Category: Alma

Alma 40:6-7, LeGrand Baker, the spirit world

Alma 40:6-7
6 Now there must needs be a space betwixt the time of death and the time of the resurrection.
7 And now I would inquire what becometh of the souls of men from this time of death to the time appointed for the resurrection?

Latter-day prophets have given us some very explicit answers to Alma’s question.

The attachment contains just a few statements about interpersonal relations and the organization of the Church in the spirit world. They are quotes from Eliza R. Snow, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, Heber J. Grant, and David O. Mckay

STATEMENTS ABOUT THE POST-EARTH-LIFE SPIRIT WORLD

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ELIZA R. SNOW

Andrew Jensen, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 1: 695

After the martyrdom of her husband [Joseph Smith], June 27, 1844, Sister Eliza [Eliza R. Snow] was prostrated with grief, and besought the Lord with all the fervency of her soul to permit her to follow the Prophet at once, and not leave her In so dark and wicked a world. And so set was her mind on the matter, that she did not and could not cease that prayer of her heart until the Prophet came to her and told her that she must not continue to supplicate the Lord In that way, tor her petition was not in accordance with his design concerning her, Joseph told her that his work upon earth was completed as far as the mortal tabernacle was concerned, but her’s was not; the Lord desired her, and so did her husband, to live many years, and assist in carrying on the great Latter-day work which Joseph had been chosen to establish. That she must be of good courage and help to cheer, and lighten the burdens of others. And that she must turn her thoughts away from her own loneliness, and seek to console her people In their bereavement and sorrow.

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BRIGHAM YOUNG

(Journal of Discourses, 3: 370)

Go to the time when the Gospel came to the earth in the days of Joseph, take the wicked that have opposed this people and persecuted them to the death, and they are sent to hell. Where are they? They are in the spirit world, and are just as busy as they possibly can be to do every thing they can against the Prophet and the Apostles, against Jesus and his kingdom. They are just as wicked and malicious in their actions against the cause of truth, as they were while on the earth in their fleshly tabernacles.

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President Brigham Young,

(Journal of Discourses, 15: 139.)

I am going to stop my talking by saying that, in the millennium, when the kingdom of God is established on the earth in power, glory and perfection, and the reign of wickedness that has so long prevailed is subdued, the Saints of God will have the privilege of building their temples, and of entering into them, becoming, as it were, pillars in the temples of God, and they will officiate for their dead. Then we will see our friends come up, and perhaps some that we have been acquainted with here. If we ask who will stand at the head of the resurrection in this last dispensation, the answer is—Joseph Smith, Junior, the Prophet of God. He is the man who will be resurrected and receive the keys of the resurrection, and he will seal this authority upon others, and they will hunt up their friends and shall have been officiated for, and bring them up. And we will have revelations to know our forefathers clear back to Father Adam and Mother Eve, and we will enter into the temples of God and officiate for them. Then man will be sealed to man until the chain is made perfect back to Adam, so that there will be a perfect chain of priesthood from Adam to the winding-up scene.

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A Discourse, by President Brigham Young,

(Journal of Discourses, 3: 371.)

But is Joseph glorified? No, he is preaching to the spirits in prison. He will get his resurrection the first of any one in this kingdom, for he was the first that God made choice of to bring forth the work of the last days.

His office is not taken from him, he has only gone to labor in another department of the operations of the Almighty. He is still an Apostle, still a Prophet and is doing the work of an Apostle and Prophet; he has gone one step beyond us and gained a vistory that you and I have not gained, still he has not yet gone into the celestial kingdom, or if he has it has been by a direct command of the Almighty, and that too to return again so soon as the purpose has been accomplished.

No man can enter the celestial kingdom and be crowned with a celestial glory, until he gets his resurrected body; but Joseph and the faithful who have died have gained a victory over the power of the devil, which you and I have not yet gained. So long as we live in these tabernacles, so long we will be subject to the temptations and power of the devil; but when we lay them down, if we have been faithful, we have gained the victory so far; but even then we are not so far advanced at once as to be beyond the neighborhood of evil spirits.

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Preston Nibley, Brigham Young: The Man and His Work, 4th ed.[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1960], 533.)

All day Friday, he was in considerable pain, “but endured it cheerfully, and occasionally made humorous remarks when he saw those about him inclined to be troubled.” On Saturday afternoon “inflammation of the bowels” set in. He slept fitfully during the night and frequently moaned in his sleep. When asked if he suffered great pain, he replied, “No, I don’t know that I do.”

During Sunday and Monday he seemed to revive somewhat, “being frequently administered to by some of his brethren,” but on Monday evening he sank into a comatose condition, from which it was difficult to arouse him. At 4 o’clock Tuesday morning, “he sank down in bed apparently lifeless.” Artificial respiration was immediately resorted to, and “hot poultices were placed over the heart to stimulate action.” “For nine consecutive hours artificial respiration was continued. At that time he seemed greatly revived and spoke to those around him, saying he felt better and wished to rest.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 29th, it was apparent to anxious watchers at his bedside that the end was near. His last words, as he gazed fixedly upwards were, “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph,” as though he communed with his beloved Prophet. At one minute past four o’clock in the afternoon, his breathing ceased; his great heart was stilled. The mortal life of one of God’s noblest sons had come to an end.

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HEBER C. KIMBALL

(Journal of Discourses, 4:137

Remarks at the funeral of President Pedediah P. Grant by President Heber C. Kimball

The ideas that brother Brigham has just advanced are congenial with my feelings, perfectly so.

During brother Grant’s brief sick-ness I would not believe, for one moment, that he was going te die, though my feelings would at times incline me to doubt as to his recovery; but I would not give way to them. And now it is only the body that is dead, for his spirit will never die ! It has overcome death and hell, and laid aside its earthly tenement that that may return to its native element, awaiting the morn of the resurrection, when the spirit will receive it in an immortal state, and then have gained the victory over death, hell and the grave.

In regard to the lifeless body that now lies before us, let me tell you that mourning and making a great parade over it, is similar to what it would be for me to lament about a house which the occupants had forsaken. I left a house in Nauvoo, but do you suppose that I fret about it? I do not. And what is the use of gathering the bands together and the troops, and performing lengthy and pompous ceremonies over a tenement the spirit has left? I would not give a picayune for all your parade.

I will not stoop to the principle of death. I could weep, but I will not. There is a spirit in me that rises above that feeling, and it is because Jedediah is not dead.

I went to see him one day last week, and he reached out his hand aud shook hands with me; he could not speak, but he shook hands warmly with me. I felt for him, and wanted to raise him tip, and to have him stay and help whip the devils and bring to pass righteousness. Why? Because he was valiant, and I loved him. He was a great help to us, and you would be, if you were as valiant as he was, which you can be through faithfulness and obedience.

I laid my hands upon him and blessed him, and asked God to strengthen his lungs that he might be easier, and in two or three minutes he raised him-self up and talked for about an hour as busily as he could, telling me what he had seen and what he understood, until I was afraid he would weary himself, when I arose and left him.

He said to me, brother Heber, I have been into the spirit world two nights in succession, and, of all the dreads that ever came across me, the worst was to have to again return to my body, though I had to do it. But 0, says he, the order and government that were there! When in the spirit world, I saw the order of righteous men and women; beheld them organized in their several grades, and there appeared to be no obstruction to my vision; I could see every man and woman in their grade and order. I looked to see whether there was any disorder there, but there was none; neither could I see any death nor any darkness, disorder or confusion. He said that the people he there saw were organized in family capacities; and when he looked at them he saw grade after grade, and all were organized and in perfect harmony. We would on this earth, but I never saw any to compare with those that were there. I saw flowers of numerous kinds, and some with from fifty to a hundred different colored flowers growing upon one stalk.” We have many kinds of flowers on the earth, and I suppose those very articles came from heaven, or they would not be here.

After mentioning the things that he bad seen, he spoke of how much he disliked to return and resume his body, after having seen the beauty and glory of the spirit world, where the righteous spirits are gathered together.

Some may marvel at my speaking about these things, for many profess to believe that we have no spiritual existence. But do you not believe that my spirit was organized before it came to my body here? And do you not think there can be houses and gardens, fruit trees, and every other good thing there? The spirits of those things were made, as well as our spirits, and it follows that they can exist upon the same principle.

After speaking of the gardens and the beauty of every thing there, brother Grant said that he felt extremely sorrowful at having to leave so beautiful a place and come back to earth, for he looked upon his body with loathing, but was obliged to enter it again.

He said that after he came back he could look upon his family and see the spirit that was in them, and the darkness that was in them; and that he conversed with them about the Gospel’, and what they should do, and they replied, ” Well, brother Grant, perhaps it is so, and perhaps it is not,” and said that was the state of this people, to a great extent, for many are full of darkness and will not believe me.

