True and Living Church

The Word of Wisdom is a great example of how the church is both True and Living.

When first given this was counsel, not a commandment:

1A ^aWord of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the saints in Zion—

2To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the ^aword of wisdom, showing forth the order and^bwill of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days—

3Given for a principle with ^apromise, adapted to the capacity of the ^bweak and the weakest of all ^csaints, who are or can be called saints.

This has changed over the course of time, probably for a few reasons. If the rule was as strict as it is now when it came out, a large % of the members wouldn't be able to enter the temple or participate in the full blessings of the gospel. That wouldn't have been very wise for the Lord to do. Instead, over the course of a few decades, this rule became more and more standardized.

In 1851 Brigham Young mentioned following the Word of Wisdom in conference and said it should be considered more of a commandment than it was previously. At other times he also brought this subject up, but it certainly wasn't a commandment. There's a fairly famous story of when he saw spittle in the St. George temple (maybe Manti) and slammed his cane into the ground so hard that it left an inch deep imprint. He was very mad someone would do that in the temple. It's still there now (hasn't been removed).

In 1894 Brigham's son (an apostle) said from the pulpit in conference that he understood that the Word of Wisdom had been made a commandment 20 years earlier when preached from the pulpit (presumably by his dad, perhaps John Taylor who also brought it up more often). Then Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant also said they believed it was a commandment. The younger generation of church leaders pushed for it to be a commandment. This makes sense as the church had time to adapt to the counsel and get rid of the addictions in younger generations.

Also, President Grant spoke about it a lot during his time as prophet. This was in part to an experience he had earlier in life. (From the Prophets manual of his)

Quotes from Heber J. Grant:

Much of President Grant’s motivation for preaching the Word of Wisdom came because he had a friend whose life was ruined by cigarettes and liquor. This young man gave up smoking so he could serve a mission, but he started to smoke immediately after his release from full-time missionary service. Smoking led to liquor drinking, and liquor drinking led to a loss of virtue and to excommunication from the Church. He died at a young age, and Heber J. Grant went to visit his grave. “As I stood at his grave,” President Grant recalled, “I looked up to heaven and made a pledge to my God that liquor and tobacco would have in me an enemy who would fight with all the ability that God would give me until the day of my death.” 2

Some members of the Church in President Grant’s day complained about the numerous sermons they heard on the Word of Wisdom. President Grant commented: “There is seldom a conference when someone does not take it upon himself to tell us: ‘Please do not speak on the Word of Wisdom. We hear it so much, we are sick and tired of it.’ ” President Grant responded to such complaints by saying: “No mortal man who is a Latter-day Saint and is keeping the Word of Wisdom is ever sick and tired of hearing it. When a man leaves a meeting and says … ‘Can’t they find something else to talk about besides the Word of Wisdom; I am sick and tired of it’—of course he is, because he is full of stuff that the Word of Wisdom tells him to leave alone.” 3

It was in his time that the Word of Wisdom became a definite commandment.

Interesting that at one time the prophet spoke about this topic a lot. Now it is only mentioned as one of the commandments to follow and rarely if ever the subject of a talk in a SAcrament meeting. It's because this isn't a huge issue in the church anymore. In many ways we've moved past it. We love those with addictions and most of our people don't have them.

This is an example of how the church is living and has progressed. If any of you have an issue with how a current topic is discussed and hope the approach to that topic will change, don't worry, if it should change it will as the church and its members progress.

Another quick example: I remember hearing that Sister Johnson in my ward was taught when she was a kid in primary that when you repented from a sin it was similar to this: imagine you have a nail in a board and pull it out. The hole is still there after you pull it out, but at least the nail is pulled out. When you sin, after you have repented the nail is removed, but the hole is still there.

That's completely wrong and shows a poor understanding of the doctrine of the Atonement. However, not very many people would teach that today. The church's collective understanding of the Atonement is improving.

The church was still true back then, but it's living and growing as members become better and better and as our leaders guide us to improve in the critical areas for the time.