Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 18-19 : Dr Scott Woodward : Part I

Episode Date: February 21, 2021

Was the Priesthood restored in one event or over a series of time? Join us with Dr. Scott Woodward as we discuss the Book of Mormon foundation for the Church organization, learn that the goodness other churches provide, and we are reminded to never be weary in doing good. The Savior continues to teach and succor one by one in the early days of the Restoration and today. Dr. Scott Woodward is the managing director at www.doctrineandcovenantscentral.org . Stop by and see all the great content for your Come, Follow Me studies.

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith. And I'm John by the way. We love to learn. We love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow him. Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Follow Him. Our podcast is designed to help individuals and families with their come follow me study. I am here with my co-host, John, by the way. Welcome, John. Thank you, Hank.

Good to be here. Yep. We are, man, we are. We keep coming back every week, I think. Are we going to come back for another episode? Do we have anybody listening and people are listening? So thank you so much. I never got a second date in high school. So this is nice that we keep coming back. As you all know, if you've been listening to the podcast, we bring on a guest expert with each and every week to

help us go through the sections of scripture for the sign for that come follow me lesson. And John, tell us who we have this week with us. Oh, I'm very excited, not only about our guests, but about these sections. I'm sure he's excited to talk about him. We have Scott Woodward. And I have a brief bio for Scott. He graduated with his PhD in instructional technology and technology from Brigham Young University and has been teaching professionally in the Church Educational System for nearly two decades, including Seminaries and Institutes, BYU Religious Education, and currently a member of the

BYU Idaho Religion Faculty. And Scott is currently a Managing Director of Doctrine and Covenants Central, which is a rich resource of gospel scholarship on all things related to the Doctrine and Covenants, and I want to make sure we take a minute and talk about this because I absolutely love Book of Mormon Central and all the resources on there. And now I'm so glad they're starting Doctrine and Covenants Central, so we should probably have Scott tell us some more about that. Yeah, absolutely Scott, tell us about it. Welcome.

Well, thank you. Good to be here. Thanks Hank. Thanks, John. Yeah, Dr. and Covenant Central is kind of a sister to Book of Mormon Central. We're just partners. We're working together.

And if you've ever seen Book of Mormon Central, we're hoping that Dr. and Covenant Central gets that kind of traction and scholarship and people coming to it as a kind of a clearinghouse for, yeah, all things, Dr. and Covenant's that is quality stuff. So right now we've got the first 25 sections up with resources from Stephen Harper, Susan Easton Black, Casey Griffiths. I also do some explainer videos for the sections we're covering historical background. We're covering the people of the Doctrine and Covenants. We have a verse by verse commentary on there. And yeah, we're just, we also have links to all kinds of scholarly articles. If you want to dig a little deeper for each section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

And so, yeah, we're just trying to put together the, the, the one stop shop for your Doctrine and Covenants needs. Yeah, Scott, we here at the Follow Him podcast are big fans of Book of Mormon Central and now Doctrine and Coven covenant central. We hope everybody listening will give doctrine, covenant central a look this week and go through some of the amazing resources that are there. I use it quite a bit in just preparing for our podcast in just looking ahead.

I just looked at the stats. We've only been live for about a month and there's already been about a half a million visitors. If you want to learn the stuff and we look at everything that's at our fingertips online, this is a great time to live. Thank you so much for being here, Scott. Thank you everybody for listening. Let's jump in with Dr. Scott Woodward into these sections, Dr. Incovenants 18 and 19.

Now, Scott, the previous sections before this talked about the three and the eight witnesses, and now we're moving forward with the translation of the Book of Mormon. They've now moved from the small town of Harmony Township, Pennsylvania. They've moved away because of persecution and difficulty back to New York, but not all the way to Manchester. They're in Fayette, where they're going to complete the translation of the Book of Mormon. So what's happening

here in June of 1829 that would bring about this revelation. Why does Joseph even go to the Lord? And who's this too? And what's the circumstances around it? If we go back a little bit, if we go to March 1829, the Lord told Joseph in Section 5 that this was the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church, he said. He said, I was soon to occur. He didn't give a date, he just said, soon to happen. This might be the very first moment where Joseph thought, there's gonna be a church

that comes of this. When I was growing up, I thought that Joseph walked out of the sacred grove and he thought, I'm gonna build a church, I'm gonna create it. The Lord's gonna restore his church through me, but it turns out when you look at the historical record, that's not true. All Joseph knew was he shouldn't join any church and then he should just kind of wait, right? And then Moroni happened and then now this book of Mormon, well he understands his, my role is

to bring forth the book of Mormon. What he's going to do after that, he doesn't know until section 5. Right. He's going to move probably back to harmony and Live his life and be a farmer. Right. Now the Lord's talking about building a church establishing his church and so This this makes that link between the Book of Mormon and the church in in Joseph's mind So then fast forward two months later in May and the Lord speaks again of the prospect in section 10 of establishing his church. It also appears that sometimes It may be at the end of May Peter James and John There's there's different takes on when the Peter James and John restored the keys of the Apostleship, but

