Come Follow Me LDS- Doctrine and Covenants 27-28
Mar 17, 2021
"Knights at a Roundtable"
In the context of the Sacrament, a covenant, communal meal, the Lord invites those with "keys" to sit at the table with him and share in the meal. Ultimately, we find out that we all have a seat at the table.
We discuss the differences between Elias and Elijah, as well as the dispensations and priesthood order as a mirror form of the creation, building towards being "one." Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elias, and Elijah are all emblematic of eras or dispensations, like the days of creation. Just as the earth was "organized" through separation and hierarchy, so will all things be brought back together as "one" through hierarchy, eras, dispensations, and keys.
Raw Transcript
all right
all right welcome to quick media's come
follow me series we are covering
doctrine and covenants sections 27
and 28 we will spend most of our time
in this marvelous section
27 very very interesting section
um as a whole as we look at it it's kind
of like i i i use the
the thumbnail of this on on youtube as
an example or in the study group
of king arthur with the knights of the
round table that's kind of what
the feel i get with this with this uh
with this section is you have
christ bringing in all of these these
other
heads of dispensations and important
angelic figures
that help to push forward the work
there's a kind of hierarchy there right
like king arthur
is like christ and you have these other
knights that are
noble at the uh are supposed to be at
least noble at the
at the table here and what are they
serving they're serving the sacrament
right this is about having the sacrament
this is the
context of the of the revelation
it's kind of like a dead man's party
right they're going to bring
christ is going to bring everybody
together here and partake again of the
vine
and that's that's that's what this is
about it's about the sacrament and
bringing things together
which is as the sacrament is it's a
covenant
it's an ordinance which is a covenant of
bringing the higher and lower laws
together
of bringing god and all of the levels
of of the implementation of the work
on earth up to him and that's what we
see here it's a lot like the creation
we'll see
so if we go through the heading here on
section 27 this is
the first clue of what really is
happening here
it says that revelation given to joseph
smith the prophet at harmony
pennsylvania august 1830
again just a few months after the
organization of the church
in preparation for a religious service
at which the sacrament of bread and wine
was to be administered right so joseph
had set out to procure the wine for
the sacrament that's when this comes
remember
the doctrine and covenants are always
reactions
to events and questions that are in
typically joseph's head
right where things that happen and come
up he's going to have questions about
this
he seeks guidance from the lord and boom
he gets the heavens opened and
receives these revelations so he sets
out to procure wine and he was
met by a heavenly messenger and received
this revelation so this is direct
from an angel this is an angelic
revelation to him it's not through the
urum and thumb
it's not through an answer to prayer
a portion of which was written at the
time and the remainder in the september
following that's kind of interesting
water is now used instead of wine in the
sacrament services of the church
because of this revelation all right so
let's go down and see what this says
so in verse 2 the angel says to him for
behold i say unto you
that it mattereth not what ye shall eat
or what ye shall drink
when you partake of the sacrament if it
so be that ye do it with an
i single to my glory right keeping your
values hierarchy straight
remembering unto the father that's in
the
both sacrament prayers my body which was
laid down for you and my blood which was
shed for the remission of your sins so
this is an important thing it doesn't
have to be bread
and it doesn't have to be wine
and therefore we use water it's
important to know
that this is also something that
happened in the past you'll see
examples in the old testament of water
and bread being offered as a meal
is it a ritual meal it seems like it
oftentimes
the essenes right at the time of christ
they had a thanksgiving meal that's
really what the sacrament is it's a
thanksgiving meal it's
and it's it's when you look at the
prayers right and we were told to
remember
and to witness and to remember the
sacrifice of the savior the
his body and his blood it's it's a
thanksgiving prayer and it's
it's a uh it's it's a prayer of
gratitude when you think about it
that's what it is it's we're renewing
our covenants but we're doing in a
in a spirit of thanksgiving and it's a
spirit of
of gratitude that's what the eucharist
is if you've heard that term
in other churches it's a thanksgiving
meal is what it is not
not turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy
but it's a it's a
it's the spiritual
meal of thanksgiving but the essenes
used water
in their meal they used bread and water
so it's not unprecedented
i remember when i was on my mission once
and i was really sick and i was out kind
of in the boonies
and i called my mission president i said
