Tag: Joseph Smith

Chapter 6: The Final Restoration – Preparation for The Second Coming

Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles 

The door that Luther had opened was, as Winston Church observed:

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Now, more than 500 years later, we are still watching the beginning of the end of the old order unfold. The mere utterance of the name of the Roman Catholic Church no longer strikes terror in the hearts of the beholders. The Great and Mighty “Harlot” had fallen and her power over Kings and Empires is rendered impotent. Rising from the ashes of the corpse, phoenix like, are the children to who she gave birth – millions of faithful Catholics and protestants who now turn their love of Christ into deeds of compassion and service to humanity. Responding to the biblical teaching and voice of the Master from Galilee, they are motivated by a desire of obedience, faithfulness and love. This is the option they have chosen to prove themselves as followers of Christ.

Each generation gets their opportunity to prove themselves and decide which they want:  evil or good, liberty or bondage. Our generation today has no less of an opportunity. And I believe each and every generation of children will be afford their opportunities as well.

When Christ came to Earth for his mortal experience, there were many different Churches and voices calling from the shoals and rocks. His voice was one among many. Those who responded to him came and followed him with nothing but their faith. The call has been sounded again in our day, but now with more urgency. 

Never have the two sides (good and evil) been more divided, more driven, more subtle, and more persuasive. It is the same on-going drama. The scene changes, the players changed but the challenge is the same. And we will play our role accordingly. Here we stand, for good or bad, in trembling and fear, just as all others have done before us. It is now our turn.

The question from the mid-fifteenth century has evolved from “What is God like?” to “What is God?” The secular mind believes there is no God. It regards all regulations, laws and standards as having been man-made. And what man made for his convenience then, they reason, other men can un-make for their convenience today. 

Many of today’s generation sees families as financial death pits and marriage as the ultimate prevention of their freedom of expression. Morals are optional. Sex is okay between whomever and with whatever gender. They ignore the experience of those civilizations that have plowed this field before – those that discarded the social, moral and wisdom of centuries – and ultimately threw away the safeguards of civic security carefully crafted for human happiness and survival. They abandoned themselves to depravity and self-fulfillment. In the end, every society that embraced this lifestyle, self-imploded. We are on track to repeat the process. There are no exceptions. As Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, “The dice of God are always loaded.”  

This time the Church is beyond reformation from the top as Martin Luther attempted to achieve. These days, such Churches have become redundant. They lie prostrate, empty and ignored. 

When Christ came for the first time and was born in Bethlehem, there were people who had been waiting 4000 years – since the time of Adam and Eve – for his coming. Yet when he finally came, for the vast majority of the world he came and left unnoticed. It was a non-event. They were not expecting his birth to be in an animal stable, in a remote town, to unknown parents. 

His death, on the other hand, was much more newsworthy because of the controversy he caused while alive. Everybody had heard of the itinerant teacher Jesus. Perhaps they knew him by his other names, Joshua, Christ, or the Messiah. No matter which they called him, they knew him for good and for evil.

Rome had heard of him through their local Military Procurator, Pontius Pilot. Pilot was eager to appease the local Jewish authorities by signing the order for his execution. Herod, the Roman appointed Jewish King had heard of him, and attempted to execute him when the opportunity arose. 

The great number of his followers, both converts and the curious alike, had followed him night and day to hear him speak. Jesus had prophesied that he would rise from the dead (Luke 9: 22) and when he did, his name became even further renown.

Forty days after his resurrection, Christ was with his apostles on the Mount of Olives. When he ascended into Heaven, his stunned apostles watched in disbelief as he disappeared from their view. Meanwhile, two men in white apparel stood among them and asked:

“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” All this was carefully recorded in Acts 1: 11.

The world has been hanging onto this promise since that event. The second coming of Christ has been the theme of two millennium of intense anticipation. All Christians prayed as Christ had instructed them in Luke 11: 2:

“Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come…” 

John foresaw this restoration as recorded in Revelation 14: 6-7:

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every enation, and kindred, and tongue, and people…”

A modern Apostle, Mark E. Peterson, expressed these words regarding the period of preparation for receiving the Savior at his coming in his September 29, 1974 speech, The Great Prologue:

The restoration of the gospel should be seen “in the true perspective…a perspective of some two thousand years.”