One convincing take for me is that it happened at the end of May. So that's not that's not solid. We don't know for sure. But that's likely to have happened in May, which they would have given Joseph and Oliver the keys of the kingdom, the keys of the kingdom, which have now the ability and power to organize a church to establish the kingdom of God on her. to organize a church to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. So now in the following month, June, now they go up to Fayette and sometime after they move in with the Peter Whitmer family, Peter was Peter Whitmer senior was kind enough to let Joseph and Oliver move in with the family and work on completing the Book of Mormon translation there.

And can you imagine, by the way, can you imagine telling your wife, hey, some of my friends are moving in, right? It'll be fine, right? My wife would be like, and when do you move out to a point do you move out with your friends? Go get an apartment, right? If you've ever been in the Whitmer home, it's not large home. It's not a large home. So they're in the Peter Whitmer home, it's not large home. So they're in the Peter Whitmer home and apparently not

a lot of space there. Joseph and Oliver end up in what they call Father Whitmer's chamber, his bedroom. They're in Father Whitmer's bedroom chamber. And they're praying. They're praying about what next? There's something about this church happening, right? And they get a revelation.

Joseph says, and this is mentioned in section 128 of the doctrine of Covenants, they hear the voice of God in the chamber of Father Whitmer, which then instructs them relative to the building up of the church. So the Lord's voice included instructions about how to confer the Holy Ghost, about administering the sacrament, about ordaining one another elders in the church. and yet they were told to wait, wait and defer your ordination, the Lord said, until we can get enough people together who've already been baptized to sustain you and accept you as their spiritual teachers, which won't happen until the next April. That's going to be the day of the organization in the church. But this suffice it to say that in June of 1829,

the topic of establishing the Lord's church is squarely on the minds of Joseph and Oliver, as well as David Whitmer. Now he's he's getting in on this. He's just received section 14 on his behalf with the Lord and Biden him to participate in the work. And now he's like, how do we do this? How do we? Something about a church, How can we? What should we do? Now, as they anticipate, formally establishing the church, Joseph asked Oliver, the most literate of the group, to prepare a kind of founding document that would outline the basic beliefs and practices of the church, similar to other formal documents that other religions, other churches had at the time. But all I've ever had never done that before. He's never written a founding document for a church.

He found that to be a very difficult task. And so, it discouraged. He comes to Joseph and says, can we get a little help and direction here from the Lord? And so that's gonna be the first question that the Lord's gonna answer in Section 18 versus one through 5 is what to do about this document.

And then after that, the Lord's gonna speak to Oliver and David Whitmer about how they can help establish the church. That's what's on their mind, how do we get this document written and how do we go about establishing a church? I think we're seeing a pattern of try something real, you know, try, then make sure you ask the Lord for help. Where it seems that in all,

a lot of the sections we've covered here, it's the idea of the Lord's like, no, give it your best effort. Then when you fail, then come to me, right? But I really want you to put some effort here. I can't imagine if someone, if my friend came to me and said, Hey, can you throw together some founding documents, right?

And we just need to know what I be what like I would just Google founding documents and What what is anybody else done? Oh, no one has done this before. So you're going to be the first. And Oliver's like 22 years old. When I was 22, we won't even discuss. I mean, John was probably writing founding documents for churches, but the normal, the normal 22 year old was not. Didn't Oliver go to the book of Mormon?

Shall we dive in? Yeah, let's jump in. Yeah. So let's pick it up in verse one. The Lord is addressing Oliver's question about the. Yeah. Yeah. So, so let's pick it up in verse one. The Lord is addressing Oliver's question about the document directly here. He says, now behold, because of the thing which you might serve in Oliver Cowdery have desire to know of me, I give unto you these words. Behold, I have manifested unto you by my spirit in many instances that the things which you have

written are true. Well, what's Oliver been writing? Well, they're just wrapping up the Book of Mormon here. Oliver has been scribing now for the last, well, he came on April 7th as when they started. So this is now into June. He's been writing the Book of Mormon. And the Lord says, the Spirit has told you in many instances that the things which you have written are true.

