Monday 8/14, 6:29am early! In HPGroup we learned about the restoration of the priesthood. Ted Fifield said there was oodles of material and he had read n studied the lesson many times. He admits to waiting way too long in life to begin studying the gospel. HalD said that Joseph n Oliver had escaped from jail and were racing through the forest, almost lost and famished with Joseph almost carrying Oliver. He said Satan appeared to them as an angel of light and that then Peter James n John came, cast out Satan and bestowed upon them the Melchizedek priesthood. This was news to me. So I am off to discover. Was JS really carrying Oliver? What year was it? Why were they in jail? Did Satan really appear? Did P,J n J really cast Satan out? HalD said it was just like in the temple endowment. Here is the first thing I have come across: In the early days of the Church, many were curious about angels, spirits, and resurrected persons. About the time Joseph Smith recorded this revelation, he wrote: “A man came to me in Kirtland, and told me he had seen an angel, and described his dress. I told him he had seen no angel, and that there was no such dress in heaven. He grew mad, and went into the street and commanded fire to come down out of heaven to consume me. I laughed at him, and said, You are one of Baal’s prophets; your God does not hear you; jump up and cut yourself: and he commanded fire from heaven to consume my house.” (History of the Church, 5:267–68.) v- Cool! JS knew heaven’s styles. He had power to defy this man without fear. @@ OK, it looks like HalD was talking through his hat. That episode he described has no evidence that I can find. Thanks anyway, Hal. He stimulated me to do some studying and research. He came unglued at me in priesthood last week. He couldn’t stand that HBLee would call the beatitudes a blueprint for the celestial kingdom. And this week he portrays the endowment story taking place on the Susquehanna river ending with the Melchizedek priesthood restored. Nope. Wrong. Oh well. @ This next paste is very interesting and seems to be more probable than HalD’s story. It is not doctrine. It is from a blog posted July 22, 2012, yep 5 years ago. @@In an 1882 letter to then President Joseph F. Smith, Addison Everett, a bishop of the Church in Winter Quarters and again later in Salt Lake City, recalled hearing the Prophet in Nauvoo relate the circumstances surrounding the restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood:
“..Said as they were translating the Book of Mormon at his father-in law’s in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania. They were threatened by a mob and in the same time Father Knight came down from Colesville County, New York, and desired them to go home with him and preach to them in his neighborhood and on account of the mob spirit prevailing they concluded to go.” Everett recalled that even in Colesville persecution continued, forcing Joseph and Oliver to return to Harmony.”
His letter continues: “And they wandered in a dense forest all night and oftentimes in mud and water up to their knees. And Brother Oliver got quite exhausted in the after part of the night and Brother Joseph had to put his arm around him and almost carry him. And just as the day broke in the east Brother Oliver gave out entirely and he, Br Joseph, leaned him against an oak tree just outside a field fence, Br Oliver crying out, “How long, O Lord, O how long, Br Joseph, have we got to suffer these things?” Just this moment Peter, James & John came to us and ordained (us to) the Holy Apostleship and gave (unto) us the keys of the dispensation of the fullness of times. And we had some 16 or 17 miles to go to reach our place of residence and Brother Oliver could travel as well as I could… Now as to the time I cannot be very explicit. But as the mob spirit had not abated when they returned, they had to remove to Father Whitmer’s (Fayette, Seneca County) to finish the translation.” – Letter from Addison Everett to Oliver B. Huntington 17 Feb. 1883
How much credence can be given to a reminiscence written almost forty years after the fact is debatable. Nonetheless, it is true that the Knights assisted in the translation with paper and provisions, that persecution attended the translation, that by 1 June 1829 Joseph and Oliver had removed north to Harmony, and that the two were never together again in the wilderness of the Susquehanna.
As for the matter of timing, as early as June 1829 the revelations speak of Joseph and Oliver having already received the apostleship:”And I speak unto you, even as unto Paul mine apostle, for you are called even with the same calling with which he was called” (D&C 18:9) The Articles and Covenants of the Church – section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants – refer to Joseph and Oliver each having already been “called of God, and ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ” (v.2) some time before the Church was organized, Joseph had been “inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation thereof, and to build it up unto the most holy faith” (D&C 21:2). And again as per the Articles and Covenants of the Church, no officer in the Church – whether elder, priest, teacher, or deacon – could be ordained unless “by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him” (D&C 20:60). Put another way, there could have been no ordinations and no Church without first the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the first and second elders of the Church. As President George Q. Cannon remarked :“( Joseph) was unable to seal the gift of the Holy Ghost, or to ordain an elder, until after Peter, James and John had endowed him with the priesthood after the Holy Order of Melchizedek.”
