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{Geoff] Everybody, we thank you for joining us
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Then you get to be a part of the fun.
So that being, uh, as I said before the things that I said,
Patricia Auxier is here and she's on the edge of her seat - her own words.
[Patricia] Yes, I am on the edge of my seat.
[Geoff] Look at the effervescence that exudes from
her being. She is so pumped to be here. Sometimes I honestly can't tell if Patricia doesn't
like me. I really don't know.
[Patricia] [laughs]
[Geoff] I honestly can't tell.
So Lesson 42 is the one we're hitting here: "Continuing Revelation to Latter-day Prophets."
I love this lesson cuz it's very much bringing everything up to our day. Most of what we
talk about in this lesson honestly takes place past 1950 up until now, so, and I think the
great thing I learned from that is that revelation happens today. It is not something that is
restricted just to the sections the Doctrine and Covenants, et cetera et cetera. It's not
just a Restoration-era practice.
There's a great quote here from John A. Widtsoe. Someone asked him - he was in a discussion
with a group of stake officers - and they said, "Hey Brother Widtsoe, how long has it
been since the Church received revelation - churchwide revelation.
Then Brother Widtsoe rubbed his chin - and I believe he had a wonderful goatee - rubbed
his chin thoughtfully and said in reply, "Probably since last Thursday."
What trump card to play! It's like, "That's right stake leaders. I'm in the Twelve and
I know what's up." Last Thursday. This is what happened.
So let's talk about a bit of this today, leading off with, eh, Church correlation. Now before
I get to that I wanna read Doctrine and Covenants Section 1, verses 37 and 38. Let's look for
the key point here to take home.
[Patricia] OK, let's look for it.
[Geoff] It says, "Search these commandments, for they
are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be
fulfilled.
"What I the LORD spoken I've spoken, and I excuse not myself. And though the heavens
and the earth pass away,my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled. Whether
by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."
Patricia what's the key takeaway from that?
[Patricia] Well you know, Section 1 is actually one of
those sections of the Doctrine and Covenants that was published out of order. It wasn't
actually given first, but the Lord chose the section to be the introduction to the Doctrine
and Covenants.
And so I think it's important to highlight that He's talking about, yeah, specifically,
search these commandments in the Doctrine and Covenants
But I think it goes further and just says, "You know, this isn't all you're gonna receive.
Whether it's by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
We have an open canon of scripture and you'll continue to receive truth and knowledge from
God."
[Geoff] Exactly.
And so one other interesting things that was the result of this truth and knowledge - what
was called the "correlation program" of the church. Now the point of this,
of course, was really just to sort of rein in a lot of stuff. The church had grown a
lot, but stuff wasn't centralized so you found a lot of local units, stakes, people prepared
their own curriculum, their own fliers; things were not centralized. And for better or worse,
we've correlated stuff today and what that really means in the sense is it's - well I'll
read three things -
Maintains the purity of doctrine.
We emphasize the importance of the family and the home
You place all the work in the church under priesthood direction
Establish proper relationships among the organizations of the church so that we actually have sort
of a hierarchy, an organizational tree, an org chart.
Achieving unity and order in the church.
And ensuring the simplicity of church programs and materials which, I imagine, that's a huge
one.
[Patricia] Right
[Geoff] One of the problems they faced during this
time was that oftentimes units would publish things that were quotes from General Authorities
or other leaders that did not actually support hte Church's official positions on certain
issues. A lot of that is what sort of drove this correlation desire.
And that's why we have today everything comes out from Salt Lake. Another big benefit, though,
is you can travel anywhere in the world in pretty much hit within the same couple of
lessons for Sunday School. You wopn't always have the
same sacrament meeting topics, but you'll have the same general
ideas; the same things are happening around the Church.
And that is a unifying thing, I think for the saints. You know, like we say the Church
is the same everywhere you go. That is a result of the correlation program.
[Patricia] Now the lesson does point out that even though
we did go through this correlation effort and the hierarchies of the Church leadership
was established, we're still not saves, necessarily, as a Church organization, but we're saved
as families; and that the family should be the central place for gospel teaching and
leadership.
So even though these auxiliaries and quorums and programs or activities are part of the
Church, they're there really to strengthen and support the family. Which is, of course,
why they established Family Home Evening, and why we
should put family home evening as a priority in our homes to make sure that the correlation
of the Church effort is really there to supplement our work that happens in families.
[Geoff] Exactly. I mean nothing works without the
family. The family is at the core of everything. The Church is just sort of the frosting; it's
supposed to be the support apparatus. It's not supposed to be the main foundation of
everything.
Isn't it amazing that Family Home Evening did not exist until, I believe, the President
McKay era?
[Patricia] Yeah
[Geoff] What'd people do before that?
[Patricia] Well, I mean...
[Geoff} Just hung out? Talked about the stock market
crash? What'd you do? The war?
[Patricia] Well I think probably that might have been
more of a preparation for time now, where I think back then you had more time in the
home and things were more centered on the home. So I think it's great that we started
it then, because now, where there are so many activities to pull us away from the home - practices
and, um...
