Lesson 14 - The Law of Consecration

Since I'm quite confident that no one will be in Sunday School next week, I'm taking for granted that people have two weeks to prepare for the Law of Consecration. As such, I have expanded the scripture reading list a bit (and I think you should read full sections): Doctrine and Covenants 38, 42, 51, 72, 78, 82, 104:11-18.

I am just giving two additional reading assignments, but I would encourage you to read both. The first is Steve Harper writing about the Law of Consecration in its historical context here. The second is the first couple of chapters from Elder Bruce Hafen's biography of Elder Neal A. Maxwell here. (The link for the full biography is here.) What might Elder Maxwell's life teach us about consecration?

I would encourage you to think about three principal things as you read about the Law of Consecration: 1) what principles found the Law; 2) what do we know about how the law was practiced in the 1830s; and 3) what does this mean to each of us today (particularly if we've received endowments in the temple).

BYU Studies thought my "Give It All Up and Follow Your Lord" article was a good fit for this lesson here. Though I posted it with our discussion of missionary work, I think it works well here too. Particularly Phebe Crosby Peck's letter (the second one). What did "Give It All Up and Follow Your Lord" mean to her? What does it mean to you?

P.S. I know I published this more than a week ago and people started to read it, but suddenly today I noticed that it was back to a draft, no idea how this happened. My apologies.

Lesson 13 - "This Generation Will Have My Word Through You"

The stated purpose of the lesson this week is "to help class members appreciate the Prophet Joseph Smith's role in bringing forth the word of the Lord in this dispensation." Quite a lofty goal.

This could go in a variety of wildly different directions, but I think that we are going to focus on what the Lord tells Joseph about his role through visions and revelations and how we understand that role and benefit from it today. I think Latter-day Saints don't often recognize or acknowledge just how pervasively Joseph Smith colors our thought. We see the theological world through a lens provided us by Joseph Smith. 

The lesson does not have a particular reading assignment. As such I am creating my own. Think about the record Joseph provides of the first vision (JSH1:17-20 for the 1838 account and here are the other first vision accounts) and of Moroni's words (JSH 1:33-50). When does Joseph receive his calling? We will continue to look at what the Lord tells Joseph of his calling as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants revelations. Some of those verses include: 1:17; 3:1-9; 5:6-10; 21:1-5; 24:1-9; 28:1-7; 121:7-24. We will also look at 20:5-8 as an example of perhaps how Joseph (or Joseph and Oliver) interpreted his early experiences. What did the Lord say was Joseph's role? Did he fulfill it?

There are many other American contemporaries to Joseph who likewise claimed visions and theophanies some even started religions, yet in contrast to most Joseph left a voluminous written legacy. (My only current exception being Shaker Leader Ann Lee's teachings written down after her death.)  We will specifically look at: The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. We will also look at a couple non-canonical contributions: The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (the whole thing is published here) and the King Follet Discourse (for now the best text is here, here is a comparison of the different sources).

Richard Bushman here helps us think about the significance of Joseph Smith through an analysis of different biographers of Joseph and provides important contextualization of some of Joseph's contributions. Here David Paulsen offers an analysis of Joseph's major doctrinal contributions among Christianity. Here is Alex Baugh's great summary of Joseph the Seer. The long list of BYU Speeches devoted to Joseph Smith here is telling. You can look at Joseph from a variety of perspectives, even when only looking at those things written within a faithful rubric. Think of what you would write were you thinking about Joseph Smith's role and legacy. 

Women Praying in General Conference

Today the Peggy Fletcher Stack Salt Lake Tribune published a well substantiated rumour that women will be praying in General Conference this spring for apparently the first time ever.

If you're interested in terms of historical precedents, I've written a bit here about the historical context of women's participation in general conference here and how we might think about changes like this historically here.

Lesson 12 - "The Gathering of My People"

This week we are talking about gathering. Despite the limited time, we will try to cover the gathering to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and hopefully at least mention Utah, the twentieth (and now 21st) century applications of the principle, and the keys of gathering.

The reading list for this week includes: Doctrine and Covenants 29:1-8, 33:3-7; 37, 38, 52:2-5, 42-43; 57:1-3; 110:11. The bulk of our time will be spent with the revelations that led to the gathering to Ohio and how the Lord establishes the principle of gathering. We will focus on 29, 37, and 38.


Here is a a helpful essay on the Gathering to Ohio from Elizabeth Maki. And to remind is why there was a group of Saints to join with in Ohio, here is Richard Lloyd Anderson's classic "The Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio." Joe Darowski helps us follow the Colesville Saints from Colesville, New York to Thompson, Ohio to Kaw Township, Jackson County, Missouri here.