look i
i have no bread i want to take the
sacrament um i'm sick as can be
and um is it okay if i
do the sacrament here on my own and he
said yes i said okay well just so you
know
all i've got here are some some cheap
mexican cookies packaged cookies right
and some some drink that was called
sangria which is a soda pop
and he said do it right and so i did and
so i had
my sacrament with uh a cookie
and with a packaged cookie and with this
this soda
this uh which is actually made out of
grapes
so you it doesn't really matter what you
use
in the end right but he's told then not
to
purchase wine and either strong drink
from your enemies that's kind of an
interesting
and interesting thing strong drink
becomes a
a more and more of a of
of an issue in the church as we move on
and then
we eventually we get section 89 with the
word of wisdom
and then eventually in the first half of
the 20th century
i believe sometime actually during uh
prohibition it with the u.s so with
alcohol
i think that's about when that was added
on to the temple questions it wasn't
it wasn't on there before you know do
you follow the word of wisdom was not on
the temple questions prior to that i
believe
so he says wherefore you shall partake
of none except it is made
new among you yea in this my father's
kingdom which shall be built up upon the
earth
so again here's our context for what
we're going to get here with the rest of
section 27
the sacrament it's a meal of gathering
and that's really what we do it doesn't
seem that way
when we are um you know taking a little
piece of bread and a little plastic or
paper cup of water it doesn't seem like
a meal
but that's what it is if you think about
the last supper right you had loaves of
bread that was broken off of the loaf of
bread
and passed out and and and then there
was actually
probably a single cup that was handed
around
of wine that was given to everybody it
was a it was a communal
meal we don't look at it that way in the
church very often
right but that's that's really what it
was
was a communal meal i don't know how you
guys handled things during covid and
when you may have been doing your your
sacrament at home
or with someone else um but i did that
you know at home i i would have uh we
used non-bread
and so i would give out big pieces of it
and um and then we used teacups
for the water because what i wanted to
do
was was make it more like a meal
a little bit more and of course the
other thing is is of course when you're
at home and there's usually four
to six of us here um
it's over like that right and i wanted
some time
for people to sit and think and ponder
and
go over things so they can do that while
they're eating their bread and
sipping their sipping their water so so
that's how we did it
but he says this as he says in the new
testament as well he says behold this is
wisdom in me
wherefore marvel not for the hour cometh
that i will drink of the fruit of the
vine with you
on the earth and with moroni so
interesting he brings up moroni here but
that's kind of
it's kind of you know joseph's compadre
here it's it's the guy that he's gone to
that he saw in his own room he he he
sees later in the field by the fence
and then of course for four straight
years and
more probably he sees him at the hill
kimura and he's instructed by him
and so moroni obviously is the one given
the keys
for the book of mormon which is the tool
to gather israel as we read through this
section we need to think about that
creation of a gathering and that's how
we should look at it
as we go through this again we'll have a
little bit of a creation theme in here
so he's going to drink with joseph smith
he's going to drink with
moroni from the vine he's going to have
a sacrament with him
again a communal meal think of king
arthur and the knights at the round
table sitting at
the table and and and having this
communal meal together
a meal of covenant right it's a meal of
covenant it's a meal of thanksgiving
it's a meal focused on
the sacrifice of the atonement
right so he says about moroni he is whom
i have sent
unto you to reveal the book of mormon he
has the keys
containing the fullness of my
everlasting gospel we get that again
here another
witness another another level again
of telling us that the book of mormon
has the fullness of the gospel
to whom i have committed the keys of the
record of the stick of ephraim
right so again this is this is a moroni
is a
of course joseph smith is the prophet of
the last dispensation
moroni is the one who holds the keys
with the book of mormon which is the
stick of ephraim
and so that is a natural for him to be
involved at this communal meal
at the in the last days at the last
dispensation
and again the stick of ephraim becomes
that much more interesting as we get in
isaiah
right it's the stick of joseph or the
stick of ephraim
but it becomes more uh
obvious that the book of mormon is a
stick of ephraim
if as we've learned recently in recent
scholarship
if zoram
was an ephraimite if ishmael and his
family
were ishmael were were ephraimites
it appears that that's the case so what
you get is
ephraimites on both sides both with the
nephites and with the lamanites
you have zorum who
marries apparently in ephemite wife who
is the
daughter of ishmael so that's like all
