D&C 115 - 120 (2020 repost)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add On Education on the Add On Education Network. I am Jason's friend Nate, here with the hosts of this show, Jason Lloyd, putting on his headphones. Oh, yeah. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Put these headphones on, baby. [00:00:30] Speaker B: They're not even on yet. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Put them on. Oh. Oh, here we are. All right. It's magic. [00:00:37] Speaker B: What do we do on this podcast, Jason? [00:00:39] Speaker A: We take the weekly come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. [00:00:45] Speaker B: That's awesome, dude. That's a good idea. [00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah. How you been, Nate? [00:00:51] Speaker B: Other than I had to have this violent tooth pulled out of my head, I've had a rough couple weeks, man. Just physical injury after painful thing. I don't know. I'm usually not. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Not that banged up. No. [00:01:03] Speaker B: I'm usually not getting beat up this much, but for some reason, I've just been. I've been catching all of it right at the, you know, same time, I guess. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Man, I am sorry. That sounds terrible. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Should I get a gold tooth implanted? [00:01:18] Speaker A: I mean, it's gold. Why not, right? [00:01:20] Speaker B: I mean, do you think he would look dope? [00:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Do you think you would? [00:01:25] Speaker A: You know, I guess it also depends on location, right? I mean, is it front? Right in the back. Is there any visibility on the tooth? [00:01:32] Speaker B: Okay, so you have no idea how bad I want to get. I have a dead tooth in front that had a root canal, and it did turn kind of gray, black. I'm like, oh, man, how dope would that be? And then I'm pretty sure my wife told me that that's grounds for divorce. [00:01:49] Speaker A: Grounds for divorce? Yeah, you better. [00:01:51] Speaker B: So it's in the back. This. This other one's in the back. This first one I'm just gonna have to let be just dead and gray and ugly instead of dope and gold. [00:02:01] Speaker A: As long as it's not black, right? Like the. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. What are we talking about today, dude? [00:02:08] Speaker A: This week we are talking doctrine covenants 115 through 120. It's gonna take us to Far West Missouri, the temple that's gonna be built there. Filling in some gaps with the quorum of the twelve Apostles, Adam on Diamond tithing, and maybe one or two other things in there somewhere in the mix. But before we go too far down the road of 1:15, for me, oftentimes if I give a talk in church and I think I've got this all prepared out and ready to go, and I stand up and say everything, and I feel all good, and then I sit down and it's not even a couple minutes later. I think, oh shoot, I forgot to say that, or I forgot to say this. And I think a lot of us are like that. We get all excited, we put all this effort in and we go up there and then we realize we left something out or we forgot something or something we wanted to add in there. Yeah, maybe it happens. For sure it happens. That tends to be me more often than not in this podcast. Last week I did want to hit a few things. Maybe just one thing that I left out from talking about Salem, Massachusetts. Joseph Smith and company. When they were going there, the Lord gave them specific instructions to look into the ancient inhabitants of the city. It is kind of an interesting request. And by ancient inhabitants, I think we have different definitions. In the Lord's definition, he was talking about the people that lived there, 1600s, not necessarily the indigenous people or the ancient history of this going back hundreds or even thousands of years. I guess it is kind of hundreds of years though, if you are talking about 1800s, 1600s, but it is late 16, early 18. So it is what they were referring to as ancient history. Anyways, Joseph Smith, most of the time that he spent in Salem was not preaching the gospel, was not treasure hunting and looking for this gold. It was actually visiting museums and learning about the early history of Salem, Massachusetts. And. And you've got to know, Salem, Massachusetts, the history is pretty notorious, right? What do you think of when you think of Salem. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Cigarettes? [00:04:35] Speaker A: Cigarettes. [00:04:36] Speaker B: Just kidding, dude. Isn't that a brand of cigarettes? [00:04:39] Speaker A: I don't even know. [00:04:40] Speaker B: I was literally just trying to think of anything else other than the obvious thing just to see if I could zing you. But honestly, like, considering I got something, man, I got nothing. Just burning the witches. That's all I know. [00:04:52] Speaker A: That's it. Burning the witches. That is exactly what the history was and that's what they were looking into it. So why would the Lord be so interested in having Joseph Smith & Co. Going and researching about the burning of witches? And I think it's critical you've got this new religion that's being restored here on the earth. Religion obviously has a lot of impact on history. The Salem witch trials being very religious or so called under the guise of religion, this persecution, you look at the Inquisition, you look at even the fervor of the Holocaust in some aspect is being fueled by this religious fervor of punishing the Jews. Or you look at the Crusades, a lot of bad things