Section 94
Section 94 may make more sense after you have studied sections 95 and 96 and 97, because it was actually revealed right after section 97, though for many years it was misdated and thus misplaced. It makes the most sense when it is read as an extension of section 97.[1] It addresses similar concerns as section 97, and says that the Lord had already revealed the pattern for the House of the Lord in Kirtland, which he did in section 95.
In Section 97, the Lord required the saints in Missouri to build a temple. In Section 94 he commands the saints in Ohio to build a stake to Zion, beginning with another temple in Ohio, as commanded in section 88 and again in section 95. The Lord calls for the construction of an office for the First Presidency next to the temple in Kirtland, Ohio. He specifies its design and the conditions on which he will abide there. On the next lot south the Lord wants a printing office, perhaps to replace the church’s press destroyed by a mob just a few days earlier in Missouri (unbeknownst to Joseph). The members of the church’s building committee, Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter, are appointed lots or “inheritances” near the building sites. Verse 16 is not in the early manuscripts. Probably Joseph added it as clarification before the revelation was published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.
In the letter to Missouri church leaders that included section 94, the First Presidency explained that the saints in Zion should build similar buildings for meetings and printing the scriptures.[2] But the saints in Zion were already being forced from their land and homes and saints in Kirtland struggled to muster enough resources to build the temple. They eventually scaled down the instructions in section 94, built one building instead of two, and used it as a printing office, a school, and office space for the First Presidency.
Section 95
Six months after the Lord told the Saints in Kirtland, Ohio to build a house of the Lord where they could learn his law, be endowed with his power, and come into his presence (see section 88), the saints had not begun to build the Lord’s house. Joseph wrote to tell the saints in Missouri. “The Lord commanded us in Kirtland to build an house of God,” he said “and we must—yea the Lord helping us we will obey, as on conditions of our obedience, he has promised us great things, yea even a visit from the heavens to honor us with his presence.”[1]
Joseph seemed to be the only one who sensed any urgency in the command. It was the dead of winter, 1833. In the spring the saints got around to having a meeting about building the Lord’s house, and appointed a Jared Carter, Reynolds Cahoon, and Hyrum Smith to a committee to raise money for construction and oversee it.[2] The meeting ended after that and nothing more happened for a month. Then the Lord gave section 95.[3]
It is a revelation of God’s love, his conditional love. “Thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you” (1). Given the premises that God loves the saints and chastens those he loves as a means to their forgiveness, the revelation’s next passage is a predictable rebuke for what the Lord calls the “very grevious sin” of not building the temple.
Then the Lord reemphasizes the importance of the temple. It is the school for prophets, the way to “pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,” the way out of darkness, the venue for receiving an endowment of heavenly power. The Lord wanted the elders to remain in Kirtland to receive this endowment, but they were contentious and he sent them into the field to be chastened–because he loved them.
Beginning in verse 11, the Lord promises the saints power to build the temple if they keep his commandments. “If you keep not my commandments,” he emphasizes, “the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness” (12). The revelation does not say that the Love of God will not continue, only that it will not continue with those who choose to reject it, who “love darkness rather than light” (D&C 29:45). By juxtaposing his love with darkness, the Lord equates his love with light and the synonyms for it described in sections 88 and 93, including truth, glory, intelligence, power, and life. Why, the Lord seems to lament in Section 95, would saints choose to walk in darkness at noon when God’s loving light shines for all who choose to obey the conditions on which he offers it?
So what would be the wise course? “Let the house be built,” the Lord says, and gives the dimensions and a promise to reveal it to “three” (13). The building committee sent a letter to all the saints the same day the revelation came, urging them to “make very possible exertion to aid temporally as well as spiritually in this great work,” and “it is as important as our salvation is that we obey this . . . command.”[4]
The saints got the point. They went to work at enormous cost. The Lord revealed the building to the First Presidency (14).[5] Hyrum Smith broke ground on June 5, 1833 in a wheat field on the bluffs above the Chagrin River. Everyone helped. Saints consecrated funds, labor, expertise but “the project was far out of proportion to the Church’s pitiful resources.” They had to rely on the Lord’s promise of power to build it if they kept his commandments. Joseph borrowed money to finance the construction “but the economic realities gave Joseph no pause.” He understood the Savior’s “great and last promise” to be worth any cost, any sacrifice (D&C 88:68-69).