ephraim
all in and then nephi and laymen
and lemuel all marry daughters of
ishmael who
apparently are ish are ephraimites so
you've got a mixing there of
ephraim and manasseh and then of course
on the lamanite side you have the sons
of ishmael
so it is the stick of joseph all the way
around both of those signs
ephraim and manasseh both of those
josephite tribes
are perhaps equally represented more or
less
it's not just manasseh so
the stick of ephraim makes all the sense
in the world the stick of joseph of
course even makes
more sense perhaps and then we start
getting the list
of these characters that are sitting at
king arthur's table at the round table
so to speak it says and also with
elias okay here we go again with elias
to whom i have committed the keys right
another
another member that holds the keys here
another member of the table
of bringing to past the restoration of
all things
spoken by the mouth of all the holy
prophets since the world began
concerning the last days all right now
i'm not gonna touch on this a lot i'm
gonna i'll cover a few little things on
it
i've already done an episode on this
back uh with the new testament so i'll
leave that in the description that
episode
but who in the world is elias who are
they referring to
i've heard and read a lot of lds
scholars talk about this i am not
convinced on any of it
it doesn't make sense to me who this is
now you think in reading this a little
bit further that you know who it is
but let's wait and see here if we go
into verse 7 it says and
also john the son of zacharias
interesting because john is also called
elias
right in the new testament and in the
joseph smith translation
which zacharias he
uh parentheses elias visited
and gave promise that he should have a
son and his name should be john
and he should be filled with the spirit
of elias
so here's a this gets very confusing
very confusing because here you have who
appeared to zacharias at the temple
to tell them about john his son well it
was gabriel
we get the term the the name of the
angel is gabriel
who we are told is noah
and you say to yourself oh so elias is
noah
well hold on and then it says that he
should be filled that being john the son
of zacharias should be filled with the
spirit of
elias so here's elias appearing and
that makes sense because john the son
here is going to be
an icon of the aaronic priesthood and he
is going to be filled with the spirit
of elias that we are told later on is
about being a forerunner
is about preparatory things kind of like
the aaronic priesthood are kind of like
the lower law
and he makes this specific again tying
it into the last days
which john i have sent unto you my
servants joseph smith jr and oliver
cowdery
to ordain you unto the first priesthood
which you have received that you might
be called and ordained even as
aaron so that ties that in with the
aaronic priesthood
so what does elias have to do with the
aaronic priesthood i think that's a
question we need to
ask now before i move on to elijah here
who is a different person in verse 9 we
need to
get some context on this just a little
bit i'm not going to go fully into this
this is
worth an entire episode or worthy of an
entire episode
what if we were to look at section 138
right this is the one that is given by
joseph f smith
about the work for the dead right and he
sees all of these
people that are that are the faithful
that are gathered in this one place
and that have been faithful in their
testimony to jesus
while they lived in mortality we're told
and that they are rejoicing together
because the day of their deliverance
is at hand and they'll be able to be
redeemed from the bands of death right
so he goes through a number of the
people that he sees
that are like this people that need the
work done for them
and of course just like our section 27
here it's a lot of the people that are
kind of like the knights of the round
table
those that hold the keys and so we get a
list of these people he starts off with
adam
makes sense he goes to mother eve then
he talks about abel
and seth were there and then
he says that he sees noah he sees noah
right and shem who he calls the great
high priest many think that that is
melchizedek
some issues on that and abraham isaac
jacob moses
isaiah ezekiel
daniel right so he's go gets through all
these people and then he comes down to
here 40
verse 45 in section 138 elias
who was with moses on the mount of
transfiguration
who was with moses on the mount of
transfiguration this is very confusing
well was it
john the baptist as it seems to tell us
in the joseph smith
translation of the new testament
or was it elijah which is what elias
is elijah is the
hebrew and then
transliterated into into greek is
and and english is elias
so when we see elias usually in the new
testament which is in greek
it's usually talking about elijah but
joseph smith says no no no
not always not always there is a spirit
of elias
which is different from the spirit of
elijah
there is a person he says that is elias
with the greek version
that is not elijah
we think of the the seder meal right
where you have where the jews celebrate
each year
and they have that empty chair for who
for elijah elijah
who is the one who is preparing the way
for thee
