I was asked recently, by one of my Young Men that is preparing to enter the Mission Field (he has received his call to serve in a mission in Texas) about the Seventeen Points of the True Church. He wanted to know what I knew about it and what I thought. I first encouraged him to read it and give me his perceptions. After he reported back, I gave him my perception. First of all, I am not necessarily knocking the man who authored the Seventeen Points, nor am I downgrading the experience of people who have enjoyed reading the story and the Points and have been strengthened by doing so. However, I wonder sometimes if we are thinking this through very well.
When I think of the Seventeen Points, I don't look at them from the authors perspective. Rather, I look at it from Joseph Smith’s perspective. When he asked which church to join, he was told none of them. in fact, in one of the accounts of the First Vision he is told that “the everlasting covenant was broken” and that he would be a part of restoring it. Interesting. Then, four years later, he prays again to know where he stands with God and this time God sends Moroni to teach Joseph Smith. Moroni quotes almost entirely from the Old Testament. Interestingly, among the New Testament scriptures that he does quote to Joseph, none of them are part of the Seventeen Points. Then, when he begins the translation of the Book of Mormon, he is told (and we are too, on the Title Page of the Book of Mormon) that there are three reasons for the Book of Mormon:
1. To remind us the great promises God has given to our fathers,
2. The importance of the Abrahamic Covenant, and
3. That Jesus is the Christ.
Again, none of the Seventeen Points are mentioned. Rather, we are taught the reason for the Book of Mormon is to point the seeker of truth to Covenants, the Temple, Joseph Smith, and Christ.
So, there may be nothing wrong with the Seventeen Points per se, but I think they miss the point. And yes, it is interesting that these guys that had the original Seventeen Points experience used the Bible to determine what was true. It is kind of neat actually. But I hope they moved beyond that. My concern is that I have seen missionaries use the Seventeen Points as a method to try to convince people that the Church is true. How sad. The thing is, anyone can take those Seventeen Points and set up a church. But they would be missing the one major thing that both Christ and Moroni and Joseph Smith all perfectly understood: the Covenants. This important doctrine is taught in the Book of Mormon.
In reality, we could go through the scriptures and find 10, 21, 50, or 100 points of the true Church. Now that I think about it, I remember a guy in my home ward in Seattle gave me a big print out before I left for the MTC. He told me that he had found something like 150 “points of the true church,” and that these guys didn’t find enough. Any evidence or checklist that someone is looking for is always going to come up short. I would worry just as much that someone might be looking for archeological evidence of the Book of Mormon and hang their testimony on that.
So I wonder, if the Seventeen Points are so critical, why didn’t Moroni tell Joseph Smith the Seventeen Points? Or better yet, why didn’t the Father and the Son tell them to Joseph? He was really interested in finding the true Church. Christ could have revealed to Joseph the checklist in the first place, then sent the angels to restore the various doctrines with Joseph and Oliver simply checking the list off, one by one. But as we know, that is not how it worked. Instead, the Lord sent Joseph angelic ministrants to give him Priesthood Keys and restore the doctrines and authorities line upon line. But the doctrines always dealt with covenants and would eventually lead Joseph (and us) to the inevitable: the Temple.
In fact, one more interesting fact: any idea what the missionary lesson plans were in the earliest days of the Restoration? The Gathering of Israel to the New Jerusalem (the Temple) to make covenants with Christ. Interesting that the early missionaries, along with Joseph Smith (not to mention Christ and Moroni), never thought of teaching the Seventeen Points.
So I guess my thought is that there is nothing inherently wrong with the Seventeen Points of the True Church. It's just that, at best, they the wrong Seventeen Points.
- Posted using my iPad
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
The Sacrament
This last Sunday was our fifth Sunday, combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson. As is usually the case when I teach or speak, I usually feel pretty confident about my choice in topic until the last moment. Then I change. Luckily, that realization hit me sooner than later and I had time to really think about the doctrine that I felt impressed to teach.
So, as the title of the entry suggests, I determined to speak on the Sacrament. My hope was to get a little deeper than we usually do and help the members of my ward (including myself) really appreciate what we are doing each in week when we partake of the Sacrament. I will only mention a thing or two that I learned, and incidentally, didn't have time to teach or share on Sunday.
