Discourse, 3 October 1841, as Published in Times and Seasons

Source Note

JS, Discourse,
Nauvoo
Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....
More Info
, IL, 3 Oct. 1841. Version published in “Minutes of a Conference of the Church,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:577–578. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction

See Historical Introduction to Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 Oct. 1841.

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President Joseph Smith, by request of some of the , gave instructions on the doctrine of for the Dead;

which was listened to with intense interest by the large assembly. The speaker presented “Baptism for the Dead” as the only way that men can appear as saviors on mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the gospel

was a means of salvatien to men individually, and it was the truth, not men that saved them; but men, by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutionally, became instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the kingdom of God. He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit, ministering to embodied spirits—the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a minestering spirit, while his body laying in the sepulchre, to the spirits in prison; to fulfil an important part of his mission, without which he could not have perfected his work or entered into his rest. After his resurrection, he appeared as an angel to his disciples &c. Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions. The angel that appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos was a translated or resurrected body.— Jesus Christ went in body, after his resurrection, to minister to translated and resurrected bodies. There has been a chain of authority and power from Adam down to the present time. The only way to obtain truth and wisdom, is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer and obtain divine teaching. It is no more incredible that God should save the dead, than that he should raise the dead. There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, which hath no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. There is a way to release the spirit of the dead; that is, by the power and authority of the Priest[h]ood—by binding and loosing on earth [p. 577]

President Joseph Smith, by request of some of the , gave instructions on the doctrine of for the Dead;

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Editorial Title
Discourse, 3 October 1841, as Published in Times and Seasons
ID #
692
Total Pages
2
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Footnotes
1. 1
  For more information on baptism for the dead, see Minutes and Discourse, 3–5 Oct. 1840; and Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:29–32]. The most recent issue of the Times and Seasons contained a poem on baptism for the dead that treated similarly the doctrinal tenets JS spoke about here. (J. H. Johnson, “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, 2:555; see also Vilate Murray Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, to Heber C. Kimball, London, England, 11 Oct. 1840, photocopy, Vilate Murray Kimball, Letters, CHL; and Phebe Carter Woodruff, Lee Co., Iowa Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, Manchester, England, 6–19 Oct. 1840, Wilford Woodruff Collection, CHL; “Joseph Smith Documents from February through November 1841.”
  
  Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
  Kimball, Vilate Murray. Letters, 1840. Photocopy. CHL.
  Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. CHL. MS 19509.
2. 2
  See Obadiah 1:21.
3. 3
  In a 4 January 1833 letter to Noah C. Saxton, JS enumerated the first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ: “Repent of all your sins and be baptized in water for the remission of them, in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost, and receive the ordinance of the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power, that ye may receive the holy spirit of God, and this according to the holy scriptures, and of the Book of Mormon; and the only way that man can enter into the Celestial kingdom.” In 1837 the church newspaper Messenger and Advocate identified “faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sin, and . . . the reception of the Holy Ghost” as the five “first principles of the gospel.” (Letter to Noah C. Saxton, 4 Jan. 1833; A. Cheney, “The Gospel,” Messenger and Advocate, May 1837, 3:498–500; see also Letter to the Elders of the Church, 2 Oct. 1835; Acts 2:38; 19:1–6; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 118–119, 508, 514 [2 Nephi 31:5–13; 3 Nephi 27:20; 4 Nephi 1:1].)
  
  Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
4. 4
  See Hebrews 1:14; and Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76:88]. In June 1839, JS taught Wilford Woodruff and other apostles how to detect the difference between the devil and angels of light. JS made similar remarks in a December 1840 discourse. (Discourse, 27 June 1839; Discourse, Dec. 1840.)
5. 5
  See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 476–479 [3 Nephi chap. 11]; John 20:11–29; and Luke 24:13–43; see also 1 Peter 3:19.
6. 6
  See Revelation 1:1. Robert B. Thompson read JS’s explanation of the concept of translated beings at a general church conference a year earlier. (See Instruction on Priesthood, ca. 5 Oct. 1840.)
7. 7
  A year earlier, JS prepared instructions that included information regarding Adam’s role in the chain of priesthood authority, which were then read at the October 1840 general conference. (See Instruction on Priesthood, ca. 5 Oct. 1840; see also Discourse, between ca. 26 June and ca. 4 Aug. 1839–A.)
8. 8
  See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 142, 332 [Jacob 7:19; Alma 39:6].
9. 9
  See Visions, 3 Apr. 1836 [D&C 110]; and Matthew 16:19.

Discourse, 3 October 1841, as Published in Times and Seasons

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