DOCTRINE & COVENANTS
49-50
In a democratic time, the Mormons emerged as the most
democratic of churches, rivaled only by the Quakers. The
Church’s ministry was both democratic and authoritarian
(Church leaders controlled ordinations).
Occasionally missionaries lack of tack led to trouble. When
Leman Copley, a former Shaker turned Mormon took other
missionaries to read Doctrine & Covenants 49 to the Shakers.
The Shakers were irked, especially Kitchel their leader.
When he dismissed the Mormon delegation, the irrepressible
Pratt shook his coattails, saying in good New Testament
fashion, that he shook the dust from his garments as a
testimony against them. At this Kitchel blew up, called Pratt a
“Filthy beast,” and told him never to return, while Pratt sat in
his seat with his hands covering his face. Pratt simply
reported that “this strange people…utterly refused to hear
or obey the gospel.”
Doctrine & Covenants 49
Although this revelation was rejected by the Shakers, its
doctrinal importance is established for missionary work.
The elders did not engage the Shakers in a doctrinal debate
over the peculiar tenets of their faith but invited them to hear
the word of the Lord as it was given to them.
Doctrine & Covenants 49
“Preaching My Gospel Unto the Shakers”
Doctrine & Covenants 49:2
They desire to know the truth in part, but not all.
(Doctrine & Covenants 123:12)
Doctrine & Covenants 49:4
What were some of the beliefs of the Shakers that
Leman Copley was to forsake?
1.
That Deity is duel in nature. God is both male and female. The
male principle of Christ came to the earth as Jesus. The female
principle is represented in “Mother Ann” (Ann Lee, founder of the
Shaker sect), and in her the premise of our Lord’s Second Advent
was fulfilled. They also believe that angels and spirits are both
male and female.
2. Celibacy. They neither condemn or opposed marriage, but they
assert the possibility of attaining a higher or angelic order of
existence to which virginity is a prime requisite (Ann Lee had been
married and had four children).
3. Open confession of sins.
4. Community of possessions.
5. Separation from the world.
Ostentation, luxury, and private
property were regarded as sinful
and un-Christian.
6. Pacifism.
(Refused to participate in military action,
disputes between nations can be settled
peacefully)
7. Equality of the sexes.
8. Consecrated work.
9. Continuous revelation.
10.
External ordinances.
Baptism and the Lord’s supper, ceased in the apostolic age.
11.
Christ’s kingdom upon the earth began with the
establishment of the Shaker Church.
From the days of the Apostles the Lord had sent no one to
preach until the Shakers were raised up to call in the elect
in a new dispensation.
12.
The doctrines of the Trinity, vicarious atonement, and
resurrection of the body are untrue.
13.
Disease is a sin against God.
14.
Abstinence from meat.
The Shakers thrived as a church until
about the turn of the century. Since
then their numbers have declined until
today.
There is only one active community left,
at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine.
Doctrine & Covenants 49:6
The Shakers did not believe Christ to be
divine and therefore were not looking
forward to his second coming. What they
were looking for was the return of the “Christ
Spirit,” a spirit that would infuse their leader
and make him or her spiritual and not carnal.
They believed four persons had been given
this spirit in its fullness: Adam, Abraham,
Christ, and Ann Lee.
Doctrine & Covenants 49:8
Who?
Holy men that ye know not of.
Doctrine & Covenants 49:10
Did not believe in baptism, but practiced gifts of the spirit.
Joseph Smith said it was impossible to practice the gifts of
the spirit without baptism (History of the Church, 5:27).
Doctrine & Covenants 49:16
All spirits must come down!
Doctrine & Covenants 49:21
President Joseph F. Smith said, … “I do not believe any man should
kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should
not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I
think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything
which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at
prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be
athirst for the shedding of animal blood” (Conference Report,
October 1978, 64).
(JST Genesis 9:11)
Doctrine & Covenants 49:24-25
Both these verses have been fulfilled!
