Category: Doctrine and Covenants

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 23-26

Section 23

Once the Church of Jesus Christ was organized, Joseph’s brothers Hyrum and Samuel, their father, together with Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Knight, were “anxious to know of the Lord what might be their respective duties, in relation to this work.”  Joseph’s history says, “I enquired of the Lord and received for them the following.”[1]

In section 23, the Lord speaks to each of these men in turn, offering blessings and warnings, prophecies and promises. Note especially the conditions on which the prophesied blessings depend. 

Oliver Cowdery pridefully withdrew from the church in 1838 and remained out for a decade before returning humbly. During that period he wrote defensively about his importance in the restoration. Afterward Oliver testified meekly of the Book of Mormon and of receiving the priesthood from ministering angels along with Joseph Smith.[2] When Oliver was aware of pride and made his calling known, the Lord opened his heart to preach the truth.  

For Hyrum, verse 3 fulfills the Lord’s promise to him in section 11. There the Lord told Hyrum Smith that if he would learn the word of the Lord, then his tongue would be loosed to preach it. Hyrum must have studied the scriptures in the year between the two revelations, since section 23 announces that his tongue is loosed. Hyrum preached powerfully ever after. Joseph’s father and brother Samuel also became effective missionaries and church leaders in response to this revelation. 

Joseph Knight had done so much for Joseph—provided money, paper for the Book of Mormon, food, transportation, and moral support. He was most comfortable behind the scenes. What section 23 commanded was more difficult for him: to join the church meant to preach the gospel. Father Knight wrote that he wrestled with the decision to be baptized but finally decided not to. A few weeks later, he and his wife chose to be baptized.

Section 24

Joseph had a rough month between the church’s spirit-filled June conference in Fayette, New York and this July 1830 revelation. He returned to his home in Pennsylvania and then visited the saints in nearby Colesville, New York. Reverend John Sherer, who was losing some of his Presbyterian followers to the restored gospel, stirred prejudice against Joseph. Sherer’s followers interrupted baptismal services and he finally kidnapped Emily Coburn in an attempt to prevent her baptism. 

When several who had been baptized, including Emma Smith, were to be confirmed, a constable arrested Joseph “on charge of being a disorderly person; of setting the country in an uproar by preaching the Book of Mormon.” The charges didn’t stick, but as soon as the court acquitted Joseph a constable from the neighboring county arrested him again and hauled him over the county line. All the antagonistic witnesses could offer was hearsay. Newel Knight embarrassed the prosecution with his testimony. Public opinion began to turn in Joseph’s favor. The court again acquitted him as his persecutors threatened to tar and feather him. The formerly hostile constable helped Joseph escape to Emma’s sister’s house, where Emma anxiously waited. 

She and Joseph finally returned to their Harmony, Pennsylvania home the next day. He returned to Colesville a few days later with Oliver Cowdery to confirm the new converts, only to be chased all night by the same enemies. “Shortly after we returned home,” Joseph wrote, referring to Sections 24 and 25, “we received the following commandments.”[1]

Section 24 is one of several revelations in which the Lord meets Joseph where he is.

Though he has become larger than life to many, Joseph, like Nephi, thought of himself as a sinner who needed redemption through the atonement of Jesus Christ. In Section 24 the Lord acknowledges both Joseph’s accomplishments and his sins, commanding him to sin no more. 

Section 24 addresses Joseph’s concern about finances and how to provide for his family. It does not promise wealth, only that Joseph will have sufficient if he attends to his calling: “thou shalt devote all thy service in Zion.” Because Joseph devotes all his service to the saints, the saints are responsible to see that his family’s needs are met.

Oliver too is encouraged to give his all to the kingdom. Perhaps hoping to escape further persecution, both of the church’s presiding elders are promised plenty of afflictions to endure. The Lord does, however, promise to smite anyone who uses violence against them. Those who use the law to persecute the prophet will find themselves cursed by the law. In sum, the two young apostles are now in the full time service of the Lord. He promises to look after them as they trust him and take up his cross and follow him, devoting their lives wholly to his service.

Section 25

In the summer of 1830, Emma Hale Smith was baptized near Colesville, New York as a group of angry neighbors objected. Before she could be confirmed, the raging crowd drove her and other saints into the Knight family’s home for refuge. Then a constable arrested Joseph for preaching the Book of Mormon. Emma awaited the outcome for a few days at her sister’s home, feeling that her “very heart strings would be broken with grief” as she witnessed her neighbors’ hostility toward her husband.[1]

It wasn’t only Emma’s confirmation that had been interrupted. Choosing to marry Joseph had disrupted the trajectory of Emma’s life. As with so many women who came of age in her time and place, Emma was raised to aspire to middle class respectability. Given her tumultuous married life thus far, she couldn’t help but be concerned about her financial future.

Then in section 24 the Lord essentially guaranteed Joseph and Emma a modest living if the saints would support them. They would have enough to enable him to devote his life to the church, but no guarantee of things of this world. All section 24 seemed to assure Emma was a life of hardship with a husband who belonged to the church. 

To that point, the Lord had only spoken to the men of the Church, though, like Emma,  the women of the Church—Lucy Mack Smith, Mary Whitmer, Polly Knight, and many others—were just as much its backbone and as vital as a heartbeat.

Then the Lord let Emma know that he could see through her eyes and gave her an opportunity to see through his.    

The earliest manuscript of section 25 begins more intimately than the more formal, published version. “Emma my daughter in Zion,” the Lord says, “A Revelation I give unto you concerning my will  Behold thy sins are for given thee & thou art an Elect Lady whom I have called.”[2] He reveals His will to this highly favored daughter, promising to preserve her life and her place in Zion if she will be faithful and virtuous. This was no hollow promise to a woman living in a time of high maternal mortality rates. Emma nearly died after giving birth to her first child.  

The Lord’s command that Emma “murmur not because of the things which thou hast not seen,” is often assumed to refer to the Book of Mormon plates but there is no basis for that conclusion. There were many things Emma did not see, and the Book of Mormon plates may not have been among them. 

The revelation gives Emma a calling, or several actually. “The office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband . . . ” As this sentence suggests and one might expect, at times Emma felt as if she was in a tug-o-war with the Lord over Joseph. Still, she excelled at meekly comforting and consoling him. 

Emma, the Lord said, was called to be Joseph’s partner, his confidant, his strength; and he hers. The Lord commands her to go with Joseph when he goes, scribe for him when he has no other scribe (freeing Oliver Cowdery for other duties), and be ordained to expound scripture and exhort the church by the Spirit. Joseph is to lay hands on Emma to bestow the Holy Ghost, and she shall spend her time scribing and learning much in the process. She need not fear. Joseph will support her in this calling. That is his calling, and by doing it Joseph reveals whatever the Lord wills, according to the saints’ faith. 

Emma can see where all this is leading. “Lay aside the things of this world and seek for the things of a better,” the Lord invites. Lay aside your telestial world aspirations and feed your celestial ones.  

The Lord also called Emma to select sacred hymns for the church.

He delights in the heartfelt song. Thus Emma may be encouraged and rejoice and cleave to her covenants.  Continue to be meek, the Lord commands her, and beware of pride. “Let thy soul delight in thy husband, and the glory which shall come upon him.” A crown of righteousness awaits Emma if she keeps these commandments continually.  

Emma was confirmed and compiled the church’s first two hymnals in response to section 25, but the revelation is significant far beyond those accomplishments. It addresses Emma’s deepest fears and fondest hopes. This is the only revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants addressed to a woman. It shows that the Lord knew his daughter. He knew she was meek but could be proud. He knew that part of her wanted to complain because she had not seen some of the marvelous things others had seen. He knew she could be tempted by the things of this world. He invited her to sacrifice them for infinitely more. He knew before she knew that she was capable of scribing for Joseph, of learning much, and of teaching the saints by the power of the Holy Ghost. He knew that these callings would cause Emma anxiety. He assured her that Joseph would support her. He knew that she needed Joseph. He knew that Joseph needed her, and he called her to comfort and sustain Joseph.      

Section 25 oriented Emma’s life.

Expecting twins, she forsook her unbelieving parents to obey its command to go with Joseph to Ohio, and she never saw them afterwards. A decade later Emma was elected by her sisters to preside over the Relief Society, which Joseph validated. He read the revelation to the sisters from the Doctrine and Covenants and said that Emma had been “orddain’d at the time, the Revelation was given to expound the scriptures to all; and to teach the female part of the community.” She was and sustained in her calling by her husband and her sister saints.[3]

A few weeks later Joseph was evading arrest on false charges. It was a depressing time of his life. There was tension between him and Emma over plural marriage, straining their relationship. Emma went to great lengths to visit Joseph in that situation. His journal entry says, “again she is here, even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate Emma.”[4]

 In September 1843, Joseph sealed on Emma’s head the “crown of righteousness” the Lord promised in section 25. Then, just days before his death in 1844, Joseph invited Emma to write her own blessing. She thought of Section 25 and penned her hopes that she would be able to obey its commands and receive its promised blessings.[5] She clung to her covenants through Abrahamic tests. Emma understandably could have, and perhaps sometimes did, consider herself in competition with the Lord and others for Joseph’s time and attention. Section 25 assured her that however that might be, she was the Lord’s highly favored daughter, that he expected more of her than she may have thought she could give, and that he would finally give her all she ultimately wanted.

Section 26

Joseph and the saints in southern New York endured a blast of persecution in the summer of 1830. The Knight family in Colesville were understandably anxious. Back home in the nearby but comparatively peaceful setting of Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph received a series of revelations including section 26. The Lord gave it to Joseph, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer to teach them what to do until the conference scheduled for September in Fayette, New York.  

The revelation says simply that Joseph and his brethren are to devote their time to scripture study, preaching, confirming the saints in southern New York, and farming as needed until time for conference later in the summer. There he will direct them further.

The most significant, if understated, aspect of the revelation is the line, “all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith.” (D&C 26:2) The Lord had revealed this principle earlier, but that revelation is not canonized, so this is the first mention of common consent in the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph’s manuscript history says that before the Church was organized, the Lord commanded he and Oliver to ordain each other elders in the Church of Jesus Christ, and then ordain others, but only after they could gather all who had been baptized to get “their sanction,” and be “accepted by them as their teachers.”[1]

At that meeting the members of the church, the women and men accepted Joseph and Oliver as their leaders by a unanimous vote.[2] Though the word vote is used, common consent differs from a democratic election. In common consent, Church leaders put forward a proposal and ask for consent and dissent. Though consent is common, it is not taken for granted and dissent is to be respected. The presiding authority meets with a dissenting member to learn why they dissented and acts accordingly. In an unusual turn of events, Joseph Smith dissented in October 1843 at the proposal that Sidney Rigdon be sustained as his counselor in the First Presidency. Joseph’s dissent was overruled by the Church after a lengthy discussion.[3]

Newel Knight said section 26 provided “great consolation to the little band of Brethren and Sisters at Colesville after having been abandoned from time to time by the servants of God in consequence of the wicked who were constantly seeking to destroy the work of God from the earth.  It showed us that the Lord took cognizance of us and also that he knew the acts of the wicked. So we resolved to continue steadfast in the faith and were diligent in our prayers and assembling ourselves together, waiting with patience until we should have the pleasure of again seeing Brother Joseph and others of the Servants of the Lord who had become dear to us by the ties of the gospel, and of being confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ by the laying on of hands of the Apostles.”[4]

Section 23 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 38, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/44.

[2] Steven C. Harper, “Oliver Cowdery as Second Witness of Priesthood Restoration,” in Days Never to Be Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery, ed. Alexander L. Baugh (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2009), 73–89.

Section 24 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 48, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/54.

Section 25 notes

[1] “Some of the Remarks of John S. Reed, Esq., as Delivered before the State Convention,” Times and Seasons 5 (I June 1844): 549-52.  Joseph Smith, Manuscript History 1838-1856, May 17, 1844, Book F-1, page. 48.

[2] “Revelation, July 1830–C [D&C 25],” p. 34, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-july-1830-c-dc-25/1.

