Come Follow Me Insights (Doctrine and Covenants 89-92, Aug 16-22)

i'm taylor and i'm tyler and i'm jared ludlow this is book of mormon central's come follow me insights today doctrine and covenants sections 89 through 92. we have our friend and colleague with us today jared ludwell who is an expert in ancient scripture with particular expertise in the apocrypha or inter-testamental literature so as section 91 deals with the apocrypha we'll spend some time learning with jared what the apocrypha is and why it might be of interest to us so we have lots of great things to talk about today we'll bring jared back on when we get to section 91 to learn more about the apocrypha but we want to begin first with the word of wisdom section 89. a lot to talk about here yeah this particular section has such an amazing history in our church the the foundation obviously being this question that that was brought up of you're in the upstairs room of the newell k whitney store where the school of the prophets you've got these these men coming together 21 or 22 men on this particular occasion and brigham young wasn't there on this exact day but he describes the struggle at the school of the prophets where joseph would come into this room to talk about these lofty things of god and building up the kingdom of god on the earth and he's he's looking at this room filled with men through a cloud of smoke tobacco smoke that was so thick that you could you had a hard time seeing people and they're all spitting their tobacco on the floor and emma's having to clean that up and there are a lot of a lot of questions about is this is this really how we should should act when we're trying to build up the kingdom of god yeah is this helping us be prepared to receive revelation and i also find it instructive that the revelation is driven by questions particularly emma like is this the way it needs to be and what the invitation is for all of us is to ask questions now sometimes you hear some people saying doubt is a good thing and we mentioned this last year doubt comes from the word duel which means to on forking paths you kind of get damned by being stuck on not knowing which way to go god does not tell us to doubt he tells us it's okay to ask questions doesn't he tell us ask and you shall receive and emma asks joseph and he asks in fact one of the people who participated in this said joseph smith's joseph's face glowed his countenance glowed as he received this revelation but again the invitation to all of us is that it's okay to ask good questions that help us to get to better truth absolutely so if you if you look at this section from uh from a 10 000 foot overview perspective you have some very clear differences going on so verse one through three is a simple introduction of what this is what is this revelation then verse 4 gives you some of the reason why this revelation was given so then we get to the famous list of the don'ts in in the word of wisdom followed by a longer list of the do's in this word of wisdom and then you get this glorious promise at the end all the way down through verse 21 of what happens if we keep the word of wisdom so that's that's just kind of an organization structure for section 89. so let's jump in the these first three verses what is it and what does it mean when we call it a word of wisdom i wanted to spend some time on this word wisdom so there are many ways to understand this but one way that might be fruitful is to look at wisdom literature in scripture for example the book of proverbs is a literary type of wisdom where it contains ideas and practices that if you apply you'll have a better life and let me just share with you some phrases that come from the proverbs proverbs chapter 1 verses 2 through 7 in fact verse 7 of proverbs chapter 1 might be the main thesis statement for the book of proverbs and again why am i sharing this with you is we think about the word of wisdom wisdom comes from god he wants us to live happy flourishing lives and so we can look to many sources of god's preserved wisdom and proverbs is one of them listen to what he says the purpose of wisdom or proverbs is to know wisdom and instruction to receive to perceive the words of understanding to receive the instruction of wisdom justice and judgment and equity to give subtlety to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel to understand a proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark saints and then verse 7 is a main thesis statement for the entire book of proverbs and we might say even relates to what we're going to talk about today the fear or the respect of the lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction so god throughout the ages has delivered wisdom and he said if you want to show your fear of me and anciently the word fear actually meant respect and love and reverence not the fear like i'm super afraid and so god similarly for the early saints gives them wisdom and it's interesting he's like this is not a commandment i'm giving you instructions that will help you live better and that's what we want to focus on today is what can we learn about being wise as we listen to god and you might look at other wisdom literature as some additional context for how god instructs his people so it's a word of wisdom for the benefit of the council of high priests assembled in kirtland and the church and also the saints in zion now zion would be jackson county independence missouri so it's a word to the wise notice verse 2 to be sent greeting not by commandment or constraint but by revelation and the word of wisdom showing forth the order and the will of god in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days you know the the summation of the what is this revelation to me is beautifully encapsulated in verse 3. this word of wisdom is given for a principle with promise you'll notice we're going to lay out some principles and then we're going to attach some promises later on in section 130 we're going to read there is a law irrevocably recruit decreed before the foundation of the world and it is by obedience to that law upon which all blessings are predicated that applies to some things we'll talk about in section 130 but it absolutely applies here as well that if we follow these wise principles then it comes with a promise as well notice it is adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints who are or can be called saints that's cause caused some people's some frustration at times if you or a loved one or somebody that you know has struggled with an addiction to elements that are contained here in this word of wisdom i i don't know that most of those people would say oh the weakest of saints can very easily do this this tabernacle of clay this this body it has these cravings there are these these neurological responses that take place with certain elements that can be consumed or or taken into our bodies that can be terribly