Doctrine and Covenants 27 & 28

THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH’S ROLE IN BRINGING TRUTH TO LIGHT

(This picture from In the Cavity of a Rock blog.)

D&C 5:10—“This generation shall have my word through you.” 

D&C 21:5—“For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.” 

We must have a testimony of Joseph Smith if we are to have a testimony of any of the restored gospel. Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration, has been the vessel through which a great amount of new scripture came into the world. Being uneducated did not matter to this cause because he was connected to God, the Author, but this was not always apparent to those around him who had more schooling.

“At a conference of members in Hiram, Ohio, in November 1831, there was a…challenge to Joseph’s authority. Some of the brethren believed that someone with more learning could write the revelations from God better. The Lord promptly issued a counter challenge (recorded in D&C 67:5-8).” (Latter-Day History, p. 96) “After the foregoing was received, William E. McLellin, as the wisest man, in his own estimation, having more learning than sense, endeavored to write a commandment like unto one of the least of the Lord’s, but failed; it was an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord.” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 1:225, quoted in LDH, p. 96) Those who witnessed this attempt were strengthened in their testimony of Joseph Smith as the spokesman for Jehovah on the earth.

Brigham Young never had a problem with his testimony of Joseph Smith’s role as a revelator. He always regarded Joseph Smith as the mouthpiece of the Lord, and later in life, as the prophet himself, he said, “What I have received from the Lord, I have received by Joseph Smith” (John A. Widtsoe and Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, Deseret Book, p. 458).

When describing the Prophet’s ability to understand and teach the gospel, he said, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the last days, had a happy faculty of reducing the things of heaven to the capacity of persons of common understanding, often in a single sentence throwing a flood of light into the gloom of ages. He had power to draw the spirits of the people who listened to him to his standard, where they communed with heavenly objects and heavenly principles, connecting the heavenly and the earthly together—in one blending flood of heavenly intelligence. When the mind is thus lit up with the spirit of revelation, it is clearly discerned that the heavens and the earth are in close proximity—that time and eternity are one” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9:310).

“…Joseph [Smith] has been instrumental in bringing us more holy writ than Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Matthew, John, Paul, Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni put together” (George A Horton, Jr., 1/93 Ensign, p. 11).

This lesson examines the canonized scriptures that have come through the mouth of Joseph Smith, Jr.

THE BOOK OF MORMON

First Edition Book of Mormon 

from ChurchofJesusChrist.org

The Lord said to Joseph of Egypt: 

"But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins--and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.  Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord." (2 Nephi 3:11-12. This prophecy is also contained, nearly word for word, in the Old Testament JST, Genesis 50.) 

Not only would Joseph help bring forth the Book of Mormon, his works would also convince men of the truth of the Bible they already had. He would help this generation understand those things which are in the Bible. In addition the Bible and the Book of Mormon will “grow together.” The longer the Bible and Book of Mormon are used together, the better we will get at cross-referencing them, and our ability to use their sacred knowledge and power will be compounded and expanded continually. (Read also 2 Nephi 3:3-16.)

THE JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible, 

by Herald House Publishing

Moses 1:70-71—“And now Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak. And in a day when the children of men shall esteem my words as naught and take many of them from the book which thou shalt write, behold, I will raise up another like unto thee; and they shall be had again among the children of men—among as many as shall believe.”

“No study of the Bible would be complete without a thorough familiarity with the information and doctrines contained in the JST [Joseph Smith Translation]—especially in the five books of Moses, Psalms, Isaiah, and the four Gospels of the New Testament” (George A. Horton, Jr. Ensign, January 1993, 12).

The Book of Mormon was mostly translated and published in the year 1829. The next three years, 1830-33, Joseph Smith translated the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament. He continued to revise and edit this translation until his death in 1844. Scribes for the work of the Bible translation included Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, Sidney Rigdon, Emma Smith, and Frederick G. Williams. The manuscript of the JST is 467 pages long and contains notes as to dates and geographical locations indicating when and where certain parts were being translated. Joseph completely rewrote some of the parts, in some he just wrote in some things and crossed out others. In several places, he wrote little notes and pinned them to the manuscript (since paper clips had not yet been invented).