I read the transcript of a class that Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught at the University of Utah Institute of Religion in 1970 on the Passover and the Sacrament. One of the points he makes is on the use of the bread and water. He rhetorically asks why is it that we use traditionally bread and water and not something else? He goes on to explain that from the time of Adam to Christ, animal sacrifice was used Biblically as the Passover or Sacrifice to point the minds of the pre-Meridian Saints to the Great and Last Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He reasons that for those 4,000 years our ancestors live in tribal and familial clusters. They primarily raised their own animals and grains for food. Their who survival, for the most part, was based on and around an animal. Therefore, what better way to typify Heavenly Father's Sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son, than to ask His followers to offer a main source of sustenance as a type of Christ? In the same way, in the 3,000-4,000 years after the Meridian of Time (depending how long you look at the "little space of time" when Satan will be unleashed), we now live very different styles of life. We are in largely urban communities. For the most part, we do not raise our own food but rather buy or barter. However, we still require bread and water (or some form of beverage) for sustenance. And because we require bread and water as the most basic source of our survival, what better way than to point our minds back to the Great and Last Sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
The other aspect that I wish I had more time to develop was the doctrinal reasons for the Sacrament and its immediate benefits for our salvation. The key part of the Sacrament prayers is that the end result is that we will have His Spirit to be with us, always. In the Doctrine and Covenants we are promised that with the reception of the Holy Ghost, comes a remission of sins. To me that means in the Sacrament, when partaken of worthily, we can receive a literal forgiveness of sins. Which of course is the whole point of the Sacrament and its pointing us to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
- Posted using my iPad
So, as the title of the entry suggests, I determined to speak on the Sacrament. My hope was to get a little deeper than we usually do and help the members of my ward (including myself) really appreciate what we are doing each in week when we partake of the Sacrament. I will only mention a thing or two that I learned, and incidentally, didn't have time to teach or share on Sunday.
I read the transcript of a class that Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught at the University of Utah Institute of Religion in 1970 on the Passover and the Sacrament. One of the points he makes is on the use of the bread and water. He rhetorically asks why is it that we use traditionally bread and water and not something else? He goes on to explain that from the time of Adam to Christ, animal sacrifice was used Biblically as the Passover or Sacrifice to point the minds of the pre-Meridian Saints to the Great and Last Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He reasons that for those 4,000 years our ancestors live in tribal and familial clusters. They primarily raised their own animals and grains for food. Their who survival, for the most part, was based on and around an animal. Therefore, what better way to typify Heavenly Father's Sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son, than to ask His followers to offer a main source of sustenance as a type of Christ? In the same way, in the 3,000-4,000 years after the Meridian of Time (depending how long you look at the "little space of time" when Satan will be unleashed), we now live very different styles of life. We are in largely urban communities. For the most part, we do not raise our own food but rather buy or barter. However, we still require bread and water (or some form of beverage) for sustenance. And because we require bread and water as the most basic source of our survival, what better way than to point our minds back to the Great and Last Sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
The other aspect that I wish I had more time to develop was the doctrinal reasons for the Sacrament and its immediate benefits for our salvation. The key part of the Sacrament prayers is that the end result is that we will have His Spirit to be with us, always. In the Doctrine and Covenants we are promised that with the reception of the Holy Ghost, comes a remission of sins. To me that means in the Sacrament, when partaken of worthily, we can receive a literal forgiveness of sins. Which of course is the whole point of the Sacrament and its pointing us to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
- Posted using my iPad
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
A testimony of Joseph Smith...
One of the great things about my life so far, besides my wife and children, is the incredible people I have had in my life. When I first came to BYU ten years ago, a friend of mine was taking a Masters course in Religious Education. At the time he was taking a class from Joseph Fielding McConkie. My buddy encouraged me to come. It was wonderful. JFM taught me things from the scriptures I didn't know were there (which is not really a surprise). He ended up teaching two different courses that I attended.
After sometime I approached JFM and asked him for a job as his research assistant. Thus began what was for me a wonderful and singular experience. I helped him on book projects, we traveled to the East Coast twice for research and paper presentations, and even taught some of his classes. He taught me the tools I needed to read the scriptures, listen to the Spirit, and understand the doctrines of the restored gospel.
