Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young. We follow Come Follow Me, and this year we are in the Doctrine and Covenants. But what we're mostly doing here is learning techniques that you can use to study the scriptures on your own. Whether you're in Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, Bible, any of the scriptures, you can use these techniques and study on your own. So today we are in Doctrine and Covenants section 84, and we are talking about the priesthood. One of the things you might run into as you study the scriptures is that the scriptures sometimes talk about multiple things at the same time, and it can be hard to decode. Are you talking about this or about that? And that happens in section 84. We're talking about the Aaronic priesthood and the Melchizedek priesthood. So these are two different kinds of priesthood. The Aaronic priesthood is called the lesser priesthood, and the Melchizedek priesthood is the greater priesthood. And we get more details about both in this section, but we have to decode it and figure out which one they're talking about. Something that we can watch for that will help us know if it's this or that, the Aaronic or the Melchizedek, is connecting words. We'll see places where it's obviously talking about one of them and then there's another part and we're not quite sure if it's this one or that one, so look to see, has it started a new topic or has there been a connecting word, like "which" or "therefore" because those connect them together. For instance in verse 18, "the Lord confirmed a priesthood upon Aaron," obviously the Aaronic priesthood and I'm going to mark that in blue. This priesthood of Aaron... was given"throughout all their generations, which priesthood..." So there's that connecting word, "which," so we're still talking about Aaronic... "which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever," so we can know that that priesthood abideth forever "with the priesthood, which is after the holiest order of God." Did you notice that transition right there? It went from talking about the Aaronic priesthood to talking about a new kind of priesthood. So you have to really watch close for when those switches happen. Sometimes when it switches, it mentions the name or kind of priesthood that it's now talking about. And sometimes there is a word like this word "with," that helps you know that what you were just talking about is being paired with something else. So then it switches to talking about Melchizedek. Do you see that? Let's change to red and we'll mark Melchizedek in a different color." After the holiest order of God." Okay, so we found both Aaronic and Melchizedek in the same verse. Even though it didn't say Aaronic, it said Aaron, and it didn't say Melchizedek, it said highest. So that's how we can know the difference between the two. Let's keep going and we'll watch to see if there are any more connecting words that help us decode which one we're talking about. Verse 19 says "this greater priesthood..." okay, so there it's obvious we're talking about Melchizedek."Greater priesthood administereth the gospel," that's something that it does."And holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom." That's something else that belongs specifically to the Melchizedek priesthood."Even the key of the knowledge of God." There we go. So we've got three things that belongs specifically to the Melchizedek priesthood. Verse 20 starts with, "therefore..." oh, do you remember that therefore is one of our connecting words? Because that's a connecting word, we can know we're still talking about the Melchizedek priesthood."Therefore, in the ordinances thereof," of the Melchizedek, "the power of godliness is manifest." That is an amazing promise right there! One that I really hope you'll go to your scriptures and mark. It's so important! And if you go on my worksheets, you'll see another study activity that helps you delve into this idea and really think about what that means, the power of godliness in the ordinances. Such an amazing thing! But that's not what we're talking about right now, so we're gonna keep going. Let's actually skip to verse 26, okay?

"and the lesser priesthood," do you remember which one's the lesser priesthood? That's right. It's Aaronic, so I'm gonna switch back to my blue."The lesser priesthood... holdeth the key of the ministering of angels." There's something that the Aaronic priesthood does. I'm gonna underline that in my blue.

"and the preparatory gospel." So that is the things that will help us be prepared for the higher ordinances. That's why the Aaronic priesthood is the lesser or preparatory, because it does these things that help us prepare for the Melchizedek ordinances. 27 starts with another connecting word. Do you see it?"Which gospel..." there's our connecting word, which. We're still talking about what was talked about right before."The preparatory gospel. Which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments." Now, what in the world is carnal commandments? That basically just means the 10 commandments that the Lord gave to Moses way, way, way back in the Bible. Okay? Those are the commandments that help us to prepare for the higher ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood. And I'm gonna underline these preparatory gospel principles, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the commandments. Okay? Do you see how we learned about the Melchizedek and the Aaronic priesthood even though there was never the word Melchizedek and there was never the word Aaronic. if we back up a little bit and look in verse 17. The Lord says this about the priesthood: "which priesthood continue with in the church of God in all generations and is without beginning of days or end of years." Now, which priesthood is he talking about? There's a connecting word there that says which, you can look back up to verse 14. You can tell that he's talking about the Melchizedek priesthood, but men cannot receive the Melchizedek priesthood if they don't already have the Aaronic priesthood. So this verse 17 is talking about both of them together. And so this is something that I love to do when I mark my scriptures. If I'm looking for two different things, I like to pick two different colors, but I usually pick primary colors: red, yellow, or blue. Because then if there's any verse that talks about both of them at the same time, I can combine the two colors together to make another color. So now I'm going to mark verse 17 in purple because that's what you get when red and blue are combined. The priesthood "continueth in the church"- if God has set up his church on the earth, the priesthood is in it."In all generations, and is without beginning or end." The priesthood blesses our lives so much, and understanding the differences between the Aaronic priesthood and the Melchizedek priesthood can help your testimony grow. And when you see those differences and those blessings of the priesthood in your own life, then you can share that knowledge with others. But sometimes you have to do a little bit of decoding in the scriptures in order to find that doctrine. So I hope that you will use this when you are studying. Look for those connecting words to figure out which thing we're talking about. Is it this or is it that? There're so many ways for you to study the gospel, but be sure that when you are studying, you study primarily, which means mostly, firstly, most importantly, scripture. I'm Cindy Young. I'll see you next week. Bye guys. Thanks for tuning into Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website, primarily scripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time.