From: gdm-owner@xmission.com (gdm Digest) To: gdm-digest@xmission.com Subject: gdm Digest V1 #26 Reply-To: gdm@xmission.com Sender: gdm-owner@xmission.com Errors-To: gdm-owner@xmission.com Precedence: gdm Digest Saturday, October 11 1997 Volume 01 : Number 026 In this issue: ---> Lesson 37 Extra info D&C 125-28 ---> Lesson 38 See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the gdm or gdm-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 14:15:14 -0700 From: "Perry L. Porter" Subject: ---> Lesson 37 Extra info D&C 125-28 Section 125 The History of the Church notes that Section 125 was given about 20 March 1841, but and entry for 6 March 1841 in the John Smith Journal suggests an earlier date. ... A major factor that permitted the saints to gather again after their expulsion from Missouri was the liberal land offer extended to them by Isaac Galland. .. The settlements of Zarahemla, Nashville, Ambrosia, and Montrose were located in Lee County, Iowa, on properties that the Church had purchased from Galland in 1839. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 282. Section 126 On Thursday, 1 July 1841, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and John Taylor arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, from their British Mission. Section 125, received the following week, commended Elder Young for his service in the kingdom and counseled him not to leave his family again during his missionary service. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985),p. 28. Section 127 1 September 1842 ... These two letters, written in the hand of William Clayton, were addressed to "all the saints in Nauvoo" at a time when the Prophet was making few public appearances because of threats of unlawful arrest. Governor Carlin of Illinois, responding to a demand from the governor of Missouri, issued a warrant for Joseph Smith's arrest as an accessory before the fact in an assault with intent to kill Lilburn W. Boggs, ex-governor of Missouri. ... The letters concern themselves with salvation for the dead, a subject of much interest and discussion in 1842. Baptism for the dead was first publicly announced on 15 August 1840 at the funeral of Seymour Brunson. ...Church members began performing proxy baptisms in the Mississippi River and in local streams. ...the actions were not recorded; consequently the baptisms were later repeated. ... Baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple were first performed on Sunday, 21 November 1841. With few exceptions, endowments and sealings for the dead were first administered in the St. George, Utah, Temple. ... the Prophet emphasized that "all persons baptiz'd for the dead must have a Recorder present, that he may be an eye-witness to testify of it." Sections 127 and 128 both give special attention to the matter of having witnesses and recorders for the work of the dead. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 284-285. On 10 August 1840 Seymour Brunson, member of the Nauvoo High Council, died in Nauvoo. The Prophet took the occasion of his funeral, on 15 August 1840, to deliver the first discourse on the doctrine of baptism for the dead. ... He read the greater part of the 15th chapter of Corinthians and remarked that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought glad tidings of great joy, and then remarked that he was a widow in that congregation that had a son who died without being baptized, and this widow in reading the sayings of Jesus 'except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,' and that not one jot nor tittle of the Savior's words should pass away, but all should be fulfilled. He then said that his widow should have glad tidings in that thing. He also said the apostle was talking to a people who understood baptism for the dead, for it was practiced among them. He went on to say that people could now act for their friends who had departed this life, and that the plan of salvation was calculate to save all who were willing to obey the requirements of the law of God. Endowments for the dead were first performed in the St. George Temple on 11 January 1877. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 344. ... During the previous May, Missouri's governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, who had issued the extermination order against the Saints, was shot and wounded. The Latter-day Saints were immediately suspected, and Joseph Smith was specifically accused of being an accessory to the crime. During August the Prophet was arrested on these charges but was soon released. At this point some Missourians threatened to take the law into their own hands by crossing the river into Illinois and seizing the Prophet by force. Joseph therefore went into hiding for the sake of his own and the Church's safety. Richard O. Cowan, "Instructions on Baptism for the Dead," Studies in Scripture, Volume One: The Doctrine and Covenants, Edited by Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson (Sandy, Utah: Randall Book Co., 1984), p. 490. Section 128 6 September 1842. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 285. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 14:49:07 -0700 From: "Perry L. Porter" Subject: ---> Lesson 38 Doctrine and Covenants 129-31 Lesson 38 Scriptural Highlights 1. The Godhead 2. The celestial kingdom 3. Acquiring knowledge and intelligence 4. The "more sure word of prophecy" Prayerfully determine which scriptures to discuss in this lesson. Discussion and Application Questions * What did the Lord reveal about the Godhead in D&C 129 and 130? (D&C 129:1-2; 130:1-3, 22-23.) Why is it important for us to know these truths about the Godhead? * What did the Lord reveal about the celestial kingdom in D&C 130 and 131? (D&C 130:6-11; 131:1-4; see also D&C 137:1-4, 10.) Why is it sometimes difficult to maintain our commitment to be worthy of the celestial kingdom? How can we strengthen this commitment? * The Lord promises that the knowledge and intelligence we acquire in this life "will rise with us in the resurrection" (D&C 130:18). How can this promise help us understand the purposes of mortality? Why is it impossible for a person to be saved in ignorance? (D&C 131 :6.) How can we gain the knowledge and intelligence we need to be saved? (See D&C 93:28, 39; 130:19; and the quotation from Elder Kimball.) * In D&C 130:20-21, what did the Lord reveal about his purpose for giving laws and commandments? What blessings have you received that you felt were the result of obeying a particular commandment? * What does it mean to have eternal increase? (See