followHIM - Doctrine & Covenants 20-22 : Dr. Jordan Watkins Part I

Episode Date: February 25, 2021

How do we define church? Is it an organized group? Is it people with a common idea? Listen to John, Hank, and Dr. Jordan Watkins as we learn how the Church was organized,  how to define church, and are reminded to not argue with members of other religions. Learn how Joseph and Oliver develop the first “handbook,” why we shouldn’t conflate men with the priesthood, and we are reminded about this being a continual restoration. Show notes and transcript available at https://followhim.co/episodes/

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith. And I'm John, by the way. We love to learn. We love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow Him. My friends, welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with my amazing and funny co-host, John, by the way. Hi, John. Hi, Hank. How are you? I am well. John, I feel like my Come Follow Me studies have increased a thousand times from last year to this year, just doing this podcast. How are you feeling on your Come Follow Me studies this year? This is, this has been such a blessing. In fact, I went to Dollar Tree and invested in a red pen because I don't have time during the podcast to sharpen my red pencil. So now

I did an uptick in the technology and I've got my red ballpoint pen so I can take notes. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, Dollar Tree and John are very close. It's a very close relationship. I once asked the cashier, do they pay you a dollar an hour? How does that work? Yeah, it's all Dollar Tree. All right. John, I got to tell you this before we get into this interview. I received a message from a listener in China. A listener in China who said, he told me, he said, I just want you to know that I love the podcast and it helps me feel, you know, not so isolated out here in China. Uh, and so we want to give a shout out to him, let him know he's not alone. Uh, his name, some people might even know it. His name is Jimmer Fredette and Jimmer. We

are, uh, thank you for being a fan of the show and know that the show is a big fan of you. So keep doing your thing, Jimmer. That's so fun. I showed that to my son because I have a picture of Andrew with Jimmer. When we went down to that father and son's basketball thing they used to have, or I guess they still have it. Maybe not this year because of the pandemic, but I've got Andrew and Jimmer together. So that was a fun day. He was super nice. That's wonderful. So yeah, the follow him and Jimmer Fredette, we are mutual fans of each other, mutual fans. John, who do we have with us today?

Oh, we are excited to have Jordan Watkins with us today. and I am going to go right into it and read his bio, if that's all right. Jordan Watkins is from Alpine. That just sounds like a beautiful place to be from. Anything named Alpine, you know? He received a PhD in American history from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has a bachelor's in history from BYU, a master's in history from Claremont Graduate University, and his book manuscript, Slavery and Sacred Texts, The Bible, the Constitution, and Historical Consciousness in Antebellum America examines the ways in which antebellum biblical and constitutional debates over slavery

brought awareness to the historical distance, separating Americans from their hallowed biblical and revolutionary past. So Antebellum means before the Civil War. His interest in American history stems from a lifelong fascination with Latter-day Saint history, and his work in that field has appeared in the Journal of Mormon History, Mormon Historical Studies, and a number of edited volumes. He is presented at conferences of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the Society for U.S. Intellectual History, the African American Intellectual History Society,

and the Western History Association. He was a volume editor of the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers before joining the faculty in religious education. So, wow, we are thrilled to have you here, Jordan, and thank you for taking some time with us today. I'm very excited to be here. Yeah, I think it's fair to say he is a real historian. From that bio, I'm going, okay, okay, yeah, I've got it. He is a real historian. Not a lot else, but I am a historian. That's fantastic. What did Garrett teach us about pseudo-scholarship, Jordan? I don't think we're going to have any pseudo-scholarship here today.

I'm excited for this. Let's just jump right into the lesson material. Doctrine and Covenants section 20 and April 1830 are big, big days for us, but they were probably even bigger days for the prophet Joseph Smith. Let's talk about the time between the sections 18 and 19 and section 20. We've got a couple of stories to share, John and Jordan. I want to ask you about that time period. Let's talk about this little group of followers and coming up on, coming from the summer of 1829 into April of, of 1830, where is Joseph Smith and who's doing the work? Whenever I think about section 20, I like to go back to, uh, 1829 to some of the revelations that start to talk about church, right? So there's an early revelation to Martin Harris,

section five of the Doctrine and Covenants, where the Lord says if this generation doesn't harden their hearts, he'll establish his church among them, which is kind of anticipating this ecclesiastical organization. That's repeated in section 10 as well. Um, in that section, the Lord also says that he doesn't say this to destroy the church,

but to build it up, which is kind of interesting, right? Cause then we're dealing with multiple, uh, concepts of church. Um, and it's in that same section,

section 10, where he says, whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. So I think that's quite fascinating, right? In the period before the organization of the church, the Lord is is because I think in the church, there's, there's a tension between sort of inclusivity and exclusivity, um, because of the church's claims. And really early on, the Lord is saying, hey, this, this understanding of church, there's

an inclusive understanding, and please don't forget that. It's almost as if he's preempting. He knows the members of the church are going to be prone to really emphasize the exclusive part. And he's saying, well, remember, there are other people out there who are seeking to build up my church who are, in this broader definition, part of my church. So don't forget that. And if that is an important message in the early church, when they actually do need to set themselves apart in some way, they have to establish their identity. If that inclusive message is important then, it's probably even more important now when we have a pretty firm foundation, right? We don't have to sort of stake out our unique identity. That's a given at this point. So I guess part

of the point here to highlight some of these early revelations mentioning church is to say that we need to be builders, right? Not destroyers. I really like that. Yeah. Yeah, I really like that. That section 10, verse 67 that you quoted, this is my doctrine. Whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. We did talk about this with Dr. Haas, but it's something that is that is worth repeating uh that we are not um we are not a let's let's fight with other christian churches right that's that's not what the lord is asking

of us is to to stake our claim against those churches yet we see that plenty of times we see that well i did that as a missionary i think think. Well, so did they, right? As early missionaries. I mean, think of that you'll get to this later on, but think of Parley P. Pratt going to the Shakers and really kind of having it out there and shaking his coattails and leaving the meeting in anger and the Lord in later revelations is saying, you're not, you're not supposed to preach the gospel with contention. Right. But I think part of it is related to this inclusive inclusivity and exclusivity, right? We may, there are some claims about exclusivity that are made in the church and that are part of the revelations. But at the same time, I think the Lord is trying to remind us always, don't forget the bigger picture here. They're all my children, and I'm interested in all of them and their salvation, right?