[3] “Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book,” p. 8, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/nauvoo-relief-society-minute-book/5.

[4] Journal, December 1841–December 1842,” p. 164, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1841-december-1842/41. See Job 5:19

[5] Carol Cornwall Madsen, “The ‘Elect Lady’ Revelation: The Historical and Doctrinal Context of Doctrine & Covenants 25,” in The HeavensAre Open (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1993): 211-18.

Section 26 notes

[1] “History, circa June–October 1839 [Draft 1],” p. [8], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-october-1839-draft-1/8.

[2] “History, circa June–October 1839 [Draft 1],” p. [9], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-october-1839-draft-1/9.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844],” p. 1747-1749, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-e-1-1-july-1843-30-april-1844/119.

[4] Newel Knight, Autobiography and Journal, 1846, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 27, 28

Section 27

Section 27 is one of the revelations Joseph did not know he needed. He set out to get wine so he and Emma could have the sacrament with Sally and Newell Knight, who were visiting so Sally and Emma could be confirmed. An angel appeared to Joseph and clued him in.[1] Joseph received the first four and a half verses and parts of verses 14 and 18.  Both Joseph and Newel Knight said the rest of verses 5-18 were revealed a few weeks later.[2]

It is easy to assume that this revelation is about the word of wisdom, but it is not. It’s about the sacrament. Speaking for the Savior, the angel informed Joseph that it does not matter what the saints eat or drink for the sacrament. What matters is that they partake with an eye single to the Lord’s glory, signifying to God that they remember the Savior’s body sacrificed and blood shed for the remission of their sins. 

Section 27 penetrates to the heart of the sacrament.

If one’s eye is not single to God’s glory in that ordinance, tradition can transcend substance. The angel commanded Joseph to not purchase wine or distilled drinks from people they could not trust. Rather, they should make their own sacramental wine. As a result of section 27, according to Brigham Young, “we use water as though it were wine; for we are commanded to drink not of wine for this sacred purpose unless it be made by our own hands.”[3]

The later text of Section 27 adds considerable detail to the earlier prophecy that Christ would partake of sacramental wine with Joseph and others.  It emphasizes priesthood keys—rights associated with priesthood—and the transmission of those keys to Joseph by biblical prophets. It is the earliest document we have confirming that Peter, James, and John ordained Joseph an apostle.  

Section 27 also applies to Latter-day Saints the counsel Paul gave the Ephesian saints to arm themselves spiritually.[4] The revelation identifies the archangel Michael as Adam, and Adam as the ancient of days referred to in the Book of Daniel.[5]

Newel Knight remembered how he and Sally, Emma, and Joseph obeyed this revelation.  They “prepared some wine at our own make, and held our meeting. . . .  We partook of the sacrament, after which we confirmed the two sisters into the church, and spent the evening in a glorious manner. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out upon us.  We praised the God of Israel, and rejoiced exceedingly.”[6]

Section 28

As the church’s second conference approached in September 1830, Hiram Page, one of the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon plates, began receiving revelations through a stone “concerning the upbuilding of Zion the order of the Church and so forth, but which were entirely at variance with the order of Gods House, as it is laid down in the scriptures. and our own late revelations.”[1] Newel Knight wrote that Hiram “had quite a roll of papers full of these revelations, and many in the Church were led astray by them,” including Oliver Cowdery and many of the Whitmer family. Joseph was perplexed, but not for the reason that is sometimes assumed.[2]

Hiram Page’s seer stone was not the problem. Joseph’s revelations and personal teachings encouraged others to use their spiritual gifts, including when those gifts involved seeric objects like Oliver Cowdery’s (see section 8). If Hiram had received real revelation through his stone about how to be a better husband, there would have been no problem. The problem was that Hiram’s revelations were “entirely at variance with the order of God’s house.” He was a teacher in the Aaronic priesthood. He had not been appointed by God’s authorized servants, nor sustained by the common consent of the saints, to receive revelations and commandments about issues that involved all the saints. 

Joseph spent most of a sleepless night prayerfully seeking and receiving Section 28.

His history says, “We thought it best to enquire of the Lord concerning so important a matter.” Maybe the “we” included Oliver, because the Lord’s answer is addressed directly to Oliver, which is an important key to seeing what the revelation does rather than just what it says. 

The Lord speaks to through the first elder of his Church to the second elder—a point of order—clarifying Oliver’s role to teach the revelations given to Joseph.  Likening Joseph to Moses and Oliver to Aaron, the Lord reminded Oliver of his role to “speak or teach,” but not to write revelations for the Church or to command Joseph. The Lord directed Oliver to go on a mission to the Lamanites or Native Americans in the west, hinting that Page’s predictions for the location of Zion were wrong: “it shall be on the borders by the Lamanites.” But before his mission, Oliver was assigned to visit Hiram privately to “tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him.” The Lord did not renounce personal revelation or seer stones. He reminded Oliver of the revealed order and showed him that Hiram was out of order. “For all things must be done in order, and by the common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith” (D&C 28:13).

By speaking through Joseph to Oliver, the Lord illustrated the order in which revelation flows for the Church.  By countering the information in Page’s revelation with accurate details about Zion, the Lord led Oliver to the conclusion that either Joseph or Hiram Page was the true revelator.  By commanding Oliver to teach Hiram Page these principles, the Lord reinforced them in Oliver’s mind and illustrated the order of the church at work at a critical moment.  Oliver obeyed the revelation and “after much labor with these brethren they were convinced of their error, and confessed the same, renouncing the revelations as not being of God, but acknowledged that Satan had conspired to overthrow their belief in the true plan of salvation.”[3]

Section 27 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 51, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/57.

[2] Newel Knight, Autobiography and Journal, 1846, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[3] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 19: 92 (1877), also see 10:245, and 19:92. John Henry Smith, Diary (July 1906), Manuscripts Division, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. 

[4] Compare Ephesians  6:11-18.

[5] This teaching is distinctive to Joseph Smith.  He equated the archangel Michael with the Bible’s Adam, an idea apparently first documented in Oliver Cowdery’s 1 January 1834 letter to John Whitmer (Oliver Cowdery Letterbook, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 15).  Similarly, Joseph interpreted references to the “Ancient of days” in the Book of Daniel (7:9, 13, 22) as references to Adam.  When Daniel “Speaks of the Ancient of days,” Joseph taught in 1839, “he means the oldest man, our Father Adam, Michael” (Willard Richards Pocket Companion, 63, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah). 

[6] Newel Knight, Autobiography and Journal, 1846, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Section 28 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” pages 53-54, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/59.

[2] Newel Knight, Autobiography and Journal, 1846, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[3] Newel Knight, Autobiography and Journal, 1846, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 29

Section 29

Could you identify the voice of Jesus Christ the way you can quickly identify the voice of one of his living apostles? What does the Savior sound like? Section 29 begins with a command to listen to Christ followed by a reason why. 

It was given to Joseph at a small gathering of Church members at the Whitmer’s home in Fayette, New York, where they gathered for their quarterly conference in September 1830. They all wanted to better understand the prophecy of Isaiah, emphasized in the Book of Mormon, about when the Lord would bring again Zion (Isaiah 52:8, 3 Nephi 16:18, 20:32, 21:22-24). They also had different views about the nature of Adam’s fall. Joseph had been reading the Bible closely on that point and they all hoped the Lord would clarify some things about it.[1]

Section 29 is the first of Joseph’s revelations to use the word agency, the power with which God endows people to act of their own free will.

The revelation shows that agency comes when a set of ingredients combine in a person—a mixture of power to act, commandments that determine good and evil, knowledge of the commandments to act upon, and Satan’s opposition to our acting in obedience. 

Joseph’s Calvinist ancestors thought the elect were the relative few God arbitrarily chose to passively receive his grace. In section 29, the Lord defines the elect as those who actively choose to hear his voice (the commandments that comprise part of agency) and harden not their hearts.  The chicks he promises to gather like a hen are those who decide to humble themselves. That language is theologically significant and frames the entire revelation. Agency: who has it, how did they get it, and what are the results of using it to obey or disobey?  

Several of the revelations are eschatological, meaning they deal with the last days, the end of time as we know it at the Lord’s second coming.  None is more vividly eschatological than Section 29.  It paints a horrific picture of those who exercise their agency not to repent.  

The Lord never specifies the timing of his second coming in the scriptures.

He says only that it will be “soon,” but as Elder Neal A. Maxwell suggested, wristwatch-wearing mortals are not well positioned to determine what soon means to “Him who oversees cosmic clocks and calendars.”[2] Even if the revelations are purposefully vague about precise dates, eschatological revelations like section 29 are chronological. They tell the order of events that will lead up to and comprise the Savior’s return and reign. They are characterized by words such as “before that great day shall come” (14), “when the thousand years are ended” (22), and “before the earth shall pass away” (26).  Section 29 sets forth the logic of gathering the elect because the unrepentant will soon suffer the Lord’s just vengeance at his second coming.  “The righteous shall be gathered on my right hand unto eternal life; and the wicked on my left hand will I be ashamed to own before the Father.”  

The Lord explains that the wicked will be powerless to come where he is, and then transitions into a passage on the importance, therefore, of being endowed with power.  Section 29 thus prefigures the endowment of power restored later. How does this endowment of power work?  Using Adam and Eve as archtypes in section 29, the Lord talks us through the process of their creation, fall, and redemption. (Though, if I understand verses 30-31, this is all one process of creation in God’s image).

As the earliest known revelation to Joseph to describe pre-mortal life, section 29 explains Satan’s lust for power, and how he led away a third of heaven’s inhabitants “because of their agency” (D&C 29:36). We too easily assume that Satan conspired to undermine agency by coercing his followers. The scriptures don’t say that. They only say that he sought to destroy agency. Couldn’t he have done that by telling them their choices had no consequences, that anything they chose was as good as any other choice? 

Section 29 emphasizes Heavenly Father’s more excellent way.

When Adam and Eve chose of their own free will to become subject to Satan by obeying him, they were cast out of God’s presence “because” they transgressed the law. They thus died spiritually. In other words, they were first spiritual, then temporal. Their fall made them carnal, mortal, natural. But that was only “the beginning of my work,” the Lord says (D&C 29:32).  

God began the “last” phase of creating Adam and Eve in his image by lengthening their mortal lives to enable them to exercise agency. He sent angels to teach them the law of the gospel, namely “repentance and redemption through faith on the name of mine Only Begotten Son.” This plan safeguarded agency, justice, and mercy. It guaranteed redemption to all who chose to believe, “eternal damnation” to all who choose not to believe or repent (D&C 29:44). Both get just what they want, what they choose.  

Section 29 ends as it began with emphasis on agency.  Until His children are capable of acting for themselves, Heavenly Father restricts Satan’s power to tempt them.  In other words, we grow into free agents gradually, and we “begin to become accountable” in direct proportion to our ability to act on our knowledge of the Lord’s commands of our own free will.

Notes

[1] “Revelation, July 1830–A [D&C 29],” p. 36, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-september-1830-a-dc-29/1.

 [2] Neal A. Maxwell, “Hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ,” Ensign, Nov 1998,  61.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 110

Section 110

Though Section 110 was not widely publicized when it was received and not published until 1852, it was written in Joseph’s journal soon after the visions occurred.[1] Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.
April 3, 1836 was the second greatest Easter Sunday in history. Joseph attended an afternoon sacrament meeting in the temple at Kirtland. When it ended, he and Oliver Cowdery retreated behind the heavy curtains used to divide the room. They bowed in what Joseph’s journal describes as “solemn, but silent prayer to the Most High.” Then they beheld a series of visions.[2]

First they saw and heard the Lord standing before them. Four times, in a voice like rushing water, he declared, “I am,” evoking Old Testament revelations in which he repeatedly identified himself saying, “I am the Lord your God” (see Exodus 20 and Leviticus 19). It seems like he meant to evoke the related words of the Hebrew verb for to be and the name transliterated into English as Jehovah. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ was declaring that he is the God who told Moses to tell the Israelites that “I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14). Jesus Christ was affirming that he is the God of Israel, the promised Messiah.

