I will be posting here some of the gospel questions I have received, along with my answers.
Topics posted below:
Baptism of Jesus
Joseph Smith Translation
Soap Operas
Time of Jesus' Birth
Question: Often in your lesson outlines you mention scriptures found in the Joseph Smith Translation that I do not find in the back of my Bible. (This Bible is about a year and a half old). Where do I go to find the Joseph Smith Translation scriptures that you mention. An example would be in Sunday School Lesson number 8 you mention that the first two Beatitudes are missing and then quote them. However when I go to my JST in the Bible I only find Matthew 5:21 and there is no JST addition at the beginning of Matthew 5. I loved reading about these two Beatitudes but if I mention it to my class I want to be able to show them where they may find it in the scriptures as well. (Carol - Feb 2007)
Question: I have just been called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher and to say the least I am nervous. Your lessons are great but I do have a question. In trying to make sure that I can back up everything I say I can not find the Joseph smith translation for Matthew 5:3 and 5:4 in my scriptures or on the official church website. can you please let me know where you got your information. (Sharon - Feb 2007)
Answer: A little history is necessary to understand the answer to the above questions. Some basic information on the Joseph Smith Translation is available at LDS.org under the Guide to the Scriptures (see Joseph Smith Translation). The Encyclopedia of Mormonism contains the following information regarding the disposition of the manuscripts:
After Joseph Smith's death in June 1844, the marked Phinney Bible and the 477-page manuscript were kept by his widow, Emma Smith. She permitted Dr. John M. Bernhisel to examine the materials in the spring of 1845 at Nauvoo, Illinois. Bernhisel later reported that he made a complete copy of the markings in the Bible and an extensive but incomplete copy of the manuscript entries (Matthews, 1975, p. 118). The Bernhisel manuscript is in the Historian's Library of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, but the location of the Bernhisel marked Bible is not known. Emma Smith gave the Phinney Bible and the original manuscript to a publication committee representing the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) in 1866. These are now in the custody of the RLDS Church at Independence, Missouri. (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 766.)
The RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ) first published the Inspired Version (JST) in 1867, with numerous subsequent printings. I picked up my copy of the Inspired Version at the RLDS bookstore in Independence, Missouri, in 1973. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never published the full JST. It is my understanding that the Community of Christ (RLDS) owns the copyright. Only excerpts from the JST are included in the LDS Bible.
Where can you obtain a copy of the full Joseph Smith Translation?
Online versions Gospelink.com Online LDS library hosted by Deseret Book (annual fee required for access) CenterPlace.org Hosted by Restoration RLDS Church (break off group from the RLDS Church). Access is free. I have made a limited comparison of the text to both my hardcopy and my Gospelink copy and there appears to be no difference. Hardcopy versions Herald House Community of Christ bookstore (RLDS) Restoration Bookstore Restoration RLDS Church bookstore Deseret Book Herald House version
Question: Based on the info below I am confused as to when AD 1 would have began. At Christ's birth?
This is from your lesson #4:
- The Time & Setting (see The Mortal Messiah, Volume 1).
- Summer, AD 26 (according to Bruce R. McConkie in The Mortal Messiah, v1).
- Judea.
- John is 30 years of age and begins his ministry of preaching and baptism.
- In six months the Lord will begin his ministry.
If John was age 30 in AD 26, Christ had to be with in a few months the same age. Would not it had been AD30 (not AD 26) based on that info? (Todd - Jan 2007)
Answer: I do not claim to be an expert on Bible chronology, thus I depend on the works of others when attempting to create a timeline. The most recognized works on the life of the Savior in the LDS world are: 1) Jesus the Christ by Elder James E. Talmage; 2) The Mortal Messiah (4 vols.) by Elder Bruce R. McConkie. After reviewing both texts, I chose to go with the chronology as given by Elder McConkie. Elder McConkie makes the following statement regarding the time of the Savior's birth:
What is the date of our Lord's birth? This is one of those fascinating problems about which the wise and the learned delight to debate. There are scholars, of repute and renown, who place his natal day in every year from 1 B.C. to 7 B.C., with 4 B.C. being the prevailing view, if we may be permitted to conclude that there is a prevailing view. How much the answer really matters is itself a fair question since the problem is one, in part at least, of determining whether there have been errors made in the creation of our present dating system.
