D&C 18:20

Contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil.

1 Nephi 14:10 

And he said unto me: behold, there are safe to churches only: the one is the Church of the Lamb of God,; and the other is the church of the devil.

Moroni 7:5

For I remember the word of God which saith by their works you shall know them; for if that works be good, then they are good also.

Joseph Smith: [The restoration scriptures encourage us as individuals and as a church community to seek after good everywhere and make it a part of our religion.]. "The grand fundamental principle of Mormonism is to receive truth let it come from where it may. If the Methodists, Presbyterians, or others have any truth, then we should embrace it. One must get all the good in the world if one wants to come out a pure Mormon."

The church has matured a lot over the course of my lifetime. The 20th century brought a boon to the world - a boon of knowledge. That knowledge challenged old untested beliefs.

Communication has increased also. Books, the internet, the international job market and travel. We can't live in isolation anymore.

In 1964 when I joined the church it was often stated by members that the "great and abominable church" mentioned in the Book of Mormon was the Catholic church. We were arrogant. We had truth restored and we thought we had it all. 

Then DNA proved the American Indians were not of Middle Eastern origin and the church had to reexamine what they taught about the Native American tribes. We are more humble today about what "we know" and more generous in acknowledging that truth exists all around us and especially in other churches and other religions with whom we share much.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday on Faith Matters. Patrick Mason talks about the principal of "particularism" and gives the analogy of how each part of the body has a particular function and the various parts all need to do their own job for the body to function. No part is more important than any other. None can live without the others.  His belief is that as we share the gospel it is not to change everyone else and and create an empire but to share the piece of God's work that has been given to us and to add to the totality of God's work on the earth. "We do not have a monopoly on God's love, God's favor or knowledge. We are 2/10 of 1% of his children."

"God sheds His light and His love on all of His children so shouldn't we learn from them?" 

Particularism is different from relativism. There are two usual ways to view truth. 

One is exclusivism - there is one true truth. Everything else is wrong. 

Two is relativism. There are many paths and however you get there it doesn't matter.

Mason's concept of particularism is an alternative outlook. He talks about Jacob chapter 5 where the Lord calls workers to his vineyard. In our world, certain communities have special gifts but whatever your gift is it is given to you for the benefit of the whole vineyard - for all of God's children.

We in the LDS church have been asked to steward over and perform certain jobs. We haven't been asked to do everything. We have stewardship over restoration scriptures, certain kinds of priesthood, temple rituals. If we don't do it, it doesn't get done.

At the same time we can appreciate what the Muslims, the Catholics, the Hindus etc are doing. We can accept that God has given them gifts and callings as well. We all make up the body of Christ, the family of God.

We can learn from and appreciate their pieces without giving up the piece that we have been given or weaken our commitment to what God has called us to do, to restore the wholeness of the human family.

Patrick Mason is a professor of religious studies at Utah State University. He holds the Leonard J Arrington chair of Mormon history and culture at U.S.U. He is also involved in the Neil A Maxwell institute. These thoughts came come from his recent book: Restoration God's call to the 21st century.

Doctrine and Covenants 18

Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of god. For behold the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men that all men might change and progress and come unto him.

From page 160 of the book All Things New by Fiona and Terryl Givens:

Love worth having is not love that is earned; our worth is not God's cup to be filled with correct words and gestures and deeds. Our worth already has the greatest validation of which the cosmos is capable. The universe's most perfect and holy being came to heal us from our wounds, redeem us from death, and shepherd us into immortality and eternal life. That was Christ's testament to our worth(iness,) and no power on earth or in hell can impugn a worth so powerfully affirmed.

The love that envelops us is not based on our worthiness. It is not our merit that brings it forth. This love, unsolicited, is the miracle that tells us we have a permanent and cherished place in the universe.

And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on condition of repentance.

He cannot do it for us. He prepared the way, he continually invites, but heaven is not a prize nor a place - it is a community of loving beings eternally connected. The Savior cannot do that for us. We can't just say sorry and be forgiven.  We have to become, to change, and be that person.

And how great is his joy in the soul that changes and grows to be like him.