Shortly after the organization of the Church in April 1830 Joseph thought for a time that the innovations he was called upon to perform were over. He told David Whitmer “he was through with the work that God had given him the gift to perform, except to preach the gospel.” At the same time, David Whitmer recalls, Joseph handed the seerstone he had used to translate over to Oliver Cowdery, saying “that he was through with it, and he did not use the stone anymore.” Moments like this often occurred to Joseph only to soon have a new revelation drive him on once again.
Over the next year the Church began to grow quickly. As the members sought to grow spiritually the evil influence of Satan began to manifest itself in false revelations and other types of “spiritual” outbursts. These included “the most ridiculous grimaces, creeping upon their hands and feet, and rolling upon the frozen ground.” A new convert at the time named John Corill stated concerning the events of the time “many improprieties and visionary notions crept into the church, which tried the feelings of the more sound minded,” but the wild conduct did not derail him. There were, he thought, “but a very few of the Church who were exercised in that way.”
Containing these excesses was not easy when Joseph’s own revelatory powers excited the members. To discipline the members Joseph sought and received a revelation which condemned the excesses and gave rules for judging the spirits. Members were told to follow the Spirit of truth, not the mindless ecstasies of so called “visionaries.” Spiritual gifts were meant to instruct, not merely to excite. Joseph instructed the saints that God gives knowledge upon knowledge, not mindless sensations.
As the Saints matured over the next year Joseph was told by the Lord to prepare the Saints for an endowment and the reception of further laws of the kingdom. In February of 1831 a revelation was received commanding the Saints to “Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power.” The promise became more specific in the command to convene the elders, and “I will pour out my Spirit upon them in the day that they assemble themselves together.”
In early June, forty-four elders, four priests, and fifteen teachers met in a log schoolhouse near Isaac Morley’s farm, hoping for a spiritual endowment. In an expansive Spirit Joseph said that Christ’s kingdom, like the grain of a mustard seed, “was now before him and some should see it put forth its branches and the angels of heaven would some day come like birds to its branches.” According to Levi Hancock Joseph at this point told Lyman Wight he would see Christ that day. Wight soon turned still and white, exclaiming that he had indeed viewed the Savior. According to Hancock, Joseph himself said, “I now see God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand.”
Then the meeting unraveled. Joseph ordained Harvey Whitlock to the high priesthood, the most important business of the meeting, and Whitlock reacted badly. “He turned as black as Lyman was white,” Hancock reported. “His fingers were set like claws. He went about the room and showed his hands and tried to speak, his eyes were in the shape of oval O’s.” Astonished at the turn of events, Hyrum exclaimed, “Joseph that is not of God.” Joseph, unwilling to cut the phenomenon short, told Hyrum to wait, but Hyrum insisted: “I will not believe …unless you inquire of God and he ownes it.” Hancock said, “Joseph bowed his head, and in a short time got up and commanded Satan to leave Harvey, laying his hands upon his head at the same time.” Then Hancock said, Leman Copley, who weighed over two hundred pounds, somersaulted in the air and fell on his back over a bench. Wight cast Satan out of Copley, and Copley was calmed. The evil spirit, according to Hancock, was in and out of people all day and the greater part of the night. Joseph, who was ordaining men to the high priesthood, came eventually to Hancock and assured him he had a calling “as high as any man in the house.” The words brought Hancock relief: “I was glad for that for I was so scared I would not stir without his liberty for all the world.”
This was not the spiritual endowment the elders had expected, and the outburst may have contributed to ‘trouble and unbelief” among the disciples. John Whitmer noted that about this time “some apostatized, and became enemies to the cause of God, and persecuted the saints.” But others understood it as Joseph did – as a manifestation of “the man of Sin.” Walking back from the meeting, Hancock heard Harvey Green, one of the possessed, say that “he could not describe the awful feeling he experienced while in the hands of Satan.” As John Whitmer reported in the minutes, “the Lord showed to Joseph the Seer the design of this thing, he commanded the devil in the name of Christ and he departed to our joy and comfort.”
