Transcript for:
Early LDS Scripture and Church Development

all of this is about building Zion it's not just about getting people ready for the hereafter it's changing the right now i think that shows a loving God who's been very generous over the centuries trying to elevate humanity to the degree that he seeth fit but can you imitate the beauty of the truths that are given or create something that leads people to have hope in their lives and also lead better lives is this the ultimate challenge to know if Joseph Smith's a true prophet i'm glad that you asked this question hello Scott hello Casey we're getting into one of the more complicated sections of the Doctrine of Covenants because this is when they decide to make a Doctrine of Covenants correct exactly yes and maybe we can just say uh with a broad brushstroke that's the theme of this week's Come Follow Me is scripture scripture scripture with an emphasis on the Doctrine and Covenants right right we're doing section 67 68 69 and 70 and Casey don't these all have to do with scripture yeah and for you super scripture nerds out there you might want to take a note too that this is when section one which is the introduction to the Doctrine Covenants that we talked about a few months ago is received and section 133 which was intended to be an appendix to the Doctrine Covenants so really we we could be smooshing together five or six different revelations that are received over a very brief period of time in the fall of 1831 after all the adventures they've had going to Zion and everything now they're dealing with some serious church issues which is is it time for us to create a new book of scripture keep in mind it's been less than 2 years since they already did that the Book of Mormon was just published in 1830 and the translation was finished in 1829 so they're moving quickly here and it causes them to ask some questions that really every person of faith should ask at one point or another which is what is scripture and what do I treat as scripture and what do I esteem as scripture and how is it different than say general inspirational literature and if we're going to really get nerdy about this like what's the difference between scripture and canon we're going to talk about that today is it possible to forge a revelation and uh if so how could you detect one who can speak scripture what do we mean by that term and where does it come from and who has the authority to give scripture as well which is a pretty big deal and the answer in these revelations is actually kind of surprising to that question yeah and then there's some more practical questions that these sections answer like where are we supposed to print the scriptures and how do we pay to get the scriptures printed so section 69 and section 70 kind of deal with those practical downto-earth okay we've had a great idea which is let's create a new book of scripture how do we actually have that happen and there's advice given there on what they should do so lots of really interesting stuff relative to scripture and specifically the doctrine and covenants let's get into it [Music] it doesn't seem like it was always in the mind of Joseph Smith to print the revelations it doesn't seem like this was always his plan there seems to have been some historical events that happened when he returned home from Missouri that may have sparked the initiative here to print the revelations you want to walk us through the the context here yeah keep in mind up to this point most of the revelations are sort of being they're being recorded and they're being put down and some people are even coming up and making their own copies of the revelations hyram Smith did that with the revelation given to him but the idea of creating a new book of scripture in addition to the Book of Mormon you'll note all the revelations up to this point like section 42 that address scripture generally defined the canon of the church as the Bible and the Book of Mormon but now there's some circumstances that have arisen that have caused them to say "Well maybe for transparency sake uh we need to make these revelations more public to the world because word is starting to get out." Like like another thing I might note is if you go in the Joseph with Papers project they usually have the earliest copy of each revelation there and section 20 which is a huge revelation that that's really consequential um that's referred to as the Constitution of the Church the earliest copy was in a a newspaper that was hostile to the church and so other people were printing the revelations at this point it became natural for them to say "Well are we going to print the revelations or are we just going to let other people get them out there for us when they could be misinterpreting or even misprinting the revelations?" So their solution is they call together all the available church leaders to the John Johnson farm which is where Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon are staying uh during this fall and winter of 1831 and the big question that the conference was supposed to answer was should we publish the revelations that have already been received and many of the revelations were already circulating privately among the saints but public access to the revelations was a really pressing question and here's one reason you remember our old buddy Ezra Booth that we spent a couple sections talking about good old Ezra Booth yes good old Ezra who becomes disenchanted disillusioned on the road to Zion and then just becomes a full-blown apostate when he comes back ezra Booth publishes a series of letters in the Ohio Star claiming that certain commandments given to Joseph Smith were concealed from the world and Booth makes a number of outlandish claims about these revelations some of which are true and some of which are not true uh for instance he he included a charge that one of them had commanded that the church should build Joseph Smith an elegant house and give him $1,000 now there is a place uh where where the Lord does command them that's in section 41 to build a home for Joseph Smith but an elegant home and $1,000 are just outright lies to be honest with you and and by the way the the home that they do eventually build has been restored in Kirtland it's a historic site now if you go there you're going to see that it's not a McMansion I guess you'd say yeah it's not an opulent palace yeah it's a nice house i mean and it's a it's a great little historic site it's right by the temple but again some of what Ezra Booth is claiming is true some of what he's claiming is not true and Joseph Smith and others may have felt the need to publish the revelations in the interest of transparency and also to refute Booth's claims that they were abusing their authority so Sunlight is the best disinfectant and it seems like part of their argument was hey if why don't we just get the revelations out there then nobody can claim we're trying to cover anything up because they'll be able to pick up a copy of the revelations themselves conspiracy theories are always way more potent when the actual like proof is kind of hidden right when when it's like "No no he has these secret revelations and here's the real story of what's really happening." So yeah as soon as they publish the actual revelations and people can look at them themselves that that's going to disarm these types of uh arguments against the church it's a cycle that's being repeated again an hour a day a lot of people were claiming things about uh Joseph Smith's communications or copies of revelations or how they were edited and so starting 20 years ago the church started the Joseph Smith papers project which the aim is to put every available document linked to Joseph Smith on a publicly accessible website so that you can look at it and see for yourself how things are so this is an early version of the Joseph Smith papers i guess you'd say one of the benefits is this conference which is about whether or not they should publish the revelations provides an outpouring of revelations itself we already mentioned that section one was received as part of this which today serves as the preface of the doctrine of covenants and during the first three days of November four new revelations are received doctrine covenant 68 was received first which provided direction to four elders of the church and counsel and guidance to the members of the church in Independence Missouri doctrine Covenants 1 and 133 which as I mentioned now constitute the preface and what it's sometimes called the appendix of the doctrine of covenants that's section 133 they're received at the same time as well and several of the elders that are attending the conference were asked to provide their witness that the revelations were true so same pattern as the Book of Mormon we're going to have a series of witnesses the elders signed a document stating um quote "They were willing to bear testimony to all the world of mankind to every creature upon all the face of the earth upon the islands of the sea that God hath borne record to our souls through the Holy Ghost shed forth upon us that these commandments are given by inspiration of God and are profitable for all men and verily true." Now sometime during the conference Joseph Smith receives section 67 which also addresses some of the fears that the elders attending this conference had about the revelations and the Lord declared that the elders had expressed concerns over imperfections both in Joseph Smith and in some of the language used in Revelation so they they might be addressing language in 681 or 133 one of the revelations given just prior had actually addressed this question this is section one which explained that the revelation had been given this is the wording in section one to my servants in their weakness after the manner of their language that they might come to understanding and Joseph Smith in his own history uh notes that after this revelation section one was received some conversation was had concerning revelations and language and I received the following section 67 so this is another one of those the Lord doesn't mind answering people's questions uh kind of revelations where they're saying "Hey what about the language in some of these revelations?" And what if it's not perfect and I guess the the basic question they're asking here is what if you're just making this all up which is a legitimate question that people still ask about Joseph Smith uh to this day concerning all restoration scripture which is was this something that was received by inspiration or is this something that was received by the work of a a gifted person but not through the instrumentality of God yeah very logical and important questions let's keep in mind too that Joseph Smith is 25 years old at this time he's a young prophet some of the people in that room are older than him and we don't have that dynamic today you know in the church like church leaders typically are older than the majority of church members right there's I mean there's there's just uh there's a difference with age that that uh in some ways comes with that imagine the church being led by a 25year-old what kind of questions would you have about the revelations that come through him right is it possible that he's a making it up and if this is really coming from God then what about the language sometimes the language isn't as beautiful and maybe as you know uh divine sounding as you might expect if it's legit and so I think it's those kinds of questions given a 25-year-old prophet that are totally banging around in their heads and the Lord says "Let's talk about it." And it's also useful to place this in context where some of the big revelations in the Doctrine Covenants that I always put forward to say "Of course Joseph Smith a prophet haven't been received yet." You know today when someone points me towards words is Joseph Smith a prophet i usually say well the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Covenants they have the Book of Mormon and I think everybody there has faith in the Book of Mormon even a guy like William Mlen never loses his faith in the Book of Mormon but the Doctrine Covenants as we know it doesn't exist and they're really asking the question of does it need to we mentioned when we talked about section one that there were people at the conference like David Whitmer who felt like they shouldn't publish the revelations but it seems like his argument wasn't that he didn't believe he felt like the revelations were private communications to individuals which again I'd push back against him to say no they're not section 20 isn't to a private individual and neither is section 29 and neither is section 37 or section 42 or section 45 but I get where David's coming from there there's a couple intimate revelations that were given to David Whitmer you know to his point but uh to your point yeah there's plenty that are universally applicable to the church and were even given to apply to the whole church okay well let's see what the Lord says with these kinds of questions bouncing around in the minds of these good elders [Music] the Lord opens the revelation saying "Behold and hearken oh ye elders of my church who have established yourselves together whose prayers I have heard and whose hearts I know and whose desires have come up before me behold and lo mine eyes are upon you and the heavens and the earth are in mine hands and the riches of eternity are