Wilford Woodruff on Satan Appearing in the Kirtland Temple

A popular “folk” doctrine one has encountered is that Satan is never present in the temple. However, this does not appear to be the view of early Latter-day Saints. In his diary for 7 April 1837, Wilford Woodruff spoke of Satan being present in the Kirtland Temple:

April 7th I spent the day in writing my Journal 1833-1898, Vol.1, & when the shades of evening began to appear I repaired to the house of the LORD in company with Elders Milton Holmes, & Joseph B Nobles for the purpose of worshiping God. We entered one of the stands within the veils & fell upon our knees & Satan appeared also but not to worship God but to deprive us of the privilege. Satan strove against us with great power by tempting & otherwis. He at one time drove me from my stand while I was striving with my brethren to enter into the visions of heaven. Notwithstanding his apparent victory good grew out of it for by going into the outer Court I there found Elder Freeman Nickerson an aged father in Israel who was faithful & Prayed to God alway. I solicited him to Join us in prayer that we might gain a victory over Satan & get a blessing at the hand of God. He joyfully accepted the invitation & we again entered the stand being four of us in number of one accord in one place. We had great cause to be united in heart. We all had travled together about 1,000 miles in the spring of 1834 for the redemption of Zion. We at that time offered to lay down our lives & our offering was accepted as was Abram's. We felt considering those circumstances that we could kneel down & unitedly get a blessing by faith through Jesus Christ. We fell upon our Knees & began to cry unto God. Satan departed, tempation found no place in our harts The power of God rested upon us & we were baptized with the Holy Ghost & the Spirit of God was like fire shut up in our bones. We were immersed in the liberty of the sons of God. Many great things were shown unto us. The power of God & the Spirit of prophesy & revelation rested upon us. I arose & Proclaimed many Glorious thing upon the heads of my beloved brethren that were present which were dictated in my heart by the Holy Spirit. And I Willford testify in the name of Jesus Christ that many precious things were shown me concerning my brethren by the Holy Spirit in prophecy & revelation. Our hearts were made glad & we went our way rejoicing. (Wilford Woodruff's Journal, Volume 1: 1833-1840, ed. Scott G. Kenny [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1983], 136-37, spelling in original preserved)

Easter Thoughts from Thomas Merton

While reading his book, No Man is an Island, I found the following from Thomas Merton to be rather apropos for this Easter season: 

Only the sufferings of Christ are valuable in the sight of God, who hates evil, and to Him they are valuable chiefly as a sign. The death of Jesus on the Cross has an infinite meaning and value not because it is a death, but because it is the death of the Son of God. The Cross of Christ says nothing of the power of suffering or of death. It speaks only of the power of Him who overcame both suffering and death by rising from the grave.

The wounds that evil stamped upon the flesh of Christ are to be worshipped as holy not because they are wounds, but because they are His wounds. Nor would we worship them if He had merely died of them, without rising again. For Jesus is not merely someone who once loved men enough to die for them. He is a man whose human nature subsists in God, so that He is a divine person. His love for us is the infinite love of God, which is stronger than all evil and cannot be touched by death.

Suffering, therefore, can only be consecrated to God by one who believes that Jesus is not dead. And it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the Resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning. (Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island [London: Burns and Oates, 1955], 68-69)

1 Timothy 3:16 as Evidence for the Personal Pre-Existence of Jesus

Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory. (1 Tim 3:16 NRSV)

The earliest and best manuscripts of 1 Tim 3:16 does not read of “God” being manifest in the flesh, but “he who” (ος [i.e., Christ]) who was manifest in the flesh (ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί). Interestingly, this verse, as it stands in the earlier texts, is a strong witness to the personal pre-existence of Jesus, and therefore, a “high Christology” (unlike “God was manifest in the flesh,” one cannot wriggle out of it by claiming it is a “God-manifestation” [as Christadelphians and others claim] and/or Jesus being “God” in a representational sense merely):

the subject of the construction is clearly not God or any of his qualities or attributes, but Jesus Christ, who was revealed/appeared ἐν σαρκί, in a human body. Seen in the language of revelation this dative construction contains a profound christological implication... while ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί is not a categorical assertion of Christ's pre-existence and his incarnational ministry and does not explicitly tell us of the mystery's hiddenness and subsequent revelation, the language and thought of line 1 echo that used elsewhere in the NT to depict how the Son of God had entered history, incarnated at a particular moment in time (cf. 'came into the world' - 1 Tim. 1.15; cf. 2.5-6); ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί indeed can be understood in terms of the revelation and the execution of God's salvation-plan in the historical (incarnate) appearing of Christ on earth. (Andrew Y. Lau, Manifest in the Flesh: The Epiphany Christology of the Pastoral Epistles [Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1996], 98-99)

