Steven's Talk
“The Dispensations of the Gospel”
Talk given in sacrament meeting March 8, 2015
Dispensations
Today I would like to speak about the dispensations of the gospel. Now, to start with, we first need to understand what we mean by the term “dispensation.” A dispensation is a period of time in earth’s history when God has at least one authorized servant on earth who holds the priesthood. We can distinguish one dispensation from another in that in each new dispensation the gospel is revealed anew, so that people in that dispensation do not need to rely solely on what has been revealed in previous dispensations. Perhaps an easy way to think of it is that a dispensation is a time when God ‘dispenses’ the gospel.
Throughout history there have been a number of dispensations, and each dispensation has had a specific purpose, as well as certain lessons that we can benefit from today.
Past Dispensations
Let us start at the beginning, with the dispensation of Adam. Adam was the first man created by God, and first dwelt in the Garden of Eden. While in the Garden, Adam walked and talked with God. Even after the Fall and being kicked out of the Garden of Eden, we read that “Adam and Eve his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden.” (Moses 5:4) We also learn that “Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.” (Moses 5:12) And thus we see that the gospel began to be taught to the people on earth.
From the dispensation of Adam we learn several important lessons about our relationship with God. We learn that we are indeed spirit children of our Heavenly Father. We often sing the song “I Am a Child of God.” This is true - we are. We also learn that we are created in God’s image. And we learn that because we are children of God, that we can communicate with Him, that we can call on him through prayer and he will hear and answer us.
The next dispensation is that of Enoch. Enoch was called to preach repentance to the people of his day. The people believed his words and repented of their sins. Enoch and his people built “a city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion.” (Moses 7:19) “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” (Moses 7:18) In fact, so righteous were the people of Enoch that “lo, Zion, in process of time, was taken up into heaven.” (Moses 7:21)
Compare this with the next dispensation, that of Noah. Noah was also called to preach repentance. But the people of his day were more wicked, and they rejected all his words. It got so bad that eventually God commanded Noah to build an ark, to gather into it his family and a number of all the animals on earth, and then caused it to rain forty days and forty nights and anything not in the ark was drowned in the flood.
From the dispensations of Enoch and Noah we can see the consequences that come from choosing good or evil. As Lehi teaches us, “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh;...and they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.” (2 Nephi 2:27)
Each of us has our free agency. It has been said that agency is like fire. If used wisely it can be a great benefit to us. Fire can keep us warm, it can cook our food, and it can give us light. By when used improperly, fire can be the means of great destruction. Brethren and sisters, let us use our agency wisely and choose good rather than evil.
The next dispensation, that of Abraham, teaches us about the power of covenants. The Lord made a special covenant with Abraham saying:
“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and this Priesthood unto all nations;
And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee...and in thy seed...shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.” (Abr. 2:9-11)
As Latter-Day Saints, we are a covenant-making people. A covenant is a binding promise or agreement between two people. When we make covenants with the Lord we promise that we will be faithful to Him and keep His commandments. In return, the Lord promises us specific blessings.
We make covenants with the Lord when we are baptized. We make covenants with the Lord when we go through the temple. And we renew these covenants when we partake of the sacrament each week. Brethren and sisters, let us keep our covenants so that we may call upon God to ask for the blessings he has promised us. Remember He has said, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (D&C 84:10)
After Abraham comes Moses. Moses was given the responsibility to lead the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Later, upon Mt. Sinai, Moses was given the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets by the finger of the Lord. The lessons of this dispensation can be summed up very simply with two of our Primary songs: 1) “Follow the Prophet,” and 2) “Keep the Commandments.”
Now we come to the dispensation in the meridian of time, when our savior Jesus Christ was sent to earth to teach the gospel. Though he was the Son of God, he was born as a man and lived a perfect, sinless life, showing us the way we should live our lives. He once asked his disciples, “What manner of men ought ye to be?” and gave as the answer, “Verily, I say unto you, even as I am.” (3 Nephi 27:27) But of even greater worth to us than his perfect example was his great atoning sacrifice on our behalf. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he took upon himself the sins of the world, and then he was nailed to a cross, died, was buried in a tomb, and then on the third day rose again, bringing about the resurrection of the dead. Christ’s atonement makes it possible for God to do His work “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) Indeed, “we believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. (Article of Faith 3)
The Great Apostasy
Shortly following the ascension of Christ, all those on earth who held the priesthood and the keys of authority were either killed or taken from the earth. No longer was anyone on earth with the power and authority to perform sacred ordinances. There was no one with the keys to lead the church. People who wanted to know the truth were dependent upon what had been revealed in previous dispensations. Many errors and confusions came into the church. This went on for several centuries, a time we know as the great apostasy. The only remedy for this would be for God to reveal his gospel anew, to restore the priesthood that had been lost, in other words, a new dispensation needed to be opened.