mine to give ye endeavored to believe that ye should receive the blessing which was offered unto you." I just got to pause right there and say we're not quite 100% sure what the Lord's talking about here uh we have maybe a guess or two so something was offered to them he says here "You tried to believe that you would receive that blessing." But he says "Verily I say unto you there were fears in your hearts and verily this is the reason that you did not receive." It sounds like the elders were promised that they could receive some type of divine manifestation maybe something like what the three witnesses received later on in this revelation uh the Lord's going to talk about what it takes to actually see God face to face so maybe it was something to that degree to that level uh we're not sure exactly what they were promised but it does seem to be on the level of a very clear divine manifestation yeah and that's understandable right the last time they produced a book of scripture three witnesses saw an angel and heard the voice of God and so they're producing a new book and they're going to have witnesses that's the pattern it might have been understandable that they're saying "Hey are we going to get to see an angel are we going to get to hear the voice of God are we going to get to see some kind of sacred object like the gold plates?" And the Lord seems to be leading them towards saying "Um probably not it this isn't going to be the blessing that you're expecting it to give." It seems like Joseph Smith may have said "Sure you can if you're faithful." And then they tried and then they failed right something along those lines we're not we're not sure the particulars but it seems like it's in that same spirit like you're saying of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon what about witnesses of the Doctrine and Covenants and the truthfulness of the Revelations they tried they failed the Lord said it was because of fear in your heart let's address some of those fears which the Lord does in the next two verses here he says I the Lord this is verse four give unto you a testimony of the truth of these commandments which are lying before you your eyes have been upon my servant Joseph Smith Jr and his language you have known and his imperfections you have known and you've sought in your heart's knowledge that you might express beyond his language this you also know so this is the Lord addressing man one of the biggest questions that just seems to come up again and again and again which is the imperfection and the humanity of prophets of the people that God chooses to lead his church and it manifests in us saying "Hey this we don't like the language Joseph Smith uses to sometimes I don't like the personality of uh the person that leads the church." There's a lot of that with Brigham Young and others too i don't like the policies that this person is putting out there or anything like that ezra Booth said Joseph Smith was too jovial he he joked around too much other little things like that yeah he's not the most articulate guy in the room actually right like Sydney Rigdon's more articulate uh Oliver Cowry is a better wordsmith WW Phelps is is much better with words uh and here's this 25-year-old prophet we know him lord if you're really speaking through him wouldn't you speak more eloquently yeah and it's it's also a phenomenon of our distance to these things like I remember Scott when I was a kid seeing the missionaries and thinking those guys have got it together like they've got it figured out and then I became one and I had no clue what I was doing about 90% of the time and was just trusting in the Lord to guide me and the same thing has happened you know with my elder school uh leadership and um a bishop you know when you become one of those guys you realize oh man you are frail and you are imperfect and I got to imagine that it's that way when you also have a close personal relationship with the prophet of the church too that you come to realize there's a lot of frailty there and there's a lot of humanity and that's okay the Lord works through imperfect people prophets apostles and all manners of leaders of the church are just good people doing the best that they can in fact I really like this um this quote from Jeffrey R holland he said "Be kind regarding human frailty your own as well as of those who serve with you in a church led by volunteer mortal men and women except in the case of his only perfect begotten son imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with that must be terribly frustrating to him but he deals with it and so should we." Yeah there is some imperfection there and yeah they do make mistakes and they're human but that doesn't mean they can't be instruments in God's hand yeah when evaluating the restoration itself or the Book of Mormon uh or anything that claims to be divine don't be surprised when you see some human in it you see that on the preface of the Book of Mormon right don't don't throw out the teachings in this book because you see weaknesses of men says like please like sift the divinity out from the humanity and and uh and savor that and that's happening here in fact verse 6 the Lord issues a challenge actually to these people who are seeing real weaknesses in Joseph Smith like they see his his frailties that's totally fine the Lord says "But here's the challenge." He said "Quote now seek ye out of the book of commandments." That's the original compilation of the revelations that later becomes the Doctrine of Covenants so seek ye out of the book of commandments even the least that is among them right pick out one revelation and appoint him that is the most wise among you or if there be any among you that shall make one like unto it then are ye justified in saying that you do not know that they are true but if you cannot make one like unto it ye are under condemnation if you do not bear record that they are true for you know that there's no unrighteousness in them and that which is righteous cometh down from above from the Father of lights so whoa the Lord just dropped it Casey he's like "All right no problem joseph is definitely flawed but can you do what he's doing that's going to be at least an evidence that there is something divine actually happening here with this 25-year-old prophet that you all see surprisingly someone does take the challenge where the Lord says "Appoint him that is most wise among you to attempt to duplicate one of the revelations." William Mlen our friend that was introduced last time i don't know if he's volunteered or if he steps forward this is the way Joseph Smith writes it and keep in mind this is from the prophet's 1838 history so this is after William Mlen has left the church and become quite an antagonist uh to the prophet but he writes this william E mlelen as the wisest in his own estimation having more learning than sense endeavored to write a commandment like unto one of the least of the lords but failed it was an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord the elders and all present that witnessed this vain attempt of a man to imitate the language of Jesus Christ renewed their faith in the fullness of the gospel and in the truth of the commandments and revelations which the Lord had given to the church through my instrumentality and the elders signified a willingness to bear testimony of their truth to all the world i wouldn't go too hard on Mlelen here um his his journals which we have from this time indicate he was very faithful but he was also I guess you would say the closest thing to a man of science among the people that are present in this conference everybody else kind of comes from ecclesiastical or legal background he's a school teacher and I I don't know if Joseph Smith's commentary on this indicates that Mlen volunteered it really makes it sound like Mlen volunteered because Joseph Smith says having more learning than sense is the way Joseph Smith describes him again a revelation given around the same time which is section 68 does say Mlullen is one of the faithful elders of the church and he's eventually going to become a member of the quorum of the 12 and even though he does eventually fall into major transgression which we talked about last time he he's also going to be one of those elders that bears witness of the testimony of the revelation so in the 1835 Doctrine in Covenants the witnesses are the twel apostles called in 1835 and William Mlullen is one of them and maybe it's ironic but his testimony is at the front of every copy of the Doctrine of Covenants uh that's produced that at least at this point in his life he couldn't produce a revelation like Joseph Smith could and he was willing to bear witness that the revelations were divinely inspired that's a really good point now the Lord concludes this section this little revelation with a promise hearkening back to their desire for something divine a divine manifestation listen to what the Lord says in verse 10 and again verily I say unto you this this group here that it is your privilege and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry that in as much as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears and humble yourselves before me for you are not sufficiently humble here's the promise he says "The veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am not with the carnal neither natural mind but with the spiritual for no man has seen God at any time in the flesh except quickened by the spirit of God." He explains this a little further neither can any natural man abide the presence of God neither after the carnal mind you're not able to abide the presence of God now he says "Neither the ministering of angels wherefore continue in patience until ye are perfected let not your minds turn back and when you are worthy in mine own due time ye shall see and know that which was conferred upon you by the hands of my servant Joseph Smith Jr amen wow so the Lord drops I I don't can we call this the ultimate promise a promise that you can if you prepare yourself properly actually see God and experience the ministering of angels you're not ready for that he tells them right now you got some things to work through jealousy fear humility you need to be patient as you continue to develop that but you you will if you continue faithful you will have that promise what a promise to drop on this group Casey especially considering some of their doubts some of their fears in their hearts uh what a tender way to end this revelation yeah and he also um gives a pretty good answer to a common misunderstanding that seems to be brought up all the time that is that it's impossible for a human to see God isn't that what First John says 1 John 4 doesn't it say "No man has seen God at any time." The Lord here clarifies "No man," this is verse 11 of section 67 "No man has seen God at any time in the flesh except quickened by the spirit of God." So there is a way he's just saying in the natural form we can't in fact that passage in the Gospel of John that gets brought up all the time Joseph Smith when he was translating the Bible actually altered to read "No man hath seen God at any time except he hath borne record of the Son for except it is through him no man can be saved and another New Testament passage that seems to suggest you can't see God this is 1 Timothy 6:16 which reads "He only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see to whom be honor and power everlasting." Joseph Smith also alters to read whom no man hath seen nor can he see unto whom no man can approach only he who hath the light and the hope of immortality dwelling in him then one last example you brought this up in first John the text which says no man has seen God at any time joseph changed to read no man has seen God at any time except them who believe it seems like the message of all these corrections is presented really clearly in section 67 which again just solves it by saying nobody can see God at any time except he's quickened by the spirit of God meaning our belief is that it is possible for a mortal person to survive in the presence of God if they're transfigured by the Holy Ghost if they're changed so that they can abide the presence of God and that God is more than capable of bringing about that change in the physical bodies of his servants provided they're sufficiently humble to demonstrate the necessary faith uh to see God and this is a great way to reconcile those passages that nobody can see God with other passages where it makes it sound like people did see God and God spoke to prophets like Moses and Isaiah in the Old Testament and the New Testament that's helpful but the fact that he's offering this to that group is amazing this is the ultimate invitation to mysticism right mysticism this belief that we can actually interact with God we can actually have real experiences with God this is the ultimate open door here in section 67 yeah to me it also signals that this group's questions weren't cynical they were sincere you know when someone comes up and says "Well how do I know Joseph Smith wasn't just making it all up?" There's a lot of cynicism behind that but if somebody asks in a genuine sincere way how do I know that a man can't just produce revelations like this i think the Lord's okay answering those questions i think he he's okay dealing with a sincere skeptic just not a cynic that's just trying to tear down faith and has already made up their mind