Come Follow Me Insights (Doctrine and Covenants 102-105, Sep 13-19) – powered by Happy Scribe

I’m Taylor and I’m Tayler, and I’m Casey.

This is Book of Mormon Central’s Come Follow Me Insights.

Today. Doctrine and Covenant sections 102-105.

We’re excited to have Casey Griffith with us today. As we cover these particular sections, there is a lot going on in section one, two, three, and five. We’re going to be covering a lot of ground in this particular lesson. Let’s begin with SEO 102, where the Lord sets up our first high Council.

And section one and two might seem a little bit odd as you’re reading through the Doctrine Covenance, because it’s not really a revelation. It’s a collection of minutes from the very first Portland High Council that was held the reason why it’s placed in the Doctrine Covenant. Those because it gives some really important instructions about how to run a Council. So maybe you’ll remember I remember when I was growing up that in my steak center, there was this one room that had this big long table. And on both sides of the table, there’s six chairs.

And then at the very end of the table, there were three chairs right here like this. And if you got to hold Sunday school in here, it was like the best day ever, right? Everybody felt like they were part of the Jedi Council. Well, that’s literally what section 102 is describing. Section 102 describes how to hold a high Council specifically in case there’s been some kind of dispute. In fact, the wording in section 102, verse two says the high Council was appointed by revelation. So everybody sitting in these chairs is called by Revelation for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the Church, which could not be settled by the Church or the bishops, counsel to the satisfaction of parties.

So first things first, the whole Council like this is relatively rare. Most disputes that happen within the Church can be settled within the Church or by the help of a Bishop, or in extreme cases, the Bishop and his counselors. If something like this is happening, that means that there’s something pretty serious that’s gone on. And the Council is here together to basically assist the person in going through the repentance process or being corrected or whatever they need to do. However, the principles here that, again, are used in generally extreme cases, kind of diffused through all councils in the Church.

And the description here is kind of a good way to show us how we’d use a Council to resolve a really serious issue or difficulty that’s happening. So what it describes in section 102 is that the Council would meet together, and the people that are sitting right here on the end are the stake presidency. The stake President of the Kurtland stake was Joseph Smith. So when everybody arrives in the Council meeting, they would be assigned lots. This could happen just as simply as you have box with a bunch of papers in it and the lots are numbered one to twelve according to the directions that are given in section 102 of the Doctrine Covenants.

The counselors, the draw even lots that’s two, four, 6810 and twelve are the individuals who are supposed to look after the needs of the accused person. The people that draw odd numbered lots are assigned to look after the needs of the Church. And this pattern which you’re seeing in section 102, according to Joseph Smith, was actually the pattern that existed among the Church anciently in Jerusalem, Joseph Smith said he saw and vision how ancient councils were conducted and the law of the Church. In fact, one of the things that he points out is that the people on this side that are supposed to look after the deeds of the accused aren’t the defense attorneys and the people on this side that are supposed to look after the needs of the Church.

Aren’t the prosecutors either. Jesus Smith instructed that it was not in the order of heaven and ancient councils to plead for or against the guilty, as in our judicial courts, but that every counselor, when he arose to speak, should speak precisely according to the evidence, and according to the teachings of the Spirit of the Lord, no counselor should attempt to screen the guilty when his guilt was manifest. The person accused before the high Council had the right to one half of the members of the Council to plead his cause in order that this case might be fairly presented before the President that a decision might be rendered according to truth and righteousness.

So typically. And Tyler, you probably served on one of these councils before. When the person comes in, they know they’re not trying to present themselves as an innocent person. They’ve usually already talked to their ecclesiastical leader and shared what’s happened. And it’s been deemed serious enough that a state Council can help. And this could look like it’s an intimidating setting. The stake high count I serve on our state present would actually have them sit right here next to the state presidency and was very, very clear and saying, hey, we’re not here to persecute you re punish you.

We’re here to try and help you.

So one of the interesting caveats here to see unfold through time is early on. These are seen in the eyes of many general membership looking at this as a punitive thing, even though it wasn’t intended to be that way. In fact, the title is this disciplinary Council. Well, in our most recent handbook of Instructions, we don’t call them disciplinary councils. We’re not here to discipline the person, although technically the route of disciplinary is disciple to help them be better disciple. So that is still absolutely in place.

But now we call them membership councils. And I think there’s a good reason for that to see it as a step in their repentance in their level of discipleship to Christ.

When I was on a state Council and served in some of these Mary of the Council that I participated in were reconvening is where someone had been involved in a serious transgression. And now it was sometime later and they were getting ready to come back into the Church or be re baptized or get all their privileges back. And the Council was reconvening to just hear it. And so as weird as it might sound, some of these meetings for some of the most spiritual meetings that I ever attended, because you got to hear how the Savior help the person that had done something really serious come about through the repentance process.

And even in the few of these that I attended, where we did have to deal with the question of a person’s membership, there was always this overwhelming spirit of love. So this isn’t the Spanish Inquisition. In fact, it’s almost the total opposite of it, and that every individual here is really focused on trying to help the person and help them understand what they’ve done, how to deal with it, and what the next steps to repentance are.

Yeah. So that repentance element that the route of repentance is this idea that we’re trying to help people change to become more like Christ. Hence, this whole effort isn’t to punish or rebuke or push somebody out is to try to get them onto the straight and narrow path and invite them to come and partake that’s really important.

And the new handbook actually gives three reasons why you would hold a Council like this that we ough to make clear. So reason number one, according to this is the handbook that just came out in 2020 in February 2020, is to protect others. So there might be times when we hold the Council like this to try and protect someone that’s vulnerable. Something serious has gone on in the Council being held to make sure that the person that’s vulnerable as being protected. Number two. And in my experience, this was by far and away, the most common reason to hold one of these councils was to help a person repent or access the redeeming power of the atonement.

Number three, the reasons for these councils was to protect the integrity of the Church. So there were times, and there are times when sometimes a person who is a member of the Church teaches or does something that affects the integrity of the Church. Let’s say, for example, you had an ecclesiastical leader that had embezzled funds or something like that. We want the members of the Church to be able to trust their leaders with the funds that they give to the most are sacred, precious funds. And so a Council like this could be hold in that case in order to protect the integrity of the Church.