In a powerful but understated juxtaposition of present and past verb tenses, Christ declares himself the crucified Christ who conquered death. “I am he who liveth. I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (4). Who else can say that: They killed me, but here I am, in Kirtland, Ohio, forgiving your sins, accepting my temple and promising to visit my people here and pour out an endowment of power from here? 

Section 110 fulfills the Lord’s conditional promise to the saints that if they would move to Ohio and build him a holy house, he would endow them with power in it (see Sections 38, 88, 95).  It fulfills Section 88’s great and last promise that the sanctified would come into the presence of the Lord.  Indeed, Joseph promised the saints that “on conditions of our obedience,” the Savior had promised “a visit from the heavens to honor us with his own presence.”[3]

After the vision of the Savior ended, Moses appeared to Joseph and Oliver and gave them the priesthood keys needed to gather Israel.

Next Elias appeared and dispensed keys for the gospel of Abraham, “saying that in us and our seed all generations after us should be blessed” (12). Then Elijah appeared and said that it was time to fulfill a multi-layered prophecy.  

Through Malachi, the Lord prophesied, “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5). Moroni paraphrased and personalized that prophecy for Joseph Smith in 1823 (see section 2). Elijah fulfilled it nearly thirteen years later, as recorded in section 110. Jews had long awaited Elijah’s prophesied return and welcomed him during the Passover Seder. On the very day Elijah appeared in the temple, some Jews were celebrating the sacred meal with the hope that Elijah would return.   

Moses showing up was pretty impressive too. “His appearance in company with Elijah offers another striking parallel between Mormon teachings and Jewish tradition, according to which Moses and Elijah would arrive together at the ‘end of time.'”[4]

Section 110 reenacts the endowment received in the Biblical account of the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). Joseph received priesthood keys from the heavenly messengers. He had received all the priesthood when he was ordained by Peter, James, and John years earlier (see D&C 27:12) But he did not have all the keys they had and he needed until after section 110. In other words, Joseph had power but not permission to send missionaries globally or to perform temple ordinances until Moses, Elias, and Elijah brought him the keys–the permission to exercise the priesthood in those ways.  

Section 110 welds dispensations together.

Given on Easter and during the Passover season, the revelation links Israel’s Old Testament deliverance with Christ’s New Testament resurrection and affirms that Joseph Smith and the temple-building Latter-day Saints are the heirs of God’s promises to the Israelite patriarchs. Christ is the Passover lamb who “was slain” and then resurrected and now appears to Joseph in Kirtland, Ohio to approve of the Latter-day work and to commission Joseph to fulfill the work of Moses (the gathering of Israel), Elias (the gospel of Abraham), and Elijah (the sealing of families).     

Joseph went to work putting the keys to use against great opposition. Not long after receiving the keys to gather Israel from Moses, Joseph whispered in Heber Kimball’s ear a mission call to Great Britain.  Joseph had previously sent missionaries on short, local or regional missions. Heber’s and his companions began the ongoing process of gathering Israel from the ends of the earth. Though oppressed by what seems like a concerted opposition that included financial collapse, widespread apostasy, an executive order driving the saints from Missouri, and then unjust imprisonment in Liberty, Missouri, Joseph began to teach and administer the ordinances of the temple. In sum, the endowment of priesthood keys he received on the second greatest Easter in history authorized him to begin performing temple ordinances.  

Section 110 communicated temple knowledge and power. It came in the temple, behind a veil, was recorded but not preached, and acted on but not publicly explained.[5] After the revelation, Joseph used the keys to gather, endow, and seal in anticipation of the Savior’s second coming. Section 110 marks the restoration of temple-related power and knowledge that Moses possessed and “plainly taught,” but which had been forfeited by the children of Israel (D&C 84:19-25). 

Notes

[1] “Visions, 3 April 1836 [D&C 110],” p. 192, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/visions-3-april-1836-dc-110/1.

[2] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 192, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/195.

[3] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833,” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 24, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-11-january-1833/1.

[4] Stephen D. Ricks, “The Appearance of Elijah and Moses in The Kirtland Temple and the Jewish Passover,” BYU Studies 23:4 (1903): 484.

[5] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 320-321. 

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 30-36

Section 30

Section 28 resolved the tension Joseph felt between him and Oliver Cowdery and the Whitmers. The second quarterly conference of the young Church of Christ, held in September 1830 at the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, culminated when “the Holy Ghost came upon us, and filled us with joy unspeakable; and peace, and faith, and hope, and charity abounded in our midst.” In that setting, Joseph received revelations for Whitmer brothers David, Peter, Jr., and John. 

David, the Lord said, had misplaced his devotion and his faith. Rather than loving God with all his mind, he became preoccupied with the things of the earth. Here the Lord is probably not accusing David of being worldly. The Lord uses the word world, as in D&C 1:16, when he wants to describe the fallen earth, to suggest evil, or what we might call worldliness. The revelations use the word earth positively. The world is bad; the earth is good.  What, then, is the problem? David’s priorities.  He is a farmer. It is harvest time.  He is preoccupied with dirt and crops instead of their “Maker.” David is looking down rather than up.  His earthly cares have led him to neglect his commission to harvest souls (D&C 14, 17, 18).        

Peter remembered that “the word of the Lord came unto me by the Prophet Joseph Smith . . . saying Peter thou shalt go with Brother Oliver to the Lamanites.”[1] Peter covenanted to obey the command, and he did, traveling nearly 1,000 miles, trudging much of it through snow.  As with so many missionaries, they did not succeed as they hoped.  Baptist missionaries and government agents opposed their efforts, and they eventually returned east without converting any Native Americans. Taking the Book of Mormon to that remnant of Israel would have to wait. Meanwhile the missionaries had great success with another intended audience of the Book of Mormon. “Strange as it may appear,” a northern Ohio newspaper reported, “it is an unquestionable fact, that this singular sect have, within three or four weeks, made many proselytes in this county. The number of believers in the faith, in three or four of the northern townships, is said to exceed one hundred–among whom are many intelligent and respectable individuals.”[2]

The Lord calls John Whitmer to proclaim the gospel like a trumpeter.  Using the home of the friendly Philip Burroughs as a headquarters, John is to labor for Zion with his whole soul, preaching the gospel without fear, for the Lord is with him. Early missionaries had success preaching the gospel at the Burroughs home in Seneca Falls, New York.[3]  John apparently did so for about six months, from this September 1830 calling until his March 1831 calling to keep a history and transcribe for Joseph (see section 47).

Section 31

Thomas Marsh ran away from home at age fourteen. He made his way to New York City and then to Boston, where he worked in a foundry, making type for printing presses. Later, Thomas and his wife Elizabeth joined Methodism, which satisfied her but not him. He “expected a new church would arise, which would have the truth in its purity.” In 1829, the Holy Ghost led Thomas to take a trip west in search of this new church.  In Lyonstown, New York a woman asked Thomas if he had heard of the Book of Mormon. He had not, but wanted to know more. She referred him to Martin Harris in Palmyra. Thomas found Martin at Grandin’s, where the first sixteen pages of the Book of Mormon had just been struck off. Thomas took one of the first copies and went with Martin to the Smith home, where Oliver told him all about the Book of Mormon.

Thomas headed home to tell Elizabeth, who was as excited by the news as he was. When they learned that the Church had been organized in April 1830, they moved to New York, where the Lord revealed section 30 through Joseph to Thomas at the Church’s second quarterly conference in September.[1]

This revelation marked a turning point for Thomas Marsh. His years of seeking the gospel were over. His years of declaring it are about to begin. The revelation’s rich metaphors spoke to Thomas. He served saints who were sick, but at least as important was his work prescribing the gospel of repentance.[2]  He was also to be a farmer of souls, to cut and bundle wheat all day long before it grew too late.  

Thomas obeyed this revelation falteringly. He helped build the local branch of the church, and when it was time to gather he led them from Fayette, New York to Ohio.  The New York saints converged at Buffalo, where the harbor was frozen.  Places to stay while waiting for a sufficient thaw were at a premium.  Prices were high, supplies low.  Conditions were calculated to test Marsh’s willingness to declare the gospel and to try his patience and meekness. “You will be mobbed before morning,” Thomas Marsh told Joseph’s mother Lucy when she refused to keep her faith secret. “Mob it is, then,” she shot back, “for we shall sing and attend to prayers before sunset, mob or no mob.”[3]

Thomas presided unevenly over the quorum of twelve apostles from 1835 until 1838. He led them on a mission to the Eastern United States and tried to heal wounds created by widespread dissent and apostasy in 1837. But then Thomas himself came out against Joseph Smith in 1838 and spent almost two decades outside the church before he wrote to church leaders in 1857, seeking “reconciliation with the 12 and the Church whom I have injured.” Thomas humbly acknowledged, as he wrote, “the Lord could get along very well without me and He has lost nothing by my falling out of the ranks; But O what have I lost?”[4] Reconciled to the Redeemer who gave him Section 31, Thomas died in the faith in 1866.

Section 32

Inspired by the Spirit, Parley Pratt left his Ohio homestead in the summer of 1830 and learned of the Book of Mormon while preaching in western New York. He devoured it, became converted, and went in search of Joseph Smith. He first met Joseph around the time of the September 1830 church conference. During that conference, several of the elders desired very much to know how they could best take the Book of Mormon to the Lamanites. They agreed to ask the Lord whether some of them should go to the Native Americans, whom they assumed were descendants of Lehi.[1]

Oliver Cowdery had already been called to lead such a mission, and Peter Whitmer assigned to join him (Sections 28, 30). Parley remembered that Joseph “inquired of the Lord, and received a revelation appointing me a mission to the west, in company with Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and Ziba Peterson.  We started this mission in October, 1830.”[2]

Parley and Ziba took this revelation seriously and worked hard to obey it.  On October 17, 1830, they signed a statement that said, “being called and commanded by the Lord God, to accompany our brother Oliver Cowdery to go the Lamanites and to assist in the . . . glorious work and business, we do, therefore, most solemnly covenant before God, that we will assist him faithfully in this thing, by giving heed to all his words and advise, which is, or shall be given him by the spirit of truth, ever praying with all prayer and supplication, for his and our prosperity, and our deliverance from bonds, and imprisonments and whatsoever may come upon us, with all patience and faith.”[3]  Joseph’s mother Lucy remembered that “Emma Smith, and several other sisters, began to make arrangements to furnish those who were set apart for this mission, with the necessary clothing, which was no easy task, as the most of it had to be manufactured out of the raw material.”[4] Lucy said that “as soon as those men designated in the revelation were prepared to leave home, they started on their mission, preaching and baptizing on their way, wherever an opportunity afforded.”[5]

Section 33

Some sections of the Doctrine and Covenants highlight the working relationship between personal revelation and prophetic revelation. Section 33 does. Before it was revealed to Joseph, the Lord revealed himself personally to Ezra Thayer, a builder who had employed Joseph before. When he heard Hyrum preach in autumn 1830, Ezra “thought every word was pointed to me. God punished me and riveted me to the spot.  I could not help myself.  The tears rolled down my cheeks, I was very proud and stubborn. There were many there who knew me, I dare not look up. I sat until I recovered myself before I dare look up. They sung some hymns and that filled me with the Spirit. When Hyrum got through, he picked up a book and said, ‘here is the Book of Mormon.’ 

I said, ‘let me see it.’  I then opened the book, and I received a shock with such exquisite joy that no pen can write and no tongue can express. I shut the book and said, ‘what is the price of it?’ 

‘Fourteen shillings’ was the reply. 

I said, ‘I’ll take the book.’ I opened it again, and I felt a double portion of the Spirit, that I did not know whether I was in the world or not. I felt as though I was truly in heaven.  Martin Harris rushed to me to tell me that the book was true. I told him that he need not tell me that, for I knew that it is true as well as he.”  

At home later, Ezra had a vision in which a man brought him a roll of paper and a trumpet, telling him to blow it. Ezra visited Joseph a week after he heard Hyrum preach. “I told him what had happened, and how I knew the book was true.” Ezra wrote. “He then asked me what hindered me from going into the water.”[1] Parley Pratt baptized Ezra Thayer and two others that day, including Northrop Sweet, who was married to a niece of Martin Harris. 

