John Bytheway: 00:00 Stay tuned for part two with Eric Richards, Doctrine and Covenants, section 29.

Bro. Eric Richards: 00:07 Looking next verses 28 to 34, that’s a big chunk. Talk about another shift. He’s now going to teach some doctrine. It’s beautiful, especially verse 34. “Wherefore verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal.” Nothing is temporal. All things are spiritual. Wait, tithing, the paying of my temporal money is actually a spiritual practice. The word of wisdom, what I eat, what I avoid is actually spiritual in nature. When I have to  bring my family to clean the church Saturday morning, that’s actually a spiritual practice, not a temporal practice. I think if we have that approach to our gospel activities that everything, everything the Lord has given us, if I’m reading this correctly, is spiritual in nature. There’s nothing temporal. Sometimes in our callings, we might think, man, this is a temporal thing. I’m trying to organize a blood drive or whatever. No, we’re doing everything in the gospel for spiritual reasons. I think it gives us a better approach and we can approach it with some confidence that goodness will come, that we will feel connected to Christ, even though it feels very temporally in the moment.

Hank Smith: 01:26 That’s great because sometimes you think, I don’t have time to go to the temple. I don’t have time to go serve. I can’t go to the meat packing plant, but it’s going to help me spiritually. Is that what you’re saying, Eric?

Bro. Eric Richards: 01:39 Yeah. You can see the next verse. He’s going to talk about agency. We can use our agency in terms of how we approach our different gospel duties. You see that in verse 35. I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself. That word agency is only used a handful of times in scripture. This is one of them, so it becomes very precious to us. In section 101 that you’ll study later, the term that’s used is moral agency. Elder Dean l Larson. He was actually quoting Albert Payne, who was one of the contemporaries who wrote with Mark Twain, but he said, an act is only moral if it arises out of knowledge, faith, love, or religious intent, fear and force have not placed in the kingdom because they don’t produce moral actions. They’re contrary to God’s gift of agency. What a blessing that we have this moral agency that we can make decisions that will help promote our salvation, but also make decisions that will help others come unto Christ.

John Bytheway: 02:39 I’ve sometimes heard agency defined as freedom to choose. I remember Joseph Fielding McConkie saying, let me give you a better definition. It’s the power to act. We’re given power to act. As an agent. In some religious traditions, we are predestined to act in a certain way, and isn’t this saying something different? Didn’t God give us power to act as evidenced by this verse?

Bro. Eric Richards: 03:07 It’s one of the greatest gifts of love that our heavenly Father has ever given to us. He can entice us. He can invite us, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be our decision to accept those invitations or reject them. There’s no compulsion. There’s no force. There’s no handcuffs. He’s inviting us to consider him and his son. In the end, those in the celestial kingdom, it’s going to be their decision. We’ll read later this year in Doctrine and Covenants that if they are willing to accept those conditions, if they’re willing to keep celestial laws, they’re going to be in that celestial kingdom. There are some that are only willing to live those terrestrial, telestial lifestyles. It is our choice. He’s going to love us, but in the end, he loves our agency. In fact, to the point where you look at the next two verses, this ties in with agency because he then talks about how agency was used in the pre-earth life where Satan used his agency to rebel, saying, give me thy honor, which is my power.

  04:16 Also, a third part of the host of Heaven turned he away from me because of their agency, and they were thrust down and thus became the devils and his angels. It’s interesting that Lucifer used his agency to rebel against God. Sometimes it’s been taught that God had a big meeting and presented a plan and didn’t know exactly how it was going to play out, and started asking suggestions from the audience. All these plans were presented. No, it was a calculated rebellion. The use of his agency to rebel and revolt against God is why Lucifer was cast out. We have to make sure that we’re making choices that show our allegiance. In verse 40, it talks about the conditions after the fall of Adam and Eve. It says, wherefore it came to pass that the devil tempted Adam and he partook of the forbidden fruit and transgressed the commandment wherein he became subject to the will of the devil.

