Follow Him Podcast: Dr. Susan Easton Black : Doctrine & Covenants 94-97 : Episode 36 Part 1

[Music] welcome to follow him a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their come follow me study i'm hank smith and i'm john by the way we love to learn we love to laugh we want to learn and laugh with you as together we follow him hello everyone welcome to another episode of follow him my name is hank smith and i am here with the solemn john by the way so i mean that in all scriptural um positive ways there john you're solemn we love to laugh and we love to be solemn but we love to laugh and learn and we love to be solemn at times um john uh we have another great week ahead of us as uh on the follow him podcast uh we have a a returning guest again and we're very blessed to have her with us who who's here yeah we're very glad to have susan easton black back with us again and he our listeners may remember she's a retired professor of church history and doctrine at byu she's the author of many books about joseph smith and the early history of the church she has a phd from byu in education she joined the faculty there in 1978 as the first female full-time professor in religious education at byu and she also received the carl g major distinguished faculty award in 2000 being the first woman to receive that award she served as an associate dean of general education and honors and her passion for lds history began as a child hearing stories of early church early church history from her grandmother who was born in utah in 1872 to british immigrant parents and my wife had her for her religion classes and just loved those classes i think she had her for more than once so we're glad to have you back for more more than once too thank you very much uh susan i i'll just have to say this um we don't we don't need to gush because we gust on our last episode a little bit but i will say this that i've i've had the privilege of walking the streets of nauvoo with you and it was almost i it was walking with a celebrity i have never seen those missionaries especially those senior couples saying that's her that's her there she is mrs nauvoo right um i i would dare to say i would dare to say that you know more about nauvoo than i think the saints who lived there did right i i i i don't know about that but thank you i think so i think you just you've you've been there so many times in your mind and walk those streets i just think that it's you we'll call you miss navu mrs navu oh thank you um let's let's jump right in john uh to our our lesson this week we're in a few sections the doctrine covenants sections 94 95 96 and 97. so susan you are our expert here we'll back up as far as you want us to go uh it looks like we're going to start in uh summer of 1833 with reynolds calhoun and jared carter we'll let you take it away hey thanks a lot i appreciate this opportunity and you're right hank we're starting off pretty much late spring here in kirtland ohio in 1833 as we start with section 94 it's the very first time the lord uses the word committee in a scripture in this dispensation so any of us that have served on a committee one too many times or whatever we can always turn to section 94 and say so that's where it began i think it's interesting as it uh starts with the committee uh who's put on the committee and what the purpose is for i always liked that they only chose three people on a committee uh personally having served on many committees uh the more the more opinions and the loudest voice seems to get you know control what's going on but in this particular committee uh you've got hiram smith he's age 33 at the time of the revelation you've got reynolds calhoun he's 43 and you've got jared carter and you'd say their assignment as you look at this committee uh it's all about building uh various houses that the lord wants built and so their assignment is there to raise funds give oversight and gather then building material and i think it's interesting you look at the three men and you can't find a builder among them so you ever been called to an assignment or church assignment and you go you know i'm not really qualified you'd say well where did it begin and it probably begins here in section 94. but hiram he's a farmer uh reynolds cahoon he uh he's a shoemaker a leather guy and uh you'd say jared carter who is baptized by hiram he's a farmer kind of businessman and suddenly you get these three men are to raise funds give oversight and to gather material and then if we were to look at what they were to give oversight to and gather the material for the first is to build a building for the presidency of the church and this building's to be right on what today we call like temple square in kirtland and then the second of course is uh to build a kind of print building but it's interesting both buildings are the same size and the first revelation about the temple it's always the same size so if you're wondering what size you should build your house here goes it's uh the numbers that go three times all the way through uh 55 feet by 65 feet and obviously two-story house what they called a lower court and a higher court and in that presidency building the initial plan was for the presidency to have a place to receive revelation and direct the ministry and then the printing then is going to be for uh sacred scripture work and others but what i think it's interesting is that which of the three areas did the men seem to fall down on and giving oversight you'd say good and procuring materials and maybe struggling and raising funds definitely struggling because there was a subscription and uh with that a decision is then made that we'll only build one building and we'll combine the two and uh so maybe that's the good of buildings right multi-use right multi-use yes it's the word meeting house right the multi-purpose room right multi-purpose you know what's interesting susan is that the lord has said we're gonna print from here when earlier he said we're going to print from jackson county missouri and maybe i don't know if the prophet knows quite yet that the printing