Here are links to my Gospel Doctrine lessons from the old curriculum that line up fairly well for the next four weeks' "Come, Follow Me" lessons.
June 8-14
Go here for my Google slides on Rahab, Deborah, Ruth and Hannah. There is probably too much to cover in one lesson, so feel free to choose just one or two of them, or skip over slides. Click VIEW from the top bar, then SLIDESHOW. Tap your mouse or the space bar to progress through the slides. Leave a comment if you liked it!
Please follow these links for study material for upcoming lessons. Stay tuned for a slideshow of the corresponding June 7th lesson, focusing on righteous women in these readings: Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, and Hannah. It plan to have it up Friday night.
When reading the Old Testament, I find it very helpful to remember that this book is a whole different style of scripture than any of our other standard works.
The New Testament is a history and testament of Jesus Christ's mission on the earth and the beginnings of the early Christian church. It includes the literal words of Christ, written by first-person or once-removed witnesses. It contains sermons given by Christ and letters written by His apostles that contain true doctrine that will lead to unity and happiness. Only one book in the New Testament is different than this: the Book of Revelation, which is totally symbolic and teaches of God's eternal plan for His children and Christ's role in saving the world from evil in a dream-like or story-like manner.
The Book of Mormon is a similar testament. It contains literal history and accurate doctrine taught by Jesus Christ and His prophets to this group of ancient Hebrews who migrated to the American continent during the time of Jeremiah. Many different authors contributed to the Book of Mormon over hundreds of years, each testifying of God's dealings in their lives from their own perspective. There are long, detailed stories of battles written by an army captain, sprinkled with truths of the gospel (Book of Alma). There are very short entries written by keepers of the records as they passed them on to the next keeper (Book of Omni). There are histories within histories, such as the adventures of a group who left the main body with false hope of a reconciliation with their enemies in their home land (Book of Alma). There is a translation of the long past history of a previous civilization that failed (Book of Ether). And there is an editor of much of the book (from Words of Mormon through the end). The Book of Mormon can be trusted as truth, historically and doctrinally. Whenever some anacronism (thing out of place with the time) appears and critics taut it as proof the book is fake, it is eventually proven to be correct (such as horses existing in ancient America). It does contain some chapters full of symbolism (Lehi's vision or passages quoted directly from Isaiah), but they are not the norm.
The Doctrine and Covenants is mostly the words of Jesus Christ directly to the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, written by a scribe but without any other middle man. There are only a couple of chapters from other prophets' times at the end of the book. Most of the sections are words from Christ through Joseph Smith to specific people about specific circumstances involving the restoration of His Church and its management. There are sections that are direct answers to questions from individual saints. The whole thing is very literal, very straight-forward, very true.
The Pearl of Great Price is a collection of several different works. There are re-tellings of Old Testament stories with added material revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith as he studied the Bible in depth and through his lens as a seer (Books of Moses and Abraham). There is a copy of one chapter of the New Testament that has particular application to the latter days with President Smith's revelatory changes. There is an autobiographical account of Joseph Smith's call as a prophet, including his vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. And there are the Articles of Faith, written by Joseph Smith.
And then there's the Old Testament. It's a whole different type of scripture. The origin, writing and compilation of the Old Testament is hugely different than that of any other scripture book (with exceptions of those chapters of other scriptures that came from the Old Testament).
Here is a link to my Google slideshow on this lesson. Click the View tab and then select slideshow to put it in full screen. Click your mouse, your touchscreen or your keyboard space bar to advance the slides or play the videos. Enjoy!
A LONG STORY ABOUT EASTER AND TEMPLES
For
Children, Youth and Adults
Nancy W. Jensen
Long before Jesus was born, God told
His people in Jerusalem to build him a house where they could worship Him and
He could visit them. God told them how to build this temple and they wrote down
every single instruction and put it in their scriptures. It would be a place
where heaven and earth would meet. The people would give God gifts at the House
of God and God would give them gifts as well. You can read about all of them in
The Book of Leviticus in the Bible.