Since graduating and leaving his official employ, I have continued to help him on book and writing and research projects. We have become close and I treasure our friendship. The reason for the entry is to share something he taught me a couple of years ago that has had a lasting impact on me.
In sharing this experience, I will be a little vague, but will share the main point that has affected me deeply. I hope that it will you as well.
After returning from a vacation and arriving from a red-eye, he called me when he got home before he went to bed. He met a man while on vacation that shared an experience he had in the mission field. The man had two mission presidents. His first president had a rule to bear witness of the reality of the living Christ with every personal contact. His second president didn't have a rule. But the man reported that he noticed something. His second mission president would begin and end every talk and interview with a testimony of the First Vision. It wasn't long before the missionaries started following suit. Then something really interesting happened: obedience increased, as did baptisms and retention.
After JFM shared this story, he said, "Matt, there is a power when we testify of Joseph Smith. The Holy Ghost will always accompany a testimony of the Prophet." Then he hung up and went to bed. I started thinking. I thought about this experience for days. JFM was so excited when he called, ecstatic. After much pondering, I made a determination that has changed my life.
I decided that I would bear witness of the First Vision in every appointment, every lesson, every talk I give. Because I am the bishop in my ward, I get that opportunity often. I have been doing this for the last three years or so. Everything has changed for me. Everything. Because I am bearing witness of the First Vision, I am necessarily doing three things: I am testifying of the reality of a living God, a redeeming Christ, and a seeing Prophet. I feel the Spirit stronger each time I discuss the First Vision. And because of this, the Spirit is a staying power in my life and I am becoming a better disciple. The reality of the First Vision has become fact and knowledge for me. JFM was right: "There is a power when we testify of Joseph Smith. The Holy Ghost will always accompany a testimony of the Prophet." Furthermore, I have noticed members of my ward doing the same thing. The many members that have been doing this have experienced similar feelings.
If you are reading this, and you have a even a small testimony of the First Vision, or want it to grow, I invite you to do what I have done. Bear your witness of the reality of what took place. Because it is real and really did happen. God the Father was there in the Grove. Our Savior Jesus Christ was there, too. Joseph Smith was there and was called to be a Prophet. They spoke to him, and he spoke to Them.
- Posted using my iPad
After sometime I approached JFM and asked him for a job as his research assistant. Thus began what was for me a wonderful and singular experience. I helped him on book projects, we traveled to the East Coast twice for research and paper presentations, and even taught some of his classes. He taught me the tools I needed to read the scriptures, listen to the Spirit, and understand the doctrines of the restored gospel.
Since graduating and leaving his official employ, I have continued to help him on book and writing and research projects. We have become close and I treasure our friendship. The reason for the entry is to share something he taught me a couple of years ago that has had a lasting impact on me.
In sharing this experience, I will be a little vague, but will share the main point that has affected me deeply. I hope that it will you as well.
After returning from a vacation and arriving from a red-eye, he called me when he got home before he went to bed. He met a man while on vacation that shared an experience he had in the mission field. The man had two mission presidents. His first president had a rule to bear witness of the reality of the living Christ with every personal contact. His second president didn't have a rule. But the man reported that he noticed something. His second mission president would begin and end every talk and interview with a testimony of the First Vision. It wasn't long before the missionaries started following suit. Then something really interesting happened: obedience increased, as did baptisms and retention.
After JFM shared this story, he said, "Matt, there is a power when we testify of Joseph Smith. The Holy Ghost will always accompany a testimony of the Prophet." Then he hung up and went to bed. I started thinking. I thought about this experience for days. JFM was so excited when he called, ecstatic. After much pondering, I made a determination that has changed my life.
I decided that I would bear witness of the First Vision in every appointment, every lesson, every talk I give. Because I am the bishop in my ward, I get that opportunity often. I have been doing this for the last three years or so. Everything has changed for me. Everything. Because I am bearing witness of the First Vision, I am necessarily doing three things: I am testifying of the reality of a living God, a redeeming Christ, and a seeing Prophet. I feel the Spirit stronger each time I discuss the First Vision. And because of this, the Spirit is a staying power in my life and I am becoming a better disciple. The reality of the First Vision has become fact and knowledge for me. JFM was right: "There is a power when we testify of Joseph Smith. The Holy Ghost will always accompany a testimony of the Prophet." Furthermore, I have noticed members of my ward doing the same thing. The many members that have been doing this have experienced similar feelings.
