[Teachldsseminary] Ques: D&C 98

[Ken Alford]

Sharon asked for insights into D&C 98:44 where it says "if he trespass 
against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him..."

It's important to take these verses in wider context than just verse 
44.  Here's what Joseph Fielding Smith had to say about verses 33-48:

"If any nation, tongue, or people came against them [the Lord's people 
anciently], they first lifted up a standard of peace, and if this standard 
was not accepted the first, second, or third time, these testimonies stood 
against their enemies. The fourth time the Lord justified his people in 
going to battle. This law is given "as an ensample" unto us. Moreover, the 
enemy was not to be forgiven if he continued opposition and did not repent, 
and his posterity after him would share in the punishment if they did not 
repent, and if his posterity after him did not repent, would share in the 
punishment. But if the children of them that hate the Lord do repent in the 
second, third or fourth generation, they are to be forgiven, and the 
indignation of the Lord will be turned away, but they are to return 
four-fold all the trespasses wherewith they have trespassed or wherewith 
their fathers have trespassed, or their father's fathers before 
them.(CHMR,1948, 2:193-94.)"
            -- Source:  Roy W. Doxey, comp., Latter-day Prophets and the 
Doctrine and Covenants, 3:, p.346

Additional references about these verses (from Daniel H. Ludlow's A 
Companion to Your Study of the Doctrine and Covenants, Vol. 1:, pp. 
506-509) are found below.

Best wishes,

Ken Alford
Springfield, Virginia



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The law of the Lord concerning war and vengeance

"Here is a law given that is of the utmost importance to the inhabitants of 
the earth as well as to us as a people. It is the law by which the 
inhabitants of the earth should be governed and we, as Latter-day Saints, 
especially should understand this law and be governed by it. . . .  We 
should be a peaceful people, seeking peace, and endeavoring to escape all 
the horrors of war, and to avert them from the nations of the earth, 
particularly our own nation. The Lord says: [Sec. 98:34-38, quoted.]. . .

"I do not look for our nation to do this. It is scarcely to be expected, in 
the nature of things, that they would do it. But it is the true principle, 
and we as a people should use our influence for his purpose. Our prayers 
should ascend to God, our petitions should ascend to the government of our 
nation to do everything that honorable people can do to avert war. We have 
no fear of the effect of the combinations against us. . . . But the promise 
of God is that if we will do right as a nation, if we will serve Him, they 
shall not have power over us, or be able to bring us into bondage; and in 
the end we shall prevail. This is a glorious promise which is made to the 
inhabitants of the land. (2 Nephi 10:10-14.)" (George Q. Cannon, CR, April 
1898, pp. 85-87.)

"In the 98th section the Lord gives the law that he gave in ancient times 
to his people when they were to go forth to battle. It is in substance: 'If 
thine enemy come against thee, thou shalt forgive him; if he come again the 
second time, thou shalt forgive him; and if he even come the third time and 
you forgive him, it will be reckoned unto you for glory, but if he come 
again, I, the Lord, justify you in going forth to battle and I will 
strengthen you and I will fight your battles.' Now the great distinction 
should be, and we should understand it, that circumstances may arise which 
will require a different precept from that given at one time when another 
time comes. In the 22nd chapter of Luke, you will read that Jesus, just 
before he was taken by the men that came out to bring him before the 
judgment seat, cried out to his apostles: 'When I sent you without purse 
and scrip and shoes, lacked ye anything?' And they said, 'Nothing.' Then 
said he, 'But now, he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his 
scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.' 
(Verses 35, 36.) Well, some people will say perhaps, then, the Lord is a 
changeable being. Not at all. The Lord always is like that. From the 
eternities that are past down to the present, when circumstances change, he 
adapts his laws to the conditions and gives his people counsel and 
instructions suited to the times and circumstances." (Charles W. Penrose, 
CR, April 1917, pp. 20-22.)

"Perhaps Peter had met people who continued to trespass against him, and he 
asked: 'Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?' 
(Matt. 18:21.) And the Lord said: 'I say not unto thee, Until seven times: 
but, Until seventy times seven.' (Ibid., 18:22.) '. . . and as oft as thine 
enemy repenteth of the trespass wherewith he has trespassed against thee, 
thou shalt forgive him, until seventy times seven.' (D&C 98:40.) Until 
seventy times seven! That seems very difficult indeed for us mortals, and 
yet there are still harder things to do. When they have repented and come 
on their knees to ask forgiveness, most of us can forgive, but the Lord has 
required that we shall even forgive them if they do not repent nor ask 
forgiveness of us.

"In D&C Sec. 98:41-45, he said:

"'And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with all thine heart'; we must 
still forgive. The Lord will avenge us. 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay, 
saith the Lord' (Rom. 12:19) and man must not seek vengeance nor retaliate 
against those who have damaged him. Bitterness injures the one who carries 
it more than the one against whom it is directed." (Spencer W. Kimball, CR, 
September 1949, pp. 129-30)

"There are, however, two conditions which may justify a truly Christian man 
to enter-mind you, I say enter, not begin-a war: (1) An attempt to dominate 
and to deprive another of his free agency, and, (2) Loyalty to his country. 
Possibly there is a third, viz., Defense of a weak nation that is being 
unjustly crushed by a strong, ruthless one.
"Paramount among these reasons, of course, is the defense of man's freedom. 
An attempt to rob man of his free agency caused dissension even in heaven. 
. . .

"To deprive an intelligent human being of his free agency is to commit the 
crime of the ages. . . .
"So fundamental in man's eternal progress is his inherent right to choose, 
that the Lord would defend it even at the price of war. Without freedom of 
thought, freedom of choice, freedom of action within lawful bounds, man 
cannot progress. . . .
"The greatest responsibility of the state is to guard the lives, and to 
protect the property and rights of its citizens; and if the state is 
obligated to protect its citizens from lawlessness within its boundaries, 
it is equally obligated to protect them from lawless encroachments from 
without-whether the attacking criminals be individuals or nations." (David 
O. McKay, CR, April 1942, pp. 72-73.)

"Does the Lord permit the shedding of blood and justify it? Yes, sometimes 
he does. Was not the war of independence of this country justifiable? Were 
not the rights and privileges of the people of this land trampled under 
foot, and did they not rise in their might and the God of Battles 
strengthen their arms and they went forth to victory and brought liberty, 
not only to themselves and their immediate families, but to hosts of people 
from down-trodden Europe who are rejoicing today under the Stars and 
Stripes with liberty of conscience and liberty of speech and liberty of 
action within proper guidance and direction of righteous law. . . .

". . . Now if a nation essays to go forth against another nation for the 
purpose of conquest, to gain territory, to grasp something that does not 
belong to that nation, then the nation thus assailed has the right to 
resist even to the shedding of blood, as it was in this land in the war for 
independence. But we have to be careful as to what spirit we are guided by. 
If we want to go out to battle, to encroach upon other people's liberties 
and rights, to gain their lands, to destroy their property without any 
right or reason, that is one thing; but if somebody comes against us to 
destroy us and our property and our homes and our rights and our 
privileges, either on land or sea, then we have the right under the divine 
law to rise for our own protection and take such steps as are necessary." 
(Charles W. Penrose, CR, April 1917, pp. 20-21.)

Quoted in:  Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Doctrine and 
Covenants, 2 vols., 1:, p. 506-509