Category: Doctrine and Covenants

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 51-57

Section 51

In the spring of 1831, Bishop Edward Partridge had a problem. It was his job to organize and settle the saints who were gathering from New York to Ohio. Leman Copley was a member of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing when he converted to the restored gospel in Ohio. He offered to let the Colesville saints settle on some of his 759 acres in Thompson.[1] Bishop Partridge asked Joseph how to organize the immigrant saints.  Joseph asked the Lord, who gave Section 51,  “A revelation given to the Bishop at Thompson Ohio May 20th 1831 concerning the property of the Church.”[2]

This revelation begins to implement the law of consecration. Initially it instructed Bishop Partridge to obtain a deed from Leman Copley for his land “if he harden not his heart.” Copley returned to his former faith, however, and rescinded his offer for the gathering saints to settle on his land. He did not give consent to Bishop Partridge obtaining the title to it.[3] When Section 51 was first published in 1835, its instructions about Bishop Partridge obtaining a deed to Copley’s land were long since irrelevant, and were omitted from the published version.[4]

The saints who had gathered on Copley’s property were told by the Lord to gather to Missouri instead (section 54). Bishop Partridge implement section 51 in Missouri. He purchased hundreds of acres and established a storehouse to supply the needs of the saints. He was sued by a fellow named Bates who had donated fifty dollars to purchase land, then decided he wanted it back.[5] The suit was granted, apparently on the grounds that the bishop did exactly what Section 51 originally said. He purchased the land in his own name and then leased parts of it to individual stewards while he remained, on behalf of the Lord, the legal owner.  

Bishop Partridge must have felt like the law of the land prohibited him from carrying out Section 51. Joseph wrote to Bishop Partridge in Missouri in May 1833 to counsel him what to do, explaining much of Section 51 in the process.  Bates had expected something tangible in return for his fifty dollars.[6] Joseph assured the bishop that he remained bound by the law of the Lord to receive consecrated property to purchase inheritances for the poor. Joseph emphasized that such offerings were legal and in no way coerced. “Any man has a right . . . agreeable to the laws of our country, to donate, give or consecrate all the he feels disposed to give.” Joseph counseled the bishop to ensure that all offerings were legal by making sure that donors understood they were giving money freely for the poor, not in exchange for anything temporal. “This way no man can take advantage of you in law,” Joseph wrote.

He also counseled the bishop to apply Section 51 by deeding pieces of land to saints as their “individual property.” Joseph called this “private stewardship,” not ownership.  Bishop Partridge issued several such deeds based on Section 51. (See Titus Billings example.) When Section 51 was first published in 1835, much of verse 5 was added to keep folks like Bates from suing the Lord’s bishop. Joseph wrote to Bishop Partridge that the revelation in D&C 51:5 was given so “that rich men cannot have power to disinherit the poor by obtaining again that which they have consecrated.”[7]

Section 52

Acting on Section 44’s commandment to convene a conference, Joseph promised the priesthood leaders a blessing if they would come humbly and faithfully. “Therefore,” John Whitmer wrote, “the elders assembled from the East, and the West, from the North and the South.”[1] Joseph presided over the series of priesthood meetings from June 3-5, 1831.  He and others prophesied at the conference, rebuked the devil, and ordained the first high priests in the church.  The next day he received Section 52, which he described as “Directions to the Elders of the Church of Christ.”[2]

Section 52 gives the saints knowledge and therefore power to discern devilish counterfeits from the Lord’s power.  Satan tried mightily to deceive the saints from the time missionaries first arrived in Ohio through the priesthood meetings just prior to Section 52.  He mimicked spiritual gifts and convinced many people they were under the influence of the Holy Ghost.  Joseph taught that “some, by a long face and sanctimonious prayers, and very pious sermons, had power to lead the minds of the ignorant and unwary.”[3] The fact that someone speaks well or is overwhelmed with emotion is not evidence that their actions are acceptable to God. Section 52 adds important criteria for discerning. Do those overcome with emotion regain their composure and teach wise, restored truth? Do those who pray, whose attitude seems Christian, obey the ordinances Jesus has established his church and kingdom? Do they follow the revealed order of the Savior’s church?  Do excellent speakers obey Christ’s ordinances? Christ does not accept the sanctimonious prayers or pious sermons of those who are unwilling to obey his ordinances, and neither should the saints. The knowledge in Section 52 empowers the saints to separate satanic imitations from the Lord’s power.

Section 52 is exciting. This is the first revelation to identify Missouri as the location of Zion, the saints’ inheritance. It calls twenty-eight men to travel to Missouri for a conference at which the Lord will reveal more specifically the location for New Jerusalem.  The saints received Section 52 with great anticipation and many went to great lengths to obey its commands.  

Joseph and others the Lord called to travel with him left Kirtland, Ohio in mid-June and arrived in Independence, Missouri about a month later.  Most of the others who were called followed, taking different routes and making converts along the way, as Section 52 commanded.  The Lord fulfilled his Section 52 promise to reveal more about Zion (See Section 57).  

Section 52 draws the battle lines for a culture war. Missouri, it says, is the place the Lord chose for the saints’ inheritance. In 1831, however, Missouri was inhabited by people the Lord called “enemies” (verse 42). The Lord’s straightforwardness makes some readers squeamish. It doesn’t sound to them like their idea of Jesus Christ. If so, just keep reading the scriptures until the sentimental image of Jesus is replaced by the actual Christ whose voice dominates the Doctrine and Covenants. He sees things as they are and will be and speaks the truth. He knows who are his friends and who are his enemies. He demonstrates this knowledge in Section 52 and elsewhere in the Doctrine and Covenants. We come to know him by hearing his voice.

Section 53

Sidney was an entrepreneur a business partner of Newel Whitney in northern Ohio when the first missionaries to that area converted him in 1830. In the late spring of 1831, Sidney may have felt left out. He was not named in section 52 among the many missionaries called by the Lord to journey to Missouri that summer, and Joseph had prophesied that “the elders would soon have large congregations to speak to and they must soon take their departure into the regions west.” So Sidney asked Joseph what the Lord had in mind for him to do.[1]

The Lord had important work for Sidney and his family to do. He and his wife Elizabeth traveled to Missouri with Joseph Smith to obey section 53. There, at the Lord’s command (section 57), Sidney established a store to provide for the saints. He helped bishop Partridge purchase land for Zion. When the saints were driven from Jackson County in 1833, Sidney was among the church leaders who tried to pacify the mob and then obtain justice. The dreaded disease cholera slew Sidney in the summer of 1834. Until the end he was anxiously engaged in the cause of Zion.

Section 54

Newel Knight led the New York saints to Thompson, Ohio, where they settled on Leman Copley’s land and “commenced work in all good faith thinking to obtain a living by the sweat of the brow.”[1] Then Section 51 instructed Bishop Partridge to obtain a deed from Leman for the land “if he harden not his heart.”[2] But after obeying section 49’s command to preach the gospel to members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, Leman forsook his faith in the restored gospel and returned to that Society.[3] Then he ordered the saints off his land.

Joseph Knight said they “had to leave his farm and pay sixty dollars damage for putting up his houses and planting his ground.”[4] Where should they go and what should they do to provide for themselves? Joseph’s history says that the saints in Thompson, “not knowing what to do, sent in their elders for me to inquire of the Lord for them.” He did, and the Lord answered with Section 54.[5]

The eternal Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified for the sins of mankind speaks to Newel Knight, presiding Elder of the saints in Thompson. “You must stand fast in the office whereunto I have appointed you,” the Savior says. The Lord makes repentance and humility the conditions on which the saints in Thompson will escape their enemies. Because Leman Copley broke his covenant to consecrate land, the covenant is null and void. The Lord blesses the saints who have kept the covenant. He commands them to flee from their enemies by traveling to Missouri as a group, appointing a treasurer to pay fares and tolls along the way. 

Western Missouri which borders on the territory recently set apart by the U.S. government for Native Americans to settle. The Lord commands the saints to find ways to make a living after they arrive until Zion can be established and land provided for them to inhabit. He commands them to patiently endure hardships until the Lord’s coming. He will reward those who seek him. The souls of these early converts will rest with the Lord.  

As a result of Section 54, the saints from Colesville, New York continued their group trek all the way to Missouri. Led ably by Newel Knight, they became the nucleus of the church in Jackson County and gave their lives to building Zion.

Section 55

William Phelps edited the Ontario Phoenix newspaper in Canandaigua, New York. He was all mixed up inside. He aspired to prestigious offices, could be strikingly arrogant and condescending, and within weeks of the publication of the Book of Mormon he gained a deep and abiding testimony of it. After several months he visited Joseph Smith and determined to “quit the folly of my way, and the fancy and fame of this world, and seek the Lord and his righteousness.”[1] Shortly after most of the saints in New York left to gather to Ohio, William gave up his newspaper and set out with his family to gather with the saints. He arrived in Kirtland in June 1831 and told Joseph he had come “to do the will of the Lord.”  Joseph asked the Lord what that was and the Lord answered with section 55.[2]

In section 55, the Lord continues to recruit talent into his Church to lay the foundation of Zion. William was called to assist Oliver Cowdery as a printer, editor, and writer for the church, including producing books for the education of children. This calling requires William to go to Missouri with Joseph and Sidney to settle and work there. The Lord commands Joseph Coe to go with them also, and promises to reveal more later according to his will.  

William Phelps obeyed section 55.  He submitted to baptism and confirmation. He traveled with Joseph to Missouri and became the Lord’s printer there. He published the church’s first newspaper, hymnal, and Joseph’s revelations. Joseph Coe also responded to the Lord and traveled to Missouri to obey section 55.

Section 56

Think of section 56 as an emergency mission transfer. In section 52, Ezra Thayer had been called as Thomas Marsh’s companion on a mission to Missouri. Thomas got ready to go as called. Ezra balked. The same revelation called Newel Knight and Selah Griffin as companions to the same mission. When the saints from New York were not able to stay on the Copley farm and the Lord directed them to move on to Missouri in section 54, he called Newel Knight to remain as their leader. So Thomas Marsh and Selah Griffin needed new companions. The Lord assigns them to each other in section 56.

Some readers are disturbed by this section and others like it when the Lord changes course. How can that be, some wonder, if the Lord is always the same and knows everything? It seems inconsistent. Close reading of section 56 and revelations related to it shows it to be consistent with the Lord’s way, however. He locates agency in individuals and then responds, as needed, to the way those people choose to act. Leman Copley could have kept his covenant to let the New York saints settle on his land, freeing Newel Knight to go on the Missouri mission. Ezra Thayer could have accepted the call to go with Thomas Marsh on the Missouri mission. 

If the Lord had simply used his foreknowledge to avoid calling them to the work, they could not be free to choose whether to obey his will or not. He would have predetermined their choices instead of empowering them to choose for themselves. The Lord knew well when he called Ezra that he would have to choose to “humble himself” and that he would join Thomas only “if he be obedient to my commandments.”[1] Moreover, the Lord revoked the commandment for Newel to be Selah’s companion “in consequences of the stiffneckedness of my people . . . and their rebellions.”[2]

Thomas Marsh and Selah Griffin obeyed Section 56. As Thomas put it, they “journeyed to Missouri preaching by the way.”[3] From the beginning of the restoration, the Lord has extended calls to people who will not accept them or who fail to fulfill them. The Lord revokes the refused callings and rearranges assignments and the work gets done without the help of the unwilling. That’s a vastly superior plan to never calling anyone who might fall short or refuse to serve. Revelations like section 56 honor our choices and prophesy their sometimes painful consequences.

Section 57

Section 57 is the first revelation Joseph received in Missouri. After receiving the commandment to travel there from Ohio in section 52, it took Joseph two weeks to prepare and a month to make the long trip.  Mindful of prophecies of Isaiah, Joseph asked the Lord for details concerning their fulfillment: “when will the wilderness blossom as the rose; when will Zion be built up in her glory, and where will thy Temple stand unto which all nations shall come in the last days.”[1] Joseph described how the Lord answered with section 57.[2]

The Lord identified Independence, Missouri as the center of the place he appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints. It is the promised land, the site for New Jerusalem, the city of Zion. As if Joseph was a disoriented pedestrian, the Lord directs him to the spot where the temple should be built just a few blocks west of the courthouse. The Lord desires the saints to purchase that land and every tract they can in what is now Kansas City (all the way to the territory created in 1831 for Native Americans) and Independence. This land is ultimately to be inherited by faithful saints.      

