Doctrine and Covenants 124-128

1
Doctrine and Covenants 124-128
2

• Doctrine and Covenants 124
• The Spirit of Mormonism
• This was followed almost immediately by the
  revelation of the fullness of the ordinances of
  the temple.
• Surely it can be said that the revelations
  received during this period constitute the
  strength, power, glory, and genius of Mormonism.
• Truly the spirit of Mormonism is the spirit of
  Nauvoo.
• The City of Nauvoo represents the capstone of
  the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

3

• Doctrine and Covenants 1243
• There have been five times in the history of the
  Church that proclamations have been issued by the
  First Presidency
• 1841 Invited Saints and others to gather to
  Nauvoo. It thanked Illinois for letting
  them settle there and for the Nauvoo
  Charter.
• 1845 Proclaimed the Restoration to Kings and
  Rulers.

4

• 3. 1865 New doctrine to be introduced only by
  President of the Church.
• 4.1980 Discussed growth of the Church after
  150 years.
• 5.1995 The Family! The three Ps and the
  one N.

5

• Doctrine and Covenants 1247
• For they are as grass!
• Earthly leaders, (temporary) their power and
  glory are transient.
• Doctrine and Covenants 12412
• Robert B. Thompson
• Appointed an associate editor of Times and
  Seasons in Nauvoo. He died in 1841 at the age of
  thirty, never able to fulfill the divine
  commission.

6

• Doctrine and Covenants 12415
• Hyrum Smith
• Heber J. Grant said
• No mortal man who ever lived in this Church
  desired more to do good than did Hyrum Smith, the
  Patriarch (C.R., October, 1920, 84).

7

• Hyrum Smith was described by his Prophet brother
  as having the mildness of a lamb, and the
  integrity of Job, and in short, the meekness and
  humility of Christ (Smith, HC, 2338).
• When John Taylor looked upon Hyrums slain body,
  
• reflected, He was a great and good man, and my
  soul was cemented to his. If ever there was an
  exemplary, honest, and virtuous man, an
  embodiment of all that is noble in the human
  form, Hyrum Smith was its representative (Smith,
  HC, 7107).

8

• Doctrine and Covenants 12416
• John C. Bennett
• Served as assistant to the Prophet. He was the
  first Mayor of Nauvoo in 1841. In May of 1842 he
  apparently intended to do harm to the Prophet
  during a mock battle conducted by the Nauvoo
  Legion.
• He was guilty of adultery and of teachings that
  his illicit sexual behavior was condoned by
  church leaders.
• He started spiritual wifery and told the women
  he seduced that Joseph was also living it for it
  was a Celestial Law and only a few were chosen to
  live it.

9

• He was well educated and possessed many
  accomplishments. He was a physician, a university
  professor, and brigadier general. He was a good
  man, but fell into adultery.
• He was excommunicated and became a bitter enemy
  to the Church. He slandered and spread falsehoods
  about Joseph Smith and the Church. He was one of
  the reasons Carthage Jail became a reality.
• He spoke in eleven major cities against Joseph
  Smith and Mormonism and wrote a book
• Joseph Smith told him if he did not repent of
  his sins and sin no more, the curse of God
  Almighty would rest upon him, that he would die a
  vagabond without friends. He died August 1867 in
  Iowa a miserable pauper with a hard fate.

10

• Doctrine and Covenants 12420-21
• George Miller
• He was the first Bishop in this dispensation of
  a regular ward.
• At the suggestion of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
  the city council divided Nauvoo into four
  political divisions called wards on March 1st,
  1841 (Smith, HC, 4305-6).
• Consequently, four bishops, Newel K. Whitney,
  George Miller, Isaac Higbee, and Vinson Knight
  (DC 124141), were assigned to preside over
  these areas.
• On 20 August 1842 the Nauvoo Stake High Council
  determined, that the city of Nauvoo be divided
  into ten (ecclesiastical) wards.