In the latest iteration handbook to the actions that the Council can take have also been changed as well. So the word X communication, for instance, is now removal of Church membership. And that’s kind of the most extreme thing that happens in these cases. But other possibilities could be official curtailment of Church responsibilities. That might be where they say to somebody, we’re not going to have you hold a calling or exercise the priesthood for a little while while you’re going through their dependance process. And then third outcome could be that the Council decides to not take any action, but to allow the individual to continue to work with their Bishop or other ecclesiastical leaders to try and work through the issues that they’re dealing with at that time.

A formal versus informal counseling with time limits attached. Now you’ll notice in section 102, it gives this instruction that as you draw those numbers, draw those lots and have certain responsibilities. If it’s a really simple case, then only two people are going to speak. If it’s a more complex issue, then you add two more. But in the most extreme cases, it says you only have three and three representing the good name of the Church and making sure that the individual is being represented fairly and appropriately. Once again, as Casey said, this is not like a prosecution and defense attorney set up in a court of law.

This is different where we’re seeking truth, not trying to defend the indefensible to get them off on a little minor technicality. We’re trying to figure out what really happened and make sure that the good name of the Church as well as the good name of that individual is protected to the greatest degree possible that there they’re going to be able to be encouraged to move forward in faith, trusting in the Lord. Now stop and think about this for a minute. The overview or the structure of section one, two trying to set up the power of a Council in the Church and why so many people?

I mean, it wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you just said, let the three or better yet, let the one just make the decision in every single case. Now, as Casey said, some cases are simple enough that that’s all it takes. A Bishop even or a Bishop. Bishop Rick, can make those decisions. But in the more complex issues today, the Handbook of Instruction says that most of these issues that come are going to be resolved by just the state presidency. And it’s only in the much more complex issues that we convene.

This full Council, kind of as outlined in section one Enos that adjustment has been made where if it’s pretty cut and dried, the decision can be made, it’s where we’re not quite sure what the situation is. That’s where we convene this Council.

Why?

Because revelation is scattered among us, and there are different perspectives that can be brought in to that discussion. And it’s pretty powerful as you have this, Mary people all connecting with Heaven, seeking for Heaven’s aid to know what to do. That the Spirit can be manifest, and we can come to conclusions that no one individual person would have figured out on their own.

Another thing to know about these councils that my students ask a lot is these councils are relatively rare. If you were a teenage kid that broke the law of chastity, for instance, you probably wouldn’t be called before a Council like this. You probably work with your ecclesiastical leader, your Bishop, or your branch President, to get through this in typically, a person that’s called before accounts like this is usually somebody that’s made temple covenants, and somebody that if your mail holds the Melchizedek priested. But the principles here diffused through all counsels in the Church.

That’s what makes section 102 so valuable. So, for instance, a Council like this could exist in the form of just a Bishop and his counselors working with an individual that’s committed a serious transgression. In those cases, the Bishop might say, I’m going to appoint this counselor to look after the needs of the individual and this counselor to look after the needs of the Church and then conduct the meeting, going forth from there at all times. And a good principle to remember here is that whenever we have to conduct any kind of disciplinary action, and maybe that’s not the best word.

But when we have to help a person or pent is that we’re balancing the needs of the individual with the integrity of our faith. Part of the reason why we hold these councils in the first place is because it’s a big deal to be a member of the Church. Every member of the Church in some way or form is a spokesman for the Church and their actions and the integrity that’s associated with their actions can reflect positively or poorly onto the Church. So we’re concerned with the individual Salvation.

That’s the number one concern. But we’re also concerned with the fact that if a person isn’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we want to get them to a point where they can. In an earlier section of the doctor in Covenance, the Lord says where much is given, much is required. And so a person that holds the priesthood or made sacred Covenant in the temple does have a little bit higher expectation for them. Part of the reason why the Church might take an action to remove a person’s membership isn’t as a form of punishment.

It’s a way of saying you made a mistake. We want to help you solve your mistake. The expectations are higher right now, so we’ll remove some of those expectations, some of those covenants, and allow you to work through it without those expectations on your shoulders. It’s kind of the same thing when an ecclesiastic leader ask somebody to withhold from taking the Sacrament for a little while. That’s not intended to be a punishment in any way, shape or form. It’s intended to prevent the person from making a Covenant that they’re not in a position to keep at that time.

So there was a time when I was serving on a Council like this, and I pulled lot number one, and we had talked about what the individual had done, and I’m not going to share any specifics here because that would be appropriate. But the decision of the Council, the revelation that came to our state present was that the person’s membership should be withdrawn. As number one. He turned to me and said, Brother Griffith, can you explain why we’re doing this? And I gave an explanation very similar to what I’ve just said, that we weren’t doing it to punish the person that we were doing it, to try and help them resolve the problems that they had without the expectations that come from the covenants that they had made.

And after a person has gone through a period of repentance, let’s say if their membership is withdrawn, they can come back into the Church through re baptism. And then about a year after re baptism, there’s a ceremony called the Restoration of Blessings, where the person’s temple covenants were everything up to and including their patriarchal blessing or restored. So section Enos giving you kind of the extreme case and situation. And one of the things that I really like about this is that there’s nobody that’s exempt from this.

When we get the section 100 and even a little further down the road, it even gives the procedure for what to do. If a President of the Church engages in a serious transgression, you’d still hold the Council like this and follow the principles that are in section 102. In fact, we’ve only ever had one President in the Church that God brought before it counts like this. And it was Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith wanted to take this out for a test drive and see how it would work.

And so when someone accused him of unchristian like behavior, he said, let’s call it Council almost enthusiastically. In the case, President Smith wasn’t completely exonerated the person that had accused him of unchristian like conduct. And Joseph Smith were invited to make amends with each other and enter into Christian fellowship. And so the way that this works is to just kind of help everybody along the road, the immortality and eternal life by giving them a chance to fully engage with what they’ve done, address what they’ve done and ask the Saviors help and receive the Saviors help through the members of the Council to fully become cleansed.