The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times
The new, long-awaited for dispensation began in the spring of 1830 when a young boy named Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees to pray. He had a simple question - “Which church should I join?” Yet in answer to this simple prayer, God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son visited him and taught him the true gospel. Once again the heavens were opened and God spoke to man on earth! This prayer would affect more than just the young Joseph Smith, but would go on to bless all the nations on earth. As one of our hymns puts it, “Awake and arise, oh ye slumbering nations, the heavens have opened their portals again! The last and the greatest of all dispensations has burst like a dawn o’er the children of men.” (Hymns 8, “Awake and Arise”)
Sometime after this First Vision, Joseph was visited by the Angel Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, who told him of some ancient records that were buried and how these were to be translated and come forth to the world. Today this record is known as the Book of Mormon, which stands alongside the Bible as another testament of Jesus Christ. So significant was this visit by Moroni that it was seen in vision by John the Revelator - “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people.” (Revelation 14:6)
On May 15, 1829 John the Baptist came to Joseph Smith to restore the priesthood authority. This was the same John the Baptist to whom the Savior sought out in the wilderness near the river Jordan to be baptized of him because he know that John held the proper authority. This same John the Baptist, now a resurrected being, restored this same authority upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery with these words: “Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.” (D&C 13:1) With this event the power and authority to baptize was once again on the earth.
A short time later, Peter, James and John, the same apostles who were chosen and ordained by the Master himself, came to restore the Melchizedek priesthood and the keys of the apostleship. With this priesthood and these keys, the church could now be organized again on the earth. But even after the organization of the church, there were still more keys to be restored.
In the Kirtland Temple, on April 3, 1836, as Joseph and Oliver knelt in prayer, a vision was opened unto them. They record that “Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north.” (D&C 110:11) With these keys the gospel can now be taken to all the parts of the world to gather in the elect from whatever lands they may be in. Next, “Elias appeared, and committed unto us the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham, saying that in us and our seed all generations after us should be blessed.” (D&C 110:12) All the covenants and promises made to Abraham are now given to our generation. Then finally, the prophet Elijah came, he whom the Old Testament prophet Malachi prophesied would come before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. This Elijah restored the sealing power, whereby couples and families could be united eternally. He concluded with these words, “Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands: and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors.” (D&C 110:16; see 13-16)
In looking back upon these great experiences, The Prophet Joseph exclaimed, “And again, what do we hear?...The voice of Michael, the archangel; the voice of Gabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time, all declaring their dispensation, their rights, their keys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood.” (D&C 128:20-21) Think of it, all the keys, powers, and blessings that have ever been given to man on the earth at any time during its history have now been given to us in our day. The Prophet sums it up by saying, “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!” (D&C 128:22)
Our Responsibilities
Brethren and sisters, we live in the greatest time in the history of the world where the gospel has been restored and the keys of the kingdom are held by men on earth. Because of this our dispensation has a great responsibility and there is a great work for each of us to do. This is the last dispensation, there will be no other dispensation to come after us to complete the work that we fail to do. What is our responsibility?
First, we must receive the ordinances of the gospel for ourselves. We must be baptized. We must go to the temple. We must be sealed to our own family. Then we must teach our children so that they will be prepared to receive these same ordinances when they are of age. After receiving these ordinances we must then live true to our covenants.
Next, with the restoration of the keys of the gathering of Israel, we have a responsibility to take the gospel into all the world and preach the gospel unto every nation, tongue and people. We need to support the missionary efforts, to prepare our children to serve when they reach missionary age, to prepare ourselves to serve as senior couple missionaries. We also need to support the missionaries who are serving here in our own ward.
Finally, with the restoration of the sealing keys by the prophet Elijah, we have a great work to do involving redeeming the dead. We must seek out our ancestors, complete our family histories, and then take these names to the temple to do the necessary ordinances for them there, that they may be sealed to us and we may be sealed to them in a great chain linking back the generations.
Conclusion
I testify that this is the greatest dispensation in the history of the world. I testify that the keys of the priesthood have been restored in our day through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I testify that the 15 men that we sustain today as prophets, seers, and revelators hold the keys of this dispensation and that our prophet, Pres. Thomas S. Monson, is the one man on earth who is authorized to use and exercise all priesthood keys. I testify that this gospel shall never again be taken from the earth but shall roll forth in might and power, as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and it shall grow to fill the whole earth. (see Daniel 2:31-45)
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
This talk was heavily influenced by the following:
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