Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl: "the Holy Spirit does not quote the Scriptures, but gives Scripture"

 Commenting on D&C 59:5-6:

 

5-6. Our Lord has declared that these are the greatest commandments in the Law, because upon them “hang” all the Law and the Prophets. The Word of God presupposes and depends on love of God and fellowmen. If there is no such love, laws and instructions are of but little avail.

 

Heart, might, mind, and strength] “Heart” stands for “emotions,” “sentiment.” “Might” here stands for “soul,” the term used in Matthew 22:37, and means the spiritual faculties. “Mind” refers to the intellect, and “strength” to the physical attributes. This commandment enjoins on us to love our heavenly Father so that our entire beings—our emotions, our spiritual faculties, our mental and physical activities are all devoted to Him and His service.

 

In Deuteronomy 6:5, the great commandment reads “Heart,” “soul,” and “might”; Matthew has, “Heart,” “soul,” and “mind”; Mark has, “Heart,” “soul,” “mind,” and Luke, “Heart,” “soul,” “strength,” and “mind.” In the Doctrine and Covenants the text differs somewhat from all. When the Spirit of the Lord speaks through a human instrument, He acts independently, even when proclaiming truths formerly revealed. Strictly speaking, the Holy Spirit does not quote the Scriptures, but gives Scripture. (Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl, The Doctrine and Covenants: Containing Revelations Given to Joseph Smith Jr., the Prophet, with an Introduction and Exegetical Notes [Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1945], 438-49, emphasis in bold added)

 

Kenneth Wilson (Protestant) vs. Common Proof-Texts for Believers Having Immediate Union with Christ At Death" (e.g., Hebrews 9:27)

  

“Immediate union with Christ occurs at death”

 

Protestants cite numerous scriptures claiming these teach immediate union with Christ upon death. These include Heb 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” (NASB) After death God judges people. Nothing infers when that judgment will occur. If I say, “I am going to eat ice cream after I arrive home,” that does not mean I will immediately open the freezer and eat ice cream. I may want to eat dinner prior to eating dessert tonight. I may want to spend time with my wife discussing her day. Claiming that this verse proves an immediate blissful abode with Christ cannot withstand scrutiny. Additionally, “after that the judgment” does not sound particularly blissful. Judgment comes prior to Christ’s embrace. How is that immediate union?

 

Another passage cited by Protestants is 2 Cor 5:6-8. “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (ESV) Many authors miss the context by neglecting the verses that follow: “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor 5:9-10) Death inevitably produces a meeting with God, but again, no time frame is provided. Christ’s judgment seat does not appear to generate bravery unless you are pleasing the Lord by obeying him (1 John 2:28). Judgment precedes union. (The judgment seat of Christ may occur at each individual’s death rather than postponed until the Great White Throne judgment)

 

Phil 1:21-24 has also been used. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if to live in the flesh,--if this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose I know not. But I am a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better: yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake.” (ASV) Paul’s desire to be with Christ after death in no way proves he is ushered directly into Christ’s arms upon dying. A judgment must precede it. This verse does not support immediate bliss with Christ after death.

 

In Rev 6:9-11, Christian martyrs plead with God for judgment upon their killers. “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a great voice, saying, ‘How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’” (DRA) This is one of the stronger arguments but still falls short. Scripture does not tell us anything about what transpired between death and the martyrs being under the altar. No immediacy exists. This does not imply soul sleep, although bodily sleep is evident elsewhere (e.g., 1 Cor 11:29-30; 1 Thess 4:13-18).

 

Similarly, the saints who are martyred in the Great Tribulation indeed stand before God to serve Him. But the text does not state they went immediately to God’s Throne.

