Doctrine & Covenants 20 All

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D&C 20:1-5

Doctrine & Covenants > Section 20

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Questions

Verse 2: Why is Joseph called “the first elder"?

Verse 3: Why is Oliver called “the second elder"?

Verse 4: To what does the word “this” refer in the first phrase of this verse? What does it mean to say that something is “according to the grace of our Lord"? What does the phrase “to whom be all glory, both now and forever” mean? What does that phrase tell us?

Verses 5-12: Notice that this is one long sentence. What’s this sentence as a whole about?

Verse 5: What does it mean to receive a remission of sin? How do we get entangled in the vanities of the world? What does “vanities of the world” mean?

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Lexical notes

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Verses 5-6

Verse 12 ends the sentence stretching from verses 5-12. There the Lord says "proving to the world that the holy scriptures are true." Here, at the beginning of the same sentence, in verses 5 and 6, the Lord recounts Joseph's sin and repentance. Is the fact that Joseph Smith sinned and then repented part of what proves that the holy scriptures are true? If so, how? If not, why does the Lord bring up Joseph's sin and repentance here?

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Verse 6

Do we know to what angelic visitation this verse refers?

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Verse 7

How can commandments inspire us?

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Verse 8

We probably all know what “power from on high” means. And we all know what it means to translate the Book of Mormon. But what does it mean that Joseph was given power to translate “by the means which were before prepared"?

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Verse 9

Were the descendants of Lehi the only people in the world who enjoyed the fulness of the gospel between the end of Christ's mortal ministry and the dawning of the dispensation of the fulness of times?

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Verse 10

When this verse says the Book of Mormon was given by inspiration, is it referring to the inspiration the Lord gave the Book of Mormon prophets or to the inspiration he gave Joseph Smith? When the verse says the Book of Mormon “is confirmed to others by the ministering of angels,” of whom is it speaking? Who is it that declares the Book of Mormon to the world?

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Verse 11

Is it the presence of the Book of Mormon that constitutes the proof or the confirmation one receives through the Spirit?

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Verse 12

Did God start out as a God or was there a different God before him?

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Verse 38 seems to have a rather limited scope as regards the priesthood. But the fact is that the priesthood was a series of offices, rather than two priesthoods and the several quorums, in 1830. That the Church seems at first to have been founded on the offices of the elder, priest, and teacher seems to reflect the organization of the churches in the Book of Mormon. What is the significance of the Book of Mormon's sway on the earliest organization of the Latter-day Church?

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What is the difference between the priest's duty in what is now called hometeaching and the teacher's duty (compare verses 47 and verse 53)?

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Verse 47

Here a distinction is drawn between vocal prayer and prayer in secret. The distinction, when set against a rather broad survey of the scriptures, seems to be quite fruitful: vocal prayer seems generally to be a question of communal prayer, and hence, of praise; while secret prayer seems generally to be a question of intercessory prayer, and hence, of petition (and most usually, complaint). If this is the distinction being made here, then the constant exhortation of the visiting priest is to praise together as a family in prayer and to counsel with the Lord on an individual basis. Maintaining this distinction perhaps would lead a more genuine verbal relationship with the Lord: together God's people praise, but individually they counsel with God. That these questions are understood here as a question of the family is clear: "and attend to all family duties" does not separate itself from the two exhortations to prayer, since this last phrase picks up on the infinitive "to" of "to pray vocally." In other words, this distinction in prayer is one that is supposed to be present in one's family life, in the family specifically. (For a similar pairing in the context of missionary service, see D&C 84:61.)

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