Wow. Well said. We mentioned this too. We talked about this too briefly in section 18, verse 20. It's easy to remember, 1820 is kind of important, but we're contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil, which, oh, so, and this is, as you said, before this formal organization even happened, and it's kind of the Lord's drawing a different boundary about what a church is. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, me too, me too. Let's just mention a couple of things before we jump into the section. So after the experience of the three and eight witnesses, Joseph Smith moves back to Harmony, Pennsylvania. He goes back. That's where his farm is that he bought from his father-in-law. That's where his wife Emma is. But he leaves

Hiram and Oliver in Palmyra to watch over the printing. And something interesting happens that I think this is such a good story. John, did you find that? Where can our listeners find this next story? They're going to want to find this. I think they could find it here. This is what we call a book, if you go back in time. It's in the Gospel Library. The Saints book, and I am on page, if you use pages, page 80. Well, I'll just read it. I'll use my most interesting voice.

That fall, while the printers made steady progress on the Book of Mormon, a former judge named Abner Cole began publishing a newspaper on Grandin's Press. So remember, the Book of Mormon was being printed at the E.B. Grandin Press Building in Palmyra. Working at night in the shop, after Grandin's staff went home, Abner had access to printed pages from the Book of Mormon, which was not yet bound or ready for sale. Abner soon began poking fun at the gold Bible in his newspaper, and during the winter, he printed excerpts from the book alongside sarcastic commentary. When Hiram and Oliver learned what Abner was doing, they confronted him. What right have you to print the Book of Mormon in this way? Hiram demanded.

Do you not know that we have received the copyright? It's none of your business, Abner said. I have hired the press and I will print what I please. I forbid you to print any more of that book in your paper, Hiram said. I don't care, Abner said. Unsure what to do, Hiram and Oliver sent word to Joseph and Harmony, who returned to Palmyra at once. He found Abner at the printing office casually reading his own newspaper.

You seem hard at work, Joseph said. How do you do, Mr. Smith? He was on his phone. I mean, today, that's what would be going on, right? But no, he was reading his own newspaper, it says. How do you do, Mr. smith abner replied dryly mr cole joseph said the book of mormon and the right of publishing it belonged to me and i forbid you meddling with it abner threw off his coat and pushed up his sleeves do you want to fight sir he barked pounding his fist together if you want to fight just come on joseph smiled

you would better keep your coat on he said it's cold and i'm not going to fight, just come on. Joseph smiled. You would better keep your coat on, he said. It's cold and I'm not going to fight you. He calmly continued, but you have got to stop printing my book. If you think you are the best man, Abner said, just pull off your coat and try it. There is a law. Man, this guy, he really wants to box. He wants to fight. And Joseph could wrestle people. So when I first heard this, I wondered what might happen. There is a law, Joseph responded, and you will find that out if you did not know it before. But I shall not fight you, for that will do no good.

Abner knew he was on the wrong side of the law. He calmed down and stopped printing excerpts from the Book of Mormon in his newspaper. And that's the whole thing from Saints. That is just fantastic. I love that story. I think I'm going to share that. I have four boys, and I like that statement. I will not fight you. It will do no good.

I think I am going to share that with my— I have a couple of older boys who think that sometimes fighting does a body good. We just talked about the Lord telling them not to fight against other churches. Not to contend. Joseph's kind of going, okay. The other thing we need to talk about, just a couple of items before we jump into the section, Jordan. I want to mention, one, the printer's manuscript. A lot of people don't know that there are two different, basically original manuscripts. One is the manuscript that Oliver Cowdery actually took

down as Joseph dictated. But then following that, it seems they'd learned their lesson from having just one original copy. And so they make a second printers, uh, or they make a second copy called the printer's manuscript. And that's Oliver Cowdery going back through and rewriting the entire thing to me. That's, you know, we think of it. Oh yeah. I just had to make another copy, but can you imagine sitting down and rewriting the entire thing. There's also a man I'd like to mention by the name of John Gilbert. John is, I think he is on staff, right? Yes. I think he's the chief compositor of the type. Yeah. We often talk about Grandin being kind of the printer, but he's more of the type. Yeah. We often talk about Gil, um, Grandin being kind of the printer, but he's more of the businessman. This guy, John Gilbert is the one who's actually

setting the type for the book of Mormon. And I just, I just wanted to mention him, um, is he, uh, he gave a lot of interviews, important interviews. It says, um, that he was, he was actually quite proud of the fact that he set most of this type after the book becomes, it says, that he was actually quite proud of the fact that he set most of this type after the book becomes a little more famous. Robin Scott Jensen is writing this. He's a historian at the JSP, so he's good. Okay, great. It says, what I find interesting about John Gilbert is, of course, we all know the story that the Book of Mormon manuscript was not punctuated. It was one giant run-on sentence, which isn't totally true. There are a few scattered punctuation marks here and there.

Sounds like my middle school term papers, which isn't totally true. There are a few scattered punctuation marks here and there. But essentially, John Gilbert had to punctuate the entire Book of Mormon manuscript. He says, and you know, I'm not an English major. I'm a history major, but I know enough about the English language to know that punctuation matters in engaging with a text. It's subtle, but it's important to know the phrasing or ending of a sentence. Gilbert introduces paragraphing so that the formatting structure, the way in which people pause at certain phrases is coming from someone who you know, someone who's not a believer

in Joseph Smith. I find that absolutely fascinating that here's this, you know, here's this man. And I don't know if he's inspired or not, but he is putting in the punctuation. And then one last person I want to mention is Thomas Marsh. Jordan, do you want to tell us a little bit about Thomas Marsh? I have his story here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall, he's from New York. He actually, I believe he works in a press for a time. But I know he leaves his home very young. We don't know all of the reasons why in the subsequent revelation given to him,

it kind of mentions his background briefly. But eventually he hears about this golden Bible, something of that nature, and finds his way to Palmyra and shows up just as the first 16 pages are coming off the press. And Martin Harris is there, and Martin is obviously excited. He's put a lot of work and money into this endeavor. And Mar shows up, and Martin excitedly, I would imagine, shows him, hey, look at what the prophet has produced. Right. And he joins the church. And the book isn't even off the press. And here he reads just 16 pages of it, receives a witness of its truthfulness, and moves forward.

