Adam Awake

Rend That Veil

by Lucas Jackson · · 4 min read

Joseph warned the saints about reliance upon him. Here is a quote worth pondering.

Prest. J. Smith rose, read the 14th Chap. of Ezekiel— said the Lord had declar’d by the prophet that the people should each one stand for himself and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church— that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls— app[l]ied it to the present state of the church of Latter-Day Saints— said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall— that they were depending on the prophet hence were darkened in their minds from neglect of themselves— envious toward the innocent, while they afflict the virtuous with their shafts of envy.1

What does he equate to depending upon him? Can we receive light and knowledge in such a state?2

Do the scriptures warn of these things?
A darkened mind?3

What are we treating lightly?
Causing unbelief leading to condemnation?4

These “things” given to try our faith.
We have the “lesser things,” and “greater things” have been withheld.
Why are “greater things” withheld?
How do we change our status?5

Notice all the similarities:

  • Knowledge hid up because of unbelief
  • rend that veil of unbelief
  • blindness of mind

Could it be that we are in a state of unbelief? Darkened in our minds? Are we without faith? What does Moroni say will be an indicator that someone has faith?6 If what has ceased, do we receive a wo? It is because of ______? In fact, read Moroni 7:37 back to back with D&C 84:55.7

Continue in verse 38: if “these things” have ceased, then faith has ceased, and “they are as though there had been no redemption made.” What are “these things”? Why would it be so important for Angels to minister to us? Why is that an indicator or evidence of faith?

As Denver Snuffer said in his first lecture:

The Spirit cannot lean upon you and cannot focus your mind upon the revelation that you are entitled to receive unless you use the Scriptures as they were intended to [be] used: as a Urim and Thummim. They must become a basis from which you draw out the truths of God. And the best material in scripture is, of course, the Book [of] Mormon. This is why the Book of Mormon is the primary scripture I’ve used in all my writings.8

The Book of Mormon is your personal Urim and Thummim. Lean upon it, not another.9

Ultimately the question boils down to, are prophets to be “followed” or “received?”10

For these are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas.

These are they who say they are some of one and some of another—some of Christ and some of John, and some of Moses, and some of Elias, and some of Esaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch;

But received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant.11

Why would dependence on a prophet “darken the mind?” Do their experiences do anything for our own salvation? Why must we “work out our own salvation?”12

…the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity–thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men.13

– Joseph Smith

Notes

  1. Relief Society Minute Book, May 26, 1842, pp. [50]–[54], in the handwriting of Eliza R. Snow (Joseph Smith Papers). An edited version is in History of the Church 5:19 and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 237. Ezekiel 14 is Ezekiel 5 RE (Ezekiel 14 in the King James Version). I come back to this in Look Unto Us. Joseph returned to Ezekiel 14 across his ministry. He read it to open the Church’s first conference, at Fayette, New York, on June 9, 1830: “Ezekiel 14th. read by br. Joseph Smith jr. and prayer by the same” (Minutes, 9 June 1830, Minute Book 2, p. 1). In his revision of the Bible (about 1833) it held his only change in Ezekiel’s first fourteen chapters, at verse 9: “I, the Lord, have not deceived that prophet” (Old Testament Revision 2, p. 115). And he read it again to the Relief Society in Nauvoo on May 26, 1842, applying it to the Church (Relief Society Minute Book, p. [51]). These are the readings the Joseph Smith Papers record. ↩
  2. See D&C 50:24: “He that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light.” ↩
  3. D&C 84:54–57. ↩
  4. 3 Nephi 26:8–10. ↩
  5. Ether 4:13–15. ↩
  6. Moroni 7:36–38. ↩
  7. Moroni 7:37; D&C 84:55. ↩
  8. Denver Snuffer, “Be of Good Cheer, Be of Good Courage,” lecture 1 of 40 Years in Mormonism, Boise, Idaho, September 10, 2013 (transcript). ↩
  9. D&C 1:19–20: “that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh— But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord.” 2 Nephi 28:31: “Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost.” ↩
  10. D&C 84:36–38: “For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me.” ↩
  11. D&C 76:99–101. ↩
  12. Philippians 2:12 (unchanged in Joseph Smith’s translation); Mormon 9:27: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.” ↩
  13. Joseph Smith, from Liberty Jail, March 20, 1839, in the wording of History of the Church 3:295. The original letter, in Caleb Baldwin’s hand, reads differently (for example, “he must commune with God”): Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839, p. 12 (Joseph Smith Papers). ↩

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