Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Official Declaration 2 is a subject that is near and dear to my heart because my ex-husband is African American, thus making my kids half African American as well. I believe that any self-respecting man of color has to come to terms with the concept of the “priesthood ban” before they can fully accept the gospel. I’ve thought long and hard about this concept and I have a few theories of my own, I’m not sure that I’ll discuss them here, we’ll see. I really like the section heading found in the D&C because I feel that it’s the most comprehensive and the least confrontational. It says, “The Book of Mormon teaches that ‘all are alike unto God,’ including ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female.’ Throughout the history of the Church, people of every race and ethnicity in many countries have been baptized and have lived as faithful members of the Church. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, a few black male faithful members of the Church were ordained to the priesthood. Early in ...

Back to the concept of polygamy. It’s interesting to me that the idea surrounding polygamy is so widely opposed by men, and this is just the man-hating cynic in me, but I’m pretty confident that their antagonistic view of plural marriage is not held because of their love and devotion to the women in their lives. I think that I’ve said it before but I’ve always found it interesting that in our society and most others, having many girlfriends makes a man respected, but as soon as he tries to commit to and care for all these women, he’s a felon. It makes no sense. When I was younger, I was under the impression that polygamy was ended by the Church in order to become a state in the union. I remember giving a presentation on Mormon pioneers and someone asked me about polygamy and I said “yes, the Church practiced polygamy but then wanted to become a state so they stopped it.” Which is “kind” of true, but not really. That argument never really sat right with me because if the Lord willed...

138:10-31 - President Smith now begins talking about what he saw when "the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great. He notes that there is an obvious divide between the "spirits of the jsut, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality... I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand." They are waiting "the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world," they are waiting for the resurrection. While they are waiting "The Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful; and there he preached to them the everlasting godpel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of manking from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance." The Lord visited the righteous but he did not visit the wicked...

This section isn’t about what I thought that it was about, but it’s still exceptionally interesting and profitable. There is a lot of doctrine that is covered in this section and much of it is by implication. This section was provided by Joseph F. Smith, Hyrum’s boy and Joseph’s nephew. It’s given as a dictation to his son, Joseph Fielding Smith after this was given as an address in the general conference in October 1918. Then, “During April conference of 1976 it was accepted as scripture and approved for publication in the Pearl of Great Price. In June 1979 the First Presidency announced that it would become section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants.” The section heading for 138 says, “A vision given to President Joseph F. Smith in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 3, 1918. In his opening address at the 89 th Semiannual General Conference of the Church, on October 4, 1918, President Smith declared that he had received several divine communications during the previous months. One o...

137:5-10 - Sorry that it’s been a while, I want to say that I’ve been busy at work, and legitimately I have, but I feel like I could have made more of an effort, and I definitely can feel the loss of the Spirit when I take my scripture study so casually. Joseph Smith says that he “saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother.” This reminds me of the section that talked about JS’s father sitting with father Abraham. It’s also interesting because at the time this vision was given, JS’s parents were both still alive and his father was in the same room! He also saw his “brother Alvin, that has long since slept; And marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.” I think that this was contrary to the prevailing beliefs at the time, which, I believe, was that all who weren’t baptized go straight...

Section 137 is only 10 verses, and it’s not exactly on track as far as the time line goes. The IM gives a very long introduction quoting Joseph Smith as recording that “at early candle-light” on January 21, 1836, he met with “the Presidency” and with them blessed “Father Smith.” This is Joseph Smith’s father and “I then anointed his head with the consecrated oil, and sealed many blessings upon him.” Then the members of the presidency each performed a blessing for him, “all blessing him to be our Patriarch.” Then each member of the Presidency “took the seat in their turn… and received their anointing and blessing under the hands of Father Smith.” I love the blessing that Joseph Smith’s father gave him, and wonder at what a tender moment it must have been between the two men. “In my turn, my father anointed my head, and sealed upon me the blessings of Moses, to lead Israel in the latter days, even as Moses led him in days of old; also the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” This ...

I've been on vacation for the last week and it was amazing. I had many spiritual experiences and the Lord is so merciful to me. I've really struggled because all my friends and family are in Utah or they are moving there within a few months and I'm going to be the only one left here in my state and I've really struggled with the idea of being alone again. But the Lord has really walked me through the process of why I am where I am, and it's been comforting and honestly, empowering. I had a great time with my friends and family and had so much fun with my kids, but it's nice to be home, and that's a new-ish feeling for me. 136:28 - The Lord urges those who will be embarking on the trek "if thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving." I was listening to a book called "438 Days" about a guy who was lost at sea for 438 days and singing is mentioned twice. The first t...

Section 136 deals mostly with the “Organization of the camp of Zion,” which is the saints heading west to the Rocky Mountains. The IM gives some interesting info saying, “With the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the leadership of the Church fell on the Quorum of the Twelve. Brigham Young, as the senior Apostle, was President of the Quorum.” That’s how it is now, which makes more sense. What I thought was interesting is that even with the death of Joseph Smith the persecution only got worse, which indicates to me that the problem wasn’t Joseph Smith it was the work. It makes me think about that Baptist guy giving out free prayers in the mall and I stopped because I was having a really hard time and when he found out I was Mormon he flipped, “you aren’t Christian! You worship Joseph Smith!” I was like “wait, what? I haven’t thought about that dude in like 2 weeks, but I thought about Jesus 10 seconds ago.” This is another example of why this is Jesus is the founder of the work and...

135:4-5 - Verse 4 has a very significant concept saying, “When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said: ‘I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me- he was murdered in cold blood.’” Joseph Smith knew that he was going to die, he knew it long before hand, this statement proves it and I recently heard a quote from Porter Rockwell, JS’s bodyguard, saying something like “when Joseph left for Carthage he asked me not to go with him despite the danger, indicating that he and the Lord had other plans.” The Lord sometimes subtly prepares us for events that are coming, and I believe that he does this as a tender mercy when he can without infringing on our agency. I’ve had several times in my life where I was prepared for something b...

135:2 - It’s wild that John Taylor was shot 4 times and didn’t die, especially considering the primitive nature of medical during that time. John Taylor’s account of the critical moment is as follows: “As I reached the window, and was on the point of leaping out, I was struck by a ball from the door about midway of my thigh… I think some prominent nerve must have been severed or injured, for as soon as the ball struck me I… lost entirely and instantaneously all power of action or locomotion. I fell on to the window-sill, and cried out, ‘I am shot!’ Not possess any power to move, I felt myself falling outside of the window, but immediately I fell inside, for some, at that time, unknown cause.” Later he was taken to a hotel to recover and sent his wallet and watch to his family in Nauvoo with Willard Richards to keep them from being stolen. Upon examining the pocket watch, they were stunned to see it broken. When John Taylor inspected in later “It then occurred to me that a ball had ...

I feel like we’ve kind of come full circle because when we started in the D&C the Church hadn’t even been organized yet and we’ve gone through this journey of growth with the Saints and watched Joseph Smith as learned and grew spiritually as well, and now we get to the section that mourns his passing after he is murdered with his brother. I thought that all I would get out of this section was the perspective of how amazing Joseph Smith was, but there are many other aspects that we learn that are very interesting. The IM gives background saying, “On Tuesday, 25 June 1844, Joseph and Hyrum presented themselves to the authorities in Illinois to be arrested on a charge of treason. Governor Thomas Ford that morning assembled the state militia and told them that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were ‘dangerous men in the community, and guilty of all that they might have alleged against them, still they were in the hands of the law.’ John Taylor and Willard Richards, members of the Quorum of the...