  05:14 Notice that that fight for agency began in the pre-earth life, but now continues in mortality. There’s something interesting here about the fall that I have loved, says he became subject to the will of the devil. Mosiah 3:19 is one of those beautiful doctrinal mastery verses from seminary. A natural man being an enemy to God and has been since the fall of Adam will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy Spirit. We love that passage. In Moses 5:13 it says, from that time forth, men began to be carnal and sensual and devilish. In faculty meeting I learned that in our Book of Mormon student manual, it says, though born innocent, all men through the fall of Adam come into a fallen world and experience a resultant fall of their own. In other words, it’s through transgression that one becomes a natural man.

  06:09 Have you noticed there’s a difference between natural man and the fallen man? Fallen man, we’re weak. We make foolish decisions. Fallen man happens because of our psychology or biology or our environment. It could be the result of our families or our relationships. The effects of other peoples and the misuse of their agency. Sometimes people are victims of abuse or infidelity or addiction, apostasy. The list goes on and on, and that is part of Fallen man. It’s part of our world, but the natural man is different. The natural man is an enemy to God using their agency to rebel against him. In other words, they sin and they continue to sin. They have this fall of their own, and as they sin, they are not interested in seeking repentance. I wonder if a lot of people, myself included, have conflated the idea of fallen man with natural man. I wonder if a lot of my sins and mistakes and shortcomings are because I am simply a fallen man and not because I am a rebel trying to destroy God’s plan.

Hank Smith: 07:21 Mm-Hmm.

Bro. Eric Richards: 07:22 I think a lot of, at least a lot of the students I have up in Logan, they worry about that. They make a mistake and they think, I’ve done too much. I’ve gone too far. Who am I? I’m just such a natural man. No, you’re, let’s see, what’s the word? Mortal?  Yeah. You’re human. You are fallen.

Hank Smith: 07:37 You’re what scientists call alive, right? 

Bro. Eric Richards: 07:41 Exactly, and the beauty is heavenly Father knows that as he weighs us, as he looks at what we’ve become, he knows if we have just have moments of being fallen, he knows that, and he knows if we have truly rebelled against him. Both are handled so differently. Elder Scott, you know the Lord, he deals with rebellion so much differently than he does with weakness, and a lot of our foibles of human nature to quote Joseph, are because we are fallen, not because we’ve been rebellious.

John Bytheway: 08:12 I have never thought of that. You’re making a distinction between the natural man and a fallen man, and the natural man is like preferring the natural man. Yeah. Fallen man is more like, yeah, I fall, but I get up again. I’m trying. I’m failing, but I’m getting up again and I’m going to keep trying. Keep repenting.

Bro. Eric Richards: 08:34 Yeah. “Don’t you quit”, to insert Elder Holland.

Hank Smith: 08:36 Yeah. Speaking of Elder Holland, listen to this. I think maybe he makes this distinction here too, Eric, this is April, 2010 Place No More for the Enemy of My Soul. Like thieves in the night, unwelcome thoughts can and do seek entrance to our minds. Sounds like fallen man, but we don’t have to throw open the door, serve them tea and crumpets, and then tell them where the silverware is kept. You shouldn’t be serving tea anyway. He says throw the rascals out. Maybe that’s a distinction too, Eric. I didn’t seek this out. It enters because I’m a fallen person living in a fallen world, but natural man opens the door, says, come on in, take over my life. 

Bro. Eric Richards: 09:25 Back to the temple recommend wording. Do you strive? Those that are fallen and weak, they strive, they try. The natural man, there is no effort. There’s no pumping the brakes on their way to sinfulness. They’re day planner. Don’t forget to sin today. There are shirts, I love to sin. There’s no interest in repentance at all, but most of us, especially those listening to this podcast, are in that fallen category in my opinion, that we are trying and we slip up every week and yet we try again.

Hank Smith: 09:58 Yeah. John, how often have we talked about repenting to your kids?

John Bytheway: 10:02 And how often have we talked about the sacrament table bolted to the floor in the chapel? Correct. Because the Lord knows you’re going to fall down again, but come back.

