Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 51-57 : Dr. Maclane Heward Part II

Episode Date: May 16, 2021

In Part II we continue to discuss the power of covenants and the Law of Consecration.  Dr. Heward also teaches us how Joseph Smith and Edward Partridge argue but resolve their differences and Ezra Booth leaves the Church due to being offended on behalf of someone else. Learn how to become a wise steward, grow the cause of Zion, and to forgive with this powerful and life-changing episode.Show notes: https://followhim.co/episodesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcast00:06 Historical Background to Section 5104:08 The Lord is Preparing His People for a Temple08:00 Emma and Joseph lose twins (and adopt twins)11:32 Prophets are Fallible but Saints Don’t Believe It14:52 How We Decide How Much is Our Surplus18:56 The Lord Requires Profound Discipleship20:44 Prophets are Wild Men Who Inspire Us to Do More 26:53 We Need Ordinances to Help Our Children Become Spiritual29:28 If You Have Access to the Sacrament Regularly, You are One of the Elect32:00 Edward Partridge Asks Joseph for Forgiveness34:03 Lydia Partridge States Zion is Worth Every Sacrifice40:11 Sister Craig’s Description of Zion45:01 Struggling with Our Past and Understanding Compensatory Blessings50:06 The Life Lesson of Ezra Booth and Being Offended for Someone Else51:26 Dr. Maclane Heward’s Testimony

Welcome to part two of this week's podcast. So the historical background of section 52, there's a couple of things that are happening, and there's some deception that's happening. For example, this is a quote, I got this from the Joe Smith papers, but it's from John Coral. Some curious things took place. The same visionary and marvelous spirit spoken of before got hold of some of the elders. It threw one from his seat to the floor. It bound another so that

for some time he could not use his limbs nor speak. And some of the curious effects were experienced. But by a mighty exertion in the name of the Lord, It was exposed and shown to be from an evil source. So you have this this deception and this this kind of this evil influence, but then contrastingly, which happens so often in our life, the preaching of Joseph Smith, although we don't have a detailed record of it, is described in really exalted ways. Probably proud to call that Joseph Smith, quote, speak in great power as he was moved by the Holy Holy Ghost

and the spirit of power and testimony rested upon the elders in a marvelous manner. Levi Hancock remembered Joseph Smith teaching that the kingdom of God, kingdom that Christ spoke of that was like a grain of mustard seed was now before him and some should see it put forth its branches. And the angels of heaven would someday come like birds to its branches, just as the Savior said, and some of you shall live to see it come with great glory. Some of you must die for the testimony of this work.

And then here's the powerful moment, I think. Hancock added that Joseph Smith then addressed Lyman White and said, you shall see the Lord and meet him near the corner of the house. Following a blessing from Joseph Smith, White reportedly stepped out on the floor and said, I now see God and Jesus Christ at his right hand. Let him kill me, I should not feel death as I am now. Wow.

So you've got to understand that this is temple like experiences going back to our beginning, right? God is trying to get his saints prepared to be in his presence. The law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, the law of consecration. And in a few minutes here, we're going to talk about the obedience that is required of them, but they're beginning to have these temple experiences where they're parting the veil and beholding the face of God. Joseph promised them that they would receive an endowment.

Some of them would, if they're prepared, receive an endowment. And it seems as though his and his mind endowment means holding the face of God. There seems to be this connection there that's really, really powerful. And President Faust, you're, you may be familiar with this, but he gave a talk, I believe it is it at, um, at BYU. And it was later published in when we start to think about endowment this way and when we start to think about our opportunities, you can see that the temple is the context for the restoration. Like it's the ca- like that's what we're doing. And so as you think about section 52 specifically and this conference where people have seen the face of the Son of God, you've got to see this conference as an outgrowth of these temple covenants. So now in their personal lives, they're going to be asked to be obedient to a really

difficult commandment. And it's going to require incredible amounts of sacrifice. And they're not going to be perfect at it. They're just not. And some will choose to be faithful to the law of the gospel and will repent and do better in the future. And some will use this as a springboard out of the church. But it seems clear that God is trying to create a people who are ready to

be in his presence, a people that are ready to live the covenants of the temple so that he can manifest himself to them, so that he can be in their presence. And so you have a series of information, a series of mission calls, right? Yeah. One after another, after another. of information, a series of mission calls, right? One after another, after another. And you absolutely see that some of them are gonna, they're gonna step up to the plate and they're gonna be amazing missionaries.

