the pattern of the stars (that we call Aries today). Proceeding forth from under the foot of Aries—we have renamed it “the bands of Pisces,” but it should be more appropriately rendered the “net” of Pisces— because from under the foreleg of the Lamb was cast out a net. And that net gathers in at least two kinds of fish. The larger one that is gathered in the net is circumnavigating the ecliptic and will do so eternally. The larger group in the starfield will never rise up to the North. The smaller group, the smaller star field of Pisces, also caught in that same net, is pointed to the sides of the North, where the Throne of the Father is found—the spot around which all things revolve. 

The religion that was established in the beginning and the testimony that was set out in the stars above us—that we cannot touch, corrupt, corrode, alter, or apostatize; and leave neglected and forgotten, beyond our ability to reach to—that testimony remains overhead still. And it serves you no purpose because when you can’t destroy the testimony written in the heavens, then you simply cause ignorance or, in the words we read tonight from Enoch, darkness to reign upon the earth. Satan’s content with darkness; works just as well as anything else. 

The God of heaven intends for the testimonies that He has given to be understood. And in the beginning, they wereunderstood. Now don’t think that you can start doing Google searches and you can reconstruct what it was they knew. I know, ‘cause I’ve looked at it [audience laughter]. And I’ve looked at the best sources that are out there. And I’ve bought a library of material to look into whether or not it would be possible to talk about these things without using any source other than—

Francis Rolleston did a really good job of laying a bunch of stuff out. John Pratt uses Rolleston in a lot of what he’s written. And [Joseph] Seiss followed, thinking… but could do better. And I can tell you—and I’ve looked at what John Pratt has done as well, a Latter-day Saint astronomer, who’s paid attention and written articles in Meridian Magazine—and I can tell you that the resources simply do not exist. And you would probably be better off not trying to reconstruct it, at this point, because even the constellations are so messed up in what has been bequeathed to us. 

One of the earliest ones is a constellation that you can find at an Egyptian format at Dendra. And it’s a mess, and it’s late, too, though the Egyptians tried to preserve the things that came down from the beginning, as we read in the Book of Abraham. The Pharaoh sought earnestly to imitate the order that came down from the beginning. And the Pharaoh succeeded, in large measure, in doing that. And he was a righteous man: 

Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom…judged his people wisely…justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even…the reign of Adam, [as] also… Noah, his father. (Abraham 1:26)

Pharaoh was not out there freelancing. He was trying to imitate something—and Egypt did a good job of preserving some things that have fallen into decay elsewhere. But the restoration through Joseph Smith, and the promises that were made to the fathers, and the statement that was made by Moroni to Joseph on the evening that he came to him and talked about—and reworded—the promise given through Malachi, all of these are pointing to something that is, at this moment, still incomplete—a work that is, at this moment, still undone; a project that remains for us, if we will receive it, to finally receive. 

Because the way in which Zion is going to come about is going to necessarily be something that is so comfortable and so familiar on the earth, as a pattern, reflecting what it is that exists in the heavens—that they who come not only do not burn them up, but they fall upon them and they kiss their necks because, at last, they have a sister and a brother on the earth—united by belief; united by covenant; united by knowledge; united by light and truth or, in other words, the glory of God, which is intelligence. Because the purpose of the Gospel has always been to inform, to edify, to raise up, to instruct. It was never meant to be reduced to something that is merely repetitious. It was intended to challenge you to your very core. And what you do and what you think and how you act—it’s intended to make you godlike in your understanding. And you’re not godlike when you’re bored out of your mind in a meeting [audience laughter].

If you have the opportunity to teach, you must push the envelope. You must teach, instruct, and try and raise people up. The grafting serves no purpose if it simply continues to produce the same barrenness. Fruit is a genealogical term. Fruitful and multiply was what Adam was told to be with Eve, at the beginning. It’s about preserving a family of Gods, if you will. It’s about creating a circumstance in which it is possible that the work—which began an eternity ago—can continue to go on for an eternity from now, because you were saved; because you were redeemed; because you tied into that same connection that unifies all of the Gods who have gone before. 

The work of salvation is not achieved by your ignorance and indifference. And the Gospel of Christ is not limited to making you feel better about yourself. Quite frankly, my wife and I marvel, all the time, at how unprepared and unworthy she and I feel in everything that has gone on. But—I know God. And therefore, because I know God, I am confident that you can know Him, too—absolutely confident that you can know Him, too; and that He will speak to any one of you, just as He spoke to Joseph Smith; and that He will answer any earnest seeker. No one is sent away disappointed. 

Do you think the Lord, who would not turn away the blind and the halt, the crippled and the leprous—

Do you think the Lord who, seeing the widow whose only son was being carried away dead and was moved with compassion to restore the life of that young man, so that she (in that circumstance, in that culture, in that environment)—she now had future security because she had a son to look out for her—Do you think that that Lord doesn’t intend to answer the prayers of the earnest seeker? 

My suspicion is that God has answered, and you’ve turned a deaf ear to much of what you’ve looked for because you want something other than the answers He’s already given in the material that sits in front of you, unexamined. My suspicion is that if you would spend time looking into the revelations given us by the Prophet Joseph Smith (and studying the history, however perilous that may prove to be to you), that you will conclude that God’s already had an answer to the inquiry that you’ve made, and that with a little effort, you can find it. And when you find it, you’ll hear the voice of God saying, “There it is. Now was that so hard? [audience laughter] Why don’t you keep going and see what else is in there for you.” Because this stuff was given to us at the price of the life of a 38 1⁄2 year old young man and his older brother, whose blood was shed in order to restore what we now have in our possession. And we take it lightly, and we look away. 

I could write my own Gospel. I could bear my own testimony. I could invent a new narrative about our Lord if it were necessary to do so. But I’ll tell you, the only thing that is necessary is to open the scriptures and read them and to tell you: the things that we’ve looked at tonight are true—like Jacob. 

In fact, if you go all the way back to Jacob chapter 6: And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive-tree, must surely come to pass (Jacob 6:1).

So here’s the words of my prophecy: that the things that we have looked at this evening, restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith—the seer named Joseph, the son of a father named Joseph—fulfilled the promise of Joseph of Egypt, and they are all true. And I know them to be true. And you can know them to be true, too. But the price you have to pay in order to gain that knowledge is to pay some attention to what it was that was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Otherwise, they’re just something gathering dust on a shelf. Don’t read them as if you’re trying to vindicate the religion that you think that you already understand. Don’t read them as if you’re trying to defend your current group of preferred doctrines. Read them as if you are as ignorant of the will of God as the convert is that you hope to make living somewhere in Florida or New Guinea or Guatemala. Because the truth of the matter is that we have been devolving in our understanding, from the day of Joseph Smith until today, at an ever accelerating rate. And what we have left, Enoch called “gross darkness.” 

I bear testimony that Joseph was a prophet. I bear testimony that our Lord lived and lives. I’m one of those who can say that I’m a witness of that. I have seen His suffering. I have heard His voice. He doesn’t intend that I be a solitary witness of Him or Joseph be one. He intends for everyone of you to rise up and do as James bids you to do: if you lack wisdom, ask God. He gives to you—He gives to all of us—liberally. He’s real. It is His work to bring this stuff to pass. The only thing that we can do is to offer to be a servant. And I am confident that I’m a poor one of those. But I am His servant. And I serve Him—however poorly, however offensively, however inadequately. He intends to call (in the plural) servants to fulfill what needs to be done in the last days. He does intend to bring again Zion. That will be His—and not a man’s—work. 

And when we get together again—or if you listen to the CD’s again—the next time we talk, the subject is going to be Priesthood. And the time after that (we’ll take a break, but the time after that), we’re gonna talk about Zion. And hopefully—as a consequence of covering the subjects that we do, in the order that we do them—you’ll begin to appreciate the restoration that has come about through the Prophet Joseph Smith as only the beginning of the work of God in the last days; and that much of what is left yet to be accomplished will not be accomplished unless it is through others, eventually leading to the return of the natural fruit—a proposition that remains a challenging and undone, incomplete labor. 

The things I’ve talked about tonight were chosen precisely because they focus on the issue—the real issue, involving covenants—that we need to begin to understand in the last days, in order to know that the covenants of the Fathers (and the work of reuniting His children with the Fathers) is something that is yet to be accomplished but is something which, hopefully, we will see begin to happen again. Joseph did not return without some success. Joseph was able to obtain what he sought. Now we need to do the same.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The post Covenants appeared first on Restoration Archives Blog.

