D&C 20:10-28

20:10-25 - These verses bring up a concept that I have felt strongly about my whole life, that strengthens my faith in the gospel but would be difficult for me to reconcile without it, and that is that “he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever.” I’ve always thought that it only makes sense that God still talks to us today, that we still have a prophet just like they did in the ancient days because otherwise God would not be the same and unchanging. DJR has some good insight though, as to the varying aspects of a growing church and the sameness of God, saying, “Be careful not to confuse policies with doctrines, as you consider verse 12, above. Some members wonder how God can be the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever’ when He changes the age for missionaries to go on missions, changes from separate meetings for priesthood and Relief Society, Sunday School and sacrament meetings to a meeting block for all, eliminates seventies on a stake basis and only has general authority seventies, etc. While policies change as needed to meet the needs of an expanding and growing church, doctrines such as faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, the gift of the Holy Ghost, celestial marriage, and all things needed for exaltation and living in the family unit forever, do not change. In this sense, God is the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever.’ He in completely fair to all people, through work for the living and work for the dead. The requirements for exaltation are the same and must be met, whether in this life (for those who have the opportunity) or in the next life (through the preaching of the gospel in the spirit work, and work for the dead.)” I hadn’t considered this perspective before, but I like it and it makes sense, kind of along the same lines of “the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.” In the next several verses DJR gives this explanation, “In verses 17-36, we will be taught about the creation, the fall, and Atonement and several accompanying doctrines. By way of reminder, one of the obvious reasons this book of scripture is called ‘The Doctrine and Covenants’ is that it contains many ‘doctrines,’ which can be loosely defined as true facts about God and the gospel, teachings and requirements for exaltation, proper procedures for use of the priesthood, priesthood ordinances, etc. As we continue, we will point out many ‘doctrines’ along the way, by using Doctrine to emphasize them. Some may seem almost too obvious to even designate, but, remember that they are not obvious to the majority of the residents of the earth in our day.” I’ve often thought about why this book was called the Doctrine and Covenants when it seemed to me to be a book or revelations, but these designations have been helpful. Some of these doctrines include, “There is a God. This earth and its inhabitants are not a biological accident careening through interstellar space,” and “We are created in the image of God.” We also learn that mankind became fallen because of the transgression of God’s law, in which “man became sensual and devilish.” The IM teaches of the “Natural or Fallen man,” “One issue that has troubles many is the inherent goodness of evil of mankind. Do people by virtue of their birth inherit some kind of original sin, or are they instinctively good? Those who argue that people are inherently wicked and their very nature sinful cite the abundant wickedness in the world. People have demonstrated a widespread tendency to be selfish, immoral, cruel, and greedy. Those who think people are basically good point out that if we are inherently evil, then we would have to inherit that evil from God, since we are His children. That, of course, contradicts all we know of God’s nature. Even some Latter-day Saints are troubled by the controversy. They think that modern scriptures teach that man’s nature is evil. King Benjamin taught that ‘the natural man is an enemy to God,’ and Alma said that men had ‘become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature.’ But section 20 in the Doctrine and covenants, combined with these other scriptures, clearly teaches that the word natural, or nature, does not mean something inherent in our eternal beings, but refers to a state to which mankind has fallen through disobedience to God’s law. The scriptural definition of ‘natural man’ is fallen, disobedient man, and this ‘nature’ can be overcome when a person ‘yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.” I’ve also wondered about this, how are we born evil if we are in fact “natural” man, but this is an excellent explanation. 20:26-28 - This is an exceptionally long chapter, and I don’t understand a lot of it, so I think I’m going to go through it mostly by what the IM talks about. The section continues that because of man’s fall, God “gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God.” By doing this this could become perfected through the atonement, “as many as would believe and be baptized in his holy name, and endure in faith to the end, should be saved,” all those who lived before Christ and all those who lived after Christ, who would believe “in the gifts and callings of God by the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and of the Son; Which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite and eternal, without end.” The IM teaches, “This passage has troubled some Latter-day Saints, since the church teaches that there are three distinct, individual members of the Godhead. President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that both concepts are true: ‘It is perfectly true, as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price and in the Bible, that to us there is but one God. Correctly interpreted God in this sense means Godhead, for it is composed of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Godhead presides over us, and to us, the inhabitants of this world, they constitute the only God, or Godhead. There is none other besides them. To them we are amenable, and subject to their authority, and there is no other Godhead unto whom we are subject. However, as the Prophet has shown, there can be, and are, other Gods.”