Latter-day Peace Studies presents: Come, Follow Me

In approaching Genesis 3-4 and Moses 4-5, Ben and Christopher continue their discussion of these creation and fall accounts as temple texts. We are to consider ourselves as Adam and Eve, recognizing our life in their experience in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are created as ontological equals, as priest and priestess in the presence of God. What is a serpent doing in the Garden and why do our narratives equate the serpent with Satan? What can we learn from the differences between how Adam and Eve converse with God versus how Cain converses with God?

The Latter-day Saint tradition has canonized five different creation accounts. Despite intriguing differences, each of them can function liturgically—as does the temple account in temple worship. Christopher and Ben discuss all four creation accounts as descriptions of the dedication of the cosmos to God’s purposes rather than accounts of material origins. The teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the manner of dedicating a temple in antiquity fit well with this understanding of creation accounts. In discussing these creation accounts, Ben and Christopher lay a foundation for a discussion of humanity’s place in the cosmos and God’s purposes for humanity in the next episode.

Moses 1 and Abraham 3 both give accounts of an experience of God and of God’s creation. Each is a prologue to a corresponding creation account. In this episode, Ben and Christopher raise and answer questions about God’s purposes in creation and how and where humanity finds its place in the cosmos. Moses’ encounter with Satan opens up a discussion about our own psychological experiences. Ben and Christopher lay the foundation in this episode for a discussion of the purpose of the four differing creation accounts in LDS scripture in the next episode.

Ben and Christopher begin this year’s LDPS Presents: Come, Follow Me podcast on the Old Testament by introducing themselves and their background for Old Testament studies. They cover where they’re coming from, how they’ll be approaching the Old Testament, and where they’re going with their approach. This wide-ranging discussion deals with many of the questions on the minds of Latter-day Saints approaching the Old Testament such as: What is the Bible, or even scripture, in general, and the Old Testament in particular, and what do we do with them? How does revelation work? Who were the authors and what are the genres of the books that make up the library we call “the Bible” and what was the context and purpose of those authors in writing the texts? Who later chose which books would be included in the Bible and which would be excluded and why? What role did manuscripts and translation play in this process of canonization and continue to play in ongoing reading and interpretation of the Bible? What are apocryphal and pseudepigraphical texts and what do we do with them? What assumptions are made by ancient interpreters of the Bible that were carried forward in Christian history and are still with us today in the Church? How will Christopher and Ben read and interpret the Old Testament applying nonviolent hermeneutics to deal with “the angry violent God of the Old Testament”? How does Ancient-Near-Eastern thought differ from modern Western thought and what does that mean for reading and interpreting the Bible? What are the major themes of the Bible? And finally, what do we do with modern critical Biblical scholarship in faithfully reading the Bible? This is an unusually long episode for LDPS Presents: Come, Follow Me, but it is well worth the listen in coming to terms with the Old Testament before jumping into the reading.Intro/Outro: Sweeper by Blue Dot Sessions

Ben and Shiloh close out this year’s discussion on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history with guest co-host Christopher Hurtado. It is evident in many places throughout Joseph Smith’s life just how much of an impact the death of his older brother, Alvin, had on the way that Joseph saw the world. Section 137 gives us a lot of things to think about concerning how Joseph saw and experienced what he called were his “visions”. In this section, while in vision, Joseph sees the great things and the great people in the celestial realm, and he even sees his parents there. It is interesting that his parents are still alive on earth while Joseph is having this vision of the celestial kingdom. Yet, it is not even the fact that he sees his parents in this glorious realm prior to their death that seems out of place for Joseph, but it is upon seeing Alvin in the celestial world (without having been baptized on earth) that seems to stop Joseph in his tracks mid-vision. What can this tell us about Joseph and his understanding of family, earth, and heaven? What Section 137 opens the door of understanding to, Section 138 elaborates upon gives greater awareness to what happens beyond the grave. As we close out our discussions on the Doctrine and Covenants, everyone reflects on their favorite episode, moment, or learning experience throughout the last year, and they have some exciting announcements for next year’s Come, Follow Me episodes for Old Testament!

