Opinion: Thoughts on D&C 46, etc...

The St. George Tabernacle, where a silver sacrament set and organ were put into service in 1878.

By Gregory Knight & Chadwick LaVerl Hyde

When I began my final journey away from the mainstream LDS Church, in about 2007, I began to explore sacrament meetings with some fundamentalist groups and independents in Utah and Arizona.

Greg

I discovered that, while not fully converted to the ideas, dogmas and doctrines of fundamentalism, no independent worshipper ever turned me away from a Sunday meeting at their home, or rooms tucked away in the back of their business. I was invited into the home of a member of the TLC, the late Jim Harmston's group, in Manti once. And while I never received the fulness in his home, I did feel at ease with how he tried to teach me.

The same can't be said for a pair of other groups - a Utah-based one in Mt. Pleasant, with the other in Short Creek, Arizona. In fact, when I tried to attend the service in Colorado City, I was all but barred from entry by some pretty burly brethren.

C'est la vie. I was bummed, but did not let it affect me deep down into my soul. The church in question was undergoing a lot of problems with the world legally at that point, so I guess I kind of understood.

Now, fast forward to 2023.

I'm living near Sacramento, California and I have been taking teachings from a great group of elders on the fullness of the gospel. We'd been discussing the gospel for nearly six months, and one of them encouraged me to keep reading my scriptures diligently.

I've always loved the Doctrine and Covenants, so I began to read it from cover to cover - and a concordance or two.

In the proceeding years, I often wondered why someone diligently seeking truth would be excluded from a church, any church, that might proclaim to have it. The sign out front of my local LDS wardhouse says "Visitors Welcome," though I strongly doubt they would invite me to learn more about the gospel whilst aligned with the fullness of doctrine I find in my church.

In further study, I discovered that, according to Joseph F, Smith and in the records of John Whitmer, 'in the beginning of the Church, while yet in her infancy, the disciples used to exclude unbelievers which caused some to marvel and converse on this matter because of the things written in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 18:22-24). Therefore, the Lord deigned to speak on this subject, that his people might come to an understanding, and he said that he had always given to his elders to conduct all meetings as they were led by the Spirit” [HC 1:163-64].” (Joseph Fielding Smith, CHMR 1:182-83)

For me, it all comes down to a detailed study of D&C 46:1-6...

Hearken, O ye people of my church; for verily 

I say unto you that these things were spoken unto 

you for your profit and learning.

2 But notwithstanding those things which are written, it always has been given to the elders of my church from the beginning, and ever shall be, to conduct all meetings as they are 

directed and guided by the Holy Spirit.

3 Nevertheless ye are commanded never to cast 

any one out from your public meetings, 

which are held before the world.

4 Ye are also commanded not to cast any one who belongeth to the church out of your 

sacrament meetings; nevertheless, if any have trespassed, let him not 

partake until he makes reconciliation.

5 And again I say unto you, ye shall not cast any out of your 

sacrament meetings who are earnestly seeking the kingdom—I speak 

this concerning those who are not of the church.

6 And again I say unto you, concerning your 

confirmation meetings, that if there be any that are not of the church, 

that are earnestly seeking after the kingdom, ye shall not cast them out.

Any even older provenance of this revelation can be found in the Book of Commandments 49:1-8. Further inquiry on the matter revealed additional nuggets of glorious information... 

"The Sacrament meeting of the Church is the most important meeting which we have, and is sadly neglected by many members. We go to this service, if we understand the purpose of it, not primarily to hear someone speak, important though that may be, but first, and most important, to renew this covenant with our Father in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ. Those who persist in their absence from this service will eventually lose the Spirit, and if they do not repent will eventually find themselves denying the faith.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, CHMR 1:131-32)

"Now partaking of the sacrament is not to be a mere passive experience. We are not to remember the Lords suffering and death only as we may remember some purely secular historical event. Participating in the sacrament service is meant to be a vital and a spiritualizing experience. Speaking of it, the Savior said: ‘And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me." (3 Nephi 18:7)

"Non-members cannot comply with the covenants embodied in the blessings of the sacrament and, therefore, should not partake of it. They are old enough to reason and should understand that the sacrament, so far as adults are concerned, is for those who have repented of their sins in the waters of baptism.

"It would be proper in a meeting to say, 'The sacrament will now be administered to the members of the Church,' in cases where there are non-members present; otherwise nothing need be said of this nature. If non-members are present and partake of the sacrament, we would not do anything to prevent it, for evidently they would take it in good faith, notwithstanding the nature of the covenant.

"The Lord has said that we should not permit anyone to partake of the sacrament unworthily. This means, as I understand it, anyone in the Church who has been in transgression of some kind and who has not repented. It would also apply to the apostate." (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS 2:350)

It always makes my heart glad to hear when a church of the fundamentalist type allows visitors and investigators into their midst. It always makes my heart wax cold when a church does not do so.

Chadwick

"Earnest seekers of the kingdom" are not to be cast out!

Members who are falling short, but are still in earnest for the kingdom shall not partake of the sacrament but shall be admitted.

Further, those non-members who are earnest for the kingdom shall be allowed to stay.

This is a careful and nuanced scripture. As you know, there are many whom are not earnest. Those ought to be excluded. The spirit will then be unrestrained.

One must be careful in adjudging who is not earnest. Naysayers, exposé artists, etc., should be excluded based upon their intent and their works.

The Lord wants his sacrament meeting available to all that genuinely want to be a part of it. 

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