The Lord commands Bishop Partridge to carry out his duties outlined in sections 41, 42, and 51. The Lord appoints Sidney Gilbert as the Bishop’s real estate agent, with directions to establish a store to supply the saints’ needs and to use the revenue to buy the land. Gilbert is also to obtain a license from the Indian agents to permit him get involved in supplying the Native Americans. The point of that is to get access to give the restored gospel to Native Americans and employment and resources for the saints.  

The Lord appoints William Phelps as the church’s printer and commands him to set up shop in Independence and use his skills to obtain as much money as he righteously can in order to build Zion. Oliver Cowdery is to assist him. The Lord commands these four men to become “planted” in Independence, along with their families, as soon as possible in order to begin the buying and building of Zion. They are to prepare for the gathering of other saints and to provide inheritances for them as they come. The Lord promises to provide further directions to that end.  

Sidney Rigdon dedicated the Land of Zion on August 1 and Joseph dedicated its temple site the following day. Bishop Partridge bought the 63 acres that included this site and over 2,000 acres in the area. These he technically owned, but he deeded many of them as stewardships to Latter-day Saints for their inheritances as sections 51 and 57 instructed him to do. Sidney Gilbert established a store across the street from the courthouse the Lord mentioned, and William Phelps established a printing office nearby. These men and their families went to work to build New Jerusalem.  

When the printing office was burned down two years later and Bishop Partridge was dragged from his home to be tarred and feathered on the courthouse square, it was not because a few loud-mouthed Latter-day Saints had created hard feelings among the Missourians. It was because the men named in section 57 and their families were doing what the revelation commanded them to do: printing the Lord’s revelations, legally buying the Lord’s land to provide inheritances for His people, and operating a store to facilitate the gathering of Israel. Having violently attacked the saints, a group of antagonistic citizens drafted a “Memorandum of agreement” between them. It stipulated that the saints stop doing exactly what section 57 commanded them to do.[3]

Antagonistic Missourians hated Zion.  No wonder the Lord had called them “enemies” (D&C 52:42).

Section 51 notes

[1] Geauga County Tax Records 1832, 230.  Dean C. Jessee, editor, The Papers of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1989), 1:480.  Dean C. Jessee, editor, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies 17:1 (1976).

[2] “Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51],” p. 86, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-20-may-1831-dc-51/1.

[3] Newel and Joseph Knight sources.

[4] Compare “Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51],” p. 86, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-20-may-1831-dc-51/1, with “Doctrine and Covenants, 1835,” p. 150, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/158.

[5] “The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star 2:14 (July 1822): 109.

[6] Painesville, Ohio Telegraph 26 April 1833, printed in Cook, 135.

[7] “Letter to Edward Partridge, 2 May 1833,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-edward-partridge-2-may-1833/1.

Section 52 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 27, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/31.

[2] “Revelation, 6 June 1831 [D&C 52],” p. 87, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-6-june-1831-dc-52/1.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842],” p. 872, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/51.

Section 53 notes

[1] Historical Introduction, Revelation, 8 June 1831 [D&C 53], The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-8-june-1831-dc-53/2#historical-intro. “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 121, 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-1834/127.

Section 54 notes

[1] Newel Knight Autobiography, 30.

[2] “Revelation, 20 May 1831 [D&C 51],” p. 86, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-20-may-1831-dc-51/1.

[3] Dean C. Jessee, editor, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies  17:1 (1976): 29-39.

[4] Joseph Knight, Jr., Incidents of History 1827-1844, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 121, 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-1834/127. “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 29, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/33.

Section 55 notes

[1] William W. Phelps, “Letter No. 6,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Apr. 1835, 1:97.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 124, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/130.

Section 56 notes

[1] “Revelation, 15 May 1831,” p. 85, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-15-may-1831/1.

[2] “Revelation, 15 June 1831 [D&C 56],” p. 92, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-15-june-1831-dc-56/2.

[3] “History of Thomas B. Marsh, Written by Himself,” Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Section 57 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 127, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/133.

 [2] “Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57],” p. 93, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-20-july-1831-dc-57/1.

[3] “Letterbook 2,” p. 54, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-2/59.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 58, 59

Section 58

Joseph Smith, Bishop Edward Partridge and others were disappointed when they arrived in Independence, Missouri. They anticipated a thriving branch but found few converts. They thought the village was “nearly a century behind the times.”[1] The Lord had said in section 57 that Independence was the site for New Jerusalem, but culturally speaking it was far from the promised land. The Lord had given Bishop Partridge the job of turning the place into Zion, and the Bishop despaired. It would require unconquerable optimism in the face of discouraging circumstances.     

A few days after Joseph’s arrival to Independence, Sidney Rigdon, Isaac Morley, Ezra Booth, Sidney and Elizabeth Gilbert, and the saints from Colesville, New York arrived as well. Joseph received Section 58 as “a Revelation given to the Elders who were assembled on the land of Zion Directions what to do.”[2]

“The revelation implied that the enjoyment of Zion lay in the future.”[3] Three times in its first four verses the revelation prophesied “much tribulation” before the establishment of Zion. The revelation tempers the saints’ zeal even as it promises a fulfillment of the prophesies of a promised land.    

The revelation launches into a grand vision of Zion’s preparing a feast to which all nations shall be invited. “First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; And after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come” (D&C 58:10-11). These first few called to Zion have the privilege of laying its foundation and testifying of its potential. Their calling is to pioneer, to say as Martin Luther King, Junior did, “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”[4]

Section 58 functions like a map that shows how to get from where we are to Zion.

It is a seldom used map and some have wandered in the wilderness for years, not understanding the Lord’s directions or preferring their “own way” (D&C 1:16).  Those to whom the Lord spoke specifically in section 58 understood it and acted it out as commanded.  

Bishop Partridge repented of his unbelief and blindness. Ezra Booth, by contrast, left the church and criticized Edward Partridge for gullibly continuing to believe in Zion.[5] It is not remarkable that Edward despaired that Zion would be established. That was entirely reasonable given the evidence before his eyes. The Lord called those eyes blind and invited the bishop to see what Joseph could see. “I see it, and it will be so,” Joseph said of Zion.[6]

The remarkable fact is that the intelligent, capable, prosperous Edward Partridge was willingly reoriented by Section 58. He followed it precisely. He wrote home to Lydia that his great desire to return home was surpassed by his calling. He told her of section 57’s command that his family join him in Zion (D&C 57:14), and section 58’s instructions to rely on personal revelation to arrange for the move as best they could (D&C 58:24-26).[7] Edward prepared Lydia for what she could expect when she joined him in Missouri.  “We have to suffer and shall for some time, many privations here which you and I have not been much used to for years.” He knew very well that his devotion to Zion would mean an eternal farewell to his extended family and friends “unless they should be willing to forsake all for the sake of Christ, and be gathered with the saints of the most high God.”[8]

Edward Partridge humbly acknowledged his important calling, his shortcomings, and his inadequacies.

“You know I stand in an important station,” he confided to Lydia, “and as I am occasionally chastened I sometimes fear my station is above what I can perform to the acceptance of my Heavenly Father. I hope you and I may conduct ourselves as at last to land our souls in the heave of eternal rest.  Pray that I may not fall.”[9] Lydia did pray, and she packed up their five daughters and made the difficult trek to Missouri to join Edward as commanded.[10] Falteringly, perhaps, but none have given more to Zion than Lydia and Edward Partridge.   

“Martin Harris was the first man that the Lord called by name to consecrate his money, and lay the same at the feet of the Bishop in Jackson County” (D&C 58:35-36).  “He willingly did it; he knew the work to be true; he knew that the word of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph was just as sacred as any word that ever came from the mouth of any Prophet from the foundation of the world.  He consecrated his money and his substance, according to the word of the Lord. What for? As the revelation states, as an example to the rest of the Church.[11]

Sidney Rigdon drafted the description of Zion section 58 commanded, but the Lord rejected it and commanded him to try again (D&C 58:50, 63:55-56). Sidney dedicated Zion on August 2 as commanded in verse 57. The saints held the conference called for in verse 58. Edward Partridge prayed, Sidney Rigdon charged the saints to obey the law of consecration, Ziba Peterson confessed his sins, and Joseph exhorted the saints to obey the commands they had received and reaffirmed the promised blessings for doing so. The elders who had not yet arrived were shown section 58 when they did and obeyed verses 61-63 precisely.  

Meanwhile, verse 64 continues to motivate saints who still live in the anxious space section 58 creates between the time-consuming requirements to preach the gospel globally and build Zion in the face of the imminent coming of Christ. If Joseph’s question, “when will Zion be built up in her glory,” is not yet fully answered, at least the church’s history since section 58 reveals how the revelation has worked itself out. The elders have gone forth to gather the righteous, first the rich, whose consecrations have put the church on a firm financial footing Edward Partridge could only dream of. In the last century we began to see the gospel blessings extended to more impoverished populations. Perhaps we are beginning to witness what the Lord called “the day of my power,” the day when his resources are distributed evenly among his faithful, consecrated saints, and all come to Zion to “partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come” (D&C 58:11).

Section 58 puts Edward Partridge in charge of beginning to get the feast on the table and sends the elders to every nation under heaven to invite the Lord’s children to come for supper.

Section 59

The August 7, 1831 revelation “instructing the saints how to keep the Sabbath and how to fast and pray” begins with the Lord’s blessings on the Colesville, New York saints, the first group to gather to Zion at his command. Those who live shall inherit the earth while those who die receive a crown, as Polly Knight, the matriarch of the Colesville saints, did the day the revelation came to Joseph.[1]

The revelation then reiterates the law of consecration, which is simply the two great commandments, in which all and love are the key words. Then follows a review of the Decalogue–the ten commandments–to which the Lord adds commands to thank God in all things, and to offer him a broken heart. He gives a specific logic for observing the Sabbath day: “That thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day” (D&C 59:10). The Sabbath is for offering oblations—that is, time, talents, and material resources—for the establishment of Zion. It is a day of fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer (D&C 59:14).  

The Lord makes a covenant with the saints in Zion: if they will keep the commandments thankfully and cheerfully yet soberly, he will give them the fulness of the earth—its plants and animals “for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul” (D&C 59:19). 

Obedience to Section 59 results in consecration: the free offering of all the saints have for all God has. It is a counter-cultural revelation because when Joseph arrived in Independence, Missouri it was settled by “the basest of men” who reveled in “Sabbath breaking, horseracing, and gambling.”[2] “The only indications of its being Sunday,” one observer reported, was “the unusual gambling and noise and assemblies around taverns.”[3]

Section 59 tells the saints to behave completely differently from the world in which they are now living in order to keep themselves unsoiled by it.

More recently, President Gordon B. Hinckley observed how Latter-day Saints are forsaking the command to be counter-cultural, to be Zion in the midst of Babylon, by observing the Sabbath and the other commandments. President Hinckley declared that “the Sabbath of the Lord is becoming the play day of the people.” He emphasized, “Our strength for the future, our resolution to grow the Church across the world, will be weakened if we violate the will of the Lord in this important matter. He has so very clearly spoken anciently and again in modern revelation. We cannot disregard with impunity that which He has said.”[4] More recently, President Russel M. Nelson evoked and applied section 59 on Sabbath observance asking, “What sign will you give to the Lord to show your love for Him?”[5]

Joseph’s first impression of Zion was negative but the revelation changed his mind. It revealed aesthetics. Verses 16-20 rejoice in the created world, the “good things which come of the earth,” freely given by a sharing God to “please the eye and gladden the heart . . . to strengthen the body and enliven the soul.” It pleases “that he hath given all these things unto man” to use, to share, to enjoy. What displeases him is when mere mortals ungratefully take his creation for granted, abuse rather than use his resources, and usurp the creation “to excess.” 

Section 59 reveals the owner of the Created world and invites his heirs in Zion to see themselves as stewards into whose hands the creation has been trusted, and who will be accountable to the Creator for what they do with it. “The land became beautiful in Joseph’s eyes.”[6] He later wrote about it in terms—beautiful, rich and fertile, fruitful, delightful, one of the most blessed places on the globe—that reflect the Lord’s aesthetics revealed in Section 59.

Section 58 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 127, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/133.

[2] “Revelation, 1 August 1831 [D&C 58],” p. 94, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 2, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-1-august-1831-dc-58/1.

[3] Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 164.

[4] Martin Luther King, Junior, 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee.

[5] Booth thought that Joseph was too prone to joking and then again too easily irritated and provoked, that his revelations were “something short of infallible,” the products of “his own weak mind.”  Ezra Booth in Ohio Star (November 24, 1831).