Handy New JSP Revelation Chart

There is a new Joseph Smith Papers chart here. It links all the current Doctrine & Covenants section numbers to the earliest manuscript copy of the revelation on the JSP website. This may not seem like news, but for those of you who have tried to find specific revelations in the manuscript revelation books which are not in the same order, this will help a lot.

Lesson 11 - "The Field is White Ready to Harvest"

Next week we will focus on missionary work by looking at the calls to various individuals: 4 (Joseph Smith Sr.), 11 (Hyrum Smith), 12 (Joseph Knight, Sr.), 14 (David Whitmer), 15 (John Whitmer), 16 (Peter Whitmer Jr.), 18, 31 (Thomas B. Marsh), 33 (Ezra Thayre and Northrup Sweet), and 75. (We will spend more time in the underlined sections.)

As section 4 teaches (and several other sections repeat) "if you have desires, you are called to the work." Though the subjects of these revelations are all men, men are certainly not the only individuals who had desires and felt the call to the work. To that end, look at examples of testimony and exhortation in early Mormon women here and the specific example of Rebecca Swain Williams sharing the gospel with her immediate and extended family here.

As a bonus thought: Sections 15 & 16 are the exact same, except for an extra unto in 15:6. Yet, despite this the introduction to section 15 reads: The message is intimately and impressively personal in that the Lord tells of what was known only to John Whitmer and Himself. How could this be? A message that is almost exactly repeated to his brother and somewhat repeated to several others?

Lesson 10 "This is My Voice Unto All"

Next week we will begin discussing the sacrament and then spend the bulk of our time in Section 25.

Carol Madsen writes about the historical context of the section here. There is a biographical sketch of Emma here. And here another historical essay on Emma from the Revelations in Context written by Matt Grow. Some new thoughts regarding the Methodist context to the command to "exhort" shared by Chris Jones here.

As verse 16 notes, section 20 is not just the word of the Lord to Emma, or the word of the Lord unto women, but "this is my voice unto all." As the Lord tells Hyrum in 11:27, "I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap." The words of the revelations are "unto all." We need to learn how the Lord speaks to us individually through these revelations. We will likewise begin to address some of tidbits from some of the other individualized sections including 11 & 12, 14 -16.

Dating Christ's Birth. Section 20:1.

Sunday we had a bit of a discussion on dating Christ's birth and whether or not to take Section 20 verse 1 literally. Or if "one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh" is flowery nineteenth-century speak. 

Elder James E. Talmage considered it literal (Jesus the Christ). For Talmage Jesus was born the 6th of April 1 B.C. This strain of thought has become something gospel-like to many Latter-day Saints. A few prophets have repeated Talmage's date of April 6th, yet none have yet proclaimed it with certainty. Other apostles including Hyrum M. Smith (Doctrine and Covenants Commentary), J. Rueben Clark (Our Lord of the Gospels), and Bruce R. McConkie (The Mortal Messiah) considered it less certain or wrong. Elder McConkie stated, "We do not believe it is possible with the present state of our knowledge--including that which is known both in and out of the Church--to state with finality when the natal day of the Lord Jesus actually occurred." (1:349)

Most New Testament scholars would argue that the year of Christ's birth was between 3ish and 5ish B.C. (Clearly, my "ish" denotes the certainty.) Three BYU Religion Department professors have taken this up in the last few years. You can read Jeffrey Chadwick's argument here. And Lincoln Blummel and Thomas Wayment's cogent response to Chadwick including their own argument here. Both are important to the discussion. See what you think.      

Returning to the day of the birth...This entry from Joseph's history is a good point of comparison (JSP, History, 1838-1856, vol. A-1): 6 April 1833 “The day was spent in a very agreeable manner, in giving and receiving knowledge which appertained to this last kingdom—it being just 1800 years since the Savior laid down his life that men might have everlasting life, and only three years since the Church had come out of the wilderness, preparatory for the last dispensation.” They don't seem to regard it literally. As the new introduction for section 20 states, they started working on it in 1829 and it was worked on over time. The final version was not finished until 10 April 1830 and the beginning was added by John Whitmer. For me, all this points to 20:1 as figurative language. We just don't know.

LDS Church releases New Edition of the English Scriptures.

This is huge.

Otherwise known as small changes that make a remarkable difference.