That, to me, is amazing. And Thomas B. Marsh is going to become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, right? Right. Right. In 1835, he's a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, right? Right, right. In 1835, he's a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and he's one that eventually, like a number of the early converts, leaves the church for a time, but finds his way back to Utah and back into the church. Wow. And you mentioned Martin Harris, and I think we just need to give one last shout out. We have

been talking about Martin for many weeks, right, John? I mean, yeah, Martin Harris has been, he's been a subject for us for a long time. But we, I just, everyone just kind of remember this date that on August 25th, 1829, Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to Grandin for $3,000 to print 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. I just feel like, you know, let's just give a moment of, you know, a fist pump to heaven for Martin Harris. Uh, cause to me that is, I don't know, to me, that is just a, a beautiful and amazing thing, uh, that he was asked to do and he came through. All right, let's, should we jump into this? Is there anything else before we get into section 20, Jordan, before we get in? What, what do we, what else do we need to know? What else do you teach your students before they get

into this section? Well, this is a section you've already talked about, but section 18 is really crucial to understand in relationship to section 20. So, section 18, of course, is directed to, well, it's actually directed to sort of three audiences, right? Oliver Cowdery, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, and then this future 12 disciples. And just before that, in Joseph Smith's history, just before this revelation in section 18, Joseph says that they're at the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, and they're working on the translation at this point. So June of 1829, and they are praying about a question.

And the question they have is, John came in May, he delivered the priesthood of Aaron, and he said that he acted under the authority of Peter, James, and John, and said that they had the keys to a higher priesthood and that that would be given to us at some future point. So now here we are in June of 1829, and they're asking about that promise. And there's a really interesting account that says that the word of the Lord came to us in the chamber, meaning the room in the Whitmer home, commanding us that I should ordain Oliver Cowdery to be an elder in the church of Jesus Christ, that he also should ordain me to the same office. And after having been thus ordained, we should proceed to ordain others to the same office, according as it should be made known unto

us from time to time. Also commanding us, and this is, I think, what is most relevant here, also commanding us that as soon as practicable, we should call together all those who had already been baptized by us to bless bread and break it with them, to take wine, bless it and drink it with them and doing all these things in the name of the Lord, but to defer our own ordination until we had called together our brethren and had their sanction. So I think that's really notable because it seems like the Lord here is saying, call all the believers together and organize yourselves and don said to defer our own ordination until we had called the church. And it doesn't quite finish. And then that's crossed out. Well, there's no church in June of 1829.

But that tells us something about being careful about reading these historical documents, right? Sometimes they're projecting their views onto the past and, uh, and sometimes they catch it like they do here and say, wait, uh, we didn't have a church, uh, cross out church, just say, call together our brethren. Um, but what that does tell us is that by the summer of 1829, I think Joseph is quite seriously thinking about the organization of a church. I also mention this because in Joseph Smith's history, that 1839 history, what is now section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants directly follows that account of

hearing the voice of the Lord in the room in the Whitmer home. And in section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord describes Oliver Cowdery as being an apostle, or he's called with the same calling as the apostle Paul, which, and maybe it's important here to note too, that in the late 1820s and early 1830s, the term apostle was used synonymously with elder and with disciple. So for example, actually in June of 1830, after the church is organized, John Whitmer gets his elder's license. And in that elder's license, he's referred to as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, somebody comes along later, I think in 1835, and crosses that out, and you can see it crossed out.

But those terms take new meaning over time. And I think that's an important lesson about the Restoration in general, that all of these terms and ideas are developing over time. But section 18, the real reason I wanted to mention it is because in that section, the Lord told Oliver Cowdery to rely on the things he had written, meaning the Book of Mormon, and noted that it contained all things concerning the foundation of his church. And he promised that, hey, Oliver, if you build up this church according to my gospel, according to the Book of Mormon, the gates of hell will not prevail against you. And so then in the summer of 1829, Oliver Cowdery starts using the Book of Mormon to create a document called the Articles of the Church of Christ. And this is actually notable in part because this is the first document that contains the church's first name, the church of Christ. And notice this, this is how it opens, a commandment from God unto Oliver,

how he should build up his church. It's written in the voice of the Lord, which I think is pretty interesting. And that's of course, similar to many of Joseph's revelations. I think Oliver's wanting it to be received in that way. And then it goes on to repeat some of the language in the revelations given to Oliver Cowdery. So section 18, you can find some of the language there in his articles of the Church of Christ. It contains much of the content from the Book of Mormon on these particular issues about baptism, about ordination of priesthood and teachers, about the administration of sacrament, about church meetings. So I think that's important to know that the question becomes, right, okay, well, what is the relationship between Oliver Cowdery's articles of the Church of Christ and the articles and covenants, which we now know as Section 20. And it's hard to know that for sure.

