Category: Joseph Smith

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 18, 19

Section 18
A Revelation to Joseph, Oliver, and David, making known the calling of twelve disciples in these last days, June 1829. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

The Lord revealed section 18 because Joseph, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer desired to know how to build the Church of Jesus Christ, something they knew was coming but they had never done before.[1] The Lord tells Oliver specifically to rely on what he has learned from the Book of Mormon manuscript he has penned as Joseph translated. Since he knows by the Spirit that it’s true, he can use it to compose a foundational document for the church that is soon to be restored. If they build the church on this foundation, hell cannot stop them. 

This revelation is the first in the Doctrine and Covenants to refer to apostles, saying that Oliver and David “are called” to that calling (D&C 18:9). What should apostles do? “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” Based on that premise—the value to God of each individual soul—the revelation gives a rationale for repentance that is centered in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This part of the revelation sounds like a sacred equation: the value of each soul is directly proportionate to the infinite atonement of Jesus Christ. He conquered death to bring the repentant to him. He feels great joy in repentant souls. Truman Madsen had this revelation in mind when he taught, “If souls are of value in direct proportion to the concern and sacrifice of our Redeemer, then we know that in the eyes of the Father and the Son, your soul—even yours—and mine—even mine—is of infinite worth.”[2]

That is the revealed reason for Oliver and David to cry repentance. If they spend their whole lives at it and only a single soul repents, the effort will be worthwhile. Their joy with that soul will be great in God’s kingdom. How much greater joy, then, to help many repent? So they are to follow the Book of Mormon in preaching the law of the gospel with faith, hope, and charity by inviting all mankind to come to Christ and assume his name, becoming his.  

After nearly two millennia, section 18 commissions new apostles.

The Lord prophesies their calling. Then, beginning at verse 31, he speaks directly to them, promising grace sufficient to save them if they choose to meet his covenant conditions. Oliver and David are charged to “search out the Twelve” by discerning their godly desires, manifest in their behavior (D&C 18:37-38). The Twelve, in turn, are to act on their revealed instructions. A quorum of twelve would not be called for nearly six more years, but this revelation sets apostles Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to the task of selecting the members of that quorum and then speaks to them directly. 

What does the Lord emphasize when he commissions apostles, when he gives them their job description, their marching orders? He teaches them that the atonement, the price paid, makes each soul of infinite worth in God’s sight. Based on that truth, he commissions the apostles to tell every soul to repent, to obey the law of the gospel, to become one with Christ by assuming his name. 

Based on their commission in Section 18, modern apostles emphasize how the Savior’s atonement gives infinite value to each soul.

  “If we could truly understand the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Elder M. Russell Ballard, “we would realize how precious is one son or daughter of God. . . . .  We would strive to emulate the Savior and would never be unkind, indifferent, disrespectful, or insensitive to others.”  Elder Ballard concluded, “It was Jesus who said, ‘If . . . you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!’ (D&C 18:15). Not only that, but great shall be the Lord’s joy in the soul that repenteth! For precious unto Him is the one.“[3]

Section 19
Agreement with Martin Harris, 16 January 1830. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org

Martin Harris was “one of the most respected farmers in Wayne County,” a prosperous, property-owning Palmyran since 1808.[1] In summer 1829, Martin and Joseph agreed to terms with a Palmyra printer named Egbert Grandin to publish the Book of Mormon. It was a controversial book and they wanted to print a large run of 5,000 copies. 

Martin led the negotiations and planned to pay for the printing, but he balked when Grandin refused to begin work until he had security for the entire payment.[2] They worked out an agreement in which Grandin would print and bind all 5,000 copies of the book for $3,000, with Martin putting up more than 150 acres of land as collateral. That’s when Martin “staggered in his confidence.”[3] He would have to mortgage all the land he owned outright. The marvelous work halted for most of the summer. 

Martin worried that no one would buy the books and he would lose his farm.

“I want a commandment,” he told Joseph, “I must have a commandment.” So Joseph asked and the Lord gave a commandment, section 19.[4] In a word, the commandment was repent. Frequent, intense repetition of I command and repent dominate this text. It offers astonishing autobiographical insight into the Savior’s atonement. It begins in the voice of the Almighty Christ. First, he clarifies a mystery, or a common debate at the time about whether God’s punishment would last forever or not. Didn’t the word eternal obviously mean never-ending, proponents might argue. Not necessarily, the Lord answers. Consider that it can be a qualitative measure as well as a quantitative one. The acts of Christ’s suffering and being resurrected didn’t last forever, and yet they have eternal consequences. Punishment, perhaps, can be limited in duration and yet lasting in effect. Moreover, Christ says, eternal “is more express” than other words (D&C 19:7). It makes the intended point powerfully.

With that the Savior begins to make his intended point powerfully. He repeatedly commands Martin to repent because Christ suffered exquisitely so that he could. This is the best autobiographical description of the Savior’s atoning suffering in the scriptures. It is wrenching, beautiful, and powerful. “It is more express than other scriptures” (D&C 19:7). Compare section 18, for example, where the Savior speaks briefly and modestly in the third person voice to describe how he suffered the pain of all so that all might repent (DD&C 18:10-13). It’s the same doctrine declared by the same Christ but in an entirely different voice and tone.

Section 19 is adapted to Martin’s present predicament, which Christ knows how to address.

Throughout section 19 there is subtle allusion in which Christ compares himself to Martin implicitly. As Martin wrestles with whether he should keep his promises, and whether the sacrifice asked of him is too great, the Savior declares his character: he keeps promises. He made the infinite sacrifice. Where Martin is concerned with carnal security, the Savior shows contempt for covetousness. Where Martin is coveting his own property, the Lord compares it to the priceless testament of Jesus Christ, the “Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and word of God” (D&C 19:26). 

This revelation reoriented Martin Harris. He grasped what the Lord was saying so expressly. He learned to let this commandment suffice and not ask again (D&C 19:32). He obeyed the Lord’s command to “not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to the printing” (D&C 19:26). He mortgaged his farm on August 25, paying Grandin in full.[5] Once the paperwork was finished, Grandin’s employees began printing. The marvelous work was back on track.

Section 18 notes

[1] “Book of Commandments, 1833,” p. 34, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/book-of-commandments-1833/38.

[2] Truman G. Madsen, “The Savior, the Sacrament, and Self-Worth,” Address given at the 1999 BYU-Relief Society Women’s Conference, https://womensconference.byu.edu/sites/womensconference.ce.byu.edu/files/madsen_truman.pdf.

[3] Elder M. Russell Ballard, “The Atonement and the Value of One Soul,” General Conference, April 2004, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2004/04/the-atonement-and-the-value-of-one-soul?lang=eng.

Section 19 notes

[1] Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York, 1867), 41, 50.

[2] John H. Gilbert, Memorandum, 8 Sept. 1892, photocopy, MS 9223, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/162efea4-cb3f-459f-937f-949b3995e572/0/0. “Mormon Leaders at Their Mecca,” New York Herald, 25 June 1893, 12.

[3] Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism: Biography of Its Founders and History of Its Church (New York: D. Appleton, 1867), 51.

[4] Joseph Knight, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. MS 3470, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[5] Martin Harris, Mortgage to Egbert B. Grandin, 25 August 1829, Mortgages, Liber 3, 325, Wayne County Clerk’s Office, Lyons, New York.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 14-17

Sections 14, 15, 16

Oliver Cowdery kept his acquaintance, David Whitmer, informed about the translation of the Book of Mormon. When antagonism against Joseph grew in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Oliver wrote to David to ask if he and Joseph could finish translating at the Whitmer’s home in Fayette, New York. David himself came with a wagon to transport them, told them his parents would house and feed them for free while they were translating, and promised them all the help they might need. 

By early June 1829, they commenced translating in Fayette. The Whitmers and their neighbors were friendly and supportive. Whitmer sons David, Peter, and John were about the same age as Joseph and Oliver, all in their twenties, and especially “zealous,” Joseph’s history says, “and being desirous to know their respective duties, and having desired with much earnestness that I should enquire of the Lord concerning then, I did so, through the means of the Urim and Thummim and obtained for them in succession the following Revelations.”[1]

Section 14 was for David.
Portrait of David Whitmer by Lewis A. Ramsey.

