Lesson Aids

by Terryl Givens

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

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

by Fiona Givens

D&C 3:2: “God is constant”

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

Come Follow Me – Doctrine and Covenants 1

by Wendy Ulrich, PhD

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

Yes, you have.

As have I.

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

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