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Moral Agency and the Constitution

Nov 1

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Freedom | 2 Comments

Amber and I started reading “Moral Agency” by Elder Todd D. Christofferson which he gave on January 31, 2006 while he was a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. I believe he gave this at a BYU devotional or something.

We read this part:

“In years past, we generally used the term free agency. That is not incorrect, but more recently we have taken note that free agency does not appear as an expression in the scriptures. They talk of our being “free to choose” and “free to act” for ourselves and of our obligation to do many things of our own “free will.” But the word agency appears either by itself or, in Doctrine and Covenants, section 101, verse 78, with the modifier moral: “That every man may act in doctrine and principle . . . according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment”

I mentioned to Amber how this scripture was in relation to the Constitution of the United States and I looked up D&C 101:76-80 to read the preceeding verses to get the full context. Then I noticed something I had never noticed about this scripture before.

In verse 77 the Lord states: “According to the laws and aconstitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the brights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;”

Then in verse 80 He says: “And for this purpose have I established the aConstitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the bshedding of blood.”

I had never noticed before that in verse 77 He says “constitution” with a lowercase “c”. In verse 80 He says “Constitution” with an uppercase “c”. I’d be very interested to know if that was the case with the original writing of the revelation or if that was changed in subsequent revisions. In either case it is significant.

I think in verse 77 it is probably referring to the actual US constitution together with the constitution of the people or the disposition of the people. Here is a definition of constitution that I got from encarta:

“composition of something: the parts or members of something, or the way in which they combine to form it. Ie: “challenge the constitution of the jury”

So in this context I believe it’s referring to the mixture of the beliefs of the people and how they are choosing to apply, interpret, and abide by the laws of the land. Can also have reference to the changes that the people have made to the original constitution.

In verse 80 there can be no question that the Lord is referring to the actual original Constitution that He established through the founding fathers. So, there is a distinction between the original and the current together with the changes that the people have supported and agreed to.

What I don’t quite understand in verse 77 is that He says they should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles. I’m thinking this might be referring to the need to maintain those laws which are constitutional and work in general to maintain the original constitution.

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Problems and Love

Oct 30

Posted by mbrinson in Gospel | No Comments

Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.

President Thomas S. Monson

via LDS.org – Ensign Article – Finding Joy in the Journey.

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Lost tribes – The north countries

Oct 19

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Last Days | No Comments

These revelations will, doubtless, be among the records which the tribes are to bring forth in the latter-days, and which are to be united with the Bible and the Book of Mormon, showing the dealings of God among these three separate sections of the house of Israel, bringing to pass the sayings of the prophets of old, and aiding in the consummation of the great work of the latter-days. Thus, while the gathering of scattered Israel is being partly fulfiled in the bringing in of people who are of the blood of Israel from the various nations where it was scattered, there is yet to come to pass the word of the Lord a portion of which is here cited, and we may confidently look for its fulfilment as literally as that concerning the house of Joseph and their record, and the house of Judah and their record.

We recommend students on this problem of the probable locality of a body of Israelites, descendants of the tribes that escaped from Assyria, and concerning whom great promises have been made, to look at a globe showing the conformation and countries of the earth, about which something is known, or a plan of the earth’s surface, exhibiting both hemispheres, and then, with the understanding that the Ten Tribes, in their journey from Assyria northward, passed through continental Europe away up to the regions of ice on that hemisphere, and they will see the possibility, even the probability, of the existence of a body of people who will yet fulfil to the very letter the predictions of ancient prophets concerning their restoration in the latter-days. This will detract nothing from the views held concerning the great work of gathering of the people who have been mixed among the Gentiles, and whom the Lord is gathering from the east and the west, the north and the south, and giving them an inheritance in Zion.


via ldslastdays.com -> “Something about the last days” – Charles W. Penrose

Amber and I spent a little bit of time looking at google maps and seeing what could be seen of the area Elder Penrose mentions here.  It’s interesting to see just how much of the earth we probably know next to nothing about.  In an age when we can see all of the world (like on google maps) it seems like we must know everything about it all.  That is obviously not the case.  There is so much we don’t know.

Crazy to think that there could actually be people living in ice conditions like that.

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12 tribes of Israel

Oct 7

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Gospel | No Comments

The blood of Judah, though mingled with the blood of the Gentiles, carries its own identity with the power of reproduction through all its generations.

The Ten Tribes, so-called, that were taken captive into Assyria, are destined, according to Biblical prophecy, to be gathered in the latter-days and become a great power in the earth. The Hebrew prophets–notably Isaiah, 11th chapter, Jeremiah, chapters 30 and 31, Ezekiel, chapter 37, and Zechariah, chapters 12 and 13–graphically describe the gathering of both Judah and Israel, the former to Jerusalem, the latter to a land chosen for them as specially bestowed upon Joseph, (Gen. 49:26; Deut. 33:15-17) who held the birthright in place of Reuben, who forfeited it through transgression.

via LDSLastDays.com – Penrose – “Something About the Lost Tribes”.