It repeats phrases and themes of the marvelous work about to be made known to mankind and the figurative field that is ready for harvest. It also repeats the emphasis on working for Zion, and promises David that if he works to build Zion and endures to the end, God will give him the greatest possible gift: eternal life.  

The revelation foreshadows David’s role as one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. David kept many of the revelation’s commands. His testimony of the Book of Mormon, to which he remained faithful, is recorded in every copy. He assisted in the marvelous work. But in David’s case the condition that he “endure to the end” (D&C 14:7) is especially notable. He may not have endured as the Lord intended. Having served for almost four years as president of the Church in Missouri, he was cut off from the church in 1838. He lived for another five decades as a respected citizen of Richmond, Missouri and make a conscious effort to affirm the Book of Mormon while finding fault with Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[2]

The Lord gave essentially the same revelation to both John and Peter, sections 15 and 16, commanding both to hearken to his words as their Redeemer.

They desired to know what would be of most worth to them. The Lord blesses them for this desire and he tells them the most valuable thing they can do is to “declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my father” (D&C 15:6, 16:6).   

Like most of the revelations in the Doctrine & Covenants, these ones have an internal rationale. Declaring repentance is the most valuable thing for John and Peter to do, the Lord explains, because it will enable them to rest with the repentant in God’s kingdom. Sections 18, 84, and 93 explain this line of reasoning further, but in these sections we are introduced to the truth that working for the salvation of others is eternally satisfying for ourselves.

Section 17

Two Book of Mormon passages prophesy that “three witnesses” (2 Nephi 27:12) “shall assist to bring forth this work.” They would be shown the Book of Mormon plates so they could know and bear witness of the truth (Ether 5:2-3). Joseph translated the passage in Ether first. By the time he translated the 2 Nephi prophesy he was nearly finished with the Book of Mormon, and there had been plenty of foreshadowing about who the three “who shall assist” could be. 

In section 5 the Lord had told Martin Harris that he could qualify if he chose to be humble and faithful. In section 6 the Lord mentioned witnesses and testimony and told Oliver Cowdery that he should “assist to bring forth my work” (D&C 6:9, 28, 31). In section 14 the Lord called David Whitmer “to assist” and prophesied that if he asked of God in faith he would “stand as a witness of the things which you shall both hear and see” (D&C 14:8, 11). 

In June 1829 as the translation neared completion at the Whitmers’ home in Fayette, New York, Martin, David, and Oliver pled with Joseph to ask God if they could be the prophesied witnesses. Joseph asked, and the Lord answered with section 17. Joseph rose from his knees and said to Martin, “you have got to humble yourself before God this day and obtain, if possible, a forgiveness of your sins. If you will do this, it is God’s will that you and Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer should look upon the plates.”[1]

The revelation can be read as a covenant in which the Lord promises Oliver, David, and Martin that if they will rely on his word wholeheartedly, he will show them the Book of Mormon plates.

He also promises to show them the breastplate, Laban’s sword, the seer stones the Lord made for the brother of Jared, and the Liahona that directed Lehi and his family miraculously through the wilderness near the Red Sea.  The witnesses will view these artifacts by faith akin to the brother of Jared’s or Lehi’s.  

That experience would prove to these men much more than the fact that Joseph had plates. Lehi’s miraculous compass, Laban’s sword, and the brother of Jared’s seer stones testify that the plates are inscribed with ancient writing about actual people who received revelations, knew the Lord, were directed to a promised land, and committed their testimonies of Christ to writing that had been translated by Joseph Smith.  

In exchange for such an experience, the Lord obligates the would be witnesses to testify of the Book of Mormon to fulfill his purposes. Their witness will verify Joseph’s, keep him from being overwhelmed, and accomplish the Lord’s righteous purposes. On these conditions, the Lord covenants to resurrect the witnesses at the time of his second coming.  

About noon on a late spring day in 1829, Joseph, David, Oliver, and Martin slipped into the woods near the Whitmer home.
Artist’s depiction of Moroni showing the plates to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Joseph Smith.

“Having knelt down,” Joseph said, “we began to pray in much faith, to Almighty God, to bestow upon us a realization of those promises. According to previous arrangement, I commenced by vocal prayer to our Heavenly Father and was followed by each of the other three.” Nothing happened. 

“We again observed the same order of prayer, each calling on and praying fervently to God in regular rotation, but with the same result as before.” Finally Martin Harris confessed that he was responsible for the Lord’s silence. He left the others humbly, disappearing deeper into the woods. “We knelt down again,” Joseph stated, “and had not been many minutes engaged in prayer when presently we beheld a light above us in the air of exceeding brightness and behold an angel stood before us.” He held out the plates for them to see, turning them over one by one. “We could see them,” Joseph testified, “and discern the engravings thereon very distinctly.” A heavenly voice declared, “These plates have been revealed by the power of God, the translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.” 

“I left David and Oliver,” Joseph reported, “and went in pursuit of Martin Harris, whom I found at a considerable distance fervently engaged in prayer.” Joseph knelt beside him and their joined faith opened heaven. Joseph saw and heard the vision again while Martin cried out, “mine eyes have beheld, mine eyes have beheld,” and was overcome with joy. Joseph helped him up and they returned to the Whitmer home, rejoicing.[2]

Joseph entered the room where his parents and Mrs. Whitmer were visiting. 

“Father! Mother! You do not know how happy I am. The Lord has caused the plates to be shown to three more besides me. They have also seen an angel and will have to testify to the truth of what I have said, for they know for themselves that I do not go about to deceive the people.” The pressure of being the sole eyewitness had, Joseph said, become “almost too much for me to endure. But they will now have to bear a part, and it does rejoice my soul that I am not any longer to be entirely alone in the world.”[3]

Martin, Oliver, and David eagerly told what they had seen and heard.
Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829. Images courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

They wrote a statement of testimony to the whole world that they had seen the engraved plates and heard the voice of God state that they were translated correctly. “We declare with words of soberness,” they affirmed, “that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon.” It happened just as all the witnesses said. “It is marvelous in our eyes,” they declared together. “Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things.”[4]

The testimony of the Three Witnesses in the Book of Mormon today.

As Section 17 emphasizes, the witnesses fulfill the Lord’s righteous purposes. They do not compel people to believe. They make everyone able to accept or reject the testimony and accountable for their choice. Witnesses sift people into self-selected categories of believers or unbelievers. “Their testimony shall . . . go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts,” while those who believe will receive the testimony of the Spirit (D&C 5:5-6).

 

 

Sections 14, 15, 16 notes

[1] Dean C. Jessee, editor, The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1989), 1: 294. 

[2] Lyndon W. Cook, editor, David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem: Grandin, 1991). 

Section 17 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/29.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 25, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/31.

[3] “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [11], bk. 8,” p. [11], bk. 8, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/103.

[4] “Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829–circa January 1830,” p. 463, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 23, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/467.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 12, 13

Section 12
A revelation given to Joseph Knight Sr. in Harmony, Pennsylvania, May 1829. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

In the spring of 1829, Joseph Knight was in his late fifties and lived with his large family in Colesville, New York, a long day’s journey from Joseph home in Harmony, Pennsylvania. He routinely supplied Joseph with food, shoes, cash, and paper to see him through the translation process.[1] During one of his visits, Father Knight was “very anxious to know his duty as to this work.”  Joseph asked the Lord, who answered with the revelation in section 12.[2]  

It says many similar things as revelations to Joseph Smith, Sr., Oliver Cowdery, given earlier or around the same time: A great and marvelous work is about to be made known to mankind. Like a sword that cuts both ways, the Lord’s words can bless and curse, save and damn. The figurative field is ready for harvest. Whoever desires to harvest should do so all day long, saving his soul in the process.  God calls whoever will harvest. If Father Knight will ask, God will answer. Since he has asked, the Lord tells him to keep the commandments and work for Zion.  

