Sunday, March 29, 2009

Lessons 10-11: Revelations given to Emma Smith, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, and others

Beware of pride
(Told to Emma D&C 25:14; to Oliver CowderyD&C 23:1; to the Saints in a conference of the Church D&C 38:39; to the First Presidency of the Church D&C 90:17; to the Saints in Kirtland D&C 98:19–20)

What is pride? It's putting me ahead of God.
It's like listing my priorities:
1. Me
2. God

Pride is nothing more than pure selfishness. Me before you. What I want is more important than what you want.

The exact opposite of pride is love. I set God as my number one priority. If I love God, I let his will direct my decisions.

If you love another person, you are effectively setting their needs ahead of your own. Love is nothing more than pure selflessness -- also defined as charity, or the pure love of Christ. Think about it: he gave absolutely everything he had, including the last remnants of his life, he literally died for your sake. That is pure love. Not a speck of pride (selfishness) was in him.

Ezra Taft Benson was the president of the Church from 1985 to 1994. (FYI, he was followed by Howard W. Hunter, who was president for about a year, then Gordon B. Hinckley, who was president from 1995 to 2008.)

Anyway, President Benson delivered a timeless talk on pride. It's been quoted ever since. It's a classic. Here's some of what he wrote:
"Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means 'hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.'

Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s … in the spirit of ‘my will and not thine be done.’ Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled.

Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.

Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them. Pride … is manifest in so many ways, such as fault-finding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous.

Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. ‘How everything affects me’ is the center of all that matters—self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.

Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride.

The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives" (Conference Report, Apr. 1989, 3–6; or Ensign, May 1989, 4–7).


To paraphrase Elder Marvin J. Ashton, former apostle, when others live in angry silence or vocal disgust, what a joy it is to see someone of good cheer. Instead of becoming resentful, critical, or defeated, if we can recall the Lord’s promise, ‘for I the Lord am with you,’ we will be able to face our problems with dignity and courage (in Conference Report, Apr. 1986, 84–85; or Ensign, May 1986, 66).

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Lessons 8-9: Restoration of the priesthood, and organization of the Church

Current priesthood organization
(For the benefit of young women or newer members or long-time members who are still confused about the whole thing.)

Aaronic Priesthood offices
Deacon [12+] (DQ president is from their own quorum)
Teacher [14+] (TQ president is from their own quorum)
Priest [16+] (PQ president is the bishop)

Melchizedek Priesthood offices
Elder (EQ president from their own quorum)
High Priest (HPQ president is the stake president -- that's why ward's have high-priest groups
Patriarch (forgot about this in class, not sure if there's a quorum, but it is an office in the Melchizedek Priesthood)
Seventy (used to be a stake-level office/calling, now it's an area/general authority-level calling; BTW the 1st and 2nd Quorums of Seventy are general authorities -- the 3rd through 8th are area authorities; as needed more of the area-authority quorums of seventy will be added as the church grows)
Apostle (usually only 12 in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, plus three in the First Presidency; the one who has been in the Quorum the longest [not the oldest!] traditionally becomes the next president of the Church; the new president traditionally chooses his counselors from the other Quorum members to create a new First Presidency; all 15 of these men are referred to as prophets, seers, and revelators -- the entire Church sustains them as such every April in General Conference)

It Will Fill the World
Wilford Woodruff records: “In April of 1834, I arrived, a newly baptized member in Kirtland, Ohio. It was the first time I have ever seen the Prophet Joseph Smith and he invited me home with him. The next evening the Prophet called on all who held the Priesthood to gather into a little log school house. It was small, perhaps 14 feet square, but it held the whole of the priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ who were then in Kirtland. That was the first time I had ever seen Oliver Cowdery or heard him speak. The first time I ever seen Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. The Prophet called upon those present to bear testimony of this work. Those I had named spoke as well as many others. When they got through the Prophet said:
'Brethren, I have been very much edified and instructed in your testimonies here tonight, but I want to say to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend it. It is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America—it will fill the world.'"
(Wilford Woodruff, in Conference Report, Apr. 1898, p. 57).

The Standard of Truth
"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done" (Joseph Smith Jr., History of the Church 4:540).

This statement is the closing paragraph of the Wentworth Letter, which is also the source of our 13 Articles of Faith.