Wherefore, you know that they are true. Now, watch written are true. Wherefore you know that they are true, now watch this follow up. And if you know they're true, behold, I give unto you a commandment that you rely upon the things which are written. For in them, in the Book of Mormon text, are all things written concerning the foundation of my church, my gospel, and my rock. You want to know how to form a church all over Calgary? How about go to the text of the Book of Mormon? You've been writing you know it's true. Now go rely on it So you're absolutely right Hank. I from this

Oliver is going to write his his documents going to be called the articles of the Church of Christ and Over let's see I want to say over 60% of that document is direct quotations from the Book of Mormon heavily from third Nephi and Moroni where there's kind of instructions where Jesus teaches about how to baptize, where we get the organization of the Twelve, where we get the instructions in Moroni about how to do the sacrament, where we get instructions about how to ordain teachers and priests and elders. And so this is going to become actually, I don't want to go too far into the future, but this is going to become the Prelude to section 20, actually. All of us document then becomes the next stepping stone tell, we get our founding text in section 20. So the Lord's guidance here,

really bears fruit. I really, I really like this. And maybe, maybe this is just my language, but Lord, what should we do? How, how about we look at the scriptures? How about we do that? I don't know, I don't know. Any other ideas out there, but let's go to the scriptures. Seems to me that that might be a good answer for a lot of us.

When we go to the Lord with questions, he might say to us, have you tried the scriptures, right? And have you looked, you know they're true? Have you tried them? If you know they're true? Have you tried them? You know they're true. How about rely on them? I think that was a funny comment if Hugh Nibbli wants

that if you really want to see an angel, if you see one, you know that all he's going to do is quote, scripture. So you might as well just read the scriptures. Yeah, save the angel the trouble. Yeah, and I think that thank you Scott for saying that about the book Moronioni because I've always thought Moroni 6 is like a mini handbook of instructions, you know It's got ministering in there and take the role and number everybody and make sure they're praying and oh church courts

You know, it's all in there and previous to that how to bless how to baptize how to ordain So okay, that that's really nice. So he just, oh, okay, well, I already wrote that. I'll go back and find that. That's right, very recently he wrote that, right? And so yeah, now, this is kind of a cool thought too, that DNC 18 makes clear that this church is very much a book of Mormon-based church. How about that?

Isn't interesting that when Oliver needed help in writing the foundational document, the Lord didn't say, well, go grab your Bible and see what you need to do. No, instead he said, rely on the book of Mormon. Sometimes we like to talk about how our church is a New Testament church, but it's the book of Mormon where we got the original blueprint for our church. Now, it's true that we had New Testament angels, John the Baptist, and Peter James and John, from the New Testament time period, that restore priesthood keys, but it's the Book of Mormon, where we're going to get the scripture, or sorry, the structure, it's from the Book of Mormon, we're going to get the structure, the priesthood offices, the ordinances, and the core doctrines of the 1830 church.

Then we're going to build out from there, but that's the original nugget is a Book of Mormon-based church with New Testament keys. That's interesting, because when I was a missionary, it was very much Jesus established His church. It fell away, and we brought back the new Testament church where you're saying, yeah, in a way we did that, but the Book of Mormon was a big part of this. We're, the Book of Mormon is saying, hey, what do you want to restore? Here's everything you need to restore. That's right.

It's like a hybrid. It's like a new testament, keys of authority with Book of Mormon structure, ordinances, and doctrine. See, this is why we bring experts on, John. Yeah, this is a great insight of Oliver. You've been writing this. You've been doing this scribe stuff. What have you been writing?

Oh, yeah. They did talk about that. They did talk about that. And I often had students say, well, how come the Sackmer prayers are written in the Book of Moroni prayers are written in the, you know, in the book of Moroni and also written in section 20. And it's like, yeah, well, this helps answer that question. Oliver went to the book of Mormon to learn how to write a section 20. Is that a good way to look at it, Scott? That's right. Well, yeah. So Oliver is going to go to the

book of Mormon, create his document, the articles of the Church of Christ. And then Joseph Smith is going to take the articles of the Church of Christ, pray about it, add a bunch of stuff, but retain a lot of what Oliver was able to call from the Book of Mormon. That's right. Wow. And John, you've written a book on Maroni. You just think of Maroni thinking of having a church, a group of believers, right, all together. Moronize going lucky, right? This is putting this all down. Okay, when you all have a group of believers together, this is what you need to do. Don't mind me, I'm all alone right out here by myself.

That makes it even a little more special there that Moron was the one to put it together. Yeah, that maybe Moronize thinking, you're gonna need this in the future. And I had always thought of it for all of us, but maybe, hey, Oliver, you're gonna need this in the future. This is how we put things together. This is how their names were taken

that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word. This is how we bless, this is how we baptize, this is how we bless the sacrament. I mean, amazing that he's sharing all that and Clearly under inspiration. They're going to need this in the future It is interesting that that Moroni says that He didn't plan on writing the book of Moroni. He's like well since I'm not dead yet I know

I'm gonna put some more stuff in and that becomes the basis for our church 1930s amazing put some more stuff in and that becomes the basis for our church in the 1830s. Amazing. I'm we glad he wrote those last chapters is well, I'm not dead yet. Like Marron, I won is like I have not as yet parish. So I wrote a few more things for the benefit of my brother and the lay nights and some future day. How different would the book more me be without those chapters? And I've always thought I don't it's hard to know did he know this was coming. This was my father's book. This was his life's work. And he's been killed in battle. And now I've got to do this. And I mean, if we take him literally, I am alone. He says twice, all my kids, folk, he's got nobody.