[6] Ezra Booth in Ohio Star (November 24, 1831).

[7] Edward Partridge to Lydia Partridge, August 5, 1831, Emily Partridge Papers, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[8] Quoted in Scott H. Partridge, “Edward Partridge in Painesville, Ohio,” BYU Studies 42:1 (2003): 64.

[9] Quoted in Scott H. Partridge, “Edward Partridge in Painesville, Ohio,” BYU Studies 42:1 (2003): 64.

[10] Scott H. Partridge, “Edward Partridge in Painesville, Ohio,” BYU Studies 42:1 (2003): 64-65.

[11] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:160-61.

Section 59 notes

[1] “Revelation Book 1,” p. 98, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/84. “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 139, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/145.

[2] “‘Church History,’ 1 March 1842,” p. 708, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/3.

[3] Quoted in “Historical Introduction,”  “Revelation Book 1,” p. 98, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-7-august-1831-dc-59/1#historical-intro.

[4] President Gordon B. Hinckley, September 1997 General Conference.

[5] Elder Russell M. Nelson, April 2015 General Conference, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/the-sabbath-is-a-delight?lang=eng.

[6] Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 163.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 60, 61, 62

Section 60

Having dedicated western Missouri as Zion and a spot near the courthouse in Independence as the site for the temple centered in New Jerusalem, Joseph Smith and his companions sought to know what the Lord would have them do next. The Lord answered with section 60, which John Whitmer described as a “COMMANDMENT given in Missorie Jackson County Independence August 8th 1831 directions to some of the Elders to return to their homes & own land.”[1]

The Lord tells the elders planning to return to Ohio quickly that he is pleased with their trek to Missouri, with the exception of those whose fears kept them from preaching the gospel. He is upset with them and says they will lose what he has given them if they do not offer it freely to others. 

About the return trip to Ohio, the Lord tells the elders to get a boat that seems to them best suited for the purpose of heading down the Missouri, River toward St. Louis.  It doesn’t matter to him whether they make it or buy it, only that they do not waste time. Once in St. Louis, Joseph, Sidney Ridgon, and Oliver Cowdery are to head for Cincinnati to declare the gospel with faith, not anger. 

Alluding to his Old Testament title, I Am, a variation on the name rendered in English as Jehovah, the Lord commands them to “lift up holy hands upon them. For I am able to make you holy, and your sins are forgiven you” (D&C 60:7, cross reference Exodus 3:14 and D&C 68:6).

The remaining elders should leave St. Louis in companionships and thoroughly preach the gospel to those who have not yet repented until the elders arrive in Ohio.  This will benefit the branches of the church, which is why the Lord gave the command.  Bishop Partridge should give them enough of the Lord’s money to fulfill their missions.  Those who are able should pay the Lord back by giving the money to Sidney Gilbert, the bishop’s assistant.  

The Lord also speaks about the elders who left Ohio for Missouri but have not arrived, due to the missionary work in which they engaged on the way. He commands them: “Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13). Once they arrive in Missouri, now Zion, and preach there, they should return to Ohio quickly, preaching along the way to those who have not repented.  They should preach thoroughly, kindly, and without provoking the people. 

Rather than condemning openly those who chose not to receive the gospel, as Parley Pratt did to the Believers at North Union, Ohio (see section 49), the elders are to signify that they have freely offered the gospel by washing their feet privately as a testimony, on judgment day, that they did not hide the good news from anyone. This act signifies that knowledge and therefore accountability have been transferred from the missionaries to the people. 

Joseph and his companions obeyed Section 60 and headed for home in Ohio as directed. On August 9, Joseph and ten other brethren headed down the Missouri River on canoes bound for St. Louis.[2]

Section 61

The interpretation history of section 61 is a good example of what happens when scripture is not read in context, and when it is too quickly applied universally instead of limited to the situation it was originally about. It does not say that Satan controls the water.

The Missouri River was well known to be dangerous, “ever-varying,” and full of submerged trees that could capsize or sink at steamboat, not to mention a canoe.[1] Joseph and the elders launched their canoes at the Missouri River landing just north of Independence, Missouri, and headed home to Ohio. They camped at Fort Osage and “had an excellent wild turkey for supper.” The good food did little to keep the men satisfied under the stressful conditions. 

During their second day on the river “a spirit of animosity and discord” infected the group. “The conduct of the Elders became very displeasing to Oliver Cowdery.” He prophesied: “as the Lord God liveth, if you do not behave better, some accident will befall you.”[2] At some point William Phelps “saw the Destroyer, in his most horrible power, ride upon the face of the waters,” though what that means is uncertain, and ought not to be interpreted to mean that Satan controls the waters without more revelation.[3]

Contention continued the next day. Joseph got frustrated. Some of the elders refused to paddle, and at least one of the canoes hit a submerged tree and nearly capsized.  Joseph urged the frightened group to get off the river. Some of the men called him a coward. They landed on the north side of the River at McIlwaine’s Bend (now Miami), set up camp as best they could, and convened a council to address the contention. Some of the elders were critical of Oliver’s rebuke. Some criticized Joseph for being “quite dictatorial.” Joseph got defensive and the council went on for some hours until, early in the morning, everyone reconciled.[4] Speaking of Section 61, Joseph’s history says “the next morning after prayer, I received the following.”[5] John Whitmer described the revelation as a “commandment given Aug 12th 1831 on the Bank of the River Distruction (or Missorie) unfolding some mysteries.”[6]

In section 61, the omnipotent Lord commands the elders gathered on the banks of the Missouri River to hear and obey him. He forgives their sins. He mercifully forgives the sins of all who humbly confess them. He says they don’t all need to travel quickly down the river while settlers on either side need to be taught the gospel. 

The Lord explains that he let the elders experience the River’s terrors so they could testify of the danger to others. The Lord has angrily decreed that water will be a destructive element, especially the Missouri. But he holds mankind in his hands and will preserve the faithful among this group of elders from drowning. The Lord has kept the group together this long so they be corrected and purified from their sins and become unified and thus escape the punishment for their wickedness.  Now it’s time to split up, and the Lord gives specific assignments and instructs Sidney Gilbert, the bishop’s assistant, to give them enough money to fulfill their assignments.

Close reading of section 61 shows that the Lord controls the waters, not Satan. That is true for dry land as well. God blessed the waters during the creation process. He later cursed them (see Revelation 8:8-11). The day will come when only the honest-hearted will be able to safely travel to Zion by water. The Lord explains that after the fall, he cursed the land for Adam’s sake, but in the latter days he blessed it to be fertile for the saints’ sake. The Lord commands the elders to warn the other saints not to travel on the dangerous Missouri without faith. 

William Phelps carried out the commandment in this revelation to tell all the saints about the dangers of traveling to Zion in Missouri on the Missouri River.  He published the revelation in the church’s newspaper, The Evening and the Morning Star, along with an editorial listing the most notable “risks and dangers.” First, there were frequent disasters on the river. Second, he warned, there was cholera, a devastating water-born illness “which the Lord has sent into the world, and which may, without repentance, ravage the large towns near the waters, many years, or, at least, till other judgments come.”[7]

Phelps also wrote a short history of his stay in Missouri, in which he told how Section 61 influenced his return to Ohio. “I, in company with Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and others started by water for Ohio, but being cautioned in a Revelation given at, McElwains bend, that Missouri River was cursed, all the company save myself and brother Gilbert left the river and proceeded by land. I was assured by revelation, to be safe by land or water.”[8]

Section 62

Section 62 is one of many revelations in which the Lord tells us much about himself. He is our advocate. He knows our weakness. He knows just how to run to our relief when we are tempted. He keeps his promises. He cannot lie. Who wouldn’t gladly travel hundreds of miles to obey one of his revelations?   

Leaving the Missouri River to travel by land, Joseph and the elders who had been to Missouri ran into a group of their brethren—Joseph’s brother Hyrum, David Whitmer, John Murdock, and Harvey Whitlock—still en route to Zion. They had been preaching the gospel with great success along their way. The joyful meeting would not have occurred had Joseph’s trip down the Missouri been tranquil, but it fulfilled the Lord’s promise that the brethren would meet in Missouri to rejoice in the land of Zion.  Joseph sought and received a revelation concerning the elders who had not yet been to Independence.[1]

Hyrum Smith, David Whitmer, Harvey Whitlock, John Murdock, and others who joined them obeyed this revelation. They pursued their journey to Independence and held a solemn meeting with the members of the bishopric there. They sang hymns, prayed, read scriptural prophecies about Zion and the second coming, and then turned around and returned to Ohio.  

The revelation, as with so many others, is full of conditional clauses. It thus empowers the elders to control their own destiny by choosing to do the things that will bring the Lord’s promised blessings.

Section 60 notes

[1] “Revelation, 8 August 1831 [D&C 60],” p. 100, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-8-august-1831-dc-60/1.

[2] Times and Seasons 5 (15 March 1844): 464.  Reynolds Cahoon, Journal, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Section 61 notes

[1] See “Historical Introduction” to “Revelation, 12 August 1831 [D&C 61],” p. 101, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-12-august-1831-dc-61/1.

[2] Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, Ohio, 1834), 204.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 142, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/148. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 164. 

[4] Ezra Booth to Edward Partridge, 20 September 1831, in the Ohio Star, 24 November 1831.

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 142, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/148.

[6] “Revelation, 12 August 1831 [D&C 61],” p. 101, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-12-august-1831-dc-61/1.

[7] William Phelps, “The Way of Journeying for the Saints of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star (December 1832): 1:52-53.

[8] Short History of WW Phelps’ Stay in Missouri, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. 

Section 62 notes

[1] “Revelation, 13 August 1831 [D&C 62],” p. 104, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-13-august-1831-dc-62/1.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 63

Section 63

“The land of Zion,” says Joseph’s history, “was now the most important temporal object in view.” Satan hates Zion and works to undermine it from every angle. When Joseph and his companions returned to Kirtland, Ohio from their trip to dedicate Independence, Missouri as the center of Zion, they found “the exertions of Satan” had led many saints into rebellion. Joseph and the faithful saints were extraordinarily anxious about how to establish Zion.[1]

When and how should they gather to Missouri? How should they fund Zion and the move there? What should we do with our property in Ohio, like Whitney’s store and the farms belonging to Isaac Morley and Frederick Williams? The revelations in Missouri commanded the saints to purchase land there. How should they raise the money?  Sidney Rigdon had been commanded to write an inspired description of Zion and God’s will concerning it (D&C 58:50). What did the Lord think of his first draft? Isaac Morley had already moved to Missouri, and the several families living on his farm planned to follow as soon as the Lord said go. Since Joseph and Sidney Rigdon and their families lived on Morley’s farm, selling it would leave them homeless. Where should they live? Section 63 addresses the apostasy and these pressing questions related to literally building Zion.  

This revelation motivated much action. Joseph began discerning by the spirit those who should move to Zion.[2] As commanded, Titus Billings and several other Kirtland saints moved to Missouri in the spring of 1832. Sidney Rigdon humbled himself and rewrote a description of the land of Zion based very much on this revelation and previous ones.[3]

Oliver Cowdery and Newel Whitney used it to obey the command to go “from place to place, and from Church to Church preaching and expounding the Scriptures and Commandments [that is, the recent revelations] and obtaining moneys of the disciples for the purpose of buying lands for the Saints according to commandments and the disciples truly opened their hearts.” Oliver Cowdery and John Whitmer took the money to bishop Partridge and Sidney Gilbert in Missouri, “and thus there has been lands purchased, for the inheritance of the Saints.”[4]

As commanded, Newel Whitney and Frederick Williams kept their property in Kirtland and consecrated it to the church. As for Joseph, Sidney Rigdon and their families, they moved south to Hiram, Ohio in September 1831 where Elsa and John Johnson provided homes for them. Yes there was apostasy—adultery, lying, hypocrisy, rebellion—in Kirtland when the Lord gave section 63. There was also substantial Zion building in response to it.

Notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 146, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/152.

[2] D&C 63:41. The Church History Library has an unpublished revelation in John Whitmer’s handwriting, dated August 31, 1831, which says: “Behold thus saith the Lord by the voice of the spirit it is wisdom in me that my servent John Burk David Eliot Erastus Babit should take their Journey this fall to the land of Zion.”

[3] Sidney Rigdon Papers, Church History Library. Published in Cook, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 99-101.