[Geoff] And just societal pressure and custom and
everything, as well.
[Patricia] So I think it's good that we established a
pattern that we are going to spend time.
[Geoff]
And it's very interesting you said that, because back in the day - not to over simplify - but,
you know, it was kind of a "Leave it to Beaver" society in many ways in the family life. So
it's interesting today because many people will say that the Church is very 1950s, sort
of in our cultural mindset. That's because it came from an era when we could rely more
on families, and I like that. We try to carry that forward today because it was a good thing.
We don't want to lose that.
Another simple thing here - the operation of Church auxiliaries. I alluded to it a little
bit more before. But, um, yeah, everything had gotten a little bit in disarray, and these
organizations became very complex. I mean, could you imagine if you had an autonomous
Young Men's program today, just running around, running amok, doing what it wants, no direction
from Salt Lake?
So of course it was important to bring all of that to ensure the purity of the doctrine
and that everything was being taught appropriately.
Of interesting note, though - we don't talk about this - many auxiliaries pushed back
agains this correlation effort. It was somewhat controversial even amongst the Brethren. Back
in the 50s when they were attempting to do this, there were many who did not favor it,
actually. I believe a big pusher of it was Harold B. Lee, but Hugh B. Brown, for example,
was not a big fan of it. A lot of people thought it overly centralized stuff and took autonomy
away.
It's kind of funny, we see it's like the same federal/states' rights issues, right? It's
interesting. But I think we've done well with it and we definitely see the benefits of it
today. Everything is clean, much better now.
[Patricia] Yeah. Something else that has happened in
the 70s was the preparation of Church publications in terms of, um, that's, you know, we had
a lot of publications going around. We had "The Improvement Era." We had publications
from the Relief Society and the priesthood and the "Millennial Star" and all these things,
so...
[Geoff] "The Instructor" - I've never even heard of
[Patricia] I have never even heard of that one.
[Geoff] Yeah, it was one of them.
[Patricia] Um, but during the 70s they centralized everything
into the "New Era" and the "Ensign" and, um, the lesson manuals and Church magazines, and
all these things were supposed to center the Church doctrine and make it so these doctrines
and everything that was published by the Church and in the Church's name was actually a reflection
of the Church doctrines.
So everything that is published in the Church's name has to go through correlation. And that
means, you know, being seen by the Brethren.
[Geoff] Exactly. Everything goes through them.
Then, Home Teaching! Amazing that that also did not exist before then, and I think we've
always had a good fraternal mindset. We have a good zeitgeist within the Church of always
trying to take care of one another and really look out for each other; but it the correlation
era that Home Teaching became an official practice.
I have a deep and abiding passion and love for the home teaching program. I've had great
experiences with it where some people have just said, "Hey, I haven't had home teachers
for years. Thank you for calling me."
No one's perfect with it. I am certainly not Mr. 100% all the time, but it was great value.
I just... It's something I appreciate - both being visited and having the opportunity to
serve other people. It's not just "Go share a message once a month and 'Well, call is
if you need something.'"
You know, it's just, KNOW people. Look out for them. And, ideally, you're supposed to
use that to report to your Elders quorum president, who then can report to the bishop if there
are issues that need to be addressed; families that are in trouble and need help. That's
the whole point of being a home teacher. You know, we're sort of the boots on the grounds
for a bishop to really see how the ward is doing on a daily basis.
[Patricia] Right. And it's just another way, uh, um,
of organizing the work and organizing the people so that we can help each other effectively.
Another example of continuing revelation is the revelation from 1978 in which the priesthood
was extended to every worthy male member of the Church.
And this revelation is really important in my family, especially because my parents;
when my parents got married my dad was not a member of the Church and he investigated
for a long time. And when this revelation was received through President Spencer W.
Kimball it really softened my dad's heart and really provided the preciptating action
for him to join the Church.
[Geoff] That's awesome. I didn't know that. Yeah,
I can't even add to that. It's obviously one of the most landmark things that we've had
happen in the past fifty or sixty years in the Church. I mean, that's why it's Official
Declaration 2 in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Speaking of, many of us keep wondering when the Proclamation on the Family will become
Official Declaration 3. I just see it happening.
[Patricia] Yeah, I do, too, as well.
[Geoff] Uh, sliding into that, into publication of
scriptures - that was another big thing that happened because of revelation. In 1979 after
a lot of work and direction, the Church published a Latter-day Saint edition of the Bible. This
was a huge deal! Before that, we used the King James Version, and that's still what
we have, but, of course, this edition of the Bible has special study aids, it has footnotes,
it has the Bible Dictionary, the Topical Guide, the maps, all that stuff that you've seen
and that many of you who listen to this podcast have remember for your entire lives, myself
included. The only scriptures I know is what we have in the quad. That's what's always
been there.
So think about how radical it was that they were able to get this great, annotized version
of the Bible.
In 1981, the Church published a new edition of the triple combination, which had expanded
footnotes and, of course, greater footnotes in relation to the Bible, really bringing
everything together.
