I read a scripture for the first time the other night. It made me stop to rethink my gospel framework.

I recommend reviewing more than just this verse to appreciate more of the context, but this is what stopped me:

D&C 88:35
35 That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still.

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I love President Hinckley, and I will miss him and his powerful testimony. He concluded his third talk during this last conference with these remarkable words:

To you, this day, I affirm my witness of the calling of the Prophet Joseph, of his works, of the sealing of his testimony with his blood as a martyr to the eternal truth. Each of you can bear witness of the same thing. You and I are faced with the stark question of accepting the truth of the First Vision and that which followed it. On the question of its reality lies the very validity of this Church. If it is the truth, and I testify that it is, then the work in which we are engaged is the most important work on the earth.

I leave with you my testimony of the truth of these things, and I invoke the blessings of heaven upon you. May the windows of heaven be opened and blessings showered upon you as the Lord has promised. Never forget that this was His promise and that He has the power and the capacity to see that it is fulfilled. I so pray as I leave my blessing and love with you in the sacred name of our Redeemer, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

At the conclusion of the conference, he warned us that we might soon be without him:

Now the conference is adjourned for six months. We look forward to seeing you again next April. I’m 97, but I hope I’m going to make it. May the blessings of heaven attend you in the meantime is our humble and sincere prayer in the name of our Redeemer, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Would we could have heard him again! But let him rejoice with his wife in the work to be done on the other side of the veil.

–Joe

The general structure of each and every lesson in these Presidents of the Church manuals is interesting: the “doctrine” is taught only after an introductory section that provides “real life” situations in which the given prophet is shown to have situatedly learned, undeniably embodied, profoundly comprehended, or magnificently taught the particular “doctrine” covered in the chapter. Of course, this way of structuring things could just be said to be a kind of appeal to authority: this guy is exemplary for whatever reasons, and so you ought to trust the following pages. But then, who is going to be spending any serious time looking at these books who is not already convinced that the prophet is exemplary? Which makes me think that there is another important way to understand the relationship between the two sections of the lesson: we are being shown, again and again, that “doctrine” is something we piece together as we go about the work, that we are working out an understanding of the God we encounter rather than developing a systematic or theoretical theological science. This would seem, to me, to be especially true of Joseph Smith… and perhaps especially true of Joseph Smith in his thinking about Jesus Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

I apologize for posting this too late to be helpful, but maybe it will do someone some good four years from now!

I’m attaching the materials (knowing that I’m late and not wanting to work with the formatting to get all the stuff into a blog post).

My lesson emphasized what “repentance” might mean, what “righteousness” might mean, and how the Church of the Devil is defined. We used scriptures from throughout the standard works.

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1 Nephi 16-22

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1 Ne 16-22 Read the rest of this entry »

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