One of the great souls who made the restoration possible, Joseph Knight obeyed this revelation. He did all in his power to bring forth the Book of Mormon. He transported Joseph Smith in his wagon when he went to Fayette to organize the church in April 1830 and in his sleigh when he moved to Ohio early in 1831. He was “first to administer to my necessities while I was laboring in the commencement of bringing for the work of the Lord, and of laying the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Joseph remembered. “Faithful and true, and even handed, and exemplary and virtuous and kind.”[3]

Section 13

Section 13 is an excerpt from Joseph’s Manuscript History. It is the words by which John the Baptist ordained Joseph and Oliver to the priesthood of Aaron on May 15, 1829. 

They had been translating the Book of Mormon, likely in 3 Nephi about the Savior’s commission to Nephi and others, “I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended into heaven” (3 Nephi 11:21-26). As Joseph read those words to Oliver in May 1829, it was as if the Savior was teaching them too. They realized that no one on earth in 1829 had the Lord’s permission and power to baptize. No one.[1] They went to the woods for what Oliver described as fervent prayer. To “inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins as we found mentioned in the translation of the plates,” Joseph said.[2]

His account continues: “a Messenger from heaven, descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying unto us; ‘Upon you my fellow servants in the name of Messiah I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.”[3]

Only later in his narrative, almost as an afterthought, Joseph reveals the messenger’s identity: he “said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the new Testament, and that he acted under the direction <of> Peter, James, and John.”

Joseph’s straightforward account can seem matter-of-fact. Oliver, by contrast, could barely contain himself when he wrote the story years later: “Twas the voice of the angel from glory—twas a message from the Most High! . . . .  Where was room for doubt?  No where.”[4]

Joseph and Oliver followed John the Baptist’s instructions and immersed each other in the Susquehanna River, then ordained each other. “We were filled with the Holy Ghost,” Joseph said, “and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.”[5] Soon Joseph’s brother Samuel was baptized by this authority, and so on down to each person who has received the gospel of repentance and baptism by immersion in the last dispensation. 

That will continue until, or so that, the sons of Levi (modern Aaronic priesthood holders, cross reference D&C 84:26-34 and D&C 128:24) can offer the Lord the latter-day equivalent of their service in the ancient temples.

There is reason to believe that there is more to keys of ministering angels mentioned by John the Baptist than most commentaries on section 13 consider. The keys are mentioned again and associated with John the Baptist in D&C 84, a temple revelation describing how priesthoods, keys, ordinances, and endowments of power were offered anciently and will be again. When Joseph gave a rapid rundown of temple related restorations of keys, knowledge, and power in D&C 128, he mentioned how Adam showed him how to discern the devil on the banks of the Susquehanna River. That must have happened at about the same time John the Baptist restored priesthood that held the keys to that knowledge. Joseph taught it to Parley Pratt, as recorded esoterically in D&C 129 with the euphemism of hand shaking standing in for temple knowledge, or in other words keys governed by Aaronic priesthood that enable a person to detect the devil when he appears as an angel of light (D&C 128:20).[6]

Section 12 notes

[1]  Joseph Knight, Reminiscences, MS 3470, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/37b7b91c-4148-45d6-8f32-df4acf06fe99/0/0.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 21, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/27.

[3] “Journal, December 1841–December 1842,” p. 179, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1841-december-1842/56. 

Section 13 notes

[1] “History, 1834–1836,” p. 48, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/50.

[2] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 17, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/23.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 17, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/23.

[4] “History, 1834–1836,” p. 48, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/50.

[5] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/24.

[6] Wilford Woodruff Journal, June 27, 1839.  President Joseph Smith’s Journal 1843 As kept by Willard Richards, 170-172 (February 9, 1843).  Both journals are in the Church History Library, Salt Lake City.  

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 10, 11

Section 10
Preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org

If Joseph Smith’s revelations were ranked in order of coolness, section 10 would rank near the top. I don’t mean to be irreverent about it, but it’s a little like watching a duel or a dance off between the devil and the Lord. He even puts it that way–“I will show . . . ,” he says. Who will win? And what kind of impressive moves will it take?

With Oliver as scribe, Joseph began translating in the Book of Mosiah, where he and Martin had left off before losing the manuscript. As they went, Joseph worried about the lost beginning. Should he translate it again? 

No, the Lord answers in section 10.

 

He adds instructions about how to proceed, an omniscient explanation for his answer, and assurance that nothing vital was lost.[1]

In section 10 the Lord describes a conspiracy against Joseph and the Book of Mormon. He exposes Satan’s attributes and tactics and the “servants of Satan” who “uphold his work” (D&C 10:5). Satan inspired conspirators to steal the manuscript from Martin, the Lord explains. They are waiting to see if Joseph publishes the same manuscript. If so, they’ll alter the stolen manuscript and claim he has no gift. If not, they’ll publish the stolen manuscript and claim Joseph has no gift. They will steal and lie for the glory of the world and destroy Joseph in the process. But the Lord clues Joseph in to the conspiracy and helps him thwart it. 

The Lord cautions Joseph to not reveal his knowledge of the conspiracy until the Book of Mormon is translated because he can’t always tell who is trustworthy. With that caution, the Lord reveals to Joseph that the Book of Mormon plates contain a back-up copy of what was lost. “Remember,” the Lord says, “it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi?” Joseph should therefore translate the small plates of Nephi until he gets to the reign of King Benjamin. The conspirators only stole a translation of part of Mormon’s abridgment of Nephi’s writing. Publishing the translation of Nephi’s own small plates will derail the conspiracy, demonstrating in the process that God’s “wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil” (43). 

Section 10 gives us Christ’s embracing view of Christianity.

The Lord affectionately refers Christianity in general as “my church.” Section 10 was revealed well before there was a restored Church of Jesus Christ. The revelation teaches us to think of the Savior’s restored church as the redemption of Christianity. By calling Joseph Smith and keeping promises made to the Book of Mormon engravers to bring forth their words, the Lord is building Christianity, not undermining it. Christians need not fear. They will inherit God’s kingdom. It’s those who “build up churches unto themselves to get gain” whom the Lord promises to disturb (D&C 10:55-56). 

Section 10 illustrates that God is both omniscient and benevolent. Satan uses his influence to blind, to enslave, and to deceive. The Lord uses his power to bless, to save, and to preserve our agency. Theologians have long wrestled with the assumption that if God is all knowing, there can be no such thing as individual agency. The whole script of human action must have been predetermined, this assumption goes, and therefore we have no power to stray from it. One alternative is to believe in a less than omniscient God. Section 10 presents a refreshing alternative. The Lord shows how he uses his foreknowledge to preserve and protect individual agency and simultaneously keep his promises.  

The Lord promised the Book of Mormon engravers that their descendants would receive their writings. He called fallible free agents, Joseph Smith and Martin Harris, to bring to pass that promise. Joseph and Martin chose to disregard the Lord’s will and lost the manuscript as a result.

Can God keep his promise to the Lehite prophets and still allow Joseph and Martin agency to obey or disobey his commands?  

Section 10 answers yes and illustrates how. Knowing that Joseph and Martin could choose to disobey him and that, if so, Satan could seize that opportunity to undermine the Book of Mormon’s power to bring souls to Christ, the Lord commanded Nephi to prepare alternative plates without his knowing exactly why (1 Nephi 9). Nearly a thousand years later, the Lord commanded Mormon to include those plates with his edition of the others. “I do not know all things,” Mormon wrote about that, “but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore he worketh in me to do according to his will” (Words of Mormon 1:7).  

Joseph and Martin did not have to disobey the Lord, but now in case they did the Lord could keep his promise without compromising their agency. How many permutations are in the intricate plan of salvation?  How many backups has the Lord prepared?  Who knows? Only an omniscient God could truthfully assure us in such certain terms that “the works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught” (D&C 3:1).

Section 10 not only restates that guarantee, it shows how God fulfills it. The Lord could have told Joseph what to do with a few words: Don’t retranslate the part you lost. To our delight, however, the Lord uses section 10 to show, not just tell. “I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil” (10:43).    

Joseph relied on section 10 to write the preface to the original edition of the Book of Mormon (see above).

I like to imaging the scene of cunning conspirators, proud of their fool-proof plan to expose Joseph. They walk boldly into Grandin’s bookstore on Main Street in Palmyra, pick up one of the copies of the leather-bound Book of Mormon, smelling the ink, glue, and calfskin. Eager to see what is says so they’ll know which of their sinister plans to enact, they open and read the preface. Quoting and paraphrasing section 10, it reveals their plot and foils their plan. They sheepishly close the book, put it back, slink out the door, and are never heard from again.