So I’m going to erase this. We’re going to step back. Actually, we’re going to step up and look down from a heavenly perspective for a moment on why in the world would we set this up as Council, this idea of of going to this great effort to try to discover the truth. Mary Times, you’ll have people in Scripture have heavenly visions, and what will they report seeing up in heaven? They see usually God sitting on his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of Angels. And the word that often gets used in Scripture is councils.

Heavenly councils. It’s people who are conversing together and counseling together. So what happens is Section 102 for me becomes this heavenly manifestation of God saying, okay, the Church is now at a place where we can give you a line up online where we can give you another layer of what it’s like to be heavenly, of how to become more more celestial, more like God cause. Stop and think about this for a minute. How hard, honestly, really, how hard would it be for Jesus to do all of this force?

It is the Church of Jesus Christ. After all, he could come down in Kurtland and personally manifest himself to the people and say, Have you any disputations among you? Have you any sinners among you? Have you any who are struggling? Bring them all. And I will take care of everything. And I will pass a perfect judgment on every situation, every hardship and every decision you’re trying to make. I’ll give you the right best case scenario answer to all of it. You realize Jesus could do that in every single case.

But what is the point then, of having a Council? Why call presidencies? Why call councils? Why have anybody get together to share their thoughts and listen to others and ask questions? It’s because there’s growth that happens as we are given tasks to accomplish, make decisions, carry out Church procedures. We learn from our experience and in the process, like a little baby being put down and let go for the first time to walk. We learn how to walk, and then we learn how to talk and we learn how to run, and we learn how to read and write and do arithmetic and all these other things because we’re given opportunities to be in settings where we can learn where we can share, where we can experiment, and we’re growing brothers and sisters.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in the Section 102 context is all about Jesus sharing His perfection with us in our imperfection. And one of the ways to protect against individual imperfection is to put you in a Council together with people, whether it be a husband and wife, whether it be a bishopric or a young woman’s presidency or a high Council or a first presidency in Corn of the Twelve. There’s something powerful about actually listening to other people in that Council and having all sides represented.

It would be silly if in those high Council settings, everybody drew an even number and we’re all looking out for the one side and totally ignoring the other side. There’s power to guard against my own imperfections and my own personal weakness and my own biases when I get in a Council setting and I don’t know about you. But there have been many times going into a meeting, whether it’s an official Church meeting or in a session where my wife and I are talking about some needs of the family of family Council, so to speak.

I’ve gone in thinking. I already know the answer. I already know what we’re going to do. It’s all very clear. And after counseling and praying and pleading for help, you come out of that Council at the back end and say, wow, it’s a good thing we didn’t just do what I thought was so obvious at the outset. There’s great power in counseling with our counsels. President Russell Ballard has talked about that a lot. This idea of coming together, whether it’s in a family or a Church setting, great power.

Why? Because it’s giving us an opportunity to connect with God and become more like Him because he could do this all himself. But he doesn’t. He lets us grow through the process. So in section one and two, you’ll find the names in verse three of the people who originally called to this high Council with the presidency. They’re listed first and then the twelve high counselors. Towards the end of verse three, it’s interesting that we’re missing a name in verse three that was actually replaced. Lorenzo Young was originally called in this list, and he stood up in the Council and he rejected it because he didn’t feel capable.

He felt unable to fulfill that calling, whether he didn’t feel like he was worthy enough or smart enough, we don’t know for sure. He’s just saying he’s not fit for that calling, so it was removed. The reality is there will be times when leaders will be inspired to extend a calling, but the Lord already knows that person isn’t going to fulfill for whatever reason it may be. But isn’t it amazing that growth and self reflection and repentance can still take place or cause to be taking place even if the calling isn’t fulfilled?

We don’t know all the back story with Lorenzo Young. We don’t know how the Lord worked with him and continued to teach him through receiving this calling, even though he didn’t accept it and move forward hopefully. And he’s going to come up in a variety of other places down the road. The other consideration moving forward as we finish off section one, two and get ready to jump into one three is the need to constantly be, as Casey said, looking for how to apply these principles in all aspects of our life, to not assume that we have all the answers and that we know everything, but rather go in seeking the Lord will and seeking to listen and learn from other people, realizing they have parts of the puzzle that we don’t bring to the table with us.

What a beautiful principle this whole idea of councils becomes well.

And another thing to remember about Council is that it’s not always about you being the shining star. It’s about you training the next person who’s going to have to step in and take over. I can’t tell you how valuable it was in those meetings I was in to watch my steak President, and the way that he interacted with the other members of the stake I Council, and even with the individual that was there for the Council, the person that had committed a transgression to see the way that he acted towards them taught me a ton.

I learned a lot just by observing. And that is another reason why section 102 shouldn’t just be flipped over because it’s not a revelation. It gives this idea that there’s real strength that comes from, well, not just going out and doing the Lord’s work, but in looking to and training the next person who’s going to have to do the Lord’s work. In fact, there’s an interesting thematic connection here. Can we go to Section 103? Section one three, which comes up right next, is about the call of Zion Camp.

So Zion’s Camp, which we’ve come to call it Zion’s Camp. Joseph Smith, at the time called at the Camp of Israel. This name is kind of taken over by Brigham Young in the Pioneers of 1847, and Zion’s Camp becomes our preferred term. But Zion’s Camp is a relief or rescue mission that’s intended to go and help the Saints in Missouri that have been struggling since the summer before, when they were forcibly told to leave Jackson County. Now they’re told in July that they’re going to have to leave.

And then in October, in probably the worst time of the year to be kicked out of your home when it’s starting to get colds, when there’s freezing reigns coming, the Saints are forcibly ejected from Zion’s County. Science county. Sorry, from Jackson County. Joseph Smith is absolutely torn apart over this. He’s trying to handle the business of the Church in Kurtland. We’ll see some of that in Section 100 and for him, but he’s also trying to find a way to help the Saints in Missouri. And so Joseph Smith asked the Lord and the Lord gives Section 103, which effectively asked Joseph Smith to take a group of people and go to Missouri and try and help the Saints there get their land back.

