Sunday School Lesson 39: The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn to Their Fathers

D&C 2 Behold I will reveal unto you the Priesthood by the hand of Elijah...and he shall plant in the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. Why? Why would the earth be wasted at his coming if the children's hearts aren't turned to the fathers? It's not because we need to accomplish the temple work for all of humanity, because we've been told that that work will be one of the major focuses of our time during the millennium. And why the promises? Malachi has a mildly different wording, Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Here, there is no mention of the priesthood, but that's something that may well have been implied by mentioning Elijah, since he was one of the greatest prophets and known for having the sealing power, and it also says that the fathers will turn to the children. Now, my understanding of the children turning is that the children = people who are alive and our hearts turning to our fathers = geneological and temple work. So if the children are the people alive, then by default, their fathers have passed on. How can their hearts turn to us, and what is the work that is done as demonstration of the turning? I suppose it could be the work for the dead in the spirit world. If they are cognizant of our efforts, then perhaps they are working diligently to convert people in the spirit world as discussed in section 138 and 1 Peter 3-4.

D&C 110:13-16 Elijah the prophet...stood before us, and said: Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken by the mouth of Malachi--testifying that he should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of hte Lord come--to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and hte children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse--therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed unto your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors. To me it is interesting that Elijah's words match more closely with what Malachi said than with what Moroni said. Also, I note that the time Malachi spoke of was fully come, not nigh. So did Malachi turn us? Are we turned? Where is the manifestation of our turning?

Joseph Smith History 1:37-39 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Now this is interesting. The wicked shall burn because they that come shall burn them. Who shall come? What form will they take? Malachi says, The day that cometh shall burn them up. A lot of the prophesies that I read about dreadful beasts and burning bring physical illness to mind for me. When John talks about the beast turned loose to afflict man toward the end of the world, and he describes it, to me, it looks like he's describing a rendering of a virus from the discovery channel. And if you have a fever, it's not uncommon to say you are burning up, and it can kill you. But is a fever connected with our fathers and temple work? It seems that things that kill people are rarely discriminate; they'll kill the good and the bad together and the difference is that for the good people, dying is, if not a good thing, at least not a bad thing.

Sunday School Lesson 38: In Mine Own Way

D&C 38:30 I tell you these things because of your prayers; wherefore, treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto you by their wickedness in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth; but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. This is extremely interesting. It implies that knowledge could be good or bad depending on how we come to it. If you attain knowledge in the wrong way, it could be detrimental to your spiritual development. What types of knowledge? In this case, the knowledge is of a secret plot against them and rumors of wars, indicating that discovering the plot without warning could be detrimental to faith. Are there other kinds of knowledge that could be harmful to faith? I would have to say probably. It is generally accepted that in most religions, the level of religiosity of individuals is inversely proportional to the level of education that individual attains. However, there was a study done in 1984 that found that within the Mormon denomination, the relationship was correlary - the higher the level of education, the higher the level of religiosity. Secularization, Higher Education and Religiosity. It would seem to support the idea that the way you come to knowledge is as important to your spirituality as the knowledge itself. Joseph smith said that a man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge, and that the principles of intelligence we attain in this life will rise with us in the resurrection, but I wonder if, having read 38:30, he might have modified to: a man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge with or by the spirit, and whatever principle of intelligence we attain with or by the spirit will rise with us in the resurrection.