In my notes on lessons 26 (see here), I briefly discussed the apparent shock Joseph experienced when Elijah came to the Kirtland Temple: the Prophet seems to have believed at first that his revelatory work was complete with the dedication of the temple, and so he was taken by surprise by the sudden announcement that there was actually a great deal more to do. A bit of further clarification about this surprise should lay a good foundation for this lesson. Read the rest of this entry »

[My apologies in advance for the somewhat scattered status of these notes. This topic turned out to be far more difficult to summarize than I anticipated. Three hours over three days left me little time to sort things out further, so they will have to remain as they are now. Feel quite free to ask questions for clarification.] The introductory portion of this lesson tells in brief about the events surrounding the dedication of the Kirtland temple, culminating, of course, in the visit of Elijah to Joseph and Oliver a week after the dedication. This event is, in some ways, the most important of the whole series making up the Restoration. And yet—ironically, as I hope to show—it was entirely unanticipated. In order to make quite clear how unanticipated it was, let me quote from Richard Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling (pp. 320-321): Read the rest of this entry »