Talk:D&C 121:34-46

Hi Visorstuff, I enjoyed reading your comments. I thought more about this verse than I had before. As I thought about it the phrase "in the presence of God" seemed particularly significant. It seems to me that it isn't hard to have self-confidence when surrounded by people. I think we see plenty of times when someone isn't acting as they should but they act with a lot of self-confidence. It is hard to judge whether someone else's thoughts aren't being garnished by virtue, but I think it is fair to assume that there are plenty of people whose thoughts aren't garnished with virtue but who have plenty of (misguided) self-confidence. I think the scripture is telling us that only a person who thinks pure thoughts will feel confident when standing in the presence of God.

This scripture give us the "if-then" condition but does not give us here the reversal "only if" condition. In my view the scripture really is talking about both sides--"if and only if." What do you think? Anyway, even if we don't pull it from here, I think we can pull the reversal condition out of other scriptures which is why I went to Alma 12:15.

Other comments--

• I didn't write about this but I think the part "let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men" is equally a condition that the Lord gives in order for our confidence to wax strong in God's presence.
• One final thing, could we interpret this as a promise to be able to stand in the presence of God? I have been thinking about this in terms of what happens when we all have to stand in his presence--the final judgement. But could this be a promise that if we do what we should we can stand in his presence sooner?

--Matthew Faulconer 09:15, 6 Apr 2005 (CEST) PS as always, please re-edit as you like.