July 1986
Lesson One: People
1. A person is a human being: a body and a spirit.
An individual human person is one who has learned to act independently of other human beings and to act as a unit to do the things human beings do.
An individual human person has four parts which enable him or her to act as a unit to do the things which human beings do:
Heart: The ability to make choices among possible alternative actions. (Example: Shall I hit him back or not.)
Mind: The ability to understand self, the universe, and possible actions. (Example: He hit me because his brother hit him.)
Strength: Physical ability to act. Strength is time. (Example: I am too tired to hit him. Therefore, I have no strength, no time.)
Might: The things one can affect by acting. Might is space. (He is up in the tree above me. I cannot reach him. He is out of my space, therefore I have no might to hit him.)
A person becomes an individual by:
a. Gaining control of his heart, mind, strength, and might.
b. Unifying his heart, mind, strength and might.
2. Some actions of a person are unique. Others are habitual. The habits of a person are his character. An undeveloped character has weak habits; decisions are made by the pressures of the moment. A developed character has strong habits; decisions are made on the basis of principle. The basic parameters of character are as follows:
| Heart: | Righteous (unselfish) | Unrighteous (selfish) |
| Mind: | Realistic (deals with reality) | Unrealistic (deals with fantasy) |
| Strength: | Gifted (many talents) | Limited (few talents) |
| Might: | Mighty (affects much) | Damned (affects little) |
Effective person: Realistic, gifted, mighty Ineffective: Unrealistic or limited, damned.
Saint: a Righteous, effective person. Natural Man: An unrighteous person (effective or not).
The purpose of human mortality is to allow each person to become an individual, and in that process to achieve that character which he or she desires to achieve. Every person’s habits are his or her religion.
Habits = Character = Religion
3. Agency is power to act. A human being is an agent because he or she has power to act. The four essentials of that power to act are:
a. The ability to understand reality and possible actions: Mind
b. The ability to choose among possible actions: Heart
c. The physical ability to act to carry out the choices make: Strength
d. The ability to affect something with one’s strength: Might
Human agency is a gift of God. God controls our mind, our strength, our might, and only he can purify our hearts. As we allow God to purify our hearts, he can give us additional mind, strength, and might. As these increase, our agency increases. As our hearts become completely pure (righteous), God can increase our agency without limit until we have a fulness of all that he has. Receiving that fulness of mind, strength and might added to a pure heart is to be exalted.
The focal point of human agency is the heart. By the choices we make with our heart, we form our own habits=character=religion. Our agency is the power God has given each of us to form our own habits=character=religion.
4. Righteousness is doing what is best in the long run, in eternity, to achieve the greatest possible happiness for all others who will be affected by our personal choices. No human being, by human means, can know exactly who will be affected nor how by any given decision. Therefore, no human being can be righteous without help from outside himself, help from a being who is omniscient and righteous.
The most important use of agency any person can make is to become a righteous individual.
5. There is salvation from unrighteousness (the state of the natural man) only through God, the only being who is omniscient and righteous. God, our Father, has told us to hear his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the means, the way, the truth and the light to us. Only if we hear him can we be saved from unrighteousness.
A person can become a righteous individual only by hearing, accepting and loving Jesus Christ with all of his or her heart. To thus yield our hearts to God is the key to loving God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.
To become a righteous individual is to be saved. To be saved is to have the habits=character=religion to love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.
6. Whatever agency a person has received from God, he is responsible for that power and must account for it at the close of his probation. Those who know and enjoy the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ have more agency than those who do not have it, and therefore are more responsible. During his or her probation, every human being is given enough agency to have power to be saved from unrighteousness. Those who use that power to become saved will rejoice; those who do not will weep and wail and gnash their (resurrected) teeth because they didn’t avail themselves of the opportunity. The net result of all this is that no human being can then blame what he or she is in heart, mind, and strength or what he or she has done with might on anyone else. We are free. We do what we desire to do. To blame anyone or anything else for the state of our being or our actions is untruthful and debilitating. Though we are not fully free now, we should act as if we were. Taking the full responsibility is the best way to facilitate repentance and to begin to become what the Restored Gospel makes it possible for us to become: exalted.
The first step in becoming a righteous individual is to take full responsibility for what one is and does. To blame anyone or anything other than ourselves for what we are or do is to dig a pit for ourselves. (See Deut. 6:5; Matt. 23:36–40; D&C 59:5; 2 Nephi 31:19; Moses 6:52)
7. Satan gained increased opportunity to tempt, afflict and torment mankind because Adam and Eve hearkened to him and rejected Father’s counsel. Satan is the destroyer, having power over disease and death, but carefully controlled by Father as to how he will use that power. Satan is the tempter, but his only power to tempt man is to encourage a man to follow after his own desires in disobedience to the commandments of Father. Thus, every man looks at the world and divides it into things desirable (good in his own eyes) and undesirable (evil in his own eyes). Satan simply encourages each person to seek and do that which is good in his (that person’s) own eyes. (James 1:13–15)
Woe unto that person who calls the Father’s good evil and evil good! (2 Nephi 15:20–21)
But happy is the person who hungers and thirsts after the Father’s good, which is righteousness. (3 Nephi 12:6)
8. Being spiritually dead, no man understands himself or his surroundings truly. Man judges upon appearances only, and thus makes many mistakes. Every person has the experience of choosing to do certain acts because he thinks they are good and will bring satisfaction, but discovers to his sorrow that he was mistaken. But men have enough success in gaining satisfaction that they tolerate a few mistakes rather philosophically, especially when what they seek is simply the pleasures of the flesh. (Isaiah 29:8)
9. The natural man is fallen man, selfish man, blinded man. He is without God and Christ in the world. He is able to live quite well as an animal, eating and drinking and procreating, but no individual is sure of success even in that. The more an individual yearns for something more than immediate physical satisfaction, the more he senses he needs help. If he wishes guaranteed physical pleasure, he seeks power. If he desires to know, he seeks to find a knower, usually another human being, or perhaps a book. But if it is the heart of man that yearns for righteousness, no satisfaction will be found in this world. (Ether 12:27–28)
10. The natural man is an enemy to God. “Enemy” means one who is not loved. Most natural men do not love God because they do not know him. Some do not want to know him and reject his message when it comes. But some men yearn for righteousness and welcome the message of the God of righteousness when they are privileged to receive it. (Mosiah 3:19)
11. To know good and evil and to be able to choose between them is to become an independent self. Every man is sufficiently instructed in good and evil that he can show his true desires. (2 Nephi 2:5) Only souls who have been given this agency and who then show that they love God enough to keep his commandments can be exalted. Thus the creation of the world focused on giving men this agency so essential to the time and place for making gods. (2 Nephi 2:16)
12. Though we know little about the creation of the earth, we are given great detail about the creation of the world. We are given a word by word, blow by blow account of that important process, that we might understand it. For our business on earth is to reverse the effects of that fall, to take ourselves out from under the evil influences of this world through the help of our Savior. (2 Nephi 2:24–25)
Lesson Two: God
1. The key to theology: Human beings are of the race of the gods, and may inherit all the gods have. Evidences:
a. Adam and Eve were literally begotten as children of the gods.
b. Mary, a human being, conceived and bore a child for her husband, Elohim.
c. Jesus, the Son of God (Elohim) and son of Mary, appeared to be a normal human being.
d. Some human beings were gods in the premortal existence.
e. The announced purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to invite every human being to become one with God, a god.
2. A god is a person having all power, to whom the angels are subject (D&C 132:20). Every god is a being who is righteous, omniscient, omnipotent, and coordinates with every other god.
a. Righteousness is doing what most contributes to the eternal welfare of every being one affects. Every god has a pure heart (devoid of selfishness) and is fully dedicated to the eternal cause of righteousness. No god takes any vacations or lapses from righteousness, but rather devotes his whole heart, mind, strength and might to that cause.
b. Omniscience is knowing all: everything small and large, near and distant, simple and complex, past, present, or future. An omniscient being cannot be surprised. Omniscience helps to make righteousness possible.
c. Omnipotence is having all the power that exist, so that anything which can be done may be done by an omnipotent being. That is not to say that an omnipotent being will need to do everything which can be done. A god uses omnipotence only to do the works of righteousness. And omnipotence helps to make righteousness possible.
d. To be coordinated with every other god is essential to being a god, for there is but one righteousness, one truth for the omniscient to know, one righteous use of omnipotence in any given situation. Were a god not to coordinate with all other gods there would be confusion as to who would and should do a given work of righteousness. But there is no confusion. As perfect (complete) omniscient beings, all gods are in full communication with each other at each instant, and act as one.
3. There is but one God. That one God is the sum total of all gods united in a priesthood structure. Every person in that priesthood structure has a specific place in the priesthood hierarchy and perfectly fills his or her role. Every person (god) has a father in the priesthood order. Every person (god) does only and exactly that which he or she is instructed to do by the person who stands to him or her in the relation of father. Thus, the whole group acts as one; they constitute a single unit. Thus, there is one true God but many true gods.
4. There are two kinds of true gods, though all have the four characteristics mentioned above. One kind is a personage of spirit, not having a tabernacle of flesh and bone. The other kind is the personage of spirit who has been through a mortal experience and has acquired a body of flesh and bone. The Savior as Jehovah before his mortal ministry was the first kind, and as that kind he created and governed the heavens and the earth and all things that in them are. As the Only Begotten of the Father, our Savior became the second kind of god, which he will be to the rest of eternity.
5. There are two kinds of false gods. Satan would feign claim to be the god of this world, and he indeed tries to become the same by intimidating human beings and conspiring with them. He is one kind of counterfeit God, and his counterfeit “good” is gain and power. The other kind of false god is the individual human beings invent to please themselves and to justify what they wish to do; the counterfeit good here is the selfish desires of the individual person. “For they have strayed from mine ordinance, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own God, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish I Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.” (D&C 1:15–16)
6. God has said to man:
“… the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;
Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
Yea, all things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;
Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.