Since 1981, the LDS Church has been using the same edition of the scriptures. There were significant changes for that edition (see here for a fantastic new gallery stroll though all the editions of LDS scriptures noting the significant changes in each edition since the 1833 Book of Commandments), but I was a kid. I certainly didn't see the significance. I only knew that my mom had this old triple combination that to which she was very attached and every once in a while she'd read something different or was on a different page than what was in my own scriptures. (For those of you who don't want to make a change, none of the page numbers have changed.)

Last night, early this morning for me, a new edition of the English scriptures was announced. See the announcement here and a host of important additions to help us in our understanding of scripture and particularly the Doctrine and Covenants. Personally, I am rejoicing this morning.

The Church History Department's work on the Joseph Smith Papers (JSP) and and the work of some individual historians has yielded much new information. This adds much of that to the contextual material available in introductions and section headings. If you want to compare, the church has here published an 87-page side by side comparison of the changes. (It is a big file, it took a while.) Hooray for transparency.

As I've perused this morning, here is a smattering of some of the changes:

• There is a significant addition to the Introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants. It is very succinct, but it more correctly and more specifically explains the process of how revelations were distributed, edited, early editions created, and how the historical context is based on the "most accurate historical information." This is a tremendous effort to help us understand and teach our history better. 
• The headings no longer reference the History of the Church (HC). We've known for a long time that the HC was a problematic source, but the JSP is endeavoring to go back to the earliest versions and no longer needs to rely on the HC. 
• Section 10. If you've ever wondered why a section that was dated as summer 1828 was in order after a revelation given in April 1829, we no longer have that problem. The dating in the section heading has changed to "likely around April 1829, though portions may have been received as early as the summer of 1828." In the 1876 edition Orson Pratt rearranged the revelations chronologically and placed Section 10 where we find it today. The dating was later thought to be wrong and the date in the introduction was changed for the 1921 Apostles Revision of the Doctrine and Covenants without changing the order of the revelations. The earliest manuscript Revelation book--the Book of Commandments and Revelations, now known as Revelation Book 1--helped to begin to properly re-date the section. 
• Section 39-40. No one had ever been able to find the James Covill mentioned in Sections 39 & 40 in Baptist records, you would think that there would be some record of you if you preached for forty years. The problem was he wasn't a Baptist. Thanks to the work of my friend Chris Jones published here, we know know that his last name was spelled Covel and he was a Methodist. This led to more important context regarding section 39 & 40.
• Official Declaration 1. Neither of the official declarations had introductions in the 1981 version of the scriptures. The introduction for OD1 is significant, particularly the last sentence. "This led to the end of the practice of plural marriage" acknowledges that as a church we did not collectively stop on a dime. The end of polygamy took time and additional prophetic clarification even after Wilford Woodruff's death.  
• Official Declaration 2. The introduction for OD2 is for me perhaps the most important addition. 
  The Book of Mormon teaches that “all are alike unto God,” including “black and white, bond and free, male and female” (2 Nephi 26:33). Throughout the history of the Church, people of every race and ethnicity in many countries have been baptized and have lived as faithful members of the Church. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, a few black male members of the Church were ordained to the priesthood. Early in its history, Church leaders stopped conferring the priesthood on black males of African descent. Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice. Church leaders believed that a revelation from God was needed to alter this practice and prayerfully sought guidance. The revelation came to Church President Spencer W. Kimball and was affirmed to other Church leaders in the Salt Lake Temple on June 1, 1978. The revelation removed all restrictions with regard to race that once applied to the priesthood. 
  Though unsurprisingly succinct, it is theologically and historically weighty. It begins quoting the Book of Mormon standard that "all are alike unto God." It acknowledges those black members of the church, like Elijah Able, who were ordained to the priesthood in the 19th century. Most importantly it lacks the claim of divine sanction to the priesthood ban. Instead it says we do not completely understand the origin of the ban of black members of African descent from the priesthood--"church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice." The origins of the ban that was deemed policy, not revelation are becoming more clear, but this statement is significant progress. It took a long time, but on a "long awaited day" in June 1978 by revelation this historical wrong was no more. 
• Book of Abraham Introduction. The the short introduction to the Book of Abraham now reads--"An inspired translation of the writings of Abraham. Joseph began the translation in the 1835 after obtaining some Egyptian papyri." I believe this more appropriately describes the papyri as something that prompted or inspired Joseph's translation rather than the exact source of the material Joseph translated.

The changes demonstrate my faith in an open canon and I believe they testify to the need for modern revelation (and good historians doing good work).

Today, I am rejoicing.

The digital edition is available now. On apple devices it will not update automatically, go into your Gospel Library app and delete and re-add the scriptures.