 

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes . . . So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation [της θλιψεως της μεγαλης], and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.” (Rev 7:9-15, NKJV)

 

The words of Christ to the thief (Luke 23:34) could possibly limit a delay into Christ’s presence to a single day. “Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!’ And He said to him, ‘I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.’” (HCSB) This assumes that paradise was incorporated into “Heaven” after Christ’s resurrection. It cannot be proven. IT also assumes the thief experienced immediate bliss instead of a preceding judgment “today.” It is unlikely the thief entered Paradise bypassing Christ’s judgment of his works, since Scripture teaches judgment must occur. Therefore, no Scripture states that immediately upon death we are at peace with Christ. In fact, repeatedly in scripture, a judgment of our deeds occurs prior to that intimacy with Christ. (Kenneth Wilson, The Purgatory Principle for Protestants: How God’s Purifying Judgment and Mercy Answer Injustice [Montgomery, Tex.: Regula Fidei Press, 2023], 76-79)

 

What the Critics wont tell you about the Book of Abraham

What the Critics wont tell you about the Book of Abraham

 

Morgenstern and Segan on the Genesis Apocryphon Presenting Abraham as being a Prophet Who Receives Oracles Via Dreams

  

19:14. And I, Abram, dreamt a dream on the night that I entered the land of Egypt The addition of a dream, perceived in antiquity as a form of divine communication, offers a justification for Abram’s seemingly selfish behavior in the biblical story. Instead of presenting him as an opportunist who is willing to endanger his wife to save his own skin, this interpreter has now transformed Abram into a prophet who received a divine warning about this impending danger. Furthermore, according to the content of the dream, Sarai, represented by the palm tree, is the one who raises her concerns over possible harm to Abram, represented by the cedar tree, and not Abram himself. (Matthew J. Morgenstern and Michael Segan, “The Genesis Apocryphon,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, 3 vols. [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2013], 1:251)

 

John T. Townsend (1968) on 1 Corinthians 15:29 and Baptism for the Dead

  

The enigmatic words “οι βαπτιζόμενοι ύπέρ τών νεκρών" found in I Cor. 15:29 have been subject to various interpretations, but they have usually been understood to refer to some form of vicarious baptismal rite intended to benefit somehow those who have died. Such a rite would be meaningless if a man's fate had been fully determined during his lifetime; and in view of this difficulty some commentators have asserted that, although the Apostle tolerated the rite, he did not approve of it. Such a suggestion, however, appears somewhat forced, and a better explanation is that Paul had no reason to condemn the rite because he believed that the final opportunity for salvation would not precede the end of the age. (John T. Townsend, “1 Corinthians 3:15 and the School of Shammai,” Harvard Theological Review 61, no. 3 [July 1968]: 503)

 

Bradshaw, Bowen, and Thompson on Genesis 12:8 and “his” or “her” tent

  

pitched his tent. The consonantal text literally reads: “pitched her tent.” Rashi commented that this means that Abram pitched Sarai’s tent before his own. However, a similar puzzling syntactic construction occurs in the story of Noah in conjunction as part of what appears to be a description of worship within a sacred tent—a proto-temple.  Both there and here, the Zohar offers an explanation that takes the letter he of the Hebrew feminine possessive to mean “‘the tent of that vineyard,’ namely, the tent of Shekhinah.” Shekhinah is the Hebrew term for “the divine feminine” that was used to describe the presence of Yahweh in Israelite temples. The idea of Abraham putting up a sacred “tent of meeting” is consistent with the report in the same verse that he built an altar and “called upon the name of the Lord.” Indeed, in a variant of the same theme, some modern commentators take the letter he in the Hebrew text of Genesis as referring to Yahweh, hence reading the term as the “Tent of Yahweh,” the divine sanctuary. (Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and John S. Thompson, In God’s Image and Likeness 3: The Family of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar [Salt Lake City: Eborn Books; Orem, Utah: The Interpreter Foundation, 2025], 31)

 

Postmortem Purgation of Sins in Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16a, 16b-17a

  

Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16a:

 

וְאָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא: מֶלֶךְ וְצִבּוּר — מֶלֶךְ נִכְנָס תְּחִלָּה לַדִּין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפַּט עַבְדּוֹ וּמִשְׁפַּט עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל״. מַאי טַעְמָא? אִיבָּעֵית אֵימָא: לָאו אוֹרַח אַרְעָא לְמֵיתַב מַלְכָּא אַבָּרַאי. וְאִיבָּעֵית אֵימָא: מִקַּמֵּי דְּלִיפּוֹשׁ חֲרוֹן אַף.

