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Faithful Study Resources for Come, Follow Me

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Come, Follow Me Week 46 – Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 (additional post)

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What Do We Do with Section 132?

By Brian C. Hales

Doctrine and Covenants section 132 is undoubtedly the most controversial of all of Joseph Smith’s revelations because it mentions the practice of plural marriage. Ironically, it is also one of the least discussed of all of Joseph’s official teachings for the same reason.

The 2014 Gospel Topics Essay discussing plural marriage encourages a new transparency on this subject and the historical and doctrinal references within the revelation. Yet, talking about polygamy more frequently does not necessarily make it any easier to understand or accept. Why? Because it favors men and is impossible to defend it as being fair.

Not only is polygamy here in mortality very difficult to practice, an associated fear involves the possibility of eternal plural marriage, which from our current view might be considered eternal unfairness. I have a daughter who has harbored the anxiety that if she dies before her husband (to whom she is sealed) passes away, he might remarry in the temple and she would become an eternal polygamist without her choosing. Here’s a few thoughts on the subject: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 46 – Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 (additional post)

Come, Follow Me Week 46 – Doctrine and Covenants 129-132

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Reading D&C 132 with Elder Quentin L. Cook’s Comments in Mind

by V.H. Cassler

If you were not reading carefully, you may have missed an extraordinary bit of commentary by Elder Quentin L. Cook in the July 2020 Ensign. Speaking about how Church history can be a source of strength and inspiration, Elder Cook stated [I’ve added some highlights]: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 46 – Doctrine and Covenants 129-132

“The keys whereby he may ask and receive” (D&C 124)

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Doctrine and Covenants 124 includes instructions to the prophet Joseph Smith to “show” selected others “the keys whereby [they] may ask and receive” blessings (D&C 124: 95, 97). This seems to be an allusion to “the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood” that are taught in the endowment (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 416).

As recently reaffirmed by President Russell M. Nelson, although temple procedures and presentations are adjusted from time to time to clarify meaning, the “temple ordinances and covenants are ancient” (The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation).  This statement raises the question: Is there any evidence of such ancient ordinances and covenants?

What follows is a very brief overview of some of the historical evidence.

Come, Follow Me Week 45 – Doctrine and Covenants 125-128

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By Cassandra Hedelius

It’s difficult to write this post, because the subject is baptism for the dead, and my grandpa is dying, and I love him, and he’s never accepted the gospel. His death from old age isn’t tragic, but it would be if we didn’t have so much revelation from God about His plan. For this, I thank God for prophets.

When Joseph’s older brother Alvin died, a minister preached at his funeral and “intimated very strongly that [Alvin] had gone to hell, for Alvin was not a church member.”[1] This was obviously a tactless thing to say to a grieving family, but based on the knowledge that minister had, he wasn’t really wrong! The Bible is pretty clear that baptism is an eternal necessity. What that minister needed wasn’t sensitivity training, but more revealed truth. Let’s take the charitable view that he would have been ecstatic to learn that Alvin was not in fact damned, and that God is perfectly able to overcome paltry obstacles like people dying before having a chance to accept the truth.  [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 45 – Doctrine and Covenants 125-128

Come, Follow Me Week 44 – Doctrine and Covenants 124

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By Cassandra Hedelius

In 1840, John C. Bennett was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. His wife and children didn’t come with him to Nauvoo, and it’s not clear what his original motive was for posing as a bachelor instead of being truthful about his family status. His eventual motive was extremely clear: as Bennett ingratiated himself to Joseph and other leaders, and gained high religious and civic positions, he lied to women in order to take advantage of them sexually. Bennett is one of the earliest and most egregious cases of a conundrum we’re each likely to sometime face: if the church is guided by revelation, how do bad people fool its leaders? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 44 – Doctrine and Covenants 124

Come, Follow Me Week 43 – Doctrine and Covenants 121-123

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By Cassandra Hedelius

It was the first time in my life I felt real terror.

On a lovely spring day in 1999, I was a high school sophomore eating lunch. My school was about twenty miles from Columbine. I vaguely overheard some snippets of conversation about something frightening. We finished lunch and went to class, and the vague murmurs coalesced into rumors–murder. Shooting. We were locked down in our classrooms. The teacher told us there was an attack at another school and a possible threat at ours. Finally they said to go straight outside, do not stop at your locker, get on your bus and go home. I watched the news, horrified, all evening. I didn’t sleep well, and imagined armed killers in the hallway.

