Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 84 Part 1 • Dr. Jared Halverson • July 28 - Aug 3 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Is there room on Mt. Sinai for all of us? Dr. Jared Halverson joins Hank and John to explore Doctrine and Covenants 84, diving into the power, purpose, and progression of priesthood ordinances in God���s ongoing restoration.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC231ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC231FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC231DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC231PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC231ESYOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/C_8JWzqdBEwALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 - Part 1 - Dr. Jared Halverson03:42 Teaser06:30 Jared Halverson’s bio08:16 Longest episode of Unshaken09:23 Come, Follow Me Manual10:26 Historical context13:45 The “Godly Glow” or returned missionaries15:58 Jimmer moments of revelation16:57 Ongoing revelation21:07 Differences in priesthood responsibilities not yet understood25:40 A scripture study skill28:55 Purpose of the Restoration33:13 Should we discuss Zion more frequently?34:50 Stories from Divinity School37:21 God’s promise to Israel40:25 Temple building and tabernacles43:45 Note the superlatives 47:09 Step One: Sanctification51:25 Moses breaks the Ten Commandments54:10 An object lesson about preparatory priesthood58:31 Priesthood is about the receiver1:04:01 Aaronic Priesthood is meant to eliminate sin1:07:31 Lose ourselves through priesthood service1:12:36- End of Part I - Dr. Jared HalversonThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorIride Gonzalez: Social Media, Graphic Design"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Coming up in this episode on Follow Him. It's like Moses is saying, guys, there's room on top of Mount Sinai for all of us. Don't make me go up there by myself. That was never my intention. I want to bring the entire House of Israel up with me. I am teaching it plainly. You need these ordinances. We need to be godly.

Don't be afraid of the smoke and the fire and the lightning and the thunder. This is the presence of God. He wants to invite you into it. In the temple, he literally, invites us into his presence. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode, Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith.

I am your host. I am here with my co-host, John, by the way. John, you are not under condemnation because you have remembered the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon. John, when I think of people who love the Book of Mormon, John, by the way, skyrockets to the top of the list. The entire church is under condemnation, John, except if you were living in this day, the Lord would say, except for John over there, John's doing a great job. I think there's a bunch of us that love the book more.

Yeah. Probably millions who love it. Yeah. John, we are joined today by Dr. Jared Halverson, a close friend of ours. He is absolutely spectacular. Jared, welcome to follow him. It's an honor to be here. I hang out with two of my heroes. Bring it on. John, Jared, and I work at the JSB together. We get to pass each other in the halls and chat. I have been looking forward to this all year. It was just a conversation we had on the third floor of the JSB. I said, how about we join forces here for this episode? And he was all for it. I was chomping at the bit, to be honest. What you do is so incredible. The guests that you have on, I'm sorry to bring down the average with my appearance. It's incredible to be able to

learn from these conversations. Hank, you and I and our colleagues get to have these kinds of conversations all the time. For scripture nerds like us, this is as good as it gets. Oh, it really is. It's usually something like this. I'll be walking down the hall and I'll pass someone like Jared and I'll say, hey, I have a quick question for you. I've been thinking about something.

Honestly, 90 minutes later, I'm going, I really got to, I really had some things. I got a student that's been waiting for 90 minutes back there. Yeah. We are in Section 84 today. John, the church is a whole two and a half years old. Now the Lord is going to unfold much more of priesthood organization and explanations on the priesthood. When you think of Section 84, does anything come to mind? Probably for a lot of us.

It's, oh, that's the oath and covenant of the priesthood chapter. But I like the way you said it, Hank. It's a continuous restoration. John the Baptist has been. Peter James and John have been, but we are still learning. Maybe it's risky to say the most important sections, but you think. think of 20, you think of 45, ooh, you think of 76. Also in that list, you got to put 84. Section 84. You have a whole episode devoted to one section. I mean, what does that tell you?

Yeah. I'll tell you, when I said to Jared in the hallway, I said, how about Section 84? You should see his eyes. His eyes got big. He said, can I do Section 84? Yeah. This was the equivalent of playing T-ball. Hank was trying to give me a little underhand pitch. He was a You're going to hold now. How about Section 84? Can you hit the ball on this one? Because this one almost teaches itself. It's such an incredible revelation, start to finish. Yeah. Jared, what do you want to do today if you were going to give a summary of where we're going to go? Oh, where to begin? Speaking of the pitch, John gave us a great wind up in terms of one of these highlight revelations. Priesthood is definitely one of its main focuses. You can put it with Section 20, Section 84, Section 107. those are the three big ones as far as priesthood organization. You get some ecclesiology here,

how the church is supposed to be set up. But it's interesting we beeline to this idea of priesthood, yet it's couched in a temple context and a building Zion context. We'll see that in the first few verses. To zoom in on priesthood, we'll do that today, but need to zoom out and see it in a broader perspective as far as the temple is concerned, as far as establishing Zion is concerned, as far as connecting people back to God and to each other is concerned. The Lord has a lot of purposes behind this revelation. We really start to see the difference between Aronic and Melchicic Priest's in this section. We start to see offices within the priesthood lined up underneath those two columns.

We're going to see some material about the Book of Mormon, as we pointed out before, that is incredibly powerful. I hope that by the end of today, we've committed ourselves to remaining free of condemnation, depending on how we treat the Book of Mormon. there's going to be some things a lot about missionary work that grows out of this priested conversation, some fascinating counsel, reassurance to missionaries, whether that's full-time or all the rest of us that are full-time examples of the Savior Jesus Christ. It even ends with a nod to Armageddon and Adam Andiaman in a way. It's broad, it's deep. There is so much material here.

I do a lot of work with people in faith crisis. A lot of them, it'll be distraught parents worried about children that are struggling. saying things like every time I bring up the church, the hackles come up. And it's like, no, I don't want to talk about this. And how do I even reach them with the one thing that's going to help the most? It's almost become a toxic topic for them. How do I get around that? Section 84, honestly, has one of my favorite passages of how do we reach people that seem to be unreachable. We'll get to that as well. Honestly, I'm giddy as a schoolboy. I get to hang out with two great, great scholars and friends and be able to dig into one of the best revelations of the doctrine and

covenants. No offense to the other 137. I think John and I are just as excited as you, Jared. Now, John, there are going to be five, six of our listeners who haven't heard of Jared Halverson or heard him teach. Why don't you give us a little bit of a bio? He has created an incredible podcast called Unshaken. I have listened to hours and hours of it because there are hours and hours of it to listen to. That was probably just one episode, Hank, then you moved on. Honestly. Hours and hours, that's just about one. And it's incredible. It's prolific. Jared is taught in the church educational system for 24 years. He was raised in Texas and

Southern California. He came to BYU as a presidential scholar and a receiver on the football team. How cool is that? Being on the team and playing on the team are two very different things. that's like John, do you play the drums? No, I have a drum set. Yeah, pretty much. He served a mission in Puerto Rico, then taught at the MTC, earned a bachelor's in history, a master's in religious education, and a doctorate in American religious history from Vanderbilt. I love Hank, what you've mentioned. He focused on secularization, faith loss, anti-religious rhetoric. He's frequently involved in interfaith dialogue, has been a featured speaker in devotional on academic settings from coast to coast.