Now, one thing to note historically about this is there’s a lot of brand new converts in Kurtland that have just shown up that are going to go on this journey that are basically going to drop what they’re doing and take a few months of their life among them. You’ve got guys like Brigham Young. Brigham Young has just barely arrived in her land, and at this point, he’s remarried the Mary Angel. His first wife, Miriam, has passed away. Three little kids take care of. But he set that aside.

I’m going to go help my brothers and sisters. Brigham Young takes along his best friend, he Bruce Kimball. Hebrews Kimball has a wife and kids, but I’m going to go help my brothers and sisters. Missouri, there’s a brand new convert that’s just barely shown up named Wilford Woodruff. That goes along with Zion’s Camp and actually writes down a lot of the information stories from Zions camp that are valuable to us. You could list off Parley Prett, Hiram Smith, Lime and White, a bunch of important people in early Church history.

All go on this relief mission led by Joseph Smith to Missouri to try and assist the Saints that are there now, what are they trying to do? The governor of Missouri had left suggestions that if the Saints brought and provided some men, he would provide state militia and they’d be able to escort the Saints back to their homes in Jackson County. So Joseph Smith sets out with this expectation that this is how we’re going to solve the problem. The Lord’s already told us where the city of Zion is supposed to be built, and now this big barrier has been placed in our path where we’ve been ejected from the place where the city is supposed to be built.

This is the solution, he’s thinking. This is the way that we’re going to get the Saints back to where they’re at. And a lot of the people that are recruited from Zions camp are also thinking this is where the Lord’s going to manifest his power and kind of Old Testament sort of way that they’re going to go in there and they’re going to be able to forcibly put the Saints back into their homes because the power of God is going to be made manifest them. Now, this journey is a lot about their expectations and what they’re thinking is going to happen versus what the Lord has in mind.

And some of this does relate back to our theme of counsel that we’ve talked about because Joseph Smith has the opportunity for three months as they cross the country from Kurtland, Ohio, to Independence, Missouri, to interact with, to train and to set an example for a lot of these newer converse to the Church and to inadvertently train them to become the sort of leaders of the arm. I mean, it’s not a stretch to say that Brigham Young, when he’s planning the Exodus West, is thinking back on the principles that he learned from Joseph Smith on the journey that Science camp makes from Kurtland to Independence.

Now let’s turn our attention to section one three.

If we’re looking at the text in section one three, you could get the impression that was what the Lord was calling them to do, that they were going to go to Zion, they were going to go in and they were going to clean house. Basically, there’s a few places in here where the Lord says first two being driven and spitten by the hands of my enemies, on whom I will pour out my wrath without measure in my own time. So one expectation is the Lord is going to get retribution for what’s happened to the Saints in Missouri.

And he’s also laying the foundation here to tell them that they’re going to play a role in Salvation. For instance, verse nine, he says they were said to be a light to the world and to be the Saviors of men. And as much as they’re not, the Saviors have been their assault that’s lost its savior and therefore good for nothing to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men. Jump down to verse twelve after much tribulation, as I’ve said to you in a former commandment, come with the blessing, this blessing, I promise after your tribulations and the tribulations of your brethren, your redemption and the redemption of your brethren and even their restoration land of Zion to be established to be no more thrown down.

So you could if you’re Joseph Smith in the winter of 1834, when this revelation is given, expect that. Yeah, it’s going to be tough and we’re going to go through some things, but we’re going to go there. And when we get there, the miracles are going to happen and the doors are going to open and we are going to go in and get Zion back. They could have no idea that the tribulation and that the delay in the building of the city of Zion wouldn’t just be a couple months.

It’d be a couple decades, maybe even a couple centuries, until the Saints were fully ready to build. That part of the reason why the Lord is telling them to gather here is the journey that they’re about to go on and the experiences that they’re about to have together. Initially, the call is for 500 people to go to Zion. They aren’t able to recruit. It quite that, Mary. They wind up somewhere around 300. There’s also several women that accompany them on their trip to Zion as they seek to cross the planes trying to with this good intent, help the brother and sisters is that they have Enion gain back their inheritance.

The Lord says to Joseph Smith, verse 22, saying Unto the strength of my house, my young men and Middle East gather yourselves together to the land of Zion upon the land which I have bought with money which has been consecrated unto me. He also sets up a couple different things, like Sydney Rigdon of verse 29 is going to stay behind and hold down the Fort, preach to the Eastern congregations, partly Porat and Lyman White and a few others are all going to be elected to go out and recruit people so that in the summer they can travel to Missouri and assist the Saints in getting their lands back, they think.

But there’s more to the journey than they really kind of have in mind. And as it is a lot of times in our life, we sometimes go into a class of business venture, you name it, expecting one outcome to happen. And the Lord has something completely different in mind as to what he wants to accomplish. Like these early leaders of the Church, we have to be flexible enough to realize we might not always see the end that the Lord does and what we want might not always necessarily be what’s best for us.

In that case, let me illustrate that principle with an example that might might might make some sense for some of you. Many years ago, when I was teaching Institute up at the Logan Institute of Religion adjacent to the campus of Utah State University, one of my assignments there for four years was to work with seminary pre service. So I would help train people who wanted to look at potentially teaching seminary full time for the Church. And then I would go and observe and make recommendations for who who I felt should get hired.

There were on Mary many, many occasions during those four years, there were people who had come to the office and say, Berther Griffin, my patriarchal blessing tells me I’m going to be a seminary teacher or my mission President gave me a blessing as I left the mission, telling me that I would be a seminary teacher, that I should pursue seminary. Or I have this impression that I need to teach seminary. The problem is, out of the Logan pre service center, we would only generally hire somewhere between two to five, maybe six in a really good year back then, full time in an entire year.

And I would have lots of these people coming in saying this was what needed to happen. So here I found myself with a person at point A saying they needed to be a full time seminary teacher for whatever reason. And so what I learned after the first one or two years of going through a process and then watching what happened and realizing this person isn’t going to be a fulltime seminary teacher and watching some of them be devastated by that and feeling let down like, well, I thought the Lord told me this is what he wanted me to do.

