D&C 138:1-10

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 of these, concerning the Savior’s visit to the spirits of the dead while His body was in the tomb, President Smith had received the previous day. It was written immediately following the close of the conference.”

138:1-6 - President Smith starts by setting the scene that he was ill for several months and spending a lot of time in his room resting but he says, “I have not lived alone these five months. I have dwelt in the spirit of prayer, of supplication, of faith and of determination; and I have had my communication with the Spirit of the Lord continually.” The peace and quiet and meditation with the Spirit is conducive to revelation and the IM relates a talk by Elder Harold B. Lee who told an account of a young man who died and whose parents were very distraught. A few days after the funeral her son appeared to her and gave her a message of peace. But the point is that the boy says “as soon as he realized that he was in another environment he tried to see his father, but he couldn’t reach him. His father was so busy with the duties of his office he could not respond to his call. Therefore, he had come to his mother.” The point of this account is that “it is a great thing to be responsive to the whisperings of the Spirit, and we know that when these whisperings come it is a gift and our privilege to have them. They come when we are realized and not under pressure of appointment.”

138:7-10 - Here are the verses from Peter that brought this revelation on:

                1 Peter 3:18-20: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

                1 Peter 4:6: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.”

This sets us up for what we will learn about this concept tomorrow.