Emma Smith put significant effort into protecting the manuscript of the JST, even tying it under her skirts in a bag to safeguard it while traveling 200 miles to safety from the mobs. At Joseph’s death, she still had the original manuscript with Joseph’s revision, and she gave it to her son, Joseph Smith III, who became the president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ, now called Community of Christ. In 1867 the RLDS Church published the Inspired Version, or what we now call the Joseph Smith Translation (Ensign 1/86, p. 46). It is through the generosity of the Community of Christ that LDS Scholars have been able to use the JST in recent years, and add excerpts into our LDS scriptures.

The Joseph Smith Translation, published by the Community of Christ’s Herald House Publishing, contains at least 3,410 verses rendered differently from their counterparts in the King James Version. These are additional verses or enlargements of existing verses. The account of Enoch in JST Gen.6-7 (Moses 6-7) contains 5,200 more words about Enoch than the King James Version does. One Old Testament book is omitted in the JST because, the manuscript states, the Song of Solomon is “not inspired”…More than 700 passages from the JST are provided in the footnotes and the appendix of the LDS edition of the KJV first issued in 1979 (Arnold W. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 591).

The Scriptures Publications Committee (which published the 1979 edition of the LDS scriptures that included the JST), consisting of Elders Thomas S. Monson, Boyd K. Packer, and Bruce R. McConkie (with many others called to assist), was appointed by the First Presidency. To meet the space limitations, they did not attempt to include the bulk of the JST. “While there were several reasons why the entire text of the Joseph Smith Translation was not incorporated in the 1979 LDS edition of the Bible, unreliability of the JST text was not one of them” (Robert J. Matthews, Ensign, 6/92, p. 29). The RLDS Church preserved the manuscript exactly as Joseph Smith had left it at his death.

The Scriptures Publications Committee used the following guidelines to determine what to include:

1. Selections must be doctrinally significant
2. Selections must contribute something not readily apparent in the other standard works
3. Priority should be given to passages that clarify the mission of Jesus Christ, the nature of God, the nature of man, the Abrahamic covenant, the priesthood, the antiquity of the gospel, and the latter-day restoration.

Excerpts 8 lines or shorter were placed in footnotes. Longer sections were printed in the Appendix. And the two large sections that were already included in the Pearl of Great Price (Moses 2-8 and JS-M) were left there (Robert J. Matthews, Ensign, 6/92, p. 29).

THE REVELATIONS IN THE DOCTRINE & COVENANTS

First Edition Doctrine and Covenants, 

from ChurchofJesusChrist.org

The D&C contains a index entitled "Chronological Order of Contents of the D&C." “Most of the revelations dealing with doctrinal subjects [found in the Doctrine and Covenants] were revealed to Joseph Smith…from June 1830 to July 1833, which was exactly the time he was working on the Bible translation. While the Prophet was engaged in such a concentrated study of the scriptures, it was natural for him to ask questions and ponder on various subjects, inquire of the Lord, and receive divine revelation in answer to his inquiry” (Robert J. Matthews, “A Plainer Translation,” BYU Press, quoted in Ensign, 1/86, p. 42).

“The Joseph Smith Translation is not just a better Bible; it was a channel, or the means, of doctrinal restoration in the infancy of this Church.” (Robert J. Matthews quoted in Robert L. Millet, The Capstone of our Religion: Insights into the Doctrine and Covenants, 64).

THE COMPILATION & PUBLICATION OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

First Edition Pearl of Great Price,

from ChurchofJesusChrist.org

• The Book of Moses was translated from the Old Testament Genesis in 1830-31. Joseph Smith – Matthew would have been translated later. 
• The Book of Abraham was translated from papyri between 1835 and 1842. 
• Joseph Smith’s History was written beginning in 1838.  
• The Articles of Faith were written in 1842. 