And I learned the difference between point A and point B. Often, what happens is the Lord gives you instructions as Casey was talking about. And this isn’t just in occupation. This could be in relationships. You could start down a road with somebody in dating and think, oh, I’m being inspired. This is good. And you get further down the road and then something happens and it doesn’t put you at the point you anticipated. The reality is, is God gives us instructions to say, I want you to pursue this.

I want you to go here. I want you to go after this goal, whatever it may be. Now that it’s been many years after having been in that pre service setting, I’ve talked to some of the students that I had back then who didn’t get hired, who ended up in other careers. And in every case, I ask them, did we make the right decision. And in every case of people that I’ve talked to, they said, yes. I am so glad that things have worked out the way they have that I didn’t get hired full time.

But, wow, the things I learned through that process, I use them all the time. The Lord was shaping me through that experience to accomplish what I needed to accomplish. That I didn’t know was what I needed to accomplish back then because I thought it was leading to fulltime seminary employment, not the Lord preparing me for something different than he had in my future. That, to me, is the biggest overarching lesson of this whole Zion’s Camp experience. You’ve got these, in some cases, guys who are just really exciting to go out for a fight, which, by the way, clarification Joseph Smith from the outset, I don’t know that his intent is to go out and start an offensive campaign.

The problem is, as Governor Duncan had told them, if you get enough support, I’ll call out the state militia to restore the people to their lands. But then I’m going to call the militia off, and you have to have people in place to defend them. So it was more of a defense mission rather than an offensive campaign to go and say, let’s start a war. It was more once we get them back on their lands, we need people there to help defend them so that the same thing doesn’t just end up happening again.

You’ll notice, by the way, that there are a variety of reasons why a person goes from point A to B to C and sometimes end up getting derailed and not make it to the point that they had in mind or in some cases, that the Lord had prepared for them. You’ll notice in verse 31, Behold, this is my will ask, and he shall receive, but men do not always do my will because of this power of the agency given to us. Sometimes we do our will rather than is.

One of my favorite close quote is where he says, in the end, there are really only two kinds of people. Those who say to God Thy will be done, and those to whom God says Thy will be done because He’s not going to force us. So you’ll notice just because God gives revelation or gives direction or empowers us to do something doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed to happen, because sometimes we don’t follow through on our side. You’ll notice he told them to ask in verse 31, look at verse 35.

Therefore, as I said, Enos, you ask and you shall receive there. It’s repeated. So between that what’s happening between those two book ends, he’s telling them to go out and recruit and try to get 500 volunteers. And if you can’t get 500, get 300. And if you can’t get a 300, well, get what you can. Look now at verse 36, all victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence faithfulness and prayers of faith. I love that that, he says. I’m not going to just guarantee all of these outcomes.

You have to be diligent faithful and offer prayers of faith in order for the desired outcomes to occur. Now we shift gears into section 104 and talk about the United order and some adjustments that are going to be made and how that’s carried out this law of consecration.

Now, this isn’t something that we talk about a ton of the Church, but the doctor in competence is concerned with it. And those are principles of Church finance. Over three quarters of the revelations and the doctrine evidence discuss financial matters. And you might be asking yourself, Why is that this is supposed to be a spiritual book. Early on in the doctrine covenants in section 29, the Lord says, I’ve never given you a temporal commandment. They’re all spiritual Commandments to him. The temporal and the spiritual are the same thing.

And so when the Lord says something like, build a house, it’s a spiritual commandment to him. We might think of it as physical. Sometimes we like to separate out Commandments like the word of wisdom, and say that’s a physical or temporal commandment. But the Lord is saying, no, it affects your spirituality as well. And the reason why he speaks so much about finances. It’s really hard for a person to be spiritual unless they’re temporally. Well, they’re wondering where their next meal is gonna come from or if their house is going to be foreclosed on.

It’s difficult for them to focus on spiritual things. So section 104 happens right before they leave on Zion’s Camp. It’s received in April of 1834. And part of the idea here is to get the church’s financial house in order before they go on this mission to try and rest the Saints in Missouri. There’s a lot of moving parts that are going on here. For instance, the Saints in Kurtland are trying to build their own house of the Lord. They’re building the Kurtland Temple. Joseph Smith, who’s leading that effort, is going to be gone for the summer trying to assist the Saints in Missouri.

And so the Lord is reorganizing Church finance in all the earliest revelations. The term that is used here is United firm, now under Joseph Smith direction. When these revelations were published, the term firm was taken out and the word order was placed in. Sometimes the United order is used as a synonym for just the law of consecration altogether. That’s generally how Brigham Young and a lot of later Church leaders, even unto the 20th century, referred to it. But the United Order at this point in time, is a small group of Church leaders that have consecrated everything that they have to build up the Church in Ohio and Missouri.

And what this revelation does is there was a United firm in Missouri. That one is going to be ended in this revelation because the Saints in Missouri have lost their land, they’re in survival mode. That United firm collapses, and the Lord instead continues. The Kurtland United firm now sprinkled throughout this revelation are a number of principles of finance. We don’t use the system that’s set up in section 104 right now in the Church, but the principles that are set here are intended for forever. In fact, it says right in verse one, I give this as an everlasting order for the benefit of my Church and the Salvation of men until I come with a promise, immutable and unchangeable, that in as much as those who have commanded were faithful, they should be blessed with a multiplicity of blessings.

So while this particular specific system of finance is now the Church is operated, the Lord is saying, the principles that I’m going to teach you here are eternal, and they’re going to stay for quite a while. So let’s walk through the revelation itself and identify some of the principles of Church finance that the Lord gives to the early Saints. For instance, if you look in verse eleven, it is wisdom in me and a commandment I give to you that you shall organize yourselves in a point, every man, his stewardship.

