Friday, May 19, 2023

Excerpts from Bowen and Doxey, Doctrine and Covenants Study Guide with Selected Commentaries, 2 vols (1971)

The following are excerpts from:

 

Walter D. Bowen and Roy W. Doxey, Doctrine and Covenants Study Guide with Selected Commentaries, 2 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1971)

 

“Satan is employing every method to deceive not only non-members of the Church, but also particularly those who are members. Each of us must be careful that we are not out of harmony, that we enjoy daily the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

The Lord has said, (D&C 1:14-16 quoted).

 

Every person who goes contrary to the Church and says that the brethren are fallen or are out of the way or are teaching false doctrines, unless he repents will never in this life or eternity realize the full measure of his possibilities and powers. God will not suffer his Church, established for the last time in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times when a restitution of all things is to be accomplished, to be led by a fallen prophet or someone whom he does not want.” (Delbert L. Stapley, CR, April 1952, p. 50.) (1:4)

 

“In the first part of this dispensation He (the Lord) gave a revelation directly to the twelve in which He added to what He had previously given, when He said, [D&C 18:33-36 quoted.]

 

“Now I ask you to think of the import of the Lord’s revelation. In the scriptures are contained His words, and when one having power to teach them speaks them to you it is as though it were by His own voice, so that those who hear can testify that they have both heard His voice and that they know His words. . . .

 

“I wish that our faith was sufficiently simple that we could read what I have just read to you, and I shall repeat it now, and I ask you to think about it again. The wors that are in these scriptures are the words of the Lord, and when one like these authorized servants read them to you by the power and authority they possess and by the Spirit, you, all of you, all of us, can say, I have not heard His words, and I have heard His voice. Because whether it is “by His own voice or by the voice of his Servants, it is the same.” (Address by Harold B. Lee, Church News, December 3, 1960.) (1:42)

 

On D&C 33:11:

 

. . . “repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)

 

These two steps open the door to understanding, peace, brotherhood, and happiness to all men. The baptism with the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands obtain for the truly repentant companionship of this spiritual gifts and blessings. John the Baptist, speaking of the Christ, testified: “ . . . he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” (Matt. 3;11)

 

Man can only become spotless and sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost in his personal life. The Holy Ghost is a cleansing and purifying agent to all who receive it and are righteous. This means that sin and iniquity are spiritually burned out of the repentant person. He then receives a mission of sins, and his soul is sanctified and made clean for the Holy Ghost to abide in him. The cleansed person enjoys a newness of life and becomes a new creature in the spirit . . .

 

The Holy Ghost is an actual, heavenly endowment from God in the life of an individual. It is a power he can feel. If faithful and obedient, one learns to be sensitive and responsive to its guidance and influence . . .

 

The Holy Ghost then becomes a needful adhesive attribute to one’s personal spirit and it is a determining character factor in one’s temporal and spiritual matters. The Holy Ghost has many powers, gifts, and functions, but it will not abide in an unworthy, dishonest or sinful person.

 

Without the Holy Ghost one lives in spiritual darkness, blind to truth, unbelieving of heart, and apostate in feelings and teachings.

 

The Holy Ghost is also a comforter; it has the power to give peace to the soul of the righteous.

 

If prophets speak b the power of the Holy Ghost, then the Holy Ghost is required to interpret correctly the teachings of holy men . . .

 

. . . The Holy Ghost has the power to quicken one’s mind and increase one’s understanding and comprehension of divine and temporal things. Without it there can be no faith, hope, nor personal assurance of eternal life.

 

. . . To many are skeptical about the actuality of the Holy Ghost or lack faith in it and thus deny themselves of its powers and blessings . . . it is sweet to the taste and satisfying to the soul.

 

The natural inclination of man is to rely solely upon himself and to ignore the purpose of his existence as well as his relationship to God, who is his spiritual father. If man will recognize his divine origin, he will then realize his Heavenly Father will not leave him alone to grope in darkness of mind and spirit, but will make available a power to influence him in right paths and into standards of good behavior. The Holy Ghost is that power . . . Without this spirit, one cannot teach correct doctrine.” ([Elder Delbert L. Stapley], Improvement Era, Dec. 1966, p. 1140-42.) (1:76-76)

 

Yes, within the Church today there are tares among the wheat and wolves within the flock. As President Clark stated, “The ravening wolves are among us, from our own membership, and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood . . . We should be careful of them . . . (CR April 1949, p. 163)

 

The wolves amongst our flock are more numerous and devious today than when President Clark made this statement.