in jackson county missouri is about to or has just come to an abrupt end right so the printing definitely ending in july of 1833 so here's may and uh i i think it's interesting there's going to be a place even that evening and morning star newspaper will be uh now printed out of this print shop that they're going to pull together so so that uh new building we're talking about it will house a print shop it will house be a place for the first presidency and also a place for the school of the prophet so it definitely like john was saying multi-use yeah um i find it fascinating there's not a builder among them um so you just i i guess you one of my students pointed out to me once um that nephi doesn't know how to build a boat but he does know how to work with metal it seems so he just gets started doing what he knows how to do make tools right like i don't know how to build a boat but i knew how i do know how to make tools so i'll get started there maybe that's with these guys as well it's well we don't know how to build a temple but we do know how to shovel we do know how to cut down weeds so we'll just get started isn't that what hyrum did he just went out and got started right that size digs the first trench there for the temple well okay it might be of interest to your viewers as to what really is published in that printing office so i can say newspapers that evening and morning star and notice uh it's not the the morning and evening star but we live on the saturday eve of the morning of the coming of the savior so it's always the evening and morning star the latter-day saint messenger and advocate the elders journal northern times those are four newspapers that will come out of that office but more important than that you get scriptures so out of that very office here's your book of mormon doctrine covenants and emma simnel so it's uh it's right there on temple square right there uh by the kirtland temple uh the building the printing office is no longer there is that right yes so um kind of what happened was you've got this building committee consisting of three and once the building is done their responsibilities over the building end in other words they're not responsible for the contents and so it's the literary firm that takes over the printing and actually ownership and then it goes through multiple owners until you get william marx in may of 1837 he's a man that becomes that stake president in nauvoo and while he owns the building the building is burned to the ground oh okay so that's why it's no longer there that's usually what happens so the next time next time you're leaving a tour out there hank you can stand almost anywhere and say you know it was here somewhere where did this around here often i bet carl carl anderson knows i'll just have to ask him check with carl uh so anything else on this section 94. the lord's just organizing a committee saying this is how big i want the the lot to be um he does mention a little bit about temple work where he says in verse 8 uh you shall not suffer any unclean thing to come into it my glory shall be there my presence shall be there um so he's kind of maybe doing a little foreshadowing of of the blessings that are going to come yes i would think so i i think that um you know the the plan had been that the first presidency would have a place and um and it's supposed to be a place of revelation a place for directing the ministry of the church and pretty hard to have that when you've got unclean thoughts people you know coming in i've always wondered too what like when did the actual idea of of a temple recommend uh begin i mean this sounds like the beginnings of that we have to protect that no unclean thing comes into the house to do we know when that idea and practice actually began well you get temple recommends don't come into vogue until you come to utah interesting so it's it's not a joseph smith time period but even way back in section 20 the lord did tell them when they go from when they go from congregation to congregation that they should have a a letter a certificate or a certificate susan i like sections like 94 because they're practical right so sometimes we have to just sometimes we have to do the work here the lord can't it can't always be inspiring and inspiring every section we kind of want to be you know to be like section 76 or section 93 that just blows us away but section 94 is we got to take care of business right um i kind of like that that there is that part of the church i i would think i i don't know any of the apostles personally but i would think that a lot of their work is the business of the church the the size of the building the the you know the committee the the you know i bet there's a a lot of that there seems to be a lot of that in wards and stakes right a lot of the practical business of the work and i think uh for the three men that were chosen it's interesting they continue to be chosen for the building committee and eventually become known as the kirtland temple committee it's like they get a precursor a test can you do this and uh and sure enough they succeeded yeah i i really like this um i i don't know to me i like the uh the lord saying all right you three uh we gotta do some work now um enough being inspired let's actually put a shovel in the ground and do some work right i like that yeah uh john anything else on section 94 before we move forward i'm just i i got so used to seeing zion and thinking missouri and so i like in verse one where the the idea is it says the the city of the stake of zion here in the land of kirtland so i have to remember oh he's talking about kirtland here but it is a steak of zion uh because i i've been getting used to zion meaning missouri do you know what i mean right and and here this is a stake of zion that the broader idea of zion in kirtland so i had to stop and go oh yeah this is talking about kirtland right here not not jackson county jackson county being the center place and everything else is a stake in the tent right susan right stake in the tent like isaiah yeah okay um and the this is 1833 they're not going