And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.
And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.
Behold this is according to the law and the prophets; wherefore, trouble me no more concerning this matter.
But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” (D&C 59:16–23)
7. We must know who and what our god and our God is. If the god we worship is a false god, there is no hope for our future. Our great opportunity and responsibility is to search until we find and associate ourselves with the true and living God. Then we can intelligently hope for every good thing. (Moroni: 7)
Lesson Three: Creation of the Earth
1. Compared with what there is to know about it, we know very little about the creation of the earth (either from the scriptures, because they say little about it, or from science, because all scientific accounts of the creation are guesswork).
2. When our story begins in Genesis 1, Moses 2, and Abraham 4, the earth was already in existence. At the time it was empty, desolate, without life. How long before had it been created? We do not know, but possibly it was very old even then.
3. How long did the creation last? We do not know for sure, but one good guess is that it took 7,000 years. (D&C 77:12)
4. Where was the earth reformed in this creation? Why is that important to us? Apparently not in this solar system, but somewhere near the throne of God. (Abraham 5:13)
5. Who reformed the earth for Adam and Eve? The council of the gods; or, in other words, God. (Abraham 4)
6. Why is it important to know that God created the heavens and the earth? So that we will know that it did not happen by chance or by some “natural” process. God was and is firmly in control of the process. To suppose that the universe operates on its own, without direction, is equivalent to a belief in magic. We have ample testimony to the contrary. To reject those testimonies is to reject God.
7. What is the order of the universe in which we live and wherein our earth has its place? The planets and stars of the universe are organized into orders, with each order being governed by a higher order. Each planet rotates at a certain set pace, the more rapid the rotation, the lower the order. At the center and governing all, never changing but pursuing one eternal round, is God. (Abraham 3)
8. What is a kingdom? A kingdom is a portion or space, and in every space there is a kingdom. All kingdoms are governed by law, and to every law there are certain bounds and conditions. The bounds and conditions are set by God, who is the king. (D&C 88:34–39)
9. How does God govern the universe? By light. The light which causes our eyes to see and the light of truth are the same light, from the same source. They are the light of Christ. This light created and governs the sun, the moon, the earth, and all living things. That light causes one to be intelligent. It fills all space with the influence of God. (D&C 88:6–13)
10. Some things are created to be acted upon. They are governed by the light of Christ. Other things are created to act. These latter may accept the law of Christ, which is His light, or they may be a law unto themselves. Those who insist on being a law unto themselves severely limit their capacity to grow.
Lesson Four: The Creation of the World
1. The earth is the physical planet upon which we dwell. A world is an extensive time and place for existence and action. A world was created by the fall of Adam, which world ended in the flood. We live in the second world, which will end in the fire at the Second Coming. The millennium will be the third world, and that world will end when the earth dies. See Joseph Smith History 1:55, which identifies the world with the wicked people who dwell on the earth.
2. Satan was Lucifer (light-bearer), who was an angel of great authority in the presence of God. He rebelled against God, seeking honor, glory and power independent of God. Because of that rebellion, he and his followers were cast away from the throne of God and were sent down to this earth. Their work here is to thwart the work of God by encouraging hate, anger, selfishness and disobedience to God on the part of mankind. (Moses 4:1–4)
3. Adam and Eve were born to the gods as children and sent to this earth. They had two bodies, one spiritual, the other of flesh and bone. The spiritual body consisted of three parts: heart, the sensor of truth and right and the decision maker; mind, the power of understanding and perception; and body, the power to move and act on spiritual material. The fleshly tabernacle also had a heart, which pumped spirit to the body; a brain, which coordinated the mind with the tabernacle of flesh; and the fleshy tabernacle, with which to interact with the coarse material of this earth.
When they were put into the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had celestial bodies. But their eyes were not yet open. They did not understand good and evil in general. They knew not to partake of the forbidden fruit, but had been given to choose for themselves. Thus God had given them a tiny bit of agency. (Moses 7:32)
4. Satan worked on that tiny bit of agency and convinced Eve that her own desire for knowledge was better than Father’s commandment. So she asserted her own will and defied Father. Then she convinced Adam that he must follow, which he did. Then the eyes of their understanding were opened in that each of them now could see that every opportunity to act could be seen as good (God’s will) or evil (anything else). With that new knowledge and using the power to choose for themselves which Father had given them, they became subject to their own wills, being able to and having to choose for themselves between good and evil in everything which they did. (Alma 12:31)
5. Adam and Eve had been told that if they partook of the forbidden fruit they would immediately die. When they partook, they did die, spiritually, and in that very day. This spiritual death was to be cut off from Father, no longer to be able to see him and converse with him directly. The opening of the eyes of their understanding was matched by the closing of the eyes of their spirit bodies. Their flesh became telestial, corrupt. This telestial flesh became a veil, the veil which stopped all of their spiritual senses. Their spirits were yet alive, but walled up in the corrupt tabernacle which now had blood in the veins instead of spirit matter. Thus they could no longer see and communicate with the spiritual existences around them at will as they had done. (D&C 29:36–41)
6. The blood which now coursed through the bodies of Adam and Eve gave them the opportunity to die.
7. The physical universe which we see with our natural eyes is created after the pattern of the spiritual universe. The spiritual universe is prior in time, and governs and controls the physical universe. (Moses 3:7; D&C 29:30–36)
8. To see the physical kingdoms of the universe, large and small, operating in their times and seasons and order is to see God moving in his majesty and power. (D&C 88:4)
9. One important fundamental of righteousness is to acknowledge the hand of God in all things, both spiritual and natural. (D&C 59:21)
10. Could the universe or this earth be improved upon? No, for they have been created (organized) by a perfect, omniscient and omnipotent being for the purpose of blessing His children.
Lesson Five: The Gospel
1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of life and salvation sent to the natural man. It itself is a short message, consisting of perhaps ten ideas which can be said in about one breath. The gospel is compatible with all truth; indeed, it embraces all truth and light in the universe. Those ten ideas are as follows, given in an expanded version.
2. First, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father, is himself a God, and is heir to all that the Father has. He was Jehovah, the god of the Old Testament, whose name means “will be.” The god who would be was born of Mary in the land of Jerusalem of the seed of Abraham, but is literally the only Begotten Son of God the Father in the flesh. He came into the world to do the Father’s will, which he did, leading first a sinless life and then giving up his perfect and potentially unending mortal life that he might ransom the souls and bodies of all mankind.
3. Secondly, it was the Father’s will that he be lifted up upon the cross. This is symbolic of his working out of the atonement for the sins of all mankind. Having lived a sinless life, he had no sin to his charge, and having a divine heritage, he never would have had to die. But it was the Father’s will that he personally and voluntarily takes upon himself to suffer the debt of justice due for each and every sin that had been or ever would be committed by any human being on this earth. The debt of justice is a suffering equal in pain to whatever pain had been inflicted on everyone affected by the original sinning of the sin being compensated for. This also includes righting the wrong and restoring to those hurt the opportunities and blessings they had been deprived of by the original sinning of that sin in question. The Savior could suffer for our sins because he had none of his own to pay for. He can right the wrongs because he is the Eternal God of Heaven and Earth, and has all power over all things to accomplish all things for the salvation of mankind. A third aspect of the atonement is that the Savior seized the keys of death and hell from Satan, which Satan had gained at the occasion of the Fall of Adam, thus making possible both the opening of the gates of hell, the prison doors, to make possible the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the souls in prison, and the resurrection from the grave of every soul who had once received a mortal body on earth.
4. Thirdly, it is the Father’s will that after our Savior had paid the debt and made salvation possible for every human being, that every human being be required to stand before the Savior to account for the opportunity each will have had to repent of his sins an to be forgiven through the atoning blood of Christ. Our Savior is the keeper of the gate to the heavens, and he employs no servant there. What the Savior will want each person to witness is whether that person’s actions have been good, that is to say Godly, or evil, that is to say, in defiance of God. Apparently no one will have to say much, because what everyone did, thought and desired in their probation will be publicly manifest for all to see. Each person judged will agree with his own judgment and proclaim the wisdom, mercy and greatness of God.
5. There is a five-fold way for each human being to prepare for the great day of judgment. This five-fold way is the pattern for one’s entire life and also for each specific decision.
The first of the five-fold ways is to put one’s trust, one’s faith in Jesus Christ. When a person hears the Gospel taught by authorized servants and confirmed by the power of the Holy Spirit, one knows that one should rely wholly and solely on the merits of the Savior for all of his needs for light and truth. To receive revelation from God is to be invited to enter into the straight and narrow way. To put one’s whole trust in that revelation is to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only faith that saves.
6. The second part of the five-fold path is to repent. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, that is to say through faith in Jesus Christ, each of us must undertake to go through our heart, mind, strength and might and order all of it according to the truth and light which the Savior sends to us. This is a lifetime project, but it is incumbent upon those who have received some portion of direction to live up to that direction before doing anything else. That is godly repentance.
7. The third part of the five-fold path is to enter into covenant with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to become completely faithful in all things. Specifically, we promise to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, to proclaim that name and never to be ashamed of it before any man; to keep all of the commandments which he gives to us personally; and to remember him always. These promises lead to all of the higher ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have perfection of the person as their goal.
8. The fourth part of the five-fold path is to actually receive the Holy Ghost. No one can get to this point without having received something from the Holy Ghost already. Knowing what that spirit is and what it does for us, we must now take that spirit as our constant companion, knowing that as we are faithful, it will show us all things that we should do. This is our life-line, the rod of iron that enables us to stay in the narrow way of righteousness through the mists of darkness.
9. The fifth part of the five-fold way is to endure to the end. The end is life eternal, to become as Christ himself is in heart, might, mind and strength. This is truly a counsel of perfection, reaching for the stars with a grasp wherein the grace of God fully complements all we can do to suffice unto attaining to the end.
10. The power and pertinence of that five-fold message are matched by a solemn warning that enduring to the end is important. For if one does not endure to the end, one will be hewn down and cast into the fire with no further opportunity to repent, to change, to inherit eternal life.