He could have been a little bit, why did you do this to me, Lord? I've got nobody, but look at what he does to future for future generations. So I, yeah, Marona, I, not just Captain Marona war chapters, but Marona on top of the temples is heroic to me. Yeah, and this makes it even more so. I always laugh at my college students. I probably shouldn't do that as a professor, but when Marona, I says,

my Marona says I have not friends nor with her to go. I'm like, hey, he knows your life, right? He has, he has. Right. All right. We were able to get so much homework done. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's how you get beautiful things written.

It's, you have not friends nor anywhere to go. So yeah, so then it's gonna shift from, okay, Oliver got your marks in order with the document, right? And then he's going to talk to Oliver and David Whitmer, who's also eager to help somehow with this organization of this church. Verse 6 is key where it says, the world is, here's the need. The world is ripening in an equity. And it must need to be that the children of men are stirred up unto repentance, both the Gentiles and also the House of Israel. And then he goes on to say, verse 9, Oliver Cowdery, I speak unto you and David Whitmer, by way of commandment. For behold, I command all

man everywhere to repent. And I speak unto you even as unto Paul mine apostle, for you are called even with that same calling with which he was called. Now Oliver and David, neither of them are apostles. What he means is you are called to do what Paul the Apostle did Which is what what makes Paul unique? Well Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles as well as to the House of Israel So you are the one who you all over in David do what Paul did in declaring the gospel not just to the House of Israel But to everybody everybody needs to. And so this is your marching or you want to help me build a church, start crying repentance because the world needs it

like crazy. And then he gives a rationale for repentance. And these are some of the most powerful verses in section 18 and in my estimation, verses 10 through, whoa, 16, 10 through 16, amazing. 10 through, whoa, 16, 10 through 16, amazing. So here's the question, right? So what should someone remember, when you're called to invite people to repent? What should you remember? Right, if you're a young missionary, if you're parents, if you're a church leader,

what should you remember when calling people to repentance? And here's what the Lord says, verse 10, remember that the worth of souls is great in the side of God. That's, I want you to think about those people. They are worth saving. They are worth your best efforts to help them repent. And then he gives a sacred equation. I like that phrase. I think it's a Stephen Harper phrase. He gives a sacred equation in verse 11 of how much a soul is worth. So he's going to say that the worth of each soul is directly proportionate to the price paid to redeem it. Can we put it like that? Say that one more time. The worth of each soul is directly proportionate to the price paid to

redeem it. God, that reminds me of of my economics class. What's the value? What is the value of any item? It's what someone is willing to pay for it, right? What is someone willing to pay for it? So here's the sacred equation, verse 11, for behold, the Lord, your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh. Wherefore, he suffered the pain of all men. So he equates his death in the flesh with the pain or the punishment of all men, that all menates his death in the flesh with the pain or the punishment of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead that he might bring all men unto him on conditions of repentance and how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth.

The worth of your soul was openly announced on Calvary, isn't that powerful? Christ's infinite sacrifice declared your infinite worth. That's why you should call people to repentance. Because if they repent, they can access the power of myatoning sacrifice and land their souls in the kingdom of God, which he goes on to talk about, verse 15 and 16, but wow, powerful. It reminds me of, I just got done teaching this couple of days ago, but when Alma gets done with Korohor, and then goes to see the Zoramites in Alma 31, and he hears the prayer on the Ramiumptum, and then his prayer to God is the first part of this prayer is how long do we have to behold such gross wickedness? And then by the end of his prayer, one of the last things he says is, behold, their souls are precious. And many of them are our brethren. And you kind of see him soften during the prayer and kind of come to

that same message. Their souls are precious. So he claps his hands on the others, laying on his hands, I suppose, and they go out to preach. But that's the same motivation. Their souls are precious. Let's go try the virtue of the Word of God with these Zorimites. It seems very similar to the message of Jonah. I like what you said here Scott,

these people are worth saving. They are worth saving. So as a missionary or as a parent or as a church leader, in any role, the people in your stewardship, the people in your Sunday school class, people in your seminary class, your own children, right? These people are worth saving. They are worth this effort. I think, as I'm hearing you teach, Scott, I think that would, in calling people to repentance,

