Maybe BKP was worried about people having the sort of experience I had this morning:
While poking around LDS.org scriptures looking for any light on how Cain survived the flood, I came across the last instance of canonised revelation: D&C 138, by Joseph Feilding Smith. It is quite hope inspiring, a vision of spirits in the spirit world and how Jesus spent three days organising the missionary effort of good spirits to bad spirits. But then my discrepancy detector went off.
JFS describes the good spirits in the spirit world. Here are some from
D&C 138 [note that I have left the link letters in, they are important:
16 They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the aspirit world, to declare their bredemption from the cbands of death.
17 Their sleeping adust was to be brestored unto its cperfect frame, dbone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them, the espirit and the body to be united never again to be divided, that they might receive a fulness of fjoy.
18 While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their adeliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring bliberty to the ccaptives who had been faithful;
27 But his ministry among those who were dead was limited to the abrief time intervening between the crucifixion and his resurrection;
36 Thus was it made known that our Redeemer spent his time during his sojourn in the world of aspirits, instructing and preparing the faithful spirits of the bprophets who had testified of him in the flesh;
37 That they might carry the message of redemption unto all the dead, unto whom he could not go personally, because of their arebellion and transgression, that they through the ministration of his servants might also hear his words.
38 Among the great and amighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father bAdam, the cAncient of Days and father of all,
39 And our glorious aMother bEve, with many of her faithful cdaughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.
40 aAbel, the first bmartyr, was there, and his brother cSeth, one of the mighty ones, who was in the express dimage of his father, Adam.
41 aNoah, who gave warning of the flood; bShem, the great chigh priest; dAbraham, the father of the faithful; eIsaac, fJacob, and Moses, the great glaw-giver of Israel; 42 And aIsaiah, who declared by prophecy that the Redeemer was anointed to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the bcaptives, and the opening of the cprison to them that were bound, were also there.
43 Moreover, Ezekiel, who was shown in vision the great valley of adry bones, which were to be bclothed upon with flesh, to come forth again in the resurrection of the dead, living souls;
44 Daniel, who foresaw and foretold the establishment of the akingdom of God in the latter days, never again to be destroyed nor given to other people;
45 aElias, who was with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration;
46 And aMalachi, the prophet who testified of the coming of bElijah—of whom also Moroni spake to the Prophet Joseph Smith, declaring that he should come before the ushering in of the great and dreadful cday of the Lord—were also there.
47 The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the ahearts of the children the promises made to their fathers,
48 Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the atemples of the Lord in the bdispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the csealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.
Note that Enoch is not mentioned, of course he had been translated, so he was not in the spirit world.
Then I recalled having read
this on another occaision:
As was the case with many of the ancient prophets, Moses’ ministry extended beyond the limits of his own mortal lifetime. In company with Elijah, he came to the Mount of Transfiguration and bestowed keys of the priesthood upon Peter, James, and John (Matt. 17: 3-4; Mark 9: 4-9; Luke 9: 30; D&C 63: 21; HC 3: 387). From this event, which occurred before the resurrection of Jesus, we understand that Moses was a translated being, and had not died as reported in Deut. 34 (Alma 45: 19). It was necessary that he be translated, in order to have a body of flesh and bones at the time of the transfiguration, since the resurrection had not yet taken place. Had he been a spirit only, he could not have performed the work on the mount of giving the keys to the mortal Peter, James, and John (cf. D&C 129).
So JFS could not have seen Moses in the spirit world. He was translated, like Enoch. He had a body already.
Interestingly, the entry for Moses is not linked in D&C 138, and D&C 138 is not included in the Bible dictionary for Moses at all. So if one were following the story of the translated Moses, LDS.org will not offer up JFS' vision- and vice versa. So someone at LDS.org must know about this.