anyway [Music] let's deal with a couple controversies here one is there is stuff out there that is not in the Latter Day Saint cannon of scripture but other people accept as canon or scripture are we to say that people can make stuff up if we don't believe these to be true for instance the Quran uh you were mentioning issues a similar challenge uh this is in Surah 23- 24 and Scott you teach world religions right so have you dealt with this question in your world religions class yeah I always have my students read the second surah of the Quran because it's the longest of all the chapters of the Quran uh so if you want to just read one chapter to kind of get a sense of the the voice and the tone and the the way of the Quran like just read read chapter two so yes uh we we deal with this uh and it's there are so many interesting parallels between Muhammad and Joseph Smith that are so fun and interesting to explore but this is one of them in light of what we just read in section 67 where the Lord challenges the wisest elder to reproduce one of the least of the revelations like that language is in my mind when I read chapter 2 of the Quran and the and and Allah God says this quote "And if you are in doubt about what we have revealed to our servant then produce a chapter like these and call your witnesses apart from God if you're truthful but if you do not and you will not then beware the fire prepared for the disbelievers." That is so similar right if you don't believe that I have revealed to my servant Muhammad then produce a chapter like one of these chapters in the Quran if you don't and you won't then beware of condemnation right that's the word that Dr covenants used uh condemnation here he he talks about beware of the fire prepared for the disbelievers but that's super interesting right one of the evidences that a lot of marvelous Muslims today will use to show that Muhammad was truly a prophet of God is to say that the Quran is inimitable that's what they say it's ineimitable meaning you can't imitate it that that people can't reproduce even a chapter of the Quran uh which is the very challenge the Lord is throwing out here uh about the doctrine of covenants uh with those who are doubting that Joseph Smith was a true prophet or that uh maybe he wasn't you know making some of this up and so what do we do with that what do we do with that Casey I mean let let's look at the challenge in context we've already quoted several people that described what it looked like when Joseph Smith received a revelation and that is that he would pray again this isn't uniform across the board there's different ways the Doctrine of Covenants was received but a revelation like section 67 uh seems to fit the parley Pratt description where he says Joseph Smith would pray and then dictate a sentence wait for it to be recorded longhand and then dictate another sentence wait for it to be recorded and so on and so forth and I don't know um and you're you're more familiar with the Quran than I am i'm going to have the humility to admit that but is that how Muhammad claimed the Quran was received i mean wasn't the Quran uh dictated to him by by Gabriel the angel Gabriel and then he dictated to people and it was in its in an oral form uh for several years even after Muhammad's death correct yep that's my understanding is that he dictated it what the angel had dictated to him in fact Quran means the recitations it's what he recited to him and then he recited it orally to his followers and then in its mostly final form it was uh brought together by his followers and produced into book form about 20 years after Muhammad's death so Muhammad won't have the same privilege that Joseph Smith will have of going through his revelations and editing and making it tighter and clarifying but we do get the Quran about like I said 20 years after Muhammad's death and the claim is that these are dictations directly from Allah i guess through Gabriel but uh to Muhammad the Quran has has really beautiful passages in it right and Muhammad recited these in people's presence uh correct but when they were received when they were composed no one was there and I'm not casting aspersions or doubt on Muhammad I'm just trying to explain the differences between the two faiths here so I don't know if it's exactly the same thing what do you think I don't know it's just uncannily similar which is is kind of fun so I guess is this the ultimate challenge to know if Joseph Smith's a true prophet uh I would say no uh this is right this is uh a one-off in a particular context with a particular group he says try it and and if you can do it then you're justified in saying you don't know for sure that the revelations are true right just because somebody could produce one is not evidence that Joseph's not a true prophet he is addressing these doubts right in the hearts of these elders and let me add are we averse to the idea that Muhammad could have been inspired of God i mean I remember reading Parley P pratt once who said Muhammad may have been raised up by God to remove the scourge of idolatry from the people and and he certainly did that there's no doubt in my mind no yeah i don't I don't think there's anything in our theology that would prevent us from accepting the idea that God actually spoke to Muhammad like for instance in in 1978 the first presidency gave this marvelous statement about how God's been working with religious leaders all throughout time and the very first person on their list that they list as inspired by God was Muhammad here's what they said quote "The great religious leaders of the world such as Muhammad Confucious and the reformers and they mentioned Socrates and Plato and others actually received a portion of God's light." They said moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and bring a higher level of understanding to individuals this idea that God works through people who are not Latter-day Saints and even inspires them with with actual revelations is actually backed up in our own books of scripture too like section 49:8 we talked about this a couple weeks ago uh the Lord told Joseph Smith that there are other holy men that ye know not of uh I'm not just working with you Joseph there are others and like the Book of Mormon in Elma 29:8 says this "For behold the Lord doth grant unto all nations of their own nation and tongue to teach his word in wisdom all that he sees fit that they should have." And that's the spirit of the 1978 declaration of the first presidency is God gave them whatever light and truth he saw fit that they should have so that he could elevate entire nation couple years ago two three years ago Elder Bednar and Elder Gong uh did a great little gathering where they invited some Muslim leaders uh in Utah down to BYU had a great forum and then around that same time they actually produced a pamphlet showing the similarities between Islam and Latter-day Saints and we have so much in common it's it's pretty striking the church has produced that you can find it in your gospel library uh app but I think the point that we're trying to make here is the controversy of this challenge could be construed to say that if somebody can produce uh what they claim to be a revelation and others can't reproduce it does that necessarily mean that they are a true prophet of God and I don't know that that's the challenge the Lord is throwing out here i think he's saying you're justified in your doubts if you could produce one but he's not saying this is the ultimate test of a prophet is that a fair distinction yeah i think it's probably best if we don't separate this challenge from its immediate context which was he was talking to the people there in that room and they accepted the challenge at least one of them did and they weren't able to do uh what the Lord had asked them to do well let me throw out another controversy that's related to this one what about the the breakoffs of the church after Joseph Smith's death there have been others the most prominent is the Community of Christ for instance right formerly the RLDS church now Community of Christ there's been breakoffs of that like the remnant church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the reason I bring them up is because they have produced revelations that have been added to the Doctrine and Covenants like the Community of Christ has 54 additional revelations in their doctrine and covenants that are not in our Doctrine of Covenants the remnant uh church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which broke off from the community of Christ received they have 17 additional revelations received by their prophet at the time named Fred Larson you knew Fred Larson didn't you Casey i knew him he was a dear friend of mine yeah so I guess the question is so what do we do with the community of Christ revelations and Fred Larson's revelations from the remnant church casey I'm glad that you asked this question because I know a lot of people from those churches i work closely with them some of them are my dear friends first of all we'd probably apply the Muhammad rule here right where we'd say "Hey we're not averse to the idea that God does speak to them." But there are also some things in those revelations that directly contradict some of the things that we've been told and it's okay for us to be friendly but firm second I don't know if um Community of Christ or the Remnant Church was claiming that these were received the same way section 67 was that that kind of spontaneous dictation all in one sitting down and even in our own doctrine of covenants there are sections of the Doctrine of Covenants like section 134 which we aren't claiming is that kind of revelation where it was received through a divine instrument or Joseph Smith just dictated it spontaneously section 134 is a great example of a a declaration where they clearly sat down and wrote this together and it it's it's canon we accept it because it represents the official teaching of the church and we believe that it was influenced by the Holy Ghost but that it didn't come through an overtly supernatural process in our conversations before this you mentioned that you asked Chat GPT uh to make a a Quran a verse of the Quran and you asked Chat GPT to create a revelation and you you're you're claiming it did chad GPT did a pretty good job uh creating a a Doctrine and Covenants sounding revelation uh although it was kind of just like stealing passages randomly from the Doctor so So I pushed it again i said "Hey don't use any phrases from the Doctrine and Covenants but do it in the style of the language of the Doctrine of Covenants." And then it did a good one uh it also did that with the Quran i'm not as familiar with the Quran so I couldn't recognize right away that it was just ripping off past like sentences from uh the Quran so but but yeah anyway I was I was just being playful like okay the Lord threw out this challenge nobody in that room could do it but I wonder if Chachi Pit could and uh it did a pretty good job we separate this from its immediate context at our own peril and sometimes we do we we put that out there when Yeah i I could probably reproduce something like section 15 i don't know if I could do it off the top of my head but give me a little time and an AI program and yeah I could probably make something that's fairly convincing the Lord was saying to these men at this point and in this time in that situation can you do this and they couldn't the other thing too is if we back up a little bit to that uh that beautiful phrase the Lord puts in here uh where he says "You know that there is no unrighteousness in them." This is verse 9 and that which is righteous cometh down from above from the father of lights the other question I would ask is okay can you can imitate scriptural language but can you imitate the beauty of the truths uh that are given or create something that leads people to have hope in their lives and also lead better lives we've gotten to the point to where the scriptures do tell us that deception will become more widespread and more convincing in the last days there is that test of did it come from God and can the Holy Spirit bear witness of its truth which isn't very scientific uh but is ultimately the most important test for me when it comes to understanding scripture that's the Lord's favorite test his go-to test you see it in the Book of Mormon a couple times is just stop and think about for a second is it good is it light does it edify then it's from me and by the way I I use that uh in my world religion course i challenge my students to as we study other religions uh knowing that with this first presidency uh statement that God had actually inspired lots of people outside of our church like let's look for it let's go look for it what's our test how do we tell let's use this as the litmus test is it good uh is it righteous does it edify will it build you up if you if you leaned into that and lived it a lot of times you can totally find that i think that shows a loving God who's been very generous over the centuries trying to elevate humanity to the degree that he seeth fit as the Book of Mormon says well let's go then to the consequences of section 67 [Music] the Lord shows that he's okay with hard questions and he also bolsters confidence in the revelations received through a 25-year-old prophet and sometimes we just don't appreciate that right that Joseph Smith is so young and the Lord also