During the turbulent meeting, Joseph ordained five men to the high priesthood, and Lyman Wight ordained eighteen others. The ordinations to the high priesthood marked a milestone in Mormon history. Until that time, the word “priesthood”, although it appeared in the Book of Mormon, had not been used in Mormon sermonizing or modern revelations. Later accounts applied the term retroactively, but the June 1831 conference marked its first appearance in contemporary records. The term “authority” appeared frequently, but not “priesthood.” The absence of the word prior to this point may be due to the association of the word with Catholicism. Writing about the meeting years later Joseph said that “the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood was manifested and conferred for the first time upon several of the Elders.”
Speaking on the Priesthood Joseph Smith stated “A man can do nothing for himself unless God direct him in the right way; and the priesthood is for that purpose.”
“Those holding the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood are kings and priests of the Most High God., holding the keys of power and blessings. In fact, that priesthood is a perfect law of theocracy, and stands as God to give laws to the people, administering endless lives to the sons and daughters of Adam.”<end of blog paste. [http://mormonexpression.com/blogs/2012/07/22/the-restoration-of-the-melchizedek-priesthood/] @@ bps, the ideas from that that I like are: 1- The word priesthood wasn’t used to begin with. 2- JS wanted to sit back and watch what Satan would do but Hyrum wanted none of it! 3- Satan really wanted to mess things up before they ever got started. 4- This is very early, 1829 before the organization of the church, (that summer was the 65 day translation of the BoM marathon,) 1830, 1831. 5- No patterns, traditions, expectations had yet been established. It was all new. No one knew what to expect. This is pretty heavy duty/ exploratory stuff. Let’s go back to the scriptures and the manual: Section 129 Keys for Determining If Administrations Are from God\Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, (2002), 319–321
“..Said as they were translating the Book of Mormon at his father-in law’s in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania. They were threatened by a mob and in the same time Father Knight came down from Colesville County, New York, and desired them to go home with him and preach to them in his neighborhood and on account of the mob spirit prevailing they concluded to go.” Everett recalled that even in Colesville persecution continued, forcing Joseph and Oliver to return to Harmony.”
His letter continues: “And they wandered in a dense forest all night and oftentimes in mud and water up to their knees. And Brother Oliver got quite exhausted in the after part of the night and Brother Joseph had to put his arm around him and almost carry him. And just as the day broke in the east Brother Oliver gave out entirely and he, Br Joseph, leaned him against an oak tree just outside a field fence, Br Oliver crying out, “How long, O Lord, O how long, Br Joseph, have we got to suffer these things?” Just this moment Peter, James & John came to us and ordained (us to) the Holy Apostleship and gave (unto) us the keys of the dispensation of the fullness of times. And we had some 16 or 17 miles to go to reach our place of residence and Brother Oliver could travel as well as I could… Now as to the time I cannot be very explicit. But as the mob spirit had not abated when they returned, they had to remove to Father Whitmer’s (Fayette, Seneca County) to finish the translation.” – Letter from Addison Everett to Oliver B. Huntington 17 Feb. 1883
How much credence can be given to a reminiscence written almost forty years after the fact is debatable. Nonetheless, it is true that the Knights assisted in the translation with paper and provisions, that persecution attended the translation, that by 1 June 1829 Joseph and Oliver had removed north to Harmony, and that the two were never together again in the wilderness of the Susquehanna.
As for the matter of timing, as early as June 1829 the revelations speak of Joseph and Oliver having already received the apostleship:”And I speak unto you, even as unto Paul mine apostle, for you are called even with the same calling with which he was called” (D&C 18:9) The Articles and Covenants of the Church – section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants – refer to Joseph and Oliver each having already been “called of God, and ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ” (v.2) some time before the Church was organized, Joseph had been “inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation thereof, and to build it up unto the most holy faith” (D&C 21:2). And again as per the Articles and Covenants of the Church, no officer in the Church – whether elder, priest, teacher, or deacon – could be ordained unless “by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him” (D&C 20:60). Put another way, there could have been no ordinations and no Church without first the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the first and second elders of the Church. As President George Q. Cannon remarked :“( Joseph) was unable to seal the gift of the Holy Ghost, or to ordain an elder, until after Peter, James and John had endowed him with the priesthood after the Holy Order of Melchizedek.”