11. Finally, there is the promise to match the warning: He who will repent, be sanctified by the Holy Ghost and will endure to the end through this five-fold process will enter into the kingdom of God and will be fully acceptable to the Father. That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
12. The message of the Father to all mankind is that we should hear his Beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased. The Son gives us his Gospel, the good news as to how we can overcome the Fall of Adam and be restored to the presence of the Father as beloved sons and daughters. That Gospel is not the only way to love God, but it is the only way to love God fully and to become as God is.
13. When God’s children live the Gospel of Jesus Christ in any numbers, they are given the privilege of instituting a celestial society on the earth. That society is called, “Zion.”
Lesson Six: The Savior
1. Our Savior has over four hundred name-titles (counting all the variations). Each of these is significant of some special aspect of his mission. Some of the principal name-titles he bears are the following:
· Christ: Anointed One, the one whom Father has commissioned.
· Messiah: The Hebrew version of the title, “Christ”.
· Redeemer: The one who saves men from the Fall.
· Savior: The one who saves men from their sins.
· Jehovah: The god of the Old Testament who became Jesus.
· Jesus: The Anglicized form of the Greek representation of the Hebrew “Joshua”, which was the Savior’s given name in mortality.
· Master: The leader to whom we look.
· Lord: The ruler or president over the faithful.
· Rabbi: The Hebrew for “teacher.”
· Only Begotten: The only human on earth ever directly begotten by God the Father.
· Son of Man: Son of Man of Holiness, God the Father being Man of Holiness.
· Alpha and Omega: The one who begins all things and also ends them.
· Great I Am: The fully existing one.
· Mighty One of Israel: Abraham’s God, who is almighty and specially remembers the children of Abraham.
· Good Shepherd: He who leads us into life eternal.
· Fountain of Righteousness: The only source of righteousness for the inhabitants of this earth.
· The Way: He is the perfect example of the only way back to the Father.
· The Truth: He is the source of all truth for mankind.
· The Life: He is the giver of all forms of life.
· The Light of the World: His light brings hope for righteousness and peace to all mankind.
· The Door: No one can get into heaven except through Him.
2. The merits of Him who is mighty to save:
· He is the authorized representative of our Father in Heaven.
· He knows all things.
· He can do anything which can be done.
· He is perfect; no selfishness of any kind.
· He is love: His love blesses every human being.
· He is long-suffering: He lets us work out our salvation.
· He is mindful: He maintains a constant vigilance over all his creations, and no thought, feeling, desire, action or problem of any of His creations escapes his attention.
· He is in control: Nothing in heaven or earth happens except by his instruction, permission or allowance.
· He saves: He can perfect and exalt any human being who desires to be saved.
3. As Christ (Messiah, the Anointed One), our Savior has a specific mission to perform in behalf of the Father. We will break it into parts for understanding, with the understanding that in reality this mission is all one piece, each part being a necessary part of the single whole.
a. Firstborn of the Father: His role was to accept the Father’s will as the plan for salvation of all mankind.
b. Jehovah: His role was to create the heavens and the earth (and many other earths and heavens like this one) and all things that in them are. This creation includes the Fall, and is ongoing, even now.
c. Lord God: His role after the Fall was to be the light of the world, thus to control how much knowledge, truth and wisdom every man has or can get. Thus, the Savior is in control of the life, breath, accomplishments and failures of every being. (Of course every being has agency; the Savior’s control is what enables that agency to be a reality.)
d. Son of God: Being born of Mary, from her gaining a body of flesh and bone and blood, and being sired by our Father in Heaven, he gained power to be perfect and to live forever. He lived a perfect life, explicitly obeying His Father in all things he said and did.
e. Savior: He atoned for the sins of all mankind, suffering the wrath of Almighty God for them, that they might not need to. And he voluntarily gave up his opportunity to be a mortal forever in order to seize the keys of death that all men might be resurrected from the grave.
f. Judge: All men go immediately to his presence when they die and are assigned to prison or paradise, as is expedient. But only those who go to paradise see him and know that they have gone back to his presence when they die.
g. Advocate: When all preparations are complete, each person is resurrected and stands before the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost to receive a final (eternal) judgment. The Savior there pleads the case of every soul who was willing to hear His voice and repent through the Holy Spirit.
h. Father: The Savior is father in the patriarchal lineage to all of the righteous for the remainder of eternity. With them he shares all that His Father has given Him, and they become equal with Him to all eternity. Those who were not completely righteous become the servants to him and his righteous children, and they willingly, gladly serve the Savior and his righteous children to all eternity (exception: the sons of Perdition).
4. The Atonement:
God’s law is righteousness. He only commands or instructs or entices men to do that which is righteous. The spokesman for that law is Christ. To obey that law with one’s body is the beginning of faith. To obey fully is to love God (obey Him) with all of one’s heart, might, mind and strength. Whatsoever any person does that is not of faith is sin.
Sin, being transgression of God’s law, knowingly or unknowingly, always inflicts evil on those whom it affects (opposite to the blessings which faith begets). The Father is acutely mindful of the blessings and evils which men visit upon one another, and he cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Every sin must be compensated for by 1) a suffering equal to the suffering caused by the sin, and 2) a restoration to the person(s) sinned against by the blessing(s) they would have had, had the perpetrator not sinned.
Our Savior did not sin once during mortality. Because of this He could take upon Himself the suffering due for the sins of every other human being. This he did, suffering he wrath of his Father or all the sins of mankind, past, present and future, in that last twenty-four-hour period of his life. Only a God could suffer that much. But the Savior persevered, difficult though it was, and finished his preparations to the children of men. This specific act of suffering was the atonement. The Hebrew form of this concept means, “to cover.” The Greek form means, “drastic change.” The English form means, “to reconcile.”
Lesson Seven: Faith in Jesus Christ
1. A principle is a general rule, a universal. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is but one rule or law. All other principles are but explications, portions or facets of the one general rule. (D&C 132:4–13)
2. The name of the one law is: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Other wordings to describe the law are:
a. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ shalt thou serve him. (D&C 59:5)
b. One must love, hear and obey Jesus Christ, making every sacrifice necessary to do so. (D&C 97:8)
3. There is no shortage of faith in the world, for every person lives by faith. Each must do so because we know nothing about the future (we only guess). Every person puts his faith and trust for the future in something or somebody.
4. Characteristics of faith in Christ:
a. Type: Relationship to Christ.
b. Similar: Trust, obedience, love for, belief in.
c. Contrary: Unbelief, distrust, disobedience, disdain for, ignoring.
d. Prerequisite: Personal revelation from Jesus Christ.
e. Constituents: Love for, trust in, obedience by sacrifice.
f. Perfection: To live by every word that proceeds forth from His mouth, with a firm mind in every form of godliness.
g. Counterfeit: To confess with the mouth, but not to believe or obey.
h. Complement: Fear.
i. Opposite: actively work against Christ by the power of Satan.
j. Celestial faith: To love and obey God will all of my heart, might, mind and strength.
k. Terrestrial faith: To believe and obey God when he speaks to me.
l. Telestial faith: To obey God when I am threatened.
m. Perdition: To pretend to obey God, but secretly to work against him.
5. Key scriptures on faith:
a. Hab. 2:4 The just shall live by faith
b. Matt. 9:22 Thy faith hath made thee whole
c. Matt. 9:29 According to thy faith, be it unto you
d. Matt. 21:21 If ye have faith, and doubt not
e. Luke 22:32 I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not
f. Rom. 10:17 Faith cometh by the hearing of the word
g. Rom. 14:23 Whatsoever is not of faith is of sin
h. 2 Cor. 5:7 For we walk by faith, not sight
i. Gal. 2:6 Be justified by the faith of Christ
j. Gal. 3:12 The law is not of faith
k. Eph. 2:8 By grace are ye saved through faith; it is the gift of God
l. Eph. 4:13 We all come in a unity of the faith
m. Eph. 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith
n. Heb. 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for
o. Heb. 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God
p. Heb. 12:2 The author and finisher of our faith
q. Jas. 1:6 Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering
r. Jas. 2:14 Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead
s. 1 Pet. 1:7 Through the trial of your faith
t. 2 Pet. 1:7 Add to your faith, virtue
u. 2 Nephi 31:19 Christ with unshaken faith in him
v. Mosiah 8:18 That man through faith might work might miracles
w. Hel. 3:35 Wax firmer in the faith of Christ
x. Eth. 3:19 He had faith no longer
y. Moro. 7:39 Of strong faith and a firm mind
z. D&C 8:10 Without faith you can do nothing
aa. D&C 63:9 Faith cometh not by signs
bb. D&C 104:55 All the properties are mine or else your faith is vain
6. Key Questions:
a. How is faith related to knowledge? One must have a personal knowledge of God’s command, then do it, not knowing that God will bless us, but believing that he will.
b. Who needs faith in Christ? All who have sinned and are accountable.
c. Will faith ever be done away? Some faith is replaced by knowledge. But faith is the principle by which the gods interrelate. It is an eternal principle.
d. What can faith accomplish? Faith is the power to lay hold of every good thing, including enduring to the end.
e. What is it to be faithful? It is to endure to the end, until I have the heart, might, mind and strength of Christ.
Lesson Eight: Obedience and Sacrifice
1. Obedience and sacrifice are part of faith in Jesus Christ. When one who has not had faith desires to begin to do so, the beginning of faith is to obey the commandments of God. That obedience must be sincere. It must not be just a business deal with God: I’ll do this for you if you will do that for me. The obedience must be that of a humble child before his father, who, having sinned, now earnestly seeks to walk in the way of his father. The measure of the sincerity of that obedience is the sacrifices one is willing to make to obey the Father.