These were all just individual writings and revelations, not connected to each other in any significant way, and the way that they came to be published together in one volume is an interesting story. And first we have to understand the significance of newspapers in America in the mid-19^th century.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a contemporary of Joseph Smith's, reporting on his travels in America for his European readers, wrote, “The influence and circulation of newspapers is great beyond anything known in Europe. In truth, nine-tenths of the population read nothing else. Every village, nay almost every hamlet, had its press. Newspapers penetrate to every crevice of the nation” (Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 168, quoted in Garr, et. al., 72). Newspapers did not attempt to be neutral, but were highly editorialized--prejudiced, if you will--to match the beliefs of the editor and his intended readers. Newspapers would feud with each other, and they could certainly stir up mobs and riots. For these reasons, it was very important for the Church to have its own press, to defend the doctrines of the gospel and teach them to the saints. In Independence, Missouri, it had The Evening and Morning Star; in Nauvoo, The Times and Seasons; and in Great Britain, The Millenial Star.

Early versions of the sections of our current Pearl of Great Price were printed individually by the Missouri press in 1832-33, or ten years later by the Nauvoo press. Just as the tales of Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens were published in installments in periodicals, so was Joseph Smith’s History. The Book of Abraham, as we have it, was also published in three installments, and more of that translation was to be published, but mob violence derailed that plan. Parts of the Book of Moses were published here and there.

It wasn’t until 1851 (seven years after the Prophet’s death) that these “miscellaneous” writings were compiled into one body, The Pearl of Great Price, similar to the way that it is today. So who thought of the name, The Pearl of Great Price? And who thought to put these revelations together? Well, surprise!--it was not the Prophet Brigham Young. It was not even done under the direction of the First Presidency! It was a mission president who thought of the idea, Elder Franklin D. Richards. 

By that year, 1851, there were 31,000 members of the Church in Great Britain (twice what there were in all of North America) and 2/3^rds of those had been members of the Church for four years or less. They had never had access to those revelations published in the early Church periodicals. So Elder Richards, as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and President of the British Mission, put them together, titled it The Pearl of Great Price, and distributed it among the British saints (James R. Clark, The Story of the Pearl of Great Price, Bookcraft; quoted in Ensign, January 1986, 44). This publication included the Books of Moses and Abraham, as well as the History of Joseph Smith, the Articles of Faith, Joseph Smith – Matthew, some selections from the D&C, and a poem entitled “Truth.”

In 1878 Elder Orson Pratt, the Church historian, edited and rearranged The Pearl of Great Price, putting the Book of Moses in chronological order, similar to how it is today. What is now Moses 1 was titled “Visions of Moses,” and the rest of Moses (chapters 2-8) was titled “Writings of Moses.” In October Conference of 1880, The Pearl of Great Price was accepted as scripture and became part of the standard works. “Canonizing did not increase its truth or worth but did make it official Church literature” (Garr, et al., p. 114).

TRUTHS CLARIFIED IN THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM

A concise explanation of the Abrahamic Covenant (2:6-11)

An account of the vastness of God’s creations, including the order by which the various planets and stars of his kingdom are governed (3:1-13)

The doctrine of the premortal existence of man and his eternal nature (3:18-22)

The doctrine of foreordination (3:23)

The concept of the earth as a testing ground for God’s children (3:24-26)

The account of Abraham's escape from death at the hand of Pharoah’s idolatrous priest (1:7-20)

The understanding that the earth was organized out of already existing materials rather than being created out of nothing (3:24)

More than one god participated in the creation (4)

The creation was planned in a heavenly council before it was carried out (5:1-3)

TRUTHS CLARIFIED IN THE BOOK OF MOSES

God’s purpose in creating man and the earth (1:27-40)

All things were created spiritually before physically (3:4-7)

The premortal council in which the Redeemer was appointed and Satan rebelled (4:1-6)

The effects of the fall (5:9-12, 6:47-56)

The introduction of the gospel among fallen man (5:4-15, 58-59)

The baptism of Adam (6:53-68)

The wickedness of Cain and his deal with the devil (5:16-41)

