Doctrine and Covenants 49 50 In a democratic

Doctrine and Covenants 49 -50

In a democratic time, the Mormons emerged as the most democratic of churches, rivaled only by the Quakers. The Church’s ministry was both democratic and authoritarian (Church leaders controlled ordinations). Occasionally missionaries lack of tack led to trouble. When Leman Copley, a former Shaker turned Mormon took other missionaries to read Doctrine & Covenants 49 to the Shakers. The Shakers were irked, especially Kitchel their leader. When he dismissed the Mormon delegation, the irrepressible Pratt shook his coattails, saying in good New Testament fashion, that he shook the dust from his garments as a testimony against them. At this Kitchel blew up, called Pratt a “Filthy beast, ” and told him never to return, while Pratt sat in his seat with his hands covering his face. Pratt simply reported that “this strange people…utterly refused to hear or obey the gospel. ”

Doctrine & Covenants 49 Although this revelation was rejected by the Shakers, its doctrinal importance is established for missionary work. The elders did not engage the Shakers in a doctrinal debate over the peculiar tenets of their faith but invited them to hear the word of the Lord as it was given to them.

Doctrine & Covenants 49 “Preaching My Gospel Unto the Shakers” Doctrine & Covenants 49: 2 They desire to know the truth in part, but not all. (Doctrine & Covenants 123: 12) John Whitmer said the Shakers are bound in tradition and priest craft, and thus are lead away with foolish and vain imaginations (John Whitmer, History of the Church, 20).

Doctrine & Covenants 49: 4 What were some of the beliefs of the Shakers that Leman Copley was to forsake? 1. That Deity is dual in nature. God is both male and female. The male principle of Christ came to the earth as Jesus. The female principle is represented in “Mother Ann” (Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker sect), and in her the premise of our Lord’s Second Advent was fulfilled. They also believe that angels and spirits are both male and female. 2. Celibacy. They neither condemn or opposed marriage, but they assert the possibility of attaining a higher or angelic order of existence to which virginity is a prime requisite (Ann Lee married and had four children).

Mother Ann Lee

3. Open confession of sins. 4. Community of possessions. 5. Separation from the world. Ostentation, luxury, and private property were regarded as sinful and un-Christian.

6. Pacifism. They refused to participate in military action and believed that disputes between nations could be settled peacefully. 7. Equality of the sexes. 8. Consecrated work. 9. Continuous revelation. Caption: Life of the Diligent Shaker Sect.

10. External ordinances. Baptism and the Lord’s supper ceased in the apostolic age. 11. Christ’s kingdom upon the earth began with the establishment of the Shaker Church. From the days of the Apostles the Lord had sent no one to preach until the Shakers were raised up to call in the elect in a new dispensation. 12. The doctrines of the Trinity, vicarious atonement, and resurrection of the body are untrue. 13. Disease is a sin against God. 14. Abstinence from meat.

The Shakers thrived as a church until about the turn of the century. Since then their numbers have declined until today. There is only one active community left, at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine.

Sabbath Day Lake Shaker Village

Doctrine & Covenants 49: 6 The Shakers did not believe Christ to be divine and therefore were not looking forward to his second coming. What they were looking for was the return of the “Christ Spirit, ” a spirit that would infuse their leader and make him or her spiritual and not carnal. They believed four persons had been given this spirit in its fullness: Adam, Abraham, Christ, and Ann Lee.

Doctrine & Covenants 49: 8 Who? Holy men that ye know not of. Joseph Fielding Smith thought the reference was to the Three Nephites and John the beloved. Doctrine & Covenants 49: 10 Did not believe in baptism, but practiced gifts of the spirit. Joseph Smith said it was impossible to practice the gifts of the spirit without baptism(History of the Church, 5: 27).

Doctrine & Covenants 49: 16 All spirits must come down! Doctrine & Covenants 49: 21 President Joseph F. Smith said, … “I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood” (Conference Report, Oct. 1978, 64). (JST Genesis 9: 11) Doctrine & Covenants 49: 24 -25 Both these verses have been fulfilled!

Joseph Smith said the saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains… but some of you will live to go assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains (Teachings, 255).

Doctrine & Covenants 50 Parley P. Pratt said: “As I went forth among the different branches, some very strange spiritual operations were manifested, which were soon to swoon away, and make unseemly gestures, and be drawn into contortions, cramps, fits, etc. Others would seem to have visions and revelations, which were not edifying, and which were not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the Gospel. In short, a false and lying spirit seemed to be creeping into the Church.

“All these things were new and strange to me, and had originated in the Church during our absence, and previous to the arrival of President Joseph Smith from New York. “Feeling our weakness and inexperience, and lest we should err in judgment concerning these spiritual phenomena, myself, John Murdock, and several other Elders, went to Joseph Smith and asked him to inquire of the Lord concerning these spirits or manifestations… John Murdock

“After we had joined in prayer in his translating room, he dictated in our presence the following revelation” (Autobiography, 48).

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 2 -3 There was no point upon which the prophet Joseph Smith dwelt more than the discerning of spirits (Times and Seasons, 21).

“False Spiritual Manifestations” 1. Pretend you have the sword of Laban in your possession and you are fighting people with it. Make it look good. I will come and touch your head and you will return to your seat. Say nothing. 2. Stand up on your desk and speak in tongues, try to “froth from your mouth. ” Make it look good. I will come and touch your head. Return to your seat and say nothing. 3. Run around the class acting like you’re an Indian trying to scalp people. Be loud and make it look good. I will touch your head, return to your seat and say nothing.