As you mentioned, he has a popular YouTube channel and podcast called Unshaken. That's a reference to Jacob in the book Mormon, right? I could not be shaken. He also works one-on-one with people around the world experiencing faith crisis. His wife, Emily, is a writer, editor, substance abuse, disorder counselor. They have five children. He loves sports architecture, the ocean. I love this part.

Anything covered in barbecue sauce. Man, that is so true. Well, when you got Texas and Tennessee in your background, the barbecue comes naturally. Absolutely. Welcome. No, it's an honor to be here. I love the opportunity to dig into things that matter most with people that matter infinitely. I'm so grateful what the Lord's taught me over the years and the chance to be able to pay it forward and hopefully bless others the way that you two do each week.

Yeah, a privilege. Thanks. we are grateful to have you here. Jared, do you off the top of your head know your longest episode of Unshaken? Oh, I remember there was one on,

I think we had to cover all of Second Samuel or something like that. I want to say it was five hours. Wow. Five hours. Brutal. It's like when you're done filming and you're trying to get up out of the chair

and everything hurts. It does take a certain degree of insanity to try that and some insanity to tune in. And I have. Jared, I've listened to full episodes of Unshaked, full episodes. I do speed it up a little bit. I meet a lot of people that say, you speak a lot slower in person.

And I go, ah, I know what you've been doing. I respect that. I do the same. Yeah, it's prolific. We hope every one of our listeners will check it out. Go check out Unshaken. You can get it wherever you get your podcast, get it on YouTube. And if you're a big fan of Unshaken, come on to our YouTube channel.

Let us know where you listen from. It's fun to show our guests where their voice has been heard, where they've taught. I'm going to read out of the Come Follow Me Manual. Let's get underway. Doctrine in Covenants 84. Like you said, John, it's just one section this week. It's called The Power of Godliness. The Come Follow Me Manual starts like this.

Ever since the priesthood was restored in 1829, the early saints had been blessed by the Lord's sacred power. They were baptized, confirmed, and called to serve by priesthood authority, much like we are today. But having access to priesthood power is not the same thing as completely understanding it. And God had more he wanted his saints to understand, particularly with the coming restoration of temple ordinances. The 1832 revelation on the priesthood, Doctor in Covenant Section 84, expanded the saints' vision of what priesthood really is. And it can do the same for us today. After all, there is a lot to learn about the divine power that holds the key of the knowledge of God that makes us manifest. the power of godliness, and that prepares us to see the face of God, even the Father, and

live. What a way to kick this off. Jared, how do you want to start? Let's give us some historical context, perhaps, because what's leading us into this, I think will give us some momentum to dig into the text itself. Any of your listeners that want to geek out on some of that history, there was a great article written about a decade ago by Matthew Godfrey, wonderful scholar, works on the Joseph's Papers Project that talks about the historical background how little, relatively speaking, people really understood what priesthood was all about.

We saw the restoration of the Aaronic priest in 1829, and then the restoration of the Melchizedic priest in Section 20 starts laying out some foundation as far as priesthood offices are concerned. But difference between Aronic and Melchizedic, they still don't fully understand. Godfrey puts some things in this article about conversations between church leaders.

they're like, I know we have priesthood. Do you understand it? No, I don't get what it is. The Book of Mormon talks about it, clearly in places, but not to the level of specificity we're going to see in Section 84. Lots to learn. I joke with my students that Joseph Smith did not emerge from the Sacred Grove with the church handbook of instructions. It's going to be line upon line and precept upon precept. Organization by organization, a lot of growth and understanding that's going to come from the revelation today. But to back up a little bit and build some momentum. leading in, where 1832, earlier this year, Joseph and Sydney have the vision. There's Section 76. They are thinking about deep things. Now that we know that heaven is far more exalted than what we were raised with, what is it like to achieve that level of exaltation? How do we even get to that point? You see Joseph and several other church leaders have been down to Missouri to set up the

United firm, to lay out the foundation for the literary firm, where they're going to be working on what do we do with all these revelations? We're going to publish them and there's going to be a book of commandments. Then there's this interesting moment where Joseph and several of the church leaders are heading back from Missouri to Curtin. They're on a stagecoach and the stage coach crashes. Neil K. Whitney breaks his ankle. Joseph's like, well, you're going to be laid up here in Indiana for a couple weeks. Why don't I stay here with you? Honestly, it makes me think if I'm ever in a car with a general authority, I better crash the thing in case that he'll spend, you know, Can I hang out with an apostle for a couple weeks in the hospital?

Joseph stays for a few weeks with Newell. Newell's just laid up in bed. So Joseph has all this free time, which is such an odd experience for Joseph. He's got so much time to think and to ponder. He even writes a letter to Emma. I love what he says. He said, I visited a grove, which is just back at the town, almost every day, where I can be secluded from the eyes of any mortal.

And there give vent to all the feelings of my heart in meditation. and prayer. Joseph is deepening these feelings and experiences, meditating and praying. Talk about the mind opening up to the mysteries of heaven, the treasures of divinity. It's all coming to him. Then once he gets back to Kirtland, after a little bit of recuperation for Newell, all these missionaries that have been sent east on missions are now coming back to Kirtland to return and report. Joseph's hearing all of this, all of these threads are coming together in this beautiful moment in late September. The date's going to factor really importantly in a little while when we get later into the text. But hearing all these people talk about the miracles that they've performed and the experiences

they've had, any of us who serve missions, and you come back and you report to the High Council, I've talked to friends that have served on High Councils, and I said, it's one of the best things about our calling, is these fresh out of the mission field, on fire, have that godly glow. I just want to talk about what God did through me. Joseph is receiving all of these reports, just being thrilled by all of them. He says, the elders began to return from their missions to the eastern states and present the histories of their several stewardships in the Lord's Vineyard. While together, in these seasons of joy, I inquired of the Lord and received Section 84. To me, getting some of that momentum behind us makes me just want to dive straight into the text and see what the Lord has to say.

Fantastic. Jared, that is because, I wonder if Newell K. Whitney is thinking, hey, Lord, the next time you need Joseph to ponder, could you just tell him? Because I don't want to be laid up with a broken leg for another few weeks. Well, I wonder sometimes do we need that? We're so busy. The Lord's trying to interrupt, trying to get a word in edgewise, we don't have any time for it. Do you think the Liberty Jail revelations, for example? What comes in 121, 22, 23, because the Lord has a captive audience, literally. And I guess in some ways, do I slow down enough? Do I go find some place outside the view of mortals where I can give vent to my feelings, where I can really meditate, where I can

really pray? Am I hearing the experiences of other people? There's this vertical component where Joseph is connecting with heaven one-on-one. But then there's this horizontal component where he's really connecting to fellow servants, hearing about God's hand in their life and their missions, It's this vertical and horizontal is coming together, this love of God, this love of neighbor, this, what is God trying to reveal, then what are my fellow servants trying to reveal? If that doesn't describe priesthood, I don't know what does in terms of that intersection of vertical and horizontal, taking the authority of God and the blessings of God to go extend them to God's children wherever they might be. Joseph's in the zone in this moment. Here comes revelation that becomes one of the great, great sections of the doctrine covenant. Have you ever watched a basketball game and it seems that a player is, like you said, in the zone and they just can't miss everything that they throw up there.