If you are reading this, and you have a even a small testimony of the First Vision, or want it to grow, I invite you to do what I have done. Bear your witness of the reality of what took place. Because it is real and really did happen. God the Father was there in the Grove. Our Savior Jesus Christ was there, too. Joseph Smith was there and was called to be a Prophet. They spoke to him, and he spoke to Them.
- Posted using my iPad
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Moses' Keys
I have spent the last several months thinking, studying, and talking to my trusted friends about my last blog entry. I don't know if anyone is reading, but I thought I ought to post my latest idea.
After I learned what I learned, I visited the new lds.org online scriptures site. I did a search of "keys" and learned some very interesting things. I will only share one item.
My search took me to D&C 124. I was reading along where the Lord is telling Joseph that His people have no place on the earth where they can perform their baptisms for the dead, washings, anointings, etc. Then, all of a sudden a verse caught my heart and mind: 38.
It reads as follows:
"For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was."
I have read this verse many times, but I realized few things I had not in previous reads.
1. This verse stands out and in a way is unnecessary for the Lord to make His point. In other words, if this verse were missing, the doctrine and concept could still get a across and the verses would still flow. Indeed, verse 38 almost seems as if it were an aside.
2. The prophet Moses is being brought up in this section in connection with a discussion on the ordinances of the Temple.
3. In D&C 84 we are told Moses brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt to take them to the Promised Land. But before that could happen, he brought them to Mount Sinai so they could receive their endowment from On High. We learn from D&C 84 that they would not receive it so Moses and the Melchizedek Priesthood were taken out of their midst.
4. There are other things, but for whatever reason I can't remember them. I will add them later, etc.
My conclusion is essentially a strengthened position that I took in my last post. Which is: Moses brought to Joseph and Oliver the keys and authority to perform Temple ordinances. This makes sense, as the other two ministrants that came after brought Temple-specific keys: Elias with Temple marriage or the Abrahamic Covenant and Elijah with the sealing power. Looking at it another way, the prophets all come back and give their keys to Joseph and Oliver in the same way a member of the Church progresses through the successive Temple ordinances: initiatory, endowment, marriage, sealing it all together.
I am still working through this concept. If you have any thoughts or additional ideas, I would be very happy to hear them. This has continued to be exciting to me. My next plan is to look at each prophet that brought a Priesthood Key to Joseph Smith and examine the meaning of that Key. My thought is that if I had Moses and his Keys wrong all this time, what else am I missing? I suppose this is one of those times when I am genuinely excited about being incorrect on a doctrine; because I am determined to purify my understanding of the doctrine.
Amen.
- Posted using my iPad
After I learned what I learned, I visited the new lds.org online scriptures site. I did a search of "keys" and learned some very interesting things. I will only share one item.
My search took me to D&C 124. I was reading along where the Lord is telling Joseph that His people have no place on the earth where they can perform their baptisms for the dead, washings, anointings, etc. Then, all of a sudden a verse caught my heart and mind: 38.
It reads as follows:
"For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was."
I have read this verse many times, but I realized few things I had not in previous reads.
1. This verse stands out and in a way is unnecessary for the Lord to make His point. In other words, if this verse were missing, the doctrine and concept could still get a across and the verses would still flow. Indeed, verse 38 almost seems as if it were an aside.
2. The prophet Moses is being brought up in this section in connection with a discussion on the ordinances of the Temple.
3. In D&C 84 we are told Moses brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt to take them to the Promised Land. But before that could happen, he brought them to Mount Sinai so they could receive their endowment from On High. We learn from D&C 84 that they would not receive it so Moses and the Melchizedek Priesthood were taken out of their midst.
