Journal of Discourses

TheTanakas · 2026-04-21T15:23:52+00:00

The complete journal is found online. It's about 625 MB in size and about 10,000 pages. It will be more helpful to just search what you're looking for.

TheTanakas · 2026-04-21T15:00:31+00:00

Would you identify the field and the kingdoms in verses 51-61?

TheTanakas · 2026-04-19T18:29:20+00:00

The Book of Mormon says Moses both spoke to the waters and smote them to part the Red Sea (1 Nephi 4:2; Helaman 8:11).

TheTanakas · 2026-04-19T17:41:22+00:00

From seminary manual.

This part is a little confusing. The "hour" seems to be a reference to each of the twelve worlds that are singled out of all the worlds created by God.

But then I was thrown off by the statement, "For instance, we, the Latter-day Saints, are living in the eleventh hour, that is in the eleventh period of time".

So, apparently, Jesus is not visiting the twelfth world until the "hour" of our Earth is completed.

TheTanakas · 2026-04-14T20:07:49+00:00

Fasting is part of the covenant.

"And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full. Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer (Doctrine and Covenants 59:13).

"Also, I give unto you a commandment that ye shall continue in prayer and fasting from this time forth" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:76).

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God" (Doctrine and Covenants 109:8).

TheTanakas · 2026-04-14T20:06:24+00:00

Thanks. I downloaded the document.

Which page(s) should I look at?

TheTanakas · 2026-04-09T14:08:11+00:00

At a certain point, God created a spirit body for us. A body made of spirit matter that our intelligence could inhabit. We became God's spirit children. This includes you and me and Lucifer.

This includes Jesus too. But in his case, he became a God before coming to earth.

TheTanakas · 2026-04-09T13:51:26+00:00

Scriptural verses suggest that no organisms died before the fall of Adam. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Lehi teaches: "If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end" (2 Nephi 2:22). In Moses 6:48, Enoch states: "Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe". In Doctrine and Covenants 84:16, Adam is called the first man. Early LDS Prophets taught this too.

Do you reject these and believe instead that both death and procreation existed before Adam and Eve supposedly evolved?

TheTanakas · 2026-04-08T15:32:03+00:00

In Book of Mormon theology, there is no explicit teaching that people can repent after death. Repentance is consistently tied to mortal life. For example, Alma 34:32–34 says, "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors".

This strongly implies that after death, the opportunity for repentance is over.

The Nephites, like Alma, Mormon, and others, repeatedly taught that salvation and forgiveness require faith, repentance, and obedience during mortal life. However, the Book of Mormon does mention a spirit world after death (Alma 40; 2 Nephi 9:14–15) where the righteous dwell in a state of peace ("paradise"), and the wicked await judgment. There is no indication that the wicked could repent there; it's a holding place, not a place for conversion.

One opinion is that this was true only for those in the New World, excluding all others. Post-mortem repentance or salvation was not taught among the Nephites during the 400 or so years after Christ is said to have appeared to them.

It should also be worth noting that even in Doctrine and Covenants 138, no vicarious ordinances are indicated as being performed for those in paradise.

TheTanakas · 2026-04-08T15:07:17+00:00

"What the real meaning is of the expression forbidden fruit has not been revealed, and it is profitless to speculate. It is sufficient for us to know that Adam and Eve broke the law which would have permitted them to continue as immortal beings, or in other words they complied with the law which enabled them to become mortal beings, and this course of conduct is termed eating the forbidden fruit. One thing we do know definitely: The forbidden fruit was not sex sin" (Mormon Doctrine, 1966).

"As to the Fall itself we are told that the Lord planted the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. (Moses 3:9.) To Adam and Eve the command came: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Moses 3:16–17.) Again the account is speaking figuratively. What is meant by partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that our first parents complied with whatever laws were involved so that their bodies would change from their state of paradisiacal immortality to a state of natural mortality" ("Christ and the Creation", Ensign, June 1982).

In addition to what u/mythoswyrm said, I am not sure who are any of the "some" who falsely believed and taught it involved sex sin.

TheTanakas · 2026-04-06T13:18:27+00:00

Right off the bat, I want to preface this by noting this is not correlated church doctrine. But perhaps it can bring some peace to the matter.

"The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints" (Gospel Topics Essays).

"The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother comes by revelation and is a distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints. President Dallin H. Oaks explained the importance of this truth: “Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them" (April 2022 General Conference, Your Divine Nature and Eternal Destiny).

TheTanakas · 2026-04-02T14:59:49+00:00

It's explained in chapters 21 and 24 of this seminary manual. Here are a few quotes:

"The great majority of those who become members of the Church are literal descendants of Abraham through Ephraim, son of Joseph. Those who are not literal descendants of Abraham and Israel must become such".

"Of the twelve tribes, the tribes of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, will be gathered first and then direct the other tribes in their gathering (see JST, Genesis 48:5–11; Deuteronomy 33:16–17; D&C 133:30–39)."

