6/18/2017 - Section 43:1-10

June 18, 2017

Section 43:1-10

Prophet,Follow Prophet,Authority Church Line,Personal Revelation,Member Responsibility,Church Meetings,Sacrament Mtg,Sanctification,Covenant Making Blesses,Missionary Covenants, Companionship Covenants,

From the time the Church was established, the Lord made it very clear how it was to be led. In D&C 27:7, speaking of Joseph Smith, the Lord stated “Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power.” By Feb 1831, many of the members had come from congregations in which any member could proclaim doctrine for the entire congregation. I wonder, too, if investigators were always encouraged to pray for their own personal revelation of the truth of the Book of Mormon, if they might have thought they could pray for revelation for other people or for the Church as a whole. This is certainly what Mrs. Hubble did. She “came making great pretensions of revealing commandments, laws and other curious matters….She professed to be a prophetess of the Lord, and professed to have many revelations, and knew the Book of Mormon was true, and that she should become a  teacher in the church of Christ.” (History of the Church 1:154) There were others who claimed revelations to guide the Church or to correct the Prophet. Looking back on that time, George A. Smith said, “There was a prevalent spirit all through the early history of this church, which prompted the Elders to suppose that they knew more than the Prophet. Elders would tell you that the Prophet was going wrong.” The sentence I most enjoyed was: “under these circumstances the Prophet went to the Lord for guidance and received the revelation recorded as Doctrine and Covenants 43.” (p87)

In the first 10 verses of this section, the Lord sets out what the members of the church should do, and the blessings that will follow if they do as He as laid out. First Christ explains prophets and their tasks and responsibilities, and then He explains our tasks and responsibilities: v 8-10 “…I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together, ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given.    And thus ye shall become instructed in the law of my church, and be sanctified by that which ye have received, and ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me--   That inasmuch as ye do this, glory shall be added to the kingdom which ye have received. Inasmuch as ye do it not, it shall be taken, even that which ye have received.”

I AM sanctified (made more pure) when I listen intently to what is said in Church and to what I feel in Church. And when there are those who give talks or lessons that don’t seem to enrich me—it’s at those times that I know I neglected to ask the Lord to let me learn the things that are important to my progress, and it is also a reminder to me that those people struggling over a talk or a lesson are having a growth experience for themselves. I shouldn’t be so selfish to feel that it all should be for me all the time. We are to nurture, encourage, and assist one another at all times—whether they are our best friends or are strangers to us.

If we work with what the lord has given us, we will find that glory is added upon us. If we work only with what we have with no requests for heavenly help, we will find it a very hard road.

I love the student manual remarks that: ‘binding’ oneself by covenants help one become holy. (p87) “There is tremendous value in making commitments to one another and to the Lord. By entering into covenants or making commitments with others, we bind ourself by our own integrity to act in a certain way. This arrangement becomes a fortification against the powers of opposition. In other words, covenants bring a sense of responsibility, which in turn becomes a power of reinforcement for positive action and a deterrent to slothfulness. Covenant making can help us break away from routines or habits of the past as we clearly identify a course to pursue and then establish a means of accountability by making the commitment known to others. There are always positive consequences for keeping divine covenants and negative consequences for breaking them. When we make commitments based on a correct understanding of consequences, we then unify the forces within us and secure the blessings of heaven. The Lord, seeing our willingness to make commitments, gives us His Spirit which strengthens us to do what we have committed to do.

4/23/2021 – D&C 43:1-16

The Saints have gathered in Kirtland, Ohio. The study manual describes this time in late 1830 and early 1831, when Joseph and Emma and other leaders have just arrived and found that some converts had been misled by excessive religious fervor and counterfeit revelations. Some claimed to receive revelations, including a woman known as Mrs. Hubble who called herself a prophetess. The Joseph Smith Papers tell us that these counterfeit revelations came as “writings on the outside cover of the Bible, and on parchment, which flew through the air, and on the back of their hands, and many such foolish and vain things”. Some of the saints were deceived by these actions. Joseph went to the Lord and received this section of the D&C. In addition to these false revelations, with all the saints moving into the city, hostility toward the church developed, and even increased as more saints came.

First the Lord states firmly that revelations and commandments for the church will come only through the one appointed to receive such. The Lord reminds the people that in the section just before this  (42) He had given  laws of the church that they were to live by—and he ends these verses by explaining “…this I give unto you that you may not be deceived, that you many know they [the revelations that various people were receiving] are not of me.” (v 6) He also reminds them that when they gather together they are to instruct and edify one another, but commandments for the entire church will come only through the Prophet. The Lord’s house is a house of order. And then the Lord goes on to instruct us all about sanctification. 

I remember listing to the sacrament prayers in the Netherlands. The Dutch translation does not use the word ‘sanctify’, but instead used the words “to make holy”. That was a powerful lesson to me as I listened to the sacrament prayers there. I had always wondered how I could sanctify myself, and now I realized that it only meant to become more holy, more pure, more fully committed to the Lord’s commandments—which also means more loving.

One of the Lord’s promises to us as we work to sanctify ourselves is that we become closer to Him. Most of the Lord’s commandments have an IF/THEN promise. The Lord gives us the IF/THEN pertaining to sanctification: “…inasmuch as ye do this, glory shall be added to the kingdom which ye have received. Inasmuch as ye do it not, it shall be taken even that which ye have received.” (v 10). And then he gives us the encouragement of greater promises: Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give…” (v 16)               I read this as our efforts, and abilities, in helping to lift others. 

I found a quote from Paul V Johnson, a 70, who explained why it is not enough to simply listen to the messages delivered at general conference: “In order for the messages of general conference to change our lives, we need to be willing to follow the counsel we hear. The Lord explained in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith ‘that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know … how to act upon the points of my law and commandment’ [D&C 43:8]. But knowing ‘how to act’ isn’t enough. The Lord in the next verse said, ‘Ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me’ [D&C 43:9]. This willingness to take action on what we have learned opens the doors for marvelous blessings” (“The Blessings of General Conference,” Ensign, Nov. 2005, 52).