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Remember Lot’s wife

Sep 23

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Gospel | No Comments

So, if history is this important — and it surely is — what did Lot’s wife do that was so wrong?
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Apparently what was wrong with Lot’s wife is that she wasn’t just looking back, but that in her heart she wanted to go back.
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It is possible that Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind.
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So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly.  In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.
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The past is to be learned from but not lived in.   We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future — faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.  So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say she did not have faith.   She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she had.
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There is something in us, at least in too many of us, that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life — either mistakes we ourselves have made or the mistakes of others.   That is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ. To be tied to earlier mistakes — our own or other people’s — is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist.
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Perhaps at this beginning of a new year there is no greater requirement for us than to do as the Lord Himself said He does: “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more” (D&C 58:42).  The proviso, of course, is that repentance has to be sincere, but when it is and when honest effort is being made to progress, we are guilty of the greater sin if we keep remembering and recalling and rebashing someone with their earlier mistakes, and that “someone” might be ourselves.
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Forgive, and do that which is harder than to forgive.  Forget.  And when it comes to mind, forget it again. You can remember just enough to avoid repeating the mistake, but put the rest of it on the dung heap Paul spoke of to those Philippians.  Dismiss the destructive and keep dismissing it, until the beauty of the Atonement of Christ has revealed to you your bright future, and the bright future of your family and your friends and your neighbors.  God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are, and with His help, where you are willing to go.
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This is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year — and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life.
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Somewhere on that path we stopped and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.  Life that day seemed overwhelming, and the undergraduate plus graduate years we still had before us seemed monumental, nearly insurmountable.
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On a spot which I could probably still mark for you today, I turned to Pat and said something like, “Should we give up? I can get a good job and carve out a good living for us.  I can do okay without a degree.  Should we stop trying to tackle what right now seems so difficult to face?” In my best reenactment of Lot’s wife I said, in effect, “Let’s go back.  Let’s go home.  The future holds nothing hopeful for us.”
Then my beloved little bride did what she has done for 45 years since then.   She grabbed me by the lapels and said, “We are not going back.  We are not going home. The future holds everything hopeful for us.”
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Will I be safe?  Will life be sound?   Can I trust in the Lord and in the future?  Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to go home?
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To all such of every generation I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.”  Faith is for the future.  Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there.  Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ is the “high priest of good things to come.”

Excerpts from Elder Holland’s talk on Lot’s wife and looking to the future with faith.

via LDS Church News – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: Remember Lot’s wife.

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Kingdoms and being translated

Sep 21

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

At his coming a great many of the faithful dead will be resurrected and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And some of the righteous who are then living upon the earth will be changed from mortality to immortality in the twinkling of an eye to join that impressive company in the air. Certainly this is something to look forward to.

At the time of Adam’s fall, a curse was placed upon the earth, and since then it has existed in its fallen or telestial state. For nearly six thousand years it has brought forth thorns, thistles, and noxious weeds, while crime, corruption, war, and sin have flourished upon its face. But at the second coming of Christ, the earth will be cleansed by fire. It will then be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory as it is raised to the status of a terrestrial sphere.

via LDSLastDays.com.

Learned two new things in our companionship study this morning.  Not only will there be the faithful dead who are raised from the dead at the coming of Christ and will be caught up to meet Him in the air, but also some of the righteous who are living will be translated at His coming and will be caught up to meet Him.

Also, hadn’t realized or thought about how the earth will be raised to the status of a terrestrial sphere at the coming of Christ.  Relates a lot to the temple.  The earth starts out in a telestial state of existence, changes or passes through to a terrestrial state at the second coming, and then finally will change to a celestial state at the end of its temporal existence.

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Physical death

Sep 17

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Gospel | No Comments

Studying PMG, P. 52.  Reading in Bible Dictionary under “Death” -> Each person suffers only one physical death, since when once resurrected, the body can die no more (Alma 11: 42-45).

Also read Bible Dictionary under “Resurrection” -> The resurrection consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided.

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General notes on D&C 84

Sep 17

Posted by mbrinson in Gospel, Scripture Study | Comments off

1 A arevelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and six elders, as they bunited their hearts and clifted their voices on high.
2 Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the arestoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his bprophets, and for the cgathering of his dsaints to stand upon eMount Zion, which shall be the city of fNew Jerusalem. Whole purpose in the establishment of the church is for the restoration of the Lord’s people and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion.




Mount Zion is the city of New Jerusalem.
3 Which city shall be abuilt, beginning at the btemple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and cdedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.
4 Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city aNew Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which btemple shall be creared in this dgeneration.
 Generation can mean the saints will remain as a distinct people as in Matthew 24:34 as pointed out by James E. Talmage in “Jesus the Christ” in notes to chapter 32.