Personal revelation prepared these converts for the work. Prophetic revelation to them through Joseph called them to the work. 

Oliver Cowdery delivered section 33 to Ezra, who realized then that the roll of paper in his vision “was the revelation on me and Northrop Sweet.”  Oliver handed it to him and said, “here is a revelation from God for you, now blow your trumpet.”  Ezra protested, “I never blowed a trumpet.”  Oliver assured him, “you can.”[2]

Would Ezra and Northrop blow their trumpets as the revelation commanded?  Would they let their fears, their lack of refinement and education, keep them from boldly opening their mouths as Nephi did?  The revelation’s reference to Nephi, with whom Ezra and Northrop had just become familiar as they studied the Book of Mormon, must have helped them understand that they were being asked to speak the truth boldly to an antagonistic audience—but that they would have success. They could speak as powerfully as Nephi, the Lord assured them, on the condition that they would simply be willing to preach the gospel.  

Northrop Sweet chose not to become as Nephi. He did not endure long in his calling. He sought a greater one and thought he received a revelation that he should be a prophet. He left the church and started his own. This is one of several revelations whose promises went unfulfilled because the free agents to whom the Lord declared his will chose to disregard it. Opposed by his wife and others, Ezra Thayer preached the Book of Mormon powerfully but only briefly. He maintained his faith in Joseph Smith for a lifetime, though after Joseph’s death, he too left the Savior’s church. He was often distracted by business and economic concerns. A revelation one cannot obey is the Lord’s responsibility. A revelation the recipients will not obey is their responsibility.  “I never blowed a trumpet,” said Ezra in response to the Lord’s command to lift up his voice like a trumpet in declaring the gospel.  “You can,” replied Oliver Cowdery.

Section 34

“The greatest desire of my heart,” wrote Orson Pratt of his youth, “was for the Lord to manifest his will concerning me.” In the fall of 1829, eighteen-year-old Orson “began to pray very fervently, repenting of every sin.” Soon two elders, including his older brother Parley, came to his upstate New York neighborhood with the restored gospel and baptized Orson on his nineteenth birthday. “I traveled westward over two hundred miles to see Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Orson recounted. He found Joseph in Fayette at the Whitmer home, where he asked Joseph for a revelation.[1]

“I well recollect the feelings of my heart at the time,” Orson said many years later. Joseph “retired into the chamber of old Father Whitmer, in the house where this Church was organized in 1830.” Joseph asked Orson and John Whitmer to join him upstairs, where he got his seer stone, put it into a hat, and asked Orson to write what he would say. Orson felt inexperienced and unworthy and asked if John could write, and the prophet said he could.[2]

Orson remembered how “the Lord in that revelation, which is published here in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, made a promise which to me, when I was in my youth, seemed to be almost too great for a person of as humble origin as myself ever to attain to. After telling in the revelation that the great day of the Lord was at hand, and calling upon me to lift up my voice among the people, to call upon them to repent and prepare the way of the Lord, and that the time was near when the heavens should be shaken, when the earth should tremble, when the stars should refuse their shining, and when great destructions awaited the wicked, the Lord said to your humble servant—‘Lift up your voice and prophesy, and it shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost.’ This was a particular point in the revelation that seemed to me too great for me ever to attain to, and yet there was a positive command that I should do it.”[3]

The Lord chose Orson as an apostle in 1835 at age twenty-three. As commanded in his youth in section 34, he lifted up his voice long and loud and cried repentance to a crooked generation until he died an old man in 1881. Brigham Young said of Orson, “If you were to chop up Elder Pratt into inch-square pieces, each piece would cry out, ‘Mormonism is true.’”[4]

Section 35

“There was a man whose name was Sidney Rigdon, he having been an instrument in the hand of the Lord of doing much good.” That’s how John Whitmer began the story of section 35 in his history. Sidney “was in search of truth, consequently he received the fullness of the gospel with gladness of heart, even the Book of Mormon”[1] John Whitmer continued, imitating the Book of Mormon: “Now it came to pass, after Sidney Rigdon, was received into this Church, that he was ordained an elder, under the hands of Oliver Cowdery. He having much anxiety to see Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer whom the Lord had raised up in these last days. Therefore he took his journey to the state of New York, where Joseph resided.”

Arriving in time to hear Joseph conclude a sermon, Sidney asked Joseph to seek revelation to know the Lord’s will for him.[2] “After the Lord had made known what he wanted that his servant Sidney should do, he went to writing the things which the Lord showed unto his servant the Seer.” Joseph revised the Bible as Sidney scribed, giving us some of the most precious scripture ever revealed, including much of the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price.[3]

Joseph and Sidney also obeyed the revelation’s command to form a powerful companionship, with Joseph prophesying and Sidney teaching from the scriptures. They “went to the several churches preaching and prophesying wherever they went,” John wrote, “and greatly strengthened the churches that were built unto the Lord. Joseph prophesied saying: God is about to destroy this generation, and Christ will descend from heaven in power and great glory, with all the holy angels with him, to take vengeance upon the wicked, and they that know not God. Sidney preached the gospel and proved his [Joseph’s] words from the holy prophets.”[4]

Section 36

Edward Partridge grew up in New England.  He spent four years apprenticed to a hat maker before becoming a journeyman hatter with ambitions to go west to open his own factory.  He married Lydia Clisbee and they moved to Painesville, Ohio and succeeded according to their dreams. But something was missing. Respected and prosperous, Edward and Lydia still lacked spiritual fulfillment. They began to worship with Sidney Rigdon in 1828, and were nearly ripe to hear the restored gospel from Oliver Cowdery, Parley Pratt, and their companions in the fall of 1830. When they offered Edward a Book of Mormon he refused but reconsidered.[1] Soon Edward “partly believed,” as Lydia put it, “but he had to take a journey to New York and see the Prophet.”[2]

Joseph’s mother Lucy picked up the story there. Joseph, she said, was preaching in Waterloo, New York when Edward arrived. Joseph invited remarks after his sermon, and Edward stood and said “he believed our testimony and was ready to be baptized, ‘if, said he, ‘brother Joseph will baptize me.'”[3] Joseph baptized Edward soon thereafter, then received section 36, apparently before Edward was confirmed by Sidney Rigdon.  

This revelation shares a theme common to many others.  It calls for urgency in declaring repentance to a perverted generation because the Lord is coming soon to burn the wicked. Section 36 not only calls Edward Partridge to preach the gospel, it sets forth the doctrine that every man who is ordained to the priesthood is a missionary by virtue of the ordination. One who is ordained to the priesthood preaches the gospel.  

Edward Partridge obeyed this revelation.  He was confirmed by the Lord’s hand–that is, by Sidney Rigdon acting for the Lord–and he spent his life declaring repentance and serving as a bishop. In 1835 he traveled roughly two thousand miles, held fifty meetings, visited nearly thirty branches of the church, preached the gospel, and baptized three. On November 7, 1835, Joseph received a un-canonized revelation in which the Lord praised Edward and his companion for “the integrity of their harts in laboring in my vinyard for the salvation of the souls of men.”[4]

Section 30 notes

[1] Peter Whitmer, Jr., Journal, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, UT.

[2] Western Courier (Ravenna, Ohio), May 26, 1831.  Levi Jackman wrote that “something like one hundred persons joined the Church from that place [Kirtland], with many other branches of the Church organized in adjoining towns and counties.  See Jackman, Autobiography, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

[3] Scot Facer Procter and Maurine Jensen Proctor, editors, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, Revised and Enhanced Edition (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000), 39.  Samuel Smith, Journal, 24 April 1832, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.  Lee Yost to Deidrich Willers, 18 May 1897, cited in Larry C. Porter, “A study of the origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the states of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816-1831,” (PhD dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1971), 109.

Section 31 notes

[1] Millennial Star, 26:24 (June 11, 1864): 375–376.

[2] “History of Thos. Baldwin Marsh,” Deseret News, 24 March 1858, 18.

[3] Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor, editors, The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1996), 259-77.

[4] Thomas B. Marsh to Heber C. Kimball, May 5, 1857, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Section 32 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 60, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/66.

[2] “History of Parley P. Pratt,” Deseret News, May 19, 1858.

[3] Ezra Booth to Rev. Ira Eddy, 24 November 1831, Nelson, Ohio, in Ohio Star (Ravenna, Ohio), 8 December 1831.

[4] Lavina Fielding Anderson, editor, Lucy’s Book:A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir (Salt Lake City: Signature, 22001), 502-03.

[5] Lucy’s Book, 503.

Section 33 notes

[1] “Testimony of Brother E. Thayer Concerning the Latter Day Work, Saints’ Herald 3 (October 1862): 79-80, 82-84.

[2] “Testimony of Brother E. Thayer Concerning the Latter Day Work, Saints’ Herald 3 (October 1862): 79-80, 82-84.

Section 34 notes

[1] Elden J. Watson, compiler, The Orson Pratt Journals (Salt Lake City, by the compiler, 1975), 9.

[2] James R.B. Van Cleave, Richmond, Missouri, to Joseph Smith III, Plano, IL, 29 Sept. 1878. Community of Christ Library and Archives. “History of Orson Pratt,” 10, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, ca. 1858–1880, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London and Liverpool: LDS Booksellers Depot, 1855–86), 17:290.

[4] Quoted in Breck England, The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1985), xi.

Section 35

[1] Book of John Whitmer, chapter 1, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.

[2] Lavina Fielding Anderson, editor, Lucy’s Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir (Salt Lake City: Signature, 2001), 504-05.

[3] Book of John Whitmer, chapter 1.

[4] Book of John Whitmer, chapter 1, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.

Section 36 notes

[1] Richard L. Anderson, “The Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio,” BYU Studies 11:4 (1971): 489.

[2] History of Edward Partridge, Jr., 5, quoted in Anderson, “The Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio,” BYU Studies 11:4 (1971): 493.

[3] Lavina Fielding Anderson, editor, Lucy’s Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir (Salt Lake City: Signature, 2001), 504-05.

[4] “Revelation, 7 November 1835,” p. 20, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-7-november-1835/1.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 37-40

Section 37

By the end of 1830, an astonishing amount had happened since the spring, when a handful of members organized the Savior’s Church. There were now dozens of members in New York, and missionaries had converted many more than that in Ohio before trekking to the western frontier to convert others and scout a location for New Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were reading the Bible closely and seeking and receiving revelation that clarified and amplified it. Joseph received the Book of Moses by revelation, including the prophecy of Enoch, now Moses chapters 6-8 in the Pearl of Great Price. Church historian John Whitmer noted that “after they had written this prophecy, the Lord spoke to them again and gave further directions,” section 37.[1]

The Lord explained to Joseph that under these circumstances it was not useful for Joseph to continue revising the Bible until he goes to Ohio for the church’s sake, because of some unspecified enemy. The Lord commands Joseph to strengthen the saints in both western and eastern New York first. All saints in New York, the Lord says, are to move to Ohio quickly, before Oliver Cowdery returns from his mission to the west. This is the wise thing to do, but as free agents each of the saints must choose whether to do it. Soon the Lord will come and hold them accountable for their choice.   

Joseph and Sidney did exactly what the Lord told them to do.

John Whitmer’s history says that “after the above directions were received, Joseph and Sidney went to the several churches preaching and prophesying wherever they went, and greatly strengthened the churches.” Specifically, as the revelation directed, “Joseph and Sidney went to Colesville to do the will of the Lord in that part of the land and to strengthen the disciples in that part of the vineyard.” Joseph sent John Whitmer to Ohio to preside and to take a copy of the revelations to teach the saints there. John reported what he found: “The enemy of all righteousness had got hold of some of those who professed to be his followers, because they had not sufficient knowledge to detect him in all of his devices.”  

