D&C Section Thirty Five

Sidney Rigdon's involvement in the church is so fascinating that books have been written about him. When he was 26, he became a licensed minister in the Baptist church but left it feeling that many of it's teachings weren't scriptural. He joined two other men and started a religious movement based on the scriptures known as the Campbellites, named after the founder Alexander Campbell. Their congregation in Ohio provided many converts to the church when it moved to Kirtland. In 1830, Sidney was 37 years old, so he was thirteen years older than Joseph Smith. Sidney would take part in many significant and important church events.

I think it's interesting that the Lord basically says that Sidney, up to the time of his joining the church, has done a great work. Now the Lord tells him he will do a greater work, that he will be sent forth to prepare the way before the Lord. I think there are many people who are sent to do this who are not of our faith. As it says in one my commentaries, "It would be well to point out that we ought not to judge the actions and affairs of others. The Lord may be doing His work through means we know not of. Suffice it to say that many people in many lands under many circumstances may now be working, at least in part, to bring about the Lord's holy purposes." There are many good ministers of other religions who bring people closer to the Lord and who is to say they are not inspired and doing what they were placed on the earth to do?

One of the first things that the Lord commands Sidney to do is to be a scribe for Joseph as he translates the Bible. This will lead to important discussions between the two that will in turn lead to important visions and revelations. I think it's to Sidney's credit that he was able to leave a successful ministry, accept the fact that he did not have priesthood authority, and be humble enough to accept someone else's leadership who was younger, less educated and less experienced. In verse 13, the Lord tells Sidney he is calling "upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised" to do his work. I like this quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith: "Think of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was without training or education, only in the simple grades, so far as the learning of the world is concerned. Yet the Lord called him and educated him and he has confounded the entire religious world and brought to naught their false doctrines."

There is a wonderful promise the Lord gives to the church in verse 24 which I think applies to individuals as well, "Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound; and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good, and Satan shall tremble and Zion shall rejoice..." If we only knew how much the angels help us though we are unaware of it, moving things, changing events in our behalf, bringing other people into our lives at critical times, inspiring out thoughts and actions. And if we could only see how Satan trembles in the face of one righteous person. Nothing stops Satan cold and reduces him to total weakness like righteousness. We're told that it is because of the righteousness of the people that he will be bound for the duration of the millennium.