acknowledges Joseph Smith's weaknesses and limitations while at the same time underscoring the righteousness of the revelations that have come through joseph Smith I I believe says "I never said I was perfect but there's no imperfections in the revelations." And again he's talking imperfections in the conceptual sense there's spelling errors here and there and sometimes maybe the language isn't the absolute best there's a little bit of difference in a revelation received through Joseph Smith and a revelation received through Isaiah because they're different people but that's part of the purpose of the revelation and it seems like it does accomplish that they do go ahead with their decision to publish the Doctrine of Covenants which they call the book of commandments at that time let's move on to section 68 okay so section 68 Casey this this is a kind of a two-part revelation received by Joseph on November 1st uh in the midst of that conference uh you mentioned that this is likely received before section 67 uh or section 1 uh it's put in the doctrine of covenants a little out of order but it's in the ballpark and we should emphasize the Doctrine of Covenants is in roughly chronological order they did get it wrong every now and then um and so we don't know this probably did come before section 67 according to the best data we have so the two parts seem to be okay so part one seems to be directed to four elders who are there and they're mentioned in the revelation we'll get to them and then like abruptly like switches and we'll call that part two and this seems to be revelation more generally toward the church especially those over in in Missouri and so we'll just kind we'll kind of feel that break and I'm not sure what we know about the context of why Joseph's doing both of those things what can you tell us about that Casey this is at that same conference held on the 1st and 2nd of November 1831 10 elders are gathered together for a conference in Hyum Ohio at the John Johnson farm and the discussion is whether or not we should publish the revelations it seems like this is like you mentioned two revelations combined together into one section the first part verses 1-2 roughly are given to four of the elders at the conference orson Hyde uh Luke and Lyman Johnson who are the sons of John and Elsa Johnson whose home the conference is being held in and William Mlullen who's mentioned in the previous context of uh the revelation so it seems like these four approached Joseph Smith on the first day of the conference and what Joseph Smith states is they were desirous to know the mind of the Lord concerning themselves so Joseph said "I inquired and received section 68." That's the introduction he gives but like I said it's clear that it's two revelations verses 1-2 only addresses these four elders and then concludes in verse 12 with an amen which usually signals the end of a revelation then from verse 13 onward there's an abrupt shift in both the audience that's being addressed and the subject matter of the revelation for this reason it it's likely that this was two separate revelations later combined together but we don't have the original manuscripts either and our earliest versions always contain both parts as one revelation so we can't confirm this just a theory okay what seems clear is that the sudden shift in both audience and subject in verse 13 strongly indicates there was a a second backstory going on a separate set of questions that have been lost to us and using contextual clues as we look through the rest of section 68 we can maybe guess as to what the questions were they're trying to answer for instance verse 13 references items in addition to the covenants and commandments and then given the fact that section 20 was called the covenants and church articles and that our earliest manuscript here says laws and commandments referring to section 42 and given the fact that what follows in verses 14 to35 is a description of the calling of church bishops and an added law for parents in Zion and given the facts that a major purpose of section 42 was to outline the duties of a bishop and the laws regulating church members the major purpose of DNC20 was to outline the duty of church members it's probably reasonable to conclude that the major issue that this part of section 68 is addressing is the need to add some further regulatory instruction beyond sections 20 and section 42 based on the growing needs of the church especially uh in Zion meaning Independence Missouri so there's the there's the backstory a little bit uh as far as we know um now should we dive into the content of the revelation [Music] okay in the first part of this revelation responding to the four inquiring elders the Lord begins by addressing my servant Orson Hyde who had just been baptized and ordained an elder the previous month at age 26 the Lord explains that Orson was quote called by his ordination to proclaim the everlasting gospel by the spirit of the living God from people to people and from land to land in the congregations of the wicked in their synagogues synagogues uh that's not a term just referencing like Jewish places of worship this is just a generic place of worship and he says that Orson is to reason with and expound all scriptures unto people in their places of worship and behold and lo the Lord says "This is an insample," meaning a pattern or a model unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth specifically he then clarifies in verse three the pattern that these elders are to follow is quote that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost that's the pattern and here's the promise and whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture shall be the will of the Lord shall be the mind of the Lord shall be the word of the Lord shall be the voice of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation whoa okay so Casey here just in this theme of scripture and what is scripture and who can produce it and all that like what a stunning promise the Lord is outlining here to a couple of recent converts here the Lord is defining scripture as that which is spoken when moved upon by the Holy Ghost and in Joseph Smith's day like in our day the dictionary meaning of scripture is that which is written or sacred writings and it usually kind of carries the connotation of ancient texts but here the Lord is directly challenging that paradigm declaring that even the newest converts like Orson Hyde could be spirit-guided to speak fresh scripture representing the Lord's own will and mind and word let me add in here too that this isn't a wholly new concept i right the Book of Mormon uh kind of makes this point too in the Book of Mormon Alma adds that God imparts his word to this is his wording not only men but women also and this is not all little children do have words given unto them many times which confound the wise and learned that's Alma 32 23 and Nephi kind of teaches the same idea too that anyone who receives the Holy Ghost can this is Nephi's word speak with the tongue of angels by the power of the Holy Ghost which means they can speak the words of Christ that's in 2 Nephi 32 2-3 it seems like what the Lord is affirming here in these verses to these four young converts is this idea that anybody can receive scripture that that when a person speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost i know we're not to controversies yet but how do we reconcile those verses with what we just got done discussing in section 67 that if anyone here can imitate a passage of the Doctrine and Covenants then maybe you you can doubt that Joseph's uh a true prophet uh then there's the very next revelation here the Lord's saying anyone can receive scripture even the newest converts even children women how do we reconcile those together my feeling with this would be it seems like in section 67 he's using a term that seems to differentiate scripture which the definition he's giving of scripture and he's giving it is that if it's spoken by the power of the Holy Ghost it's scripture which he seems to indicate in section 67 by using a word like commandments now I might be going out on a limb here but I think commandments because they're talking about creating a new book of scripture is the word the Lord is using for canon which that that's another term we'd have to introduce to say we we don't think that everything spoken by the Holy Ghost is binding on every member of the church like if I say something really wise to one of my children and I say it by the power of the Holy Ghost that doesn't mean that it's binding on everybody else in the church but canon is canon is scripture utterances made by the gift of the Holy Ghost that we know for sure is scripture and that we've put into one of our authoritative books as a measuring rod in fact that's the word that's what the word canon uh means it's a Greek word that means a measuring rod so if somebody comes in and says "Hey the Lord spoke to me and he told me this we're going to do exactly what Joseph Smith did with Hyram Page which is say well let's measure this against the cannon let's see if this actually works." If we go all the way back to section 28 we'll note that Hyram Pages revelations Joseph Smith said contradicted the New Testament which is canon and the revelations he had already received which hadn't been canonized yet but he was already instinctively using the revelations and the scripture and the canon that we've been given as a measuring rod to say "Yeah it's right." I think this is really important so canon is that which is official that which is binding that which is uh used to measure the orthodoxy and orthopraxy if we can say that of the church right like what's official doctrine well it's in the canon which is distinct from scripture which can be anything anybody says when moved upon by the holy ghost it's inspired yes but it's not binding it's not used as a measuring rod of orthodoxy it's not used as a measuring rod of orthopraxy in the church uh it is scripture so for for instance maybe this is a good one patriarchal blessings would be an example of scripture that is definitely not canon they're a great example of that right where they are scripture to the person who the blessing is received on behalf of but they wouldn't be canon on behalf of the entire church now parts of patriarchal blessings have been placed in the canon like it seems like a patriarchal blessing that was given to Joseph Smith Senior becomes part of section 107 uh we draw that line between saying "Hey I said something that was inspired and came by the gift of the Holy Ghost which fits the Lord's definition in section 68 and Elma's and Nephi's definition but isn't used as a measuring rod for the entire church sometimes because it's just specific to me and sometimes because it's not as universally applicable as the stuff that we find in the cannon even though not everything in the canon is universally applicable we don't use the book of Leviticus a lot today but we know Leviticus was scripture at the time it was given so we keep it in as a measuring rod yeah i remember President Hubie Brown saying that we are only bound by the standard works in terms of like officialness um he says "But I have no doubt that members of our church and leaders of our church say inspired things all the time but we are only bound by that which is in the standard works." And so that's a really I think important distinction to think through here which we're doing midstride here this wasn't the controversy section but I couldn't help but Casey I couldn't help but just bring that up in light of what we just talked about in section 67 so thank you for indulging me in the next couple verses take a look at this he says "This is the promise of the Lord unto you oh ye my servants wherefore be of good cheer and do not fear for I the Lord am with you and will stand by you and you shall bear record of me even Jesus Christ that I am the son of the living God that I was that I am and that I am to come." This is the word of the Lord he says not only to Orson Luke Lyman and William but he mentions unto all the faithful elders of my church and I'd add in Elma saying the elders of the church and the women of the church and the children of the church i just think you put all that together and we don't want to limit this to just those four that the Lord is saying really anybody that speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost can utter scripture like I'd go so far as to say I feel comfortable applying that promise to someone who's not a member of the church but is speaking by the Holy Ghost which can happen yeah which we just got done talking about with the Lord being very generous to people all down through time uh in multiple nations not just Latter-day Saints so excellent and so to his servants the Lord continues here he says "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature acting in the authority which I have given you baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." And then he promises that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned and he that believeth shall be blessed with signs following even as it is written he also promises his servants that unto you it shall be given to know the signs of the times and the signs of the coming of the son of man and of as many as the father shall bear record he said to you shall be given power to seal them up unto eternal life uh this is a