to finish this this is going to be a long project right this is not right in other words uh for this one building you'd say why would they build one and bottom line they don't have enough money to do the two right in other words the subscription and you're going to see the lord beginning to chasten them you know as you move on to section 95 because and who's not subscribing and it's interesting it's you look first at the men who attended the school of the prophets so men that the lord loved the prophet loved and loved the church but then the question is are you willing to kick in right before for the latest building project and suddenly you go wait a minute wait a minute you know i've had my heart in it but am i you know i can give my time and you get these three men obviously by the time they they're uh in charge of the committee for the kirtland temple they know what they're doing and um but the question is are you willing to give your money to i was just going to say i'm old enough to remember when they used to have the award building fund drives and it it got all rolled into tithing at one point but i remember the the bishop calling individual families in and saying here's your your building fund assessment and and things like that and there's kind of a fun story that president marian g romney tells about being um being asked for an amount that he thought was higher than it should be and then he said i came across this verse that says if if you give begrudgingly it's as if you didn't give the gift so he went back to the bishop and gave even more because he didn't want to be on that side of it but uh but now that's all rolled into tithing as i understand and the the the building i just think it's kind of a interesting development when that happened i don't know if you remember that hank but i remember the ward building fund uh yeah i was just a kid but i remember i think that was just a little bit before my time i'm trying to say oh for sure i'm not old enough but yes those were the good old days yeah i must have just missed it but maybe a week or two well susan you mentioned section 95 that the lord is going to get after him a little bit let's move forward all right tell us about section 95 well obviously there's been a delay procuring materials uh getting things going getting the subscription the money to be able to build this and the lord is definitely chasing the saints but i love that he loves them and he indicates hey he wants a solemn assembly he wants fasting and he wants a building is like let's do it and the promise is if you keep the commandments you're going to have power to do this and i think i can remember like john's talking about getting that building assessment and you wonder fast offerings tithing building assessment and here's here's the family bills and everything else can i do this and uh you know i could testify to you youngsters that uh you know if if you do make an effort to keep the commandments the lord uh really steps up and and kind of gives you the ability to be able to meet those commitments yeah um let's let's go back to verse one and talk about this that you that you brought up because i can't tell you how many times i've had this conversation with my own children which is if i didn't care about you i wouldn't i wouldn't there wouldn't be any consequences right i'd say just go do whatever you want i don't care and they you know because if you the idea is if you if you take away you know if you take away a privilege from a child that mom dad you don't love me right and the lord's saying wait wait wait i am going to chasten you for your sins because i love you because i love you um and then have you guys had those conversations with as parents because i sure have sure and uh i can't always say they're well received but but nevertheless the the effort is there and the bottom line is uh the lord in his case he says he's going to he wants to reveal to them as strange things obviously the endowment he wants to give them a gift but they need to build these build these houses to help make all that happen and to show their willingness to sacrifice whom i love i also chase it who is it that recently gave a a message in general conference on divine discontent right that there are times where the lord is maybe not upset with us but he's saying look i have things prepared for you but you gotta move you you gotta you gotta do these things or i can't give you these these these gifts you have sinned a very grievous sin you have not considered building this house so um i i don't know i don't know if any of your children are are like mine but oftentimes it takes me more than once to ask them to do something uh john probably not your kids they're probably doing it before you even oh no they're they're they just remind me of what i haven't done and uh but i like this idea of uh you know if the lord didn't love them he'd just walk away i've heard someone say once that you know the maybe the opposite of love isn't hate it's indifference and he could have been indifferent just said forget you guys and walk away but it says i because i love you i chasten you and i love how it says with the chastisement i prepare a way for their deliverance there's there's an outcome in that i'm preparing for you to be delivered i have loved you and those last five words i have loved you and we see evidence of that everywhere uh so the chastisement is an evidence of of love and that's i guess how we have to see it when we get chastised too and hank's kids have to see it that way right yeah i know this is about the temple but for me i learned just a little parenting yes in there that not only do i chasten you for your sins because i love you but i also prepare a way for you to be successful yeah right i'm gonna i'm gonna help you become successful in this this thing that i've asked you to do not just kind of i think as a parent sometimes i say well you didn't do what i asked so you're you're gonna be in trouble you're gonna lose privileges but i don't take that next step of i'm gonna i'm gonna stand by you and help you uh you know help you