D&C 27-28 - Come Follow Me with Sam

Here we go again. We've got topic of the sacrament, the armor of god, and the role of revelation

Section 27

The Sacrament as a preparation of the fulfillment of all things

This revelation starts as a simple warning of a temporal danger, but as with many (all?) things, God expands this out to help us catch a glimpse of the bigger picture. How He shows this in vs 5-14, as an emphasis of both the supernal sacredness of the ordinance and the long line of faithful saints who are tied together in this ordinance, and will be in God's second coming. In the Jewish tradition, they look forward to next year in Jerusalem at Passover time. Every Sunday, we can be reminded that one day we will take the sacrament with Him whose blood was shed which we remember.

Latter-day Saints, and Christians in general, sometimes struggle with the sacred nature of the sacrament. We try to imbue it with a special meaning that it doesn't need, while completely obviating the sacred meeting it actually has. Elder Bednar gave a fantastic talk on this, and I don't think I can explain it better than he did We don't need to dress up the sacrament more than its been asked to be, or to profess to it properties that it doesn't need. When we worship in truth and in spirit, we will find an ordinance that is simple enough to be done anywhere in the world, yet sacred enough to bring us back to the cross.

The Armor of God Breakdown

Okay, lets get way too deep into this armor of God stuff. My personal interpretation, but should be fun.

Loins girt with Truth. The foundation of the entire armor of God is built on the truth, and a faith that pursued, the truth will lead us to the best place we can be. This can be a challenge because, building our foundation on truth, we need to truthfully admit that we know only a very, very little compared to the vastness of the truth that is out there. Just remember, girding loins was to bind up your garment so that you could run, move and do what you needed to do to face that challenges/obstacles that you will need to. If you don't gird up with truth, you are going to trip up over yourself sometime and at best it will be embarrassing and at worst it will be lethal. gird up your loins with truth.

Breastplate of righteousness. Truth won't do you any good for most of the day to day attacks if you aren't living the way you are supposed to. That is the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate guards the most of your body including a lot of vitals. Same way with the body of Christ, the church. If the church is built on the rock of truth, but does not do the things pertaining to righteousness, it doesn't do the church any good. Righteousness is the armor around our bodies, and a protection against everything we are daily surrounded in. put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. gospel is the good news, brought by messengers. foot wear is tied to imagery of messengers, such as Hermes winged sandals. H&S says that preparation is another word for 'equipment' so if that helps, great! I like thinking of it as preparation because one day the Prince of Peace will come and then we will truly live according to His Law and his gospel, but until then we prepare for the day by sounding the gospel of peace in every year. And we run and are not weary and we walk and not faint with our feet shod. so shod up those feet and proclaim the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Shield of faith. The Book of Mormon speaks a lot on faith. You can read about it here. I won't rehearse everything, but I will mention the same thing as I did in D&C 4, which is that faith is what you hold onto. You need to understand that faith is an active principle of power and glory to understand how the shield of faith acts. The shield of faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked. It doesn't block or negate them. You do not put up a wall of blind faith that things bounce off. You put up an active wall of faith of the truth you have and the goodness you know, and all of a sudden, all the complicated knowledge of the world becomes one drop compared to your ocean of enlightenment and you realize that even the most bitter enemies are noobs compared to the glory of God. If if there is one lesson to learn from church history, (besides that it is true and faithful), is that ordinary men and women, beset by hell, and broken in so many ways, coming from two thousand years of apostasy, can hold onto the truth against the fiery (some truly fiery) darts of the adversary. Even Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer, who left the church and stirred up some very bitter retribution for their perceived wrongs, never gave up the light of truth of their witness of the Book of Mormon presented by an angel of God. The shield of faith is there to neutralize the specific, bone-cutting attacks of the adversary. It is there to take the bitterness of Hell and walk through it. Is it any wonder that Paul rejoiced in the acts of faith of the fathers and mothers from Adam to Mary, or that Moroni proclaimed the acts of faith in wonder from the Brother of Jared to his own fathers? Who couldn't admire Abinadai facing down the powers of the earth in King Noah's court, or Nephi and Lehi, clothed in flames, declaring the gospel to the guards set to kill them, or Joseph smith, walking calm as a summer's day, into a death trap of power and ball, sealing his testimony with his blood? Take the shield of faith, because when the faithful come so armed, the bells of Hell ring, but the shield of faith will quench all the fiery darts of the adversary.