One of our listeners is Jim Ruffordette. He knows what this feels like to just be a Section 84 moment. He is in the zone and it is happening. Yeah, I've seen that in basketball. I've never experienced it in basketball, but yeah. I love the phrase season of joy so often as we talk about church history. It is so hard. so tough and the sacrifices that those people made, okay, move here, now move here, actually

Zion's over here. I'm grateful when I see a phrase like that that says, hey, you know, there was, we had some really joyous times as well. I have this strange idea that Joseph Smith, Moron, and maybe even Mormon get together one weekend a year. It's September 21st, 22nd. Maybe it looks like the 23rd here. Is that what you were talking about, Jared, when you said, this is an important date. It is. And in fact, the history behind it is interesting because there's not a clear specification of exactly how does this come forth. But as we've pieced together the history, it seems like it's probably a late night conversation, all these missionaries come in and reporting. Joseph starts to receive this revelation. It's a long one. When it says it was revealed on September 22nd and

23rd, the idea most likely is it goes beyond midnight. They break curfew. I guess if you're in the middle of a conversation with heaven, that's okay. It starts with Joseph in the company of six other elders. You have these seven that are coming together. The revelation begins. Late evening hours spills over onto the next day into the 23rd. At some point, they call it a night. They tire out before God does.

Then the next day, the revelation continues. There's a break in the manuscript right after this beautiful hymn that we'll see in the early one hundreds, the verses. There's a break there. So the revelation continues, and the Lord wants. to give a second round of revelation. Right before these sections, this is when you have some pretty big baptisms. You have Brigham Young baptized in April of 32, Hebercy Kimble, in June of 32.

And then one of the things, Jared, you talked about Joseph being in that grove. Isn't this the first time he writes down what you and I call the first vision? 1832 is the first written one that we have, and it's his own handwriting, yeah. Yeah. That happens there as well. A lot has happened this summer. Yeah, you wonder, is he trying to make sense of all these experiences? He's had time to just let it settle in.

It's starting to crystallize in his mind and his heart. It's so much bigger than just him. Like you said, some big guns have joined the church, some people that are going to really need to know the kinds of things that are revealed in Section 84. It's beautiful. It's fun to imagine these elders coming back and reporting on their missions. What are they teaching? there's a prophet. It's fascinating to think it helps us. Do we have to say, I have to know

everything before I go? No, you testify of what you know. You'll get more. That's a great point. Article of Faith Nine, we believe he will yet reveal. Yet reveal. Yeah. There's more coming. When I was in seminary, and I think it's pretty typical, we teach that the Aaronic priesthood is restored by John the Baptist, and then the Melchizedic priesthood is restored by Peter James and John. But as I've been studying church history, would it be fair to say that Peter James and John begin to restore the Melchizedic priesthood? It's not like Peter James and John come and that's it for a priesthood. There is so much more. And we haven't even got to the temple yet, the Kirtland Temple. What would you both say to that? It's a great question, Hank. President Nelson has described this beautifully,

that we're part of an ongoing restoration. When we think ongoing restoration, well, of what? We'll see actually this in a moment when we get to verse two. But this ongoing restoration of the gospel, of the church, could we say an ongoing restoration of the priesthood? I would say so. Because in some ways, even John the Baptist, since the Aaronic priesthood is an appendage to the Melchazardic priesthood,

we'll learn more of that in Station 107. I mean, John the Baptist was revealing and restoring a part of the Melchizedic priesthood, just that we call by a different name, because it's the lesser portion of it. Even Section 27, where Peter James and John are mentioned clearly, it's in the context of so many other people that are also bringing keys. We'll see keys from Moses and Elias and Elijah,

Section 110 with the Curtland Temple. There is this ongoing restoration, including of powers and authorities and responsibilities. Yeah, I love the two words, restore and reveal. I'm thinking of Malachi talking about the Elijah would reveal the priesthood. We're like, oh, what's that? There's a restoration, but reveal sounds like more.

This is uncover, more information, more purposes, the bigger picture of what this is all about. Those two words are both happening. It's being restored and it's being revealed. One follow up here, Jared, you mentioned earlier that there's not a clear difference between Aronic priesthood and Melchazic priesthood. yet later, when the story is told, because that's our context, it's easy for us to understand these two. If you put yourself in their shoes, they don't see that distinction until much later. I think that could be helpful for anyone who's saying, wait, I thought the Mokestic priesthood had already been restored. What is this? Why is there more? It's becoming more clear

to them? Would you say that as they go? Definitely. I mean, even Section 20, our challenge and our blessing is that we know so much more now. We read our knowledge into the text of the Doctor and Covenants, assume that they get it as well. It's interesting, though, to almost go chronologically, there's some kind of veil we can pass through and restart the Doctor and Covenants. Really learn revelation by revelation, not jump ahead mentally to things that haven't been revealed yet. Even Section 20 that lays out different priesthood offices, it doesn't subdivide things into Aronic and Melchazidic there. Even in our day, well, the 12-year-old deacons and the 14-year-old teachers and the 16-year-old priests,

that was a later development as well. What are they getting in the moment that's starting to crystallize for these early saints? It's starting to make sense for Joseph. Again, to take it the line upon line. I love what you said earlier, John. It's amazing to go out in the mission field, teach things that you still don't totally understand yourself, because they haven't been clarified. But sometimes we don't even know what questions to ask until we start acting on the revelation we have.

Then we get to a point where this is a little still unclear. I better go back and get some clarification from the Lord. He's more than happy to give it to us as we see in revelations like this one. What an important skill to try to put yourself in their shoes to forget what we have after what, almost 200 years of revelation and clarification and say, okay, what were the, they seeing? What were they experiencing? What did they know? On our voices of the restoration lessons this year, John, I think Dr. Durkmaud has helped us kind of see Joseph doesn't know. He sees Alvin and Sustrial Kingdom. But wait, I thought you'd be baptized to go to the celestial kingdom.

Yeah. Well, baptism is for the dead. It's going to be another few years before that happens. I would say, too, my PhD is in history. To understand the historical process, the goal is to get as early documentation as you can get. The thought is the least amount of time that passes between event and documentation, the better. The memories are clearer. That's true. However, you don't have perspective yet. There's a need for zooming in very carefully to find the best possible documentation. But then also, sometimes in that moment, we don't know how that fits in the big picture. Example I use with my students sometimes is if you were to write a history right at the beginning of the year 2000, Y2K would be a huge part of it. As everybody's freaking out, like,

what's going to happen with computers, when it resets to the zero zero, is it going to disrupt global supply chains? And now here we are 25 years later. Is that going to make any history books? But it's only with the passage of time that we look back and go, that was really not a big deal at all. We need to have the balance as historians to see what are they learning in the moment, but are they overestimating or underestimating the significance of that event? You don't know that until there's some historical distance to give you a perspective that you didn't have in the moment. So I see that with accounts of the first vision. I see that with understanding of the restoration of the priesthood, the different elements and offices within it,

the subdivisions of Veronica, and Melchisic, we're learning as we go. I can understand the concerns that some people might have from this historical distance. Why didn't they get it? It's like, well, let's cut them some slack. Yeah, they're human. Exactly. I love the idea of the backstory. That helps us a lot.