But the Book of Mormon makes its way, converting a few, then hundreds, then thousands, and eventually reaching every nation, kindred, tongue, and people with its witness of Jesus Christ. It fulfills God’s promises to the Lehite prophets without coercing Joseph or Martin in the process. Who is the mastermind behind section 10? It’s either Joseph Smith or an omniscient God capable of guaranteed plans with endless permutations that preserve both individual agency and divine promises.  

Section 11

Father Smith returned home from his Spring 1829 visit to Joseph with a revelation in hand saying he was called to the marvelous work. Joseph’s younger brother, Samuel, returned home a few weeks later having been baptized and “greatly glorifying and praising God, being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Older brother Hyrum wanted to get in on the action. He went to Joseph’s place in Pennsylvania and asked what the Lord had in store for him. Wait, the Lord replied.[1]

Section 11 includes all of the anticipation of section 4 and later revelations, and it commands Hyrum to take part. But the Lord restrains Hyrum in this revelation. Unlike his father, Hyrum is not yet called to preach but rather to wait until he has the Book of Mormon and the restored church. Then, as Hyrum desires, he will be a successful preacher of the gospel. For now he should keep the Lord’s commandments, be patient, appeal to the Spirit, and cleave unto Christ wholeheartedly in order to assist with the printing of the Book of Mormon. “Be patient until you shall accomplish it,” the Savior tells him.

It could have been disappointing for Hyrum to be told to study and wait while everyone else, it seemed, was doing more exciting work. But he was simply to keep the commandments as best he could. He was not to declare the Lord’s word but to obtain it. Then his tongue will be loosed and then, if he desires, Hyrum will be full of the Spirit and the Lord’s word, the power of God to convince many. So for now Hyrum should not preach but study the scriptures.  

This revelation channels Hyrum’s zeal.

He is like a wild horse. Here the Lord bridles him, careful not to break his spirit but to train him. This revelation gives Hyrum, and since him so many others, the formula for becoming successful preachers of the gospel. Having the Lord’s conditional promise of power to convince by the Spirit if he will first learn the gospel, Hyrum spent a year searching the scriptures and helping with the publication of the Book of Mormon.

When the Lord spoke to him again in April 1830, the Book of Mormon was printed, the church was restored, the marvelous work had come forth, and Hyrum had knowledge to pair with his desire to declare the good news. Having been promised in May 1829 that the Lord would loose his tongue if he would obtain the word, Hyrum learned in April 1830 that his “heart is opened, thy tongue loosed; and thy calling is to exhortation” (D&C 23:3).  

Section 10 notes

[1] “Revelation, Spring 1829 [D&C 10],” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-spring-1829-dc-10/1.

Section 11 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 19, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/25.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 6-9

Section 6
Revelation given through Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery in April 1829. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org

Early in 1829, Joseph’s father-in-law was about to evict him. Joseph “cried unto the Lord that he would provide for me to accomplish the work whereunto he had commanded me.”[1] This prayer was answered on a Sabbath evening when Joseph’s younger brother Samuel arrived with a twenty-two-year-old school teacher named Oliver Cowdery.  

Oliver had learned about the marvelous work from Joseph’s family. He had prayed to know the truth of the matter and the Lord showed him the Book of Mormon plates in a vision, and told him of the translation Joseph had begun.[2] Oliver probably brought with him some money for Joseph to use to make a payment to his father-in-law.  

On the second day after his arrival, Oliver began scribing as Joseph translated the Book of Mormon. Oliver had a normal inclination to fear and doubt things that had been revealed to him before. He wanted to know if he could believe what he was seeing and experiencing. The Lord responded with the reassuring revelation in section 6.

Speaking through Joseph but to Oliver, the Lord assures him that his gifts are indeed divine, and that the revelation he received before was too. This has the effect of convincing Oliver once and for all that Joseph, however unrefined or lacking in literacy, is the Lord’s chosen seer, for out of Joseph’s mouth came words of Jesus Christ, telling Oliver things Jesus knew but Joseph didn’t. Oliver wrote to David Whitmer saying that Joseph had “told him secrets of his life that he knew could not be known to any person by himself, in any way other than by revelation from the Almighty.”[3] 

Section 6 foreshadows sections 7 and 8 by telling Oliver about records that have been kept hidden due to wickedness and that Oliver can have the gift to translate if he desires it.  The revelation foreshadows martyrdom, but it is encouraging and empowering to Oliver.

It also bears a beautiful autobiographical witness of Christ, perhaps even in a visual way for Joseph and Oliver, the two young seers. The Lord invites them to “look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet” (36-37).  Like Peter, beholding the risen Christ gives Joseph and Oliver apostolic courage.  

What we have in Section 6, then, is a document of the Lord’s lovingly employed omniscience.  He is not the arbitrary sovereign Oliver’s ancestors imagined him to be.[4]  He uses his limitless power to address the needs of those who desire and ask. He proves to Oliver that Joseph Smith, whatever his “faults” (v. 19), is the Lord’s chosen seer. The revelation not only says those things. By its delivery through Joseph and its secrets known only to the Lord and Oliver, it illustrates them.

Section 7
Doctrine & Covenants, 1835. Restored text highlighted. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

In the spring of 1829, as they translated and scribed the Book of Mormon, nothing excited the young seers Joseph and Oliver more than the idea of sacred ancient writings that had not yet come to light. The Book of Mormon was not just the best example of this, it mentioned many other texts. The Lord told Oliver in section 6 that he could, like Joseph, translate records like these if he desired.[1]

As they translated, they discussed John chapter 21:20-23. What did the words mean: “that disciple should not die”?  Was John still alive?  The text itself is ambiguous. Bible scholars had been “puzzled with this passage,” and Joseph and Oliver couldn’t agree on its meaning.[2]  They agreed to seek clarifying revelation through the seer stones Joseph used to interpret the Book of Mormon. There they saw a parchment John had written and hidden.[3]    

The parchment is apparently the original source for John’s Gospel in the New Testament. The revelation of the parchment to Joseph and Oliver restores much that was lost from the final few verses of John 21. The Lord did give John power. As the revelation was first recorded, this was power to bring souls to Christ. When Joseph reviewed the revelations for publication in 1835, he clarified that John asked the Lord for “power over death, that I may live and bring souls to thee.”[4] The Lord granted John’s desire.

Joseph also added to the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants the words in verse 6-7. The Lord said of John, “I will make him as flaming fire and a ministering angel: he shall minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation who dwell on the earth.” The Lord said to Peter, “and I will make thee to minister for him and for thy brother James: and unto you three I will give this power and the keys of this ministry until I come.”[5]

This section clarifies an ambiguous Bible passage and satisfied Joseph and Oliver’s curiosity. It does more work than that, however. It restores to the scriptures the fact that Jesus gave keys of salvation to Peter, James, and John. The revelation confirms that the Bible is true even as it confirms that the Bible is not complete. Nor is the Bible sufficient for salvation. We don’t just have the incomplete records of dead apostles. Jesus Christ sent Peter, James, and John back to earth to confer their keys on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, not too long after they received this revelation. 

Many years later, the apostle Boyd K. Packer stood with President Spencer W. Kimball, other apostles, and local church leaders in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark, admiring Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Christus and his sculptures of the twelve apostles. The sculpture of Peter holds symbolic keys in his hand, given him by Jesus Christ. President Kimball pointed them out and then then charged the Copenhagen stake president to “tell every prelate in Denmark that they do not hold the keys.  I hold the keys!” As the party left the church, President Kimball shook hands with the caretaker, “expressed his appreciation, and explained earnestly, ‘These statues are of dead apostles,’” then said, “you are in the presence of living apostles.”[6]

Section 8
Revelation for Oliver Cowdery in April 1829. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

The Lord told Oliver he could translate ancient records in section 6, then showed him an ancient record in section 7. Joseph said Oliver “became exceedingly anxious to have the power to translate bestowed upon him,” so Joseph asked the Lord and received section 8.[1] 

In the revelation the Lord tells Oliver the conditions on which he’ll be able to translate. He’ll have to seek the necessary knowledge honestly, in faith, believing in the Lord’s promise. The Lord, in turn, will tell Oliver this knowledge in his heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. This spirit of revelation guided Moses in leading the children of Israel safely through the Red Sea.  It is now Oliver’s gift. “Apply unto it,” the Lord commands him. 

