Tag: Church History

Section 85

The leaders of the church in Missouri grew troubled. Saints were gathering there by the hundreds. Relatively few of them were obeying the law of consecration when they did. “Have you all fulfilled the law of the church,” William Phelps wrote to them in the church’s newspaper, “which saith: Behold thou shalt consecrate all thy properties, that which thou hast, unto me, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken?” (see section 42).[1]

In Ohio, Joseph learned by “the still small voice” that leaders in Missouri were wondering what to do. He sought and received a revealed answer, section 85, which he sent to them.[2] It clarifies the duty of the Lord’s clerk to keep a history of righteousness and unrighteousness in Zion, including accurate records “of all those who consecrate properties, and receive inheritances legally from the bishop.” Those that do not receive their inheritance by living the law of consecration are to be excluded from the church record referred to as the “book of the law of God.” 

Verse 7 prophesies that the Lord will send someone to arrange inheritances for those whose names are recorded in the book, but those who are not in the book will receive no inheritance in Zion.  Verse 8 prophesies that those who steady the ark (go beyond their assigned role in building Zion) will be smitten.  

Joseph purchased his first journal on the very day this revelation was given, “for the purpose,” he wrote, “to keep a minute account of all things that come under my observation.”[3] At about this same time, Joseph began writing his history, recording his letters, and minutes of church council meetings. He knew, as John the Revelator had prophesied, that the mankind would be judged by records of their works kept on earth (Revelation 20:12, D&C 128:6-8), and Joseph tried to document his own “manner of life” (D&C 85:2).  

Later, in 1841, Joseph began another journal, the Book of the Law of the Lord, a title he derived from D&C 85.  Joseph appointed Willard Richards as “Recorder for the Temple, and the Scribe for the private office of the President.”  Willard became what Section 82 calls the “Lord’s clerk,” filling the duties described in the revelation.  He recorded historical entries and donations in the Book of the Law of the Lord.[4] In 1842, while preparing to leave for the East, Richards gave the Book to William Clayton, whom Joseph appointed as Temple Recorder, with a commission to fulfill the duties named in Section 82.[5]

These recorders carefully kept track of consecration. They recorded the deeds and donations of those who freely offered their whole souls to the Lord’s work. Joseph recorded a tribute to his wife Emma, to bishop Newel Whitney, to his brother Hyrum and many others. ‘The names of the faithful are what I wish to record in this place.” He recorded “the virtues and the good qualifications and characteristics of the faithful few,” as he called them, but also noted that “there are a numerous host of faithful souls, whose names I could wish to record in the Book of the Law of the Lord.”[6]

I’m sometimes asked when the Lord will require us to live the law of consecration. The answer is never. It never has been coercive and never will be. Section 85 clarifies that church leaders should simply keep track of who consecrates but not encroach on individual agency to obey or disobey. The Lord will judgment as he deems best. The law is quietly kept by many people, and their names are recorded in appropriate places. The faithful whose names and deeds are documented will receive inheritances in Zion. Those “whose names are not found written in the book of the law . . . shall not find an inheritance among the saints of the Most High” (D&C 82:7, 11).

Section 86

With Christianity in apostasy and no living prophets, Protestant reformers retreated to the relative safety of the Bible, the known word of God. Some went so far as to declare, though the Bible never does, that it was all sufficient and alone sufficient for salvation. Joseph faced the same fears and frustrations resulting from apostasy, but he took a different approach to the Bible. He “reflected again and again” on its often repeated injunction to ask and receive, seek and find, knock and the door will open (Joseph Smith—History, 12).

Joseph continually worked at understanding the Bible better and better, and making it possible for us to do so too. He had been over the parables in Matthew 13 in the spring of 1831, but he revised his own revision a year and a half later. His journal for 6 December 1832 says he spent the day “translating and received a revelation explaining the Parable [of] the wheat and the tears.”[1]

Section 86 defines and evokes powerful symbols to explain a parable about how the gospel spread, how apostasy followed and “drove the church into the wilderness” (D&C 86:3), and how the Lord nevertheless protected and preserved his people and will cause the gospel to flourish again.  The main analogy of the parable is a field in which the apostles have planted wheat but Satan has sewn tares.  The question for Joseph Smith and Latter-day Saints is, how should the field be harvested?  The version in Matthew 13 says to let the wheat and the tares “grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:30). Importantly, Section 86 reverses the order of the harvest: “Let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned (D&C 86:7, cross reference D&C 64:24).  In his new translation, Joseph revised Matthew 13 according to what he learned from the revelation (JST Matthew 13:29).  