4. There are other things, but for whatever reason I can't remember them. I will add them later, etc.
My conclusion is essentially a strengthened position that I took in my last post. Which is: Moses brought to Joseph and Oliver the keys and authority to perform Temple ordinances. This makes sense, as the other two ministrants that came after brought Temple-specific keys: Elias with Temple marriage or the Abrahamic Covenant and Elijah with the sealing power. Looking at it another way, the prophets all come back and give their keys to Joseph and Oliver in the same way a member of the Church progresses through the successive Temple ordinances: initiatory, endowment, marriage, sealing it all together.
I am still working through this concept. If you have any thoughts or additional ideas, I would be very happy to hear them. This has continued to be exciting to me. My next plan is to look at each prophet that brought a Priesthood Key to Joseph Smith and examine the meaning of that Key. My thought is that if I had Moses and his Keys wrong all this time, what else am I missing? I suppose this is one of those times when I am genuinely excited about being incorrect on a doctrine; because I am determined to purify my understanding of the doctrine.
Amen.
- Posted using my iPad
Location:Berkshire Ln,Dallas,United States
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Gathering and What I Thought I Knew
So, it has been nearly a year since my last entry. Life is busy. But the other day I learned something that has gotten me so excited that I feel the need to break my blog-fast.
I have always been taught and always taught others that the Gathering of Israel is missionary work. Furthermore, I have always been taught and taught others that when Moses appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on April 6, 1836, the Priesthood Keys he gave to Joseph and Oliver were the keys of missionary work.
The canonized account, as read in D&C 110:11 says, "Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north."
The other night I was reading in President Joseph Fielding Smith's book, Answers to Gospel Questions (a must have for every LDS home as far as I am concerned), and found where he answers a question about the correlation between Moses' keys of the gathering and missionary work. You can read this yourself in volume 3:152-3. To summarize he essentially says that Moses' keys were not missionary keys. If that were true, then what right would Joseph Smith have in sending missionaries out into the world for the previous six years? So it would seem that the keys Moses restored were something else (assuming the logic is sound and I believe it is).
It is my understanding that the angelic ministrants that restored Priesthood Keys to the Prophet Joseph all restored Keys that were specific to the work they did in mortality. President Smith makes the point that Moses was not doing missionary work with Israel when he led them from Egyptian bondage. They already had the gospel. Rather, he brought them to Sinai to be endowed from on High in preparation for eventual entrance in the Promised Land.
Wow. I had never thought about it. Maybe you had. But I had not put it together. Joseph taught that "the main object [of gathering] was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom" (Teachings, p. 308). In D&C 84:2 the Lord says emphatically that He "… established [His Church] in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion…" And so it would seem to me (and I still can't believe I never pieced this together years ago) that the Priesthood Keys Moses is restoring relate to the Priesthood Keys both Elias (whom I think is Abraham) and Elijah restored; which all relate to the Temple. In my heart and mind it makes total sense.
So, this still leaves a question about the Priesthood Key of missionary work. The other night I happened to be reading a transcript of a lecture that Elder Bruce R. McConkie delivered at the University of Utah Institute of Religion in 1967 on the Doctrine of Elijah. In it he says that in 1829 when Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph and Oliver they bestowed on the First and Second Elders of the Church three things: the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Keys of the Kingdom, and the Keys of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Then Elder McConkie reminds his listeners that the last charge the Master gave His apostles before His ascension was to take the gospel to all the earth. The idea is that missionary work is inherent in the Melchizedek Priesthood and the Keys of the Kingdom which Peter, James, and John gave Joseph and Oliver. So, if I were to be asked when did Joseph receive the Keys of missionary work I would respond when Peter, James, and John appeared. Were I to be asked when did Joseph receive they Keys or authority to perform ordinances in the House of the Lord for Israel I would say when Moses appeared in the Kirtland Temple in 1836.
So what does all this mean in terms of the Gathering of Israel? A whole lot. It means that I need to broaden my own definition of what the Gathering of Israel means. Does it mean missionary work? Absolutely. But does it also mean Temple ordinances and brining the Lord’s people to the truth and endowing them from on High? Absolutely.
Because this is a concept that I am still getting my head around, I am not totally convinced that I am explaining it well. Feel free to ask questions so I can flesh out my ideas better. At the end of the day, this has enhanced my testimony and personal conviction that Joseph Smith and his successors in the Presidency are prophets of God.
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