privilege that Joseph had just taught the previous week belong to those of the high priesthood in fact you see the same language in section one that his servants have the power to seal people up into eternal life which is another interesting point of departure if we wanted to like what did Joseph and this first group of saints understand sealing people to eternal life meant prior to the coming of Elijah in 1836 when he restores what we often refer to as the sealing power what did they understand this to mean and uh we could go down that path if we want as well but I think he is hinting at bigger things here the idea that a person can be sealed up to eternal life and it's found in other scriptures too it's just my understanding reflects the way it was revealed later on so I I'm not going to jump into their mind and say "Well what were they thinking at this point in time?" And if I were to venture a guess I would say seal in the sense of providing like a seal like a seal of approval a mark of authenticity that you've been given the power to tell people authentically that they're going to gain eternal life if they stay faithful but that's just me speculating and then notice at the end of verse 12 he says "Amen." So that marks the end of the Lord's response to these four men and then we get to part two and part two verses 13 to35 go on to address other issues in the church generally for instance and now verse 13 transitions concerning the items in addition to the covenants and commandments they are these again the covenants here probably refer to section 20 they refer to it as the um articles and covenants and commandments probably refers to doctrine covenants 42 the law of the church specifically and perhaps the various other revelations generally so definitely section 20 and section 42 but maybe the other commandments generally now he he announces a couple things uh for instance in the due time of the lord other bishops are to be set apart unto the church to minister even according to the first so this idea of a bishop of the church who's in charge of the temporal affairs who's taking care of making sure people are fed and clothed um was at this time only Bishop Partridge but he's saying there's going to be other bishops there there's going to need to be if the church continues to grow he also explains that these additional uh presiding bishops must be high priests who are worthy who are appointed by the first presidency of the Melzdc priesthood so bishops are appointed by the first presidency which again is an idea that is coming down the road in fact in the 1835 edition of this section Joseph Smith added what might be referred to as the literal descendants of Aaron exception clause to this rule which spans the end of verse 15 to verse 21 and boy is there a lot of discussion about what this means and we're going to try and sort through that can see a lot of uh 1835 fingerprints in this 1831 revelation like just the fact that he said that bishops must be high priests who are worthy who are appointed by the first presidency of the mazes priest it is anacronistic to 1831 there is no first presidency yet in 1831 and so uh in preparation to print these revelations in 1835 joseph is going to go through them and uh part of that is going to be updating some of this language based on subsequent revelations that he's received uh that now puts things in their proper order uh in the church and so yeah so you see first presidency here you also see this uh I like how you called it a literal descendants of Aaron exception clause that a bishop has to be a high priest right he goes on to say this he says "If they," meaning a bishop "Be literal descendants of Aaron they have a legal right to the bishop Rick specifically if they are the firstborn among the sons of Aaron because the firstborn holds the right of the presidency over this priesthood and the keys or authority of the same and no one else has a legal right to this office but since a high priest of the MKZDIC priesthood has authority to officiate in all lesser ordinances he may officiate in the office of bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found yet even if a man he says is a literal descendant of Aaron he can only officiate in that office if he's ordained under the hands of the first presidency to do so now again this a lot of this seems to be put in in 1835 um right before publication and what brought this about what prompted this descendants of Aaron exception clause uh we don't know for sure uh as far as we know there have been no firstborn literal descendants of Aaron to fill the office of bishop or presiding bishop in the church but but what what seems to be my my theory Casey if I can share my theory the Lord is saying bishops need to be high priests in order to be bishops which compensates for the fact that there are no literal descendants of Aaron in other words he's saying like sure if we had literal descendants of Aaron here they would be the rightful people to to occupy this office but since we don't that's why we ordained people to be a high priest to then preside over the ironic priesthood that that could have created a question in people's mind right like why why do they have to be a high priest in order to preside over a lower priesthood and the Lord is saying well yeah in an ideal world we'd have descendants of Aaron do this but we don't have any so that's why we ordain high priests first before he become a bishop i think that's all he's saying i don't think he's trying to put out like these mystical threads like one day there will be descendants of Aaron who rise up and claim the bishop Rick or anything like that i think he's just explaining why we ordain bishops high priests first before they become bishops i think that's it yeah and it's a practical thing in the church that sometimes members don't always grasp that when a person is ordained a bishop they are also ordained the presiding high priest you could see the chaos that would happen if there was a person who was in charge of the ironic priesthood and another person who was the presiding high priest in fact I'm told in some wards in early Utah they did do that sometimes they had a bishop and a presiding high priest but the instructions here seem clear that it's best to have that power invested in one person and my my heart goes out to the bishops out there who manage both the the high priest needs of the word the spiritual needs of the word and the bishop needs of the words which consists of things like working with youth and temporal affairs and it's just it's a lot of work it's very rewarding but it's a lot to do the other thing we might address here is you know I used to have this mistaken conception that a person that was a literal descendant of Aaron could come in and just like walk in and be like "Sit down everybody i am the bishop." We should clarify that this is only speaking of the office of presiding bishop in the church and the Lord also says he can only officiate in this office meaning a person who is a literal descendant of Aaron and can prove they're a literal descendant of Aaron if they're ordained under the hands of the first presidency to do so so it's not like a literal descendant of Aaron can walk in and just take over your ward he he'd have to be identified as a literal descendant of Aaron by the first presidency and ordained by the first presidency to do what he's doing so this isn't a we found the the lost son of Aaron kind of situation it wouldn't work that way it would work in an ordered way the way the church works today which is interesting because every bishop today is authorized by the first presidency which is cool like stake presidents recommend but the first presidency still uh is the one that authorizes every bishop in the church okay okay well continuing then uh verses 22- 24 just briefly explained that only the first presidency could take a disciplinary action against the presiding bishop should that need arise uh verses 25 through 30 then transition to the topic of the duty of parents toward their children in Zion or in any of her stakes which are organized so so let's start walking through what the Lord says to parents i think this is probably the most relevant uh material in section 68 still today so the Lord begins here by warning that parents who don't teach their children to quote understand the doctrine of repentance faith in Christ the son of the living God and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands what the Lord has previously referred to collectively as the fullness of my gospel or my everlasting covenant if you don't explain that to your kids you don't help them understand it that's the operative word help them understand it don't just explain it but help them understand it if you don't have that done by the time they are 8 years old the Lord says "The sin be upon the heads of the parents and this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion or in any of her stakes which are organized." Okay at first that seems like super heavy and can make all parents who are already stressed to the max about will their kids turn out okay even more stressed but I think the logic uh behind this uh this law of parenting seems to be basically this by teaching your children to understand this core doctrine parents are giving their sons and daughters the optimal opportunity to choose to become the children of Christ heirs in his kingdom through the everlasting covenant right and and if you fail to teach your kids to understand that doctrine then you're basically impairing your children's ability to choose Christ and his kingdom and for that impairment if you know better as a parent and you don't teach for that impairment parents will be held accountable so that's the curriculum can we call it that that's the curriculum the Lord has given parents of all the things that you teach them and you're going to teach them a thousand things uh every parent knows that you're you're trying to teach your kids everything to prepare them for life but the one thing you must not fail to teach uh is the doctrine of Christ the everlasting covenant make sure they at least know those core four faith repentance baptism Holy Ghost just those four and if you do that then the sins of your children belong on their own heads not yours uh which is pretty relieving to me as a parent i'll just say that now of course teaching children to understand the doctrine of the fullness of the gospel will in no way guarantee that they're going to choose to receive it but it will guarantee that they have a choice to receive it uh that's super important parents are never ever commanded by the Lord to force gospel compliance upon their children uh but they are commanded right here to enable your children to choose Christ by teaching them the way to do that by teaching them to understand the fundamental doctrine uh of verse 25 so I think that's a a pretty important uh distinction to make here and he does bring into account an important law that's followed in the church too he says this uh after they've been taught that their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when 8 years old and receive the laying on of hands this is the only verse uh in scripture that mentions 8 years old as the earliest age for baptism previous revelations that authorized baptism for those who had arrived at the age of accountability but hadn't really delineated exactly what that age was but in the Bible translation that Joseph Smith is working on he gets to Genesis 17 earlier in that year and that's where Joseph learns that uh according to JSD Genesis 17:1 children are not accountable before me until they are 8 years old and now here for the first time these two ideas are kind of directly joined together and the Lord goes on to say "Parents shall also teach their children to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord and both parents and children shall observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy and those who are appointed to labor should do so in all faithfulness for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord." So it's almost like those verses are are explaining what it looks like to have faith in Christ right like what does it look like to be faithful in Christ well you pray you walk uprightly before the Lord you observe the Sabbath day uh you do everything in faithfulness like it's a covenant relationship with Jesus and this is how you this is how you do it so it's kind of that modeling of disciplehip and I do really appreciate what you said about the idea that we do this so that if we don't do this we're accountable for their sins but it seems like the Lord is also teaching in a gentle way acknowledgement of agency as well that you could be the best parent on earth and uh and and be amazing in every way but your child is a being that has agency and they may choose uh to not follow that in fact let me share this this uh quote from President Nelson um I really love uh he said this when our youngest daughter was about four years of age I came home from hospital duties quite late one evening i found my dear wife to be very weary so I offered to get our four-year-old ready for bed i began to give orders take off your clothes hang them up put on your pajamas brush your teeth say your prayers and so on commanding in a matter befitting a tough sergeant in the army suddenly she cocked her head to one side looked at me with a wisful eye and said "Daddy do