From:	Marcus Martins

To:	EDDY ASHLEY LORENE

Date:	1/22/00 5:08PM

Subject:	Re: Great Question

Ashley:

I'm glad you did your research and came up with another great question.

Let's begin by taking a look at a few scriptures and quotations. The Lord stated in the preface of the Doctrine & Covenants that the gospel had been restored, among other reasons, so that "... every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world ..." (D&C 1:20). In the New Testament, the apostle Peter wrote the following: "If any man speak, let him speak as an oracle of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ; to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." (JST 1 Peter 4:11) And the Prophet Joseph Smith stated: "It is the privilege of every Elder to speak of the things of God; and could we all come together with one heart and one mind in perfect faith the veil might as well be rent today as next week, or any other time ..." (Teachings, p.8)

One of the characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the incremental or evolving nature of its doctrinal understanding. The doctrines do not change, but since the Lord reveals his words incrementally (Isaiah 28:10) our understanding of the doctrines change as time goes by. Because of that, we are often faced with questions that can only be partially answered at a certain point in time, but that will be answered more completely at another point in time, and so on.

Right at the beginning of his masterpiece, Elder McConkie wrote: "For the work itself, I assume sole and full responsibility." (Mormon Doctrine, Preface, June 1, 1958) That statement suggests that he offered explanations according to his understanding, which reflected almost 60 years of incremental understanding of the doctrines of the gospel after the publication of the first edition of Elder Talmage's "Articles of Faith" (first published in 1899)

A rule of thumb might be the following: whenever we find two seemingly different opinions, let's stick to the latest one. And more: let's see if we can find additional witnesses, including our own personal witness (as you very well pointed out) by the power of the Holy Ghost.

The Church has no control over who publishes what. Speech is free and unrestricted. We, as members of the Church, must be educated enough to read, ponder, pray, and retain whatever is true.

Now, let's explore for a moment the issue of the identity of the first messenger Nephi saw in his great vision. Nephi stated that it was the Spirit of the Lord who led Nephi during the introduction of the vision. Since there are no further revelations on the subject, it really doesn't matter what we may or may not think. It was a true heavenly messenger–maybe the Holy Ghost himself, and maybe another "spirit of just man made perfect" (D&C 129). The really important point in First Nephi chapters 11-14 is not the identity of the messengers, but the message itself.

I hope this helps.

See you on Wednesday.

Bro. Martins

>>> "EDDY ASHLEY LORENE " <edd99001@neptune.ricks.edu> 01/22/00 03:56PM >>>

Brother Martins,

My name is Ashley and I'm in your Doctrines of the Gospel class that meets on Wednesday nights. During our last class I asked the question who was the Spirit of the Lord that Nephi sees in Chapter 11 of First Nephi. The way I understood the answer you gave, was that the Spirit was just a heavenly messenger and definitly not the Holy Ghost as someone else in the class suggested. You told me to look in Doctrines of Salvation for more information. So I began studying trying to find what General Authorities had said about who this Spirit of the Lord was. In the book "Articles of Faith" by Talmage, he says that it is the Holy Ghost: "That the Spirit of the Lord is capable of manifesting Himself in the form and figure of man, is indicated by the wonderful interview between the Spirit and Nephi, in which He revealed Himself to the prophet, questioned him concerning his desires and belief, instructed him in the things of God, speaking face to face with the man. 'I spake unto him,' says Nephi, 'as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.'(See 1 Ne. 11:11)" (pg, 144-145). Not only did I find that quote by Talmage but another one by Bruce R. McConkie that seems to contradict the above mentioned quote by Talmage. This one is found in Mormon Doctrine under the heading "Spirit of the Lord". "But when we read the account of the appearance of 'the Spirit of the Lord' to Nephi (1 Ne. 11), we are left to our own interpretive powers to determine whether the messenger is the Spirit of Christ or the Holy Ghost. Presumptively it is the Spirit Christ ministering to Nephi much as he did to the Brother of Jared, for such is in keeping with the principle of advocacy, intercession, and mediation, the principle that all personal appearances of Deity to man since the fall of Adam, excepting appearances of the Father and the Son together, have been appearances of Christ." (pg 752)

My question isn't really who is the Spirit of the Lord in 1 Ne. 11 (although I'd appreciate your thoughts on that) but rather what do you do when you read two conflicting statements both from General Authorities of the church. I'm sure the answer is personal revelation and personal study but why does the church allow these different views to be printed. It seems like opinion is being written as doctrine. Also is there any other place in the scriptures where the Holy Ghost appears to someone? If it really is the Holy Ghost appearing to Nephi.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this. It is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ashley Eddy