Day 209

  • Principle: Revelation is the rock upon which the Church is built.
  • Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 42:1 - 42:25
    • Corianton struggled with the idea that God, being just, could allow a sinner to be in a state of misery.  Alma having studied through revelation was able to answer his questions.  
    • “No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1987, 106; or Ensign, May 1987, 85).
  • Jesus Christ teaches Peter about how his church should be built.  The rock on which it should be built is revelation.  Read Peter’s testimony in:
  • Joseph Smith said
    • " ... Jesus in His teaching says, Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gate s of hell shall not prevail against it. What rock? Revelation." (Joseph Smith, Teachings, p. 274.)
  • Bruce R. McConkie taught:
    • “It is fruitless for uninspired scriptural exegesists to argue and debate about this passage in an attempt to sustain the particular leanings with which they chance to have encumbered themselves. What does it matter that the name Peter in Greek happens to mean a rock or a stone? What difference does it make that Peter was promised the gift of seership, or anything else for that matter? And what bearing does it have on the problem to show that all of the Twelve held all of the keys of the kingdom? None of these things establish the divinity of any false church.
      “But suppose it were true that the wholly untenable apostate view were correct, and that the Lord had set up his kingdom with Peter as the rock, still any church claiming to trace its authority back to Peter would be a false church unless it believed in and operated on the principles of modern revelation. Why? Simply because conditions are so different in the world today that a church without daily revelation cannot make the change necessary to meet those new conditions. How would the modern church know what stand to take with reference to the use of tobacco, or coffee, or the atomic bomb, or motion pictures, or television, or a thousand things that were not so much as known to men in Peter’s day?
      “Clearly it is only by revelation that the Lord establishes his work among men. In the final analysis, no person can have conclusive knowledge as to the true meaning of this passage without revelation from that God who is no respecter of persons and who giveth wisdom liberally to all who ask of him in faith. And how can those who deny the very existence of revelation for this age, and who deliberately refrain from seeking such for themselves, how can they, in their uninspired state, ever come to a sure knowledge of this or any other eternal, spiritual truth?” (McConkie, DNTC, 1:387.)
  • Picture two triangles one with the point at the top and the other with the point at the bottom.  
    • The first triangle is man reaching out to God.  (Matthew 7: 7,8)
    • The second triangle is God’s desire to communicate with man.  (Matthew 7:11)
    • As the two triangles are combined is when revelation takes place. (Matthew 16:18 and James 1:5)
    • As you go through the day keep in mind the connection of these two triangles.  God’s is always pointed towards you and you should strive to keep yours towards God.  
  • Russell M. Nelson invited:
    • I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” (Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives”, April 2018)
  • Additional Study: