Doctrine and Covenants 98-101
“Be Still and Know That I Am God”
September 8 - September 14
scripture
quotes
Act According to the Moral Agency Given
<p>When things turn bad, there is a tendency to blame others or even God. Sometimes a sense of entitlement arises, and individuals or groups try to shift responsibility for their welfare to other people or to governments. In spiritual matters some suppose that men and women need not strive for personal righteousness—because God loves and saves us “just as we are.”</p> <p>But God intends that His children should act according to the moral agency He has given them, “that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment” (D&C 101:78). It is His plan and His will that we have the principal decision-making role in our own life’s drama. God will not live our lives for us nor control us as if we were His puppets, as Lucifer once proposed to do. Nor will His prophets accept the role of “puppet master” in God’s place. Brigham Young stated: “I do not wish any Latter Day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ,—the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied. I wish them to know for themselves and understand for themselves.”</p>
D. Todd Christofferson, “Free Forever, to Act for Themselves”, October 2014 General Conference
Seek After the Things of Eternal Consequence
<p>The Lord declared, “I must gather together my people, … that the wheat may be secured in the garners to possess eternal life, and be crowned with celestial glory” (D&C 101:65).</p> <p>Within the sound of my voice are many young women, young men, and children. I plead with you to be worthy, to be steadfast, and to look forward with great anticipation to the day you will receive the ordinances and blessings of the temple.</p> <p>Within the sound of my voice are individuals who should have but have not yet received the ordinances of the house of the Lord. Whatever the reason, however long the delay, I invite you to begin making the spiritual preparations so you can receive the blessings available only in the holy temple. Please cast away the things in your life that stand in the way. Please seek after the things that are of eternal consequence.</p>
David A. Bednar, “Honorably Hold a Name and Standing”, April 2009 General Conference
Are We Worthy of These Rich Blessings?
<p>In framing that great document which Gladstone declared “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man,” our early leaders called upon a kind Providence. Later the product of the constitutional convention was referred to as our God-inspired Constitution. They had incorporated within its sacred paragraphs eternal principles supported by the holy scriptures with which they were familiar. It was established “for the rights and protection of all flesh according to just and holy principles” (D&C 101:77). Later the Lord himself declared, “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose” (D&C 101:80).</p> <p>Founded as a great Christian nation our forebears have bequeathed to us an incomparable inheritance as a sacred trust. As Americans, are we worthy of these rich blessings? Are our lives such that we feel assured of the future security of this great nation? Well might we remember that a continuation of all these glorious promises is conditional.</p>
Ezra Taft Benson, “America a Choice Land”, October 1944 General Conference
It is Not Right That Any Man Should Be in Bondage One to Another
<p>In our early Church history, the vast majority of our members were opposed to slavery. This was a significant reason, along with their religious beliefs, for the hostility and mob violence they experienced, culminating in the extermination order issued by Governor Boggs in Missouri. In 1833 Joseph Smith received a revelation stating, “It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” (D&C 101:79). Our commitment to freedom of religion and treating all people as sons and daughters of God is central to our doctrine.</p>
Quentin L. Cook, “Let There Be Light!”, October 2010 General Conference
commentaries
Commentary on D&C 101:63–75
<p>One of the reasons that the mob leaders in Jackson County openly cited for persecuting the Saints was that “since the arrival of the first of them [the Saints] they have been daily increasing in numbers.”<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> The calamities and persecutions that fell upon the Saints in Zion might have caused an impulse in the Church to cease the practice of gathering to one place. But in Doctrine and Covenants 101:63-74 the Lord emphasizes the importance of continuing the gathering to “build them [the Saints] up unto my name upon holy places” and to prepare them for the time of harvesting, a likely reference to the Second Coming (D&C 101:64). The Lord also asks the Saints to purchase land in Zion with money and to not respond to persecution with violence. This counsel echoes the earlier counsel He gave to the Saints to obtain the land for Zion peacefully (D&C 63:27–31). In a revelation given a few months later to the Saints in Zion’s Camp, the Lord reiterates the need to obtain the land through peaceful means (D&C 105:29).</p> <p>While the Lord continued to command the Saints to gather to Zion, he also urged them to not gather in haste; the Saints were to ensure that they had enough money to provide for themselves before moving (D&C 101:72). Failure to follow this commandment led to an overflow of Saints gathering to Kirtland without the resources to establish themselves. In an attempt to help, Church leaders established the Kirtland Safety Society, a bank which later collapsed. The fall of the Kirtland Safety Society led to a major apostasy in Kirtland, and Kirtland eventually ceased to be a meaningful church center.</p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> Letter from John Whitmer, 29 July 1833, p. 53, JSP. </p> </div>
Doctrine and Covenants Minute by Casey Paul Griffiths
Commentary on D&C 101:76–80
<p>Throughout their trials in Missouri and elsewhere the Saints sought peaceful redress of their wrongs through legal means. The Lord in verse 80 explains that the Constitution of the United States was created by wise men whom the Lord had “raised up unto this very purpose.” Joseph Smith at one point proclaimed, “I am the greatest advocate of the Constitution of [the] U.S. [that] there is on the earth.”<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> The Prophet also saw a need for the US Constitution to be amended and enforced justly. In a discourse given to the Council of Fifty on April 11, 1844, Joseph Smith taught, “There is only two or three things lacking in the constitution of the United States. If they had said all men [are] born equal, and not only that but they shall have their rights, they shall be free, or the armies of the government should be compelled to enforce those principles of liberty. . . . And when a Governor or president will not protect his subjects he ought to be put away from his office.”<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a> This was, in part, why Joseph Smith was running for president in 1844, to ensure the rights of the Constitution extended to all peoples.</p> <p>The Lord’s statement that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” powerfully refutes slavery and racism (D&C 101:79). President Dallin H. Oaks used this passage to disaffirm those who would use the scriptures to justify racism and discrimination. He taught:</p> <blockquote> <p>Some religious people have sought to justify practices of racism by references to the Bible, as I will discuss later. Nevertheless, the proper understanding of scriptures—ancient and modern—and recent prophetic statements help us to see that racism, as defined, is not consistent with the revealed word of God. We know that God created all mortals and we are all children of God. Moreover, God created us with the differences that identify races. Therefore, any <em>personal attitudes </em>or <em>official practices</em> of racism involve one group whom God created exercising authority or advantage over another group God created, both groups having God-given qualities they cannot change. So understood, neither group should think or behave as if God created them as first-class children and others as second-class children. Yet that is how racism affects thinking and practices toward others. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ must remember that all such attitudes and official practices were outlawed for us by the Lord’s 1833 revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” (D&C 101:79).<a href="#_ftn3" id="_ftnref3" title="" class="see-footnote">[3]</a> </p> </blockquote> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> Discourse, 15 October 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards, p. 128, JSP. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846; Volume 1, 10 March 1844–1 March 1845, p. 122, JSP; emphasis in original. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref3" id="_ftn3" title="" class="footnote-label">[3]</a> Dallin H. Oaks, “Racism and Other Challenges,” Brigham Young University devotional, October 27, 2020. </p> </div>
Doctrine and Covenants Minute by Casey Paul Griffiths