1/ It involved the discovery of a new continent and its colonization of a select people.
2/ It encompassed wars between world powers of two centuries, even the renaissance of medieval Europe.
3/ It followed an awakening of mankind stimulated in the Dark Ages.
4/ It required struggle for the fundamental element of personal freedom.
5/ A fight for both religious and political liberty was fought over hundreds of years.
6/ The first establishment of Human rights began with the Magna Carta, 1215 A.D. and is continuing even to today.

Do you understand the steps that were taken? There was a great apostasy in the Eastern Hemisphere, then the preservation of the western Hemisphere. Next Columbus and the colonization movement. The revolutionary war to set the colonist free. Then a constitutional form of Government which guaranteed religious freedom, free speech and free press. All these events were acts of God leading up to one thing: The restoration of the Gospel.

“It was only half a dozen years or so after America was established as a free constitutional nation that one of the great spirits in the preexistence was sent to earth to be born Dec 23, 1805 in a little farmhouse: His name was Joseph Smith.”

The scene was now set to begin the fulfillment of the promise: “(He) shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1: 11.

In the spring of 1820, a young boy in his fifteenth year, named Joseph Smith, went into a grove of trees near his Father’s farm in his search for answers to his prayers regarding which church he should join. He records:

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other – This is my beloved son. Hear Him.” (Joseph Smith History 1: 16)

The Heavens had finally reopened. Jesus Christ had returned in a like manner as he had departed. He spoke to Joseph. The promised day of Salvation had dawned on the earth. The restoration of all things had begun.

Chapter 9: Discovery of Lost Scriptures

Part 2 From Apostates to Apostles 

1. Enoch

Enoch was the seventh of the Great Patriarchs who lived prior to the great Flood. While his name is mentioned several times in the Bible, we have all but noting regarding who he was and what he did. (See Genesis 5: 18-24, Luke 3: 37, Hebrews 11: 5 and Jude 1: 14-15) While it appeared the life and times of Enoch had been lost to the centuries, still rumors persisted that a Book of Enoch remained somewhere on earth.

The Book of Enoch

In 1773, while attempting to discover the source of the Blue and White Nile Rivers in Egypt, James Bruce of Scotland found himself in Ethiopia rummaging about in their archives, a permission he had not anticipated but had been granted by the generous hospitality of the King of Ethiopia.

It was there Bruce discovered some Abyssinian Manuscripts which also happened to include three copies of the Book of Enoch. On the pretense of borrowing them for study, he was allowed to take them from the monastery in which they had been stored for centuries.

Instead, Bruce hastily made his way to a waiting ship with Monastery guards hot on his heels. He managed to slip away and set sail for Europe. Knowing he had made the discovery of the century, he headed straight for Paris where one copy of the book was deposited in the Royal Library. Next he presented a copy to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in England. He kept the third for himself.

Instead of receiving fame and glory, Bruce earned only contempt and silence from his peers. The books were held by the Libraries in silence and all went on as if nothing had happened. It wasn’t until later that they received some of the attention they surely deserved. 

As for Bruce, the skeptical world accepted neither his claims of discovered the source of the Nile’s famous rivers or the discovery of the Book of Enoch. The world was no more interested in knowing anything about the mysteries or the contents of the Book of Enoch than they had been when they were sealed about 1700 years earlier.

The Book of Enoch: Richard Laurence Translation

In 1821, 48 years after the Bruce claims, Richard Laurence, a Bishop of Cashel, Ireland had heard about the Enoch copy at the Oxford Library. He was able to convince the authorities to allow him to read the Book. However, they were not interested to have him reveal anything about Enoch. They did allow him to read it but would not allow him to remove it from the room in which it was kept. Neither was a candle provided by which to read the old dusty manuscripts. In spite of all this opposition, Lawrence was able to laboriously copy the book by hand in the light of a drafty window. He worked years alone in the dampness. All his hard work and sacrificing finally bore fruit when his first edition proved so popular, it sold out quickly.

Translations of this version of the Book of Enoch are referred to as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch.

Enoch – as mentioned in The Book of Moses

About nine years later (between June 1830 and February 1831), Joseph Smith, living in the small rural town of Palmyra, New York, also recorded an account of the life of Enoch found in the Book of Moses, Chapter 6: 26 to Chapter 7: 69 —  a total of 111 verses. It consists of the experiences of Enoch when he was caught up in the Heavens with God. The account is very detailed and riveting.