5. “This Generation.”—Consult any reliable unabridged dictionary of the English language for evidence of the fact that the term “generation,” as connoting a period of time, has many meanings, among which are “race, kind, class.” The term is not confined to a body of people living at one time. Fausett’s Bible Cyclopedia, Critical and Expository, after citing many meanings attached to the word, says: “In Matthew 24:34 ‘this generation shall not pass (viz. the Jewish race, of which the generation in Christ’s days was a sample in character; compare Christ’s address to the “generation,” 23:35, 36, in proof that “generation” means at times the whole Jewish race) till all these things be fulfilled’—a prophecy that the Jews shall be a distinct people still when He shall come again.”
5 For verily this generation shall not all apass away until an bhouse shall be built unto the Lord, and a ccloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the dglory of the Lord, which shall fill the house.
6 aAnd the bsons of Moses, according to the Holy Priesthood which he received under the chand of his father-in-law, dJethro;
7 And Jethro received it under the hand of Caleb;
8 And Caleb received it under the hand of Elihu;
9 And Elihu under the hand of Jeremy;
10 And Jeremy under the hand of Gad;
11 And Gad under the hand of Esaias;
12 And Esaias received it under the hand of God.
13 aEsaias also lived in the days of Abraham, and was blessed of him—
14 Which aAbraham received the priesthood from bMelchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till cNoah;
15 And from Noah till aEnoch, through the lineage of their fathers;
16 And from Enoch to aAbel, who was slain by the bconspiracy of his brother, who creceived the priesthood by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father dAdam, who was the first man—
17 Which apriesthood bcontinueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without cbeginning of days or end of years.
18 And the Lord confirmed a apriesthood also upon bAaron and his cseed, throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and dabideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.
19 And this greater apriesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the bkey of the cmysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the dknowledge of God.
20 Therefore, in the aordinances thereof, the power of bgodliness is manifest.
21 And without the ordinances thereof, and the aauthority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is bnot manifest unto men in the flesh;
22 For without this no aman can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.
23 Now this aMoses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to bsanctify his people that they might cbehold the face of God;
24 But they ahardened their hearts and could not endure his bpresence; therefore, the Lord in his cwrath, for his danger was kindled against them, swore that they should not eenter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory.
25 Therefore, he took aMoses out of their midst, and the Holy bPriesthood also;
26 And the lesser apriesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the bkey of the cministering of angels and the dpreparatory gospel;
27 Which agospel is the gospel of brepentance and of cbaptism, and the dremission of sins, and the elaw of fcarnal commandments, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until gJohn, whom God raised up, being hfilled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb.
28 For he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was aordained by the angel of God at the time he was beight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to cmake straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the dcoming of the Lord, in whose hand is given eall power.
29 And again, the aoffices of elder and bishop are necessary bappendages belonging unto the high priesthood.
30 And again, the offices of ateacher and deacon are necessary appendages belonging to the lesser priesthood, which priesthood was confirmed upon bAaron and his sons.
31 Therefore, as I said aconcerning the sons of Moses—for the sons of Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable boffering and sacrifice in the house of the Lord, which house shall be built unto the Lord in this generation, upon the consecrated cspot as I have appointed—
32 And the sons of Moses and of Aaron shall be filled with the aglory of the Lord, upon bMount Zion in the Lord’s house, whose sons are ye; and also many whom I have called and sent forth to build up my cchurch.
33 For whoso is afaithful unto the obtaining these two bpriesthoods of which I have spoken, and the cmagnifying their calling, are dsanctified by the Spirit unto the erenewing of their bodies.
34 They become the asons of Moses and of Aaron and the bseed of cAbraham, and the church and kingdom, and the delect of God.
35 And also all they who receive this priesthood areceive me, saith the Lord;
36 For he that receiveth my servants areceiveth me;
37 And he that areceiveth me receiveth my Father;
38 And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s akingdom; therefore ball that my Father hath shall be given unto him.
39 And this is according to the aoath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.
40 Therefore, all those who receive the apriesthood, receive this boath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved.

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Prieshood blessings

Sep 15

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Scripture Study | Comments off

Reading through D&C 84 and taking notes of the blessings associated with receiving and keeping the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood.

  • The church has been established for the express purpose of restoring his people, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem. (verse 2)
  • Men gain eternal life through the oath and covenant of the priesthood.

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"Generation"

Sep 14

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Scripture Study | No Comments

From “Notes to chapter 32″ from James E. Talmage’s “Jesus The Christ”:

5. "This Generation." -- Consult any reliable unabridged dictionary of
the English language for evidence of the fact that the term "generation," as
connoting a period of time, has many meanings, among which are "race, kind,
class." The term is not confined to a body of people living at one time.
Fausett's Bible Cyclopedia, Critical and Expository, after citing many
meanings attached to the word, says: "In Matthew 24:34 `this generation shall
not pass (viz. the Jewish race, of which the generation in Christ's days was a
sample in character: compare Christ's address to the "generation," 23:35, 36,
in proof that "generation" means at times the whole Jewish race) till all
these things be fulfilled' -- a prophecy that the Jews shall be a distinct
people still when He shall come again."

I believe this also applies to what is said in D&C 84:4-5:
4)  Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation.
5)  For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house.”

It does say “reared” which I’m out of time to study further but still need to.

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