11

• Doctrine and Covenants 12428
• The Patriarchal Order
• It is in the temple we enter into the
  patriarchal order, the order of priesthood that
  bears the name the new and everlasting covenant
  of marriage (New Witness, 315).
• Doctrine and Covenants 12429
• Baptism for the Dead
• The revelation on baptism for the dead came
  while the Twelve were laboring in the British
  Isles.

12

• Doctrine and Covenants 12431-35
• Baptismal font dedicated
• Before the Nauvoo temple was completed, the
  baptismal font was dedicated by the Prophet
  Joseph Smith.
• The Prophet Joseph Smith said, If we neglect
  the salvation of our dead, we do it at the peril
  of our own salvation!
• In the fear that he might be killed before the
  Nauvoo Temple was completed, the Prophet was
  prompted to administer the ordinances of the
  temple to the Quorum of the Twelve and a few
  other trusted Saints before construction of the
  temple was completed.

13

• Doctrine and Covenants 12428
• Fullness of the Priesthood
• President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote
• Joseph Smith said, If a man gets a fullness of
  the Priesthood of God, he has to get it in the
  same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that
  was by keeping all the commandments and having
  all the ordinances of the house of the Lord (HC,
  5424).
• I hope we understand that if we want to receive
  the fullness of the Priesthood of God, then we
  must receive the Fullness of the ordinances of
  the house of the Lord and keep his commandments.

14

• Doctrine and Covenants 12429-36
• Baptism for the Dead!
• Doctrine and Covenants 12436
• Fulfilled!

15
The Endowment

• President Brigham Young instructed the Saints on
  the significance of the endowment in the latter
  days. He reminded them that the first elders
  received only a portion of their endowments in
  the Kirtland Temple, terming them introductory,
  or initiatory ordinances, preparatory to an
  endowment.

16

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

17

• The Nauvoo Temple
• It took all the peoples time and energies for
  nearly 3 years and was used less than 6 weeks
  after its formal dedication.
• It was the fifth temple contemplated by the early
  Church and the second one built.
• Independence, Far West, and Adam-ondi-ahman were
  not yet built.
• The construction took more than five years (Jan.
  1841May 1846).
• Section 124 is the revelation in which the
  commandment to build the Nauvoo Temple was
  received.
• April 6th, 1841, the cornerstones were laid,
  which included a Bible with the Apocrypha cut out
  and pasted in it, because the Bible being used
  didnt have one in it (Reynold Calhoon).

18

• 6. Nov 21, 1841, the first baptisms were
  performed in it.
• 7. Dec. 10, 1845 Feb. 1846 endowments were
  given to 5,600 members.
• 8. May 1st, 1846, official prayer of
  dedication was offered by Orson Hyde.
• 9. Oct. 9, 1848, interior of the temple was
  burned by an arsonist.
• 10. May 27, 1850, a tornado demolished three
  of the exterior walls.
• 11. 1856, the last remaining wall was leveled
  for safety reasons.
• Keep in mind that on May 4th, 1842, Joseph Smith
  began to administer the ordinances revealed to
  him (Washings, Anointings, and the Endowment).
• Where? Second floor of the Red Brick Store.

19

• Doctrine and Covenants 126
• Brigham Young was born to teach the gospel.
• In 1840 Brigham Young accompanied by Heber C.
  Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, George A.
  Smith, and Reuben Hedlock, left New York for a
  mission to Great Britain, where he labored with
  great success.
• Of that missionary experience he said, through
  the mercy of God we gained many friends,
  established churches in almost every noted town
  and city in the Kingdom of Great Britain,
  baptized between seven and eight thousand souls,
  printed 5,000 Books of Mormon, 3,000 Hymn Books,
  2,500 volumes of the Millennial Star, and 50,000
  tracts (Young, History, 1).