[4] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 37, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/41.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 64, 65, 66

Section 64

Various people who observe the same facts interpret the facts differently. The elders’ trip to Missouri in the summer of 1831 led to the dedication of the site for New Jerusalem and the dedication of a temple site. Some returned from the trip rejoicing and others disappointed. The main voice of discontent was Ezra Booth. He noted the outspoken disagreement between Joseph and Edward Partridge about the Missouri land the Lord designated for Zion. Ezra objected that he and Isaac Morley walked to Missouri while Joseph and his party traveled by stage coach. Joseph and Bishop Partridge reconciled. Isaac Morley got over it. Ezra Booth, by contrast, would not let his grievances go.[1] In that setting the Lord gave section 64.[2]

The Lord was angry with Ezra Booth and Isaac Morley. They did not obey section 42 or the commandment they received to preach the gospel en route to Missouri in the summer of 1831 (D&C 52:23).[3] They had unrighteous desires and therefore lost the Holy Ghost. Then, as so often happens, they projected their own evil onto others.The Lord forgave the repentant Isaac Morley while Ezra Booth was disciplined by the church as section 64 directed and withdrew from membership.[4]

The Lord was also upset with Bishop Partridge for arguing with Joseph about the location of Zion (see section 58). He repented in response to section 64. Sidney Gilbert returned to Missouri and established a storehouse there and prepared to buy land for Zion.  

Isaac Morley sold his farm as a result of section 64 and thus avoided the overwhelming temptations that the Lord knew would keep him from consecrating otherwise (see section 63:38-40). Frederick Williams consecrated his Kirtland farm to the Church for the Lord to use as a secure headquarters for the church for five more years.  Newel Whitney and Sidney Gilbert kept their Kirtland store and other properties for five years after this revelation.  

Section 64 paints a vivid picture and makes an unlikely prophecy. It explains with crystal clarity that the saints must leave Babylon or perish, and that the only place other than Babylon is Zion and the only way to get there is by obeying the law of consecration.  The Lord’s promise is that the willing and obedient will see Zion. It will come. They will get there. This is the promise which, according to Section 45, holy have been granted in ages past. They longed for Zion and never got there, “but obtained a promise that they should find it and see it in their [resurrected] flesh” (D&C 45:14). Section 64 guarantees Zion tomorrow for those who are willing and obedient to the law of consecration today.

Section 65

Joseph’s history says that section 65 came to him in early October 1831 as he was living with the Johnsons in Hiram, Ohio, and that he regarded it as a prayer.[1] An early copy of section 65 in the handwriting of William McLellin sheds more light on it. The revelation is linked to the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, and particularly the meaning of verse 10: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”[2]

Section 65 teaches us to pray for the ideal government. We look for a literal, earthly fulfillment of Isaiah’s declaration: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). This short revelation also reminds us how thoroughly biblical Joseph became as he read that sacred text by the light of the Holy Ghost. In the 6 verses of Section 65 there are clear references to Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, and the Revelation of John.    

Section 65 elaborates a prophesy of Daniel, who saw “the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever”(Daniel 2:44). Daniel compared this kingdom to a rolling stone that would eventually fill the earth. Some of the early saints envisioned a snowball effect, but Joseph clarified Daniel’s meaning. The stone, Joseph said, “is stationary like a grind stone. It revolves.” He taught that it grew as “the Elders went abroad to preach the gospel and the people became believers in the Book of Mormon and were baptized.” In this way “they were added to the little stone. Thus they gathered around it so that it grew larger and larger.” Joseph prophesied that in this way the stone—the kingdom of God—would fill the earth.[3]

In 1838, Judge Austin King charged Joseph Smith with treason and confined him in jail at Liberty, Missouri for believing what he taught about Daniel’s prophecy. Parley Pratt wrote that judge King “inquired diligently into our belief of the seventh chapter of Daniel concerning the kingdom of God, which should subdue all other kingdoms and stand forever.” The saints testified that they believed the prophecy, and judge King instructed his clerk, “write that down; it is a strong point for treason.” The saints’ attorney objected. Is the Bible treason?[4] The next time he was charged with treason came a month after he set up “the kingdom of Daniel by the word of the Lord” and declaring his intent to “revolutionize the whole world.” Joseph life was ended abruptly by a lynch mob shortly after that.[5]

However, the work of God’s kingdom rolled on. It will continue to do so “till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear.”[6] That, at least, is the prayer of section 65. “May the kingdom of God go forth that the Kingdom of Heaven may come”(D&C 65:6), so that he who is entitled may reign as King of Kings (Rev 17:14).

Section 66

Section 66 teaches many lessons. One is to be careful what you ask for. Another is that knowing for certain that Joseph Smith was the Lord’s revelator is insufficient to motivate obedience to the Lord’s revelations through Joseph. 

The Lord gave section 66 to William McLellin through Joseph on October 29, 1831. After copying the revelation in his entry for that day, William wrote that it, “gave great joy to my heart because some important questions were answered which had dwelt upon my mind with anxiety and yet with uncertainty.”[1] Previous to meeting Joseph, William secretly prayed that God would “reveal the answer to five questions through his prophet, and that too without his having any knowledge of my having made such request.” In 1848, ten years after bitterly parting ways with Joseph Smith, William wrote: “I now testify in the fear of God, that every question which I had thus lodged in the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, were answered to my full and entire satisfaction. I desired it for a testimony of Joseph’s inspiration. And I to this day consider it to me an evidence which I cannot refute.”[2]

William’s questions are unrecorded, but the revelation he wrote as Joseph dictated expresses the Lord’s will for him (66:4). The revelation therefore compelled William to act either in obedience or disobedience to the Lord’s will. His subsequent journal is an accountability report with the revelation in mind. It and related documents reveal his inconsistent effort to obey the revelation’s many specific commands.

The revelation blessed William for turning from his iniquities to truth and receiving the fulness of the gospel. Still, the Lord told William that he was not completely clean and needed to repent of sins the Lord would show him. The Lord specifically warned William to “commit not adultery—a temptation with which thou hast been troubled” (D&C 66:10). The Lord commanded William to serve a mission to the east with Samuel Smith until the Lord sent word for them to return. The Lord commanded William to bear testimony to everyone everywhere he went, and his journal testifies that he did. He went about “reasoning with the people” while Samuel Smith bore his simple, powerful testimony as a witness of the Book of Mormon plates. Commanded to “lay your hands upon the sick and they shall recover,” William did so and they were. He tried to “be patient in affliction,” but as rejections mounted and winter approached, William’s resolve to obey the revelation faltered (D&C 66:9). He forsook Samuel Smith and returned to Kirtland in late December 1831 of his own volition. The Lord rebuked William a few weeks later (D&C 75:6-7).   

Humbled, William started on another mission but again forsook his companion and calling, attributing his disobedience to poor health and lack of faith. He took a job to accumulate cash and married Emiline Miller, perhaps in disobedience to the command “seek not to be cumbered” (D&C 66:10) with family obligations while called to fulltime missionary service. Then the newlyweds set out for Zion in Jackson County, Missouri, where William circumvented the law of consecration. Rather than meeting with Bishop Partridge to consecrate his property and receive an inheritance, William purchased two lots on Main Street, all in disobedience to specific commands that he “go not up to the land of Zion as yet; but inasmuch as you can send, send; otherwise think not of thy property” (66:6).  

William’s disobedience to the revelation did not diminish his faith in it or its revelator.  He wrote in August 1832 that “that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet or Seer of the Lord and that he has power and does receive revelations from God, and that these revelations when received are of divine Authority in the church of Christ.”[3] Upset by William’s hypocrisy, Joseph wrote that his “conduct merits the disapprobation of every true follower of Christ.“[4]

Section 66 left William’s future in his hands. If he chose to do the Lord’s will continually, he could “have a crown of eternal life” (66:12). Instead William chose to do his own will. On 11 May 1838, William confessed to Bishop Partridge that he had quit “praying and keeping the commandments of God and went his own way and indulged himself in his lustful desires.”[5] He spent the rest of his long life outside the Savior’s church, struggling to resolve the unbearable tension between his sure testimony of the revelation and his unwillingness to abide by all of its terms.

Section 64 notes

[1] See “Historical Introduction” to “Revelation, 11 September 1831 [D&C 64],” p. 108, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-11-september-1831-dc-64/1.

[2] “Revelation, 11 September 1831 [D&C 64],” p. 108, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-11-september-1831-dc-64/1.

[3] Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. V,” Ohio Star 10 November 1831, p. 3.

[4] “Minute Book 2,” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/8.

Section 65 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 155, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/161.

[2] See The Journals of William E. McLellin, 243.

[3] Henry William Bigler (1815–1900), Journal, 1846 Feb.–1899 Oct., Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[4] Parley P. Pratt, Jr., editor, The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt 4th edition (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1950), 211-12.

[5] Andrew F. Ehat, “‘It Seems Like Heaven Began on Earth’: Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God,” BYU Studies 20:3 (Spring 1980), 253-79.

[6] “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842],” p. 1285, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/459.

Section 66 notes

[1] Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, editors, The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 46-47.

[2] Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, editors, The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 57.

[3] Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, editors, The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 87.

[4] “Letter to Emma Smith, 6 June 1832,” p. [2], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-emma-smith-6-june-1832/2.

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume B-1 [1 September 1834–2 November 1838],” p. 796, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-b-1-1-september-1834-2-november-1838/250.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 67-70

Section 67

In November 1831, Joseph convened a council at the Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio and laid the manuscript Book of Commandments before the church leaders. It was the archive of dozens of his revelations. He felt that “the Lord has bestowed a great blessing upon us in giving commandments and revelations.”[1] He had testified that the contents of the book should “be prized by this Conference to be worth to the Church the riches of the whole Earth.” It was time to publish the revelations.[2]

Oliver Cowdery asked “how many copies of the Book of commandments it was the will of the Lord should be published in the first edition of that work?” The council voted for 10,000.[3]  The Lord revealed a preface for the book in which he said “these commandments are of me & were given unto my Servents in their weakness after the manner of their Language.”[4]

The question arose, “was the simple language of Joseph Smith worthy of the voice of God?”[5] Joseph’s history says that a discussion followed “concerning Revelations and language.”[6] Other fears went unspoken during the discussion. After all, everyone in the room must have recognized that they were being asked to aid a poorly educated, twenty-six year-old farmer who was planning to publish ten thousand copies of revelations that unequivocally declared themselves to be the words of Jesus Christ in a Protestant culture that widely believed the Bible to be all the word of God there ever would be. If that was not enough to make the elders consider carefully, the revelations Joseph proposed to publish called the saints’ neighbors idolatrous and Missourians enemies, commanded them all to repent, and foretold calamities upon those who continued in wickedness. Finally, the revelations were not properly punctuated, the spelling was not standardized, and the grammar was inconsistent.    

Though lacking confidence in his own literary skills, or perhaps even because of his limitations, Joseph was sure that his revelation texts were divine if imperfect productions. He promised the brethren present that they could know for themselves as well. Just a few days earlier Joseph had predicted that if the saints could all “come together with one heart and one mind in perfect faith the vail might as well be rent to day as next week or any other time.”[7] Seeking confirmation of the revelations, the brethren tried to rend the veil like the Book of Mormon’s brother of Jared. They failed. Joseph asked why and received Section 67.  

The revelation challenges widespread but unfounded assumptions about what constitutes a revelation.

Must it be literarily lovely? Some are, but not all. That or any other standard set by mortals will be subjective. The Lord will never satisfy all self-appointed editors. He does not seem worried about that. In contrast to the elders’ fears about that, the Lord seems utterly unconcerned. He does not ask whether Joseph dangled any of his participles or spelled everything just right. He asks whether the revelations are righteous.  He thus sets a standard for truthfulness that involves observations and experiments, but in the end can only be spiritually known for sure. For the things of God are known certainly only by communication from the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-14).  

Section 67 does the work of giving the brethren a certain testimony of the revelations even if it was not the dramatic one they hoped for. In section 67 the Lord read their minds, provided them with a scientific, hands-on way of observing the properties of the revelations and using a sample from them as a control in an experiment. The Lord gives the kind of testimony the brethren were suited to receive and gently urges them become humble and spiritual enough to part the veil between him and them completely. He invites them to touch, feel, hear, see, taste, and testify of the revelations. He invites them to know him insofar as they are able, and to “continue in patience” until they know him face to face.  