Shortly after the organization of the Church in April 1830 Joseph thought for a time that the innovations he was called upon to perform were over. He told David Whitmer “he was through with the work that God had given him the gift to perform, except to preach the gospel.” At the same time, David Whitmer recalls, Joseph handed the seerstone he had used to translate over to Oliver Cowdery, saying “that he was through with it, and he did not use the stone anymore.” Moments like this often occurred to Joseph only to soon have a new revelation drive him on once again.
Over the next year the Church began to grow quickly. As the members sought to grow spiritually the evil influence of Satan began to manifest itself in false revelations and other types of “spiritual” outbursts. These included “the most ridiculous grimaces, creeping upon their hands and feet, and rolling upon the frozen ground.” A new convert at the time named John Corill stated concerning the events of the time “many improprieties and visionary notions crept into the church, which tried the feelings of the more sound minded,” but the wild conduct did not derail him. There were, he thought, “but a very few of the Church who were exercised in that way.”
Containing these excesses was not easy when Joseph’s own revelatory powers excited the members. To discipline the members Joseph sought and received a revelation which condemned the excesses and gave rules for judging the spirits. Members were told to follow the Spirit of truth, not the mindless ecstasies of so called “visionaries.” Spiritual gifts were meant to instruct, not merely to excite. Joseph instructed the saints that God gives knowledge upon knowledge, not mindless sensations.
As the Saints matured over the next year Joseph was told by the Lord to prepare the Saints for an endowment and the reception of further laws of the kingdom. In February of 1831 a revelation was received commanding the Saints to “Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power.” The promise became more specific in the command to convene the elders, and “I will pour out my Spirit upon them in the day that they assemble themselves together.”
In early June, forty-four elders, four priests, and fifteen teachers met in a log schoolhouse near Isaac Morley’s farm, hoping for a spiritual endowment. In an expansive Spirit Joseph said that Christ’s kingdom, like the grain of a mustard seed, “was now before him and some should see it put forth its branches and the angels of heaven would some day come like birds to its branches.” According to Levi Hancock Joseph at this point told Lyman Wight he would see Christ that day. Wight soon turned still and white, exclaiming that he had indeed viewed the Savior. According to Hancock, Joseph himself said, “I now see God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand.”
Then the meeting unraveled. Joseph ordained Harvey Whitlock to the high priesthood, the most important business of the meeting, and Whitlock reacted badly. “He turned as black as Lyman was white,” Hancock reported. “His fingers were set like claws. He went about the room and showed his hands and tried to speak, his eyes were in the shape of oval O’s.” Astonished at the turn of events, Hyrum exclaimed, “Joseph that is not of God.” Joseph, unwilling to cut the phenomenon short, told Hyrum to wait, but Hyrum insisted: “I will not believe …unless you inquire of God and he ownes it.” Hancock said, “Joseph bowed his head, and in a short time got up and commanded Satan to leave Harvey, laying his hands upon his head at the same time.” Then Hancock said, Leman Copley, who weighed over two hundred pounds, somersaulted in the air and fell on his back over a bench. Wight cast Satan out of Copley, and Copley was calmed. The evil spirit, according to Hancock, was in and out of people all day and the greater part of the night. Joseph, who was ordaining men to the high priesthood, came eventually to Hancock and assured him he had a calling “as high as any man in the house.” The words brought Hancock relief: “I was glad for that for I was so scared I would not stir without his liberty for all the world.”
This was not the spiritual endowment the elders had expected, and the outburst may have contributed to ‘trouble and unbelief” among the disciples. John Whitmer noted that about this time “some apostatized, and became enemies to the cause of God, and persecuted the saints.” But others understood it as Joseph did – as a manifestation of “the man of Sin.” Walking back from the meeting, Hancock heard Harvey Green, one of the possessed, say that “he could not describe the awful feeling he experienced while in the hands of Satan.” As John Whitmer reported in the minutes, “the Lord showed to Joseph the Seer the design of this thing, he commanded the devil in the name of Christ and he departed to our joy and comfort.”
During the turbulent meeting, Joseph ordained five men to the high priesthood, and Lyman Wight ordained eighteen others. The ordinations to the high priesthood marked a milestone in Mormon history. Until that time, the word “priesthood”, although it appeared in the Book of Mormon, had not been used in Mormon sermonizing or modern revelations. Later accounts applied the term retroactively, but the June 1831 conference marked its first appearance in contemporary records. The term “authority” appeared frequently, but not “priesthood.” The absence of the word prior to this point may be due to the association of the word with Catholicism. Writing about the meeting years later Joseph said that “the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood was manifested and conferred for the first time upon several of the Elders.”
