I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 1 & JSH 1:1–26. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later.
Are we choosing and walking the covenant path?
“For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant.”
Doctrine and Covenants 1:15
This section was the preface that the Lord told Joseph Smith to put at the beginning of the Doctrine and Covenants. It contains a warning from Jesus Christ about “the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth” and this verse states that one of the reasons this will happen is because we, both Christians and Latter-Day Saints, have “strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant.”
God from the days of Adam has always made covenants with us, and His followers have always made covenants with Him. It is easy to apply this warning to mainstream Christianity which has forsaken the gospel that is comprised of covenants that are made by ordinances and instead substituted a gospel of ‘believe and be saved’ style grace. It reminds me of the poem by Wes Stephenson.
Believe and be saved the minister said,
~Wes Stephenson
Believe and be saved and rise from the dead.
Through grace ye are saved from sin and from hell,
So simply believe and all will be well.
The preacher continued and read from the book,
How all can reach heaven, both angel and crook.
When all had been said and the church recessed;
With money collected and everyone blessed;
The preacher retired to his spacious new home,
In his humble Mercedes with everything chrome.
He sat in his study, his thoughts running deep,
He dozed for a moment, and died in his sleep.
He ran to Saint Peter and wearing a grin,
Said “I believe in the Savior, so please let me in”
“Oh no, not another”, said Peter with a sigh,
“Satan’s sure working, the tolls running high.”
The preacher looked puzzled, then saw in a flash,
The plan of salvation, beginning at last.
Believing is nothing, if nothing is done.
In getting to Heaven you follow the Son.
To follow a leader, you do what is said,
Faith without works is nothing but dead.
Satan knows Jesus, believes in him too.
So what’s the difference between Satan and You?
Believe in the Savior, but always recall,
Faith is important, but sure isn’t all.
Almost all of Christianity has strayed from ordinances and forsaken the Gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of a new Gospel. In this new gospel, they teach neither agency, nor accountability, nor of ordinances or of covenants; instead, they preach a gospel that says all you need to say is, “Lord! Lord!” and you will be saved. The rebuke of this doctrine comes from Jesus Christ Himself. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
Now, least members of the Church smile and feel that this verse only applies to fallen Christianity, let us perform a self-introspection! We have made covenants and performed ordinances, yes, but have we kept them? Do we honor them? The only safeguard against Satan in the last days will be covenants that have been kept and honored. As the world slides into hell, let us choose the covenant path that leads to paradise.
Neal A. Maxwell
The importance of the First Vision.
“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me… I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!“
JS—H 1:17
The importance of the First Vision is sometimes understated. But it the linchpin of the restoration. If this event really happened, then Joseph was called of God, if it did not happen, then he was not. Speaking of the First Vision, President Ezra Taft Benson declared, “This same Jesus who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses, the Creator of this earth, has come in our day. ” He then declared, “The appearance of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to the boy Prophet is the greatest event that has occurred in this world since the Resurrection of the Master.” (Ezra Taft Benson, The Greatest Event in History, General Conference 1974)
Bruce R. McConkie taught that “The great question which all men in our day must answer — and that at the peril of their own salvation — is: Was Joseph Smith called of God?” Jesus Christ gave us the key to discern if a prophet was a false prophet or a true prophet when He taught, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:15–20.) The Book of Mormon is given to us as the fruit of this prophetic call that came in the First Vision.
I want to testify that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know these things independent of anyone else. I know that He saw God the Father and Jesus Christ because I have been to the Sacred Grove, and while I was there and alone I knelt down and asked of God, “Were you really here? Did you really come to him?” And the Spirit of God bore an undeniable witness. “Yes, it is true!”
Addressing Multiple Versions of the First Vision.
One of the current criticisms of the First Vision is the fact that Joseph Smith’s retellings of the First Vision were not ‘consistent’ and therefore it is evidence that the First Vision is untrue. Whereas your testimony, like mine, must be founded on a spiritual witness; incase this anti-attack line is hard for you, I want to debunk it and show you how it is a “nothing burger”. Here are two videos I recommend that you watch if you struggle with this. First, is a video breaking down this anti, the second, is the Church video representation of the First Vision.
Articles On These Topics.