We do not believe it is possible with the present state of our knowledge-including that which is known both in and out of the Church-to state with finality when the natal day of the Lord Jesus actually occurred. Elder James E. Talmage takes the view that he was born on April 6, 1 B.C., basing his conclusion on Doctrine and Covenants 20:1, which speaks of the day on which the Church was organized, saying it was "one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the flesh." April 6 is then named as the specific day for the formal organization. Elder Talmage notes the Book of Mormon chronology, which says that the Lord Jesus would be born six hundred years after Lehi left Jerusalem. (Talmage, pp. 102-4.)
Elder Hyrum M. Smith of the Council of the Twelve wrote in the Doctrine and Covenants Commentary: "The organization of the Church in the year 1830 is hardly to be regarded as giving divine authority to the commonly accepted calendar. There are reasons for believing that those who, a long time after our Savior's birth, tried to ascertain the correct time, erred in their calculations, and that the Nativity occurred four years before our era, or in the year of Rome 750. All that this Revelation means to say is that the Church was organized in the year commonly accepted as 1830, A.D." Rome 750 is equivalent, as indicated, to 4 B. C.
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Our Lord of the Gospels, a scholarly and thoughtful work, says in his preface that many scholars "fix the date of the Savior's birth at the end of 5 B.C., or the beginning or early part of 4 B.C." He then quotes the explanation of Doctrine and Covenants 20:1 as found in the Commentary, notes that it has been omitted in a later edition, and says: "I am not proposing any date as the true date. But in order to be as helpful to students as I could, I have taken as the date of the Savior's birth the date now accepted by many scholars,-late 5 B.C., or early 4 B.C, because Bible Commentaries and the writings of scholars are frequently keyed upon that chronology and because I believe that so to do will facilitate and make easier the work of those studying the life and works of the Savior from sources using this accepted chronology." This is the course being followed in this present work, which means, for instance, that Gabriel came to Zacharias in October of 6 B.C.; that he came to Mary in March or April of 5 B.C.; that John was born in June of 5 B. C.; and that Jesus was born in December 5 B.C., or from January to April in 4 B. C.
To illustrate how the scholars go about determining the day of Christ's Nativity, we quote the following from Edersheim: "The first and most certain date is that of the death of Herod the Great. Our Lord was born before the death of Herod, and, as we judge from the Gospel-history, very shortly before that event. Now the year of Herod's death has been ascertained with, we may say, absolute certainty, as shortly before the Passover of the year 750 A.U.C., which corresponds to about the 12th of April of the year 4 before Christ, according to our common reckoning. More particularly, shortly before the death of Herod there was a lunar eclipse which, it is astronomically ascertained, occurred on the night from the 12th to the 13th of March of the year 4-before Christ. Thus the death of Herod must have taken place between the 12th of March and the 12th of April-or, say, about the end of March. Again, the Gospel-history necessitates an interval of, at the least, seven or eight weeks before that date for the birth of Christ (we have to insert the purification of the Virgin-at the earliest, six weeks after the Birth-The Visit of the Magi, and the murder of the children at Bethlehem, and, at any rate, some days more before the death of Herod). Thus the birth of Christ could not have possibly occurred after the beginning of February 4 B.C., and most likely several weeks earlier." (Edersheim 2:704.) (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979-1981], 1: 504.)
Question: At the time John the Baptist and Jesus were born, did the Jews receive the ordinance of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins? I know that they had ritual washings and went into water for purification. But, did they baptize for remission of sins in those years before John the Baptist? Any ideas about why Jesus was baptized at age 30, rather than at the age of accountability? (Wendy - Jan 2007)
Answer: I was unable to find an authoritative answer as to why Jesus was not baptized until the age of 30. Jesus was perfect, thus he did not need baptism for the remission of sins. However, the gate to the kingdom of God begins with baptism. Jesus shows his obedience to the will of the Father by being baptized and sets the example for us. It was time to begin his ministry and I think baptism was an appropriate start.