The House of God was amazing! It had
a big courtyard around it for people to gather. It was very, very tall–10
stories tall or more, like a small skyscraper. It had gold on the front of it
and beautiful carvings. It had colors of the sunset, like blue and purple and
red, to remind people that this was where heaven and earth meet. And it had a
very small room with golden things to remind them of how God had helped them in
the past and what Jesus Christ would someday do to save them. This small but
tall room had a heavy veil or curtain instead of a door. This was the Holy of
Holies where God could come. Only the high priest could go in there, and he
could only go in on one day of the year, The Day of Atonement. For ten days
before that day, the people would repent of all the things they did wrong. They
would bring their gifts to the temple. Then the high priest would pray to God
for them to be forgiven. They would make covenants with God. A covenant is a
special promise that brings you close together.
God told the people that coming to
the temple would make them rejoice! And it did! It was a place of happiness!
But after a while the people began to
get lazy and selfish and they weren’t obeying God’s commandments. So God sent
prophets to tell them what they were doing wrong so they could change. These
people got very angry! They didn’t want to change! So God told one of the
prophets, named Lehi, to take his family and get away from Jerusalem because
the people were doing so many bad things that God wasn’t going to protect
Jerusalem anymore.
We can read their story in The Book
of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is a collection of stories written by different
people in ancient America over hundreds of years. They were all put together by
a prophet named Mormon and that’s why it’s called The Book of Mormon. It’s
really “The Books Collected by Mormon.”
The first book in the Book of Mormon
tells about what God told Lehi in visions and how he had to buy tents and leave
Jerusalem with his family and go camping in the wilderness and then go back to
get the Brass Plates (which were the scriptures) and get another family to come
with them and then travel to the beach and live there for a while and then
build a ship and sail across the huge ocean to America. In America they got
married and had a bunch of kids and grandkids and they were farmers and they
also had fights. This book was written by Lehi’s son Nephi. After writing the
story of their travels, he copied down all his favorite scriptures.
He still had more to write but he
didn’t write it here. He started a Second Book of Nephi. Why a whole new book?
The first thing that Nephi wrote in
his second book was that God showed Lehi that Jerusalem actually was destroyed
(2 Nephi 1:1-4). Another country, Babylon, sent their armies and all the people
who lived in Jerusalem were killed or pushed out and forced to live in all
different places so the people who won the war could live in Jerusalem instead.
The temple, the House of God, was completely destroyed.
Everything was different now. There
was no House of God on the whole earth. There was no church of God in
Jerusalem. The biggest group of God’s people was in America.
Remember: Lehi’s family had brought
their scriptures with them, the Brass Plates. The scriptures had all the
instructions for building a temple and worshipping God in the temple. So they
built a new House of God in their land. The second book of Nephi is about how
these people enter a closer relationship with God and learn more about Jesus
Christ because they have a temple where heaven and earth meet. Now, Nephi
wrote, “[They] lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27) because of
their covenants.
Back in Jerusalem, there was another
war because the King of Persia wanted Jerusalem. But as he moved to Jerusalem,
the king found a copy of the scriptures. He read what God told the prophets to
write in the scriptures and he read a prophecy about himself there, taking over
Jerusalem! And he also read a prophecy that God’s people will come back to
Jerusalem. This makes him decide to let any of those people move back if they want to and he decides to
rebuild their temple. It sounds pretty cool to him.
Hundreds of years later, Mary and
Joseph took Baby Jesus to this temple to give gifts to God for their baby. They
had to travel to get there because they didn’t live in Jerusalem. Joseph and
Mary worshipped at the temple as often as they could, probably every time they
had a new baby, for example. (They had at least seven other kids.) On one of
these trips, when Jesus was 12 years old, he sat in the courtyard teaching the
priests! He didn’t even notice that all his relatives had gone home. They had
to come back and find him.
When Jesus grew up, he started
teaching everyone God’s commandments: how they should be baptized and they
should love each other and that God should be the most important thing in their
lives so that they could be happy.
He told the temple priests he was
God’s Son! It was the best news in the world!
But the temple priests did not want
to believe he was God’s Son. They did not want to change. They liked being in
charge, being rich, being important.
They finally convinced the leaders of
the city to kill Jesus. They found Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, just
outside the city. He was praying and crying and he was feeling more sad than
anyone in the world had ever been, because He loved everyone so much, even the
people who did bad things! And they took him and put him on a cross on a small
hill behind Jerusalem. As Jesus hung on the cross, he could turn his head and
see the back wall of the beautiful temple.