Speaking on the Priesthood Joseph Smith stated “A man can do nothing for himself unless God direct him in the right way; and the priesthood is for that purpose.”
“Those holding the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood are kings and priests of the Most High God., holding the keys of power and blessings. In fact, that priesthood is a perfect law of theocracy, and stands as God to give laws to the people, administering endless lives to the sons and daughters of Adam.”<end of blog paste. [http://mormonexpression.com/blogs/2012/07/22/the-restoration-of-the-melchizedek-priesthood/] @@ bps, the ideas from that that I like are: 1- The word priesthood wasn’t used to begin with. 2- JS wanted to sit back and watch what Satan would do but Hyrum wanted none of it! 3- Satan really wanted to mess things up before they ever got started. 4- This is very early, 1829 before the organization of the church, (that summer was the 65 day translation of the BoM marathon,) 1830, 1831. 5- No patterns, traditions, expectations had yet been established. It was all new. No one knew what to expect. This is pretty heavy duty/ exploratory stuff. Let’s go back to the scriptures and the manual: Section 129 Keys for Determining If Administrations Are from God\Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, (2002), 319–321
Historical Background
In the early days of the Church, many were curious about angels, spirits, and resurrected persons. About the time Joseph Smith recorded this revelation, he wrote: “A man came to me in Kirtland, and told me he had seen an angel, and described his dress. I told him he had seen no angel, and that there was no such dress in heaven. He grew mad, and went into the street and commanded fire to come down out of heaven to consume me. I laughed at him, and said, You are one of Baal’s prophets; your God does not hear you; jump up and cut yourself: and he commanded fire from heaven to consume my house.” (History of the Church, 5:267–68.)
Doctrine and Covenants 129 describes the difference between angels who have gone through mortality and have been resurrected and those who are still spirits. It also gives three keys “whereby you may know whether any administration is from God” (v. 9).
The Prophet Joseph Smith may have known these keys long before this revelation was recorded. Earlier, Michael helped the Prophet by detecting Satan, who had appeared to Joseph as an angel of light (see D&C 128:20). Nothing further is known about the incident, and whether the Prophet learned of these keys at that time is not known. However, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that he learned of these keys from Joseph Smith as early as 1839 (see Journal of Wilford Woodruff, vol. 2, 27 June 1839, Historical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City).
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “An angel of God never has wings. Some will say that they have seen a spirit; that he offered them his hand, but they did not touch it. This is a lie. First, it is contrary to the plan of God: a spirit cannot come but in glory; an angel has flesh and bones; we see not their glory. The devil may appear as an angel of light. Ask God to reveal it; if it be of the devil, he will flee from you; if of God, He will manifest Himself, or make it manifest. We may come to Jesus and ask Him; He will know all about it.” (History of the Church, 3:392.)
Notes and Commentary
D&C 129:1–3. What Is the Difference between a “Spirit” and an “Angel”?
God uses several types of messengers. President George Q. Cannon explained: “In the broadest sense, any being who acts as a messenger for our Heavenly Father, is an angel, be he a God, a resurrected man or the spirit of a just man; and the term is so used in all these senses in the ancient scriptures. In the stricter and more limited sense, an angel is, as the Prophet Joseph Smith states, a resurrected personage, having a body of flesh and bones; but it must be remembered that none of the angels who appeared to men before the death of the Savior could be of that class, for noneof them was resurrected. He was the first-fruits of them that slept. He Himself appeared often to His servants before he took His mortal body; for instance, to the brother of Jared, to Abraham, to Moses, to the seventy Elders and to many others.” (“Editorial Thoughts,” Juvenile Instructor, 15 Jan. 1891, p. 53.)
As used in section 129, the term angel is limited to resurrected personages with bodies of flesh and bones. “Spirits of just men made perfect” are individuals who have not yet been born and are thus unembodied, or whose spirits are separated from their bodies in death and are thus disembodied. Joseph Smith earlier explained that an angel is “a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit ministering to embodied spirits.” A ministering spirit is “a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a ministering spirit (while His body was lying in the sepulchre) to the spirits in prison, to fulfill an important part of His mission, without which He could not have perfected His work, or enter into His rest. After His resurrection He appeared as an angel [a resurrected being] to His disciples.” (History of the Church, 4:425; see also 1 Peter 3:18–20.)
