Lesson Flow:
• How the Pearl of Great Price came to be.
• It’s an exclusive club. You have to be a dispensation head to get in
(Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, & Joseph
Smith). This is perhaps the best place in scripture to see
dispensations, apostasy, and restoration in action.
• Moses 1-8 came as Joseph worked on the JST of Gen. 1-6.
• Today let’s do some Moses 1.
The Story of the
Pearl of Great Price
The Origin of the Pearl of Great Price
Elder Franklin D. Richards
The Pearl of Great Price was
originally published in England as
a pamphlet by Elder Franklin D.
Richards (Apostle and President of
the British Mission) to make
available to eager British saints a
few publications from Joseph
Smith which were becoming hard
to get.
These few publications were
considered by the faithful to be
gospel “pearls.”
Timeline of the Pearl of Great Price
1850. More than half of Church membership is in
England. The bulk of church materials is printed in
Liverpool, England.
LDS Membership in 1850
Worldwide: 57,278
Great Britain : 30,747
Utah Territory : 11,380
S.L. County : 6,157
Timeline of the Pearl of Great Price
1850. More than half of Church membership is in
England. The bulk of church materials is printed in
Liverpool, England.
1850. Newly ordained Apostle Franklin D. Richards
is called to preside over the British mission.
1851. Elder Franklin D. Richards publishes what he
called a Pearl of Great Price, which included much of
the current material.
Text
Previously Published
Parts of the Book of Moses
The Book of Abraham
JST of Matthew 24
Part I. Moses 6:43-Moses 7:69
Part II. Moses 1-5:16, 19-40; 8:13-30
Part III. The Book of Abraham (1-5)
Part IV. Joseph Smith—Matthew
Part V. D&C 77
Part VI. D&C 87
Part VII. Joseph Smith—History
Part VIII. Many snippets from the D&C on
administering the Church.
Part IX. The Articles of Faith
Part X. “Oh Say, What is Truth” (Hymn #272)
Excerpt From the Original Preface
“[I]t is presumed, that true believers
in the divine mission of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, will appreciate this
little collection of precious truths as
a Pearl of Great Price that will
increase their ability to maintain
and to defend the holy faith by
becoming possessors of it.”
Elder Franklin D. Richards
Timeline of the Pearl of Great Price
1850. More than half of Church membership is in
England. The bulk of church materials is printed in
Liverpool, England.
1850. Newly ordained Apostle Franklin D. Richards
is called to preside over the British mission.
1851. Elder Franklin D. Richards publishes what he
call a Pearl of Great Price, including much of the
current material.
1878. The first American edition of the Pearl of Great
Price was printed in Salt Lake City, under the
direction of Elder Orson Pratt. In this edition he
revamped the Book of Moses material by placing the
JST of Genesis 1-8 gotten from the 1867 edition of the
RLDS church’s Bible. He also added D&C 132.
How Did it Become Scripture?
1880. Solemn Assembly held in October (to sustain
John Taylor as president) the Pearl of Great Price was
sustained as scripture and added to the canon of the
Church.
1890. Elder Franklin D. Richards reads the Articles of
Faith in October General Conference, following which
they were presented for a sustaining vote (to clear up
confusion on their status).
1902. U of U professor James E. Talmage is appointed
to revise the Pearl of Great Price. He divided it into
chapter and verse and added cross-references. It was
again sustained at October Conference.
1921. Elder Talmage revises it again into two columns.
Summary
All books of scripture are compilations of
earlier sources. The Pearl of Great Price is just
the most recent of these compilations.
Moses 1
Russell M. Nelson
Quorum of the Twelve
(Ensign, May 2001, 32)
“One may also read in the Old
Testament and the books of
Moses and Abraham in the
Pearl of Great Price. Such a
review of ancient scripture is
even more enlightening after
one is familiar with the temple
endowment. Those books
underscore the antiquity of
temple work.”
Moses 1
Vs. 17
Vs. 26
Moses 1
The Dignity, Divinity, and
Destiny of Man
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
First Presidency
(“You Matter to Him,”
Ensign, Nov. 2011)
“This is a paradox of man:
compared to God, man is
nothing; yet we are everything
to God. While against the
backdrop of infinite creation
we may appear to be nothing,
we have a spark of eternal fire
burning within our breast. We
have the incomprehensible
promise of exaltation—worlds
without end—within our grasp.
And it is God’s great desire to
help us reach it.”
