Doctrine of the Priesthood
I've taken the last half of D&C 121 and organized in an outline. http://www.fullmerfamily.org/Joe/DoctrineOfPriesthood.doc
There are 4 sections:
1) characteristics of those who excercise unrighteous dominion
2) their rewards
3) characteristics of those who excercise righteous dominion
4) their rewards
posted by ChssAddct @ 8:47 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
We should apply these verses of scripture to every part of our life, not just to service in the church. In fact, the most important part of our life to which these verses of scripture can be applied is to our family and to the disciplining of our children. It says:
D&C 121:41-42
41 …only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and pure knowledge…
That right there is the way we should discipline our children. We should use persuasion, gentleness and meekness, love unfeigned, kindness, and pure knowledge. We should be long-suffering.
I have found children to be more persuadable than any grown man or woman I have ever known. They are easily persuaded in comparison. Every once in a while they are difficult to persuade. In those circumstances we need to be long-suffering and use pure knowledge.
Many people have told me we should be “strict” with our children so they will be obedient and polite. They say children should be “kept in line” and “disciplined.” They say, “We spank our kids because sometimes it is the only way we can get them to obey.” And yet, I have only found one passage of scripture that teaches this supposed doctrine:
Proverbs 13:24
24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
It should be noted the chastisement is applied “betimes.” But how often is “betimes?” D&C 121 gives us a clue:
D&C 121:43
43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost…
It means when moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And that is the key. Unless we are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, we cannot reprove with sharpness and remain in good standing with the Lord.
Does Proverbs 13:24, because it says “his rod,” give us the right to actually use a rod? Does it give us the right to use any form of physical chastisement, such as spanking? My opinion is no. I believe the scripture says “rod” to differentiate the chastisement from common counsel. But that is just my opinion. Others may have a different opinion. Those who are of the opinion that the scripture gives them that right need to watch themselves very closely to not use it unless the Holy Ghost tells them to. The Lord is extremely displeased with the physical abuse of children. And it is physical abuse without the support of the Holy Ghost.
I will admit, the Holy Ghost has not once told me to spank one of my children or use any other form of physical chastisement. I have felt spanking to be wrong my whole life, even though my parents sometimes spanked me. Yet I never truly understood why it was wrong until four or five months ago when I was pondering D&C 121 in the morning while getting ready for work. I was reciting in my mind these verses and pondering them out when it dawned on me what they meant to my children and me.
I have since made a strong effort to be persuasive, gentle, meek, kind, and to show love and be long-suffering. I have made a strong effort to only rebuke with sharpness when moved by the Holy Ghost. And this approach has paid off in great measure! I am amazed what can be accomplished with children using this approach. And I am amazed at how very infrequently the Holy Ghost impresses me to rebuke with sharpness. In fact, I cannot remember the last time it did, that’s how infrequent it is. And yet, the children are more responsible.
I believe it is because children want to do good. They want to believe in the Savior, to love Him and follow His commandments, and they want the support and love of their parents. They want to be organized and clean. It is us who are stubborn and who have a difficult time believing in the Savior. And it is us who are selfish and impatient. It must be because we have “wisdom:”
2 Nephi 9:28-29
28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.
And then of course:
Mosiah 3:19
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
And so it is true. Children are already pre-disposed to be submissive, meek, humble, patient, and full of love. They are already willing to submit to their parents. It is us who are off course, not them. If we as parents use the same tactics the children already posses: patience, meekness, humility, etc, we will gain their respect and they will become responsible for themselves. At American Heritage, they call this “self government.”
I think your first point is an excellent one. Our Priesthood leadership in the home in our role as Patriarch of the family carries much more weight than any calling to a supposed position of authority.
In fact, whereas H. Verlan Anderson applies the Law of Recompense (if you restrict freedom of others, your freedom must be restricted, if you protect it, yours is expanded) to our relationship with our fellow man, specifically regarding our support of freedom-restring governmental/group action, it would equally apply to our relationship with our family members, especially those it is our stewardship to excercise dominion, control, and compulsion over -- our children. *How* we excercise that control could determine how we end up after this life -- with more freedom or less. In fact, the relationship of God to those he governs is much more analogous to the relationship of a father governing a child than to a man governing a neighbor via government/group mentality. Thus, how one carries out his fatherhood stewardship toward his children is a better litmus test of what we'll do with supposed authority than how one performs his citizenship stewardship toward his fellow man.
