D&C 5
The background information for this chapter is as follows: “After humbly repenting of his foolishness in losing the manuscript, Martin Harris still seemed troubled by a desire to have direct evidence of the existence of the plates. In March 1829 the Lord gave Joseph Smith section 5 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In that revelation, it is clear that Martin still wanted a ‘witness’ that Joseph had the plates, and verse 24 suggests that his specific desire was to actually see the plates. The Lord told Martin through Joseph that he could receive his desires by being faithful and humble so he would be called as one of the three special witnesses.” I guess it’s easy for me to sit here and say that Martin Harris should have been satisfied with what he had, and all that but I think that anyone could say the same thing about me in my situation, that I should be fine with everything.
5:1-10 - The Lord recognizes that this revelation is because “my servant Martin Harris has desired a witness at my hand.” This revelation is for him, I try to imagine the process of getting a revelation and I’d imagine that it’s very dependent on the Prophet, that there was probably no actual interaction with the Lord himself. The IM teaches, “Martin Harris was a religious minded, prosperous farmer. He appears to have been a rather wilful but honest man, who wanted to be sure of everything he undertook. I was he who took the transcript of characters from the Book of Mormon plates to Professor Anthon for verification. Martin Harris had already received a remarkable proof of the truth of the claims made by the Prophet Joseph regarding the Book of Mormon, when he carried a facsimile of the engravings of New York scientists. Professor Anthon had told him, as he himself states, that the ‘hieroglyphics were true characters.’ He had also, through the Prophet received revelations. But he was not yet satisfied. He seems to have asked for further evidence that the Prophet Joseph actually had the plates from which the lost manuscript had been translated.” Looking at it abjectly, Martin Harris did finance the printing of the Book of Mormon, he did have great strife within his family because of his support of the Church, maybe he thought that he was entitled to more assurance because of these things, or maybe he was just legitimately concerned about the validity of Joseph’s claim. But let’s stop and think for a minute here, Martin clearly acknowledged that Joseph was a prophet of God, and accepted the revelations as being directly from God, he’d had independent verification of the engravings, so it doesn’t make sense that he requires actual evidence of the existence of the plates, if he accepts everything else. It seems almost like this was a similar situation to the manuscript pages, Martin wanted to see the plates so he might have been pushing JS to ask the Lord if it’s ok, that’s just my conjecture, but seems possible. It’s interesting that the Lord says in verse 7 “Behold, if they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you.” The best explanation of this verse comes from the IM’s quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith when he says, “This revelation declared that this generation shall have the word of the Lord through Joseph Smith. There may be some who think that this is unreasonable, and the Lord should use some miraculous means to convert the world. Frequently when strangers… hear the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, they ask if the plates are in some museum where they may be seen. Some of them with some scientific training express themselves to the effect that if the scholars could see and examine the plates and learn to read them, they would then bear witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the veracity of Joseph Smith, and the whole world would then be converted. When they are informed that the angel took the plates back again, the turn away in their skepticism, shaking their heads. But the Lord has said: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ We have learned that people are not converted by miracles or by examining records. If the Lord had placed the plates where the scholars could examine them, they would have scoffed at them just as much as they do today. People are converted by their hearts being penetrated by the Spirit of the Lord when they humble hearken to the testimonies of the Lord’s servants. The Jews witnessed the miracles of our Lord, but this did not prevent them from crying out against him and having him crucified.” We were just talking about this as a family this weekend, how testimonies are built on fasting and praying and reading the scriptures and going to church and keeping the commandments, that the Holy Ghost will tell you in your heart that the church is true, angels don’t give a testimony, L&L taught us that. In the 2009 October general conference address entitled, “Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration,” Elder Tad R. Callister taught “In many ways the gospel of Jesus Christ is like a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. When Joseph Smith came on the scene, perhaps 100 pieces were in plate. Then Joseph Smith came along and put many of the other 900 pieces in place so that people could say, ‘Oh, now I understand where I came from, why I am here, and where I am going.’ As for Joseph Smith’s role in the Restoration, the Lord defined it clearly: ‘This generation shall have my word through you.’ In spite of this flood of restored biblical truths, come honest searchers have commented: ‘I can accept these doctrines, but what about all those angels and visions Joseph smith claimed to have? It seems so hard to believe in modern times.’ To those honest searchers, we lovingly respond: ‘Were there not angels and visions in Christ’s Church in New Testament times? Did not an angel appear to Mary and to Joseph? Did not angels appear to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration? Did not an angel rescue Peter and John from prison? Did not an angel appear to Cornelius, then to Paul before he was shipwrecked and to John on the Isle of Patmos? Did not Peter have a vision of the gospel going to the Gentiles, Paula vision of the third heaven, John a vision of the latter days, and Stephen a vision of the Father and Son?’ Yes, Joseph Smith did see angels and visions- because he was the instrument in God’s hands to restore the same Church of Jesus Christ as existed in primitive times- all of its powers as well as all of its doctrines. Yet sorrowfully, on occasion, some are willing to set aside the precious gospel truths restored by Joseph Smith because they get diverted on some historical issue or some scientific hypothesis not central to their exaltation, and in so doing they trade their spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage. They exchange the absolute certainty of the Restoration for a doubt, and in that process they fall into the trap of losing faith in the many things they do know because of a few things they do not know. There will always be some seemingly intellectual crisis looming on the horizon as long as faith is required and our minds are finite, but likewise there will always be the sure and solid doctrines of the Restoration to cling to, which will provide the rock foundation upon which our testimonies may be built.” This is so true in so many cases, and in the case of chapter 5 as well, Martin Harris was so quick to overlook what he knew was true to focus on something that he was supposed to take on faith. The angels and the visions are miraculous, for sure, but they will not make a testimony, they will not build a testimony that comes by faith and the building up of things that we know to be true.
5:11-35 - The Lord now references the three witnesses that will bear record of the Book of Mormon and will be able to see and handle the plates. Commenting on “the Lord’s use of witnesses” the IM teaches, “Paul taught the principle that ‘in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.’ President Joseph Fielding Smith said of this law: ‘In giving the world the testimony of three witnesses in addition to Joseph Smith, the Lord fulfilled the law. We are called upon in this life to walk by faith, not by sight, not by the proclamation of heavenly messengers with the voice of thunder, but by the proclamation of accredited witnesses whom the Lord sense and by whom every world shall be established.” Elder Oaks gave a great conference about how witnesses are able to establish the legality of many issues, and he would know, he’s a lawyer and was a member of Utah’s Supreme Court. I can’t find the talk of course, but it was very good. The Lord continues, “Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them… And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation… And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of men, even of water and of the Spirit.” The IM comments of the fact that only the three witnesses will have this testimony and none else, saying, “The testimony of the Three Witnesses was unique in that they obtained a view of the plates by the hand of an angel. Eight other people were also shown the plates, but that experience was not accompanied by the appearance of a heavenly messenger. Hence, no others received ‘this same testimony.” I always wondered what it meant to be a “special witness of Jesus Christ,” like the title of the Apostles, and I would imagine that it’s something similar to this here. The Three Witnesses were special witnesses of the Book of Mormon, meaning that it was only them and no one else. Perhaps being a “special witness” is similar because they have some sort of “testimony” of the Savior that the general population doesn’t have, and so we can rely on the Apostles as having the words of Christ because they are His special witnesses, just like we can trust the witnesses of the Book of Mormon because they had that special witness that no one else did. The promise of the Spirit to those who believe in the gospel has the parallel warning to those who will not believe. The