Episode 160: D&C 60, Section 84, part 1
Viva la priesthood! Women not invited. Basically an influx of new members are increasing the need for middle management. Additionally, here are some specific revelations included that didn’t come true or are contradictory.
1. The new city of Zion will be built in the Temple Lot.
2. It will happen in this generation (the 1832 generation).
3. No one will pollute Jackson County.
Drink count – 5, or a little less than one beer
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Podcastriarchal blessing: Mindy M
Podcastriarchal music is Our Happy Life by Maps and Transit, edited for length
My Book of Mormon 
May 28, 2017 at 1:43 am
Verse 18 is so poorly written that I understand how you reached the conclusion that verse 19 is calling the Aaronic Priesthood the greater priesthood. But no, “this greater priesthood” refers to “the priesthood after the holiest order of God”, with which the priesthood of Aaron “continueth” and “abideth”, but not with which it is equated. Keep in mind that the phrase “Melchizedek Priesthood” hadn’t been coined yet, or “Aaronic Priesthood” either, for that matter, and they wouldn’t be, I believe, until 1835. It’s no wonder Joseph Smith would want to rebrand the two priesthoods a bit, because all these references so far to “Holy Priesthood”, “high priesthood”, and “priesthood after the holiest order of God”, end up sounding pretty ambiguous, but they all mean Melchizedek Priesthood.
The passage is this section, about how the whole church will remain under condemnation until its members remember the Book of Mormon, is kind of a big deal. Like you pointed out, the Book of Mormon has been mentioned only rarely in the D&C, and it would continue to be hardly mentioned in the LDS church for a long time. Yes, the church would always use the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as a proof of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling, but they would hardly touch on the book’s content. That changed in the 1980s. Enter Ezra Taft Benson.
I’m not sure if Ezra Taft Benson has been brought up yet in the podcast or comments section before, but he was president of the LDS church in the late 80s and early 90s, and is perhaps best remembered in the church for his General Conference talk focusing on these verses, and recommitting the entire church to give the Book of Mormon more emphasis in their personal study of the scriptures. In recent years, it’s quite likely that church leaders draw more stories and quotes from the Book of Mormon than from the Bible for use in their talks, and current members of the church are almost certainly more familiar with the Book of Mormon than the Bible. Shifting the church’s culture about the Book of Mormon is perhaps Benson’s greatest legacy.
And really, that’s not a bad legacy to have, considering the other things Benson is well known for, like being the far-right conservative nut job in Dwight Eisenhower’s cabinet (this was back before it became normal for the president’s cabinet to be made up entirely of far-right nut jobs, mind you), or those times back in the 1960s when he’d preach his political positions from the pulpit, calling proponents of the civil rights movement stooges of the Communists, who were supposedly using civil rights to promote unrest and destroy democracy. Then, of course, there was that one time, that is, the last several years of his church presidency, when he was confined to home, and apparently completely senile, while the church still portrayed him as actively leading the organization in his prophetic capacity, despite being in poor health, as they’d say, and unable to attend conferences and such. But at least something like THAT will never happen again…