have been done in the name of religion in the past. New agents for the FBI when they graduate Quantico out of Virginia, the first thing they do is they take them to the Holocaust Museum and have them look and see what happens when a policing agency gets out of hand, when the people that are hired to protect, to serve, if you will, to be the law enforcement, when they are not doing their jobs and things get out of control. And instead of protecting the people, they are hurting the people. As kind of this caution, you have this power, and I want you to use this wisely. So that's what they do. For every new agent coming out of Quantico, for the FBI, I think this is the Lord's Quantico moment, if you will, for Joseph Smith and Company. Here you are, you're starting a new religion. Look at what's been done in the name of religion in the past. Study how this has been abused, because I don't want this happening as you guys move forward. I don't know. Here's a cautionary tale, if you will. And I worked with a guy, a great guy, his last name was Putnam. And in his family line, going back into his history, they came from Salem, Massachusetts, the Putnams there. And he was telling me in their personal line, he goes back and reads the journals and their firsthand accounts of the Salem witch trials. And it was fascinating because his family were some of the prominent ones as far as persecuting the witches and successfully accusing the witches. And he said they have it right there in their family history and in their notes that how they would select who they were going to accuse of being a witch was all based on who had what property and what they wanted. Because if you successfully accused a witch and brought them to trial and found that they were guilty and then you inherited their property, what could go wrong? What could go wrong? And so early history of Massachusetts, people were being accused of bogus things simply for financial gain. So you've got this twofold problem. You've got this new religion, the name of religion, where people are persecuting people for worshiping the devil or not belonging to the faith. But then you also have this financial. I mean, Joseph Smith is over in Massachusetts chasing treasure because he is in the financial straits. And finances can be another huge motivator. And the Lord saying, hey, that's great, but I want you to pay attention to the history here and understand this word of caution. The finances can't be so important that you are neglecting your responsibilities or that you are not focused on the real prize. And this religion, you can't get this fervor where you are persecuting people in the name of religion either. Here is your cautionary note to set you on your way. Sorry, that was a lot longer than I thought I was going to take. Thanks for hanging out with me on that. Let's dive into 1:15. First off, the Lord says that it is going to be called the Church of Jesus Christ. I think in light of general conference last week, as we were going back over that and talking about President Nielsen's announcement that this does need to be called the Church of Jesus Christ is an important point. And it even goes back further than that. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:33] Speaker A: You can remember, Nate, in conferences even before President Nielsen, where people were saying we should be called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we should pull away from the name of Mormons. Joseph Smith, when he restored the gospel and he asked the Lord what to name it, he says, this shall be called the Church of Jesus Christ. And going even back into the Book of Mormon when they had the argument in Third Nephi and the argument was, what should we be called? And the Lord says, you should be called my church. This is my people. So I think this is a significant point, a point that the Lord has made over and over and over again. And I am always surprised that Joseph Smith, as you look at religions that existed at the time that he was there, the religious fervor with the Methodists, the Catholic, the Protestants, all the different religions that existed, how was it as late as he was to the game that the Church of Jesus Christ was still available as a name for a church? Yeah. Nobody thought to say, hey, this is actually Christ Church. I don't know. It astounds me then, even today, as the church was able to. To Purchase the domain churchofjesuschrist.org that's cool to me. It is. [00:10:53] Speaker B: Honestly. That's more miraculous. You think? I'm just saying this kind of like flippantly, but I'm not. [00:11:00] Speaker A: No, I agree. Yeah. [00:11:01] Speaker B: All I do is work with bands, trying to think of a band name that hasn't been thought of before, or register a website that hasn't been registered. You know, I mean, it's like, I don't know how businesses and stuff find the money to buy, you know, domain names from the people that just went through and paid $7 to register every single domain name ever so they could jack it up and sell it to them for $10,000. Honestly, the fact that we were able to get the Church of Jesus Christ domain name is no, no small miracle. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. There's a lot of credit to that, I think if nothing else, you can see the Lord's hand and that the name of his church is available when everybody professes to believe in him. And you've got churches created everywhere, and yet the church of Jesus Christ is there. And as you said, you can actually register the domain thechurchofjesuschrist.org, and it belongs to his church. Yeah, Absolutely amazing miracle. Modern day miracle. All right, next, he says, arise and stand forth that thy light might be a standard to all nations. And we've talked about this a little bit. The light on the hill. What does it mean to be a light or a standard to all nations? We're such a small church, and yet this is supposed to be the light, the standard. I don't know. You have any thoughts on that, Nate? Any, any. Any bits of wisdom you want to share with us? [00:12:36] Speaker B: I mean, I don't. I don't know if I have any. I don't think I have any, like, profound wisdom or whatever, but I do, I do love the idea of the lower lights, you know, and we sing about it in the hymn. But that you. You have. You have a lighthouse, which obviously is the massive light, right? It's the huge. It's the huge bright beacon that, you know, tell sailors, hey, this is the way to go right towards land. And then you. But even then, you still have an entire coast, right, that has rocks and it can be darkened or whatever. And the idea is that the lower lights are all of the. The. The. Your average person that has like a little house or whatever, and they can light some candles or put up a lamp, right? And that by itself, it's nothing compared to the lighthouse itself, right. The brightness of the lighthouse. But together, all of those things are just as important to outline, like the coast for this, for the sailors that are trying to make it through a storm, right. Or they're trying to make it through treacherous waters. And combined, no matter how feeble, right. Those lower lights might be, they combine to be something that is truly saving saviors of men, Right? [00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:07] Speaker B: And so, yeah, we aren't the biggest church in the entire world or by a long shot. Right. We're not even close. But hopefully together we can all continue to still be a beacon, even if it feels like the numbers aren't there. Hopefully what we're trying to do and the goodness we're trying to bring in this world can still have a profound impact. [00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I knew you'd come through, Nate. Look at that. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Look at that. [00:14:46] Speaker A: So if you want a brief story I'm glad you brought that up. As you were counting that, one of my favorite hymns, by the way, I pulled up a little story on that. So here you are, Nate. Story time. More than 100 years ago, a well known Protestant preacher, Dwight L. Moody, shared a story of a ship trying to enter the Cleveland harbor on a very stormy night. The ship's captain could see the bright light of the Cleveland Harbor Lighthouse. However, the lower lights weren't visible at all. The lower lights were the way the ships identified the center line of the safe entry to a harbor. Because the lower lights were not burning that night, the ship missed the entrance to the harbor and crashed into the rocks. Many lives were lost. At the end of his sermon, Moody said, brethren, the master will take care of the great lighthouse. Let us keep the lower lights burning. And that's where Philip Paul Bliss was inspired from Moody's sermon to write the hymn Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. [00:15:42] Speaker B: There you go. My favorite hymn, too. [00:15:45] Speaker A: It's a great one. And yeah, obviously Christ is the bright light of the lighthouse. You can't outshine him. But even though it might not seem as bright, having a lot of people collectively do what they can to reflect that light or to add to it as much as they can makes a substantial difference and may affect the safety of hundreds of souls. So keep your lights burning. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Trim your feeble lamp. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Trim it. Next we've got the idea of the gathering of Zion was in order to create a refuge from the storm and the wrath which shall be poured out without mixture upon the earth. So first, as I was thinking about this, the gathering of the saints and the stakes of Zion as a refuge from the storm and wrath which shall be poured out, I could not help but think of the Helping Hands and the volunteers that are wearing their shirts like when we have disasters hit in Katrina or earthquakes or Haiti or wherever the case may be, who are some of the first ones to show up on site? And these Helping Hands volunteers. But how is it that they are able to mobilize and always get there so quick if it wasn't for the stakes of Zion? And having these stakes positioned all over the world literally has become a source of refuge and protection from the literal storms and the wrath of God that is poured out on the last days? [00:17:34] Speaker B: Do you want to know what helps also? [00:17:35] Speaker A: What's that? [00:17:37] Speaker B: The church has a grip of cash. Seriously. So for all those people that complain about this all the time, part of the reason that the church, probably the main reason that the church is able to be there Helping with food, financial aid, service efforts at every major disaster everywhere around the world, all the time is, is because they're incredibly wise with their money and grow it and do amazing things with it. So that on any given moment, at any given time, we don't have to think twice about being able to go out and help. So that's awesome that the church is just sitting on a grip of cash. I for one am thrilled about that. [00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:21] Speaker B: For what you just said, and for. [00:18:24] Speaker A: What it's worth, maybe part of our keeping our lower lights burning is being in a position where we