difficult painfully difficult for people to overcome these addictions so i think it's important that we don't use the word of wisdom as a club to beat people over the head or to condemn them ultimately but rather have compassion and work with them and celebrate any little success any movement towards the direction of better living the principles contained in this revelation now why in the world do we need a word of wisdom regarding what we what we eat or what we take into this body of ours look at verse 4 behold verily thus saith the lord unto you in consequence of evil and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days i have warned you and forewarn you by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation he's he's giving us this idea that there are going to be evil and conspiring designs in the last day where people are going to try to get you to spend money on things so they get rich that actually end up becoming addictive where you become a servant or a slave to these things so if you look at what the evil and conspiring influences might be trying to do they're trying to build this dependency in people who will then pay money that they'll benefit from selling whatever it is whether it's the alcohol or the tobacco or the drugs or other elements but look at that word for a moment yeah it's a very interesting word you might think of the word dictionary or diction or even the word dictator which in the ancient roman period the dictator was the speaker of the house the one who got to speak and whatever they said was la when you put this in front of it the ad it actually literally means to speak to it's an intensifier now you might know in the ancient roman times people who had been captured in war or gone into deep debt became slaves and in the roman empire slaves sometimes were called addicts because they were spoken to and they had to do whatever they were told to do and for any of us who struggle with addiction we feel like we're slaves to being told what to do by our brain or outside influences and it's just important to know that addiction can be broken we can overcome the slavery to addiction it can be hard it can be painful maybe demoralizing but it is possible but also importantly it is deeply important not to put ourselves in a situation where we are being acted upon and being spoken to and we simply do whatever we're told to do by conspiring people that we do not put ourselves in a situation where we become addicted it's easier to stay out of slavery than it is to get out of slavery good now let's jump into the actual elements that comprise these these principles for us to to follow this wisdom this word to the wise verse five in as much as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you behold it is not good neither meet in the sight of your father only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him now it's important to note that in the early days of the church you'll notice this revelation is coming to us in february of 1833 but for many years there it isn't by commandment it isn't a requirement and there is a wide variety of application of how different people responded to this command and it's very common for them to use alcohol or or wine when they have stomach issues or to calm nerves and for leaders of the church and members of the church to to occasionally drink beer back in that day it is being consumed like crazy in the americas in the 1830s also we get in the church that they're using wine or grape juice for sacrament but as the church grows and the commandment that you should only use wine that you can make yourself it becomes harder for the church as it grows and expands to always be able to do that and protect the saints and so in 1906 they switched to water for the sacrament yeah for the sacrament yeah and so the it's important for us to understand the the historical unfolding of section 89. the early on even joseph and emma are still going to to be occasionally consuming some of these elements that are on our list of don'ts for a variety of reasons including tea or or some of the wine people like joseph f smith when he's younger yeah interesting story there joseph f smith again it wasn't a commandment stay away from tobacco and alcohol it was we encourage you to be moderate and avoid him when possible but joseph f smith as a young teenager got involved with drinking alcohol and smoking and before he left on his mission he realized he'd become addicted and so he gave it up and i'm so inspired by him because he did the hard work of letting go something that was taking over his life a bit and he was reported to said later in life that it was an addiction that he still felt tempted about even later in life even though he never went back to it was back to the point that as much as possible we want to avoid being enslaved in the first place because it's easier to stay out of slavery than it is to get out of it absolutely so it's fascinating for me to to put on lenses of historical empathy and historical charity for people in the past as well as charity and empathy for for people in in the present who might struggle with these elements and to to work with them and encourage them rather than condemn them because keep in mind um as this comes out it's it's met by by some with gusto and with others with uh yeah it's a word otherwise doesn't apply to me uh hiram smith joseph's brother seemed to have really liked this revelation he's the one who seems to talk the most about it on one occasion if you read the revelation uh the historical description in the joseph papers for this section it will give you some examples of of how people like even brigham young would say yeah hiram smith could spend an hour and a half talking about the word of wisdom but for me i i never saw much value in that it it wasn't a big deal to him but then in 1851 brigham young has it brought before the conference and it became a commandment but it's still kind of loose if you look at the the possessions that many of the church members brought across the plains on their wagons you're going to be surprised maybe to find that many of them brought a lot of coffee and a lot of tea along and even some wine on occasions so it's still this growing thing and then ironically it's the prophet after joseph f smith hebrew j grant heber j grant who actually makes the word of wisdom these these don'ts they become part of the the temple recommend interview 1930 1933. so here we are in 2021 it's actually only been 91 years that the word of wisdom in its current form has been put into the temple recommend interview and for many members of the church this is like a key feature of who we are whereas if you roll the clock back 100 to 150 years there were other things that people in the church were saying this represents who we are like the book of mormon or modern day revelation so it is important what we're talking about here but it's also interesting to