Doctrine & Covenants: EPISODE 31 (2025) – Doctrine & Covenants 84 – Part 1
Hank Smith: 00:00:00 Coming up in this episode on followHIM.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:00:03 It’s like Moses is saying, guys, there’s room on top of Mount Sinai for all of us. Don’t make me go up there by myself. That was never my intention. I want to bring the entire house of Israel up with me. I am teaching it plainly. You need these ordinances. We need to be godly. Don’t be afraid of the smoke and the fire, and the lightning and the thunder. This is the presence of God. He wants to invite you into it. In the temple. He literally invites us into his presence.
Hank Smith: 00:00:36 Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of followHIM. My name is Hank Smith. I am your host. I am here with my co-host, John Bytheway. John, you are not under condemnation because you have remembered the New Covenant, even the Book of Mormon. John, when I think of people who love the Book of Mormon, John Bytheway skyrockets to the top of the list. The entire church is under condemnation John, except if you were living in this day, the Lord would say, except for John over there, John’s doing a great job.
John Bytheway: 00:01:09 I think there’s a bunch of us that love the Book of Mormon.
Hank Smith: 00:01:13 Yeah.
John Bytheway: 00:01:14 Probably millions who love it.
Hank Smith: 00:01:16 Yeah. John, we are joined today by Dr. Jared Halverson, a close friend of ours. He is absolutely spectacular. Jared, welcome to followHIM.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:01:26 It’s an honor to be here. Hang out with two of my heroes? Bring it on.
Hank Smith: 00:01:31 John, Jared and I work at the JSB together. We get to pass each other in the halls and chat. I have been looking forward to this all year. It was just a conversation we had on the third floor of the JSB. I said, how about we join forces here for this episode, and he was all for it.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:01:45 I was chomping at the bit, to be honest. What you do is so incredible. The guests that you have on, I’m sorry to bring down the average with my appearance. It’s incredible to be able to learn from these conversations. Hank, you and I and our colleagues get to have these kinds of conversations all the time. For scripture nerds like us, this is as good as it gets.
Hank Smith: 00:02:04 Oh, it really is. It’s usually something like this. I’ll be walking down the hall and I’ll pass someone like Jared and I’ll say, Hey, I have a quick question for you. I’ve been thinking about something Honestly, 90 minutes later I’m going, I really got to, I really had some things. I got a student that’s been waiting for 90 minutes back there. Yeah. We are in section 84 today, John, the church is a whole two and a half years old now. The Lord is going to unfold much more of priesthood organization and explanations on the priesthood. When you think of section 84, does anything come to mind?
John Bytheway: 00:02:39 Probably for a lot of us, it’s, oh, that’s the oath and covenant of the priesthood chapter, but I like the way you said it, Hank, it’s a continuous restoration. John the Baptist has been Peter, James and John have been, but we are still learning. Maybe it’s risky to say the most important sections, but you think of 20, you think of 45. Ooh, you think of 76. Also in that list, you gotta put 84.
Hank Smith: 00:03:06 Section 84.
John Bytheway: 00:03:08 You have a whole episode devoted to one section. I mean, what does that tell you?
Hank Smith: 00:03:13 Yeah. I’ll tell you, when I said to Jared in the hallway, I said, how about section 84? You should see his eyes. His eyes got big. He said, can I do section 84? I said, yeah.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:03:24 This was the equivalent of playing T-Ball. Hank was trying to give me a little underhand pitch. How about section 84? Can you hit the ball on this one? Because this one almost teaches itself. It’s such an incredible revelation. Start to finish.
Hank Smith: 00:03:37 Yeah. Jared, what do you want to do today? If you were going to give a summary of where we’re going to go?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:03:42 Oh, where to begin. Speaking of the pitch, John gave us a great windup in terms of one of these highlight revelations. Priesthood is definitely one of its main focuses. You can put it with section 20, section 84, section 107. Those are the three big ones. As far as priesthood organization, you get some ecclesiology here, how the church is supposed to be set up, but it’s interesting. We beelined to this idea of priesthood, yet it’s couched in a temple context and a building Zion context. We’ll see that in the first few verses. Took zoom in on priesthood, we’ll do that today, but need to zoom out and see it in a broader perspective, as far as the temple is concerned, as far as establishing Zion is concerned, as far as connecting people back to God and to each other is concerned. The Lord has a lot of purposes behind this revelation.
00:04:28 We really start to see the difference between Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood in this section. We start to see offices within the priesthood lined up underneath those two columns, we’re going to see some material about the Book of Mormon, as we pointed out before that is incredibly powerful. I hope that by the end of today, we’ve committed ourselves to remaining free of condemnation depending on how we treat the Book of Mormon. There’s going to be some things, a lot about missionary work that grows out of this priesthood conversation. Some fascinating counsel reassurance to missionaries, whether that’s full-time or all the rest of us that are full-time examples of the Savior Jesus Christ. It even ends with a nod to Armageddon and Adam-ondi-Ahman. In a way, it’s broad, it’s deep. There is so much material here. I do a lot of work with people in faith crisis.
00:05:18 A lot of them, it’ll be distraught parents worried about children that are struggling, saying things like, every time I bring up the church, the hackles come up and it’s like, no, I don’t want to talk about this, and how do I even reach them with the one thing that’s going to help the most? It’s almost become a toxic topic for them and how do I get around that? Section 84 honestly has one of my favorite passages of how do we reach people that seem to be unreachable? We’ll get to that as well. Honestly, I’m giddy as a schoolboy. I get to hang out with two great, great scholars and friends and be able to dig into one of the best revelations of the Doctrine & Covenants, no offense to the other 137.
Hank Smith: 00:05:56 I think John and I are just as excited as you Jared. Now, John, there are going to be five, six of our listeners who haven’t heard of Jared Halverson or heard him teach. Why don’t you give us a little bit of a bio? He has created an incredible podcast called Unshaken. I have listened to hours and hours of it because there are hours and hours of it to listen to.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:06:21 That was probably just one episode, Hank. Then you moved on.
Hank Smith: 00:06:23 Honestly, honestly.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:06:25 Hours and hours. That’s just about one.
Hank Smith: 00:06:26 Yeah and it’s incredible. It’s prolific.
John Bytheway: 00:06:30 Jared has taught in the church educational system for 24 years. He was raised in Texas, in southern California. He came to BYU as a presidential scholar and a receiver on the football team. How cool is that?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:06:45 Being on the team and playing on the team are two very different things.
John Bytheway: 00:06:50 That’s like, John, do you play the drums? No, I have a drum set.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:06:53 Yeah, pretty much.
John Bytheway: 00:06:54 He served a mission in Puerto Rico and then taught at the MTC, earned a bachelor’s in history, a master’s in religious education, and a doctorate in American religious history from Vanderbilt. I love Hank what you’ve mentioned. He focused on secularization, faith loss, anti-religious rhetoric. He’s frequently involved in interfaith dialogue. He’s been a featured speaker in devotional and academic settings from coast to coast. As you mentioned, he has a popular YouTube channel and podcast called Unshaken. That’s a reference to Jacob in the Book of Mormon, right? I could not be shaken. He also works one-on-one with people around the world experiencing faith crisis. His wife Emily, is a writer, editor, substance abuse disorder counselor. They have five children. He loves sports, architecture, the ocean, I love this part, anything covered in barbecue sauce. Oh man, that is so true.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:07:50 Well, when you got Texas and Tennessee in your background, the barbecue comes naturally.