2. Obedience is of the strength, the body. Sacrifice is of the strength and of the might. Before we can obey, we must learn the Father’s will; this is the involvement of our mind. We understand the instruction of God with our mind, obey with our bodies, and give up whatever of our might (money, time, property, influence) that is necessary to fulfill obedience. This is part of faith, a substantial beginning to faith. It lacks only the pure love of Christ to make it a complete faith. But most of us can learn and gain that pure love that completes faith only through obedience and sacrifice.
3. The word obey derives from the Latin obedire, which comes from ob + audire, to give ear. The Greek is hupakouo, to hear under. The Hebrew is shama, to hearken, to hear.
a. Celestial obedience is to hear and recognize the voice of God and do exactly as he instructs, and to do it immediately.
b. Terrestrial obedience is to obey God only after we fully understand why we are being told to do something.
c. Telestial obedience is to obey God only when we feel like doing so.
d. Perdition obedience is to obey God only when forced to do so.
e. Constituents: Understand the revelation from God, and act accordingly.
f. Counterfeit: To obey God’s instruction only when and as Satan prompts us to do so. This is not obedience to God.
g. Opposite: Obedience to Satan.
h. Complement: To do only as we desire to do.
i. Similar: Faith in Jesus Christ, to hearken, to serve.
j. Contrary: Refuse to hear; to disdain, disobey and ignore.
k. Positive example: Adam offering sacrifice after being cast out.
l. Negative example: Jonah trying to run away from his mission call.
4. The difference understanding obedience should make:
a. Heart: I should desire to obey God in all things, no matter the cost.
b. Mind: I must strive to identify the voice of God unerringly and to understand all that he would have me do.
c. Strength: I must discipline my body to do God’s will in all things.
d. Might: I must never count the cost; I will serve and obey no matter what the cost, knowing that eventually the cost is all that I have.
5. Key scriptures on obedience:
a. Rom. 5:19 So by the obedience of one
b. Rom. 16:26 To all nations for the obedience of faith
c. Heb. 5:8 Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered
d. Isa. 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat
e. Deut. 27:10 Obey the voice of the Lord, thy God
f. 1 Sam. 15:2 To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than
g. Acts 5:29 Ought to obey God rather than men
h. Rom. 6:16 His servants ye are to whom you obey
i. Heb. 5:9 Salvation unto all them that obey
j. 1 Pet. 1:22 Purified your souls in obeying the truth
k. D&C 105:6 Chastened until they learn obedience
l. D&C 130:19 Through his diligence and obedience
m. Moses 5:8 Be obedient unto the ends of your lives
n. Moses 5:11 God giveth unto all the obedient
o. 1 Neph. 4:18 I did obey the voice of the Spirit
p. Jac. 4:6 And the very trees obey us
q. D&C 42:2 Hearken and hear and obey
6. The word sacrifice comes from the Latin sacra, holy and ficeo, to make or to do: to make holy.
7. To sacrifice is to put oneself into the path of holiness by obeying the voice of God and by giving up all that he requires us to give up to perfect that obedience. There is no sacrifice without obedience.
a. Celestial sacrifice: To obey the Lord unto giving up all he requires.
b. Terrestrial sacrifice: To sacrifice unto the Lord when it seems right (to our own mind) to do so.
c. Telestial sacrifice: To sacrifice when we feel moved (by our own desires) to sacrifice unto the Lord.
d. Perdition sacrifice: To sacrifice only as Satan instructs us to do.
e. Genus of sacrifice: Quality of obedience.
f. Similar: Diligence, promptness, carefulness.
g. Contrary: Loose, undependable, careless, shallow.
h. Perfection: To lay down one’s life.
i. Opposite: To cling to all we have and are.
j. Counterfeit: To sacrifice only as Satan commands.
k. Prerequisite: Obedience.
l. Constituents: Something owned that is precious to us. Giving up that something precious to be abused.
m. Positive example: The Savior gave up his infinite mortality.
n. Negative example: The rich young man would not give away his wealth.
8. Difference understanding sacrifice should make:
a. Heart: I must hold nothing more dear than obedience to God.
b. Mind: I must learn what sacrifices he would have me make.
c. Strength: I must perform the sacrifices he instructs.
d. Might: I must suffer any loss necessary, possibly all I have.
9. Key Question: What is the most important sacrifice which all persons must make: To have a broken heart (to give up all pride or supposition that I somehow am “worthy” of being saved), and to have a contrite spirit (to be willing to suffer with Christ, to give up everything of this world, if necessary, as he did).
10. Key scriptures:
a. Exo. 5:8 Let us go and sacrifice to our God
b. Exo. 12:27 It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover
c. The physical universe which we see with our natural eyes is created after the pattern of the spiritual universe. The spiritual universe is prior in time, and governs and controls the physical universe. (Moses 3:7; D&C 29:30–36)
d. Prov. 15:8 Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination
e. Daniel 12:11 The daily sacrifice shall be taken away
f. Hos. 6:6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice
g. Plus: Mal. 1:8; Rom. 12:1; Heb. 11:4; 2 Neph. 2:7; Alma 26:32, 34:10; D&C 59:8, 64:23, 97:8
Lesson Nine: Gospel Principles (Continued)
1. Hope is the righteous expectation of receiving the blessings which the Father has to give to us.
2. “Hope” comes from the Anglo-Saxon hopa; Ger. hoffa.
3. Hope is an attitude of heart and mind; the mind understands a possibility which the heart then desires. If the person works intelligently to achieve that possibility, then hope is justified.
4. Gospel hope is to understand the way of holiness, to desire it and the place to which it leads, and to enter into it. Only then, through one’s faithful obedience to God, can one have a hope in Christ.
a. Celestial hope is righteous expectation of eternal life.
b. Terrestrial hope is the expectation of a just reward.
c. Telestial hope is wishing that things would be better.
d. Perdition hope is the desire both to sin and to receive the blessings of God.
e. Opposite: Doubt.
f. Complement: Wonder.
g. Counterfeit: Wish.
h. Positive example: Lehi had a hope in Christ.
i. Negative example: Laman had no hope in Christ.
5. Difference this concept should make in my life:
a. Heart: I trust completely in the Lord’s love and providence because I love Him.
b. Mind: I believe that the future is assured because I understand and accept the ways of God.
c. Strength: I serve God with all of my strength because I have hope.
d. Might: I perfect my stewardship to become a celestial kingdom stewardship because I have hope: I trust that God will be with me and sustain me.
6. Key Scriptures:
a. Joel 3:16 The Lord will be the hope of His people
b. Heb. 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul
c. 2 Neph. 31:20 A perfect brightness of hope
d. Alma 32:21 If ye have faith, ye hope for things
e. Ether 12:4 With surety hope for a better world
7. Charity is the pure love of Christ, caring for Him and for His righteousness above all else unto the perfect fulfilling of all of his instructions.
8. How does one obtain this pure love? This love does not occur naturally. It is a gift of God to all who seek it through mighty prayer, repentance from all sinning and striving to be faith full.
9. “Charity” comes from the Latin caritas, which derives from carus, dear.
a. Celestial love is charity, God’s pure love reflected back to him and to our neighbors (which includes our enemies).
b. Terrestrial love is loyal love for family and friends.
c. Telestial love is whimsical affection.
d. Perdition love is love for self and self alone.
e. The genus of charity is relationships with others. Similar are to like, esteem, venerate, honor, eulogize.
f. Contrary are to despise, ignore, vilify, deprecate.
g. Opposite: Hatred for Christ and neighbor.
h. Complement: Selfishness.
i. Prerequisites: Receiving the pure love from Christ, plus faith on our part.
j. Constituents: Love grows through faith in Christ until it is perfected in charity.
k. Counterfeit: Fawning.
l. Positive example: Nephi loved so purely that he could perform miracles.
m. Negative example: Laman and Lemuel could not love their father, their brothers, nor their God, though they were served, blessed, protected and preserved by them.
10. Key Scriptures:
a. 1 Cor 13 (Whole chapter)
b. Moroni 7:44 If he have not charity he is nothing
c. John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love
d. John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments
e. D&C 121:41 By meekness and love unfeigned
11. Repentance is to turn from whatever we have been doing to the way of Christ, to love and serve Him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.
12. “Repent” derives from the Fr. repentir, from the L. poenitentia, to regret. The Greek is metanoia, to change one’s mind. The Hebrew has two forms, one meaning to sigh, the other to return.
a. Celestial repentance is to replace every sin with faith in Jesus Christ.
b. Terrestrial repentance is to have remorse, resolve, replacement and restitution.
c. Telestial repentance is to say, “I’m sorry.”
d. Perdition repentance is to repent celestially, then to repent of that repentance (to turn back to sinning deliberately.)
e. Prerequisites: Desire to change, knowing how and to what to change.
f. Opposite: To turn to evil.
g. Complement: Hard-heartedness.
h. Counterfeit: To say one has repented, but to continue sinning in secret. (Confess but not forsake.)
i. Positive example: Cornelius fully accepted the way of Christ.
j. Negative example: Ananias and Sapphira said they were faithful, but were not.
13. When is it too late to repent? When one has denied the Holy Ghost; when one has shed innocent blood; after mortal death (LDS persons who understand the Gospel cannot repent to celestial salvation except in this life); when one has so little life left that he cannot establish new habits of righteousness (there can be no deathbed repentance).
14. When is repentance complete? Only when one has become as the Savior in heart, might, mind and strength.
15. What restitution is required for the law of Moses? One for one. For the law of Christ (the Gospel): four for one. (See D&C 98)
16. Key Scriptures:
a. Alma 5:49 They must all repent and be born again.
b. D&C 19:4 Every man must repent or suffer.
c. + 2 Cor. 7:10; Heb. 6:4–6; 1 Ne. 14:5; Jac. 3:3.
Lesson Ten: Gospel Principles (Concluded)
1. Justice is required of men by God, for God is just, and for men to be godly they must be just. The word “justice” comes from the Latin justus, just, which derives from jus, right or law.