We actually also don't know for sure when Section 20 is produced. Parts of it may be produced as early as the summer of 1829, because in Joseph Smith's history, it's also included after the experience in the room in Father Whitmer's home. But we also think that he probably doesn't finish this document until after the church is organized, because of the way that it talks about that day on April 6th as something that has happened. So this is a curious revelation, and it is received as a revelation, even though it's quite different from Joseph's classic revelations. In Joseph's classic the case in section 20. So, what that suggests, I think, is that there's a very active process by which this revelation

is produced. I think that's true of every revelation, but it's not a passive process, right? God is working through his prophet. He's not, you know, Grant Underwood, I remember this from a class at BYU when I was an undergrad, Joseph Smith is not a fax machine. He's not a human fax machine, right? God works through the mind of that prophet. And I think in this instance, we have a really interesting case of that. Joseph, I think, is perhaps reflecting on the Book of Mormon in producing this text. Perhaps he even is reflecting on Oliver Cowdery's document. But unlike Cowdery's document, it doesn't present itself explicitly as a revelation

in the same way that Cowdery's does, which is, again, I think also interesting. Well, Jordan, I was just going to say that I love you're giving our listeners and John and I a skill here, which is don't assume that the terms and the development of the church happens the way you think it would with your 2021 knowledge, right? I, I, a lot of people are think, well, didn't, you know, they were using terms, Aaronic priesthood, Melchizedek priesthood right there when they got them, right? No, no, this was a developing, this was a developing thing. Uh, and, uh, they, they, it wasn't a, okay, the Lord's going to lay out the plan here and we've got to get barcodes on the temple recommends. It was more,

you know, they're kind of, I don't know if I want to say winging it, but they're figuring it out as they go. I think that's an essential lesson here. And yeah, when it comes to the things of God, for some reason, we think to ourselves, God works in sort of an instant rather than through a process. But that kind of neglects the human element here. We know the phrase, Elder Holland said it, right, that we're imperfect people is all God has ever had to work with it and he deals with it and so should we. And that's an excellent point, but we can also add to that. Not only is it all he has, but we're actually, people are actually part of his work and his glory, right? So if the restoration itself is not part of this process that allows us to make mistakes and repent and grow and develop, then what's the point, right? If the purpose is for us to become like Jesus

Christ, why would he not also use the process of the restoration as a means to that greater end? That is a beautiful, that is a beautiful connection. And it, because if we don't come at it with that lens, we might end up really confused going, wait, their name wasn't the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the very beginning. Was the Lord not, did he not know the name of his church? No, he is, he is letting human beings figure this out as they go. And that's my experience in life. John, I don't know about you. You, you're, you're very spiritual very spiritual. You two both are very spiritual. But for me, I'm figuring this out as I go. In parenting, in marriage, in my own spirituality,

it's a day-by-day thing where I'm figuring things out. Well, one of the things that I just love about the Doctrine and Covenants as a whole is a majority of the sections are answers to a question, because they're figuring it out. They're, well, how do we do this? Well, how do we do this? We just read this in the Book of Mormon. Do we need to do this? And then, of course, going through the JST and all these questions came up, and the Lord knows the answer, but maybe sometimes He waits until we ask. And then sometimes they're sorry they asked, I think. Puts further burdens and obligations on Him and everything. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but you know what I mean. Yeah, well, I'm with you. I think,

so Jordan, what I'm hearing is section 29 was not, or section 20, I should say, was not a sit down, write it out in one sitting. It sounds like a years maybe. Yeah, it doesn't appear to be like, and many of his other revelations are like that, right? Where somebody shows up and says, I'm interested what the Lord wants from me. And Joseph's like, take out a pen, right? In the case of Orson Pratt, he's too shy to actually write his own revelation. But this appears to be more of a process. Now, again, we can't say for certain because of the dating of these documents is complicated. But it does seem like he begins before the church is organized, perhaps as early as summer of 1829, and doesn't end until soon after the church is organized perhaps as early as summer of 1829 and doesn't end until soon after the church is organized. The Articles and Covenants was the first revelation published in the church's

newspaper, the Evening and Morning Star. It's actually the only revelation that appeared there twice. It became the second section of the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, right after, as you might guess, the preface. Its importance is also suggested by the fact that there are various extent copies remaining. And what that suggests is that they made multiple copies of this document, right? Because it was so important. Even a newspaper not affiliated with the church, the Painesville Telegraph, published what actually might be our earliest version of this revelation. And that's actually published in the Joseph Smith papers. And in doing so, the editor described the Articles and Covenants as the Mormon creed.

And in part, I think in part of the reason for that is because it contains similar kinds of information to other creedal documents, an account of the organization's history, a description of beliefs, instructions about things like baptism or administration of the Lord's Supper, church duties and offices. But it really orients the early members' lives in a pretty profound way. You could think of it as the constitution of the church, perhaps comparable to something like Section 42 and the way that that, the law of consecration, sort of orients early members of the church. This is almost, it could be considered a manual, you know, like we have a handbook of instructions. This feels like a handbook of instructions in part. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. I think it's worth repeating what you mentioned a little bit earlier. This handbook will take on new meaning over time as they gain new insight and understanding about things like priesthood, right? But yeah, I think it does function in that way. And in fact, we know that it functions in that way because a couple of months

later in that June 9 conference, they are reading this document and then they are using it to perform the sacrament, to give out licenses, right? So they do use it as a manual. I think what you said, Jordan, about making copies of this and taking out, I mean, if you were a missionary and went and taught people about the gospel, well, then what do we do? Yeah, that's what I would say. It was like, okay, so believe this, I'll see you later. Should I organize a branch?

What does a branch do? What happens there? What do we... And so, yeah, this becomes like an early handbook of instructions. And I think I read that that's one of the reasons it was copied, is so the missionaries could go out and, how do I organize a branch? What does that look like exactly? Yeah. When I was a kid, this was one of those sections where we hit it as a family,

and I started looking ahead going, oh, wow. It's 84 verses long. Yeah, it was a Jacob chapter five moment where I was, oh, we're going to be here all day. Where do you take your students as you jump into this, Jordan? There are maybe three or four different sections here. We could say that kind of the first section, maybe even the first just four verses, I read it almost as we're a church too. We're official too. There's even some evidence perhaps that what goes on on April 6th

occurs in relationship to a law in New York that has been passed that you have to organize in a particular kind of way. So in some ways it presents itself as a church among churches. But pretty quickly, it also presents itself as a sort of the church among churches. Um, following that section, you have the second section, uh, I don't know, verses five through 12 or so, which I think is indicating Joseph has received authority from God. And this is kind of what's cool about this. I think it's, it's kind of the early history of the church summarized in these passages. This might be our first earliest account of the first vision, right?