So even though we tend to think of consecration as everybody sharing everything and I can come in and borrow Taylor’s tie or take Taylor shoes, it never worked that way. Everybody agreed to consecrate what they have to the Lord. But consecration or consecrate is just a term that means make Holy. After it was consecrated or basically recognized by the Lord, a stewardship was given back to the individual and that stewardship was their private property, and the individual was allowed to basically work with what they had and do what they could with it for the benefit of themselves, their family and the larger Church.

Another principle, and this is found in verse 14 is to recognize that everything belongs to God. The Savior here says, I the Lord stretch out the heavens and built the Earth by very handy work, and all things they’re in are mine. So a second principle of Church finance is to recognize that everything belongs to God. That what we’re working with, whether it’s our home, the money that we make from our profession of whatever blessings we’ve been given, it really ultimately belongs to God. And we need to think of it in that way that it’s not our personal property.

It’s God’s property that He’s loaning to us to help us to build up the Kingdom of God. He also asks verse 16, It must needs to be done in my own way. And this is the way that the Lord have decreed to provide for my Saints, that the poor will be exalted and the rich we made low. Now that’s just expressing this basic idea that you help the poor, that you try and find the best way to help them. And sometimes that means that you give them a meal or you help them find close or furniture for their home.

And sometimes it means that you help them find education to get a better job or another way to empower them, get them a higher paying job so that they can afford a little bit more. As you continue to go through the Lord of points, a series of stewardship, the people that are in the Church and give them responsibility. So he’s just kind of acting out what he’s explaining here that you give a person a stewardship. You explain to them where their blessings come from, and then you give them a charge that if they have extra, if they’re provided for themselves, that they think about what they can do to try and help lift up those that don’t have what they have.

Now you can see a little bit of a switch halfway through the revelation around verse 47, where the Lord says now concerning Zion. So he switches from general principles of finance to sort of principles of Church finance. And there’s a few items of guidance that he gives her to. For instance, if we jump down to around verse 57, the Lord gives them a couple specific charges. I’ve appointed you stewards to be over my house stewards, indeed. And for this purpose I’ve commanded you to organize yourselves to print my words, the fullness of my Scriptures and the revelations which I’ve given to you and which I shall hear after from time to time given to you.

So one important charge given to the Church was to print the scriptures to help people obtain the Word of God and know what God’s will was through reading and understanding the words that He’s given to prophets. To that end, the Lord commands them to organize two Treasuries. As you can see as you go through the verses down below verse 60, appoint unto yourselves a treasury, and the Lord gives the purpose for this treasury, which we’re gonna call just basically hear the sacred treasury. The sacred treasury, as the Savior sets out here, is intended specifically to do the following, he says, to make use of the stewardship.

This is verse 63, which I’ve appointed unto you, exclusive of the sacred things for the purpose of printing the sacred things, as I’ve said, and to the avails of the sacred things that are had in the treasury. So this sacred treasury is intended to get the Word of God out there. That could mean in a Joseph Smith date, it meant the revelations. They’re getting ready to publish the doctrine and covenants for the first time after their printing establishment in Missouri was destroyed. He also asked them to use it to carry out the work of the Lord.

And he says this verse 59 to prepare my people for the time which I should dwell among them, which is Ni in hand. This treasury, like the Savior says, has a seal placed upon it and is used to perpetuate and help with sacred things. But the Savior also talks about a second treasury. This is down in verse 67 where he says There shall be another treasury prepared, which I don’t know if that’s the best name to give it. We’ll just label it another treasury. Sometimes when I look at this, I think of it as the secular treasury, but I don’t like that line between sacred and secular because this really isn’t a secular act.

But he says all the money. This is verse 68 that you receive in your stewardship by improving upon the properties which I’ve appointed unto you in houses, in lands, or in cattle, or in all things save it be the Holy and sacred writings which I’ve reserved under myself for Holy and sacred purposes shall be cast in the treasury as fast as you receive monies. So they take the benefit from these other stewardship that they have from the lands, the properties, the buildings of the Church ones, and they use it to set up another treasury that’s used to improve the communities and the places that they live around them.

Using this as a governing principle of Church finance, let’s ask a couple of questions. The Church spends a significant amount of money every year on different projects. For instance, a lot of you are watching this on a mobile device and on mobile device. You’ve got Gospel Library, which is this comprehensive source that has almost everything that a Prophet is ever said ever and is updated continually and has a light and a dark mode and a lot of need Accruent. Would you say that that comes from the sacred treasury or the other treasury in 2021?

That’s what it looks like to get the words of God into someone’s hand. In 1834. It meant that you build a printing press and you print and you bind and put a book together in 2021. It means that you develop an app and you put the app on as Mary stores as possible so that as many people as possible can download it. It’s literally possible for you to talk to somebody on a different continent. Say, just download a copy of the Book of Mormon or download Gospel Library, and they can read and see and view almost anything that the Church is produced.

That would probably be an item that comes from the sacred treasury. Now, a few years ago in Salt Lake City, there was some controversy because the Church built all the City Creek Center that was built presidential specified, not from the timing or sacred funds of the Church, but from the church’s secular investments. We would say this would be an example of using items from the other treasury to make communities a little bit better. President Hinkley outlined the reasons for building that structure was because downtown Salt Lake was starting to falter, so the Church made an investment in the community that it was in using its secular funds.

One of the things that’s always been unique about our Church is this fusion between what other people see is the spiritual and the secular. In fact, an interesting story problem I sometimes presented my students is the Church owns the biggest theme park in the Hawaiian Islands. They own a theme park called the Polynesian Cultural Center. Maybe some of you have been there. Is that something that comes from the sacred treasury or the secular treasury? Well, this is a place where the two things might mix. The reason why the Polynesian Cultural Center exists is because BYU Hawaii is right next door.

They’re just separated by offense, and the students that come to BYU Hawaii come from all over the Pacific. In Asia, a lot of them come from places where it’s it’s really difficult for them to have enough money to attend school. So they need to work in the little town where Bai Hawaii was located. That’s layer there weren’t enough jobs to provide for all the students. So the Polynesian Cultural Center was built in order to give them jobs in order to assist them to pay for their schooling.