Joseph’s history and other sources tell us how the brethren acted out the instructions in the revelation and became willing to testify before the world. William McLellin, who had the preceding week written as Joseph dictated section 66, “endeavored to write a commandment like unto one of the least of the Lord’s, but failed.”[8]</a Joseph asked the men present “what testimony they were willing to attach to these commandments which should shortly be sent to the world. A number of the brethren arose and said that they were willing to testify to the world that they knew that they were of the Lord,” and Joseph received a revelation for them to sign as witnesses.  McLellin signed along with four others, and John Whitmer copied the revelation and their signatures into the manuscript Book of Commandments.[9]

Twelve more elders signed the statement in Missouri when the book arrived there for printing. Joseph undoubtedly appreciated these witnesses. He knew he was no writer.  He felt imprisoned by the “total darkness of paper, pen and ink;-and a crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language.”[10] He considered it “an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord.”[11] Yet he knew the responsibility was his.  The revelations said God had “called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments” and declared to him that “this generation shall have my word through you” (D&C 1:17, 5:10).  

As section 67 acknowledged, these witnesses knew the limits of Joseph’s imperfect language. It was a striking vote of confidence in Joseph and his revelations for eighteen men who knew him to declare their testimonies that the revelations were true.  The discussion about revelations and language concluded as “the brethren arose in turn and bore witness to the truth of the Book of Commandments. After which br. Joseph Smith Jr arose and expressed his feelings and gratitude.”[12] The bold project of publishing the revelations required fearless believers to sustain Joseph in his awesome responsibility.

Section 68

Four newly-ordained high priests were among the Church leaders who gathered for conference in Hiram, Ohio in November 1831. They “requested of the Lord to know his will concerning them.” The Lord obliged them with the first twelve verses of section 68. He then adds an amendment to previous revelations about the office of bishop. Then he comments on the implications of the bad parenting he sees in the church.[1]

The saints resolved to act on this revelation’s instructions regarding bishops and church discipline.[2] Oliver Cowdery took this revelation and others to the saints in Missouri. The brethren who sought the Lord’s will and received it acted on it pretty well in the short term. Orson Hyde, William McLellin, and the Johnson brothers would all be chosen as apostles in 1835, largely because of their faithfulness to the Lord’s commission in this revelation to preach the gospel by his Holy Spirit. All of them struggled to endure in that commission and were at one time or another antagonistic to the church.  

Section 68 gives a unique definition of scripture as the voice of God communicated by his Holy Spirit to his authorized servants in real time. In dictionaries of Joseph’s day, the word scripture literally meant what is written. Then and now the word connoted very old sacred writing. The sooner we get past that confining idea the better.  In 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson urged Harvard Graduates “to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.”[3] Joseph Smith already had.

The Lord uses this revelation and others to give instruction on parenting.

Children come weak and helpless.  Powerless to act for themselves but innately divine, children can be empowered to act for themselves if properly parented. Out of love, God empowers his children to act as he acts. God empowers his children by teaching them law, beginning with the law of the gospel. If children are not taught God’s laws as they mature, they will never have agency or power to act for themselves. Teaching children the law of the gospel is a prerequisite to their gaining the ability to choose and act for themselves. 

Teaching children the laws of God does not guarantee they will keep them. It does guarantee that they will be able to choose for themselves whether to keep them. Parents who do not teach and therefore do not endow the children with agency will answer to God for deciding for the children rather than empowering them to choose for themselves.  This revelation, together with Sections 29 and 121, shows how the Lord both teaches and models how to endow children with power by giving them laws and, thus, agency.

Section 69

Joseph spent the first two weeks of November 1831 in Hiram, Ohio closely reviewing the revelations and counseling with his brethren about their publication. The church’s press was in Independence, Missouri.  The handwritten copies of the revelations and the money to print them was in Ohio. John Whitmer wrote that “it was in contemplation for Oliver Cowdery to go to Zion and carry with him the Revelations and Commandments, and I also received a revelation to go with him.”[1]

Seeing that it would not be wise to send Oliver Cowdery alone to Missouri with the invaluable Book of Commandments and quite a bit of cash in his possession, the Lord appointed John as his companion. The Lord, moreover, gave John the command to continue to document the important history of the church (see section 47) and to be counseled and assisted as church historian by Oliver, William Phelps, and perhaps others in Missouri who know important historical information or are good writers. The missionaries in the field should write about their experiences and send the accounts to Zion for John to use in keeping the church history. Zion is the place for John to do this work and the saints to send him their documents. He should, however, travel often to the various branches to gather knowledge. He can preach and explain at the same time he writes, copies, selects and obtains historical information.

Joseph told the council that the revelations should be prized more than the riches of the earth, and that he wanted to dedicate them, together with Oliver and John, to the Lord.[2] Then John went faithfully with Oliver to Missouri, carrying with them the revelation to parents in Zion (section 68), the priceless Book of Commandments to be published by William Phelps in Independence, Missouri, and considerable cash for printing and for Bishop Partridge to buy land in Missouri.[3]

John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847 [front cover]. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.
Together with Sections 21 and 47, section 69 give the commandments to document the history of the church. In the  restored Church of Jesus Christ, history functions much as theology does in other Christian traditions. Latter-day Saints don’t refer to the philosophical creeds of traditional Christianity to describe the nature of God. They tell, rather, of historical events like Joseph’s first vision in which God revealed his nature. We know priesthood needed to be restored and was because ministering angels brought it to Joseph Smith. We know of these experiences because they are described in documents. Without those documents, we lose what was restored. If we cannot document our history, we are back in the apostasy. Thus, revelations like Section 69 are perhaps more important than they might seem.

Manuscript History of Joseph Smith, 1838–1856. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

John Whitmer wrote a history because of Sections 47 and 69.  It is an important but sketchy source of early church history. As John’s selfish interests overwhelmed him he became bitter toward the church in 1838. That is reflected in the last chapters of his brief history. When John stopped writing Joseph started. With help from a host of assistants, Joseph compiled a much fuller history of the church to document the restoration.

Section 70

Section 70 created what is often called the Literary Firm, a corporation assigned by the Lord to receive, write, revise, print, bind, and sell the revelations according to the law of consecration. Section 70 has to be read in light of the law of consecration in section 42, which says that everyone who devoted themselves full time in Church service could be “supported out of the property which is consecrated to the Lord.”[1] So, when the plan was laid for six members of the Church to form a firm dedicated to publishing the revelations, section 70 was given to apply the law of consecration specifically to their case. It solves the problem of how to pay the bills when you spend all your time, talent, and energy working for the Lord’s church. 

Church leaders had counseled for nearly two weeks early in November 1831 about publishing Joseph’s revelations. They had decided to send the manuscript revelations with Oliver Cowdery and John Whitmer to Independence, Missouri, where church printer William Phelps would publish them on a press he was to purchase in Cincinnati. 

Books don’t publish themselves.

Joseph was thankful for those who had helped him with the church’s publishing projects. He noted that Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris had labored with him from the beginning to scribe and publish the Book of Mormon, that John Whitmer and Sidney Rigdon had long scribed and transcribed revelations and Joseph’s new translation of the Bible. Joseph then explained that if the saints valued the revelations enough to want them published, the Church should compensate those who gave their time and means to get them published.[2]

Section 70 appoints and ordains the revelator, the financier, scribes, a transcriber, and an editor as “stewards over the revelations and commandments which I have given unto them, and which I shall hereafter give unto them; and an account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment.” 

Members of the Literary Firm had the stewardship of managing the revelations from receipt to publication to sale. The Lord commanded them not to give the problems of getting the revelations published, or the profits from selling the Book of Commandments, to anyone else.  Rather, they are to use the profits to provide for their families. Whatever is left after that they are to consecrate by giving it to the storehouse for the saints in Zion and their descendants who obey the laws of God. This is what the Lord requires of every steward that he appoints.  

No Latter-day Saints are exempt from this law of consecration—not Bishop Partridge, nor his agent Sidney Gilbert, nor anyone the Lord appoints to do any job whether the work is physical or spiritual. 

Joseph modeled and taught his brethren the law of consecration as section 70 sets it forth.  When William Phelps began acting like the owner of the Lord’s press rather than a steward over the revelations (D&C 70:3), Joseph gently but directly sent him the following postscript. It penetrates to the heart of consecration and Section 70: “Bro. William – You say ‘my press, my types, &c.’  W[h]ere, our brethren ask, did you get them & how came they to be ‘yours’?  No hardness, but a caution, for you know that it is We, not I, and all things are the Lord’s, and he opened the hearts of his Church to furnish these things, or we should not have been privileged with using them.”[3]

Most of the six members of the Literary Firm had already been deeply involved in the publishing work and remained so through the 1833 publication of the Book of Commandments and, along with others, the 1835 publication of the Doctrine and Covenants. Martin Harris funded the publication of the Book of Mormon and perhaps the Firm’s later projects. Sidney Rigdon often scribes of revelations and Joseph’s new translation of the Bible, and he proofread the manuscript revelations. John Whitmer transcribed these texts as a human copy machine. Oliver Cowdery assisted in all stages of receiving, editing, and printing. He and John Whitmer carried the revelations and money to print them to Missouri where the Lord’s choice for an editor, William Phelps, printed the Book of Commandments.    

Joseph received the revelations. He also edited and amended them as he saw fit.

One of Joseph’s stewardships in the Literary Firm was to “correct those errors or mistakes which he may discover by the holy Spirit.”[4] Joseph believed in his revelations more than anyone, but he never believed that any scripture was literarily pristine.[5] He edited his own revelations because he regarded them as his best efforts to represent the voice of the Lord condescending to speak in what Joseph called a crooked, broken, scattered, and imperfect language.     

Most of the other members of the Firm were more literary than Joseph. That was a blessing that occasionally annoyed him. After William Phelps criticized one revelation, Joseph responded defensively in behalf of himself and Oliver Cowdery. “We would say, by way of excuse, that we did not think so much of the orthography [spelling], or the manner, as we did of the subject matter; as the word of God means what it says; & it is the word of God, as much as Christ was God, although he was born in a stable, & was rejected by the manner of his birth, notwithstanding he was God.” Joseph implicitly and a bit defensively blamed the revelation’s spelling and punctuation errors on his limited education and explicitly on his proofreader, Oliver’s, fatigue, he having recently returned from Missouri and then New York, where he purchased the church a new press amidst opposition.[6]

The members of the Firm gave their best efforts to publish the revelations, impoverishing themselves in the process. Then, when William Phelps had nearly finished printing the Book of Commandments, a mob of Missourians destroyed the press and burned his home and office and as many copies of the revelations as they could. Some of the printed sheets were rescued by various saints and a few incomplete copies of the Book of Commandments were published.

Today there are fewer than thirty known copies, and they sometimes sell for astronomical amounts. We should remember what the revelations originally cost. Joseph and the other members of the Literary Firm made themselves poor and persecuted by publishing them. They all voiced their conviction just prior to organizing the Literary Firm according to section 70.  Joseph made a motion, and the other brethren approved it unanimously, that they should “prize the revelations to be worth to the Church the riches of the whole earth.”[7]

Section 67 notes

[1] “Minutes, 1–2 November 1831,” p. 16, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-1-2-november-1831/2.

[2] “Minutes, 12 November 1831,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-12-november-1831/1; Oliver Cowdery Letterbook, 30-36, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

[3] “Minute Book 2,” p. 15, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/17.

[4] “Revelation, 1 November 1831–B [D&C 1],” p. 126, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-1-november-1831-b-dc-1/2. 

[5] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 173-74.

[6] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 161, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/167.

[7] “Minutes, 25–26 October 1831,” p. 11, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-25-26-october-1831/2.

[8] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 162, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/168; Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, editors, The Journals of William E. McLellin (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 251.

[9] “Revelation Book 1,” p. 121, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/107.

[10] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-27-november-1832/4.   

[11] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 162, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/168.

[12] “Minute Book 2,” p. 15, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/17.

Section 68 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 163, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/169; “Revelation, 1 November 1831–A [D&C 68],” p. 113, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-1-november-1831-a-dc-68/1.

[2] “Resolved: that the mode and manner of regulating the Church of Christ, take effect from this time, according to a revelation received in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, Nov. 11, 1831.”Far West Record, July 3, 1832, p. 34.

[3] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “An Address,” July 15, 1838, Harvard Divinity School, in Brooks Atkinson, editor, The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York: Modern Library, 1950), 80.

Section 69 notes

[1] “John Whitmer, History, 1831–circa 1847,” p. 38, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/john-whitmer-history-1831-circa-1847/42.

[2] “Minutes, 12 November 1831,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-12-november-1831/1.

[3] John wrote that he and Oliver left Ohio on November 20, 1831 and arrived safely in Independence, Missouri on January 5, 1832.  Book of John Whitmer, 38.