Hank Smith: 10:09 Yeah. I’ve had those frequent moments where I’m so sorry you guys, right? Sorry kids.

John Bytheway: 10:15 Yeah.  Lost it for a second there.

Hank Smith: 10:18 You won the lottery with moms, but with dads, you really pick the bottom of the barrel and Eric doesn’t the Lord say that in the end of 42? I, the Lord God should send forth angels to declare unto them repentance and redemption through faith on the name of my only begotten Son. Yes, you have your agency. Yes, you are a fallen man. Here’s your escape. Here’s your chance.

Bro. Eric Richards: 10:45 It’s like he’s in relentless pursuit of you.

John Bytheway: 10:49 Good phrase. Where’d you get that?  

Bro. Eric Richards: 10:53 On verse 46, behold I say unto you, that little children, another shift here, Hank another doctrine.  Little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine only begotten. Wherefore, they cannot sin for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable before me. And this is a beautiful idea here. It’s a doctrine I think that is very unique to us as latter-day saints, and it’s beautiful to me about the salvation of little children. I mentioned earlier Patrick Mason and his work with the word restoration and restore, and you read an idea from one of his articles about this vineyard, this farm  that God has planted. It’s called Earth, and he has so many different religions and sects and ideas and people and ideologies and approaches to faith. The latter-day saints have been asked to take care of and cultivate a very unique part of that vineyard.

  11:54 I think we have special oversight in a few areas. I think eternal families is something unique to us. The Lord says, I want the latter-day saints. This is one of your unique, beautiful doctrines, priesthood keys, the idea of eternal progression through covenants, the redemption of the dead, a complete view of the plan of salvation, the nature of God, the depth of Jesus Christ’s atonement, modern revelation through living prophets. These are unique principles and doctrines to our faith in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, you know, his analogy is about the body where we have different parts of the body, but all the parts are necessary to make the body run and do its thing. Back to section 10, verse 67. This is the church. God’s people, his church are those that repent and come unto Christ. I emphasize this Hank and John because this verse is one reason why I joined the church when Elder Jolly was out tracting and then teaching my mom with his good companion.

  12:55 One of the first principles they felt impressed to teach was this idea of salvation of little children. Rewinding, years previous, my mom was down in Ecuador as a child with her parents. They were in the military. Side note, my son got called to serve in that same area. He’s in Quiel, getting home later this summer. Can’t wait to see him again. And it’s been fun for him and his grandma to bond over Quiel Ecuador. My mom was born just fine, but she had two little sisters and because of Rh factor with blood and how it’s metabolized, they did not live long. The first one was born and lasted about a week. The second one, they were twins. She passed away about a month later. My grandparents were not religious at all, but they went to a local church asking for just counsel and help.

  13:42 I mean, you lose twins and seeking comfort. They just went to ask some questions about what’s going to happen to them. Is there an afterlife? If so, are they going to be okay? I think he was a good man, but he shook his head and said, I’m so sorry. Did you get them baptized? They said, oh no, we’re not, we didn’t, we’re not religious at all. And he apologetically said, yeah, I’m so sorry. There’s no hope for them. My grandparents came home and just told my mom like, okay, we’re never going to be Christians. Like, if that’s what Christians believe, we’re out. Fast forward, my mom was just so curious. She was a little girl and she thought, well, no. They were so sweet, so innocent. There’s just no way they have to be okay. When the missionaries opened up Moroni chapter eight and talked about this doctrine in section 29, 46 and 47, she just blurted out, I knew it. I knew, I knew that little children are going to be okay.  It’s a beautiful doctrine. How big is the Celestial Kingdom going to be, by the way, with all these children that have passed away before the age of accountability? What a marvelous, marvelous plan our heavenly Father has for us.

John Bytheway: 14:48 How many of you have seen the movie where the prophet Joseph Smith is in the middle of translating the Book of Mormon and hears about this doctrine and he just gets up and runs outside? Emma is putting clothes on the clothesline or something. You don’t hear the conversation, but you know he’s saying, guess what I just learned? Guess what the Lord just revealed to me about this very thing? It’s a great moment in the world that he had grown up in, he probably understood similar to what your mother heard as a child.