Back in New York the generally prosperous and long-settled saints struggled to come to terms with section 37. John blamed worldliness and false traditions for the saints’ hesitance to “believe the commandments that came forth in these last days for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God, and the salvation of those who believe.” They dragged their feet and waited for Section 38 to be revealed before doing what Section 37 commanded them to do, namely to choose to obey or disobey.[2]

Section 38

Early in 1831 Joseph Smith gathered the fledgling Church of Jesus Christ, not yet a year old, for general conference in Fayette, New York. Newel Knight remembered that “it was at this conference that we were instructed as a people, to begin the gathering of Israel, and a revelation was given to the prophet on this subject.”[1]

Joseph announced section 37’s command for them to move to Ohio right away. The saints wanted “somewhat more” explanation. Joseph asked the Lord during the meeting and received section 38.[2]

Unlike the terse command to move to Ohio in section 37, this time the Lord gives a detailed rationale for the commandment. The situation is bleak. All flesh is corrupted, the powers of darkness prevail, eternity is pained (D&C 38:11-12). The enemy, presumably Satan, plots the saints’ destruction. The Lord paints a vivid, apocalyptic picture of the different destinies awaiting those who believe and obey the revelation compared to those “who will not hear my voice but harden their hearts, and wo, wo, wo is their doom” (D&C 38:1-6).  

The January 1831 revelation compelled the saints to decide whether to serve themselves or the Lord.

It provided them a way out of the world. It envisioned an alternative society. It came in the voice of the Lord who took “the Zion of Enoch into mine own bosom . . . by the virtue of the blood which I have spilt” (D&C 38:4).  It foretold evil designs to destroy the saints “in process of time” (D&C 38:4, 13). 

Those were the exact same words recently revealed to Joseph to describe how Enoch’s Zion made it safely out of this world (Moses 7:21). Their eerie similarity to the New York saints living in “Babylon” suggests that a creeping, cultural evil posed a great threat to the spiritual welfare of the New York saints, though, like the proverbially slow-boiled frog, they could hardly discern it themselves.  

The revelation brought the crisis to the saints’ attention, compelling them to choose, for it described an either/or proposition, to begin the “process” of becoming like Enoch’s Zion or continue the “process” toward “destruction” (D&C 38:13).  To be saved, the New York saints must move to Ohio (D&C 38:10-13).  

The choice to escape was also a choice to acknowledge the Lord as the source of authority, the maker of worlds as well as laws, and Joseph Smith as his spokesman (D&C 21:1-8).  “Hear my voice and follow me,” the Lord commanded unequivocally  (D&C 38:22).  The revelation required the saints to relieve poverty, esteem everyone equally, and to “be one” (D&C 38:27). To those at the conference, the revelation shouted objections to the cultural messages they received every day to be partisan, to be covetous, and to “possess that which is above another,” “like the Nephites of old” (D&C 49:20, 38:39).  It seemed calculated to test the integrity of covenant-makers by compelling them to choose either the “the things of this world” or “the things of a better” (D&C 25:10, 38:17-20, 25-26, 39). The revelation was starkly indifferent to the saints’ carnal security. “They that have farms that cannot be sold, let them be left or rented as seemeth them good” (D&C 38:37). The irrelevance of property contrasts sharply with the revelation’s emphasis on the welfare of souls. There is a sense of urgency that the saints might make it safely out of a fallen world.  “That you might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered unto me a righteous people, without spot and blameless: wherefore for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio” (D&C 38:31-32).  

The revelation caused an initial shock and division among the saints.

Some who were comfortable in New York did not want to obey it. Some projected their own selfishness onto the prophet, claiming he had invented the revelation to get gain himself. “This,” John Whitmer noted, “was because, their hearts were not right in the sight of the Lord.”[3]

That is not the most remarkable part. Given the individualistic attitude of the society in which these saints lived, the remarkable fact is not that “one or two” chafed at the “monumental sacrifice” of the command to gather in Ohio, but the stunning degree of obedience and sacrifice in response to section 38.[4] “The Lord had manifested his will to his people,” John noted, “Therefore they made preparations to Journey to the Ohio, with their wives, and children and all that they possessed, to obey the commandment of the Lord.“[5]

Newel Knight wrote, “as might be expected, we were obliged to make great sacrifices of our property.”[6] By keeping the command to pull up telestial roots and forsake telestial concerns, the New York saints were yielding up their selves to God.[7] They were making a bold, counter-cultural declaration.[8] By so doing they prepared themselves to receive the law of consecration the Lord promised to give them when they gathered to Ohio. They were self-selecting to be “endowed with power from on high” (D&C 38:32).

Sections 39-40

James Covel was a Methodist minister and president, in fact, of a Methodist Conference in western New York. Early in 1831 James came to Joseph and said he had covenanted with the Lord to obey any command the Lord gave him through Joseph. The Lord gave Joseph section 39 for James.[1]

The Lord reveals how well he knows James, and that his hearts is now right. The great sorrow of James’s past stems from his pride and worldly cares, which have led him to reject Christ many times, but the day of his deliverance has come. The Lord commands James to “arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins,” and receive the Holy Spirit.

If James will obey the law of the gospel, the Lord has greater work for him to do: preaching the fulness of the gospel, which Christ has sent forth as a covenant to recover the house of Israel. James will have power, great faith, and the Lord to go before him.  The Lord has called him to build the church so that Zion may rejoice and flourish. James is called to go to west to Ohio.

James Covill broke his covenant.

Almost immediately he “rejected the word of the Lord” in Section 39 “and returned to his former principles and people.” Joseph and Sidney wondered why, and the Lord explained in section 40.[2]

The order of events in Section 40 is important.  First, James Covill made a covenant with an honest heart. He sincerely received the gospel. Then Satan tempted him to fear the persecution that would result, to worry about giving up his paid ministry for a lay one. James chose to follow those fears and cares, resulting in a broken covenant.

This sequence highlights how revelation facilitates agency. A person has agency, or power to act independently, only when they know what God wants, Satan poses an alternative, and they are free to choose between the two (see section 29). Given section 39, James knew just what the Lord wanted him to do. Then Satan countered the commandments. James was free to choose between the two. He chose to break his covenant, making it null and void.  

Some have cited sections 39 and 40 as evidence that Joseph Smith was a fraud. 

They contend that these sections prove that Joseph’s God did not even know that James Covill would not obey. That conclusion depends on a particular conception of God that is not evident in Joseph’s revelations. The Lord who spoke through Joseph Smith does not function in that agency robbing way. Joseph’s revelations distinguished between the sovereignty of God and the agency of individuals (see Section 93). Joseph taught truly that “God sees the secret springs of human action, and knows the hearts of all living,” but it did not follow for Joseph that God caused bad behavior.[3] “I believe that God foreknew everything, but did not foreordain everything,” Joseph taught profoundly. “I deny that foreordain and foreknow is the same thing.”[4]

In other words, God did not make James Covill break his covenant. Rather, the Lord gave James power to make and keep his covenant and the agency to decide whether to make and keep it for himself. Revelation give us knowledge of God’s will. It makes us free to choose. Section 40 explains that James Covill made and broke his covenant of his own free will. It is a more significant revelation than one might assume based on its brevity.

Section 37 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/8.

[2] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 5, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/9.

Section 38 notes

[1] “Newel Knight Autobiography,” in Dan Vogel, editor, Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature, 2002): 4:64.

[2] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/10.

[3] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 9, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/13.

[4] William G. Hartley, Stand by My Servant Joseph (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2003), 103.

[5] Book of John Whitmer, chapter 1, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.

[6] “Newel Knight Autobiography,” 4:64.

[7] “We tend to think of consecration only as yielding up, when divinely directed, our material possessions.  But ultimate consecration is the yielding up of oneself to God.”  Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 2002, 36.

[8] Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught the same principle in our time: “Pay your tithing as a declaration that possession of material goods and the accumulation of worldly wealth are not the uppermost goals of your existence. As one young husband and father, living on a student budget, recently told me, “Perhaps our most pivotal moments as Latter-day Saints come when we have to swim directly against the current of the culture in which we live. Tithing provides just such a moment. Living in a world that emphasizes material acquisition and cultivates distrust for anyone or anything that has designs on our money, we shed that self-absorption to give freely, trustingly, and generously. By this act, we say—indeed—we are different, that we are God’s peculiar people. In a society that tells us money is our most important asset, we declare emphatically it is not.” Jeffrey R. Holland, “Like a Watered Garden,” Ensign, November 2001, 33.

Sections 39-40 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 91, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/97.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 92, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/98.

[3] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833,” p. 19, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-11-january-1833/2.

[4] “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842],” p. 1014, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 25, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/186.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 41-44

Section 41
License for Edward Partridge, circa 4 August 1831–circa 5 January 1832. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

“Joseph the Prophet and Sidney arrived at Kirtland to the joy and satisfaction of the Saints,” John Whitmer wrote. They were homeless. Joseph and Emma had left their home in Pennsylvania. Sidney and Phebe Rigdon had, because of their conversions, lost the home their Reformed Baptist congregation built for them. 

Joseph received section 41 the day they arrived. It answered the questions about housing and did something out of the blue: called a bishop named Edward Partridge.[1]

Edward had served apprenticed four years for a hat maker in New England before venturing west to Ohio to open his own factory with his bride, Lydia Clisbee.  They succeeded economically but remained unsettled. They could see a great need for God to “again reveal himself to man and confer authority upon son one, or more, before his church could be built up in the last days.”[2] Oliver Cowdery was just such a man.  When he and his companions brought the Book of Mormon to Painesville, Ohio, Edward initially reacted with disbelief.  Knowingly, and perhaps with a smile, Oliver thanked God for honest-hearted souls and departed.  Before long Edward sent one of his employees to fetch a Book of Mormon from Oliver and his fellow missionaries.[3] Hungering for truth, Edward set out for New York to interview Joseph Smith and returned to Ohio having been baptized by the Prophet himself.[4] Lydia, meanwhile, had been baptized by Parley Pratt. “I saw the Gospel in its plainness as it was in the New Testament,” she testified, “and I also knew that none of the sects of the day taught these things.”[5] Edward returned to New England to declare the good news to his parents and siblings. Joseph, meanwhile, received Sections 37 and 38, commanding the New York saints to move to Ohio and promising revelation of the Lord’s law and an endowment of power there. Joseph and Emma traveled to Ohio by sleigh with the returning Edward Partridge and Sidney Rigdon. 

Section 41 is strikingly counter cultural.

It highlights the differences between the kingdom of God and the world in which Joseph Smith lived. The revelation is neither democratic nor republican. It assumes that the Lord, not the people, are sovereign. It does not separate legislative, judicial, and executive powers. The Lord exercises them all. 

He assumes both the power and prerogative to bless and curse, to include and to cast out, to make and declare law, and to bring lawbreakers to judgment. He repeatedly refers to “my law,” and calls for an assembly not to debate and create law, but “to agree upon” law dictated by revelation. Moreover, he commands specific action, most notably for Edward Partridge, to “leave his merchandise” and spend his whole effort executing the divine law. Section 41 is a revelation from a King with instructions about how to build His kingdom. 

As Section 38 declared, this King of Kings gives laws that make us free (D&C 38:21-22). He retains sovereignty, including the prerogative to make the laws, but grants agency—the power to decide whether or not to obey them.    

“Bishop Partridge had been a member of the Church for less than two months when he was asked to sacrifice everything he had worked for in his life and devote his time completely to his new Church.” How did he choose to act on the revelation? He fed and clothed the saints, left hat-making and factory-owning to others, and faithfully if imperfectly acted out the commands in this revelation and others for the rest of his life.  That was not the American way. It was the Lord’s way. Edward Partridge had been called to model and then implement the law of consecration (Section 42). His daughter remembered that he “was called to leave his business, which was in a most flourishing condition, and go to Missouri to attend to the business of the Church.  He went.” Soon thereafter, when the Lord called for them in section 57, Lydia and their children went too. This revelation was the beginning of the Partridge family consecrating their lives to the kingdom of God on earth.[6]

Section 42

“We have received the laws of the Kingdom since we came here,” Joseph Smith wrote to Martin Harris in February 1831, “and the Disciples in these parts have received them gladly.”[1]

Joseph had been in Ohio less than a month when he wrote those words to Martin Harris, who was still in Palmyra, New York. Prior to Joseph’s own move from New York, the Lord commanded him to gather the Church in Ohio and promised: “There I will give unto you my law.”[2] Shortly after Joseph’s arrival in Kirtland, he received the promised revelation. Early manuscripts call it “The Laws of the Church of Christ” (now Doctrine and Covenants 42:1–73).

