message of joy
Doctrine and Covenants 45 is a message of joy. This week I break it up into little pieces to see just where that joy comes from.

I would like to try something this week. The theme of the lessons in the manual is the joy for the Saints found in section 45 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Every time I read this section I find myself working to fit all the Savior’s comments into the overall plan of salvation and how it all fits together. It is a long section, so I don’t want to just quote the whole thing. I know that saves you time, but this week I would like to try referencing verses and having you open your scriptures and follow along with the commentary to find the verses on your own. I hope it will be a good experience for us both.

Background

As the Lord delivers this message of hope and joy to the prophet He seems to move quickly, and without commentary, from one conversation in time to another. This will be more clear as we go through the list of verses. He starts in the present, but then jumps back to a conversation He had with His disciples, and almost as soon as He starts that conversation He jumps to a different time period. Be prepared to adjust “when” you are in this conversation.

Here are the basics of the plan of salvation, just so we are all on the same starting page.

At some point in our pre-earth life our Father declared that once we came to earth we would not be permitted to return without a resurrected body. A resurrected body is what was promised to us for keeping our first estate (our time before we came here). Abraham 3:26 says this –

26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. [emphasis added]

I underlined God’s promise to glorify us. Being added upon means to become more than what we currently were. We were spirits, and coming to earth to get a body is the first step to receiving a resurrected body. After all, you can’t have a resurrected body without having one first, right? Satan and his ilk are those referred to in the second thought of verse 26. They didn’t keep or honor their first estate, so they never got a body, and hence cannot receive a resurrected body, which is a glorification of the person. A physical body is required. There are things we can do with a physical body that we cannot do as only an Intelligence or with a spirit body. Just like a butterfly can’t fly until the caterpillar gets the body it requires to fly. This whole earth process is with the intention of us gaining the required body for God to add to us the glory He offers us. If we do this right we will be able to be added upon forever, which means to have increasing glory for eternity. This is what is meant by us keeping or honoring our second estate. That is the plan of salvation in a nutshell.

With God’s stated intention of glorifying His children, the very next verse in Abraham 3 is God asking whom He should send to put His plan for our exaltation into motion. This is the background and motivation for everything the Savior has and will ever do for us. Our eventual exaltation is the whole point and focus of the Godhead’s work on our behalf.

Jesus and his prophets make it very clear, especially in the Book of Mormon, that without the Atoning sacrifice, death, and resurrection of our Savior, coming to earth would be a one way ticket away from God’s presence. The whole of creation would have been for nothing, for all of us would be lost to God. Christ’s death was the whole point of his coming to earth, because without his death there could be no resurrection, and his Atoning sacrifice in the garden and on the cross would have been for nothing. The resurrection was the key to everything, for it unlocked the door to us becoming resurrected ourselves and receiving the glory God wants to give us. Yes, we focus a lot on the Atonement, but the atonement is only a means to an end, and that end is the resurrection, the purpose for everything else Jesus ever did, and does. Here is an article I wrote about the resurrection Resurrection – The Turning of a Key.

The family

From the very beginning of our time on earth the Lord has operated through the family. First it was Adam and Eve. The priesthood was passed down from father to son in the Patriarchal Order. When Abraham came along the system was changed to what it will be until the end of time, which means until the earth ceases to be our home as we now know it. All the covenants that lead to our exaltation are given through the family of Abraham. The family is everything to God. First that family was exclusive. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel, was told to keep the covenants within the family. God needed to create a posterity for Abraham that He could use to bless all His children who come to earth. So for many centuries Israel’s descendants kept to themselves and increased as a nation.

God knew that the day would come when Israel, as a people, would reject His teachings. At that time it was promised that He would scatter them throughout the known world. During their time of scattering they would mix their genetics with all the nations of the earth. The goal and promise to all His children was that when God started to gather Israel out from among the nations of the earth, because they had some of the blood of Israel in their veins, people would recognize the truth when they heard it and be drawn to the gospel of Christ. This is what the gathering is all about. There are obviously some things about genetics we don’t even comprehend.

Recap

What we read in section 45 is referring to all that we have just discussed. These doctrines (teachings) are all included in the things Jesus says to the prophet in this section. With that in mind let’s get into the short version of the commentary I promised you. (I know, I have a strange way of shortening things.)