I was thinking about the fact that my mission call was over the signature of Spencer W. Kimball in a church of two and a half million people or something. It is a different church today. It's a worldwide church today. And what did they have? A few thousand? What did they have? It helps me to extend some grace and say they were doing the best they could with what they had. It kept coming, thankfully.

Yeah. This is a scripture study skill that we really try to focus on our podcast is, okay, hang on. When are they writing? What perspective do they have? What have they received so far? What do they not know that we know? John, we mentioned this with them going to Missouri. They're all in.

This is going to be great. We're going to go there. We're going to plant a couple trees. Jesus is going to come. Here we are 200 years later saying, no, no. You've got to change your expectations. Things are going to get really hard. All right, Jared, let's jump into Section 84.

I've been asking too many questions. I'm sure I'll have more. If we can start with the first five verses, starting in verse six, the Lord introduces this magnificent tangent that he goes off on for the next 25 verses or so. There's so much, it feels like the Lord wants to talk about that he squeezes in. But to keep it in perspective from the very beginning, what's he really after here? We start in verse one, a revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant, Joseph Smith, Jr., and six elders as they united their hearts and lifted their voices on high. Here we get this horizontal communion.

Now that's going to open us to the vertical. Verse two, yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of, I always pause there. I'll sometimes put on the board, restoration of, then blank, fill it in. What immediately comes to mind is usually one of three answers. We talk about the restoration of the church, the restoration of the gospel, or the restoration of the priesthood. And especially if they know this revelation coming in, they're like, ah, that's what this is about.

But what's interesting, there is one passage in 2nd, 128, where Joseph is referring to Malachi and he says, here's a prophet who had his eye on the restoration of the priesthood. Restoration of priesthood is one that is scriptural, but barely. It's the only time it's mentioned that way. You'll see in the New Testament, for example, Peter talks about this, the restitution of all things. We think of restoration, and the restoration of all things comes up twice in the doctrine and covenants as well. But it's interesting. Restoration of the church is not a scriptural phrase.

Restoration of the gospel is not a scriptural phrase. When I ask my students, what is God trying to restore? Yes, he's restoring church. Yes, he's restoring priesthood, and yes, he's restoring gospel. But what he's trying to restore, here's the scriptural phrase, section 84, verse two. The church is established in the last days for the restoration of his people. I care about people far more than I do about programs and processes, and even priesthoods. I'm a father who loves my children.

And I'm trying to restore them to a right relationship with me. I'm trying to restore them to a proper understanding of who. they really are as divine children of heavenly parents. I'm trying to restore their perspective on life what they can become if they'll simply turn to me. That idea is deeply scriptural. All throughout the book of Mormon, over and over it talks about the restoration of the Jews. That's first Nephi 15. The restoration of his people. That's like an 8.30. Both Alma and Abin and I talk about resurrection as a restoration of us in terms of spirit and body perfectly united. Alma and Samuel the Lamanite talk about the restoration of our brethren, the Lamanites,

to the knowledge of the truth. I just worry sometimes that we confuse means and ends. We get so focused on the restoration of stuff instead of the restoration of people, which is what that stuff is all for. The church is wonderful, but someday it's going to come down like so much scaffolding as apostles have said, has it served its purpose to restore us? From the very get-go, as this revelation begins, I'm so excited to dive into the weeds of priesthood, but please let's keep it in perspective that what all of this is for is a far holier purpose. God is trying to restore us to him. With that

in mind, he goes on, this restoration of his people, as he's spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem. Big picture, this is about children coming home to God. This is about restoring us to the kinds of people we need to be. How are we going to do that? Well, we've got to establish Zion. And we just got back from Missouri.

We're going to build a new Jerusalem. This is going to be one heart, one mind, dwelling in righteousness, no poor among us. How do we get to that point? Well, good question. Keep reading, verse three. which city shall be built beginning at the temple lot

which is appointed by the finger of the Lord and the western boundaries of the state of Missouri dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith Jr. and others with whom the Lord was well pleased. Verily, this is the word of the Lord that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints beginning at this place, even the place

of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. We've got, I'm trying to restore my people. How am I going to do that? By establishing Zion, How am I going to do that? It all boils down to the temple. This is a temple text that priesthood is going to grow into and out of, but to really think bigger picture here, if this is for the gathering of the saints, Joseph Smith teaches this clearly. What's the purpose of the gathering in any age is to build temples?

Why did we go to Missouri and come back? Well, we're building a temple here in Kirtland. We're going to have to build temples, plural, there in Zion. if we ever hope to establish a Zion that can restore people to a right relationship with God. That's what the temple does. When he says in verse 5, verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord. There's the temple again. And a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill his house.

Then he says in verse 6, and the sons of Moses, according to the Holy Priest's, like, oh, is that what we're talking about. The transition from five to six is a tricky one because it almost feels like, wait, wait, where are you getting Moses out of this? That's where he starts this beautiful tangent to really talk about Aronic and Melchizedic priesthood before he closes the loop back in verse 32 where the Oath and Covenant starts factoring in. But before we dig into that tangent, any thoughts from the two of you as far as the bigger umbrella here? Hank, you know, I'm a Stephen Covey fan and he wrote this book called The Six Events of the Restoration. He said that the restoration is a formula for solving life's problems. He said the first vision answered, who is God and who am I? Notice it's a

people thing. The book Mormon translation answered, whose am I? It's all about the doctrine of Christ and the Savior. Then it was like, what do I do to receive Christ? And here came the restoration of the priesthood. He still hasn't even talked about a church yet. Now, where do I go to receive Christ? Well, here comes the restoration of the priesthood and the ordinance. And I loved that framework. He said, to paraphrase, if we want to help people, we start with identity and relationships. This is what you're talking about, Jared. It's the restoration of people.

It's all about people. And it starts with Joseph. He knows my name. It's identity. It's relationships. And then the structure, the rules and a lot stuff comes way later. I was at church the other day because we've been looking at the doctrine of covenants. I thought if you were to zap one of these.

saints out of 1832, throw them in the church of 2025, what would they notice? And I wonder if they would say, I don't hear a lot about Zion, the word, the idea of Zion, not that we're doing anything wrong. Good point. No. I mean, this is what it's all about. This seems to be the name of the game. Two, the Book of Mormon seems to make it clear that the Lord wants to restore Israel, his people. We talk about restoration of the church and restoration of the priesthood, but the book Mormon seems to be saying, at least to me, look, God made a promise to Israel a long time ago. He intends on keeping that promise. What we've referred to as the apostasy, it's the loss of that promise. Who's talking about the gathering? Here's the Lord

bringing you up in verse two, the restoration of my people, the gathering of the gathering of the saints to Mount Zion so they can return to their work. It was Abraham's job and Israel's job to bless all the families of the earth. One more thought. When the church is born there in New York, it looks somewhat Protestant. You've got a group of people. The Book of Mormon, that really changes things in the idea of a prophet. But then doesn't Joseph Smith start to teach about priesthood? That's not Protestant. And sacraments, that's Catholic. Now we're talking about a temple. that's not Protestant or Catholic. That's Jewish.

