Come, Follow Me Insights by Gogo Goff Doctrine and Covenants 2 & JSH 1:27–65

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 2 & JSH 1:27–65. If you missed last week’s insight, Doctrine and Covenants 1 & JSH 1:1–26 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later.

Why The Sealing Power?

“1 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
2 And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.
3 If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.” D&C 2:1-3

This is actually the entire section! Why would this be the second section in the Doctrine and Covenants? Because it is about the MOST important doctrine that has been restored in these last days, the sealing power. The Sealing Power is what makes ordinances of effect in the next life, it is the power by which temple work for the dead is done. This section foretells of when Elijah comes to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland Temple to bring them the sealing power.

In the first verse, we are told that Elijah will “reveal” the Priesthood, what does it mean that he will “reveal” well, it means that he will reveal the purpose and power of the Priesthood, namely the sealing power which is the ability to bind on earth and on heaven.

In the second verse, we learn about “promises” that were made to the fathers. What are these promises? Before faithful sons and daughters of God came to earth during a period where the fullness of the gospel was not on earth, they were promised that the required ordinances of exaltation would be performed on their behalf in the temples of God.

In the third verse, it is declared “if it were not so” aka if the promise that temple work will be done on their behalf does not happen, then 99% of the population will not have the required ordinances of exaltation. And the whole earth will have been a weasted effort. God is not trying to bring 1% home, He loves ALL His children.

Simply put, God as a loving Father promised ALL His children being born that they would have a chance, for the ones born without a chance here on earth, the temple provides them that chance.

How The Prosperity Gospel/Theology Is False.

“As my father’s worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day’s work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.”
Joseph Smith History 1:55

I love this verse because it debunks one of the major false doctrines in Christianity, namely The Prosperity Gospel/Theology; which simply put is that your physical blessings are a direct correlation to how righteous you are. The more righteous you are, the healthier and richer, the less righteous the less healthy and the poorer. You might think this sounds insane, but there are a LOT of Christians who believe this, and also a lot of Latter-day Saints. The reason too many Latter-day Saints believe in the Prosperity Gospel/Theology is two-fold.

1st. As a people, we are quick to attribute all blessings of health and riches to God, (which they are), but erroneously we sometimes attribute trials of poor health or finances as proof that we are not righteous. (I have actually written a whole article about this topic, see: The Most Important Reason For Trials That Latter-day Saints often Forget.)

2nd. Some Latter-day Saints take one of the most repeated promises in the Book of Mormon that “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.” and think it is endorsing The Prosperity Gospel/Theology. When in reality the prosperity that is being talked about in the Book of Mormon is not physical, but spiritual.

I love the story of Joseph Smith Sr. being poor, as it really debunks both of these reasons people believe the ProsperityGospel/Theology, as well as the notion that to be a good husband and father you’ve gotta strike it rich. For those who don’t know the back story of this verse, it is amazing.

Joseph Smith Sr. was a very righteous God-fearing man, his family is the reason for the restoration. Father Smith tried so hard to provide for his family, but it was almost like Devine Providence kept preventing him from being successful according to the world. When he lived in Tunbridge, Vermont, he successfully grew ginseng root after he found out that he could sell it for large profits by exporting to China. However, his business partner scammed him out of over $3,000 worth of ginseng root leaving Joseph Smith Sr. penniless and caused the Smith family to lose their farm.

His Father-in-law helped their family move to the neighboring town (Sharon Vermont), where he had land that he gave to the Smith family. In Sharon, he farmed and learned how to make maple sugar from maple syrup and their family welcomed a new son named Joseph. Working hard and fighting crop failures in Sharon, they slowly clawed their way back from destitution only to have Mt Tambora literally blow up half a world away in the East Indies, in what has been the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The ash from this eruption circled the globe and caused 1816 to be known as “the year without summer.” With three hard freezes during the summer of 1816, the Smith family experienced what would be their final crop failure in Vermont.

Defeatedly Joseph Smith Sr. forsook Vermont and headed for Palmyra New York. But knowing that maple syrup helped his family before, when he went looking for land in New York, a priority was that the new land would have maple trees.

Finally, he found a farm that had a maple grove. The family cleared all the other trees off their land and left the maple trees to collect syrup to turn into sugar. Their sugar endeavors kept the smith family from losing their New York farm and more importantly provided a nearby grove for Joseph to pray in. (If you like this story you’ll love this article about the restoration that dives more into it.)

That is just a small glimpse of what the Smith family went through that caused this verse in Joseph Smith History to be written. Where am I going with this? Father Smith was prospered, not with riches, he was continually denied those, but with the blessings of eternity. His family literally laid the foundations stones of The Restoration and his sons played vital roles. We all know that Joseph Smith Jr. was the Prophet of the Restoration, but his other sons played major roles also; Hyrum was the Assistant Prophet (Equal in all things to Joseph, I’ve also written about that here: 5 Things You Did Not Know About Hyrum Smith The Patriarch.) Samual was one of the Eight Witnesses, Don Carlos was the First President of the High Priest Quorum in Nauvoo (equivalent to a Stake President). And Joseph Smith Sr, himself served as the Church Patriarch until his death. All of these faithful men were never rich in terms of the world but were truly rich in things of eternity.