Some of them will step up the plate and be good missionaries but then fall away afterwards. Some of them, you know, there's just a large mixture of reactions, which is the case for us today. Now, we see also in the beginning of the section that Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigden are asked to go to the land of Missouri to identify the land of their inheritance. They know that the land of their inheritance, they know that Zion is coming. And so this is, this is of great anticipation for them, right? They know that

this is coming and they're excited. But also there's there seems to be a sense of urgency here in terms of their traveling to locate the land of Zion. And so they actually go by stage, Sydney and Joseph, which is going to take a three week walk and turn it into a like a, well, you laugh about it, but that's what these people are called to do, right? Yeah, if he's so hard, they're called to walk to Missouri for the next conference, preaching along the way and taking different routes. This reads a lot like a mission president's whiteboard in his office, right? You've got verse 22 is Thomas B. Marsh. You're with Ezra there. You're going as your booth.

You're with Isaac Mordley Edward Partridge. You're with Martin Harris. And David Whitmer Harvey Whitlock. Yep. Salma Hacker, Cimian Carter, Edson Fuller. with Martin Harris. Harris, David Whitmer, Harvey Whitlock. Yep. Yep. Salma Hacker, Ksimian Carter, Edson Fuller. And there really is, so speaking of walking, can you imagine you're walking down the road

preaching the gospel? You've got basically on Google Maps right now, you can make it from Ohio to Missouri in about 800 miles. But we're not talking about that, right? This is a long time ago, there aren't direct routes. So we're probably talking more like eight, nine, maybe a thousand miles, and particularly these people are taking different routes.

So all that in context, so here you are walking down the road. Let's say your name is Ezra Booth and Joseph passes by with his companions and they're just flying down. Right on the stage. They're sitting down on the, then there's flying. What would that do for you?

Hey, the mission leaders say there's a vehicle fast. All of the missionaries have to walk and some smart Alec missionary says well President are you and the assistant's gonna be walking to I like oh no we're driving Doesn't this this could create some some challenge and this is another element for Ezra booth this and the argument with Edward Partridge our significant parts of his disconnection and And what he sees as as the power dynamic that Joseph is initiating in the church that that he emphasizes in his

Articles to the Ohio star that eventually make it into Mormonism unveiled I want to mention one thing before we keep going here is that on April 30th Emma gives birth to twins Who live three hours? So this is child number two and three that she's had and she's lost all three And they are later identified in their in the family records as Thaddeus and Luisa Now that they are going to adopt here also this summer. On May 9th, they're going to adopt twins of John and Julia Murdock when Julia dies in childbirth. So all of this is happening in their personal lives.

I just think it's important that we mention, you know, here, Lehman Copley takes back his land and Joseph's, you know, this kind of lands in Joseph's and Edwards lap, and they're also dealing with personal tragedy. So you give this variety of missionaries. In fact, let's go to one more human bassin in verse 37. He doesn't participate in the missionary work.

He's a part of the group in Ohio that are converted, that are part of the family, that kind of have all things common. They stay on Isaac Morley's farm. That was before, the family was before the church got to Kirtland, right? They were trying to live this, that look like the, the, the acts, book of acts.

Everybody has everything in common, but it doesn't go well. It doesn't go well, right? And human bastard is actually, he actually takes the pocket watch of Levi Hancock. He takes the pocket watch right out of his pocket. It's in the family. Yeah, it's like this, this is just, and then he sells it.

He tried to upon shop. Yeah, and Levi he sells it. He tried to upon shop. Yeah, and he's like, I just, you know, and leave my hat in the dog's like, this does not set well with me, right? But it doesn't seem like we know specifically why human bastards kind of called out here. In consequence of transgression says verse 37, let that which was bestowed upon human bastards be taken from him and placed upon the head of Simon's writer. So we don't know exactly why, but this doesn't work out for for human bass.

Whether it's the pocket wide, it's got to be something, but. I think I read that he was only 16 at the time. I think I read that. Yeah, he's very young. I don't remember, I can't remember if he's 16 or 17 at this point, but when he's converted, he's young and full of promise

and then he doesn't. But Simon Riders is the same way, right? He thinks in effect that God should have remembered the spelling of his name, right? If this is done by the spirit, if this whole revelatory scriptural thing is done by God, then he's gonna get the spelling my name right. Right?

