LDS Old Testament Slideshow 01: Latter-day revelation and the Old Testament

8/9/2019 LDS Old Testament Slideshow 01: Latter-day revelation and the Old Testament

1/27


2/27

2

Class schedule Thursdays, 7:008:45 PM

29 weeks

5 Sep 201329 May 2014 Holiday break:28 Nov26 Dec 2013

(No class for 6 weeks.)


3/27

3

Class web sitehttp://bit.ly/ldsarc


4/27

4

Lesson schedule Chronological approach.

Please read ahead and come prepared to

participate!


5/27

Materials Required: The Standard Works

1981 or later edition preferable

Recommended: A modern English-translation study Bible

5


6/27

6

Materials Optional:

Old Testament

Student Manual

(Religion 301/302)

Read, download, buy:institute.lds.org/

manuals/old-testament


7/27

7

Approach Bring us to Christ through

History

Textual development

Archeology

Culture

Science

Modern revelation

Faith


8/27

8

Latter-day revelation andthe Old Testament

How and why is the Latter-day Saint

understanding of the Old Testament

different from that of other Christians?

Premortal life Covenants Priesthood

The Fall Jehovah Messiah

Satan

Eternal truth vs. cultural expediency


9/27

The King Follett Discourse

9

7 April 1844, Nauvoo, Illinois.

I wish to go back to the beginning of creation.

There is the starting point in order to know and

be fully acquainted with the mind, purposes,decrees, and ordinations of the great Elohim

that sits in the heavens. For us to take up

beginning at the creation it is necessary for us

to understand something of God Himself in the

beginning.There are but very few beings in the world who

understand rightly the character of God. If men

do not comprehend the character of God, they

do not comprehend their own character.


10/27

10

King Follett: Principle 1What kind of a being was God in the

beginning, before the world was? I will

go back to the beginning to show you. God

Himself who sits enthroned in yonder heavens is aMan like unto one of yourselvesthat is the great

secret! If the veil were rent today and the great

God that holds this world in its sphere and the

planets in their orbit and who upholds all thingsby His powerif you were to see Him today, you

would see Him in all the person, image, fashion,

and very form of a man, like yourselves.


11/27

11


12/27

12

King Follett: Principle 2We have imagined that God was

God from the beginning of all eternity.

I will refute that idea. He once was a man like

one of us and that God Himself, the Father of usall, once dwelled on an earth the same as Jesus

Christ himself did in the flesh and like us.


13/27

13

King Follett: Principle 3What did Jesus say? As the Father has

power in Himself, even so has the Son

power in himself. To do what? Why, what the

Father did. That answer is obvious; even in amanner to lay down His body and take it up

again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay

down my life as my Father laid down His body

that I might take it up again.


14/27

14

King Follett: Principle 4We say that God Himself is a self-existentGod. Who told you so? It's correct enough,but how did it get into your heads? Whotold you that man did not exist in likemanner upon the same principle? God made the

tabernacle of man out of the earth and put into himAdam's spirit (which was created before), and then itbecame a living body or human soul. Man existed inspirit; the mind of manthe intelligent partis asimmortal as, and is coequal with, God Himself.

God never had the power to create the spirit of manat all. God Himself could not create Himself.Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existentprinciple. It is a spirit from age to age and there is nocreation about it. The first principles of man are self-

existent with God.


15/27

Man an eternal being

15

D&C 93:29(May 1833)

Abraham 3:18(July 1835)


16/27

Man an eternal being

16

The spirit of man is not a created

being; it existed from eternity and will

exist to eternity. Anything created

cannot be eternal, and earth, water,etc.all these had their existence in an

elementary state from eternity.

Joseph Smith, summer 1839


17/27

17

creatio ex nihilo

Latin:

creation from nothing

Contrast with creation

from chaos(primordial,

unorganized matter)


18/27

18

King Follett: Principle 5The Head One of the Gods called

together the Gods and the grand

councillors sat in grand council at the head in

yonder heavens to bring forth the world andcontemplated the creation of the worlds that

were created at that time.

In the beginning the Head of the Gods called a

council of the Gods. The Gods came together andconcocted a scheme to create this world and the

inhabitants.


19/27

The Divine Council

19

Sons of God

Sons of the

Most High

Holy ones

The host of

heaven

Gods


20/27

The Divine Council

20

The devil came to save the world andstood up as a savior. The contention inheaven was that Jesus contended that

there would be certain souls that wouldbe condemned and not saved, but thedevil said, I am a savior, and that he could savethem all. As the grand council gave in for Jesus

Christ, the lot fell on him. So the devil rose up,rebelled against God, fell, and was thrust down,with all who put up their heads for him.

Joseph Smith, 7 April 1844


21/27

The Divine Council

21

Abraham3:2223(July 1835)


22/27

22

King Follett: Principle 6You have got to learn how to makeyourselves Gods in order to save yourselvesand be kings and priests to God, the sameas all Gods have doneby going from a small capacityto a great capacity, from a small degree to another,from grace to grace, until the resurrection of the dead,from exaltation to exaltationtill you are able to sit ineverlasting burnings and everlasting power and glory asthose who have gone before, sit enthroned.

Contemplate the saying that they will be heirs of Godand joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inheritand enjoy the same glory, powers, and exaltation untilyou ascend a throne of eternal power and arrive at thestation of a God, the same as those who have gone

before.


23/27

23

apotheosis

Greek: having been made

a god

God became man so that

man might become God.

Athanasius of Alexandria

(A.D.293?373)


24/27

Apotheosis

24

D&C 132:19b20(July 1843)


25/27

25

King Follett: Principle 7All the minds and spirits that God eversent into the world are susceptible ofenlargement and improvement. Therelationship we have with God places us in asituation to advance in knowledge. God Himselffound Himself in the midst of spirits and glory.Because He was greater He saw proper toinstitute laws whereby the rest, who were less in

intelligence, could have a privilege to advancelike Himself and be exalted with Him, so thatthey might have one glory upon another in allthat knowledge, power, and glory.


26/27

26

King Follett: Principle 8What did Jesus Christ do? Why I dothe same things that I saw my Fatherdo when worlds came rolling intoexistence. Saw the Father do what? I saw the

Father work out His kingdom with fear andtrembling and I am doing the same, too. When Iget my kingdom, I will give it to the Father and itwill add to and exalt His glory. He will take ahigher exaltation and I will take His place and I

am also exalted, so that He obtains kingdomrolling upon kingdom. So that Jesus treads in Histracks as He had gone before and then inheritswhat God did before. God is glorified in thesalvation and exaltation of His creatures.


27/27

Next week:Origin, development, and translation

of the Old Testament

Documents

LDS Old Testament Slideshow 01: Latter-day revelation and the Old Testament