Helmet of salvation. Your head is a sacred place. It is the place of your mind, your eye, your mouth, and your ears, all of which are symbolically and literally tied to God and holiness in many ways. on all of your armor, you put on salvation. Your mind is the connection to the higher things, and your helmet is protection of those higher things. Don't forget where your are going, or that there is a better world than the existence we now have. Put on the helmet of salvation.

The sword of my spirit, which I will pour out upon you. Most of the time outside of the scriptures, the sword is representative of truth, and in some ways, this is accurate because The Spirit is The Spirit of truth. But our offensive weapon is not proving people wrong. It is the Spirit of God, which we are all armed with at Baptism. The sword is also a symbol of power and action. Wielding the spirit (or in another sense, letting the spirit wield us) gives us the power to accomplish whatever we need on this planet, up to our own salvation. The sword is also the sword of the word. With our words let us speak with the Spirit, and wield the sword in defense of all truth and virtue.

Where we stand

H&S make a note that 'we may be able to stand', we put on the whole armor that we may be able to 'hold the ground on the day of battle and be ready to meet the next assault. The followers of Christ must hold the positions in which He has placed them.'

God finishes with this

...and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be ^bcaught up, that where I am ye shall be ^calso. Amen.

Section 28

Section 28 was a result of Oliver Cowdery writing a letter to the prophet where he said 'I command you in the name of God to erase those words, that no priestcraft be amongst us', referring to the words 'truly manifest by their works that they have received the gift of Christ unto the remission of their sins...'. This is about how the church receives revelation and how individuals receive revelation. It is a tricky subject because church leaders have been wrong in the past, and individuals have received revelation that later came to pass on a church-wide scale. For purposes of this discussion, I'd like to focus less on where the line is and more on the fact that first, revelation, or rather, the potential to receive revelation, is liberally offered to every member of the church, and God wishes to give revelation to all those who are receptive enough to listen, but that He does not do it by way of commandment to the whole church.

Quickfire verses

vs 1: thou shalt be heard by the church in all things whatsoever thou shalt teach them by the Comforter. Oliver Cowdery isn't going to be reprimanded for teaching or even by speaking to the church. God begins by actually encouraging Oliver to open his mouth and teach by the Spirit. The last part is key. Oliver was second elder in the church, so he holds a different position than us, but the learning can still apply. We should teach revelations as we can by the Spirit, but, as we will see, this is not by commandment to the church; the person giving must teach by the spirit and be careful to listen if the Spirit recedes. Likewise, those listening must listen by the Spirit and be careful to listen if the Spirit no longer testifies the truth in them.

vs 2: for he receiveth them even as Moses. God tells Oliver to not give commandments and revelations 'in this church'. The Moses incident, I believe, refers also to Aaron and Miriam. There were times in the wilderness where Miriam and Aaron made false steps, and needed help coming back to the path God set them on. This seems to be a reminder to Oliver that this was a similar situation. This is reinforced again in vs 3.

vs 4: and if thou art led at any time by the comforter to speak or teach.. thou mayest do it. and vs 5: but thou shalt not write by way of commandment but by wisdom. these verses spell out what God is trying to communicate to Oliver

vs 7: For I have given him (Joseph) the keys of the mysteries. H&S says 'a mystery is a truth that cannot be known except through divine revelation - a sacred secret....[these are] mysteries because they could not have been discovered except by revelation. I think H&S slightly missed the mark in that these things could probably be discovered, but not understood. Many Christian scholars believe the mysteries are certain rites that Jesus gave the twelve disciples, which would be (spoiler alert) the temple rites and those things pertaining to the temple rites. I personally feel like the temple rites can only be understood by revelation. You can go through the entire ceremony and not understand a thing, but when you are given the 'key of knowledge', all the symbols and actions unfold for you in the most natural manner and you are filled with understanding. These mysteries, I believe, could be discovered via artificial means, but they are a mystery because their sacred nature can only be understood by revelation, or a direct connection between you and God. 

As it happens, this is eerily reminiscent of oriental teachings of Zen, the Tao, and enlightenment. The kingdom of God is in you if you did but know it.

vs 16: open thy mouth at all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing. Amen. Dust off those feet shodders and shod up because in the darkest place is the brightest light and the message of the gospel is glorious.