D&C 131:4 and the quotation from the First Presidency.) * What does it mean to receive "the more sure word of prophecy"? (D&C 131:5; see 2 Peter 1:10, 19). What people in the scriptures have had their calling and election made sure? (Mosiah 26:15, 20; D&C 132:48-49.) What must we do to have our calling and election made sure? (See the quotations from the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Guide to the Scriptures.) Quotations Elder Spencer W. Kimball: "No man can ever really find God in a university campus laboratory.... God and his program will be found only in deep pondering, appropriate reading, much kneeling in devout, humble prayer, and in a sincerity born of need and dependence.... "President Joseph Fielding Smith [said] 'that a man cannot be saved in ignorance of the saving principles of the Gospel. We cannot be saved without faith in God. We cannot be saved in our sins.... We must receive the ordinances and the covenants pertaining to the Gospel and be true and faithful to the end.' . . . "The ultimate and greatest of all knowledge, then, is to know God and his program for our exaltation" (in Conference Report, Oct. 1968, p. 130). The First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, and Charles W. Penrose): "Only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring. Only such exalted souls have reached maturity in the appointed course of eternal life; and the spirits born to them in the eternal worlds will pass in due sequence through the several stages . . . by which the glorified parents have attained exaltation" (in Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, 5:34). The Prophet Joseph Smith: "After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John. [See John 14:12-27. ] Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp.150-51). Guide to the Scriptures ("Calling and Election"): "Righteous followers of Christ can become numbered among the elect who gain the assurance of exaltation. This calling and election begins with repentance and baptism. It becomes complete when they 'press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end' (2 Ne. 31:19-20). The scriptures call this process making our calling and election sure." Next Week's Reading Assignment Doctrine and Covenants 132 Page 75 Class Member Study Guide Lesson 38 Doctrine and Covenants 129-31 were recorded in and around Nauvoo during the early months of 1843. These sections, which are all identified as instructions, deal with a variety of subjects. As you study D&C 129-31, consider the following: What did the Lord reveal about the celestial kingdom in D&C 130 and 131? (See also D&C 137:1-4, 10.) * How does D&C 130:18-19 help you understand the purposes of mortality? * What blessings have you received that you felt were the result of obeying a particular commandment? (D&C 1 30:20-21 .) Joseph Smith's mansion home in Nauvoo, Illinois. Page 76 | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Section 129 ... Although the exact date of his receiving these principles of detecting false spirits is not known, it can safely be set before 27 June 1839. On that day members of the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve met in council in Nauvoo, and in this meeting the Prophet presented the following instructions for the benefit of the Twelve prior to their leaving for England: ... When an angel of god appears unto man face to face in personage & reaches out his hand unto the man he takes hold of the angels hand & feels a substance the same as one man would in shaking hands with another he may then know that it is an angel of god & he should place all confidence in him ... but if a personage appears unto man & offers him his hand & man takes hold of it & feels nothing or does not sens[e] any substance he may know it is the devil, for when a Saints whose body is not resurrected appears unto man in the flesh he will not offer him his hand for this is against the law given him. ... Parley P. Pratt arrived in Nauvoo from his mission to England. ... the keys of detecting false spirits (section 129) were explained. The Prophet's scribe, William Clayton, was present and recorded section 129, and Clayton's account was the source for the 1876 publication of the revelation. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 286. Doctrine and Covenants 129 contains instructions given to Elder Parley P. Pratt on 9 February 1843, on the occasion of his return from his mission to Great Britain. Parley had remained over a year and one-half longer in Britain than his brethren of the Twelve, to preside over the Church there and to edit the Millennial Star. ... The Prophet had discussed similar matter about angels with the Quorum of the Twelve on two separate occasions in late June of 1839, prior to the apostles' leaving for their mission to England. Parley had not been in attendance at either of those two meetings, because he was still incarcerated in Richmond, Missouri at the time. Bruce A. Van Orden, "Important Items of Instruction," Studies in Scripture, Volume One: The Doctrine and Covenants, Edited by Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson (Sandy, Utah: Randall Book Co., 1984), p. 497-498. Far from saying that when the instructions of this discourse were followed, the adversary's only recourse was to attempt to return the handshake ... Joseph Smith stated, "The Devil .... will either shrink back .... or offer his hand." ..."certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed ... There are signs .. the Elders must know ... to be endowed with the power, to finish their work and prevent imposition".... Three day later Joseph Smith revealed these sacred keys to nine men in accordance with his plans to as announced to the Relief Society just six days before. To these men he taught the keys of prayer and detection whereby all these documents, revelation, or manifestations could be tested. Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), p. 344. | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | In August 1840, he preached the funeral sermon for Seymour Brunson, a respected and faithful Latter-day Saint. In the course of his remarks, Joseph made the first public mention of the doctrine of vicarious baptism. ... While the very moment when the Prophet envisioned vicarious baptism as a doctrine to be instituted among the Illinois Saints may be historically cloudy, its place in the larger view of eternal salvation is quite clear. Not long after the Brunson funderal, Nauvoo Mormons began to act upon this new revelation. On 12 September 1840, Jane Neyman walked into the Mississippi and was baptized for her deceased son, Cyrus. In successive baptisms for the dead performed at nauvoo, many women acted on behalf of male relations or friends, and vice versa. Gender distinctions between proxy and heir were not made until after the Prophet's 1844 martyrdom, when Brigham Young assumed leadership of the majority of the Saints. ... During the first two years of its practice at Nauvoo, baptism for the dead was not closely circumscribed. Faithful Saints simply identified their deceased relatives for whom they wished to be baptized and then performed the rite. Local congregations were granted much latitude in the performance of vicarious baptisms. ... The work of these recorders shows that baptism for the dead was a major religious activity for many Nauvoo Saints. It became necessary in 1843 for Nauvoo Stake President William Marks to convene a special conference to appoint recorders to keep track of all the baptisms for the dead. ... Approximately 55 percent of the proxies were male and 45 percent female. Most ordinance work was performed in behalf of aunts and uncles, including great-aunts and great-uncles, followed closely by grandparents and great-grandparents. ... Proxy baptisms for parents and siblings ... were also a significant proportion. Other relationships included in laws, friends, spouses, children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. ... Baptisms for deceased friends often reflected personal reverence for historical figures. ...Saints showed a fascination with saving the greats of bygone generations such as Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, james Monroe, William Henry Harrison.... The greater the historical reputation, the more times proxy baptisms were performed. In 1841 alone, George Washington, for example, benefited from proxy baptisms done by Don Carlos Smith, Stephen Jones, and John Harrington. Many of these eminent men from the past, including most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and former U.S. presidents, as well as several noted women, were again baptized in the St. George Temple in 1877. ... after November 1841 the temple font was the designated place for performing the ordinance. Access to the font was granted only to those who complied with Church dictates. William Clayton, as recorder of the Nauvoo Temple, issued signed receipts verifying that the bearer was a full tithepayer and thus was entitled to use the baptismal font. ... In this respect, baptism for the dead at Nauvoo set a lasting precedent, requiring verified worthiness for participation in temple rites. ... When contrasted with sealings and the plurality of wives, baptism for the dead was Nauvoo's universal ordinance. ... M. Guy Bishop, "'What Has Become of Our Fathers?' Baptims for the Dead at Nauvoo," Dialogue: Journal of Mormon Thought, (1988?) | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | RELATES MAN AND TRUTH. -- What is true philosophy? It seems to me to be a true principle for men to try and find out who they are. I like to examine myself a little, and I sometimes ask who am I? where did I come from? what am I doing here? and what will be the condition of things when I leave here? If there is anybody who can tell me anything about these things, I want to know. If I had an existence before I came here, I want to know something about it; and if I shall have an existence hereafter, I want to know what kind of existence it will be, I do not want to be frightened about hell-fire, pitchforks, and serpents, nor to be scared to death with hobgoblins and ghosts, nor anything of the kind that is got up to scare the ignorant. But I want truth, intelligence, and something that will bear investigation. I want to probe things to the bottom and to find out the truth, if there is any way to find it out. -- JD, 11:317, February 24, 1867. IS MORMONISM PHILOSOPHICALLY TRUE? -- It may be asked: Are all Mormons, then, philosophers? To this we answer: Not in the general acceptation of the term. Mormonism is philosophically true, but all Mormons are not philosophers -- neither do we consider it necessary. A man may understand first principles, without knowing the mysteries. He may also enjoy certain influences and powers and priesthood without being able to define the cause of those operations or their scientific bearings. We have taken the pains to investigate this subject, but the Mormons arrive at conclusions by a much shorter route. The above may be necessary to some. The Mormons know by obedience. They may not all be philosophers, but they know it by inspiration through obedience. A blacksmith can heat iron in a fire, as well as a philosopher; a lady . . . can make bread, without understanding how wheat is raised, dressed, or ground into flour. Nor is it necessary for an elder, who "baptizes for the remission of sins," or "lays on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost," to understand the philosophy of its operations. They are God's ordinances, and he bestows the blessings promised through obedience to his commands, The blind man might not know much about Jesus nor, be acquainted with the mysticisms and intricacies of Jewish theology; but one thing he knew as well as any theologian, that he "was once blind, but he then could see." The ancient apostles were not all philosophers, but Jesus told them that they should heal the sick and cast out devils in his name. They simply believed him, tried the experiment, and found it effectual; and, when they returned from a mission, reported that even "devils were subject to them in his name," or by his power. This was all they understood about it at that time. They could not tell how the Spirit operated, nor by what invisible agency the devils were subjected or banished; they simply knew it by its effects -- just the same as a boy would know that a ball would rebound if struck against a wall or the ground, without knowing the properties of matter or the nature either of resistance, elasticity, or projectile force. A man, under the direction of another may be able to make an electrical machine and not understand its properties nor the nature and force of electricity. So a man may receive the gospel through faith in testimony. By yielding obedience, by baptism administered by an authorized agent, and having hands laid upon him for the gift of the Holy Ghost by an elder legally qualified, the blessing will follow the administration, whether the person to whom it is administered or the administrator be a philosopher or not. Furthermore, God imparts his philosophy frequently