The need for the revelation at this time was acute. Joseph found the Saints in Ohio to be sincere but confused about the biblical teaching that early Christians “were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common” (Acts 4:32).

Many of the Ohio converts belonged to “the Family,” a communal group that shared the home and farm of Lucy and Isaac Morley in an effort to be true Christians. Their intentions were in keeping with the account Joseph himself had recently received of Enoch’s Zion, where the people had achieved the ideal “of one heart and one mind” and completely eliminated poverty (Moses 7:18). However, their practices undermined personal agency, stewardship, and accountability—though they were “striving to do the will of God, so far as they knew it.”[3] As a result, the converts were, in the words of Joseph Smith’s history, “going to destruction very fast as to temporal things: for they considered from reading the scripture that what belonged to a brother belonged to any of the brethren.”[4]

Very shortly after Joseph arrived in Ohio, the Lord revealed that “by the prayer of your faith ye shall receive my law that ye may know how to govern my Church.”[5] A few days later, Joseph gathered several elders and in “mighty prayer” asked the Lord to reveal His law as promised.[6]

The revelation Joseph received in response upheld the first great commandment, loving God wholeheartedly, as the motivation for keeping all the others, including the law of consecration, suggesting that love for God is the reason for the practice. To consecrate, the early Saints were taught, meant to make their property sacred by using it for the Lord’s work, including purchasing land on which to build New Jerusalem and crowning it with a temple. The law revealed that consecration was as much about receiving as it was about giving, since the Lord promised that each faithful Saint would receive “sufficient for him self and family” here and salvation hereafter.[7]

The law clarified that consecration did not necessarily mean communal ownership of property.

Rather, it required willing souls to acknowledge that the Lord was the owner of all and that each of the Saints was to be a hardworking “steward over his own property”[8] and thus accountable to the actual owner, the Lord, who required that the Saints freely offer their surplus to His storehouse to be used to relieve poverty and build Zion.[9]

The Ohio converts’ faith in Joseph’s revelations led them to align their practices with the Lord’s revealed plan. As Joseph’s history put it, “The plan of ‘common stock,’ which had existed in what was called ‘the family,’ whose members generally had embraced the ever lasting gospel, was readily abandoned for the more perfect law of the Lord.”[10]

As time went on, Bishop Edward Partridge implemented the law as best he could, and willing Saints signed deeds consecrating their property to the Church. But obeying the law was voluntary, and some Saints refused. Others were untaught, and many were scattered.[11] Some rebellious Saints even challenged the law in court, leading to refinements in its language and changes in practice.

Other early Saints understood that the eternal principles of the law—agency, stewardship, and accountability to God—could be applied in changing situations, as when Leman Copley decided not to consecrate his farm in Thompson, Ohio, sending the Saints gathered there on to Missouri to live the law, or again when a mob drove Church members from Jackson County in 1833, ending the bishop’s practice of giving and receiving consecration deeds, but not ending the law itself. Just as the law of consecration, though revealed in February 1831, did not begin then, it did not end when some refused to obey and others were thwarted in their attempts. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that “the law of sacrifice and the law of consecration have not been done away with and are still in effect.”[12]

In addition to expounding the law of consecration, section 42 answered many questions the saints had.

Joseph and the elders who gathered in February 1831 in pursuit of the revelation first asked if the Church should “come to gether into one place or continue in separate establishments.” The Lord answered with what are now essentially the first 10 verses of Doctrine and Covenants 42, calling on the elders to preach the gospel in pairs, declare the word like angels, invite all to repent, and baptize all who were willing. By gathering Saints into the Church from every region, the elders would prepare for the day when the Lord would reveal the New Jerusalem. Then, “ye may be gathered in one,” the Lord said.[13]

The Lord then answered a question that had troubled Christianity for centuries: was Christ’s Church an orderly, authoritative institution or an unfettered outpouring of the Spirit and its gifts? Some people made extreme claims to spiritual gifts, and others responded with an equal and opposite reaction, stripping away the spontaneity of the Spirit, completely in favor of rigid rules. This dilemma existed in the early Church in Ohio, and the Lord responded to it with several revelations, including His law. The law did not envision the Church as either well ordered or free to follow the Spirit; rather, it required that preachers be ordained by those known to have authority, that they teach the scriptures, and that they do it by the power of the Holy Ghost.[14]

Other portions of the law restated and commented on the commandments revealed to Moses and included conditional promises of more revelation depending on the Saints’ faithfulness to what they had received, including sharing the gospel.[15]

“How,” the elders wondered, should they care for “their families while they are proclaiming repentance or are otherwise engaged in the Service of the Church?”[16] The Lord answered with what has become verses 70–73, then elaborated further in later revelations, now found in Doctrine and Covenants 72:11–14 and 75:24–28. 

Early versions of the law also include short answers to two additional questions: Should the Church have business dealings—especially get into debt—with people outside the Church, and what should the Saints do to accommodate those gathering from the East? The answers have been left out of later versions of the text, perhaps because Doctrine and Covenants 64:27–30 answers the first question, while the answer to the second is so specific to a past place and time that it may have been considered unimportant for future generations.[17]

Section 43

Section 43 is one of the loveliest, most poetic of Joseph’s revelations. It is an eschatological text, meaning that it addresses the end of the world and the events that lead up to the Savior’s return. But perhaps its most significant contribution is its solution to the old and perplexing problem of revelation. Avoiding the extremes of no revelation at all or a completely chaotic free-for-all, section 43 validates personal revelation and sets boundaries for what such revelations will contain. Only Joseph or his authorized successors will reveal the Lord’s will for the entire Church of Jesus Christ.  

Oliver Cowdery and his companions converted well over one hundred people in northeastern Ohio in the fall of 1830, then left for the western frontier to fulfill their mission call. The natural leaders of the converts, Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge, went to New York to meet Joseph. So almost overnight there was a large group of new, leaderless converts. “The enemy of all righteous had . . . made them think that an angel of God appeard to them, and showed them writings on the outside cover of the Bible, and on parchment, which flew through the air, and on the back of their hands, and many such foolish and vain things, others lost their strength, and some slid on the floor, and such like maneuvers.”[1]

Into the chaos stepped a woman we only know by her surname, Hubble. She claimed to be a prophetess. She testified that the Book of Mormon was true, and she received revelations that included commandments and laws. The saints believed her.[2]

When Joseph arrived he had a problem.

Critics of revelation complain that God no longer reveals his will to women and men on earth. Believers in revelation, meanwhile, receive revelations themselves and many believe in counterfeits. Joseph did not want to make the false claim that God would not reveal himself to ordinary people, including women. Like Moses, he wished “that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29).  But how could he affirm that God continues to reveal his will while simultaneously maintaining the revealed order of the Lord’s church?

Hubble’s gender was not the issue. Hiram Page had created a similar problem by presuming to receive revelations (section 28). To Emma Smith, meanwhile, the Lord had promised the power to expound scripture and exhort the church by the spirit of revelation to her (section 25:7). The question was not whether women could receive revelation.  They could, and did, and do. The question was to whom the Lord would reveal his will for the whole church. The confusion required clarification.  

John Whitmer prefaced section 43 by saying that “the Lord gave Revelation that the saints might not be deceived which reads as follows.” He noted that “after this commandment was received the saints came to understanding on this subject, and unity and harmony prevailed throughout the church of God: and the Saints began to learn wisdom, and treasure up knowledge which they learned from the word of God, and by experience as they advanced in the way of eternal life.”   

Section 43 makes an important distinction between revealed commandments and teachings about how to act on the revealed commandments and teachings.

They are not of the same importance even if they come from the same source. The revelations of the Lord through Joseph are more important and binding than the teachings of Joseph about those “how to act upon the points of my law and commandments.”[3]

In section 43, saints are commanded not to receive the teachings of anyone as if they were revelations or commandments (DC& 43:5). The Lord commands saints to instruct and edify each other—to produce teachings—about “how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given” (D&C 43:8). Inspired teachings about how to obey commandments are good, but they are not the same as the Lord’s actual commandments and revelations. A saint who feels guilty for seeking and receiving personal revelation that runs counter to the teachings of a church leader is actually obedient to the Lord’s command in section 43 to not equate anyone’s teachings with the Lord’s commandments and revelations. Section 43 was necessary, John Whitmer said, so saints could “learn to discern.”[4]

Section 44

Shortly after he relocated to Kirtland, Ohio, as commanded (D&C 37, 38), Joseph wrote an urgent letter to Martin Harris, still living in New York.“Inform the Elders which are there that all of them who can be spared will come here without delay if possable this by Commandment of the Lord,” the prophet said.[1]

Section 44 was Joseph’s motivation—the commandment he mentioned to Martin.[2] The rationale of the revelation goes like this. The Lord explains that it is expedient, or a means to a highly desired end. Often, as in section 44, the Lord says something is “expedient in me,” meaning that the thing is a vital means to accomplish his purposes. The means, in the case of section 44, is to gather all the elders of the Church who can possibly attend. At least that is the first premise of the means, or what is expedient. 

Here is a paraphrase of the rest of the Lord’s rationale in section 44:
  • Gather all the elders
  • If they are faithful they will have the Lord’s Spirit poured out upon them when they assemble
  • That will make them powerful preachers of repentance
  • That will lead many people to convert
  • That will give the saints power to organize economically in ways that are legal (and so not vulnerable to suits by enemies)
  • That will give the saints power to organize economically in ways that are also legal in terms of the Lord’s law of consecration

Meanwhile, the Lord explains, “you must visit the poor and the needy and administer to their relief” (D&C 44:6). 

That all makes more sense when you know that Ohio law demanded that twenty members of a church meet to elect officers and have their organization recorded by the county clerk in order for that church to have legal recognition and be able to own property.[3] The gathering of the Saints in Ohio led prominent and powerful men, including Eber Howe and Grandison Newell, to oppose the church economically, in the press, and in the courts. Foreseeing the need to organize and the antagonism the saints would experience, the Lord revealed section 44. 

Joseph wrote to his brother Hyrum, “I think you had better come into the country immediately for the Lord has commanded us that we should call the elders of this Church together unto this place as soon as possible.”[4] There was a “special meeting of the Elder of the Church of Christ held at Kirtland” on April 9, 1831, but it seems like the meeting that best fulfills the command and prophesied blessings in section 44 was held in early June.[5]

Section 41 notes

[1] “Revelation, 4 February 1831 [D&C 41],” p. 61, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-4-february-1831-dc-41/1. B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 volumes (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977-78), 1:244.

[2] Edward Partridge Papers, May 26, 1839, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] Richard L. Anderson, “Impact of the First Mormon Preaching in Ohio,” BYU Studies 11:4 (Summer 1971): 489.

[4] History of Edward Partridge, Jr., 5, quoted in Anderson, “Impact of the First Mormon Preaching in Ohio,” BYU Studies 11:4 (Summer 1971): 493.  Lavina Fielding Anderson, Lucy’s Book : A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir  (Salt Lake City: Signature, 2001), 504-05.

[5] Quoted in Scott H. Partridge, “Edward Partridge in Painesville, Ohio,” BYU Studies 42:1 (2003): 59.

[6] Scott H. Partridge, editor, Eliza Maria Partridge Journal (Provo: Grandin, 2003), 2-3.

Section 42 notes

[1] Joseph Smith letter to Martin Harris, Feb. 22, 1831, 1, josephsmithpapers.org.

[2] “Revelation, 2 January 1831 [D&C 38],” in Revelation Book 1, 52, josephsmithpapers.org; see also Doctrine and Covenants 38:32.

[3] Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” 93, josephsmithpapers.org.

[4] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” 11, josephsmithpapers.org.