Lord says, “And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them; For s desolating scourge shall go forth among the inhabitants of the earth, and shall continue to be poured out from time to time, if they repent not, unto the earth is empty and the inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming. Behold, I tell you these things, even as I also told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem.” The IM teaches “The world may take lightly the recorded testimony of the three chosen witnesses, but solemn promises are given to those who accept and those who reject their words. Those who heed their testimony will find God’s word in the Book of Mormon and will receive the Holy Ghost and be born again. But those who reject this testimony shall come under condemnation. ‘The Lord always warns the people of a new dispensation through prophets raised up unto them in their own day,’ said Elder Marion G. Romney. ‘This he has done for this generation through the great prophet of the restoration, Joseph Smith, Jr. Through him the Lord repeatedly declared that the world was ripening in iniquity and that unless men repented destruction would overtake them. For example, in March 1829, he said: (D&C 5:19-20). You will note that this prediction, as were like predictions in the past, is conditional. ‘If they repent not,’ is the condition. For this generation as for all others, the Lord has provided means of escape. This means is now, and has always been, the gospel of Jesus Christ.’” Similarly, verses 23-28 show that “Martin Harris was given a conditional promise to become one of the three witnesses,” on which the IM comments, “Martin Harris was promised that he would become a witness of the plates of ‘these things’ if he would humble himself and acknowledge the wrongs he had committed. Even after the lesson learned from the loss of the 116 pages, humility came hard for Martin, though he succeeded, and he finally saw the angel and the plates.” The Lord is merciful, and I think that the example of Martin Harris can show us that we don’t need to be perfect to have the blessings that are promised, we just have to be doing our best. Nothing is ever set in stone, if it were the atonement would be void, we can always repent and we can always transgress, it’s up to us and God is guiding us along and helping us with our good choices and allowing us our poor choices. The last thing that I want to comment on is verse 30 when the Lord tells JS “Even if you should be slain.” Knowing what eventually ends up happening to the prophet, I can see the foreshadowing here. The IM teaches, “This verse and Doctrine and Covenants 6:30 intimate the Lord’s foreknowledge of the Prophet Joseph’s death by violence for his part in the latter-day work.” Learning points for this chapter: 1. Testimony doesn’t come from exceptional manifestations, it comes from the Holy Ghost. 2. Those who don’t believe the witnesses they receive wouldn’t believe the divine revelations they ask for. 3. The Holy Ghost is promised to those who believe in the Book of Mormon. 4. Destruction is promised for those who do not. 5. The Lord always warns before destruction comes to people. 6. Our destruction or salvation is conditional upon our repentance and obedience.
5:1-10 - The Lord recognizes that this revelation is because “my servant Martin Harris has desired a witness at my hand.” This revelation is for him, I try to imagine the process of getting a revelation and I’d imagine that it’s very dependent on the Prophet, that there was probably no actual interaction with the Lord himself. The IM teaches, “Martin Harris was a religious minded, prosperous farmer. He appears to have been a rather wilful but honest man, who wanted to be sure of everything he undertook. I was he who took the transcript of characters from the Book of Mormon plates to Professor Anthon for verification. Martin Harris had already received a remarkable proof of the truth of the claims made by the Prophet Joseph regarding the Book of Mormon, when he carried a facsimile of the engravings of New York scientists. Professor Anthon had told him, as he himself states, that the ‘hieroglyphics were true characters.’ He had also, through the Prophet received revelations. But he was not yet satisfied. He seems to have asked for further evidence that the Prophet Joseph actually had the plates from which the lost manuscript had been translated.” Looking at it abjectly, Martin Harris did finance the printing of the Book of Mormon, he did have great strife within his family because of his support of the Church, maybe he thought that he was entitled to more assurance because of these things, or maybe he was just legitimately concerned about the validity of Joseph’s claim. But let’s stop and think for a minute here, Martin clearly acknowledged that Joseph was a prophet of God, and accepted the revelations as being directly from God, he’d had independent verification of the engravings, so it doesn’t make sense that he requires actual evidence of the existence of the plates, if he