Section 70 notes

[1] “Revelation, 9 February 1831 [D&C 42:1–72],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-9-february-1831-dc-421-72/1.

[2] “Minutes, 12 November 1831,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-12-november-1831/1.

[3] “Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 30 March 1834,” p. 36, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-edward-partridge-and-others-30-march-1834/7.

[4] “Minutes, 8 November 1831,” p. 16, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-8-november-1831/1.

[5] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 174.

[6] “Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 30 March 1834,” p. 31, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-edward-partridge-and-others-30-march-1834/2.

[7] “Minute Book 2,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/20.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 71-75

Sections 71 & 73

Ezra Booth was a talented Methodist preacher who visited Joseph Smith at his home in Kirtland in 1831 with his wife, John and Elsa Johnson, and some others. An early history of Disciples of Christ in northern Ohio reported that “Mrs. Johnson had been afflicted for some time with a lame arm, and was not at the time of the visit able to lift her hand to her head. The party visited Smith partly out of curiosity, and partly to see for themselves what there might be in the new doctrine. During the interview, the conversation turned on the subject of supernatural gifts, such as were conferred in the days of the apostles. Some one said, ‘Here is Mrs. Johnson with a lame arm; has God given any power to men now on the earth to cure her?’ A few moments later, when the conversation had turned in another direction, Smith rose, and walking across the room, taking Mrs. Johnson by the hand, said in the most solemn and impressive manner: ‘Woman, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be whole,’ and immediately left the room.”[1]

Ezra Booth and the Johnsons joined the church. They knew God had restored the New Testament gift of healing to Joseph Smith. Knowing that God worked through Joseph, however is not the same as being converted by the Savior’s gospel. Ezra went with Joseph and many others to Missouri in the summer of 1831. He judged everything Joseph said and did with a jaundiced eye. He found fault with Joseph’s personality and prophecies. Then, casting himself as a public servant, Ezra wrote nine letters against Joseph that were published in the Ohio Star newspaper.[2]

The Ohio Star, Thursday, December 8, 1831.

Ezra’s letters claimed that Joseph’s revelations were false and that Zion in Missouri was a scam. Ezra justified his failures to do what the revelations commanded and persuaded himself and perhaps others that Joseph was “quite dictatorial” and no prophet after all. What about that nagging miracle Ezra had witnessed?  The fact that Elsa Johnson was healed could not be denied, even by Joseph’s most outspoken antagonists. So a subsequent history explained that the “infinite presumption” of Joseph Smith gave Elsa Johnson a “sudden mental and moral shock–I know not how better to explain the well attested fact–electrified the rheumatic arm–Mrs. Johnson at once lifted it up with ease, and on her return home the next day she was able to do her washing without difficulty or pain.”[3]

Ezra’s letters raised public consciousness of Joseph Smith and the restoration.[4] In section 71, the Lord called Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon to take a break from revising the Bible to take advantage of the opportunity Ezra gave them to declare the gospel in the area and set the record straight.   

Joseph and Sidney enjoyed obeying this revelation. “Knowing now the mind of the Lord,” Joseph wrote, “that the time had come that the gospel should be proclaimed in power and demonstration to the world, from the scriptures, reasoning with men as in days of old, I took a journey to Kirtland, in company with Elder Rigdon, on the 3d day of December to fulfill the . . . Revelation.”[5] Sidney Rigdon replied to Ezra Booth in the pages of the Ohio Star and invited him to meet publicly.[6] For nearly six weeks Joseph and Sidney “continued to preach in Shalersville, Ravenna, and other places, setting forth the truth; vindicating the cause of our Redeemer: showing that the day of vengeance was coming upon this generation like a thief in the night: that prejudice, blindness, and darkness, filled the minds of many, and caused them to persecute the true church, and reject the true light: by which means we did much towards allaying the excited feelings which were growing out of the scandalous letters then being published.”[7]

Since Ezra Booth, many others have wielded weapons against the restored gospel. The Lord’s policy, as stated in Section 71, is to “let them bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord.” Such opposition facilitates agency and fulfills prophecy. It compels people to consciously choose whether to believe in Joseph Smith’s testimony and it honors Moroni’s unlikely promise to the obscure, teenage Joseph that his “name should be had for good and evil among all nations . . . or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (Joseph Smith-History, 1:33).    

In section 73, the Lord told the elders to continue preaching the good news while Joseph and Sidney returned to revising the Bible while preaching locally as best they could.[8]

Section 72

Church members in Ohio, wanting to learn their duty and worried about their “spiritual and temporal welfare,” gathered on December 4, 1831.[1] The church grew larger and more complicated to manage. Many of the ablest saints, including Bishop Edward Partridge, had migrated to Missouri to obey earlier revelations, leaving a large number of saints in Ohio without a bishop. In a revelation a month earlier than Section 72, the Lord had promised to call other bishops when he saw fit (D&C 68:14).   

He saw fit in Section 72, which is actually a series of three related revelations given to answer the questions Joseph and others were asking. Verses 1-8 address whether the time is right for the appointment of a new bishop? If so, who should it be? Verses 9-23 outline the duties of the new bishop. The saints worried about overtaxing their resources in gathering to Zion in Missouri. They could not wisely arrive faster than Bishop Partridge could make land available for them to inherit. Verses 24-26 are an amendment to earlier revelations, given to regulate the gathering of saints to Zion.[2]

“I cannot see a Bishop in myself,” Newel Whitney told Joseph after section 72 called him to that office, “but if you say it’s the Lord’s will, I’ll try.” Joseph replied that Newel “need not take my word alone. Go and ask Father for yourself.” Newel prayed privately for confirmation and “heard a voice from heaven tell him, ‘thy strength is in me.’” He found Joseph and told him he would accept the calling as the Lord’s bishop.[3] He confided to his wife, Ann, “that it would require a vast amount of patience, of perseverance and of wisdom to magnify his calling.”[4]

Early bishops like Edward Partridge and Newel Whitney did not preside over wards as bishops do today. That began in the 1840s. Their primary duty was to implement the law of consecration. They managed the Lord’s property and assets, relieved poverty, paid the church’s bills, and literally built Zion as best they could. Having received his calling and confirmation of it by revelation, Newel Whitney did his best to serve as a bishop for the rest of his life. He was a great choice for the job. Not only was he an experienced and able manager of properties, inventories, and accounts. Perhaps most important of all, he knew he was incapable of being a bishop unless he relied on the Lord for the patience, perseverance, and wisdom he needed. 

The bishops were responsible to assist the members of the Literary Firm (see section 70) so they could concentrate on publishing the Lord’s revelations and selling the Book of Commandments widely, thus raising funds to support their own families and, hopefully, surplus to benefit the church. In this way, assistance from the bishop would enable members of the Literary Firm to be faithful and wise stewards.  

Section 72 is a blueprint for appointing bishops in all large branches of the church to facilitate obedience to the law of consecration.  If the saints act on this blueprint, they will be obeying the law of consecration’s principles of agency (acting of one’s own free will to obey God’s will), stewardship (taking care of the Lord’s property and business as commanded), and accountability (reporting to the Lord’s appointed servant, the bishop).      

The saints struggled to obey section 72’s command to gather to Zion only after receiving a recommend from the bishop to do so. Joseph wrote to church leaders in Missouri that he rejoiced at the news that a group of saints had arrived there safely, but “they left here under this displeasure of heaven.” Why? For “making a mock of the profession of faith in the commandments by proceding contrary thereto in not complying with the requirements of them in not obtaining recommends.”[5] William Phelps reminded the saints of the revelation. He wrote in the church’s newspaper that emigrating saints would not be welcome in Zion “without regular recommends.”[6] Slowly the saints began to comply with the revelation by receiving recommends before moving to Missouri.[7]

Section 74

The context of section 74 is mysterious but the content is a commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:14, where Paul counseled Christian women who were married to Jewish men regarding the tension between their religions when it came to raising children.[1]

This remarkable revelation makes one think of Joseph’s teenage struggles to understand the Bible. “The teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible” (JSH 1:12). Joseph had learned then to take his questions to the Lord himself. In Section 74, as in several others, the Lord himself interprets the Bible for Joseph. In doing so he subtly solves an important theological problem that often occurs to parents of three-year-olds. It concerns original sin. Are mortals sinful by nature or not? Ask a group of Latter-day Saints if they believe that people are inherently evil and, all evidence from themselves and their own children aside, they will overwhelmingly answer no.  

Ask the Book of Mormon writers and you get a different answer. They knew and taught that mortals are inherently evil, at least in part (2 Nephi 2:29, 2 Nephi 4:17-20). As the Brother of Jared put it, “because of the fall our natures have become evil continually” (Ether 3:2).  Though the scriptures are plain on this point, sometimes modern Latter-day Saints underestimate the effects of the fall. Perhaps we fear that it makes us sound too much like other Christians. But by merely being born as mortals, we inherit a sinful nature. We are naturally vicious, selfish, carnal, mean, and often flat out evil. 

Doesn’t section 74 say that little children are holy? Yes. They are, but not because they are inherently so. The revelation says they are “sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ.” Section 74 teaches us one more of the profundities of Christ’s infinite atonement. Since children inherit fallenness helplessly without having exercised any agency in the matter, Jesus Christ atones for them. He sanctifies them and sets them on a course to become free agents at about age eight if properly taught the law of the gospel (see sections 29 and 68). As long as children are not yet free agents, too helpless to understand or do much about the fallen part of their nature, Jesus sanctifies them according to his will. That is what section 74 teaches. It is beautiful doctrine, restored through Joseph Smith, and it resolves an important theological problem.

Section 75
Manuscript of Section 75 in Sidney Rigdon hand, Newel K. Whitney Collection, BYU. Likely original manuscript.

The church convened quarterly conferences in its early years, including an important one in January 1832 in Amherst, Ohio, the home of several Latter-day Saint families about fifty miles east of church headquarters in Kirtland. The Lord had recently revealed that at this conference the elders would learn what he wanted them to do next (See section 73). Joseph’s history says they “seemed anxious for me to inquire of the Lord that they might know his will, or learn what would be most pleasing to Him for them to do.”[1] Joseph asked and received two revelations and Sidney Rigdon wrote them down.[2] Combined, they now comprise section 75.  

Many of the early elders kept journals of their missions or wrote letters to the church newspaper to report on their service. They intended to document their obedience to the revelations, or, in some cases, justify their disobedience. We can use their records to tell whether they obeyed section 75. When they did, the Lord unfailingly granted them the blessings he promised on conditions of their obedience.  

William McLellin started his mission to the south with Luke Johnson but was soon overwhelmed by doubts. The Lord promised him that continual prayer would sustain him, that if William and Luke would pray, then “I will be with them even unto the end.” William said he could not bring himself to pray in faith. He had his eyes on a young lady named Emiline Miller.  He quit his mission and took a job so he could marry her, noting, meanwhile, that he was too sick for missionary work.[3] “Preferring not to proceed alone,” Luke returned to Hiram, Ohio where Joseph called Seymour Brunson to replace William. Luke and Seymour filled their call and enjoyed the Lord’s promised blessings on their mission in the “south countries,” Virginia and Kentucky.[4]

Orson Hyde noted that he and companion Samuel Smith did “one of the most arduous and toilsome missions ever performed in the Church.”[5] For eleven months they walked from Ohio to Maine and back. Samuel wrote that they followed the revelation as they “went from house to house” and shook the dust from their feet as a testimony against those who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ.[6]

Lyman Johnson and Orson Pratt went east, as commanded, ending up in New England.  They baptized many, including a future apostle, and at Charleston, Vermont, twenty-two-year-old Orson Pratt pronounced a priesthood blessing that raised Olive Farr from bed where she had lain invalid for seven years. “Thank God,” she wept, “I’m healed!” Such evidence that the Lord was with the elders, as he said he would be in the revelation, greatly increased their success. They immersed 104 sons and daughters of God for the remission of their sins and organized them into branches before returning to Ohio after walking nearly 400 miles.[7]

No known records tell whether Asa Dodds, Calves Wilson, Major Ashely and Burr Riggs obeyed section 75. Simeon Carter and Emer Harris did with great success, though they each ended up serving with their brothers as companions.[8] Ezra Thayre and Thomas Marsh apparently served their mission. Hyrum Smith and Reynolds Cahoon obediently served together, and on his return home Hyrum set out to obey other instructions in the revelation. He noted that he “went to work with mine hands for the support of my family.”[9] Seymour Brunson reported his mission with both Daniel Stanton and Luke Johnson. They baptized fifty-three and organized them into a branch.[10]

Sylvester Smith and Gideon Carter obeyed the revelation. Sylvester had it in mind the next summer, too, when he went out again “resolved to blow the trumpet of the Gospel.” He knew that if he would the revelation promised that the Lord would be with him. “I trust I shall continue to receive the grace of God to support me even to the end.”[11] There is no known evidence that Ruggles Eames and Stephen Burnett obeyed this revelation. Micah Welton and Eden Smith obeyed. Eden’s journal shows that he was especially mindful of the revelation’s instructions to preach and provide for his family as best he could. “Preachd and then returned home and Laboured for the support of my family,” he wrote, echoing the Lord’s instructions.[12]

Section 71 & 73 notes

[1] A.S. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875), 250.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 153, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/159.