see how things can change over time as we get more light and knowledge and attempt to live it yeah so now you jump down to verse seven and he describes again strong drinks are not for the belly but for the washing of your bodies uh to purify your bodies verse 8 again tobacco is not for the body neither for the belly and is not good for man but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle to be used with judgment and skill and then he jumps down to verse nine and again hot drinks are not for the body or belly joseph first interpreted that as tea and coffee and later on hiram smith verified that on a couple of occasions again hiram seems to be the one who who spoke the most about the word of wisdom and he clarifies this is tea and coffee there are many herbal teas that are beneficial for the body but the struggle that many of these early church members had was how are you interpreting hot drinks and and that struggle has continued down to today where some people want to to um argue one side or another that's why i say we thank the o god for a prophet to guide us in these latter days to say okay for now this is this is how that is defined now what's interesting is to note what the lord lists as the don'ts versus what humans then add to this list of don'ts this isn't terribly different from what happened in ancient israel where the lord gives the law of moses and so you get this this 613 laws that god has specifically commanded them to do or not to do in the law of moses but then you get some who in their in their excitement for keeping the law of moses they say well if those are the laws then we're going to set up fences and boundaries that are increasingly further out and away from the actual words of the lord and we're going to make that now become the law to prevent us from breaking the actual law that was given this happens as much as anything else as far as commandments are concerned with the word of wisdom where people try to say okay this is now terrible and you you thou shalt not consume this or that or the other when it's it's kind of nice to go back and just let the lord define what those things are through his prophets let's put this up here missing the mark and if god says here's the bullseye i want you to do these things we understand people want to make sure like if i don't want to cross these things well let's never get inside here but you start missing the mark and suddenly you have invented people have invented a new gospel and god hasn't revealed this even though we can understand why people say i want to really help god and so he's gone this far we're going to go farther just to show how desirous we are to be super righteous in all things now now this is an important concept to understand and to to analyze for just a moment there's a big difference between what you what you allow yourself to do as far as word of wisdom is concerned and you could apply this to other aspects of the gospel as well but let's talk let's keep it in the word wisdom context for a moment there's a difference between what i choose to eat or consume and what i choose to not and what i tell other people they can or can't eat or consume i can make all kinds of decisions for my own life for my own body i i get the idea that when i eat certain types of things or when i allow certain elements into my body my body might react to that a little differently than yours and so it's now we get into the word of wisdom part the part that wouldn't be commandment so let's let's be very clear here so not to be misunderstood there are some specific don'ts that are part of what we would consider our temple recommend questions that question in the temple recommend interview says do you understand and obey the word of wisdom and the prophets and apostles have helped us understand what those specific elements are and outside of that list it now enters the realm described in verse 2 not by commandment or constrained but by revelation and the word of wisdom it's it's a word to the wise be smart be intelligent in how you how you treat this body and what you allow to come in and try to avoid addictive substances things now we're talking about not things on the absolute don't list but things that for you might become addictive so again it's a beautiful principle with promise that if you'll if you'll be wise in how you treat this physical body then it will actually open doors for you not just physically but spiritually for me that's the that's at the root of section 89 is it's far less about the cells and the physical structure of my body and it's far more about the instrumentality of my flesh in in working with my spirit as an instrument in the hands of god to be able to do whatever work he has sent me here to this earth to accomplish and if my body is weak or sick or uh struggling through through addictions it's going to be harder for me to fulfill those spiritual missions or those things that god would like me to accomplish so that's why this section to me is so important to to tune in to say what should i do with this great gift that god has given my spirit this this body this tabernacle of clay and how can i how can i put in the right kind of fuel so to speak to make it run at its optimal condition so that i can live as long and as strong as possible to fulfill as much of god's work as i possibly can the point of the word of wisdom is you have heaven's light and knowledge you have the earth and us here what we don't want to do is get between stand between you and god in trying to understand what to do with your body and how to how to wisely take care of your body outside of what the core elements that god has given us to to guide that that those decisions he created my body who better to turn to than the the manufacturer so to speak to get that owner's manual on how to help that body run at an optimal in an optimal condition and so it's interesting when people try to then interpret it for you it's as if they're saying look at me i'll tell you what you need to do rather than say you know what let me get out of the way you know the principles now read the section spend more time in the section you do on the internet seeing what other people think about the section and look at how the prophets have used these words and how they've interpreted them and go to god and figure out how that directly applies to you today because there is going to be all kinds of variation some people might tell you oh the best thing in the world based on what it says here in verse 17 wheat for man and you're going to say man we should be eating wheat like crazy and some of you who are watching have a gluten intolerance you you can't your body doesn't digest gluten so it would be a very unwise thing for you to eat lots of wheat products others of you love milk but some of you are lactose intolerant it would not be wise for you to to drink milk i love the freedom that section 89 gives me and my family to