That’s helping them understand the word of God. That’s a sacred treasury responsibility. But it’s also beautifying and helping the community that they’re in. That’s another treasury item. I visited the Polynesian Cultural Center a couple years ago, and I walked up to this young lady who was weaving a palm front hat, and I walked up to her and said, do you feel like you’re being exploited for your labor? And she said, I used to make these for free back home. Now we charge $10 for each one.

I feel like I’m exploiting you. And I said, I don’t mind being exploited. Then they handed me a little smoothie inside of a hollowed out pineapple, and I was like, being exploited feels great. Frankly, it’s a case where the secular or what the world would call the secular and the spiritual are mingled together in order to accomplish the purposes of the Kingdom of God. And one thing the Econ 104 really brings out is this idea that a person that, like me, teaches the Gospel for a living isn’t making any greater contribution than a person that’s really good at accounting can towards the Kingdom, that everybody has these different gifts and abilities, and the Savior is able to use them to accomplish what he needs to accomplish.

You might not think about it, but when you’re out there, punch it in the numbers and doing the job that you’re doing, the Savior is thinking of ways to use your gifts to help the Church or help a Church member may be in a completely different country, but one last principle that the Savior puts in here, and this is around verse 78. This is a fairly long revelation. He says, this concerning your debt. It’s my will that you should pay all your debt built into the doctrine evidence.

And you can see this is early as section 19, where the Saviors telling them to pay off the printing for the Book of Mormon is this idea that we do what we can to get ourselves free from debt. He refers to it down in verse 83 as bondage. And the idea is if you’re in depth someone else, then you’re less likely to be able to use your talents, your gifts, and the blessings the Lord has given you to help other people as well. Now, another thing to take away from section 104 is just the timing Joseph Smith has on his mind the relief mission that he’s going to send to Independence to help them before he does that, though, he inquires of the Lord to make sure that the Saints in Kurtland Mary, he wants to have everything financially kind of under control before he has to take off and go on this kind of uncertain venture to go to Missouri and try and assist the Saints there.

And maybe a principle to take away from this too is that you’re limited in your ability to help others if you don’t take care of your own home, of the place that you’re at. Elder Christ offers on gave a talk where he said, Brad winning is a consecrated activity where you have to be at work and make sure that you are good at your job and competent at your job so that you can provide for the people back home. Now it’s possible for that to get out of balance and for you to become too focused on breadwinning and making money.

And then that causes all kinds of other problems. But if you’ve ever felt that paying a guilt and I know I have at having to spend an extra hour half hour accomplishing my job. It’s okay. Joseph Smith right here wants to make sure that the Church in Kirtland is financially secure before he has to leave and go to Missouri and on his way to Missouri. It’s nice to know that these principles of finance have been well established among the leaders of the Church. They are going to keep the home fires burning while he’s traveling to is the site in Missouri.

So this might seem like a strange interruption in the story of Zion’s Camp, which is the big story you want to tell in these sections, but it’s valuable to just show that Joseph Smith wasn’t the sort of person that would just run off on an adventure. He sat down and asked the Lord, what do we do to reorganize the Church and take care of everyone’s needs everywhere. Before we go and assist these people that are struggling, then you jump to Section 105, which takes place in a totally different context.

This is the only revelation that I know of this received at this specific location, and it comes after Joseph Smith and the men of Zions Camp. The men and women, I should say, have already traveled hundreds of miles to assist the Saints and Missouri. When they get there, they’re expecting big things to happen and big things do happen, but not necessarily the things that they were expecting to happen.

So as this Zion’s camp moved westward, word preceded them into Western Missouri. And what did the enemies of the Church do with those numbers?

So as they get closer and closer to Jackson County, and this revelation is received at the Fishing River, which is just outside of Jackson County. To the north, the Saints started to hear rumors that there’s a force being raised against them. In fact, they run into a woman who tells them there’s a group out here that aims to kill you, and they all get in defensive boat. They’ve got their weapons ready. They’re ready to fight. One person even beg Joseph Smith to prematurely seek out the people that were coming after them and attack them first.

They finally camp near a fork in the Fishing River, which is this little stream and five Ben right into the middle of their camp and tell them that they have raised 500 men from Jackson County and that that night they are coming to destroy them to wipe them out. At this point, everybody kind of gets their powder out, starts Loading their musket and says, Joseph, we’re ready to fight. According to Wilford Woodriff, Joseph Smith turns them and says, no, we’re not going to fight, brother Enos, stand still and see the Salvation of God.

Then Wilfred Woodrift gives the most vivid explanation. But he said, we saw a dark cloud appear on the horizon that then unfurled like a scroll. And then a storm of the most ferocity they’d ever witnessed broke upon Zion’s Camp and caused the river that separated them from this group of people that were coming to attack them several feet so that it was virtually impossible while the hailstone is falling. Everybody runs to seek shelter in this little Baptist Church that’s near Pie and Wilford Woodruff. Remember Joseph Smith coming in and shaking the water off of his coat and saying, Boys, this means something.

I think God is in this storm. So what we could technically call the Battle of Fishing River is the Lord intervening so that they don’t have to fight. It’s impossible for us to know how many people actually were coming to attack them, but they’re protected at least that night. And now it’s the next day. And they really are excited thinking we’ve seen the power of God manifests. It’s time for us to go in and take back our land, help our people, get them back to where they need to be.

Unfortunately, this is where the Lord’s expectations come into play and they don’t quite get what they were seeking.

Yeah, the difference between point B and Point Z. Joseph receives this revelation saying, Basically, well done, you pass this test, but it wasn’t you didn’t come here to fight. Look at verse five. The Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial Kingdom. Otherwise, I cannot receive her under myself. And my people must need to be chased until they learn obedience, even if Enos must needs be by the things which they suffer, which is an illusion. Over to Hebrews.

Chapter five, verse eight. Here’s this group of men, and you’ve got the women and children with them as well, but especially the men are ready to fight and they’re being told no, stand down. This is not the end result that the Lord had in mind for us. We all anticipated that’s what was going to happen, but not the Lord. A good friend, Mary Bigalow. He shared this concept once with me that we love the hem number 270. I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, I’ll say I’ll do.