2. To be just or to achieve justice is to do what is right according to the law. To do what is right according to human law is an approximation of real justice, for neither the laws themselves nor the interpretations and procedures by which men pursue justice are perfect. True Justice is thus to obey God’s law according to his instructions. It is to be upright, square, to measure up to what God requires. The opposite of justice is to default on one’s obligations.
3. God requires that a man make only appropriate promises, then keep those promises exactly. This includes the careful discharge of stewardships, the honoring of others, the full payment of debts. Terrestrial justice is to restore one for one for a wrong done, a tooth for a tooth. Celestial justice requires that a wrongdoer restore four times the hurt caused.
4. In the New and Everlasting Covenant, every person promises to obey every instruction which God gives them. Thus to be just, a person must live by every word which proceeds forth out of the mouth of God. Perhaps the most important thing a person can do is just to have an eye single to the glory of God.
5. God commands all men to be merciful. The word mercy comes from the Latin mercedem, which means reward or fee. Also derived from that root are the words merchant and mercenary, both involving the payment of money.
6. To be merciful is to pay the debts of others, either those owed directly to ourselves or those owed to others. God commands every man to pay his own debts if he can, thus to be just, but also commands us to be merciful towards others, even as He is. Thus to refuse to be merciful when God so instructs is to decline to be just.
7. No man can pay the debt for his own sins, for that takes a being of infinite power to correct the wrongs that we have done which have infinite consequences. Thus we all depend on God for mercy. But God requires of us that we forgive all men their trespasses against us before he will forgive us.
8. The justice of God requires that every man recognize the source of all of the good things which he has, which source is God himself. The formal manner of making that recognition is to consecrate all that one has to God.
9. The word consecrate comes from the Latin consecrare, to devote as sacred. To consecrate is to dedicate someone to the service of God, or to dedicate and use something in the service of God. It is required of every just servant of God that he consecrate everything he has to the service of God. That means that he will use his strength, his mind, his talents, his property only to serve the God of Heaven. In this serving of the God of Heaven, he will pay his debts to the world, but will never willingly use anything which he controls for an evil purpose.
10. One who has consecrated all to the Lord must use all that he has to promote good in the world according to God’s instruction, and to report back to God exactly what he has done in fulfilling those instructions. Thus to use one’s goods and to report back in a cycle which begins on earth and extends into eternity is to fulfill the principle of stewardship.
11. The word stewardship comes from old English stig, of uncertain meaning, and ward, keeper. The word was used to designated one who controls the domestic affairs of a household or a special officer of a royal household.
12. To be a steward is to acknowledge God as the owner of all that we are and have, including our own bodies, and to strive to please Him in all that we do with His property. The only way to please Him is to act in faith in Jesus Christ, which is to obey his law, which is to be just.
13. To Keep the commandments of God is not a power which men have naturally. Thus the natural man, he who is without God and Christ in the world, can only sin continually. But God sends His love into the world to save every man out of the world who desires to be saved. This salvation comes by teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and administering the ordinances to all who sincerely obey it. The power which enables men to keep the commandments of God is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, which no natural man can have. But to all those who are willing to come to Christ as little children, repenting of their sins and sincerely desiring to keep every commandment which God gives them, God gives the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost. But this holy person cannot dwell in an unclean vessel. So any person who needs the Gospel because they have sinned and is unclean must also be cleansed by the blood of Christ, through the atonement, before that constant companionship can come. That cleansing does come after one has made the covenant of baptism and at the moment one receives the Holy Ghost according to the command given in the ordinance of confirmation into the church, when it is said to us, “Receive the Holy Ghost”. That necessary cleansing is called in the scriptures sanctification.
14. The word sanctification comes from the Latin sacra, sacred or holy, and from ficare, to do or to make. Thus sanctification means to make holy. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, sanctification means to make holy. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, sanctification is the making of something whole or holy by the power of God for the sake of a subsequent special service to God. That service is the living of a faithful, just, merciful, consecrated life of stewardship under Christ. That sanctification is achieved by God forgiving all the past sins of the repentant person who has forgiven others their trespasses.
15. The desired result of mortality in the Gospel of Jesus Chris is to attain to the habits, the character, the religion of Jesus Christ, to take upon ourselves the divine nature, which is to rise to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ. This change can be made only by those who are sanctified. The change itself is called justification.
16. The word justification comes from the Latin and means to make just. Gospel justification is not only making the deeds of a man just, but making him just, one who will do no sin. He abides every law (commandment) of God, and thus is lawful, Just. The counterfeit of gospel justification is being excused for breaking the law while remaining unable to keep the law. This counterfeit may be asserted by the self, and is then known as self-justification. Or it may be asserted by an earthly judge as a way of suspending a punishment. But real gospel justification is rising in strength and the gifts of God unto keeping every law, thus becoming a truly just person.
Lesson Eleven: The Saving Ordinances
1. The saving ordinances are those necessary to exaltation. They are also called the New and Everlasting Covenant. The specific ordinances of that covenant are baptism, laying on of hands for the bestowing of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood, the temple endowment, and temple sealing.
2. Baptism is the beginning of the covenant with God. To be eligible for this ordinance one must be accountable, have heard, understood and accepted the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, must have exercised faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance from all sinning (of which the person is aware), and repentance unto the requesting of baptism. This worthiness is to be ascertained and attested by the person who controls the records, for a baptism is official only when recorded by the person who has the authority to do so.
3. Baptism is administered by one having authority from the record keeper, who has authority from God. The candidate enters the water with the person performing the ordinance and is completely immersed in and then brought forth from the water. This process serves as a symbol of the death and resurrection of the Savior. It also represents the death of the old, unrepentant person, the candidate was who then arises out of the water into a new life, a new creature being remade in the image of Christ. Two competent witnesses must attest the correctness of the administration of this ordinance.
4. The purpose of this ordinance is for the candidate to make a covenant with God through this immersion in which he or she promises (1) to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ (willing to be known by all men as His servant), (2) to keep all the instructions he or she receives from the Savior, and (3) to remember the Savior (and this covenant) always. This covenant is not of force unless the candidate truly makes those promises. The ordinance cannot be recognized unless it is immediately followed by the next ordinance, the laying on of hands, for only then can the promises be kept.
5. The laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost is performed by someone who is authorized to do so by he who controls the records. The administrator must hold the Melchizedek priesthood. The essence of the ordinance is to pronounce that the person is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to command him or her to receive the Holy Ghost. The purpose of this ordinance is to bestow the opportunity for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost on the person. Through that companionship he or she will have access to the knowledge and power necessary to know and keep the general and personal commandments of Jesus Christ to him or her.
6. Those who enjoy and treasure the companionship of the Holy Spirit will be obedient, and as they are obedient, they are told more and more of what to do. The ultimate and ideal condition is to walk, talk, think and feel under the constant influence of this divine being. That is the basic preparation for being able to abide the presence of the Son and the Father, which is eternal life.
7. Ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood is administered to one who has been faithful in keeping the covenant of baptism and faithful in yielding to the influence of the Holy Spirit (those two are one and the same thing, said in different ways.) The recipient promises to use the power of God righteously: to do whatever God instructs the bearer to do, and to do it as he is instructed to do it. This is the covenant of the priesthood. The oath of the priesthood is God’s promise to share all that he has with those who prove faithful to their priesthood covenants during their probation.
8. Every bearer has potentially the full power of the Melchizedek Priesthood as an elder. But that power is manifest only as authorized. Specific authorization may come with ordination to an office other than elder, such as seventy, high priest, or patriarch. A priesthood bearer is fully authorized only when (1) he is acting in the authority to which he has been ordained, (2) to which he has specifically been set apart, and (3) for which he is acting under specific instructions from the Holy Spirit (D&C 68:2–4). A Melchizedek Priesthood bearer who is thus fully authorized speaks the mind and will of the Lord and has the power of God unto salvation. Ordinations to this priesthood are eternal in nature.
9. The purpose of the temple endowment is to give further priesthood knowledge, power and authority to the recipient. It is a special gift from God to complement the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It gives the worthy recipient knowledge and power to overcome the world while in the flesh and to pass to the celestial kingdom in the next world. Much of the endowment is highly symbolic. It may be understood only by one who enjoys the companionship of the Holy Spirit born out of faithful obedience to Jesus Christ through that same Holy Spirit. There are specific covenants and promises which a person must make to complete the receiving of the endowment. The promises are sacred, and must not be spoken of outside the temple, but are all embraced in the idea that we should love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, and serve Him in the name of Jesus Christ (D&C 59:5). Anyone who is willing to do that will have no surprises nor discomfiture with any of the covenants or promises made in the temple. The temple is not a place one goes as a test of his faith, but as a reward for his past faith and an empowering of greater faithfulness in the future.
10. The temple sealing is marriage in the New and Everlasting Covenant and the binding of children to their sealed parents. The ordinance is permissive, not compulsory. It permits the formation of an eternal union which God will honor if the participants forge and prove an eternal bond of love in righteousness. But no one is required to maintain any association or binding which is against his or her will or desires. This temple sealing is the official ordination and setting apart of a couple to be authorized mother and father before God. No one else can or does have that authority (ability and authority must not be confused). All other forms of marriage that human beings have participated in must be repented of and replaced by this sealing to have any force or existence beyond the grave. (D&C 132).
11. These saving ordinances are earthly ordinances and can only be performed on earth in the flesh. Thus this mortality is the unique access to the celestial blessings in eternity. Faithfulness in mortality on the part of the human family is the only possible means of becoming as the Father is and sharing all He has. Faithful children may perform these ordinances on earth and in the flesh for their departed ancestors, but if no one were faithful on earth while in the flesh, there could not be any blessing in eternity for anyone, including the righteous (Malachi 4:5–6).
12. The details of the New and Everlasting Covenant are the most important piece of information in this world. But that information is useless without the power and authority to administer the ordinances.
Lesson Twelve: Other Ordinances
1. The Blessing of Little Children
Purpose: To assist and protect children until they come to the age of accountability.