Joseph Smith gave three grand keys for discerning angels or spirits.
D&C 129:3. What Is Meant by the Phrase “Spirits of Just Men Made Perfect?”
No mortal person lives a perfect life. Some, however, live the gospel so well that they become, before their life is over, what the scriptures describe as “just men.” But being just is not enough. The Savior commanded, “Be ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and we cannot do that without His help. So the scriptures speak of “just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (D&C 76:69; italics added).
D&C 129:4. Whatever Their State and Condition, Angels Are Messengers of God
“There are angels of various appointments and stations,” wrote President Charles W. Penrose:
“Angels are God’s messengers, whether used in that capacity as unembodied spirits, selected according to their capacities for the work required, or as disembodied spirits, or as translated men, or as resurrected beings. They are agents of Deity of different degrees of intelligence, power and authority, under the direction of higher dignitaries, and subject to law and order in their respective spheres. Elijah, who appeared with Moses on the mount of transfiguration, was a translated man; Moses at that time was either a translated man or a spirit ministering to the Savior; both acted in the capacity of angels. (Luke 9:28–33.) Enoch’s band of translated beings doubtless appeared as angels in manifestations to the patriarchs recorded in the book of Genesis [see Genesis 21:17; 22:11; 32:1].
“Angels high in authority have been clothed on special occasions with the right to represent Deity personally. They have appeared and have been recognized as God himself, just as royal ambassadors of earthly potentates have acted, as recorded in history. The Angel spoken of in Exodus 23:20–22, was one of these. So also was the Angel … who ministered to John on the isle of Patmos, and used the names and titles of the Son of God. (Rev. 1:1.)” (“Who and What Are the Angels?” Improvement Era,Aug. 1912, p. 950.)
D&C 129:4–7. What Is the Significance of Shaking Hands?
If the messenger is a resurrected personage whose flesh one feels when shaking hands, the messenger is an angel from God. But spirits cannot clasp hands, since they do not have flesh and bones with which to do it. For spirits to pretend to an ability they do not possess would be deceit, and one who would attempt it would not be a “just man.” Therefore, the spirits of just men made perfect will not move when a hand is extended toward them.
D&C 129:8–9. “The Devil As an Angel of Light”
Just as there are righteous spirits committed to the accomplishment of God’s work, so there are evil spirits committed to the destruction of His work. “These are fallen angels,” President Charles W. Penrose explained, “who were cast down for transgression, as mentioned by Jude (verse 6), chief among whom on this earth is Lucifer or Satan, who has sought on many occasions to appear as an ‘angel of light’ to deceive and lead astray, and who tempted the Son of God, but failed in his efforts as he did with Moses and with the Prophet Joseph Smith. (See Luke 4:1–13; … Moses 1:12–22; Doctrine & Covenants 128:20.) That great spiritual personage was an angel of God in his ‘first estate’, and yet never had a body of flesh, but ‘was in authority in the presence of God’ as a spirit, before he rebelled and was ‘thrust down.’ (Doctrine & Covenants 76:25–28.)” (“Who and What Are the Angels?” p. 951.)
Satan attempts to deceive by counterfeiting the light that accompanies the spirit of a just man made perfect. A just man made perfect who comes as a messenger will appear in his glory, “for that is the only way he can appear” (D&C 129:6). The Prophet Joseph Smith once said, “Wicked spirits have their bounds, limits and laws, by which they are governed … and, it is very evident that they possess a power that none but those who have the priesthood can control” (History of the Church,4:576).
The Prophet taught that when the devil is offered a hand to shake, “he will offer you his hand” (D&C 129:8). The mortal will feel nothing, because the devil is an unembodied spirit. He can therefore be distinguished in this manner from a righteous spirit or angel sent from God. The just man will not attempt to deceive (see D&C 129:7); an angel of Satan will not refrain from trying to deceive.
Bps, Why would anyone care about any of this stuff? 1- It is in the D&C. 2- They are eternal truths. 3- Isn’t everyone curious about angels and devils? 4- God is perfectly organized and it can all make sense. It is nice to know that someone understands it. So far I haven’t had the need to try to shake any angel’s hand!
No comments:
Post a Comment