And he is incapable of letting complexity be a part of religion. And that's something we deal with all the time today. Revelation is complex and challenging for all of us. And we make certain assumptions that the Lord has never claimed, like if a prophet's a prophet, he'll never miss spell. The Lord has never made that a rule, but somehow we get it in our head,

that that must be a rule. We create our own assumptions. Yeah, and I think that's why the Lord said early in the revelations we've mentioned it before, you're gonna receive these words as if from my own mouth in all patience and faith and That's a Simon's writer Not a lot of patience and faith with

With the prophet well, yeah, and you you get from the section one right you get from section one I am God and have spoken it these commandments are of me and we're given unto my servants in their weakness The weakness of Joseph does not surprise God. At all, right? After the manner of their language that they might come to an understanding and that's I actually heard this joke from from from Elder Holland. You might have I think you were probably there Hank when Elder Holland came to the religion faculty and he said, you know, he the stereotypical joke about the Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope, but none of them believe it. The Mormons believe

in the fallibility of the prophet, but none of them believe that, right? And believe it. It creates a weaker foundation if we hold prophets to a standard of perfection. It also negates our ability to be used by God. If God can only use almost perfect people to do his work, count me out, y'all. I know my sins better than anyone. Count me out. I cannot be used if it requires almost perfection.

That's important for us to understand. That's an idea from Adam Miller in his book, count me out, I cannot be used if it requires almost perfection. That's important for us to understand. That's an idea from Adam Miller in his book, Letters to a Young Mormon. It's a powerful, powerful thought. Our prophets aren't even probably what they want to be and what God wants to be. They need repentance too, and that's okay. That's okay. Yeah.

So this is interesting. I mean, I wouldn't have a problem. Well, I guess now that I have the 2021, you know, 2021 lens on, I have no problem with Joseph and Sydney and others taking the stage because the Lord wanted them to get to Missouri's fastest possible. With these missionaries, he's saying,

I want you to teach along the way. So they're both doing what they've been told to do. Yeah, they've been both told, hey, this is what I want you to do. So this is fascinating. But 800 miles in a pair of shoes makes you reconsider. We consider that, right? And you really think about it, it's like,

oh, that's, that is tough. And you might have a different perspective, but you get people that, you just get the whole spectrum. And going back to this idea of personal directions from God through the spirit to us, those personal directions, sometimes they require great sacrifice.

I think Morley has to sell his farm, right? I mean, is this sell it and give you the income to the church? Like, really? How many of our listeners a day would be willing to sell their home, move to something much smaller and all the extra, give it to the cause of Zion? If the prophet asked them to do that, would they be willing? That's a really, really significant question. And we'll get into more of that as we go. But this is what these people are asked to do. And sometimes we think, Oh, man, there's so many people

that leave the church. But Edward Partridge leaves quite a bit of money when he goes to Missouri. Right. He's like morally same thing. He's gonna go on our business. And we look down our noses at Lehman Copley, but he was gonna give up a whole bunch of land. And if you have a second property,

if you have a cabin property, if you have an rental, if you have a car beyond the number of drivers you have in your home, what if we were asked explicitly or even by the spirit to say, we're building 20 temples this year. Do you think the Temple Building Committee could use a little bit more? Right? Like that's an interesting and powerful concept that these, I think these sections require of us to ask if we're going to be true to these sections and true to what God is saying to these people, we need to start asking some of those questions.

So check this out from CS Lewis. This is a beautiful quote. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid that the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot

do because our charitable expenditures exclude them. This is not an easy thing for us as Latter-day Saints to think about. But let me just suggest, are we number one, capitalistic Americans? Or are we number one, Zion-centric disciples? God has made the rich, and the poor he has constantly before him. Can we skip ahead and just read from section 56 verse 16? We'll be unto you rich man that will not give your substance It doesn't even say give of your substance. It says give your substance To the poor for your riches will canker your souls. And this shall be your lamentation, the day of visitation and judgment,

and of indignation. The harvest has passed. The summer has ended and my soul is not saved. But but in like manner, the poor verse 18, well, it's just read verse 17 first, woe unto you poor men whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men's goods, whose eyes are full of greediness and who will not labor with their own hands, but blessed

are the poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken and whose spirits are contrite. For they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory into their deliverance for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs. You see undergirding all of this, the commandment to sacrifice, to be willing to, to fill the space between people with intense love. John, if, if you saw one of your kids clothed in rags, is there any question that you wouldn't find the appropriate way to cloth them? There's no question, right?