Procedure: The child is given a name which is to be used on the records of the church and such blessing as the person who is mouth is inspired to give.
Priesthood: The Melchizedek Priesthood is necessary.
Note: Many children are prayed for, not blessed, in the attempt to perform this ordinance.
2. Administering to the sick
Purpose: To keep the adversary from cutting the person’s mission short. The healing is not given simply to relieve the person, but so that they can do the Lord’s work. In other words, healing is not done so that the person can continue to sin, but so that he or she can to the work of righteousness.
Procedure: Normal: Two persons perform. One anoints with consecrated oil. The second seals the anointing and pronounces whatever blessings are given to him to say by the Holy Spirit.
Exceptions: One person may anoint and seal and bless in one operation. One person may lay hands and bless without using consecrated oil. A worthy sister may, for members of her family, anoint with consecrated oil and pray for the person to be blessed. In an emergency situation a priesthood bearer can administer to himself if and as he is instructed by the Holy Spirit.
Priesthood: The Melchizedek Priesthood is necessary.
Note: If the person is healed, he or she is also forgiven of his or her sins.
3. Blessing
Purpose: To increase the flow of divine blessings to the recipient. These may be blessings of comfort, knowledge, strength, courage, etc., according to the need of the recipient.
Procedure: Any person may request a blessing for a special concern, and any priesthood leader may initiate a blessing for someone in his stewardship. If both parties agree that a blessing from the Lord is desirable, then hands are laid on and the mind and will of the Lord is spoken.
Priesthood: The Melchizedek Priesthood is necessary.
Note: much evil can be done in attempting to perform this ordinance outside of priesthood stewardship boundaries.
4. Patriarchal Blessing
Purpose: To provide a personal revelation to the recipient which designates his or her lineage in Israel and such other blessings as are important to administer by the Holy Spirit.
Procedure: Upon receiving the proper recommendation from one’s Bishop (and Stake President, in some cases), the person presents himself or herself to the patriarch designated by agreement between the person receiving the blessing and the person making the recommendation. The patriarch then administers that blessing which is given through him by revelation.
Priesthood: The administrator must be an ordained patriarch.
Note: Fathers may give patriarchal blessings which may be recorded by the family, but they will not be recorded by the church as the ordained patriarch’s blessings are.
5. Cursing
Purpose: To bring the person to his senses so that he will be encouraged to repent. All cursings from the Lord are actually blessings.
Procedure: The person administering the curse must be acting in his priesthood stewardship and say and do only that which the Lord instructs.
Priesthood: The Melchizedek Priesthood is required.
Note: The administrator must take no delight in the curse.
6. Excommunication
Purpose: This is a form of curse. It is administered to release the person from his or her covenants, to cut him off from the companionship of the Holy Spirit, and to deliver the person into the power of Satan. All this is done in the hope that the person will be brought to repent.
Procedure: An official church court must be convened, to which the person involved must be invited. A high council court must try a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood. A Bishop’s court may try any other person who is a member, and may also disfellowship a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Witnesses are heard, and the charges against the person must be established either by the person’s own testimony, or in the mouths of two or more witnesses. After the evidence has been heard, the presiding authority renders the verdict of the Lord (received through prayer, from the Holy Spirit). If the verdict is upheld by the other members of the court (the Bishop’s counselors, or the counselors and high council of the Stake President), then the verdict is rendered to the person concerned with whatever counsel to encourage him or her to repent that seems appropriate. It is the recording of this ordinance which makes it official. Priesthood: The person administering this ordinance must be the presiding high priest over the person concerned.
7. Consecration.
Purpose: To set somebody or something apart for the work of the Lord. This is an occasion for the administration of the blessings which will make the performance of that work possible. Examples: Consecration of oil; dedication of a home, a chapel, a temple, or a grave; the setting apart of a person to a special calling.
Procedure: The person who performs the ordinance does and says those things which are given to him to do by the Holy Spirit.
Priesthood: The person performing must either have stewardship authority over whoever or whatever is being consecrated, or have a specific delegation of authority to do so from the proper steward.
8. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Purpose: To enable a person to renew all of his or her own covenants with the Lord, and to thereby regain the companionship of the Holy Spirit.
Procedure: The emblems (bread and wine, or bread and water) are consecrated and passed to worthy members of the Church. The sacramental prayers of consecration recapitulate the covenant of baptism. To be worthy to partake, one must be earnestly striving to keep one’s covenants. The emblems represent the flesh and blood of the Savior and may become the flesh and blood of the Savior.
Priesthood: The administrator must hold the office of Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, but may be assisted by Teachers or Deacons.
Note: To partake of the sacrament unworthily, not intending to honor one’s covenants, is to invite Satan, disease and death into one’s life.
Lesson Thirteen: Priesthood
1. Priesthood is the power and authority to represent God. It is the power of God himself, given to man to use correctly. To receive the priesthood is to enter into an apprenticeship training to become a god by learning to do all things under the tutelage of God.
2. There are two basic kinds of power in the universe. One is push power, such as the power of a lever, a jack or an explosion; this kind takes a small amount of physical push power, such as muscle power, and multiplies it through mechanical or chemical means. The second kind of power is word power, the ability to control and direct things by speaking to them. Priesthood power is this second kind of power.
3. The life of a Latter-day Saint is supposed to be the learning of the ability to do all things by priesthood power instead of push power (which is compulsion). The more righteous a person is, the more successful he or she will be in using priesthood power to accomplish the work of his or her stewardship. To most LDS persons, it seems easier and faster to use push power to get things done, so priesthood power is perhaps wished for, but is not employed except in an emergency when there is no other hope.
4. In actual practice, a righteous person under the influence of the Holy Spirit will simply do whatever he or she is instructed to do by that Spirit, and in the manner instructed. When doing the work of God, the how of doing is always at least as important as the what of doing. This means that some things will be done by push power, and some by priesthood power. But the long-term trend will be to increase the usage of priesthood power and to decrease the use of push power.
5. The instruction for using priesthood power is as follows:
… the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God. We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence, many are called, but few are chosen. No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterward an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood distill upon they soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever. (D&C 121:36–46)
6. The pattern of the world is to use force and compulsion, especially on other persons, in the satisfying of one’s personal needs (some form of slavery), and the use of force and compulsion to manage one’s stewardship (political or business arrangements which depend upon the use of force).
The pattern of the saint is to use his own physical power to satisfy his own personal needs (to labor with his own hands), and to use the power of the priesthood (persuasion) to manage his stewardship.
Why does the saint insist upon supplying his personal needs by the labor of his own hands?
7. How is the power of the priesthood to be used in:
a. Education
b. Farming
c. Manufacturing
d. Law
e. Medicine
f. Police work
g. Building
h. Scientific research
i. Scholarly work
j. Politics
k. Raising a family
l. Bonding a husband and wife
Lesson Fourteen: Marriage
1. The marriage companionship is the unit of exaltation. “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:11)
2. God ordained marriage as a holy ordinance pertaining to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Many ignore the Lord, choosing to marry in their own way, as they please. “Noah called upon the children of men, that they should repent, but they hearkened not unto his words. And also, after they had heard him, they came up before him saying, Behold, we are the sons of God, and have we not taken unto ourselves the daughter of men? and are we not eating and drinking and marrying and given in marriage? and our wives bear unto us children, and the same are mighty men, which are like unto men of old, men of great renown.” (Genesis 8:8–9, JST)
3. Temple marriage is the setting apart of a man and a woman to the priesthood offices of husband and wife, father and mother. If that couple honors all of their covenants and thus enjoys the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost through faithful obedience, they will have the full power of God and of eternity to assist them in forging a new priesthood unit, to become gods.
4. The covenants and keys of the endowment are special helps to assist that couple to live lives so faithful that they inherit all the blessings God has to give and to escape the penalties for unfaithfulness.
5. Having all the prerequisites, the couple may set about to become as one in heart, might, mind and strength. This can be done only as each of them first loves the Lord their God with all of his and her individual heart, might, mind and strength.
6. To become one in heart is first to become pure in heart, unmixed with any selfishness. No one can become pure on his or her own, and no one comes that way. But anyone can become pure in heart by partaking of the New and Everlasting Covenant and then imploring the Lord, patiently and with tears, until He grants through His grace that the person’s nature, his or her desires, can be changed. It takes long imploring so that each can first prove to the Lord that he or she desires to be pure in heart, more than anything else, including continued mortal life itself. This is essentially a dying, a ceasing to exist of the person we were, which was good and evil (selfishness) mixed together. When each becomes pure, each is as the Lord Jesus Christ. Being one with Him, then each is also one with his or her spouse. They then share a special pure love for each other and a pure love for all others.
7. As a couple becomes one in heart, they necessarily must also be becoming one in mind. Being one in heart greatly facilitates becoming one in mind. To be one in mind is to have exactly the same knowledge and beliefs. This is achieved by having common experience, sharing individual experiences through communication, working through the scriptures together, facing problems together and learning from such experience. The key is for each to come to have the mind of Christ, for then will they see eye to eye with each other. They will have the mind of Christ according to their sincere repentance from all sin, and through humbly seeing to know both the gospel and the mysteries through the help of the Holy Spirit. One object of study, searching and prayer should be the temple ceremonies themselves. They may not be discussed outside the temple, but a husband and wife may go to the temple, study the ceremonies diligently, then compare notes and impressions while yet in the temple. Their goal should be complete agreement about religion, education, art, politics, scientific theories, history, current events, and the future. As each acquires the mind of the Savior, the two will become one with each other.
8. The two must become one in strength. They must learn to work together, sharing the burdens and harvests, setbacks and rewards. Each must adjust eating, sleeping and hygiene habits unto what the Lord would do until they are in perfect harmony. Through commanded sexual union they will form a common gene pool from which the Lord may draw special combinations of bodies for the spirits he desires to send into the world. As each learns to work hard, intelligently, and spiritually on the appropriate tasks in the Lord, which they can do fully only in the Lord, then they will grow together and literally become one flesh, one strength. They will learn, do, perceive, be pleased by, abhor and seek the same things. While it is true that sometimes their work will be complementary (she may be cooking while he repairs the roof) they will work so cooperatively that each learns to do virtually all that the other does so that each can fill the other’s place if needed.