for the messiah and when he shows up in
the chair then that means the messiah is
coming
well wait a minute that's a forerunner
so that doesn't make a lot of sense
because
elijah wasn't a forerunner elijah
actually represents much more the
melchizedek priesthood because of the
the
the abrahamic covenant because of the
the
ceiling in the temple that's that's more
of a higher law thing
that's a melchizedek priesthood thing so
that doesn't make a lot of sense
so again we've already mentioned noah so
here is separate is elias
is this john the baptist he's talking
about that was with moses
or is it elijah that he's talking about
well it's not elijah
because in the very next verse he says
and malachi
the prophet who testified of the coming
of elijah
right so he's not just going in and out
of greek and hebrew here for the same
person
that's a separate person here in this
context elijah is separate
of whom also moroni spake to the prophet
joseph smith
declaring that he should come before the
ushering in of the great and dreadful
day of the lord
and then 47 the prophet elijah was to
plant in the hearts of the children the
promises made to their fathers
and then we get into the temples and
ceilings in 48 and to work for the dead
all right well that's a common thing to
see is we see elias
coming right before elijah but elias
seems to be the lower law elias seems to
be
for example john the baptist he's often
called elias
or having the spirit of elias so who
is the person elias we can also make a
parallel to this with melchizedek
right melchizedek is a person it is who
abraham paid tithes to
and who he receives the melchizedek
priesthood from who abraham receives the
milk as he priests it from
but it's also a title right melchizedek
is a righteous king that's what
melchizedek means
and even christ jesus christ is called
the new melchizedek
he's the new king of righteousness and
he has the melchizedek priesthood it is
he that actually represents the higher
law the melchizedek priesthood
so he's also a melchizedek if we look at
melchizedek as a title even though he
was also a
person in section 76
the the vision of the three different
degrees of glory
we get in verse 100. these are they who
say they are some of one and some of
another
so this is those that claim a prophet as
kind of the head of their church right
some of christ and some of
john we don't know which john that is
i'm not sure which john that is
some of moses and some of elias
john the baptist there would make sense
right
that would make sense there because you
just mentioned john and that could be
john from
the book of revelation right in the book
of john
the gospel of john and then we get this
which is very interesting
and some say aesis and
some and some of isaiah
and then it says in some of enoch right
here we have it again aesis is the greek
version of isaiah the hebrew version
yet he has them here as separate people
he's using a
greek spelling for for isaiah here
as a separate person from isaiah when
you see
isaias in the new testament
you're talking about isaiah that's who
they're referring to
but not for joseph smith all the time
maybe all the time in the new testament
but
for joseph smith is also a separate
person
just like elias is the greek of elijah
and he sees them as there's also two
separate people there
even though elias is also used as the
greek for elijah
here he also has acais as
a separate person from isaiah even
though isaias is oftentimes used as the
greek version of
isaiah for example in the new testament
and
if you go to section 84 you get essayist
again
it's not through isaiah it's not the
name isaiah when you look through the
uh what is it it's the lineage let's see
yeah it's the lineage
of moses's melchizedek priesthood
through jethro his father-in-law
and he goes through and he goes all the
way back to abraham and how jethro
received the melchizedek priesthood one
of those names in there
is a sies not isaiah
so you can see joseph smith has done
this again here it's not
just with elias and elijah
he has given a greek name
to it appears ancient people
where you would expect to get it uh get
it get a hebrew version of that
but maybe so that we can differentiate
the people i don't know
maybe he uses a different name in
section
uh 110 right where you have all those
that appear at kirtland temple we'll get
to that
soon enough um he does the same thing
he in verse 11 he goes after this vision
closed the heavens were opened or again
opened unto us
and moses he's also elias seems to
oftentimes be associated
with moses not that moses is elias
but he seems to be mentioned right there
with him
and moses appeared before us and
committed unto us the keys of the
gathering of israel
from the four parts of the earth and the
leading of the ten tribes from the land
of the north
okay and then he goes right into of
course in verse 12 after this
elias appeared right so
it's kind of like the mount of
transfiguration a lot that the name
elias is there with with
the name of moses and comp committed the
dispensation of the gospel of abraham so
this is this is someone who is
responsible for the gospel of abraham
could it be abraham i i don't i don't
know
is elias
a title that would be given to abraham
who's responsible for
the keys of the dispensation of the