This lecture by Denver Snuffer entitled “Repentance” was originally recorded in Logan, Utah on September 29, 2013, in front of a live audience.

Transcript

Apparently, in order to get a recording of this tonight, we need to have some approximate two-minute interruption at some point, and they’ll flag me—I assume with jumping jacks—so that we have that pause.

It was about 40 years ago today that—you’re waving for what purpose? You can’t hear me? You…if…if I get real close, can you hear me now? This is good? Okay.

It was about 40 years ago—yesterday would have been a Friday, which was the day on which my friend, Ron Mahle, asked me to baptize him. The following day was a Saturday, 40 years ago. Today it’s a Sunday. I was, at the time, in the Air Force, and I had been in one squadron, and then I got reassigned to a different squadron. While I was in the first one, I had a number of buddies that I had associated with—friends, compadres, one of whom was a fellow named Jimmy Givens. Now Wycliffe was from Oakland; I think Jimmy was from Chicago. Anyway, he was a black airman, and I was a white airman. (As it turns out, I still am [audience laughter].) We had hung out together a great deal, but then I lost contact with him for a period of months. He and I would go over to the base bowling alley, and we’d always—because they only sold beer in pitchers—we’d always buy a pitcher of beer to share, and then we’d buy a pizza to share, and that was our thing when we were hungry. 

I hadn’t seen him for a number of months and then ran into him, and he said, “Hey, let’s go to the bowling alley.” And I thought, “Okay, yeah, sure.” And when we got there, I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that the normal ritual was a pitcher of beer and a pizza. And so, as it came time to order, we ordered the pizza that we always got. And then, to my surprise, Jimmy ordered a Pepsi, and I said, “Well, that’s good; so that relieves me of the responsibility.” So I ordered a Pepsi, also. And Jimmy says, “I don’t drink alcohol anymore.” And I said, “Well, damn, that’s funny; I don’t either anymore.” I said, “For me, it’s a religious thing.” He said, “No kidding! For me, it’s a religious thing.” And I said, “Well, that’s great! What’s the religion?” He said, “I’m a Muslim.” And I said, “Holy crap, I’m a Mormon!” He said, “You are a blue-eyed devil!” And I said, “No kidding! You were not valiant in the pre-existence, and you can’t hold priesthood!” And so here we were, buddies still, in spite of now the gulf of religion that separated us, and it just didn’t matter. (I don’t think he’s “Jimmy” anymore. He’s probably Aziz Mohammed something or other.) But Jimmy and I remain buds despite the enormous religion gulf that separated us at that point. 

When I became a Latter-day Saint, one of the things that typified, in those days, the Latter-day Saint was the libraries that everyone had. In Exeter (which was another town in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire ward), there was Sister Long, and she ran (what was back then—we don’t have them anymore), but it was the Seventies Bookstore—Seventies being responsible, I suppose, for establishing a chain of bookstores where you could purchase LDS material—Sister Long was the proprietor. And the bookstore consisted of her covered back porch—in which all the LDS books were on display (and Sister Long read the inventory; so whenever you bought from her, you were actually buying a book that she already read and handled and, fortunately, had not marked up). But it was my understanding that if you were going to be a Latter-day Saint, you need to acquaint yourself with all kinds of information. So, as a consequence of that, I began by reading everything I could get my hands on. 

In those days, LeGrand Richards was still alive. The missionary discussions were largely based upon A Marvelous Work and a Wonder. He had been the Presiding Bishop of the Church; he had been called into the Quorum of the Twelve, and his book, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, was one of the first things I read to acquaint myself with the doctrine that the missionaries had been teaching. But all of those early biographies about Wilford Woodruff, about Heber C. Kimball, about John Taylor, the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, which I bought from Sister Long (and used up—I recently had to buy a new one because it just fell apart; now, I still have it, but if you aren’t careful when you open it, it just falls to pieces in your hands)—because Mormons were, by definition in those days, studious, careful, well-read, well-considered, doctrinally-prepared folks who would defend the faith; and therefore, if you were gonna run with them, you needed to have an education of your own. And as a consequence of that, I began, at that early stage, to acquire a library, because you were not legitimately a Latter-day Saint without one back then. 

Remember, Marion G. Romney was in the First Presidency; Bruce R. McConkie was in the Twelve; Mark E. Peterson was the doctrinal go-to guy in those days—he was in the Twelve. LeGrand Richards was a member of the Twelve in those days. I mean, what you got when you had those folks—

What you got in those days was doctrine and an exposition of doctrine. Now, as we all know, Bruce R. McConkie has taken a number of broadsides of late by the church distancing—

And when that “Modern Mormonism” (David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism) came out and the backdrop of criticism that was leveled (the approximate 1700 errors found in the first edition of Mormon Doctrine that needed to be corrected)—when all of that came out of late, Bruce R. McConkie’s reputation has suffered somewhat. But in those days, he was a doctrinal authority. And he and his father-in-law wanted to try and stabilize the doctrine of the church, and they made an effort to do that. That was, I mean—

It was the five volumes, Answers to Gospel Questions, (bought, read that). It was the three volumes of Doctrines of Salvation. There was the Doctrinal New Testament Commentary (that was not a Joseph Fielding Smith product edited by Bruce R. McConkie; that was Bruce R. McConkie writing that), Mormon Doctrine, and he had begun his Mortal Messiah series. Those days, doctrine really counted. 

Well, last night in Idaho Falls, we talked about faith. Tonight we’re going to talk about repentance. But I want to follow up on something that I did not do last night when we were looking at the Lectures on Faith. I can give you the citations if you want to look it up. It is in the second volume of the Revelations and Translations. You can read it, beginning on page 565 of that volume. It is a reproduction of the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. The reason I cite to the 1835 edition is because it was that edition which got canonized by the vote of the church. It is that edition that, in the preface, Joseph Smith vouched for all of the items of doctrine that were contained within the Lectures on Faith. The 1844 edition that would be published later—they would not go through the exercise of re-sustaining the Lectures on Faith because they had previously been canonized. They simply added to—and elaborated on—the revelations that had been received between then and now.

Beginning on page 565 and running through page 567, there is a recounting of how the Lectures on Faith were canonized on the 17th of August of 1835 when the volume was approved. And it begins with President Cowdery, who was Co-President of the Church at that point. He “introduced the ‘Book of doctrine and covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints,’ in behalf of the committee…” which was headed by Joseph Smith. 

W.W. Phelps bore record that the book presented to the assembly, was true. President John Whitmer, also arose, and testified that it was true. Elder John Smith, taking the lead of the high council in Kirtland, bore record that the revelations in the said book were true… Elder Levi Jackman, taking the lead of the high council of the church in Missouri bore testimony that the revelations in…said book were true, and the said high council of Missouri accepted and acknowledged them as the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by a unanimous vote. President W.W. Phelps then read the written testimony of the Twelve as follows. “The testimony of the witnesses to the book of the Lord’s commandments, which he gave to his church through Joseph Smith, jr. [sic] who was appointed by the voice of the church for this purpose: we therefore feel willing to bear testimony to the world of mankind, to every creature upon the face of the earth, and upon the islands of the sea, that the Lord has borne record to our souls, through the Holy Ghost, shed forth upon us, that these commandments were given by inspiration of God, and are profitable for all men, and are verily true… Elder Leonard Rich bore record of the truth of the book, and the Council of the Seventy accepted and acknowledged it as the doctrines and covenants of their faith, by unanimous vote. Bishop Newell K. Whitney bore record of the truth of the book, and with his counselors, accepted and acknowledged it as the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by unanimous vote. Acting Bishop, John Corrill bore record of the truth of the book … Acting President, John Gould, gave his testimony in favor of the book, and the travelling Elders, accepted and acknowledged it as the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by a unanimous vote. Ira Ames, acting as President of the Priests, gave his testimony in favor of the book, and with the Priests, accepted and acknowledged it as the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by a unanimous vote. Erastus Babbitt, acting President of the Teachers [did the same thing]. Wm. Burgess, acting President of the Deacons [did the same thing]. The venerable President, Thomas Gates, then bore record of the truth of the book, and with his five silver-headed assistants, and the whole congregation, accepted and acknowledged it as the doctrine and covenants of their faith by a unanimous vote. The several authorities, and the general assembly, by a unanimous vote, accepted the labors of the committee.” (The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 2, Published Revelations, pp.565-567)

So, I point that out. And if you get a copy of the 1835 edition, you’ll read all of that because that is appended in the printed edition in the back as the very final thing—the testimony of these people. 