The next morning in Seminary, it was my turn to choose a scripture for the devotional. I hadn’t prepared ahead of time, and I was still upset and afraid. I aimlessly opened the Doctrine and Covenants and read: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 43 – Doctrine and Covenants 121-123

Come, Follow Me Week 42 – Doctrine and Covenants 115-120

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A Defense and a Refuge

By DeeAnn Cheatham

There are two significant examples in the scriptures where a people of Zion existed. One occurred when Christ came to the Americas and taught his gospel to the Nephites and the Lamanites. He then selected twelve apostles, who organized his church and continued to teach the people.  After a few years, every person had converted to the Lord, creating a community where there was no contention because “the love of God did dwell in the hearts of all the people and every man dealt justly with each other” (4 Ne 1:2).  “Surely there could not be a happier people” (4 Ne 1:16). This state of Zion lasted for almost two hundred years.

The city of Enoch is another example of a Zion community. Enoch was instructed by the Lord to preach repentance to the people. He did this for many years and eventually gathered the righteous and established a City of Holiness. They were surrounded by people who were described by the Lord as the most wicked of his creations (Moses 7:36). And yet, in the midst of all this sin, they were able to create a refuge and attain such a level of righteousness that eventually the entire city was taken up to heaven.

A refuge is a place of shelter, protection, or safety We are similarly surrounded by chaos and sin and need a refuge, a place of safety. Within our homes, wards, stakes, and communities, we can work to creates “pockets of refuge”. In D & C 115:5-6, the Lord stated: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 42 – Doctrine and Covenants 115-120

Come, Follow Me Week 41 – Doctrine and Covenants 111-114

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Finances and Faith in the Kirtland Crisis of 1837

by Elizabeth Kuehn

(This is from a presentation given at the 2017 FairMormon Conference)

While I will cover nineteenth-century economics and the Kirtland bank briefly in my presentation today, I also want to focus on the period of spiritual crisis in Kirtland in 1837 and ways I hope we can learn from the Kirtland experience for our current moment of spiritual crisis.

The crisis within the Mormon community of Kirtland has been inseparably connected to the founding and subsequent failure of the church’s Kirtland bank. However, there is too often a direct causal connection assumed between the bank and the 1837 crisis. The focus of my presentation today is to demonstrate the complexity of this period of history, contextualize both the bank and the crisis, and address several prevailing assumptions about each.

Although most Kirtland narratives place the bank amid the financial devastation of 1837, the Kirtland Safety Society Bank was organized in November 1836. As such, understanding developments in Kirtland in 1836 is key. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 41 – Doctrine and Covenants 111-114

“A Life Lived in Crescendo”: Selected Punctuation Marks of Joseph Smith’s Final Years

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A “Come, Follow Me” YouTube Virtual Fireside Series Sponsored by

The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, and FAIR

 

The next presentation will be on Sunday, October 17, at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Jeffrey Bradshaw will be speaking on “Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances.” A flyer is available here.

Introduction

[Joseph Smith] lived his life in crescendo, it grew in intensity and volume as he approached its close. Higher and still higher the inspiration of God directed his thoughts; bolder were his conceptions, and clearer his expositions of them. So far was he from being a “fallen prophet” in the closing months of his career, as apostates charged, that he grew stronger with each passing day; more impressive in weight of personal character, and charm of manner; for he preserved amid all the conflicts and trials through which he passed—until the shadows of impending death began to fall upon him in Carthage prison—the natural sweetness of his nature, and the intellectual playfulness characteristic of him from boyhood—so do not fallen prophets (Elder B. H. Roberts, Introduction to Joseph Smith, Jr. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints, 6:xli-xlii). [Read more…] about “A Life Lived in Crescendo”: Selected Punctuation Marks of Joseph Smith’s Final Years

Come, Follow Me Week 40 – Doctrine and Covenants 109-110

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by David W. Smith

 

“A Fulness of the Holy Ghost”

From the beginning of his presidency, President Russell M. Nelson has repeatedly emphasized the blessings of temple service. In his very first address as President of the Church he said:

As a new Presidency, we want to begin with the end in mind. For this reason, we’re speaking to you today from a temple….The ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family, and your ability to resist the attacks of the adversary. Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.
(“As We Go Forward Together,” Ensign, April 2018)

In a later address he counseled: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 40 – Doctrine and Covenants 109-110