accomplish what i've asked you to do i think there's a little parenting there lesson there i don't know if the lord intended that but i picked up on that that's great i think uh steve stephen harper that we've had on the program said before that section 95 is really a revelation about god's love which i think is an interesting way to to look at it before you read it and he is chastising them and scolding them but it's because he wants to give them so much more right and that's the desired outcome you know so what he's going to give them in this case is build the temple and then you get that promise of the endowment i think this building the temple what we're talking about is the kirtland temple right and we know that well just coming off conference you've got president russell m nelson this last april conference announcing 20 new temples and you know i i don't know if you've got any of us going what but i think just sheer joy whereas well my favorite part is one of the early saints approaches joseph and suggests that as long as we're going to be doing this next one in other words we've already kicked it in now for the printing slash presidency building but as long as we're doing the next one he suggests that joseph uh have this temple built in logs and uh so the big question is shall we brethren build a house for our god of logs and i i just wanted to tell kind of the social strata going on at the time you know when you you you moved to a new area out in this uh western reserve the ohio's right you first arrive you build a log cabin and you have a tar bucket next to it and then you become socially more affluent so you whitewash the inside and then you do a clapboard and brick but when you're really affluent you splash it with color you know in other words you can splash your wealth and suddenly what what the man is suggesting is well let's build a temple just of lugs as if it's you know one of the lesser places going to be built in the community okay do we all remember joseph's response he goes i want to hear it i kind of remember all right all right he goes shall we brethren build a house for our god of logs he goes i have a better plan than that in other words uh you know i know there's this committee going but i'm telling you i got a plan he goes i have a plan of the house of the lord given by himself so when you look at the kirtland temple it isn't just where you'd say well we got an architect and we got the foundation and everything perfect but the plan for the kirtland temple is given by the lord himself and then notice section 14 so you'll notice in doctrine covenants 95 verse 14 that the lord says that he's going to show the manner of which you should build this to three of you can't you see the committee saying i bet we're gonna be it right we're one two three we're hiring for reynolds we're jared but it's not those three that are gonna see it it's going to be the first presidency and right away you put the temple goes out of a little bit different realm than the first building that was built and the first presidency is joseph smith sydney rigdon frederick g williams that's the first presidency of that right yes but i think it's interesting like the other one guess what size it is it's going to get you going around measuring your houses right it's the same same size 55 by 65 feet so i imagine your viewers are going to have you know tape measures running around saying do we qualify do we qualify and then you'll also notice that it's going to have two floors in this case the lower floor is for sacrament preaching fasting prayer upper court for the school of the apostles and the word apostle means one who is sent so you get this idea school of the prophets school of the apostles in other words it's going to be a school for those that will be sent out on journeys on missions so you've got you've got two courts just like the others okay um and i mean i i remember the lord saying this way back in section what was it like 38 he's when he said i want you to go to ohio because i'm going to endow you right with with power that's section 38 verse 32 and he still hasn't forgotten that because he brings it back up in section 95 verse 8. you're going to build a house in which house i designed to endow those whom i've chosen with power from on high i love the um i love the lord saying i haven't forgotten what i told you what i told you earlier right that this is there's a purpose this is why we came to ohio right i like that uh i also like that you know you've got these three men the lord's gonna show him the manner in which the temple is to be built and uh frederick tree williams writes he says well the lord received the word that joseph smith received the word of the lord for them to him to take his two counselors before the lord and you say well where would this occur don't you think that would occur in the offices of the presidency right you know and so he said uh he said well they kneeled down on their knees they called on the lord and the building appeared within viewing distance it's like viewing distance means a distance away and fredric g williams wright i being the first to discover it you know how you you look and you go can you see this and frederick says i'm the first to discover it and then he said then all of us meaning those three viewed it together after we've taken a good look at the exterior the buildings seem to come right over us in other words we see it in a distance it's closer closer now we can look up and as a result you get yeah the intricacies the external internal that it's like uh my i i guarantee my son if i told explain this to him he'd say dad that's that's virtual reality right that's a vr system the lord just put a vr system on there on their head and they they were able to walk through it and around it um that's that's pr that's absolutely uh absolutely incredible so when they're building it they can just ask did it look like this is this what it looked like yeah that is what it looked like and the building uh susan has uh and john you've mentioned this before i can't remember if uh in what episode we were talking