[5] “Revelation, 4 February 1831 [D&C 41],” in Revelation Book 1, 61, josephsmithpapers.org; see also Doctrine and Covenants 41:3.

[6] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” 12.

[7] “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 3, josephsmithpapers.org; see also Doctrine and Covenants 42:32.

[8] “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 3.

[9] See “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 3, 4.

[10] Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” 93.

[11] See “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” 17.

[12] Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 639.

[13] “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 1–2.

[14] See “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 2.

[15] See “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 2–5.

[16] See “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” 1–5. This concept was further clarified in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.

[17] One question read, “How far it is the will of the Lord that we Should have dealings with the wo[r]ld & how we Should conduct our dealings with them?” The answer was, “Thou shalt contract no debts with them & again the Elders & Bishop shall Council together & they shall do by the directions of the spirit as it must be necessary.” The other question was, “What preperations we shall make for our Brethren from the East & when [another manuscript asks where] & how?” The Lord answered, “There shall be as many appointed as must needs be necessary to assist the Bishop in obtaining places that they may be together as much as can be & is directed by the holy Spirit” (“Revelation, 9 February 1831, [D&C 42:1–72],” 6).

Section 43 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 10, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/14.

[2] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/22. “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 101, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/107. Ezra Booth letter November 29, 1831, in Ohio Star (Ravenna, Ohio) December 8, 1831.

[3] Ezra Booth letter November 29, 1831, in Ohio Star (Ravenna, Ohio) December 8, 1831.  Book of John Whitmer, chapter 3, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.  Manuscript History of the Church, Book A-1, pages 101-03; History of the Church, 1:154.

[4] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 10, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/14.

Section 44 notes

[1] “Letter to Martin Harris, 22 February 1831,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-martin-harris-22-february-1831/1.

[2] “Revelation, February 1831–B [D&C 44],” p. 70, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-february-1831-b-dc-44/1.

[3] “Act for the Incorporation of Religious Societies,” Acts Passed at the First Session of the Seventeenth General Assembly of the State of Ohio, Vol XII (Chillicothe, Ohio: Office of the Supporter, 1819), chapter LIV.

[4] “Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3–4 March 1831,” p. [2], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-hyrum-smith-3-4-march-1831/2.

[5] “Minute Book 2,” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/5. “Minutes, circa 3–4 June 1831,” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-circa-3-4-june-1831/1.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 45

Section 45

Joseph Smith bought a King James Version of the Bible at Egbert Grandin’s Palmyra, New York bookstore while the Book of Mormon was being printed upstairs.  Shortly after the church was restored in 1830, Joseph’s main task became revising this Bible. He called the revision his new translation. He began with Genesis and received by revelation much restored scripture, including the Book of Moses that is now in the Pearl of Great Price. 

The Book of Moses explains how Enoch led his people to unitedly eliminate poverty and live with one heart and one mind “in process of time” (Moses 7:21). One imagines that by March 1831 Joseph was slogging through less compelling parts of the Old Testament, trying to stay awake while reading about who begat whom and so on and so on. 

Joseph’s history says, “false reports, lies, and fo[o]lish stories were published in the newspapers, and circulated in every direction, to prevent people from investigating the work, or embracing the faith. . . . But to the joy of the saints who had to struggle against every thing that prejudice and wickedness could invent, I received the following,” referring to section 45.[1]

Section 45 is an unusual revelation.  It is a commentary on one of the most complicated and even contested passages of the Bible. That’s not remarkable. There is no shortage of interpreters of Jesus’ Olivet discourse. The remarkable thing is that the interpreter in section 45 is the Savior himself. This is the finest text in the world for understanding Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. One could go to any number of commentaries on Matthew 24 and find all kinds of analysis. These would be helpful, perhaps, but section 45 is the only source on earth in which the Savior of the world interprets and applies his own Olivet discourse.

Section 45 cements a connection between the Old Testament, New Testament, and the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. The Savior who reveals it is the “God of Enoch,” about whom Joseph has recently learned so much in his revision of Genesis and reception of the Book of Moses. The Savior gave the discourse to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and here he is in Section 45 interpreting and applying it to the Latter-day Saints.    

Section 45 laces together the dispensations of Enoch, the Savior and his apostles, and the fullness of times. Overwhelming wickedness and pending calamities are common themes in each. Always the outnumbered righteous seek safety, peace, and refuge. They seek Zion. Section 45 gives coherence to the past, present, and future. One sees in it the Lord’s plans and purposes being accomplished. 

At the point of highest tension in the Savior’s discourse, just as he is explaining to the apostles about the extreme wickedness, violence, and calamities that are coming, he interjects to say that at that point the apostles “were troubled.” Then he restores part of the sermon missing from the Bible, a part that makes sense of all the rest: “I said unto them: Be not troubled, for, when all these things shall come to pass, ye may know that the promises which have been made unto you shall be fulfilled” (D&C 45:34-35). Without revelations like this one, the world might seem like a violent, purposeless mess. With it one need not be troubled, for one can see that Zion rises in contrast to the world and that calamities portend the fulfillment of Christ’s promises that Zion is about to be established.  

Section 45 justifies optimism in the face of evil and tumult. Sister Patricia Holland told about her fears when anxiety became widespread and acute after a genocide in Kosovo, a school massacre in Colorado, murders in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, damage resulting from a terrible storm that hit her home, and the pending dawn of the year 2000. Over the howling wind she asked her apostle husband if these events were the ones prophesied to immediately precede the Savior’s second coming.  “No,” he replied, “but wouldn’t it be wonderful if they were.”[2]

Notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 104, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/110.

[2] Patricia T. Holland, “God’s Covenant of Peace,” in The Arms of His Love (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000): 375-76.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 46, 47, 48

Section 46

Like several other revelations Joseph received shortly after relocating to Kirtland, Ohio, section 46 fights deception. The revelation is known for its list of spiritual gifts, but the Lord presents them as part of a larger rationale that may not be easy to grasp. The Lord’s command for us to earnestly seek the gifts of the Spirit is so that we will not be deceived. If saints live in the light of the Holy Ghost, they will not be deceived. If they do not have the Spirit, they will be deceived. Joseph taught that someone “who has none of the gifts has not faith; and he deceives himself if he supposes he has.”[1]

The revelation arose from a conflict between missionaries. Some returned to Kirtland from Cleveland having had an awful experience. They were preaching when a deceiver came forward and knelt as if to pray, but then led an attack. His cohorts blew out the candles and threw inkstands and books at the speaker. Some missionaries understandably wanted to restrict attendance at their meetings as a result of this abuse. Others opposed this idea, citing 3 Nephi 18:22 where the Lord commands the church “not to forbid any man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together.” Both positions seemed justified. The saints needed further light. “Therefore,” wrote John Whitmer, “the Lord deigned to speak on this subject, that his people might come to understanding, and said, that he had always given to his Elders to conduct all meetings as they were led by the spirit.”[2]

The Lord knows very well what the Book of Mormon says in 3 Nephi 18:22-34 about allowing everyone who wants to worship with the saints to do so. However, it is always the case that the elders should conduct meetings by the Holy Ghost. There may be times when exceptions to what the Book of Mormon says are in order. How will those exceptional cases be known? By the Spirit.  

The saints must prayerfully, gratefully seek the Holy Spirit in holiness, with honest motives, a clear conscience, and concern about eternal consequences. Otherwise they are likely to be seduced by evil spirits, doctrines of devils, or commandments of men. Section 46 commands saints to beware of these deceptions, and promises them they will not be deceived if they seek earnestly the gifts of the Holy Ghost and always remembering their intended purposes to benefit those who love the Lord and keep all his commandments, and those who seek to do so. The gifts of the Spirit are not given to satisfy selfish motives. They are to be shared, the Lord explains. Not all saints have every gift, but all have at least one gift. Some have one, some another, and thus by sharing everyone gains access to all the gifts.

When asked by one skeptic whether one could be saved simply by repenting and being baptized but not seeking the Holy Ghost, Joseph made an analogy.  “Suppose I am traveling and am hungry, and meet with a man and tell him I am hungry; and he tells me to go yonder, there is a house for entertainment, go and knock and you must conform to all the rules of the house, or you cannot satisfy your hunger; knock, call for food, sit down and eat and I go and knock and ask for food and sit down to the table, but do not eat, shall I satisfy my hunger? No! I must eat: the gifts are the food.”[3]

Section 47

The day the Savior restored his Church, he commanded the saints to keep records (D&C 21:1). Oliver Cowdery assumed the responsibility to do so, then the Lord called him on a mission. John Whitmer, meanwhile, returned from a mission and “was appointed by the voice of the Elders to keep the Church record.” Joseph asked him to also write and preserve a history of the church. John didn’t want to. “I would rather not do it,” he explained, “but observed that the will of the Lord be done, and if he desires it, I desire that he would manifest it through Joseph the Seer.”[1]

That’s when Joseph asked and received section 47. It assigns John to preserve the Church’s history and also to copy Joseph’s revelations. John accepted his revealed assignments. He was sustained by the church at a special conference in April 1831, a month after the revelation, and began writing in June.[2] “I shall proceed to continue this record,” his first sentence says, “being commanded of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to write the things that transpire in this church.”[3] John was not near as good a historian as Oliver. His history is an important but sketchy source that became quite cynical when John apostatized in 1838. John was faithful to his calling as a transcriber, however. Many of the earliest revelation manuscripts that exist are copies in his handwriting.[4]

Joseph Smith had lived in John Whitmer’s home. John had scribed part of the Book of Mormon as Joseph translated. What does it tell us about Joseph Smith and the restoration that someone who knew him as well as John did would resist obeying Joseph’s personal counsel and then obey a revelation received through Joseph? The people who knew Joseph best “accepted the voice in the revelations as the voice of God, investing in the revelations the highest authority, even above Joseph Smith’s counsel. In the revelations, they believed, god himself spoke, not a man.”[5]

Section 48

The literal gathering of Israel and building of New Jerusalem raise questions. Section 48 was given to answer some of them. Sections 37 and 38 inspired saints in New York to move to Ohio in the fall and winter of 1830-1831. Section 41 called Edward Partridge to be their bishop. Section 42 gave them the law of consecration to live by and gave the bishop responsibility for “the properties of my church” and “the poor and the needy.” It also told Bishop Partridge to obtain places where the New York saints to settle.[1]

As spring of 1831 arrived in Ohio and saints from New York with it, the bishop became anxious for more specific instructions and answers.[2] It is premature, the Lord says, to try to build New Jerusalem yet. Rather, let the New York saints get settled as best they can first. Then the Lord will reveal more about New Jerusalem. Then he will appoint people to lay its foundation. “Then shall ye begin to be gathered with your families” (D&C 48:6). 

Section 48 answered Bishop Partridge’s questions and mapped out and orderly, step-by-step process for building and inhabiting New Jerusalem based on previous and future revelation. It also answers common questions related to the law of consecration. Is saving contrary to consecration? What about “obtaining” money? Section 48 clarifies that one’s motives matter very much when it comes to saving and obtaining. It commands the saints, as prophets have since, to save all they can for righteous purposes. It commands them to earn all they can “in righteousness” so they can build Zion. It is a restatement of the Lord’s command to seek his Kingdom first and foremost. Earning and saving for that reason is not only justified. It is commanded.

Section 46 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843],” p. 1434, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/77.

[2] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/27.

[3] “Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843,” p. 46, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1842-june-1844-book-1-21-december-1842-10-march-1843/52.

Section 47 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 24, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/28.

[2] “Minute Book 2,” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/5.

[3] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/5.

[4] “Revelation Book 1,” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 28, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/1.

[5] Richard L. Bushman, Believing History : Latter-day Saint Essays, edited by Reid L. Neilson and Jed Woodworth (New York : Columbia University Press, 2004), 258-59.

Section 48 notes

[1] “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-9-february-1831-dc-421-72/1.

[2] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/27.  

