“Hearken!” GET TO THE POINT™ Come Follow Me: D&C 1

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Opening Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb7poHQuMWg

Intro
i. You're looking good today and it feels good to be with you.
II. Theme: "Hearken!"
III. Preparatory Remarks
i. Don't skip over the new 2013 preface and section headings. Constantly updating information, as in sections 13, 20, 135
1. This tied with JSP
2. Earlier with BHR HC/CHC church in 1930s
ii. This parallels the Restoration Proclamation: why God is doing what he's doing
iii. Parallels to Koran which also has a preface And another parallel with section 67.
iv. Jospeh Fielding Smith
1. DS 3:198, 201-202
a. In my judgment there is no book on earth yet come to man as important as the book known as the Doctrine and Covenants ... [it] to us stands in a peculiar position above them all. I am going to tell you why. When I say that, do not for a moment think I do not value the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and the Pearl of Great Price, just as much as any man that lives;  ... But this Doctrine and Covenants contains the word of God to those who dwell here now. It is our book.
b. This Doctrine and Covenants is my book and your book; but more than that, it belongs to all the world, to the Catholics, to the Presbyterians, to the Methodists, to the infidel, to the nonbeliever. It is his book if he will accept it, if he will receive it.
c. Not all of the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith are in the Doctrine and Covenants. He made a selection for this book by revelation. The Church has had many other revelations, but we have in the Doctrine and Covenants revelations sufficient to bring to pass our exaltation if we will but heed them. When we, the members of the Church, reach the point that we are willing to live by all that the Lord has revealed, he will give us more that can be placed in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord is withholding front us great and mighty truths because of the hardness of our hearts. Why should we clamor for more when we will not abide in what we already have? We are led by revelation today just as much as they were anciently.
v. Much of D&C redletter
IV. How Revelation Given
i. Second-hand source
ii. I [William Kelley] gleaned from him [William McLellin] and the records in his possession, the following items: He was present when the preface to the Book of Commandments [D&C 1] was given, and says that Sidney Rigdon wrote it down as it was dictated by Joseph [Smith]. A committee had been appointed to draft a preface, consisting of himself, O. [Oliver] Cowdery and I think Sidney Rigdon, but when they made their report, the Conference then requested Joseph to inquire of the Lord about it, and he said that he would if the people would bow in prayer with him. This they did and Joseph [Smith] prayed.
iii. When they arose, Joseph dictated by the Spirit the preface found in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants while sitting by a window of the room [John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio] in which the conference was sitting; and Sidney Rigdon wrote it down. Joseph would deliver a few sentences and Sidney [Rigdon] would write them down, then read them aloud, and if correct, then Joseph [Smith] would proceed and deliver more, and by this process the preface was given. In reply to the question, "Did Joseph [Smith] seem to be inspired at the time? that is, did any thing of unusual character appear to be moving him?" He said, "There was something ahold of him." "Letter from Elder W. H. Kelley," Saints' Herald 29, no. 5 (1 March 1882): 67.
V. Isaiah in D&C 1: https://rsc.byu.edu/you-shall-have-my-word/isaiah-doctrine-covenants
VI. D&C 1: Three Points
i. Hearken
1. Means  "Listen up, and listen good."
2. RMN April 1991 "Listen to Learn"
3. Why?
a. Voice of warning
b. calamity coming (Elijah and smitten with a curse, FPW and prophesies)
c. If a person is about to walk into an open manhole, do you keep quiet?
4. Problem:
a. not hearing voice of Lord, nor prophets and apostles
b. Strayed ordinances
c. broken His everlasting covenant
d. "They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall."
i. Play by own set of rules
ii. Being a false prophet and false god to themselves
iii. Not micromanaging, but board principles in covenants
iv. Are God's commandments arbitrary?
ii. Mission
1. Called Joseph
2. The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world;
3. That faith also might increase in the earth; That mine everlasting covenant might be established; That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.
4. Threefold-mission of Church, vs Revelation?
iii. Verse 30 Sermonette
1. And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually
2. Out of obscurity NAM "As the Church comes forth out of obscurity, we will experience waves of nostalgia, at times, for such advantages as past obscurity conferred upon the Church. Visibility brings with it some stern challenges."
3. Only True Church
a. All faiths have point of exclusion
i. Judaimsm and Torah
ii. Islam has five pillars
iii. Luther had 95 theses and 5 Solas
iv. Buddhism: 4 noble truths, and 8 fold path
b. AF 13, all good things, but not just anything. A fact vs a truth; an idea vs a truth.
i. "For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. Acts 17:21
ii. Chattering class
c. Laws of identity, excluded middle, non-contradiction
4. True and Living
a. Aristotelian square of opposition
b. True, False/Living, dead
5. Collectively/Individually
a. Second day of philosophy class
b. Fallacies of Completion and Division
i. What holds true for whole may not hold true for parts
ii. Basketball team good, not all players good
iii. Cookies delicious, but individual ingredients, flower, butter, oil arent as savory
iv. Church can be true, but individual members can be problematic, or local leaders who bounce off of their own trampolines
v. Bad experience with callings, or GAs who apostatize
c. Solid principles of sanity and logic
iv. Christ Quotient
1. Atonement Quotient
a. For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven
2. JS 37 God does not look on sin with allowance, but when men have sinned, there must be allowance made for them.
v. Are God's commandments arbitrary?
1. Plato an Euthyphro
2. Short answer co-etrenal D&C 93
3. Open manhole analogy
4. How does reality function?
5. W of W, phrenology
6. Things Church does
a. Get married, large families
b. Education
c. Live healthy
d. Serve missions
e. Live responsibility
f. Control groups: Jews ans Asians do these
vi. Truth claims and Tolerance
1. True, can lead to absolutism and tyranny
2. AF 11
3. DTC Doctrine of Belonging
4. MRB Doctrine of inclusion
5. D&C 88 and 93, study history and countries and kingdom
6. We invite, and let HG convert (D&C 50)
vii. In NT and Christ did all of these. All one in Christ ... That's the Point
 

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