Come Follow Me LDS Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 27-28 (Mar 15-21) – Keys Please – powered by Happy Scribe
It’s September 1830 in Fayette, New York. The church is only six months old and Joseph is facing a crisis.
His good friend Hiram Page is using a seer stone and claiming to receive revelations for the fledgling church.
New members are wondering, can everyone take turns receiving revelations for the church like some religions do, or should there be only one spokesman for the Lord?
Now, her rampage was one of the eight witnesses of the golden plates and was married to the Whitmer daughter, Katherine. They lived in the Whitmer home when they heard and accepted the gospel.
But problems arose when he professed to receive revelations through the Seer Stone. He’d found a wait. Hold on. What is a seer stone? Well, a true seer stone is a divine instrument like the Yurman thumb for receiving revelation from the Lord by someone called as a seer and revelator.
These stones have been used throughout time in both ancient Israel and ancient America.
Think of them kind of like reading messages on your cell stone, then your cell phone. Joseph often used a seer stone to receive revelations and to help with translating. Now, sometimes it was hard to read so similar to shading our cell phones in the sunlight so we can read them. He’d put the stone and a hat to more clearly view the messages. Unfortunately, Satan, the master deceiver, had twisted this practice to deceive and confuse these early church members with revelations that sounded real but were mixed with lies.
Many members, including Oliver Cowdery, believed Hiram Page’s revelations about the establishment of Zion and the organization of the church, even though they contradicted some things found in the New Testament and Joseph’s revelations. Now, remember, these brand new members came from diverse religious backgrounds and they were still figuring out right and wrong.
Understandably, a very concerned Joseph spent that night agonizing over what he should do.
And in Section twenty eight, the Lord gives his clear answer. Yes, even though we can and should each receive personal revelations for ourselves, our family and our callings, only his called prophet can receive revelations for his entire church.
Mercifully, then the law tells Oliver to take Hyrum aside and lovingly teach him that he’d been deceived. Yeah, not an easy conversation. And then a few days later, this group of new members gathered together in the Wittmer home for the second conference of the church. They discussed Hiram’s false revelations. And while it took some convincing, all, including Hyrum, agreed they were false. Crisis averted. The rest of the conference lasted three days, filled with peace, hope and charity.
The Lord taught them that everything in his church should be done in order and by common consent, through raising one’s hand. Now, think about it, several times a year at Warde stake and general conferences, we agree by common consent to sustain and support our profit apostle’s and local church leaders.
Now, we aren’t voting for or nominating them, but the Lord allows us to support or sustain his work and those he’s called to lead it. Is there any other organization in the whole world that could have the vast majority of its members fully sustain their leaders several times a year? Yeah, lots of governments, stockbrokers, businesses and boy bands who would probably fail quickly.
In Sections 27 and 28, the Lord further explained several of the keys necessary to run his kingdom on Earth. These crucial keys were given to Joseph by several ancient prophets who visited him.
So does our prophet carry around a really big key ring, you know, like a janitor and no priest. And keys aren’t physical keys you can hold in your hand, but our authority from the Lord to lead his work.
Think of it this way.
If you have a big, beautiful car sitting in your garage, it’s not much use to you unless you have the power keys provide.
I mean, you can’t drive it, roll down the window or listen to music without the keys. Hey, Dad, can I have the keys to the car? No, you’re only seven. The gospel is the same. You can’t confirm someone unless you have the keys or authority to confirm and you can’t receive revelation for the entire church unless you have those keys without proper priesthood keys. You’re just sitting in the car.
Great to look at, but no power.
Speaking of keys to confirm, although Emma Smith and Sally Knight were baptized in June, they weren’t confirmed members yet because of the intense persecution that kept disrupting the meetings.
Weeks later, when Sally and her husband Newell visited the Smiths and Harmony, they again tried to have a confirmation meeting. Joseph wanted to follow Christ’s example in the Book of Mormon of administering the sacrament before giving the gift of the Holy Ghost. So he prepared for a sacrament service by going out to buy wine for the meeting. I know what you’re thinking, but look, they didn’t have the word of wisdom yet. A short distance from his home, an angel stopped him and said, don’t buy any wine from your enemies.
There were definitely bad guys hanging out that wanted to harm them.
Mormons the angel also explained that what they ate or drank for the sacrament doesn’t really matter as long as it’s done with a proper authority and with an eye single to God’s glory.
So Joseph quickly returned home where they made some wine and the sacrament and confirmations finally took place.
Now, obviously, today we use water and some people use rice cakes or crackers instead of bread.
But what really matters is we all do it in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice as we follow his example.
Well, tune in next time when a very heated discussion between six of the elders leads to a very eye opening revelation. Thanks for watching. If you feel like this video has helped you on your path towards truth and Christian discipleship, share it and subscribe to the channel and click on the little alarm bell to get notified when new videos come out.
Most importantly, go study the scriptures for yourself.
Guest Author
dyejo
