We’ve all had conversations with people of different beliefs and those conversations can
be really enlightening. We learn a lot from our friends of other faiths and hopefully they learn
a lot from us and there are points where we just have to say what we believe without compromise
and times when we reason together and try to find common ground. There are core beliefs that we have
that we really can’t compromise on and that we have to defend, and then there are other teachings
of the Church that we seek to find common ground, that we try to make friends with and that we try
to find places where we can connect. Those core doctrines of the gospel are things that we really
have to stand up for. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve explained that, “A
[core] Doctrine is a truth - a truth of salvation revealed by a loving Heavenly Father.” He said,
“Gospel doctrines are eternal, do not change, and pertain to the eternal progression and exaltation
of Heavenly Father’s sons and daughters. Doctrines such as the nature of the Godhead, the plan of
happiness, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ are foundational, fundamental, and comprehensive,” but
“The core doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ are relatively few in number.”
Now let’s look at a situation in section 49 and 50 of the Doctrine & Covenants, where the saints
encountered a different group of people. People that believed differently than them. A group of
people called the Shakers, which isn’t just a great name for a band, it’s a group of people
that lived in the Americas nearby where the saints were in Kirtland Ohio, specifically up the road
at Shaker Heights. The name Shakers is a nickname for this group just like Mormons was a nickname
for us. Their official name was the United Society of Believers and they were a break off from the
Quakers known as Shakers because of some of the movements that they made during their worship
services. In some ways Shakers had similar beliefs to the Latter-day Saints. For instance, Shakers
believed that there had been a general apostasy of the Christian faith, that men and women had
agency, that the Lord had called new prophets, and that believers should unite together to try
and reduce poverty, but there were some other ways that Shakers sharply diverged from what the
Latter-day Saints believed. For instance, Shakers didn’t believe that baptism or any other ordinance
of the Gospel is necessary. Some of the Shakers practiced vegetarianism. Shakers believed that
celibacy was a higher form of life. One Shaker leader taught that celibacy was the key to sinless
perfection and salvation and this led the Shakers to see a single life as a more important life than
a married life, that it was more important to be a single disciple of Christ than to raise
a family. Now finally Shakers believed that Jesus Christ had already returned to Earth
in the form of mother Ann Lee, an early leader that defined many of the Shakers’ beliefs.
So, one of the Shakers, a man named Lehman Copely, converted to the Church of Jesus Christ and he
wanted to find out what the Lord had to say about this different group, the Shakers. So, Sydney
Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Lehman Copley, were all called to go on a mission to preach to the
Shakers and before they left Joseph Smith received a revelation, section 49, which outlined some of
the Shakers’ beliefs, some of the commonalities, but also explained some of the differences. Now
this would be an example of a core doctrine where we just have to explain what we believe and we
have to let people know that and we can’t really compromise on it because it’s a core doctrine.
It’s related or linked to our salvation. The Lord starts section 49 by addressing the most important
core doctrine and that is that Jesus Christ is our Savior. The Lord told the Shakers “I am God
and have sent my Only Begotten Son into the world for the redemption of the world, and have decreed
that he that receiveth him shall be saved and he that receiveth him not shall be damned.”
The next important doctrine that the Lord addressed was the importance of marriage and
family in the plan of salvation. The Lord told the Shakers, “Verily I say unto you,
that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man.”
This language from section 49 is taken directly from the revelation and placed
in the 1995 family proclamation emphasizing how important marriage is in the plan.
The Lord even addressed a couple other things like meat. The Lord
said, “And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same,
is not ordained of God.” That doesn’t mean that it’s bad to be a vegetarian but forcing
other people to be vegetarians might be stepping over the line a little bit. The Lord explains
that “the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth,
is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.”
Finally, the Lord addresses another significant doctrinal deviation which is that the Shakers
believed that the Second Coming had already happened in the form of Ann Lee. The Lord
says really directly, “Verily I say unto you, that the Son of Man cometh not in the form of a woman,
neither of a man traveling on the earth.” When the Savior comes back to earth,
we will know. It’s going to happen in glory. He’s not going to be reborn again as a man or
a woman and grow to adulthood. He’s already had his mortal experience. When the Savior
comes it will be in glory as an immortal, resurrected, glorified, exalted being.
