Ep 128 | D&C 129-132, Come Follow Me (November 8-14)

Show Notes Enroll in Institute Timestamps: 00:29 – Three grand keys on the nature of ministering angels and spirits. 02:04 – Joseph Smith offers corrections to Elder Hyde’s sermon clarifying, in part, that God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. Heavenly Father’s physical nature has been lost in traditional Christianity. 07:55 – God resides on a globe like a sea of glass and fire. 09:20 – Joseph asks the Lord about the timing of the Second Coming. 10:36 – Truth learned in mortality will rise with us in the resurrection. Blessings are predicated upon obedience to law. 12:55 – Section 130 is preparing the Saints for truths that are revealed in the temple. 13:49 – The crowning blessing of the gospel is to seal families for eternity. There are two requirements for making marriage eternal. 18:42 – Elder Howard’s story of the silver as it relates to eternal marriage. If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. 24:27 – 1st Scenario: If we choose to neither be married nor given in marriage in the eternities, we will remain separately and singly without exaltation. The compensatory grace of Jesus Christ will make this blessing available to all who were deprived of it through no blame of their own. 28:34 – 2nd Scenario: If our marriage is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise then it is not valid neither of force when we are out of the world. 30:12 – 3rd Scenario: If we marry in the temple and strive to keep the covenant, we shall inherit the highest degree of the celestial kingdom and have continued increase. We shall be as God is and participate in His divine nature. The covenant allows for mistakes, repentance, and forgiveness. 37:10 – Section 132 addresses plural marriage. The practice of plural marriage contributes to Joseph’s martyrdom in 1844. 39:01 – Plural marriage can be compared to Abraham’s test. 41:25 – Plural marriage was practiced by the Patriarchs in Genesis. 43:09 – The historical background of Section 132. 45:47 – The RLDS Church (now The Community of Christ) had two main issues with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1800’s: They contended that the President of the Church should be a direct descendant of Joseph Smith and that plural marriage was never taught by Joseph Smith. This letter to Emma (D&C 132) was effectively used by Brigham Young as a polemic against the RLDS movement. 47:04 – The Temple Lot Case was a property dispute where women testified under oath that they were married to the prophet Joseph Smith. These legal proceedings provide a wealth of information about plural marriage in the Nauvoo Era. 48:57 – Plural marriage is not a requirement for exaltation. Marriage of one man and one woman is the Lord’s standing law of marriage. 51:49 – In D&C 132 the Lord gives several reasons why plural marriage was commanded. 54:01 – Baruch Spinoza’s advice in our quest to understand the past.