Notice that passage after it was truly manifested under the first elder that he received remission of his sins. He was entangled again in the vanities of the world. Now, we don't think that's all that detailed of an account, but that might be our first account, right? Because Joseph doesn't write his first account until 1832. But that's big news, I think. I think that could be considered a very short account of the first vision given here. This is years before the first account that we have. And it accords well with that 1832 account where Joseph is emphasizing, I went in and prayed and got a remission of my sins, right? I was forgiven of my sins.

It also aligns in suggesting that he then got entangled again in the vanities of the world. That's like 1832 account that he repents and that God sends an angel. Right. So it's an early text about our history in this in this revelation. It mentions the Book of Mormon. Of course, it mentions the three witnesses. It's got this, I like to highlight this part when I teach my students. So it's got this phrase here, all of this demonstrates that the holy scriptures are true and that God does

inspire men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old. Now, we can talk a little bit as we get to the next section about the theology in this document, but what really is sort of radical about belief among these people at this time is belief in a new prophet, right? Most of Joseph's American contemporaries believed that the Bible was the ultimate and final word of God, right? Sola Scriptura. And they rejected the idea that you could have new revelations that would somehow be as binding as the Bible. That kind of comes up, skip ahead a little bit to section 21, where, okay, this is his word, you shall receive as if from my own mouth and all patience and faith, this idea of a living prophet. And as you were saying that, Jordan, I'm thinking about

Jesus coming along with the Sermon on the Mount and saying these completely audacious things, like you've heard it said of old time, but I say, and for them, it was the old prophets. That's what you rely on. And would you say these folks, hey, this is all about the Bible. And now, whoa, this whole idea of, no, we've got a living prophet as well. Yeah. To drive home that point you're making, there are a few people in this period who are starting to challenge the idea that it's the Bible alone. So I studied the transcendentalists a little bit. So Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson gives an address in 1838 to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School. And he says a lot of things in that address. One of the things he says is men have come to speak of revelation as somewhat long ago given and done. And part of what Emerson wants to say is, why can't God speak to me today? Theodore Parker will say similar kinds of things. He'll say, God made the Bible for the soul, not the soul for the Bible. In other words, why would it be the Bible alone? Why can't God speak to me today?

Now, that's pretty radical stuff, right? Emerson doesn't get invited back to Harvard for 30 years. So that's not seen as being okay. And I guess I would also note that transcendentalists are not saying what Joseph's saying. What makes Joseph's position more radical is are not saying, they're not saying what Joseph's saying. What makes Joseph's position, right, more radical is he's saying, no, it's not just that me through my conscience can reach the divine. It's that we have prophets like we had prophets in old, and those prophets can produce written revelations that are as binding as the biblical text.

That's what makes this, I use the term radical, it's radical for Joseph's contemporaries. I don't think Joseph would have been invited back to Harvard University School either. He never would have been invited in the first place, right? I like how you're breaking this up for us. So we've got our first section here. We're a church among churches, but we're also the church, which is fascinating to me because we have that same concept today. Yes, we're a church among churches. By the way, we are the church among churches. We have that same kind of tension today. Then the history, I like that you've done this 5 through 12. I've never really noticed that before.

Look at this just brief, concise history. What do we do after that? Where do you go from 13? That third section, I think, is outlining beliefs. And I just talked about how radical, you know, the idea of having a new prophet was. Many of these beliefs and these verses are not all that unique. What do we get? We get creation. We get fall. We get the need for an atonement. Those aren't beliefs that would have set the church apart from their Christian contemporaries. Now, we should know,

yeah, of course, Joseph's understanding of these concepts in their particulars will evolve and develop over the years, and they will become distinctive, right? But right here in 1830, in this section, you know, a Christian maybe could have happened upon this section and gone, if they didn't know that somebody was claiming to be a prophet producing it, gone. Yeah, I believe that stuff. And what did you call it? It was sometimes called the Mormon's Creed. Somebody wrote that, because that's what I see here. This is like basic Christianity about Jesus coming and all the things that he did. In fact, one of the things I love to show my students with paper scriptures is when

you find a page that has that many footnotes on it, then you know it's doctrinally rich, you know, and this is page 35 that we're looking at right now. It kind of highlights what are the basics. These are the basics. And again, it's no surprise that this document has a relationship to the Book of Mormon, right? If you're a member of this church, you believe in these basic teachings, right? We sometimes forget that every early member of the church was a convert, right? From another Christian denomination. And they would have seen this and gone, okay, good. Yeah, I've believed in these things. I now believe in some other things too, but these things are central. These first principles, and that's, boy, to me, I think I've talked about this before,

sorry, but I had somebody ask me once, hey, how many years have you taught the Book of Mormon? What's the one thing that you've noticed? And I said, you know, it's first principles, how often faith in Christ and repentance are mentioned together, and how sometimes followed by baptism, Holy Ghost. I'm looking at verse 29, and we know that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ and worship the Father in His name and endure in faith on His name to the end. I mean, it's this basic restatement, and so I like the way you said that, that people would read it and go, yeah, okay, yeah. This is what I've always known, and there's more.

Yeah, and you've got what Elder McConkie would call the pillars of eternity here, right? You've got creation, fall, atonement, resurrection. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. There are a few things that maybe would stand out a little bit. So, verse, what is it, 27? Those who would come after who should believe in the gifts, spiritual gifts, gifts of the spirit. Now there were people in this period who did believe in gifts of the spirit, charismatics, as they were called, many evangelical groups, but there were also others who were saying were what are called cessationists, right? They believed that the gifts ceased with the apostles. So this does distinguish them in some ways in suggesting these are people who believe in a return of

the spiritual gifts. What would you say, Jordan, about verse 32, that a man may fall from grace? And wasn't that a contrast with Calvinism of the time? Yeah, yeah. So that's a clear rejection of Calvinist belief, right? This Calvinist belief, one of the tenets of Calvinism. Unfortunately, whenever we talk about Calvinism, we only talk about like this one thing, right? When it's really rich theologically in so many ways. But the idea of predestination, right?