Now how did the Shakers receive this message? Not too well according to some of the sources.
One of the Shakers, Ashbel Kitchell, that was there when the missionaries came in said
that “they were fully satisfied with what they had and they wished to have nothing to do with
either them or their Christ.” Upon hearing this, according to Kitchell, Sidney Rigdon professed to
be satisfied. He put away his paper but Parley P. Pratt arose and commenced shaking his coat
and he shook the dust from his garments as a testimony against us,
that we had rejected the word of the Lord Jesus. So, in some situations you just have to bluntly
explain what we believe, why we believe it, and what the Lord has told us. With the major
doctrinal divergences between the saints and the Shakers, that’s what the Lord did.
But in section 50 we see a more subtle situation where the Lord speaks to members of the Church and
instead of just bluntly correcting them allows them to go through a process of reasoning to
understand why what they were doing wasn’t the best. The situation arose when in Kirtland,
Ohio some members of the church entered into a kind of religious
enthusiasm that was a little embarrassing and in some cases outright dangerous. Joseph Smith
recorded in the history of the Church that “Soon after the gospel was established in Kirtland,
and during the absence of the authorities of the Church, many false spirits were introduced,
many strange visions were seen, and wild, enthusiastic notions were entertained;
men ran out of doors under the influence of this spirit, and some of them got upon the
stumps of trees and shouted, and all kinds of extravagances were entered into by them.”
Now this started to cause problems for the church in Ohio and people started to worry
directly about the safety of the people that were entering into these religious enthusiasms.
Joseph Smith in response to this sought a revelation that became section 50 of
the Doctrine & Covenants, and in section 50 the Lord does something similar to what he did often
in the New Testament, where he sat down with people like Nicodemus
or the woman at the well and reasoned through with them the concerns that they had and tried
to answer their questions. In fact, the Lord of the revelation after condemning wicked spirits
says very directly, “Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face. Now, when
a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord,
reason with you that you may understand.” The line of reasoning the Savior takes
the disciples through is to ask what they were asked to do and what they were ordained to do,
which in both cases was to teach by the spirit, not to blow people away by their amazing spiritual
experiences or to take them down a road where there was exuberance, but to just
simply and plainly teach the Gospel and allow people to feel the spirit of Jesus Christ.
As the spirit edified and enlightened them, they in turn would be edified as well. Now
the Lord gives that as the hallmark of a genuine spiritual teaching, that when
the spirit was present both the teacher and the learner would be built. They’d be edified.
The word “edify” in Joseph’s time literally meant to build, like you’re building an edifice. Any
edifying experience should be something that builds you, that makes you bigger,
better, stronger, and a greater disciple of Jesus Christ. Spiritual communications
come in a number of different ways but genuine spiritual communications are always edifying.
They’re not confusing, they’re not disturbing, they come from God. They make us better people.
Joseph Smith later on established some of the other standards for spiritual communications. For
instance, he noted that in his time it was common for people to enter into exuberances. He said,
“Others frequently possess a spirit that will cause them to lie down, and during its operation,
animation is frequently entirely suspended; They consider it to be the power of God, and a glorious
manifestation from God [but] A manifestation of what? Is there any intelligence communicated? Are
the curtains of heaven withdrawn, or the purposes of God developed?” “Is there any intelligence
communicated”, is another good test of a genuine spiritual communication from God. That doesn’t
mean that you get a revelation in words like Joseph Smith but intelligence could mean that
you get a confirmation, that you get a feeling that what you’re doing is right, and that most
importantly, you’re edified, built up and become a stronger better disciple of Jesus Christ.
So, in some cases we just have to stand up for what we believe and explain what the Lord has
taught to us in word, in scripture, and in revelation. In other times,
it’s okay for us to sit down and reason with our friends and help them understand why logically
we believe what we believe and what the Lord has asked us to do. In all these cases we hope
that our spiritual communication and the way that we deal with others is kind and edifying,
that we never tear other people down but that we always build them up and in every
single interaction we act as the way the Savior did. Teaching the truth but also gently leading
people to truth as they understand and know and row and are edified through the spirit of God.