You know, when I was in Divinity School, I remember I was waiting for a class to begin. I come, there were only three students yet before the rest of the class piled in and the professor came. But it was me, a Catholic and a Protestant. This sounds like a good joke starting. I come in, and the Catholic turns to me and saw, Jared, I know your lottery saint, still don't get it, but where do you guys fit? You're not Catholic, so does that make you Protestant? The Protestant was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't play.

No, no, no, yeah. But I smile at the two of them. It was a guy and a girl. I said, you know, if the two of you got married and had a kid, it would be me. Yeah. And we're like, what? We don't even like each other. I'm like, I know.

Reformation, I get it. But there's this beautiful hybridization, this proving of contraries between Catholicism and Protestantism that you find in the restored gospel because there's truths in both communities, but in some ways push them to the extreme. They're fighting over things and they don't want what the other has. Catholicism with its high liturgy, the temple is much more Catholic. Protestantism with its low liturgy, sacrament mediums. is much more Protestant. You get this beautiful combination of the two. The preaching of the word,

there's Protestantism at its finest, these sacraments and rituals, there's Catholicism at its finest. And to your point also about temples, I said to them, I could say the same thing. If one of you was Christian and the other was Jewish, because if you take Christianity in Judaism and they get married and have a child, it's the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as well. Yes, we have churches. Thank you, Christianity. But we have temples. Thank you, Judaism. We have apostles. There's Christianity. We have prophets. There's Judaism. The Book of Mormon straddles both Old and New Testament. So talk about a hybrid of the two as well. Gifts of the Spirit, there's New Testament, but there's patriarchal blessings. There's Old Testament.

There's so much of this restoration that's taking place that's trying to restore the whole thing. There were other restorationists in Joseph Smith's time period that were trying to bring back the New Testament. But Joseph went far beyond that. and said, it's not just about bringing back the New Testament Church, it's bringing back the Old Testament House of Israel. You pointed out, Hank, the Abrahamic covenant, that's where this all begins. In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It's a much bigger picture.

I remember Joseph Fielding McConkey saying, what priest did we have, Aronic? Well, who's Aaron? Oh, that's Old Testament. Oh, that's right. Who else? Melchizedek. Oh, that's Old Testament. Oh, that's right.

Joseph McCock, you would say, this is the old time religion. Yeah. John, I think you're right on there. When I was a missionary, I often taught about restoring Christ's New Testament church. I think if I went on a mission today, yeah, that would be included. But I think I'd go back further and talk about the promise that God made. That seems to be Nephi's main point. God made a promise to Israel.

He's going to keep it. In some ways, then, if we're thinking, and building Zion, I mean, it seems like a jump to go from verse five to verse six, like speaking of the sons of Moses, and you're like, whoa, that came out of the left field. Is that what we were speaking about? It's like, well, think about what they're trying to do. Moses was trying to restore Israel to the promised land. Moses was trying to restore them to the right relationship with God and understand who they were as the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the inherit. I mean, talk about 400 years of forgetting identity and relationship. to bring up what you've mentioned earlier, John. Here's Moses, then, trying to get them into that situation. He's going to build a tabernacle in the center of Israel. The glory of God will fill that house. The cloud will bring them on their journey to the promised land.

Here is the Lord trying to do that all over again, now through Joseph Smith. But what's interesting is in verse 6 where he says, And the sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood, then he starts going down this rabbit hole of, let's do the priested lineage. Moses received it from Jethro and Jethro to Caleb and Caleb to Eliehu and all he's. But if you pause with the sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood, then turn the page and look at verse 32, actually 31, he says, therefore, as I said concerning the sons of Moses,

from 6 to 31, everything in between there is this long tangent. Now, the Lord gets a lot of mileage out of a tangent. When he gets back to it in 31, as I said concerning the sons of Moses, I think it's hilarious. Then the Lord can't help himself. He goes on another mini tangent in verse 31 and says something else. Then 32, he finally gets it back onto the track, 32, and the sons of Moses, okay, let's really get back to this. If you want to jump from 6 to 32, then it's this seamless, let's talk about oath and covenant of the priesthood that's going to help build temples. But as far as what he does within the tangent, this is where you get line of authority,

tracing it from Moses all the way back to Adam. We're going to see the differentiation between the Aronic and Melchizedic priested here. It's really, really important material. I just feel happy to know the Lord also goes off on tangents a little bit because my students will say, where did that come from? I'll say, well, I had this thought. I wanted to make sure you understood that. I'll say a phrase and say, wait, I don't know if you understand that phrase.

Let me go way back. Let's explain this one phrase. My problem is I go off on a tangent, then I can't remember where I was. I'm like, what were we talking about? If we look at this tangent, verse 6 through 31, could I summarize it like this? The Lord saying, okay, we're going to build a temple. Now, I've done this once before. Let me explain.

This ain't my first rodeo. Yeah. I've done this. I brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of apostasy. I built them a tabernacle. We built a tabernacle to sanctify them. That's first 23. I'm going to sanctify the children of Israel. John usually says he got him out of Egypt and he's got to get Egypt out of them. I'm going to do the same thing with you. I'm going to get the world out of you. I'm going to give you this. We're going to build a house. I'm drawing you out of the world, but now I've got to get the world out of you. Almost like he says I'm doing it again. Would that fit? I think it totally does. In some ways, it's another version of creation fall atonement, which is the pillars of eternity and the story arc of life. That's the endowment. The endowment is creation fall atonement. But honestly, we could have done the endowment with the Exodus story, because we've created this House of Israel, Days of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on, there's creation stage. Then we go through these 400 years of bondage in Egypt and apostasy. There's the fall stage. Then Moses comes on board to help us ascend to the Atonement stage.

I mean, literally, we could do the exodus in the temple. That could be our endowment. We chose a more obvious creation fall atonement for that. But here we're seeing the same thing where the Lord creates his New Testament church, for example. There's a period of apostasy going through this fall historically. Now the restoration is ascending to the atonement all over again. I definitely think that's a parallel. If we want to see specifically how he's going to do it then, well, now that we're on the subject of Moses, let's talk about this priesthood that Moses received through his father-in-law, Jethro, then all the way back, we're going to get to Adam. Here's the line of authority. I love seeing my own and tracing it, knowing that there's no broken links in the chain. But then when you get to 17, this is where this tangent is worth its weight in gold, which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations. It's without beginning of days or end of years. Thank you, John, for what you brought up with Melchizedek there. Then 18, and the Lord confirmed a priesthood also. upon Aaron and his seat throughout all their generations,

which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with a priesthood, which is after the holiest order of God. These alsos suggest, oh, there's a difference between Moses and Aaron. They're these brothers. I thought they were all tribe of Levi. Well, yes, but by the time Moses and Aaron come onto the scene, we're so far removed from Levi. Where's priesthood even coming from?