The intelligence of Adam and his righteous posterity, including their pure spoken and written language (6:5-6)

The visions of Enoch (6:24-8:1)

More about the ministry of Noah (8:8-32)

Animal sacrifice as a similitude of the Sacrifice of Christ (5:7)

Children are saved without baptism (6:54)

The concept of Zion introduced through the story of the City of Enoch (7:18)

EXAMPLE CLARIFICATIONS PROVIDED BY THE JST OF THE BIBLE

John 4:24 “God is a Spirit” vs. JST John 4:25 (in footnote) “God hath promised his spirit”

Romans 7 “I am carnal, sold under sin…” (verse 14-16) vs. JST “when I was under the law, I was yet carnal, sold under sin. But now I am spiritual; for that which I am commanded to do, I do; and that which I am commanded not to allow, I allow not. For what I know is not right I would not do; for that which is sin, I hate.”

There is a great deal of increased knowledge about Jesus Christ’s mortal life and teachings that the JST of the New Testament provides. it also sheds a lot of new light on John the Baptist’s life (January 1995 Ensign).

THE IMPORTANCE OF USING THE REVELATIONS GIVEN TO US

Image from ChurchofJesusChrist.org

“Reading Genesis without the benefit of the JST…would be something like [eating] a T-bone [steak] with much of the meat cut off” (Horton, 42). And yet, we don’t spend very much time studying it. If you’re like me, you’re too lazy to look up the references, and if they don’t require you to read it for Sunday School class, you never get around to it on your own. (Suggest that sometime this year class members study The Pearl of Great Price and the Joseph Smith Translation Appendix. Also, suggest they find a way to highlight JST footnotes in a manner that will make them obvious when studying the Bible. On my paper scriptures, I colored the footnote letter in the text and its corresponding letter at the bottom of the page blue, an idea I got from Logan Insitute teacher, Jerry Wilson.  You can do the whole Bible as one project, starting at Genesis and going through Revelation and then you have them all.  If you don’t do it, you won’t see the changes.  I also drew a blue slash through any large passages that are seriously altered by the JST, such as the entire chapter of Romans 7. With my electronic scriptures, I underline the word or passage in dark blue to draw my attention to the footnote.)

On August 27, 1842, Joseph Smith said, speaking for Heavenly Father, “…no good thing will I withhold from them who walk uprightly before me, and do my will in all things—who will listen to my voice and to the voice of my servant whom I have sent; for I delight in those who seek diligently to know my precepts, and abide by the law of my kingdom; for all things shall be made known unto them in mine own due time, and in the end they shall have joy” (Joseph F. Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, 257).

“[Joseph Smith] has given us more revealed truth than any prophet who has ever lived upon the face of the earth” (Elder LeGrand Richards, Ensign, May 1981, 33). Do we crave it? Do we use it? If your answer is yes, keep doing what you are doing! If your answer is no, I invite you to figure out one way (small or great) in which you can incorporate more of the scriptures into your daily life. If you have time, add more study. If you are a young mother with small children, think on a single scripture as you go throughout your day. If you have always read the scriptures slowly and deeply, verse by verse, try switching it up and reading a whole book as fast as possible--you will see patterns you missed before. If you have always read fast, try reading only a few verses at a time and digging deep into the meaning of the words. Whatever your approach, if it has become less fruitful, try changing just one thing. 

Feel free to share your comments on how you do your scripture study, or how the scriptures of the Restoration have blessed your life. (Commenting may not be available on the mobile version.)

Old Testament Lesson #39 "How Beautiful Upon the Mountains"

Isaiah 50-53

These chapters are massive in scope and depth and importance, so I have not designed a specific lesson plan.  First I will just give notes from my sources on these particular scriptures.  Then I will share some lesson ideas for each of the two major points of these chapters, from which you can choose (with the Spirit) how to arrange your lesson.