Hank Smith: 15:23 Eric, this reminds me of something we talked about earlier this year was the death of Alvin Smith, 25 years old. Everybody says later, Joseph Smith says the best of my father’s children. Just before he dies, he reaches out to his younger brother Joseph and counsels him to be obedient to what he’s been told to do. The family asked a Presbyterian minister in Palmyra to officiate at his funeral. As Alvin had not been a member of the minister’s congregation, the clergyman asserted in his sermon that Alvin could not be saved. William Smith, Joseph’s younger brother recalled the minister intimated very strongly that Alvin had gone to hell for Alvin was not a church member, but he was a good boy and my father did not like it. Now I know Alvin’s not a little child, as in verse 46, but the principle of a merciful God is the same.

John Bytheway: 16:26 Yeah. I think it would be hard for anyone to accept that and especially somebody going to hell. Well define that idea of hell. Oh, that would be burning forever. It would be hard to wrap your head around that kind of thing for someone through who no fault of their own had not heard about Christ or didn’t have time to in this life, people in hell forever, trillion years to the trillionth power. I can’t worship that kind of a God. You know, that’s…

Hank Smith: 16:59 John. You’re right on. The more I hear about that type of God, the more repulsive it seems that there’s a God who wants to punish people unendingly eternally, something as a latter-day saint, I cannot accept.

John Bytheway: 17:21 How many billions of people have lived and died without even hearing the name of Jesus Christ before.

Bro. Eric Richards: 17:29 It just doesn’t taste right.

John Bytheway: 17:31 Yeah.

Bro. Eric Richards: 17:32 There has to be more. There has to be more. If we understand the nature of God and our status as his children, we’re not simply created beings. We are literally his spirit sons and daughters, and surely he’s going to show mercy to all as much as he can, as much mercies he can offer. That seems to be his default setting is mercy, mercy, mercy.

Hank Smith: 17:54 And redemption. Yeah. You think like Joseph Smith, Eric, I think he said it’s God’s chief attribute is his mercy. It’s not one of his attributes. It is his chief attribute.

Bro. Eric Richards: 18:06 Yeah, so true. Well, should we start to steer this ship back to harbor? We’re at the very end here. Wow. If people are still listening, I think they’re going to heaven along with all these babies. Yeah. You know the end, this section just wraps up with a simple invitation to come. This section is so full of doctrine. We are now accountable because of what the Lord has shared. I think he’s reminding us in these last three verses to continue to gather and invite and great things are required. Verse 48, great things are required of us because of this knowledge that has been shared in this beautiful section. Where I’m teaching currently at USU we’re kind of famous. There’s a chant and a cheer. I know there’s big rivalry between USU and BYU. But years ago the student section came up with this cheer and at the end of the game, if we’re ahead and we usually are, the spectrum is a tough place for opponents to come in and win, but at the end of the game, the students will look up and point out the final score in unison.

  19:14 There’s going to be a thousand or 2000 students in unison calling out the score and they’ll say, is that not the winning team? And they’ll point to us and the other part replies, yes, that is the winning team. And then they’ll say, is that not the losing team? And the other half of the section says, yes, that is the losing team. And then back and forth they’ll point winning team, losing team, winning team, losing team. Brutal. It’s so brutal. I feel bad. It’s one of those, you enjoy it but you feel kind of bad, but you’re also rejoicing that USU has another victory. I think in the end that every time we choose to live the gospel, every time we choose to forgive someone, every time we choose to study the gospel, go to the temple, say our prayers, pay our tithing. Every time we do that, it’s winning team, winning team, winning team. And I just hope through studying section 29, that we can feel inspired through God’s loving kindness to make decisions that help us become members of that winning team. Every time we repent, every time we change winning team, winning team, winning team.