can help other people. Being in a position where we are self reliant. We figured out how to be in a position stable enough to help others. Not that you have to wait until you reach that point in life to be an example. Absolutely not. There are other ways to keep your lights burning, but also I think as part of that being prepared and able to serve in any capacity and financially being able to go over and do something and give some time helps. Certainly. The other thing I noticed here, a lot of times when the Lord mentions his wrath being poured out on the people, he says, my wrath shall be poured out without measure. And we have talked about this, the importance of measuring and what measurement means. And I don't feel like we need to go through a whole discussion on that again. But in this case, they did not use the word measure, it uses the word mixture. And I thought that is kind of an interesting little deviance from it. And I said, I wonder if there is a precedent of mixture, his wrath being poured out without mixture in the Scriptures. So I looked it up. It does show up once in the book of Revelation when the Lord talks about the unrepentant having to suffer. It says that his cup will be filled without mixture and he has to drink from the cup. And it reminds me of Christ and the bitter cup that he wouldn't pass. But it wasn't referencing Christ drinking the cup, it was referencing the sinner that doesn't repent having to drink from this cup, this bitter cup. And so I looked at mixture and I looked up the Greek word, and it's not necessarily mixture. It meant undiluted. So when he's talking about drinking from the cup, undiluted or without measure, or without mixture. Now we kind of get this context looking at measure and mixture. It's that we're not putting in one part wine, three parts water, and watering it down so it's not so strong. This is unadulterated, unfiltered Here it comes. Straight. Concentrate. Concentrate is probably the best way to say that. [00:20:49] Speaker B: I was thinking when you said that. [00:20:52] Speaker A: So that is kind of an interesting way of saying that. [00:20:55] Speaker B: It just means it's. It means it's. You're getting the full kick, right? [00:21:00] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:01] Speaker B: Like, you're getting. You're getting the full. Like. Yeah. Undiluted, unwatered down, heavy blast. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that. That. That cup sounds like a doozy. I love it. All right. Anyways, without mixture, undiluted, you're getting the concentrate. If you were wondering what that meant next. The Lord talks about Far west being a holy city. And this is. Okay. This is after they've been chased out of Independence. So the Missouri experiment didn't go so well. You still have some saints living in Missouri. And now Far west is north of Independence, and it's close to Adam on Diamond, Right? Kind of in that same vicinity, as I understand it. And the Lord says, because this is a holy city, I want you to build a temple here. But the temple that the Lord instructs them to build here in Far West Missouri is different from the temples they've built up to this point. So we've got the Nauvoo Temple, We've got the Independence Temple that was supposed to be built. We've got the Kirtland Temple. And the Lord is saying, build this Far West Temple. But he says, don't start building it until the following July. And he says, even then, don't build the temple. Just lay the foundation. And he says, and just the foundation and the preparatory work. So he says, don't even do it. Just get those cornerstones down and start the preparatory work to build it. And I want you to do it on July 4, which is kind of an interesting day for him to say, I want you to start working on this on Independence Day. But that's it. That's all I want you to do, is just start this temple, okay? And then he says, and then the year after that, I want you to work on it a little bit more. And he says, and the pattern of how you build this temple, it is going to be different than how you built the other temples. Because the other temples, if you remember, the Lord was on their case. I gave you a commandment to build this temple. Here we are five months down the road. You still haven't done anything. What's going on? And they are being persecuted, and they lost their mercantile. They lost their printing press. Financially, they are restricted. They are going through hardships. And the Lord says, that doesn't matter. Keep Going, do it, go in debt, whatever, do it now. The Lord says, I don't want you to go in debt at all. And I want you to take your time. Start just the beginning next year and then the year after that. Put a little bit more time and then keep working on the temple until the temple is completed. But absolutely do not go in debt to build this temple. Different pattern. And the way he is describing this, it makes it sound like it is going to be this long term project, like the temple itself, this holy temple in Far west is not going to be built for a while. And here we are. So this was 18, trying to remember, 36, 38. Somewhere towards the end of the 1830s. We are coming up on 20, 30. So we are almost 2000 years after. We are almost 200 years after the fact and the temple is still not built. And so that made me ask the question, like, what is going on? Maybe it is like independence where we don't even own the temple lot, so we can't build it. Right. The church bought the Far west temple lot in 2012, so we have owned it for the last nine years. We have markers that show it. We have got the cornerstones that have been dedicated. The temple was