Charles L. Walker vs. Roman Catholicism and Episcopalianism

Charles L. Walker, a 19^th century Latter-day Saint wrote the following about Roman Catholicism and the Episcopalian Church in his journal for 8 July 1872. I reproduce the following as (1) unlike many modern members who have been influenced by moral relativism and postmodernism, Walker (and many of his contemporaries) did not hesitate to call a spade a spade and denounce the false religions around him and (2) to show that early Latter-day Saints would shy away from theological ecumenism:

To day I went to work for Morris and Evans, in rear of the old Council House, Cutting Utah firestone for smelting Furnaces. I worked for them until about the Middle of Spt. During this time I spent my Sundays at the Tabernacle and ward meetings with the exception of a few times I went to the Catholic Church and St Marks Episcopal Church, and the Liberal Institute all in the 13th Ward. I was truly a lamentable picture of Modern Christianity, to see an intelligent audience listen to the muttering and changing of an Irish Priest in a language they did not understand and I doubt whether he did. I was very much surprised to see both Men and women in fine and costly apparel deliberately bow down on their knees to an oil painting of the Virgen Mary, and the Image of the Saviour on the Cross, and then cross them selves before taking their seats among the congregation. The Episcopalians were no better they believed in three Gods in on and he without body, parts or passions, and tho professing Christ, beleive not on his sayings nor do his works; I cannot see how they can for they have not authority to act in his name. Hence the blind lead the blind and none of them are brought to an understanding of God or his divine purposes concerning his children. They preach for hire and divine for mony, and Satan has a firm grip on them, and they harden their hearts and wont receive the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, because it undermines ther religion structure and is taught by the Mormons as they call us. (Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Volume 1, eds. A. Karl Larson and Katharine Miles Larson [Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980], 348; spelling on original retained)

Elsewhere, in a journal entry dated 12 November 1876, Walker recorded the following from Brigham Young:

Pres Young showed the folly and ignorance of the belief of the outside world regarding the things of God; said their condemnation was in refusing the light and choosing darkness. Our bitterest enemies were the hireling Priests. (Ibid., 434)

An Example of a 19th Century Latter-day Saint Referring to Adam's Action in the Garden as a "Sin"

The following excerpt from his diary for 11 April 1875, Charles L. Walker recorded the following which shows that early Latter-day Saints held a more negative view of the Fall of Man, even referring to Adam’s act as a “sin,” not transgression merely (this should be compared with D&C 29 where Adam is “chewed out,” if you will, for his act—something that is alien to a lot of folk “Mormon” doctrine about the Fall):

Br MacArthur Spoke in a clear Lucid way of the atonement of Christ showing that He yeilded to the temptations of Satan but led a pure and holy life, and that Satan put it in the hearts of the children of men to slay him, and they did crucify him and shed his Blood, innocent blood, which they could not replace, and He, the Christ, demanded the souls of men in return, having bought them with a price most precious. He claimed those that were shut up in prison for ages. He opened the prison doors and bid the captives go free and partake of the redemption he had wrought for them and all others who were under bondage to Satan thro the fall and transgression of our first Parents. He showed also that [through] the agency of man, man first sinned, and by his agency he must be saved by rendering obedience to the requirements of God and going forth and being baptized with water and have hands laid upon him for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and living a life of acceptance before him. (Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Volume 1, eds. A. Karl Larson and Katharine Miles Larson [Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980]. 408; spelling in original retained)

Charles L. Walker on Brigham Young Limiting Joseph Smith's Role in Judgment to those who Lived in This Dispensation Only

In my lengthy article Joseph Smith Worship? Responding to Criticisms of the Role and Status of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Latter-day Saint Theology, I discuss the few passages in the Journal of Discourses where Joseph Smith is said to play a role in final judgement, showing that early Latter-day Saints (e.g., Brigham Young) who spoke about such clearly limited his role to those who lived in this dispensation.

In his diary for 30 March 1862, Charles L. Walker noted the following from Brigham Young which further substantiates this:

In the P.M. Bro Brigham spoke in very clear and comprehensive manner on the judgment of the World. Showed that the Lord would not judge all the Word no more than he preaches to all the world but would do it by his Servants thro all the ramifications of his Priesthood. Showed that the saints were judged all the time here by those that were placed over them, so that if they were faithful here their sins were before them and if the servants of God remitted their sins here they would be remitted in heaven so that when the judgment day came there would be nothing found against them. Showed that the twelve Apostles would set upon 12 thrones and judge the 12 tribes of Israel, and that Joseph Smith Junior would be the grand Judge of their Latter day Dispensation, the Messiah in his Dispensation and so on. (Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Volume 1, eds. A. Karl Larson and Katharine Miles Larson [Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980], 222, emphasis added)

Mormon Stories Essays, "No Palmyra Revivals?"

The Mormon Stories Essays Website, dedicated to reviewing John Dehlin's "Truth Claims" Essays, has a very good new article addressing a number of old canards about the First Vision:

No Palmyra Revivals