The Lord also reminds Oliver of his other gift: The gift possessed by Moses’ brother Aaron–the gift of working with a divining rod, or, as the earliest extant manuscript of this revelation puts it, “the gift of working with the sprout.”[2] It has already told Oliver many things, and may be what the Lord alludes to in D&C 6:11-12. The Lord affirms and validates this gift and commands Oliver not to trifle with the gift or ask for things that he ought not. 

So what should he ask for?  He should ask to know the mysteries of God. He should ask to translate and receive knowledge from ancient records that have been kept hidden. The Lord will grant these desires according to Oliver’s faith, just as he has done all along.

Means of receiving revelation including Oliver’s rod, Lehi’s “miraculous directors,” Joseph’s seer stones, or the Brother of Jared’s were apparently more common anciently and in Joseph’s day than in ours (D&C 17:1).  By 1829 when this revelation was given, such gifts were being questioned.  Skepticism of “means,” as the scriptures call these objects, were beginning to be explained in naturalistic terms instead.[3]

Before publishing this revelation in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph took out the explicit mention of Oliver’s rod and referred to it vaguely to “the gift of Aaron” (D&C 8:6). This revelation neither denies nor discourages either of Oliver’s gifts, however. As commanded, Oliver did not trifle with his rod or make it known to unbelievers (D&C 6:11).  Little is known about it in our time, when natural rather than supernatural explanations are preferred. Perhaps the equally marvelous, supernal gift of the Holy Ghost remains nearly as mysterious. It is widely available, yet few “apply unto it” as the revelation commands (D&C 8:4).         

Section 9
Revelation for Oliver Cowdery on the matter of translation. Image courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.

Oliver couldn’t translate. Why, after the Lord had said he could? He wanted to know, and the Lord told him in section 9.[1] Oliver did not understand what it took to translate by the gift and power of God, and the only way he was going to gain understanding was to try it. He made a start but could not continue. 

His efforts were undermined by his assumption that all he had to do was ask and the Lord would do the rest. Not so, the Lord explained. Oliver learned a lesson about revelation that is best understood through experience.  Revelation is an active, not passive process, requiring a combination of spiritual sensitivity and intellectual exertion.

Before Oliver arrived on the scene, Joseph had also struggled to learn the process of revelation. Joseph worked hard to translate, to apply the gift and power of God. As a result of Oliver’s failure to translate and the Lord’s explanation, Oliver gained respect for Joseph’s gift he would never lose and knowledge about the process of revelation he would never forget.[2]  

The process of revelation is usually learned after wrestling with it for a while, gaining experience with how it feels in both the heart and the mind, and then applying it, as the Lord told Oliver to do in section 8. This revealed recipe for receiving revelation is a lot more than the common refrain, “just pray about it.” Revelation seldom comes so cheaply.

The Lord promised Oliver other opportunities to translate later, but for now he was to finish what he had started, scribing the Book of Mormon. Oliver was faithful to that charge, as the manuscripts in his handwriting attest.[3] Years later he testified, “That book is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it. Mr Spaulding did not write it. I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the prophet.”[4]

Section 6 notes

[1] “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. [6], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/6 .

[2] “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. [6], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/6 . “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 15, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/21.  

[3] James H. Hart, “About the Book of Mormon,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 9 Apr. 1884, 190; see also “Report of Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith,” Deseret News, 27 Nov. 1878, 674.

[4] In his famous 1741 sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards described “the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation.”  John E. Smith, Harry S. Stout, and Kenneth P. Minkema, editors, A Jonathan Edwards Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 90.

Section 7 notes

[1] “Revelation, April 1829–A [D&C 6],” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-april-1829-a-dc-6/1.

[2] Adam Clarke, The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Text Carefully Printed from the Most Correct Copies of the Present Authorised Version, Including the Marginal Readings and Parallel Texts. . . . Vol. 1 (New York: J. Emory and B. Waugh, 1831), 631.

[3] “Account of John, April 1829–C [D&C 7],” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/account-of-john-april-1829-c-dc-7/1.

[4] 1835 Doctrine & Covenants 33:1 (D&C 7:2).

[5] “Doctrine and Covenants, 1835,” p. 161, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/169.

[6] Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (1980), 83.  Edward L. Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2005), 108, 327.

Section 8 notes

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 16, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/22.

[2] “Revelation, April 1829–B [D&C 8],” p. 13, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-april-1829-b-dc-8/2. Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 73.  Robert J. Woodford, “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants,” (Brigham Young University, PhD dissertation,  1974): 185-89.

[3] See all of Alma 37.  Also 1 Nephi 16:29, Mosiah 8:15-18, D&C 10:1, JS-H 1:62.

Section 9 notes

[1] “Revelation Book 1,” p. 14, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/8.

[2] Oliver Cowdery, Norton, OH, to William W. Phelps, 7 Sept. 1834, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834, 1:14.

[3] Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829-circa January 1830, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/1. Book of Mormon Original Manuscript (1829) https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/library/book-of-mormon-original-manuscript-1829?lang=eng.

[4] See Reuben Miller’s journal, 1848-1849, Church History Library, MS 1392, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/record?id=0448e354-d892-4ea7-9e2a-28b714114909&compId=22222322-f4fe-41e3-aa86-bfc54b94df92&view=browse.

Come, Follow Me: Doctrine & Covenants 3, 4, 5

Section 3

A respected and prosperous farmer from Palmyra, New York, Martin Harris, left his home in the spring of 1828 and traveled southeast until he crossed into Pennsylvania. There he wrote as Joseph Smith, Jr., who was about half Martin’s age, translated the abridged Book of Lehi by the gift and power of God.

Meanwhile, Martin’s wife Lucy told neighbors that Joseph had duped her husband into giving him money. She dramatically moved her favorite pieces of furniture out of the house, claiming she did not want Martin to give them away too. Martin resented the damage Lucy was doing to his good name. He asked Joseph to let him take the translated manuscript home to prove that he was no fool.

“The Lord said unto me that he must not take them,” Joseph recalled, “and I spoke unto Martin the word of the Lord.” Dissatisfied, Martin told Joseph to ask again. “I inquired again and also the third time,” Joseph said, “and the Lord said unto me let him go with them.”[1]

The Lord knew what was about to happen. Martin was sure he knew better, and Joseph feared to disappoint him. Joseph struggled to please both Martin and the Lord. He made Martin vow to show the pages only to his wife Lucy and her sister Abigail, his brother and parents. The Lord’s answer made them free agents, but with agency came accountability. They could do their own will instead of God’s, but making that choice meant that Joseph could no longer be the seer chosen to bring forth the marvelous work. Moroni confiscated the seer stones. Sincerely but unwisely, Martin left for a brief trip to Palmyra with the translated manuscript. He did not return as promised.

Finally Joseph went to Martin and learned that he had lost the manuscript.

“It is gone and I know not where,” Martin confessed.

“All is lost!” Joseph despaired. “What shall I do? I have sinned. It is I who tempted the wrath of God by asking him for that which I had no right to ask.” He wept and groaned and paced the floor, forsaken. “How shall I appear before the Lord?” Joseph wondered. “Of what rebuke am I not worthy from the angel of the Most High?”[2]

Back home in Pennsylvania, Joseph went to woods and prayed for redemption, poured out his sorrow, confessed his weakness. Moroni appeared and returned the seer stones. Joseph looked and saw strict words. It’s not clear whose words they are. They could be Moroni’s. They could be the Lord’s, speaking in third person. They said, “Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men. For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him” (D&C 3)

The words pierced Joseph. “You have been entrusted with these things, but how strict were your commandments; and remember the promises which were made to you if you did not transgress them.” Joseph recalled Moroni’s commission to be responsible for the sacred records and powers and the warning that “if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them . . . they should be protected.”[3]  Joseph had let Martin persuade him to transgress these commands. “You should not have feared man more than God,” the revelation said. Historian Richard Bushman wrote that these words “were hard for a young man who had lost his first-born son and nearly lost his wife, and whose chief error was to trust a friend, but there was comfort in the revelation as well.”[4]

Indeed, notice the way the tone of the revelation changes about halfway through.  “Remember,” it says, “God is merciful.” It tells Joseph he is still chosen to translate if he will repent. Then it teaches him why the manuscript is sacred and can’t be taken for granted. The plates were preserved so the Lord could keep his promises (Enos 1:15-18).  The Lord explains that by keeping His promise to give Lehi’s descendants their ancestors’ knowledge of the Savior, “they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ,” exercise faith, repent, and be saved.