I’ll be what you want me to be. And Mary said, I wish we had him right next to it. That said, I’ll stay where you want me to stay, dear Lord, because sometimes God asks you to stand down or to be still or to stay. Sometimes Saints are given the calling to stay. And can we be discipled? Can we serve the Lord in those settings as much as when he gives us the big go build an arc kinds of revelations and go on the signs. Camp March.

Yes, there’s Big huge endeavor. I’ll do that. But sometimes we falter when we’re asked to stay and serve in a more simple way as far as the world is concerned.

And you can see some of that in these sections. Right here. For instance, verse nine, it says, My elder should wait a little season for the redemption of Zion. In other words, they’re right there. They’re right on the edge of Jackson County, and they think that now they’ve got the power to go in and do it in the Savior saying, Hold up. And he gives a couple reasons why. For instance, in verse eleven, he says, this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high.

This is a reference to the building of the temple in Kurtland and the keys and powers that are going to be given to them. There. Lord says, I’ll fight your battles. But he also tells them if you jump down to verse 24, and this might hint a little bit at what he’s addressing about the motives of the people in Zion. Camp talk not of judgments. Neither boast of faith. The nor Almighty works but carefully gather together as much in one region as can be consistently with the feelings of the people.

In other words, even though these people were hostile towards them and had persecuted their friends and their family, the Lord said, you have to take into consideration them. You’re thinking you’re going to go in there and you’re going to wipe out the wicked and act as my destroyers. Lord says, no, you need to consider the feelings of the people. In fact, in verse 26, he says, this way you may find favor in the eyes of the people until the army of Israel becomes great. He even tells them how they’re going to get the land back.

In verse 28, he says, the lands in Jackson County should be purchased and the lands around about. In other words, he’s cutting off the Avenue that it seems like some of the elders and science camp wanted to follow, which was to use violence to get their lands back. They had been violently treated by the people in Jackson County, and they wanted to use violence in return to get back what they felt was their the Savior saying, We’re not going to do it that way. We’re going to do it peacefully.

You’re going to purchase the land sometimes hard for us to think in terms of minutes and hours and days to know that the Savior thinks in terms of decades and centuries and millennia. And we might have to wait a little bit longer because we still have among us those violent tendencies to want to go in and bring down fire and brimstone and destroy the people that we see as our enemies. The Savior saying, first of all, don’t see them as your enemies. And second of all, I can’t build a Holy city on a foundation of blood.

That’s just not how it’s going to work. It’s going to be built on principles of righteousness after you’ve gained the respect to the people, the love of the people, and you’ve legally obtained the land without violence or force.

It’s a beautiful principal, Casey, and you look at the way he ends the section that I would hope that we could see our own life and our own situation reflected here, not just the situation there at the Fishing River in Missouri. Look at verse 38. Again, I send you sue for peace not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people he wants. He wants his followers to be true. Peacemakers, not not war, mongers. Verse 39 Lift up an enzyme of peace. Make a proclamation of peace under the ends of the Earth.

I don’t know if you have family members or if you have colleagues at work or if you have neighbors or Ward members who there’s been tension or contention in the past. I think the Lord would be inviting us to say, let’s mend those bridges. Let’s lift up the banner of peace. Let’s freely forgive and let’s sue for peace rather than demand justice. Look at verse 40. Make proposals for peace under those who have smitten you according to the voice of the Spirit, which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good.

Therefore be faithful and behold and Lo. I am with you, even unto the end. Even so Amen. This section closes here the Fishing River and Casey, it wasn’t well received by everybody. Enzymes Campbell.

I don’t think so. And there is a coda to this story that’s important to understand the section that’s coming up next. Section 106 and section 107, Joseph Smith explains that because of unfaithfulness in the camp, a scourge will be put upon them and the camp is struck in with cholera, which is this terrible water board disease that makes almost everybody in the camp, including Joseph Smith, sick. Several members of the camp several real stalwarts in Church history, including Sydney Gilbert, who some of the earlier sections of the Doctrine Covenants were given to die.

Because of this, Joseph Smith loses a close cousin of his Jesse Smith, who’s the last person to die of cholera, and Zion’s Kemp, who marched triumphant across the plane, separates into smaller groups and goes back to Kurtland. But in those moments when Joseph Smith was close to dying, he may have been wondering who’s going to take over for me if anything happens. And that winter after they have traveled to Missouri and everybody’s made it back to Kurland, Ohio, Joseph Smith gathers together the priesthood in Curling, who are largely the same individuals that travels the science camp and gives this explanation of what happened.

He says, God did not want you to fight. He could not organize his Kingdom with twelve men to open the gospel doors to the nations of the Earth, and with 70 men under their direction to follow in their tracks unless he took them from a body of men who had offered their lives and who made his greatest sacrifice, as did Abraham. Nine members of the original quorum of the twelve were people that had marched on Zions Camp. 63 members of the original Corum in the 70 were people that had marched on Zions Camp as well.

And it seems like the end that the Savior was actually going for wasn’t to reclaim the lands in Jackson County. That’s going to happen. But in its own due time it was to train these men and have them demonstrate their level of faithfulness in order to set up the other councils in the Church. At this point, there’s already a first presidency that’s been around since 1833. Now there’s going to be a first presidency and a quorum of the twelve and a quorum of 70 underneath them to leave the Church and provide additional leadership, if anything were ever to happen to Joseph Smith, it’s almost a decade after this that that system fully comes into play.

But right now the lesson of Joseph Smith needed to learn from this was that councils were something that was important. Like Tyler said, revelation is distributed amongst a number of individuals. And even if you’re amazing and you are amazing, you’re wonderful. It’s good for you to hear from the voices of other people and learn from their perspective. It helps you be a better disciple. And it helps the process of revelation to fully flow within the Church.

Thank you for joining with us. Wherever you are. We hope you’ve been inspired and edified as you listen to these stories of past Saints who like you desire to be building the Kingdom of God. We want you to know wherever you are. God knows you. He knows your path, and he will bless you. We encourage you to fill his love in your life. Know that you’re loved. We encourage you to spread light and goodness wherever you go.