You are elected for salvation or damnation, and you can't do anything about it. And along with that idea is this concept of the perseverance of the saints. If you are elect, you will remain elect. You cannot fall from that elect position. And so this passage, it seems like a direct response to that, right? There is a possibility that man may fall from grace. Now, it bears noting, I think, that during the revivals of the 18th and then early 19th centuries, there is somewhat of a theological shift from Calvinism to what is called Arminianism.

Not Arminianism, but Arminianism. It's tied to a Dutch theologian, Jacobus Arminius. And he emphasized that the individual had a role in accepting or receiving the grace of Christ. So that is a rejection of Calvinism. And during the revivals, many of the evangelical groups, Methodists, Baptists, others, started to embrace that concept a bit more. I mean, that's why you would go to a revival, so that you could perhaps be moved to embrace the grace of Christ, right? So I suppose what I'm suggesting is it's kind of, this verse wouldn't have stood out as strange to those from evangelical

backgrounds who have already started to accept this Arminian emphasis on receiving. You have the ability to receive the grace of Christ as an individual. That's interesting. A lot of the early converts, and maybe I actually done the, my historical research on this, but it seems that Brigham Young comes from Methodism a little bit. Uh, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, maybe it was easier for someone to bridge into this new religion from Methodism than it was from maybe Presbyterianism. Yeah. I think that's probably true. I mean, we could also talk and maybe we will talk a little bit about restorationists, right? Like the Campbellites. Now, they also have some serious problems with Joseph Smith, but it's no wonder that a lot of the converts come from in and around the area of Kirtland, where there are these restorationist groups, people who are talking about the restoration of certain things. Right.

Um, but, but yes, so, but I think evangelical groups were more prone, uh, to accept, uh,

this message. Yeah. I just, I love what comes after that verse about that. There's a possibility that man may fall from grace. Therefore let the church and notice who is being addressed, take heed and pray always lest they fall into temptation. So there's some counsel that comes after that idea that, yeah, it is possible to fall from grace.

The perseverance of the saints is not what we're talking about here. And therefore, and then again in verse 37, and again by way of commandment to the church, and we see why they would read this at a conference, because this is commandments for all of us. And it seems now they shift into, okay, now that we know what we believe, is this like how we're going to put this into practice? Is that what comes next? Yeah, I think that's, yeah, that's the fourth section. That's the really long section. That's the section where your kids might tune out a bit. Right. But yeah, it turns to instructions regarding ordinances, offices, duties. Now, again, it bears emphasizing, we've said it before. These offices are not clearly associated with Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods at this point. Now they will become associated with those priesthoods later, especially after 1835.

But nonetheless, it is clear that certain offices have certain rights. And that's one of the other things that is starting to set this church apart, right? I wanted to ask one thing or maybe just say one thing and you could comment on this. And that is, I think when I read this with my family and I read deacon, teacher, priest, in my kids' minds are automatically going to come 12, 14, and 16. And that's not the case here. No, that's not the case here. Um, in fact, I've seen some recent research by Paul Reeve that suggests I've got one example here, 1842 Salem, Massachusetts, 66 members of the church, one priest, one elder.

Now it wasn't always that way, but, but I think maybe around 40% of the adult male membership, it depends on the, where you're at. So that's a 20th century development that we are preparing every male to receive the priesthood. That is not the case in the 19th century and certainly not the case in the church's beginning. So it doesn't sound like it would be odd at all to be a member of the church, be a man, and not hold any office of any priesthood. Which probably bears emphasizing we have come to, and hopefully I think we're moving away from this, we have come to conflate priesthood and men more than they did in the early church, probably because of that, right? This idea that every adult male can get the priesthood. We've probably come to make that conflation in ways that they perhaps would not have because they were not conferring the priesthood upon all male members of the church. Right. So they wouldn't say, we'd like to thank the priesthood for stacking the chairs, right?

They would never say that. Yeah. I'm glad you bring this up. I think that the Come Follow Me manual suggests a great talk to go read from President Oaks in April of 2014. In fact, I have my students write a paper on this. tell me what the difference is between the keys of the priesthood, the authority of the priesthood, the power of the priesthood, and who holds it and who uses it, and things like that. And I think in that talk that the Come Follow Me manual recommends that we read, he even says we shouldn't refer to the men as the priesthood. They may be holders of the priesthood, and some of them may be, and not all of them may be. But yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.

Yeah, maybe something to note there too, and maybe I already mentioned this, but they do immediately start using this document in relationship to the offices, for example. So at the June conference that follows, Joseph and Oliver Cowdery ordain some of the members to these offices. Samuel H. Smith, one of the original members of the church, is ordained as an elder. Joseph Smith Sr. and Hiram Smith are ordained as priests at that June conference. So they are taking this instruction and applying it pretty immediately. I have always loved in section 20 that the Lord has a bigger church in mind than this small little group of six people, right? Because we've got to visit the house of each member, and they're probably looking at each other going, we all live in the same house.

Yeah, we've got the Colesville branch, the Harmony branch. They're just basically three families, right? So, in fact, Craig Osler said something really funny about this, because if you've ever been to the Fayette, you know, the Whitmer home, he said there are 60 people in there. He says, that could be the first miracle of the church. They got 60 people in there. Because you walk in there, you think, you got 60 people in here?

Were they smaller back then? And he says, if you go from one place to another you can take a recommend with you basically right that you're worthy yeah and um they've got to be thinking we all know each other right like this is how so it's almost a almost a on it i like to sometimes call it kind of a patriarchal blessing for the church that hey hey, you're going to get bigger. Hey, you're going to succeed. Hey, this is going to be great, so get ready. And it's got to be kind of an exciting document in that way. Yeah, that's kind of an implied message.