or even if it made it into the episode but it's got it's got it doesn't have one pulpit like we have in ours yeah it's got a lot of pulpits right cut like nine on each side or some side right yeah it's a very which kind of tells you someone else designed it right it's not the conventional not the conventional design that they're that they're using yeah when i go in those old american churches i see the pulpit up on the up on the side of the no not front and center it's up right on the side in the front right um but this is this one's totally different i've been inside the kirtland temple it doesn't look like any other building i've seen in american history so you can tell yeah and then you have to get a handout you have to get a handout to understand what all the letters in front of the pulpits mean you know right it's hard to remember yeah yeah as the tour guide you're going i got to memorize this i got to memorize this yeah so melchizedek yeah okay what i like about this revelation is that you know we've talked about how you get a revelation but then how quick do you move on it and obviously you know in 94 there delay delay are we going to build this building two buildings now we're going to build one but in this one once it's received four days later joseph smith takes some of the brethren right up to that temple site and they remove a fence and much foliage in other words this is not sit back and wait but it's receiving a revelation and starting on it in other words you're not going to get the same chastisement they had with the other building now susan i don't want to wax too personal here but you you're i've known you for a while you are a doer you are a let's get this done let's get moving let's get this going right john and i john and i we've discussed this at length john and i love to talk about the great things we would do if we had the time right john we say you know what we ought to do is this this and this and then we both go home and we watch the andy griffith show so how does that in your mind susan how does one come from uh wow what great things we could do to a joseph smith hiram smith type well let's get started what how did you become that way you know i've always been uh i'm you know it doesn't seem to matter whether i'm going backwards or forwards but i must be doing something right and i know you can't see with how we're looking but if you look behind me you'd say well who authored those and i go man me yes and so uh well for me i just uh one of the hardest things is sitting so here i am sitting talking to you but you know but if you saw my hands you'd say well okay you're wondering what time is it and i don't know i think it's uh it's energy i think it's drive you know i think it's that and um you know i've always had this thing uh you know how you wonder i know we don't do check off lists anymore i love the check off this time and uh so so with that you know you wonder personally you know am i doing enough have i done enough um you know can it really be said well done now faithful servant if i just think good thoughts and at least in this revelation you see joseph's not letting grass grow under his feet he's he's moving at the time and i i think i think that's great yeah i think yeah there's um i've i've taken time and time again as we've gone through the doctrine covenants this year and john you can you can tell me if i'm saying this too much but this man joseph smith there is no doubt at all that he believes he's a prophet um because if he was making this up as he went he sure is asking himself to do some really hard things right and it would be he's just saying you know and once he receives the revelation he goes i i'm amazed that they even come to ohio in the dead of winter right when the lord says let's go to ohio joseph is the first to pack up his a sleigh uh and i would say man if i was making this up i'd say go to ohio when um when it's convenient and you know when the weather's nice spring right yeah and the nice nice weather so he gets up and he gets started i like what you said there he doesn't he doesn't let the grass grow under his feet i'm going to use that susan okay well do you think i mean do you think joseph's you know the committee's going we need to start and someone says you know joseph's already cleaned it off and you know taking out the foliage the fence is gone and uh you do get hiram smith and reynolds calhoun remember they're part of the committee they do dig the first trench for the walls and georgie smith uh bringing in hauling in the first stone and the committee just kind of moving forward and what i like about the building of the kirtland temple is that as joseph notices the men now moving into action and he said their wives uh hebrews campbell aren't one wit behind the men and they're spinning and sowing on all of that and joseph's comment was that uh never had there been such a time of unity harmony and charity and there's something about working side by side with people that differences kind of fade away because you're working for a common cause and you know people need projects we need projects that we share together much like you're doing uh with this come follow me we work work side by side to try and accomplish something that that we couldn't do on our own and my hat's off to both of you i think this is wonderful yeah we bond don't don't we we bond in our projects you do i love what you're saying there when i think of the the many youth service projects i've been in as a youth and in participating in a youth conference uh it's kind of funny because some of the kids might think got to do this we got to go dig up something but when they actually get there and start doing it there is a bonding that goes on and uh i always tell the kids watch watch each other who's working hard and who's hardly working you're going to learn a lot about each other today at this service project you know and but i like that you would say that because i think those become really fun memories when we're working on something together uh and maybe that's another good reason to have those just serve