Let the Mountains Shout for Joy!

I've never read a passage of scripture more excited than Doctrine and Covenants 128:18-24. Joseph's energy in it makes me want to get just as excited about the Gospel. When I think about it with the right attitude, it's really obvious why we should be so. Just look at the doctrine contained in Section 128: God has given the righteous dead the opportunity to receive all the blessings possible from the ordinances of the gospel of Christ, and he has given his mortal saints the privilege of facilitating such a magnificent work! Not only that, but, having been raised in the restored gospel, I have had the immense gift of being one of the "babes and sucklings" who receive knowledge kept from the world for centuries (128:18)! Life is amazing!

Without A Hurt the Heart is Hollow

If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art among perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; [i]f thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can't you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; [a]nd if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

Doctrine and Covenants 122:5-7

Sure they will. Why not? The only problem is that when asked how affliction will be for your good, most people will just regurgitate a trite Sunday school answer about how you will get stronger from it. Stronger to what end? To deal with more affliction, of course. The don't think about it enough to realize that this reply utterly begs the question.

Fortunately, soon after this fallacy occurred to me, I realized that the Book of Mormon contains a real answer to the question: For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, ... righteousness could not have been brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility (1 Nephi 2:11). You simply can't have happiness without misery. By giving us greater pain, the Lord opens up the possibility of greater happiness if we endure it well.

In my choir concert this weekend, we sang a set of mostly bittersweet pieces about remembering, including "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks. The first two verses tenderly ask the listener to recall simpler, happier times "when life was so tender that no-one wept except the willow." The third verse, though changes tack a little:

Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December our hearts will remember
And follow.

We can't have joy without pain. It's simply not possible, and I'm okay with that. My life is full of both righteousness and wickedness, holiness and misery, good and bad, corruption and incorruption, sense and insensibility; but it is full, above all, of joy. I don't like the bad things when they come, of course, and they sometimes sting pretty badly long after the fact, but I wouldn't forget them for anything.

The Patriarchal Priesthood

It is the duty of the Twelve,in all large branches of the church, to ordain evangelical ministers, as they shall be designated unto them by revelation—the order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son,and rightly belongsto the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made (Doctrine & Covenants 107:39-40).

I had never thought of evangelists, or patriarchs, belonging to a separate order of the priesthood. I heard about it in class the other day and thought it sounded a little strange, but it's right there in the Doctrine & Covenants. It seems to be, just as everything else is, a subset of the Melchizedek Priesthood, since the power and authority of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church (Doctrine & Covenants 107:18).

It's interesting that the text doesn't mention who may act as an evangelical minister in case nobody can be found of the proper lineage. After all, several verses explain what to do if no literal descendant of Aaron can be found to act as a bishop. Is there some other place in the scriptures that tells us where we get our patriarchs in this case?

On Church Disciplinary Councils

Doctrine & Covenants Section 102 prescribes the formation of a high council of the Church to resolve disciplinary matters too great for the bishoprics. I didn't really get anything new from it this week. I've read it many times, and the procedures laid out in it are pretty simple. Actually, I guess that's a notable fact: Church disciplinary councils are much simpler than criminal courts. They don't have to worry about memorizing the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or anything like that. That's a pretty big deal. I'm so glad my church's ecclesiastical leadership isn't an overblown, over-regulated bureaucracy.

"Renounce War and Publish Peace"

In Doctrine & Covenants 98, the Lord lays out the law of war:

And again, this is the law that I gave unto mine ancients, that they should not go out unto battle against any nation, kindred, tongue, or people, save I, the Lord, commanded them. And if any nation, tongue, or people should proclaim war against them, they should first lift a standard of peace unto that people, nation, or tongue; and if that people did not accept the offering of peace, neither the second nor the third time, they should bring these testimonies before the Lord; then I, the Lord, would give unto them a commandment, and justify them in going out to battle against that nation, tongue, or people.

Doctrine & Covenants 98:33-36

He also states, however, that his saints are to "renounce war and proclaim peace" (Doctrine & Covenants 98:16).

My brother, Cameron, just treated his first US casualty at a combat outpost somewhere in Afghanistan. He left to war about two months ago after joining the Army as a medic earlier this year.

I always knew—logically, at least—that war is bad. I've even been vaguely frightened before that it would come more directly to this country. Now, though, one of my best and oldest friends is in some amount of continual mortal danger, and war is genuinely and personally scary.

War is serious business. Even God's permission to fight doesn't make it a good idea to do so. Wars last and escalate, and thousands on thousands of other people's brothers are going to end up in it, too.

The Most Amazing Thing that Never Happened

Doctrine & Covenants 93:23 has just made my afternoon terribly unproductive:

Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth.

How am I supposed to get through today's study when I've started wondering what exactly it means to be "in the beginning" and, by extension, why anything exists at all?

I've wondered these things before, fortunately forgetting them quicky amidst much more pressing, mundane matters. I never really resolved the question, though. I know next to nothing about physics and cosmology, but it seems to me that I would have heard by now if they had fully developed a satisfacty explanation. Perhaps there was a Big Bang, but what went "bang" in the first place? Whether scientifically or spiritually based, ex nihilo creation is utterly nonsensical. I've gotten so confused by the matter that today it even occurred to me to think that, in fact, the universe doesn't exist.

That one thought pretty quickly showed me what was wrong with my reasoning: I've always assumed that existence was an anomaly amidst a prevalence of nothing, that there had to be a cause for it. Obviously, though, things do exist, and my premises are therefore wrong. There is a universe, and it doesn't matter why or how it got here because maybe it didn't. The beginning of existence is probably the most amazing thing that never happened.

That wasn't as overtly spiritual as may have been expected here, but really, all subjects, spiritual and scientific, are one in the end. this question, in particular, is exceedingly important to the understanding or even acceptance of spiritual concepts. At any rate, now I can finally return to everyday, rational thought.

The Key to the Knowledge of God

And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies must be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him;for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.

Doctrine & Covenants 88:67-8

I never understood this well at all. Single eyes and bodies full of light always sounded like a load of gibberish. It finally started to make sense, though, when I combined it with another scripture I read the other day: For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world: and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit (Doctrine & Covenants 84:45-6).

So the light comes from the Spirit. It's not a very substantial fact by itself, but having made that first connection, I easily thought of the following familiar verses:

• The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth (Doctrine & Covenants 93:36).
• For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39).
• And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).

Let's piece these together:

• The Holy Ghost gives us light.
• Light is synonymous with glory and truth.
• Glory is in the eternal life of man.
• Eternal life is to know God.

The sum of these verses is to begin to explain the role of the Holy Ghost in bringing about eternal life. They also add some meaning to Doctrine & Covenants 84:19, which says that the Melchizedek Priesthood holdeth the key of... the knowledge of God. I've occasionally wondered what exactly the Lord means by the key of the knowledge of God, but it now appears that he is referring directly to the key of the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is not otherwise specifically mentioned in his description of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

So it turns out that the gift of the Holy Ghost, as the means to eternal life, is kind of a bigger deal than we might often think. Elder David Bednar was kind enough to neatly summarize this for me:

Praying, studying, gathering, worshipping, serving, and obeying are not isolated and independent items on a lengthy gospel checklist of things to do. Rather, each of these righteous practices is an important element in an overarching spiritual quest to fulfill the mandate to receive the Holy Ghost. The commandments from God we obey and the inspired counsel from Church leaders we follow principally focus upon obtaining the companionship of the Spirit. Fundamentally, all gospel teachings and activities are centered on coming unto Christ by receiving the Holy Ghost in our lives.