When the Lectures on Faith were removed from the scriptures in 1921 (by the committee headed by George Richards that included Anthony Ivins, Melvin J. Ballard, James E. Talmage, John A. Widtsoe and Joseph Fielding Smith), in addition to not having a vote to remove it from our scriptures (therefore leaving it in the position, in my view, of still being scripture and canonized), they are, in essence, rejecting not merely the vote that was taken in August of 1835 accepting it as canonized scripture for our instruction, but they’re rejecting the testimony of all those who were present and bore testimony, whose names I’ve just read to you as well. 

And so, I agree with what Bruce R. McConkie said at BYU on the 4th of January 1972: “The Lectures on Faith are eternal scripture. It was written by the power of the Holy Ghost, by the spirit of inspiration. It is scripture. It is true.” Hence the reason why I turned to the Lectures on Faith, commending them to you yesterday. And we’ll look at ‘em a little bit again tonight. 

In the 1835 compilation of the Doctrine and Covenants, there are sections there—they’re still in our Doctrine and Covenants, but they are differently numbered in ours today. When I get the transcription of this, I’ll fill in the cross-reference to today’s Doctrine and Covenants. But for purposes of preparing remarks for tonight, I used the old edition. I used the 1835 edition. So I’ll be giving you a cite to the section and the verse that appears there.

Joseph’s doctrines, teachings, revelations, and counsel was supposed to be kept and hearkened to by the church. In the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants section 41 [14], it says: Ye have received a commandment for a law unto my church through him whom I have appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations from my hand (see D&C 43:2), making it clear that when we get something from Joseph, we—as a church—were directed by the Lord to respect what it was that came through him. 

In section 32, verse 2[3] it says: I have entrusted unto you, my servant Joseph, for a wise purpose in me; and it shall be made known unto future generations, but this generation shall have my word through you (see D&C 5:9-10). Don’t read the word “generation” in that context narrowly, because the word “generation” has, sometimes, varying meanings. And the safe meaning—in that context, of that statement to Joseph—includes all those who live after the day that Joseph came and Joseph bore testimony. Therefore, it would include you.

In section 46, verses 1 through 3, it says: 

Behold there shall be a record kept among you, and in it thou [meaning Joseph, thou] shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ…Wherefore, meaning the church, thou [the church, you folks] shalt give heed unto all his [singular, personal pronoun “his,” meaning Joseph] words, and commandments, which he [singular, personal pronoun] shall give unto you, as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before [Him]: for his word ye shall receive, as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith; for by doing these things, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. (See D&C 21:1-6, emphasis added) 

“Shall not prevail against you,” provided you give heed to his words—not mine; not another man’s. The bastion established by the Lord that is the rock upon which the winds and the rain can beat without causing any harm to the foundation is the rock of revelation given to us in this generation through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Everything else turns to sand. 

For thus saith the Lord God, him [singular, personal pronoun; referring to the individual man, the Prophet Joseph Smith—praise to the man who communed with Jehovah, indeed—him!] have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good: and his diligence I know, and his prayers I have heard; yea, his weeping for Zion I have seen, and I will cause that he shall mourn for her no longer, for his days of rejoicing are come unto the remission of his sins, and the manifestations of my blessing upon his works. (See D&C 21:7-8, emphasis added)

It doesn’t promise Joseph Zion. It doesn’t promise him anything of the sort. It promises him rejoicing because his sins are remitted—his sins, not ours; because at this point—

This is 1835; by 1832 the church was already under condemnation, but Joseph was not. His sins are remitted, and that will cause Joseph to rejoice.

They shall believe on his words, which are given him through me, by the Comforter, which manifesteth that Jesus was crucified by sinful men for the sins of the world. (See D&C 21:9, emphasis added)

So, as I read the edition of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835—sections 14, 32, 46 of that volume—it becomes abundantly apparent that, to the extent that the church was a true and living church, it was a true and living church because God owned the words that came through Joseph, and God vouched for the words that came through Joseph, and God cautioned them—and us—about ignoring the words that come through the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

[1835] Section 51, verse 2: No one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church, excepting my servant Joseph Smith, jr. [sic] for he receiveth them as Moses; and thou shalt be obedient unto the things which I shall give unto him (see D&C 28:2-3).

Section 84, again this is the 1835 edition. Section 84, verse 2—this is a revelation given in March of 1833 in which Joseph Smith was called by the Lord and the words, quoting: My son…Verily I say unto you [again—personal, individual pronoun, identifying an individual by the name of Joseph Smith]… 

Verily I say unto you the keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come: nevertheless, through you shall the oracles be given to another; yea, even unto the church. And all they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them, lest they are accounted as a light thing, and are brought under condemnation thereby, and stumble and fall. (See D&C 90:3-5)

What is the definition of oracles? Is the definition of “oracles” a transient, changing-with- every-whim program that can shift from day-to-day and person-to-person? Or are the oracles the documents, the commandments, the revelations, the words that are contained in what Joseph Smith handed to us in the Book Mormon and the revelations given through him? Be careful about how you interpret the scriptures. Be careful about how flexible you think an unchanging God will be. Be careful about that God (who is the same yesterday, today, and forever) being so whimsically different that on one day, one thing can be asked of you, and on another, something altogether different can be asked of you. And to the extent that you detect a varying, shifting sand beneath your feet, ask yourself why that is so? And ask yourself, where might I go to find the rock upon which to establish my feet, that the winds and the rains might not mow me down? Because God vouched for Joseph Smith, and God vouched for those things committed to you, through him. And so, when I read (actually, when I heard—because it hasn’t been reduced to a transcript) the testimony given by D. Todd Christofferson to BYU-Idaho, bearing testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith this week ago, I rejoiced. Would to God we all took that more seriously and recognized that if there is a Prophet whose words we need to give heed to, it begins with the primacy of Joseph Smith—and that all other things, all other revelations, all of your attitudes, all of your notions—everything ought to be measured against what we received through him. God vouched for his words. I vouch for his words. I know he was a prophet of God. The extent to which my knowledge of Joseph runs allows me to say: 

I know that man has stood in the presence of God. And I know that God has, and does, vouch for him still today. 

So, let us regard what Joseph vouched for as the “important doctrine of salvation” (which is what he called the Lectures on Faith) as if it were a law unto the church—God’s word through Joseph, words and commandments from God to us, given by the Comforter, to which we must be obedient so we may avoid condemnation, stumbling, and falling. Because all of those things are, in fact, the things which the Lord said about Joseph in revelation that we find still in our scriptures. 

We got through the Sixth Lecture on Faith, but we didn’t touch the Seventh. And so I want to touch it briefly tonight because any treatment of that volume of scripture is always— invariably—brief. We can’t harvest everything that’s there. 

The Seventh Lecture on Faith, second paragraph: As we have seen in our former lectures, that faith was the principle of action and of power in all intelligent beings, both in heaven and on earth. It both motivates you to act and it produces power when you act. In that same second paragraph, it says: No world has yet been framed that was not framed by faith. God operates on a principle of faith. As I pointed out last night, all of us do, too. It’s just inevitable. 

All the hosts of heaven… This is in paragraph 4: It is by reason of this power [faith] that all the hosts of heaven perform their works of wonder, majesty, and glory. Angels move from place to place by virtue of this power. And then 5, it says: The whole visible creation as it now exists is the effect of faith. Turn to paragraph 9:

What is the difference between a saved man and one who is not saved? We answer: from what we have before seen of the heavenly worlds, they must be persons who can work by faith and who are able, by faith, to be ministering spirits to them who shall be heirs of salvation; and they must have faith to enable them to act in the presence of the Lord, otherwise they cannot be saved. 

They have to act—they have to be enabled, as a consequence of their faith, to be able to act in the presence of the Lord. Otherwise, they cannot be saved. Remember when we started this in Boise, we were looking at what was said to Joseph in the First Vision about the power of godliness. They have a form, but they do not have the power. They lack something because they teach for commandments the doctrines of men. What does it mean to have faith sufficient “to enable you to act in the presence of the Lord, otherwise they cannot be saved”? 

Well, Doctrine and Covenants section 93, verse 1, says: VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.

Every soul who forsaketh his sins—you’re not gonna get past your sins until God forgives you. But you need to awaken to the fact that you possess them, and turn from them. Because turning from them is repentance—turning to face Him. You can still have a load that needs to be dropped because we are all heavy laden with sin. But forsaking your sins means that you would prefer Him over everything else there is. So turn and face Him. 

