REL 275 - Teachings and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon

Obedience & Rebellion

Read the following passages in the Book of Mormon before our class:

1 Nephi 3:7 Alma 7:22-24
2 Nephi 9:18, 41-42 Alma 29:5
2 Nephi 31:14-18 Alma 53:20
Jacob 1:7-8 Alma 57:21, 27
Jacob 4:10-11Helaman 12:1-8
Mosiah 16:5, 12Helaman 13:38
Alma 3:27
 
Elder Robert D. HalesIf Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments (2014)
 
The Prophet Joseph SmithTrue Human Nature is Defined by the Nature of God
The Role of Laws in Exaltation

The Prophet Joseph Smith
True Human Nature is Defined by the Nature of God
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp.325, 343, 346-347


The organization of the spiritual and heavenly worlds, and of spiritual and heavenly beings, was agreeable to the most perfect order and harmony: their limits and bounds were fixed irrevocably, and voluntarily subscribed to in their heavenly estate by themselves, and were by our first parents subscribed to upon the earth. Hence the importance of embracing and subscribing to principles of eternal truth by all men upon the earth that expect eternal life. ...

I wish to go back to the beginning--to the morn of creation. There is the starting point for us to look to, in order to understand and be fully acquainted with the mind, purposes and decrees of the Great Elohim ... It is necessary for us to have an understanding of God himself in the beginning. If we start right, it is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong, we may go wrong, and it be a hard matter to get right. ...

If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves. I want to go back to the beginning, and so lift your minds into a more lofty sphere and a more exalted understanding than what the human mind generally aspires to.

Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going … from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. ...

To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before ... and God is thus glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all his children.


The Prophet Joseph Smith
The Role of Laws in Exaltation
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp.354-355
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-e-1-1-july-1843-30-april-1844/346


Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.

The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself.

The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.

This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life, and so can you. They are given to me by the revelations of Jesus Christ; and I know that when I tell you these words of eternal life as they are given to me, you taste them, and I know that you believe them. You say honey is sweet, and so do I. I can also taste the spirit of eternal life. I know it is good; and when I tell you of these things which were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you are bound to receive them as sweet, and rejoice more and more.


Questions for Review

1) What is "selective obedience"? (Elder Robert D. Hales, If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments)

2) What is required of us to "use our agency to obey"? 
(Elder Robert D. Hales, If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments)

3) What are the consequences of "rationalizing desobedience"? 
(Elder Robert D. Hales, If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments)

Be prepared to present your understanding about this topic to your classmates, and see if you have additional questions to ask me.  I'll be glad to answer them.


This web page was published only as a support for classroom discussion.
For more information, contact Dr. Marcus Martins at: martinsm@byuh.edu