All that is preliminary to the Lord’s main point in Section 86. His intent in the revelation is to explain how, despite apostasy, the priesthood has returned to its lawful heirs, and they are commissioned to harvest the wheat planted by the original apostles. Notice how the Lord develops this point with the four consecutive Therefores that begin verses 7, 8, 10, and 11.  

The difference between Joseph’s way of reading the Bible and the dominant way of his time and place is crucial. For many people, the Bible is “a sealed book,” as popular Methodist preacher of Joseph’s day described it, lamenting that he did not live “in the days of the prophets or apostles, that I could have sure guides.”[2] Joseph’s revelations open the Bible. Consider how profound it is that in section 86 the Lord explains his own parable to Latter-day Saints. Is there any reason why He would not?  Could not?  

Section 86 revises and expands the biblical record. The fact that it came as Joseph was revising his previous revision is, itself, revealing. Joseph never felt finished with the work of unlocking the scriptures. One of his great contributions to us is his example of reading for and receiving revelations.

Section 87

Section 87 came during a Constitutional crisis. Congress had passed tax laws that favored northern factories over southern planters. So a South Carolina convention “unilaterally nullified the tariff and forbade its collection.  President Andrew Jackson, refusing to acknowledge this assertion of state power, called out troops. By Christmas 1832, a military confrontation appeared imminent.”[1]

Latter-day Saints and other Christians viewed these events (along with a plague in India and a nearly global outbreak of cholera) in eschatological terms, meaning they thought the end of the world would come soon.

At least that’s how it looked to Joseph Smith and others late in 1832. Wars and rumors of wars, desolating sicknesses and desolating scourges were in the news.[2] Joseph asked for and received a revelation about what was to come. It said that wars–plural–would begin shortly with South Carolina’s rebellion, then continue until wars had gone global and resulted in “a full end of all nations” (D&C 87:6). The revelation foresaw slave rebellions and the uprising of “remnants” vexing the Gentiles, which Joseph and the early Saints interpreted in Book of Mormon terms to mean descendants of Lehi irritating the unrepentant (Mormon 7:1-10, 3 Nephi 10, D&C 19:27).[3]

Section 87 is mainly descriptive, not prescriptive. The first seven verses describe what God knows will happen because people reject His laws and His love. It is not about what He wants to happen, or what would happen if people obeyed His laws and reflected His love. It describes unfathomable violence by which the inhabitants of the earth “feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God” whom they have rejected. Given the impending eschaton, the prescriptive point in the last verse is “stand ye in holy places, and be not moved” (D&C 87:8).

Is that a command to be passive? Does it mean we should be bystanders or immobilized by fear? I think it means something like, take a stand for holiness and don’t get pushed around. I interpret it as a command to take an immovable stand for the laws and love of God in a world descending into self-destruction. The otherwise depressing revelation ends with good news for those who take such a stand: The day of the Lord–the eschaton–comes quickly (D&C 87:8).

Joseph Smith may have looked foolish to some when the crisis blew over. Civil war didn’t come. It didn’t start with the rebellion of South Carolina, nor result in death and misery, or global warfare, or the end of nations. Well, at least not right away, as Joseph and others probably expected.

The eschaton never seems to happen as expected. That’s the story of Christian eschatology in a nutshell. Since the days of Paul at least, Christians have been expecting the end of the world any day. Every generation of Christians has waited for the end times, and there are always some Christians somewhere who are sure that it’s coming very, very soon.

Early Latter-day Saints were like that, though not quite as much as the followers of William Miller (1782-1849). He was a generation older than Joseph Smith. He was a Baptist, then a Deist, but the combination of having his life miraculously saved in the War of 1812 and the deaths of loved ones led him to conversion to Jesus Christ, and he renewed his Baptist faith. He longed for Jesus’ return to end wars and death. Like me, William Miller didn’t have the knowledge or skills or the revelation necessary to read and understand apocalyptic parts of the Bible in context. So he made some assumptions that led him to interpret Daniel 8:14 to mean that the Savior would return sometime between March 21, 1843 and a year later. 

Some of William Miller’s followers got even more specific

They narrowed the day of the Savior’s Second Coming to April 3, 1843. They were not the only ones interested as that day approached. Latter-day Saints were also looking forward to the Savior’s Second Coming, studying the prophecies, trying to discern the signs of the times, as Christians had been doing for nearly two millennia.

