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.

The Lord's Law of Health

Here's an email I sent out as part of the lesson we have tomorrow. Not great, but I've also got to get a talk ready.

I should write out a few stories and do some research and post it. I'll do that a little later.

One of the blessings of our missions is the chance to become intimately involved in the lives of people who aren't keeping the commandments (often because they don't know them) and to see the impact of this on their lives. I first saw people with major addiction problems on the mission. It's there that I came to appreciate the blessing of the word of wisdom a lot more.

A few questions I have:

1) Why did the Lord give the Word of Wisdom?

2) Why did he give it when he did?

3) Why did it become more than a "word of wisdom" but a commandment later (during Brigham Young's time somewhat, but definitely during Pres. Grant's tenure as prophet)?

4) How do we benefit from the Word of Wisdom? Are there spiritual ways we benefit? What are those?

5) What do we think of those who don't obey the Word of Wisdom (be they church members or non-church members)?

I look forward to discussing this chapter with you. I am very grateful for the word of wisdom and know it's an inspired doctrine.

Finally, here's a few facts:

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. Each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there are about 43,000 people killed in fatal car accidents each year in the United States. Roughly, 40 percent of the fatal crashes are alcohol-related.

Word of Wisdom and Revelation

I may have discussed this once before, but here's a great verse about what can happen as we exercise faith and repent:

Alma 26:

22Yea, he that ^arepenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good ^bworks, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the ^cmysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be^dgiven to ^ereveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.

My mission president said that this verse applied to us and that this verse would come true in the following ways: when teaching we would teach things we didn't previously know and we would reveal things that had never been revealed to us previously.

A short while after this I was teaching a lesson on the word of wisdom. One verse says in D.C. 89: 21And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the ^adestroyingangel shall ^bpass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

I had a feeling the lady we were teaching would ask what it meant by the destroying angel would pass them by. I just knew she would ask it. So, as I was thinking and looking down at the scriptures I saw the verse referring to Exodus. That's when I learned that the destroying angel took the children of the Egyptians before it was their appointed time to leave the earth. The promise that the destroying angel will pass them by is a promise that if we keep the Word of Wisdom and the other commandments, we will not be taken before the earth before it is our time. That doesn't mean we won't die young but that the Lord will protect us from dying young if it isn't our time to go. I personally trust him to know when the right time is.