Hank Smith: 20:24 I love it. We were coming up on section 29 and I knew there was going to be talk of the second coming. I have two favorite thoughts. One is from C.S. Lewis. It’s kind of a long quote. I want you both to hear it and tell me what you think. He says, the Lord is delaying his coming. He says this, well, why? He wants to give us the chance of joining his side freely. I do not suppose you and I would’ve thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when he does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on the stage, the play is over.

  21:13 God is going to invade all right, but what is the good of saying you’re on his side then? When you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else, something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in, something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others, that none of us will have any choice left. For this time it will be a God without disguise. Something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There’s no use saying you choose to lie down when it becomes impossible to stand up. And then this closing thought, the second coming will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when you discover what you have chosen. Then he goes on, now today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it. I love it. I love the boldness of that. 

Bro. Eric Richards: Yeah. Winning team. Choosing team. 

Hank Smith: Right? And anybody listening, you have this chance. Let’s take it. Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained?

John Bytheway: 22:32 I think this whole section is just this evidence of the Lord’s mercy to tell us I’m going to lay out the whole plan for you. And there’s everything in here. There’s premortal existence, there’s millennium, there’s resurrection, there’s fall of Adam and Eve. When I look at verse 42, it’s okay, here’s the point I gave unto Adam and unto his seed, they should not die until I will send forth angels to declare unto them repentance and redemption. And that’s the probationary state. Maybe Satan said in the day you partake, you’re going to die. And the Lord says, well actually I’m going to give them a probationary state and I’m going to teach them the beautiful gospel. Now we have that probationary state to choose like C.S. Lewis just said.

Hank Smith: 23:17 Here’s my other favorite quote. This is from President Oaks Preparation for the Second Coming. I bet both of you remember this April, 2004, so it was a while ago, he said, what if the day of his coming were tomorrow? If you knew that you would meet the Lord tomorrow, what would you do today? What confessions would you make? What practices would you discontinue? What accounts would you settle? What forgiveness would you extend? What testimonies would you bear? If you would do all those things then, why not now? Isn’t that great? He makes a funny little quip here. A 72-hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but a 24 hour kit of spiritual preparation is of greater and more enduring value.

Bro. Eric Richards: 24:12 With general conference coming up. President Nelson’s last talk was on that, that we need to prepare for the second coming. We don’t know what he sees, what he knows, but it seems like he has felt impressed to remind us of the reality of this event. It’s coming. It is. Of all things I know. I know that Christ lived. I know that he died. I know that he’s resurrected. I know he’s coming again and I can’t wait for that day.

Hank Smith: 24:39 What a beautiful day. Eric, a couple more questions for you. You said in writing the book you wanted to make it a hopeful message, and I think you’ve done that for us today. How would you sum up that hopeful message of the Lord’s second coming? That when I read this with my children, the maggots come upon them, the flesh from off their bones, their eyes from their sockets. I think my children might say, I don’t want the second coming to happen. How would I turn that around to make it a hopeful message?

Bro. Eric Richards: 25:09 I try to picture all of the things in this world that you and I hate being washed away. Think of all the ugly wickedness that will no longer exist. And yes, it’s going to be a process. We’ve got prophecies here of hailstorms and all kinds of others, especially from the book of Revelation. But the end product is this beautiful, cleansed earth that will ultimately become a celestial kingdom. The focus, yes, it’s good to know both. We’ve got the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good is so good for those that exercise their faith in Christ and love him and love their brothers and sisters. The blessings promised are absolutely amazing. That’s been my focus and I hope that others can just feel an excitement, aware of the prophecies of wickedness and things like that enveloped in that hope and love of God.

Hank Smith: 26:08 I love it.

John Bytheway: 26:09 I think there was a time when I was young, when I went through the same things. That sounds scary. Today I hear people say, oh, bring it on. There’s just, there’s just so much, not just wickedness but sadness in the world because of it. The results of that, that people are sad, people are suffering, that people are victims of horrible stuff. And yeah, I think now more people are saying, yeah, let’s focus as Eric has helped us do today on how positive and beautiful this is going to be. The fact that we have an advocate who’s going to be by our side, that makes it so much more positive, who’s coming back.