I never had a view of the righteous assembling in the spirit-world, but I have had a view of the hosts of hell, and have seen them as plainly as I see you today. The righteous spirits gather together to prepare and qualify themselves for a future day, and evil spirits have no power over them, though they are constantly striving for the mastery. I have seen evil sprits attempt to overcome those holding the Priesthood. and I know how they act.

I feel well, and I do not feel to condescend to a spirit of mourning. If I do weep, I will weep for my own sins and not for Jedediah. If he could speak he would say, ” Weep not for me, but weep for your own sins.”

Before brother Grant was taken sick, he said that he had unsheathed his sword, and that it never should be sheathed again until the enemies of righteousness were subdued; and he fought the devil up to the last, and used to proclaim that he should not prevail on this earth. I can say that he left us with his sword unsheathed, and be will help Joseph and Hyrum and Willard.

Previous to the late Reformation, I saw brother Willard in a dream. I dreamed that we had a very large kiln filled with articles of ware of various kinds and sizes. Many of them had previously fallen down, being thin, not having strength to remain upright, we had put the good ones into the kiln and put in the fire, and had got them considerably warmed; but, somehow or other, they got cold again, and we thought we would go down to a certain stream and get some dry wood, and burn the earthenware for use. As we were going towards the stream, brother Willard came along and said, “Brethren, I am gathering up better fuel than that — some that will make a bigger fire.” So he is, and Jedediah has gone to help, and the day will come that many of us will go too; and as the Lord Almighty lives, and as my soul lives, we have unsheathed the sword, and we never will sheath it until the enemies of our God are overcome. Jedediah has overcome all his enemies.

Brother Brigham says that he will have hundreds and thousands of boys right here that will help us with a power greatly increased beyond that of their fathers, and I know that it will be so. When boys go back on the Plains to encounter storms and rescue the suffering, as did David P. Kimball, Stephen Taylor, Joseph A. Young, Ephraim Hanks, and many others, it makes me feel well. David took the consecrated oil and went forth, like a man of God. and anointed the sick and afflicted, and commanded them to arise ; and those boys acted valiantly, having been trained up amid the Saints.

Brother Ephraim Hanks has put a feather in his cap, through his noble conduct in aiding our belated immigration, he has unsheathed his Sword upon the side of doing good, and I exhort him not to sheath it again.

I feel encouraged; brother Jedediah has gone to be with Joseph.

Let us be faithful, and listen to the words of brother Brigham and brother Jedediah and those placed to lead us, and what joy I will have. Would I be willing to lay down my body? Yes, if that would sooner accomplish so great an object, and bring this whole people into a position where they could see and understand for themselves.

These are my feelings, brethren and sisters, and may God bless you. To those who delight in uprightness I am all blessings, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet; but I am heavy on the tracks of sinners, because I know that if they do persist in their course, and if the Quorums do not purify themselves quickly, you will see something that will make you lament; some are nourishing a cankerworm that they will not easily get rid of.

Why do you not all listen to brother Brigham and Jedediah and Heber and many others? They have had the spirit of reformation all the time.

Then wake up ye Saints of Latter Days, and cleanse your platters inside and out, and God Almighty will rescue us from our enemies. He will slay them; He will hurl kings from their thrones and unrighteous rulers from their places of authority, and they will drop faster than you saw the stars drop from heaven, at the time that the Saints were driven out of Jackson county Missouri.

I am talking of what I know, and not of what I merely believe; and may the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, rest upon you, my brethren and sisters, and upon our families and every good person. Brother Brigham is my brother, and brother Jedediah is my brother; I loved him, I love those men, God knows I do, better than I ever loved a woman; and I would not give a dime for a man that does not love them better than they love women. A man is a miserable being, if he lets a woman stand between him and his file leaders; he is a fool, and I have no regard for him; he is not fit for the Priesthood.

I want to stir you up to faith, obedience, integrity, and everything that is good. I am preaching to you; not to Jedediah. What remains here of him goes back to mother earth, and let us strive to honor our tabernacles as did brother Grant his.

My body has got to return to dust and I will honor it, then I will take it again. I am as sure of that, as I am that I am standing here before you.

God bless you forever. Amen.

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WILFRED WOODRUFF

(Journal of Discourses, 22: 333-34.)

Now, I will refer to a thing that took place with me in Tennessee. I was in Tennessee in the year 1835, and, while at the house of Abraham O. Smoot, I received a letter from brothers Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, requesting me to stay there, and stating that I would lose no blessing by doing so. Of course, I was satisfied. I went into a little room and sat down upon a small sofa. I was all by myself and the room was dark; and while I rejoiced in this letter and the promise made to me, I became wrapped in vision. I was like Paul; I did not know whether I was in the body or out of the body. A personage appeared to me and showed me the great scenes that should take place in the last days. One scene after another passed before me. I saw the sun darkened; I saw the moon become as blood; I saw the stars fall from heaven; I saw seven golden lamps set in the heavens, representing the various dispensations of God to man-a sign that would appear before the coming of Christ. I saw the resurrection of the dead. In the first resurrection those that came forth from their graves seemed to be all dressed alike, but in the second resurrection they were as diverse in their dress as this congregation is before me today, and if I had been an artist I could have painted the whole scene as it was impressed upon my mind, more indelibly fixed than anything I had ever seen with the natural eye. —JD 22:331-333, October 8, 1881.

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(Wilford Woodruff, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, edited by G. Homer Durham [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969], 64.)

And I will here say that every elder of Israel who lays down his life, whether he dies in his bed, or is put to death by the enemies of truth, when he goes into the spirit world his works follow him, and he rests in peace. The priesthood is not taken from him, and he has thousands more to preach to there than he ever had here in the flesh. But it depends upon the living here to erect temples, that the ordinances for the dead may be attended to, for by and by you will meet your progenitors in the spirit world who never heard the sound of the gospel. You who are here in Zion have power to be baptized for and to redeem your dead.—JD 17:250, October 9, 1874.

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Wilford Woodruff, (Journal of Discourses, 22: 334.)

Here is a kingdom of Priests raised up by the power of God to take hold and build up the kingdom of God. The same Priesthood exists on the other side of the vail. Every man who is faithful in his quorum here will join his quorum there. When a man dies and his body is laid in the tomb, he does not lose his position. The Prophet Joseph Smith held the keys of this dispensation on this side of the vail, and he will hold them throughout the countless ages of eternity. He went into the spirit world to unlock the prison doors and to preach the Gospel to the millions of spirits who are in darkness, and every Apostle, every Seventy, every Elder, etc., who has died in the faith as soon as he passes to the other side of the vail, enters into the work of the ministry, and there is a thousand times more to preach there than there is here.

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Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 21: 317.)

I reflect a good deal with regard to our position, as was described to us to-day by Brother Pratt. It has been my faith and belief from the time that I was made acquainted with the Gospel that no greater prophet than Joseph Smith ever lived on the face of the earth save Jesus Christ. He was raised up to stand at the head of this great dispensation—the greatest of all dispensations God has ever given to man. He remarked on several occasions when conversing with his brethren: “brethren you do not know me, you do not know who I am.” As I remarked at our priesthood meeting on Friday evening, I have heard him in my early days while conversing with the brethren, say, (at the same time smiting himself upon the breast) “I would to God that I could unbosom my feelings in the house of my friends.” Joseph Smith was ordained before he came here, the same as Jeremiah was. Said the Lord unto him, “Before you were begotten I knew you” etc.

So do I believe with regard to this people, so do I believe with regard to the apostles, the high priests, seventies and the elders of Israel bearing the holy priesthood, I believe they were ordained before they came here; and I believe the God of Israel has raised them up, and has watched over them from their youth, and has carried them through all the scenes of life both seen and unseen, and has prepared them as instruments in his hands to take this kingdom and bear it off. If this be so, what manner of men ought we to be? If anything under the heavens should humble men before the Lord and before one another, it should be the fact that we have been called of God.

I believe the eyes of the heavenly hosts are over this people; I believe they are watching the elders of Israel, the prophets and apostles and men who are called to bear off this kingdom. I believe they watch over us all with great interest.

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Discourse Delivered by President Wilford Woodruff, at the Weber Stake Conference, Ogden, Monday, October 19, 1896. (Brian H. Stuy, ed., Collected Discourses, 5 vols. [Burbank, Calif., and Woodland Hills, Ut.: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987-1992], 5: .)