Our joy is that He is there to guide us, to heal us, to shepherd us. His life and death opened the doors of eternity.  His plan created a learning environment where we begin to understand and adopt the principles of happiness. We have so much to be grateful for. His joy on the other hand is watching us figure things out for ourselves and begin to truly internalize those principles of happiness thus becoming changed, becoming more loving like He is.

Doctrine and Covenants 14:7

And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Oh boy, where to start. Maybe just rewording this passage.

And now, you're here on Earth where you will learn from experience to distinguish between the bitter and the sweet as you learn to prize the sweet.  If you choose to live by those principles and keep up this process of learning you will fulfill your divine destiny. That is the purpose of your mortality. I have given you the gift of my Son to help you along your way to eternal life which is the abundant life, the path to happiness, now and forever.

God cannot gift us eternal life. It is not a reward for good behavior. Eternal life consists of being a certain kind of loving being and associating with others in loving relationships. That is not a gift you can be given.

What he gave us - what they gave us - is the wonderful plan of happiness which we accepted. That is the gift. It is the gospel. It is an amazing gift - an open door to eternal progression. They loved us so much they wanted us to have everything they have.  That love is another of their gifts.

The principles Jesus taught are each gifts to guide us to find happiness. He is the gift.

Agency is a gift - for good or ill but they trusted us to learn through the exercise of our agency. their plan was from the beginning educative and redemptive.

Educative because personal lasting growth toward godhood only comes from partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Redemptive because our choices and the choices of others will leave us wounded. We will need healing. Love and trust surround us. We are Their children.

D&C 12

Once again someone has asked how they can help in the work and the Lord once again reminds not just that person but all of us.  We must first examine our hearts.

In verse 8 it reads:  And no one can assist in the work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.

There is such a difference between good deeds and being good.

I laugh as I look back at my parenting days.  Mother's day would inevitably bring questions about what gift I would like. My reply was always the same (and it is still the same).  I would just like my children to get along with each other for that one day. I got flowers instead. It is so much easier to do a good deed than to be good.

Perhaps that is why we Mormons are so active and busy.  Doesn't the Lord invite us to be "anxiously engaged"?

This scripture is a fitting reminder that we must first examine our hearts and see if we have the capacity for service because it makes a difference.

When we look back over the course of our own lives, we will see that there are few church lessons we actually remember. What we do remember is how we were treated. We remember leaders and teachers who loved us and knew us and walked beside us.  Their hearts were in the right place.

Doctrine and Covenants 11:21

Seek not to declare my word but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall thy tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.

I have spent a lifetime studying the scriptures and listening to others' commentary on them in order to understand the true nature of God. it has been difficult to learn how to balance a love of the scriptures with the reality that for many reasons not everything written in them is true.

We have to use a combination of tools as we study:

1. Compare - is there consistency or are there conflicting messages? How does what you are reading compare to accepted gospel truths? For example, look at the nature of God. We know God is our loving Heavenly Father ( and Mother) therefore we can rightly reject anything that conflicts with that knowledge.

2. Used common sense. We must stop, study, and pray about anything that doesn't feel right. Our common sense is a blessing to help us navigate daily life and religious understanding.

3. Is it redemptive?  God's work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man - ALL mankind. Anything that says less than this or limits His (Their) ability to do their work should be examined.

4. Is it inclusive? God loves all his children. read 2 Nephi chapter 26. Any gospel truth must include everyone.

5. Gospel truths are expansive. They remind us that we see narrowly through our mortal eyes and that eternal truth is unimaginably beautiful. They fill us with faith, hope, and charity.

6. The gospel is the story of God's love. LOVE LOVE LOVE.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. . .  Love motivates Him. Love surrounds Him. Love emanates from Him.  The gospel and the word of God should make us feel loved.

7.  What God teaches us to do is what He does. There is no "Do what I say not what I do." with Him. When He asks us to keep our doors open always to our children it is because His doors are always open. When He says " Do not judge" He is teaching us to be like Him.

It takes works to study the scriptures and to find gospel truth. That search is inhibited by those who feel a need to justify every word in our books of scripture. Joseph Smith didn't feel that need. He had the gall to say there were errors and he began a process of correcting them. Indeed, we should say that one of the main purposes of the church is to correct scriptural error as the church grows in understanding. That is especially so as we grow to understand how cultural language and influences affect our understanding of truth.

