D&C 18–19

Structure your personal scripture study by following a 15-minute, day-by-day plan. Each day's assignment includes the required scripture passages from the Come, Follow Me curriculum, as well as suggestions for additional resources to bring context and understanding to your study. For the best experience, use our Reading Plan in the free ScripturePlus app! You can track your progress and have access to the best resources.

Monday

• Commentary 12018: Section 18 Context, Steven C. Harper
• Scripture: D&C 18:1–13
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 18:6–8, Casey Griffiths
• Quote: Given the vastness of God’s creations, it’s no wonder the great King Benjamin counseled his people to “always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness.”
  But even though man is nothing, it fills me with wonder and awe to think that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”
  And while we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.
  This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation—worlds without end—within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire to help us reach it.
  Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “You Matter to Him,” October 2011 General Conference.

Further Reading

• KnoWhy 176: Why Did Helaman Compare Christ to a Rock? (Helaman 5:12)

Tuesday

• Scripture: D&C 18:14–25
• Quote: And, brethren, in this dispensation, when men were first converted to the Church they went to the Prophet Joseph to find out through him from the Lord what thing they should do that would be the most pleasing unto the Lord and almost invariably the answer came back from the Lord through the Prophet of this dispensation, that they should thrust in their sickles and reap because the harvest was white already to be garnered, and then he added, and if it so be that ye shall labor all your days and bring save one soul unto me, how great shall be your reward in the kingdom of my Father.
  I have thought of that promise and have reached the conclusion that I would not exchange the friendships that have been mine with those whom I have had the privilege of bringing into this Church, with the help of the Lord, as one of his missionaries, for all the wealth of this world. When the Lord said, “If you bring save one soul unto me how great shall be your joy,” I never realized just what that meant until I had a letter from a man from Phoenix while I was president of the Southern States Mission, in which he indicated that his father was one of the first converts out of the State of Mississippi back in 1840, and said “Since that time my father’s own descendants have given 100 years of missionary service to this Church,” and there were 15 then in the mission-field, and we had three of them. I told that story here in the Barratt Hall at a Missionary Conference in 1940, just 100 years after that man had been gathered into the fold by the efforts of a missionary, and this good brother happened to be present, and at the close of the meeting he came up and said “Brother Richards, it is now 160 years.” When you get to adding 15 or 20 years, a year, it soon runs into figures.
  Think of the young missionary who might have traveled through the swamps of Mississippi in those early days, when many of the missionaries contracted the malaria fever, and if he only brought, say, this one soul into the Church, he might have felt that his labors had been in vain. But in 100 years time there are 160 years of missionary service from the descendants of that one man, alone not counting all the converts they had made, and their converts, and their converts, until you would have, literally an empire of people who had joined the Church because this missionary brought this one man into the Church.
  LeGrand Richards, “Untitled,” October 1953 General Conference.
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 18:9–16, Casey Griffiths
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 18:17–25, Casey Griffiths

Wednesday

• Scripture: D&C 18:26–39
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 18:26–36, Casey Griffiths
• Quote: Consistent with these references, many scriptures that refer to “the name of Jesus Christ” are obviously references to the authority of the Savior. This was surely the meaning conveyed when the seventy reported to Jesus that “even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” The Doctrine and Covenants employs this same meaning when it describes the Twelve Apostles of this dispensation as “they who shall desire to take upon them my name with full purpose of heart.” The Twelve are later designated as “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world,” and as those who “officiate in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Presidency of the Church.”
  Dallin H. Oaks, “Taking upon Us the Name of Jesus Christ,” April 1985 General Conference.
• Video: Scriptural Foundation (D&C 18), Taylor Halverson

Thursday

• Scripture: D&C 18:40–47
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 18:37–47, Casey Griffiths
• Quote: We read in the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord says that all those who repent and are baptized are to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Now we baptize our children at the age of eight years - that is the age that the Lord has designated as the age of accountability. Little children before that age are redeemed, should they die, without any act upon their part. One of the most wicked doctrines ever taught in this world was that little children were born in sin, contaminated, and have to be cleansed from that sin for which they themselves were not responsible. Little children were innocent in the beginning, the Lord says, and by his decree until they reach the age of accountability they are free from sin, but from that age on they are under the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins, and entrance into the Church and kingdom of God.
  Now, we are promised that when we are baptized, if we are true and faithful, we will have the guidance of the Holy Ghost. What is the purpose of it? To teach us, to direct us, to bear witness to us of the saving principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every child old enough to be baptized, and who is baptized, is entitled to the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I have heard people say that a little child eight years of age could not understand. I know better than that. I had a testimony of this truth when I was eight years old, coming through the Holy Ghost. I have had it ever since.
  Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Value of the Gospel,” October 1959 General Conference.

• Commentary 12019: Section 19 Context, Steven C. Harper
• Scripture: D&C 19:1–3

Friday

• Scripture: D&C 19:4–19
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 19:4–12, Casey Griffiths
• Quote: Let us consider the cost of God’s precious love. Jesus revealed that to atone for our sins and redeem us from death, both physical and spiritual, His suffering caused Himself, “even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that [He] might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.” His agony in Gethsemane and on the cross was greater than any mortal could bear. Nevertheless, because of His love for His Father and for us, He endured, and as a consequence, He can offer us both immortality and eternal life.
  It is poignantly symbolic that “blood [came] from every pore” as Jesus suffered in Gethsemane, the place of the olive press. To produce olive oil in the Savior’s time, olives were first crushed by rolling a large stone over them. The resulting “mash” was placed in soft, loosely woven baskets, which were piled one upon another. Their weight expressed the first and finest oil. Then added stress was applied by placing a large beam or log on top of the stacked baskets, producing more oil. Finally, to draw out the very last drops, the beam was weighted with stones on one end to create the maximum, crushing pressure. And yes, the oil is bloodred as it first flows out.
  D. Todd Christofferson, “Abide in My Love,” October 2016 General Conference.
  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2016/10/abi...
• Quote: Devoted women stood with His mother at the foot of the cross on Calvary during His agony. She was His great concern in the midst of His suffering, which suffering, He said, “caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain.” In the midst of all that, His concern was for His mother.
  Mark E. Petersen, “Even As I Am,” April 1982 General Conference.
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 19:13–20, Casey Griffiths

Further Reading

• KnoWhy 526: Did Jesus Bleed from Every Pore?

Saturday

• Scripture: D&C 19:20–27
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 19:21–28, Casey Griffiths
• KnoWhy: Why is the Book of Mormon a Classic?
• Video: The Worth of Souls (D&C 18), John Hilton III

Sunday

• Scripture: D&C 19:28–41
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 19:29–35, Casey Griffiths
• Commentary: Doctrine and Covenants 19:36–41, Casey Griffiths
• Video: Special Witnesses of Christ (D&C 18–19), Casey Griffiths