20

• Doctrine and Covenants 1261
• The Lord called Brigham Young to remain in
  Nauvoo and direct the work as President of the
  Quorum of the Twelve. The wisdom of such a move
  was clearly seen in later years when Brigham
  Young was chosen by the Lord to succeed Joseph
  Smith.
• The Prophet Joseph was the leading inspiration
  of Brigham Youngs life spent in the Prophets
  presence, Brigham Young once said

21

• No pain was too severe, no inconvenience too
  great to be where Joseph was and learn of him.
• In the days of the Prophet Joseph, such moments
  were more precious to me than all the wealth of
  the world. No matter how great my poverty if I
  had to borrow meal to feed my wife and children
  I never let an opportunity pass of learning what
  the Prophet had to impart (In Nibley, Brigham
  Young, 28).

22

• Doctrine and Covenants 1262-3
• President Brigham Young said
• I came into this Church in the spring of 1832.
  Previous to my being baptized I took a mission to
  Canada at my own expense and from the time that
  I was baptized until the day of our sorrow and
  affliction, at the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum,
  no summer passed over my head but what I was
  traveling and preaching, and the only thing I
  ever received from the Church, during the twelve
  years, and the only means that were ever given me
  by the Prophet, that I now recollect was in 1842,
  when brother Joseph sent me the half of a small
  pig that the brethren had brought to him. I did
  not ask him for it (JD, 434).

23

• Doctrine and Covenants 1271
• Falsehood in the blackest dye
• Joseph Smith was a defendant in forty-six
  lawsuits, and every time Mr. Priest (a priest or
  a preacher) was at the head of it and led the
  band or mob hunted and persecuted him. And when
  Joseph and Hyrum were slain in Carthage jail, the
  mob, painted like Indians, was led by a preacher
  (JD, 14199).
• Joseph Smith, in forty-seven prosecutions was
  never proven guilty of one violation of the laws
  of his country. They accused him of treason,
  because he would not fellowship their wickedness
  (Brigham Young, JD, 10111).

24
DC 128 Baptisms for the dead

• Baptism for the dead was first publicly
  announced on 15 August 1840 at the funeral of
  Seymour Brunson.
• Immediately after the announcement of the new
  doctrine, Church members began performing proxy
  baptisms in the Mississippi river and in local
  streams.
• While those administering these vicarious
  ordinances in 1840 were not without authority,
  the actions were not recorded consequently the
  baptisms were later repeated.
• On 3 October 1841 Joseph Smith declared, There
  shall be no more baptisms for the dead, until the
  ordinances can be attended to in the Lords
  House.For thus saith the Lord.

25

• Baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple were
  first performed on Sunday, 21 November 1841.
• With few exceptions, endowments and sealings for
  the dead were first administered in the St.
  George, Utah, Temple.

26

• Doctrine and Covenants 128
• Few doctrines show the love of God more than
  baptisms for the dead!
• Doctrine and Covenants 1281-2
• Nothing that is done in the temple will be
  accepted of the Lord, except it is properly
  witnessed and recorded (C.R., 1900, Elder Rudger
  Clawson).
• Doctrine and Covenants 1286
• The Book of Life is literally the record kept in
  heaven of the names and righteous deeds of the
  faithful (Mormon Doctrine, 97).

27

• Doctrine and Covenants 12812
• The Lord has placed the baptismal font in our
  temples below the foundation, or the surface of
  the earth. This is symbolical, since the dead are
  in their graves, and we are working for the dead
  when we are baptized for them. Moreover, baptism
  is also symbolical of death and the resurrection,
  in fact, is virtually a resurrection from this
  life of sin, or from spiritual death, to the life
  of spiritual life. Therefore, when the dead have
  had this ordinance performed in their behalf they
  are considered to have been brought back into the
  presence of God, just as this doctrine is applied
  to the living (Church History and Modern
  Revelation, 2332).

28

• Doctrine and Covenants 12814-18
• Baptism for the dead helps to prevent the earth
  from being smitten with a curse.
• As President Joseph Fielding Smith taught, If
  Elijah had not come, we are led to believe that
  all the work of past ages would have been of
  little avail, for the Lord said the whole earth,
  under such conditions, would be utterly wasted at
  his coming.

29

• Why Would the Earth Be Wasted?
• Simply because if there is not a welding link
  between the fathers and the children which is the
  work for the dead then we will all stand
  rejected the whole work of God will fail and be
  utterly wasted. Such a condition, of course,
  shall not be (Doctrines of Salvation, 2121-22).

