Days 12, 13, 14: Doctrines & Covenants 1-138
Vacation, a sick dog, losing a dog, and grief will delay any project or spiritual practice. It’s funny, it’s during those times that we really need our practices. I still read the LDS scriptures amidst a month of difficulty as we lost our dog to a brain tumor. I just didn’t have it in me to write about it. But here we go. Time to finish this up!
If the Book of Mormon wasn’t interesting enough, the blandly named Doctrines & Covenants is fascinating. These are modern revelations to the Latter-day Saints, given to them through their prophets. Most of them are from early LDS history, but slowly but surely there’s some new ones making their way into the book.
I read these and realized they were both a record of church history and a lot of church gossip. There’s admonitions of people who were bugging Joseph Smith, commissions of missionaries, new doctrines to meet the times of the wandering Latter-day Saints, and the introduction of some unique practices. If you read the Book of Mormon, you’ll walk away questioning whether or not that story really happened, but you probably wouldn’t go “Whoa, this is way different than mainline Christianity!” Doctrines & Covenants is where we start to see baptisms of the dead laid out more clearly, the importance of LDS Temples, exaltation, and a deeply rooted religio-patriotic ethic.
Let’s presuppose the Christian story is 100% true. It makes perfect sense for a resurrected Jesus to appear to people worldwide. So, while archaeological records and genetics do not affirm the Book of Mormon at all, the idea behind the book should make any Christian respond with: “Well, of course God will appear to other nations!” It’s in Doctrines & Covenants that the cosmology of Latter-day Saints starts to take a sharp left. The Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem are in….Missouri? The US Constitution is divinely inspired? Adam (the first man) is really the Archangel Michael? There’s “secret keys” held in LDS Temples for true salvation?
All of these are questions Doctrines & Covenants addresses. In D&C 131-132, we get the doctrine of exaltation. This is an interesting one. It’s important to read this carefully. Exaltation means that righteous LDS men that marry within the church…can become gods. That’s exaltation. Women? Their exaltation is not so fancy. But, yes, you get to be a god! Psychologically, this is a tempting offer. Do this and you shall have a world of your own to govern as a god — maybe more than one world.
So, with all of this: The gossip, the polity, and the unique doctrines — this book presents a great record of LDS evolution during the early years. There’s not many additions after the 1800s. Overwhelmingly, these revelations came to Joseph Smith. It leads me to wonder why the LDS gods have been so quiet since.
Things I Noticed in the Text
- D&C 7, The Apostle John. According to this revelation, the apostle John still walks the Earth. Somewhere. Somehow.
- D&C 10, The Lost Pages. As the story goes, 116 pages of the Book of Mormon were stolen. This led Joseph Smith to being forbidden to re-translate them because they were corrupted by the thieves. Nice save, Joseph.
- D&C 27:3, Water & Bread. Wine is forbidden from the sacrament. If you’ve ever been to an LDS meetinghouse during their sacrament meetings, communion is bread and water.
- D&C 84, New Jerusalem. Pack your bags and head to Missouri, that’s where the Garden of Eden was, where the second coming will occur, and where the New Jerusalem will be established.
- D&C 87 1-4, Civil War Foretold. Joseph Smith predicts the Civil War ~30 years before it happened. It leads me to want to know how inevitable the Civil War felt during this time.
- D&C 137:5, Thorough Records. Latter-day Saints are known for their very thorough records regarding baptisms for the dead. This has led to extensive genealogical research, which is pretty impressive.
- Declaration 1, Only One Wife. The end of polygamy, which came just before Utah statehood.
- Declaration 2, Black People Are Okay Now. Black men can now hold the priesthood…it’s the 1970s. Yes. You read that right. Black men couldn’t hold the priesthood until the 70s.
This post is part of a larger series where I read the entirety of Latter-day Saint scripture in 15 days. Take a look at the original post for more info, as well as links to other reflections on this journey.