So It was no wonder that on Sunday April 2, 1843 the subject came among the saints. Joseph told them, “I prophecy in the Name of the Lord God that the commenceme[n]t of bloodshed as preparat[o]ry to the coming of the son of man. will commenc[e] in South Carolina.— (it probably may arise through the slave trade.)— this the a voice declard to me. while I was praying earne[s]tly on the subje[c]t 25 December 1832. I earnestly desird to know concern[in]g the coming of the Son of Man & prayed. when— a voice said to me, Joseph, my, son, if thou livest until thou art 85 years old thou shalt see the facce of the son of man. therefore let this suffice & trouble me no more on this matter.[4]

The next day was April 3, 1843. It turned out not to be the eschaton. Joseph’s journal entry takes a poke at Miller and his followers: “tis too. pleas[a]nt. for false prophets.” A few days later on April 6, 1843, Joseph again told his experience a decade earlyer of praying to know when the Savior’s Second Coming would be, and this time he added how he had decided to interpret the Lord’s intentionally vague revelation: “. . . were I going to prophecy. I would procpesy [prophesy] the end will not come in 1844. or 5— or 6. or 40 years more [p. [72]] there are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death till christ come. <​I was once praying earnestly upon this subject. and a voice said unto me.​> My son, if thou livest till thou art 85 years of age, thou shalt see the face of the son of man. . . . <​I was left to draw my own conclusions concerni[n]g this &,​> I took the liberty to conclude that if I did live till that time Jesus <​he​> would make his appearance.— <​but I do not say whether he will make his appeara[n]ce, or I shall go where he is.—​> I prophecy in the name of the Lord God.— & let it be written. <​that the​> Son of Man will not come in the heavns till I am 85. years old 48 years hence or about 1890.—” (cross ref. D&C 130:14-17)

Look at the way Joseph read his own revelations in the context of his culture’s eschatology. He accurately prophesied the American Civil War, but he didn’t fully understand his prophecy. When he received the revelation in 1832, as South Carolina was threatening secession, he assumed, as almost all Christians have done, that the Savior’s Second Coming would be soon. Then in 1843 Joseph specifically noted the difference between what the Lord revealed and what he, Joseph, interpreted it to mean:

The Lord’s revelation: “Joseph, my, son, if thou livest until thou art 85 years old thou shalt see the face of the son of man. therefore let this suffice & trouble me no more on this matter.”

Joseph’s interpretation: “I was left to draw my own conclusions concerni[n]g this &,​> I took the liberty to conclude that if I did live till that time Jesus <​he​> would make his appearance.— <​but I do not say whether he will make his appeara[n]ce, or I shall go where he is.—​> I prophecy in the name of the Lord God.— & let it be written. <​that the​> Son of Man will not come in the heavns till I am 85. years old 48 years hence or about 1890.—”

This is a terrific way to show that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and a frontier farmer in the antebellum (pre Civil War) United States. That means that he knew things from God that no one else could, and that he understood them as most everyone else in his time and place would. 

Sometimes Joseph didn’t understand right away how to interpret the Lord’s revelations. He referred to his Christmas 1832 revelation occasionally but never published it during his lifetime. Latter-day Saints began to pay attention to it in the 1850s as the American Civil War loomed. Then, in 1861, when it began to be fulfilled to the letter, a Philadelphia newspaper reprinted the revelation and asked, “Have we not had a prophet among us?”[5]

Section 85 notes

[1] “To the Saints,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Nov. 1832, [6].

[2] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-27-november-1832/1.

[3] Joseph Smith, Book for Record, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, published in Dean C. Jessee, editor, The Papers of Joseph Smith: Journal, 1832-1842 (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1992), 2. 

[4] Book of the Law of the Lord, 26, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[5] William Clayton, “History of the Nauvoo Temple,” manuscript, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[6] Book of the Law of the Lord, 164, 179, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. 

Section 86 notes

[1] “Journal, 1832–1834,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1832-1834/5.

[2] Lorenzo Dow, The Dealings of God, Man, and the Devil as Exemplified in the Life, Experience, and Travels of Lorenzo Dow (New York: Cornish, Lamport & Company, 1850), 10.

Section 87 notes

[1] Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 191.

[2] “Signs of the Times,” The Evening and the Morning Star 1:8 [January 1833], 62.

[3] “Revelation, 25 December 1832 [D&C 87],” p. 32, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-25-december-1832-dc-87/1.

[4] “Instruction, 2 April 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards,” p. [39], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/instruction-2-april-1843-as-reported-by-willard-richards/3.

[5] “A Mormon Prophecy,” Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, 5 May 1861, reprinted in Robert J. Woodford, The historical development of the Doctrine and Covenants, 3 volumes (PhD dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1974), 2:1110. 

Section 77

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

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

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

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

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

Section 78

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

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

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

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

Section 79

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

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

Section 80

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

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

Section 77 notes

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

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

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

Section 78 notes

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

Section 79 notes

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

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

Section 80 notes

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

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

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

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

Section 76

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 76 testifies.

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

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

Notes

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

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

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

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

Sections 71 & 73

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 72

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 74

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

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

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

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

Section 75

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 71 & 73 notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 72 notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section 74 notes

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

Section 75 notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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