Now I will give you a little of my experience in this line. Joseph Smith visited me a great deal after his death, and taught me many important principles. The last time he visited me was while I was in a storm at sea. I was going on my last mission to preside in England. My companions were Brother Leonard W. Hardy, Brother Milton Holmes, Brother Dan Jones, and another brother, and my wife and two other women. We had been traveling three days and nights in a heavy gale, and were being driven backwards. Finally I asked my companions to come into the cabin with me, and I told them to pray that the Lord would change the wind. I had no fears of being lost; but I did not like the idea of being driven back to New York, as I wanted to go on my journey. We all offered the same prayer, both men and women; and when we got through we stepped on to the deck and in less than a minute it was as though a man had taken a sword and cut that gale through, and you might have thrown a muslin handkerchief out and it would not have moved it. The night following this Joseph and Hyrum visited me, and the Prophet laid before me a great many things. Among other things, he told me to get the Spirit of God; that all of us needed it. He also told me what the Twelve Apostles would be called to go through on the earth before the coming of the Son of Man, and what the reward of their labors would be; but all that was taken from me, for some reason. Nevertheless I know it was most glorious, although much would be required at our hands.

Joseph Smith continued visiting myself and others up to a certain time, and then it stopped. The last time I saw him was in heaven. In the night vision I saw him at the door of the temple in heaven. He came and spoke to me. He said he could not stop to talk with me because he was in a hurry. The next man I met was Father Smith; he could not talk with me because he was in a hurry. I met half a dozen brethren who had held high positions on earth, and none of them could stop to talk with me because they were in a hurry. I was much astonished. By and by I saw the Prophet again, and I got the privilege to ask him a question. “Now,” said I, “I want to know why you are in a hurry. I have been in a hurry all through my life; but I expected my hurry would be over when I got into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.” Joseph said: “I will tell you, Brother Woodruff. Every dispensation that has had the Priesthood on the earth and has gone into the celestial kingdom, has had a certain amount of work to do to prepare to go to the earth with the Savior when He goes to reign on the earth. Each dispensation has had ample time to do this work. We have not. We are the last dispensation, and so much work has to be done, and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish it.” Of course, that was satisfactory to me, but it was new doctrine to me.

Brigham Young also visited me after his death. On one occasion he and Brother Heber C. Kimball came in a splendid chariot, with fine white horses, and accompanied me to a conference that I was going to attend. When I got there I asked Brother Brigham if he would take charge of the conference. “No,” said he, “I have done my work here . I have come to see what you are doing and what you are teaching the people.” And he told me what Joseph Smith had taught him in Winter Quarters, to teach the people to get the Spirit of God. He said, “I want you to teach the people to get the Spirit of God. You cannot build up the Kingdom of God without that.”

That is what I want to say to the brethren and sisters here today. Every man and woman in this Church should labor to get that Spirit. We are surrounded by these evil spirits that are at war against God and against everything looking to the building up of the kingdom of God; and we need this Holy Spirit to enable us to overcome these influences. I have had the Holy Ghost in my travels. Every man has that has gone out into the vineyard and labored faithfully for the cause of God. I have referred to the administration of angels to myself. What did these angels do? One of them taught me some things relating to the signs that should precede the coming of the Son of Man. Others came and saved my life. What then? They turned and left me. But how is it with the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost does not leave me if I do my duty. It does not leave any man who does his duty. We have known this all the way through. Joseph Smith told Brother John Taylor on one occasion to labor to get the Spirit of God, and to follow its dictation, and it would become a principle of revelation within him. God has blessed me with that, and everything I have done since I have been in this Church has been done upon that principle. The Spirit of God has told me what to do, and I have had to follow that.

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(Wilford Woodruff, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, edited by G. Homer Durham [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969], 291.)

I believe the eyes of the heavenly hosts are over this people; I believe they are watching the elders of Israel, the prophets and apostles and men who are called to bear off this kingdom. I believe they watch over us all with great interest…. I have had many interviews with Brother Joseph until the last fifteen or twenty years of my life; I have not seen him for that length of time. But during my travels in the southern country last winter I had many interviews with President Young, and with Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith, and Jedediah M. Grant, and many others who are dead. They attended our conference, they attended our meetings. And on one occasion, I saw Brother Brigham and Brother Heber ride in a carriage ahead of the carriage in which I rode when I was on my way to attend conference; and they were dressed in the most priestly robes. When we arrived at our destination I asked President Young if he would preach to us. He said, “No, I have finished my testimony in the flesh. I shall not talk to this people any more.” “But, said he, “I have come to see you; I have come to watch over you, and to see what the people are doing.” Then, said he, “I want you to teach the people-and I want you to follow this counsel yourself-that they must labor and so live as to obtain the Holy Spirit, for without this you cannot build up the kingdom; without the spirit of God you are in danger of walking in the dark, and in danger of failing to accomplish your calling as apostles and as elders in the church and kingdom of God.” And, said he, “Brother Joseph taught me this principle.”

And I will here say, I have heard him refer to that while he was living. But what I was going to say is this: the thought came to me that Brother Joseph had left the work of watching over this Church and kingdom to others, and that he had gone ahead, and that he had left this work to men who have lived and labored with us since he left us. This idea manifested itself to me, that such men advance in the spirit world. And I believe myself that these men who have died and gone into the spirit world had this mission left with them; that is, a certain portion of them, to watch over the Latter-day Saints.—JD 21:317-318, October 10, 1880.

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HEBER J. GRANT

President Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, April 1941, First Day—Morning Meeting

“‘I want to be all alone. Go ahead and follow the crowd.’ I first asked him if I allowed the animal I was riding to walk if I would reach the road on the other side of the gulley before the horsemen and the wagons, and he said, ‘Yes.’

“As I was riding along to meet them on the other side I seemed to see, and I seemed to hear, what to me is one of the most real things in all my life, I seemed to see a Council in Heaven. I seemed to hear the words that were spoken. I listened to the discussion with a great deal of interest. The First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles had not been able to agree on two men to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve. There had been a vacancy of one for two years, and a vacancy of two for one year, and the Conference had adjourned without the vacancies being filled. In this Council the Savior was present, my father was there, and the Prophet Joseph Smith was there. They discussed the question that a mistake had been made in not filling those two vacancies and that in all probability it would be another six months before the Quorum would be completed, and they discussed as to whom they wanted to occupy those positions, and decided that the way to remedy the mistake that had been made in notfilling these vacancies was to send a revelation. It was given to me that the Prophet Joseph Smith and my father mentioned me and requested that I be called to that position. I sat there and wept for joy. It was given to me that I had done nothing to entitle me to that exalted position, except that I had lived a clean, sweet life. It was given to me that because of my father having practically sacrificed his life in what was known as the great Reformation, so to speak, of the people in early days, having been practically a martyr, that the Prophet Joseph and my father desired me to have that position, and it was because of their faithful labors that I was called, and not because of anything I had done of myself or any great thing that I had accomplished. It was also given to me that that was all these men, the Prophet and my father, could do for me; from that day it depended upon me and upon me alone as to whether I made a success of my life or a failure.

RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE GOOD

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated, and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

“It was given to me, as I say, that it now depended upon me.

“No man could have been more unhappy than I was from October 1882, until February, 1883, but from that day I have never been bothered, night or day, with the idea that I was not worthy to stand as an Apostle, and I have not been worried since the last words uttered by Joseph F. Smith to me: “The Lord bless you, my boy, the Lord bless you; you have got a great responsibility. Always remember this is the Lord’s work and not man’s. The Lord is greater than any man. He knows whom He wants to lead His Church, and never makes any mistake. The Lord bless you.’

“I have been happy during the twenty-two years that it has fallen my lot to stand at the head of this Church. I have felt the inspiration of the Living God directing me in my labors. From the day that I chose a comparative stranger to be one of the Apostles, instead of my lifelong and dearest living friend, I have known as I know that I live, that I am entitled to the light and the inspiration and the guidance of God in directing His work here upon this earth; and I know, as I know that I live, that it is God’s work, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, the Redeemer of the world and that He came to this earth with a divine mission to die upon the cross as the Redeemer of mankind, atoning for the sins of the world.

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The Editor’s Page, Improvement Era, 1940, Vol. Xliii. June, 1940. No. 6.

The EDITOR’S PAGE

In the Hour of Parting

By PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT

I REGRET ofttimes, in the times of distress and trouble that come to those whom we admire and love, that we are not able to lift from their shoulders the sorrow into which they are plunged, when they are called upon to part with those they cherish.

But we realize that our Father in heaven can bind up broken hearts and that He can dispel sorrow and that He can point forward with joy and satisfaction to those blessings that are to come through obedience to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we do understand and we do have conviction that it is the will of our Father in heaven that we shall live on and that we have not finished our existence when these bodies of mortality are laid away in the grave.

