We wrest the scriputres until they are impotent, bereft of saving power. I want to give a few examples. I'll start from a known point and move on to describe how thoroughly we disarm the scriptures to support what we believe.

 

"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23)

For thousands of years almost no one had received the Second Comforter. Because no one literally had the Father and Son take up their abode with them, their reasoning is, "this must be a spiritualized verse and I must be ok. I feel their presence, therefore, they dwell in my heart. I believe I am keeping his words, so this is what this scripture must mean." It took Joseph in 1843 to put this into language plainly for a small minority of Christians. He stated "John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false." (D&C 130:3) What is not considered, is that perhaps what we "love" is not "Him" and what we "keep," while religious in nature are not "His words."

 

"For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God. And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord; For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me; And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him. And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood." (D&C 84:33-39)

Here again, the disarming of this verse might also be considered by Joseph as "an old sectarian notion". Because for heaven's sake, we don't actually receive "the Lord!" "We have been ordained to Melchizedek priesthood, therefore, I have received 'his servants', therefore I received 'the Savior', therefore I received 'the Father'." "They dwell in my heart!" And thus with one swoop, a castrated interpretation of these verses prove that "I am in the right way. I am peculiar, a royal priesthood, the elect of God!" What is not considered is that God is patient with his children and their misunderstanding of what he has given, and that he constantly provides opportunities for them to overcome their deceptions. Verse 41 goes on to say that "whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come." So because we reason that we are actually in posession of a covenant and have "received the Lord," the punishement for an elder drifting into inactivity and never coming back carries the same punishment as denying the Holy Ghost?! What is not considered is that we have not even yet received "his servants". Yet again, we neuter the scripture to fit our understanding and our estimation of ourselves. Again, Joseph comes to correct our misunderstanding:

"All sins shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; for Jesus will save all except the sons of perdition. What must a man do to commit the unpardonable sin? He must receive the Holy Ghost, have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him. After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him." (HC 6:14)

He states that all sins shall be forgiven, except denying the Holy Ghost, yet we add to this that there is yet another sin that shall not be forgiven, and that is turning from being ordained in the LDS church to what we call Melchizedek Priesthood. What we might not consider, is that actually receiving Melchizedek priesthood, not just in word, but in deed, includes receiving "the Lord" (and not just "in our hearts") and if we altogether turn from Christ after having received him, then we commit the one unpardonable sin.

 

"This is the end of the vision which we saw, which we were commanded to write while we were yet in the Spirit. But great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion; Which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter; Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory." (D&C 76:113-118)

These verses are often glossed over. Modern sectarians who are anxious justify their position take "for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit" as the only statement of the lot and say "I understand the vision of the degrees of glory by the power of the Holy Ghost." "The Holy Ghost has testified to my heart and know they are true." Yet they have not "seen", neither have they "known" for themselves. If we will incline an ear to a man who actually communied with Jehovah1 then we will hear him correct another misunderstanding:

There are signs in heaven, earth and hell; the Elders must know them all, to be endowed with power, to finish their work and prevent imposition. The devil knows many signs, but does not know the sign of the Son of Man, or Jesus. No one can truly say he knows God until he has handled something and this can only be in the holiest of holies." (Joseph Smith, HC v. 4, ch. 35)

There is a sign whereby we can say that we "know" God. This sign requires handling something, and until we have handled it, we cannot say that we "know", only that we "believe." The holiest of holies is not a "temple made with hands" but a temple wherein a redeemed spirit dwells. The temple, or tabernacle of our own body. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16)

"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us." (Acts 17:24-27)

 

"For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? And I said: I desire to behold the things which my father saw. And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father. And when I had spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all. And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired. And behold this thing shall be given unto thee for a sign, that after thou hast beheld the tree which bore the fruit which thy father tasted, thou shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God." (1 Nephi 11:1-7)

