Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Doctrine & Covenants 76; the Vision of the Degrees of Glory, part 2

 


Compiled by Dennis B. Horne

 

At Pres. Marion G. Romney’s funeral, Elder Boyd K. Packer shared this experience:

 

On one occasion, we were holding a meeting of mission presidents in Geneva, Switzerland. He arrived a day late, having spent a day in England to work on a very difficult problem for the First Presidency. We met him at the airport. I’d never seen him so tired. I pushed my way through the attendants and walked back where he was waiting for his luggage and he stood there, looked at me, and finally said, “Hello. What do we have going tonight?” I said, “Oh, I think maybe you’d better rest.” But he thought he’d better meet with us.

            As we gathered, the rest of the agenda was suspended and he talked to us. Perhaps because he was weary and less guarded in what he might have otherwise said, he spoke openly of inspiration and the process by which we receive divine direction. And then he told us more than he had said publicly about an event in the growth of his testimony.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Doctrine & Covenants 76; the Vision of the Degrees of Glory, part 1

 


Compiled by Dennis B. Horne

 Elder Harold B. Lee told a close friend (who decades later told me) that, “Twenty years ago, the most electrifying and most interesting man in the Quorum of the Twelve was Melvin J. Ballard. People used to travel miles just to go and hear him at a stake conference. People just flocked to hear him. Hardly anyone knows who he is now.” Elder Lee told the Ballard family that of all the men he knew, he most wanted to be like Elder Melvin J. Ballard.

 

Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve (Pres. M. Russell Ballard’s grandfather):

Excerpts from his famous address, “The Three Degrees of Glory”:

 

The greatest revelation the Lord, Jesus Christ, has ever given to man, so far as a record is made, was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith on the 16th of April, 1832, known as the 76th section of the book of Doctrine & Covenants, commonly called for years and still known as "The Vision." This to my mind is the climax of all wonderful revelations that have come from the Lord from the days of Father Adam until the present moment. . . .