Beware How You Hold Them

Shortly after arriving in Kirtland from New York, the Prophet Joseph received a revelation with a few instructions. At the end of the revelation the Lord said this: “These words are given unto you, and they are pure before me; wherefore, beware how you hold them, for they are to be answered upon your souls in the day of judgment.” Surely this is a warning to us all—how do we hold the world of God? How seriously do we consider and follow and cherish the word of God that has been given to us? Earlier in the revelation the Lord also said, “For it is not meet that the things which belong to the children of the kingdom should be given to them that are not worthy, or to dogs, or the pearls to be cast before swine” (Doctrine and Covenants 41:6,12). This implies a sense of reverence for the sacred that we should have, and surely that includes our attitude towards the revealed word of God; we must not treat them lightly or with carelessness. This and many other passages of scripture emphasize that we will one day be judged based upon the word of the Lord that we have been given—how we have held the word of God on earth will be key to how we will stand in the day of judgment.

               This passage reminds me of the rebuke the Lord gave just two and a half years after the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. He said to those early Saints, “And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received…. And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all. And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:56-57). The Book of Mormon had not even been around for three years, and yet the Lord was still concerned that the people had not properly remembered it. He expected them by that time to have more fully embraced it. They had received it but treated it lightly and not with the seriousness it deserves. Would He say something similar about us today? In 1984 in general conference President Benson said, “For some years now I have been deeply concerned that we are not using the Book of Mormon as God intends…. I received the distinct impression that God is not pleased with our neglect of the Book of Mormon.” He then quoted this passage from the Doctrine and Covenants and suggested that at that time the Church was still under condemnation for its treatment of the Book of Mormon. He also made this statement that should give us pause for reflection: “We do not have to prove the Book of Mormon is true. The book is its own proof. All we need to do is read it and declare it! The Book of Mormon is not on trial—the people of the world, including the members of the Church, are on trial as to what they will do with this second witness for Christ.” I believe that we will one day be “on trial” for what we do with all the words of Christ that we have been given, including the Book of Mormon but also including all the holy words of the prophets that have come down to us. This passage in which the Lord reprimanded the Saints for not remembering the Book of Mormon also referred to “the former commandments which I have given them,” which points us to the Bible and the revelations of the Prophet Joseph in this dispensation already received. Surely we are responsible for how we hold all the scriptures that we have been given, and “he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:3). The name of our shortest canonized book of scripture should represent our attitude towards all scriptures: they are pearls of great price.