I can sometimes see me, myself, and I don't know if this, you to do this, but I can get a little harsh sometimes, in calling people to repentance. And probably when I get too harsh, when I'm getting a little too flippant with it, it's when I've forgotten their worth. This frames how you approach calling people to repentance, doesn't it? This tempers that message in some way, or at least softens your approach, it's going to be one of persuasion. He's going to talk later in this section about convincing in verse 44, about convincing people. You're trying to win them over with persuasion and convincing all your best efforts to help them repent. And whatever efforts you can do to to that end, Jesus loves it. He says, that's why I

died for them so that they could repent. And therefore my joy will be great with them and your joy will be great with them. If you can, if you can help people come into my Father's kingdom that way. I was just marking this before we met today in verse 13 verse 15 verse 16 just underlined the joy joy joy word coming up there. This is a calling repentance. We maybe don't think of as a joyous work, but I like the the Bible dictionary definition of repentance is a fresh view about God, about oneself, about the world. I think that was Elder Holland said in a conference talk was a broken things to man. He said that repentance is perhaps the most hopeful and encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary. And so I like that.

Let's rethink what repentance means in it ought to be associated with joy and hope. We could remove the stigma of repentance. We would have won a great victory for God's kingdom. We rejoice in faith when people stand up and share their testimony. We rejoice in baptism. We invite everyone to come and watch. We rejoice when the Holy Ghost is given, right? When people stand up and share their testimony, we rejoice in baptism. We invite everyone to come and watch. We rejoice when the Holy Ghost is given, right?

But repentance is like, oh, you had to repent. I am so sorry, you know, or whatever. What if we celebrated repentance like we did, faith, baptism and the Holy Ghost? It's part of the same gospel rock that comes from the Book of Mormon. I mean, this is what the Lord is saying here, build this church upon my gospel and my rock.

It's joyful. This leads to happy things. It leads to the kingdom of God. That's nothing to be embarrassed about. Repentance is for everyone. It is for everyone every day. It's joyful. And it's joyful.

It's joyful. In fact, the Lord says, if you spent every day of your life doing this, every day of your life, and you bring one soul to me, it's worth it. It's absolutely worth it. And I don't know if I would, I don't know, maybe I show my secular worldly side

too much in this podcast, John, but I don't know if I would think, oh, that was worth it, right? I spent every day crying repentance and one person listening to me. And it might even just be me, right? I might be the one person I convert. Yeah, I think of a, I think of a benedite in that case.

Almo cast was cast out. The last thing a benedite hears is go get Alman and kill him. And a benedite may have thought, no, I got through to nobody at that moment. So yeah, those are some, that had some impact. Yeah, huge impact. Abinadi, you could trace Abinadi's impact through the rest of the entire Book of Mormon. It goes from, you know, Alma the Elder, Alma the Younger to Heliment, to Heliment, to Nephi,

Nephi, Amos, Amos, Amaron, Mormon, Moroni, all the way to the end, because of Abinadi. Can you do that faster? Could you please do that a little faster? And then from Moroni, we got this great text that becomes the foundation for our church, and here we are thanks to. And that goes back to Abinadi and Alma the elder

who a young man who believed what he was saying, how joy Abinadi could have. Yeah, that was one soul, right? One single soul. So I love the spirit of this, is that people are worth saving and one soul can make all the difference in God's kingdom, right? Just one soul. I kind of think of this as like what

at Elder Maxwell called the economics of heaven, right? That it's not in cash value here. It's the worth of souls that God cares about. And I just need to be better. I don't know about YouTube, but I need to be better about seeing everyone as worth saving. Everyone is worth saving. Because in my judgmental mind and hard, I sometimes write people off. I don't know if you guys, I'm sure neither of you have ever. No, never done that. Never done that. So, yeah, you've got, you've got a problem, brother.

But I'm going to have joy in my repentance. Yeah, we'll joy too. There's a footnote here that I love, and that's, you know, in verse 13, how great is his joy in the soul that he penteh? And it takes you to Luke 15, where we've got these three stories of lost things being found and the joy in those lost things being found, and the joy in those lost things being found. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost sons, the prodigal, and it starts with, this man receives sinners and eateth with them.

And so here Jesus gives these three par- don't you rejoice when you find something that was lost, isn't that a source of joy? And so I love that footnote there. I had to underline, look, Luke 15, lost things. John, I'm gonna write that in. So when I teach Luke 15, I can come back to this section. Cause I remember, it's the lost sheep, right?

And why would you care about one sheep? You have 99 others, right? And you've got to count those sheep. No one looks at 99 sheep and goes, where's Bob? Right, you've got to count them. You've got to look for them. And that's part of what you mentioned,

Marona, giving us in the Book of Mormon, is in our church, we number people. Yeah, they are numbered and remembered and nourished by the good word. I mean, that's boy, thank you for giving us that. This, this is why we minister. We actually take the role. We actually take records.