According to this record, the Lord promised Enoch that if he would have the faith to obey, then God would protect him, and if he opened his mouth God would give him utterance. Enoch records his experiences in Moses 7: 3-69 and gives a complete description of being able to see the creations of God throughout the heavens. God further shows Enoch the souls that will reside on this earth and their future. From that humble start, Enoch goes through a transformation of character and begins to preach. He is so successful that he converts all the people of his city and it becomes a Holy City or Zion. Eventually they are translated as a group, removed to another realm where they are to prepare for the coming of Christ.

While the account in the Book of Moses is similar to the Ethiopian version, it is not identical. It is much more detailed and contains more dialogue between Enoch and God.

This fact that the Ethiopian copy and the Joseph Smith extract differ, did little to convince the enemies of Joseph Smith that he had not written the Book of Moses and The Book of Mormon himself. The ministers, preachers and clergy of his day simply assumed Joseph Smith was lying or engaged in a game of one-upmanship.

Given the difficulties Richard Laurence had obtaining access to the original Book of Enoch and the distances from Ireland to New York, coupled with the fact that the two never met or corresponded and that copies of Laurence’s book didn’t reach the vicinity of Palmyra until 1838-39, long after Joseph’s Enoch had been completed, it should be evident to anyone who bothered to check that Joseph’s claim to revelation should at least be considered.

Other Copies of the Book of Enoch

Later, more copies of the Book of Enoch surfaced. In 1857, manuscripts were discovered in St Petersburg, but the fact that there was an account of Enoch among them was not immediately noticed. This copy is considered the oldest and best account and is called “The Slavonic Enoch”. (It is also sometimes referred to as the Second Book of Enoch or 2 Enoch.) Only one translation was made of this manuscript and that was in 1896. (Click here for more information about the Ethiopic and Slavonic Books of Enoch.)

In 1927 Hugo Odeburg published a copy of the Book of Enoch, now called Third Enoch, which was originally in Hebrew.

In 1949 a Book of Enoch was discovered in the caves near the Dead Sea. It was given to Father J. T. Milik, but he kept the book hidden for twenty-seven years not allowing anyone access to it. Dated as written in the third century A.D., it includes the names of Mahijah  and Mahujah  – names recounted only in one other place, in the book produced by Joseph Smith. (See Moses 6:40 and Moses 7:2)

Why Might the Book of Enoch Have Become “Lost”?

It is understandable why Enoch’s writings were removed from canonized scripture when we consider the teachings of the early Christian Church Fathers. Having come to the false conclusion that Earth was the centre of God’s creations, they simply could not endure the constant references by Enoch to a Physical God who came and went and dwelt somewhere in the Cosmos. Every attempt to reconcile the Heavens and everything that in them were, ended up in contention amid the council members. To end this conflict his detractors determined to exclude his records from the Bible and even expunged his name altogether. From about the time of Origen and Hilary, Enoch had disappeared from all Christian and Jewish scriptures except where necessary for the continuity of genealogy and the begats. 

Along with Enoch went all references to the premortal life experience, the grand councils in Heaven, the war between Satan and God, the war in Heaven which resulted in Satan’s rejecting God’s plan for the salvation of his children. The knowledge that Christ accepted the plan and volunteered to become our saviour. That which was lost included the necessity for a saviour, the understanding of the atonement, the special mission of Christ and the Holy Ghost, the plurality of other worlds, the great plan laid down for the progress of the sons and daughters of God our Father, and reference of the life after mortal death. All gone. All made to disappear.

At this point in history the discovery has little to no effect on mainstream Christian Churches who are still struggling after 70 years, with the problem of how to approach the discrepancy of information contained in the materials recovered from the Dead Sea Caves and how to reconcile that with what is being taught as doctrine in their own Churches. Meanwhile millions of copies of the Book of Moses, which contains the story of Enoch, have been printed and distributed freely to the world since its first formal publication in 1851.

2. Noah

The only record actually claiming to be part of the “Book of Noah” is a fragment of a record written as a chapter in the Book of Enoch which contains details about Noah’s birth. A translation of this fragment reports that his father, Lamech, was afraid of Noah because of his appearance. He ran to his Father, Methuselah saying…

“I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike men, resembling the sons of God in Heaven. The hair of his head and his long locks were as white as wool and his eyes beautiful. The colour of his body is whiter than snow and redder than the bloom of a rose, and his eyes like the rays of the sun and he opened his eyes and lighted up the whole house.”