4. Act like you’re a snake and crawl on the ground hissing at people as you go up and down the rows. I will touch your head and you will return to your seat, say nothing. 5. Act like you are jumping in the air trying to get a letter from an angel. You finally get the letter. Start reading it to the class. Just make up spiritual stuff and I will come and touch you on your head. Return to your seat and say nothing.

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 4 “Some had visions and could not tell what they saw. Some would fancy themselves that they had the sword of Laban, and would wield it as expert as light dragoon, some would act like an Indian in the act of scalping, some would slide or scoot on the floor, the rapidity of a serpent, which (they) termed sailing in the boat to the Lamanites, preaching the gospel. And many other vain and foolish maneuvers that are unprofitable to mention (Book of John Whitmer, 62).

“One of them who acted the worse was Burr Riggs, I have seen him jump up from the floor, strike his head against the joist in the Baldwin’s new house and swing some minutes, then fall like he was dead. After an hour or two he would come to, he would prophesy and tell what he had seen. At other times he appeared to be so honest and sincere I was led to believe all he said, but concluded that all could not be blessed and perhaps I was not as pure as those young men…

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 13 Levi Hancock reported that while engaged in preaching the gospel three young missionaries, Heman Basset, age sixteen (Doctrine & Covenants 52: 37); Edson Fuller, age twenty-one (Doctrine & Covenants 52: 28); and Burr Riggs, age twenty (Doctrine & Covenants 75: 17), purported to receive revelations and see angels and would fall down frothing at the mouth.

“Edson Fuller would fall and turn black in the face. Heman Bassett would behave like a baboon. He said he had a revelation he had received in Kirtland from the hand of an angel, he would read it and show pictures of a course of angels declared to be Gods, then would testify of the truth of the work and I believed it all, like a fool.

“I dare not come out against anything that an Elder should say for fear I should speak again the Holy Ghost” (Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock, 41). The gospel must be taught with dignity and decorum appropriate to the kingdom of heaven. To teach it any other way, as this revelation states, is “not of God. ” The testimony of the truths of heaven cannot be obtained nor nourished by any means other than the spirit of truth.

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 13 -14 To preach is to “articulate the doctrine of Christ!” It is one thing to know what you know, but it is quite another to be able to tell someone else how you know what you know. MTC’s are basically “teaching institutions” that help Elders and Sisters to better articulate to others what they know to be true. to Technology has made it harder for many articulate!

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 17 Some other way? God! Then it is not of 1. 2. Intellectual Entertainment Joseph Fielding Mc. Conkie said, “the measure of an effective teacher is not found in his ability to entertain nor in his ability to facilitate stimulating class discussions. To entertain is not necessarily to edify. To involve is not necessarily to enlighten. The education that pertains to the kingdom of God is not play and should not be made to look like play. The divine decree is that we work out our salvation and in many instances that embraces hard, hard work (Teach and Reach, 1975, 22).

To the extent which we substitute methodology for the substance of that which we are commissioned to teach, we have failed. Significantly, the Lord did not give Hyrum Smith a directive to learn how to teach, he told him to learn what to teach (Doctrine & Covenants 11). Hyrum’s knowledge of how to teach was gained in the process of teaching. If there is a single moment of maturity, it is the moment at which we realize that the burden is ours to learn and not the teacher’s to teach. It should not be supposed that spiritual gifts are granted for the completion of training courses.

“Preachers err by trying to talk people into belief; better they reveal the radiance of their own discovery” (The Power of Myth). When you teach, you point. See, the words teach, touch are the same as the Greek word, dactile, and the Latin didactic. Deiko means to show. It means to point to a thing. When you teach, all you can do is point to a thing. You can’t put it inside the person or anything like that. All you can do is point to it and let him react, you see (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1993, 92).

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 23 Anciently, the verb “to edify” meant to build sacred edifices such as temples. To edify is to make the body and the soul of man a holy tabernacle, a temple of God. If a doctrine does not offer the opportunity to reach, to build, or to improve, it is not of God. Sometimes a teacher talks about what he thinks he knows and no one can refute him because no one knows anything about it, not even himself (Harold B. Lee, Address to Religious Educators, 8 July 1966, 5).

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 26 In every gospel dispensation there have been those who have falsely claimed to be called of God. Responding to this problem in the early days of Christianity, the following direction is given in a work known as The Didach. “Welcome every apostle on arriving, as if he were the Lord. But he must not stay beyond one day.

In case of necessity however, the next day too. If he stays three days, he is a false prophet. On departing, an apostle must not accept anything save sufficient food to carry him till his next lodging. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet” (Ehrman, New Testament, 316).

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “There is no saying of greater truth than ‘that which doth not edify is not of God. ’ And that which is not of God is darkness, it matters not whether it comes in the guise of religion, ethics, philosophy or revelation. No revelation from God will fail to edify” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1: 201 -02).

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 37 Joseph H. Wakefield He claimed that because Joseph Smith came out from the translating room and immediately engaged in playing with children that he was not a true prophet. He later tried to defame Joseph Smith in Kirtland prove the Book of Mormon was written by Solomon Spaulding. He was excommunicated in January 1834.

Doctrine & Covenants 50: 40 “Grace to Grace” = “Greenie Theory” Learn a little, obey that, learn a little more, obey that, etc. Doctrine & Covenants 50: 45 -46 When the Lord speaks to you or me, it will be in a method and manner justified by our preparation, our gifts, our powers, for we have all be endowed in some degree (Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, Apr. 1910).

Faith comes by the word of exhortation. Faith comes, Joseph Smith said, “by hearing the word of God, ” (Teachings, 148).