Because Jesus was the Son of God, no
one could kill him, but he could choose to die.
It was the most painful thing in the world to be hung on a cross, but
somehow his pain on the cross and before that in the Garden of Gethsemane made
it possible for him to bring anyone who died back to life some day. And it also
gave him the power to help people when they had troubles or made mistakes. Even
us.
Then Jesus told Heavenly Father that
he was done, and he let his spirit leave his body and go up to heaven.
As he left the earth, the earth began
to shake, and because of the earthquake, the thick, heavy veil of the temple
holy place ripped into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. It was as if to
show everyone that because of what Jesus Christ did, they could now walk right
through the veil and be with God!
There were also earthquakes in
America. The people there had been getting selfish and wicked, too. They hated
each other and they fought and they stole things. They said that Jesus wasn’t
real and he wasn’t going to come to earth and they didn’t need him anyway. They
said anybody can do whatever they want. They hated the people who still
believed in Jesus. They didn’t care about the House of God. Their prophet,
Nephi the 3rd, tried to teach them to repent, but only a few people listened.
With the earthquake, buildings
crashed down. Lots of people were killed. Everyone who was still alive was
crying. The air was black with some kind of volcanic smoke and they couldn't
even see.
But the temple was not destroyed and
the people gathered there. And while they were there, at the place where heaven
meets earth, the sky opened up and Jesus Christ came down to visit them! He
didn’t just visit the high priest on the other side of a heavy veil, but He met
all of them out in the courtyard, even the little children! He taught them his
gospel just as he taught it in Jerusalem. He told them he had finished his sad
and painful work, the Atonement, and he had saved the world. He brought angels
with him and they blessed the children. He changed their temple worship to help
them remember Him and what He did. And he said this was the greatest joy he had
ever felt. Nephi the 3rd wrote down everything he taught them except for the
very sacred heavenly parts. And then he told his future readers, us, to not do
bad things and not hate people, but to repent and get baptized and receive the
Holy Ghost and join the covenant people. And that’s the end of that story.
Then he started a new book
called the 4th Book of Nephi. This book was the story of how people who made
new temple covenants with Jesus Christ Himself at the House of God lived. Nephi
the 3rd wrote, “And they were blessed [with the many, many promises] which the
Lord had made unto them [in the temple]” (4 Nephi 1:11). “And there was no
[fighting] in the land, because of the love of God which did [live] in the
hearts of the people” (4 Nephi 1:15). “And surely there could not be a happier
people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God..[and] they
were in one [like one loving family], the children of Christ, and [were
promised] the kingdom of God” (4 Nephi 1:16,17). The covenant people loved
everyone, even the weird ones. And they shared all their stuff so no one was
poor. And they watched over each other so no one was left out.
It was the one time on earth that
life was fair! And it lasted for 200 years!
Today we have Houses of God all over
the world with many of the same things the temple in Jerusalem had, but they
are used differently since Jesus did His mighty work. We no longer wait outside
while the temple priest makes the covenants for all the people. If we keep our
baptismal covenants, we can each go in and make more covenants ourselves. As we
do, we get pulled closer and closer to Jesus Christ, as Elder Bradley Wilcox
taught us in October 2024 General Conference. Our temples have veils, but now they
are plain and white and lightweight and they are made in two pieces!
They are made for walking through!
Sometimes hard things will happen in
our lives. We might feel like we are suddenly on the other side of the world in
a brand new place where everything is different, like Lehi’s family. We might
even feel like we’ve been through an earthquake. Some things in our lives will
break in ways that we can’t fix. But if we become covenant people with Christ,
we can start new stories, better ones. We can feel more of His love and receive
more of His help as we come closer to Him in our temples, where heaven meets earth.
We can promise to share our money and our time and our stuff to bring others to
him. And as we share his love with others, we will get it all over ourselves.
And then we also will live “after the manner of happiness.”
A neighbor of mine shared some very interesting research she had done with our scripture study group that has application to this week's lesson on Joseph, so I will share that here and then I will link my post on Joseph.
When Adam and Eve realized that they were naked (inadequate, vulnerable), they hid from God. When He asked them why they hid and who told them they were naked, they told Him they had learned this from Satan. God's response to them was not to shame them or punish them. Instead, He clothed them in garments of skin (Genesis 3:21). The Hebrew word translated here as "garment" is kethoneth or ketonet.