It is a very great blessing that in the providences of the Lord and in the revelations that have been given by our Father in heaven, we have the assurance that the spirit and the body, in due time, will be reunited, notwithstanding the unbelief that there is in the world today—and there certainly is great skepticism and unbelief in relation to this matter. But notwithstanding this, we have assurance through the revelations that have been given by the Lord our God, that that is the purpose of God, that the body and the spirit shall be eternally united and that there will come a time, through the blessing and mercy of God, when we will no more have sorrow but when we shall have conquered all of these things that are of a trying and distressing character, and shall stand up in the presence of the living God, filled with joy and peace and satisfaction.

I was thoroughly convinced in my own mind and in my own heart, when my first wife left me by death, that it was the will of the Lord that she should be called away. I bowed in humility at her death. The Lord saw fit upon that occasion to give to one of my little children a testimony that the death of her mother was the will of the Lord.

About one hour before my wife died, I called my children into her room and told them that their mother was dying and for them to bid her goodbye. One of the little girls, about twelve years of age, said to me: “Papa, I do not want my Mamma to die. I have been with you in the hospital in San Francisco for six months; time and time again when Mamma was in distress you have administered to her and she has been relieved of her pain and quietly gone to sleep. I want you to lay hands upon my Mamma and heal her.”

I told my little girl that we all had to die sometime and that I felt assured in my heart that her mother’s time had arrived; and she and the rest of the children left the room.

I then knelt down by the bed of my wife (who by this time had lost consciousness) and I told the Lord I acknowledged His hand in life, in death, in joy, in sorrow, in prosperity or adversity; I thanked Him for the knowledge I had that my wife belonged to me for all eternity, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored, that I knew that by the power and authority of the Priesthood here on the earth that I could and would have my wife forever if I were only faithful as she had been; but I told the Lord that I lacked the strength to have my wife die and to have it affect the faith of my little children in the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and I supplicated the Lord with all the strength that I possessed, that He would give to that little girl of mine a knowledge that it was His mind and His will that her Mamma should die.

Within an hour my wife passed away, and I called the children back into the room. My little boy about five and a half or six years of age was weeping bitterly, and the little girl twelve years of age took him in her arms and said: “Do not weep, do not cry, Heber; since we went out of this room the voice of the Lord from heaven has said to me, ‘In the death of your Mamma the will of the Lord shall be done.’”

Tell me, my friends, that I do not know that God hears and answers prayers! Tell me that I do not know that in the hour of adversity the Latter-day Saints are comforted and blessed and consoled as no other people are!

I have been blessed with only two sons. One of them died at five years of age and the other at seven. My last son died of a hip disease. I had built great hopes that he would live to spread the Gospel at home and abroad and be an honor to me. About an hour before he died I had a dream that his mother, who was dead, came for him, and that she brought with her a messenger, and she told this messenger to take the boy while I was asleep; and in the dream I thought I awoke and I seized my son and fought for him and finally succeeded in getting him away from the messenger who had come to take him, and in so doing I dreamed that I stumbled and fell upon him.

I dreamed that I fell upon his sore hip, and the terrible cries and anguish

I dreamed that I fell upon his sore hip, and the terrible cries and anguish of the child drove me nearly wild. I could not stand it, and I jumped up and ran out of the house so as not to hear his distress. I dreamed that after running out of the house I met Brother Joseph E. Taylor and told him of these things.

He said: ‘Well, Heber, do you know what I would do if my wife came for one of her children—I would not struggle for that child; I would not oppose her taking that child away. If a mother who had been faithful had passed beyond the veil, she would know of the suffering and the anguish her child may have to suffer. She should know whether that child might go through life as a cripple and whether it would be better or wiser for that child to be relieved from the torture of life. And when you stop to think, Brother Grant, that the mother of that boy went down into the shadow of death to give him life, she is the one who ought to have the right to take him or leave him.’

I said, ‘I believe you are right, Brother Taylor, and if she comes again, she shall have the boy without any protest on my part.’

After coming to that conclusion, I was waked by my brother, B. F. Grant, who was staying that night with us. He came into the room and told me that the child was dying. I went in the front room and sat down. There was a vacant chair between me and my wife who is now living, and I felt the presence of that boy’s deceased mother sitting in that chair. I did not tell anybody what I felt, but I turned to my wife and said, ‘Do you feel anything strange?’

“‘Yes, I feel assured that Heber’s mother is sitting between us, waiting to take him away.’

Now, I am naturally, I believe, a sympathetic man. I was raised as an only child with all the affection that a mother could lavish upon a boy. I believe that I am naturally affectionate and sympathetic and that I shed tears for my friends—tears of joy for their success and tears of sorrow for their misfortunes. But I sat by the deathbed of my little boy and saw him die, without shedding a tear. My living wife, my brother, and I upon that occasion experienced a sweet, peaceful, and heavenly influence in my home, as great as I have ever experienced in my life. And no person can tell me that every other Latter-day Saint that has a knowledge of the gospel in his heart and soul, can really mourn for his loved ones; only in the loss of their society here in this life.

“I never think of my wives and my dear mother, my two boys, my daughter, my departed friends, and my beloved associates as being in the graveyard. I think only of the joy they have in meeting with father and mother and loved ones who have been true and faithful to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. My mind reaches out to the wonderful joy and satisfaction and happiness that they are having, and it robs the grave of its sting.”

– – – – – – – – – – – –

DAVID O. McKAY

Improvement Era, Feb. 1965, vol 68, p. 107

At the dedication of the Oakland Temple, President McKay said:

“I welcome, also, an unseen, but I believe a real, audience, among whom are former Presidents and Apostles of the Church, headed by the Prophet Joseph, to whom was revealed the essential ordinance of baptism for those who have died without having heard the gospel, President Young, President Taylor, President Woodruff, President Snow, President Joseph F. Smith, President Grant, and President George Albert Smith. With those distinguished leaders, we welcome our departed loved ones whom we cannot see, but whose presence we keenly feel.”

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Alma 38:12, Adam McBride, “bridle all your passions”

Alma 38:12
12 Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness.

In the past, I had heard this scripture used in three contexts:

1) How to talk to people as a missionary (Use boldness, but not overbearance)

2) Thou shalt not commit adultery (see that ye bridle all your passions)

3) Don’t be lazy (see that ye refrain from idleness)

By no means do I intend to discredit any of these applications, for they are all valid and valuable. Rather, let us say that the middle portion of this verse has come to mean much more to me than it did before.

What can be understood by ‘passions’ here? As I mentioned, this verse is often used as a scriptural catchphrase to remind us not to commit adultery or seek out pornography in any form. Going a little further, I think that, because of the word ‘all,’ we can also include any other passion that we might have. By passion I mean something that excites us, that drives us, that occupies our thoughts, and shapes our dreams. For example, a great enthusiasm for music, games, sports, academics, movies, etc –as wonderful as they may or may not be– if left to take root in our souls and grow as they will, can leave little room for the more important and divine things. For, if we let ourselves be given too much to any one of these things, it becomes difficult to feel the loving and guiding influence of the Spirit.

I give the example of music: I love music in various forms. I love to listen to it. I love to pretend to create and play it. I love how a song can draw you in with its rhythm and beat, then move your soul with a catchy melody and clever lyrics. Key changes, properly planned dissonance and resolution, I love it. I noticed, however, that it began to consume my thoughts to the point where I was having a hard time focusing in Sacrament meeting because I had had Queen stuck in my head since Tuesday. I thought that I ought to get rid of music entirely from my life, with the exception of the hymns. Lovely as they are, it killed me. Then I read the word ‘bridle’ and thought of the word ‘control.’ I had been able to use music for good in the past. For example, I had been able to establish relationships with some people who were in great need of a friend; this was I able to do because of a musical connection. As I have learned to control the role that music plays in my life, I feel empowered. For, as we learn to control ourselves and exercise our agency (over both thought and action) in positive ways, we render ourselves more capable to enjoy the Father’s Spirit and be filled with his Love. Pray to be filled with it (Moroni 7:48).

Bridle your passions, and make room in your heart and soul for that love that He promises.

Alma 38:12 – LeGrand Baker – “that you may be filled with love”

We are still in Alma 38 where uses one short clause to describe a remarkable concept.

12 …see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love.

In that verse, the word “that” is a very powerful conjunction. Other ways of saying it (“so that,” “in order that”) are weaker because the word is modified. Simply using “that” creates an unqualified relationship between the cause and the effect. (To see the power of the conjunction, try reading the sacrament prayers without the word “that.” You will find that without the conjunction the prayers become only disconnected ideas.)

Alma said to his son: “see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love.”

It is difficult for people in our culture to put those words into their proper perspective because in our vernacular language “passions” are often equated with lewdness, lasciviousness, and sexuality and seem to be the driving power behind much of the music, entertainment, and advertisements that bombard our lives.