This period of apostasy during Egyptian bondage, no wonder Moses had to trace his authority from a different line. He's raised in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court. He receives priesthood from Jethro. Then you have to trace Jethro's line back to Adam and back to God in that way. Here's this priesthood that we're seeing from Moses, but there's also a priesthood that's going to come down from Aaron. What do we do with this also? The difference here. This is the best place we see anywhere in Scripture of the differentiation between Aronic and Melchizedek. It's really finally starting to get clear. The way he puts it is profound. The way he ends verse 18 is this priesthood, which is after the holiest order of God. Now, pause on the superlative. Holiest. If it's holiest, there's other things

that are a little less holy, but can still be holy. And this one is the order of God. Well, what are we going to compare that to? Keep going in 19. this greater priesthood. Oh, there's another superlative. We're differentiating here. There's a greater priesthood. Notice what it's responsible for. It administers the gospel. Keep this in mind because we're going to see an administration of the gospel in a moment that's slightly different. But this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Now, that word is going to come up every place we look, for Melchizedic priested. The focal point in Melchized priesthood is God, His holiest order. It's the keys

to his mysteries, the mysteries of his kingdom. It's coming to know God in a way that we couldn't know him otherwise. And then in verse 20, therefore, in the ordinances thereof, now we're talking the ordinances of the Melchizedic priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest. Without the ordinances as thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh. God, knowledge of God, the order of God, the power of godliness, everything we see in terms of Melchizedic priesthood has God at the center. That's going to be the focal point in terms of the differentiation between Melchizedic and Aronic. When he says in verse 22, without this, we've got to kind of trace back the antecedents. What's the this he's talking?

about, well, without this power of godliness. Without that, no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live, to have to be translated, to be transfigured, to be changed into a godly state so that we can be with God. Our only hope of being with God is being like God. So there are these ordinances that are required for us to be able to obtain the power of godliness so that we can be in his presence eternally. That's the hope. It's all going to come through Melchazidic ordinances. I can't stress enough that ordinances precedes authority in how it's described. He says ordinances twice in 20 and 21, even before he mentions the authority of the

priesthood. The focal point, as far as God is concerned on priesthood, is not simply authority that he's giving, but rather authorize ordinances that you're receiving that are going to prepare you for the presence of God, develop within you an understanding of his mysteries, develop within you the attributes of godliness that will be required of us if we ever hope to be with him again. That is where Melchized priesthood ordinances come in. We're going to compare those to erotic ordinances in just a moment. But if we can pause and savor this for a second, everything we do in terms of confirmation

and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, all of the temple ordinances that flow out of the Melchizedic priesthood. Priesthood in service of temple, temple in service of Zion, Zion in service of restorations, Zion in service of restoring us to God, this godliness is what all of these ordinances are meant to develop within us. I could tie section 84 verse 2, the restoration of his people, to verse 23, to sanctify his people. That seems to be step one. Twenty-three is such a culmination. You want to read that one? Hey, 23 is so powerful. There's another this here that refers back to the antecedent of everything we just described in the preceding verses. Now this, not this,

Moses, but this thing that we've been talking about, Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness and sought diligently to sanctify his people, that they might behold the face of God. It's like Moses is saying, guys, there's room on top of Mount Sinai for all of us. Don't make me go up there by myself. That was never my intention. I want to bring the entire house of Israel up with me. I am teaching it plainly.

You need these ordinances. We need to be godly. afraid of the smoke and the fire and the lightning and the thunder. This is the presence of God. He wants to invite you into it. In the temple, he literally invites us into his presence. These ordinances, that's exactly what God is trying to accomplish. Here's Moses. Do you understand why God gave me authority through Jethro and trace it all back? Do you understand why I have these things? This is not about me being your leader. This is not about, look at me and I have a priested authority. I've been ordained. It's look at yourselves what God is trying to do for you. Here I am

seeking diligently to sanctify you. So you can see the same thing as I'm seeing, the face of God. You can learn the same things I'm learning. The keys of the knowledge of God. To think of what the Israelites settled for instead of what God intended to give them, talk about living far beneath our privileges. That's devastating. The question when I read verse 23 is, do you want to be sanctified? I'm not going to force you. This is something I've always wanted to

understand, verse 24, but they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence. My first elementary reading of that is, oh, they tried, failed, and could not endure. But it sounds more like Moses invited them because of their hardened hearts, they could not or

didn't even try to endure his presence. there are ordinances that are absolutely essential. In this context, the ones that grow out of the Melchizedic priesthood are the ones that will introduce you to God. In fact, when he says it in verse 24 about this hardened hearts, they can't endure his presence, the Lord in his wrath for his anger was kindled against them. Well, that sounds like strong language. He swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory. By the way, pause there. Talk about a beautiful, definition of rest. The fullness of glory. That changes the Sabbath day for me. Maybe fewer naps and more fullness of glory on that day of rest. Am I really tapping into the grace of God? Am I renewing ordinances that revealed to me the power of godliness? And that's what Moses is trying to do. Moses is dead set on everybody ascend Mount Sinai with me. See God as I've seen him. Experience God as I've experienced Him. They weren't ready.

They hardened their hearts against it. Whatever reasons were on their part, too much Egypt still in them. No, no, no, you go. You go. I'll stay right here. Yeah. Exactly. I'm good.

I can stay down here. I want this middle man. He says in 25, therefore, he took Moses out of their midst and the holy priesthood also. And the lesser priesthood continued. Then now we're going to pivot from Melchizedic to ironic. But it's this historical moment of Moses beside himself, like, No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, Israelites, please don't ruin this.

This is our chance. This is our moment. It's almost a preview of what's going to happen at the Jordan River. Like, Promise Ant is yours. Go in and take it. They're like, no, I don't think we can. The Lord's like, well, that's unfortunate. Well, I guess I'm eternal.

I can wait. Let's let you wander, wander, die, wander die in the wilderness. Then your kids will go in and conquer Jericho with the marching band. It's not as hard as you're making it out to be. trust me on this one in a much bigger vein i'm trying to give you melchizedic ordinances i want you to be restored to me my children you're not ready that's hard that's frustrating he uses stronger language than that in verse 24 but then in his justice i can't give you melchizedic ordinances yet but in his mercy i can give you eronic ordinances to think about this pivot moment in israelite history

where Moses is going to come down with the tablets. In fact, the JST of Exodus 34 is so key here, because the way we read it in the King James, Moses comes down the mountain with the tablets. He has the Ten Commandments on him. He sees the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf. How's that for hardened hearts and not enduring God's presence? Moses, in this fit of anger, shatters the tablets. You know the old joke.

The only person to ever break all Ten Commandments at the same time. he does it then he's like he calms down he goes back up top and he's like oh god sorry got a little out of hand i broke what you gave me can you print me out a second copy and then i'll come down and we'll give it another shot yet jstt exodus 34 tells us the second version was a far cry from the first what god had intended to give them the first time moses descends from sinai is what we just read in section 84 i'm trying to give you the ordinances of exaltation I'm trying to introduce you to God himself. You're not ready for him.

That's devastating. But let me give you something different instead, something lesser. The irony to me is I think you get to see the personality, the character, the kindness of God. We saw words like anger and wrath, but what's he do? I'm so mad at you that I'm going to bless you with more than what you have right now. It's just less than what I wanted. It was on the time. tablets. It's written down right in front of you. And it was the higher, the holier, the greater.