30

• Doctrine and Covenants 12815
• Salvation is a community affair
• Salvation is a community affair, and the
  covenant of salvation is made with the community
  of Saints rather than with people individually.
• Would those men who laid the foundation of this
  American Government and signed the Declaration of
  Independence have called upon me, as an Elder in
  Israel, to perform that work if they had not been
  noble spirits before God? They would not. I bear
  testimony because it is true. The spirit of God
  bore record to myself and the brethren while we
  were laboring in that way to do temple work
  (Temples of the Most High, 82).

31

• To President Woodruff they said, You have had
  the use of the Endowment House for a number of
  years and yet nothing has ever been done for us.
  We laid the foundation of the government you now
  enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we
  remained true to it and were faithful to God
  (JD, 19229).

32

• Doctrine and Covenants 12820
• No formal account exists of the restoration of
  the Melchizedek Priesthood
• We have two reminiscences that bear examination.
  
• Addison Everett in a letter to Oliver B.
  Huntington written in 1881 states as follows
• I heard the following conversation between
  Joseph Hyrum a few days before they were
  martyred..

33

• Oliver Cowdery was spoken of and Joseph went
  on to state that at Colesville he and Oliver
  were under arrest on charge of deceiving the
  people and in court he stated that the first
  miracle done was to create this earth. About
  that time his attorney told the court that he
  wanted to see Mr. Smith alone for a few moments.
  When alone Mr. Reid said that there was a mob in
  front of the house and hoisting the window,
  Joseph and Oliver went to the woods in a few
  rods, it being night, and they traveled until
  Oliver was exhausted and Joseph almost carried
  him through the mud and water. They traveled all
  night and just at the break of day Oliver gave
  out entirely and exclaimed O! Lord! How long
  Brother Joseph have we got to endure this thing,
• Brother Joseph said that at that very time
  Peter, James and John came to them and ordained
  them to the apostleship.

34

• They had 16 or 17 miles to travel to get back
  to Mr. Hales his father in law, and Oliver did
  not complain anymore of fatigue (Porter,
  Priesthood Restored, 403).
• Elements of this account can be accepted but
  only with some reservation.
• John Reid was involved in Joseph Smiths
  June-July 1830 trial, which took place a year
  later than Brother Everett is remembering it. In
  relation to the fleeing from enemies, however,
  Erastus Snow gave a similar account in an address
  given at conference held in Logan, Utah, in 1882

35

• In due course of time, as we read in the
  history which he (Joseph) has left, Peter, James
  and John appeared to him it was a period when
  they were being pursued by their enemies and they
  had to travel all night, and in the dawn of the
  coming day when they were weary and worn, who
  should appear to them but Peter, James and John,
  for the purpose of conferring upon them the
  Apostleship, they keys of which they themselves
  had held while upon the earth, which had been
  bestowed upon them by the Savior. This Priesthood
  conferred upon them by those three messengers
  embraces within it all offices of the Priesthood
  from the highest to the lowest (JD, 23183).

36

• Doctrine and Covenants 12821
• Gabriel, and of Raphael
• The Prophet learned by revelation that Gabriel
  was Noah (Teachings, 157).
• Raphael may have been Enoch.
• This conclusion is deduced by listing the six
  major gospel dispensations prior to our own
  Adams, Enochs, Noahs, Abrahams, Moses, and
  the meridian of time, and then noting that we can
  identify someone coming to restore keys from each
  of them except Enochs. Since we have both a name
  and a dispensation unaccounted for, the answer
  may be found in putting the two together.

37

• Doctrine and Covenants 12822
• So great a cause?
• Never has a people had to opportunity to do so
  much for so many as do the L.D.S., however, if
  they fail in the effort they do so at the peril
  of their own salvation. (Teachings, 193).
• Every Latter-day Saint should feel the urgency
  of the work and wear out his life in this
  selfless service.
• The greatest service we will ever render will be
  doing temple work.