Doctrinal Essays

When a government building or edifice is so important that it requires military protection, there is often a ceremonious changing of the guard that takes place. This procedure, like the one at Arlington National Cemetery, or Buckingham Palace, provides relief to the first crew as the next crew comes on duty.  The scriptures tell a story of a similar changing of the guard [i] . The full story is best realized by studying at least three books of scripture, which include Nephi's vision, the Savior's ministry among the Ancient Americans, and a sermon Joseph Smith gave to the early saints, now known as Section 45 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Applying the metaphor of the military guard to the scriptural example, the special edifice that requires protection is the gospel, or God's kingdom on the earth. The most ceremonious and formal guard to care for her was called to duty about the time of Moses. The manner of guardianship in the kingdom was given by him and others of...

Throughout the history of good and evil on earth there have been many key moments when evil might have prevailed over righteous had the Lord not intervened. Such times demonstrate the Lord's tender mercy to the righteous, along with his vengeance upon the wicked. But despite his miraculous ability to protect and preserve he has always used practical means of separating the righteous from the wicked before exercising judgment. Such will be the case again in a future event. "The Callout", as it has come to be known in some circles, will offer protection during the  Days of Tribulation  to those who hear the Lord's voice, and it will safely lead many of the elect who harden not their hearts into the Millennium (see  Doctrine and Covenants 43:29 ). The Callout is not widely discussed or understood. Just enough has been revealed to start conversation and  lead to speculation. Those who have not studied this subject may think of it as a future event when the saints...

I recently undertook an intense study of the Abrahamic Covenant. I learned a lot! It put nearly every doctrine and principle I've learned in a global context. I now see that everything in the gospel of Jesus Christ relates to the covenants the Father made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I see that God is very interested in Abraham's posterity and in protecting them. Later I became curious how those covenants pertained to the Last days, and the Millennium. I have read and reread the books of Isaiah, 1st and 2nd Nephi, key Doctrine and Covenants chapters, and a bunch of general conference quotes. Not surprisingly, I realized the Abrahamic Covenant has everything to do with the Millennium. There were a few other significant lessons I learned along the way. Here are my takeaways from this interesting study: The difficult to understand scriptures are often most critical.  The chapters I have often skipped in scriptures due to their difficulty of interpretation, like Isaiah, ...