gospel of abraham
saying that in us and our seed all
generations
after us should be blessed that sure has
something to do
it seems with with
with abraham and what they're what what
is termed here is the gospel of abraham
and then of course right after this what
name are you expecting to hear after
elias
in verse 13 after this vision had closed
another great and glorious vision burst
upon us
for elijah i mean over and over again we
are
shown that whoever he refers to as elias
is not elijah whoever joseph smith
refers to is elias
right these are separate people and one
elias always comes
before elijah lastly i'm going to go to
section 77 here
in answering questions about the book of
revelation one of the questions is
in verse 9 what are we to understand by
the angel ascending from the east
revelation seventh chapter and second
verse and his answer is and this is
interesting
we are to understand that the angel
ascending from the east
is he to whom is given the seal of the
living god
over the 12 tribes of israel wasn't that
moses
i mean we know we see elias is kind of
there with moses
but this gathering of israel it seems to
be
under elias also
right so he continues wherefore he
crieth unto the four angels having the
everlasting gospel saying
hurt not the earth neither the sea nor
the trees till we have sealed the
servants of our god in their foreheads
and if you will receive it this is elias
which was to come to gather together the
tribes of israel
and restore all things who would be in
charge
of restoring all things
so elias is someone that we find
apparently several times
the person elias in the scriptures
according to joseph smith maybe not by
name but he's not elijah
and based on section 138 he does not
seem to be noah
anyway just a fun little rundown on the
conundrum which is which is elias
and elijah and this is something joseph
smith was working on
still and developing and and getting new
uh answers to through through revelation
when he was killed right the the idea
you know kind of
codifying the idea of the spirit of
elias and the spirit of elijah
he started to speak about this more
toward the end of his life
and unfortunately i think he was he was
killed
before he could fully get that
information himself or at least to
relate it to us
all right so back to section 27 here
again we've gone over
elias being one of the knights of the
round table here if you will
and of course he's brought up right
before we go into
elijah so here in verse 9 we get elijah
unto whom i have committed the keys of
the power of turning the hearts of the
fathers to the children and the hearts
of the children to the fathers
that the whole earth may not be smitten
with a curse
right so another seat at the table for
someone with the keys
now again something interesting here
again a little bit confusing on this if
you go to the joseph smith translation
of malachi that uh
talks about the idea of turning the
hearts of the
children to the fathers it's it's very
similar to what we see here
where you have the hearts of the
children turning to the fathers
and the hearts of the the fathers
turning to the children in the joseph
smith translation
i believe it is the joseph smith
translation that changes
and in moroni's explanation of this
or maybe that's the only place it is i'm
not sure but for sure in moroni's
explanation of this
to joseph smith when moroni first
appears right
in joseph smith's room in his bedroom
he goes over malachi and about this
quote
but he says it differently he does not
say that the father's turn to
the children he he does it differently
he talks about
turning back the ch the hearts of the
children back to the fathers in other
words
the way i see that is back to the
abrahamic covenant
back to um the old ways the original
ways
that had been lost at sinai to some
degree
actually before but we would get that
event inside that event at sinai where
they chose to discard the higher law
they chose to
mostly discard the melchizedek
priesthood because right here after that
it goes right into
and also with joseph and jacob
and isaac and abraham your fathers by
whom
the promises remain right
that's what we're looking back to those
are the patriarchs
we're looking back to the patriarchal
order we're looking back to the
abrahamic
covenant and it's so interesting that
they add joseph in here
because usually we have the title and
that is a title i believe
when we hear the god of abraham isaac
and jacob
right that's a title that's specific to
i believe talking about the abrahamic
covenant
and the melchizedek priesthood here we
get the addition of joseph in there
because we're talking about moroni and
we're talking about the
the book of mormon which is a josephite
record
then we go all the way back with the
keys here we get in verse 11
and also with michael or adam the father
of all
the prince of all the ancient of days
and also with peter james and john whom
i have sent unto you by whom i have
ordained you
and confirmed you to be apostles and
special witnesses of my name
and bear the keys of your ministry
and of the same things which i revealed
unto them
so these are all people that have a seat
at the table similar to what we get
when we have the keys being brought and
given to
joseph smith at kirtland in section 110.