Methuselah called upon his father, Enoch, “from the ends of the earth” to calm Lamech. Enoch convinced Lamech that the babe he had begotten was mortal. None the less he commanded Lamech to call the boy, “Noah, for he shall be left to you and he and his sons shall be saved from the destruction that shall come upon the earth in his days.” 

This account is not in our scriptures. The physical description of Noah does lead one to believe he was Albino or in any other way physically extraordinary (Genesis 5: 29).

3/ Abraham

The first mention of Abraham (known at first as Abram) in the Bible is found in Genesis 11: 27. The genealogy that proceeds the narrative is very accurate but also very short of details. It is obvious that something is missing. Abraham is considered to be the father of the three great religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). But the information recorded in the Old Testament leaves many unanswered questions:

1/ How did Abraham’s brother die before his Father? (Genesis 11: 28)
2/ Where had Abraham spend the first 75 years of his life? (Genesis 12: 4)
3/ Did Abraham lie when he told the Pharaoh that Sarah was his Sister? (Genesis 12: 11-13)
4/ Why did God command Abram to “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy Father’s house, into a Land that I shall shew thee”. (Genesis 12: 1)
5/ Why was Abram’s name changed to Abraham? (Genesis 17: 5)
6/ How did Abraham come to be favored of the Lord? (Genesis 12: 2-3)

This story, as told by the Essenes and later passed to the Gnostics, is also found in various Midrashim (ancient commentaries) of the Jewish Talmud.

Abraham was born about 50 years before the death of Noah, in the days of the world’s worst and bloodiest tyrant, Nimrod. The society over whom he ruled had become a cesspool of immorality. Paranoid that the appearance of a new start in the sky indicated foreboding disastrous news, all Nimrod’s court soothsayers informed the King that this rare phenomenon was a sign that a new king had been born that would overthrow him. Hence the narcissistic Nimrod decreed that all children under the age of 2 were to be slaughtered. Abram/Abraham’s parents, Terah and his wife, had been notified by God before the birth of their child that he was special. He, like Jesus, had a specific role to play in God’s large scheme of human affairs. It was known in the community that Terah’s wife had just given birth to a baby boy, and so he was on the King’s list of parents who were expected to deliver the child up to be executed as per the decree of Nimrod. Terah was well known in the courts of Nimrod because his craft as a builder of idols had brought him to the attention of the King. Now, in a desperate decision between serving Nimrod or saving his son, Terah conceived of a desperate plan. One of Terah’s household female servants had also recently given birth to a son. Terah substituted that child for Abram/Abraham. That child was therefore brought before Nimrod and it was brutally murdered before Terah’s very eyes. Meanwhile the real Abram/Abraham was secreted away by his mother, to be raised by Seth, one of the sons of Noah.  (See: Abraham, Abraham’s Early Life and Nimrod and Abraham.) The story goes on to record the re-appearance of Abram/Abraham some 50 years later at the home of his Father in Ur – about the time when the Bible begins its telling of Abraham’s life story.

Other account have been discovered in more modern day, including The Apocalypse of Abraham and the Book of Abraham.

These accounts seem to provide plausible answers to questions and confirm parts of Abraham’s story, such as how he received the Priesthood of God. (It was passed from Adam until the flood, and via Noah and his son Shem to Abraham.)

Recently, scholars John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid and John Gee have compiled information gleaned from Christian, Jewish and Muslim sources and published their comparisons in a collection of books called “Studies in the Book of Abraham”. 

The common stories they relate tell of the struggles and adventures of Abraham and his wife Sarah who emerge from the sins and carnage of their times to become the leaders of their tribes, and prophetically are appointed and anointed to become the rulers of all nations in the future because of their righteousness and obedience. It also contains the accounts of the Earth’s spiritual and physical creation, the dramatic and life-changing events in the Garden of Eden, and the necessity for the fall of Adam and Eve, all of which were lost to the world. 