Cometh unto me—well, the only way you can leave that load behind is to get down in prayer, seeking Him, and asking Him to free you from the load, and to allow you (as Alma recounts in his 36th chapter of the book of Alma: the terrible agony that he felt and calling upon God to be redeemed and then, when God answered, he could remember the pain—the distress that he had—was equaled by the joy and the exhilaration he felt on the other side of that)—being cleansed. 

Calleth on my name—you have to do that. 

And obeyeth my voice—that would include not merely the things that were given to us by Joseph Smith that you may be neglecting, but obeying His voice in what He tells you here and now, because your agenda is different from mine. Your needs are different from mine. Your responsibilities are different from mine. You have your own family; you have your own ward; you have your own neighbors; you have your own issues. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters—you’re part of a community somewhere. And inside of that, all of you need to listen to the voice of God because He loves everyone. He loves that eccentric aunt that you just dread having come around. And you can’t, for the life of you, understand why she thinks cloves should be poked into a turkey on Thanksgiving. And you wonder if maybe there shouldn’t be a procedure that more easily confines her to someplace where they administer psychotropic drugs [audience laughter]. God loves her as much as He loves you. God loves all of us. And the agenda that you have, and the people you can affect, and the relief that you can administer, and the needs that go in front of your eyes day by day are uniquely yours. And the relief that you can grant to those around you—that’s yours. It was given to you by God as a gift. Don’t harden your heart. 

I was reading about the problems that the early saints experienced in that 1857/1856/ 1858 timeframe—from the diaries; not the official history, not from the stuff that is made public; these are the private diaries and journals—I was reading from that in sacrament (we went home, and I attended my church meetings this morning), and I literally cried as I read what they were called upon to go through. I am very disinclined to be critical and non-appreciative of the fact that those who went before us suffered as they suffered, in order to preserve and make possible for us today the programs, the scriptures—the fact that they would not allow the restoration, through Joseph, to lapse into silence and neglect. It doesn’t matter that they made mistakes. We make mistakes, too—every one of us. If you’d lived a perfect life, you wouldn’t be here. The fact is, we all are broken, and we are all in need of repair. 

Come to Him, because the only repairman that exists in the universe—inside of this matrix—is Christ, whose assignment it is to repair and redeem and to heal us. Obey His voice, no matter how much it may disagree with the flow of that that goes on all around you. People thought I was a madman (teaching gospel doctrine) when we got to the King Benjamin talk about not allowing beggars to go by and neglecting them. And I got push- back, every four years, when we got through that material because I’m saying, “You don’t judge the beggars.” You really don’t have any right to do that. And then you have Paul’s statement about being careful to entertain strangers because angels sometimes come among you unawares. 

Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that John lingers still. And let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that John would like to know your heart. How might he do that best? I would suggest, coming to you as a beggar, smelling foul and in need, asking you for relief is the perfect way to find out if that same spirit animates you as animated King Benjamin, when King Benjamin said, ‘Don’t suffer the beggar to put up their petition to you in vain because are we not all beggars?’ And of course, that’s not merely a rhetorical question. Are we not all beggars? Well, it’s self-evident—yeah.

Obeyeth my voice and keepeth my commandments—“My commandments,” given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, entrusted to you, should be respected by you; given by the voice of the Spirit to you, asking you to help those around you, because the relief that people need sometimes can only come from one source, and that is you; under the inspiration of the Spirit, relieving the burdens of those around you. Why do you think God cares about the widows and the orphans and the poor and the infirm? And who at Bountiful appreciated His coming the most? Was it those that were called to preside, whose names are given to us because they were recorded in the record? Or was it those that He said—the nameless group—‘Bring them up here, and let me heal them’? And all of those in need of healing were brought forward and healed. We read the record and say, “I got a name here; I got a Timothy. I got a name here; I got a Nephi. I got a name here, and this must be someone big and great and important.” But unto whom did the Lord minister more? And who was it in Bountiful who appreciated more what the Lord had come to do? 

Be like your Master. Do what you can for those around you who are infirm. They are here in abundance—the brokenhearted, the families that are in need. If you want to be saved, help the Lord save others—not by preaching and clamoring and demanding that they view the world like you do, but by giving them a hand. Your most powerful sermon can be in the effort that you make and the time that you take to let people know that you care about them. If you would like to repent of your sins, take a look around at those in need, and do what you can for them, because you’ve begun the first step. When your heart is like Him, then you open up so that He can enter in. And when your heart is unlike Him, well, there’s no room except if He break it—which He will do. You do these things, you shall see my face and know that I am—know; not believe, but know. 

This is still that paragraph 9 of the Lectures on Faith, seventh lecture about—I don’t know; it looks like it’s only a third of the way down; it’s a long paragraph. (By the way, in that 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants section 76, which in our current edition is like 118 verses, I think it’s 8 verses there. So, if you’re gonna memorize a verse in those days, dude, you’re like Gettysburg-Address-worthy. I mean, it’s formidable. Formidable, depending on what part of the country you reckon from.) Okay, so about a third of the way down, it says—it poses the question: 

Where shall we find a saved being? For if we can find a saved being, we may ascertain without much difficulty what all others must be in order to be saved. We think that it will not be a matter of dispute, that two beings who are unlike each other cannot both be saved; for whatever constitutes the salvation of one will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved; and if we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be, or else not be saved. We ask, then, where is the prototype? Or, where is the saved being? We conclude, as to the answer of this question, there will be no dispute among those who believe the Bible, that it is Christ: all will agree in this, he is the prototype or standard of salvation; or, in other words, he is a saved being. [Skipping down a couple of lines:] If he were anything different from what he is, he would not be saved; for his salvation depends on his being precisely what he is and nothing else. (emphasis added)

So, according to the Lectures on Faith, if you would be saved, you have to be exactly, precisely what Christ is and nothing else. Now, you’ve been told all your life that that’s an impossibility. Well, it’s an impossibility, in one sense, and it’s a mandatory requirement, in another sense. It’s an impossibility because, as it turns out, we all err. All of us err; we always have. And that’s what the atonement was designed to fix—because He picks that burden up, and He carries it for us. 

But the fact that He will carry that burden for us doesn’t relieve us—from the moment that He’s taken that away—from then going forward to do good. You can be Christ-like. You can administer relief to those around you. You can, as He said, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit those who are in prison. Some of the most profound, deepest, spiritual experiences that I have had recounted to me by people I know, came from people who go out to the prison in Bluffdale and hold family home evenings with prison inmates. That ministration/that service elevates the servant. Their heart gets moved with compassion. Your heart needs to be like Christ’s—moved with compassion for others. 

And the way you do that is imitative at first. And then it is informed by the experience later. What begins as imitation, and merely that, finds room within to have genuine compassion for the needs of others. Christ is the prototype, but you can be like Him. There are godly people walking around; many of them are elderly. Many of them have long since forgotten their own needs, and they spend their lives in service of others. You can find that even within the church with Relief Society Presidents. You can find that within the church with people who do legitimate-needs home teaching. You don’t have to go find another church in which to serve. You don’t have to find new neighbors, and you don’t have to have a new family. That eccentric group of people, that tribe into which you were born—you belong there. You belong there as an example—as an example of love and compassion. 

And you know, the reason why (in the Sermon on the Mount) He says they’re going to speak all manner of evil against you falsely, for my [name’s] sake (Matthew 5:11) is not because of anything you’ve done. It’s because down here, no one believes. No one believes the genuine thing exists. Everyone’s heart has been broken; everyone has been disappointed. Everyone says, “The man I thought was going to be so great has turned out, instead, to be just another broken ship-wreck.” Their skepticism of you has been earned in this environment by everyone they’ve ever met. Therefore, you’ve got to be different. And you’ve got to expect their broken heart is going to be taken out on you until you, at last—and it may require your life to do it—until you, at last, show that faith can yet exist here. 

Let it exist here in you. Let it live and breathe in you. You needn’t look for another life/another opportunity somewhere else far away to go. It’s right here; it’s in your lap; it’s in your family; it’s in your home; it’s in your community; it’s among all those egotistical, hard-headed, stubborn Gentiles that we parade around, lauding one another, and talking about what great things we are. Serve them. Submit to their rule. Do it in a way that will touch their hearts and be the real thing. Be the real thing. And finally, at last, there will be those who are worthy to lead. 

You need to be like Christ. It is precise. It is exact. 

So, let’s turn to a few scriptures and interrupt this for a moment—because we want to repent, after all. We want to change what we are. Let’s go to Doctrine and Covenants section 84, and let’s look, beginning at verse 33. Now, I’m simply gonna allow you to entertain your present views on some things for tonight. But we’re gonna have to deconstruct a bunch of junk later, and we’ll do that down in Spanish Fork, I think. 