And you weren't ready for it. Let me back up and bless you with something that you're more able to receive. If we're doing arithmetic here, it seems to be subtraction when you go from Melchazidic to Iranic. And yet in the book of Galatians, Paul says that God added the law. And that's his arithmetic. For Paul, it's addition, not subtraction. And I've always wrestled with that, like, how does that even work? How was the erotic being added to the Melchizedic? It's a step down. But then I realized, wait, maybe it's a step down because the Israelites weren't ready for the step up that God had intended for them.

I used to do this object lesson when I taught seminary where to have a kid come up to the front. I said, I need you to step up to the desk. And they did it easy, kind of a bounding leap. They're up to the top. I'm like, no, no, no, no, you pushed off the floor. I want to see if you can do this. one leg, deep squat, full body weight, without pushing off on the floor at all. The other students were like hawks watching it.

Like, no, no, no. I saw your calf muscle flexed. That doesn't count. And all the years I did that, I think one kid, he was probably a gymnast, was able to do that all on the strength of one quad muscle. Everyone else failed. And I said, okay, well, you can't do it. Let me add the piano bench next to the desk. by adding a stepping stool, or as Paul calls it in that same chapter, a schoolmaster to bring us

unto Christ, I'll add the law to help you come up to the gospel. I'll add erronic ordinances to help you be prepared to receive Melchizedic ordinances. We're going to go baby steps on this one, and let me add it. In my frustration, I can't hold you up to this highest standard and the holiest order of God, but in my kindness and compassion and mercy, I can give you an erroneic priesthood that will help you prepare to receive what I was really after all along, which was Melchizedic ordinances and the power of God. In fact, if we could build on that briefly, the way he says it in verse 25 and 26, takes Moses, takes the holy priesthood, at least the higher order one. Verse 26, the lesser priesthood continues, but then notice how he describes it, which priesthood

holdeth the key of the ministering of angels. Now, we knew that from section 13, John the Baptist clarifies that. But then this amazing phrase, it also holds the keys of the preparatory gospel. This is another one of those moments that I think the Lord has just opened our eyes to something essential. I've sometimes asked my students, or let's take Aaronic and then the word priesthood and the word preparatory. Can you put all those three in a sentence? Invariably, they say, oh yeah, the ironic priesthood is the preparatory priesthood. I said, great. What do you mean by that? that. And they'll describe it. And it's like, well, the erotic priesthood is a chance for me to prepare to receive the Melchizedic priesthood. I get to practice using the priesthood. I'm so grateful to have

had a preparatory priesthood to prepare me for the higher priesthood. Now, I've heard that a million times. I've taught that a million times. But I remember one of the first times in a seminary class, I was asking my students, what does it mean that the eronic priest is the preparatory priesthood? The student raises his hand and gave the exact answer I had expected. which is what I just explained here. It prepares me. It was one of those beautiful moments where the Lord rests control away from the teacher and says, you're going to mess this up again, Halverson. So let me take care of this one myself. And I found myself saying to this student, his personality and mine really clicked. I knew I could razz him and give him a hard time. We've all had students

like that. And the way he said it, oh, it prepares me for the Melchistic priestens. What goes on on that? I just looked at him and said, oh, so priest, priest, it's all about you. And I, and I I have the Aaronic priesthood because it will prepare me for the day that I hold the Melchazidic priesthood. I am priesthood, hear me roar. This is all about you, huh? You needed this preparation. He was like, what did I say wrong? And I'm sitting there going, what did he say wrong?

He gave the answer I would have given. Then we looked more closely at the verse we just read in verse 26. Lesser priesthood is in that. So there's ironic. Priestet is mentioned again. We'll include that word. Preparatory is in that. verse as well, the Lord is now doing the exercise I just gave for my students. Put erronic,

priesthood, and preparatory in the same sentence. Now, instead of ironic, he says lesser priesthood, same thing. He then says, which priesthood holdeth the keys of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel? To me, this is profound. It's like, wait a minute. It's not just that the Aaronic priesthood is a preparatory priesthood. Yes, it does that. General authorities have taught that, so I'm not saying that's false doctrine. That's true. It does do that, but that's just a side benefit. What the erronic priesthood is really all about is to administer a preparatory gospel. Priesthood is never about the holder. It's about the receiver of its ordinances, the receiver of its powers and privileges and gifts. Just like we saw earlier, this is all about the ordinances of the Melchized

priesthood, even more than just the simple authority of it. If we're focusing on ordinances, what we saw earlier in verse 19, this greater priesthood administereth the gospel. Well, what is the lesser priesthood administer? Oh, it administers the preparatory gospel. This is all about what it does for other people, blessing them in powerful ways. Elder Bednar once taught nothing about the priesthood is self-centered. The priesthood always is used to serve, to bless, to strength, and other people. That's what it's for. If I picture Melchizedic priest that is meant to administer the gospel to people. It's the gospel of God. It's power of godliness. It's knowledge of God, mysteries of God, all of that. People weren't ready for it. I don't know if I'm up to God's level yet.

Okay, okay. That's fine. Let me add something that's lower. Let me give you a stepping stool, a schoolmaster. It's going to be ironic ordinances that provide a preparatory gospel that is meant to prepare the receivers of those ordinances for the Melchesitic ordinances that will then get them the rest of the way. I've taught this to our young men, we've got to get past the thought of thinking this is a self-centered priesthood and this is my practice priested so I can get better so I'm ready for Melchizedek. Yes, that's going to happen, but that's a side benefit. The real focus here is there are things about the Aaronic priested ordinances that are meant to prepare us for Melchizedic priested ordinances. Once we get that in mind, then it's a matter of

where all that. Every one of us is trying to seek these preparatory ordinances. I'm ready for the fuller, higher, holier ordinances that are going to come later. To see what the erronic ordinances do in verse 27, which gospel, here's the preparatory gospel, is the gospel of repentance. We saw that in Section 13, Restoration Arronic Priesthood as well. And of baptism. I wonder it was John the Baptist who comes to restore that. The remission of sins, which is what John cried repentance in the wilderness to do. The law of carnal commandments in terms of temporal ones compared to the spiritual ones that Melchizedic ordinances perform,

which the Lord and His wrath caused to continue with the House of Aaron among the children of Israel. I'm a fan of charts. When I do this with my own classes, I'll bring up this chart where we see a Aronic and Melchizedic side by side. On the Aronic side, you see temporal things, the carnal commandments, as we saw in verse 27. On the Melchizedic side, you see spiritual things. This is the focus on the spiritual blessings of God. Then you could put letter of the law on Aronic kinds of things. Spirit of the law as Melchizedek kinds of things. I put the iron rod with Aronic. I put the Leihonah with Melchizedic. Obviously, there's different offices within them. We'll see more of that

here where deacons and teachers and priests are erroneous. You'll see elders and high priests and patriarchs and 70s and apostles. There's Melchizedic. But in this passage, let's put Aaron on the ironic side. Let's put Moses on the Melchizedic side. We could even put John the Baptist on the Aaronic side and Jesus Christ on the Melchizedic. We're going to put lesser on the Aronic and greater on Melchizedic. But we're going to put God on Melchizedic. We're going to put angels on ironic. The word that keeps coming up with Melchizedic ordinances is God and godliness. Whereas what's ironic? Well, it's the keys of the ministry of angels. In fact, when Moses comes down from Sinai the first time, ready to introduce them to God, trying diligently to sanctify his

people so they could behold his face and enter into his rest, like, nope, that's not going to happen. God even says to Moses, I can't go with you on the rest of this journey. People are not prepared for my presence. They've made that tragically clear. I'm not going to be the one leading you in the wilderness anymore. It was me in the pillar of fire and the cloud of smoke, but from this point forward, it's going to be angels. You will be guided by angels to the promised land. Back to my chart, even, I would put temple on the Melchizedic side and Tabernacle on the Aronic side. The first set of plates, we've got the good stuff. Second set of plates, you weren't ready for the first. Instead of Melchized you'll get eronic instead of temple you'll get tabernacle instead of god you'll get angels hopefully all of

those things will help you to prepare if we were to continue subdividing and charting this i would say the job of eronic ordinances is justification the job of melchizedic ordinances is sanctification Aronic ordinances eliminate sin Melchesitic ordinances introduce us to God it's like one is preparation the other is presentation you are presenting people to God in that process there's this sense of remember when Elder Hafen gave a talk about the Atonement and said the Atonement both pulls weeds and plants flowers

