D&C 88: Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome! This week is section 88, one that is very long and very well known.

I personally don’t believe the church is ready to understand Section 88 but that it is a continuation and fulfillment of that which was contained in Section 84. Maybe we need to lift that curse before we are ready for this Section.

This is known as the Olive Leaf based on Joseph Smith calling that in a letter, “I send you, the ‘Olive Leaf’ which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us.”


Section 88

 A foundation for understanding the rest of the text, but possibly not understandable without the rest of the text.

Vs 5-13 is somewhat of a foundation of understanding for the rest of the text. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it talks of things in a way that is a little foreign to our common understanding. Here is a little trace through.

Vs 5. Section 88 has already mentioned the celestial kingdom multiple times. It appears to me that the specific end goal of this entire section is to teach us a specific order of the celestial kingdom. This order is most holy, the holiest, embodied in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Vs 6. Mentions that Jesus has gone to the highest and the lowest and that He ‘comprehended all things’, the light of truth

Vs 7-10. Starts out ‘which truth shineth’. The truth we are talking about hear is slightly different than what one might refer to as an earthly truth, which is in model and pattern of this truth of which we speak. This truth ‘shineth’. This is a glorious truth, the truth which animates all things. This truth is the light of Christ. In the next verses, God explains demonstrates this fulfillment in the heavenly bodies.

Vs 11-13 further explanation on where this light comes from.

Life as purification, not as a test.

Vs 18-35 explain life as more of a purification and less as a test


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