This church is going to stay, and it's going to grow, and you're going to need some order here in how you do things. And when did we decide you become a deacon at 12 and a teacher at 14? And now it's the 12th year. It's not 12th birthday anymore. Yeah. I'm going to pretend to be smart here. I actually read a book called Mormonism in Transition by Thomas Alexander. And that's really that shift from 1880 to 1930 is this, the church changes dramatically. And then John, that's where a lot of that comes from is this idea of curriculum and young men's, young women's programs, all of that primary all comes into its own there in that 50-year period. I think maybe it's a good time just to bring up, I love this phrase that I believe is President

Nelson's phrase is, I may be wrong, but the idea of a continuous restoration. And I like to tell my students, hey, these documents are new, relatively. We've had the Bible for thousands of years, but we've only had the Book of Mormon for a couple of hundred. We're learning things and we're still, the restoration continues. I like that idea. Jordan, I want to ask you a question. With the understanding of these priesthood offices changing so much, is it still appropriate for me to use section 20 to talk to deacons today, teachers today, priests and elders today? Would you feel like this is still a usable document when it comes to those priesthood offices? Certainly. I would add maybe the caveat that it's a usable living document in the sense that I think it's as

important as a historian to try and understand the original meaning of these texts, right? But after I've done that work, why should I not then work to apply these revelations to my own life. And I think God wants us to do that. And we just know that the early church was doing that, right? So in June of 1829, when they get section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Lord explains what the 12 disciples will be doing. They may be read that in one way in 1829. Well, in 1835, when the Quorum of the Twelve was actually called, and the church has been through so much since then, they may read it in a bit of a different way at that point. And that's perfectly fine. Now, again, I do think we have to be careful and recognize that we are making applications that they may not have made, but that that's an okay thing. Can't that be part of, as John suggested, sort of the process, the continuing restoration, that we go back to these texts and treat them like living documents and allow them to continue to teach us. And in that sense, Hank, I think your comment about a patriarchal blessing is spot on. I read

my patriarchal blessing one way when I received it. And then I lived my life and realized that, oh, not quite how I thought it would go. But I went back or I'd go back and read it again and draw new meanings in light of my new contexts. And I think the Lord wants us to be doing that. Oh, that's, that's excellent. Cause I'm seeing things here that priests and teachers still do right. Visit the house of each member That's taken on different title and different names over the years. Home teaching now ministering. But it's still there. Teacher's duty is to my son is I have a son who is in the teacher's quorum. I would love to tell him you're watching over the church. Right. Make sure there's no lying and backbiting and evil speaking. That's, hey, everyone should

be doing that. Just the other night in Young Men's, all right, we're all going, bring your snow shovel. We're going to shovel some driveways. They were, it was a watching over the church physical kind of thing that they could do. And my boys took off and did it. And it was, it was great. Let's keep going here. Cause I want to talk about the actual day of organization. So how far does this fourth section go? Is that really the rest of? Yeah, I think it's kind of the rest of it. Maybe some kind of standout things to mention might be.

So there's a mention about candidates for baptism, right? And that candidacy follows the Book of Mormon, except this one phrase, that they will truly manifest by their works that they have received the gift of Christ under the remission of their sins, right? So in verse 37, it includes requirements for baptism, and it follows the Book of Mormon. The one addition it adds is this phrase, that the candidates will truly manifest by their works that they have received the gift of Christ under the remission of their sins. Now, Oliver Cowdery's articles of the Church of Christ included a similar but different phrase. His phrase was that each

member shall speak and tell the church of their progress in the way of eternal life. Now, that idea of sharing your conversion story, accepting Christ's grace, that was not uncommon among many denominations in this period. And I think that's probably what Oliver Cowdery is tapping into. But you notice the difference there. Cowdery is placing an emphasis on words. The Articles and Covenants is placing an emphasis on works. And I think Cowdery's feeling like this is undermining the doctrine of grace. And he commands Joseph Smith in the name of God to change this passage. Wow. Okay.

I'm excited to hear. And Joseph's response. Who are you? What was that they fought about? No, no, they didn't fight. Yeah.

He Abner Cole. He's like, take your coat off. Let fought about? No, no, they didn't fight about it. Yeah. Abner Cole. He's like, take your coat off. Let's go. No, he said, by what authority he took upon him to command me to add or diminish to or from a revelation or commandment from Almighty God. By the way, that language is in section 20, which kind of echoes passage in Revelation. But that highlights an important point. These early members are figuring out what it means to have a prophet. Joseph is figuring out what it means to be a prophet. And this isn't, of course, the end of this, right? There will be future settings in which Oliver Cowdery is chastised for maybe

paying attention to Hiram Page or, um, placing sort of faith in somebody else who has not been designated as God's prophet. Right. And, and, and Joseph, incidentally, right. Joseph doesn't in those situations just say, hey, don't you remember section 20? And we'll talk about section 21. Don't you remember those sections? He's like, well, okay, I guess I need some more insight here, right?

Which tells you something perhaps about his kind of growing into the role of prophet as well. I love that. That is so important. They are figuring it out. Let's have patience with them and not hold them to a standard that they should have it all figured out and they should be doing everything perfectly. Well, do we hold ourselves to that same standard? We're still trying to figure out how to receive revelation. We're still trying to figure out our own patriarchal blessings and our duties and our callings. We're still trying to figure it out.

Well, it's funny that I gasped hearing that someone's going to command the prophet. Oh, I know. But in that day, Oliver probably would have said, what? What's the problem? I'm one of the elders of the church. Yeah. Well, also note that Oliver had written a document that he thought would be used, and it doesn't get used. It gets sort of pushed aside. By the way, in the Revelation Book 1, Revelation Book 1 is a book of the earliest revelations.