projects what's that website hank just serve and i i was going to add that what susan said that i love to tell my students nephi said i will go and do not i will sit and stew that's a great great quote [Laughter] yeah i was sitting and stewing when i thought i just want to highlight a couple of verses in 95 before we move on maybe get both of your thoughts on them um the lord says something uh i find interesting in verse six he says they who are not chosen right those who don't show up many are called but few show up and those who don't show up those who don't act are send a very grievous sin in that they are walking in darkness at noon day now that's an interesting parallel of it's noonday so it should be very bright outside and yet you are walking in darkness so it seems when he says a very grievous sin it's not because you're hurting him it's because you're hurting you right you are hurting you this is a very groovy sin because you are are hurting you um and here the lord is offering this light and he's saying you're refusing the light you're walking in darkness at noon day um it reminds me of john you'll have to you know the scriptures better than i do uh susan you do too but uh who sees the cloud of darkness over the earth and and satan is laughing energy is that enoch right enoch yeah moses what's that seven six satan laughs because he's got this darkness covering the earth i i i'm glad you brought up that phrase because i think it's such a great phrase you're walking it and to me it was similar to what you were thinking hank you're walking in darkness at noon day there's so much more light i would like to give you and to me he's still talking about the temple there's so much more i want to give you and you're walking in darkness at noon day your inaction is eclipsing all this light i want to give you i like the fact that you know as time goes on and there is a temple right and they're not going to dedicate it until march of 36 but in january missionaries have come home and joseph is surprised they baptized so few and it's so interesting he has them come in and gives them an endowment and then the difference if you just looked at the sheer number of the converts that join after so it's not just that they are you know walking in darkness but they are making all those that are in need of the gospel not receive it because they need this building so bad so it's like they're they're putting off blessings yeah that that's a fascinating idea and i i've i've i've been able i haven't been able to articulate this well but i try to tell the you know as as someone is preparing for the temple i'll say there's i knew i had some specific spiritual gifts i could feel them i knew i had them but it took the temple to grow them right somehow after i went through the temple it was like a i had the dry mix i needed to add water right something needed to happen uh to make that grow and it's really hard for me to articulate but i got better at teaching when after i i had my experience in the temple and kept kept going back i i think this is uh the the metaphor it reminds me of the you're living beneath your privileges um and you remember that president uchtdorf um made the the video about the cruise where the guy you know what was that called your your potential your privileges i think and that's what that walking in darkness i've got so much more i want to give you and and your inaction is the reason you don't have it very layman and lemuel right god doesn't talk to me they're spinning their wheels yeah now he uses a phrase in verse 7 that i don't know if we've heard before and that is solemn assembly it's still a word we use today but is that that's a very old testament type word maybe maybe the lord did use it in section 88. maybe he did talk about a solemn assembly what do they understand that to be susan do you know does joseph understand what a solemn assembly is going to be well a solemn assembly we know that you said you know you're going to vote in priesthood quorums right and to vote sustaining a very very sacred event uh very few times have we in this dispensations you know held solemn assemblies is different than sacrament meeting or state conference kind of thing or even general content yeah uh yeah it's a fascinating idea that i've one thing i've learned in the uh in this year susan and you can comment on this that the lord in earlier sections he'll drop little tiny hints and phrases about upcoming ideas right but at first he just drops little phrases like back in section 38 i don't want you to go ohio i'm gonna endow you with power where joseph's probably thinking i don't know what that means but it sounds good right section 88 we're gonna have a solemn assembly i don't know what that means even verse 17 he says saith the sun almond that is another idea that's going to not be flushed out for another couple of years uh what that what that means and so one part that's been i i i've known joseph was a prophet uh for a long time but one thing that's really strengthened my testimony of him are these little hints in these early sections that lead to larger things later on that he had no idea what was coming right it's like the the lord's done a tapestry right and you know you're we're weaving a little bit there and then pretty soon you pull the string through and you go oh i get it the gestalt the uh-huh yeah those i i really like how these sections build on each other i you know as a as a book of mormon new testament teacher john and i both um our our doctor and covenants has really opened up this year wouldn't you say john um that maybe before this i thought susan i don't know how you and other doctrine covenants teachers do that right i don't know how you keep people interested in the doctrine covenants and now this year i'm going uh i needed some repenting i absolutely needed some repenting there's a lot in here oh i wanted to mention one other thing and that is i don't think the lord i don't think we have details on this do we susan in verse 10 he says that contention arose in the school of the prophets now i've been in that room uh above the