Beginning at verse 33 of Section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants: 

For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God. 

Sons…seed—and it’s necessary that you become that in order that you become the church and kingdom, …the elect of God. Because as we saw in the statements made to Joseph Smith, the hearts have to be turned to the fathers because this is going to be reconstructing a Holy Family at some point. 

And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord (D&C 84:35). Now, many of you read that verse 35 and you think that what that means is: If you fetch this priesthood by ordination, ipso facto, you have fetched Jesus. Praise Jesus! (And by the way, Joel Olsteen is coming to the E Center—you’re not gonna want to miss that. “It’s a mega church! It’s a mega church in transit! It’s gonna come to the E Center! SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” I’m sorry. I get worked up when the evangelicals show up on the horizon. He had some nice things to say about Mormons, though. So Joel Olsteen has kind of creeped a little more on the positive column for me of late.) 

I want to suggest that verse 35 can also be read exactly as D&C section 93, verse 1 (that we were reading a moment ago) is read. And that is to say, if you’re gonna receive this priesthood, you’re gonna get it from Him; that is, you enter into His presence—you receive Him. If you have it, then when you have it—as a consequence of having it—you receive Him. 

Oh… For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me (ibid, vs 36). I want to suggest that throughout scripture, almost invariably, the word “servants” is referring to angelic ministrants. And so, angels minister—that would be Aaronic. And then Christ ministers—that would be sons of Moses. And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father (ibid, vs. 37)—because it is the purpose of the Son to bear record of the Father. It is the purpose of the Son to bring others to the Father so that there might be many sons of God. Verse 38: And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom—‘cause you can’t go where the Father is without entering into and receiving an inheritance. 

You know, one of the things that we tend to think is that if you get something—this is based upon statements made in 132—but if you get something here (and you get it by a covenant) that you are automatically entitled to take it into the next world. But what if the covenant that you are to receive in order to obtain that inheritance in the next world doesn’t reckon merely from something handled by ordinance but that the ordinance is pointing you to something higher and more holy? What if the thing that secures for you the inheritance in the next life is not the ordinance but what the ordinance testifies to—that is, embracing the Lord through the veil? And then, having conversed with Him, entering into His presence? And then, having entered into His presence, being ministered to and taught? What if it means all that? 

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. But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come. [Oh,] And wo unto all those who come not unto this priesthood which ye have received, which I now confirm upon you who are present this day, by mine own voice out of the heavens; and even I have given the heavenly hosts and mine angels charge concerning you. (D&C 84:39-42, emphasis added)

You know, that verse 42 of the oath and covenant of the priesthood—you ought to take a look at Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 14, verse 29, talking about the priesthood that was given after the Order of the Son of God. It says it was delivered unto men by the calling of His own voice, according to His own will, unto as many as believed on His name. 

And so we have in section 76 a testimony given—and justification for—the translation Joseph rendered of Genesis chapter 14, dealing with the priesthood and qualifying it as coming from the voice of God. 

Take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 93, verse 36: The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one. What if, instead of repentance being related to your misdeeds—which are so plentiful and persistent and will continue—what if, instead, it is related to the acquisition of light and truth—that is, intelligence? What if repentance requires you to take whatever it is that you have that is a foolish error/a vain tradition/a false notion and replace it with the truth? 

My suspicion is that whatever it is that is troubling you, it will trouble you considerably less if you begin to fill yourself with light and truth, until at last you arrive at a point where you look back upon your sins and you say, “I have no more disposition for that because I, frankly, know enough not to do that anymore and because I prefer the light and because I prefer God’s intelligence and glory over that which I used to trade/to substitute for it.” You see, repentance may have a whole lot more to do with your own feeble education in the things of God than it does have to do with the time you spend wasted, looking at some vile picture or other. 

You know, we have this Victorian sexual mores that everyone in Wall Street tacks against— like when you’re in a sailboat and there’s a headwind, you “tack” against it. Quite frankly, I find most of that stuff boring and not titillating. Some of it’s medical, but it’s not enticing. And from a certain perspective, if you will acquire enough light and truth, you’re not going to be contaminated by exposure to the things that are degrading. 

The Book of Mormon was abridged by a man who lived inside an environment that was filled with sex and violence. And he was untouched by it—a man of righteousness. And why is it that he could preserve himself? Because what was in him was light and truth. He had educated himself; he had learned about the things that are true so that when you minister to someone who is suffering, their sins ought not shock you. They ought to cause compassion to well up in you. People struggle with some very difficult, very challenging things. You need to try and overcome that by the light within you. The glory of God is intelligence. Be intelligent. 

At one point, Christ—talking to Abraham—says He is more intelligent than them all. One will be more intelligent than another. These two [things] exist, [if there be two beings], one [will be] more intelligent than the other…I am more intelligent than [them] all (Abraham 3:19). That’s what Christ said. And Joseph Smith, talking about the Holy Ghost, says, “I… know more than all the world… [or] the Holy Ghost does, anyhow, and…[it’s in] me” (TPJS, 350). 

The fact of the matter is that you can fill yourself with the mind of God. And if you fill yourself with the mind of God, you’re gonna find yourself in a position where you, like the scriptures recite, have no more disposition to do evil but to only do good continually. That repentance is as a consequence of the things that you know. That repentance comes as a consequence of the light and truth within you. That repentance doesn’t require you to spend time saying, “I’m not…I’m not…I’m not going to watch porn on the Internet anymore.” They’re bringing that new—

There was a big announcement about the Internet upgrade coming to Provo, Utah, and they’re bringing the Internet upgrade to Provo, Utah to really speed up the access of the Internet. That was based upon a lot of statistical studies about the consumption of certain things online that are degrading and unwholesome. And so, it’s a great target audience. And we say, “Well, shame on them.” And why are they watching so much of that crap down in Provo? Well, it’s because there is a bigger population attending Brigham Young University than attending Utah State, and so statistically, there’s more of them. 

But the problem is not that God has built within you the desires, appetites, and passions which He does not intend to have you fill. He intends for you to eat. He intends for you to sleep. He intends for you to reproduce. He intends for all of the appetites and passions put within you to be intelligently organized and gratified in a sacred manner, in which the purposes of God are advanced, and you find within yourself holiness in everything you do— love and understanding in everything you do. Repentance is the process of figuring out exactly how and why God made all the things available to you that He made available to you—each one to be used with prudence and with skill—[D&C] section 89.

Well, turn to section 132. (I’m just going to tiptoe here because I know the enthusiasm with which some folks look at this stuff.) Go about halfway down in verse 19 of section 132— there’s a dash, and after the dash it says (and it’s talking about conditions that you need to fulfill and covenants that you need to have)—it says: Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in the next resurrection (D&C 132:19), which is, by the way, one of the proofs that this is a revelation given by God to Joseph Smith, and it’s one of the things that vouches for this being God—not man—writing this stuff. Because if it were Joseph, he’d be worried about coming forth in the first resurrection. But since God is giving a commandment here, through Joseph, that was intended to survive on into the end of the Millennium, God’s anticipating (He foresees) that there will be generations that arise even after the Millennium and after the first resurrection has been sounded. And so, God’s saying: Yeah, for those people, if it be after the first resurrection, in the next resurrection.

And [it says:] shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths. Well, these are not just words. These are descriptions of various levels of activity that take place in the afterlife. A throne is not the same thing as a kingdom, nor a kingdom the same as a principality, nor a power the same thing as a dominion. These are describing different things—different levels—until, finally, you arrive up to the state of the Seraphim, which dwell in fire. They are the flaming ones.

Doctrine and Covenants section 109 has something to say about that. I’ll look at that. Section 109, verse 79: As also this church, to put upon it thy name. And help us by the power of thy Spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright, shining seraphs around thy throne. See, “around the throne” it is a place of everlasting, eternal burnings. Therefore, the Seraphs who gather there have to be “the flaming ones.” They have mounted up to that point. 