 

§ About this verse Rav Ḥisda said: When a king and a community are brought before God for judgment, the king is brought in for judgment first, as it is stated: “To make the judgment of His servant,” and afterward: “And the judgment of His people Israel.” What is the reason for this? If you wish, say that it is not proper conduct for the king to stand outside and wait for the trial of his subjects to come to an end. And if you wish, say instead that the king is brought in first so that he may be judged before God’s anger intensifies due to the sins of the community, and consequently he may be saved from overly harsh judgment.

 

 

Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a:

 

תַּנְיָא, בֵּית שַׁמַּאי אוֹמְרִים: שָׁלֹשׁ כִּתּוֹת הֵן לְיוֹם הַדִּין: אַחַת שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים גְּמוּרִין, וְאַחַת שֶׁל רְשָׁעִים גְּמוּרִין, וְאַחַת שֶׁל בֵּינוֹנִיִּים. צַדִּיקִים גְּמוּרִין — נִכְתָּבִין וְנֶחְתָּמִין לְאַלְתַּר לְחַיֵּי עוֹלָם, רְשָׁעִים גְּמוּרִין — נִכְתָּבִין וְנֶחְתָּמִין לְאַלְתַּר לְגֵיהִנָּם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְרַבִּים מִיְּשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת עָפָר יָקִיצוּ אֵלֶּה לְחַיֵּי עוֹלָם וְאֵלֶּה לַחֲרָפוֹת לְדִרְאוֹן עוֹלָם״, בֵּינוֹנִיִּים — יוֹרְדִין לְגֵיהִנָּם,

 

It is taught in a baraita: Beit Shammai say: There will be three groups of people on the great Day of Judgment at the end of days: One of wholly righteous people, one of wholly wicked people, and one of middling people. Wholly righteous people will immediately be written and sealed for eternal life. Wholly wicked people will immediately be written and sealed for Gehenna, as it is stated: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall wake, some to eternal life and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Middling people will descend to Gehenna to be cleansed and to achieve atonement for their sins,

 

17a

 

וּמְצַפְצְפִין וְעוֹלִין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶת הַשְּׁלִישִׁית בָּאֵשׁ וּצְרַפְתִּים כִּצְרוֹף אֶת הַכֶּסֶף וּבְחַנְתִּים כִּבְחוֹן אֶת הַזָּהָב הוּא יִקְרָא בִשְׁמִי וַאֲנִי אֶעֱנֶה אוֹתוֹ״, וַעֲלֵיהֶם אָמְרָה חַנָּה: ״ה׳ מֵמִית וּמְחַיֶּה מוֹרִיד שְׁאוֹל וַיָּעַל״.

 

and they will cry out in their pain and eventually ascend from there, as it is stated: “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on My name, and I will answer them” (Zechariah 13:9). This is referring to the members of the third group, who require refinement and cleansing. And about them, Hannah said: “The Lord kills, and gives life; he brings down to the grave, and brings up” (I Samuel 2:6).

 

בֵּית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים: ״וְרַב חֶסֶד״ — מַטֶּה כְּלַפֵּי חֶסֶד. וַעֲלֵיהֶם אָמַר דָּוִד: ״אָהַבְתִּי כִּי יִשְׁמַע ה׳ אֶת קוֹלִי״, וַעֲלֵיהֶם אָמַר דָּוִד כׇּל הַפָּרָשָׁה כּוּלָּהּ — ״דַּלּוֹתִי וְלִי יְהוֹשִׁיעַ״.

 

Beit Hillel say: He Who is “and abundant in kindness” (Exodus 34:6) tilts the scales in favor of kindness, so that middling people should not have to pass through Gehenna. And about them, David said: “I love the Lord, Who hears my voice and my supplications” (Psalms 116:1). And about them, David said the entire passage: “I was brought low [daloti] and He saved me” (Psalms 116:6). Although they are poor [dalim] in mitzvot, God saves them.