that's what he says here in in in verse
13
of section 27 unto whom this is peter
james and john under whom
i have committed the keys of my kingdom
and a dispensation of the gospel for the
last times
and for the fullness of times in the
which i will i will gather together in
one all things both which are in heaven
and which are on earth those our higher
and our lower laws
so we can see a lot of this in that
filter
right and understanding that interpreter
of the higher and the lower laws we even
get a little bit of a hint of this
i believe when we're talking about elias
and elijah
but this is about bringing everything
back together into one and this is
my point about the creation think about
the creation and how that works right
it's it's like it's dispensational
now we get it in terms of days or in
hebrew the the yoms
right yo meme this is this is a time
period
but it it it it represents the same kind
of thing
at the end of each day right we get the
the the the lord saying and he saw that
it was
good or in hebrew which can also mean
in a sense complete that that
dispensation or or that period or that
principle
is complete and remember in the creation
you're dividing things up right the
light and the darkness
and the land and the water and the
different species
of of trees and plants and different
seeds of all kinds and then
different kinds of animals and then of
course
atom is divided as the rib is removed
and and woman is created
and so you get this whole thing of this
separation and then we start moving into
a
bringing everything back together that's
what zion represents is bringing
everything back together
to one and we start that
in in my mind we start that with
individually with baptism and that's
what the
that's what the covenant of the
sacrament is about right
it's it's it's bringing heaven and earth
together
it's sitting down for that communal meal
and then of course it moves on beyond
that with a gift of the holy ghost
with temple marriage especially right
where you've had the separation of adam
and eve
and in the creation story and then you
have them
being brought back together again in an
eternal marriage in a celestial marriage
we're talking about ordinances
we're talking about things that cove are
of covenant
so when we make covenants and we promise
to do this or we do that what are we
doing
we're taking what has been separated
out like in the creation we're taking
what has been separated in the fall
us and god and we're bringing all these
things back together
into what into eventually like again
thinking of those four
phases of the priesthood from individual
agency to individual
speech and behavior to family and
marriage
to zion all being brought back together
into one that is what
the intercessory prayer is about in john
17.