I mean, what a, it's kind of a burden. Imagine keeping track of everybody. I just wonder, and maybe Scott can shed some light on that. When did Jesus went, no, no, you're supposed to keep records of everything. What did that happen? That was on the very first day, the very first verse when the church was organized, Dr. Nuckeven's 21 verse 1. The Lord first words out of his map. There shall be a record kept

among you. First words out of his map when the church is organized. Amazing. Yeah, and it's he's probably saying like you guys you humans are just not great at remembering things. We are going to write this stuff down. As a missionary, there were some tiring days. And as a church leader or just a Sunday school teacher or a nursery leader, these are these are these are you know sometimes gets tiring. but if you can remember that word, remember that what we're doing is important. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. It is worth the effort.

I remember a bishop told me once, one of my favorite, one of my favorite bishops I've ever met, he came home from his interviews one day and he told me, pulled into his driveway and turned his car off. And he said, I'm just going to close my eyes for a second. I'm really tired. So he said, he closed my eyes in his car and he woke up four or five hours later when his wife is knocking on the window. What are you doing out here? And he said, oh, I just went to close my eyes. She said, it's past midnight. You know, I didn't know you were home. I was wondering where you were. Come in. I've been calling you. And then he said this. He said, I am tired in his work, but I am never tired of his work. Hmm. Oh, wow. I really appreciated that, right? I am tired in his work. Yes, I am tired in his work,

but I am not tired of this work because of verse 10, the worth of souls. That's a good one to remember because, you know, as we're recording this in 2021, the youth theme is be not weary and well-doing. And I thought it's it's yeah, there's a lot of things we're tired of, but don't ever get tired of doing of well-doing. That's a good way to to put it here at BYU Idaho where I am. There's the Spencer W. Kimball building is right next door to the Taylor building where I work and there's a display that has President Kimball shoes in there. And he has this great saying where he says, my life is like my shoes. The soul is worn out in the service of God.

the soul is worn out in the service of God. Oh, yeah, oh, I got to remember that. I got to remember that the next time I'm a little tired, I got to be like President Kimbles shoes. I think Joseph Smith is going to end up saying the same thing from Liberty Jail, isn't it? Is he going to say we should waste and wear out our lives in God's service, I think that section 120, I wanna say 123. Yeah, there it is, verse 13,

we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things, to bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness. So, verses 17 through 24, give more details about, K, look, you have my gospel rock before you. And by that, he's alluding to the book of Mormon. You've got everything it takes, right, to call people to repentance. And you need Revelation verse 18 to do so. And don't forget faith,

hope, and charity in verse 19. Otherwise, you're going to be, you're going to, you're going to stink at this work, right? You will, if you don't have that, you have nothing. You can do nothing. You cannot call people to repentance without faith, hope, and charity, such a cool connection. And don't get out there, fight in other churches, verse 20, don't, don't do that. That's the spirit of the age. Don't participate in it. Fight against the church of the devil, for sure. But the church, other churches Christ has a very charitable view toward them In section 10, and we talked about that with JB Haas, he has a very charitable view of fellow Christians doing their very best to follow Christ. Don't contend with them. Just, here's what you should do, verse 21, take upon you the name of Christ. Speak truth in soberness. Just speak the truth in soberness. Coded in faith, hope, and charity. And as many as repent and are baptized

in my name and endure to the end will be saved. My name is the name. If they have that name, they are allowed entrance into the kingdom of God. He goes on to say, and then a big announcement of a sudden, verse 26, and I'll be hold. There are others who are called to declare my gospel, both unto Gentile and unto Jew like Paul did, and then he numbers in verse 27, 12, there will be 12, and the 12 shall be my disciples. They will take upon them my name, and the 12 are they who shall desire to take upon my name with full purpose of heart. And if they do that, then they are called verse 28 to preach my gospel to every creature. This is the beginning. This is our first inclination first indication that there will be a

Chorum of the 12. He calls them disciples a book of Mormon word. That's a book of Mormon word. There's gonna be 12 disciples Oliver and Joseph would have just translated that a few weeks ago about and Joseph would have just translated that a few weeks ago, about 3rd Nephi, where the 12 disciples were called by Jesus, and now he says, we're going to do that again. Is it Book of Mormon based church here, right? We're going to do that again, and they're going to be the ones who will, and then he gives their duties, and those are the duties the disciples were given in the Book of Mormon, baptize in verse 29, ordained others, verse 20, let let's see 32, to ordain priests and teachers, and to

let's see. Yeah, that's it. So ordain priests and teachers, baptize and do that according to the gifts and callings of God with you. So we're going to do Book of Mormon disciples again. That's what we're going to do. Twelve of them. Now in 1835, when this actually comes to pass, Joseph is now calling them 12 apostles. So that connection is made concretely in 1835. So that's exciting, right? It's not just going to be on your shoulders all over in David to declare repentance.