John Bytheway: 00:07:56 Absolutely. Welcome.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:07:58 Oh, it’s an honor to be here. I love the opportunity to dig into things that matter most with people that matter infinitely. I’m so grateful what the Lord’s taught me over the years and the chance to be able to pay it forward and hopefully bless others the way that you two do each week. Yeah, a privilege.
Hank Smith: 00:08:16 Thanks. We are grateful to have you here. Jared, do you off the top of your head know your longest episode of Unshaken?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:08:25 Oh, I remember there was one on, I think we had to cover all of Second Samuel or something like that. I want to say it was five hours.
Hank Smith: 00:08:35 Wow. Five hours.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:08:37 Brutal. It’s like when you’re done filming and you’re trying to get up out of the chair and everything hurts, right? It does take a certain degree of insanity to try that and some insanity to tune in.
Hank Smith: 00:08:47 And I have. Jared, I’ve listened to full episodes of Unshaken. Full episodes. I do speed it up a little bit.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:08:55 I meet a lot of people that say, you speak a lot slower in person, and I go, ah, I know what you’ve been doing. I respect that and I do the same.
Hank Smith: 00:09:03 Yeah, it’s prolific. We hope every one of our listeners will check it out. Go check out Unshaken. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. Get it on YouTube, and if you’re a big fan of Unshaken, come onto our YouTube channel. Let us know where you listen from. It’s fun to show our guests where their voice has been heard, where they’ve taught. I’m going to read out of the Come, Follow Me Manual. Let’s get underway. Doctrine Covenants 84, like you said, John, it’s just one section this week. It’s called The Power of Godliness, the Come, Follow Me Manual starts like this. Ever since the priesthood was restored in 1829, the Early Saints had been blessed by the Lord’s sacred power. They were baptized, confirmed, and called to serve by priesthood authority, much like we are today, but having access to priesthood power is not the same thing as completely understanding it, and God had more He wanted his saints to understand, particularly with the coming restoration of Temple ordinances.
00:09:58 The 1832 Revelation on the priesthood Doctrine & Covenants section 84 expanded the Saint’s vision of what priesthood really is, and it can do the same for us today. After all, there is a lot to learn about the divine power that holds the key of the knowledge of God that makes us manifest the power of godliness, and that prepares us to see the face of God, even the Father and live. What a way to kick this off. Jared, how do you want to start?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:10:26 Let’s give us some historical context perhaps, because what’s leading us into this I think will give us some momentum to dig into the text itself. Any of your listeners that want to geek out on some of that history, there was a great article written about a decade ago by Matthew Godfrey, wonderful scholar, works on the Joseph Smith Papers project that talks about the historical background, how little relatively speaking people really understood what priesthood was all about. We saw the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood in 1829, and then the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Section 20 starts laying out some foundation as far as priesthood offices are concerned, but difference between Aaronic and Melchizedek, they still don’t fully understand. Godfrey puts some things in this article about conversations between church leaders. They’re like, I know we have priesthood. Do you understand it? No, I don’t get what it is.
00:11:17 The Book of Mormon talks about it clearly in places, but not to the level of specificity we’re going to see in section 84. Lots to learn. I joke with my students that Joseph Smith did not emerge from the Sacred Grove with the Church Handbook of Instructions. It’s going to be line upon line and precept upon precept organization by organization. A lot of growth and understanding that’s going to come from the revelation today. But to back up a little bit and build some momentum leading in where 1832, earlier this year, Joseph and Sidney have the vision, there in section 76, they are thinking about deep things. Now that we know that heaven is far more exalted than what we were raised with, what is it like to achieve that level of exaltation? How do we even get to that point? You see, Joseph and several other church leaders have been down to Missouri to set up the United Firm, to lay out the foundation for the literary firm, where they’re going to be working on what do we do with all these revelations and we’re going to publish them, and there’s going to be a book of commandments.
00:12:17 Then there’s this interesting moment where Joseph and several of the church leaders are heading back from Missouri to Kirtland. They’re on a stage coach and the stage coach crashes, and Newel K. Whitney breaks his ankle. Joseph’s like, well, you’re going to be laid up here in Indiana for a couple weeks. Why don’t I stay here with you? Honestly, it makes me think if I’m ever in a car with a general authority, I better crash the thing in case that he’ll spend, you know, can I hang out with an apostle for a couple weeks in the hospital? Joseph stays for a few weeks with Newel. Newel’s just laid up in bed, so Joseph has all this free time, which is such an odd experience for Joseph, but he’s got so much time to think and to ponder. He even writes a letter to Emma. I love what he says.
00:13:00 He said, I visited a grove, which is just back at the town almost every day where I can be secluded from the eyes of any mortal and there give vent to all the feelings of my heart. In meditation and prayer, Joseph is deepening these feelings and experiences, meditating and praying. Talk about the mind opening up to the mysteries of heaven, the treasures of divinity. It’s all coming to him. Then once he gets back to Kirtland, after a little bit of recuperation for Newel, all these missionaries that have been sent east on missions are now coming back to Kirtland to return and report. Joseph’s hearing all of this, all of these threads are coming together in this beautiful moment in late September. The date’s going to factor really importantly in a little while when we get later into the text, but hearing all these people talk about the miracles that they’ve performed and the experiences they’ve had, any of us who serve missions and you come back and you report to the high council, I’ve talked to friends that have served on high councils and I said, it’s one of the best things about our calling is these fresh out of the mission field on fire have that godly glow.
00:14:06 I just want to talk about what God did through me. Joseph is receiving all of these reports, just being thrilled by all of them. He says, the elders began to return from their missions to the eastern states and present the histories of their several stewardships in the Lord’s vineyard. While together in these seasons of joy, I inquired of the Lord and received section 84. To me, getting some of that momentum behind us makes me just want to dive straight into the text and see what the Lord has to say.
Hank Smith: 00:14:34 Fantastic. Jared, that is beautiful. I wonder if Newel K. Whitney is thinking, Hey Lord, the next time you need Joseph to ponder, could you just tell him because I don’t want to be laid up with a broken leg for another few weeks.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:14:48 Well, I wonder sometimes, do we need that? We’re so busy. The Lord’s trying to interrupt, trying to get a word in edgewise. We don’t have any time for it. Do you think the Liberty Jail revelations, for example, what comes in 121, 22, 23, because the Lord has a captive audience, literally, and I guess in some ways, do I slow down enough? Do I go find someplace outside the view of mortals where I can give vent to my feelings, where I can really meditate, where I can really pray? Am I hearing the experiences of other people? There’s this vertical component where Joseph is connecting with heaven one-on-one, but then there’s this horizontal component where he is really connecting to fellow servants, hearing about God’s hand in their life and their missions. It’s this vertical and horizontals coming together, this love of God, this love of neighbor, this what is God trying to reveal? Then what are my fellow servants trying to reveal? If that doesn’t describe priesthood, I don’t know what does in terms of that intersection of vertical and horizontal, taking the authority of God and the blessings of God to go extend them to God’s children wherever they might be. Joseph’s in the zone in this moment. Here comes revelation. That becomes one of the great, great sections of the Doctrine & Covenants.
Hank Smith: 00:15:58 Have you ever watched a basketball game and it seems that a player is like you said, in the zone and they just can’t miss everything that they throw up there. One of our listeners is Jimmer Fredette. He knows what this feels like to just be a section 84 moment. He is in the zone and it is happening.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:16:16 Yeah, I’ve seen that in basketball. I’ve never experienced it in basketball, but yeah.
John Bytheway: 00:16:21 I love the phrase season of joy. So often as we talk about church history, it is so hard and it’s so tough, and the sacrifices that those people made, okay, move here, now move here. Actually, Zion’s over here. I’m grateful when I see a phrase like that that says, Hey, you know there was, we had some really joyous times as well.