[3] A.S. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875), 250.

[4] Wesley Perkins to Jacob Perkins, 11 February 1832, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 176, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/182.   

[6] Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 599 fn. 2.  Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature, 1994), 111.

[7] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 179, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/185.

[8] “Revelation, 10 January 1832 [D&C 73],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-10-january-1832-dc-73/1.

Section 72 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 176, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/182.

[2] “Revelation, 4 December 1831–A [D&C 72:1–8],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-4-december-1831-a-dc-721-8/1. “Revelation, 4 December 1831–B [D&C 72:9–23],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-4-december-1831-b-dc-729-23/1. “Revelation, 4 December 1831–C [D&C 72:24–26],” p. [2], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-4-december-1831-c-dc-7224-26/1.

[3] Orson F. Whitney, “Newel K. Whitney,” Contributor 6 (January 1885): 126. Poulsen, “The Life and Contributions of Newel Kimball Whitney,” 33054.  “Aaronic Priesthood Minutes,” 1857-1877, 3 March 1877, Church History Library.

[4] Elizabeth Ann Whitney,  “A Leaf from an Autobiography, Continued,” Woman’s Exponent 7 (September 1, 1878): 71.

[5] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-31-july-1832/1.

[6] “The Elders Stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad, In Love, Greeting,” The Evening and the Morning Star, 2 (July 1833), 111.

[7] See, for examples, Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, editors, The Journals of William E. McLellin (Urbana and Provo: University of Illinois Press and BYU Studies, 1994), 138.

Section 74 notes

[1] “Historical Introduction” and “Explanation of Scripture, 1830 [D&C 74],” p. 60, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 5, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/explanation-of-scripture-1830-dc-74/1.

Section 75 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 180, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 6, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/186.

[2] Elden J. Watson, Orson Pratt Journals, January 25, 1832.  Edson Barney statement reported in St. George, Utah Stak General Minutes, December 23, 1860, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.  Manuscript copies of Section 75, Newel K. Whitney Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

[3] William McLellin to Beloved Relatives, August 4, 1832, typescript, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.   In Shipps and Welch, The Journals of William E. McLellin (Urbana and Provo: University of Illinois Press and BYU Studies, 1994), 79-86.   See Porter, “Man of Diversity,” in Shipps and Welch, 301-02. 

[4] Millennial Star 26 (December 31, 1864): 835.

[5] Orson Hyde, “History of Orson Hyde,” Millennial Star 26 (3 December 1864): 776.

[6] Events in the Life of Samuel Harrison Smith Including His Missionary Journal for the Year 1832, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[7] Breck England, The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1985), 29-31, 306.

[8] The Evening and the Morning Star volume 1 (February 1833): 69-70, (March 1833): 84, volume 2 (May 1834): 156.  Mark B. Nelson and Steven C. Harper, “The Imprisonment of Martin Harris in 1833,” BYU Studies 45:4 (2006): 113-15.

[9] Hyrum Smith diary, 1831-1835, Church History Library, page 27.

[10] The Evening and the Morning Star 2 (June 1833): 100.

[11] Sylvester Smith to Dear Brother, 16 May 1833, The Evening and the Morning Star 2:14 (July 1833): 107.

[12] Eden Smith, Journal, typescript, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 76

Section 76

Various people love Joseph Smith or object to him for the same reason: he revealed “realms of doctrine unimagined in traditional Christian theology.”[1]

Vision, 16 February 1832. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

On February 16, 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon read John 5:29, where Jesus testified to some Jews that he would raise the dead who “shall come forth; that that have done good, unto the resurrection of the just; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Joseph and Sidney “meditated upon these things” and the Lord touched, perhaps literally, their eyes, and they understood. They testified together of Jesus Christ. They saw and understood God’s plans for salvation and the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whom they saw and with whom they spoke, at his Father’s right. After all the testimonies given of Christ, they give the ultimate testimony: “He lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotton of the Father—that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God” (D&C 76:22-24).  

In a major reversal, another vision opened to Joseph and Sidney.

They saw an angel, Lucifer, revolt against God to steal the kingdom from its rightful heir—Jesus Christ. Weeping, Heavenly Father banished Lucifer permanently from his presence. 

Having been punished for his rebellion, Satan chooses to attack the saints by surrounding them with evil. Joseph and Sidney envisioned the suffering of those who fell under Satan’s onslaught. The Lord told them that all who knew his gospel and then chose to follow the devil and become subject to his power, denying the truth and defying Christ’s power, become Satan’s children rather than Christ’s. They are sons of the utterly lost. It had been better for them not to have been born. They suffer God’s justified anger with the devil and the spirits who rebelled with him. The Lord has said they are not and will not be forgiven. They don’t want to be. They denied the Holy Spirit after they received it. They denied Christ. It was as if, knowing the power of his gospel, they openly crucified him themselves. They are sent to hell with the devil and the spirits who rebelled with him. Though resurrected, they remain spiritually dead forever, cut off from the Godhead, the only ones unredeemed by Christ, who saves everyone else and would have saved them if they wanted that. 

A heavenly voice testified to Joseph and Sidney of these glad tidings: Jesus Christ came into the world to be crucified to endure the sins of the world, to sanctify and cleans the world for all unrighteousness for the express purpose of saving everyone of Heavenly Father’s children who exercises their God-given agency to be saved, all except the few who “defect to perdition.”[2]

Juxtaposed against the suffering of the damned, Joseph and Sidney testify of seeing and hearing about the resurrection of the just: those who receive the testimony of Jesus Christ, believe and are baptized by immersion, signifying burial and rebirth as Christ commanded. Christ cleanses from sin all who choose to keep these commandments. They receive the Holy Spirit when an authorized priesthood holder lays on hands. The just overcome Satan by exercising faith in Christ. The Holy Ghost, in his role as the Holy Spirit of Promise, seals them by testifying that they have been faithful to their covenants. Heavenly Father sheds this Holy Spirit of Promise on all who are keeping their covenants. Covenant keepers belong to the church of the Firstborn. Heavenly Father gives them everything—including the fullness of temple blessings. They are priests and kings, priestesses and queens. They are the children of God who fully inherit his glory. They are thus gods themselves. Everything is theirs. Death cannot stop them. Their future is limitless. They belong to Christ, and he belongs to Heavenly Father. Nothing can damn them or hem them in. 

The just are resurrected first and come with Christ at his second coming to reign on earth. They dwell in Zion, the New Jerusalem, the holiest place on earth. They commune with angels and the people of Enoch’s Zion and the other saints throughout time who have received the fullness of temple ordinances and been faithful to their covenants. Their names are written in heaven where God and Christ judge everything. They have kept their covenant promises to obey the laws of God, and Christ therefore keeps his covenant promise to resurrect and perfect them by the power of his perfect atonement in which he shed his own blood. They are resurrected with celestial bodies as glorious as the sun, which is typical of God’s glory. 

Joseph and Sidney then envisioned the terrestrial world, which differs from the celestial as the moon differs from the sun. The celestial church of the Firstborn received all Heavenly Father has. Inhabitants of the terrestrial glory do not. They died without obeying the laws of God. Christ arranged for the gospel to be preached to them in the spirit world. They received the testimony of Jesus Christ there, but would not receive when they were alive on earth. They were honorable but deceived, blinded by crafty men. They receive God’s glory, just not all of it. They receive the Savior’s presence, just not all the Father has. They were promised the blessing to become kings and queens if they would obey the laws of God, but they did not, and thus they forfeit their crowns. The Lord commanded Joseph and Sidney to write this vision before the Holy Spirit leaves them. 

Joseph and Sidney then envisioned the telestial glory, which pales in comparison to the others as stars pale in comparison to the sun and moon from our perspective. Heirs of telestial glory do not deny the Holy Ghost but they do not receive it either. They do not want the gospel of Jesus Christ. They remain in Satan’s power and are not resurrected until the very end of time, after Christ has finished his work. They receive only a portion of what Christ offers them, but they are saved. 

When the visions ended the Lord commanded Joseph and Sidney to write them before the Holy Ghost left them. They marveled and acknowledged their inability to conceive of or communicate what they had seen. They saw much the Lord commanded them not to write.  

Section 76 testifies.

Two eyewitnesses repeatedly declare what they saw, heard, and understood. “I know God,” Sidney Rigdon testified in conference in April 1844. “I have gazed upon the glory of God, the throne, the visions, and glories of God.”[3] Such testimony can be rejected but not discredited. It is powerful evidence.  

Wilford Woodruff read section 76 before he ever met Joseph.“It had given me more light and more knowledge with regard to the dealings of God with men than all the revelation I had ever read in the Bible or anywhere else,” he said. Wilford “had been taught that there was one heaven and one hell,” and that those who were baptized would go to heaven, and those who were not would go to hell. Personal righteousness made no difference. “That was the kind of teaching I heard in my boyhood,” he noted. “I did not believe one word of it then.” He said section 76 “opened my eyes. It showed me the power of God and the righteousness of God in dealing with the human family. Before I saw Joseph I said I did not care how old he was, or how young he was; I did not care how he looked.” Wilford knew that only one thing mattered about Joseph: “The man that advanced that revelation was a prophet of God,” Wilford wrote. “I knew it for myself.”[4]

Notes

[1] E. Brooks Hollifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought From the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 335. Richard Bushman calls such texts “exaltation revelations.” Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 195.

[2] Elder Boyd K. Packer, “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign (November 1995), 18.

[3] Times and Seasons, 5:522-6. History of the Church, 6:290.

[4] Deseret Weekly News, (43:2), page 321.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 77-80

Section 77

Having been treated to section 76 in February 1832 for his efforts to understand and revise the Bible, Joseph continued his painstaking study of the scriptures. His history says that “about the first of March, in connection with the translation of the scriptures, I received the following explanation of the Revelations of Saint John.”[1] The questions answered by this revelation are embedded in it. 

Section 77 is a key to unlocking the meanings of The Revelation chapters 4-11. It models the right way to approach that famously complicated book. Joseph Smith studied the book carefully, formulated questions for the Lord, then sought and received the Lord’s answers to his specific questions.  

Joseph rarely spoke of or taught from John’s Revelation. One exception is an April 1843 sermon. The Nauvoo high council had recently convened a hearing to correct Pelatiah Brown’s interpretation of Revelation chapters 4-5. Joseph described Brother Brown as “one of the wisest old heads we have among us,” though he had misunderstood the meanings of the beasts John saw in Revelation 4. Joseph was frustrated that John’s Revelation was “a subject of great speculation” among Latter-day Saints and others, speculation based on ignorance about John’s intended meanings. Joseph decided to reveal some of John’s meaning to combat the ignorance.  

Joseph taught that with the exception of chapter 12, John’s Revelation is about the future, not the past. Joseph taught that “John saw curious looking beasts in heaven, he saw every creature that was in heaven, all the beasts, fowls, & fish in heaven, actually there, giving glory to God. I suppose,” Joseph continued, “John saw beings there, that had been saved from ten thousand times ten thousand earths like this, strange beasts of which we have no conception all might be seen in heaven. John learned that God glorified himself by saving all that his hands had made whether beasts, fowl fishes or man.” 

Because of section 77, Joseph knew what the beasts represented. He had a key to John’s Revelation, and he was not a hostage to the rampant speculation. “We may spiritualize and express opinions to all eternity,” Joseph told the saints, “but that is no authority.”[2] Section 77 is an authoritative key to understanding parts of John’s Revelation. As a possessor of such keys, Joseph could say as perhaps no other person can, “Revelation is one of the plainest books God ever caused to be written.”[3]

Section 78

Joseph purposely veiled the meaning of section 78. The issue it addresses is intentionally vague in the present form of the revelation. That is because it deals with church finances and assets. It addresses the problem of paying for the things the Lord has commanded, namely the building of Zion and publishing the Book of Commandments. Joseph—whose job in the Literary Firm was to oversee expensive publication of the Book of Commandments (see section 70)—sat in counsel with Bishop Whitney, whose job it was to meet the church’s needs from the storehouse, which was literally his store.  