CHAPTER 50

This chapter is the same as 2 Nephi 7, and Jacob gives wonderful commentary on it in 2 Nephi 9.  It begins with rhetorical questions about who has abandoned who?  It is not the Lord who has left the House of Israel, but the reverse.

vs. 4-9 are a "servant song," and the servant is Jesus Christ (Parry, p. 441).  It's strange to read Jesus Christ saying that "the Lord God" has done all these things for him, but if you look closely at the King James Version, you can see that every time "Lord" comes up in these verses, it is with a capital "L" and lower case "ord."  In the King James Version, Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ, is written as Lord with all four letters capitalized, such as in verse 10.  (See a previous entry for the reason why.)  So we can assume that Jesus Christ is calling his Father, "Lord God," with Lord meaning the sovereign leader.

v. 7  "I set my face like a flint."  Bruce R. McConkie wrote, "The course of his life was toward the cross and he was steadfast and immovable in his determination to follow this very course" (quoted in Parry, p. 441).

v. 8  "Who will contend with me?  Let us stand together."  In ancient civil court, the opponents stood together in front of the judge.  In criminal court, the accuser personally charged the defendant (Parry, p. 445)

v. 10 "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?"  It is a rhetorical question.  The obvious answer to the reader is "no one; it is impossible."  The words "Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God" are not found in the Book of Mormon account.

v. 11 Those who "kindle a fire" or "compass themselves about with sparks" are those who are living by their own light, and not by the light of Christ. 

CHAPTER 51

This prophecy is also found in 2 Nephi 8:1-25, and includes the first two verses of Chapter 52.  The meaning is fairly straightforward, so I didn't add any notes here.

CHAPTER 52

This chapter is highly significant.  It has been quoted by Jacob, Abiniadi, Jesus Christ, and Moroni in the Book of Mormon (for examples, see 2 Ne. 8:24-25; Mosiah 12:20-25; 3 Ne. 20:36-37; and Moro. 10:31), and in the D&C (for example, D&C 113: 7-10).  Paul also quoted from it (for example, 2 Cor. 6:17). Victor Ludlow says John the Revelator did as well, but I haven't found it myself (Ludlow, p. 432, 438).

Note that prophetic future tense (also called prophetic perfect tense) is used in this chapter, meaning that the time sequence is all mixed up in the grammar: sometimes the writer is speaking using past tense, sometimes he uses future tense, sometimes he uses present tense.  This is common among prophetic writings.  It shows the great faith and vision of the prophet, and illustrates the fact that the Lord operates outside of time.  All things are present to him, so our literary tools of past, present, and future tense are not relevant, and are therefore interchangeable.

v. 1-3 were quoted by Christ to the Nephites in 3 Ne. 20:36-38.

v. 7 was quoted by Christ to the Nephites in 3 Ne. 20:40.

v. 10 In 3 Ne. 20:35 (Christ's quote of this verse to the Nephites) it says "Father" for both "Lord" and "God," and adds the phrase, "and the Father and I are one."

v. 11-15 were quoted by Christ to the Nephites in 3 Ne. 20:41-45.

v. 13-15 Victor Ludlow thinks this servant is Joseph Smith, rather than Jesus Christ, since's Christ's commentary on the prophecy in 3 Ne. 21:7-11 refers to the restoration and Joseph Smith.  I don't know whether I agree, but it's an interesting thought.

CHAPTER 53

This entire chapter is another "servant song" of Jesus Christ. 

v. 1 The writer is amazed at how few have listened to the prophets testify of Christ!

v. 2 "For he [Jesus Christ] shall grow up before him [Heavenly Father]."

v. 3-6 are all used as lyrics for Handel's Messiah.  (See previous entry.)

v. 4  This prophecy of Christ was quoted by Matthew, one of 14 quotes he included in his gospel to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ was the Jehovah of the Old Testament.  (See Matt. 8:17)

v. 5 "Bruised" can be translated as "crushed."  (See Gen. 3:15 footnote.)

v. 10 "It pleased the Lord" means it was God's will; it was a part of God's plan.

v. 11 "...by his knowledge" means through the knowledge of him (see Hosea 4:1; 6:6)

LESSON FOCUS ONE:  THE ATONEMENT

Certainly, the greatest message of these chapters of Isaiah is the central gospel message, that of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Elder Bruce C. Hafen wrote one of the best short treatises on this topic, which makes it highly personal and applicable to all, and which dispels many misunderstandings about the Atonement.  He writes, "It is unfortunate when we convey incorrect ideas to [those not of our faith]; but it is worse when we, by our limited doctrinal understanding, deny ourselves the reassurance and guidance we may desperately need at pivotal moments in our lives."  This article, called "Beauty for Ashes," and published in the April 1990 Ensign, can be found at this link. 

