Getting More Out Of General Conference

- General Conference happens to coincide with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.

- Seeing the talks through the filters of:

1. The Higher & Lower Laws
2. Temple Imagery & Drama
3. Authorship
4. The Nehor Principle

LDS Mormon

all right in this short episode we're

going to talk briefly about General

Conference and as we approach General

Conference this weekend just a couple

thoughts a couple suggestions on maybe

how to think about it and also how to

listen to each of the talks that are

given first just a tidbit here you can

think of the general conferences which

happen in April and in October kind of

like the gathering of two of the major

feasts of the ancient Israelites in

ancient Jews there were three major

feasts that the men at least were

supposed to go to and that was Passover

in the spring Pentecost which you'd have

more towards summer about 50 days after

Passover and then you would have Yom

Kippur or the Day of Atonement that

would be the Feast of Tabernacles that

would happen in the fall yeah typically

September October ish and so for us it's

kind of something similar where we don't

go through all of the rituals and the

feasts necessarily with General

Conference although my wife makes an

incredible French Toast Casserole that

we eat every Sunday morning for General

Conference but we do receive instruction

from the church leaders at around the

time of Passover and around the time of

Yom Kippur the Feast of Tabernacles the

Day of Atonement

and so this is something kind of similar

it might just be a coincidence that

that's how it worked out and as we had

the Annual General Conference in April

at the beginning of April to go along

with the founding of the church on April

6th and then just six months seemed like

a good time to get back together and

get more instruction out to some to

everybody but it is kind of interesting

that that the two main feasts of

the ancient Jews and ancient Israelites

were around the same times as we have

general conference now and so we can

think about that a little bit in just

coming back and receiving a centralized

message from the church leaders out to

all of the church members the second

thing I think about in General

Conference is going through the four

filters or lenses that we talked about

here on this podcast that we typically

associate with the scriptures but of

course General Conference is a lot like

Scripture and it is inspired and there

it is full of truth and full of gospel

principles and so whether consciously or

subconsciously the leaders talks are

going to fit into those four major

filters and lenses so let's quickly just

go over those and you can think about

these four things as you listen to each

of the conference talks first one is

going to be the higher and the lower law

so we've talked about that quite a bit

very extensively as you listen to these

talks in General Conference think about

how that principle of the Aaronic

priesthood is the lower law the

Melchizedek priesthood is the higher law

as the gospel the preparatory gospel of

the Aaronic priesthood and the gospel of

mercy and of the Savior as the higher

law think about how those two work

together and how the talks may fit into

a higher and lower law paradigm I think

you'll find that quite a bit the other

thing on that by the way is think about

individualism the lower law is about

individualism the Aaronic priesthood is

the priesthood of the individual and the

higher priesthood

the Melchizedek priesthood and the higher

law is the law of the group or we might

call it the law ultimately of Family and

Zion so I'll think about how those talks

fit into those two areas we have to have

both how do they fit into being an

individual and how do they fit into a

group as well and into the family

secondly is the is temple imagery and

drama whenever we're talking about the

plan of salvation we are also in a

parallel sense speaking about the temple

and the progression of going through the

ordinances of the temple and through the

priesthood of the temple and that's for

all of us

men women anybody that goes through the

temple so the imagery that we find from

the temple being that it's the celestial

room or think of the Garden of Eden the

Tree of Life the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil the story of Adam and

Eve and the Garden of Eden the idea of

spiritual progression that is so

prevalent in the temple is something

that you will find in the talks that are

given by the church leaders so imagine

yourself especially if you've gone

through the temple imagine yourself

listening to the talk as you're kind of

going through the temple process and a

lot of times you'll have a lot more

insights into what the leaders of the

church are saying and what their message

is and then of course temple drama as

part of that second principle is also

very important and the thing to

recognize I haven't covered this as much

but the thing to recognize about temple

drama is putting yourself I'll make it

very simple for right now but it's

putting yourself into the shoes of the

person in the story so if it's a

personal experience or a story that the

speaker is giving put yourself in the

shoes of that person yeah

and imagine you're in that position and

whether it's a story of victory and

success and overcoming or it's a story

of difficulty and adversity whatever

it might be think of you as that person

whenever there is a story that is given

and not just as the protagonist of the

story but also as the antagonist if

there is one or the observer think of

yourself as all of those roles because

in some way you fit into each one of

those roles and it's important to have

that context and understanding that you

could be any of those people based on

your decisions so that would be

something with temple drama there's a

lot of characters that are in the temple

and we should think of ourselves as

the possibility of having a part of

those characters be a part of us in it

to some degree

so temple imagery and temple drama and

then the third principle or filter here

is authorship so as you're listening to

this the speaker I think a good way to

do that is to think about how the

speaker came up with this talk what were

they thinking about was there perhaps an

event that happened to them personally

recently was there someone they spoke to

or got a letter from in the church that

prompted this subject what is running

through their minds on as they sit down

and go through this talk and decide on

the topic decide on the order of it and

then of course the most important part

of this is understanding what is their

message what are they trying to say

because they're trying to say something

based on typically something they see as

a real need or something that may have

triggered this type this topic

to them recently so when we think about

authorship we think about the compiling

of the story the compiling of the talk

and how they are trying to get this

message across to you and then lastly

the fourth filter or lens is the knee

whore principle now we've talked about

this a little bit and the knee whore

principle is basically talking about the

corruption or even complete elimination

of the doctrine of Christ so being put

into a situation or a concept or a

theology where the idea of Christ as the

savior as the bearer of our sins as him

God himself suffering for us because of

the love that he has for us and the idea

that we're supposed to do the same that

is in a nutshell the doctrine of

Christ and so look for the doctrine of

Christ in the stalks look for the knee

whore principle in the sense that you're

thinking about how is the doctrine of

Christ based on this talk attacked or

how is it corrupted and how do I sent

her this message in the doctrine of

Christ without allowing a corruption of

that doctrine and how is it that perhaps

the talk or the stories or the examples

that are given by the speakers how are

they warning me like most of the

scriptures do warning me about not

keeping that doctrine that specific

doctrine of Christ as a center of how I

live and at the very top of my values

hierarchy and I think you'll glean a

little bit more information from each

one of these talks as you think about

those four filters or lenses again

quickly the higher and the lower law the

preparatory law and then going up to the

law of mercy or the law

of Christ secondly temple imagery your

going through the temple as you listen

to this talk associated with those steps

of progression and moving forward toward

the celestial room and toward the tree

of life and then temple drama in there

as well which would be putting yourself

very basically for right now but putting

yourself in the shoes of any of the

examples or stories of every character

that is in these stories and examples

third is authorship what message is the

speaker really trying to get across here

how did they compile this talk and put

it together and why did they do it and

then lastly the knee whore principle and

how is the doctrine of Christ prevalent

in this message and how can I be warned

against a corruption of that of how that

principle can be corrupted so very very

easily I hope you enjoy your time this

weekend with conference I know that I

always do and glean so much out of I

always feel like you know there's just a

shot in the a spiritual shot in the arm

whenever I listen to conference and it's

rare I think in the world to hear such

unfiltered truth

and concern and love and the gospel of

Jesus Christ that is being broadcast out

there so enjoy your time and I'll talk

to you again next time