And in like manner, God is asking us to treat the stranger on the street, our brothers and sisters in the humanity of God in like manner. To esteem our brother as ourself. That this is profound love. This is profound discipleship. This is not easy or casual Christianity. This is challenging Christianity. And it makes total sense why the names were reading off. You're saying some could do it and some just couldn't do it because I'm feeling this going, I don't know if I can do that. Right? And I think the

Lord means it to be that way. I'm going to stretch you. I mean, look what he says in section 53 verse 2, this is a commandment for sake the world. Right? That is like that. Let's just give a quick allusion to a future discussion that we'll have. The apostasy that happens in Kirtland. According to Ron Esplan, he gives an article about the apostasy in Kirtland and he says that this is not so much about the Kirtland Safety Society. This is not so much about the things we think it is. It's about the role of prophetic leadership. And you have people like Oliver Cowdery who say things like, my ancestors came across the waters among the first group

of people to land in Plymouth. And I will not give away my freedom for anything less noble and great than what they sacrifice to establish American freedom on. Then you have God who's saying the prophet that I'm going to send to you is not just going to be your minister on Sunday. He is going to be a prophet like an amozus. He's going to be like Enic. He's going to be a wild man who calls you to be and do more than you ever have been able to do and see and be before. He's going to ask you to consecrate all of your property, all of your property, all of your time

and talents and energy to building up the kingdom of God on the earth. Everything that you have, and to be honest with you, I love this CS Lewis quote because perhaps similar we could say oh man this is this this this is close to home my wife and I I hope this is okay for me to share something that I see as deeply personal my wife and I very recently, maybe a few hours ago, maybe, had this conversation about the busyness of our lives. And we can absolutely over clutter our good things that can burden and over, over burden. Sometimes us, I'm guessing that some of our, some of the listeners in Hank and John, I'm guessing you felt this way before where you just feel like I'm doing so much to try and build the kingdom.

I have a pure heart. I'm trying it. but this is hard. This is, I'm walking 800 miles to Missouri, but I think if we aren't trying to have that balance between am I taking care of my own personal and spiritual health? And am I giving enough? If we're not constantly kind of back and forth on that balance, you know, constantly

trying to balance giving more to the Lord and time, talents and energy and making sure that we have enough to raise our children right and to give our own physical, spiritual, mental and emotional growth, the time and attention that it needs. If we're not constantly balancing those, then perhaps we're not engaged enough in the wrestle. If we're not willing to walk 800 feet to our neighbors and have perhaps a difficult conversation about how they're doing and minister to them. Then we perhaps maybe haven't learned the lesson that we need to learn from section 52.

And then on the other side is the Lord can't draw water from an empty well. So you've got to be replenishing yourself. And that's a constant, that is a constant back and forth that we all have to be, you know, like, plate spinning, you know, those guys who play spin, they're watching the one that's wobbling. Really? Are you giving away too much? And who are you giving it to? Not. Yeah. Who are you giving it to? Because, uh, man, if our kids get the leftovers of our best self, man, I don't know if that jives with section two, I don't know if that's the evidence. I just don't know if that jives. Oh, man.

Like the phrase of giving first class attention to second class things or I'm trying to give first class attention to first class things and that that's a constant struggle to identify what's first class. And maybe I've gotten this a little bit wrong. So step number three, covenant number three of the temple, I need to be willing to repent. I need to be able to say to my wife, I'm sorry, I love you, our relationship and our God is number one. Let's reassess. Let's repent where we need. And then let's re-approach consecration and new light. And I bring that up and I share that explicitly hoping that my wife is gonna be okay with it, but but also as as this as as a hope just a hope that that we can have models

This can be somewhat of a model for relationships with with couples where you can see the reality of these temple covenants and how they can be lived in your personal life in a very real way that can change your character, change your relationship with each other and with God, and really be a catalyst to prepare you to see the face of the Son of God. That is an available blessing for us. An important one too. So in section 52, there's this really famous pattern from verse 14 to verse 19. This is specifically given to Leimin White.

This is a time period where people are being deceived. We learned about that in section 50. 43, 46. It's part of 46. It's part of 28. It's a constant theme about deception Which we have got to understand as members of the church. This is not just in the early days of the church Elder Ballard gave a talk called the Trek continues where he specifically said that we have members of the church that are exchanging

Christ-centered healing for money. These deceptions are not in the past, they're in our current realities. And you have this pattern to avoid deception. Verse 15, Therefore, he that prayereth, who spiritus can try the same as accepted of me if he obeys my ordinances, he that speaketh who spiritus can try his languages meek and edify it the same as of God if he obeys my ordinances. And again, he that trembleeth under my power shall be made strong and shall be bring forth fruits of praise and wisdom according to the revelations and the truths which I have given you. And again, he that is overcome and bringeth not forth fruits. Even according to this pattern is not of me. I love God's emphasis on ordinances. I heard Tony, Tony Sweats say this one time. He said, one of the reasons why ordinances are

good. You know, we live in a time period where ordinances are kind of, they're looked down upon. We don't really need ordinances. Right? Like I can be, I can be spiritual without being religious. Right? You can, but the statistics seem to bear out that your children and the next generation won't be able to do that.

