Year: 2018

34: Dances with Wolves

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:13 — 31.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

In this installment Denver responds to some of the questions listeners have submitted for consideration. In addition to answering questions, Denver provides some timely context and recommendations for how we can become one.

Transcript:

Continue reading “34: Dances with Wolves” →

33: Temple, Part 2

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:08 — 63.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is the second installment in a multi-part series about the Temple.  In this series Denver addresses the meaning behind both ancient and modern temple worship, as well as some of the features and purposes of the temple to be built in New Jerusalem.

Transcript:

Continue reading “33: Temple, Part 2” →

32: Temple, Part 1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:07 — 61.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is the first installment in a multi-part series about the Temple.  In this series Denver addresses the meaning behind both ancient and modern temple worship, as well as some of the features and purposes of the temple to be built in New Jerusalem.

Transcript:

Continue reading “32: Temple, Part 1” →

30: How the Restoration Has Fallen!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:51 — 56.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Today, Denver addresses the following:

Nearly 200 years after God appeared to Joseph in the Sacred Grove, we still don’t have Zion. What happened to the Restoration? Why has it failed to produce Zion as prophesied? What can we do to help it get back on track?

Transcript:

Continue reading “30: How the Restoration Has Fallen!” →

28: Adam-ondi-Ahman

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:42 — 45.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Today, Denver addresses the following: On April 19, 2017, you gave a talk entitled “Things to Keep Us Awake At Night.” In the paper you wrote, based on that talk, you state “Adam, in the presence of Son Ahman, will return the government to our Lord. This event, Adam-ondi-Ahman, or Adam in the presence of Son Ahman, will happen in the new temple, and will be done before the Lord returns to judge the world.” What is Adam-ondi-Ahman, why does it require a new temple, and who will be included in this great event?

Transcript:

Continue reading “28: Adam-ondi-Ahman” →

27: Generation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:55 — 41.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Today, Denver addresses the following: On September 22, 2016, you wrote that “If they are penitent and willing to trust God, the last-days Zion will be achieved by a single generation.” What is a “generation”, how long is it, and are we that generation?

Transcript:

Continue reading “27: Generation” →

Restoration Conference Recording

A recording of all the talks given in the Joseph Smith Restoration Conference held in Boise last month are now available to watch at:

Restoration Conference Website

I learned things from others about the current state of the Restoration and thought all of the talks were interesting and worthwhile. I am grateful for the opportunity we had to attend.

Consecration Ended by Joseph Smith

After the experiences in the early common-stock companies, and in community efforts in Kirtland, Ohio, Independence, and Far West, Missouri, Joseph Smith ended any attempts at consecration. In a council meeting on March 6, 1840 in Montrose, Iowa Territory, he announced to the church the Lord rescinded consecration:

He said that the Law of consecration could not be kept here, & that it was the will of the Lord that we should desist from trying to keep it, & if persisted in it would produce a perfect abortion, & that he assumed the whole responsibility of not keeping it untill proposed by himself. (JS Papers, Documents Vol. 7, p. 215, emphasis added, all spelling as in original.)

Joseph died before the Lord gave any command to resume it. Therefore the earlier commandment, still in the T&C, as well as the D&C, is not to be kept. Since it was the will of the Lord that consecration end, it will require a new command from the Lord to resume the attempt.

Congress

After the Mormons were expelled from Missouri, a delegation was sent to Washington DC by Joseph Smith in a vain attempt to obtain financial reparations for Mormon property losses. Joseph was temporarily there and met with the President. Neither Joseph nor the President were impressed with the other.

After Joseph left DC, others stayed behind to pursue Congressional assistance. Joseph was updated by letters from them. On April 1, 1840, Horace Hotchkiss sent a letter describing how things were not moving along. In that letter he gave his appraisal of  Congress:

I am  not, I confess, much disappointed in the result; as I know the vacillating, fawning character of many, in both Houses of Congress; and these are not their worst traits either. For they not only lack the moral courage to do right, but will do what they know to be positively wrong, if they can make political capital by it.  [They] will abandon you, me, or anyone else with perfect indifference and heartless treachery, if by doing it they can obtain governmental favor or political preferment.  (JS Papers, Documents Vol. 7, p. 236-spellings and grammar corrected from original.)

Congress, it seems, is so stable an institution that its character has remained unchanged for a century-and-a-half.