not live our life according to the dictates of other people's conscience or other people's physical body chemistry and makeup but rather go to god and ask him help me help me understand what foods and what drinks are good for me and which ones i should probably try to eliminate and which ones i should try to limit and which ones i should try to to consume more of it's a beautiful principle now what's the promise look at verse 18 all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings walking in obedience to the commandments shall receive help in their navel and narrow to their bones you can look this up in proverbs as well proverbs chapter 3 verse 8 which is interesting that we talked earlier that this is a word of wisdom where else do you find wisdom literature in the scriptures proverbs is one of the prime examples and there's some interesting words here like the word for healing that's used there in the hebrew also could mean to restore um back to favor or even offer forgiveness some interesting connections uh the word for marrow to the bones uh that one's interesting because the word marrow comes from this hebrew word that means to drink like to drink in moisture and water and think about ezekiel he sees that valley of dry bones what does that mean death so what does marrow mean when you're drinking in water the water of life it means life and so it's a fancy phrase that god is saying shall be healthy naval merit of thy bones meaning you're going to have temporal and spiritual life so isn't that fascinating that that the lord brings in this connection now of of the soul between the the doctrine and covenants definition of the soul the spirit and the body that when your spirit can help your body be healthy your body can actually enhance your spirit's ability to grow and and flourish and be more healthy look at verse 19 and you shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge even hidden treasures interesting the way the way we we take care of our body can actually enhance the way that our mind and our spirit can flourish and and grow in knowledge even gaining these great treasures of knowledge which then brings us back to the physical in verse 20 and they shall run and not be worry and shall walk and not faint i love this i love the story that president dieter f uchtdorf shared in general conference years ago where he was in the the air force and they just ran ran ran ran ran and he was struggling thinking wait i know what all of these other guys are doing with their bodies and the the substances they're smoking and drinking and and they're running and i'm having a hard time i love his approach when he he shares with us that sometimes these blessings and promises are spiritual in nature this idea that it it doesn't always equate to a physical body because there there are some of you who are extremely careful with everything that you allow to come into your body and and all the substances and the amount of rest and exercise you you you get and you still live your life in pain or with a disability of one form or another and he doesn't promise you here that if you'll just do all of this it's formulaic just do x y and z and then you're not going to have any physical problems he doesn't say that and and i love the fact that president uchtdorf pointed out in that particular talk that sometimes these promises are going to be ultimately fulfilled in the resurrection so it gives hope for for any who might might be wrestling with with some added physical or emotional or mental challenges in their mortal tabernacle one of my favorite verses here in section 89 is how it ends and i the lord give unto them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass by them as the children of israel and not slay them amen so it ties us right back into that great founding faith story of the israelites being taken out of captivity and during the time period of easter the jews are celebrating usually passover and literally that means the destroying angel passed over those who had marked their houses with the blood of the lamb and i think about what do we do today to mark ourselves with the blood of the lamb and in my opinion it's sacrament in fact i think we have a good case for this because the passover meal was celebrated every single year by the jews and when jesus his last supper was passover where they're remembering how god saved his people and then the last supper becomes the emblematic sacrament that christians partake of every single week so every week when you go to partake of the sacrament it symbolically is a reminder the passover and connects you here to dnc 89 that if you are seeking to be wise seeking to have god in your life seeking to be following his instructions you will have the promise of the destroying angel passing over you and being protected by the blood of the lamb even jesus christ now as we turn over to section 90 this is this is a section that's kind of critical for the organization of the church where previously we had um the elements of a first presidency kind of set up in in a previous revelation now in section 90 it becomes more official the the first presidency becomes a an official entity of the church with the prophet and two counselors notice they they are told verse one thus saith the lord verily verily i say unto you my son this is joseph who's asking these questions thy sins are forgiven thee according to thy petition and for thy prayers and the prayers of thy brethren have come up into my ears just a note there uh it's interesting how the lord says i'm forgiving your sins because you've according to thy petition you've asked me i love the idea that when he tells us to ask it's not just ask curiosity questions it's ask for things that we really want and what i really want is to be clean and i know i'm not my own savior but i know who my savior is and so it's a beautiful thing to ask god to forgive us to cleanse us from sin as we move forward uh so if it's been a while in your prayers since you've asked him to forgive you your debts that might be something that you could implement today starting today is more frequently asking him to actually forgive us then he talks about the keys in verse 3 the keys of the kingdom shall never be taken from you while thou art in the world neither in the world to come joseph is told you hold the keys of this dispensation and they're never going to be taken from you in this world or in the world to come it's a pretty powerful promise given to him now look at verse six again verily i say to you thy brethren sidney rigdon and frederick g williams their sins are forgiven them also and they are accounted as equal with thee in holding the keys of this last kingdom so they become from this time forward they become standing presidents in the church and joseph refers to them by that title president rigdon and president williams moving forward so let's go down to verse 9 that through your administration