If you just be spiritual and leave the church and its ordinances, you might be able to be spiritual, but your children most likely will not have the same capacities. They will probably leave religion altogether and they will not know the life-giving elements of ordinances. So anyway, this idea of tying ourselves to ordinances and avoiding deception, tying ourselves to prophetic leadership, Lyman White, Case in Point did not do that. He becomes an apostle, he goes on his mission,

he becomes an apostle of the Lord in 1840 or 41. And when Joseph dies, he feels like he's been called to go to Texas and establish the church and Zion in Texas. He leads a group of members of the church away from the body of the saints that head to Utah and goes to Texas to establish Zion. He feels like he's been called. He doesn't remember his ordinances. He doesn't remember prophetic leadership. And he doesn't remember the pattern. And I'm going to have to say, Texas becomes more important to him than Zion and the kingdom of God.

He thinks that Texas and God and his kingdom are the same, but he's been deceived. We've got it. We got to be careful. We can be deceived. And it's not like Lyman White's a bad guy. I mean, he went through Liberty jail with Joseph Smith. And as we already talked about, and he had revelatory visions, didn't he? He's the one who saw the Father and the Son, right? He saw the Father and the Son. Yeah. He's deceived, and the Savior even says in Matthew 24, the very elective God will be deceived.

If you don't think you classify and you're listening to this bad podcast, well, maybe that's your first deception, right? Like, we are living in a time period of prophets and apostles, covenants, ordinances, 20 temples announced. If you have access to a church, if you have access to the sacrament on a regular basis, I would say you are probably among the elect. And therefore, classify for the

warning that the Christ himself said the very elect are subject to be deceived Hang on to your ordinances hang on to the prophet do not cut the core that binds you to God and his prophets and You know Tony Sweat said one time I heard him say this and I really love this I really connect with this because you do have this mentality of oh, I'm religious but not spiritual But he said ordinances provide a motivation when you want to sin. Let's be honest. We wouldn't call temptation, temptation, if it wasn't tempting. And there are moments, there are moments where we're tempted. Like, let's just be real. We're tempted. That's okay. And our ordinances can provide us with a little bit of a push to say, no, I'm going to be obedient. I made a promise to live the law of

Chastity. Therefore, I'm not going to look at this material online. I'm not going to, you know, purchase. It's the ordinance that gives you that strength. It can give you just that little bit of extra strength to make it through. I appreciated that from Tony. You know, here, here I want to emphasize, I don't want to encroach on your next podcast, but Section 58, verse 14 and 15,

began with Edward Partridge being rebuked because of this argument that we've talked about previously. For this cause, I have sent you hither and have selected you my servant Edward Partridge. This is verse 14. So verse 14, yay, for this cause, I have sent you hither and have selected my servant Edward Partridge and have appointed unto him his mission in this land. But if he repent not of his sins, which are unbelief and blindness of heart, let him take heed, lest he fall. That blindness of heart really happens as the center place of Zion is established and identified.

And he feels like, this isn't it. Like this isn't it. The people and the place, we got something wrong here, right? And one of the things that I wanted to just bring up that I think is really, really beautiful is that Edward Partridge changes. And he asks, he asked Joseph Smith to forgive him. So he asks Joseph Smith to forgive him and he and Joseph are completely reconciled. But he still has to invite his wife and five daughters to leave their comfortable setting they're comfortable setting and move to Missouri, right? And I hope that all of us are thinking

this is them giving more than is comfortable. This is doing away with that vacation to give to the Lord or whatever the case may be. So we've already talked about what Missouri consist of at this point, and we've talked about this argument that takes place. And then in section 57, he's asked to plant himself. Verse 14, thus, let those of whom I have spoken be planted in this land. Stay here as if for years. Use your act upon this place. Use your agency build up Zion. And then he says to

the to his dear sweet wife, who he's worked so hard to create a comfortable life for, which I think so many of us can resonate with. He says he left the decision of coming to Missouri or remaining in Ohio to her, but warned her about, quote, many privations here, which you and I have not been much used to for years. Yeah. Can you see why I love Edward Partridge? Yeah. That's beautiful.

I love Edward Partridge. Yeah. That's beautiful. And then, and what does Lydia do? What does his wife do? We're coming to Zion. Zion is worth all the sacrifice. Preparing to be in the presence of God is worth all the sacrifice.