to men of limited abilities. They follow his teachings -- the result is, they confound the wise. It is not their philosophy, but God's; but being true to law, it is always obedient thereto. A boat with a hole in it will sink with a good man in it a sound boat will bear up a wicked man. Telegraphic wires will operate as they are operated upon, and might convey either a revelation of God or of the devil. So, when the apostles were put into communion with God, although illiterate, "they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Hence they became intelligent and "a mouth and wisdom was given to them that all their adversaries were not able to gainsay nor resist." They had the gift of the Holy Ghost, that brought things past to their remembrance, led them into all truth, and showed them things to come. They had a principle of living revelation, or a living fountain of true eternal principles. Those principles would always overturn the puerile principles of a corrupt philosophy and the ridiculous fantasies of a false religion and vanquish them; they might not always understand why it was the gift of God to them; but it was philosophical. Such is Mormonism. -- The Mormon, Vol.2, No. 3, March 8, 1856. THE COMPREHENSIVE NATURE OF MORMONISM. -- Is there a true principle of science in the world? It is ours. Are there true principles of music, of mechanism, or of philosophy? If there are, they are all ours. Is there a true principle of government that exists in the world anywhere? It is ours, it is God's; for every good and perfect gift that does exist in the world among men proceeds from the "Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." It is God that has given every good gift that the world ever did possess. He is the giver of all good principles, principles of law, of government, and of everything else, and he is now gathering them together into one place, and withdrawing them from the world, and hence the misery and darkness that begin to prevail among the nations; and hence the light, life, and intelligence that begin to manifest themselves among us. -- JD, 10:57, May 18, 1862. THE ENIGMA OF MORMONISM. -- Mormonism is an enigma to the world. . . . Philosophy can not comprehend it; it is beyond the reach of natural philosophy. It is the philosophy of heaven; it is the revelation of God to man. It is philosophical, but it is heavenly philosophy, and beyond the ken of human judgment, beyond the reach of human intelligence. They cannot grasp it; it is as high as heaven; what can they know about it? It is deeper than hell; they cannot fathom it. It is as wide as the universe; it extends over all creation. It goes back into eternity and forward into eternity. It is associated with the past, present, and future. It is connected with time and eternity, with men, angels, and Gods, with beings that were, that are, and that are to come. -- JD, 15:25, April 7, 1872. THE STRENGTH OF MORMON DOCTRINE. -- I have traveled to preach these doctrines in most of the United States and in the Canadas; I have preached them in England, in Scotland, in Wales, in the Isle of Man and the Jerseys, in France, Germany, in the principal cities of America and Europe, and to many prominent men in the world; and I have not yet found a man that could controvert one principle of Mormonism upon scriptural grounds. -- JD, 5:239, September 13, 1857. There is a spirit in man, possessed of so much "divinity, that it will discover truth by its own light; no matter whether it is covered with a "sectarian cloak," or thrown among the rubbish of scoffers. -- TS, 6:855, April 1, 1845. John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, p. 3-6. | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right without running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking. More thinking is required, and we call upon you students to exercise your God-given right to think through on every proposition that is submitted to you and be unafraid to express your opinions, with proper respect for those to whom you talk and proper acknowledgment of your own shortcomings. You young people live in an age when freedom of the mind is suppressed over much of the world. We must preserve it in the Church and in America and resist all efforts of ernest men to suppress it, for when it is suppressed, we might lose the liberties vouchsafed in the Constitution of the United States. Preserve, the, the freedom of your mind in education and in religion, and be unafraid to express your thoughts and to insist upon your right to examine every proposition. We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thought. One may memorize much without learning anything. In this age of speed there seems to be little time for meditation. Dissatisfaction with what is around us is not a bad thing if it prompts us to seek betterment, but the best sort of dissatisfaction in the long run is self-dissatisfaction which lead us to improve ourselves. Maturity implies the ability to walk alone and not be ashamed within ourselves of the things we do and say. Progress in maturity may be measured by our acceptance of increased self-responsibility and an increased sagacity in decision-making. This transition is not a time of calm enjoyment, but of growth and adaption. One matures as a person by responding differently today from the way in which one responded yesterday. We observe restraint so that restraints do not have to be imposed upon us; we do our best to think clearly so that we avoid chasing after false doctrines; we use deliberation so as to see through nonsense; we realize our social duty to the honest opinions of others while maintaining our own principles. Self-discipline - and that is a subject which I think I have somewhat a right to speak because of my military training and experience - -self-discipline means doing things you would rather not do but having the courage to do them if they are right. When a course of action shows itself to be unprofitable, it is sensible and valorous to drop it. There is no personal value in making a show of maturity if you do not have it. Affectation of any sort borders on vulgarity, and at the least its is ridiculous to pretend to feelings and beliefs that do not appeal to your intelligence. On the other hand, no mature person will be content to sit by the side of the road and watch the world go by. One cannot be merely a bystander, doing nothing but criticize. When a human being finds himself at a dead end, he is tempted to turn to that last desperate resource of muddled mankind: lawlessness. He does not realize the