HEAVEN'S VOICE

 

 

Since God loves all His children and wants them all saved, the very first chapter of the Doctrine and Covenants indicates that this book of scripture is a voice of warning to the entire inhabitants of the earth, that God will not be mocked and judgment awaits us all.

The major theme of this book is to prepare for that judgment. The word ‘prepare’ is mentioned over 90 times throughout this book of scripture.  

The message to the world is this:

1.      In this day and age where people at large, even in most corners of Christendom, believe that revelation has ceased, the Lord has parted the heavens once again and continues to commune with humanity. In verse 30, the Lord describes His Church as ‘the only true and living Church’. The Church has a life, because it has living prophets to administer to it through revelation. It does not operate on dead doctrine.

2.      It is an offer of sanctuary to anyone who will come out of the world, repent and enter into the covenants of salvation. Doctrine and Covenants basically says this to the world: I will return; these are the signs of my return; if you will repent and come into my kingdom and make covenants with me, they will lead you to salvation and life eternal. If not, you will reap the rewards of your deeds. The warnings and promises are the same for Church members.

It is amazing to me that a book which contains such strong warnings for our day and contains such important doctrine is judged and rejected so readily, and for one reason: it encompasses the history of the Church. This is a thorn in the flesh of non-members and inactive members alike.

When I was doing my University degree, I studied a lot of history subjects. One of my history professors told us one day to be careful about judging history. He said even though history is factual it is in reality subjective because it is written by humans from humans’ perspective.

Very often we tend to judge people and past events by today’s standards and we readily disparage those who are dead because they are not here to defend themselves. We have no idea what it was like to live 1,000 or even 100 years ago.

We don’t understand the cultural differences, limitations and difficulties people lived with and what impact that all had on their mentality and understanding of the human experience, just as they could not relate to the liberties and privileges of our society today.

When it comes to the Church, we cannot understand the cultural, religious or socio-economic impact of the 1800s on the society of its day.

We cannot relate to being tarred and feathered today where human rights are the rule of the day. We cannot relate to pushing a cart across our continent and leaving our dead children in the frozen ground along the way in a day where airplanes, trains and cars take us wherever we want to go. We cannot relate to not having supermarkets full of food and having to till the ground for our survival.

We do not know what went on in the hearts and minds of people who went before us. We only know what others could see of them and write about them. That’s history. Highly subjective. When I think of Joseph and all he went through from the age of 14 and now see what is written about him, it makes me want to weep.

Imagine the disbelief, the mockery, the aversion towards Joseph when he dared to tell others of his experience. God had parted the heavens and chose him to speak to! Not a professor, not a doctor, not anyone educated and on the pillar of society, but just a man, a humble man, a teachable man, a willing man. “Fools mock, but they shall mourn……” (Ether 12:26)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Joseph Smith at Saviour's Feet by Liz Lemon Swindle)