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Authority to baptize from John the Baptist, Joseph evacuated from Harmony by David Whitmer after divine intervention, Joseph Knight: the man in all the right places, and what the voice of God actually said in old Father Whitmer’s chamber. Just a few of the topics covered in this week’s podcast.
D&C 20:65
D&C 128:
D&C 27:12
JST Gen 14:29
Hello Searcher and MD,
I enjoyed this podcast very much. I listen to your podcasts in chunks—15 minutes or so at a time so I can stretch out the flow of instruction, take it all in– but not in a single glance. Therefore, my comments and questions always seem to lag behind the current podcast.
In Section 17 MD inserts in his reformatted Doctrine and Covenants verses from 3 Nephi 18 regarding the sacrament. In the cited verses the Lord commands that the Church not suffer any one to partake unworthily, yet what constitutes doing so ‘unworthily’ is not established or clarified. Might this be left open and unspecified to accommodate the cultural norms and understandings about sin of the times? It appears in these verses that the only ones denied the sacrament are ‘unbaptized sinners.” Were, and ARE these those unworthy of partaking of the sacrament?
Also in this section the Lord decries “envyingss, strifes, malice, idolatry and…WITCHCRAFTS…” etc. Today we might think of ‘witchcraft’ in the manner former President Trump decried ‘witch hunts.”
In Joseph Smith’s time, what might the Lord have been referencing that was prominent enough in the culture or possibly in the young faith, to identify and warn His young church about? In America, the Salem witch trials had ended in 1693 and with that, the belief in witches died as well so this couldn’t be what God had in mind in this 1829 revelation. Perhaps the Lord was referencing “sorceries, WITCHCRAFTS, and magics…” named in Mormon 1:19 and 2:10? But that would seem like an odd stitch in time, right?
Websters 1828 dictionary defines ‘witchcraft” as “sorcery, enchantments and intercourse with the devil.” That was Joseph’s culture the Lord was pointing his finger at? The only thing I can think of might be using a seer stone to search for buried treasure. But is that witchcraft? What is the Lord warning them….and us about?
In Section 18, the Lord counsels Oliver to rely upon ‘the things that are written for in them are all things written concerning…” 1. the foundation of my church, 2. my gospel, 3. my rock, 4. my church, 5. foundation of my gospel (vs 3-5) 6. my salvation (17). Wow, such a clumping of elements or entities together—and separated without definition or reason for naming them individually. What do you make of that?
I am really enjoying MD’s reformatted scriptures. What a wonderful ‘work book!” Thank you so much for this valuable study companion and the light it gives. My only complaint would be the font size is too small for old eyes even with reading glasses. Guess I should keep my eye out for a decent seer stone, maybe? Also the heading paragraphs are rendered in a grey tone that is too light to read well. I actually read those lines squinting and in bright daylight. But this is also my complaint about the light gray-scale saturation of the text on MD’s Measuring Doctrine site. Come on man, darken it up a bit!
Thanks so much for all your efforts to bring greater light into darkened minds. Now….on to this weeks’ new podcast. So looking forward!
Regarding the printed scriptures: the light gray wasn’t on purpose! I’ve been working with the printing company to fix this. They have expanded their business and they installed some new printing equipment in new locations. The way it prints grayscale is different than the previous machines. I’ve shared with them samples of the gray text printed on both machines and how the new process makes reading difficult. They agree it’s a problem and we’re trying to figure out a way to ensure it gets resolved. Today it depends on where they decide to print your book, as different locations have different types of machines. I am requesting that anyone who has ordered a copy printed on the new machines get a replacement copy. I’m still waiting for my test replacement copy, so I’m not sure it’s actually been fixed yet. I’ll let everyone know when we have it resolved.
As for the font size, it’s a balancing act. There is a maximum page count to stay in the spiral binding. Increasing the font size increases the page count, so I settled on the largest font size that lets me print the Book of Mormon in one book, and then kept the formatting consistent with all the others. The light gray printing combined with the font size is tough. Hopefully when we get the gray printing fixed, that will be enough to ease the strain on your eyes.
Well the smaller font size does allow for those ample margins for note taking and I am really liking that feature. That is why my comment referenced my perception that it’s a ‘workbook.’ I also hail your paragraph renderings of the text rather than the conventional verse divisions. Makes a huge difference for me in the flow of information.
I find it interesting that the Greek word translated as sorcery and witchcraft is the same root word used for pharmacy. It’s also interesting that when the virus struck, the world looked for a vaccine as a cure rather than to God.
Hey guys, I love the podcast. I look for it first thing when I wake up every Sunday morning. Thanks for your time, effort, and consistency.
When you talked about the condemnation that was spoken of in section 84 and that President Benson said the church was still under when he was alive, you said it was a little off topic, but it brings up an interesting experience that I had. I once found myself sitting in front of an area authority seventy for an interview that lasted about 2 hours. I had gotten in trouble for recommending, in private, that the stake president stop teaching some of the things he was teaching because he was contradicting the scriptures. (I was one of his counselors.) The area authority seventy and I were debating whether there might be anything amiss in the modern church. It would be impossible to summarize the entire interaction, but I pointed out that President Benson had said that the church was still under condemnation when he was alive and that I hadn’t seen any evidence that we were taking the Book of Mormon or any other scripture any more seriously than we had been at the time he said that. If anything, we take the scriptures less seriously than we did at that time. The area authority seventy responded by saying that President Benson’s mere mentioning of it in conference had lifted the condemnation and that there is no longer any condemnation. It was such a discouraging experience. It may be off topic but it shows at least one way that people look past what the scriptures say or previous church leaders have taught and justify their/our ignorance and the ways we fall short of following God’s word. They seem to think that we will all ride into the celestial kingdom on the coattails of our righteous leaders and the things they say. The area authority seventy ended up recommending that I be released from the stake presidency because I didn’t have “enough of a testimony of the brethren.” He was right about one thing. I didn’t have a testimony of the brethren. Now I find myself just trying to cling to the iron rod. Thanks for the help.
sorry. I intended that as commentary for the next week’s podcast.