Hank Smith: 00:16:41 I have this strange idea that Joseph Smith, Moroni and maybe even Mormon, get together one weekend a year. It’s September 21st, 22nd maybe it looks like the 23rd here. Is that what you’re talking about, Jared, when you said this is an important date?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:16:57 It is, and in fact the history behind, it’s interesting because there’s not a clear specification of exactly how does this come forth, but as we’ve pieced together the history, it seems like it’s probably a late night conversation. All these missionaries come in reporting. Joseph starts to receive this revelation. It’s a long one. When it says it was revealed on September 22nd and 23rd, the idea most likely is it goes beyond midnight. They break curfew. I guess if you’re in the middle of a conversation with heaven, that’s okay. It starts with Joseph and the company of six other elders. You have these seven that are coming together. The revelation begins late evening hours, spills over onto the next day into the 23rd. At some point, they call it a night. They tire out before God does. Then the next day, the revelation continues. There’s a break in the manuscript right after this beautiful hymn that we’ll see in the early one hundreds, the verses, and there’s a break there, so the revelation continues and the Lord wants to give a second round of revelation.
Hank Smith: 00:17:59 Hmm. Right before these sections. This is when you have some pretty big baptisms. You have Brigham Young baptized in April of ’32, Heber C. Kimball in June of ’32, and then one other thing, Jared, you talked about Joseph being in that grove. Isn’t this the first time he writes down what you and I call the first vision?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:18:20 1832 is the first written one that we have and it’s his own handwriting. Yeah.
Hank Smith: 00:18:24 Yeah. That happens there as well. A lot has happened this summer.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:18:29 Yeah. You wonder if, is he trying to make sense of all these experiences? He’s had time to just let it settle in and it’s starting to crystallize in his mind and his heart. It’s so much bigger than just him. Like you said, some big, some big guns have joined the church. Some people that are going to really need to know the kinds of things that are revealed in section 84. It’s beautiful.
John Bytheway: 00:18:49 It’s fun to imagine these elders coming back and reporting on their missions. What are they teaching? There’s a prophet. It’s fascinating to think. It helps us. Do we have to say, I have to know everything before I go? No. You testify of what you know. You’ll get more message.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:19:06 That’s a great point.
Hank Smith: 00:19:07 Article of Faith nine. We believe he will yet reveal
John Bytheway: 00:19:10 Yet reveal. Yeah.
Hank Smith: 00:19:12 There’s more coming. When I was in seminary, I think it’s pretty typical. We teach that the Aaronic priesthood is restored by John the Baptist, and then the Melchizedek priesthood is restored by Peter, James and John, but as I’ve been studying church history, would it be fair to say that Peter, James and John begin to restore the Melchizedek priesthood? It’s not like Peter, James and John come and that’s it for priesthood. There is so much more, and we haven’t even got to the temple yet. The Kirtland temple. What would you both say to that?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:19:46 That’s a great question Hank. President Nelson has described this beautifully that we’re part of an ongoing restoration. When we think ongoing restoration, well, of what? We’ll see actually this in a moment when we get to verse two, but this ongoing restoration of the gospel, of the church. Could we say an ongoing restoration of the priesthood? I would say so. Because in some ways, when even John the Baptist, since the Aaronic priesthood is an appendage to the Melchizedek priesthood, we’ll learn more of that in Section 107. I mean, John the Baptist was revealing and restoring a part of the Melchizedek priesthood, just that we call by a different name because it’s the lesser portion of it. Even section 27 where Peter, James and John are mentioned. Clearly it’s in the context of so many other people that are also bringing keys. We’ll see keys from Moses and Elias and Elijah. Section 110 with the Kirtland temple. There is this ongoing restoration, including of powers and authorities and responsibilities.
John Bytheway: 00:20:43 Yeah. I love the two words, restore and reveal. I’m thinking of Malachi talking about the Elijah would reveal the priesthood. We’re like, oh, what’s that? There’s a restoration, but reveal sounds like more, this is uncover more information, more purposes. The bigger picture of what this is all about, those two words are both happening. It’s being restored and it’s being revealed.
Hank Smith: 00:21:07 One follow up here, Jared, you mentioned earlier that there’s not a clear difference between Aaronic priesthood and Melchizedek priesthood. Yet later when the story is told, because that’s our context, it’s easy for us to understand these two. If you put yourself in their shoes, they don’t see that distinction until much later. I think that could be helpful for anyone who’s saying, wait, I thought the Melchizedek priesthood had already been restored. What is this? Why is there more? It’s becoming more clear to them. Would you say that as they go?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:21:42 Definitely. I mean, even Section 20, our challenge and our blessing is that we know so much more now. We read our knowledge into the text of the Doctrine & Covenants assume that they get it as well. It’s interesting though, to almost go chronologically, there’s some kind of veil we can pass through and restart the Doctrine & Covenants really learn revelation by revelation, not jump ahead mentally to things that haven’t been revealed yet. Even section 20 that lays out different priesthood offices. It doesn’t subdivide things into Aaronic and Melchizedek there, and even in our day where the 12-year-old deacons and the 14-year-old teachers and the 16-year-old priests, that was a later development as well. What are they getting in the moment that’s starting to crystallize for these early saints? It’s starting to make sense for Joseph again to take it the line upon line. I love what you said earlier, John. It’s amazing to go out in the mission field, teach things that you still don’t totally understand yourself because they haven’t been clarified, but sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask until we start acting on the revelation we have. Then we get to a point where this is a little still unclear. I better go back and get some clarification from the Lord. He’s more than happy to give it to us. As we see in revelations like this one.
Hank Smith: 00:22:57 What an important skill to try to put yourself in their shoes to forget what we have after what almost 200 years of revelation and clarification and say, okay, what were they seeing? What were they experiencing? What did they know? On our Voices of the Restoration lessons this year, John, I think Dr. Dirkmaat has helped us kind of see Joseph doesn’t know. He sees Alvin in the Celestial kingdom, but wait, I thought you had to be baptized to go to the celestial kingdom. Yeah, well, baptisms for the dead. It’s going to be another few years before that happens.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:23:31 Mm-hmm. I would say too, my PhD is in history to understand the historical process, the goal is to get as early documentation as you can get. The thought is the least amount of time that passes between event and documentation, the better. The memories are clearer. That’s true, however, you don’t have perspective yet. There’s a need for zooming in very carefully to find the best possible documentation, but then also sometimes in that moment we don’t know how that fits in. The big picture example I use with my students sometimes is if you were to write a history right at the beginning of the year 2000 Y2K would be a huge part of it. As everybody’s freaking out, like what’s going to happen with computers when it resets to the zero zero? Is it going to disrupt global supply chains? And now here we are 25 years later, is that going to make any history books?
00:24:22 But it’s only with the passage of time that we look back and go, that was really not a big deal at all. We need to have the balance as historians to see what are they learning in the moment, but are they overestimating or underestimating the significance of that event? You don’t know that until there’s some historical distance to give you a perspective that you didn’t have in the moment. So I see that with accounts of the first vision. I see that with understanding of the restoration of the priesthood and the different elements and offices within it. The subdivisions of Aaronic and Melchizedek, we’re learning as we go. I can understand the concerns that some people might have from this historical distance. Why didn’t they get it? It’s like, well, let’s cut them some slack.
Hank Smith: 00:25:03 Yeah, they’re human.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:25:05 Exactly.