4/ Moses

The Biblical record of Moses does not stand alone. His life and writings are also recorded in the Torah and the Quran. Moses was a great political leader, a military commander, scholar, writer, historian, shepherd, emancipator, prophet of Gods, revelator, miracle worker, legislator, judge, and pioneer. In the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Moses starts with a resounding confirmation of the willingness of God to speak to man.  Moses finds himself on an exceedingly high mountain when God appears, not as a spirit of an incomprehensible nature. Instead, “…he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence.” (Moses 1: 2)

What We Gain From This Additional Information

We learn a lot about God and his prophets from the pages of these ancient writings. Yet this additional information is not unique in teaching us about the true nature of God.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Genesis 1: 26-27:

We have to wonder how the Christian churches failed so badly in their understanding of God when the very unaltered books they were referencing for the information, and that they recognized and canonized as scripture, had already spelled out in words impossible to misunderstand. We are created in God’s image. In no way does this demean or take away anything of the sacred nature and personality of God. What it does do is clarify our relationship to him and our potential as human offspring of noble, Godly parents.

We are Children of our God and have as our origin nothing short or less than we come from the courts where Gods dwell. We literally are children of our Heavenly Parents.

For as many as are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God… Ye have not received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry” Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness that we are the children of God: And if Children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ…
Romans 8: 14-17

Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits and live?
Hebrews 12: 9

The Lord instructed us to pray: Our Father, which art in Heaven…
Matthew 6: 9

Jesus saith unto her” Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say unto them,  I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”
John 20: 17

How much confusion and bloodshed could have been avoided if the early church fathers had stayed true to the teachings of Christ? Would man have been so willing to compete with such volatile indignation against his brother? Would he have so been as willingly to despise and kill knowing each person’s blood he spilled was that of his spiritual brother or his spiritual sister? All this critical knowledge removed and lost. No wonder man stumbled and became as brutish as the savage animals in the wilds. As predicted, the Children of God, not knowing their origins or destinies, became natural men and women, enemies to God. (Mosiah 3: 19-20)

Chapter 12: Bringing forth the Ancient Record Called the Book of Mormon

Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles 

New Testament: John 10: 16
“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring , and they shall hear my voice : and there shall be one fold and one shepherd”

Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 15: 11-17, 19-24
“And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he said unto those twelve whom he had chosen: Ye are my disciples; and ye are a blight unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph.
And behold, this is the land of your inheritance; and the Father hath given it unto you.
And not at any time hath the Father given me commandment that I should tell it unto your brethren at Jerusalem.
Neither at any time hath the Father given me commandment that I should tell unto them concerning the other tribes of the house of Israel, whom the Father hath led away out of the land.
This much did the Father command me, that I should tell unto them:
That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
But, verily, I say unto you that the Father hath commanded me, and I tell it unto you, that ye were separated from among them because of their iniquity; therefore it is because of their iniquity that they know not of you.
And verily, I say unto you again that the other tribes hath the Father separated from them; and it is because of their iniquity that they know not of them.
And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching.
And they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice—that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost.
But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me.”

Two of the most astounding discoveries that have occurred in recent time has been the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Both these records were different from all other discoveries in the sense they had been deliberately buried by a group of people who were witnessing the destruction of their civilizations and were determine to preserve their records so that they would come forth in the future and be a guide and direction for those living in the last days. 

Both accounts laid hidden for centuries to come forth untouched, in their purity. Consequently, they were protected from the tampering and tinkering of scribes and religious scholars who might have bend or distort the writings to comply with ever-changing philosophies. 

One may wonder why these ancient writings remained hidden for so long. The loss of the true gospel of Christ had been the cause of religious intolerance, persecution and bloodshed. The world needed a reformation for centuries. Instead, history reveals the records remained in the hands of a few who used them as an instrument of power and control. With so little direct access to scriptures, for all intents and purposes, they remained a sealed book written in languages only the rich and educated could read.

The world had to wait until a time when favourable conditions would allow the records to emerge without the threat of them – and those who believed their words — being destroyed.

The first of these favourable conditions was the weakening of the controlling power of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was able to survive where other reformers had been executed for challenging the authority of Rome. This opened the door for others to follow.

The second was Political freedom. In all cases in the European theatre, Monarchs and Kings determined which Church was the authorized representative of God, which Bible was to be used and in which language it would be read. Each made its own creed and any persons who failed to show obedience to these decrees would suffer severe penalties. And it was there, in the wild frontier of 19th century New England, that old and new intermingled. Settlers from the old country brought their traditional and reformed faiths. Many were based upon the doctrines established by Augustine. Confessions, obedience to the Pope and priest, the Holy Trinity, everlasting punishment, salvation for some, damnation for others. Those that died could expect to dwell in Heaven or Hell, saved through grace alone, or condemned to the burning of everlasting fires.

