The Prisoners
Shall Go Free
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The Terrible Dilemma
Essential
Steps
For
Salvation
God
Loves
Everyone
What about the
African bushman?
What did the early church do?
397 A.D.
Chrysostum, a patriarch at Constantinople, says..:
After a catechumen [churchman] was dead they had a living man
under the bed of the deceased; then coming to the dead man
they asked him if he would receive baptism; he being unable to
answer, the live man (under the bed) would answer for him, in the
affirmative, and was baptized for the dead man.
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, … wrote:
As time passed abuses crept into the churches regarding the
ceremony of baptism for the dead; some insisted that a dead
person be anointed with oil and then immersed in water; others
that oil be used instead of water; and some sprinkled; until the
ordinance was totally done away with. (Improvement Era 1940)
1841: The City of our God
Psalm 48:
1 Great is the LORD, and
greatly to be praised in
the city of our God, in the
mountain of his holiness.
2 Beautiful for situation,
the joy of the whole earth,
is mount Zion, on the
sides of the north, the city
of the great King.
Joseph Smith
The name of our city
(Nauvoo) is of Hebrew
origin, and signifies a
beautiful situation, or
place,
Jerusalem/Nauvoo
3 God is known in her
palaces for a refuge
4 For, lo, the kings were
assembled, they passed
by together
5 They saw it, and so they
marveled; they were
troubled, and hastened
away
11…let the daughters of
Judah be glad…
D&C 124:10 and where
shall be the safety of my
people, and refuge for
those who shall be left
of them?
11 Awake, O kings of the
earth! Come ye, O,
come ye, with your gold
and your silver, to the
help of my people,
…to the house of the
daughters of Zion.
Jerusalem/Nauvoo
Psalm 48: 8 As we have heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of
our God: God will establish it for ever...
9 We have thought of thy loving kindness, O
God, in the midst of thy temple.
12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell
the towers thereof.
13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her
palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation
following.
Question?
What are we to tell
“the towers” and
“the generations”
about Nauvoo?
Nauvoo is the place
that the Lord
revealed, to a living
prophet, the answer
to the Terrible
Dilemma.
Minutes, Oct Conference, 1841
For illustration the speaker [Joseph Smith] presented, by
supposition, the case of too men, brothers equally
intelligent, learned, virtuous and lovely, walking in
uprightness and in all good conscience, so far as they
had been able to discern duty from the muddy stream
of tradition or from the blotted page of the bock of
nature.
One dies, and is buried, having never heard the gospel
of reconciliation to the other the message of salvation
is sent, he hears and embraces it, and is made the
heir of eternal life. Shall the one become a partaker of
glory, and the other be consigned to hopeless
perdition? Is there no chance for his escape?
Sectarianism answers. "none! none!! none!!!" Such an
idea is worse than atheism
Seymour Brunson
Member High Council
Far West, Nauvoo
Funeral, August 15th, 1840
Jane Neyman
Lost a son, Cyrus
Harvey Olmstead
Joseph Smith, Sr. request
Font dedicated, Nov. 8th, 1841
Joseph Smith
I first mentioned the doctrine [baptism for the dead]
in public when preaching the funeral sermon of
Brother Seymour Brunson; and have since then
given general instructions in the Church on the
subject. The Saints have the privilege of being
baptized for those of their relatives who are dead,
whom they believe would have embraced the
Gospel, if they had been privileged with hearing
it, and who have received the Gospel in the spirit,
through the instrumentality of those who have
been commissioned to preach to them while in
prison.
"Without enlarging on the subject, you will
undoubtedly see its consistency and
reasonableness; and it presents the Gospel of
Christ in probably a more enlarged scale than
some have imagined it." HC 4:231
Section 128
1 As I stated to you in my letter before I left
my place, that I would write to you from
time to time and give you information in
relation to many subjects, I now resume
the subject of the baptism for the dead,
as that subject seems to occupy my
mind, and press itself upon my feelings
the strongest, since I have been pursued
by my enemies.
Section 128
9 It may seem to some to be a very bold
doctrine that we talk of—a power which
records or binds on earth and binds in
heaven. Nevertheless, in all ages of the
world, whenever the Lord has given a
dispensation of the priesthood to any
man by actual revelation, or any set of
men, this power has always been given.
Dispensation?
The Lord
Prophet
Gift
God’s People
The Prophet’s Plea
Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a
cause? Go forward and not backward.
Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!
Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly
glad. Let the earth break forth into singing.
Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal
praise to the King Immanuel, who hath
ordained, before the world was, that which
would enable us to redeem them out of their
prison; for the prisoners shall go free. (D&C 128)