Elder McConkie wrote about baptism amongst the ancient Jews:
Baptism was an established way of life among faithful Jews in John's day. We do not suppose that all of the Jews of that day were baptized, for apostasy was rife and rebellion was common. But among the chosen seed there certainly were many faithful people who were baptized on the same basis as they offered sacrifices. "The Levitical Priesthood is forever hereditary—fixed on the head of Aaron and his sons forever, and was in active operation down to Zacharias the father of John." (Teachings, p. 319.) This is the priesthood that has power to baptize in water. "Zacharias was a priest of God, and officiating in the Temple, and John was a priest after his father, and held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, and was called of God to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of God." (Teachings, p. 273.) John himself "was baptized while he was yet in his childhood." (D&C 84:28.) It goes without saying that Zacharias and his fellow priests were baptized. We cannot do other than believe that Elisabeth, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds who heard the heavenly choirs, and hosts of others who waited patiently for the Consolation of Israel had also partaken of this sacred ordinance, all before the ministry of John ever began.
Edersheim says that the baptismal ordinance administered by John was not new. "Hitherto the Law had it," he says, "that those who had contracted Levitical defilement were to immerse before offering sacrifice. Again, it was prescribed that such Gentiles as became 'proselytes of righteousness,' or 'proselytes of the Covenant,' were to be admitted to full participation in the privileges of Israel by the threefold rites of circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice—the immersion being, as it were, the acknowledgment and symbolic removal of moral defilement, corresponding to that of Levitical uncleanness." Our knowledge of the real purpose of baptism lets us know that it was not simply to remove Levitical defilement, as such had been defined by the Rabbis, but was in fact for the remission of sins. What the Edersheim statement does is establish the fact that baptism was common among the people before the ministry of John. In this connection, Edersheim quotes this significant passage from the Talmud: "A man who is guilty of sin, and makes confession, and does not turn from it, to whom is he like? To a man who has in his hand a defiling reptile, who, even if he immerses in all the waters of the world, his baptism avails him nothing; but let him cast it from his hand, and if he immerses in only forty seah of water, immediately his baptism avails him." (Edersheim 1:273.) That is to say: Baptism without repentance is of no avail. Even those who wrote the Talmud knew that. (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979-1981], 1: 396.)
Question: I was informed yesterday that the Prophet said that watching soap operas is the same as watching R rated films. I have never heard this before. Is it true, are we not to watch soap operas? (Joyce - Aug 2003)
Answer: Consider the following quotation from President Benson:
Consider carefully the words of the prophet Alma to his son, Corianton, "Forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes" (Alma 39:9). "The lusts of your eyes"—in our day what does that expression mean? Movies, television programs [which would probably include every episode of every soap opera in existence today], and video recordings that are both suggestive and lewd. Magazines and books that are obscene and pornographic. We counsel you . . . not to pollute your minds with such degrading matter, for the mind through which this filth passes is never the same afterward." (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 197.)
Even without President Benson's statement, two statements come to mind:
(1) "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" (13th Article of Faith). Does a "soap opera" fit in this catagory?
(2) "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward" (Doctrine and Covenants 58:26).
What are we allowed to do? Soap operas will not keep us from getting a temple recommend. Is it good to watch a soap opera? Many years ago I had the opportunity to be at home during lunch and avidly watched Days of Our Lives with my wife. I know the content of soaps. I can imagine they have only gotten worse over the years. A question to ask would be, "Would I be comfortable watching this show with President Hinckley sitting next to me?" If the answer is "No" then I think it would be wise not to watch such programs. We had a talk in church a few weeks ago wherein the speaker was concerned about his children watching the Simpsons. He sat down with his kids one night and they listed the Ten Commandments and then every time one of the commandments was broken, they checked it off. Every one of the Commandments was broken during the 30 minute show. The family decided that the Simpsons was not show that they would allow in their home any longer. It would be interesting to apply that same standard to soap operas.