D&C Section Fifty Eight

The members of the Colesville saints have arrived in Independence and on this Sunday, services are held and Joseph receives this revelation. I don't believe this revelation was understood by the saints at that time. They had great zeal to build the city of Zion and the temple and assumed it would be in their day. But Zion is such a far reaching principle, stretching well beyond our imaginations today. The Lord tells them that they will not see it with their natural eyes, that there will be much tribulation before the city is built, and he tells them they are laying a foundation for the future work. There is nothing in the revelations that tells the early saints that it will be built in their own time. But who can blame their excitement? They have already sacrificed so much for the cause of the gospel and overall, their motives are pure. The Lord is telling them to buy up land, to dedicate the temple site. It would have been easy to assume it was coming in their day.

There are some wonderful teachings in this section. One is, the Lord is not going to command us in all things but expects us to use our own initiative. He urges us to be engaged in good causes, to be agents unto our own selves. To me, that means he trusts me to make my own decisions and will honor those as long as I'm living righteously. I like the idea that he's not going to tell me every single thing I should or shouldn't do. There is no growth in that.

Another teaching is if a person repents of his sins, the Lord remembers them no more. Now he knows all things, and undoubtedly can remember all things, but he blots these out as if they never existed. Like it says in Ezekiel, those sins will never be mentioned again. That should be the same rule for us. If a person seeks forgiveness, we should offer it and then forget about whatever they may have done. The Lord also says the way to tell if someone has repented is he not only confesses but forsakes the sin and does it no more.

Lastly, I like that the Lord tells the saints to do all things in order. I take this to mean to be patient, not force things, but allow things to take their own natural course. Sitting back and letting things unfold is hard sometimes. It would certainly be hard for these saints because what would unfold would be terrible.