unprofitableness in delinquency and the low standard of living to which it condemns him. He may even imagine himself a martyr in some trivial or irrelevant cause. His hooliganism brings discredit to the peaceful, legitimate, and often courageous protests by young people on great moral issues. Society is indulgent toward young people, but there are limits to permissibility. Youth is right to repudiate sham and hypocrisy, but to assume that disorder and chaos have merit in themselves is to assume that we are no longer capable of reasoning together in search of the right solution of problems. You students have strong desires. You are not content to live a merely miscellany life, however pleasurable it may be. You dream beyond the actual and think beyond your fingertips. In doing so you are living up to the great law of culture, that a man shall become all that he is created capable of becoming. While we speak of independence and the right to think, to agree or to disagree, to examine and to question, we must not forget that fixed and unchanging laws govern in all God's creation, whether it be in the vastness of the starry heavens, or in the minute revolving universe of the atom, or in human relationships. All is law. All is cause and effect, and God's laws are universal. god has no favorites; none is immune from either life's temptations or the consequences of his own deeds. god is not capricious. Our reactions to the ever-changing impacts of life will depend upon our goals, our ideals. "The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this you will build your life by, this you will become." Every life coheres around certain fundamental core ideas whether we realize it or not, and herein lies the chief value of revealed religion. but while I believe all that god has revealed, I am not quite sure that I understand what he has revealed, and the fact that he has promised further revelation is to me a challenge to keep an open mind and be prepared to follow wherever my search for truth may lead. You young people have been attending a school presided over by the president of the Church, a school established by a prophet of God, a school where your eternal welfare is ever foremost in the minds of your professors, your administration, the faculty, and others. Our reactions to the ever-changing impacts of life will depend upon our goals and our ideals. And I would like to leave that thought with you to ponder. Again I emphasize, there is no final goal. Life must continue to expand, to unfold, and to grow, if it is to continue to be a good life. These things are indispensable, and in this connection age makes little difference. There is opportunity for all to expand and to grow and to be and to become. There are forces at work in our society today which degrade an intellectual quest for knowledge. These forces are nothing new. They have always been powerful. They are anti-intellectual. Forces in this country and in other countries are known and grappled with, but they are making headway. The Know-Nothings of the last century in this country could be cited as but one example. Germany in the thirties saw the burning of books and the glorification of barbaric emotion as part of the tragedy of Hitlerism. We have been blessed with much knowledge by revelation from God which, in some part, the world lacks. But there is an incomprehensibly greater part of truth which we must yet discover. Our revealed truth should leave us stricken with the knowledge of how little we really know. It should never lead to an emotional arrogance based upon a false assumption that we somehow have all the answers - that we in fact have a corner on truth. For we do not. Whether you are in the field of economics or political science, history or behavioral sciences - continue your search for truth. And maintain humility sufficient to be able to revise your hypotheses as new truth comes to you by means of the spirit or the mind. Salvation, like education, is an on-going process. One may not attain salvation by merely acknowledging allegiance, nor is it available in ready-to-wear stores or in supermarkets where it may be bought and paid for. That it is an eternal quest must be obvious to all. Education is involved in salvation and may be had only by evolution or the unfolding or developing into our potential. It is in large measure a problem of awareness, of reaching out and looking up, of aspiring and becoming, pushing back our horizons, seeking for answers, and searching for God. In other words, it is not merely a matter of conformity to rituals, climbing sacred stairs, bathing in sacred pools, or making pilgrimages to ancient shrines. The depth and height and quality of life depends upon awareness, and awareness is a process of being saved from ignorance. Man cannot be saved in ignorance. An Eternal Quest: Freedom of the Mind by President Hugh B. Brown Delivered on 13 May 1969 and printed in _Dialogue: Journal of Mormon Thought_ (In 1983) | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Unlike those whose religious faith is uneasy and precarious in the modern world of expanding scientific knowledge, we are at home with the most advanced truths discovered by scientists and with all competent philosophic thought -- with truth wherever found -- because our religion enjoins in us a love of knowledge and education; encourages us to seek understanding through the broadening of our vision and the deepening of our insight. This is an eternal quest. (p. 17) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts newly revealed truth, whether it comes through direct revelation or from study and research. We deny the common conception of reality that distinguishes radically between the natural and the supernatural, between the temporal and the eternal, between the sacred and the secular. For us, there is no order of reality that is utterly different in character from the world of which we are a part, that is separated from us by an impassable gulf. We do not separate our daily mundane tasks and interests from the meaning and substance of religion. We recognize the spiritual in all phases and aspects of living and realize that this life is an important part of eternal life. We aspire to the best of which we are intrinsically capable and will think our thoughts, fashion our ideals, and pursue every task firm in the faith that in a very real sense we are living in the presence of God here and now. (p. 18) For us God is not an abstraction; He is not just an idea, a metaphysical principle, an impersonal force or power. He is not identical with the