Joseph Smith said the saints would continue to
suffer much affliction and would be driven to
the Rocky Mountains… but some of you will live
to go assist in making settlements and build
cities and see the Saints become a mighty
people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains
(Teachings, 255).
Doctrine & Covenants 50
Parley P. Pratt said:
“As I went forth among the different branches, some
very strange spiritual operations were manifested,
which were soon to swoon away, and make unseemly
gestures, and be drawn into contortions, cramps, fits,
etc. Others would seem to have visions and
revelations, which were not edifying, and which were
not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the Gospel.
In short, a false and lying spirit seemed to be
creeping into the Church.
“All these things were new and strange to me,
and had originated in the Church during our
absence, and previous to the arrival of
President Joseph Smith from New York.
“Feeling our weakness and inexperience, and
lest we should err in judgment concerning these
spiritual phenomena, myself, John Murdock, and
several other Elders, went to Joseph Smith and
asked him to inquire of the Lord concerning
these spirits or manifestations….
“After we had joined in prayer
in his translating room, he
dictated in our presence the
following revelation”
(Autobiography, 48).
“False Spiritual Manifestations”
1.
Pretend you have the sword of Laban in your possession and you
are fighting people with it. Make it look good. I will come and
touch your head and you will return to your seat. Say nothing.
2.
Stand up on your desk and speak in tongues, try to “froth from
your mouth.” Make it look good. I will come and touch your
head. Return to your seat and say nothing.
3.
Run around the class acting like you’re an Indian trying to scalp
people. Be loud and make it look good. I will touch your head,
return to your seat and say nothing.
4.
Act like you’re a snake and crawl on the ground
hissing at people as you go up and down the rows. I
will touch your head and you will return to your seat,
say nothing.
5.
Act like you are jumping in the air trying to get a
letter from and angel. You finally get the letter. Start
reading it to the class. Just make up spiritual stuff and
I will come and touch you on your head. Return to
your seat and say nothing.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:2-3
There was no point upon which the prophet Joseph Smith dwelt
more than the discerning of spirits (Times and Seasons, 21).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:13-14
To preach is to “articulate the doctrine of Christ!”
It is one thing to know what you know, but it is quite another to be
able to tell someone else how you know what you know.
MTC’s are basically “teaching institutions” that help Elders and Sisters
to better articulate to others what they know to be true.
Technology has made it harder for many to articulate!
Doctrine & Covenants 50:4
“Some had visions and could not tell what they saw. Some
would fancy themselves that they has the sword of Laban,
and would wield it as expert as light dragoon, some would
act like an Indian in the act of scalping, some would slide or
scoot on the floor, the rapidity of a serpent, which (they)
termed sailing in the boat to the Lamanites, preaching the
gospel. And many other vain and foolish maneuvers that are
unprofitable to mention (Book of John Whitmer, 62).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:13
Levi Hancock reported that while engaged in
preaching the gospel three young missionaries,
Heman Basset, age sixteen (Doctrine & Covenants
52:37); Edson Fuller, age twenty-one (Doctrine &
Covenants 52:28); and Burr Riggs, age twenty
(Doctrine & Covenants 75:17), purported to
receive revelations and see angels and would fall
down frothing at the mouth.
“One of them who acted the worse was
Burr Riggs, I have seen him jump up from
the floor, strike his head against the joist in
the Baldwin’s new house and swing some
minutes, then fall like he was dead. After
an hour or two he would come to, he
would prophesy and tell what he had
seen. At other times he appeared to be
so honest and sincere I was led to believe
all he said, but concluded that all could
not be blessed and perhaps I was not as
pure as those young men…
“Edson Fuller would fall and turn black in
the face. Heman Bassett would behave like
a baboon. He said he had a revelation he
had received in Kirtland from the hand of
an angel, he would read it and show
pictures of a course of angels declared to
be Gods, then would testify of the truth of
the work and I believed it all, like a fool.
