→ Timestamps:
(00:00) The building of Zion, the New Jerusalem.
(26:45) The parable of the nobleman and the olive trees.
(30:00) The Lord calls the Saints to reclaim the land in Missouri in “Zions Camp.”
(38:52) Edward Partridge’s duties as Bishop pertaining to consecration.
(44:41) The Saints are counseled to “Act upon this land as for years.” The Lord may guide us in a direction that we don’t see.
(47:28) The call to Missouri and the first ordination of High Priests. The Father and the Son’s appearance at the Morley Farm.
(51:39) Joseph Smith’s prediction, “You know no more of the destiny of the church than a babe.”
(54:13) Scripture comes in cultural packaging, it is a God-breathed text. Symonds Ryder as an example.
(59:58) Seek to build the kingdom. Sidney Gilbert’s desire to serve.
(1:07:24) Isaac and Lucy Morley.
(1:09:55) Daniel Webster Jones, his contact with Isaac Morley, and his work on the Spanish Book of Mormon translation.
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I taught this lesson in gospel Doctrine yesterday and used your reference to Christopher Columbus’ journal entry. Someone in my class is asking for the reference and I can’t find anything on the internet to corroborate this. Will you please help?
Amber,
Thanks for listening to the podcast!
Christopher Columbus, wrote in a letter claiming that he had discovered “a New Heaven and New World which had been hidden.” In his quest for a new land, he sought the land where the New Jerusalem would be built. He claimed that “Of the New Heaven and Earth which our Lord has made, and as St. John writes in the Apocalypse, after he had told of I by the mouth of Isaiah, He made me the messenger for I and showed me where to find it.” West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, University Press of Florida; An En face ed edition (June 20, 1991) p. 60. Elsewhere I have mentioned that Wilford Woodruff saw Columbus and had work for him performed in the St. George Temple. He relates the following: Two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, “You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God. Everyone of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, with General Washington, called upon me as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George, two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that I should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them. I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McCallister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others. When Brother McAllister had baptized me for the 100 names I baptized him for 21, including General Washington and his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States–except three. Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went forth into the font and was baptized for Martha Washington and her family and 70 of the ’eminent women’ of the world. See: Wilford Woodruff, Conference Report, April 10, 1898; Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, 160-61; Wilford Woodruff Journal, August 21, 1877. See also: Vicki Jo Anderson, The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff, Nelson Book; 2nd edition, 2000. You can see scanned images of the records of this temple work here. It is noteworthy that four individuals were ordained High Priests by Wilford Woodruff during this experience. The four individuals were George Washington, John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, and Christopher Columbus. Regarding this experience, and emphasizing the idea that modern historians are somewhat harsh on many of these men, President Ezra Taft Benson warned, “When one casts doubt upon the character of these noble sons of God, I believe he or she will have to answer to the God of heaven for it.” See: Arnold K. Garr, Christopher Columbus: A Latter-day Saint Perspective, epilogue. See also: Ezra Taft Benson, God’s Hand in Our Nation’s History, BYU devotional speech March 28, 1977.
Thank you so much!