9. They become one in might in that they have all things in common. All that they own is the Lord’s property, and they are stewards. As companions and as a presidency they counsel on all matters. Neither is ever surprised by what the other does, for they have first become one in heart, mind and strength, thus making it natural and fully possible to be one in administering their money, their property, their political influence, their social benefactions. As they are one with the Lord as to how to govern their might, even so will they then be one with each other.
10. Above all other helps that a husband and wife need to become one, there are four helps that stand out above all the rest, and all are of God. The great help for the hearts to become one is the love of God. The Father’s perfect example in an ever available blessing of love shows each husband and wife just how each must feel. When we are filled with that love and can return that same love back to God, then we can show that love for our spouse. The great help for our minds is the truths which come to us through the Holy Spirit. As we cherish that Spirit and the truths it brings, our whole souls become filled with truth, and as husband and wife we can rejoice in the truths we share as one. The great help we have for our strength is that our bodies are literally the bodies of the gods. We are genetically of the race of the gods and can inherit the full potential of that heritage in our flesh as we as a couple are properly united in strength. The great help we enjoy as to might is the Holy Priesthood. By making the priesthood the basis of how we relate to all persons, problems and things, doing all things as the Lord has shown us he would do and has done, we truly can fulfill our apprenticeship.
11. There is no other success in this world which compares with the forging of an eternal bond of love between a husband and wife. Raising a family is important, but that will never be a complete success unless the marriage is eternally bonded. There is no scientific breakthrough, no artistic excellence, no triumph on the battlefield, no political contribution, no service rendered which can compare with the importance of the welding together of a man and a woman in the New and Everlasting Covenant. If that possibility were to fail, all the eternal work of the gods fails. Where it succeeds, the work of godliness is assured to all eternity.
Lesson Fifteen: Israel
1. The most important thing to associate with the name “Israel”, is the covenant, the New and Everlasting Covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham and with the fathers before him. Israel is the people of the covenant. The children of Israel are the heirs of the covenant, having the potential to become the Children of Christ. One must become part of the House of Israel before he can become part of the House of Christ.
2. The blessings of Abraham came to Abraham because he partook of and was fully faithful to the New and Everlasting Covenant. That is to say, he was fully obedient to the Lord in all things, and thus was called the Friend of God.
Those blessings are:
a. The hand of Jehovah, the Almighty, would be over Abraham and his posterity.
b. To become a great nation.
c. To receive blessing above measure.
d. To have his name great among all nations.
e. He and his seed to be a blessing to all nations by taking the covenant to them.
f. All who accept the covenant will become Abraham’s seed and rise up and call him blessed.
g. God will bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him.
h. The right of the Holy Priesthood will continue in Abraham’s seed forever. (The above from Abraham 2:8–11)
i. To be a father of many nations.
j. To receive a new name.
k. To be exceedingly fruitful; to have posterity as the sands of the seashore or the stars in heaven.
l. Kings should be among his seed.
m. God would specially follow and be a God unto his seed forever.
n. To receive a promised land for an everlasting inheritance. (Items 9–14 from Genesis 17: 8–13, Inspired Version.)
3. Sarai, wife of Abraham, is partaker of all of Abraham’s blessings with him, for they are one in the New and Everlasting Covenant. Some of the specifics are reiterated as the “blessings of Sarah” (Genesis 17:21–22, JST):
a. She would receive a new name.
b. God would bless her.
c. She would have posterity.
d. She would be the mother of nations.
e. Kings and people would be of her.
4. The token of the covenant God made with Abraham was circumcision. From the time of Abraham until after the death of the Savior, all blood and convert Israel was circumcised. But many who were circumcised either rejected or could not enter into the ordinances of the New and Everlasting Covenant, which was what brought the blessings listed above to Abraham and Sarah. Therefore in the time of the Apostles of the Savior, circumcision was done away as the token of the Abrahamic blessings of Abraham. Judaism, an apostate form of Christianity, could not deliver either the covenants nor the blessings of Abraham. Thus circumcision remains the token of Judaism.
5. The blessings of Abraham are thus the heritage both of blood Israel (Abraham’s literal seed) and spiritual Israel (those who receive the Holy Priesthood through the New and Everlasting Covenant). But only those who are faithful to Jesus Christ inherit.
6. Those who do inherit are specially blessed above all other persons on earth. As heirs of God through Christ and Abraham, they have the potential to enjoy the powers of God (called the “gifts of the Spirit”) in mortality. Through those powers they can do mighty works and miracles. The life of the Prophet Joseph Smith is a measure of the difference that heritage can make.
7. The heritage of Israel is a spiritual but also a physical heritage. There is a gene for faith in Jesus Christ. To be faithful, one must either inherit that gene from Abraham or acquire it by being born again of water and the spirit in the New and Everlasting Covenant.
8. To have the physical gene of faith by either heritage sets one apart from the rest of the world. The heritage of the New and Everlasting Covenant requires that one spend the remainder of his and her life in the service of Christ. Part of that requirement is to bear children: not just one’s own children, but God’s children and Abraham’s children. Children are not a convenience, not a nicety in the New and Everlasting Covenant. They are a necessity required by the covenant. The faithful therefore do not attempt to limit the number of children they bear except as they are expressly directed by God Himself. The passing on of the gene of faith is as much a part of the living of the covenant as is paying a full tithing or consecrating all of one’s talents. To stint on any of the requirements is not to serve and love God with all of one’s heart, might, mind and strength.
9. Israel is given a promised land as a place in which to partake of the new and Everlasting Covenant and through it to love, serve and know God. The scattering of Israel is primarily the removal of the privilege of partaking of the New and Everlasting Covenant. Secondarily, Israel may also be sent away from its promised land. Either scattering takes place only because of wickedness on the part of those who have the right to the covenant.
10. The gathering of Israel is the opportunity to return to the New and Everlasting Covenant. Israel is gathered by the preaching of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If Israelites are gathered physically, that is primarily to partake of the temple ordinances to receive the fullness of the New and Everlasting Covenant. Wherever a temple is built, there is a promised land. If the people of that land receive the covenant and live by it, they will make that place into a holy land.
11. But Israel is not always faithful. 1 Nephi 11:34–36:
“And after he was slain I saw the multitudes of the earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb; for thus were the twelve called by the angel of the Lord.
And the multitude of the earth was gathered together: and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb. …”
Lesson Sixteen: Overcoming the World
1. Our challenge and probation in this world is to see if we will do all things which the Lord our God commands us to do. (Abraham 3:25) Each person is sufficiently instructed that he or she knows good from evil. Good is what God commands through the Light of Christ. Evil is what Satan encourages. Overcoming the world is to learn to choose only the will of God (the good) over our own selfish desires, which is the evil that Satan encourages.
2. Our mortal opportunity presents us with many challenges and predicaments. Each is an occasion to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, thus to choose the good over evil. Every time we choose the good, we grow towards the stature of Jesus Christ. Every time we choose the evil, we shrivel towards the likeness of Satan. By rejecting Satan and evil in choosing good, we have our opportunity to prove ourselves true and faithful to God in all things.
3. Want (poverty) is an occasion to choose to value what we have and make the most of it. If we develop our talents and use our time to produce good things, we grow and at the same time lessen our poverty. But we may also choose evil by complaining that others have more than we do and by trying to get something for nothing (as in stealing, overcharging, underpaying, etc.)
4. Illness is an occasion to thank the Father for all of the parts of us that don’t hurt and strive to set our lives in order before him so that we no longer need to be ill. Or we may choose evil in complaining, exaggerating our woe, being nasty to others because we are in pain, seeking worldly remedies for a cure.
5. To have enemies is an occasion to love them, to pray for them, and to do good for them. Or we may endlessly tell others how terrible they are, seek to be nasty to them as they are nasty to us, and undermine them in any way we think we can get away with.
6. To live in a neighborhood is an opportunity to love those close by in acts of thoughtfulness, generosity and kindness, sharing their burdens and joys with them. Or we may impose on them, criticize them, encroach on them, ignore them, and rejoice in their misfortunes.
7. To live in a ward is the opportunity to support the priesthood authority over us by our faith, prayers, and diligent carrying out of callings, rejoicing with and serving our brothers and sisters in the Gospel. Or we may sit back and point out how it really should be done, use our callings for personal aggrandizement, flaunt our superiority over the less well-endowed members, undermine the priesthood, see ourselves as God’s gift to those struggling imbeciles.
8. To have a prophet at the head of the church is the opportunity to treasure every word that comes from him, to pray for him, to support fully by doing what he instructs us to do. Or we may choose evil by deciding to ignore him, or think he is very old and senile, complain that he is really quite narrow in his views of the world’s problems, and see him as rigid and unfeeling, a man carried away by power and authority.
9. To be a husband or wife is to have the opportunity to cooperate fully with someone, twenty-four-hours a day, in the Lord; the opportunity to have a close, close neighbor to learn to love fully and deeply, a great preparation for learning to love our children the same way. Or we may thrust the burden of cooperating on our partner, use our partner as a punching bag to vent our frustrations, be selfish and demanding, pout and punish him or her, and harp on his or her shortcomings.
10. To have an automobile is a great advantage to care for a stewardship, to use it with care and thanksgiving, to have it convey us comfortably to those places where we need to be to fulfill our errand before the Lord, to show that we are courteous and law-abiding. Or we may use it to show off, to invest time and money which should be spent elsewhere, to have it convey us for pleasure alone, to drive dangerously and recklessly for thrills, to intimidate others who offend us by their driving mistakes.