I'm going to get 12 other disciples to help with this and that's how this church is going to be built. Wow. Scott, I had, I had not realized how Book of Mormon based the church is until we're going through section 18 and you're pointing this out. That's Book of Mormon. That's Book of Mormon. That's Book of Mormon. And I bet it's going to happen in section 20. Isn't it when we were in section 20, we're going to go, Oh, wow. They're getting all this from the Book of Mormon. So now the book of Mormon is almost ready to complete. Let's go guys, we now we have we have something in place we can we can move forward. I also love how patient the Lord is laying this out, right? Because he is mentions the 12 here, but we actually don't get a

corn of the 12, tell when when. February 14 Valentine's Day. It's the way God tells us he loves us is he gives us a corn of the 12 on 14th of February 1835. So this is what five and a half years six years before that. He's kind of just given the bits and pieces. He seems to do this with Joseph a lot. I'm going to give you a little bit. We're going to let that simmer. I'm going to leave you a little bit. Line upon line. That's right. So patient. If it, you know, I can picture me, Joseph's in the sacred grove, and I'm going, okay, you got to get personal progress ready. But then we're going to get rid of that, and we're going to place that with a new program. It's got to be barcodes on the temple recommends. Remember that, and you know,

and steady, it's like, let's go nice and slow here. Teach me a little bit about parenting and teaching. Let's go just give you a little, let that, you know, I want you to be good at this. Right. I like how you said that. If you don't have faith, open charity, you're really going to stink at this work, right? Without that. So we just work on that for a little while.

And yes, we're gonna have 12 apostles in a couple of years, in six or so years. What is the, what are the core of the 12 have to do with David and Oliver? Yeah, so then the Lord, another surprise in this section is he tells them in verse 37, now be ahold. I give unto you Oliver, Caldreyary and also David Whitmer that you, you too shall search out the 12 who shall have the desires of which I have spoken.

I would like you to be our search committee to find the 12 disciples. And Oliver is going to say that from that moment until February 14 14th 1835, he says, our minds, meaning him and David, our minds have been on a constant stretch to find who these 12 were. So it was a five plus year process for him to say, okay, every time someone joins the church, David and Oliver get together. What do you think? What do you think? I feel good about him. What's his name, do you think? Oh, I feel good about him.

What's his name? Brigham. Oh, I like him. Let's put him on our list. He's got Spunk. Yeah, that's right. Well, I'm struck with this idea that in verse 26, there are others who are called. It's kind of like, I know who they are.

Now you guys go find them. And it almost kind of hints of a pre-mortal, fordination thing. Oh, there's others, there are, there are, he's, that's past tense. They're already called. Now your job, Oliver, David, go, go find them and you'll know them. What does he say? They, by their desires and their works, you shall know them. And obviously some inspiration, but that, that's interesting to me. Yeah. And then he, and then he tells them, when you find them, I want you to give them this section. Have them read section 18.

This is the apostolic charge. Their job will be to call people to repentance, and they're going to need to have these instructions of how to do that. And I mean, it's just so good. Have them read this. And then verse 40, here's his directions, his instructions directly to them, fall down and worship the Father in my name and go preach, preach unto the world and say, you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Everyone needs this. Go convince, go persuade, right? This is

verse 44 of the promise. And by your hands, I will work a marvelous work among the children of men unto the convincing of many of their sins that they may come unto repentance and that they may come unto the kingdom of my father. So a great assurance there. And so Oliver and David will hand this. By the way, Martin Harris gets added to this group, right? As after the three witnesses happen shortly after section 18, he will be added to this list of the search committee. And so actually kind of cool story that happens then on the 14th of February 1835. Joseph Smith stands up and says to a group of those who had been designs camp. He says to them, our first business of this meeting is for the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon to pray each one of them and then to proceed to choose 12 men from the church as apostles to go to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.

At that point, the three witnesses unite in prayer. Then they were given a blessing by the first presidency. The three witnesses were and it's at that point where they proceeded to make choice of the 12 right in that meeting. So, oh wow. This is six years in the making. This has got to be a big day. Right. I'm excited when we get there. We have a lot of sections between now and then. That's what's amazing to me is, you know, we're not even close to there. Where are we even going to get to, what's amazing to me is, you know, we're not even close to there. Where are we even gonna get to when we get to 1835? We're in the, you know, sections, I'm looking at like 110, right? Or just before 110. I mean, this is a long ways away and he's already making plans for it.