A sidenote to Alma’s charge to “bridle all your passions” Paul’s explanation:

15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled (Titus 1:15).

True love is a passion: the way both our bodies and our minds express love through tenderness, affection, and the desire to make another happy and secure.

The best commentary I know on Alma’s meaning is the words of Peter (1 Peter 1:1-19). They begin with an almost poetic description of the intent of the early Christian’s temple drama, followed by step by step instructions about how to make one’s calling and election sure, then conclude with Peter’s testimony about his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration.

As we read closely, verses 1-7 their focus sharpens on the specifics of the path one must follow to ascend to those heights. He presents us with very succinct instructions about how to bridle our passions, “that ye may be filled with love.” He begins,

1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith [pistis] with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:1).

Pistis is a powerful Greek word that incorporates the ideas of both making and keeping covenants. Here it is something one receives “through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ .” Righteousness describes the correctness of authority and procedure in priesthood ordinances and covenants. (See the chapter “Meaning of ‘Faith’– pistis” and “Meaning of ‘Righteousness’–zedek and Zadok”in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord).

Is short, Peter has used pistis and righteousness to represent the entire early Christian temple services. Then he gives a beautifully insightful description of what that temple experience meant.

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:2-4).

In Peter’s summation, the blessings of the temple are just two promises: “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” There, “having” calls attention to a condition in the past “Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” has already happened and creates the situation of the present: “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”

“Lust” means wanting something to the exclusion of wanting other thins. It, like anger, can become addictive because it produces an adrenalin high. It may be the appetite to possess something or someone. It may be the need of attention, praise, wealth, or power. For example such needs may cause a wealthy man to run for political office or a poor woman to try to use gossip to control the neighborhood. These are different in extent of the power, but not in the quality of the soul.

Then Peter teaches us how to overcome lust and enthrone charity as our dominant personalty characteristic, just as Alma teaches that we must “bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love.”

Peter’s 8 steps to doing that are these:

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith [pistis] virtue.”(2 Peter 1:5)

To many Mormons, “virtue” has come to mean chastity, but it means much more than that. It is the sum of manly perfection: of integrity (no gap between what one says and what one does); of rectitude (doing the right things for the right reasons); of physical, emotional, and intellectual excellence. It is the qualities of manliness that is personified in George Washington.

and to virtue knowledge; (2 Peter 1:5)

Inspired scriptures all teach the same thing because the ideas come from the same source. I think is not a stretch to say that Peter, the first President of the ancient Church of Christ, should mean by “knowledge” the same thing that the Lord taught Joseph Smith.

24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come (D&C 93:24).

That is, truth is knowledge of reality in sacred time, and is the only knowledge that has eternal value.

6 And to knowledge temperance; (2 Peter 1:6)

Temperance is moderation that is a product of self control. It is not doing anything in excess, but moving through life with an even keel, acting according to one’s own will, not being acted upon by excess of any kind.

and to temperance patience (2 Peter 1:6).

Patience is most beautifully described in Psalm 25. Patience with whom? With ourselves, with God, with other people, and with difficult circumstances.

and to patience godliness [reverence](2 Peter 1:6).

The Bible footnote and Strong (# 2150) both say the Greek word means “reverence.” We cannot hurt anyone or anything that we revere. It is recognizing and acknowledging the worth of another. It precludes the possibility of anger, contempt, and prejudice.

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness (2 Peter 1:7).

In this verse, the King James Version uses the phrase “brotherly kindness,” but elsewhere in the New Testament that same Greek word is always translated as “brotherly love” which has a somewhat stronger connotation. Strong: Greek 5360 [first edition, 1890] reads: “philadelphia; fraternal affection: brotherly love (kindness), love of the brethren.” [Emphasis is in the original).

Righteous masculine virtues include extended and focused brotherly love. The Prophet Joseph emphasized this when he said, “Friendship is the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism, to revolution civilize the world.—pour forth love.” {1}

True love and eternal friendships originate and continue in sacred space and sacred time.

and to brotherly kindness charity.(2 Peter 1:7)

While “brotherly love” is a focused love, charity is a universal love. It is as broad as “reverence” and also as focused as philadelphia. It is the maturation and culmination of both. The law of consecration is what one does when charity is what one is. In the New Testament that combination of God’s love and his loving kindness is called “grace.” The Hebrew word hesed is the equivalent and is often translated as “mercy” or “lovingkindness..”

The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament shows the power of that friendship/relationship:

We may venture the conjecture that even in cases where the context does not suggest such mutuality it is nevertheless implicit, because we are dealing with the closest of human bonds. {2}

An explanation and clarification of the phrase, “dealing with the closest of human bonds,” is found in a new edition of Strong’s Concordance:

hesed, unfailing love, loyal love, devotion. kindness, often based on a prior relationship, especially a covenant relationship. {3}

Another definition says: “Hesed has in view right conduct in free kindness within a given relation. … [as in] Psalm 50:5, where Yahweh calls for a gathering of His hesedim [translated ‘saints’] who have made a covenant in sacrifice. It seems that the term hesed has a special place at the conclusion of a covenant.”{4}

The hesed relationship described in Psalm 25 evokes the terms of the premortal covenant between Jehovah and his children in this world. Elsewhere that same hesed relationship also exists as an eternal, fraternal bond among men. Consideration of the this-world continuation of those fraternal relationships brings us brings us back to Peter’s assurance that “brotherly kindness” (philadelphia) and charity are prerequisite to making one’s calling and election sure. Peter continues:

8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:8-11).

And that bring us back to Alma’s instruction to his son Shiblon.

12  See that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love (Alma 38:12).

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – ENDNOTES

{1} Joseph Smith, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph, compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook [Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980], 234.

{2}G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds., trans. Davod E. Green, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 15 vols. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1986), article about hesed, 5:45-48). The Greek equivalent is Philadelphia, fraternal love, as explained in fn 905, p. 680.

{3} John R. Kohlenberger III and James A. Swanson, The Strongest Strong’s, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), Hebrew dictionary # 2617.

{4} Gerhard Friedrich, ed. (Translator and editor

Geoffrey w. Bromiley), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Miciugan,Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981), 9:386-7.

Alma 38:9, LeGrand Baker, The Word of Truth and Righteousness

Alma 38:9
9 And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.

Last week we discussed the Savior’s name-titles, “the life and the light of the world.” Those phrases describe his power to bring all things—-including ourselves—-into existence and to sustain all things until the resurrection and beyond. The next two phrased Alma uses, “the word of truth and [the word of] righteousness” describe the Savior’s power to rase the quality of our existence to a state of happiness here and to eternal joy hereafter.

I would now like to discuss the meaning of those two name-titles.

“Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24). That is, truth is knowledge of eternal reality. Truth never changes, therefore its reality never changes. It was the same in the Council in Heaven as it is in the present, and as it will be in the eternities beyond. The key to knowing reality is (in its beginnings and in its conclusion) having a correct understanding of the truth about God. (See Who shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, paperback edition, 193-5)

“Righteousness” is translated from the Hebrew zedek and Zadok. It means to perform priesthood and temple ordinances and covenants with absolute correctness—- that is with the right authority, in the right place, holding arms and hands the right way, dressed the right way, and in the name of Christ. (See Who shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, paperback edition, 198- 200)

When Alma says Christ is “the word of truth and righteousness,” he is describing the Savior’s power, not only to give us life, but also to teach us how to come to him (redeem), and to teach us the knowledge we must have/live in order to remain in his presence (salvation).

In many scriptures, “the word” is code for priesthood power, especially the Savior’s own priesthood power. That is easy to understand because whenever we exercise the priesthood we do it by speaking words. Describing his own foreordination, Jeremiah wrote,

9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant (Jeremiah 1:9-10)

Similarly, Isaiah wrote said to the faithful men of Israel:

16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people (Isaiah 51:16).

The “word” also describes God’s priesthood power. Thus we read:

32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.
33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten (Moses 1:32-33).. (see also Jacob 4:8-9, D&C 29:29-32,

In the following, the “word of truth” is code for the gospel as it was preached in the premortal world. Thus Paul explains.

11 In whom [the Father] also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him [the Father] who worketh all things after the counsel of his [the Father’s] own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his [the Father’s] glory, who first trusted in Christ.
13 In whom [Christ] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom [Christ] also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which [sealing] is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his [the Father’s] glory (Ephesians 1:11-14).

In John, the name-title “Word” also represents the Savior’s power to teach in the very beginning of our beginnings:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1-14).

The JST version reads with more clarity:

1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God (JST John 1:1-14).

The Lord confirmed that in D&C 93:

6 And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed.
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was;
8 Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—
9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men (D&C 93:6-9).