You know, there was a verse I alluded to in Boise. (I’ve left it marked because I never—I move the marks up here when I… and it’s never moved, and it’s still got that—see that orange tab? That was Boise.) Isaiah chapter 6. This is an incident I alluded to—I even, I think, gave the scripture, but I didn’t talk about it, using the scripture in front of me—Isaiah chapter 6, beginning at verse 1: 

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple [the Lord sitting upon the throne would be this condition of glory]. Above it stood the seraphims [the Seraphims are the ones who are flaming, the ones who dwell in this everlasting burning]: each one had six wings [this is metaphor—because these folks have climbed through six stages of the ladder, Jacob’s ladder, to arrive where they were. And they cry out], …Holy, holy, holy…And the posts of the door moved…. [And Isaiah says in verse 5:] Woe is me! …I’m undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, …I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the [seraphim] unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 

Now, we usually read that as “he took the tongs, and with the tongs, he touched the lips,” but it doesn’t say that. He took the tongs to get it off the altar, and he brought it in his hand. Because being one of the flaming ones, he is able to bear this kind of glory. And…laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged—improvising an ordinance using the prayer altar—the altar with the ascending smoke, which is a symbol of the prayers that ascend to heaven—that worthy speech uttered by you, in faith, that ascends to heaven, that the altar symbolized—the flame, the coals, the incense put upon it to build a column of smoke that reaches, then, the roof, and it spreads out, rather like the Tree of Life that it symbolizes—all of this stuff taking place in the temple of Solomon, and the ordinance being improvised by one of the flaming ones that dwells in these conditions of burning in glory.

Take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 128. (And you ought to be looking into all this stuff—because if you look into all the stuff, you don’t have time to waste on that crap that besets you. And this is a lot more interesting than the junk that you fill your skulls with. Go here! Do this stuff!) 

Doctrine and Covenants section 128, verse 21: 

And again, the voice of God in the chamber of old Father Whitmer, in Fayette, Seneca county, and at sundry times, and in divers places through all the travels and tribulations of [the] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [because the voice of God has been present throughout it all, mind you, at many occasions—and does still]! …the voice of Michael, the archangel; the voice of Gabriel, and of Raphael [Micha-EL, Gabri-EL, Rapha-EL—the El or the Elohim], and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time, all declaring their dispensation[s]… 

Is declaring a dispensation the same thing as conferring it? Can they declare it and still possess it? If they declare it, and they declare it unto me—do I possess it? Or do they retain it? 

…their rights, their keys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood; giving line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little; giving us consolation by holding forth that which is to come, confirming our hope! 

I would suggest that in order to obtain any key, in order to obtain any right, in order to obtain any honor, in order to obtain any priesthood, you have to perform, because it is merely inert. And I don’t care what key it is you think you possess—until you act in conformity with the law upon which it is predicated, it ain’t yours. But when you do, and you lay hold of a blessing at the hand of God, that is yours and eternally so. Which is why Joseph did not surrender—having opened this dispensation—the keys of this dispensation, because he did what he did. And by doing what he did, he laid hold upon it. Therefore, go do something for God. Go open the way. Go preach, teach, exhort, and expound, as is the responsibility of every member, Brothers and Sisters! 

Did you know that “member” is an office in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? And that that office is conferred upon you whether you’re male or female? And that every one of you have a responsibility to preach, teach, exhort, and expound? You are burdened, also, with a law that I’m no longer burdened by, and so I needn’t give heed to some things that you still do; but I honor you, and I respect you, and I loved every minute of my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I did not lose that because of my own volition. Some things get asked of you that require you to lay even the things you love most on the altar. And you have to choose. Each of you must choose for yourself the things that you would prefer. But if you don’t give primacy to the voice of God speaking to you, you’ll never lay hold upon any key, any blessing, any right, any priesthood. If all you do is what some man tells you to do—

Until you listen to God and do what God tells you to do, you will never lay hold upon anything that gives you the ability to declare your own rights, keys, honor, majesty, glory, and power of your own priesthood. 

(Well, okay, now we’re on a countdown, I don’t want to interrupt myself mid-sentence.)

Notice, however, that once again you have this statement in 21 about a variety of things and not merely one. It’s not merely unitary. The purpose of the restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith was to begin a process of walking backwards to that point when it was all unitary, as it was in the beginning. Because it’s been fractured, it’s been fragmented, and it’s been spread apart through generations. And now we need to walk our way back to the beginning, back to the point in which it was unified, as it was at the start. 

We had a bunch of enthusiasm when the success in Kirtland took place—and we brought on board this enormous aneurysm. (It’s like a skinny snake swallowing a huge pig. There’s this gosh-awful lump there.) That was the Kirtland experience with the conversion of the Campbellites—Sidney Rigdon, Parley Pratt. And they came on board, and they distorted what happened in the restoration. And so their goal was to have a New Testament church. And that’s what they wanted through Joseph Smith; that’s what they demanded through Joseph Smith; and despite Joseph’s encouragement to look for something else, that’s what they got through Joseph Smith. Which is one of the reasons why Ezekiel 14 was a subject or topic or lesson that he had early and he had late in talking to the Saints about how they get, through the Prophet, what they want. And it’s not necessarily what God wants. 

You can see (in Section 107) two tracks, and they are very evident. One track: they’re trying to figure out church government, and you get that. But the other track is talking about the very beginning, and it’s talking about Adam-ondi-Ahman, and it’s talking about a dispensation at the beginning, where all this started. And you can see that the church, the converts, the people that wanted a church government got what they were asking for. But you can see God pleading for another topic, another subject, and another return. 

We’re gonna spend some time this year trying to get there. Tonight, we’re just trying to figure out how it is we move from wherever we are back to a state of being repentant. And that requires you to exercise your effort to learn and obtain glory from God, which is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth—not darkness, dimness, error, missteps, incomplete and inadequate information. You’re gonna have to face it, and you’re gonna have to face it with some amount of courage. Because we all labor with a good deal of tradition that had been inflicted upon our minds and upon our hearts. And things that we may love, if they don’t conform to the glory of God—intelligence or light and truth—they have to be discarded, too. Because what God wants to do is to bring you back into a state of reconciliation with Him, which comes only from bravely facing light and truth, the glory of God, the power of godliness, if you will—the very thing that Christ said was missing as an ingredient in the Christian world at the time that He talked to Joseph in the First Vision.

Okay well, maybe we should do that all the time. Maybe we should take a break every time we get going. 

Well, finishing up with that Lecture 7, paragraph 9: The… Salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses, and in nothing else; and no being can possess it but himself or one like him (Lectures on Faith 7:9). 

Glory—intelligence or the light of truth—thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, heights, depths—these words get used in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 132. We’ve read those. Glory of God and intelligence, [D&C] Section 93:36. We looked at that. Dispensations, rights, keys, honors, majesty, glory, priesthood—we’ve looked at that. All of these words: salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses and in nothing else; and no being can possess it but himself or one like him. All of these words are related to an underlying notion of priesthood. And all of them are related to that oath and the covenant of the priesthood that we looked at in section 84. 

In paragraph 10, Joseph translates (or Joseph refers to) a statement in the New Testament by the Savior, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). That will change in the Sermon in Bountiful, and Christ will say in 3 Nephi, [Be ye therefore] perfect even as I, or your Father [which] is in heaven is perfect (3 Nephi 12:48). Because by the time He preached in Bountiful, He had finished the climb up the ladder. And I want to remind you of a statement that we read in Boise that Joseph gave, found in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on page 348: 

When you climb… a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you [pass] through the veil before you will have learned them. (Emphasis added)

Well, isn’t that interesting? So now you have to pass through the veil to learn some things. It’s not all to be comprehended in this world. 

If any should ask, Why all these sayings?— the answer is to be found from what is before quoted from John’s epistle, that when he (the Lord) shall appear, the saints will be like him, and if they are not holy as he is holy, and perfect as he is perfect, they cannot be like him, for no being can enjoy his glory without possessing his perfections and holiness, no more than they could reign in his kingdom without his power. (Lectures on Faith 7:10) 

When He appears, you need to be like Him. Lay down the burden of guilt; lay down the burden of sin. Stop focusing on that stuff, and become like Him. And you become like Him by doing His works. And you do His works by serving others, by ministering to the needs of others. And when you do that, it is a natural by-product of that process, ordained by laws established before the foundation of the world, that light and truth will grow within you. You will have compassion when you minister with compassion to the needs of others. Your heart will open to—and receive within it—light and truth when your conduct reflects the same conduct as a merciful and holy and just God, whom you claim to worship. Worship Him by imitating Him. Worship Him by doing His works. Worship Him by making a living sacrifice. Set aside the junk that occupies you, and go do something that is holy for someone else. However mundane and trivial it may seem to you, when you relieve the suffering of other people, something changes in you. You become different. You become better. You become more like our Lord—because when you give whatever it is you give away, you get more in return. But make sure that what you give goes to relieve the suffering of others. Relieve the suffering of others.