And it contextualizes, you know, section 55, or 54 it is about Copley, verse 5, will to him by whom this offense cometh, for it had been better for him that he had been drowned in the depths of the sea. I've been thinking about that phrase, not knowing what to do with it to tell you the truth because it sounds so brutal and harsh. But when you think about the call to Zion, I get this sense that what God is as perhaps saying is, if you knew what you were giving up by choosing anything but Zion, but the kingdom of God, but

being in the presence of God, you would rather be have a millstone hung about your neck and be dragged to the bottom of the sea. If you just got it, if you just understood it, you would rather do that. Leighman, Copley, I know that your wealth, I know your land is worth some things, right? I mean, it's worth some things. But if you just got a grasp of Zion, you would rather be drowned in the depths of the sea, then give this up.

And what does Lydia do? She comes. She comes because she's got the vision. She's got the view of the temple. She's got this promise of endowment, this promise of spiritual power and strength, this promise of being a part of the remedy, of all manner of situations. You know, atheists often say,

oh, if God was all knowing, if he was all powerful, if he is all kind, if he's all merciful, if he was really all that you say he was, there is no way he could look on the pain and suffering of his children like he does. And sometimes we try to defend that, but I think God's answer to that question is exactly what we're studying now. It is, I have made the rich, the poor are constantly before me, and you, if you will just treat your neighbor with the type of Christian love, the earth is full and overflowing with enough. If we could just get Zion in the minds of us as humans on this planet, there would be an end of global starvation. There would be an end of infant mortality. There would be an end to the modern slave trade and sex trafficking. There would be an end to this because we would love our brothers and sisters as God is asking us to in a Christian

life. And it would end. It would usher in a millennial reign where God would be with us. That to me inspires me. That is his answer. It inspires. Right. And it's like let's miracles expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. Like, let's change the world in the name of Christ. Let's be the leaven that that that raises the whole lump. Like, we can, we can do this. We can change the world. But as members of the church, it's going to require us to act. And it's going to require us to be planted as if for years, to act as if for years in these places. We've already been given the formula. We already know it.

But it's going to require not the 800 mile, but the 800 foot conversation with the neighbor. I hope that we can be better at expressing love for each other, right? I mean, I still remember, Steve Brimley, I'm gonna just call him out. He came up to me one time and he's like, hey, I just wanted you to know that I just really admire you as a father. I appreciate how it seems like you love your kids.

That Steve Brimley will forever be a name that I will hold sacred and love dearly. For that one comment that he probably doesn't even remember. Can't we just send a text and say to someone, hey you are a blessing in my life. Hey, Bishop, I know you're overburdened. I just want you to know I love you. Hey home teacher who just dropped off some goodies for my kids birthday. I just want you to know, like,

you are absolutely making a difference. It's changing us. It's, we love you, we appreciate you. It's another brick in Zion, right? Another brick in Zion, yeah. Yeah, do you remember from last conference, the story that was told about the young woman It's another brick in Zion. Right. Another brick in Zion. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember from last conference, the story that was told about the young woman who

noticed an older sister who for the first time came to church alone because her husband sat by her. But she just, she kept looking back, right? And then, and then she just, after sacrament ended, she just went up and the woman said, I hope she doesn't come back here. I'm going to cry. And she came back to her and just said, I can see Sister that this Sunday is a hard Sunday for you. I just love you and gave her a hug. And how this sister began to rely on that Christian outreach. It doesn't, President Fowl said that every day brings constant opportunities for selfless service.

And it can be as simple as a smile. Sister Craig said she decided I will not look my phone and in a grocery store line and ends up having a great conversation. The man says, oh, I didn't tell anyone, it's my birthday today. And she said all of that because I just looked up from my phone, That's Zion.

You can see how we've become more individualized. We become more individualized in this world of social media and and phones. And that is seemingly the exact opposite of God's call. He does not want an individualized people. He wants a other centered, Christ-centered. As I have loved you, love one another. Like, President Nelson's anytime you do anything that helps anyone, take a step for making covenants with the Savior.