Examining the church's racist background and the problem of skin color in the Book of Mormon is one such example.

So why even bother? Why study scriptures if there is error in them?

I study them because the search for truth is important to me.

I study them because I want to understand how God speaks to man.

I study them because I have found in them the truths that guide my life.

I study them because I love Jesus and His teachings. 

I study them because there is a noticeable difference in my life when I take time daily to consider that which is spiritual and to commune with God.

I study them because I want words of truth to come from my lips as is promised in today's scripture, "and then shall thy tongue be loosed."

Doctrine and Covenants 11: 12-13

And now,  verily,  verily, I say unto thee - put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good - yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously and this is my Spirit.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.

This reminds me of Micah's words in Micah 6:8

He has shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Isn't it beautiful that the Lord ties these attributes to joy? Man is that he might have joy. And how do we find that joy?

We find it in living the principles that Jesus taught; by discovering for ourselves through our life experiences which things bring happiness. We grow into joy as we become the person described here - just and humble, slow to judge others, filled with love because love and the Spirit are synonymous. Oh, how beautiful it is to grow into such a person and share that joy.

Doctrine and Covenants 10

Revelation is an interesting concept. The Lord tries to teach us but we only can verbalize what he says in the language of our own time and culture.

Joseph Smith was born into a culture immersed in the language of early American Protestantism. It was the preaching of those ministers that prompted Joseph to pray and ask which church is right. It was the culture of those churches that the Lord spoke of when he told Joseph that all their creeds were an abomination.

Yet the only language Joseph knew was steeped in the Protestant thought and we see that in his early writings such as in this section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

What is that religious culture? It is the culture of sin and wickedness. It is righteousness versus wickedness. It is Satan at war with God; Satan trying to thwart God's work.

Those who took the translation from Martin Harris are therefore the "servants of Satan". They are "wicked men".  Their actions are part of a "cunning plan, that he [Satan] may destroy the work."

"Their hearts are corrupt, full of wickedness and abominations; and they love darkness rather than light." This whole section is filled with this type of language.

I do not negate the reality of the story. Joseph was persecuted from the moment he first shared his story. he was young and innocent and assumed his experience would be as exciting to others as it was to him.

He didn't realize that he was challenging the very foundations of the doctrines that not only represented the teachings of the churches of that day but which upheld the power structures  both within the church but also within the community.

Those neighbors and leaders in his community had a lot to worry about as they heard his story. They had good reasons to put a stop to this new religion. They surely thought they were doing what was right. 

Yet they were to fail. The Lord's hand was upon Joseph. It was time for pure truth to be restored.

Does their opposition to the work make them evil? Does it make them the servants of Satan? That was the language of Joseph's day. I am free of that language because I live in a totally different time.

In my language I can call them misguided. They were trying to protect what they held dear. And they were willing to use violence and intimidation to do that.

Isn't that what we are seeing white supremacy today in 2021? I don't like it. It is misguided but I must also understand that when times of great change come to any society, there are those who were the originals - those who have always had the power - who made the rules and called the shots - that group will resist change. Any student of world history can tell story after story of how this plays out.

So these people protect all they hold to be true and dear.

Yet the Lord's work of restoration must go forth. It is time. So the Lord shows Joseph a way to move forward. He gives an alternative that Joseph cannot see.

I trust that God will be there for me in my moments of crisis - when doors closed for me - to guide me down alternative paths also. Seeing His hand bring Joseph through this crisis helps me to trust that He will also be there for me.

After all - I am the reason for the restoration - just like you are. Our loving Heavenly Parents wanted us to know who They truly are, who we are.  They wanted us to understand their marvelous plan to bring to pass our eternal life.

A word now about those who oppose us - no matter what that may look like. It could be white supremacy fighting against those of us who support immigration. It could be Democrats versus Republicans. Remember the lessons from this section. Outdated language may cause us to label those who think differently. But try to understand them. Don't label them as wicked or as servants of the devil. Walk in their shoes and try to understand. Labeling is a form of judging and we are not to judge.