“I dare not come out against anything that an Elder
should say for fear I should speak again the Holy
Ghost” (Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock, 41).
The gospel must be taught with dignity and decorum
appropriate to the kingdom of heaven. To teach it
any other way, as this revelation states, is “not of
God.” The testimony of the truths of heaven cannot
be obtained nor nourished by any means other than
the spirit of truth.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:17
Some other way?
1.
Intellectual
2.
Entertainment
Then it is not of God!
Joseph Fielding McConkie said, “the measure of an effective teacher is
not found in his ability to entertain nor in his ability to facilitate
stimulating class discussions. To entertain is not necessarily to edify. To
involve is not necessarily to enlighten. The education that pertains to the
kingdom of God is not play and should not be made to look like play.
The divine decree is that we work out our salvation and in many
instances that embraces hard, hard work (Teach and Reach, 1975, 22).
To the extent which we substitute methodology for the
substance of that which we are commissioned to teach, we
have failed. Significantly, the Lord did not give Hyrum Smith
a directive to learn how to teach, he told him to learn what to
teach (Doctrine & Covenants 11). Hyrum’s knowledge of how
to teach was gained in the process of teaching.
If there is a single moment of maturity, it is the moment at
which we realize that the burden is ours to learn and not
the teacher’s to teach.
It should not be supposed that spiritual gifts are granted for
the completion of training courses.
“Preachers err by trying to talk people into belief; better
they reveal the radiance of their own discovery” (The Power
of Myth).
When you teach, you point. See, the words teach, touch are
the same as the Greek word, dactile, and the Latin didactic.
Deiko means to show. It means to point to a thing. When you
teach, all you can do is point to a thing. You can’t put is
inside the person or anything like that. All you can do is point
to it and let him react, you see (Foundation for Ancient
Research and Mormon Studies, 1993, 92).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:23
Anciently, the verb “to edify” meant to build sacred edifices such as
temples.
To edify is to make the body and the soul of man a holy tabernacle, a
temple of God.
If a doctrine does not offer the opportunity to reach, to build, or to
improve, it is not of God.
Sometimes a teacher talks about what he thinks he knows and no one
can refute him because no one knows anything about it, not even himself
(Harold B. Lee, Address to Religious Educators, 8 July 1966, 5).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:26
In every gospel dispensation there have been those
who have falsely claimed to be called of God.
Responding to this problem in the early days of
Christianity, the following direction is given in a work
known as The Didach.
“Welcome every apostle on arriving, as if he were
the Lord. But he must not stay beyond one day.
In case of necessity however, the next
day too. If he stays three days, he is a
false prophet. On departing, an
apostle must not accept anything save
sufficient food to carry him till his next
lodging. If he asks for money, he is a
false prophet” (Ehrman, New
Testament, 316).
President Joseph Fielding Smith taught:
“There is no saying of greater truth than ‘that
which doth not edify is not of God.’ And that
which is not of God is darkness, it matters not
whether it comes in the guise of religion, ethics,
philosophy or revelation. No revelation from
God will fail to edify” (Church History and
Modern Revelation, 1:201-02).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:37
Joseph H. Wakefield
Claimed that because Joseph Smith came out from the
translating room and immediately engaged in playing
with children, he was not a true prophet.
He later tried to defame Joseph Smith in Kirtland and
prove the Book of Mormon was written by Solomon
Spaulding. He was excommunicated in January 1834.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:40
“Grace to Grace”
=
“Greenie Theory”
Learn a little, obey that, learn a little more, obey that, etc.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:45-46
When the Lord speaks to you or me, it will be in a method and
manner justified by our preparation, our gifts, our powers, for we
have all be endowed in some degree (Orson F. Whitney,
Conference Report, April, 1910).
Faith comes by the word of
exhortation. Faith comes,
Joseph Smith said, “by
hearing the word of God,”
(Teachings, 148).