announced. So my question, why haven't we built it yet? How many temples? Maybe I should have looked this up before we came. How many temples do you think have been announced since 2012? We had like what, 12 new temples announced just in the last conference. One of which, by the way, is Culiacan, Mexico. [00:25:38] Speaker B: Oh yeah, shout out. [00:25:40] Speaker A: That is where I served my mission. I was in Kulia Khan for a year and I'm still not sure I'll go back for the dedication of the temple. [00:25:49] Speaker B: Oh, dude, don't. Don't do that. [00:25:53] Speaker A: I love Kuliakan. I would love to go back, but I am also not a missionary. Khan. I don't know if you know this like the drug capital of Mexico. Like this is where El Chapo comes. [00:26:12] Speaker B: From, dude, then go down there, go to the temple thing and have a good time all in the same weekend, man. [00:26:17] Speaker A: I'm grateful that the temple's there. They need it. They need it to combat that. [00:26:22] Speaker B: Sounds like a dope weekend to me. [00:26:23] Speaker A: The powers, the darkness that rules that city. By the way, I love Culiacan and I felt safe there as a missionary. But going there now as a middle aged white guy, whatever, man. [00:26:37] Speaker B: I went to Oakland. [00:26:38] Speaker A: I don't want to be mistaken for. [00:26:40] Speaker B: Going out there next week. [00:26:41] Speaker A: I don't want to be mistaken for a Federal agent that disappears in this. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Whatever, man. [00:26:49] Speaker A: Okay, if any of you are curious, and I'm sorry, I've distracted. I've taken this way off. [00:26:55] Speaker B: That's fine. I always derail this thing. It's your turn. Go ahead. [00:26:58] Speaker A: I'm sorry. If any of you are curious, I want to say it was El Chapo's son. So El Chapo. Do you know who I'm talking about when I say El Chapo? Yeah. [00:27:08] Speaker B: You don't think I have Netflix. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Several of the drug cartels come from Sinaloa, Mexico. Culiacan is the capital city of Sinaloa and this was the city that El Chapo's from. El Chapo finally gets arrested. They put him in a Mexican prison. [00:27:28] Speaker B: He escapes. [00:27:29] Speaker A: And he doesn't just escape. He builds one of the coolest tunnels ever that can fit a full size vehicle. I think it's like a two lane highway. You can drive through this tunnel in and out of that. He drives right out of prison. [00:27:46] Speaker B: I mean, that's just gangster dude. [00:27:48] Speaker A: Yes. So then they extradite him to the United States. He's currently serving his time here. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Oh, wait, we got him again. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we captured him. We captured him again. [00:27:57] Speaker B: US Of A. [00:28:00] Speaker A: So far, he hasn't escaped from the US Prison. Wherever he's at, I can't remember. But down in Culiacan, I want to say it was about two years ago. Look it up. It's an interesting story. The federales, the Mexican federal police, capture one of his kids, keeping on the family business. And at this point, the drug traffickers flip cars, light them on fire, and block every entrance and exit into out of the city of Culiacan, get in a shootout with the police and get El Chapo's son back and tell them, yeah, this is our city. Don't even think you can come in here and tell us how to do things. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Can you imagine that happening in the United States? Because I can't. Yeah, that's the idea of that. I'm just like, oh, would the police. [00:28:51] Speaker A: Ever surrender and say, not only that. [00:28:54] Speaker B: We should, we would send in the military and we would rain hellfire down upon thee and thy head. It's too bad that the Mexican government is not willing to do the same, because it is a problem that bleeds into border cities in our country as well. [00:29:12] Speaker A: There's a large problem. And part of the problem is I think the government's been. I don't know, it is a tough situation down there and the people don't deserve what they have been getting from the people that are supposed to serve them, all the love in the world for Kulia Khan. I was super excited when I heard they were getting a temple. This is where I served my mission. And if I get an opportunity, I might go down and look at the temple dedication. [00:29:40] Speaker B: You can do it, dude. I have faith in you. [00:29:43] Speaker A: But anyways, going back to temples, how many temples have been announced? How many temples have been built? And yet in Far west, we own the property, we own the land. We have built it. Not we built it. We have dedicated the cornerstones. And God said, I want you to work on this over time, however long it takes you, and build this thing all the way to completion. Why haven't we completed this temple yet? That was a question that, that I asked as I was reading Doctrine and covenants section 115. [00:30:15] Speaker B: Do you have an answer? [00:30:16] Speaker A: Well, my thought is this, as you look at where we build temples, South Jordan, one of the first cities. If not, it probably was the first city that got two temples there, right? Jordan river and then down in daybreak you have a temple there. It was the busiest temple in the world. And you had to put another temple there. Provo. Busiest temple in the world, right? You had to put temples based on how busy and how popular, not popular, how populated the area is, at least with saints that can visit the temple. So as they are planning these