32: "To Seal the Testimony"

Reading Assignment for Sunday, September 1, 2013

Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 32

Doctrine and Covenants 135

Our Heritage: Pages 62-66

31: Sealed for Time and for all Eternity

Reading Assignment for Sunday, August 25, 2013

Class Member Study Guide:  Lesson 31

Doctrine & Covenants 131:1-4

Doctrine & Covenants 132:4-33

THE LORD HAS PRONOUNCED THAT CERTAIN ORDINANCES ARE NECESSARY TO OPEN GATE TO ETERNAL LIFE AND EXALTATION

The Endowment

Just as Joseph Smith received revelation line upon line regarding baptism for the dead, he also "sought and received additional instructions from the Lord regarding the sacred endowment."

Years later Brigham Young instructed the Saints on the importance of the endowment. Here is his definition:

"Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." 

Marriage for Eternity

"Shortly after the introduction of the endowment the Prophet revealed that a married couple could be sealed together by the power of the priesthood for time and all eternity."

"In the spring of 1843, Joseph Smith taught the eternal importance of the marriage covenant. First the Lord explained that for any covenant, including marriage, to be valid in eternity it must meet three requirements (see D & C 132:7): 

It must be "made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise."

It must be performed by the proper priesthood authority. 

It must be by "revelation and commandment" through the Lord's anointed prophet (see also D & C 132:18-19)

Blessings and Promises

Celestial marriage is a covenant, a contract between the two marriage partners and the Lord. Covenants have “if-then” clauses: if we keep certain commandments, then the Lord promises us certain blessings. Verses 19–22 form such a clause."

If a couple—	Then they will—
1. Are married in accordance with the Lord’s law	1. “Inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths” (v. 19)
2. Are married by one who has the keys of the priesthood	2. “Pass by the angels” to their exaltation (v. 19)
3. Have their marriage sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise	3. Be gods for all eternity (see v. 20)
4. Abide in the covenant	4. Have a “continuation of the lives” (v. 22)

Love and Loyalty 

Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve in this dispensation, recalled his feelings when he first heard the Prophet Joseph teach these doctrines:

“I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul. … I felt that God was my heavenly Father indeed; that Jesus was my brother, and that the wife of my bosom was an immortal, eternal companion. … In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt [1975], 298)."

22 Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.

President Spencer W. Kimball explained:

“When the Lord says all thy heart, it allows for no sharing nor dividing nor depriving. …

“The words none else eliminate everyone and everything. The spouse then becomes preeminent in the life of the husband or wife, and neither social life nor occupational life nor political life nor any other interest nor person nor thing shall ever take precedence over the companion spouse. …

“Marriage presupposes total allegiance and total fidelity. Each spouse takes the partner with the understanding that he or she gives totally to the spouse all the heart, strength, loyalty, honor, and affection, with all dignity. Any divergence is sin; any sharing of the heart is transgression. As we should have ‘an eye single to the glory of God,’ so should we have an eye, an ear, a heart single to the marriage and the spouse and family” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 142–43).

President Gordon B. Hinckley gave this simple counsel to married couples: "Be fiercely loyal one to another" (Ensign, Feb. 1999, 4).

30: Nauvoo Temple and Baptism for the Dead

Reading Assignment for Sunday, August 18, 2013

Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 30

Doctrine & Covenants 2

Doctrine & Covenants 124:25-55

Doctrine & Covenants 127

 Doctrine & Covenants 128

Joseph Smith History:  Pages 36-39

Our Heritage: Pages 58-61


THE LORD TAUGHT JOSEPH SMITH ABOUT WORK FOR DEAD VERY EARLY 

In the Joseph Smith History we find this very early account of the Lord instructing a seventeen year old Joseph Smith about the importance of binding fathers and children together long before the church was organized or the priesthood restored.  Joseph receives this instruction on the 21st of September 1823 from the angel Moroni.  Pay particular attention to verse 39 in which our stewardship to forge chains with our ancestors is outlined. 

37 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 

36 After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus:

 38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

 39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. 

President Gordon B. Hinckley commented on the Angel Moroni's teaching:

“It is tremendously significant to me that … this repetition of the wondrous words of Malachi concerning the work for the dead, was given to the boy Joseph four years before he was allowed to take the plates from the hill. It was given before he received either the Aaronic or Melchizedek Priesthood, before he was baptized, and well before the Church was organized. It says much concerning the priority of this work in the plan of the Lord” (“A Century of Family History Service,” Ensign, Mar. 1995, 61).

The Nauvoo Temple 

 

Undated Photograph of the Nauvoo Temple.

Probably taken sometime between 1846 and 1848 when the temple was burned by arsonists.  A later 1850 Tornado felled most of the temple. 

 Excavated Temple Site

Reconstructed Nauvoo Temple

Construction took more than five years (January 1841 to May 1846) and required the efforts of many craftsmen who, because of the shortage of capital, either donated their labor as tithing or were paid with food, clothing, furniture, and other contributions of the Saints.

Here are some important dates in the history of the Nauvoo Temple 19 Jan. 1841: Revelation commanding that the temple be built (D&C 124) was received. 6 Apr. 1841: Cornerstones were laid. 8 Nov. 1841: Basement rooms and baptismal font were dedicated. 21 Nov. 1841: First baptisms were performed. 5 Oct. 1845: General conference was held in the assembly room of the temple. 10 Dec. 1845–7 Feb. 1846: Endowments were given. 8 Feb. 1846: Informal dedication was held by Brigham Young prior to leaving for the West. 30 Apr. 1846: Temple was privately dedicated; Joseph Young, Senior President of the Seventy offered the dedicatory prayer. 1 May 1846: Official prayer of dedication of the Nauvoo Temple was offered by Orson Hyde. 9 Oct. 1848: Interior of the temple was burned by an arsonist. 27 May 1850: Tornado demolished three of the exterior walls. 1856: Last remaining wall was leveled for safety reasons.

In addition to the baptistry in the basement, the Nauvoo Temple had two main assembly rooms on the second and third floors with offices in the half stories on each side of the central arch. The assembly rooms had a series of pulpits at each end similar to those in the Kirtland Temple. Reversible benches allowed the worshipers to face either direction, according to the purpose of meeting. Meetings were often held here. The attic floor was devoted to offices and dressing and ordinance rooms.

The building was 128 feet long, 88 feet wide, and 60 feet from ground level to roof. The tower was another 98 1/2 feet above the eaves. It was constructed primarily of gray limestone from several quarries in the vicinity. Among its unique features were the sun, moon, and star stones decorating the thirty pilasters and the frieze.

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