accepts everything else. It seems almost like this was a similar situation to the manuscript pages, Martin wanted to see the plates so he might have been pushing JS to ask the Lord if it’s ok, that’s just my conjecture, but seems possible. It’s interesting that the Lord says in verse 7 “Behold, if they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you.” The best explanation of this verse comes from the IM’s quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith when he says, “This revelation declared that this generation shall have the word of the Lord through Joseph Smith. There may be some who think that this is unreasonable, and the Lord should use some miraculous means to convert the world. Frequently when strangers… hear the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, they ask if the plates are in some museum where they may be seen. Some of them with some scientific training express themselves to the effect that if the scholars could see and examine the plates and learn to read them, they would then bear witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the veracity of Joseph Smith, and the whole world would then be converted. When they are informed that the angel took the plates back again, the turn away in their skepticism, shaking their heads. But the Lord has said: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ We have learned that people are not converted by miracles or by examining records. If the Lord had placed the plates where the scholars could examine them, they would have scoffed at them just as much as they do today. People are converted by their hearts being penetrated by the Spirit of the Lord when they humble hearken to the testimonies of the Lord’s servants. The Jews witnessed the miracles of our Lord, but this did not prevent them from crying out against him and having him crucified.” We were just talking about this as a family this weekend, how testimonies are built on fasting and praying and reading the scriptures and going to church and keeping the commandments, that the Holy Ghost will tell you in your heart that the church is true, angels don’t give a testimony, L&L taught us that. In the 2009 October general conference address entitled, “Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration,” Elder Tad R. Callister taught “In many ways the gospel of Jesus Christ is like a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. When Joseph Smith came on the scene, perhaps 100 pieces were in plate. Then Joseph Smith came along and put many of the other 900 pieces in place so that people could say, ‘Oh, now I understand where I came from, why I am here, and where I am going.’ As for Joseph Smith’s role in the Restoration, the Lord defined it clearly: ‘This generation shall have my word through you.’ In spite of this flood of restored biblical truths, come honest searchers have commented: ‘I can accept these doctrines, but what about all those angels and visions Joseph smith claimed to have? It seems so hard to believe in modern times.’ To those honest searchers, we lovingly respond: ‘Were there not angels and visions in Christ’s Church in New Testament times? Did not an angel appear to Mary and to Joseph? Did not angels appear to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration? Did not an angel rescue Peter and John from prison? Did not an angel appear to Cornelius, then to Paul before he was shipwrecked and to John on the Isle of Patmos? Did not Peter have a vision of the gospel going to the Gentiles, Paula vision of the third heaven, John a vision of the latter days, and Stephen a vision of the Father and Son?’ Yes, Joseph Smith did see angels and visions- because he was the instrument in God’s hands to restore the same Church of Jesus Christ as existed in primitive times- all of its powers as well as all of its doctrines. Yet sorrowfully, on occasion, some are willing to set aside the precious gospel truths restored by Joseph Smith because they get diverted on some historical issue or some scientific hypothesis not central to their exaltation, and in so doing they trade their spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage. They exchange the absolute certainty of the Restoration for a doubt, and in that process they fall into the trap of losing faith in the many things they do know because of a few things they do not know. There will always be some seemingly intellectual crisis looming on the horizon as long as faith is required and our minds are finite, but likewise there will always be the sure and solid doctrines of the Restoration to cling to, which will provide the rock foundation upon which our testimonies may be built.” This is so true in so many cases, and in the case of chapter 5 as well, Martin Harris was so quick to overlook what he knew was true to focus on something that he was supposed to take on faith. The angels and the visions are miraculous, for sure, but they will not make a testimony, they will not build a testimony that comes by faith and the building up of things that we know to be true.