Bible Hub describes kethoneth or ketonet as "a long, shirt–like garment that served as the basic article of clothing for both men and women in ancient Israel. It was normally woven from wool or linen, extending to the knees or ankles, with or without sleeves. While an ordinary tunic was common apparel, Scripture records several specialized ketonot whose design, fabrication, or use conveyed covenantal and theological truths."
The word kethoneth is used in the Old Testament in this specialized context very few times. This is the first and it refers to a tunic or inner garment worn next to the skin.
“Yahweh [Jehovah] made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). The first mention of ketonet follows mankind’s fall and sheds light on God’s initiative in providing a covering secured through the shedding of blood. This act foreshadows substitutionary atonement and establishes the biblical pattern that sin requires a divinely provided covering" (Bible Hub).
The second is to describe Joseph's coat of many colors (Gen. 37:3). In this case it is an outer robe, a long tunic. It signified a person of authority, priestly or royal, because it was a garment not practical for manual labor. It was made of finer cloth: wool, linen, cotton, or silk.
"Jacob’s preferential love for Joseph is displayed through “a richly ornamented robe” (Genesis 37:3). The ketonet here is distinguished by length and embroidery, marking Joseph for blessing and leadership. Its blood-stained presentation to Jacob (Genesis 37:31–33) dramatizes deception and anticipated deliverance. Later, Joseph’s divinely orchestrated exaltation confirms that God’s purposes overcome human malice" (ibid.).
The third time is in reference to the temple priesthood clothing made for Aaron and his sons to wear in the tabernacle (Exodus 28:4).
The New International Version reads,
"These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests."
The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek equivalent of kethoneth (chiton) is used to describe the specialized luxury clothing item that Jesus Christ wore to the cross, the seamless garment for which the Roman soldiers cast lots (John 19:24). (See also Psalm 22:18.)
"In the Septuagint [the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament], ketonet is rendered chitōn, the very word John uses when recording that soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ seamless tunic (John 19:23–24). The High Priest’s linen ketonet, the favored son’s multi-colored ketonet, and the sin-covering ketonet of Eden all converge in the crucified Messiah whose unseamed garment affirms His perfect righteousness and singular priesthood" (ibid.).
The New International Version translates John 19:23 as follows:
"When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom."
The significance of innner and outer priestly clothing should not be lost to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As covenant temple worshipers, we have the opportunity to receive and wear our own version of kethoneth, temple clothing next to our skin, as well as kethoneth passim, outer clothing worn during temple worship. As Adam and Eve, Aaron and his sons, and Joseph, we are covered by Christ's mercy and that covering is symbolized in our temple garments. Jesus Christ wore His inner garment to the very end of His life, and so should we. (See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples/temple-garment-faq?lang=eng.)
And now here is the link to my previous post on Joseph.
ISAAC'S QUEST FOR A COVENANT MARRIAGE
The overriding theme of the stories of Chapters 24-28 is that it is not easy to come by a covenant marriage, but that when we put forth the tremendous effort required, the Lord will assist and blessings will ensue. Here are some incidents that teach these lessons:
Please follow this link to my previously-posted lesson on Sarah, Hagar and Abraham.
Please follow this link for my previously posted lesson.
Enoch Follows the Example of His Grandfather Adam
Enoch is such an interesting person! He was the son of Cain (Gen 4:16-18), the first murderer, the originator of organized crime, and he was the great-great-grandfather of Lamech (Gen. 5:21-24), also a murderer and member of a crime gang. And yet, he was fully himself: a man who used his own free will to seek God and to make righteous choices, a man who gave his entire life to the preaching of the gospel and the saving of souls. What an example to any of us who come from less-than-stellar background!
"And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin [a sinful environment, mortality], even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
"And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
"Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, nor dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time" (Moses 6:55-57, emphasis added).
In the early days of the world everyone was more obviously related, but the use of agency had gradually divided people into groups.
Enoch preached to these people the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught to and by their common ancestor, Adam.
"And it came to pass that Enoch continued his speech, saying: Behold, our father Adam taught these things, and many have believed and become the sons of God, and many have believed not, and have perished in their sins, and are looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them" (Moses 7:1, emphasis added).