It was not until America was discovered and settled, and a New Constitution written that the opportunity to set up the restored gospel became a reality. Only in such a time could new ideologies be brought forth with a hope of surviving. Here, at last, was the freedom to choose for one’s self and not suffer death for religious expression.

The young American Nation was the most favourable place in the world at that time for the lost Gospel of Christ to be restored. Yet even with that freedom, the price was high, and tolerance low, for bringing about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, as Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum discovered. They paid with their lives, while those who followed suffered banishment.

The Book of Mormon covers about 1000-year period (from 600 BC to 400 AD) of the history of a specific civilization in ancient America. At that point their civilization was wiped out.

Joseph Smith, a farm boy in upper State New York, was directed by God to go a hill not far from his parent’s property, where records of that ancient civilization had been deposited by its last surviving prophet.

Engraved on plates (flattened gold sheets), the record was comprised of 15 main divisions or books. Joseph Smith translated the writings despite having little formal education and absolutely no experience in any language other than the American Frontier English.

Joseph attributes the astonishing achievement of translating the gold plates to assistance he received from God, which included the use of “seerer stones” also called the Urim and Thummin. (In Hebrew the term means “light and perfection”.) An instrument prepared of God to assist man in obtaining revelation from the Lord, references to their existence anciently can be found in Exodus 28: 30, Leviticus 8:8, Numbers 27: 21, Deuteronomy 33: 8, 1Samuel 28: 6, Ezra 2: 63 and Nehemiah 7: 65. 

Joseph Smith was not a scholar or philosopher. In the process of translating the record, restoring the Priesthood and organizing Christ’s Church, Joseph had many questions. He wrote down the answers he received, and they were eventually published in a book called the Doctrine and Covenants. Along with instructions regarding the restoration of Christ’s Church and Priesthood, Joseph was also given information about the application of principles, rules and the commandments.

Of interest to us all is the differences of doctrinal understanding between traditional Christian Churches and that of Joseph’s translation of the ancient record and his modern revelation – which have subsequently been carried on through the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. The following list outlines many of those differences. Although it is quite extensive, it is by no means complete.

1/ The necessity of a living prophets and continuous revelation from God.
2/ The concept of a plan of salvation whereby mankind may qualify for salvation.
3/ The concept of personal progression which began before this earth life.
4/ The knowledge that man is co- eternal with God: Man did not come into existence at the time of his earthly biological birthday.
5/ The knowledge that we are literal children of a Heavenly Father and Mother.
6/ The knowledge that there are necessary ordinances for salvation instituted by God — but they of themselves will
not save us. Instead these ordinances are part of process that will, through the testing of our obedience, bring us closer to Christ and help us become more like his character.
7/ All of God’s commandments, laws and ordinances are for the eternal growth of mankind and not for the punishment or the penalizing of his children.
8/ God is a loving and patient parent whose “work and glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of mankind.”
9/ The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct personages. The Father and the Son have bodies of flesh, as we have, but the Holy Ghost is a being of spirit matter.
10/ Men will be punished for their own sins and not the sins of Adam and Eve. (See: Article of Faith 2)
11/ God speaks through prophets and reveals his will through them for the salvation of his children. As in days past, he speaks to his chosen prophets today and will always do so unless we become disobedient and reject his prophets. In which case, God will withdraw his spirit, and miracles will cease. 
12/ When God speaks to his prophets, they are commanded to record what he says. These records are called scriptures. All such scriptures are for our edification and are considered binding. We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal and that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. (See: Article of Faith 9)
13/ Part of the great work for the salvation of mankind is the work done in the God’s temples. There, all ordinances necessary for the salvation of man can be done, for one’s self as well as for those who have died before hearing the gospel. Work is done by proxy for those who for one reason or another were unable to do this important work for themselves.

The mandate given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its followers is to go throughout the world and bring the message of the restoration of these truths to all persons of all nations. (See Matthew 28: 19-20) As a result, the Church’s population has grown from a handful in 1830 to over 16 million in 2016. This is still a small percentage of the world’s population. Obviously so much has yet to be done before we see the time when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.”

Over 80,000 missionaries are voluntarily fulfilling this mandate throughout the world today as witnesses and examples to the truthfulness of this divine message. They invite all to come unto Christ.

Doug Garrett