If you want to focus on the Atonement for those lesson, you could...

• teach the wonderful concepts contained in Elder Hafen's article. 
• open or close the lesson with a special musical number, if there is vocal talent in your ward, using any of the beautiful sacrament hymns. 
• play a recording of the Tabernacle Choir singing a hymn about Christ. 
• ask 2 or 3 class members, several days ahead of time, if they would be willing to comment on the role of the Atonement in their lives.  (Be very prayerful in your choice of speakers, and be very specific in the time limit you give them.) 
• choose any of the short stories in the backs of previous editions of the Ensign, such as in the "Latter-day Saint Voices" section, or the "Mormon Journal" section in the older Ensigns, and ask particular class members to share those stories and add their own testimony or comments.

LESSON FOCUS TWO:  MISSIONARY WORK

The title of this lesson refers to the work of spreading the gospel:  "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace" (Isa. 52:7). 

Abinidi commented on this scripture, asking who were the children of Christ:  "Yea, and are not the prophets, every one that has opened his mouth to prophesy, that has not fallen into transgression, I mean all the holy prophets ever since the world began? I say unto you that they are his seed. And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth! And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!

"And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever!

"And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people; For were it not for the redemption which he hath made for his people, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, I say unto you, were it not for this, all mankind must have perished.  (Mosiah 15:13-19)

If you choose to focus on the importance of sharing the gospel of the Atonement with others as the topic of your lesson, you could...

• open or close the lesson with a musical number such as "O, That I Were an Angel," sung by an individual, or a hymn such as "Go Forth With Faith," sung by the class (particularly if there is a piano in your room and access to hymnbooks). 
• ask 1 or 2 class members who are converts to share their conversion stories, and 1 or 2 class members who are returned missionaries or exemplary member missionaries to share their missionary stories. 
• show all or part of the church video "Called to Serve" (21 minutes long).
• select a segment on a particular country meaningful to you or to your ward members (for example, the country in which a ward member is presently serving a mission) from the church video "An Ensign to the Nations." 

Sources:

Parry, Parry, and Peterson, Understanding Isaiah.
Victor Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Poet, and Seer.

Teaching Tip: The Seven Dispensations Memory Aid

"A dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth" (Bible Dictionary, "Dispensations").  Each time, after a period of falling away, the gospel is revealed anew, so that people of that dispensation have accurate and unadulterated information upon which to build their faith.  As a memory aid for the chronology of the seven major gospel dispensations, here is a little story with awesome artwork by myself :)  Feel free to copy or print it.

Update on Joseph's and Emma's Posterity

I ordered the new DVD mentioned in my Lesson 40 post, and it came within days. It is a half-hour documentary, not really dramatized but with a few clips from the Emma movie. Most of it is Joseph's and Emma's descendants who are members of the Church speaking, as well as other historians, giving the history of the family briefly, and then the history of the gathering they have been doing.

As of the production time of the DVD, which was very recent, there were 129 descendants of Joseph and Emma who have joined the Church, but each time they gather, they find the number has increased. There are only about 1,000 living descendants altogether, so over one-tenth have been gathered back to the Church in these fourth and fifth generations, the generations in which it was prophecied by Elder George A. Smith that their children would return!

A few people claiming, through their family's oral history, to be descendants of Joseph Smith through plural wives have gone through DNA testing, and all have been proved not to be descended from Joseph Smith, so all of the known descendants of Joseph are Emma's children. (See http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Polygamy/Children_of_polygamous_marriages for explicit test results. The results are also noted in the DVD.)