Our doubting hearts reason: "Nephi saw God and an panoramic vision of all things because he was a prophet." Here we reason backwards. We reason that God predestines men to be prophets, instead of inviting all to partake of the waters of life freely. We reason that Isaiah was automatically going to be a prophet and thus God revealed himself unto him rather than Isaiah rising up above the condemned Israelites all around him. Those who rise are another witness to others what is required. Joseph again corrects our impotent interpretations:

"And though we cannot claim these promises which were made to the ancients for they are not our property, merely because they were made to the ancient Saints, yet if we are the children of the Most High, and are called with the same calling with which they were called, and embrace the same covenant that they embraced, and are faithful to the testimony of our Lord as they were, we can approach the Father in the name of Christ as they approached Him, and for ourselves obtain the same promises. These promises, when obtained, if ever by us, will not be because Peter, John, and the other Apostles, with the churches at Sardis, Pergamos, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, walked in the fear of God, and had power and faith to reveal and obtain them; but it will be because we, ourselves, have faith and approach God in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, even as they did; and when these promises are obtained, they will be promises directly to us, or they will do us no good. They will be commandments and walking uprightly before Him. If not, to what end serves the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and why was it ever communicated to us?" (HC v.2, ch.1, p.21)

 

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)

Perhaps this is a summation. We take this statement about "knowing" and we get up in fast and testimony meeting and fervently say that "We know Jesus is the Christ" and in the same vein, we say we "know" a great many more things.

I'm not going to go into detail on this, but if one makes a diligent study of the Lectures on Faith and the Book of Mormon, Joseph again delivered to us enough light and knowledge to rescue us from our darkened state.

 

We wrest the scriptures until there is no power left.  We disarm them of saving power. It is a process we have been trained in by sectarians and we do it constantly without thinking. This is Satan's desire. He wants us to be content with a form without power. He wants us to be happy in a fable so that few are saved. Luckily, the scriptures are still there and still exist and still mean what the prophets intended.

The point of this, is that we can remove all the power that God intended to give us through the scriptures because we look at them through a lens that distorts them as they pass through. It is possible to be faithless and put our trust in men, or it is possible to read the scriptures and be faithful and "receive the Lord."

 

Notes

1. Brigham hopes to be able to converse with Christ and angels.

1859 (age 62): "I have flattered myself, if I am as faithful as I know how to be to my God, and my brethren, and to all my covenants, and faithful in the discharge of my duty, when I have lived to be as old as was Moses when the Lord appeared to him, that perhaps I then may hold communion with the Lord, as did Moses. I am not now in that position, though I know much more than I did twenty, ten, or five years ago. But have I yet lived to the state of perfection that I can commune in person with the Father and the Son at my will and pleasure? No, though I hold myself in readiness that he can wield me at his will and pleasure. If I am faithful until I am eighty years of age, perhaps the Lord will appear to me and personally dictate me in the management of his Church and people. A little over twenty years, and if I am faithful, perhaps I will obtain that favour with my Father and God." (Brigham Young, JD v. 7, no. 37, p. 243, September 1, 1859)

1862 (age 65): "I think it likely that after a while I may be able to so humble myself and become like a little child, as to be taught more fully by the Heavens. Perhaps, when I am eighty years of age, I may be able to talk with some Being of a higher sphere than this. Moses saw the glory of God at that age, and held converse with better beings than he had formerly conversed with. I hope and trust that by the time I am that age I shall also be counted worthy to enjoy the same privilege." (Brigham Young, JD v. 10 no. 4, p. 23)

Brigham dies at age 77.

Heber J. Grant: “I have never prayed to see the Savior. I know of men – Apostles – who have seen the Savior more than once. I have prayed to the Lord for the inspiration of His Spirit to guide me, and I have told Him that I have seen so many men fall because of some great manifestation to them, they felt their importance, their greatness.” (The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, p. 468, probably referring to Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor)

Heber J. Grant: “I know of no instance where the Lord has appeared to an individual since His appearance to the Prophet Joseph Smith.” (Letter to Mrs. Claud Peery)