Talking Scripture

• Ep 350 | Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 & 2, Come Follow Me 2025 (December 8-14)

  → Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) The 9th Article of Faith explains that the restoration is ongoing.(04:05) President Woodruff issued Official Declaration 1 in 1890. This Manifesto led to the end of the practice of plural marriage.(08:59) Elder Bruce C. Hafen invites us to examine ambiguity in the church with open eyes and hearts.(17:00) The Church today disavows all theories church leaders and members advanced to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions.(20:21) During an era of great racial division in the United States, the Saints were persecuted for their anti-slavery stance.(24:57) Joseph Smith ordained Walker Lewis and Elijah Abel to the priesthood. Later, in 1852, President Brigham Young officially announced that black members would no longer be given the priesthood. The power to decide is given to the President of the church in D&C 107.78-80.(35:50) The 2013 edition of the scriptures adds an insightful paragraph to Official Declaration 2. Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of the priesthood restriction.(42:39) Three slaves came into the Salt Lake Valley in the first pioneer company. Brigham Young did not segregate congregations or deny membership to African Americans.(52:27) Brigham Young felt the priesthood restriction would be temporary and that it would be removed at a future time.(53:47) In 1978 President Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the church.(56:37) The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson, gives accounts of African Americans during the great migration in American history. The Clark family experienced tragic persecution in 1951.(1:01:12) The Church today unequivocally condemns all racism, past and present, in any form. The love of others should be what characterizes the Latter-day Saints. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 350 | Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 & 2, Come Follow Me 2025 (December 8-14) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

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• Ep 349 | D&C 137-138, Come Follow Me 2025 (December 1-7)

  → Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) The doctrine of salvation for the dead is revealed in Section 137.(01:43) Divine curiosity is a catalyst for revelation.(07:25) Joseph marvels at how Alvin obtained Celestial glory without being baptized. He learns that all who have died without a knowledge of the gospel, who would have received it, shall be heirs of the Celestial Kingdom.(12:30) All children that die before the years of accountability are saved in the Celestial Kingdom.(19:23) After losing dear family members, Joseph F. Smith receives revelation about the Spirit World.(25:11) Joseph F. Smith has a vision of Jesus coming into the Spirit World after His crucifixion.(28:33) Those in the Spirit World see the absence of their bodies as bondage. The body and spirit are very much connected.(32:44) Coats of light and coats of skins in Genesis 3.21.(34:16) The great feast in a temple setting as contained in D&C 138 and Isaiah 26. The Saints are invited to rise from the dust and enter into kingship.(44:29) The Savior organizes the righteous to preach to the spirits in prison, but then he resurrects the righteous. Perhaps the work of saving the dead is for our dispensation.(51:17) As children of God we are all connected and will continue preaching the gospel in the Spirit World after death. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 349 | D&C 137-138, Come Follow Me 2025 (December 1-7) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

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• Ep 348 | D&C 135-136, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 24-30)

  → Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) D&C 136 details the will of the Lord as the Saints move west. Winter Quarters was a place to prepare for the final trek to the Great Basin.(04:31) D&C 136 reads differently and Brigham Young’s personality seems to come through.(14:25) Some of the events that led Joseph Smith to Carthage Jail. Plural marriage.(17:00) Joseph established the Nauvoo Charter and the Nauvoo Legion to protect the Saints from persecution.(27:21) The August 1843 election and its consequences.(33:24) William Law was hurt by the way he was excommunicated and also felt economically persecuted. He and others start the Nauvoo Expositor.(36:49) The Nauvoo City Council votes to destroy the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor. Dallin H. Oaks’ legal paper in the Utah Law Review cautions about the dangers of presentism.(40:12) Joseph Smith is charged for destroying the press. Thomas Sharp calls for his extermination with powder and ball in the Warsaw Signal. Joseph is told by the Lord to flee to the Rocky Mountains. Many in Nauvoo urge him to come back. Joseph surrenders to authorities and is brought to Carthage Jail.(50:15) Joseph Smith is charged with treason for declaring martial law and calling out the Nauvoo Legion.(51:55) Joseph Smith’s final hours before the martyrdom.(58:39) John Taylor recovers and writes Section 135 in tribute to the prophet.(1:00:26) Joseph Smith has given us so much more knowledge of Christ. He produced more canonized scripture than any other. He stands at the head of the largest dispensation on earth and brought forth the keys and ordinances to redeem the dead.(1:05:21) Joseph Smith restored essential doctrines associated with the nature of God and man. Vital questions are answered in the revelations of the Restoration. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 348 | D&C 135-136, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 24-30) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

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• Ep 347 | D&C 133-134, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 17-23)

  → Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) Section 133 was intended to be an appendix to the Doctrine and Covenants.(00:55) The role of government is to maintain a balance between rights and responsibilities.(06:59) Section 133 is a companion to Section 1. Prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled as the Latter-day Saints gather the House of Israel.(17:35) Temple imagery in D&C 133 and its connection to Isaiah 52 and Moroni 10.(26:38) Rising from the dust as a symbol of enthronement and heavenly kingship.(28:09) Moroni’s appendix parallels many of the ideas in D&C 133 and Isaiah 52.(31:17) Come out of “digital” Babylon and build Zion.(32:44) Literal and symbolic interpretations of the divided land becoming one again.(36:06) The members of the Godhead are separate beings, but perfectly united in purpose.(41:13) The Millennial possibility of a pure, unified language and people.(42:20) Symbols of cosmic conflict in section 133: Mount Zion, the Great Deep, and North Countries. Rival religions at the time of Israel had images that were also associated with these ideas.(51:40) Loving kindness or ḥesed means a very deep feeling of love.(54:16) The parable of the ten virgins. They that are wise have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide.(56:07) John prophesied that an angel would fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel.(58:06) The 144,000 have priesthood authority and represent all the tribes of Israel.(1:00:08) The symbolism and significance of the Savior’s red garments.(1:07:39) Elder Holland’s statement regarding previous dispensations and how their hope rested on us. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 347 | D&C 133-134, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 17-23) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

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• Ep 346 | D&C 129-132, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 10-16)

  → Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) Three grand keys on the nature of ministering angels and spirits.(02:04) Joseph Smith teaches that God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. Traditional Christianity has lost the understanding of Heavenly Father’s physical nature.(07:53) God resides on a globe like a sea of glass and fire.(09:08) Joseph asks the Lord about the timing of His Second Coming.(10:34) Truths learned in mortality will rise with us in the resurrection. Blessings are predicated upon obedience to law.(12:52) Section 130 prepares the Saints for truths that are revealed in the temple.(13:46) The crowning blessing of the gospel is to seal families for eternity. There are requirements for making marriage eternal.(18:39) Elder Howard’s story of the silver as it relates to eternal marriage. If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently.(24:23) 1st Scenario: If we choose to neither be married nor given in marriage in the eternities, we will remain separately and singly without exaltation. The compensatory grace of Jesus Christ will make this blessing available to all who were deprived of it through no blame of their own.(28:25) 2nd Scenario: If our marriage is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise then it is not in force when we are out of the world.(30:03) 3rd Scenario: If we marry in the temple and strive to keep the covenant, we will inherit the highest degree of the celestial kingdom and have continued increase. We will be as God, participating in His divine nature. The covenant allows for mistakes, repentance, and forgiveness.(37:01) Section 132 addresses plural marriage. Plural marriage played a role in Joseph’s martyrdom in 1844.(38:52) Plural marriage can be compared to Abraham’s test.(41:15) Plural marriage was practiced by the Patriarchs in Genesis.(42:59) The historical background of Section 132.(45:44) The RLDS Church (now The Community of Christ) contended that the President of the Church should be a direct descendant of Joseph Smith and that plural marriage was never taught by Joseph Smith. This letter to Emma (D&C 132) was used as a polemic against the RLDS teaching that Joseph did not practice plural marriage.(46:55) The Temple Lot Case was a property dispute between the RLDS Church and Church of Christ. In these proceedings, women testified under oath that they were married to the prophet Joseph Smith. This legal dispute provided a wealth of information about plural marriage in the Nauvoo period.(48:46) Plural marriage is not a requirement for exaltation. One man and one woman is the Lord’s standing law of marriage.(51:38) In D&C 132 the Lord gives several reasons why plural marriage was commanded.(53:51) Baruch Spinoza’s advice in our quest to understand the past.(54:41) Joseph Smith wrestled with plural marriage as early as 1830 or 1831 as he worked on his translation of the Bible. We have few details of his marriage to Fanny Alger during the Kirtland period.(59:53) During the Nauvoo era Joseph taught several close friends about plural marriage. Estimates are given of how many members lived this law.(1:01:45) The Saints during this time thought differently about temple sealings than we do today. They believed that the law of adoption and dynastic ties increased their glory.(1:07:36) Wilford Woodruff saw that adoption theology wasn’t right and worked to bring the Church into a greater understanding of what it means to seal families for eternity.(1:08:52) There were 3 types of plural marriages: time, time and eternity, and adoptive/dynastic/eternal only. Some examples of Joseph’s dynastic marriages include Elizabeth Rollins Lightner and Helen Mar Kimball.(1:15:11) A timeline of how long plural marriage was practiced. The Reed Smoot Hearings.(1:17:27) None of Joseph Smith’s plural wives ever accused him of abuse or deception. Despite the difficulty of understanding plural marriage, we testify that Joseph was a prophet. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 346 | D&C 129-132, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 10-16) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

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