Commentary

Doctrine and Covenants 45:1-5 – Why does Jesus advocate (plead our case or cause) with God? He does it because no one else can. We aren’t worthy of expecting anything but a no from God, because we have flaunted His laws and disrespected Him. But Jesus has been totally faithful in all things, and has fulfilled the Father’s will in everything He wanted to do for us, as unworthy as we have been. So Jesus can go to God and plead for us based on his personal worthiness before God and God will grant his requests. This is why we pray in Jesus’ name. We certainly can’t pray based on our own performance. God is always the lawgiver, but that doesn’t make Him unmerciful. But as the lawgiver He has to uphold the laws He created and keeps in place. In His mercy He gave us a Savior, Jesus, to directly offer us mercy that God cannot. Jesus, as our advocate with the Father, is telling us in these verses that all of us have only a limited amount of time in which to listen to him and keep his commandments. If we don’t take advantage of our short time to repent then we will find ourselves at the judgment bar of God unprepared and without any way to fix our problem. Today really is the day to prepare ourselves to meet God, for we never know if there will be another day.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:6-10 – What does it mean to harden our hearts? It means don’t be stubborn. When God commands us to do something it isn’t a commandment to obey because He likes to control us, which is often the way people take it to be. He commands us because anything less would indicate that there might be wiggle room to disobey. If He only invites us we might take it as only a social curtesy. If He suggests we obey then we can take that as only a recommendation, but not necessary. No, God must command us so we know that there is no other way we can find happiness, but to do the things only He can teach us. Commandments are not optional to our happiness, but necessary. When we resist His commandments He calls that resistance a hardness of heart. To soften our heart is to become willing to be led to the happiness He desires for us. Hardness of heart and softness of heart is something each of us chooses from moment to moment and from day to day.

In order for Jesus to fulfill his role as our Savior and Advocate with the Father, he also needed to become the God we look to for the source of our salvation. To that end God had Jesus create all that is in our universe. He is also the creator of the earth and everything in it. The whole world lives in a spiritual darkness. Why? Because mortals can only understand what they can experience with their limited senses. All truth that is eternal in nature lies outside the realm of human ability to discover. This light or truth must be revealed to mankind. This is done through the Holy Ghost. He enlightens our minds to see and understand things we couldn’t otherwise learn. This is why Christ refers to himself as “a light that shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” We are in the dark as to eternal truths, we can’t understand them until they are revealed to us by the Spirit.

Christ’s covenants are the purpose for all the light or truth he sends into the world. The truth and power of these covenants act as a standard or flag to the whole world. They tell all of God’s children where to look for eternal truth, that truth that enlightens the soul and brings us joy. Yes, truth brings joy to the soul, lasting joy. As we take God’s truths to the world we help to prepare people for his coming.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:11-15 – These verses function as a preface to what the Savior wants to talk about next. The idea here is that all who were holy (righteous) longed for the day they could live, like the people in the city of Enoch, with a people who embraced the Lord and his teachings. They died never seeing that day, for they lived in times when people rejected Christ’s gospel. But God has promised that they will all see such a day when he returns in the flesh to rule the earth. Their desire to live among the holy will be fulfilled, but they have to wait until God’s timing is first fulfilled. What Christ says next was what was told to the prophets of old. He is stating this as he is speaking to his Apostles during is time on earth. Do you see that we are mixing three time period here? We are reading this today, about Christ’s conversation during his lifetime, as he is referring to his promises to the prophets of old.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:16-17 – In my opinion verse 17 only makes sense if you are seeing Jesus talking to the prophets of old as he is standing in the spirit world while his body is in the tomb. If you pick any other location for this comment then his reference to them seeing their absence from their bodies as a bondage makes no sense to me. This means that the conversation in question with the Apostles had to have taken place after his resurrection while he taught them for forty days or thereabouts. In the next verse he quickly transitions back to referring to his Apostles.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:18-25 – These verses are both instructive by themselves and an introduction to his main point in the following verses. In the “here and now” Jesus is saying that in the lifetime of those now living in Jerusalem they will see their precious temple completely destroyed and their people scattered to the ends of the earth (at least to them they were scattered to the ends of the earth). His main point here is that the end of the world, as in when Jesus returns, won’t happen before the destruction Jesus is currently telling them about. His return won’t be for many, many generations to come. When Jesus says the Jews “shall remain until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled,” he is saying that they will remain scattered until the times of the Gentiles both enters in and is fulfilled. This means it will be a long time in coming.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:26-30 – The light breaking forth Jesus refers to here is the Restoration of the gospel that Joseph Smith has just ushered in. At the time of this revelation this part was only a few years old. Jesus is telling his Apostles of old that during this time of the Gentiles the people will be in spiritual darkness, and when the light or truths of his gospel are taught to them they will reject them “because of the precepts [teachings] of men.” During this period of time, however long it lasts, the love of men will wax cold, and iniquity will abound. We don’t know how much longer this will last, as Christ doesn’t give us any end date. We are in the middle of the time of the Gentiles now.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:31-33 – These verses don’t paint a very rosy picture. During this generation, meaning this general period of time, not during the life of any one person, we will see an “overflowing scourge” and a “desolating sickness” cover the land. I don’t know if this refers to this land or the whole earth. Christ had already commanded the Saints to stand in holy places, but the earthquakes, etc. he refers to would start with the coming of the Civil war in the United States. From that day onward unrest and devastation would begin to spread across the world and increase until the day the Lord returns.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:34-42 – When the “light shall begin to break forth,” meaning when the gospel is restored, it will be a sign, like the parable of the fig trees. This is the sign that the coming of the Savior is much closer than previously thought. Those who are looking for the Savior to return will see the signs of his approach in the wonders that will appear in the heavens and in the earth. During this time there will be blood, fire, and vapors of smoke. None of which bode well for humanity. The one thing we haven’t seen yet, as far as I know is “the stars fall from heaven.” Not sure what that refers to. It could either be a spectacular display or a cataclysmic event.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:43-46 – The remnant Jesus refers to here are those who have joined the house or family of Israel (the prophet Jacob, the grandson of Abraham). They shall be gathered “unto this place.” The gathering in the beginning of the church was to protect the Saints from the persecution and to build up the body of the church until it could stand on its own. Now the gathering takes place in the individual countries of the earth. The gathering is taking place in all the places on earth where the people have embraced the covenants of the Lord and seek to learn of His ways.