Priesthood is more than the power to do. It is also the power to be. “The word of truth” is also code for the fulness of the sealing powers of the gospel. The priesthood ordinances are necessary for righteousness (zedek), but it is mutual love that is the actual power that seals us to our family and friends. The Savior emphasizes that in John 17, in his great intercessory prayer, where truth, word, and love become synonymous.

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.(John 17:17-21)

When we read that in connection with D&C 88 and 93, it becomes apparent that light, truth, and love are all the same thing. We talk about each of their characteristics differently and therefore give them different names. But they all fill the immensity of space at the same time and all manifest the same sense of peace wrapped in the power of hased. If the Lord’s definition of truth is to know something—or someone—as an eternal reality, and if charity is loving others as they really are, then truth and charity are essentially the same thing. To love and comprehend another’s eternal worth—to know as one is known and see as one is seen—is to embrace that friend in sacred time and sacred space.

Truth is inseparably connected with righteousness, for without truth there can be no righteousness. The psalmist testifies:

10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps (Psalms 85:2-13).

The Prophet Joseph expanded that sense of oneness by describing “righteousness and truth” in terms of sacral kingship. He wrote from Liberty jail:

46 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 121:46).

The apostle John put all of these ideas together in a magnificent description of the Savior and of our eternal relationship (“fellowship”) with him and his Father. John wrote:

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:1-7).

From these scriptures we might conclude that “the word of truth” is priesthood power exercised through the power that is derived from knowing reality in sacred time. And that “the word of …righteousness” is the enabling priesthood power that is derived from the correctness (zedek) of the eternal ordinances and covenants of godliness. And that the name-titles which Alma gives to Christ —-“ Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.”—-are powerful testimonies of who and what the Savior is.

Alma 38:8-9, LeGrand Baker, Light and Truth

8 And it came to pass that I was three days and three nights in the most bitter pain and anguish of soul; and never, until I did cry out unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, did I receive a remission of my sins. But behold, I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul.
9 And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.

In these verses Alma sums up some of the most profound testimonies of the Savior found anywhere in the scriptures. Alma does it so succinctly that two things are evident: 1) He is fully aware of the intent of the similar testimonies found in our modern scriptures, and 2) those concepts required no explanation to his son. Therefore it is apparent that these most profound doctrines were taught and understood by Book of Mormon prophets and the people.

Each time the Savior introduced himself he used that same phrase. He said, “I am the light and the life of the world (3 Nephi 9:18, 11:11).

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

John’s testimony is similar:

9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men (D&C 93:9).

Abinadi’s testimony to Alma is an explanation of that phrase:

9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death (Mosiah 16:9).

The doctrine that he is the life and the light of the world is much older than the Book of Mormon text.

In the Bible, the origin of all physical things began with the words, “Let there be light.” From the light, came all else. Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews recalls:

The heavens were fashioned from the light of God’s garment. …The light created at the very beginning is not the same as the light emitted by the sun, the moon, and the stars, which appeared only on the fourth day. The light of the first day was of a sort that would have enabled man to see the world at a glance from one end to the other. Anticipating the wickedness of the sinful generations of the deluge and the Tower of Babel, who were unworthy to enjoy the blessing of such light, God concealed it, but in the world to come it will appear to the pious in all its pristine glory. {1}

The Lord’s revelation to the Prophet Joseph is very explicit about that, and foreshadows the best scientific thinking of our time. He explained that the light of Christ is:

11 …the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings;
12 Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—
13 The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things (D&C 88:7-13).

Whether one approaches it from Einstein’s theory or the string theory, matter is energy. In the scriptures that energy is called “light.”

When I was a young man astronomers taught that the universe was a vacuum except for those placed where we could see visible light, and that the light “that filled the immensity of space” was the light of the stars that traveled through that vacuum at amazing speed. Now astronomers teach that the universe is filled with “dark energy” and “dark matter.” They are “dark” because they are not visible, but in fact they are completely transparent and as is shown by the fact that visible light passes through them without restraint.

According to observations of structures larger than solar systems, as well as Big Bang cosmology…. dark matter accounts for 23% of the mass-energy density of the observable universe. In comparison, ordinary matter accounts for only 4.6% of the mass-energy density of the observable universe, with the remainder being attributable to dark energy. From these figures, dark matter constitutes 83%, (23/(23+4.6)), of the matter in the universe, whereas ordinary matter makes up only 17%. (From Wikipedia)

My simplistic way of understanding that is that just as ordinary energy/photons/matter of our visible universe is made of the Savior’s light. The dark energy/matter of the universe is also made of his light, but the latter’s properties make it imperceptible to our senses and even to our sophisticated scientific instruments.

Psalm 36 says it differently, and perhaps even more beautifully. As you read this psalm, remember the definition of hesed: “unfailing love, loyal love, devotion. Kindness, often based on a prior relationship, especially a covenant relationship.”{2}

5 Thy mercy [hesed], O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
7 How excellent is thy loving-kindness [hesed], O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
10 O continue thy loving-kindness [hesed] unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart (Psalms 36:5-10).

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ENDNOTES

{1} Louis Ginzberg, trans. Henrietta Szold, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1937), 1:8-9.

{2} John R. Kohlenberger III and James A. Swanson, The Strongest Strong’s, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), Hebrew dictionary # 2617.

Alma 38:1-15, LeGrand Baker, Alma to his son, Shiblon—be true to law of your own being

Our personalities are an eternal part of the law of our own beings. We come into this world with three things: agency, personality, and integrity. Our personalities stays intact. The thing that is challenged is our integrity—the question is: Can we be in the environment of this world the same person we were before we came here? (Even if cultural circumstances here temporarily stifle our personalities, it will blossom again after we are no longer in this world.)

Before we came here, each of us received an assignment that was to be fulfilled in this time and place. Those assignments were, of necessity, perfectly compatible with the personality that define us as an eternal Self. Alma’s commandments to his sons (virtually patriarchal blessings) demonstrate how those assignments and personalities were so well coordinated.

To Helaman, Alma gave the charge to preside, and to Shiblon he game the charge to teach. Helaman’s experiences in the mission field demonstrated that he was best fit for his assignment. Shiblon’s experiences demonstrated the same about him.

Consider Shiblon’s personality traits as his father describes them. He said:

11. See that ye are not lifted up unto pride; yea, see that ye do not boast in your own wisdom, nor of your much strength.

The Hebrew word most often translated as wisdom (Strong 2451) has a number of other connotations: skill in war and administration, shrewdness, prudence. So we can know that Shiblon was a very bright young man. He was no weakling either, as is shown by his fathers admonition that he not boast in his “much strength.”

However, his calling was not so much about his abilities as it was about his personality. His brother had shown himself to be a dynamic leader, but Shiblon was different from that—not inferior, just different.

Other of Shiblon’s characteristics that his father mentions are:

v. 2 steadiness and your faithfulness [keeping eternal covenants] unto God;… as you have commenced in your youth
v. 3 because of thy faithfulness [Here, keeping missionary covenants] and thy diligence, and thy patience and thy long-suffering among the people of the Zoramites.
v. 4 and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee.

Alma reminds him of the covenant of invulnerability that comes with keeping our eternal covenants, and promises him that if he will be true to who he is “that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day (v.5).”

Alma’s blessing concludes with an assignment to his son. While it is likely that the assignment may have been typical of that given to a “second son,” yet it is also true that it seems to fit his personality perfectly. Alma said, “And now, as ye have begun to teach the word even so I would that ye should continue to teach; and I would that ye would be diligent and temperate in all things (v. 10).”

Shiblon’s blessing has a message for each of us. It is this: You and I, and all the other people who make up the Kingdom of God are different from each other. Those difference cannot be ranked as superior or inferior to others, they are simply different. Let me give you an example.

When I was a boy I lived on a small farm in Utah. We had a neighbor we called “Lib.” She was a simple lady with almost no education, and no leadership skills. People sometimes made fun of her because of that. But she was one of the kindest persons I have ever known—completely without guile—a ministering angel to everyone who needed help or who just need a friend.

My family and I loved her very much.

How can her qualities be ranked as lower than another’s great academic or leadership skills? I don’t believe they can.

Like Lib, each of us in this world is left to become the very best of what we already are. Like Lib and Shiblon, each of us is given an assignment that most perfectly fits our eternal personalities. And like them, each of us will be judged—not my our great successes—but by the quality of the love we give to others.

Alma 37:21-22, 28, 31-32 – – LeGrand Baker, Constitution to hang by a thread

21 And now, I will speak unto you concerning those twenty-four plates, that ye keep them, that the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works, or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed, may be made manifest unto this people; yea, all their murders, and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, may be made manifest unto this people; yea, and that ye preserve these interpreters.

22 For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness, yea, work secret murders and abominations; therefore the Lord said, if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth.

……………..