Hank Smith: 26:45 Eric, I love that you said that the things that we hate and we hate them because of the suffering they cause. All of us have seen, and I’m sure all of our listeners have seen sin, immorality, violence, these things destroy lives. To have that washed away, Eric, that’s a beautiful message

Bro. Eric Richards: 27:06 To bring this all full circle. Let’s go back to verse one. Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the great I Am whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins. That’s the message you want us to remember is that it’s all about him and his goodness and his mercy and his kindness ultimately so we can return home with him.

Hank Smith: 27:27 Yeah, that’s beautiful. Personally, I love the Come, Follow Me manual this week because it says that you might consider reading or listening to the hymn, Israel, Israel God is Calling, and that was written by an ancestor of mine. If you just listen to the words, it’s such a beautiful message. I’ll just read some of it to you. I’m sure both of you could sing all four verses, but isn’t this a beautiful second coming message? Israel Israel, that’s everyone listening today, God is calling. Calling you from lands of woe. Babylon, all this evil on the earth, the great is falling. God shall all her towers o’er throw. So come to Zion, come to Zion. Israel, Israel, God is speaking. Hear your great deliverer voice. A glorious morning is breaking. Come to Zion. Come to Zion. Israel. Angels are descending from celestial worlds on high and to man their power extending that the saints may homeward fly. So come to Zion. Come to Zion. Can you linger still in errors gloomy ways? Mark how judgment’s pointing finger justifies no vain delays. Come to Zion. Come to Zion. Zion’s walls shall ring with praise. My ancestor there, Richard Smith, if you’re listening today, great job. You did the family proud, right? with that verse.

John Bytheway: 29:00 I love what President Nelson, how he expounded on the word Israel. If you look in the Bible Dictionary, it says, one who prevails with God, thinking about Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, but then it’s, and those who are willing to let God prevail. That part of the talk was so good for me. If we are Israel, then be Israel. Those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives. And I’m looking at verse seven, mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts. Those are those who are willing to let God prevail. That’s such a great definition for who Israel is God is calling.

Bro. Eric Richards: 29:38 In the book of Revelation chapter 17 and 18, leading up to his appearance of the world, over and over again Hank, the Lord is inviting us to flee Babylon. Flee, flee. Israel, Israel, God is calling you. Stay away. It’s not good. You think of Nephi who saw the same vision as John. He saw those people pointing and mocking with their finger. I think Nephi is trying to help us get away, flee. Don’t go there. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it. And our loving heavenly Father begging us to come home, let Israel, let God prevail. Let him prevail in your life.

Hank Smith: 30:17 Do both of you remember this moment six years ago, President Nelson towards the end of general conference. I bet you’ll both remember this. He says, my dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ invites us to take the covenant path back home to our heavenly parents and be with those we love. As president of his church, I plead with you who have distanced yourself from the church and you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s church has been restored, do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves and please do it now. Time is running out. Do both of you remember that?

Bro. Eric Richards: 31:00 Yeah. It’s so good. It seems like this second coming theme is on his mind. He has testified of its reality several times. He must be sensing something.

Hank Smith: 31:10 Yeah, that’s wonderful. Eric, this has been fantastic and I knew it would be. You and I have been friends for a long time. My kids have enjoyed some time in the car listening to Eric Richards give his great talk. It was when they got tired of John Bytheway for a while I said, let me grab Eric Richards. He’s just as good.

John Bytheway: 31:29 Those were cassette tapes.

Hank Smith: 31:30 Oh yes. Those tapes. Yeah. If anybody remembers what that is. Eric, let’s wrap this up with a question. Our listeners today are bombarded with the message of Joseph Smith is not a prophet. In fact, not only is he not a prophet, he’s an evil man and it comes from everywhere. Now it comes with the voices online, even from family members, from former members of the church. It is a prevalent message. Yet here you are having taught in church education. We’re going on 30 years. You definitely don’t look old enough. John, can you imagine having the Eric Richards youth? When he said he had a missionary, I thought, there’s no way.

