“God is Pleased with My Faithfulness and Loves Me for My Penitence and Diligence in Prayer”

The Doctrine of Christ is temple doctrine. Earlier in my life I viewed the first principles and ordinances of the gospel as the “beginner’s” or “primary” course that we learn (or should learn) before going to the temple. Temple ordinances do not teach faith in Jesus Christ or repentance, I reasoned. Rather, the temple, as the “advanced” or “graduate course” of the gospel, teaches only “the mysteries” or higher truths of the gospel (D&C 84:19).

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I likened the “first” principles and ordinances to the Aaronic Priesthood or “youth” level of the gospel. As described in Section 84, one of the grand revelations on priesthood, “the lesser priesthood . . . holdeth the key of the . . . preparatory gospel; Which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins” (D&C 84:26-27). Temple ordinances, on the other hand, which are administered by the “high” or “greater priesthood” (D&C 84:19, 29), prepare us for the spiritual heights, for example, “behold[ing] the face of God” (D&C 84:23).

As I have studied and attended the temple over the decades since I was first endowed, however, my views have matured. If, as President Nelson taught, “Jesus Christ is at the center of everything we do in the temple,”[1] then it only makes sense that Christ’s doctrine would be taught in the temple.[2] Thus, to tutor Joseph Smith in temple doctrine, the Lord could scarcely have devised a better tutorial than translating the Book of Mormon. The word “repent,” for example, in any of its forms, appears more than 400 times in the Book of Mormon.

Joseph testifies to his parents of the fruits of his repentance. Worried about Joseph when he left their home in Manchester in July 1828 after the loss of the manuscript, Lucy wrote that “two months” thereafter, “uneasy as to the consequences of his distress of mind,” she and Joseph Sr. “went down to Harmony.”[3] However, they had not written Joseph that they were coming 150 miles to see him. In a demonstration of his maturing prophetic gifts, just before they arrived, Joseph told Emma that his parents were coming. Then, in total faith and confidence in his spiritual impression, Joseph “walked nearly a mile to meet his parents on the road.”[4]

That evening Joseph rehearsed to his parents the story of his repentance. Lucy’s description of her son evidences the depth and fruits of his repentance. His countenance, she said, was “blazing with delight.” She later remembered Joseph’s “joy and satisfaction [at] again receiving the record <urim and Thummin> into [his] possession.” Moroni had told him, Joseph reported, “<God> was pleased with his <my> faithfulness and humility  . . . and loved him <me> for his <my> penitence and dilligence in prayer.”[5]

Assured that the plates had been returned and were safely stored in a Moroccan trunk Lucy saw as she entered their home,[6] she and Joseph Sr. no doubt rejoiced in God’s readiness to forgive His children when they repent.

“I have commenced translating” again, Joseph told his parents, “and Emma writes for me now but the angel said that if I got the plates again that the Lord woul[d] send some one to write for me and I trust that if it will be so.”[7]

That Fall, while Emma and Joseph may have done a “little translating,” they focused primarily on preparing for winter. In February 1829, Joseph received a revelation through the Urim and Thummim at the request of his father, who had returned to visit with Joseph Knight and Joseph’s younger brother Samuel.[8] The revelation hinted that a greater, even a “marvelous,” work was “about to come forth.”[9] But, for now, Joseph’s focus was on the work of translation whenever he was not attending to their immediate temporal needs.

Lord tells Martin Harris, seeking a “greater witness,” to repent and “exercise faith.” In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Joseph and Emma. His wife, Lucy, was threatening to sue Joseph (and by association Martin) for “deception”. Thus, notwithstanding the previous vision of the work the Lord had given him and his own participation in, and personal witness of, the translation process, he now sought a “greater witness.”[10]

The Lord responded by directing Joseph to tell Martin “I the Lord am God I have given these things unto him [Joseph] . . . nevertheless I have caused him that he should enter into A covenant with me that he should not show them except I Command him & he hath no power over them e[x]cept I grant it unto him.” In other words, “Martin, have faith! Trust in Me” and the “manifestations of my spirit” (D&C 5:16) that you have felt repeatedly as you have followed the directions of that Spirit. He further promised Martin that if he would be faithful, he could, as one of three chosen witnesses, “Know of A surety that those things are true for I will give [those three witnesses] power that they may Behold & vew [view] these things as they are.” 11]

The Lord then told Martin, in essence, that he would “receive no [such] witness until after the trial of [his] faith” (Ether 12:6):

[I]f he will go out & bow down before me & humble himself in mighty prayer & faith in the sincerity of his heart then will I grant unto him a vew of the things which he desireth to vew . . . & now except he humble himself & acknowledge unto me the things which he hath done that is wrong & covenant with me that he will Keep my commandments & exercise faith in me Behold I say unto him he shall have no such vews for I will grant unto him no such vews . . ..[12]

“Though Harris was not allowed to view the plates during his March 1829 visit to Harmony,” the JSP editors observe, “the revelation allayed his doubts.” They add that “Isaac Hale reported that he saw JS and Harris comparing two manuscript copies of this revelation shortly after it was dictated,” suggesting that Martin believed the revelation came from God. [13]

The Lord was teaching Martin the same lessons He had taught the Prophet. To receive truth and progress spiritually, we need to obey gospel laws. Most importantly, we need to obey the first principles of the gospel—faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and repentance of sin. These are temple truths. At the same time, the Lord continued to tutor Joseph: “And now I command you, my servant Joseph, to repent and walk more uprightly before me, and to yield to the persuasions of men no more” (D&C 5:21).

[1] Russell M. Nelson, “Go Forward in Faith,” Ensign, May 2020. [2] For a discussion of how I found the first principles and ordinances—faith, repentance, baptism and confirmation—in the temple, see Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple (Springville, Utah: CFI—An imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc., 2024), chapter 4 (The Spiritual Treasure of Increased Faith to Follow Jesus Christ); chapter 7 (The Spiritual Treasure of Sacrifice or Daily Repentance); chapter 8 (The Spiritual Treasure of Proxy Baptisms and Confirmations). [3] Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, page [8], bk. 7, p. [8], bk. 7, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 30, 2025, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/88. [4] Darkness Into Light, 97. [5] Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, page [8]. [6] Darkness Into Light, 97. [7] Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, page [11]. [8] Bushman 70. The JSP editors note that Joseph “did not ‘go immediately to translating, but went to laboring’ on the small farm he had purchased from his father-in-law, Isaac Hale,” citing Joseph’s Preface to Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829, in JSP, D1:92; JS History, vol. A-1, 11, in JSP, H1:266 (Draft 2). Joseph Smith’s Revelations, “Doctrine and Covenants 5: Revelation, March 1829,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/church-historians-press/jsp-revelations/dc-005-1829_03_01_000?lang=eng. [9] Joseph Smith’s Revelations, “Doctrine and Covenants 4: Revelation, February 1829,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/church-historians-press/jsp-revelations/dc-004-1829_02_01_005?lang=eng. [10] According to the JSP editors, “persecutors” who were threatening to sue Martin Harris prompted him to seek a greater witness. Their ring leader, Martin’s wife, Lucy Harris, reportedly “flew through the neighborhood like a dark spirit from house to house making diligent enquiry at every house for miles where she had the least hope of gleaning anything that” that could be used to stop the work of translation. Joseph Smith’s Revelations, “Doctrine and Covenants 5: Revelation, March 1829,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/church-historians-press/jsp-revelations/dc-005-1829_03_01_000?lang=eng. See also Darkness Into Light, 107-11. [11] Ibid. [12] Ibid. [13] Ibid.