After receiving section 95, the saints no longer walked in darkness at noon. “Beginning in Kirtland,” wrote historian Richard Bushman, “temples became an obsession. For the rest of his life, no matter the cost of the temple to himself and his people, [Joseph] made plans, raised money, mobilized workers, and required sacrifice” (see section 97).[6]
Section 96
Reading section 96 is like walking in on an interesting conversation that is already underway. You try hard to catch on, to understand what’s being said, but you realize there’s so much you’ve missed that you just can’t make sense of what you’re hearing. It would be nice, in such cases, if there was a way to catch up on the earlier parts of the conversation. Those parts are sections 42, 72, 78, and 82. Those sections reveal the law of consecration, establish an organization (of church leaders) called the United Firm, to be trustees of church properties, manage storehouses, and relieve poverty.
Members of the Firm and others strategized in the spring of 1833 to acquire several farms in the Kirtland, Ohio area, especially a farm and brick tavern owned by an early settler named Peter French. The saints hoped to build a stake of Zion surrounding the House of the Lord, which they intended to build on French’s farm. They sent a committee to ask the farm owners the terms on which they would be willing to sell. The committee returned with news that the farms were available, and the council decided to buy, appointed agents to negotiate the sale, and called the elders out of their school to go raise funds among the saints.[1] The funds were raised and the farms purchased, leading to another council on June 4, which disagreed about who should manage the French farm, “but all agreed to inquire of the Lord.”[2]
The Lord answered that Newel Whitney, the bishop in Kirtland, was to “take charge of the place” as a good steward. The Lord, however, is the owner of “the place . . . upon which I design to build my holy house” (2). He begins the revelation by stating the rationale for buying the farm: “It is expedient in me that this stake that I have set for the strength of Zion should be made strong” (1). The Lord instructs the bishop and others how to act relative to the land, by dividing it among the saints and using the proceeds to fund the United Firm, called the “order” in verses 4 and 8 but “the Firm” in early manuscripts (see eections 70, 78, 82, 92). The Lord says John Johnson “should become a member of the order” and use his financial resources and skills to pay the church’s debts (D&C 96:8).[3]
Bishop Whitney became steward of the farm and acted on the revelation’s instructions to divide it and to finance the church’s publications with proceeds. John Johnson moved from Hiram to Kirtland, joined the United Firm, became steward of the tavern, and tried to obey the revelation by paying the firm’s debts.[4]
Section 97
Parley Pratt described Zion during the summer of 1833 as the opposition escalated. “Immigration had poured into the County of Jackson in great numbers; and the Church in that county now numbered upwards of one thousand souls.” He described how they industriously improved their situations by building homes and cultivating farms. He said that they observed the Sabbath according to Section 59, but made no mention of building the temple described in section 84. “I devoted almost my entire time in ministering among the churches,” Parley wrote, “holding meetings; visiting the sick; comforting the afflicted, and giving counsel. A school of Elders was also organized, over which I was called to preside. This class, to the number of about sixty, met for instruction once a week. The place of meeting was in the open air, under some tall trees, in a retired place in the wilderness, where we prayed, preached and prophesied, and exercised ourselves in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here great blessings were poured out and many great and marvelous things were manifested and taught. . . . To attend this school I had to travel on foot, and sometimes with bare feet at that, about six miles. This I did once a week, besides visiting and preaching in five or six branches a week.”