you own me?" And then he adds "She taught me an important lesson we don't own our children our parental privilege is to love them to lead them and to let them go and that can be really tough too like there's all kinds of times when I you know look at my kids and say "Have I done enough?" Section 68 is saying "Your job is to teach them the gospel." That way you're not accountable for their sins but there seems to be an implication they're saying at that point they become accountable for their actions and they have to take accountability for their choices what they what they decide to do with their life and their agency now it seems like the reason that the Lord is mentioning uh each of these items about parenting here uh he now discloses in verse 31 he says it's because quote "I the Lord am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion," meaning the church members in Missouri "for there are idlers among them and their children are also growing up in wickedness they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity but their eyes are full of greediness these things ought not to be he says and must be done away from among them wherefore he says let my servant Oliver Cry carry these sayings unto the land of Zion meaning that Oliver is to personally deliver the Lord's words here of section 68 to Missouri church members and then the Lord adds a final cautionary commandment to those in Missouri saying that he that observeth not his prayers before the Lord in the season thereof is to be had in remembrance before the judge of my people Edward Partridge so here the Lord is explicitly kind of calling them out isn't he that uh that I I'm not pleased with how things are going in your private devotion to me in Missouri and it's having an effect on your children and your children are being uh influenced by the world too much their eyes are full of greediness and they're seeking the Lord too little and so uh here are the core things right so that seems to be what stimulated this particular set of passages about parenting uh in Zion he says "These sayings are true and faithful and testifies wherefore transgress them not neither take them there from behold I am alpha and omega and I come quickly amen." It's a common theme that he does reprove several places in the Doctrine of Covenants the one that comes to mind is section 93 after this where he actually reproves the first presidency and basically tells them "Hey don't get so caught up in your church job that you forget that your first and most important job is to be a parent." In fact parenting is a church job maybe I shouldn't make that distinguishment between the two i think that's a good distinction actually because sometimes we can put our calling in the church above our eternal calling to our children right to to love them to lead them and prepare them to go to let them go like if you're gung-ho in your church calling and you neglect your children uh that seems to be uh what sparked President David McKay's famous comment that no success outside the walls of your home can compensate for failure inside the walls of your home i'm paraphrasing but that's first like your family is first kind of reminds me of uh something President Hinckley once said to a group of church leaders in one of those worldwide leadership training meetings i'll paraphrase but he said "Your priorities should go something like this." Church leaders bishops state presidents relief society like all you who have really kind of weighty callings god is number one your family your marriage your children is number two and then your church calling is number three he said um which which is super valuable like you're saying uh section 93 the Lord says to church leaders like "Hey don't neglect your kids." That is an eternal uh responsibility so uh make sure you you take that one seriously so that same tone is coming across here for people like you and me Scott who teach the gospel for a living which isn't our church calling i want to be absolutely crystal clear there still is this temptation to say "Well my students need me." I have to remind myself that I work with my students for 3 to four months um at the most and I work with my children for eternity and that there might be several hundred students that I've been asked to help but those three or four that I've been asked to be a father to do have to take priority they're higher on the scale of things God has given me to take care of [Music] okay so one controversy we've already talked about is the difference between scripture and canon are we really to believe from section 68 that anybody in the church can speak scripture not just prophets and apostles because I I often I often hear people invoke section 68 those first few verses about the mind of the Lord the will of the Lord all that but only talking about prophets and apostles and yet the context is clear he's not talking about just prophets and apostles like are are we committed to this are we are we serious that anybody can speak scripture if the Holy Ghost moves upon them i wish we would be a little bit more serious about this i think if we take section 68 seriously and I do we've got to accept that scripture has a much broader definition uh than most the time we assume it does that a patriarchal blessing can be scripture or an inspired uh talk given in sacrament meeting or something that you said by the power of the spirit in a one-on-one conversation is scripture and that scripture has been some of the most impactful in my life you know one-on-one conversation where my mom or my dad spoke to me by the power of the Holy Ghost or I spoke in a private setting by the power of the Holy Ghost can be hugely impactful but we need to be cautious with is when we start to take those things that are said in unauthoritative settings and start to apply them to the wider church so if I get a revelation or say something that's inspired and I start to use it in a way that supersedes the canon of scripture that the four standard works say this but I've been told this that's when we start to get into trouble and that's why there needs to exist a healthy tension between scripture and canon that we got to be really familiar with those two ideas or we can go off the reservation because obviously not everything that people claim is scripture actually is and sometimes people become so bound up in the cannon that they won't do anything unless it's actually in the cannon so we've got to develop a greater utility we got to know what's in the canon and know it really well so we can detect false scripture when it comes around but we've also got to be open and flexible to this idea that God speaks to us in a number of ways from a number of different people and sometimes something said by your spouse or someone you work with in a calling or even a child can be direction that comes from the Lord if it's given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and it doesn't contradict the cannon that we already have yeah no I I agree Casey i think that's super important that distinction and the tension between scripture and canon we are bound institutionally by the canon but we have to be wise enough to follow true scripture when it comes our way so Scott let's move on to the consequences of uh section 68 so I guess we could summarize the key contributions here as being I guess first uh it expands the meaning of the term scripture uh it broadens our understanding of who can speak it which is anyone speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost uh second it also forecasts an an imminent organizational expansion in the number of presiding bishops and provides further details about who can serve in that position and their accountability to the first presidency uh that seems a little administrative but that's going to be a crucial structure piece that's going to impact all of our lives uh in the church third it added an additional law uh this was not in section 42 and it was not in section 20 uh here's a law to parents in the church both in Zion Missouri and in the stakes thereof he says to teach their children to understand the doctrine of the fullness of the gospel to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord like that's go ahead and append that right to section 42 and section 20 as like the marching orders for members of the church and then fourth it contains a rebuke to church members in Missouri specifically regarding their idleness their wickedness their greed together with a stern commandment for them to regularly pray before the Lord which is a stunningly simple prescription by the way for that diagnosis right for the Lord to say "You got all these problems it's time to take your prayer life more seriously." That's how the section ends and uh the relevance for that for all of us is is pretty pretty powerful so so that's the story of uh Doctrine of Covenant 68 casey let's move on to section 69 then [Music] section 69 is continuing this um string of sections about the publication the creation of a new book of scripture which they're going to call the book of commandments which will eventually become the Doctrine of Covenants so would you say like the big question of this revelation is like how do we get the revelation manuscripts that are here on this table in Hyram Ohio to print which the printing press is all the way like almost 1,000 miles away in Missouri like isn't that like the big the big issue here yeah this is practical right we've got the revelations now what do you want us to do with them so here's the context section 69 gives them directions about what to do after the November 1831 conference and basically it's assigning John Whitmer to travel to Missouri with Oliver Cowry who was also commanded earlier that's in section 68 to take care of or arrange for the printing of the revelations now remember uh William W phelps is already setting up a printing office in Independence Missouri and church leaders plan to print and produce the firstbound copies of Joseph Smith's Revelations there and so John Whitmer is being assigned to travel with Oliver Cowry as part of his assignment as church historian so they're really all in on Missouri at this point meaning oh that's eventually going to be the headquarters of the church that's where our printing establishment should be and so they're going to take the revelations there these manuscript revelation books which are so precious to us today are taken all the way to Missouri so that they can start to arrange them to publicly print them and create this new book of scripture so how do we get these revelations which we have decided to print from Hyram Ohio to almost a thousand miles away uh in Missouri to Phelps's printing press uh we're going to need Oliver Cowry to take these and now this section is giving John Whitmer the command to accompany him which is actually a pretty big shout out to John Whitmer's trustworthiness here so let's dive into the content and see what the Lord says verse one begins like this hearken unto me sayeth the Lord your God for my servant Oliver Cowry's sake it's not wisdom in me that he should be entrusted with the commandments and the monies which he shall carry unto the land of Zion except one go with him who will be true and faithful uh I don't think the Lord is saying here that Oliver Calry is not trustworthy this is obviously a a high position of trust to carry the revelations and the donated money of the church that's been raised to to go and help uh purchase lands in Zion like that's a high position of trust i think the Lord is saying he needs a backup like he needs somebody there to accompany him carrying such precious cargo and that's when verse two appoints my servant John Whitmer to go with him and verse three the Lord says "As you go he," meaning John Whitmer shall continue in writing and making a history of all the important things which he shall observe and know concerning my church and he shall also receive counsel and assistance from my servant Oliver Cowry and others and also my servants who are abroad in the earth should send forth the accounts of their stewardships to the land of Zion so John Whitmer who we mentioned uh was called as church historian back in section 47 is now having his role further clarified here so as he goes to Missouri with Oliver Cry he is continued to do historical stuff right he has continued to to write the history make observations but now the Lord also calls for his servants who are out serving missions to send accounts of their stewardships back to Zion for John Whitmer to compile and uh and keep a record of that's going to be a huge contribution and we we still have these in church archives like the archives of those who heeded this commandment and sent a record of their ministry and their journals which is a rich resource that the Lord says is going to be a benefit to future generations in verse 8 we'll get to that verse in just a minute but let's keep going here in the next couple verses this recording happens to take place while I'm doing a brief stint where I'm working a few days a week at the church history library which is a literal fulfillment of this revelation it's it's really impressive that with a few keystrokes there you can call up a record from almost any organization in the church i'm working with the records from a branch in New York uh right now it just kind of emphasizes that yes the scriptures are priority but all of these documents everything done by