totality of the world, with the sum of all reality. He is not an "Absolute" that in some way embraces the whole of reality in His being. Like us, He exists in a world of space and time. Like us, He has ends to be achieved and He fashions a cosmic plan for realizing them. He is a concrete, living person, and though in our finite state we cannot fully comprehend Him, we know that we are akin to Him, for He is revealed to us in the divine personality of His Son, Jesus Christ. (p. 21) Peace and brotherhood can be achieved when these two most potent forces in civilization -- religion and science -- join to create one world in its truest and greatest sense. Continue to become acquainted with human experience through history and philosophy, science and poetry, art and religion. Every discovery of science reveals clearly the divine plan in nature. The remarkable harmony in the physical laws and processes of the universe, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, that surpasses mortal understanding implies a Supreme Architect, and the beauty and symmetry of his handiwork inspire reverence. BEWARE of man's capacity for monumental mischief and his tendency to lose sight of moral values. In these ominous times moral values are not only desirable but they are imperative. The survival of the race depends upon their conscious cultivation. Education is in the fullest sense the entire process by which individuals and groups modify, redirect, stimulate and control their native tendencies. It seems obvious then that continuing to seek knowledge and education is the high road to salvation. A man is saved only as he gains knowledge. But mere accumulation of facts, though they be encyclopedic, will not save a man if he lacks wisdom. It is not measured by knowledge or intellect alone, but will be reflected in your search for learning, in the scientist's search for facts, the philosopher's search for understanding, and in every man's search for truth and the freedom which comes with it. Learn to stretch your minds by constant preparation, enrich your spirits by constant prayer, increase your stature by companionship with great people and great books. Thus may your potential God-like status become real and actual through ever-increasing intelligence, which is the glory of God. (p. 53-54) We would like you to know we are interested in academic research. You must go out on the research front and continue to explore the vast unknown. You should be in the forefront of learning in all fields, for revelation does not come only through the prophet of God nor only directly from heaven in visions or dreams. Revelation may come in the laboratory, out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul, out of search and research and prayer and inspiration. You must be unafraid to contend for what you are thinking, unafraid to dissent if you are informed and honest. We must combat error with truth in this divided and imperiled world and do it with the unfaltering faith that God is still in his heaven even though all is not well with the world. (p. 87-88. Baccalaureate Address, Brigham Young University, May 24, 1962) And now to you brethren who preside in the Church, I should like to say a word -- presidents of stakes, presidents of missions, bishops of wards, all who preside in any capacity -- we urge you to recognize and use your counselors. You will notice through all the organization of the Church our Father in Heaven has provided that each presiding officer shall have two counselors. We regret that occasionally we hear of a stake president, a mission president, a bishop or some presiding officer, who arrogates to himself the honors which belong to the office he holds, who presides in a "one man" dictatorial way, forgetting his counselors, neglecting to counsel with them, and thereby assuming all the honors of the presidency or bishopric and taking upon himself all the responsibility for decisions in which his counselors should share. There is wisdom and safety in counsel. Honor those with whom and over whom you preside. That we honor the priesthood and the offices in it applies not only to our attitudes toward those who preside over us but toward those over whom and with whom we preside. Let us preside with kindness, consideration, and love. But brethren, beware that you do not become extremists on either side. The degree of a man's aversion to Communism may not always be measured by the noise he makes in going about and calling everyone a Communist who disagrees with his personal political bias. There is no excuse for members of this Church, especially men who hold the priesthood, to be opposing one another over Communism; we are all unalterably opposed to it but we must be united in our fight against it. Let us not undermine our Government or accuse those who hold office of being soft on Communism. Furthermore, our chapels and meeting houses should not be made available to men who seek financial gain or political advantage by destroying faith in our elected officials under the guise of fighting Communism. We call upon the priesthood of the Church to stand together with a solid front against everything that would rob men of their God-given freedom. (p. 194-196.) During recent months, both in Salt Lake City and across the nation, considerable interest has been expressed in the position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the matter of civil rights. We would like it to be known that there is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person regardless of race, color, or creed. We say again, as we have said many times before, that we believe that all men are the children of the same God and that it is a moral evil for any person or group of persons to deny any human being the rights to gainful employment, to full educational opportunity, and to every privilege of citizenship, just as it is a moral evil to deny him the right to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. We have consistently and persistently upheld the Constitution of the United States, and as far as we are concerned this means upholding the constitutional rights of every citizen of the United States. We call upon all men everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God's children. Anything less than this defeats our high ideal of the brotherhood of man. (p. 233-235. Civil Rights Statement.) On succeeding stages of your journey you will become acquainted with and utilize various units of time and space. For a moment I shall paraphrase Dr. Henry Eyring, a renowned scientist. As of now you are content with