temple locations, it is based on the support system. How many people are going to be worshiping the temple? How many temple workers are we going to be able to pull from this district to, to staff a temple, to keep it open and to make it financially worth the opportunity to have it there? And so as I look at Kansas City, independence just being to the east of there and far west being to the north of there. We have a temple in Kansas City, but do we have a population to support multiple temples in a region like that? And the Lord talks about redeeming independence. And when we talked about the dedication of the Kirtland temple, and we talked about the Lord's follow through and the terrible things that happened to that region in the Civil War, the devastation and all of that, like the Lord go back to the parable, he says, they'll tear down the towers, tear down the walls, and by and by it shall be redeemed. And so if everything was torn down and destroyed and by and by, it shall be redeemed. Maybe the only thing we are waiting on for a temple to be built there that has been announced since the 1800s, that we are still waiting for is Just the population to come and live there, to redeem it, to grow. Whether that be missionary work or. Or whether that be people moving over there. And I can't say that I haven't thought of it. If I were to sell my house here in Utah, I could purchase a home in the region over there with cash and not have a mortgage. [00:32:45] Speaker B: That sounds dope, dude. It will save you in moving costs in the future. [00:32:51] Speaker A: Maybe that is the redemption of Zion. Maybe the idea that now we have the financial ability to move back into this region that has such a low cost of living, yet still has great economic opportunities, great employment, great jobs, I don't know, maybe that's the last piece of the puzzle. I don't want to say it is. I don't want to say it. [00:33:13] Speaker B: Are you moving, dude? Are you announcing something? [00:33:17] Speaker A: I've thought about it. [00:33:17] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. [00:33:18] Speaker A: I have honestly thought about it. [00:33:19] Speaker B: You want to know who hasn't thought about it? Me. [00:33:22] Speaker A: I keep thinking about it. It's just hard to leave Utah because Utah's so dope. I love the mountains. Yeah, I love. There's a lot to love about Utah. [00:33:35] Speaker B: It's slow and quiet, man. [00:33:37] Speaker A: And as I think about what I enjoy here in Utah, the company of the saints, being around people that are like minded. I mean, the friendship that we have, the opportunity to have these conversations, I enjoy a lot of that and I feel like I'm not going to have that going out there. But then how are you supposed to get that if people don't start going out there? Right? I mean, how does that. It's got to start somewhere. [00:34:03] Speaker B: I guess. Have fun. We'll do the podcast remote. Do they have the Internet in far. [00:34:12] Speaker A: West in Kansas City? They've got Kansas City. [00:34:16] Speaker B: They do. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kansas City was one of the first sites for Google Fiber. [00:34:21] Speaker B: I will tell you, I have no idea about that. But I will tell you that Kansas City has some really good barbecue joints. [00:34:26] Speaker A: Oh, amazing food. You've got the chiefs. You've got. [00:34:31] Speaker B: Chiefs are pretty fun this year. Yes. [00:34:33] Speaker A: You got some fun stuff going out there in Kansas City. So I. I don't know, I don't want to say I'm moving out there. I mean, obviously I've got a family here. It would be a very hard decision. You have to feel some pretty strong pulls. But I would also be wrong if I hadn't said I haven't thought about it. As I read Doctrine and Covenants, as I read the history of this area and appreciate this as a holy place. And as we are going to Read here in 1:16, the idea that this is Adamande. Amen. Amazing things should be happening here. And I wonder if there shouldn't be some excitement among the saints to want to reclaim something that is available to reclaim now, today. Something that maybe our ancestors looked forward to the day where we could do it. And financially, maybe it makes sense now. I don't know if that is what the church is waiting on to dedicate Far West. As I was asking the question of we own this property, it doesn't seem like there is any impediment to building a temple there. What could we possibly be waiting on? The only thing that sticks out to me is the idea that we're waiting for the people. We're waiting for people to fill in to redeem it. And I'm certainly not trying to tell you, hey, everybody, go sell your house and move out there. I'm not even sure. I'm not even sure that's something I would be willing to do. But it's definitely made me think and consider and wonder. So that's why I bring it up. All right. Far West. [00:36:14] Speaker B: Far West. [00:36:16] Speaker A: Not. Not so far west anymore. [00:36:18] Speaker B: I know we're farther west. [00:36:20] Speaker A: We went even further west. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Maybe that's it. Maybe people just misunderstood what Jesus was saying when he said far west. And we've actually fulfilled the prophecy. But by building 7,000 temples farther west than Missouri. [00:36:37] Speaker A: This is the place. [00:36:38] Speaker B: Move on. That is what I am saying. We came out farther west. Crack the code, somebody call the apostles. [00:36:51] Speaker A: But it is great that Zion, in essence, has been redeemed all over the place. And we have stakes and we have strength and we have numbers. We have. It's great to be a member of the Church just about anywhere in the world. It's a fun time to be alive. All right, let's go to doctrine. Kevin is 1:16. This is only one verse long, so I will read. It says, Spring Hill is named by the Lord, Adam on diamond. Because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the ancient of days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the prophet. So a few things here. First, the name is named by the Lord. So it's not like Joseph Smith gave it this name. It's not like anybody. The Lord said, this shall be called Adam on thy Amen. And in Ammon. We see this in places, show up in Doctrine Covenants as a reference to God. Adam we understand as being the first man. And I find it kind of Cool that he refers to him here as the Ancient of Days, which is a reference to the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. And as far as the title, Ancient of Days, did I say it's a reference to Daniel? I should have said from Daniel. From the Book of Daniel. Daniel mentions the Ancient of Days. Sorry, Ancient of Days. Can you think of anyone that is more Ancient of days than Adam? He was the first man. He is the ancientest of days. There is no further west for us to move from Adam. We have arrived. He is the ancient of days. So I think that is a great interpretation. A lot of people look at Ancient of Days and they think of as Christ because he is eternal or God. So there are different ways that different religions have interpreted this scripture. Here Joseph Smith is enlightening us and saying he is the ancient of Days. Or in other words, the oldest living man. Not living, but the oldest man from here on earth. Adam will return. And great things to happen here in this valley that the lord names Adam Ondiamond. Okay, Doctrine and Covenants 1:17. As they are talking about some of the people journeying up into this far west area, he does talk about them not being ashamed of land and to come in haste. I'm just going to maybe read some of the verses here. Verse 7. Therefore will I not make solitary places to bud and to blossom and to bring forth in abundance, saith the Lord. And Adam on diamond, far west. I mean, even to this day it's still solitary places. Are we waiting for those to bud and to blossom? You know? Verse 9. Excuse me. Verse 8. Is there not enough room on the mountains of Adam, on diamond and the plains of Ola Shinaha, or the land where Adam dwelt, that you should cover that which is but the drop. Sorry, that you should covet that which is but the drop and neglect the more weighty matters. Therefore come up hither unto the land of my people, even Zion. And then skipping over to 14. Therefore let him come up hither speedily unto the land of Zion, and in due time he shall be made a merchant in the name of the Lord. So the Lord is telling them, come to Zion, come to this area, and I will make the desolate places. Maybe not. Desolate is not the right word. The isolate places, the places that don't have a lot of people. The solitary places to bud and to blossom and bring forth in abundance. And if we are waiting for that to happen, maybe the power lies within us. Just kind of adding on, I guess, from what we were saying in 1:15 that is all I am going to say there. 1:18 deals with filling up the holes left in the apostles. This is a time when the bank fells and a lot of people start to have problems with the church to leave the church. And you had about four apostles at this time apostatize and leave the church with some of the issues there. You've already had financial hardships with the loan for the Kirtland temple, losing the merchant, the mercantile, losing the printing office, losing your source of income and yet still having debts to pay. And that's going to dictate some of these revelations as we're reading right through here. And a lot of the people that were enemies to the church would accuse the church members that were running the bank of stealing the money, misappropriating the funds and it's just being corrupt. And then they accused Joseph Smith of not being a prophet in being the one that organized this and directing it and not knowing that this is what was going on. So there is a lot of blame that was being done and saying that these were mishandled. Later on they do actually find all of the banknotes, all of the transactions and it puts to bed a lot of the accusations that there was not actually any fraud going on. There was not any bad things that were happening. What happened is a lot of non members of the church upset with the saints would go up and buy as many notes as they could, make a run on the bank and intentionally tried to run the bank out of business. It was ruined in a large part by the enemies to the church back then. But this was very, very faith shocking. It drove a lot of members of the church out that lost faith, lost confidence in the church and you lost some apostles. So this section right here is dealing with replacing the apostles and saying he refers to them as fallen apostles. Verse 1, it says, Verily, thus saith the Lord. Look, let a conference be held immediately. Let the 12 be organized and let men be appointed to supply the place of those who are fallen. So it almost sounds like people that have died. Let my servant Thomas remain for a season. So he talks about them. He talks about him gathering in the land of far west before crossing the ocean and going on missions over into the eastern countries, over into Europe. But in the meantime let's gather who we have, fill in those voids and keep, keep the quorum stocked, replace the members as soon as you can. Moving on section 119 