Even though we will be watching for his return, before Jesus returns for the last time (there will be multiple visits before the official return) there will be a trumpet sounded and those who have slept in peace, or in other words, those who were faithful to the covenants they were given in mortality and have since died faithful to those covenants, will be raised from the dead to join with Jesus in his triumphal return. This will be a worldwide resurrection of the righteous as part of the first resurrection (which has been taking place since Christ was resurrected).

The scriptures don’t really discuss what will happen to those who are alive at the time of the Savior’s return, but the righteous will be translated or changed to endure the glory of those who come in the clouds. They will be caught up to meet them and will continue to finish out their mortal lives helping Jesus set up his millennial kingdom on earth. The wicked? Well we don’t want to be one of them on that day, for they will be purged with fire from the earth when all that is not righteous is burned away. The description is like a scroll of paper being consumed.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:47-59 – There is a lot here. I don’t know that it is all actually in chronological order. I always thought that Jesus setting his foot on the Mount of Olives happens before his triumphal return, so take what I say here with a grain of salt. I don’t know that there is anything in the scriptures that gives us an actual list of events and their order of occurrence.

This first event in verse 48 has the Jews beset with enemies round about them. It is looking grim for them, and in the middle of battle Jesus descends and sets his foot on the Mount of Olives. When he does so the mountain splits and rivers start to flow in different directions to heal the earth in the country of Israel. This is when the Jews ask him who he is and he tells them he is the Messiah they killed.

This is also a very clear indication that God loves all His children equally. Those who belong to nations without the gospel (heathens) will be redeemed and take part in the first resurrection, for they “knew no law.” And we all know that we can’t be judged without a law to condemn us. These verses also tell us what it means when Satan is bound. It only means that no one will pay him any heed, for they are all converted. He will be impotent, or ineffective for at least a thousand years until he is able to find someone to listen to him again.

It isn’t until these final verses that Jesus mentions those who are alive at the time of his coming. They are the direct subject of the parable of the Ten Virgins. Those who have prepared themselves with the oil of the Spirit in their lives will live during the millennium and raise their children in righteousness. They will finally fulfill all the holy prophets’ dreams of being able to live in the presence of the Savior and walk in righteousness among a people who cherish Christ as well.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:60-64 – This will be the last part I comment on. Jesus tells Joseph Smith that he will tell him no more until Joseph has translated the New Testament. He has told Joseph this much to prepare him for what he is going to learn when he translates the New Testament. Jesus ends this discussion by telling the Saints that even though they have heard of wars in other lands, those wars would soon find their way to the United States. For this reason they are to gather themselves together in the “western countries,” because the wars would break out in the eastern part of the USA. Note that God was working on getting His people to safety a good three decades before the Civil War broke out.

Observations

The interesting thing to me is that even though some of the events of the last days are terrible and awful, those things are all part of mortality anyway. Things happen. People die. What Jesus is focused on here is the way to happiness, his gospel. The light has broken forth and is illuminating the world with the truth of Christ’s teachings, his covenants. We participate in these covenants to experience the joy for which we were created. Remember “men are that they might have joy”? This is why that statement is true. Without the covenants of Christ there is no lasting joy. We use our priesthood and temple covenants as our message to the nations to attract them to Christ. We invite them to come and join us in the family of Abraham by making covenants themselves.

Our prophet tells us all the time to stand in holy places, which includes our homes, wards, stakes, and the temples. When we stay in sacred places and keep them holy by being righteous they act as a protection to us, a covert from the storms being released upon the world. Because we are prepared we have no need to fear, for we know what is coming and that Christ will take care of us and protect our souls from any lasting damage that happens in mortality. It is precisely because we seek the light of his gospel that we come to understand that anything in mortality is temporary. We are preparing for the rest of eternity, and in eternity “The Promises … Shall Be Fulfilled.”

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D&C19-2025 – The Promises … Shall Be Fulfilled