such units as seconds and seasons, meters and miles. But later you will become concerned with the chemical world of molecules and atoms, where electrons complete their revolutions in one one hundred million millionths of a second (grasp that if you can -- I can't), and where one inch measures one hundred million atoms. Then in outer space you will find the revolutions of planets measured in years rather than in fractions of a second. The unit of distance is the light year, which, as you know is a one-year journey at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second -- perhaps about 10,000 million miles. Later you will penetrate the spiritual realm where time and space shall be no more, referred to only as eternities and limitless. Thus in thought, and later in reality, you will be able to see and comprehend the infinitesimally small and the infinitely large. At the end of your stopover on this island you will jettison part of your equipment, the mortal shell. How foolish and unrealistic it is to speak of this necessary metamorphosis as death or think of it as the end of the flight. On this subject I bring you word from the noted Dr. Wernher Von Braun, the space and missile scientist. Dr. Von Braun stated: Many people seem to feel that science has somehow made religious ideas untimely or old fashioned, but I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. Now if God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of his universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that he applies it also to the human soul? I think it does. And everything science has taught me -- and continues to teach me -- strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace. Now I ask you, do you think it is possible that in this universe, created and governed according to eternal law, the most intelligent creatures in it are here by chance? Is it possible that there was no plan or purpose or design? Did the Creator make a stairway leading to nowhere? Or did he plan a flight leading to a certain fatal crash? Your flight is to be eternal, and you are to be at the controls, with full responsibility and freedom to choose your course and your conduct - - and to take the consequences. (p. 250-251. General Conference, October 6, 1963) Hugh B. Brown, "An Abundant Life", (Salt Lake City, Utah, Bookcraft, 1965) | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Hugh Nibley, "Baptism for the Dead in Ancient Times," The subject of this epistle was salvation for the dead, a doctrine ... believed in the early church to have been the main theme of Christ's teaching after the resurrection. ... the main weight of early Christian doctrine was not on the cross ... but on the work of the Lord as a teacher, marking the way of eternal progress for the living and the dead according to a pattern first followed by Adam. ... the contemporary teaching of the Jews that "all who die hoping for the Messiah will be resurrected to eternal life." ... It was what the Lord said and did after the resurrection that established his doctrine, yet we are told only what he said and did before. ... ... "For this reason ... have I gone below and spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to your fathers, the prophets, and preached to them, that they might enjoy their rest in heaven." ..."He opens to us, who were enslaved by death, teh doors of the temple, that is the mouth; and by giving us repentance introduced us into the ... spiritual temple builded for the Lord." ..."since he also was reckoned among the dead, while he was preaching the gospel to the spirits of the saints...." ...Jesus "became the evangelist of the dead, the liberator of spirits and the resurrection of those who had died." ..."Christ went down to Hades for no other purpose than to preach the gospel." A great favorite with the early Christians was a passage from the apocryphal Book of Sirah: "I shall go through all the regions deep beneath the earth, and I shall visit all those who sleep, and I shall enlighten all those who hope on the Lord: I shall let my teaching shine forth as a guiding light and cause it to shine afar off." ..."The Lord God hath remembered his dead among those of Israel who have been laid in the place of burial, and has gone down to announce to them the tidings of his salvation." ... ... "Descending into the other world," ... Christ "prepared a road, and led in his footsteps all those whom he shall ransom, leading them into his flock, there to become indistinguishably mingled with the rest of his sheep." "I made a congregation of the living in the realm of the dead," says the Lord in the Odes of Solomon. ... ..."Christ ... did not ascend to the higher heavens until he had descended to the lower regions ..., there to make the patriarchs and prophets his compotes. The word compos ... in Tertullian always denotes "one who shares secret knowledge.... ...Christ ... "gathers together his dispersed sons from the ends of the earth into the Father's sheepfold, mindful likewise of his dead ones who fell asleep before him; to them also he descends that he may awaken and save them." The philosopher Celsus, making fun of the strange doctrine, asks Origin: "Don't you people actually tell about him, that when he had failed to convert the people on this earth he went down to the underworld to try to convert the people down there? ...Origen answers the question ... in the affirmative: "We assert that Jesus not only converted no small number of persons while he was in the body ... but also, that when he became a spirit, without the covering of the body, he dwelt among those spirits which were without bodily covering, converting such of them as were willing to Himself." ... ... "What then, does not the same economy prevail in hades, so that there, too, all the spirits might hear the gospel, repent and admit that their punishment, in the light of what they have learned, it just?" ... ...his coming in the spirit world heralded by John the Baptist. Origen says John "died before him, so that he might descend to the lower regions and announce ... his coming." ..."For everywhere the witness and forerunner of Jesus is John, being born before and dying shortly before the Son of god, so that not only to those of his generation but likewise to those who lived before Christ should liberation from death be preached, and that he might everywhere prepare a people trained to receive the Lord." "John the Baptist died first," wrote Hippolytus, "being dispatched by Herod, that he might prepare those in hades for the gospel; he became the forerunner there, announcing