John Bytheway: 00:25:07 I love the idea of the backstory. That helps us a lot. I was thinking about the fact that my mission call was over the signature of Spencer W. Kimball in the church of two and a half million people or something. It is a different church today and it’s a worldwide church today and what did they have a few thousand? What did they have? It helps me to extend some grace and say they were doing the best they could with what they had. It kept coming, thankfully.
Hank Smith: 00:25:40 Yeah. This is a scripture study skill that we really try to focus on on our podcast is, okay, hang on. When are they writing? What perspective do they have? What have they received so far? What do they not know that we know? John, we mentioned this with them going to Missouri. They’re all in. This is going to be great. We’re going to go there. We’re going to plant a couple trees. Jesus is going to come. Here we are 200 years later saying, no, no. You’ve got to change your expectations. Things are going to get really hard. Alright, Jared, let’s jump into section 84. I’ve been asking too many questions. I’m sure I’ll have more.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:26:17 If we can start with the first five verses. Starting in verse six the Lord introduces this magnificent tangent that he goes off on for the next 25 verses or so. There’s so much it feels like the Lord wants to talk about that he squeezes in, but to keep it in perspective from the very beginning, what’s he really after? Here we start in verse one, a revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant, Joseph Smith Jr. and six elders as they united their hearts and lifted their voices on high. Here we get this horizontal communion. Now that’s going to open us to the vertical. Verse two, yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church established in the last days for the restoration of, I always pause there, I’ll sometimes put on the board restoration of then blank, fill it in. What immediately comes to mind is usually one of three answers.
00:27:06 We talk about the restoration of the church, the restoration of the gospel or the restoration of the priesthood, and especially if they know this revelation coming in they’re like, ah, that’s what this is about. But what’s interesting, there is one passage in section 128 where Joseph is referring to Malachi and he says, here’s the prophet who had his eye on the restoration of the priesthood. Restoration of priesthood is one that is scriptural, but barely. It’s the only time it’s mentioned that way. You’ll see in the New Testament, for example, Peter talks about this, the restitution of all things. We think of the restoration and the restoration of all things comes up twice in the Doctrine & Covenants as well, but it’s interesting. Restoration of the church is not a scriptural phrase. Restoration of the gospel is not a scriptural phrase. When I ask my students what is God trying to restore?
00:27:54 Yes, he’s restoring church. Yes, he’s restoring priesthood. Yes, he’s restoring gospel, but what he’s trying to restore, here’s the scriptural phrase, section 84 verse two. This the church is established in the last days for the restoration of his people. I care about people far more than I do about programs and processes and even priesthoods. I’m a father who loves my children and I’m trying to restore them to a right relationship with me. I’m trying to restore them to a proper understanding of who they really are as divine children of heavenly parents. I’m trying to restore their perspective on life, what they can become if they’ll simply turn to me. That idea is deeply scriptural all throughout the Book of Mormon. Over and over it talks about the restoration of the Jews. That’s first Nephi 15, the restoration of his people that’s second Nephi 30, both Alma and Abinadi talk about resurrection as a restoration of us in terms of spirit and body perfectly united.
00:28:56 Alma and Samuel the Lamanite talk about the restoration of our brethren, the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth. I just worry sometimes that we confuse means and ends. We get so focused on the restoration of stuff instead of the restoration of people, which is what that stuff is all for. The church is wonderful, but someday it’s going to come down like so much scaffolding as apostles have said, has it served its purpose to restore us. From the very get go as this revelation begins, I’m so excited to dive into the weeds of priesthood, but please, let’s keep it in perspective that what all of this is for is a far holier purpose. God is trying to restore us to Him. With that in mind, he goes on, this restoration of his people as he’s spoken by the mouth of his prophets and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem.
00:29:53 Big picture. This is about children coming home to God. This is about restoring us to the kinds of people we need to be. How are we going to do that? Well, we’ve got to establish Zion and we just got back from Missouri. We’re going to build a new Jerusalem. This is going to be one heart, one mind dwelling in righteousness. No poor among us. How do we get to that point? Well, good question. Keep reading verse three, which city shall be built beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord in the western boundaries of the state of Missouri, dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jr. and others with whom the Lord was well pleased. Verily, this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation.
00:30:38 We’ve got, I’m trying to restore my people. How am I going to do that? By establishing Zion. How am I going to do that? It all boils down to the temple. This is a temple text that priesthood is going to grow into and out of. But to really think bigger picture here, if this is for the gathering of the saints, Joseph Smith teaches this clearly. What’s the purpose of the gathering in any age is to build temples. Why did we go to Missouri and come back? Well, we’re building a temple here in Kirtland. We’re going to have to build temples plural there in Zion. If we ever hope to establish a Zion that can restore people to a right relationship with God. That’s what the temple does. What he says in verse five, verily, this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord.
00:31:26 There’s the temple again and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill his house. Then he says in verse six, and the sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood, it’s like, oh, is that what we’re talking about? The transition from five to six is a tricky one because it almost feels like, wait, wait, where are you getting Moses out of this? That’s where he starts this beautiful tangent to really talk about Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood before he closes the loop back in verse 32, where the oath and covenant starts factoring in. But before we dig into that tangent, any thoughts from the two of you as far as the bigger umbrella here?
John Bytheway: 00:32:17 Hank, you know I’m a Stephen Covey fan and he wrote this book called The Six Events of the Restoration. He said that the Restoration is a formula for solving life’s problems. He said the first vision answered who is God and who am I? Notice it’s a people thing. The Book of Mormon translation answered, whose am I? It’s all about the doctrine of Christ and the Savior. Then it was like, what do I do to receive Christ? And here came the restoration of the priesthood. He still hasn’t even talked about a church yet. Now where do I go to receive Christ? Well, then here comes the restoration of the priesthood and the ordinances, and I loved that framework. He said to paraphrase, if we want to help people, we start with identity and relationships. This is what you’re talking about Jared. It’s the restoration of people and it’s all about people, and it starts with Joseph. He knows my name. It’s identity, it’s relationships, and then the structure, the rules and all that stuff comes way later.
Hank Smith: 00:33:13 I was at church the other day because we’ve been looking at the Doctrine & Covenants I thought if you were to zap one of these saints out of 1832, throw them in the church of 2025, what would they notice? And I wonder if they would say, I don’t hear a lot about Zion. The word, the idea of Zion, not that we’re doing anything wrong.
John Bytheway: 00:33:35 Good point. No.
Hank Smith: 00:33:36 I mean this is what it’s all about. This seems to be the name of the game. Two, the Book of Mormon seems to make it clear that the Lord wants to restore Israel, his people. We talk about restoration of the church and restoration of the priesthood, but the Book of Mormon seems to be saying, at least to me, look, God made a promise to Israel a long time ago. He intends on keeping that promise, what we refer to as the apostasy, it’s the loss of that promise. Who’s talking about the gathering and here’s the Lord, bringing it up in verse two, the restoration of my people, the gathering of the saints to Mount Zion so they can return to their work. It was Abraham’s job and Israel’s job to bless all the families of the earth. One more thought. When the church is born there in New York, it looks somewhat Protestant. You’ve got a group of people, the Book of Mormon that really changes things and the idea of a prophet, but then doesn’t Joseph Smith start to teach about priesthood. That’s not Protestant. And sacraments? That’s Catholic. Now we’re talking about a temple. That’s not Protestant or Catholic. That’s Jewish.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:34:50 Now, when I was in divinity school, I remember I was waiting for a class to begin. I come, there were only three students yet before the rest of the class piled in and the professor came, but it was me, a Catholic and a Protestant. This sounds like a good joke starting. I come in and the Catholic turns to me and all, Jared, I know you’re a Latter-day Saint, I still don’t get it though. Where do you guys fit? You’re not Catholic, so does that make you Protestant? The Protestant was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don’t… but I smile at the two of them. It was a guy and a girl. I said, you know, if the two of you got married and had a kid, it would be me.