Shiloh and Ben discuss some historical context and the memorial passage from John Taylor dedicated to Joseph Smith after his death in Carthage, IL. How we remember and memorialize those who have come before us are powerful tools in how we frame current identities, and how we remember and memorialize Joseph Smith still speaks to the strong identity that Latter-day Saints have to the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is an interesting shift between Joseph and Brigham between Sections 135 and 136, and in 136 we see Brigham taking practical advice and standards that the Saints should keep and observe along the long journey westward and adding a sacred modality and meaning to these standards. This says much in how we, today, add meaning to our own observances and in we choose to have gratitude in seeing God in the little and big things in our lives.

Ben and Shiloh discuss the many repeating themes found in Section 133 from the beginning of the D&C, and they muse over how Section 133 is an interesting original bookend following Section 132. This is as if to show that Section 133 is how things start, and Section 132 is how things ended in Joseph’s experience as the leader of the Church. The “declaration of belief” concerning government found in Section 135 has an interesting historical context to the Saints when it was first written and voted on by the Saints while Joseph was away. It shows a very interesting window into the beliefs of the early Saints concerning how they saw themselves as Americans in not only belief and socio-political identity but as the literal embodiment of the virtues portrayed in American Republicanism.

Shiloh and Ben discuss the instructions given from Joseph Smith to the Church concerning how to deal with angels, the physical nature of God, the state of the earth during the millennium, and other end-of-days prophecies. The “revelation” on polygamy pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, written by Joseph directly to Emma, merits a bit of historical context. Polygamy is never an easy discussion, and there is still currently a lot of pain and trauma silently endured by Church members concerning these narratives and doctrines. The Church still believes in and continues to practice polygamy today. As one church leader once told Shiloh: “The church still believes in and practices polygamy, but they just practice it one wife at a time”. These doctrines, beliefs, and practices still impact Church members’ identities and views of eternity today, and not always in positive ways.

Ben and Shiloh talk about the letters from Joseph Smith to the Church while he was in hiding concerning the new and unique doctrine of baptism for the dead. These letters show an increasing complexity in Joseph’s understanding of the “Mormon Cosmology” and in how the Plan of Salvation operates. By the time these letters were written in 1842, Joseph had already started secretly engaging in the practice of plural marriage (showing that he had been thinking of the eternal nature of men and women and of humanity’s eternal relationships) and had participated in the rites of the newly established Freemasonry lodge in Nauvoo (which added a new layer of symbolism, rite, and ritual than was ever presented to him before). Additionally, the pain and trauma of losing his brother Alvin had strongly impacted Joseph throughout his entire life. Before Joseph was able to obtain the gold plates, Alvin died rather suddenly prior to choosing to be baptized into any local church. At his funeral, William Smith (Alvin’s and Joseph’s brother) wrote that the Presbyterian minister who presided over the funeral had “intimated very strongly that he [Alvin] had gone to hell, for Alvin was not a church member”. Years later, after the Kirtland Temple dedication, Joseph received a vision wherein he saw Alvin in the Celestial kingdom, and Joseph wondered how Alvin could be in heaven given that he had never been baptized. Joseph was instructed in the vision that those who had died without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ would have the opportunity of hearing it in the next life. As Joseph would later contemplate over certain passages in the Bible (as shown in Section 128), he mused that “the baptism for the dead” was a “subject [that] seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest.” This is interesting wording and a unique and rare insight into how Joseph received his own divine inspiration. Certainly, we can see that Joseph had used the love and memory of his brother as a mode to find further insight from the divine.

Shiloh and guest co-host Christopher Hurtado talk about the early Saints’ consistent divine call to create sacred space. Whether in Kirtland, Jackson County, Caldwell County, Daviess County, or Nauvoo, the Saints are instructed to construct a temple in order to perform sacred ordinances or to have revealed sacred things. When, in the New Testament, the Jews asked for a sign of authority for Jesus Christ’s actions in driving out the money changers of the temple, he answered by saying “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The people, thinking he was talking about the physical temple of stone, did not understand that “he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:13-22). The temple is symbolic of each of us individually and of our own sacred journey. Each act in the sacred temple drama is our own story. By commanding an outward and physical edifice to perform sacred rites, rituals, and ordinances, God is presenting an outward observation of our own inward sacred, divine adventure. But what is the “sacred” and how is it created? Is it an objective thing in and of itself (sui generis) that we can step into and out of by our choices (sui generis)? Is it something that we create, experience, and deem as sacred? Perhaps it is a combination of these two things? But what would that even mean or even look like?