they may receive the word and through their administration the word may go forth unto the ends of the earth unto the gentiles first and then behold and low they shall turn unto the jews it's beautiful to see this this progression that you have jesus who was in the house of israel directly he taught his gospel to the jews in the first century and then from there they send out missionaries to teach scattered israel this is through uh the the book of acts where they start taking the gospel into samaria and into other areas where formerly uh israelite people have been scattered or have had other influences introduced so we take it to scattered israel and then from there out to the gentiles those gentile nations in the greco-roman empire of that first and second century so paul's missions and peter baptizing cornelius as we open up the work among the gentiles you'll notice what just happened in verse 9 the first presidency is going to take this message out to the world to the ends of the earth unto the gentiles first and then behold and lo they shall turn unto the jews so the group that was last is in the latter days going to get the gospel first and then we're going to work in reverse until we get the gospel spread to where it originally had begun as it goes out now look at verse 11 it shall come to pass in that day that every man that's a hundred percent shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue in his own language through those who are ordained unto this power by the administration of the comforter shed forth upon them for the revelation of jesus christ i love our missionary efforts and i love the fact that we spend that we spend all this effort training 18 19 20 21 year old young men and young women to learn all these languages of the world and we send them out so that people can hear the gospel in their own language in their own tongue there's something beautiful about that speaking in a way that you can be understood now look at verse 15. here's the command of this first presidency set in order the churches and study and learn and become acquainted with all good books and with languages tongues and people uh verse 17 be not ashamed neither confounded but be admonished in all your high-mindedness and pride for it bringeth a snare upon your souls so do any of you find this interesting that they've got this calling uh joseph smith sidney rigdon frederick g williams and with the calling comes these cautions to say just because you're called and you've got this title of president in the first presidency doesn't mean that you're not going to have to overcome some challenges and some difficulties and keep in mind none of these men have been in the church longer than three years joseph hasn't even been in the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints for three years at this time now of course its name isn't officially uh the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints as described there that won't come until we get to section 115 but it's beautiful to note that god is working with these people they're they're very young in the gospel and quite young comparatively speaking to leadership in the church today and he's giving them these warnings of things that they need to fix and they need to repent of look at verse 18 set and order your houses keep slothfulness and uncleanness far from you uh then jumping down to verse 24 search diligently pray always and be believing and all things shall work together for your good if you walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith you have covenanted one with another i love that that he's he's giving them this these these commands to do things that the general church membership is getting those same commands today because it's not the church of joseph smith it's not the church of sydney rigdon or frederick g williams it's the church of jesus christ and he's going to guide his church through the ministries of these men as the holy ghost gives those directions and those those guiding uh commands along the way that gives me hope in my calling in the church or as a husband or as a father that i can say hmm i need help there are some things i need to not do there are some things i need to do that i can liken this scripture unto me and i can plead with god to help me move forward in greater faith so that my life becomes a greater reflection of his perfection and less of my imperfections as i move forward then here at the end you get introduced to this uh beautiful character in church history vienna jacques or vienna jakes however you prefer to pronounce her name she comes from boston she's she's fairly wealthy and she comes to kirtland she's had a book of mormon she's read parts of it she comes to curtin to meet the prophet and she is baptized and joseph encourages her to consecrate her money to the building up of the kingdom of god on the earth and she donates over fourteen hundred dollars to the to this consecrated effort and then she heads west to independence uh interestingly she arrives in independence right before the the huge mob disturbance begins to really ramp up and speed up here's this woman who is going to die in her 90s here in utah eventually she consecrates everything and she stays so faithful and so pure to the end uh i think if vienna were here today to share her thoughts with us i don't think she would say let me tell you about how much my discipleship cost me financially or let me tell you about the physical struggles and the the abuses that i had to witness and and this the the mobs that i had to to watch destroy so many lives around me and inflict pain on me as well i don't know that she would do that i think vienna would come look at verse 29 the residue of the money may be consecrated unto me and she vienna shall be rewarded in mine own due time it's very clear looking at the history that the rewards weren't in solely in this life she was able to do some amazing things and stay faithful to the very end and and prosper in in quite a few ways in in mortal aspects but i think if vienna were here today i think she would encourage all of us to consecrate whatever we have been given to the work of the lord and to the building up of the kingdom of god uh her her story is one of those that often gets overlooked but if you if you want to read more about her and search about her her story is worth exploring she was she was truly a saint uh look at verse 34 now behold i say unto you that your brother and zion begin to repent and the angels rejoice over them nevertheless i am not well pleased with many things so here we are in kirtland and joseph being told by the lord they're beginning to repent over in in jackson county missouri but there's still some things that they're struggling with and he lists a couple of people here and says he's going to keep working with them so we now look forward to bringing jared ludlow on and we'll spend time in section 91 