You are helping together Israel. And you made it so simple. Anytime you have anything that helps anyone and it wasn't get all the way to the temple. Even take a step toward coming closer. So I love this discussion. So we've spent some time talking about Edward Partridge and I've told you about this argument with he has withridge, and I've told you about this argument with that he has with

Joseph Smith, and I've told you about the difficulties of Missouri and and what they were facing and other things. That's that's the reality. And he asked Lydia to come all those different things. One of the most beautiful things about Edward Partridge is his repentance. And to share his repentance that he really takes the Lord's rebuke seriously and becomes a new creature, I want to share with you a song. And it is one of my favorite songs. It is written by Edward Partridge. It's an in light of his lack of vision. I just want you to pay attention to this song and also a connection with Temple

and being in the presence of Christ. The song is called Let Zion and Her Beauty Rise. Yeah. And knowing the background now, see if you don't love this song too. Let Zion and Her Beauty Rise, her light begins to shine. Air long her king will rend the skies, majestic end of vine. The gospel spreading through the land, a people to prepare, to meet the Lord and Enix

band triumphant in the air. Ye heralds sound the golden trump to earth's remotest bound. Ghost spread the news from pole to pole in all the nations round that Jesus in the clouds above with hosts of angels too will soon appear his saints to save his enemies subdued. That glorious rest will then commence, which prophets did foretell, when saints will reign with Christ on earth and in his presence dwell. A thousand years, O glorious day, O Lord, prepare my heart to stand with thee on Zion's mount and never more to part. That's beautiful.

That's our friend. That's our friend Edward Partridge. Yeah, I'll line up with that guy any day. Can you see how every single stanza connects Zion, our agency and the presence of God, every single one of them in a very, very powerful way. So I think that's one of the things I wanted to make sure that we got out of there that kind of wraps up

this kind of story, kind of brings it all full circle. The other thing that I wanted to bring up really quickly, Ezra Booth, it seems to me that Ezra Booth in some ways is offended partially in behalf of Edward Partridge. Edward Partridge and Joseph Smith have an argument. Ezra Booth oversees it and is offended partially perhaps in behalf of Edward Partridge, and this is one of the things that leads to his disconnection with the church. I wonder how often we do the same thing, particularly when it comes to church history stories.

Now, we clearly, not everyone in the early church stays active in the church. That's clearly not the case. But anytime I study a history, a topic from church history, I want to make sure that I disconnect myself from cultural questions and reconnect myself with perhaps some divine motivated questions. For example, motivated questions. For example, the priesthood ban and its removal, culture would have me say, why did it start? When did it start? Who started it? Were they racist? Was this because of racist tendencies? That's what culture would have me ask. Why did it end? Why did it take so long? Why did it end? Why did it take so long? What was the suffering of the people that endured this? I think another question to ask is, how did God provide compensatory blessings for those individuals in the church that were most intimately impacted by this priesthood ban. There's a website that deals specifically with the first, the converts

of the church during the first hundred years of the church that were of African descent. And it's created by the University of Utah and Paul Reeve, who's a member of the church, actually is the one that's created this website, and his goal is to gather all the information possible on every convert that joins the church of African descent in the first hundred years of the church's existence. connections. In connection with that, he has provided statistics and information about these people and what we know about them from his research. 64, almost 65% and 80, almost 85% of individuals that were baptized in the first hundred years of the church and of African descent stayed in the church, remained in the church. Think of that. That is amazing. And instead of perhaps maybe the best way to honor these people is perhaps not to be offended in their behalf, but to be inspired

because of their faith. When you begin learning about those 65 to 85% roughly of people that stayed in the church, you read the testimony of Jane Manning James, and see if that doesn't question some of your assumptions about God compensating people in their moments of difficulty. compensating people in their moments of difficulty. It's helped me to, instead of, as a historian, I've looked at all of the other cultural questions. I'm not saying ignore those cultural questions. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that there's another question that we can answer, and that is, let's read their words.

Let's see what their faith story is. And Jane Manning James is one of my favorite stories in the church. It her faith and testimony warms my soul. It warms my soul. What's the website called? It's a century of black Mormons. So this idea, as Rebooth is offended in behalf of Edward

Partridge. Edward Partridge and Joseph Smith are completely fine. And Edward Partridge lives the rest of his life, faithful to the church. But yet Ezra Booth leaves the church and allows this moment to kanker his soul. The same thing is true for me with plural marriage. I have actually been strengthened in my faith studying plural marriage because getting to the testimonials of people, one of the my favorite ones is Joseph has a man who he teaches plural marriage to and says, I need you to talk to your sister about this. I feel like the Lord needs me to take your sister to wife. And in this man, I love this.

This is real. This is real church history. He says, in effect, he says, this is a paraphrase, but he says, Joseph, have I ever come to find out that you do this to dishonor my sister? I will kill you. And he looks at Joseph and he says, Brother, you will not know that. You will never know that I do this to dishonor your sister because I don't.