So we did not have the quad itself until 1981. And that is remarkable. That is so, so valuable
to the Latter-day Saints. Especially, I love being able to read the Old Testament and look
in the footnotes and see something that references the book of Mosiah somewhere; how it's all,
you know, stick of Judah, stick of Joseph, all coming together.
One thing the lesson doesn't mention that you might just want to be aware of - just
a couple of years ago the Church finally finished a lengthy translation and annotation program
for the scriptures in Spanish. We had a triple combination for a long time but they did not
a have a Church-published version of the Bible. Now Spanish-speaking Saints have the exact
same benefits and opportunities as English-speaking ones in terms of the full breadth of the footnoted,
translated, put-together scriptures, which is super cool. I just think it's great.
[Patricia] Yeah, and um, you know Geoff, you alluded
to the stick of Judah and the stick of Ephraim being united. So, you know, the publication
of these scriptures is the fulfillment of prophecy. And Elder Packer, um, said of this:
"The stick or record of Judah - the Old Testament and the New Testament - and the stick of the
record of Ephraim - the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ - are
now woven together in such a way that as you pour over one you are drawn to the other.
As you learn from one, you're enlightened by the other. They are, indeed, one in our
hands."
So it's a great blessing that we can study from the words of the gospel throughout the
centuries together in one centralized publication.
[Geoff] Yeah, we're pretty dang lucky. Honestly, if
you want to think about things to be grateful for in these latter days, it's that we have
these wonderfully put-together sets of scriptures that can help us a ton.
Now Patricia, before we go I have a question for you. How many Quorums of the Seventy are
there today?
[Patricia] There are, you know, I'm trying to find where
it says this in the lesson!
[Geoff] This is just a straight up question!
[Patricia] Ha ha! I know! There are five!
[Geoff] You are correct, madame! Now what happened
in 1975-
How many quorums were there before 1975?
[Patricia] Let's say one.
[Geoff] Sort of. It was actually just the Presidency
of the Seventy, like we have today.
[Patricia] Oh, haha!
[Geoff] It was seven guys. That's it. That was the
whole Seventy back then. In '75 they organized the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1989,
further expansion came when they organized the Second Quorum of the Seventy. We know
by scriptures, of course, you know we talk about seventy times seven, so presumably,
we could have seven quorums with seventy people each.
If you look today at the First and Second quorums, neither of them have seventy each.
In fact, the Second Quorum is sort of depleted to all-time lows right now. There's, like,
five of them in there for some reason.
Now on top of that, you references five before, right?
[Patricia] Yeah.
[Geoff] So there's five today. That was because for
a very long time we had things that were called Area Authorities in the Church. They were
just guys you just kind of oversaw an area, but they weren't Seventies. They just kind
of worked in tandem with them.
And it was in 1997 that President Hinckley reorganized things and reorganized the Area
Authorities as Area Authority Seventies. And that's when they organized the Third, Fourth,
and Fifth Quorums of the Seventy.
The big difference here: they're not General Authorities. They still maintain their day
jobs. This is a calling like any other calling you would have if you're not a General Authority.
And so they carry on like that. It's an interesting way of doing things. That's why when you get
the Ensign after Conference you don't see pictures of the Area Authority Seventies 'cause
they're not General Authorities.
But if you wonder why sometimes President Uchtdorf gets up there and reads a very long
list of people who are released and them called, most of those are Area Authority Seventies.
But they do need to be called in General Conference. They're not called in a stake conference or
anything like that. So, it's pretty cool. Further organization. Further helping.
[Patricia] Yeah, and President Hinckley said,
"With these respective quorums in place, we have established a pattern under which the
Church may grow to any size, with an organization of Area Presidencies and the Area Authority
Seventies chosen and working across the world according to need. Now the Lord is watching
over His kingdom. He is inspiring its leadership to care for its ever-growing membership."
[Geoff] Yeah, and I love the way it's broken down,
even at the level of the Twelve. Not every member of the Twelve, but most of them, have
a broad regional authority. Within that you have Area Presidencies, which are typically
Seventies. And then within that you have, you know, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Quorums
of the Seventy. All breaking stuff down and looking after people. Then stakes, districts,
wards. People. Units. The home teacher. It all goes down, right? My wife is looking at
me and I can't tell what she thinks. So difficult for me.
[Patricia] I think she is a fan.
[Geoff] I hope so! Anyway, Patricia, we're so glad
you were here.
[Patricia] Thanks for having me!
[Geoff] I believe Patricia is finishing out the year
on this one, too, folks, so send her your love for the great job she has done with the
Doctrine and Covenants manual [claps]
[Patricia] Yay!
[Geoff] I appreciate it. She's been great. Lesson
42, everybody - this is "Continuing Revelation to Latter-day Prophets," brought to you by
Sunday School Bonanza. We're your homies over there are This Week in Mormons.
[Patricia] Dis week in Momunz!
[Geoff] This Week in Mormons, yo! Alright, so we'll
see you later.