The revelation in section 3 marked a turning point in the life of the young seer.  This was the first time Joseph committed one of his revelations to writing. Only twenty-two years old, he had learned to use the prophetic voice to foretell the fulfillment of the Lord’s promises to the house of Israel. He was the seer chosen to bring forth the marvelous work that would eventually teach all nations “to rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ,” as the revelation said, “and be glorified through faith on his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved” (D&C 3:20).

Moroni kept the plates while Joseph acted on the revelation’s command to repent. Then in September 1828, one year after he first received them, Joseph received the plates again. By choosing to obey the revelation, Joseph was still chosen and again called to the work.

Section 4

Joseph Smith said he was born to good parents who worked hard to instruct him in the Christian religion.[1] It was Christianity generally that Joseph got from his parents, not a particular version of it. They had no church, and that worried them both.

Shortly after moving his family yet again, this time to a new farm in Manchester, New York, Joseph Smith, Sr. dreamed he met a peddler who promised to tell him the one thing he lacked. Father Smith jumped up to get some paper and awoke before learning the secret. Though he toiled hard and wanted badly to know God’s will, Joseph Smith’s father had a gnawing feeling that something vital was missing in his life.[2]

As his understanding of Joseph’s mission grew, Father Smith began to believe that God would reveal the answers through Joseph. Early in 1829, Joseph Senior visited Joseph in Harmony, Pennsylvania, longing to know what the Lord wanted him to do.[3]

In section 4 the Lord spoke the language of a God-fearing farmer who, by his own admission, sometimes drank too much and who wanted to be blameless. Section 4 sounds like it applies to everyone, but it is also perfectly adapted to Joseph’s father. For example, the command to be temperate meant that he should not drink excessively. The Lord’s metaphor of a ripe field ready for harvesting made perfect sense to Father Smith, whose life as a farmer depended on reaping successful harvests, and who knew exactly what it meant to thrust in his sickle and reap all day long.

This revelation turned Father Smith into a farmer of souls. He had been tight-lipped to Oliver Cowdery, the school teacher who was boarding with his family, but when Joseph Sr. returned home to New York he told Oliver about the marvelous work about to come forth.[4] As soon as the Book of Mormon was off the press and the Church of Jesus Christ was restored, Father Smith spent the harvest season visiting his parents and siblings. He found most of them ripe and brought salvation to their souls and his.[5]

Section 5

About a year after Martin Harris went to Pennsylvania to scribe for Joseph, he arrived there again in spring 1829. This time he said his neighbors were gathering evidence for a lawsuit and threatening to put him in jail if he did not condemn Joseph for deception. Martin said he needed to know, really know, that Joseph had plates engraved with ancient, sacred writings.[1]

The Lord spoke to that situation, but not to Martin. In sections 4 and 6 and dozens of others, the Lord spoke through Joseph to his father or Oliver Cowdery or others. In section 5, it seems like the Lord was not on speaking terms with Martin. Rather, the Lord tells Joseph that Martin’s desire for more evidence can be granted if Martin chooses to meet the conditions of humility, faith, and patience.

The Lord tells Joseph to remind Martin that Joseph is under covenant not to show the plates to anyone unless commanded, implying a rebuke to Martin the covenant-breaker who showed off the translation manuscript and lost it, contrary to his solemn promise.

The Lord tells Joseph he intends to select three witnesses to testify. He will show them the plates and their witness will accompany His words to all mankind. However, the Lord makes it clear that seeing is not believing.

This revelation reoriented Martin. He came to the Lord saying show me and I’ll believe. And let me prove to others so they’ll believe. With Joseph as mediator, the Lord explained, in response, that he would show Martin after he chose to believe and to be humble, not before. Martin eventually received the greater witness he sought. He became one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon plates and artifacts. That happened after he chose to meet the conditions the Lord set in section 5, not before.

Section 3 notes

[1] “History, circa Summer 1832,” pages 5-6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/5.

[2] “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845,” p. 131, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/138. “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [6], bk. 7,” p. [6], bk. 7, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/86.

[3] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 8, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 22, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/10.

[4] Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 68.

Section 4 notes

[1] “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/1.

[2] “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845,” p. 72, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/79.

[3] “Revelation Book 1,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-book-1/4.

[4] “Revelation, February 1829 [D&C 4],” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-february-1829-dc-4/1.

[5] On Father Smith’s mission to his family, see Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 114.

Section 5 notes

[1] https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-march-1829-dc-5/1#historical-intro.

 

 

Come Follow Me: Doctrine and Covenants 2 and Joseph Smith-History 1:27-65

Do you know how Joseph Smith was called to save the earth?

When Joseph left the grove after seeing the Father and the Son, he was not a prophet. He had no calling and no idea that he ever would. The calling came three and a half years later. Joseph Smith-History 1:27-65 tells the story. Doctrine and Covenants section 2 is a quote from that history. It’s one of many things an angel told Joseph when he called him, and maybe ultimately the most important thing.

A reminiscent entry Joseph’s journal, written in 1835, also tells the story

“When I was about 17 years,” Joseph Smith said, “I had another vision of angels; in the night season, after I had retired to bed; I had not been asleep, but was meditating on my past life and experience.  I was well aware I had not kept the commandments, and I repented heartily for all my sins and transgressions, and humbled myself before him, whose eye surveys all things at a glance.  All at once the room was illuminated above the brightness of the sun; An angel appeared before me.” “I am a messenger sent from God,” he told Joseph, introducing himself as Moroni. He said that God had vital work for Joseph to do. There was a sacred book written on golden plates, buried in a nearby hillside. “He explained many of the prophecies to me,” Joseph said, including “Malachi 4th chapter.”[1]

Moroni appeared three times that night and again the next day, emphasizing and expounding the same prophecy

There must have been something vital to Joseph’s calling in that. Malachi doesn’t mention priesthood. Moroni does. Speaking for the Lord, Moroni said: “I will reveal unto you the Priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Joseph said Moroni paraphrased Malachi’s next verse too: “And he [Elijah] shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers, if it were not so the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.'”

In the Doctrine and Covenants, angels are sent to solve problems Joseph doesn’t know exist

In the case of section 2, Joseph knew he needed forgiveness but he didn’t know that the earth was on track to be wasted unless Elijah came soon to catalyze a dramatic turn. President Russell M. Nelson taught that “eternal life, made possible by the atonement, is the supreme purpose of Creation. To phrase that statement in its negative form, if families were not sealed in holy temples, the whole earth would be utterly wasted.”[2] Section 2 is the Lord’s announcement to Joseph that Elijah will endow him with priesthood powerful enough to seal families forever, reverse the effects of death and the disintegration of families, and thus fulfill the purpose for which the earth was created (see section 110).

Joseph just wanted forgiveness

He got it–and a calling to save the earth. From the earliest (chronologically speaking) revelation in it, the Doctrine and Covenants points us to the temple, to the Savior’s priesthood, and to the ultimate purpose of sealing families so they can be together forever.

[1] “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 5, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/5. “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 24, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 21, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/25.

[2] Elder Russell M. Nelson, Conference Report (October, 1996), 97.

A First Vision for Anxious, Sinful Teens (or Adults)

There is a sacred grove about fifty feet from my office

It is in the atrium of the Joseph Smith Building on the campus of Brigham Young University. A bronze figure of teenage Joseph Smith is kneeling among the trees.