Aronic ordinances pull weeds Melchesitic ordinances plant flowers I'll even put it this way, everything we do with the Aaronic priesthood is meant to eliminate sin. It's a justify us. No wonder it's baptism for the remission of sins. When I confess for major transgression, who do I go to? The bishop. Why?

Because he's the judge of Israel? Well, yeah, but really, what is he? He's the head of the president of the Aaronic priesthood in the ward. What's the highest ordinance within the Aaronic priesthood? Baptism. I'm washing away my sins. when you're finished passing and blessing and administering the sacrament, we should have a sinless ward. We've all renewed our baptismal covenants.

We've been justified by the grace of Christ. We're back on this justified valley floor level just in time to now hopefully receive Melchizedic guidance of ordinances that will present us into the presence of God. If you think about baptism, erotic ordinance, is followed by confirmation, Melchized ordinance. What does confirmation do? Gives you the gift of the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead. Oh, mysteries of God, power of God, power of godliness. When I partake of the sacrament, the sacrament is an erronic ordinance. But what's the promise that comes at the end of the sacrament? To always have his spirit to be with you. Oh, I'm back to God. I have a member of the

Godhead with me. I've been cleansed through Christ of my sins. Thank you, ironic ordinances. now I'm ready to go to the temple where I can be introduced into the presence of God, see the face of God, learn the mysteries of God, receive the power of godliness. That's what Melchizedic ordinances are all about. Even when I receive my temple recommend, the signatures that go on it, there's bishop and their stake president. I always used to think, is that just quality control? Then I realized, no, the bishop represents the erroneic priesthood in the ward,

and the stake president represents the Melchizedic priesthood in the stake. When I get my temple recommend, the erronic priesthood is signing off on me saying justification is complete. These ordinances have prepared you for greater things. Honestly, I'm blown away by the division of labor. And if we can honor the fact that, yes, as a side benefit, you young men are preparing yourself, but flip it, none of this is self-centered, to speak to God's daughters as well as God's sons, have you received the blessings of the preparatory gospel? Have you received the

justification that comes from Aronic priesthood ordinances? If you have, are you now ready for the greater, the higher, the holier, are you ready to be introduced into the presence of God through Melchizedic ordinances. No wonder, this is a temple text. No wonder we're trying to build Zion so we can be restored to a right relationship with God. This is what Aronic and Melchizedic ordinances are meant to accomplish. Boy, for these missionaries to come back and sit here at the feet of Joseph Smith, as he's revealing all of these things, this is big. I wish I'd have had this before I went out on my mission. Tell me too. Yeah, that would have been helpful? Jared, I want to repeat one line because I think it's so good. Priesthood isn't about the

holder. It's about the receiver of its ordinances. That's a great line. That's why I loved Elder Bednar's statement. Nothing about the priesthood is supposed to be self-centered. We lose ourselves. That's how we find ourselves. At least find anything worth finding. Again, this is just the tangent. I'm so glad the Lord went on one. I'm like, whoa, really? Thank you for not. jumping straight to oath and coming to the priesthood. I need the stepping stool. I need the school master. I need this chance to be justified if I ever hope to be sanctified. I'll work on these actions through the Aaronic priesthood in hopes that someday I'll develop the attributes that are so beautiful through the Melchizedic priesthood. This side by side, telestial to terrestrial to celestial,

it's all in there. It's creation, fall, atonement, reversing fall to get back to creation. No, that's guilt back to innocence. Thank you, Aaronic, but that was just the first step. God doesn't want to end in innocence. He wants to bring us to holiness, the holiest order of God. I hope your millennium of waiting for Jesus to come back served its purpose. I'm grateful for John trying to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. There's his mission call in his baby blessing from Zechariah and Luke 1.

No wonder it's John who restores this. then no wonder it's Peter James and John sent by Jesus with his priesthood keys to be able to come and restore these ordinances of exaltation. To me, it's glorious. Not bad for a farm kit. As I was listening to you, Jared, and I was looking at verses 23 and 24, and I saw my own inner battle. The Lord says, do you want to be sanctified?

That sounds painful. But do you want to enter to enter my rest? Yes, I do. Okay, you got to be sanctified. Ooh, that sounds painful. There's this, I want to sanctify you. If you're not sanctified, you don't get to enter into my rest. So here's what you get.

If you don't choose sanctification, here's the children vigil. Which one do you want? Do you want to enter into his rest? I do. Then you have to choose to be sanctified. That is my own inner battle. Have you ever nailed down to, ask the Lord to really, really do what he wants with you, then you hold back. You go, but can we do

this in a really kind of a painless way? Would that be okay if we maybe went a little bit slower through this process? I want to enter into your rest, but do I really want to be sanctified? I remember Elder Christopherson saying once, I tremble at what will be required, I think. No, don't tell me that. It reminds me of Abraham's statement in Abraham 1, verse 2. I know that. I know there's greater happiness and peace and rest for me there's got to be something better how am i going to find it well it's in the blessings of the fathers not only do i want the blessings of the fathers i love what he goes says next i want to be ordained to administer the same this isn't just about me the world needs greater happiness and greater peace and greater rest that's what we're after if we really

believe that wickedness never was happiness, then sanctification is the best news ever. Just as you're describing Hank, it's like, how, but it's so daunting. Well, thank heaven for erronic ordinances. Thank heavens for a preparatory gospel. I'm going to give you a little stepping stone. I like that. I'm going to add a little way for you to, okay, that wasn't so bad. Okay, all right, let's go a little bit further.

I want your chart. That was awesome. side by side, I had the thought, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place, he that hath clean hands, eronic, and a pure heart. Sanctification, Melchazidic.

You're adding to the chart already, John. That's beautiful. It sounds like the very first temple recommend. It tells us there is a qualification to enter into the hill of the Lord, clean hands, pure heart. It's interesting. Coming up in part two of this episode.

What if you're trying to help somebody live by every word that precedeth forth in the mouth of God that doesn't want any of those words. What do I do with my child who's struggling in their faith? What do I do with my loved one who's left the church? Every time I bring it up, they stiff-armed the conversation and shut it down from the start. I've never seen a better place in Scripture

lay out some possibilities of what do I do when I can't share the gospel with somebody. Thank you.