2/3/2019 - Section 138:1-11

February 3, 2019

Section 138: 1-11

Scriptures of Latter-days, Revelation How to Receive, Story of Dead Son Comforting His Parents,

Section 138 is President Joseph F Smith’s vision of the redemption of the dead. It concerns the Savior’s visit to the spirits of the dead while his body was in the tomb. Four weeks prior to his death ( he was weak and often confined to his bed in the last 6 months of his life), he spoke in the Oct 1918 General Conference. “although somewhat weakened in body, my mind is clear with reference to my duty , and with reference to the duties and responsibilities that rest upon the Latter-day Saints; and I am ever anxious for the progress of the work of the Lord, for the prosperity of  the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the world….I have not lived alone thee five months. I have dwelt in the spirit of prayer, or supplication, communication with the Spirit of the Lord continuously.” Two weeks after that general conference Joseph Fielding Smith wrote down the vision his father as his father dictated it to him. During the April 1976 general conference this was accepted to be put into the Pearl of Great Price, and then in June 1979 the Frist Presidency announced it would be the 138 Section of the D&C.

V 1-11 explains that this vision came while President Smith “sat in my room pondering over the scriptures…the great atoning sacrifice…wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son…[how] mankind might be saved….my mind reverted to the writings of the apostle Peter…I opened the Bible and read the third and fourth chapters of the first epistle of Peter….As I pondered over these things which are written, the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great…”

President McKay first told the experience of Bishop John Wells, former member of the Presiding Bishopric, whose son had been killed in Emigration Canyon on a railroad track. “Brother John Wells was a great detail man and prepared many of the reports we are following up now. His boy was run over by a freight train. Sister Wells was inconsolable. She mourned during the three days prior to the funeral, received no comfort at the funeral, and was in a rather serious state of mind. One day soon after the funeral services while she was lying on her bed relaxed, still mourning, she says that her son appeared to her and said, ‘Mother, do not mourn, do not cry. I am all right.’ He told her that she did not understand how the accident happened and explained that he had given the signal to the engineer to move on, and then made the usual effort to catch the railing on the freight train; but as he attempted to do so his foot caught on a root and he failed to catch the hand rail, and his body fell under the train. It was clearly an accident. Now listen! He said that as soon as he realized he was in another environment he tried to see his father, but he couldn’t reach him. His father was so busy with the duties of his office he could not respond to his call. Therefore, he had come to his mother. He said to her, ‘You tell father that all is well with me, and I want you not to mourn any more.” President McKay then “…made the statement that the point he had in mind was that when we are relaxed in a private room we are more susceptible to those things,; and that so far as he was concerned, his best thoughts come after he gets up in the morning and is relaxed and thinking about the duties of the day; that impressions come more clearly, as if it were to hear a voice. Those impressions are right. If we are worried about something and upset in our feelings, the inspiration does not come. If we so live that our minds are free from worry and our conscience is clear and our feelings are right toward one another, the operations of the spirit of the Lord upon our spirit is as real as when we pick up the telephone.”

11/30/2021-D&C 138:1-22

This section came from President Joseph F. Smith as he described a vision that was given to him on October 3, 1918 as he read the “writings of Peter and our Lord’s visit to the spirit world” while his body was in the tomb. He had lost his father, Hyrum Smith, in 1844, when Joseph F was only 5 years old, and the death of his mother, Mary Fielding Smith, in 1852, when Joseph F was 13 years old. He had also lost several of his own children and other family members throughout his life. This caused him significant pain and may have led to his pondering on the subject of the dead. In the book ‘Susa Young Gates and the Vision of the Redemption of the Dead’ Lisa Olsen Tait wrote of the year that President Joseph F Smith was just ending: “In January his beloved eldest son, Elder Hyrum Mack Smith, had died suddenly of a ruptured appendix. In February a young son-in-law died after an accidental fall. And in September, Hyrum’s wife, Ida, died just a few days after giving birth, leaving five orphaned children.” This was also in the middle of WWI and the worldwide flu epidemic that had killed millions. As President Smith began his General Conference address he said: “I have not lived alone these five months. I have dwelt in the spirit of prayer, or supplication, of faith and determination; and I have had my communications with the Spirit of the Lord continuously” Ten days after the conference, he dictated this vision of the spirit world to his son Joseph Fielding Smith, who was then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. 

As President Joseph F Smith “read the third and fourth chapters of the first epistle of Peter, and as I read I was greatly impressed, more than I had ever been before, with the following passages” (v 6) which spoke of Christ preaching to the “spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient…For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.” (v8-10) And then in v 11 he tells us “As I pondered over these things which are written, the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great.” And he also saw the “spirits of the just” (v 12). He then described the spirits of the just: “All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (v 14) He saw those people who truly endured to the end—in their works, in their hope, in their faith, and in their love. He described these spirits in v 15: “I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand” for Christ had now finished His mission on the earth. 

This is how my study guide spoke of it: “the Savior’s appearance in the spirit world following His death was met with “rejoicing” (v 18). The spirits of the faithful Saints who were “awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world” knew that they would receive “redemption from the bands of death,” which would bring about a reuniting of their physical bodies with their spirits, “never again to be divided” 

Christ preached to this group of spirits “confirming the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance.” (v19) But Christ, himself, did not go among the wicked, the ungodly, or the rebellious (v’s 20-21)  For “Where these were, darkness reigned, but among the righteous there was peace;” (v 22)