the servants of the Lord around the earth that the historical enterprise of the church includes everyone who participates even the history of a small organization like a branch or a ward that might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things is a valuable part of the larger story and then Lord ties it together but uh verse six the land of Zion shall be a seed and a place to receive and do all these things nevertheless let my servant John Whitmer travel many times from place to place and from church to church that he may more easily obtain knowledge preaching and expounding writing copying selecting and obtaining all things which shall be for the good of the church and for the rising generations that shall grow up in the land of Zion to possess it from generation to generation forever and ever amen so we're witnessing the literal fulfillment of this and that if you go on the church history library site you can actually see more and more of this work of the historian of the church who leads a team of historians today that go around and interview people and collect their experiences collect documents collect artifacts to help us tell the story and that all of this is intended to be kind of collected at the seat of Zion which at this time is Independence Missouri today is Salt Lake City Utah this idea that the historical work of the church is really important to that there's going to be a record uh kept by the leaders of the church again in commanding the revelations to be printed in Missouri though it does seem to indicate that the Lord is emphasizing the importance of Zion and its development of the church in the latter days that the land of Zion is a big deal to him and the idea of a central place where all these sacred records are kept is intrinsic in the revelations given at this point yeah and I love in verse 8 that he says that the purpose for doing this which can sometimes be kind of tedious is quote for the good of the church and for the rising generations that shall grow up on the land of Zion history matters for future generations right like collecting historical documents records of ministries that kind of stuff like sometimes it can seem kind of mundane but future generations man like a lot of what we're able to talk about on this podcast Casey is because people kept records praise John Whitmer praise all those who helped in this enterprise uh that gives us a lot of rich material to draw from now in this generation right drawing on previous generations in order to bless and benefit the church today and so literally we like we see that uh right here on this podcast we see it all the time in the church anytime a story is told from our past uh it's because somebody wrote that story down and uh oftenimes those are seriously beneficial to our faith uh and to the effectiveness of our own uh ministries uh there's just a lot of power and a lot of good that comes from obedience to this rather mundane commandment if I can say it that way yeah well said by the way I I heard that if you would like to submit your mission journal to the church history library they would gladly take it in the spirit of section 69 like you can actually submit the record of your ministry so uh if anyone out there is interested in doing so um this this is still uh I think verse 5 still stands right that uh those who had served and my servants who are abroad in the earth should send forth the accounts of their stewardships to the land of Zion so uh I believe that's still true uh Casey have you heard anything different yeah um now don't everybody submit your journals all at once at the same time keep keep in mind those records um are important to your family too but as someone that's that's worked with the historians at the church history library I would also say that that one of the things that they particularly need is um records from women we need more records from women and more from international church members so if you served a mission um in a place that that is a little far off that's that's far away from the headquarters of the church uh you might want to think about submitting that too me and my uh teaching assistants here at BYU just finished writing a history of the church in the Solomon Islands which the church is really new there and I didn't think there would be anything in the church history library when we searched it for sources on the Solomon Islands but yeah church historians have been there it's a really remote corner of the earth they went there they interviewed people we used those interviews in our history and we conducted interviews too that we hope you know we can pass on to continue to compile this incredible story of God's church in the latter days [Music] so Case I'd say there's really no big controversies with section 69 do you agree yeah nothing too controversial here uh maybe you're feeling guilt over your journal or something like that but outside of that no major controversies so let's move on to the consequences should we so John does go to Missouri he actually writes in his own history about this time it was in contemplation for Oliver Calvary to go to Zion and carry with him the revelations and commandments and I also received a revelation that's section 69 to go with him we left Ohio on the 20th of November 1831 and arrived in Zion Missouri January 5th 1832 when we arrived in Zion we found the saints in as good a situation as we could reasonably expect however everything's going well in Zion according to John but he does also record in his history and this is after the fact that there's starting to be a shadow uh growing over Zion in Missouri john notes in his history that a few weeks after their arrival in independence he says the enemies held a council in independence Jackson County Missouri how they might destroy the saints but did not succeed at this time so he does hint that something a little bit darker is going on and although the Lord accepts Zion as the center place he does command John to travel from place to place and gives these implicit instructions that the story of the church isn't just the story of the people at headquarters it's the story of the church all around the world and we need to keep in mind today that that doesn't just include places in the United States and Canada places like Dubai Shanghai Kiraabus India all these places are important in the history of the church i have a friend Tonalin Ford who likes to say that it's always 1830 somewhere in the church and one thing that we sometimes uh tear our hair out over is we don't have a lot of information from the early days of the church because we didn't have a guy like John Whitmer uh doing the job so hopefully if you're in a place where it's 18:30 right now or whatever year figuratively it is you're keeping a record because that story is going to be important in time and eternity [Music] section 70 Casey last but not least uh this revelation is received back in Kirtland so the previous 67 68 69 that's all up in Hyram Ohio about 30 mi outside of Kirtland but now we go to Kirtland what happens here what's the context of section 70 once the Saints decided to publish the Revelations another conference is held on November 12th at the John Johnson home to kind of figure out the details of how they're going to go ahead with publishing the revelations uh we have minutes from this conference and they show that the elders present uh this is what the minutes say quote voted that Joseph Smith Jr be appointed to dedicate and consecrate these brethren and the sacred writings and all they have entrusted to their care to the Lord done accordingly the minutes also note that the members present declared the revelations to be here's the wording the foundation of the church and the salvation of the world and the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom and the riches of eternity to the church and also declared that the revelations were quote prized by this conference to be worth to the church the riches of the whole earth speaking temporally so again you still see these phrases in the introduction to the Doctrine of Covenants that they pull from these minutes about how essential they feel these revelations are going to be to the work of God moving forward and Joseph Smith while he's writing his own history several years later he reflected on in his words the great benefits to the world which resulted from the Book of Mormon and the revelations which the Lord has seen fit in his infinite wisdom to grant unto us for our salvation and for the salvation of all that will believe joseph Smith also adds in his history that this particular revelation section 70 came in answer to an inquiry a question but he doesn't record what the question was specifically we just know that in the revelation to facilitate the publication of the revelations the lord directed the elders present to form another adaptation of those earlier principles of consecration so this is another one showing that consecration is a little bit more fluid this small group of people uh were going to sacrifice they were going to pull their resources so that the revelations could be published and this group becomes known as the literary firm and the literary firm plays a key role not only in the printing of Joseph's revelations but also in the publications of Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible uh the first himnil uh church almanac uh children's literature and various church newspapers so in creating that record um this group is going to play a big role so this is a a significant revelation because it gets us a lot of the material that we're using today to explore the early history of the church so the revelation begins like this behold and hearken oh ye inhabitants of Zion and all ye people of my church who are a far off and hear the word of the Lord which I give unto my servant Joseph Smith Jr and then he adds a couple others and also my servant Martin Harris and also my servant Oliver Cowry and also my servant John Whitmer and also my servant Sydney Rigdon and also unto my servant William W phelps by way of commandment unto them this is as you mentioned Casey this is going to be the who's who of the literary firm and so what the Lord's going to do here is delineate stewardships where he's going to give some of them stewardships over receiving the revelations uh others overcribing the revelations editing the revelations preparing the revelations printing the revelations financing the publication of the revelations selling the revelations and so that's what this uh section is about sometimes you can get kind of lost in the weeds of this revelation and so it's really crucial to just know what the Lord is doing here uh in order to kind of keep our bearings as we read through this so uh so the Lord is talking specifically to these men for this purpose like in verse three he says "I the Lord have appointed them this group and ordained them to be stewards over the revelations and commandments which I have given unto them and which I shall hereafter give unto them and account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment." He's being serious here like how you handle the revelations in this project to get the revelations out to everybody uh I want you to take very seriously uh because I'm going to hold you accountable at judgment day for this wherefore I've appointed unto them and this is their business in the church of God to manage them and the concerns thereof yay and the benefits thereof so most of the men involved here uh are those who were have been with Joseph Smith from the beginning right though Sydney Rigdon and WW Phelps are going to be newer to the work but uh it's clear that they're all part of the the endeavor here so Joseph Smith anxious to recognize those involved in this work uh declared during the November 12th conference he said quote "Brother Oliver has labored with me from the beginning in writing brother Martin Harris has labored with me from the beginning and brothers John and Sydney also for a considerable time and as these sacred writings are now going to the church for their benefit that we may have claim on the church for recompense if this conference think these things worth prizing to be had on record to show hereafter I feel that it will be according to the mind of the spirit for by it these things were put into my heart which I know to be the spirit of truth so that's interesting right so in in elevating these particular members of the literary firm Joseph also said that they are worthy of compensation for their efforts and this revelation is going to continue to talk about that right this is kind of a work that people get paid for we're talking about preparing manuscripts and printing and selling them like and so this is going to be a lot of work that's going to take them away from their you know normal day jobs if they had them the Lord in this section is going to give permission for compensation this is where that fine line between church member and church employee kind of comes into play where we still deal with the same tension today where you know sometimes as someone that works for the church I ask him you know am I a hired gun am I a am I practicing priestcraft here and the Lord seems to be saying well no this is an important job that they need to work on full-time so they're entitled to compensation because I need them to focus on this and I I recognize my my job as church employee doesn't imbue me with