Another reason this could be a better test is that many more people get the test of being a parent than get the test of participating in government. This is especially true in countries without participatory government, but still true even here in the U.S.
I truly thank you for this thought. I think it adds beautifully to Anderson's understanding of righteous vs. unrighteous dominion.
Very good point! I think you are exactly right. In fact, a person need not have any additional responsibility beyond his own family to show God who he is and how he’ll choose.
In fact, President McKay's statement that "no success can compensate for failure in the home" would indicate that even if we perform wonderfully in additional callings/responsibilities/stewardships beyond family, if we fail to perform our Patriarchal Stewardship righteously, it matters not. If we don't even pass the principle test of freedom-respecting in family dominion, the test results of other dominions (church calling, citizenship) won't even be considered, no matter how well we 'scored' on those tests.
regarding spanking, see also Proverbs 23:13,14
http://scriptures.lds.org/prov/23/13-14#13
"Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
Three more scriptures on the spare the rod issue:
"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him..." Proverbs 22:15
"Thy rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."--Proverbs 29:15
Hebrews 12:5-7: "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?"
By none of these do I intend to imply that the requirement that it be "when moved upon by the Holy Ghost". I believe it is very clear that that is absolutely required.
There are two instances where Rod is used as a symbol for divine discipline.
2 Sam. 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
Isa. 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
There is also a concept that the "rod of correction" can mean scripture:
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."--2 Timothy 3:16.
Indeed, a rod can be a stick. Thus, beating (correcting) a child with the Stick of Judah (bible) and Stick of Ephraim (Book of Mormon) is probably more likely to "deliver his soul from hell".
In addition, we should remember that the shepherd's rod referred to in Scripture was used almost exclusively for guiding the sheep, not beating them. Shepherds would gently steer the sheep, especially the lambs, by simply holding the rod to block them from going in the wrong direction and then gently nudge them toward the right direction. If the rod were an instrument used principally for beating, it would be difficult to say accept "Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me".
However, tho a shepherd would seldom hit his sheep with his rod, he certainly wouldn't hesitate to use it to hit an enemy of his sheep.
So, the rod, whether taken to be literal (spanking) or a symbol for using the scriptures for correction, is about *protection*, not about coercion. In either case, it must be used righteously to protect the soul of a child from the path that leads to hell. It is not merely a means of force to exact compliance. This protection is in the form of *teaching*. We learn from Joseph Smith that teaching is followed by allowing the taught to govern themselves.
When one has 'reproved betimes with sharpness', whether by physically spanking, or by verbally correcting, or by any other method (time-out, additional chores, toys taken away, denial of privelidges, writing a phrase 100 times, etc.) it is vital that a lesson that will save their soul from hell has been taught and learned, and should not simply that the child has complied with an order backed by force. If so, the only lesson learned may be the "law of the jungle" -- that "might means right" and the strong rule the weak. Such a lesson can lead them to strive to become either strong and excercise power over others, or to become absolutely compliant to all authority to avoid punishment (often by bottling up emotion). Both responses can lead to outbursts of violence. Neither leads to a path that 'delivers their soul from hell'.
I noticed in the document you attached fast cars and boats to having a heart "set so much upon the things of this world." We need to be careful not to make that kind of judgment. Simply because someone has a fast car or a boat does not mean their heart is set so much upon the things of this world. We have no way of knowing where their heart really is. There are many families who will leave a great many things behind when they are called to go build Zion. And your neighbor down the street with the Porsche may be one of them. They will do this because, while they had nice things, their heart was not set upon them, but upon the Lord.
-Corey
I just realized I missed one on the topic of the Rod of Correction being the scriptures. The Iron Rod is a representation of the Word of God. Don't know how I missed that one.
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