11. We have a home as a shelter in which to live as a family, in love and cooperation, where order and peace and love may abound, where the word of the Lord is sought and treasured, where good literature and music and art are savored, where friends may come to share our joys with us, a place where family and genealogy are honored. Or our home can be a place of contention, a dwelling place for evil spirits; it can be a mess, a monument to sloth and procrastination; it can be a convenience store only, where people pass one another as little as possible enroute to their favorite pleasure.
12. Mealtime can be an occasion for sharing love, stimulating intelligent conversation, and enjoying beautifully prepared nourishing food. Or mealtime can be an occasion for individual snacks on junk food, critical sibling and spouse rivalry, and the celebration of animosity.
13. Family prayer can be an occasion wherein the concerns of each member of the family are tenderly addressed and the will and help of the Father are sought in cooperative humility. Or it can be a burden which someone feels we have to do and everyone else wants to get over as possible to get on with his or her selfish projects.
14. Growing a garden is an occasion to worship God and the marvelous and productive earth He has given us, to produce a space of beauty, order and productivity, a means of providing the very best nourishment for one’s family while getting needed exercise, to celebrate the success of tender know-how horticulture. Or a garden can be a place of weeds and neglect, or failure and frustration, of too little and too late in a halfhearted attempt to fulfill someone else’s desire.
15. Accident or calamity is the occasion for implementing previously well-prepared contingency plans, to minimize suffering while demonstrating faith and intelligence, to show that priesthood power and righteousness are the great allies in times of trouble. Or we may go into a state of shock, hiding ill-preparation behind a facade of uncontrollable emotion, complaining about the idiocy and dementedness of others, or loud breast-beating to draw sympathy, all the while only making the situation worse instead of helping.
16. While the examples could be multiplied many times, the pattern is clear. Every situation of daily life is a situation of challenge, an opportunity to choose good over evil, an opportunity to further the work of God or to abet Satan. It is not mainly in the grand events of history that souls are won and lost. Rather, it is in the decisions of simple everyday life that we prove our allegiance to the Father.
Lesson Seventeen: Putting It All Together
1. Everything that has been said so far about Gospel Essentials is but preparation to live it. Knowledge of these matters without living them is worse than ignorance, for to know these things and not to live them is to stand condemned. So how do we put it all together to live it?
2. The key to living the gospel is not mysterious or abstract. Rather, it is simple and obvious: it is simply a matter of what we desire. If we desire to live the Restored Gospel, heaven comes to our aid and there is nothing in heaven or earth which can stop us. On the other hand, if we desire not to live the Restored Gospel, nothing in heaven or earth can force us to, for God will not force us, nor will he let anyone else do so.
3. This simple solution is complicated by the fact that usually our desires are mixed. Usually a member of the Church genuinely desires to live the gospel, but also desires other things. So what do we do when we are torn in different directions by a desire to be social, to have political clout, to have health at any cost, to be independently wealthy, to travel first class to see the world, to live in a fine home, to have prosperous children and grandchildren,—and still be true to Jesus Christ?
4. Again there is a simple solution: have an eye single to the glory of God. Then we shall reap the promise: “If, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” (3 Nephi 13:22) To have one’s eye single is to desire nothing of ourselves except to fulfill the work and plan of the Father. It would be outrageous to give complete and unquestioning allegiance to any man. But God is not a man as men are. Man of Holiness is our Father’s name. This is he who is perfect, complete in righteousness, who lives not for himself, but only lives to bring to pass the happiness of others. To know that he is worthy of such allegiance, we must try Him. Have you tried not desiring anything but the will of the Father? For a minute? For an hour? For a day? Only he who has tried knows very much about light. Only he who has tried knows that this is the key to the water that one drinks and never thirsts again.
5. So what is the key to making our desires single to the glory of God? Again, the answer is straightforward: pray. Pray always, about everything, in every circumstance, that the Kingdom of God may come, that the will of God might be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if no one else will, it is enough that I, alone, might strive to be full of faith in God, so full that I can let go of everything which I personally desire in this world. That leaves only the will of the Father to be desired.
6. But how to pray so that such a marvelous end might be achieved? Again, we are not ignorant. We know that the beginning of spiritual life is to have the Holy Spirit with us, bringing messages from the Son and the Father. To recognize that Holy Spirit, never to confuse it with the evil spirit, is our challenge. If there are at least some times and places where we can identify that Holy Spirit for sure, then we have sufficient beginning. Then what must we do? We must pray and pray in the name of Jesus Christ until we come to a circumstance wherein we know and are sure that the Holy Spirit is directing us. This moment of light is our window on eternity. If at that moment we will simply do what it is that we know we have been instructed by God to do, we set in motion the eternal cosmos in our behalf. By obedience to what we know is the Holy Spirit, we qualify for more of that same influence. If when it comes again, and we are sure of it, we are again faithful to it, then we will again add to our opportunity to have that influence with us. Eventually, through our faithfulness, that influence will become so great that it will begin to tell us how to pray: the exact feelings to have, ideas to treasure, and words to say. When we thus learn how to pray, we pray truly, after the manner of Jesus, rather than after the manner of men.
7. Thus, if by that holy path, we can learn to pray truly, in the order of prayer of the Savior, then we have entered into that path of Holiness that leads to the purification of our desires. When our desires are pure, every other good thing will follow, for then our faith will be full, complete, perfect.
8. Prayer is an exercise which we perform often in public. But true prayer is not learned and not perfected in public. Prayer is learned and perfected only when one is alone. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray unto the Father who is in secret; and the Father, who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (3 Nephi 13:6) There in secret, with no posturing, we experiment and try until we know the Holy Spirit and how to pray.
9. True prayer is that which one feels, thinks and says when guided in the exactitude of those things by God: Father, Son, or Holy Ghost. “That which of God is light, and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you; He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all. Wherefore, he is possessor of all things; for all things are subject to him, both in heaven and on earth, the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. But no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done. But know this, it shall be given you what ye shall ask: …” (D&C 50: 24–30)
10. Where and when should we pray? Everywhere, and at all times, according to Amulek. (Alma 34:17–27) Why? For one thing, so we can learn how to do it correctly. Why not practice constantly? If that is the key to living the Restored Gospel, why not learn to do it as perfectly as possible and as soon as possible?
11. Thus learning to fulfill the New and Everlasting Covenant can be done only by doing, by measuring up to the promises we have made with God. With man, this is impossible. But with God, all these things are possible unto him whose heart is pure, who, through mighty prayer, has overcome the world and has laid all that he is and has at the feet of the Savior.
12. Is this not life, that eternal life of mind, heart and posterity which is the heritage of those who are the children of Christ?
Lesson Eighteen: Worthiness
1. To be worthy is to be good. None but God is good (completely; Matt. 19:17). Therefore, none but God is worthy. We are all unprofitable servants (Mosiah 2:21).
2. To be invited to go to the House of the Lord, the temple, is to be invited to approach the Celestial Kingdom and the presence of the Father. In our present state we could not endure him, for no unclean thing can enter into his presence. Only through the power of the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood can we be transformed enough to be able to stand in His presence. “This greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of God is not manifest unto men in the flesh; For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the glory of his presence. Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also.” (D&C 84:19–25)
3. Not having the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, the children of Israel were cut off from the temple ordinances, and thus from the presence of God. They were then given a lesser opportunity, the Law of Moses, as a schoolmaster to bring their faith up to par where they could partake of the New and Everlasting Covenant without damning themselves. The essence of the law of Moses is found in the Ten Commandments. These are the terrestrial requirements which prepare the heart, might, mind and strength of a person to then go on to love God will all of one’s heart, might, mind and strength as required in the New and Everlasting Covenant. The basic preparation for receiving the Restored Gospel, the Melchizedek Priesthood and the temple covenants is to be faithful in keeping the Ten Commandments.
4. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Do we worship other gods? Some people worship money, some power, some pleasure, some their own ego. The requirement is that we carefully search our hearts and minds to be sure that we worship only the true and living God.
5. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Having rejected other Gods, we must also reject their ways, customs and commandments, serving and obeying only the true and living God. We must examine ourselves to eliminate every trace of the worship of false gods.
6. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless what taketh his name in vain.” Do we treasure the names of God, making them sacred and holy, using them with great care and only when surely appropriate? The names of God are keys. If the keys are misused or mangled, they will not work in their necessary places in the ordinances of the New and Everlasting Covenant.
7. “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, not thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Do we indeed work hard six days a week to provide for the needs of those who depend upon us? And do we then reverence the Lord’s day, making it very special, a time to remember Him in ordinances and in doing his work? Remembering the sabbath faithfully is a significant mark of true Israel.
8. “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Do we esteem and honor our parents, not finding fault with them (though faults there may be)? Do we care for them in their old age? Do we honor all that they have done to help us? Do we speak well of them?
9. “Thou shalt not kill.” Is life sacred and holy to us because it is the handiwork of God? Would we rather be killed than to kill (unless the Lord commands otherwise)? Do we think twice about killing animals, trees and plants, unborn children?
10. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Are we chaste and noble in our sexual relations and practices, in every thing, in every way?
11. “Thou shalt not steal.” Are we scrupulously careful never to take that which is not ours, and to return that which we find that belongs to our neighbor? Do we refrain from stealing time as well as substance? Do we pay enough for everything we purchase? Do we refrain from extortion or gouging when we sell something?
12. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” We may not always know the whole truth, but when we speak, are we careful not to misrepresent what we do know? Is our word as good as our bond? Are we trustworthy in all things?
13. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” Are we content with the blessings which the Lord has given us, or will give us through our own honest labor?
14. Those Ten Commandments spell out our general preparation. We must also relate properly to the Savior’s kingdom in this dispensation: Do we know that the president of the Church truly represents the Savior? Do we know that only he has all of the keys necessary? Do we think anyone else is worthy of our allegiance? Are we willing to support the Church and Kingdom? Do we evidence that by paying a full tithing? Do we abide the precepts of the Word of Wisdom? And are we ready to go on to perfection while upholding the Church of Jesus Christ?
15. These things make us ready. Not worthy; but rather, then able to grow to become as our Savior is.