Hank Smith: 00:35:19 Yeah.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:35:20 They were like, what? We don’t even like each other. I’m like, I know Reformation. I get it. But there’s this beautiful hybridization, this proving of contraries between Catholicism and Protestantism that you find in the restored gospel because there’s truths in both communities, but in some ways push them to the extreme. They’re fighting over things and they don’t want what the other has. Catholicism with its high liturgy. The temple is much more Catholic. Protestantism with its low liturgy. Sacrament meeting is much more Protestant. You get this beautiful combination of the two, the preaching of the word. There’s Protestantism at its finest, these sacraments and rituals. There’s Catholicism at its finest, and to your point also about temples. I said to them, I could say the same thing if one of you was Christian and the other was Jewish because if you take Christianity and Judaism and they get married and have a child, it’s the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as well.
00:36:10 Yes, we have churches, thank you Christianity, but we have temples, thank you Judaism. We have apostles. There’s Christianity. We have prophets. There’s Judaism. The Book of Mormon straddles both Old and New Testament, so talk about a hybrid of the two as well. Gifts of the Spirit. There’s New Testament, but there’s patriarchal blessings. There’s Old Testament. There’s so much of this restoration that’s taking place, that’s trying to restore the whole thing. There were other restorationists in Joseph Smith’s time period that were trying to bring back the New Testament, but Joseph went far beyond that and said, it’s not just about bringing back the New Testament church. It’s bringing back the Old Testament house of Israel. You pointed out, Hank, the Abrahamic covenant, that’s where this all begins. In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It’s a much bigger picture.
John Bytheway: 00:37:05 I remember Joseph Fielding McConkie saying, what priesthood do we have? Aaronic. Well, who’s Aaron? Oh, that’s Old Testament. Oh, that’s right. Who else? Melchizedek. Oh, that’s Old Testament. Oh, that’s right. Joseph McConkie would say, this is the old time religion.
Hank Smith: 00:37:21 Yeah, John, I think you’re right on there. When I was a missionary, I often taught about we’re restoring Christ’s New Testament church. I think if I went on a mission today, yeah, that would be included, but I think I’d go back further and talk about the promise that God made. That seems to be Nephi’s main point. God made a promise to Israel. He’s going to keep it.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:37:43 In some ways then if we’re thinking temples and building Zion, I mean, it seems like a jump to go from verse five to verse six, like speaking of the sons of Moses, and you’re like, whoa, that came out of left field. Like, is that what we were speaking about? It’s like, well, think about what they’re trying to do. Moses was trying to restore Israel to the promised land. Moses was trying to restore them to the right relationship with God and understand who they were as as the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The inherit, I mean, talk about 400 years of forgetting identity and relationship. To bring up what you’ve mentioned earlier, John, here’s Moses then trying to get them into that situation. He’s going to build a tabernacle in the center of Israel. The glory of God will fill that house. The cloud will bring them on their journey to the promised land.
00:38:32 Here is the Lord trying to do that all over again now through Joseph Smith, but what’s interesting is in verse six where he says, and the sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood. Then he starts going down this rabbit hole of let’s do the priesthood lineage. Moses received it from Jethro and Jethro to Caleb and Caleb to Elihu and all these, but if you pause with the sons of Moses according to the holy priesthood, then turn the page and look at verse 32, actually 31. He says, therefore, as I said, concerning the sons of Moses from six to 31, everything in between there is this long tangent. Now the Lord gets a lot of mileage out of a tangent. When he gets back to it in 31, as I said, concerning the sons of Moses, and I think it’s hilarious. Then the Lord can’t help himself.
00:39:19 He goes on another mini tangent in verse 31 and says something else. Then 32, he finally gets it back onto the track 32 and the sons of Moses. Okay, let’s really get back to this. If you want to jump from six to 32, then it’s this seamless. Let’s talk about oath and covenant of the priesthood. That’s going to help build temples, but as far as what he does within the tangent, this is where you get line of authority tracing it from Moses all the way back to Adam. We’re going to see the differentiation between the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood here. It’s really, really important the material.
Hank Smith: 00:39:58 I just feel happy to know the Lord also goes off on tangents a little bit because my students will say, where did that come from? I’ll say, well, I had this thought. I wanted to make sure you understood that. I’ll say a phrase and say, wait, I don’t know if you understand that phrase. Let me go way back. Let’s explain this one phrase.
John Bytheway: 00:40:17 My problem is I go off on a tangent. Then I can’t remember where it was like what were we talking about?
Hank Smith: 00:40:25 If we look at this tangent, verse six through 31, could I summarize it like this? The Lord saying, okay, we’re going to build a temple. Now, I’ve done this once before, let me explain.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:40:38 Yeah, this ain’t my first rodeo.
Hank Smith: 00:40:40 Yeah, like I’ve done this. I’ve brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of apostasy. I built them a tabernacle. We built a tabernacle to sanctify them. That’s verse 23. I’m going to sanctify the children of Israel. John usually says he got them out of Egypt, now he’s got to get Egypt out of them. I’m going to do the same thing with you. I’m going to get the world out of you. I’m going to give you this. We’re going to build a house. I’m drawing you out of the world, but now I’ve got to get the world out of you. Almost like he says, I’m doing it again. Would that fit?
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:41:09 I think it totally does. In some ways, it’s another version of creation, fall, atonement, which is the pillars of eternity and the story arc of life. That’s the endowment. That endowment is creation, fall, atonement. But honestly, we could have done the endowment with the Exodus story because we’ve created this house of Israel days of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. There’s creation stage. Then we go through these 400 years of bondage in Egypt and apostasy. There’s the fall stage. Then Moses comes on board to help us ascend to the atonement stage. I mean, literally, we could do the Exodus in the temple. That could be our endowment. We chose a more obvious creation, fall, atonement for that. But here we’re seeing the same thing where the Lord creates his New Testament church, for example. There’s a period of apostasy going through this fall historically. Now the restoration is ascending to the atonement all over again.
00:42:01 I definitely think that’s a parallel. If we want to see specifically how he’s going to do it, then well, now that we’re on the subject of Moses, let’s talk about this priesthood that Moses received through his father-in-law, Jethro. Then all the way back, we’re going to get to Adam. Here’s the line of authority. I love seeing my own and tracing it, knowing that there’s no broken links in the chain. But then when you get to 17, this is where this tangent is worth its weight in gold. Which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations. It’s without beginning of days or end of years. Thank you, John, for what you brought up with Melchizedek there in 18, and the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with a priesthood, which is after the holiest order of God.
00:42:49 These also suggest, oh, there’s a difference between Moses and Aaron. They’re these brothers. I thought they were all tribe of Levi. Well, yes, but by the time Moses and Aaron come onto the scene, we are so far removed from Levi. Where’s priesthood even coming from this period of apostasy during Egyptian bondage? No wonder Moses had to trace his authority from a different line. He’s raised in Egypt, in Pharaoh’s court. He receives priesthood from Jethro. Then you have to trace Jethro’s line back to Adam and back to God in that way. Here’s this priesthood that we’re seeing from Moses, but there’s also a priesthood that’s going to come down from Aaron. What do we do with this? Also, the difference here, this is the best place we see anywhere in scripture of the differentiation between Aaronic and Melchizedek. It’s really finally starting to get clear. The way he puts it is profound.
