I Have a Question, 1908-09
Some of these questions get detailed explanations from the editorial staff of the Juvenile Instructor; one of them does not.
Q. Should an elder always pronounce life and health when administering to the sick?
A. In a revelation to Joseph Smith the Lord says, “The elders of the Church, two or more, shall be called and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live they shall live unto me. … And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed.”
It appears from this revelation, that the elders are always to be guided by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. A man should not pronounce life and health merely because he has been called to perform a holy ordinance. He should submit his spirit to the Spirit of God, and perform the ordinance according to its direction. And when he feels himself divinely inspired to pronounce life and health, the elder may do so fearless.
Q. What is the standing of an Elder or a Seventy who goes upon a mission, and preaches repentance to the people of the world, and when he comes home goes to using tobacco and to drinking tea and coffee?
A. A man who goes upon a mission, and preaches the gospel of repentance, and then returns home only to fall into the errors and sins he has warned the world against, does so for one of the two reasons; viz., insincerity in what he was preaching or weakness in resisting temptation. If he was insincere, he will suffer the punishment that hypocrisy merits; if he is a slave t his appetite, he should be pitied and helped. In Section 1 Doc. And Cov., the Lord says, “I cannot look upon sin with any degree of allowance; nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven; and he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received, for my spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
Q. Has the Word of Wisdom become a commandment?
A. Yes.
Q. If a person should comply with the first principles of the Gospel honestly and sincerely, and thus become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and should afterwards fall into transgression and be cut off from the Church, would he have to answer for those sins he ha committed before he was baptized, or only for those he committed after he was baptized, and of which he has not repented?
A. Forgiveness is based upon a Godly repentance and the keeping of the covenant. The violation of the covenant relieves the Lord of obligation and returns the sinner to his previous state. Or rather, it puts him in a state worse than his previous one; for by his transgression he ignores and violates the covenant on which his forgiveness was predicated and adds to his former sins the sin of apostasy. Consult the following references in the Doctrine and Covenants: 20:83; 85:3-5, 11, 12; 76:34-48; 41:1; 84:40-41.
Q. Was there any resurrection before that of Christ? If so, will you give Scriptural proof?
A. The Scriptures, as we understand, speaks of two general resurrections – the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust; or, the first and the last. The first resurrection was begun by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and after him, many of the Saints arose from death. We understand, also, that since that day many other righteous beings have been raised from death. (See Talmage’s Articles of Faith, p. 396.)
In I Corinthians 15: 21, 22, the Apostle Paul says, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” That is, death was inflicted as a punishment for Adam’s sin; and from the death of Adam there was no escape – it was eternal – until a redeemer should come, even Christ the Lord. There could not possibly, therefore, be a resurrection until after the atonement was made. Hence Paul says also, “But every m an in his own order; Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s.”
The great work of the resurrection, then, was begun by Jesus Christ. He broke the bands of death, and was the first to rise to immortal life.
Q. A correspondent says that he has been unable to find the word “Elohim” in either the concordance to the Doctrine and Covenants or the concordance to the Bible, and asks whence we get the word.
A. Elohim is a Hebrew word and is everywhere translated God in the bible. El and Eloah are other forms also translated God From Exodus 6:3, we learn that God was known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to all the patriarchs before Moses, by the name of God, or Elohim, but that the name of Jehovah (YHWH) was unknown to them. Both these names have now become more or less familiar, because critical scholars think they see in the use of these words at least two sources of the Hexateuch. In one source the name Elohim is characteristic as the name of God; in the other it is Jehovah. Critics claim, therefore, that the Hexateuch is made up of the writings of at least two different authors, or schools of writers, one the Elohist, the other the Johovist. The Prophet Joseph Smith was a student of Hebrew and knew well the name Elohim. Undoubtedly the use of the word in the Church has come from him.
Sometimes at work I get asked some pretty funny questions about the Church (I am a staff member at a DI).
Just last week I had a lady ask me, “Are priesthood holders required to have their suits buttoned or unbuttoned when they bless the Sacrament?”
The answer I gave was that the important principles involved were authority and worthiness. As long as one holds the priesthood and is worthy, he is okay to bless the sacrament, and what he is wearing and the way it is buttoned is unimportant. I did mention that the Chujrch encourages, but does not require, white shirts.
The answer I WANTED to give but was to nice to say was, “Lady, it is clear that you have never actually come to an LDS Sacrament meeting. Otherwise you would know that a 16 year-old priest is about as likely to wear a dress as he is a suit coat!”
Comment by andrew h — July 14, 2011 @ 7:36 am
@andrew h: But let him wear a <gasp>blue shirt</gasp> and see what happens!
Anyway, the answer about Elohim was quite interesting—aside from the fact that it talks about the Hexateuch, not something i’d ever heard referenced in Mormon teaching before (contra the Pentateuch, which gets referenced occasionally), it assumes multiple authors for scriptural texts.
What’s the opposite of “refreshing“? ’Cause it’s whatever-that-concept-is that nowadays we have church teachers insisting the Books of Moses were all written completely and specifically by Moses (possibly excepting the bit at the very end).
Comment by David B — July 14, 2011 @ 7:51 am
@ Andrew H. and David B. Come to our unit and see people with blue shirts doing the sacrament. It’s great.
I like the comment about the missionary who returns home and goes inactive (or should I say, “less active”?). It reminded me of an experience when I was in the branch presidency of a university branch. A fellow returned from his mission and the first week back got up and bore his testimony (in his mission language) and went completely inactive (completely less-active?). In our discussions of this the BP suggested that the guy went inactive because he wasn’t on the “spiritual high” of his mission anymore. My response was similar to the post–perhaps he didn’t have much of a foundation before (or during) his mission. (Of course, who am I to judge these things. We should, however, consider the non-orthodox possibilities.)
Comment by Steve C. — July 14, 2011 @ 9:05 am
I also was surprised to see the references to J and E sources. Was there a time when the documentary hypothesis was commonly mentioned in Church publications?
Comment by Brian-A — July 14, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
Not to my knowledge!
Comment by Ardis E. Parshall — July 14, 2011 @ 4:59 pm
Wow. I had to do some research before comment #4 made sense. Info on documentary hypothesis here.
The original question could have been answered much more simply. A single sentence would suffice. But the answer given is much more interesting. Thanks, Brian-A, for the enlightening comment.
Comment by The Other Clark — July 15, 2011 @ 1:53 pm