9/30/2018 - Section 115:1-5
September
30, 2018
Section
115:1-5
Name of the Church, Tribulations and Trials
Getting Through Them, Go Forth in Faith, Standard to the Nations, Responsibility
Our,
This
section was received nine days after section 114. The events around 114 occurred
at a time of conflict and disunity within…and without…the church—when people
once strong in their testimony, and once lifted up by their study and work
within the church were angry with each other and with their situations, and in
the middle of those hard times, made the decision to leave the church. And
here, 9 days later, the Lord goes forward with building up the places where
they lived. This section is addressed to the presiding officers of the church.
V 3-4
are where Christ gives the official name of the church: The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to this moment, the church had been referred
to by several different names: The Church of Christ, The Church of Jesus
Christ, The church of God,, and The Church of the Latter-day Saints. B H Roberts wrote: “The appropriateness
of this title is self evident, and in it there is a beautiful recognition of
the relationship both of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Saints to the
organization. It is ‘The church of Jesus Christ.’ It is the Lord’s; He owns it,
He organized it. It is the Sacred Depository of His truth. It is His
instrumentality for promulgating all those spiritual truths with which He would
have mankind acquainted. It is also His instrumentality for the perfecting of
the Saints, as well as for the work of the ministry. It is His in all these
respects; but it is an institution which also belongs to the Saints. It is
their refuge from the confusion and religious doubt of the world. It is their
instructor in principle, doctrine, and righteousness….”
10/11/2021 – D&C 115
The saints were certainly unsettled. Those in Jackson County Missouri had sought refuge in Clay County Missouri, because the citizens there were friendly. While there, the saints asked the state and federal governments to help them reclaim their lands in Jackson County, but nothing came from those efforts. After a few years, the people of Clay County told the saints that they had thought that the saints stay there would be temporary. So the saints moved on. In December 1836 the Missouri legislature approved the creation of two new small counties, Caldwell and Daviess County. These areas were not inhabited, and they were to be used only for the Mormons. In April of 1837, the saints drew up plans for developing the area. They called the city Far West and they planned to build a temple there. In November of 1837, Joseph & Sidney Rigdon visited the new town. They approved the plans to develop the city, but they said that the temple building should be delayed until they received further direction from the Lord. It was in April of 1838, a few weeks after both Joseph and Sidney had settled in Far West, Missouri that Joseph received section 115.
It is in v 3 that the Lord tells them what he wants the name of the church to be: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke of the name of the church in the Oct 2011 Gen. Conf: “Saints means that its members follow Jesus Christ: striving to do His will, keeping His commandments, and preparing themselves to once again—in their future-- to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. I learned that Saint simply refers to those who seek to make their lives holy by covenanting to follow Christ.” I love that definition.
In v 5 the Lord goes on to tell them to “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations; And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.” Dallin Oaks spoke about this in the Apr 2004 Gen Conf. His talk was titled: “Preparation for the Second Coming”. Here is part of that talk: “In the early years of this last dispensation, a gathering to Zion involved various locations in the United States: to Kirtland, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, and to the tops of the mountains [in Salt Lake City, Utah, and surrounding regions]. Always these were gatherings to prospective temples. With the creation of stakes and the construction of temples in most nations with sizeable populations of the faithful, the current commandment is not to gather to one place but to gather in stakes in our own homelands. There the faithful can enjoy the full blessings of eternity in a house of the Lord. There, in their own homelands, they can obey the Lord’s command to enlarge the borders of His people and strengthen her stakes (see D&C 101:21; 133:9, 14). In this way, the stakes of Zion are ‘for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.” New temples now are being announced in every general conference and in between the conference. The Lord is placing temples where there are saints, and these temples will help us all in our journey to become as the Lord would have us be, and as we hoped we would grow to be as we anticipated ‘our tourn on earth’.
In v’s 7-16 the Lord tells the saints that it is now time to build a temple there in Far West. Joseph explained that with a temple there “He could reveal to them the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.”
This time, as the Lord commands them to build a temple, He gives them an exact date to begin. He tells them that the preparatory work is to being on July 4, 1838 (v 10). But then they should pause and re-commence their work on the temple on July 4, 1839 and continue until the temple is completely finished. (v’s 11-12) He also tells them to accomplish these tasks without going into debt. And He tells them that He will give them the building pattern they are to follow at a future time.
He then encourages the saints to build up the city of Far West as quickly as they can, and He tells them that he will let them know, through Joseph, the other areas that they should build and grow. (V’s 17-18)
And lastly, in v 19, the Lord assures the Saints that He will sanctify [make holy] the prophet Joseph; and the Lord reminds them that He has given the keys of the kingdom to Joseph.
The saints moved forward with these instructions. But that temple was not completed—for the saints were driven from Missouri in the winter of 1838-39. It seems that again and again the saints learned that doing God’s work doesn’t mean you never fall; it DOES means you rise again, and you will find that you have grown in amazing ways. I don’t feel that I have to know all the “why’s” of life. I have simply found that if I do my best to follow Heavenly Father’s commandments, and if I work to stay in close communication with Him, then even hard times become quite livable because I feel His strength and His love.
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