John Bytheway: 32:17 He must be just a great man.

Hank Smith: 32:19 Yeah. I think of anyone who would say, okay, I’ve read some stuff. I’ve studied a little bit. You’re the guy who could easily say, with all my study and all of my research, here’s what I’ve seen. So Eric, can you just speak to our listeners, is Joseph Smith really who we hope him to be?

Bro. Eric Richards: 32:37 From my high school years to now, I have been attacked  for my membership in the church. Lots of questions. Last spring, I was invited to teach a class answering my gospel questions. We’ve retitled it to sacred truths and difficult questions with that course and just because of my life, I have spent hours reading some of those attacks on our great prophet Joseph. I have read so much and studied so much, and the deeper I dive in, the more I am blown away at this boy prophet Joseph. There’s simply too much to discount what he’s done. So many of those claims against him are so unfounded. They are so spurious, so secondhand, so removed from when he was involved in different incidents in our church’s history. The more I read about him and his connection with God, the more I hear him.

  33:38 Speaking of the love that he felt from Heavenly Father, the more I read about his humility, trying his best with his limited knowledge and vision, trying to not mess things up in terms of the restoration, the more and more I am convinced and know that he was called by God. Not perfect. We all have mistakes. Prophets have mistakes as well, and Joseph along with others had some through it all. Though I am so grateful that the Lord called Joseph and that somehow the Lord felt good enough to allow me to come in contact with this beautiful gospel, to be able to teach it to my family, to be married in the temple to an awesome wife. How am I so lucky? I still don’t know. I wake up every morning kind of pinching myself, but praise to the man. I’m so grateful that he has been able to teach us about our Savior Jesus Christ. I love the prophet Joseph. I love what he has helped me learn about my Savior. And this section 29, it drips with Jesus. I’m so grateful for the restoration of this chapter, this section and other revelations. I love that the Lord works through prophets like Joseph and President Nelson.

Hank Smith: 34:46 Thank you Eric. You practice verse four, declare my gospel with the sound of rejoicing. You could almost write Eric D. Richards right next to that verse. John, what a fantastic day.

John Bytheway: 35:00 Yeah, and I think people will be excited about this because it’s about the second coming, but it’s about come unto Christ. I’m going to tell you what it’s going to be like before I come, but the point is, come to Christ right now and then you’re kind of already there when he comes back. Oh, like the last word in the second to last verse is repent. That’s the invitation. Come to Christ and then you’ll be a little more settled because I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen and you’ll look around and it’ll actually build your testimony because you’ll go, yep, I was expecting that. Yep, that’s supposed to happen. Yep, it’s supposed to get like that, but already come to Christ. He’s coming. But come to him.

Hank Smith: 35:41 John, you could almost connect verse one to what you just read. Verse 49, the great I Am, whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins over to verse 49. Have I not commanded to repent? That is the message of section 29 that Eric has shown us today. Eric, thanks for being here. Thanks for taking time away from what we’ve heard is heaven, Cache Valley to come visit us.

Bro. Eric Richards: 36:08 This is my pleasure and, and just a shout out behind the scenes. You guys are great. They might even be better what they do to make this happen. I am just thrilled to be here. Grateful for everyone that makes this happen. You’ve been a blessing to thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. And really the pleasure is all mine. Thank you. Thank you.

Hank Smith: 36:28 Eric. We loved having you. Hey, come on to YouTube everybody. Tell Eric where you’re listening from. It’s fun for us to share with our guests where their voice has been heard. Anywhere from Provo to Madagascar. I think it’d be fun to send Eric those comments. And with that, we want to thank Eric D. Richards for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer Shannon Sorensen. David and Verla Sorensen, our sponsors. And with every episode, we will never forget our founder Steve Sorensen. We hope you’ll join us next week. We have more sections of the Doctrine & Covenants to study on followHIM. Today’s show notes and transcript are on our website. Followhim.co. That’s followhim.co. Of course, none of this could happen without our production team. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Neilson, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Amelia Kabwika, Heather Barlow and Annabelle Sorensen.