even as he did on this earth, that the Savior was about to come to ransom the spirits of the saints from the hand of death." Even in the medieval Easter drama, the "Harrowing of Hell," the arrival of Christ in hell is heralded by John the Baptist. ..."these Apostles, and the teachers who had proclaimed the name of the Son of God, after they had fallen asleep in [the] power and faith of the Son of God preached likewise to the dead; and they gave them the seal of the preaching. They accordingly went down with them into the water and came out again. But although they went down while they were alive and came up alive, those who had fallen asleep before them ... went down dead, but came out again living; for it was through these that they were made alive, and learned the name of the Son of God." ..."These Apostles and teachers died in possession of his faith and power, preached to those who had died before, and themselves gave them this seal. Hence ... they went down into the water with them; but they who had died before went down dead, of course, but ascended living, since it was through them that they received life and knew the Son of god." ... "Christ visited, preached to, and baptized the just men of old, both gentiles and Jews, not only those who lived before the coming of the Lord, but also those who were before the coming of the Law ... such as Abel, Noah, or any such righteous man. ... I went down and spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and jacob, your fathers, and declared unto them how they might rise, and with my right hand I gave them the baptism of life and release and forgiveness of all evil, even as I do to you here and to all who believe on me from this time on. ... Servants ... because they [the dead] will receive the baptism of life and the forgiveness of your sins from my hand through you, ... and so have part in the heavenly kingdom. As the Apostles in all their work are simply acting for their Lord, so all the ordinances they perform in his name are to be regarded as his own but done vicariously. ... (Origen) specifies that no one can be baptized in this river who has not been "first baptized with water and the Holy Ghost on this earth." ... ... Now if some of them are "baptized for the dead," can we not assume that they have a reason for it? Certainly he [Paul} is maintaining that they practised this in the belief that the ordinance would be a vicarious baptism and as such be advantageous to the flesh of others, which they assumed would be resurrected, for unless this referred a physical resurrection there would be no point in carrying out a physical baptism. ... To return to early practices, an interesting aberration of the rite if found among the Marcionites. When a catechumen died, they would lay a living person under his bed; then they would ask the corpse if he wished to receive baptism, to which the living person under the bed would reply in the affirmative; then the living person would be baptized for the dead one. ... It will be recalled that in his discussion with the Apostles, the Lord promised them the keys at some future time; since this conversation took place shortly before the crucifixion, and since this conversation took place shortly before the crucifixion, and since Jesus himself postponed any discussion of the mysteries of the kingdom "till the Son of Man be risen from the dead," we can believe that nothing much was done in the matter, during his first mission. In a passage of impeccable authority Eusebius quotes Clement as saying: "To James the Just, and to John and to Peter after the resurrection the Lord transmitted the gnosis; these passed it on to the other Apostles, and they in turn to the Seventy, ... ...Peter did no announce it to the whole church, nor the Apostles to all the world, nor is there mention of "the gnosis" being handed down any further than to the Seventy, .... "The gnosis" is that fulness of knowledge, which Paul always speaks of as the highest and holiest of god's gifts, a rare, choice, and hidden thing, reserved for but a few. ...the sudden and immense success of the Gnostics showed only too plainly, as Neander has observed, that people were looking for something which the church could no longer supply. Then, too, the fact that the church yielded to the Gnostics on point after point, adopting many of their more popular practices and beliefs, shows that she had nothing to pu in their place. The fact that the church finally denied that there ever was a gnosis, and defined the heresy of Gnosticism not as a false claim to possess higher revelations, ... but the mere belief that such revelations had ever existed--shows clearly enough that the church no longer possessed "the gnosis" to which the New Testament repeatedly refers. When the church fights shy of the very word and is alarmed at the mere suggestion that there could be such a thing, it needs no argument to show how little of it she still possessed. ... ...[St. Augustine] dared promise not only paradise but also the kingdom of the heavens to unbaptized children, since he could find no other escape from being forced to say that God damns innocent spirits to eternal death.... But when he realized that he had spoken ill in saying that the spirits of children would be redeemed without the grace of Christ into eternal life and the kingdom of heavn, and that they could be delivered from the original sin without the baptism of Christ by which comes remission of sins--realizing into what a deep and tumultuous shipwreck he had thrown himself ... he saw that there was no other escape than to repent of what he had said. ... Hugh Nibley, "Baptism for the Dead in Ancient Times," The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Volume 4, Mormonism and Early Christianity, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company and Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1987) | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Other information can be found at this excelent site: http://www.srv.net/~sro/Notepad/Notepad.html ------------------------------ End of gdm Digest V1 #26 ************************ To subscribe to gdm Digest, send the command: subscribe gdm-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@xmission.com". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-gdm": subscribe gdm-digest local-gdm@your.domain.net A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "gdm-digest" in the commands above with "gdm". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from ftp.xmission.com, in pub/lists/gdm/archive. These are organized by date.