whitney store where they were holding the school the prophets and i gotta say it's a small room and putting a couple you know putting 20 men in there would i think contention would arise uh your elbow's in my side i i don't think we have any specifics on what happened there do we well um part of the contention you know they've got a school going they've got lots of subjects but the contention you could go right back to the front why the lord's chastising him uh you know it's uh who's gonna kick in the money to make all these uh buildings happen uh and so maybe that's in verse 12 as well if you keep not my commandments and the commandments to build the temple right the love of the father shall not continue with you you will keep walking in darkness right you will continue to walk in darkness so uh four days later you said they get started right four days later they're started and off they go and it's and yeah you know how sometimes that once you start doing it it takes you a while and pretty soon you love doing it and uh you see people coming in from all over to help to be a part of what's becoming this unity and harmony and and charity towards each other there's a there's a beautiful picture in the come follow me manual john i only have the digital one but you can tell me if it's in the hard copy uh building the kirtland temple by walter rayne um and yeah it is a beautiful and i love what you're saying here susan that once it starts happening other people say i want i want in yeah i want to be a part of that part of the bandwagon yeah if you're on our video you can see john's holding it up there um yeah i love i love the walter rayne paintings and in the at the byu salt lake center they have the whole set of his kind of book of mormon paintings and i always tell my students go go look at the prayer of venus go look at uh because that we have the arnold freebird paintings in our mind and it's fun to see the walter rain paintings but i love them there's oh there there's always people in action you rarely see people sending straight up and down and wall terrain paintings they're moving and and look at these people working there i'm glad you pointed that out now it's a place they're building on a place called the french farm susan okay so the french farm there was a man named peter french and he's selling pierre french yeah pierre french he's selling his property he's got a hundred and three acres and he's willing to sell it for five thousand dollars those were the good old days and we all missed it right but but uh in that land it's considered a choice land because they've got a quarry and that's the attractive but he wants to sell it all as one parcel well the church as a whole doesn't have that kind of money but individuals start donating giving money vienna jocks mentioned in the doctrine of covenants she gives over a thousand dollars her money is received joseph ko kind of coming up with the last payment and a large payment will be father john johnson out of hiram ohio he's now come to kirtland and it will be on that property that we've been talking about where you'll get the kirtland temple and other buildings will be built yeah i mean we've we've talked at length susan about martin harris and his money giving to the book of mormon and that was three thousand dollars so this for uh vienna that's that that is not a small amount of money a thousand dollars in 18 33. they um they say that she actually gave 1400 and she's a single woman uh there's only two women mentioned by name in the doctrine covenants one being emma and one being this vienna jocks she was a nurse and came out and joseph asked you know what she was willing to give and she she was literally willing to give her all but then on this uh french farm that's where you get what john first started talking about about the city or stake of zion at kirtland so that 103 acres is the center plot and you'd say the very very center of that is what we could probably call temple square where you've got the buildings on it and then from that joseph will actually survey out lots that are 10 acres apiece and you'd say well would you go to joseph smith to get your luck you know it's part part of this and the answer is no you go to nil k whitney and you say what is nil k whitney well he's our bishop there in kirtland to sign it out now it's a great plan it's plan of zion it looks similar to what we've learned before about zion and independence uh the problem is it doesn't work you know so you know you can you can have the plan you've got the the city of zion you know or steak of zion but the steak uh that does work and i find it so interesting you go to section 96 that when you talk about the kirtland steak we we don't get a steak president per se until the nabu years in 1841 but when you talk about who's the steak presidency we have a steak presidency and guess what they are the same people that are in the first presidency so you get joseph smith sydney rigdon frederick g williams the one that have seen the temple in a distance temple uh you know seeing it as appears to pass over them but milky whitney then the bishop in kirtland is to divide out the lots and you can see in section 96 that um you know there's a lot for the temple and and the temple committee each are going to get a lot and then it's going to go out to others but uh anytime like we're talking land we're talking money and you get contention you know who's whose lot's gonna be closest to the temple hold it um new okay whitney uh he's our so the church has a total of two bishops now right we have edward partridge and new okay whitney uh they're in a very small club of of probably very stressed and there's no words per se that that comes in nauvoo too so you've got a stake with no wards but you do have living within that stake one vision one bishop [Laughter] big responsibility especially when people out of infighting please join us for part two of this podcast [Music]

Channel: Follow Him Podcast

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Length: 50min 7sec (3007 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021