So there would be copies, and then they decided, well, we probably should have a book of all these revelations, right? In Revelation book one, this revelation says, given to Joseph Smith, the seer, and then there's an addition by Oliver Cowdery and to Oliver, you know, he he had done a lot. He was very invested and he wanted to make it make sure that people knew his his place, even though sometimes he didn't know his place. Right. But but, yes. And Joseph Joseph, to some extent, is is kind of willing to say, get some pushback right now. Right. Clearly correct corrected him there. Um, but so, so yeah, it's a different setting in part because of the context in part because of Joseph's own personality. Oh man, I can't tell you how much I like this. And I will add that the, the tension between grace and work is still going on today.

I mean, we still have that in the church today. Like, where do we fall on that? It kind of depends on which church leader you're listening to, right, along that spectrum. So I love that that was happening on the first month of the church, this tension between grace and works. I think another phrase that they added, isn't it true, in verse 37 that we were just on, is the broken heart, contrite spirit phrases, which I just, I love those. I made a note because I wanted to comment that I heard Sherry Dew talking about the process of making a wild horse to a tame horse, and what is the phrase that we use? We use it to break them, and she said, you know, a broken heart is one that's submissive to

its master, and so I like that idea, which is also a Book of Mormon, and it's in the Bible, too, of a broken heart and a contrite spirit as part of that requirements for baptism. I just wanted to. Isn't that true, Jordan? That was also added. I think you're right. I don't know when it's added, but I think that is one of the phrases that is added. And that bears mentioning, too, right, that this is a text that is revised, not heavily, but it is revised, as are a number of the revelations. That tells us something

about the process of revelation, right? I think that point too is interesting. Joseph is not saying, throughout his life, he emphasizes the need for Christ, right? And the revelations do as well, and the grace of Christ. I think one of the things that this is anticipating is members of the church are going to have to do a lot of work. They are one of the things that this is anticipating is members of the church are going to have to do a lot of work. They are going to be called to do hard things. So it's sort of anticipating all of that work that they will have to do as members of the church in emphasizing works. I think maybe it bears mentioning, and then maybe we can move to actually,

I guess we haven't actually talked about the organization of the church yet, but yeah, but there are these phrases in here, right? The prayers for the sacrament. And those come out of the Book of Mormon, right? But I love this thought that B.H. Roberts, so B.H. Roberts, right, convert to the church, amazing thinker of the church, early historian of the church, he said this about those prayers. He said, these prayers of consecration are the most perfect forms of sacred literature to be found. And when I read that, I'm like, really? Are they? I think we read them so much, we hear them so much that we just take them for granted. But they're profound. They embody, Truman Madsen, who wrote a biography of Roberts, said that Roberts found these prayers to embody in masterful, rich, heavily freighted phrases, the whole of the gospel.

That's pretty cool stuff, right? That, again, I think we just take it for granted, like, okay, there's the sacrament prayer. But for Roberts, this was actually sort of proof of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. And so it's, of course, I think important that we find these prayers in the church's organizing document. Oh, thank you for saying that. And I think that in the Come Follow Me manual, it actually says, as you read about the sacrament in the doctrine in section 20, try to read these sacred prayers from the perspective of someone hearing them for the first time. What insights do you receive about the sacrament, about yourself? How might these insights affect the way you prepare to take the sacrament this week. And I have a friend, you guys might have heard of Brother Gary Pohl, and he just, I love the way he said it once,

he said, if Heavenly Father had a favorite scripture, and he said, I don't know if he does, but if he did, he might arrange it so that his people would hear it often. And he might even arrange it so the person saying it would be kneeling, and all of us would be listening. And I think I'm really intrigued with the things the Lord has us repeat. And this one is a weekly thing, and it is. Slow down and see how beautiful and rich this prayer is and what it's saying. And I thought I was going to ask you, because I was intrigued by this, that it says before the prayer here that the priest would kneel with the elder

or priest will kneel with the church. And I wonder, did they used to all kneel down for that time? Yeah, I think that is the case. Now, the difficulty here is, right, the records, even if they are kneeling every time, they're not going to tell us that, because it's just something they do. But I do think that's the case. And I think one of the reasons we don't is just kind of logistics, right? We're sitting in those pews, and that's not going to work. But I think it would have been the case. And somebody probably could tell us that, yes, they would have all knelt for these prayers. Wow. I get a chance to do this in my New Testament classes.

I feel kind of left out sometimes in these church history discussions going, I don't know what I'm doing. But we do study the sacrament in the New Testament classes. And I love to ask my students questions they probably haven't thought of. Why are there two prayers? Why don't we do this in one? Why are there two symbols instead of one? And why do we sing before, right? All of these things that we kind of, well, we just do. If you go through it and you think, well, there's probably meaning behind everything that we do. You can really, it's like taking, I've often told my students, take a dollar bill, something you handle every day and find something new on it. And if they actually stop and look at it, they go, oh, I've never noticed that. Oh, I've never noticed that. I've never even looked at that before. What does that mean? And we can

do that with the sacrament. We can stop for a second, something we deal with often and say, let me look in closely at this. And it's actually, it's rich. There is so much there. I've had students draw out the most interesting ideas. They've said the atonement overcomes two deaths, spiritual death and physical death. And maybe there's two prayers. Uh, they said that the savior had two experiences, the garden of Gethsemane and the cross, and perhaps each prayer, you know, they just draw out things that they never would have seen before. Hadn't we just slowed down a little bit and really taken a look at the sacrament and all the little things

that we do around it. It's been a fun experience to hear my students draw out things I never would have seen. Stephen Covey in Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, a book that my dad had from like the 70s or something, he equated Moses 139 with the sacrament. Immortality, that's the bread, that's Jesus's body, that's accomplished, he was resurrected, the first fruits. In eternal life, that's because of his blood, that's the wine, the water, the atonement. And I can't think of the sacrament now and the bread, the water without equating immortality, eternal life. And another just fun insight. And I love, Jordan, as you mentioned, that this is from the Book of Mormon. This is from Moroni going back and getting, and I've had students ask, why are they in both places?

And like, well, I think this answers the question. This is what Oliver was told to do in section 18, right? I wonder if Moroni elbows Mormon. I put that in there. This is good stuff. It's good stuff, yeah. Please join us for part two of this podcast.