00:43:45 The way he ends verse 18 is this priesthood, which is after the holiest order of God. Now, pause on the superlative. Holiest. If it’s holiest, there’s other things that are a little less holy, but can still be holy, and this one is the order of God. Well, what are we going to compare that to? Keep going to 19, this greater priesthood. Oh, there’s another superlative. We’re differentiating here. There’s a greater priesthood and notice what it’s responsible for it administereth the gospel. We’ll keep this in mind because we’re going to see an administration of the gospel in a moment that’s slightly different, but this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom. Even the key of the knowledge of God. Now that word is going to come up. Every place we look for Melchizedek priesthood, the focal point in Melchizedek priesthood is God.
00:44:40 His holiest order. It’s the keys to His mysteries, the mysteries of His kingdom. It’s coming to know God in a way that we couldn’t know him otherwise. And then in verse 20, therefore in the ordinances thereof, now we’re talking the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood. The power of godliness is manifest. Without the ordinances thereof and the authority of the priesthood the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh. God, knowledge of God, the order of God, the power of godliness, everything we see in terms of Melchizedek priesthood has God at the center. That’s going to be the focal point in terms of the differentiation between Melchizedek and Aaronic. When he says in verse 22, without this, we’ve got to kind of trace back the antecedents, what’s the this He’s talking about? Well, without this power of godliness, without that no man can see the face of God, even the Father and live. To have to be translated, to be transfigured, to be changed into a godly state so that we can be with God.
00:45:48 Our only hope of being with God is being like God. So there are these ordinances that are required for us to be able to obtain the power of godliness so that we can be in his presence eternally. That’s the hope. It’s all going to come through Melchizedek ordinances. I can’t stress enough that ordinances precedes authority in how it’s described. He says ordinances twice in 20 and 21, even before he mentions the authority of the priesthood. The focal point, as far as God is concerned on priesthood is not simply authority that he’s giving, but rather authorized ordinances that you’re receiving that are going to prepare you for the presence of God, develop within you an understanding of His mysteries, develop within you the attributes of godliness that will be required of us if we ever hope to be with him again, that is where Melchizedek priesthood ordinances come in. We’re going to compare those to Aaronic ordinances in just a moment, but if we can pause and savor this for a second, everything we do in terms of confirmation and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, all of the temple ordinances that flow out of the Melchizedek priesthood. All of those priesthood in service of temple, temple in service of Zion, Zion, in service of restoring us to God, this godliness is what all of these ordinances are meant to develop within us.
Hank Smith: 00:47:09 I could tie section 84 verse two, the restoration of his people to verse 23, to sanctify his people. That seems to be step one.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:47:20 23 is such a culmination. You want to read that one, Hank?
Hank Smith: 00:47:24 Sure.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:47:24 23 is so powerful. There’s another, this here that refers back to the antecedent of everything we described in the preceding verses.
Hank Smith: 00:47:31 Now this, not this Moses, but this thing that we’ve been talking about. Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:47:45 It’s like Moses is saying, guys, there’s room on top of Mount Sinai for all of us. Don’t make me go up there by myself. That was never my intention. I want to bring the entire house of Israel up with me. I am teaching it plainly. You need these ordinances. We need to be godly. Don’t be afraid of the smoke and the fire and the lightning and the thunder. This is the presence of God. He wants to invite you into it. In the temple, he literally invites us into his presence. These ordinances. That’s exactly what God is trying to accomplish. Here’s Moses. Do you understand why God gave me authority through Jethro and trace it all back? Do you understand why I have these things? This is not about me being your leader. This is not about, look at me and I have a priesthood authority, I’ve been ordained. It’s look at yourselves, what God is trying to do for you. Here I am seeking diligently to sanctify you so you can see the same thing as I’m seeing. The face of God. You can learn the same things. I’m learning the keys of the knowledge of God. To think of what the Israelites settled for instead of what God intended to give them. Talk about living far beneath our privileges. That’s devastating.
Hank Smith: 00:49:01 The question when I read verse 23 is, do you want to be sanctified? I’m not going to force you.
John Bytheway: 00:49:05 This is something I’ve always wanted to understand in verse 24, but they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence. My first elementary reading of that is, oh, they tried, failed and could not endure. But it sounds more like Moses invited them because of their hardened hearts. They could not or didn’t even try to endure his presence.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:49:27 There are ordinances that are absolutely essential in this context. The ones that grow out of the Melchizedek priesthood are the ones that will introduce you to God. In fact, when he says it in verse 24 about this hardened hearts, they can’t endure his presence. The Lord in his wrath for his anger was kindled against them. Well, that sounds like strong language. He swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory, by the way. Pause there. Talk about a beautiful definition of rest, the fullness of glory that changes the Sabbath day for me. Maybe fewer naps and more fullness of glory on that day of rest. Am I really tapping into the grace of God? Am I renewing ordinances that reveal to me the power of godliness, and that’s what Moses is trying to do. Moses is dead set on everybody ascend Mount Sinai with me. See God as I’ve seen him, experience God as I’ve experienced him, but they weren’t ready. They hardened their hearts against it. Whatever reasons were on their part. Too much Egypt still in them.
John Bytheway: 00:50:32 No, no, no, you go, you, you, you go. I’ll stay right here.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 00:50:36 Yeah, exactly. I’m good. I can stay down here. I want this middle man. He says in 25, therefore, he took Moses out of their midst and the holy priesthood also and the lesser priesthood continued. Then now we’re going to pivot from Melchizedek to Aaronic, but it’s this historical moment of Moses beside himself. Like, no, no, no, no, no. Israelites, please don’t ruin this. This is our chance. This is our moment. It’s almost a preview of what’s going to happen at the Jordan River like promised land is yours. Go in and take it. They’re like, no, I don’t think we can. The Lord’s like, well, that’s unfortunate. Well, I guess I’m eternal, I can wait. Let’s let you wander, wander, die, wander, die in the wilderness. Then your kids will go in and conquer Jericho with the marching band. It’s not as hard as you’re making it out to be.
00:51:25 Trust me, on this one in a much bigger vein, I’m trying to give you Melchizedek ordinances. I want you to be restored to me, my children. You’re not ready. That’s hard. That’s frustrating. He uses stronger language than that in verse 24, but then in his justice, I can’t give you Melchizedek ordinances yet, but in his mercy, I can give you Aaronic ordinances to think about this pivot moment in Israelite history where Moses is going to come down with the tablets. In fact, the JST of Exodus 34 is so key here because the way we read it in the King James, Moses comes down the mountain with the tablets. He has the 10 commandments on him. He sees the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. How’s that for hardened hearts and not enduring God’s presence? Moses in this fit of anger shatters the tablets. You know the old joke, the only person to ever break all 10 commandments at the same time, he does it.
00:52:27 Then he’s like, he calms down and he goes back up top and he is like, oh God, sorry, got a little out of hand. I broke what you gave me. Can you print me out a second copy and then I’ll come down and we’ll give it another shot. Yet, JST, Exodus 34 tells us the second version was a far cry from the first, what God had intended to give them the first time Moses descends from Sinai is what we just read in section 84. I’m trying to give you the ordinances of exaltation. I’m trying to introduce you to God himself. You’re not ready for him. That’s devastating, but let me give you something different instead, something lesser. The irony to me is I think you get to see the personality, the character, the kindness of God. We saw words like anger and wrath, but what’s he do?