What you will know though is the truth of this principle and this is how it will come. The account goes on to say that he went to his sister and he gained all the confidence he could open his mouth to begin talking about the subject that he did not want to do, right? And he said the light and the truth that came in that moment, the connection with God, God sustaining this, was so powerful that he and his sister were able to provide support and encouragement based on that testimony for their rest of their lives. And to me, I think I don't know if I could do that, but I honor them that they had that much strength

and faith to do that. So this idea of Ezra Booth has been very strengthening to me. I've always just tried to make sure that I'm not being offended in behalf of someone else, but I'm trying to understand their faith story and their narrative on their own terms, and allow these people that I would say, oh man, they were ill-treated. I want them to speak of their faith on their terms, not on my terms. Wow. Excellent.

not on my terms. Wow, excellent. McClain, Dr. Heward, you are a teacher, you're a scholar, you've made the history of this church, teaching the scriptures, you've made it your career, your life's work, and you've studied it a lot. You know, all the ins and outs of the history of this church, You know, all the ins and outs of the history of this church and the ups and downs of Joseph Smith and his contemporaries. John and I would love for our listeners to hear your personal thoughts on the restoration on Joseph Smith when what it's done for you personally, not only as a professional, but also as a husband and father. There's two things that I want to mention here. And to tell you the truth, they're quotes. You've heard me quote from a lot of different people because there's a lot of people that have influenced me in this regard. I had experience in graduate school. I won't bore you with all the details,

but I came home one day, super stressed. And my wife called me over to the computer. She was on Facebook, and a friend of hers had just left the church. Just come out on Facebook. I'm leaving the church. And she said, this is this is close to if not a direct quote, she said, I've read it all. And I don't want to be too, to be quite honest with you, my reaction was maybe a little bit on Christian. I got rather upset because I'd spent, I was spending hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, every week studying history, religious history, and was in Mormon studies classes reading book after book after book. You know, every week we were going through a different book. And I just kind of flipped out thinking that what an audacious claim that you have read it all. And that feeling is stayed with me a little

bit. The church historian, Rick Turley, gave him some advice and was talking to him. And Rick Turley said this to Marlon Kay Gentsy, he said, don't study church history too little. I have found that to be the case personally. I have found that the deeper I go in church history, the more inspiration, I hope that you to be very honest with you, I hope you felt that. I find in the church, the doctrine of the church, a call to be better than I am, a call to be more than I am to become the type of person that I always want to be.

And then speaking specifically about history and church history, there's one other person that has become a hero for me. I shouldn't say that. There's many other people that have become his heroes to me in this avenue. But this is Spencer Flumon. And he, he's a professional historian, he's educated in one of, one of the very best history programs in the nation. He's the head, the executive director of the Maxwell Institute. It's really a powerful historian. He said, I am not a committed Latter-day Saint in spite of my careful study of LDS history, but because of it. He then said this, he said, I am a witness to history's powerful capacity to mold and shape us as disciples of Jesus Christ, and straining to see clearly into the past dark glass,

we can come to see ourselves and the Lord more clearly, even acknowledging the very human difficulties in our own stories. And he knows them, Spencer Flumon knows them. He knows, he studied anti-mormonism for a decade and wrote a book about it. He knows the difficult stories in our past. He says, quote, I bear witness that there is more than enough inspiration and edification to compensate. Indeed, our history is a reservoir with spiritual resources

sufficient to feed us spiritually for a lifetime and beyond. I feel that. I absolutely feel that. And I'm so grateful for the history of our church. We are a history-keeping people. And I bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was not perfect. And that provides me with so much encouragement. that Joseph Smith was not perfect, and that provides me with so much encouragement that maybe God can help me to bring about the cause of Zion just like he helped Joseph in his weaknesses.

It helps me to see that I can do some good and I can be a part of this great restoration of God's kingdom on the earth. I think those are the things that I would say. I love church. I love church history. I laugh about stories all the time. I'm entertained by the church history, but I'm hopefully and more importantly changed by Church history. And I hope I'm a better husband, I hope I'm a better father, I hope I'm a better teacher, I hope I'm a better disciple and and child of God. Absolutely beautiful. We want to thank Dr. McLean. He word we were so uplifted and taught and educated and inspired today. We are just so

grateful you've been here. Thank you. I've prayed that that would be the case. Thank you. Absolutely. So I appreciate you saying that very much. Absolutely. Without question, we are grateful to you, our listeners. We wouldn't be doing this without your support. We're grateful to our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Sorenson, and our production crew, which is growing. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Nielsen, Kyle Nielsen, Will Staten, Andrew Morton, who we call Morty, and now Maria Hilton. Thank you so much for joining us on our episode of Follow Him Today, and we hope you'll come back next time. Thank you.