Avard T. Fairbanks’s sculpture “The Vision,” pictured here, is located in the courtyard of the Joseph Smith Building at Brigham Young University. When Elder Henry B. Eyring unveiled the sculpture in 1997, he paid tribute to the sculpture “for what he didn’t show,” referring to the implied presence of the Father and the Son. (Photo by Brent R. Nordgren.)

When Henry B. Eyring unveiled and dedicated this sculpture in 1997, he praised the artist for what Joseph’s heavenward gaze invites us to imagine. President Eyring said: “From studying the various accounts of the First Vision, we learn that young Joseph went into the grove not only to learn which church he should join but also to obtain forgiveness for his sins, something he seems not to have understood how to do.”

President Eyring hopes that every young person who sees the statue will relate to Joseph in the moment depicted, “that moment when Joseph Smith learned there was a way for the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be unlocked fully.” According to President Eyring, “in more than one account the Lord addressed the young truth seeker and said, ‘Joseph, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee.’”[1]

Joseph’s parents “spared no pains” in teaching him “the Christian religion.”

They taught him that the scriptures “contained the word of God.” Joseph wrote that he was about twelve when he began to worry about the welfare of his immortal soul. His “all important concerns” led him to exercise faith in his parents’ teachings. He began searching the scriptures for himself, and doing what he called “applying myself to them.” That is how he discovered that various Christian churches professed things that the Bible did not.

Joseph grieved over that. He could see that contention characterized Christianity. He became deeply distressed because he believed the Christian teachings about his sinful and fallen state. He knew he needed to be redeemed by Jesus Christ, but “there was no society or denomination,” as far as he could tell, “that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament,” he wrote, “and I felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world.”[2]

Joseph took the welfare of his soul seriously

For a few years he thought about his problem and what he should do. He considered the option of giving up his faith in God, but he couldn’t. To him, the sun, moon, and stars testified that God lived, and lived by divine laws, and should be worshipped. “Therefore,” Joseph wrote, “I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go.”[3]

Joseph chose a powerful verb in cried. He cried to the Lord for mercy because he was losing hope. There was no one else to extend him mercy. So he cried because he believed, or at least hoped, that the Lord would be merciful to him.

As President Eyring demonstrated, there is value in learning from Joseph’s various accounts of his vision

They tell us that Joseph believed his parents’ teachings about Jesus Christ. He searched the scriptures and believed that they contained the word of God. He applied himself to them. He worked hard to understand them and to discover what he should do because of them. He became intimately acquainted with people who believed different things about Christ. He paid attention to what they believed and how they behaved. For a few years he read, observed, and pondered. He thought about what he was becoming. He mourned when there was conflict between what he believed he should be and what he was. He became “exceedingly distressed” when he realized he was at an impasse. He was guilty of sin, and he could find no church built on the gospel of Jesus Christ, who redeemed people from their sins. So he cried out to the Lord for mercy.[4]

One of the best things Joseph did was balance urgency and caution

He recognized that he needed knowledge and power from God. Learning how to get it became his priority. “Information was what I most desired,” he said, and he formed a “fixed determination to obtain it.” He said it was “of the first importance that I should be right in matters that involve eternal consequences.”[5] Joseph put first things first. He relentlessly sought the most important truths.[6] Because his “immortal soul” was at stake, he acted both urgently and deliberately.[7]

He did not make rash decisions or jump to conclusions. “I made it an object of much study and reflection,” he related.[8] “I kept myself aloof from all these parties,” he said, “though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit.” By exercising faith in God, studying much, observing closely, yet remaining aloof, Joseph positioned himself to make informed decisions. He could see that “contradictory opinions and principles laid the foundation for the rise of such different sects and denominations.” Being deliberate helped Joseph remain above the partisan prejudices “too often poisoned by hate, contention, resentment and anger.”[9]

Joseph tested Methodism

“In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect,” he said, “and I felt some desire to be united with them.” If the Methodist teachings were right, Joseph would be able to seek and receive God’s prevenient grace. That is, despite his fallen nature, Joseph would receive a gift of God’s power that would enable him to come to Christ and be saved by him. He would know if it worked because it would be joyful, overwhelmingly joyful. Joseph watched as people experienced that joy. He tried it himself. He wanted his own Methodist conversion experience. “He wanted to get Religion too wanted to feel & shout like the Rest but could feel nothing.”[10] So despite his desire to follow Methodism, Joseph kept seeking.

He realized that he was not able to discern by himself whether Methodists were right, or Presbyterians, or Baptists. Each made compelling, bible-based arguments. That confused, distressed, and perplexed Joseph.[11] He sought more evidence before making a decision with eternal consequences.

What did he do when experts offered conflicting, consequential choices?

He kept his faith. He worked hard. He turned to the scriptures. He received a revelation. Then he acted on it. “While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists,” he said, “I was one day reading the Epistle of James, First Chapter and fifth verse.” The scripture taught him ask God directly and with faith. That was a revelation to Joseph, “like a light shining forth in a dark place.”[12] Before he read and reflected on it, he felt paralyzed. After, he knew what to do.

“I must do as James directs,” he said, “that is, Ask of God.” Joseph chose the word determination to describe his resolve to act on the scripture.[13] He used it twice in his history. Another time he called it “a fixed determination.”[14] Joseph was not passive. He resolved to act in faith and do something he had never tried before. He said, “I just determined I’d ask him.” He went to the woods to take the next step in his quest for God’s redeeming love.[15]  Joseph knelt and “began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.”

He had never prayed aloud before

Joseph barely got started, however, before he aborted. He called it “a fruitless attempt to pray.”[16]It felt like his tongue swelled. He could not speak. It sounded like someone was walking up behind him. He tried to pray again but failed. The noise seemed to come closer. He sprang up and turned toward it. There was nothing making the noise, nothing he could see anyway.

He knelt again and “called on the Lord in mighty prayer.”[17] Something seized him, “some power which entirely overcame me,” he said. It was “an actual being from the unseen world.” Joseph was shocked at its power.[18] Doubts filled his mind.[19] Thick darkness enveloped him. He felt doomed. He was ready to give up, “to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction,” he said. He chose not to do so, however. He chose instead, at that moment, to exert all his “powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy.”

Just then Joseph saw a brilliant light descending from above

He called it a “pillar of flame.” As soon as it appeared the darkness left. The spirit of God filled Joseph, replacing the feeling of despair. Unspeakable joy replaced doom. Joseph heard his name. He looked into the light and saw God, who introduced Joseph to His Beloved Son. Joseph saw Jesus Christ, standing in the air with his Father. “Joseph,” the Savior said, “thy sins are forgiven.” He continued, “I am the Lord of glory. I was crucified for the sins of the world that all those who believe on my name may have eternal life.”[20]

Once he could speak, Joseph asked if he should join the Methodists. “No,” came the answer.[21] None of the current Christian churches had God and Christ right because of confusing creeds. The creeds were philosophical statements about God that ruled out even the possibility that Heavenly Parents created children, including a Beloved Son, from preexisting intelligence and element as part of a plan to empower and exalt them until the children were fully like their parents.  Joseph listened and learned that “Jesus Christ is the son of God.” He was crucified for sinners. He forgives the repentant and gives them eternal life. He can stand next to His Father, and not just in heaven. They can visit in person. They answer the prayers of anxious teenagers who ask in faith.

Joseph applied what he learned

He put his faith in the crucified and resurrected Savior who had atoned for his sins, and repented. Joseph knew what to do later when he realized “that I had not kept the commandments.” Every time he “fell into transgressions and sinned in many things,” he went back to his knees, chose hope over despair, and acted on the knowledge he had successfully tried before. He trusted the Savior who was crucified for him and “repented hartily for all my sins.”[22] That worked every time.[23]

Primary General President Joy D. Jones taught, “we can draw principles of truth from the Prophet Joseph’s experiences that provide insights for receiving our own revelation.” She noted these examples of good practice: “We labor under difficulties. We turn to the scriptures to receive wisdom to act. We demonstrate our faith and trust in God. We exert our power to plead with God to help us thwart the adversary’s influence. We offer up the desires of our hearts to God. We focus on His light guiding our life choices and resting upon us when we turn to Him. We realize He knows each of us by name and has individual roles for us to fulfill.”[24] That works every time.