00:53:16 I’m so mad at you that I’m going to bless you with more than what you have right now. It’s just less than what I wanted. It was on the tablets. It’s written down right in front of you, and it was the higher the holier, the greater and you weren’t ready for it. Let me back up and bless you with something that you’re more able to receive. If we’re doing arithmetic here, that seems to be subtraction when you go from Melchizedek to Aaronic. And yet in the book of Galatians, Paul says that God added the law and that’s his arithmetic for Paul. It’s addition, not subtraction. And I’ve always wrestled with that, like how does that even work? How is the Aaronic being added to the Melchizedek? It’s a step down. But then I realized, wait, maybe it’s a step down because the Israelites weren’t ready for the step up that God had attended for them.
00:54:10 I used to do this object lesson when I taught seminary where I’d have a kid come up to the front, I said, I need you to step up to the desk and they did it easy, you know, a bounding leap there up to the top. I’m like, no, no, no. You pushed off the floor. I want to see if you can do this one leg deep squat, full body weight without pushing off on the floor at all. The other students were like hawks watching him like, no, no, no. I saw, I saw your, your calf muscle flexed. That doesn’t count. And all the years I did that, I think one kid, he was probably, probably a gymnast, was able to do that all on the strength of one quad muscle. Everyone else failed and said, okay, well you can’t do it. Let me add the piano bench next to the desk by adding a stepping stool, or as Paul calls it, in that same chapter, a school master to bring us unto Christ.
00:54:56 I’ll add the law to help you come up to the gospel. I’ll add Aaronic ordinances to help you be prepared to receive Melchizedek ordinances. We’re going to go baby steps on this one, and let me add it. In my frustration, I can’t hold you up to this highest standard and the holiest order of God, but in my kindness and compassion and mercy, I can give you an Aaronic priesthood that will help you prepare to receive what I was really after all along, which was Melchizedek ordinances and the power of God. In fact, if we could build on that briefly, the way he says it in verse 25 and 26 takes Moses, takes the holy priesthood, at least the higher order one. Verse 26, the lesser priesthood continues, but then notice how he describes it, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels. Now, we knew that from section 13, John the Baptist clarifies that.
00:55:50 But then this amazing phrase, it also holds the keys of the preparatory gospel, and this is another one of those moments that I think the Lord has just opened our eyes to something essential. I’ve sometimes asked my students, alright let’s take Aaronic, and then the word priesthood and the word preparatory. Can you put all those three in a sentence? Invariably they say, oh yeah, the Aaronic priesthood is the preparatory priesthood. I said, great. What do you mean by that? And they’ll describe it and it’s like, well, the Aaronic priesthood is a chance for me to prepare to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. I get to practice using the priesthood. I’m so grateful to have had a preparatory priesthood to prepare me for the higher priesthood. Now, I’ve heard that a million times. I’ve taught that a million times. But I remember one of the first times in a seminary class, I was asking my students, what is it?
00:56:42 What does it mean that the Aaronic priest is the preparatory priesthood? This student raises his hand and gave the exact answer I had expected, which is what I just explained here. It prepares me. It was one of those beautiful moments where the Lord wrests control away from the teacher and says, you’re going to mess this up again Halverson so let me take care of this one myself. And I found myself saying to this student, his personality and mine really clicked. I knew I could razz him and give him a hard time. We’ve all had students like that and the way he said it, oh it, it prepares me for the Melchizedek priesthood. What goes on on that. I just looked at him. I said, oh, so priesthood’s all about you. I have the Aaronic priesthood because it will prepare me for the day that I hold the Melchizedek priesthood. I am priesthood. Hear me roar. This is all about you, huh? You needed this preparation. He was like, what did I say wrong? And I’m sitting there going, what did he say wrong?
00:57:33 He gave the answer I would’ve given. Then we looked more closely at the verse we just read in verse 26. Lesser priesthood is in that. So there’s Aaronic priesthood is mentioned. Again, we’ll include that word preparatory is in that verse as well. The Lord is now doing the exercise I just gave for my students. Put Aaronic priesthood and preparatory in the same sentence. Now, instead of Aaronic he says lesser priesthood. Same thing. He then says, which priesthood holdeth the keys of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel. To me, this is profound. It’s like, wait a minute. It’s not just that the Aaronic priesthood is a preparatory priesthood. Yes, it does that. General authorities have taught that. So I’m not saying that’s false doctrine. That’s true. Okay. It does do that, but that’s just a side benefit. What the Aaronic priesthood is really all about is to administer a preparatory gospel.
00:58:31 Priesthood is never about the holder. It’s about the receiver of its ordinances, the receiver of its powers and privileges and gifts. Just like we saw earlier, this is all about the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood. Even more than just the simple authority of it. If we’re focusing on ordinances, what we saw earlier in verse 19, this greater priesthood administereth the gospel. Well, what does the lesser priesthood administer? Oh, it administers the preparatory gospel. This is all about what it does for other people, blessing them in powerful ways. Elder Bednar once taught nothing about the priesthood is self-centered. The priesthood always is used to serve, to bless, to strengthen other people. That’s what it’s for. If I picture Melchizedek priesthood is meant to administer the gospel to people, it’s the gospel of God, it’s power of godliness, it’s knowledge of God, mysteries of God, all of that.
00:59:26 People weren’t ready for it. I don’t know if I’m up to God’s level yet. Okay? Okay, that’s fine. Let me add something that’s lower. Let me give you a stepping stool. A school master. It’s going to be Aaronic ordinances that provide a preparatory gospel that is meant to prepare the receivers of those ordinances for the Melchizedek ordinances that will then get them the rest of the way. I’ve taught this to our young men. We’ve got to get past the thought of thinking this is a self-centered priesthood and this is my practice priesthood so I can get better. So I’m ready for Melchizedek. Yes, that’s going to happen, but that’s a side benefit. The real focus here is there are things about the Aaronic priesthood ordinances that are meant to prepare us for Melchizedek priesthood ordinances. Once we get that in mind, then it’s a matter of we’re all that.
01:00:20 Every one of us is trying to seek these preparatory ordinances. I’m ready for the fuller, higher holier ordinances that are going to come later to see what the Aaronic ordinances do. In verse 27, which gospel, here’s the preparatory gospel, is the gospel of repentance. We saw that in section 13 restoration of Aaronic priesthood as well and of baptism. No wonder it was John the Baptist who comes to restore that. The remission of sins, which is what John cried repentance in the wilderness to do. The law of carnal commandments in terms of temporal ones compared to the spiritual ones that Melchizedek ordinances perform, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel. I’m a fan of charts. When I do this with my own classes. I’ll bring up this chart where we see Aaronic and Melchizedek side by side.
01:01:11 On the Aaronic side, you see temporal things, the carnal commandments, as we saw in verse 27 on the Melchizedek side, you see spiritual things. This is the focus on the spiritual blessings of God. Then you could put letter of the law on Aaronic kinds of things. Spirit of the law as Melchizedek kinds of things. I put the iron rod with Aaronic. I put the Liahona with Melchizedek. Obviously, there’s different offices within them. We’ll see more of that here where deacons and teachers and priests are Aaronic. You’ll see elders and high priests and patriarchs and seventies and apostles theirs, Melchizedek. But in this passage, let’s put Aaron on the Aaronic side. Let’s put Moses on the Melchizedek side. We could even put John the Baptist on the Aaronic side and Jesus Christ on the Melchizedek side, we’re going to put lesser on the Aaronic and greater on Melchizedek, but we’re going to put God on Melchizedek.
01:02:06 We’re going to put angels on Aaronic. The word that keeps coming up with Melchizedek ordinances is God and godliness. Whereas what’s Aaronic? Well, it’s the keys of the ministering of angels, and in fact, when Moses comes down from Sinai the first time, ready to introduce them to God, trying diligently to sanctify his people so they could behold his face and enter into his rest, like, nope, that’s not going to happen. God even says to Moses, I can’t go with you on the rest of this journey. People are not prepared for my presence. They’ve made that tragically clear, I’m not going to be the one leading you in the wilderness anymore. It was me in the pillar of fire, in the cloud of smoke. But from this point forward, it’s going to be angels. You will be guided by angels to the promised land. Back to my chart.