Enoch then shared with the people the amazing vision he had experienced with God, a vision which was life-changing to these people who had looked forward with fear to their future interaction with God.
The First Vision of Enoch
As Enoch was praying intensely, he heard a command to go to the mountain, a natural temple. Ascending a mountain, like attending the temple, always requires a lot of effort. It's not a convenient and easy path to either one, but each one sets a person apart from the world.
As Enoch met this requirement of obedience and he stood upon that mountain, "I beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory;
"And I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another, face to face; and he said unto me: Look and I will show unto thee the world for the space of many generations" (verses 3-4).
Enoch's vision restored the truth that the mighty God of heaven is a person, who cares about and converses with His children.
In the vision Enoch saw how people throughout the world feared each other and fought each other. They believed wholly in the concept of separation: that there is an "us" and a "them." They believed that happiness and peace can only be achieved by fighting and winning and having. He saw the people of Canaan battle against the people of Shum. He saw differences of skin color evolve because of a differing climate area, probably caused by the destruction of plant life by war. Then he saw racism immediately spring forth (verses 7,12).
The City of Enoch
Those who opposed these Old Testament Christians became such violent enemies that Enoch had to call upon the powers of God to physically separate his people from them (Moses 7:13-17).
But among those people who believed in Christ, there was complete unity.
"And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them" (verse 18).
Although the Bible tells us that Cain built a city named Enoch, the Book of Moses tells us that Enoch built his own city, "A city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion" (verse 19).
This city was taken into heaven and from that point, the view from heaven, Enoch was shown an amazing vision. (How did we get this vision? Was it ever written down before it was revealed to Joseph Smith? We don't know. There is no evidence of it in the Old Testament. There are books of Enoch in non-Biblical sources, but I have not read them.)
The Second Vision of Enoch
Enoch saw all the nations of the earth, Satan ensnaring people with darkness, angels of God (possibly some were citizens of his city) descending to bear testimony and convert others to unity with God and membership in the city of Zion. Those who converted were caught up to heaven. (See verses 23-27.)
"And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
"And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?" (verses 28-29).
And here is a revolutionary concept, not readily found on the earth or in its religions until the record of this vision was restored by Joseph Smith: God experiences emotions, including sorrow; He cares about his children! Although men were “looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them” (verse 1), God Himself was weeping at their estrangement. While Enoch was rejoicing that Zion was safe from evil, God was mourning the separation from “the residue of the people” who remained in wickedness (verse 28). (Although God cursed them in verse 20, it was an indirect cursing—simply the natural consequence of breaking His laws.) Enoch was utterly shocked that God, who is all powerful, all knowing, eternal, kind, perfect in every way, and has just seen the success of Zion, is now weeping (verse 31).
Enoch helpfully pointed out to God, "...thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?" (Moses 7:31).
And here is what the Lord helpfully pointed out to Enoch: "Behold these thy brethren..." have chosen poorly and they are suffering. God uses the phrase "thy brethren" three times as he tells Enoch how their willfulness and selfishness have separated them from God and from joy. From this point on, enemies disappears, replaced by thy brethren. And yet they have chosen another family: "...Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?" (verse 37).
The heavens weep, not for the sin of the people, but for the suffering that sin causes before their redemption. Yes, they can repent in the next life and Christ will redeem them, but “...until that day they shall be in torment; wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea and all the workmanship of mine hands" (verses 39-40). Separation from God and from each other causes suffering.
Once Enoch saw this with God's eyes, he “...wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook” (verse 41).
Enoch “...had bitterness of soul, and wept over his brethren, and said unto the heavens: I will refuse to be comforted; but the Lord said unto Enoch: Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look” (verse 44).
And then he saw “the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul rejoiced…” (verse 47). It is right that we should sorrow for the suffering of our beloved siblings on the earth (some of whom are our own children), but that sorrow must end; we must look up in faith to their future redemption in Christ.
After the agony of the cross and the agony of the earth in response to the crucifixion, not only did Enoch see “saints” arise to be crowned at the right hand of God (verse 56), but also “the spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on the right hand of God. But a remainder (the word remainder suggests a small number) still waits “in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day.” (verse 57).
The Covenant of the Rainbow
Enoch watch in horror as his wicked siblings drowned in the devastating flood that God sent upon Noah. It was so awful that Enoch begged the Lord to never again send such a flood upon the earth (verse 50).