Where today’s verse 3 vaguely talk about “an organization of my people,” the manuscript versions more specifically refer to “an organization of the literary and  mercantile establishments of my church.”[1] Joseph kept the issues behind section 78 as confidential as possible to avoid giving the church’s enemies information they could use to cripple it financially, and thus undermine Zion. Essentially the revelation tells how the church could use its profitable mercantile assets (like Bishop Whitney’s store) to finance its revealed priorities (buying land in Missouri and publishing the scriptures).

Joseph and the other members of the Literary Firm had covenanted to publish the Book of Commandments, but they lacked funding for the expensive project. The Lord commanded Bishop Partridge to buy land, lots of it, on which to build Zion in Missouri. Bishop Whitney had a profitable store and other businesses in Ohio. Based on the law of consecration’s principle of using the surplus of some to meet the needs of others, section 78 provides a solution to these problems. 

In obedience to the revelation, Joseph, Bishop Whitney, and Sidney Rigdon traveled to Missouri to counsel with Bishop Partridge and the Literary Firm members who were there printing the Book of Commandments. Together they created the United Firm, which is often called the United Order, which is not the law of consecration. The United Firm (Order) was a corporation designed to support the church according to the law of consecration. Technically, it was the joining of the Literary Firm with Newel Whitney’s Kirtland, Ohio store and the Independence, Missouri store operated by Whitney’s partner, Sidney Gilbert. Uniting these firms was meant to streamline the building of Zion. It did not ultimately work as intended. That is not God’s fault. It is the fault of free agents (see section 104). It worked great when saints chose to keep their covenants and were not overwhelmed by their enemies.

Section 79

One of the most remarkable facts about Joseph Smith as a revelator is that many intelligent, faithful people went to great lengths to seek, receive, and obey his revelations. Jared Carter embraced Joseph’s revelations and went on a mission because of them. After he returned he went to the home where Joseph was living to ask “the seer to inquire the will of the Lord concerning my ministry the ensuing season. And the word of the Lord came forth.”[1]

Jared noted that April 25, 1832 marked “the commencement of a mission by Jared Carter, a servant of the Lord.” He followed section 79 specifically, going from town to town in the power of his ordination, “which was to the high privilege of administering in the name of Jesus Christ.”  Jared went northeast along Lake Erie and continued on to Benson, Vermont, his birthplace, proclaiming the everlasting gospel in each location. He battled opposition and bouts of depression. He kept careful track of his obedience to the revelation and the fulfillment of the promised blessings. His records testify that, as promised, the Lord sent him the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to teach him the truth and where he should go. Since Jared was faithful to section 79, the Lord crowned him again with a bountiful harvest. Jared summarized his service after returning in October. “I have been gone six months and two days. The Lord has permitted me to administer the Gospel to 79 souls and many others by my instrumentality have been convinced of this most glorious work.” He rejoiced on the completion of his difficult yet successful mission. “God has blessed me according to the prophecy of Brother Joseph before I went from Ohio,” Jared wrote.[2]

Section 80

Steven Burnett started fast. He converted at age 16 and was ordained a teacher, then an elder, and then a high priest before he turned 18. He was filled with the Holy Ghost and a desire to take the gospel to his relatives. He led his parents into the church and was called to preach in January 1832 (D&C 75:35) and again in March by section 80.  

Stephen and Eden Smith started their on mission on July 15 and spent a few days together declaring the gospel in villages south of Kirtland, Ohio.[1] Stephen also went east with success. He “was the first one that sounded the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel” in Dalton, New Hampshire.[2] By 1838 Stephen felt completely disillusioned. He tried but failed to regain the Spirit. Finally he “proclaimed all revelation lies” and left the church. He said that the foundation of his faith failed and the entire structure fell in “a heap of ruins.”[3] Joseph thought there was more to it. He thought that Stephen’s unwillingness to consecrate his life to the kingdom of God contributed to his unconversion.[4]

Section 77 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 192, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/198.

[2] “Discourse, 8 April 1843, as Reported by William Clayton–A,” p. [2], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/discourse-8-april-1843-as-reported-by-william-clayton-a/2.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843],” p. 1523, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/166.

Section 78 notes

[1] “Revelation, 1 March 1832 [D&C 78],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-1-march-1832-dc-78/1. “Revelation Book 1,” p. 145, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/133.

Section 79 notes

[1] Jared Carter, Autobiography, typescript, p. 9, Church History Library. “Revelation, 12 March 1832 [D&C 79],” p. 12, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-12-march-1832-dc-79/1.

[2] Ibid., p. 7.  Here Jared confused his first mission with his second.  In both instances the Lord crowned him with sheaves as prophesied for his second mission in Section 79.

Section 80 notes

[1] Eden Smith, Journal, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.  Stephen Burnett had earlier preached with Eden Smith’s father John.  See Lyndon Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Provo, Utah: Seventy’s Mission Bookstore, 1981), 170, 314.

[2] Levi B. Wilder to the editor, 15 February, 1835, in Messenger and Advocate 1:5 (February 1835): 75.

[3] “Letterbook 2,” p. 64, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-2/69.

[4] “Elders’ Journal, August 1838,” p. 57, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-august-1838/9.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 81, 82, 83

Section 81
Revelation, 15 March 1832. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

It is very good to have your sins blotted out. It is not good to have you name blotted out. Before erasers and delete keys, scribes used a blot of heavy ink to expunge the record. God keeps meticulous records. In them he blots out the sins of the repentant and the names of the rebellious unrepentant (Isaiah 44:22, Nehemiah 4:5, Alma 6:3, Moroni 6:7, D&C 109:34).  

Joseph chose and ordained Jesse Gause as a counselor in the presidency of the high priesthood in March 1832.[1] A week later Joseph received Section 81, giving Jesse instructions for his calling.[2]

Section 81 announces that the keys of the kingdom belong to the Presidency of the High Priesthood. The Lord commands Jesse to “be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5). The Lord promises to bless Jesse on the specific conditions that he remain faithful, pray always, and proclaim the gospel. The revelation closes with a reiteration of the Lord’s covenant with Jesse: “If thou art faithful to unto the end thou shalt have a crown of immortality and eternal life which I have prepared for thee in the mansions of my Father” (D&C 81:6).  

Jesse Gause forsook his covenant and his calling by 1833. In an early manuscript of Section 81, the name of Jesse Gause is blotted out and replaced by the name of Frederick Williams. It was a tragic ink blot for Jesse but not a hindrance to God’s plan. Here, as elsewhere in the revelations, the Lord simply replaced Jesse and the kingdom rolled forward (see D&C 56 and 124:91-95).

Section 82

To organize the church (as Joseph was led by the Lord to do) to be “independent of every encumbrance beneath the celestial kingdom,” then you make “bonds and covenants of mutual friendship, and mutual love.”[1] The problem was that in early 1832 there was a lack of friendship and love among church leaders. Section 78 commanded Joseph, Sidney Rigdon, and Bishop Whitney to travel to Missouri to organize a united firm with Bishop Partridge and others. Sidney and Bishop Partridge were at odds with each other.  

Joseph noted with relief that the Missouri saints were glad to see them and sustained him as President of the high priesthood, and that Bishop Partridge extended “the right hand of fellowship.” Joseph’s history says that between meetings the “difficulty or hardness which had existed between Bishop Partridge and Elder Rigdon was amicably settled, and when we came together in the afternoon all hearts seemed to rejoice, and I received the following revelation given April, 1832, shewing the order given to Enoch and the church in his day.”[2]

The revelation begins with the Lord’s forgiveness for the brethren who have forgiven each other, and a warning not to backslide. The tone is serious and solemn. The Lord is about to organize the leaders of his church, by covenant, into a firm, an order, or what we might call a corporation. It is to fulfill the command in section 78 “to manage the literary & Mercantile concerns & the Bishoprick both in the Land of Zion & in the Land of Kirtland.”[3] In other words, section 82 organizes the leaders by covenant into a united firm designed to build Zion by living the law of consecration. 

The Lord declares a reason that he has consecrated Zion and its stake in Kirtland to the saints and why he commands them to covenant with him to consecrate: “that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church” (D&C 82:18). Talent in these verses refers to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, where a talent is a substantial amount of silver or gold. This is a revelation about economics. By Joseph Smith’s lifetime the word talent in English had taken on the meaning of a natural gift or endowment, enriching the Lord’s usage of it in this revelation.  

Section 82 created the United Firm, better known as the United Order, a pseudonym still used in published versions of the revelations.[4] The men named by the Lord in verse 11 met the day after the revelation was given and “resolved, that the name of the Firm mentioned in the Commandments yesterday be Gilbert, Whitney & Company in Zion. And Newel K. Whitney & Company in Kirtland, Geauga Co. Ohio.”[5] They joined the church’s two storehouses and made them a parent company of the church’s printing and real estate projects “and named the newly integrated mercantile establishment the United Firm.”[6]

The members of the United Firm were diligent if faltering. They acquired properties in both Ohio and Missouri and published the revelations, two newspapers, and a hymnal. They operated two stores until antagonistic neighbors in Independence, Missouri dragged Bishop Partridge from his home in July 1833 to tar and feather him, demanding that the Firm shut down its Independence businesses. Then the mob burned the Firm’s printing office and destroyed its press. In Ohio, meanwhile, the Firm struggled with debt and access to credit. Building Zion was expensive and the saints were often frustratingly stingy. The Lord accused them of saying “we will not go up to Zion, and will keep our moneys” (D&C 105:8).  

The Lord finally dismantled the United Firm in section 104 because some of its members broke the covenant they entered as a result of section 82. “I the Lord am not to be mocked in these things,” he told them, after reminding them about the punishments he prophesied for covenant breakers in section 82 (D&C 104:3-10). In April 1834, two years after beginning, the United Firm ceased to function unitedly. Some Latter-day Saints understand that this process ended the law of consecration. That is a little like saying that if NASA ceased operations the laws of rocket propulsion would be nullified as a result. They would not be. The choice not to live the law of consecration does not end the law of consecration.

Section 83

While he was in Missouri in spring 1832, Joseph “received a welcome known only by brethren and sisters united as one in the same faith.”[1] These saints, including widows Phebe Peck and Anna Rogers, were acting on the law of consecration as best they could. The law specified that “individuals” should consecrate surplus to the storehouse maintained by the bishop to that “every man who has need may be amply supplied and receive according to his wants,” but it was not clear that women could be supplied as well (D&C 42:33).  Section 83 is an “addition to the laws” already given.[2] It clarifies that the storehouse is for widows, orphans, and children whose parents cannot provide for them. “They have claim upon the church, or in other words upon the Lord’s storehouse, if their parents have not wherewith to give them inheritances” (D&C 83:5). The storehouse, in turn, is to be stocked by the consecrated offerings of the Latter-day Saints. “Widows and orphans shall be provided for, as also the poor” (D&C 83:6).  

Generally speaking, Latter-day Saints past and present have practiced these principles beautifully. When he dedicated the new Bishops’ Central Storehouse in 2012, President Dieter Uchtdorf recalled his boyhood in post-World War II Germany, when food, clothing, and bedding was sent from the church’s storehouses to meet the needs of his family and others.[3]

Section 81 notes

[1] “Note, 8 March 1832,” p. 10, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/note-8-march-1832/1. For more on Jesse Gause, see https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/jesse-gause.

[2]  “Revelation, 15 March 1832 [D&C 81],” p. 17, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-15-march-1832-dc-81/1.

Section 82 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 213, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/219.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 210, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/216.

[3] “Revelation Book 1,” p. 145, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/133.

[4] Max H. Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” BYU Studies 46:3 (2007): 5-6.

[5] Far West Record, April 27, 1832, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[6] Max H. Parkin, “Joseph Smith and the United Firm,” BYU Studies 46:3 (2007): 13.

Section 83 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 213, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/219.

[2] “Revelation, 30 April 1832 [D&C 83],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-30-april-1832-dc-83/1.

[3] Heather Wrigley, “President Uchtdorf Dedicates New Bishops’ Central Storehouse,” Church News, January 26, 2012, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/president-uchtdorf-dedicates-new-bishops-central-storehouse?lang=eng.