ecclesiastical authority uh but it does give me employment uh to do the things that I need to do today we have our our literary firm would be uh like Desireette Book and uh the distribution center that actually publishes the scriptures is it okay for those who work at Desireette Book and and the church distribution center to get paid for their efforts for those who actually do the publishing the printing the selling uh nobody listening to this would bat an eye at that right uh but but because these are the early church leaders and this is where the Lord is saying some of them can be compensated for their work like this causes some people pause and uh what we'd like to say is it doesn't need to like this is this is the beginning of church employees i think that's that's the best way to say it like you said and all this isn't happening separate from the law of consecration he's adjusting the law of consecration for instance take a look in verse 7 where he directly does this in as much as they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their wants it shall be given into my storehouse and the benefit shall be consecrated unto the inhabitants of Zion and unto their generations in as much as they become heirs according to the laws of the kingdom so nobody's going to become fabulously rich even if the revelations become like a runaway bestseller the intent isn't for any of these u men called to serve in the literary firm to be the richest guy on the block and I would still say that's part of being a church employee too is uh when I was training as a seminary teacher uh one of the people that trained me said "You're not going to be the richest person on the block." We don't want the seminary teacher to be the richest person on the block but we're going to take care of you also and then tying it back verse 9 this is what the Lord requires of every man in his stewardship even as I the Lord have appointed or shall hereafter appoint unto any man so again he's emphasizing consecration and behold there are none exempt unto this law who belong to the church of the living God and undoubtedly what he's referring to here is the law of consecration section 42:es 30-42 i think one of the most valuable things about this revelation is that it demonstrates that although the principles of the law of consecration are eternal the implementation of the law is adaptable according to their circumstances so we shouldn't expect section 42 to be the end- all get all because as early as this revelation section 70 the Lord's already making adjustments and saying "Okay let's figure out a group of people we can put together and get the scriptures printed." They're still going to live under the law of consecration but I'm going to give them a different set of expectations to follow they're a smaller consecrated group that's going to oversee the publication of the scriptures and other church projects but he also mentions that this is an expectation he has for everybody everybody is expected to enter into the law of consecration and um well it was an expectation that everybody would move to Missouri which he's going to emphasize in revelation just two sections later to build Zion the elders who are put into this literary firm are following a form of consecration even if it's a little bit different from what's in section 42 but I think the principles that okay once your family is taken care of what can you do with your surplus to bless and help others particularly those in the church is something that we do uh still emphasize in the church that hey if the Lord's blessed you temporally one thing you should be looking at is what are my needs how do I know that I have what I need to take care of myself and my family and then what can I do with what's left over to try and build Zion and and make the world a better place which is part of building Zion too continuing with that consecration theme notice in verse 14 the Lord says "Nevertheless in your temporal things you shall be equal and this not grudgingly otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the spirit shall be withheld now this commandment I give unto my servants for their benefit while they remain for a manifestation of my blessings upon their heads and for a reward of their diligence and for their security for food for raignment for inheritance for houses for lands in whatever circumstances I the Lord shall place them and whethersoever I the Lord shall send them so again hearkening back to that language of section 42 that they're equal here does not mean the same it means sufficient for the needs of you and your family right so what's equal is that everybody is equally taken care of based on the needs of your particular family and so uh 100% he's he's building off of those concepts in section 42 and then the Lord ends this way he says "For they have been faithful over many things and have done well in as much as they have not sinned behold I the Lord am merciful and will bless them and they shall enter into the joy of these things even so amen so the the they and the them here is again that group in verse uh one Joseph Smith Martin Harris Oliver Cry Sydney Phelps uh this group uh they they've been faithful so far so good keep it up and the manifestations of the spirit will continue to be poured out upon them so that's the end of the content of section 70 Casey [Music] first of all could we say that the literary firm here being set up by section 70 is the first for-profit business uh sponsored by the church maybe yeah that's probably fair to say i mean did they expect to make a profit publishing the Book of Mormon maybe they'd have to pay off Martin Harris's farm first and it seems like that that's a that's a lot to ask it's a tall order but yeah publishing the scriptures seems to be a top priority of the church then and now and they do charge people uh for the scriptures and they are intending to recompense these people that are asking to serve as part of the literary firm so yeah okay so if that's the case then maybe we could talk about a broader issue here Casey like is it okay for our church to be engaged in forprofit businesses most of our listeners know this is not the last time the church does a for-profit venture and section 78 is going to add more to this we're going to start bringing in the the Whitney store in Kirtland we're going to bring in the Gilbert store in Missouri we're going to create this thing called the United firm like that's all coming up on the horizon but there's going to be like literally like kind of like a business venture between different groups in the church to produce profit in order to further the cause of Zion and I I guess is this okay to have for-profit businesses yeah i mean it's no surprise to anybody that the finances of the church have always been a hot topic of discussion that's why I think we have talked about this a little bit but I also think that people need to recognize and frame this in the context of consecration and that I mean it it takes money to accomplish your goals and the early leaders of the church were concerned about that literal how do we build the temple how do we make sure people aren't hungry how do we get everybody a house and goods and a means to provide for themselves was a real real concern and all of this like I said is there from the beginning of the church and sometimes people are surprised that the church doesn't seem to play by the rules uh that other churches do but I mean it's built into the DNA of the church from the beginning that they are seeking resources because you have to have resources in order to affect change in the world like they're not just teaching moral principles though the church does do that the church is designed to affect change and that's one of the reasons why when somebody says you know why do we need a church why can't we just be Christians you know and and treat people well which obviously that's that's the most important thing but we can do a lot more good structurally if we are organized into a church and we're pulling the resources that everybody has and we're seeking further resources so that we can get humanitarian aid or you know build schools in countries so that people can increase both their spiritual and their secular learning like all of this is about building Zion it's not just about getting people ready for the hereafter it's changing the right now yeah we've got places of worship to build we've got temples to build we've got missionary efforts to help fund we've got welfare needs of people right we've got land to buy uh all of that requires money now we've got church employees to pay right as of section 70 we got full-time general authorities like Bishop Partridge uh that that need recompense so that he can actually take care of his family because he's dedicating his full efforts to the church now and so what about people like that uh last year Casey we talked about uh the finances of the church we did I can't remember how many episodes on this but we talked a lot about the church's for-profit businesses we're in a lot of places we're in the cattle industry we're in the citrus industry we're into almonds almond farms and avocados in California Florida we do uh we're into real estate we're into purchasing land building property renting leasing right we've talked about City Creek Mall Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii where I mean you got to pay a pretty good ticket price uh and that money then goes to help fund the students that are studying at BYU Hawaii and that money is now being used to further the purposes of the church that are outlined in these original revelations as as early as section 42 and now we're seeing more in section 70 this was there from the beginning right this is us using every possible means we can find to forward the work to build the kingdom of God to alleviate human suffering right now and get people ready for the next life as well those those goals are all overlapping with each other all right Casey take take us home then what are the consequences of section 70 [Music] major consequence of section 70 is the literary firm is set up they're going to have stewardship over the revelations which includes receiving scribing editing preparing printing and selling the revelations and the literary firm continues to operate until 1836 initially the conference called for them printing 10,000 copies of the Revelations that number was later reduced to 3,000 ww Phelps gets a printing press in Cincinnati Ohio and he's able to begin setting up the printing operation in Independence Missouri by December of 1831 the next year the literary firm begins publishing some really valuable stuff that includes the Evening and the Morning Star which is an early church newspaper uh by December 1832 the first copies of the Revelations which we mentioned before are not titled the Doctrine of Covenants they're titled The Book of Commandments goes to press however unfortunately this first attempt to publish the Revelations to create a new book of scripture don't get off the ground completely because in July of 1833 a mob destroys the church printing press in Independence and only a few copies of those printings are saved which are later bound together uh creating unfortunately fewer than 500 copies of the Book of Commandments that can be salvaged from what's left the book of commandments literally stops in mids sentence uh because of this uh when you can find it but the literary firm continues they set up shop in Kirtland Ohio where it's a little bit uh safer they start to work on a new and updated version of the book of commandments which eventually becomes the Doctrine and Covenants the Press in Kirtland also continues to publish the Evening and Morning Star along with other things like the Latter-day Saints Messenger and Advocate a political paper called the Northern Times and the press in Kirtland is responsible for producing the first hymn book which is published in 1835 uh just in time for the Kirtland Temple uh to be dedicated these early papers are incredibly valuable resources it's where we draw a lot of the teachings of early church leaders from there were editorials letters things placed in church newspapers although persecutions and the high cost of printing kept the literary firm just hovering just above insolveny the group did manage to preserve and publish some of the most important documents from this crucial and formative period of the church including the revelations we've been talking about this entire time right now that's so cool and although the literary firm was not incredibly lucrative uh as you mentioned uh it does set a precedent for again church sponsored business ventures to raise money to further the cause of Zion there's a lot to sum up here in these sections how do we get scripture what is scripture how do you print scripture and how do you go through the the work of bringing scripture to the people again all of them linked together and all of them are responsible for us having the sacred book of scripture that we're discussing right now the Doctrine and Covenants well awesome well thank you Casey uh fun to talk scripture from the scriptures uh this week stay tuned next time things get a little hairy when the Lord calls Joseph and Sydney to go and meet their enemies and confound them as they're spreading lies about the church so uh stay tuned next time for some really interesting stuff okay until next time [Music] [Music]