Year: 2018

15: Jacob’s Ladder

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:45 — 45.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

In this episode Denver addresses these questions. What is Jacob’s Ladder? Why did Joseph Smith refer to it as the “first principles of the gospel’’? Continue reading “15: Jacob’s Ladder” →

How can Zion come from this?

I responded to an email posing the question of how Zion would result from what is presently happening and who is presently involved. I responded by explaining these ideas:

Any solution could be imposed quickly and would result in stabilizing everything–just by adopting a central command structure to compel order. Everyone is already conditioned to accept authority and obey it. But that step would bring peace at the price of altogether losing the hope for Zion. For now it must be this gentle way.

Don’t think about this as a time to gather but as a time to prove.

Continue reading “How can Zion come from this?” →

Question About Covenant

I have been asked about two statements: one in the opening remarks at the Boise Conference which did not mention reading the Prayer for Covenant and another one in the note of section 158 saying that the prayer is to be read with the covenant. The opening remarks included this:

I have been given authority from God to deliver His covenant this day. Every formality required from the days of Adam until now for establishing a covenant has been kept and met. Once the covenant is established, those sustained by seven women (or a man inside his own family) who receive it also have authority to administer the ordinance to others who want to be numbered among God’s people. To administer to others, repeat the ordinance. Read aloud the Lord’s Answer and the words of the Covenant. Ask them to stand and say, Yes, and they will become one of the Lord’s covenant people. Do not change the words of the covenant, for to change an ordinance is to break it. (Isa. 24:5.)

The note at the beginning of Section 158 explains:

Continue reading “Question About Covenant” →

Every Man’s God

One person believes his understanding of God can control what God is able to do or not do. Another person believes anything new that conflicts with what she thinks about God must be false. They limit what God is able to accomplish with them because they doubt God can be other than they imagine Him to be. It is puzzling to think people with such different views of God assume they will see God’s promises fulfilled:

And it shall come to pass in the last days — when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it — many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.  O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord; yea, come, for you have all gone astray, everyone to his wicked ways. Therefore, O Lord, you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east and listen to fortune-tellers like the Philistines (OC Isa. 1:6-7, emphasis added.)

It is puzzling for people to wish to be “one” when they have such diverse versions of God:

Continue reading “Every Man’s God” →

12: Resurrection Morning

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:04 — 21.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

What happened on the morning of Christ’s resurrection? Today, Denver shares his eyewitness account and testimony of the events that transpired on Easter morning, along with a few thoughts on what those events mean for all of us.  Continue reading “12: Resurrection Morning” →

Our Divine Parents

A pdf version of yesterday’s talk in Phoenix is now up on the “Downloads” part of this website. The talk (paper) is titled Our Divine Parents.

Unfortunately, when converted to pdf the first footnote was cut off. I will reconvert it to pdf and repost it this evening. The first footnote should read this way:

“This is a term used twice by Alman the Younger in his instruction to his son Corianton, recorded in New Covenants Alma 19:13 (hereafter “NC”); Alma 42:8, 16. Joseph Smith referred to this plan as “eternal progression.”

11: Sacrament

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:04 — 11.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

In this episode the topic of the sacrament is addressed. What is the proper way to administer it? Who can administer it? What is the meaning of the sacrament and is there more to the symbolism that we may not always remember, but should? Continue reading “11: Sacrament” →

Scriptures Completed

All volumes of the scriptures are now complete and available for order on Amazon.

The first volume is titled the Old Covenants, and contains the Joseph Smith version of the Old Testament.

The second volume is titled the New Covenants, and contains both the Joseph Smith version of the New Testament and the most accurate version of the Joseph Smith corrected Book of Mormon. Joseph intended to publish the New Testament and Book of Mormon in a single volume. This is the only project that has honored Joseph’s intentions.

The third volume is titled Teachings and Commandments.  It contains the original, most accurate version of the revelations to Joseph Smith, the Lectures on Faith, several complete letters written by Joseph Smith (like the Wentworth letter and Liberty Jail letter), and an expanded Joseph Smith History as he originally published it while editor of the Times and Seasons. It also includes some modern material approved through conference and on-line voting as an act of common consent.

These three volumes will remain in print continually. After at least six months of review, a high quality, leather-bound version will be printed. During the review period, if there are print mistakes discovered, you can send comments to this email: [email protected]

We are hoping for public input to catch and correct those print errors before the high quality leather-bound version is printed.

9: Embracing Truth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:12 — 37.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

In this episode Denver addresses the challenge of embracing truth and how people from various religious traditions embracing truth and the Restoration movement will affect everyone’s understanding of the scriptures and the gospel. Continue reading “9: Embracing Truth” →

“Fruit”

Christ said a man is known by his “fruit.” Matthew 6:14 Christ explains how to measure “fruit.”

Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by the fruit. And Jesus said, O you children of vipers, How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, brings forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things. And again I say unto you that every idle word men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment: for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.

Christ determined that the test for “fruit” is the words we speak. But how should “words” be measured? Anger, conflict, violence, war and division amongst families were just some of the the results of the words Christ spoke. If Christ’s words were measured by how people were affected by them, then Christ produced bad fruit. Therefore, the reaction people have to words cannot be an accurate measure of “fruit.” It must be the substance, the truth, or the independent value of the words–separate from how people respond to a man’s words.

Prophets and righteous individuals have been arousing anger, provoking violent reactions, and being called anything from foolish to vile because of their words, and that does nothing to diminish the goodness of their fruit.