and 120, the last two sections, it's going to be dealing with tithing up to this point, no tithing existed in the restored gospel. The way they were financially able to do anything was all based on these businesses. The church was going to have church businesses that raised money to support the people serving in the church, to support the needs of the church, to build the temples and take care of it. These businesses were not working. The bank had failed in independence. He had lost these businesses, as we had mentioned before. And so the Lord, Joseph Smith is asking the Lord, what should we do to supply for the financial needs of the church? How do we take care of this? And this is where the Lord reveals the law of tithing. And I think most everybody is familiar with the law of tithing, the 1/10 the tithe being paid to the storehouse as the bishop. But there is something interesting here that caught my attention that I hadn't really ever thought of or focused on before. I'm just going to read here. Let's see, verse three. And this shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people. And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one tenth of all their interest annually. And that's kind of the law that we are familiar with. One tenth of all your interest annually. Whatever interest is supposed to mean. I am not going to define that or clarify that. We will just leave it at that. But this is what caught my attention. This shall be a standing law for them forever. For my holy priesthood, saith the Lord. Verily I say unto you, it shall come to pass that all those who gather unto the land of Zion shall be tithed of their surplus properties and shall observe this law, or they shall be found worthy to abide, or they shall not be found worthy to abide among you. Say, I say unto you, my people shall observe not this law to keep it holy. By this law sanctify the land of my people. Going back to this idea of the surplus, if I were to read verse one, verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my church in Zion for the building of mine house, and for the laying of the foundation of Zion, and for the priesthood, and for the debts of the presidency of my church. And this shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people. And then after that shall they be tithed one tenth and everyone that comes into Zion after. Verily I say unto you, it shall come to pass that all those who gather unto the land of Zion shall be tithed of their surplus property first, and then they shall pay 1 10th. You ever thought of that? What does that mean to pay all of your surplus and then after that, one tenth of everything? And how do you define surplus? You know, how much. And it's not like a specific anything is given. He just says, pay all your surplus to the storehouses. And then after that it's the 1 10th. And today we're all very familiar with the 1 10th. We pay 1 tenth. But what was the surplus? Has that already been paid? Is that just at the very beginning for those that were there, new people don't pay anything on their surplus. I don't know. It was just kind of an interesting little thing that stuck out to me. I don't really have too much insight to it. Just something that I hadn't caught before. Last section, I almost said last verse, but it's about one verse long. Anyhow, last section is dealing with the disposition of tithes. That the tithes, how they be spent, is based on the presidency of the Church, the bishop, the high council, and they all do it according to the voice of the Lord. And I think we see a lot of transparency of that, even with conference, when they have the audit report and here's the disposition of the. Of the tithes and how it's been spent, and it's all in accordance with the regulations that have been sent. I think the Church does a fairly good job in how they organize and take care of that and understand that this is the Lord's money and according to him is how we are going to be spending it. So I will close with maybe one last story. Somebody came to Joseph Smith and said, hey, if this is the Lord's money, rather than paying my tithing, why don't I just take this money and go spend it over to help this person over here do something good with this money in a way that I see I can do it more directly. And Joseph Smith response was, I think that's very generous of you in spending someone else's money. And his point was, yeah, I mean, you can do that, but it's still not. It's not yours to spend. Like give it to the Lord and let the Lord choose how he's going to spend it rather than you try to dictate how you should spend the Lord's money. So it's just kind of an interesting little point that he taught through with that on that day, that example. [00:48:35] Speaker B: Anyhow, I like it. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's all I got this week. [00:48:40] Speaker B: Awesome. What are we talking about next week? [00:48:42] Speaker A: Next week we are going to be diving into Doctrine and Covenants, Section 121. And I think 121. We are pretty familiar with a lot of powerful things coming out of that. [00:48:58] Speaker B: It is definitely one of the big referenced sections. [00:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah. 121 through 123. And here we get that, that quote from Joseph Smith, you know, O God, where art thou? Is he hiding? He's about had enough. And at what point is the Lord going to stand up and redeem his people? How much are they going to have to take? [00:49:26] Speaker B: Can't wait. [00:49:28] Speaker A: All right. [00:49:28] Speaker B: Until next week. See ya. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Sa.