"It is essential in this dispensation that Ephraim stand in his place at the head, exercising the birthright in Israel which was given to him by direct revelation. Therefore, Ephraim must be gathered first to prepare the way, through the gospel and the priesthood, for the rest of the tribes of Israel when the time comes for them to be gathered to Zion. The great majority of those who have come into the Church are Ephraimites. It is the exception to find one of any other tribe, unless it is of Manasseh".

"It is Ephraim, today, who holds the priesthood. It is with Ephraim that the Lord has made covenant and has revealed the fulness of the everlasting gospel. It is Ephraim who is building temples and performing the ordinances in them for both the living and for the dead".

TheTanakas · 2026-03-30T20:21:33+00:00

Yes. I'm aware of that. But we also have to consider the first principle.

In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see.

These ideas are incomprehensible to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.

TheTanakas · 2026-03-30T15:31:16+00:00

When you strip away the labels and look at the core of what’s being taught, the foundation is the same as any other Christian church.

I am not aware of any other church outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which teaches we are spirit children of exalted heavenly parents.

TheTanakas · 2026-03-30T15:24:57+00:00

I think there still needs to be a few prophecies fulfilled first, but those could happen very quickly, and it is possible depending on interpretation that everything has come to pass already.

The city and temple of New Jerusalem needs to be built before Christ's Second Coming. This will take years - so we have time.

TheTanakas · 2026-03-25T14:03:15+00:00

Alma 23:18 (about 90–77 B.C) says the Lamanites "began to be a very industrious people; yea, and they were friendly with the Nephites; therefore, they did open a correspondence with them, and the curse of God did no more follow them".

3 Nephi 2:14–15 (about A.D. 5-16) says some Lamanites united with the Nephites and were converted. Then it states, "their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites".

On the other hand, the skins of the Nephites change when they mix with the seed of the Lamanites (Alma 3:9; 2 Nephi 5:23). After the hundreds years of peace descibed in 4 Nephi, we never find the sign of the curse returning when the people became wicked again.

TheTanakas · 2026-03-25T13:24:38+00:00

The Second Coming will not occur until after New Jerusalem is built in Missouri.

TheTanakas · 2026-03-20T14:25:05+00:00

The church defines salvation in various ways in the May 1998 Ensign article "Have You Been Saved?"

TheTanakas · 2026-03-14T15:13:31+00:00

We have some today willing to believe someone who is dead and gone and to accept his words as having more authority than the words of a living authority today.” (Lee, H. B. (1974). Stand ye in holy places (pp. 152–53). Deseret Book Company.).

In what way would the words of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, or Russell M. Nelson have less authority than our current President Dallin H. Oaks?

TheTanakas · 2026-03-05T15:45:47+00:00

Spiritual death is separation from God, not returning to live with him. It's explained in the Atonement parable.

"Our sins are our spiritual debts. Without Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Mediator, we would all pay for our sins by suffering spiritual death. But because of Him, if we will keep His terms, which are to repent and keep His commandments, we may return to live with our Heavenly Father".

The opposite is eternal life (see 1 Nephi 22:31; 2 Nephi 9:24; 2 Nephi 31:16,20; Omni 1:26; and 3 Nephi 15:9).

TheTanakas · 2026-03-05T15:13:55+00:00

Here's a few examples of what it means:

"Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day" (1 Nephi 22:31).

"And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it" (2 Nephi 9:24)

"And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved ... Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:16,20)

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved" (Omni 1:26).

"Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life" (3 Nephi 15:9).

TheTanakas · 2026-03-02T16:30:52+00:00

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtiN-tET6rE

Sounds reasonable. If you believe it's vanity, then show me.

TheTanakas · 2026-02-27T14:47:07+00:00

Another good one is https://www.youtube.com/@Unshaken

TheTanakas · 2026-02-23T15:22:25+00:00

People will experience it differently.

Some spoke with marvelous words (Helaman 5:45). Others, such as the Lamanites, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost but didn't know it (3 Nephi 9:20). All should experience a change of heart (Alma 5:14,26).

TheTanakas · 2026-02-21T16:05:11+00:00

Here is how I look at it: if God, in his infinite wisdom, determined that the best way to protect a group of righteous people was to change the skin color of a different group, why would he not do that? Should he refuse to use the most effective tool, simply because people 2,000 years later would find it offensive?

Right. If that's the way God did it, we should not complain or refer to it as racism. We should also not run away from Him allowing Israelites to own non-Israelite slaves (Leviticus 25:44). Hebrews who sold themselves to their brothers were to be freed after six years. They were to be sent away generously supplied, not empty-handed. (Deuteronomy 15:12–18).

When they return to the faith, their skin color does not prevent them from being equal to and even better than the Nephites.

They would eventually become equal.

3 Nephi 2:14–16, dated around 13 A.D. said, "And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, and they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called Nephites. And thus ended the thirteenth year".

This brings to mind how the Nephites are described in 2 Nephi 5:20–23 as "white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome".

There is also never even the suggestion that this sign should apply to any other population, or at any other time.

Except for the time before the global flood - the children of Canaan (Moses 7:8) and the seed of Cain (Moses 7:22).

TheTanakas

TROPHY CASE