Episode 40: D&C 18-19

Ben and Shiloh talk about the revelations given to Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer in Section 18 and to Martin Harris in Section 19. The tones are very different in each of these sections, and it is of interest to pay attention to these shifts in how the Lord is speaking to them. Repentance is a primary theme of the Restoration. We tend to talk about repentance as a process of how to obtain divine forgiveness after committing sin, but is there more to it than that? Is God simply telling the world that it is sinful and that people need to obtain divine forgiveness? While this narrative is undoubtedly a part of that, there is a lot to repentance that we miss that limits us from seeing the joyous magnitude of the Restoration really was and still is. Repentance, in the LDS Bible Dictionary, is primarily defined as “a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world.” The message of repentance throughout the D&C and the Restoration narratives has far more to do with learning to see God, ourselves, and the world differently and with a fresh few and a change of mind than anything else. God is revealing Himself in new and wondrous ways, and He is inviting us to experience that new way of being with us.