D&C 18-19

1. D&C 18-19

2. Sections 18 and 19 are a good example of a “scripture foil.” D&C 18“The Worth of Souls” Two major themes of section 18 • Future calling of the 12 • The importance of each soul!

3. “I am certain our Heavenly Father is displeased when we refer to ourselves as a ‘nobody.’ How fair are we when we classify ourselves a ‘nobody’? How fair are we to our families? How fair are we to our God?... “As children of God we are somebody. He will build us, mold us, and magnify us if we will but hold our heads up, our arms out, and walk with him” (Marvin J. Ashton, C.R., April 1973, 21).

4. D&C 18:9 First apostles of this dispensation. D&C 18:10-16 “The Worth of Souls is great in the sight of God” Why?Atonement! News! Good News! He lives!

5. Who can measure the worth of a human soul? Brigham Young stated: “The least, the most inferior spirit now upon the earth, in our capacity is worth worlds.” Who can doubt it? The greatest evidence of the value of each child of God is the fact that the Redeemer “suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him… And how great is His joy in the soul that repenteth” (J.D. 9:124).

6. Story of Elder Walling from the Boise, Idaho Mission Story of Ray Born. Abraham Lincoln wisely said, “It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him” (The International Thesaurus of Quotations, comp. Rhoda Thomas Tripp [New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1970], 575). Doctrine and Covenants 18:20

7. It is therefore, the obligation of the Saints to stand forth against evil wherever it may be found. The method of doing so is clear, according to President Joseph Fielding Smith: “All who go forth to teach should do so in wisdom and not contend with the churches or engage in profitless debates, but teach in the spirit of kindness and try to persuade people to receive the truth” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:83).

8. Doctrine and Covenants 18:31, 37 Search out the twelve! (The 12 were not chosen until 1835) Doctrine and Covenants 18:34-36 Explaining how one hears the voice of the Lord, Elder S. Dilworth Young declared: “In 1835 the Twelve were chosen, as you know, and on one occasion they were called together and given their instructions. Oliver Cowdery was the spokesman; and after having given them some very powerful and heartwarming instruction, so moved was he, himself, that he had to stop two or three times to weep. He finally read the revelation (now designated as section 18).

9. “Brigham Young was so impressed by it that he copied it in his laborious handwriting into his diary. I am impressed by it likewise. “The thing that impresses me about this is, and I have never thought of it before, when I read a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants I am hearing the voice of the Lord as well as reading his words, if I hear by the Spirit. “Now I have heard it said many times by men that they have often asked the Lord for a special testimony and oftentimes haven’t had it. They seem to want to hear the voice of the Lord. I confess I have often wanted to hear the voice of the Lord, without knowing that all these years I have been hearing it with deaf ears. This woke me up” (C.R., Apr. 1963, 74).

10. Doctrine and Covenants 19 “The Gift of Repentance” Martin Harris had been begging Joseph for a commandment (I for one am glad he did). The doctrine of the Atonement as applying to the individual and his exposition of eternal punishment gave members light which was previously not known.

11. The word “Atonement” is found just one time in the New Testament (Romans 5:11). Doctrine and Covenants 19:1 Interesting introduction! Doctrine and Covenants 19:2 “Submission” this is a key word in helping us to understand the Atonement!

12. Doctrine and Covenants 19:4 An exit from Hell? YES! In hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better (Talmage, C.R. 1930, 97). Doctrine and Covenants 19:16 In Greek repent means to adopt a new view, a 180% change. Walking a new direction.

13. Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-20 Alma 7:11-12 Four areas the Atonement covers: 1. Pains and afflictions 2. The pains and sicknesses of his people 3. Loosens the bands of death 4. Our infirmities (weaknesses) Doctrine and Covenants 19:28, 38 Pray vocally and always!

14. “At the very moment, at the hour when the crisis came for him to offer up his life, the Father withdrew Himself, withdrew His Spirit, and cast a veil over (Jesus). That is what made him sweat blood. If he had the power of God upon him, he would not have sweat blood; but all was withdrawn from him, and a veil was cast over him, and he then plead with the Father not to forsake him” (JD 3:206, Brigham Young).