You’re going to have to finish that path. You’re going to have to rise up. If you expect to be in His presence when He returns—and He is coming in judgment—then you’re going to have to be like Him; because if you are not like Him, you will not be able to endure His presence. Take it seriously. Study it through. Seek to be like Him whom you worship. It is possible—not while you’re carrying a load of sins that trouble you and worry you and distract you, but that’s what the Lord will remove from you. He can take all of that away, but it is entirely up to you to choose then to do something to draw nearer to Him. He can’t do that because that would violate your free will. You have to choose to be like Him. Although He may remove all of the stains upon you, you have to go forward and not stain yourself again, because He can’t stop you from doing that. You’re free to choose. Therefore, choose the better part. 

The atonement isn’t like Tinkerbell spreading some magic dust that will make you rise up. The atonement will erase your sins and mistakes, but you must rise up. You must acquire those virtues. The glory of God is intelligence. And repentance requires you to acquire that intelligence—that glory of God. And you acquire it by the things that you do in His name and for His sake. And those that are here with you in need, they represent Him. And when you do it to even the least of them, He will credit that as having been done for Him. And no good deed will be gone unnoticed with Him. He even notices when the sparrows fall. So is He not going to notice when your knee bends with compassion, praying for His mercy for someone that has offended you? And when you pray for those who have offended you, do you think for one moment that that doesn’t change your own heart? 

The reason to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when they “say all manner of evil against you falsely” is because it affords you the opportunity, with compassion (like our Lord, who forgave even those who were in the act of killing Him—not their brutality, but their ignorance; because when the day arrives that they see things aright finally, and they realize what offense they gave out—they had no intention of offending their Redeemer. They were carrying out the execution of a criminal. And so, He had compassion on them for their ignorance)— 

You have compassion for all those around you who are ignorant. If you think you know a little more than them, then use gentleness and meekness to persuade them. Sometimes, what you try to persuade them of is going to offend them. Couple it with your own testimony of the truth. Don’t let them simply go away offended. Let them know that when you give offense (and you surely will give offense), let them know that you did it because of your love for them, your love of God, and your faith in the things that God is doing. When you offend, do it kindly and while bearing testimony of the truth and with the compassion that should hail from a position of greater light and truth or intelligence. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t understand it yet. So help them. 

In verse 11 of the Seventh Lecture, in the middle there: And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. This is long before Nauvoo. Joseph is declaring the possibility of unification between God and man—the oneness of God and man. This is foreshadowing teachings that he will give in the King Follett Discourse, and it’s right there in the Lectures on Faith. The same is true in paragraph 13: He wanted his disciples, even all of them, to be as himself and [as] the Father: for as he and the Father were one, so they might be one with them. 

This is marvelous language. It’s in the 1835 scriptures (that have been eliminated as a result of a committee in 1921—and it was removed without a vote of the saints, and therefore, I would suggest it belongs in your scriptures still). 

Paragraph 15: 

The glory which the Father and the Son have is because they are just and holy beings; and that if they were lacking in one attribute or perfection which they have, the glory which they have never could be enjoyed by them, for it requires them to be precisely what they are in order to enjoy it. [There’s that word again—“precisely”. 16:] These teachings of the Saviour [most] clearly show unto us the nature of salvation, and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them—That he proposed to make them like unto himself; and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings: And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed: and on this hinge turns the door of salvation. (Emphasis added)

No human can be saved until that human is like God. There is so much you can do, in this world, that affords you the opportunity to be like God. There are mothers over here with little children. There’s a child crying in the distance that has a mother with him. Every infant comes into this world in a condition of profound need. There isn’t a mother alive who hasn’t held a needy infant and not experienced the love of God because that child’s existence is dependent upon her. Keep in mind that these opportunities exist everywhere—everywhere. 

Still… (this is a long paragraph. This is paragraph 17, about—I don’t know—a third of the way down): 

It was a system of faith—it begins with faith, and continues by faith. And every blessing which is obtained in relation to it is the effect of faith, whether it pertains to this life or that which is to come. To this all the revelations of God bear witness. If there were children of promise, they were the effects of faith, not even the Saviour of the world excepted [the Savior was produced as an act of faith]… And through the whole history of the scheme of life and salvation, it is a matter of faith: every man received according to his faith — according as his faith was, so were his blessings and privileges, and nothing was withheld from him when his faith was sufficient to receive it. 

This is the way in which God is no respecter of persons. This is the way in which you—if you will lay down your ignorance, if you will repent and turn to God—this is the way in which you can find yourself, also, the inheritor of blessings and privileges which God will not withhold from anyone who understands and gathers to themself the light and the truth that comes through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

By their faith they could obtain Heavenly visions, the ministering of angels, have knowledge of the spirits of just men made perfect, of the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, of God the judge of all, of Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and become familiar with the third heavens, see and hear things which were not only unutterable, but were unlawful to utter. (ibid)

Later, Joseph Smith made a comment about—Paul said he knew a man who was caught up to the third heaven, but I know a man who was caught up to the seventh heaven (see DHC, volume 5). I’ll give you the cite on that in the transcript. It is sufficient, however, if you commune with those beings.

Paragraph 18: 

How were they to obtain the knowledge of God? (for there is a great difference between believing in God and knowing him: knowledge implies more than faith. And notice, that all things that pertain to life and godliness, were given through the knowledge of God;) the answer is given, through faith they were to obtain this knowledge; and having power by faith to obtain the knowledge of God, they could…obtain all other things which pertain to life and godliness. (Emphasis added)

It is knowledge that saves. Consequently, it is knowledge that you need to repent and obtain. “Knowledge saves a man,” said Joseph Smith. “A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge,” said Joseph Smith (DHC, 4:588, 10 April 1842). Knowledge and salvation; knowledge and repentance—they are all related. But knowledge is not given so that you can take prideful advantage of the fact that you possess something. If you have it, it is given to make you a minister, a servant, someone the Lord might be able to employ in order to raise up others. Because if you can’t elevate others, then you’ve failed in your effort to be like Him. He came to serve. You serve, too.

20: To obtain the faith— and this is a ways into that paragraph,

Because to obtain the faith by which he could enjoy the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, he had to suffer the loss of all things: this is the reason that the Former Day Saints knew more, and understood more of heaven, and…heavenly things than all others beside, because this information is the effect of faith—to be obtained by no other means. …where faith is, there will the knowledge of God…also, with all things which pertain thereto—revelations, visions, and dreams, as well as every…necessary thing in order that the possessors of faith may be perfected and obtain salvation; for God must change, otherwise faith will prevail with him. And he who possesses it will, through it, obtain all necessary knowledge and wisdom, until he shall know God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has sent: whom to know is eternal life.

That’s the purpose of the Gospel—to give you knowledge. Therefore, the way to get knowledge is to repent. It’s to search into, lay hold upon, and obtain for yourself knowledge that saves—not mere theory; not mere recitations of “these symbols in the temple endowment stand for this eight items, and that stands for this, and this stands for that.” Trivia is not light and truth. Light and truth will exalt you. Trivia can make you prideful. 

When I gave that talk about the temple studies (and when I’m done there’s going to be an announcement about another temple studies thing)—

There’s a difference between the effort that is made by Margaret Barker in expounding upon the temple (and in particular, the difference between the First and Second Temple period) because Margaret Barker, as a Methodist minister, brings the knowledge that she brings at a price to herself. She has suffered an enormous amount of criticism in a lot of circles. And she’s still brought forth a message that resonates with Latter-day Saints because she recreates that history in a way that conforms exactly with the way we would expect it from having the Book of Mormon. And then Latter-day Saint scholars come along, and they expound upon the temple and the temple studies, and there’s an air of pride about the Latter-day Saints because “we own them,” you see. And so we can look down our nose at the Christians that don’t own such sacred edifices, and it all becomes one mass of pride and vanity. 

You have to sacrifice, and you have to serve the Lord. And you have to have Him—and Him only—as the reason for what you do, what you say, how you act. Because He’s the one that’s going to judge you. There’s not gonna be a peer review. There’s not gonna be a panel of scholars. There aren’t gonna be people who say, “I wish you’d beef-up your bibliography a bit more because it doesn’t pass muster, and you will not be awarded your Ph.D. until you add more gibberish.” 

If knowledge saves, then it follows that repentance requires us to learn something. You must begin with the first and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. 

Get out Doctrine and Covenants section 130. Doctrine and Covenants section 130, beginning at verse 18: Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. Now understand that we’ve looked at the definition of intelligence. It’s the glory of God, or in other words, light and truth. So let’s do that. Whatever principle of light and truth we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. 

And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. 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. 