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 49, 50

Section 49

Ann Lee and her family were early Shakers, or members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, as they called themselves. At age 22, Ann believed she had a revelation that she was to be God’s messenger. She became the leader of the group in 1772 and led her few followers from England to America two years later, settling near Albany, New York. The Believers struggled during the Revolution but gradually gained momentum from the same series of spiritual awakenings that gave rise to the restoration. Having lost all four of her children to death as infants before being abandoned by her adulterous husband, Lee died in 1784. The Believers continued to thrive in America, however, leading to the establishment of several communities including North Union, Ohio, just a few miles from Joseph Smith in Kirtland.[1] The Saints and the Believers were neighborly and traded with each other.[2]

The Believers believed that Christ instituted God’s first church, which subsequently apostatized. They believed, therefore, that God would restore his church. Believers acknowledged the goodness of “real reformers,” but, asserting that both Catholic and Protestant Christianity were apostate from Christ’s church, they held that “a true Church could have originated only by a new revelation from God to some one person.” They believed that George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, prepared the world for God to establish his church again. Then “arose Ann Lee and her little company, to whom Christ appeared the second time.” They held that Ann Lee, “by strictly obeying the light revealed within her, became righteous even as Jesus was righteous. She acknowledged Jesus Christ as her Head and Lord, and formed the same character as a spiritual woman that he formed as a spiritual man.” She was, in a sense, “the second appearing of Christ.”

Believers held that marriage is a worldly, not divine, institution (citing Matthew 22:30) and that sexual relations were ungodly. The choice to leave the world and live celibately was, in Shaker terms, to “take up the cross.” They rejected resurrection and looked forward to shedding their flesh at death to live a wholly spiritual afterlife.  They believed in individual moral agency, noting that only those who chose to obey the Lord will be saved, and that coercion is wrong. They believed in confessing sin but not in the need for redeeming ordinances such as baptism. Believers advocated temperance, including eating meat sparingly if at all. Shaker explanations for worshipping God by singing and dancing sound like D&C 136:28, where the Lord acknowledges that repentant, forgiven souls long to sing and dance as forms of prayer and thanksgiving. Believers taught consecration and stewardship of property. They rejected all forms of exploitation—especially men of women, capital owners of laborers, and mankind of the environment. They envisioned God as both Father and Mother. They spoke of “our Eternal Heavenly Mother,” citing Genesis 1:27—”Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, male and female.“[3]

Oliver Cowdery spent a few days among the North Union Believers and left several copies of the Book of Mormon with them in 1830, promising to return. Ashbel Kitchell, their large, impressive leader, kept thinking about Oliver’s teachings. He decided that “if God had any hand in that work, he would inform me by some means, that I might know what to do, either by letting me have an interview with an angel, or by some other means give me knowledge of my duty.”[4]

A Believer named Leman Copley embraced the restored gospel. In May 1831, he came to Joseph “apparently honest hearted, but still retaining ideas that the Believers were right in some particulars of their faith; and, in order to have a more perfect understanding on the subject,” Joseph’s history says, “I inquired of the Lord and received the following revelation.”[5] The Lord revealed Section 49 because Joseph did not know exactly where Shaker beliefs and the restored gospel overlapped or diverged. Copley “was anxious that some of the elders should go to his former brethren and preach the gospel.”[6] Section 49 assigned Sidney Rigdon and Parley Pratt to go with Copley to deliver section 49 to the Believers.

Section 49 clarifies the truth and error in Shaker doctrine. Perhaps that is why we hear Heavenly Father’s first person voice in this revelation, a rare treat. Is he speaking to clarify the nature of the Godhead? Often in the Doctrine and Covenants we hear Christ speaking of himself as the Son of God. Section 49 ends that way, but most of the revelation is in Heavenly Father’s voice. This is one of only two places in the Doctrine and Covenants where we hear the Father speak of Christ as his Only Begotten Son.[7]

The revelation clarifies that Ann Lee was not Christ, nor is any man that comes along saying he is. Christ will come with power from heaven, having sent his angels in advance to sanctify the earth with fire. Section 49 clarifies that the Believers’ err in thinking marriage is a temporary, human institution. Because the Believers do not understand premortal life and God’s plan to embody his children on earth and make them immortal by resurrection and fully divine by exaltation, their opposition to marriage and procreation is counter to his plan. They are thwarting it and section 49 tells them so. Similarly, Believers erred in rejecting the ordinance of baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.  

Section 49 affirms Believers beliefs that are aligned with restored truths. They and the Lord see eye to eye on the evils of inequality and on exploiting the environment needlessly (D&C 49:20-21).  

Sidney and Leman left the day the revelation was given, a Saturday, and were in North Union in time to witness the Believers’ evening meeting. They visited with Ashabel Kitchell that evening, discussing whether sex, even in marriage, was Christian. The elders spent the night among the Believers. Parley arrived in North Union early on the Sabbath and asked his companions how things were going. Sidney told him of the last evening’s discussion, and that Ashabel had invited them not to debate doctrines but join the Believers for worship. Parley refused to sit by silently. “They had come with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he contended, “and the people must hear it.” The missionaries sat through the service respectfully. Afterwards Sidney rose and told them he had a message from the Lord Jesus Christ specifically for them. “Could he have the privilege of delivering it?  He was told he might.”  Sidney read Section 49 and asked the Believers to receive it.  

Here was the answer to Ashabel Kitchell’s prayer that God would tell him whether the gospel Oliver Cowdery taught was true. Ashabel rejected it, saying: “The Christ that dictated that I was well acquainted with, and had been from a boy, that I had been much troubled to get rid of his influence, and I wished to have nothing more to do with him; and as for any gift he had authorized them to exercise among us, I would release them & their Christ from any further burden about us, and take all the responsibility on myself.”

“You cannot,” Sidney Rigdon protested.  “I wish to hear the people speak.”  Ashabel advised the Believers to make their feelings known. They echoed their leader and Sidney relented to their will. Parley Pratt rose, took off his coat, and shook it in front of them “as a testimony against us,” Ashabel said, “that we had rejected the word of the Lord Jesus.”
“You filthy beast,” he responded to Parley. “Dare you presume to come in here, and try to imitate a man of God by shaking your filthy tail; confess your sins and purge your soul from your lusts, and your other abominations before you ever presume to do the like again.”[8]

What a scene that must have been. By Ashabel’s account he cowed the missionaries with his forceful rebuke, but Parley Pratt was not easily intimidated. He got back on his horse and went straight home to Kirtland. Sidney stayed for supper with the Believers. Leman stayed overnight and decided to reunite with the Believers. Years later, Parley summed up the drama with a single line. “We fulfilled this mission, as we were commanded, in a settlement of strange people, near Cleveland, Ohio; but they utterly refused to hear or obey the gospel.”[9]

Section 50

What happens when young missionaries convert well over a hundred people in a short time, and then the missionaries and the most mature spiritual leaders among the converts leave town? According to John Whitmer, “the enemy of all righteous [gets] hold of some of those who profesed to be his followers, because they had not sufficent knowledge to detect him in all his devices.”[1] According to a local newspaper in northeastern Ohio, “Immediately after Mr. R[igdon] and the four pretended prophets left Kirtland, a scene of the wildest enthusiasm was exhibited, chiefly, however, among the young people; they would fall, as without strength, roll upon the floor, and, so mad were they that even the females were seen in a cold winter day, lying under the bare canopy of heaven, with no couch or pillow but the fleecy snow.”[2]

When one of the missionaries, Parley Pratt, returned from Missouri, he noticed that “some very strange spiritual operations were manifested, which were disgusting, rather than edifying. Some persons would seem to swoon away, and make unseemly gestures, and be drawn or disfigured in their countenances. Others would fall into ecstacies, and be drawn into contortions, cramp, fits, etc. Others would seem to have visions and revelations, which were not edifying, and which were not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the gospel. In short, a false and lying spirit seemed to be creeping into the Church.”[3]

 John Whitmer reported that after Joseph arrived on the scene, “these things grieved the servants of the Lord.” They counseled together at Joseph’s home. They did not know what to do, so Joseph sought and received section 50 “in consequence of their not being perfectly acquainted with the different operations of the Spirits which are abroad in the earth.”[4]

In section 50, Christ condescends to the elders’ intellectual level in order to be understood. He reaches them where they are and enlightens them. This kind of teaching has results beyond mastery of facts. As a result of it, the weak become strong, the deceived become discerning. Though Satan had power over the deceived elders, those who “attend to the words” of this revelation are promised power over him. “The spirits shall be subject unto you,” Christ assures them on the condition that they act out his instructions precisely. Does it work?  

Before the revelation, Jared Carter had been confused by and powerless to act in the face of the strange things he witnessed. After the revelation he was neither confused or powerless. He was conducting a sacrament meeting in Amherst, Ohio with his companion when a young woman fell to the floor. Jared, doubting that the Holy Spirit would interrupt the sacrament, thought a false spirit was at work. He suggested to his companion that they “try that Spirit according to the revelation that God had given.” He explained how they followed verses 31-34 precisely: “We kneeled down and asked our Heavenly Father in the name of Christ, that if that spirit which the sister possessed was of him, he would give it to us. We prayed in faith, but we did not receive the Spirit.” 

Jared’s companion made a weak statement “which was not proclaiming against the spirit” as verse 32 commands.  “I arose and proclaimed against it with a loud voice,” Jared wrote, reflecting his intimate knowledge of the revelation.  Most of the congregation objected, sure that the young woman was full of the Holy Ghost like the queen in Alma 19. But this was a counterfeit Jared discerned by the Holy Ghost and rebuked by the power of the priesthood. He lost much of his influence among that group of saints but, as he wrote, “I received assurance that I had the approbation of my Heavenly Father, which was better than the good will of many deceived brethren.”[5]

Section 50 puzzles some modern students, who sometimes jump too hastily to the conclusion that anyone who sees a vision or falls to the floor unconscious or speaks in an unknown tongue is clearly not experiencing the Holy Ghost.  If those were the criteria for discerning, we would have to reject large parts of the Book of Mormon and several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants along with much of our history. It is not that simple. Satan is abroad deceiving. As Section 50 says, a knee-jerk reaction against false spirits can actually lead a person to be “seized” with a false spirit themselves. Ironically, a smug certainty that one would not be fool enough to fall for the kinds of things some early converts did may be an indication that one has already been deceived. Joseph taught, “it is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the Devil, by which he deceives the whole world.”[6]

Discerning spirits takes a sound mind, but it is a spiritual, not primarily an intellectual, process.  To gain power over false spirits, one must obey the voice of Jesus Christ, have him cleanse and purify them, and learn the difference between light and darkness. For Joseph Smith, Jared Carter and many others, that lesson has been learned by experiencing both and learning to recognize the difference.       

Like Jared Carter, several elders acted out the revelation and got the church back in order.  Parley Pratt told how he obeyed the Lord’s command in verse 37. “Joseph Wakefield and myself visited several branches of the Church, rebuking the wrong spirits which had crept in among them, setting in order things that were wanting.”[7]

Section 49 notes

[1] F.W. Evans, Believers Compendium (1859), chapter XI.

[2] Lawrence R. Flake, “A Shaker View of a Mormon Mission,” BYU Studies 20:1 (1979), 94-99.

[3] F.W. Evans, Believers Compendium (1859), chapters III-X.

[4] Lawrence R. Flake, “A Shaker View of a Mormon Mission,” BYU Studiies 20:1 (1979), 94-99.

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 112, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/118.

[6] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 26, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/30.

[7] “Revelation, 7 May 1831 [D&C 49],” p. 80, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-7-may-1831-dc-49/1.

[8] Lawrence R. Flake, “A Shaker View of a Mormon Mission,” BYU Studiies 20:1 (1979), 94-99.

[9] Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, revised and enhanced edition, edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000), 69-70.

Section 50 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 10, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/14.

[2] [Matthew S. Clapp], “Mormonism,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [1] –[2], italics in original.

[3] Parley P. Pratt, The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874), 65.

[4] “Revelation, 9 May 1831 [D&C 50],” p. 82, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-9-may-1831-dc-50/1.

[5] Autobiography of Jared Carter, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[6] Joseph Smith, Journal, 2 January 1843, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[7] The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, revised and enhanced edition, edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000), 79.