Boyd K. Packer
Quorum of the Twelve
(Ensign, May 1992, 66)
“No idea has been more
destructive of happiness, no
philosophy has produced more
sorrow, more heartbreak and
mischief; no idea has done more
to destroy the family than the
idea that we are not the offspring
of God, only advanced animals,
compelled to yield to every
carnal urge.”
D. Todd Christofferson
Quorum of the Twelve
(Ensign, Nov. 2010)
“Those who believe that our
bodies are nothing more than
the result of evolutionary
chance will feel no
accountability to God or
anyone else for what they do
with or to their body.”
Text
Text
Text
Text
God’s Work and Glory
D&C 132
D&C 132:6
Text
“What was the design of the
Almighty in making man? It
was to exalt him to be as
God.”
Joseph Smith
(The Words of
Joseph Smith, p.
247; 27 Aug. 1843)
What Kind of a Being is God?
D&C 130:1, 22
The King Follett Discourse
7 April 1844
Joseph Smith
(History of the
Church 6:305-6)
“God himself was once as we
are now, and is an exalted
man, and sits enthroned in
yonder heavens!… If you
were to see him today, you
would see him like a man in
form—like yourselves in all
the person, image, and very
form as a man.
Joseph Smith
(History of the
Church 6:305-6)
“It is the first principle of the
Gospel to know for a certainty
the Character of God, and to
know that … he was once a
man like us; yea, that God
himself, the Father of us all,
dwelt on an earth, the same as
Jesus Christ himself did.
“It is necessary we should
understand the character…
of God and how he came
to be so.”
Joseph Smith
(History of the
Church 6:305-6)
How Did God Become God?
Bruce R. McConkie
Quorum of the Twelve
(A New Witness for the
Articles of Faith, p. 64)
“The Father is a glorified,
perfected, resurrected,
exalted man who worked out
his salvation by obedience to
the same laws he has given to
us so that we may do the
same.”
What laws has He given to us?
D&C 131:1-4
Joseph Smith
(Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph
Smith, p.300)
“Except a man and his wife enter into
an everlasting covenant and be
married for eternity, while in this
probation, by the power and
authority of the Holy Priesthood,
they will cease to increase when
they die; that is, they will not have
any children after the resurrection.
But those who are married by the
power and authority of the
priesthood in this life, and continue
[worthily] will continue to increase
and have children in the celestial
glory.”
“All human beings—male and
female—are created in the
image of God. Each is a
beloved spirit son or daughter
of heavenly parents, and, as
such, each has a divine nature
and destiny.”
“All men and women are in the
similitude of the universal Father
and Mother, and are literally the
sons and daughters of Deity.”
(Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund,
Messages of the First Presidency, 4:203)
Spencer W. Kimball
President
(Teachings of SWK, p. 25)
God made man in His own
image and certainly He
made woman in the image
of His wife-partner. You
[women] are daughters of
God. You are precious. You
are made in the image of
our heavenly Mother.
“The mind or the intelligence which
man possesses is co-equal [co-eternal]
with God himself…. The intelligence of
spirits had not beginning, neither will
it have an end.”
Joseph Smith
(H of C, 6:302-317)
Intelligence
“God is our father. He loves us. He
and our Mother in Heaven value us
beyond any measure. They gave
our eternal intelligences spirit
form, just as our earthly mothers
and fathers have given us mortal
bodies.”
~President Spencer W. Kimball
(My Beloved Sisters, p.25)
Intelligence
Spirit Body
Spirit +
Mortal Body
Intelligence
Spirit Body
Immortality Achieved
Spirit +
Resurrected Body
Spirit +
Mortal Body
Intelligence
Spirit Body
ETERNAL LIFE
(God’s Life)
Exalted Marriage
Godhood
Spirit +
Mortal Body
Intelligence
Spirit Body
We become Heavenly
Parents for other
intelligences.
Joseph Fielding Smith
President
("Sealing Power and
Salvation," BYU, 1971)
“This plan of salvation is
family centered. It leads to
eternal life, and eternal life is
the name of the kind of life
which God, our Father, lives.
This plan of salvation is
designed to enable us to create
eternal family units of our own
which are patterned after the
family of our Eternal Father.”
Bruce R. McConkie
Quorum of the Twelve
(The Millennial Messiah,
p. 37)
“Eternal life is the name of the
kind of life [God] lives. Those
who so obtain become like him
and are as he is. They live in the
family unit and bear spirit
children of their own; they have
all power, all might, and all
dominion. They know all things.
He ordained and established the
plan of salvation to enable them
to advance and progress and
become like him…. The plan of
salvation is the same on all
worlds and in all ages.”
End