Parley and his brethren wrote to Joseph, seeking the Lord’s will concerning their school. While “thus engaged,” Parley wrote, “and in answer to our correspondence with the Prophet, Joseph Smith, at Kirtland, Ohio, the following revelation was sent to us by him, dated August, 1833.”[1]
Joseph Smith did not know when he received section 97 that the Saints in Zion had received an ultimatum from their antagonistic neighbors—stop obeying the revelations or we will force you to. In section 97, the Lord issues a counter ultimatum. “The ax is laid at the root of the tree,” he says, “and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. I, the Lord, have spoken it” (D&C 97:8).[2]
Section 97 highlights the Lord’s priorities for Zion. “I, the Lord, am well pleased that there should be a school in Zion, and also with my servant Parley P. Pratt, for he abideth in me” (D&C 97:3). Right away, however, the Lord notices that there is no temple in Zion yet. He requires one to “be built speedily, by the tithing of my people,” by obedience to the law of sacrifice set forth in section 97 (D&C 97:8-12). The temple—or, rather, the keeping of covenants required to build and worship in the temple—will be the salvation of Zion.
Section 97 is conspicuously full of if/then statements. It prophesies conditionally that if the saints obey the commandment to sacrifice to build a temple in Independence, then Zion will prosper and become great and immovable. She will escape her enemies if she observe to do all things whatsoever I have commanded her. If not, Zion will be visited with sore afflictions. The future of Zion is in the hands of the Latter-day Saints. If the saints want Zion as their first priority, they will sacrifice to build it and keep it holy. In verse 27, the Lord gives Zion a second chance. If Zion has since been, at least temporarily, “moved out of her place,” it is because too few Latter-day Saints share the Lord’s priorities set forth in Section 97 (D&C 97:19).
Parley Pratt testified that the Lord poured forth the promised blessings of section 97 when he did as the revelation commanded regarding the school for the elders. “The Lord gave me great wisdom,” Parley wrote, “and enabled me to teach and edify the Elders, and comfort and encourage them in their preparations for the great work which lay before us. I was also much edified and strengthened.”
Parley also noted that “this revelation was not complied with by the leaders and Church in Missouri, as a whole.” As Section 97 shows, the saints in Zion were not unified, not all committed to keeping their covenants. Thus, “notwithstanding many were humble and faithful,” Parley noted, “the threatened judgment was poured out to the uttermost.”[3]
Section 94 notes
[1] “Revelation, 2 August 1833–B [D&C 94],” p. 64, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-2-august-1833-b-dc-94/1.
[2] “Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 6 August 1833,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-church-leaders-in-jackson-county-missouri-6-august-1833/1.
Section 95 notes
[1] “Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833,” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-11-january-1833/1.
[2] “Minute Book 1,” p. 20, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-1/24.
[3] “Revelation, 1 June 1833 [D&C 95],” p. 59, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-1-june-1833-dc-95/1.
[4] “Letterbook 1,” p. 37, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-1/49.
[5] “Minute Book 1,” p. 12, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-1/16. Truman Angell, Journal, typescript, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Truman Angell to John Taylor, 11 March 1885, Church History Library.
[6] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 217-18.
Section 96 notes
[1] Zebedee Coltrin, Journal, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
[2] “Minute Book 1,” p. 13, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-1/17.
[3] “Revelation, 4 June 1833 [D&C 96],” p. 60, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-4-june-1833-dc-96/1.
[4] “Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 25 June 1833,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-church-leaders-in-jackson-county-missouri-25-june-1833/1.
Section 97 notes
[1] Scot Facer Procter and Maurine Jensen Proctor, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt: Revised and Enhanced Edition (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000), 113-14. For the First Presidency’s response, see “Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 6 August 1833,” p. [1], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-church-leaders-in-jackson-county-missouri-6-august-1833/1.
[2] “Revelation, 2 August 1833–A [D&C 97],” p. 61, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 9, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-2-august-1833-a-dc-97/1.
[3] Scot Facer Procter and Maurine Jensen Proctor, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt: Revised and Enhanced Edition (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2000), 115-16.