“The Earth Shall Be Full of the Knowledge of the Lord”

Church Educational System

Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught that the outpouring of knowledge from the heavens includes a knowledge of God’s ways, an increase in the presence of the Holy Ghost, and an understanding of the doctrine of the priesthood:

“In our day we are experiencing an explosion of knowledge about the world and its people. But the people of the world are not experiencing a comparable expansion of knowledge about God and his plan for his children. On that subject, what the world needs is not more scholarship and technology but more righteousness and revelation.
“I long for the day prophesied by Isaiah when ‘the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord’ (Isaiah 11:9; 2 Nephi 21:9). In an inspired utterance, the Prophet Joseph Smith described the Lord’s ‘pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints’ (D&C 121:33). This will not happen for those whose ‘hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men’ (121:35). Those who fail to learn and use ‘principles of righteousness’ (121:36) will be left to themselves to kick against those in authority, ‘to persecute the saints, and to fight against God’ (121:38). In contrast, the Lord makes this great promise to the faithful:
“‘The doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
“‘The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever’ (D&C 121:45–46)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1989, 38–39; or Ensign, May 1989, 30).

Book of Mormon Student Manual (2009 Edition)

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