28 For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, according to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed.

……………..

31 Yea, and cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe.
32 And now, my son, remember the words which I have spoken unto you; trust not those secret plans unto this people, but teach them an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity.

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[In December 1948, when I was a child attending Primary, the church published a broadside with the photographs of the general authorities on one side (George Albert Smith was then President of the Church), and a statement by Preston Nibley on the other. I was given my copy in Primary, as I suppose everyone else in the church was also. The broadside is now very rare (I gave mine to BYU library’s Special Collections). The following is a copy of Elder Nibley’s short statement —- LeGrand]

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WHAT OF JOSEPH SMITH’S PROPHECY

THAT THE CONSTITUTION WOULD HANG BY A THREAD?

by Preston Nibley

FREQUENT INQUIRY is received as to the validity of the great prophecy. said to have been made by the Prophet Joseph Smith that the time would come when the Constitution would hang by a single thread, and at that particular time the Mormon people would step forth and save it from destruction.

For a number of years I have searched through the writings and sermons of the Prophet, but to date I have not found any record of the above prophecy as having been recorded by the Prophet himself, or by those who worked with him in his office and assisted him in writing his history.

The first reference to substantiate im­portant prophecy was given in a sermon by President Brigham Young in the old Tabernacle on the Temple Block, on July 4, 1854. The occasion was the celebration of Independence Day by the people of Salt Lake City. President Young was the principal speaker.

Following are a few excerpts from his sermon:

“The general Constitution of our country is good, and a wholesome government could be framed upon it; for it was dictated by the invisible operations of the Almighty. He moved upon Columbus to launch forth upon the trackless deep to discover the American continent. He moved upon the signers of the Declaration of Inde­pendence, and he moved upon Washington to fight and conquer, in the same way that he has moved upon ancient and modern prophets, each being inspired to accomplish the particular work he was called to perform, in the times seasons and dispensations of the Almighty….

“If the framers of the Constitution and the inhabitants of the United States had walked humbly, the God who defended them and fought their battles when Washington was on the stage of action, the nation would have now been free from a multitude of evils.

“Will the Constitution be destroyed? No. It will be held inviolate by this people; and as Joseph Smith said ‘the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread, and at this critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.’ It will be so.” (Journal History, July 4, 1854)

President Brigham Young does not give the citation of his information regarding this important prophect, whether it came to him direct from the Prophet Joseph Smith or not, but he states it in such a bold, fearles manner that it is evident that he knew exactly what he was talking about.

On February 6 and 7 of the following year, 1855, a celebration was held in the Social Hall, by the surviving members of the Mormon Battalion to commemorate their long march to the Pacific, made in 1846-47. On this occasion President Jedediah M. Grant made a few appropriate remarks. Among other things he siad:

“We are friendly to our country and when we speak of the flag or our Union, we love it, and we love the rights the Constitution guarantees to every citizen. What did the Prophet Joseph say? When the Constitution shall be tottering, we shall be the people to save it from the hand of the foe.” (The Mormon Battalion by Tyler, page 350).

Three years later, on January 3, 1858, Orson Hyde was speaking in the old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. At that time he made this significant statement, which he worded somewhat differently than the two speakers quoted above.

“It is said that Brother Josesph, in his lifetime, declared that the elders of this Church should step forth at a particular time, when the Constitution should be in danger, and rescue it and save it. This may be so, but I do not recollect that he said exactly so. I believ he said something like this — that the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow, and, said he, ‘If the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the elders of this Church.’ I believe this is about the language, as nearly as I can recolict it.” (Journal of Discourses. Vol.6:152).

It appears from the above that Orson Hyde heard the Prophet Joseph Smith make the prophecy quoted, though he differs somewhat from Brigham Young and Jedediah Grant in his understanding of the same. However, we have a statement from Eliza R. Snow, that she actually heard the Prophet make the remarks which she quotes. The following is from the Deseret News Weekly of Jan. 19, 1870, page 556. It is the report of a meeting of the women of Salt Lake City, held in the hew Tabernacle. Eliza R. Snow was speaking:

“My sisters, my remarks in conclusion will be brief. I heard the Prophet Joseph Smith say if the people rose up and mobbed us, and the author­ities countenanced it, they would have mobs to their hearts content. I heard him say that the time would come when this nation would so far depart from its original purity, its glory and its love for freedom, and its protection of civil rights and religious rights, that the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread. He said also that this people, the Sons of Zion, would rise up and save the Constitution and bear it off triumphant ‘.”

From all the above it is abundantly evident that the Prophet Joseph Smith did make the marvelous prediction that it is the destiny of the Latter-day Saints to some day save the Constitu­tion of the United States from destruction.

Alma 37:6-7, LeGrand Baker, by small means

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

One of those “small means” is the impact weather has had on human history. Here are some examples:

A drought caused Abraham to go into Egypt.

Another drought caused Jacob, Joseph and their families to go into Egypt where they could increase in numbers until they were ready to conquer the Promised Land.

A prolonged drought (since no one knows the dates for sure, we can’t know how prolonged) in central Asia and east of the Mediterranean resulted in the destruction of ancient Troy, and the crippling of the Babylonian and Egyptian empires. It left a political and economic power vacuum in Palestine so that Moses could bring Israel there to settle in relative security.

One of the major reasons for the severity of the Black plague in the late 1300 and early 1400’s throughout Europe was that the weather was very cold and dry. That caused the plague carrying rats and mice to come into the cities and villages where they could find food. It is estimated to have cut Europe’s population about in half. It wiped out great landowning families and did not spare the clergy. It disrupted political and ecclesiastical power throughout Europe and showed that the Catholic church did not have the power to stop it. Thereby it was ultimately one of the major “causes” of the Protestant Reformation.

A severe wind storm in 1588 destroyed the Spanish Armada, enabling Protestant England rather than Catholic Spain to become the world’s great sea power. It enabled much of the world to have access to English participatory government and the King James Bible.

In America, at the time of the ratification of the Constitution, Pennsylvania was the most critical state. It literally cut the nation in two and a single nation under the Constitution would probably have meant little if she had not ratified. Many believed Pennsylvania would not ratify. In the back country where most of the population resided, the people were mostly Anti Federalists who feared a powerful federal government. The people in the east around Philadelphia were Federalists who supported the Constitution. On the day of the ratification vote a severe snow storm prevented the people in back country Pennsylvania from getting to their voting places. Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution, but without the snow the election probably would have gone the other way and the United States probably never would have happened.

After ratification, the new government under the new Constitution was to begin when a quorum of both Houses met in New York. Their first act would be to count the Electoral College vote and announce who the new president would be. That was planned for mid or late March. However, snowy spring prevented the new Congress from forming a Quorum until 6 April 1789 when the United States officially began as a new government.

In World War II, the Germans were aided in the Battle of the Bbulge by clouds that prevented the Allies from using their aircraft against the German tanks. The German’s needed to capture allied oil and gas supplies for their tanks because they had only enough gas to get the tanks as far as those supplies. When they were well over half way toward their goal (didn’t have enough gas to go back) the clouds moved and the allied air force had its way. That marked the turning point of the war.

Those are just a few. I’m sure you can think of lots more. The weather is just one example to show the truth of Alma’s promise that “by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.”

Another example, one that is so common that we actually expect it to happen, is when a Latter-day Saint (maybe a missionary, maybe not) “just happens” to be in the right place at the right time to meet someone who is seriously looking for the gospel. That and other similar “small means” happen daily as the Lord directs the affairs of the Kingdom of God.

Alma 37:3-4, LeGrand Baker, The Brass Plates

3 And these plates of brass, which contain these engravings, which have the records of the holy scriptures upon them, which have the genealogy of our forefathers, even from the beginning—
4 Behold, it has been prophesied by our fathers, that they should be kept and handed down from one generation to another, and be kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord until they should go forth unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that they shall know of the mysteries contained thereon.
5 And now behold, if they are kept they must retain their brightness; yea, and they will retain their brightness; yea, and also shall all the plates which do contain that which is holy writ.

The truth of Alma’s prophecy is substantiated by the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses. Of the four who saw the plates (Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris) three, Joseph, Martin, and David, each left detailed accounts of what they saw and heard that morning. The accounts are dissimilar enough to enable one to see the event from their different perspectives, but near enough alike that they confirm each other’s testimonies. (These are taken from my book Joseph and Moroni.)

Joseph Smith’s account reads as follows:

Not many days after the above commandment was given, we four, viz., Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and myself, agreed to retire into the woods, and try to obtain, by fervent and humble prayer, the fulfilment of the promises given in the above revelation—that they should have a view of the plates. We accordingly made choice of a piece of woods convenient to Mr. Whitmer’s house, to which we retired, and having knelt down, we began to pray in much faith to Almighty God to bestow upon us a realization of these promises.