When he unveiled the sculpture of Joseph in the grove near my office, President Eyring testified: “Jesus is the Christ. He lives. I know He lives. I know Joseph Smith saw Him, and I know that because He lives and because Joseph Smith looked up and saw Him and because He sent other messengers, you and I may have the thing that the Prophet Joseph wanted as he went to the grove: to know, not just to hope, that our sins can be washed away.”[25]

[1] Henry B. Eyring, “Remarks Given at the Unveiling Ceremony of ‘The Vision,’” Religious Education History, Brigham Young University, 66–68.

[2] “History, circa Summer 1832,” pages 1-2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832.

[3] “History, circa Summer 1832,” pages 2-3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832.

[4] “History, circa Summer 1832,” pages 2-3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832.

[5] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/24.

[6] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/24.

[7] “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/2.

[8] “History, circa 1841, fair copy,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-1841-fair-copy/2. “History, circa 1841, draft [Draft 3],” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-1841-draft-draft-3/2.

[9] “Orson Hyde, Ein Ruf aus der Wüste (A Cry out of the Wilderness), 1842, extract, English translation,” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/orson-hyde-ein-ruf-aus-der-wste-a-cry-out-of-the-wilderness-1842-extract-english-translation/1.

[10] “Alexander Neibaur, Journal, 24 May 1844, extract,” p. [23], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/alexander-neibaur-journal-24-may-1844-extract/1.

[11] “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/2. “History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2],” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/3. “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/24.

[12] “Appendix: Orson Pratt, A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-orson-pratt-an-interesting-account-of-several-remarkable-visions-1840/4.

[13] “History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2],” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/3.

[14] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/24.

[15] “History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2],” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/3.

[16] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/24.

[17] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 24, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/25.

[18] “History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2],” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/3. “History, circa 1841, draft [Draft 3],” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-1841-draft-draft-3/3.

[19] “Orson Hyde, Ein Ruf aus der Wüste (A Cry out of the Wilderness), 1842, extract, English translation,” The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/orson-hyde-ein-ruf-aus-der-wste-a-cry-out-of-the-wilderness-1842-extract-english-translation/1.

[20] “History, circa Summer 1832,” pages 2-3, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/2.

[21] “Alexander Neibaur, Journal, 24 May 1844, extract,” p. [23], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/alexander-neibaur-journal-24-may-1844-extract/1.

[22] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 24, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/25.

[23] “Journal, 1835–1836,” p. 24, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/25. “Revelation, July 1828 [D&C 3],” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-july-1828-dc-3/1. “Letter to Emma Smith, 6 June 1832,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-emma-smith-6-june-1832/1. “Visions, 3 April 1836 [D&C 110],” p. 192, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 10, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/visions-3-april-1836-dc-110/1.

[24] President Joy D. Jones, “An Especially Noble Calling,” April 2020 General Conference: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/04/14jones?lang=eng.

[25] Henry B. Eyring, “Remarks Given at the Unveiling Ceremony of ‘The Vision,’” Religious Education History, Brigham Young University, 66–68.

 

How my blog posts (or lack thereof) are like Joseph Smith’s journal entries

Sorry I’ve been away. I was excited to blog about Joseph Smith’s first vision throughout the bicentennial celebration in 2020. I wrote several posts about it. Then I quit. When he began keeping a journal in 1832, Joseph wrote brief but faithful entries for about 10 days. Then he quit for 10 months.

For me it’s not just that COVID came. I confess that after the terrific General Conference in April, writing more first vision posts seemed anti-climactic. I wondered if anything that exciting would ever happen again. Sure I could look forward to celebrating two hundred years since Moroni’s visits in 2023, but it’s tough to compete with the first vision.

Joseph’s April 3, 1836 journal entry

After Joseph’s journal entry describing the Savior’s visit to him and Oliver Cowdery in the House of the Lord at Kirtland, followed by Moses, Elias, and Elijah, the rest of Joseph’s journal is blank. What else is worth writing about

after that? He didn’t start again for well over a year.

Then I remembered 2021 would be a Doctrine and Covenants year. The Come, Follow Me curriculum will focus on Joseph’s revelations. That’s exciting. So I’m back. I expect to keep up with the curriculum and make a short post about every section in the Doctrine and Covenants this year. I’ll post on Section 1 before Sunday and post again on Joseph Smith-History 1:1-26 to supplement the upcoming lessons.

Do you think I can stick to it all year? Maybe I can. Some of the most

exciting revelations are at the end of the book.

Do you know how old Joseph was when he saw his first vision?

Why is this even a question? Doesn’t everyone know that Joseph Smith was 14 when he saw God and Jesus Christ in a grove? The answer is no. Some people think they know. That’s not the same as knowing. 

So was Joseph 14 or not?

He probably was. Why the qualifier? Because the evidence shows that the answer isn’t so simple. The evidence says that Joseph began worrying about his soul when he was about 12. He continued to do so through his early teens. His memory of his age at the time of his vision was vague. Joseph usually remembered his age at the time as an afterthought. 

Joseph’s 1832 autobiography says

“At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns for the well fare of my immortal soul.” That led Joseph to search the scriptures and observe churches and Christians. He concluded that the scriptures and the versions of Christianity didn’t match. Joseph felt grief as a result. In 1832, he remembered that this process lasted “from the age of twelve to fifteen.”

Joseph did not specify his age in the 1832 account

He said simply that “while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord a piller of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son thy sins are forgiven thee.” Frederick Williams later inserted the words “in the 16th year of my age” into the clause quoted above. No one knows whether Joseph told Frederick to do so or why he wrote “16th year.” Some people may think they know. That’s not the same as knowing.   

Joseph’s scribe recorded

an 1835 telling of the vision in Joseph’s journal. In that telling, the last thing Joseph says about the vision is, “I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication.” On that day at least, his age at the time of the vision was an afterthought, and  he approximated it. That line contrasts with the intense and emotional lines before it. The foreground in this memory is of discovering the truth, overcoming the unseen power that startled him, praying, seeing divine beings, and being filled with joy. His age at the time is background. It was important enough to him to try to recall at the end but not more important than that. 

In his manuscript history

Joseph remembered that unusual religious excitement started “in my fifteenth year.” He was, in other words, fourteen. Of all the accounts, this one does the best job of establishing a date and situating Joseph in time: early spring, 1820. Compared to the others, this memory is uncharacteristically sharp about Joseph’s age and the date of the vision. Joseph remembered later in this account, “I was an obscure boy only between fourteen and fifteen years of age,” after which his scribe added “or thereabouts.” A later revision of this document is more typical. In it Joseph says he was “about 15 years old” during the “unusual religious excitement.” Estimating like that is typical of the way Joseph dated things in his vision memories. Certainty about dates and his age is uncharacteristic in his vision accounts. In his letter to John Wentworth, Joseph said, “When about fourteen years of age I began to reflect upon the importance of being prepared for a future state.” 

The secondary accounts follow this pattern

Orson Pratt says, “When somewhere about fourteen or fifteen years old, he began seriously to reflect upon the necessity of being prepared for a future state.” Orson Hyde’s version is less wordy but no more precise: “When he had reached his fifteenth year, he began to think seriously . . . ” The journal of Levi Richards just says “when he was a youth he began to think about these things.” David Nye White quoted Joseph saying God “revealed himself to me first when I was about fourteen years old, a mere boy.” Alexander Neibaur’s journal entry doesn’t say anything about Joseph’s age at the time.

Those are the facts of the historical record

That’s the evidence we have on which to base an answer to the question with which we began: How old was Joseph Smith at his first vision? He typically said he was about fourteen, and usually as an afterthought. Once he said clearly that he was fourteen. His scribe added, “or thereabouts.” Another scribe said he was fifteen. Some people interpret the vagueness and variety as evidence that Joseph didn’t see the Father and the Son. Some people think they know that he could not possibly mis-remember his age if he actually saw a vision. That’s not the same as knowing.    

Joseph didn’t remember exactly how old he was

He didn’t claim to. He claimed to see the Father and the Son. He knew that God knew it. He couldn’t deny it. “Some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad, and he was ridiculed and reviled, but . . . he had seen a vision. He knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise.”