D&C 105:6-12

105:6-12 - I think that I am getting caught up in lots of different topics and just going step by step through the IM, so I’m going to try to be more aware. I think one of the hear things is that, like with the Book of Mormon, there is a story and it just kind of flows together, where here they are different topics and revelations given without the background information or really, any information about what’s happening. I need to get back to DJR’s study guide, that I think will be helpful. The Lord says that the Saint need to “be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands. And this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high. For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them, inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me.” The IM has a lot to say about this, and I feel that I said much of my own about the temple a few entries ago. The IM asks “What is an endowment?” and answers, “Notes and commentary on doctrine and Covenants 95:8-9 discusses the meaning of the word endowment. President Brigham Young explained: ‘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 the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.’ Why would the brethren who were to establish Zion be required to receive an endowment in preparation for their stewardship? Because, as the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, ‘the endowment was to prepare the disciples for their missions unto the world.’ Elder Joseph Fielding Smith further taught: ‘If we go into the temple we raise our hands and covenant that we will serve the Lord and observe his commandments and keep ourselves unspotted from the world. If we realize what we are doing then the endowment will be a protection to us all our lives- a protection which a man who does not go to the temple does not have. I have heard my father (President Joseph F. Smith) say that in the hour of trial, in the hour of temptation, he would think of the promises, the covenants that he made in the House of the Lord, and they were a protection to him… This protection is what these ceremonies are for, in part. They save us now and they exalt us hereafter, if we will honor them. I know that this protection is given for I, too, have realized it, as have thousands of others who have remembered their obligations.’ Was there a difference between the endowment of power given at Kirtland and the endowment given worthy members today? The full ordinance of the endowment was not administered in the Kirtland Temple, as the Lord had not yet revealed it. Even baptism for the dead was not practiced in the Kirtland Temple. The Lord had earlier explained that He intended to use this temple ‘to endow those whom I have chosen with power form on high’ and commanded the Saints ‘to tarry, even as mine apostles at Jerusalem .’ This refers to the Lord’s instruction to His ancient Apostles, soon after his resurrection, to wait in Jerusalem ‘until ye be endued with power from on high.’ This earlier endowment came in the form of a great spiritual outpouring on the day of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2. The Kirtland Saints experienced just such an outpouring at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on 27 March 1836, which helped give them the spiritual strength they needed to build the Lord’s kingdom. The endowment referred to in section 105 includes also the ordinances of washing and anointing. President joseph Fielding Smith wrote: ‘In January, 1836, over two months before the dedication, the first ceremonies of endowment were given in the temple. They were not as complete as are the ceremonies today, but nevertheless, it was the beginning of the revealing and bestowing of the heavenly blessings in this dispensation. Washings and anointings were given, and the Prophet saw wonderful visions of the celestial kingdom.’ The promise of endowment in these verses was also realized in the restoration of keys. President Joseph Fielding Smith noted that the Kirtland Temple ‘was built primarily for the restoration of keys and authority. In the receiving of these keys the fullness of gospel ordinances is revealed.’ These keys included those for performing additional priesthood ordinances that became available in the Nauvoo Temple.”

I’m still really sick so I’m just going to leave this here tonight.