Can’t be changed, can’t be altered, can’t be fought against with any success. It can be learned. It can be conformed to. It can be harvested. But it’s by diligence in what? And obedience to what? Knowledge and intelligence. Diligent at exactly what? Obedient to Who? Were the Nazis both diligent and obedient? Are the Jihadists both diligent and obedient? Are the drug cartels both diligent and obedient? Are the masters of the universe on Wall Street diligent and obedient? 

We have a case currently pending in which we go to co-counsel as a team of lawyers because there’s too many parties so that there aren’t legally impermissible conflicts of interest, and so there has to be co-counsels. One of the co-counsels is located at a building in downtown Salt Lake. And inside the building, there is one of the big beneficiaries of a number of federal programs that involve billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. And so, in order to enter the building, both the client I represent and myself, as co-counsel, have to go to the front desk, show ID. They have to call down; they have to vouch for us. Then they give us a little ticket, and we get to pass by security and enter the building because, above all other things, the financial interests—and those that protect them in this country—are diligent and obedient. But they are not getting intelligence, and what will rise with them in the resurrection will leave them poor and weak and miserable because they are not pursuing that which gives to them the glory of God. But you can. Virtues are meaningless apart from righteousness. You must have both; otherwise, you can’t even begin to repent. 

Let’s go to Second Nephi chapter 30. I want to remind you that it is knowledge which defines the millennial glory of man. Begin at verse 8 of Second Nephi chapter 30: 

It shall come to pass that the Lord shall commence his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth. And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, together; and [the] little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; and their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suck[l]ing child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put forth his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (2 Nephi 30:8-15, emphasis added)

Would you like to stand in that day? Would you like to survive that burning which is to come? Then the way to obtain that—and the means to preserve yourself through that—is to obtain that knowledge which saves. Why is it possible? Beginning at verse 16: 

Wherefore, the things of all nations shall be made known; yea, all things shall be made known unto the children of men. There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed; there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light; there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed. Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at that day be revealed; and Satan shall have power over the hearts of the children of men no more, for a long time. Now, my beloved brethren, I make an end of my sayings. (ibid, vs. 16-18)

Why is it possible for such things to be revealed in that day? Why do they have such faith? What must you do in order to qualify to be among them? Does anyone other than you have the ability to prepare you? This—this is your dispensation. This. What are you going to do with it? 

The Lord can lament (in the First Vision to Joseph) that all around there are those that have merely a form of godliness: insubstantial, unredeeming, incapable of saving. The Lord can lament that. You have to do something about that. The angel Moroni can say: These are the things which God intends to have happen. The culmination of all the prophecies are going to wrap up in a time following the ministration of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Soon to come. Soon to come. Not yet, but soon. And here we are. What are you gonna do about it? The prophecies cannot be fulfilled unless those who are free to choose, choose to repent and to do something about what great things lay in store, and therefore, you need to know how great things the Lord intends to do. 

I’m thirty percent of the way through an agenda tonight. I can’t tell you how relieved I am of that. Every time we get another evening done, I feel lighter by the moment. We’re going to pick up again in Centerville, and our next topic is going to be trying to figure out the subject of covenants because they bear on much of what the Lord intends now to fulfill. I wish someone else were doing this. I wish none of you had ever heard my name. I wish I were an obscure trial attorney enjoying what it is—

In the perversity of my heart, I do like trial work. There’s a scene—George C. Scott won an Oscar for the movie Patton—there’s a scene where he goes over and he kisses this soldier in the middle of this gosh-awful battlefield, where tanks are smoldering and dead bodies are strewn; and there’s this young man who still survived. He kisses him, and he looks around, and he says, “God help me, I do love it so!” And in the courtroom, there are times when I look around and say, “Oh, God help me; I really do enjoy trial work.” I mean, it’s an intellectual endeavor, and someone’s always trying to shout me down and present the other side. And I’m good with that. I actually enjoy the difficulty of that kind of wrestling. I don’t enjoy this. I really don’t. If I could hand this off to one of you and say, “Okay now, you take and you run with this, and I’ll just cheer you on from the sidelines,” I would never do anything more than whatever I could to support you.

Somehow, for some reason, here we are 190 years on, and we’re just still bogged down with the endless, trivial abuse of our time. The Gospel was intended to be delicious, exciting, awe-inspiring, filled with wonder, rejoicing, causing you to sing in your soul a song of redeeming love for Him who has rescued you. And what do we have? 

Oh, oh let me read you what we have: Joseph writing from Liberty Jail in a passage that belongs somewhere between section 121 and 123 but never made its way in. I mean, if we are gonna take out (by fiat) the Lectures on Faith, why can’t we put this in, at least? Here’s where we are: “The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation,” [Denver pauses to listen to a passing motorcycle] Not a Harley, 

Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men. How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God. (TPJS, 137)

That’s Joseph’s lament. What are you doing with your time? What are you doing when you’re called upon to teach? What are you doing when a teacher abuses yours and everyone else’s time with something that is too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for those called of God? The Gospel is delicious. And we ought to return to it. The glory of God is intelligence, and we are absolutely unintelligent (and dumber, I might add, with our curriculum year-by-year). I don’t know how we endure it unless you, like me, bring a very good book to church with you each week [audience laughter]. 

Well, let me end by affirming: I have loved—loved—every minute from the moment I found the Gospel of Jesus Christ—I have loved it above all else. I have learned more in the last 90 days… Information flows geometrically; light grows constantly. 

When Moroni, excuse me, when Nephi (Second Nephi chapter 9, verse 14-ish)—about how the things that he had seen and heard, he constantly meditated upon that, writing some 40 years after the fact— 

The revelations that Joseph Smith received (including that one that he received in the sacred grove) was not all to be comprehended in the first pass-through. The things of God are of deep import. Why did God reveal what He revealed when He revealed it? Why did He reveal it in the order in which He revealed it? What was He building upon? Why in the first revelation did He go there? Why in the next did He go to that point? If you think Joseph’s mind wasn’t caught up in the things that he had seen and heard (just as yours should be about the things that you have seen and heard), then you need to think again, because the things of God are of deep import, and time and care and careful and solemn and ponderous thoughts are the only way in which you (or anyone) can find them out. And that applies especially to you because you control you. You determine how much light and truth you will receive. And it’s predicated upon a law that was ordained before the foundation of the world. Anyone of you can obey it. God is no respecter of persons, and you are authorized to exercise faith in Him unto salvation. You are authorized to exercise faith in Him until you know Him. You are authorized to see His face and know that He is—every one of you. Because if you intend to survive His return, you’re going to have to be able to bear His presence. 

Hence, the need to now talk about this stuff; and hence, the agenda that we’re on. We introduced it; we talked about faith; we talked about repentance; we’re going to talk about covenants next. 

I know not all of you come to all of these. I don’t expect you to. I don’t even expect you to get the disks and listen to them. But I’m trying to transcribe them and fill in the things that I’m thinking about, even if I don’t give you the scriptures. And they’re up, and they’ll be on the Internet and available for you to read. 

I’m introducing things. I’m trying to provoke you to study. I try to provoke you to go look into this stuff. But I can’t babysit you and shouldn’t. I’ll only make you weak and not strong if I attempt to do that. You need to take this as the beginning point and go on and discover for yourself how great things the Lord intends to do. And one of the neglected volumes of scripture you need to spend some time with is the Lectures on Faith. They remain scripture. 

I told you how the Lord vouched for Joseph Smith. The Lord vouches for Joseph Smith again. And if no one else will say it, I’ll declare it to you:

If you ignore Joseph’s words, you ignore it at your peril. And if you allow any man or men, if you allow any committee, any institution, or organization to claim that they have the right to alter, neglect, or discard the words of revelation given by God to the Prophet Joseph Smith, they will damn you if you listen to them. And they will surely be damned for doing so because no one has the right to do that. 

God’s work is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And those who would like to throw you about by every whim of doctrine are teaching you merely the commandments of men as if they were doctrine—and they aren’t! When God speaks through Joseph and we forget him, then we have no right to expect, collectively, that He’s going to move anything forward for us. The first order of repentance is to remember what God gave to us through Joseph. You do that, and then you’ll find God’s perfectly willing to pick it up and move it forward. You don’t do that, and God will simply wait for you to get around to discharge the duty that’s devolving upon you. 

God vouched for Joseph Smith. God spoke through him. And I don’t have the right to move one of his words. But I do have the right to listen to him, to follow what came through him, and to lay hold upon the blessings that were promised as a consequence of remembering him. Because to remember the words of Joseph is to remember your Lord. Remember Him. And don’t let anyone tell you that they hold some authority that allows them to neglect, change, discard, veto, forget, or contradict what God told you through the voice of a Prophet. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

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