Tag: Book of Mormon

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 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.

 

 

Death, big brothers, and solving soteriological problems

My oldest brother was born on December 13, 1955. He would be 64 today. He was killed in 1993 in a terrible car accident. It was the worst day of my life. 

Marvin John Harper
Inscribed: your missionary brother, Marvin John

Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805. So in the days leading up to Christmas my mind dwells on death and the role big brothers play in solving soteriological problems. Let me explain.  

Soteriology (so·te·ri·ol·o·gy) is theology about salvation. Christianity’s  soteriological problem is based on three premises: 

  • God loves all people and desires their salvation (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
  • Salvation comes to those who knowingly and willfully accept Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 3:16)
  • Most people live and die without accepting Christ, or even knowing that they could or should
The problem says that all three premises are true but they can’t be reconciled

Proposed solutions tend to discredit one of the premises. Maybe God doesn’t desire the salvation of all people. Or maybe Jesus saves people who don’t knowingly and willfully accept Him. 

The first Christians didn’t have this problem

Because they didn’t make the unstated assumption that makes it a problem in the first place. In other words, the first Christians didn’t believe that death was a deadline that determined a person’s salvation. Peter taught that Jesus Christ preached His gospel to the dead so they could be judged as justly as the living (1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6). Paul taught that Christians could be baptized for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29). 

Rescue for the Dead by Jeffrey Trumbower
Trumbower’s very cool book traces the doctrine of redemption for the dead through Christian history
It was Augustine, not Jesus or His apostles, who decided

That death should be a deadline that determined a person’s salvation. But Augustine’s view prevailed in Christ’s church, at least in the West. Many medieval Christians continued to believe that after his death and before his resurrection, Christ opened the spirit prison. They called this event the harrowing of Hell, and they created a lot of art depicting it. 

illulstrate how Joseph Smith's revelations affirm the harrowing of hell
My favorite images are the ones in which Hell is an awful monster, and Christ causes it to cough up its captive dead (as in 2 Nephi 9). This one is Grandes heures de Rohan. I got it from jessehurlbut.net. He got it from gallica.bnf.fr Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9471, fol. 76r.

However, the Protestant reformers, for all the good they did, generally followed Augustine on this point. 

Then along came Joseph Smith

He was immersed in Protestant culture and assumptions. His big brother died painfully in 1823. The loss was heartbreaking to Joseph. It stung even worse when Reverend Benjamin Stockton implied pretty strongly at Alvin’s funeral that he would spend eternity in Hell. Joseph couldn’t reconcile Alvin’s goodness, Rev. Stockton’s doctrine, and a just and merciful God. 

Fast forward twelve years to 1836

Joseph now knows from the Book of Mormon that unaccountable infants who die are not damned, but as distasteful as Rev. Stockton’s doctrine still sounds, Joseph doesn’t know that adults who die before embracing the Savior’s gospel are not automatically damned. Sincere and devout but mistaken theologians have caused this problem. If you’re the Lord Jesus Christ, how will you solve it? 

How will you inform a world that has already decided otherwise 

That your saving grace reaches beyond death and saves all who choose to embrace your gospel? Joseph hasn’t even thought to ask, being so thoroughly acculturated by Protestantism and all. So how do you get him to become open to it? How do you help him become aware of things he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know?

You show him a vision of the future, and of heaven, and you make sure he sees Alvin there. That makes him marvel and wonder. How will Alvin get past the flaming gates of God’s kingdom? Having purposely provoked the question, you answer it:

All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it, if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God— also all that shall die henceforth, without​ a knowledge of it, who would have received it, with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom, for I the Lord ​will​ judge all men according to their works according to the desires of their hearts (D&C 137).

Joseph Smith journal entry, January 21, 1836
Joseph Smith’s journal entry for January 21, 1836, is the source text for D&C 137, the vision of Alvin in heaven, and the restored truth that desire, not death, determines salvation through Christ. Image is courtesy of josephsmithpapers.org.
Desire, not death, is the determinant of salvation through Jesus Christ

He saves all who desire to be saved by Him once they know that good news. Which side of death they are on makes no difference at all. By removing the assumption that death determines salvation, Jesus resolved the soteriological problem for Joseph and for everyone else. There is no conflict between the premises now. 