 

President McKay has said that “the church is little, if at all, injured by persecution and calumnies from ignorant, misinformed or malicious enemies. A greater hindrance to its progress comes from fault-finders, shirkers, commandment-breakers, and apostate cliques within its own ecclesiastical and quorum groups.” (CR Oct. 1967, p. 9) (1:108-9)

 

Delbert L. Stapley:

 

Now I am sure we are not forbidding the unworthy the sacrament in the Church today, yet the words I have quoted are the words of the Saviour. He realized that those who unworthily partake of the sacred emblems representing His broken body and spilled blood, would eat and drink damnation to their souls. Moroni, in a great address, gave the following admonition and counsel:

 

Be wise, in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.

 

See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out. (Mormon 9:28-29)

 

The Lord in our day has said:

 

Ye are also commanded not to cast any one who belongeth to the church out of your sacrament meetings; nevertheless, if any trespassed, let him not partake until he makes reconciliation. (D & C 46:4)

 

Which would indicate, my brothers and sisters, as we go to the sacrament service, that we would not partake of the sacrament holding grievances against our brother or sister, but first we should go our way and be reconciled with him or her.

 

. . . Now, emphasizing as I have, the importance of worthiness in partaking of the sacrament of our Lord, maybe there are some of you, I hope not, that have a feeling you have been unworthily partaking. Remember, we have in the Church the principles of repentance, and of forgiveness. Certainly one who truly repents with all their heart and do the works of righteousness can be forgiven and the Lord will remember their sins no more. Such an individual can reinstate himself to worthily partake of the emblems of our Lord . . . (BYU Speeches of the Year, May 8, 1956, p. 7, 9) (1:115-16)

 

Modern prophets have set forth the doctrine of salvation of children, as follows:

 

WILFORD WOODRUFF:

 

There is no infant or child that has died before arriving at the years of accountability, but what is redeemed, and is therefore entirely beyond the torments of hell, to use a sectarian term. . . . I will say again they are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and then they die, whether of Christian, Pagan or Jewish parentage, their spirits are taken home to God who gave them, and never go to suffer torments of any kind. (JD 23:126, May 154, 1882).

 

LORENZO SNOW:

 

Now, this little boy [four and one-half year old son of Heber J. Grant] has not lived through the years that others have, and that he might have lived, provided, as I think, that it was in the providence of God. Well, he goes back there, having been cut short of living as long as the usual time of people. He will receive as much honor and as much glory and be welcomed there has having accomplished that for which he came into the world, and for which he was willing to come into the world. This is all that could be required, and wherein could there possibly be any loss? I can see none, and I am just as positive that in time to come or in eternity this little fellow growing up and becoming enlarged, his capacity increasing as opportunities are furnished him, and he will start a kingdom, and that kingdom will increase. His posterity will increase, and become as numerous as the sands on the sea shore, or as the stars in the firmament, and he will rule over them, and give them instructions, as the Lord now governs and controls us, His offspring, so he will govern and control his offspring. I am sure of these things. (MS 57:387, June 20, 1895). (2:8-9)

 

On D&C 84:57:

 

FRANCIS M. LYMAN:

 

The forgiveness of sins is predicated upon faith in God, repentance and reformation and baptism. Sins are not forgiven through the payment of tithing, nor through the partaking of the sacrament, nor observing the Word of Wisdom, or prayer. There are blessings attached to each of these important requirements of the Gospel; but if a man would have his sins forgiven and be allowed to enter into the Church, he must have faith in God, and in his son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, he must repent of all his sins, turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart and sin no more. Then God will forgive him and redeem him from his sins; but not by paying tithing . . .

 

But we want our names recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Lie, and it is not done by the observance of any one principle alone, but to every principle there are special blessings promised. (CR. Oct. 1899, p. 34) (2:71)