"I believe that Joseph and Emma are deeply involved from beyond the veil in all the things that are unfolding in our lives today." --Gracia Jones, Great-Great Granddaughter

(Source: "Children of Joseph: The Unknown Story" DVD)

Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #40 Finding Joy in Temple and Family History Work

EMMA SMITH'S EXAMPLE

Joseph Smith taught that "Seeking after our dead is the most important responsibility we have to perform in this life...if we neglect it, it is at the peril of our own salvation." When Joseph Smith introduced the concept of performing ordinances for the dead, one of the first women into the water was his wife, Emma. She was baptized for her father, her mother, her uncle, her sister, and her aunts, all of whom had rejected the gospel in this life. (Later, the baptisms for the men were redone by men, as that necessity had not been understood at first.)

Emma was the first woman in this dispensation to receive her temple endowment and sealing. She was also the first female ordinance worker. Throughout the year of 1843 and into the early part of 1844, she administered temple ordinances to many women, in her home and in the red brick store before the Nauvoo Temple was completed.

Emma Smith with son David,

born after Joseph was killed

from Joseph Smith Papers

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

To live, a plant must have roots and branches. A tree with branches but no roots is just a temporary decoration, and a tree with roots but no branches is a stump. The punishment to the wicked is that they will have neither; they will be as a log, disconnected from ancestry and progeny. They will be without family. "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch"(3 Nephi 25:1). Those who have the spirit of Elijah will live because they will be bound to their ancestors and to their descendants. Family history and temple work goes both directions. This is why without the sealing power the earth would be smitten with a curse (See 3 Nephi 25:6).

While Joseph Smith was alive, he and Emma taught their children the gospel. When Joseph left his family for the last time, he asked, "Emma, can you raise my sons to walk in their father's footsteps?" She cried, "Oh, Joseph! You're coming back!" He asked the same question again and she gave the same response. He asked the third time, and she began to cry. At the time of Joseph's martyrdom Julia was 13, Joseph was 11, Frederick, 8 and Alexander, 6. David would be born that fall.

After that fateful spring, most of the Smith women were widows, including three Smith brothers' wives who were widowed in connection with the martyrdom (Samuel's wife Levire, Hyrum's wife Mary Fielding, and Emma). More than two dozen Smith children were fatherless. All of them faced great hardship. It was at this point that these women made tough decisions that affected their families for generations.

At Joseph's death, Emma understandably entered into a state of depression. She had been a social, outgoing and hospitable woman, but now she withdrew from friends who desired to help her. She remained charitable, continually taking needy children into her home, and constantly serving her mother-in-law, but she kept her feelings to herself and chose to stay in Nauvoo with her mother-in-law, when the Church migrated west.

We could never place ourselves in Emma's shoes to understand or judge why, but she did not raise her children in the faith of their father as he had begged her to do. She did not teach her children anything about the gospel, and all she told the younger ones about their father was that he was a good man. Don Carlos's wife remarried and her new husband moved her away and made her promise that she would never mention that she was a member of the Church, or a sister-in-law to Joseph Smith. This was to ensure her freedom from the persecution of the past. Emma seems to have taken the same approach.

Lucy Mack Smith also stayed behind. She had three older daughters at home, and she continued to teach them the gospel, at great effort, but with no Church unit or Priesthood leadership in Nauvoo, it only lasted for one generation.

For four generations, none of Emma's and Joseph's descendants belonged to the Church, and the majority of them did not even know much about it. The Smith family tree had no permanent branches.

Meanwhile, Mary Fielding Smith took her children on to Salt Lake City amid great hardship, and lived only four years after arriving there. Prophets and apostles descended from her line, including President Joseph F. Smith, President Joseph Fielding Smith, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, and Elder M. Russell Ballard.