"And the Lord could not withhold [remember in the last chapter he promised Enoch power over the elements]; and he covenanted with Enoch, and sware unto him with an oath, that he would stay the floods; that he would call upon the children of Noah..." to teach them the gospel (verse 51).
We can see more about this beautiful covenant in the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis chapter 9. You can find this at the back of your LDS paper scriptures, or you can find it in the electronic Gospel Library app under Study Helps > Joseph Smith Translation Index.
"And the [rain]bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself.
"And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth, and look upward [think Celestial!], then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy;
"And the general assembly of the church of the firstborn shall come down out of heaven, and possess the earth, and shall have place until the end come. And this is mine everlasting covenant, which I made with thy father Enoch" (JST Genesis 9:21-23).
Did you know that a rainbow viewed from above is a full circle? This is what Enoch would see should he look down from heaven--the symbol of eternity.
The Solution to Enmity: The Atonement of Jesus Christ
Going back to the Pearl of Great Price account, we see that whereas Enoch's heart had swelled "wide as eternity" with deep sorrow for the suffering of men, now he saw the King of Zion, Jesus Christ, spread out his arms on the cross to make heaven "broad as eternity," big enough for all, even the latecomers.
"And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith--I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me [remember the necessity of effort to get up a mountain?] shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy" (Moses 7:53).
The earth will finally rest when Christ comes again and enmity is removed from the family of God. The City of Enoch will come down to join Zion on earth, the New Jerusalem, which hopefully will be found in each of our wards and branches across the world, “and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other” (verse 63). There will be a thousand years of peace upon the earth.
"And the Lord showed Enoch all things, even unto the end of the world; and he saw the day of the righteous, the hour of their redemption, and received a fulness of joy" (verse 67).
A Fulness of Joy is Found in Unity with God and Man
This concept of "us vs. them" never left the Old Testament peoples. It was only temporarily overturned by Jesus Christ's teachings to his small group of followers in the meridian of time. Separation persists everywhere today.
Why are we so convinced that we are better than others? Is there any civilization, clan, nation, or religion on the earth that does not think they are better than others? Can we overturn this enmity today by spreading Christ's gospel of unity throughout the world? We have a massive missionary force and a massive humanitarian effort going forth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today, both the greatest they have ever been to serve our siblings and become united in love with them. We have outreach and service programs with other churches to combine and magnify our efforts. Once we serve someone different from us (or serve with someone different than us), using the pure love of Christ, we never see them as "others" again! We are on the right track as a church in 2026!
For those of us not currently serving missions, can we work to avoid these common temptations to separate?
- to not view others’ successes with jealousy.
- to not polarize ourselves by our political beliefs.
- to view other cultures as less than ours, being condescending even when we are trying to be kind.
- to be suspicious of those who are different because we don't understand their culture.
- to struggle to forgive those who have wronged us, to wish healing for them as well as for ourselves.
We may say that everyone is a child of God, but we feel that perhaps our group contains the best children of God, as if the rest are a different class of family members.
Or we may think that a particular child of God in our ward or branch should behave better than they do.
In all of these daily situations, we are only free to be truly happy when we unite ourselves with our Heavenly Father and view all “others” as our suffering siblings. Once we have this view, the Holy Ghost can guide us in how to love and accept others and how to share the gospel with them so that we can be one.
There is only one Church of Jesus Christ. We don't have a "beginner church" for those who don't know enough scriptures, who don't know the unspoken dress code, who can't read, who have mental illness or intellectual disabilities, or who are at the very beginning of their spiritual awakening.
Like Jesus, who saw Zaccheus in the tree, can we keep our eyes open daily, searching for and loving those on the fringes? Can we gather more and more people into our comfortable circle? Or if we don't have a comfortable circle, can we find someone to serve on our own? Wherever we are, we should remember that we are not meant to be separate. We are meant to build the City of Zion and becoming united in the love of Christ.
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I highly recommend the books by Terryl and Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, All Things New, and The Christ Who Heals for understanding how little we understand how much God loves us. Really, every Latter-day Saint should read at least one of these.
I also highly recommend the book At One Ment, by Thomas Wirthlin McConkie. It is mind-blowing and soul-expanding.