5:11-35 - The Lord now references the three witnesses that will bear record of the Book of Mormon and will be able to see and handle the plates. Commenting on “the Lord’s use of witnesses” the IM teaches, “Paul taught the principle that ‘in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.’ President Joseph Fielding Smith said of this law: ‘In giving the world the testimony of three witnesses in addition to Joseph Smith, the Lord fulfilled the law. We are called upon in this life to walk by faith, not by sight, not by the proclamation of heavenly messengers with the voice of thunder, but by the proclamation of accredited witnesses whom the Lord sense and by whom every world shall be established.” Elder Oaks gave a great conference about how witnesses are able to establish the legality of many issues, and he would know, he’s a lawyer and was a member of Utah’s Supreme Court. I can’t find the talk of course, but it was very good. The Lord continues, “Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them… And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation… And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of men, even of water and of the Spirit.” The IM comments of the fact that only the three witnesses will have this testimony and none else, saying, “The testimony of the Three Witnesses was unique in that they obtained a view of the plates by the hand of an angel. Eight other people were also shown the plates, but that experience was not accompanied by the appearance of a heavenly messenger. Hence, no others received ‘this same testimony.” I always wondered what it meant to be a “special witness of Jesus Christ,” like the title of the Apostles, and I would imagine that it’s something similar to this here. The Three Witnesses were special witnesses of the Book of Mormon, meaning that it was only them and no one else. Perhaps being a “special witness” is similar because they have some sort of “testimony” of the Savior that the general population doesn’t have, and so we can rely on the Apostles as having the words of Christ because they are His special witnesses, just like we can trust the witnesses of the Book of Mormon because they had that special witness that no one else did. The promise of the Spirit to those who believe in the gospel has the parallel warning to those who will not believe. The Lord says, “And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them; For s desolating scourge shall go forth among the inhabitants of the earth, and shall continue to be poured out from time to time, if they repent not, unto the earth is empty and the inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming. Behold, I tell you these things, even as I also told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem.” The IM teaches “The world may take lightly the recorded testimony of the three chosen witnesses, but solemn promises are given to those who accept and those who reject their words. Those who heed their testimony will find God’s word in the Book of Mormon and will receive the Holy Ghost and be born again. But those who reject this testimony shall come under condemnation. ‘The Lord always warns the people of a new dispensation through prophets raised up unto them in their own day,’ said Elder Marion G. Romney. ‘This he has done for this generation through the great prophet of the restoration, Joseph Smith, Jr. Through him the Lord repeatedly declared that the world was ripening in iniquity and that unless men repented destruction would overtake them. For example, in March 1829, he said: (D&C 5:19-20). You will note that this prediction, as were like predictions in the past, is conditional. ‘If they repent not,’ is the condition. For this generation as for all others, the Lord has provided means of escape. This means is now, and has always been, the gospel of Jesus Christ.’” Similarly, verses 23-28 show that “Martin Harris was given a conditional promise to become one of the three witnesses,” on which the IM comments, “Martin Harris was promised that he would become a witness of the plates of ‘these things’ if he would humble himself and acknowledge the wrongs he had committed. Even after the lesson learned from the loss of the 116 pages, humility came hard for Martin, though he succeeded, and he finally saw the angel and the plates.” The Lord is merciful, and I think that the example of Martin Harris can show us that we don’t need to be perfect to have the blessings that are promised, we just have to be doing our best. Nothing is ever set in stone, if it were the atonement would be void, we can always repent and we can always transgress, it’s up to us and God is guiding us along and helping us with our good choices and allowing us our poor choices. The last thing that I want to comment on is verse 30 when the Lord tells JS “Even if you should be slain.” Knowing what eventually ends up happening to the prophet, I can see the foreshadowing here. The IM teaches, “This verse and Doctrine and Covenants 6:30 intimate the Lord’s foreknowledge of the Prophet Joseph’s death by violence for his part in the latter-day work.” Learning points for this chapter: 1. Testimony doesn’t come from exceptional manifestations, it comes from the Holy Ghost. 2. Those who don’t believe the witnesses they receive wouldn’t believe the divine revelations they ask for. 3. The Holy Ghost is promised to those who believe in the Book of Mormon. 4. Destruction is promised for those who do not. 5. The Lord always warns before destruction comes to people. 6. Our destruction or salvation is conditional upon our repentance and obedience.
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