Lesson 45: “If I Perish, I Perish” and
Lesson 46: “A Kingdom, Which Shall Never Be Destroyed”
Reading 1 – Daniel 1:1-8
Reading 2 – Daniel 1:10-15,17,20
Reading 3 - Elder Boyd K. Packer taught: “I have come to know … that a fundamental purpose of the Word of Wisdom has to do with revelation. From the time you are very little we teach you to avoid tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco, narcotics, and anything else that disturbs your health. … If someone ‘under the influence’ can hardly listen to plain talk, how can they respond to spiritual promptings that touch their most delicate feelings? As valuable as the Word of Wisdom is as a law of health, it may be much more valuable to you spiritually than it is physically” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1979, 28–29; or Ensign, Nov. 1979, 20).
Reading 4 – Daniel 2:1-5
Reading 5 – Daniel 2:16-19
Daniel 2:20-23
Reading 6 – Daniel 2:31-35, 44-45
President Kimball said:
And it was in the days of these kings that power would not be given to men, but the God of heaven would set up a kingdom—the kingdom of God upon the earth, which should never be destroyed nor left to other people.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored in 1830 after numerous revelations from the divine source; and this is the kingdom, set up by the God of heaven, that would never be destroyed nor superseded, and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that would become a great mountain and would fill the whole earth.
History unfolded and the world powers came and went after ruling the world for a little season, but in the early nineteenth century the day had come. The new world of America had been discovered and colonized and was being settled. Independence had been gained and a constitution approved and freedom given to men, and people were now enlightened to permit truth to be established and to reign.
No king or set of rulers could divine this history; but a young, pure, and worthy prophet could receive a revelation from God.
. . . .
[after describing the events in the Sacred Grove and the appearance of additional heavenly messengers to Joseph Smith, Pres. Kimball continues:]
These were the beginnings of accomplishment; and the gospel was revealed, line upon line and precept upon precept, and truths were restored, and power was given and authority was revealed, and gradually enough light and enough people were there for the organization of this kingdom of God which Daniel saw two and a half millennia ago.
The Church was organized. Small it was, with only six members, compared to the stone cut out of the mountain without hands which would break in pieces other nations and which would roll forth and fill the whole earth.
Reading 7 – Esther 3:2-5
Reading 8 – Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said: Premortality is not a relaxing doctrine. For each of us, there are choices to be made, incessant and difficult chores to be done, ironies and adversities to be experienced, time to be well spent, talents and gifts to be well employed. Just because we were chosen “there and then,” surely does not mean we can be indifferent “here and now.” Whether foreordination for men, or foredesignation for women, those called and prepared must also prove “chosen, and faithful.” (See Rev. 17:14; D&C 121:34-36). In fact, adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! Additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the Lord’s most apt pupils. (See Mosiah 3:19; 1 Pet. 4:19). Our existence, therefore, is a continuum matched by God’s stretching curriculum (“Premortality, a Glorious Reality,” Ensign, Nov. 1985, 16).
Esther 4:16
Reading 9: Esther 7:3-6
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