The Lord is, man, the Lord is good about planning ahead and thinking ahead. You know, when you said that I'm going to work a marvelous work by your hands, I think of every general conference when we hear from our apostles, I feel like section, or verse 44 fits. It's a marvelous thing and it convinces many of their sins. I know of one thing that's going to happen every time I sit down to watch General Conference is I'm going to be I'm going to be repenting. Right. And it's a joyful thing, as we talked about earlier, but I know that when Elder Holland

stands up or Elder Anderson or Elder Uktoror for and it's going to strike me at the heart and go, or for, and it's going to strike me at the heart and go, man, I've got to, I'm going to, I've got to do better. And it seems like the Lord is kind of previewing that, that by the apostles, it's going to be a marvelous work. And I think anybody who's listened and had a general conference talk, strike them to the core is probably filling the power of section 18 there. Yeah, and it's not, it's that kind of thing that builds the church. That's the rock upon which this is built. I mean, dozens and dozens of times have been pricked in my heart because an apostle has taught where their testimony given and thank God for that. Where would I be if I didn't have apostles to convince me of my sins, right, in their kind,

persuasive way? I am grateful to the core. I feel like that they have this section in mind as they give their general comment. Sorry, I can tell that they love. They have faith, hope, and charity. They see the worth of souls as great in the sight of God, but they don't shrink back from calling people to repent and keep the commandments. Man. That's so great. I think two things come to mind. A president, Iring, said once, Henry B. Iring, that do not be surprised when you feel the spirit if it's accompanied by what you feel is a rebuke. And I feel that at

general conference, I'm fired up and I want to repent at the same time. And then Elder Nile Maxwell said once, when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold, but also to beckon. And when I share that with teenagers, for those of you watching on video, I do this is the, this is the scolding symbol. When conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it's not solely to scold, but also to Beckin, to say, come up a little higher, and which is a joyous invitation. Love that. Yeah, I'm really just overwhelmed here with with what I've seen in section 18, the the atoma, which we're going to learn about in the next section with such an individual experience that you can almost just feel it jumping off the page. The Savior's love

for each individual. He's still a one by one savior as we learn about in the book Mormon. It's got, I love this idea and I think our listeners might want to hear more. Verse 20, contend against no church. Save it be the church of the devil, which tells us there are churches out there, which are not the church of the devil. And the book Mormon is kind of a very, if it had a personality, it's very this or this, it book Mormons kind of, if it had a personality, it's very this or this, it's very black and white. And it has Nephi's vision of Lehigh's dream, when he says they're saved two churches only. The Church of the Lamb of God and the Church of the Devil. And my students bristle at that, and I bristle at that because this helps us

that and I bristle at that because and this helps us help soften that and illuminates that idea. I know that Stephen Robinson would say it's more about those who love light more than darkness. Could you comment some more on because they didn't had to even organize the church yet, right? That's a great question. John, actually, I teach world religions here at BYU-A-Daho. I'm passionate about this. Our goal is to see the good and the true and the beautiful in other religions. And there's just so much goodness out there. The Lord acknowledges it here in section 10, elsewhere. And there was a first presidency statement

that was read with JB Haas. Go check that episode out if you haven't read that. So good. But here's another one. President Oaks actually came here to be where you auto home 2014 and he commented about the two churches verse in in verse Nephi 1410 and he he says this he says Nephi was told by revelation that there were only two churches. The church of the Lamb of God and the church of the devil. He says this description

suggests the contrast between those who believe in God and seek Church of the devil. He says, this description suggests the contrast between those who believe in God and seek to serve Him according to their best understanding and those who reject the existence of God. And so I think the Church of the Lamb of God, according to President Oaks' definition there, is large. That includes so many. That includes Roman Catholics and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and Methodists and Presbyterians. The Church of the Lamb of God is large. Those who are trying to serve God according to their best understanding, Jesus says, don't contend against them, right? That's, don't fight just faith, hope, and charity, and speak the truth in Sobrinus. And some of them will join this church. Oh, I can't tell you how much I love this. I'm all for the idea of if we've got energy to fight something, let's fight something evil.

Right. Let's know kidding. Are we going after each other? Or you know, the, the, like you said, the Catholic man in my neighborhood? Or why am I, why am I, on my mission, we call it Bible bashing? I don't know if they, they still call it that. Why am I doing that? Because there's an actual enemy out there. Let's fight him. Yeah, let's fight him. Right? Let's fight, let's fight evil. Let's, let's fight against pornography. Let's fight against human trafficking. Let's fight against evil instead of, I can see why the Lord is saying almost like, don't, don't put your energy there. Put it over here. There's a bigger fight going on over here.

Please join us for part two of this podcast.