Episode 49: D&C 46-48

Shiloh and Ben continue their discussion on how these new revelations in the early days of the Church established the new Latter-day Saint identity. These revelations gave function and form to the lived religious experience of these early Saints who lived on the frontier. Whereas the Saints could already find passages of scripture concerning the gifts of the Spirit in the Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, the Lord brings these back to the minds and memories of the Saints. At least in part, the Saints are reminded of these gifts to focus their minds and hearts onto God. They are reminded to not seek for signs (because there is nothing transformational about a sign), but to “always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that re given unto the church” (D&C 46:10). The “restoration” of the gospel is also a “repentance” process insomuch that God is restoring–as he has always done–the knowledge of himself. God consistently asks us to see him differently, to see ourselves differently, and to see each other the way that he sees us. To train the mind and heart away from the things of the world (where our ideas of God are typically created) and onto the things of God (that run counter the worldly ideas of God), he pleads with us ask of him and talk with him liberally, to walk in holiness of heart, to walk uprightly, to consider our salvation, and to give thanks (D&C 46:7). In short, God asks us to focus on the good for our own sake, and he has provided us many means to do this thing for our own benefit and joy.