That’s just the beginning. After restoring this truth, Joseph restored the early Christian practice of baptism for the dead. The prophets after him restored endowment and sealing ordinances for the dead. And in 1918 his nephew, Joseph F. Smith, received a series of visions that reveal how Jesus harrowed Hell. His report of that experience testifies: “The dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God” (D&C 138:58). 

That is a good verse, no doubt. But my favorite is the one right before it, the one in which Joseph F. Smith says that he saw that “the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead” (D&C 138:57).

That verse is about all three of my big brothers–

Marvin J. Harper, Howard K. Harper, and the Only Begotten Son of God–and about how they’re solving the soteriological problem. “O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment” (2 Nephi 9:19)

 

Is the Book of Mormon True or False?

Greg Trimble convinced me to do this

Well, Greg and the teachings of some apostles. And the Holy Ghost. And this question posted online:

Is it true that Steven C. Harper and others in the history department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are transitioning the narrative about the Book of Mormon, so that it came through ‘revelation’ and not through ‘translation.’

The person who posed—pun intended—the question presumed to answer for me. So I hereby speak for myself.

It took me awhile to show up

I’ll grant that. Here are my excuses: I’m a historian by training and by personality, so I like to observe and analyze and describe the debates, but prefer not to get involved, especially when the quality of the dialogue decomposes in the comments. Plus, I’m an introvert. I don’t like to draw attention to myself. But I’m motivated most of all by the identity Mormon described best:

“I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life” (3 Nephi 5:13).

So I’m late but I’m here now. This is my first post. Subscribe if you want to be notified of the next one: Did Joseph Smith obey the Word of Wisdom? And the one after that, and the one after that. I’m not going away. I’m not changing sides.

The answer to the question above?

No. I’m not transitioning the narrative about the Book of Mormon. I’m telling the history as Joseph and Emma and Oliver did.

The question poses a false dilemma. It assumes that the Book of Mormon either came through revelation or translation. But it didn’t. The translation of the Book of Mormon came to Joseph Smith by revelation.

The question assumes there is conflict between the past and the present, the new and the old, between revelation and translation. There isn’t.

I have studied what Joseph Smith said about translating. I have studied the manuscript Oliver Cowdery wrote as Joseph dictated. I have studied the copy Oliver made for the printer. I have studied the statements of the people who witnessed Joseph translating the Book of Mormon.

Here are a few facts from all the evidence:

Joseph often said he translated by the gift and power of God—meaning the revelation/translation of an unknown ancient language through a stone or stones (either worked).

Oliver Cowdery wrote almost all of the Book of Mormon as Joseph Smith dictated it with the aid of seer stones but without books or notes between April 7 and June 11, 1829.

The records of those who knew Joseph Smith best show that they believed these things most.

That’s how I know the story. But this is how I know the story is true:

I read the Book of Mormon myself shortly before my mission. When I finished I did what the last chapter said I should. I knelt and said a simple prayer with faith in Jesus Christ, a sincere heart, and real intent. God answered my prayer with the thought: “You already know it’s true.” And that thought was accompanied by a feeling, a desire, an intense desire, to affirm the thought. I did know. I didn’t want to deny it. I never have wanted to fight it. It’s true.

I don’t have an answer for people who have asked God with faith in Christ, a sincere heart, and real intent, and not experienced what I did. I don’t deny their experience, or lack thereof. I don’t know why their prayer wasn’t answered as mine was. I just know that mine was.

I don’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt

I have shadows of doubts all the time. I just choose to not let doubts define me. I choose faith for that. I choose faith because I am better, happier, and holier when I live by the teachings of the Book of Mormon. I feel the Holy Spirit when I read it and try to do what it teaches me. I feel God’s love when I listen to Nephi explain how easily he was beset by sins, and how he trusted God and felt His love. I feel it when I listen to Enos, Alma, Amulek and others.

Their stories are the reason I became a born again Christian on my mission, where I internalized the Book of Mormon’s teaching that I am saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. So I testify that the Book of Mormon was translated from Reformed Egyptian by God’s revelation to Joseph Smith. I love the Book of Mormon and invite others to love it too.

Finally, notice how the question assumes that I’m much smarter and more capable and influential than I actually am. I’m ok with that part.