and discuss the apocrypha and we invite you to learn with us you'll notice on the dating the timing for this section it's march 9th of 1833. uh joseph began translating or adapting passages in the bible starting in june of 1830 so this is the time when he has now completed it how does this work he started originally in the old testament back in june of 1830 and as he was working his way through the old testament the lord inspired him to stop in the old testament jump over to the new testament he completed the new testament then he loops back around and completes the old testament now if you open up your your king james version of the bible what you'll notice is you have the old testament ends in malachi 4. and then at the very bottom in the kjv it says the end of the prophets it's an interesting phrase then you have this little page right here that you turn over and then you get the gospel according to saint matthew this little page it represents about 400 450 years of time uh that's a lot now in joseph smith's bible the finney bible that he's using at the end of the old testament between the old and the new testaments there's an entire section called the apocrypha the apocrypha and this is the capital a apocrypha and that's where it can be confusing because apocrypha can just be used as a word for anything that uh is we use it often for apocryphal so things that we're not sure of their origin if they're dubious we call them apocryphal but when we're talking about the apocrypha capital a we're talking about this section that protestants put between the old testament and new testament yeah so you've got this section in joseph smith's bible here between these two books and he has now come all the way around finished the new testament now he's finished the old testament he comes to this section and he scratches his head and says should i interact with this should i should i give the same treatment to the apocrypha as i have the old in the new testament and that is where section 91 comes in he asks the lord and this is the lord's answer so really quickly apocrypha comes from from two greek words oppo which is away and kryptine which is to hide or conceal it's this to hide or conceal away and quite frankly there's a lot that happens in this 400 to 450 year period that is is hidden away and now we get these these books that joseph is is going to ask about look at the description that god gives him in section 91 verse 1. verily thus says the lord unto you concerning thee as jared said capital a apocrypha there are many things contained therein that are true and it is mostly translated correctly did you catch that it's not it's not half or less than half it's mostly translated correctly but then verse two is the caution there are many things contained therein that are not true which are interpolations by the hands of men what's a little frustrating is it doesn't say which is which it leaves it up to us to try to figure out and that's kind of what the rest of the section also deals with very good so he he basically tells joseph in verse 3 it is not needful that the apocrypha should be translated so at this point march of 1833 joseph was saying okay i've made my way all the way through the old and the new testament we're we're finished with that particular project uh so what can we gain from any time spent studying this this inter-testamental period or these books in this apocrypha verse four therefore that therefore is this cause and effect because of everything that's come before in verse 1 through 3 the outcome is or the effect is therefore whoso readeth it let him understand for the spirit manifest as truth and whosoever is enlightened by the spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom so jared would you would you recommend that somebody go on a rigorous study of the apocrypha and replace their study of the bible or the book of mormon of the doctrine and covenants with the apocrypha well certainly probably not replace it but you know it does promise us that if we are enlightened by the spirit we shall obtain benefit there from and so there could be stories accounts that can be inspirational and edifying and can help us understand other contexts better so let's talk about what is the apocrypha why don't you walk us through what those books are and a basic overview of what we might learn from the apocrypha if we chose to read it okay so the short answer is you know these are a collection of texts of books that were found primarily in the septuagint the greek translation of the hebrew bible but weren't found in the hebrew bible there's one or two texts that are found in latin versions but primarily it's the those additional books that are in the septuagint that aren't in the hebrew bible so naturally the question arises well where did they come from why are they here now i'll just actually mention just briefly what happened there was a conqueror named alexander the great who kind of took over the middle east in persia and brought greek culture and the jews that were living there many of them adopted greek culture greek greek speaking they were the language of greece and they then eventually many of them don't know hebrew and so there was a translation of the hebrew records into greek and that translation is called the septuagint that jared was telling us about it's kind of a fancy word and it actually this greek version of the old testament becomes the source for many of the new testament writers in fact a lot of what we have in the testament are new testament writers quoting from the greek translation of the hebrew bible and the word apocrypha we've already talked a little bit about but it's it's interesting because it can have a positive sense or a negative sense these are texts that are hidden away well you could consider them sacred if you believe in them and you don't want to throw the pearls before the swine so to speak or these are texts that need to be forgotten and buried and and just left behind and and so throughout history you'll see this term used both pejorative pejoratively or positively depending on how people felt about these texts and their authority for them so what are some of the books that show up in the apocrypha what's some of the things we might find if we read them well quite a few of them are connected to old testament figures and settings we have additional stories about the prophet daniel we have another version of the book of esther we have stories taking place in assyrian exile when the babylonians are coming and so those are kind of expansions i would say a biblical traditions and stories and figures then we have a few examples of wisdom literature that were prevalent around the ancient near east uh just texts of of you know encouraging uh teachings uh how to raise a family uh how to be a good person you know the book of proverbs the book of proverbs is probably one of the best examples in the old testament of wisdom