right it is bringing everybody back
together into
one and that's what i see here in
section 27 it's this idea of
going back to adam into abraham isaac
jacob joseph bringing moroni and who
holds the keys of the book of mormon in
the last days
and joseph smith and they're all sitting
down together at this round
table so to speak with christ there is
king arthur
and having a communal meal together the
sacrament together
a covenant meal something that means
to bring together which is what covenant
is covaneri
to bring together and we can look at the
same idea with the days of
of creation right it's kind of like you
separated all these things
and we need to bring everything back
together remember how we're told in
section 76 how the earth will be as a
celestial sphere
it's all flat as glass because
everything's been put into one there's
no valleys there's no mountains
that might be metaphoric uh metaphorical
i don't know
but it's it's that's the idea
right it's all brought back together
into one
so he's gonna sit down with all those
individuals it does also say in 14
and also with all those whom my father
hath given me
out of the world so that's all of us so
he's mentioning this hierarchical
structure
of these knights at the round table of
these of these
key holders and then all of us right
hopefully
if we are to be given
to the savior out of the world based on
our decisions based on our choices
and of course based on his sacrifice
he then goes through the armor right
that we get in ephesians
um i i've got an al already an episode
on that so i'm not going to cover that
here
that we also had in the new testament
the one thing i will say about that in
verse 15 the whole thing about the armor
how does it start off
wherefore lift up your hearts and
rejoice
and gird up your loins and take upon you
my whole armor
lift up from where right lift up from
where
the point is is you're in a fallen state
you are
in a carnal state and and you're lifting
your heart up
above those things right it's just again
a lower law we're reaching up
to god so you're pulling yourself out
from a carnal state
and trying to reach toward god it's part
of a covenant just like the entire
section is about
then in verse 18 as it finishes up
talking about the helmet of salvation
and the sword of my spirit
he says i will pour that out upon you
and my word
my dbr remember that as we hear for see
this hierarchy of adam and abraham and
moroni and all these other
knights at the table here they hold the
keys through the priesthood ordination
but they're also the ones who received
the word
the dbr and and put that out to others
right and so that's what we get at the
very end summing this all together here
which i will pour out upon you being the
spirit and my word
which i reveal unto you well that's
what's come from all of these
these dead men at this party here right
and be agreed as touching all things
whatsoever ye
ask of me and be faithful until i
come and ye shall be caught up
that where i am ye shall be also amen
right so that's that's that's all of us
we all
have a seed at the table and that is the
plan
of happiness that's the plan of
salvation we
all because of a fluid hierarchy can
have unlimited progression and the
hierarchical structure that is put into
place through priesthood
and through how the dbr gets passed down
to us
is all for our good and no matter where
we fall in the hierarchy with anything
our our we could have a seat at the
table and
we can have unlimited progression
now moving over to section 28 just a
couple points that i want to
discuss here um i i think the way to
look at this
let let's go through the heading a
little bit so so we have an
understanding of what's happening
and why this revelation was given it
says it's a revelation given through
joseph smith the prophet to oliver
cowdery
this is in september of 1830 so we're
moving along here in time frame
hiram page a member of the church had a
certain stone
and professed to be receiving
revelations by it
by its aid concerning the upbuilding of
zion and the order of the church and
several members had been deceived by
these claims
and even oliver cowdery was wrongly
influenced thereby
right again we see these problems with
oliver cowdery and we all might have had
the same problems but
you can see some of the pride that gets
involved with him hey look what i've
found i've seen this
right i i i'm the holder of this mystery
to some degree
and so this is very common we see this
is
this is the same principle that comes
out in every new dispensation
so of course it's here and what is that
principle i want you to go back and
think about
peter and simon the sorcerer
right that that is the same exact thing
i'm going to
buy revelation i'm going to buy the
priesthood
it's a false priesthood that's what that
story is about
that is what this is hiram page
is simon the sorcerer it's the same
thing now why would that happen back
then
because the lord is bringing about his
proper authority
and the proper channel and hierarchy for
the priesthood
and for the word the dbr so there's
going to be
natural opposition to this naturally
there are going to be
other perversions of that hierarchical
structure
and so here we have a perfect example
he's using a stone
just like joseph smith is using the urim
and thumb
and perhaps a seer stone in his
reception of the revelation some of them
here in the doctrine covenants
and of course to translate the book of
mormon so here comes somebody else hey
look here's
here's what i have here's here's here's
another stone here's
i have the authority here i am able to
receive this this revelation
it's the same exact thing we get with
simon the magi
simon the sorcerer and
we get the same thing if you think about
it back in another