THE PROMISE TO EMMA

A few weeks before Emma died, however, she had a dream, which she related to her nurse. In the dream, Joseph took her to a beautiful mansion and showed her through many apartments. In one of the rooms she saw a baby in a cradle and recognized it as her baby, Don Carlos, who had died at age 14 months. She had previously said that he had been the hardest baby for her to lose because she had had him the longest and had more time to grow to love him. With great joy she rushed to him and snatched him up and held him tight, and asked where her other children were. Joseph replied, "Be patient, Emma, and you shall have all your children." Then Jesus Christ appeared standing beside Joseph. It seemed the heavens were smiling upon Emma for all she had endured. And yet her actions after Joseph's death had a consequence. She would have to wait for someone else to teach her children and grandchildren the gospel before they could be hers again. It would take over 100 years.

GRACIA JONES

On the 17th of March, 1956 a bud broke out on the stump of the Joseph Smith, Jr. family tree when Gracia Jones, Emma's great-great-granddaughter joined the Church. She was a teenager, and a Mormon family for whom she babysat introduced her to the gospel after she recognized the picture on their wall as her ancestor, Joseph Smith. She knew nothing of the Church. As the missionaries handed her the Book of Mormon, before she even opened the book, she was filled with a burning, and she heard the words, "It's true, it's really true."

With the zeal of a new convert, Gracia caught the Spirit of Elijah. She innocently did her four generations of genealogy and submitted the chart to Church headquarters, linking herself to Joseph and Emma. When that chart arrived in Salt Lake City, the Brethren were shocked. They sent a representative to Gracia's home in Montana. Then they encouraged her to seek out the rest of her family and bring the gospel to them, which she has taken on as a life-long mission. She has worked on both roots and branches of this family tree, doing temple work, locating relatives, traveling the world to meet them, taking them to the Legacy movie, putting their names on her huge family chart.

MIKE KENNEDY

Seventeen years later, Michael A. Kennedy, another descendant of Joseph's and Emma's, joined the Church. As a teenager, he was asked to do a school report on an ancestor. He asked his father for information. His dad brought out a box of family photos and records to the coffee table and said that some of their ancestors were famous for starting the Mormon Church. Mike decided that would make a great report, and started spreading out the materials. Just then--just then!--the doorbell rang. It was the Mormon missionaries. They were invited in. The missionaries glanced at the coffee table and were understandably surprised to see a picture of Lucy Smith. “I told them I was writing a report on my ancestry and had decided to pick a topic on some guy who started the Mormon Church,” Mike said. “They went ballistic. I think they tried to give us all six discussions in the next ten minutes.”

It took a few years, but Mike finally joined the Church as a young adult in 1973, attended BYU, married in the Provo Temple, and joined the work of gathering the family. He was the first direct descendant to become a priesthood holder. He is currently chairman of the board and president of the family historical society, which produced the wonderful feature film, "Emma Smith: My Story." (Gracia Jones is also a board member and chief historian.) The society has also produced a DVD, "Children of Joseph: The Unknown Story," about the family after Joseph's death. Their website is http://www.josephsmithjr.org/.

Emma Smith's sacrifice for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ was immeasurable, and despite the choices and circumstances that left her posterity adrift from it, the promise of her deathbed dream is being realized. After four generations, the Smith family tree once again has branches. Emma's children are coming home.

(Sources: Ehat & Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith, p. 106-107; Stanley B. Kimball, On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball, p. 56; Hyrum L. Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, p. 147; Gracia Jones, Emma & Joseph: Their Divine Mission, p. 292; Gracia Jones, "My Great-Great Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith," Ensign, Aug. 1992, p. 30; Gracia Jones, "Choices and Consequences: Traditions of the Mothers--Lucy Mack Smith and Emma Hale Smith," BYU Campus Education Week lecture, August 23, 2001.)

To read Gracia Jones' conversion story, see My Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith in the August 1992 Ensign.

To read Michael Kennedy's conversion story, go to http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/54186
and http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/newsmakers/?id=2590

To read Michael Kennedy's testimony, go to
http://josephsmith.net/josephsmith/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=0ec3cddbda088110VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD&locale=0

For a fun article about the first huge family reunion of Joseph and Emma's descendants, follow this link.