literature and it's very popular literature people want to be inspired by good principles that work and so we get other versions not necessarily proverbs but other wise scenes that get preserved in in the apocrypha and i've read these and some of them are extremely encouraging and inspiring and still work today if you actually try to live those principles and i and then there's some other texts that i would say are just kind of stories or tales and and um you know the book of tobit is is a well-known uh story that comes out of uh this collection uh that tells a story of a family uh living in uh a syrian exile uh and then they you know go through the ups and downs of of life and and trying to resolve things but the point being always that god is there to help them and and to answer some of the trials that they're going through and and so it i think a lot of this literature was you know to strengthen them in a time that they're either living away from the covenant land and they maybe yearn to be back there or they're under a lot of outside influence you mentioned the greek influence that becomes really strong and there's this poll and we kind of can relate to we use the phrase being in the world but not of the world and so they're trying to say well should we we're in this greek world now how much of it should we be should we adopt it adapt to it or reject it and you see all different kinds and that's where probably the most historical part of the apocrypha is the book of the maccabees and that tells the story of one group who decides they want to push back against this influence and reject it and they have basically a revolt the hasmonean maccabean revolt and against the greek rulers around 160 bc the the jews they want their freedom or like we don't like being ruled by foreign entities and they they win their freedom for about 100 years you get this incredible story of them finally retaking the temple mount and cleanses the temple many of you know about hanukkah that comes right out of the apocrypha the maccabees it's a great story yeah this is where we get the institution of hanukkah and this festival that the jews still today observe it's not in the old testament it's here in the apocrypha which is somewhat interesting because the jewish writers who preserve these stories and tells eventually the jews decide because this was all written in greek it may be corrupt and so forth and so they just went back to the hebrew bible books and they rejected a lot of these books as part of their canon and so you don't see it in their tanakh their hebrew bible their equivalent of what we call the old testament but they can't fully reject it because they celebrate hanukkah and retell the story there and so it's still literature that's a part of their uh religion and culture but it's not part of their canon specifically so besides what we find in the apocrypha we have these additional texts that come from the same time period that often are are lumped together called the pseudopigrapha and pseudo meaning false and pigrapha scribed or writing so they're falsely ascribed to old testament figures when they probably were written much later and so like texts about enoch and abraham and isaiah and things form part of the i've done a lot of work on the testament of abraham one of these texts that come from this time period and so it's the main character is about abraham but we're not sure it probably wasn't abraham who wrote the story it's ascribed to him and as you were saying earlier we don't know how much of this really is authentic to abraham's life and these were stories that were told orally over time and then finally preserved hundreds of years after the time of abraham so or if they were just created in this later time period so we just kind of invented and said i really like abraham and let's make up a story about him so the dead fan literature yeah right exactly yeah these are people that admired them and and maybe wanted to tap into their authority and so they use their name and tell stories about them but they maybe have their own agenda or things they're trying to teach and so you know we've heard often of the dead sea scrolls uh that are come from this second temple period and they include all of these texts that we've been talking about they have hebrew bible texts they have texts from the pseudipigrapha they have texts from the apocrypha and so it shows that in this time period they were reading and copying all of these texts and treating them as if they had some type of authority but obviously for them the first five books of moses had the primary authority and then they determined probably that other prophetic books and things had secondary and then maybe below that were some of these other texts that still were edifying and that they still found value in reading but that they didn't include in their actual scripture text or canon and it's not that different from today we have a canon we know what the standard works are and yet we're also invited to seek after good books in fact we'll read that in some of these sections that are on the on the reading list for today that god wants us to learn from a variety of good sources it just may be that those other sources never become part of the canon that becomes expected for us so for many of you you're probably sitting there wondering okay so this is all fine and good but therefore what what what should i do with this sitting here in the 21st century uh the reality is you can you can access the apocrypha for free online there there are a couple of places bible gateway there's a kjv version of the apocrypha that you can get for free if you google it we'll put some links in the in the header of this episode below but i want to go back to something that you said earlier that i think is really applicable to us right here right now is you had this group of israelites who had some questions are they going to adopt the traditions that are surrounding them are they going to adapt those traditions to fit them or are they going to reject those traditions i think that's a really interesting framework to look at this culture that that jared and taylor were talking about a little bit earlier that you and i live in today is how do i how do i stay a faithful covenant uh member of the church of jesus christ moving forward on that covenant path surrounded by all kinds of cultural influences like these early israelites are surrounded by assyrian and babylonian and previous to that egyptian and eventually greek and then roman at different phases all of these influences coming in upon them it's fascinating when you go in with that perspective then you open up the apocrypha and say how did these people make that decision how did they navigate those waters because then we can learn today how to perhaps better understand elements that we should adopt things that we should adapt and things that we should absolutely reject could you give