15. There are only three scriptural references on a “blood Atonement.” 1. Doctrine and Covenants 19:18 2. Luke 22:44 3. Mosiah 3:7

16. Don’t leave Father in Heaven out of it! “In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child and has to be taken out of the room so as not to look upon the last struggles, so He bowed His head and hid in some part of His universe, His great heart almost breaking for the love that He had for His Son. Oh, in that moment when He might…

17. have saved His Son, I thank Him and praise Him that He did not fail us, for He had not only the love of His son in mind, but He also had love for us. I rejoice that He did not interfere, and that His love for us made it possible for Him to endure to look upon the sufferings of His Son and give Him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer, without Him, without His sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have come glorified into His presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father in heaven to give the gift of His Son unto men” (Melvin J. Ballad, Crusader for Righteousness, 1966, 137).

18. (My experience in Gethsemane) Doctrine and Covenants 76:24 Elder McConkie has written: “Now our Lord’s jurisdiction and power extend far beyond the limits of this one small earth on which we dwell. He is, through the power of his atonement the inhabitants of these worlds, the revelation says, ‘are begotten sons and daughters unto God,’ which means that the atonement of Christ, being literally and truly infinite, applies to an infinite number of earths.”

19. Doctrine and Covenants 19:18 Which Suffering caused myself… to tremble because of pain. Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained: “We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane. We know he sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as he drained the dregs of that bitter cup his Father had given him.”

20. “We know he suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death. “We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name.

21. “We know that he lay prostrate upon the ground as the pains and agonies of an infinite burden caused him to tremble and would that he might not drink the bitter cup. “We know that an angel came from the courts of glory to strengthen him in his ordeal, and we suppose it was mighty Michael, who foremost fell that mortal men might be.

22. “As near as we can judge, these infinite agonies – this suffering beyond compare – continued for some three or four hours” (C.R., April 1985, 9-10). Elder Neal A. Maxwell offered insight into the symbolic significance of the Savior’s anguish: “His infinite atonement affected every age, every dispensation, and every person. Hence the appropriate symbolism of His bleeding at each and every pore – not just some” (C.R., October, 1988, 41).

23. Elder Maxwell taught in general conference that the cumulative weight of all mortal sins – past, present, and future – pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement (C.R., April, 1985, 92).

24. It seems, that in addition to the fearful suffering incident to crucifixion, the agony of Gethsemane had recurred, intensified beyond human power to endure. In that bitterest hour the dying Christ was alone, alone in most terrible reality. That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fullness, the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence, leaving to the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death” (Jesus the Christ, Talmage, 661).

25. Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. …It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.

26. Suffering: Do you know, the suffering of the innocent is less of a problem to me very often than that of the wicked. It sounds absurd: but I’ve met so many innocent sufferers who seem to be gladly offering their pain to God, in Christ as part of the Atonement, so patient, so meek, even so at peace, and so unselfish that we can hardly doubt they are being, as St. Paul says, ‘made perfect by suffering.’ On the other hand I meet selfish egoists in whom suffering seems to produce only resentment, hate, blasphemy, and more egoism. They are the real problem (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, vol. 3, 520).

27. D&C 19:31 Of “tenets” thou shalt not talk Doctrinal beliefs that distinguish those of various denominations. We are to focus on the restoration.

28. Elder John A. Widtsoe expressed that he was grateful for the doctrine that we shall go on, throughout the endless ages, far beyond the comprehension of man. I am indeed grateful that all has not been revealed today, because if we are to go on, today and tomorrow and throughout all time to come, then we shall be continually learning an increasing in knowledge. I find men occasionally who are very fond of discussing the unrevealed truths of the gospel. To them everything must be explained; there must be no mystery. This is completely our of harmony with the great principle of eternal progression, one of the cornerstones of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful that I do not understand all things; that I have been given certain field knowledge into which I must fit this mortal life to the best of my ability; and that I know for a certainty that on the tomorrow, when this life is passed, or perhaps before it is over, new light and knowledge may be given me (C.R., April 1925, 28).