According to previous arrangement, I commenced prayer to our Heavenly Father, and was followed by each of the others in succession. We did not at the first trial, however, obtain any answer or manifestation of divine favor in our behalf. We again observed the same order of prayer, each calling on and praying fervently to God in rotation, but with the same result as before.

Upon this, our second failure, Martin Harris proposed that he should withdraw himself from us, believing, as he expressed himself, that his presence was the cause of our not obtaining what we wished for. He accordingly withdrew from us, and we knelt down again, and had not been many minutes engaged in prayer, when presently we beheld a light above us in the air, of exceeding brightness; and behold, an angel stood before us. In his hands he held the plates which we had been praying for these to have a view of. He turned over the leaves one by one, so that we could see them, and discern the engravings thereon distinctly. He then addressed himself to David Whitmer, and said, “David, blessed is the Lord, and he that keeps His commandments;” when, immediately afterwards, we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us, saying, “These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.”

I now left David and Oliver, and went in pursuit of Martin Harris, whom I found at a considerable distance, fervently engaged in prayer. He soon told me, however, that he had not yet prevailed with the Lord, and earnestly requested me to join him in prayer, that he also might realize the same blessings which we had just received. We accordingly joined in prayer, and ultimately obtained our desires, for before we had yet finished, the same vision was opened to our view, at least it was again opened to me, and I once more beheld and heard the same things; whilst at the same moment, Martin Harris cried out, apparently in an ecstasy of joy, “‘Tis enough; ‘tis enough; mine eyes have beheld; mine eyes have beheld;” and jumping up, he shouted, “Hosanna,” blessing God, and otherwise rejoiced exceedingly. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 1:54-55.)

Even though David Whitmer was an old man when he was interviewed by Orson Pratt, he described his experience with vivid memory.

It was in June, 1829, the latter part of the month, and the Eight Witnesses saw them, I think, the next day or the day after (i.e. one or two days after). Joseph showed them the plates himself, but the angel showed us (the Three Witnesses) the plates, as I suppose to fulfill the words of the book itself. Martin Harris was not with us at this time; he obtained a view of them afterwards (the same day). Joseph, Oliver and myself were together when I saw them. We not only saw the plates of the Book of Mormon, but also the brass plates, the plates of the Book of Ether, the plates containing the records of the wickedness and secret combinations of the people of the world down to the time of their being engraved, and many other plates. The fact is, it was just as though Joseph, Oliver and I were sitting just here on a log, when we were overshadowed by a light. It was not like the light of the sun, nor like that of a fire, but more glorious and beautiful. It extended away round us, I cannot tell how far, but in the midst of this light about as far off as he sits (pointing to John C. Whitmer, sitting a few feet from him), there appeared, as it were, a table with many records or plates upon it, besides the plates of the Book of Mormon, also the sword of Laban, the directors (i.e., the ball which Lehi had) and the interpreters. I saw them just as plain as I see this bed (striking the bed beside him with his hand), and I heard the voice of the Lord, as distinctly as I ever heard anything in my life, declaring that the records of the plates of the Book of Mormon were translated by the gift and power of God.

Pratt: Did you see the angel at this time?

Whitmer: “Yes; he stood before us. Our testimony as recorded in the Book of Mormon is strictly and absolutely true, just as it is there written. (Cannon in Nibley, LDS Stories, 96; Jensen, Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:266, 270; also D&C 17:1.)

Martin Harris was not present when David and Oliver saw Moroni and the plates, but his account, also given in an interview, was essentially the same as David’s.

Brother Harris said that the angel stood on the opposite side of the table on which were the plates, the interpreters, etc., and took the plates in his hand and turned them over. To more fully illustrate this to them, Brother Martin took up a book and turned the leaves over one by one. The angel declared that the Book of Mormon was correctly translated by the power of God and not of man, and that it contained the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Nephites, who were a branch of the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and had come from the land of Jerusalem to America. The witnesses were required to bear their testimony of these things, and of this open vision to all people, and he (Harris) testified, not only to those present, but to all the world, that these things were true, and before God whom he expected to meet in the day of Judgment he lied not. (Jensen, Biographical Encyclopedia, 1:275.)

Alma 36:24-26, LeGrand Baker, “filled with the Holy Ghost”

Alma 36:24-26
24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors;
26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God (Alma 36:23-26).

In this beautiful testimony Alma equates three magnificent phrases that seem to have a much greater meaning than the ideas with which we sometimes casually associate them. The phrases are:

(1) taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; (2) that they might also be born of God, (3) and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Then he invites us to seek to understand what those words mean:

26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God (Alma 36:26).

Of those ideas, the one I would like to focus on today is the one that Alma uses here, “filled with the Holy Ghost.”

That phrase is used very sparingly in the scriptures. The key to its meaning is in the Beatitudes as they are recorded in the Book of Mormon. In the Bible they a just some nice sayings that many scholars believe were not spoken by Jesus, but were put in Matthew there by an early editor. That mistake could not be made by reading the Book of Mormon. There, the Beatitudes they are not just a series, but a single sentence with each one beginning with a conjunction, usually “and.” They read this way:

In 3 Nephi 12:2 are the first principles, including being “visited by the Holy Ghost”; v. 3 is the endowment for the living; v. 4 is the endowment for the dead; v. 5 is about keeping eternal covenants. Verse 6 reads: “And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Verse 7 is how to function as a priestly king; 8 is Zion shall see God; 9, peacemakers are “called” children of God; 10-12 is persecution; 13 is missionary work; 14-16 is the charge to be a light (Menorah) to temple worshiping Saints. [If those are new ideas to you, you will find a full explanation in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, pages 925-97.]

The point is that for most of us there is a great deal of time, experience, and faithfulness between being “visited by the Holy Ghost” and being “filled with the Holy Ghost.” During that time and experience it is the Holy Ghost who teaches us how to make that transition.

There are instances of persons who did not require a great deal of time in this world because they were fully proven in the previous one. Though the phrase is not used here, an example is the 12 whom Jesus chose when he came to America. The first Nephi describes them this way: [Also see below: 3 Nephi 19:10-14.]

10 And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood (1 Nephi 12:10).

“Forever” is a very long time in both directions!

Another example is John the Baptist. The account of his premortal call is given in Isaiah 40:3-8, and is quoted in each of the four gospels. When the angel told Zacharias he would have a son, the angel said, “he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). That statement was later confirmed by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph: “John, whom God raised up, being filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb (D&C 84:27).

In the New Testament, that blessing was given to many on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-6). The result was a group of distinguished missionaries, armed with power, to return to their own countries and teach the gospel.

“Being filled with the Holy Ghost” is usually described as a blessing to just one or two persons.

For example, when Moses expelled Satan from his presence, “Moses lifted up his eyes unto heaven, being filled with the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and the Son (Moses 1:24) .

When the blind Saul (soon to be called Paul) was blessed by Ananias he promised the future apostle, “that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 9:17).

The prophets Alma and Amulek are two more:

30 And Alma went forth, and also Amulek, among the people, to declare the words of God unto them; and they were filled with the Holy Ghost.
31 And they had power given unto them, insomuch that they could not be confined in dungeons; neither was it possible that any man could slay them; nevertheless they did not exercise their power until they were bound in bands and cast into prison. Now, this was done that the Lord might show forth his power in them (Alma 8:30-31).

When the Twelve (whom we mentioned earlier) where chosen by the Savior and were baptized:

11 And it came to pass that Nephi went down into the water and was baptized.
12 And he came up out of the water and began to baptize. And he baptized all those whom Jesus had chosen.
13 And it came to pass when they were all baptized and had come up out of the water, the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
14 And behold, they were encircled about as if it were by fire; and it came down from heaven, and the multitude did witness it, and did bear record; and angels did come down out of heaven and did minister unto them (3 Nephi 19:11-14).

Joseph and Oliver Cowdery had a similar experience when they were baptized:

73 …. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation (JS-History:73).

It seems to me that there are two important points tha t should be gleaned from these scriptures. The first point is this. Those are some of the very few places in the scriptures where one finds the phrase “filled with the Holy Ghost.” (The only other two are Acts 4:8 and Acts 13:9.) It seems to me that when the scriptures use words and phrases like that so very carefully and with such precision of meaning, we would do well to use them with that same care.

The second point is the one in the Beatitudes: for the great majority of us, being filled with the Holy Ghost is a process with an end goal that can be achieved. That promise is also given elsewhere in 3 Nephi: Mormon reports:

17 And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost.
18 And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written (3 Nephi 26:17-18).

Mormon concludes Third Nephi with this promise:

1 Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write, saying:
2…. come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel (3 Nephi 30:1-2).