us a couple of examples out of the actual text of the apocrypha okay i think probably we could start with the book of maccabees where they faced this head-on and particularly when it came to issues of their sacrifices and keeping the sabbath and you know we can maybe adapt some things from the world around us and still keep our traditions but what if you completely adopt everything else and decide well i don't need to observe a sabbath day anymore you know and so you reject these influences so that you can preserve some of these things and as a result some of these who rejected what was being thrust upon them become persecuted they become uh mocked and even violently persecuted and so they have to decide you know um what are we going to do and so in first maccabees the end of chapter 1 verse 62 it says but many in israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food they chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant and they did die and you know i'm not encouraging us to run out and die uh but it it shows how important it was for them that they were willing just to stand by their covenants uh even at the risk of of these heavy persecutions and thankfully we're not in that time period of heavy persecutions but that's what mcafee's goes on and says is uh relates some of the stories of those who remain faithful who decided to reject the culture around them um and so again we we have to to decide what is okay that won't change what we fundamentally know we need to be doing to pers to be faithful to our covenants and other things maybe another example here this comes from the book of the wisdom of ben sirach that again encourages us to seek good to be good it says this is in chapter 33 verse 14 and 15. good is the opposite of evil life the opposite of death so the sinner is the opposite of the godly look at all the works of the most high they come in pairs one the opposite of the other now for laddered saint readers this should ring a bell of lehi's teachings and second nephi too and so forth that there's going to be opposition in all things and we need to decide you know which side are we going to end up on and you know good is the opposite of evil there is good and there is evil and what you know which side are we going to be on and maybe just one other last example in the story of judith she becomes this heroic figure because she wants to withstand this army that's coming and trust in god that he can preserve them while the elders of the community who supposedly should be stronger and have more faith in god are kind of becoming cowardly and she has to kind of step in and remind them that that they need to put uh god first and so she says in chapter eight starting in verse i'll start in verse 12 who are you to put god to the test today and to set yourselves up in the place of god in human affairs you are putting the lord almighty to the test but you will never learn anything you cannot plumb the depths of the human heart or understand the workings of the human mind how do you expect to search out god who made all these things and find out his mind or comprehend his thought know my mother do not anger the lord our god for if he does not choose to help us within these five days and that was the test that they're trying to say well if he helps us in five days then we'll do it but she says you know you can't test him like that he has power to protect us within any time he pleases or even to destroy us in the presence of our enemies do not try to bind the purposes of the lord our god and so she steps forward and tries to remind them of the true characteristics of god and how they should trust and rely on him so there's some great examples of faithfulness i see throughout these stories again in the midst of a lot of trials influence persecutions and so yeah i think we can learn from some of their examples and try to be faithful in our own way that's beautiful thank you jared it's it brings us right back to where we started in section 91. there are many things contained therein that are true and it is mostly translated correctly and so thank you for helping us uh understand this apocrypha and the setting there in in that 400 450 year period uh to to finish up it's two verses long it's given to frederick g williams it's regarding this united order and it's telling him that he shall be a lively member in this order and then as much as you are faithful in keeping all former commandments you shall be blessed forever amen we we could go into more detail about the the united order here and about frederick g williams in this context but the the part that is relevant to you and me today is for me this idea that god is asking him to be a lively member because i can look at my membership in the kingdom of god as either lively or stagnant if i go to church for instance on sunday and i don't try to be a lively member i become more slothful i sit back i wait to be wowed i wait to be acted upon i'm i'm now a victim of the circumstance i'm a victim of my environment versus if i choose to be a lively member in whatever way that that works for you in your setting it means that i'm no longer sitting back waiting for good things to happen to me i'm lively i'm actively going about trying to do good i love that phrase in the new testament jesus went about doing good to me that's all it is to be a lively member is go about doing good and it's going to look differently for you than it does for me than it does for taylor and that's wonderful as we all strive to be lively members now as we come to the close of this this long episode of section 89 all the way through 92 uh just know that god is in his heavens and he will give us revelation to guide us whether it's in what we eat and consume or how we take care of our body with exercise and sleep and other things or the way we approach the organization of the church the first presidency and the way we see prophets and apostles and their roles in our life or whether it be in how we choose to study or not study the apocrypha in other scriptures or be a lively member the point is let's try to get things and people and ideas out of the way that would hinder us from turning to god and getting specific revelation asking him seeking for his wisdom not the wisdom of the world or in some cases the foolishness of the world but seeking his wisdom and then pleading with him for the strength to to apply that and for him to forgive us as we struggle to apply those things as we move forward just know that he lives know that he loves you and we leave that with you in the name of jesus christ amen you

Channel: Book of Mormon Central

Views: 139,227

Rating: 4.8408437 out of 5

Keywords: Come Follow Me, Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith, Church History, Mormon, LDS, Latter Day Saint, Latter Day Saints, Lesson

Id: -uwMzZaARR8

Length: 68min 54sec (4134 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 09 2021