beginning of a dispensation how about
with moses
what happens when they go to ferris
court and there's moses with the with
the staff and he
and there's the the uh uh
the magi right the magicians of uh which
are really
that's really priests the priests of
pharaoh which represent what
a different priesthood a different
source of revelation
and and they throw out their staff and
what is that story about well
they throw out their staff it turns into
a snake right and
and and moses throws out his staff it
turns into
a snake and then of course the snake
from moses's staff
eats the other snake or snakes
what what is that telling you what is
that
that that is a a threat to the
priesthood it's an opposition to the
priesthood
and that's that's what is happening
there and and the story is about
the lord and moses being the direct line
for revelation for the dbr and for the
authority of the priesthood
so of course we see this story here and
it actually comes up a couple more times
we can
if i remember i'll touch on that but
this is right here in the
beginning in the first year of the
church hiram page
is the magicians of the pharaoh
or the priests of the pharaoh same thing
hiram page is sam and the magi
simon the sorcerer it's a natural
consequence to challenge the authority
and it's a natural consequence for the
authority
of god the true authority of god to be
shown
as exactly that the true authority and
the lord just confirms this by
verse two he says no one shall be
appointed to receive commandments
and revelations in this church accepting
my servant joseph smith jr
for he receiveth them as moses
right so again that brings us directly
back to
the story of moses and pharaoh's
magicians in verse 3
and thou shalt be obedient unto the
things which i shall give unto thee
even as aaron which is really
interesting this is directed
to oliver cowdery remember oliver
calvary's already been told this
back in where was it section seven or
eight
right he had the gift of aaron and in
fact that might have been a staff
these things are all intertwined but he
had what was called the gift of
aaron and here now he's moving
outside of that he's using the wrong
staff so to speak he's using
pharaoh's staff when he's following
hiram page here
so he's saying that aaron like aaron was
uh
obedient to moses right that oliver
cowdery needs to be aaron
to moses to hit to joseph's moses to
declare
faithfully the commandments and the
revelations with power and
authority unto the church this is not
something that is just
from the authority doesn't come from man
we always learn that right the whole
idea of the
the unhewn stone for the altar the
unhewn storm in in
in the uh uh interpretation of
nebuchadnezzar's dream right it's
it's from god that's what that means
it's not from man
and then showing the hierarchy again
here in verse 6
speaking to oliver and thou shalt not
command him who is at thy head
and at the head of the church for i have
given him
joseph smith the keys there's the keys
just like we were talking about in the
last section
the keys of the mysteries and the
revelations which are sealed
until i shall appoint unto them another
in his stead
and of course next is brigham young
in verse 8 quickly oliver is told to go
on a mission to the lamanites which is
interesting
he goes to the native americans of north
america
who are the lamanites right
who really are the lamanites is it those
that are native americans well
joseph smith seemed to see think so
originally
is it the central americans uh
a lot of lds scholarship now is focused
on mesoamerica
there's a lot of evidence for that but
is that the hub is that the focus of
where the book of mormon geography is i
don't know
i personally i don't care that much yes
it would be fun but to me it's candy
right it's dessert it's it's not the
meat and potatoes
in verse 9 we're told that zion will be
built the city of zion will be built on
the border by the lamanites
and of course that's supposed to be an
independence missouri
and then just as he gave in section 27
here
we can talk about this in the same way
and the same root of the word right in
hebrew dbr
in verse 13 we get for all things must
be done
in order right dbr
and by common consent in the church by
the prayer of faith
and that's kind of what this whole these
two sections really are are
are about it's the proper order we get
the layout of all of the
knights of the round table and order
that's what you would call that right
the knights of the round table are in
order it's a priesthood it resembles a
priesthood a hierarchical
a hierarchical structure and things are
done in a certain way there are there's
day one of the creation day two of the
creation etc
and originally by the way right in day
one in the beginning
that is the council in heaven in the
pre-mortal life
that's the council in heaven when
everything is together when everything
is brought together
and then as it comes down to earth it's
spread out it's separated
and our job is to take what was once one
in that council in the beginning
which is represented in the holy of
holies in the celestial room
and then bringing that back together how
do we do that we do that through
covenant through coming together to
bringing things together
anciently they in the hebrews used to
have
what they called the the covenant of
peace and that's kind of what that
represents shalom
right is is this idea of everything
being in its proper order and having
been brought back together
i hope that gives you a different
perspective on these two sections and
that you've
learned something here in this episode
i'll talk to you next time
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Doctrine and Covenants 27-28
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