01:02:53 Even I would put temple on the Melchizedek side, and tabernacle on the Aaronic side. The first set of plates, we’ve got the good stuff. Second set of plates ah, you weren’t ready for the first. Instead of Melchizedek, you’ll get Aaronic. Instead of temple, you’ll get tabernacle. Instead of God, you’ll get angels. Hopefully, all of those things will help you to prepare. If we were to continue subdividing and charting this, I would say the job of Aaronic ordinances is justification. The job of Melchizedek ordinances is sanctification. Aaronic ordinances eliminate sin. Melchizedek ordinances introduce us to God. It’s like one is preparation, the other is presentation. You are presenting people to God. In that process, there’s this sense of, remember when Elder Hafen gave a talk about the Atonement and said, the Atonement both pulls weeds and plants flowers. Aaronic ordinances pull weeds. Melchizedek ordinances, plants flowers.
01:04:01 I’ll even put it this way. Everything we do with the Aaronic priesthood is meant to eliminate sin. It’s to justifieth. No wonder it’s baptism for the remission of sins. When I confess for major transgression, who do I go to? The bishop. Why? Because he is the judge of Israel. Well, yeah, but really, what is he? He’s the head of the president of the Aaronic priesthood in the ward. What’s the highest ordinance within the Aaronic priesthood? Baptism. I’m washing away my sins. When you’re finished passing and blessing and administering the sacrament, we should have a sinless ward. We’ve all renewed our baptismal covenants. We’ve been justified by the grace of Christ. We’re back on this justified valley floor level just in time to now hopefully receive Melchizedek kinds of ordinances that will present us into the presence of God. If you think about baptism, Aaronic ordinance is followed by confirmation.
01:04:58 Melchizedek ordinance. What does confirmation do? Gives you the gift of the Holy Ghost. A member of the Godhead. Oh, mysteries of God. Power of God, power of godliness. When I partake of the sacrament, the sacrament is an Aaronic ordinance, but what’s the promise that comes at the end of the sacrament? To always have his Spirit to be with you. Oh, I’m back to God. I have a member of the Godhead with me. I’ve been cleansed through Christ of my sins. Thank you Aaronic ordinances. Now I’m ready to go to the temple where I can be introduced into the presence of God. See the face of God. Learn the mysteries of God. Receive the power of godliness. That’s what Melchizedek ordinances are all about. Even when I receive my temple recommend the signatures that go on it. There’s bishop and there’s stake president.
01:05:47 I always used to think, is that just quality control? Then I realized, no. The bishop represents the Aaronic priesthood in the ward, and the stake president represents the Melchizedek priesthood in the stake. But when I get my temple recommend, the Aaronic priesthood is signing off on me saying justification is complete. These ordinances have prepared you for greater things. Honestly, I’m blown away by the division of labor and if we can honor the fact that yes, as a side benefit, you young men are preparing yourself, but flip it. None of this is self-centered. To speak to God’s daughters as well as God’s sons. Have you received the blessings of the preparatory gospel? Have you received the justification that comes from Aaronic priesthood ordinances? And if you have, are you now ready for the greater, the higher the holier? Are you ready to be introduced into the presence of God through Melchizedek ordinances? No wonder this is a temple text. No wonder we’re trying to build Zion so we can be restored to a right relationship with God. This is what Aaronic and Melchizedek ordinances are meant to accomplish. Boy, for these missionaries to come back and sit here at the feet of Joseph Smith as he’s revealing all of these things. This is big.
John Bytheway: 01:07:14 I wish I’d have had this before I went out on my mission.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 01:07:17 Yeah me too.
Hank Smith: 01:07:18 Yeah, that would’ve been helpful.
John Bytheway: 01:07:20 Jared I want to repeat one line because I think it’s so good. Priesthood isn’t about the holder, it’s about the receiver of its ordinances. That’s a great line.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 01:07:31 And that’s why I loved Elder Bednar’s statement. Nothing about the priesthood is supposed to be self-centered. We lose ourselves. That’s how we find ourselves, at least find anything worth finding. Again, this is just the tangent, I’m so glad the Lord went on one. I’m like, whoa. Really? Thank you for not jumping straight to oath and coming to the priesthood. I need the stepping stool. I need the school master. I need this chance to be justified. If I ever hope to be sanctified. I’ll work on these actions through the Aaronic priesthood in hopes that someday I’ll develop the attributes that are so beautiful through the Melchizedek priesthood, this side by side, telestial to terrestrial to celestial. It’s all in there. It’s creation, fall, atonement. Reversing fall to get back to creation? No, that’s guilt back to innocence. Thank you Aaronic, but that was just the first step.
01:08:23 God doesn’t want to end in innocence. He wants to bring us to holiness. The holiest order of God. I hope your millennium of waiting for Jesus to come back served its purpose. I’m grateful for John trying to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. There’s his mission call in his baby blessing from Zechariah in Luke one. No wonder it’s John who restores this. Then no wonder it’s Peter, James, and John sent by Jesus with his priesthood keys to be able to come and restore these ordinances of exaltation. It’s to me, it’s glorious. Not bad for a farm kid.
Hank Smith: 01:09:07 As I was listening to you, Jared, and I was looking at verses 23 and 24, and I saw my own inner battle, the Lord says, do you want to be sanctified? That sounds painful, but do you want to enter, enter my rest? Yes, I do. Okay, you got to be sanctified. Ooh, that sounds painful. There’s this, I want to sanctify you. If you’re not sanctified, you don’t get to enter into my rest. So here’s what you get. If you don’t choose sanctification, here’s the children of Israel. Which one do you want? Do you want to enter into his rest? I do. Then you have to choose to be sanctified. That is my own inner battle. If you ever knelt down to ask the Lord to really, really do what he wants with you, and then you hold back and you go, but can we do this in a really kind of a painless way? Would that be okay if we maybe went a little bit slower through this process? I want to enter into your rest, but do I really want to be sanctified? I remember Elder Christofferson saying once, I tremble at what will be required. I think, no, don’t tell me that.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 01:10:14 It reminds me of Abraham’s statement in Abraham one verse two. I know there’s greater happiness and peace and rest for me. There’s got to be something better. How am I going to find it? Well, it’s in the blessings of the fathers. Not only do I want the blessings of the fathers, I love what he goes, says next. I want to be ordained to administer the same. This isn’t just about me. The world needs greater happiness and greater peace and greater rest. That’s what we’re after. If we really believe that wickedness never was happiness, then sanctification is the best news ever. Just as you’re describing Hank, it’s like, how but it’s so daunting. Yeah. Well, thank heaven for Aaronic ordinances. Thank heavens for a preparatory gospel.
Hank Smith: 01:11:02 I’m going to give you a little stepping stone. I like that. I’m going to add a little way for you to, okay, that wasn’t so bad. Okay, alright, let’s go a little bit further.
John Bytheway: 01:11:12 I want your chart. That was awesome. Side by side. I had the thought, who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, Aaronic, and a pure heart, sanctification, Melchizedek.
Dr. Jared Halverson: 01:11:26 You’re adding to the chart already, John. That’s beautiful.
John Bytheway: 01:11:28 It sounds like the very first temple recommend. It tells us there is a qualification to enter into the hill of the Lord. Clean hands, pure heart. It’s interesting.
