Doctrine and Covenants
Based on Wikipedia: Doctrine and Covenants
In 1972, a single copy of a book traveled to the moon and back. It did not carry the weight of a nation's technology or the secrets of statecraft, but rather the spiritual convictions of a movement that began in the backwoods of New York. Astronaut John Young, aboard Apollo 16, brought the Doctrine and Covenants with him, a testament to a text that has guided millions through centuries of upheaval, migration, and theological evolution. This book, often abbreviated as D&C, is not a static monument carved in stone but a living, breathing archive of the Latter Day Saint movement, a collection of revelations that has been rewritten, renumbered, and reinterpreted as the church itself fractured and grew.
To understand the Doctrine and Covenants, one must first strip away the modern perception of scripture as a finished product. In its earliest incarnations, this book was a desperate attempt to preserve a faith under siege. The story begins not with the 1835 publication, but with the violence of 19th-century Missouri. In 1833, a mob destroyed a printing press in Independence, Missouri, and scattered the pages of the Book of Commandments, a preliminary collection of 65 revelations intended to guide the church's leaders, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. The destruction of that press was not merely an act of property damage; it was an attempt to silence a voice that was rapidly gaining traction and threatening the established order. The mob did not just burn paper; they burned the physical evidence of divine communication, leaving the church leaders scrambling to recover what they could from the ashes.
From that chaos emerged a resolve to rebuild, but with a new structure. On September 24, 1834, a committee was appointed by the general assembly of the church to organize a new volume. This was not a casual editorial project. The committee consisted of the movement's most towering figures: Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. They were tasked with a monumental job: to sift through the scattered revelations, revise them, and compile them into a cohesive whole. They chose a title that reflected the dual nature of their work: Doctrine and Covenants. The "Doctrine" referred to a series of theological lectures known as the "Lectures on Faith," which had been used in the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. The "Covenants" referred to the revelations themselves, seen as binding agreements between the divine and the church.
The resulting book, published in 1835, was a radical departure from previous religious texts. It was divided into two distinct parts. The first, the "Doctrine," contained seven lectures on faith, covering topics from the nature of God to the mechanics of salvation. These were not mere sermons but a rigorous theological course, designed to educate the priesthood. The committee stated that these lectures were included "in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation." The second part, the "Covenants," contained 103 revelations. These were the "covenants and commandments of the Lord," intended to regulate the church's daily life and governance. Each revelation was assigned a section number, though the original numbering was flawed; section 66 was mistakenly used twice, meaning the original work actually contained only 102 sections despite the higher count.
The process of canonization was as human and political as it was spiritual. On February 17, 1835, the committee declared that the resulting work represented "our belief, and when we say this, humbly trust, the faith and principles of this society as a body." Yet, the members of the church had not seen the manuscript in its final, revised form. It had been compiled and edited solely by the committee. When the book was introduced at a general conference on August 17, 1835, the membership was asked to accept a text they had not fully read. Smith and Williams were absent, but Cowdery and Rigdon were present to advocate for it. Various members who were familiar with the original revelations "bore record" of the book's truth. At the end of the conference, the church voted unanimously to accept the compilation as their doctrine and to arrange for its printing. It was a moment of profound trust, a leap of faith by a community that had already faced mob violence and exile.
As the decades passed, the book became a battleground for identity. The Doctrine and Covenants was not just a record of the past; it was a tool for the present and a blueprint for the future. The LDS Church and the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) both claimed the book as scripture, yet they disagreed on its very content. The controversy centered on the 1876 edition of the LDS Church. In that year, a new edition was released that renumbered most of the sections in a roughly chronological order, replacing the earlier topical arrangement. More significantly, it included 26 sections that had not appeared in previous editions, attributed to Joseph Smith but previously unknown or disputed. These sections included revelations on celestial marriage, the gathering of Israel, and the nature of the priesthood.
The RLDS Church, which traced its lineage to the son of Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith III, traditionally disputed the authenticity of these added sections. They argued that these revelations were not part of the original canon and did not reflect the true teachings of the founder. This was not a minor theological quibble; it was a fundamental disagreement over the nature of revelation itself. The LDS Church maintained that these sections were genuine revelations to Smith, while the RLDS Church viewed them as later additions that distorted the original message. This split in the canon mirrored the split in the church itself, a fracture that would define the Latter Day Saint movement for generations.
The content of the book evolved to reflect the changing realities of the church. In 1844, after the death of Joseph Smith, the church added eight sections not included in the 1835 edition. These sections, numbered 103, 105, 112, 119, 124, 127, 128, and 135 in the current edition, addressed the needs of a church in crisis, struggling to survive the loss of its founder and the hostility of its neighbors. In 1876, the 101st section of the 1835 edition, a "Statement on Marriage" that declared the church believed in monogamy ("one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband"), was removed. This removal was not an oversight; it was a deliberate act. The statement had been superseded by section 132, recorded in 1843, which contained a revelation on eternal marriage and plural marriage. The LDS Church traced the principles of plural marriage back to as early as 1831, but it was not until the 1840s that the practice became a central, albeit controversial, tenet of the faith. The removal of section 101 signaled a shift in the church's public stance, moving from a defense of monogamy to an embrace of a practice that would soon lead to further persecution and the eventual exodus to Utah.
The text also reflects the internal struggles of the church regarding leadership and authority. During the 1880s, five foreign editions of the Doctrine and Covenants contained two revelations to John Taylor, received in 1882 and 1883. These revelations "set in order" the priesthood, clarifying the roles of various offices and requiring that "men who ... preside over my priesthood" live plural marriage to qualify for their positions. These sections were a direct response to the increasing pressure from the US government to abandon the practice of polygamy. However, as the church's attitude toward polygamy changed in 1890, culminating in the Manifesto issued by Wilford Woodruff, these sections were no longer included in future English editions. The text was pruned to align with the new reality, a stark reminder that scripture is not immune to the pressures of history and politics.
In 1921, the LDS Church made another significant change: the removal of the "Lectures on Faith" portion of the book. For nearly a century, these seven lectures had been an integral part of the Doctrine and Covenants, providing the theological foundation for the church. Their removal was explained by the church with the statement that the lectures "were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons." This explanation was somewhat evasive, as the lectures had been treated as scripture for decades. Their removal marked a shift in the church's understanding of the book, separating the "doctrine" from the "covenants" and focusing solely on the revelations. The book was now purely a collection of divine commands and historical documents, stripped of its systematic theology.
The modern Doctrine and Covenants of the LDS Church contains 138 sections and two official declarations. The sections are a mosaic of history, spanning from the presidency of Joseph Smith (1828–44) to the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (1973–85). Sections 1–134 and 137 come from the era of Joseph Smith, capturing the fervor and chaos of the early church. Sections 135 and 136 were added during the administration of the Quorum of the Twelve (1844–47), a period of transition and uncertainty. Official Declaration 1, from the presidency of Wilford Woodruff, marks the end of the practice of plural marriage. Section 138, from the presidency of Joseph F. Smith, is a vision of the spirit world. Official Declaration 2, from the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, extends the priesthood to all worthy male members, regardless of race. These additions show a church that is constantly grappling with its own history, reinterpreting its past to meet the challenges of the present.
The book is not just a list of rules; it is a narrative of a people in motion. It tells the story of a community that has faced expulsion, violence, and internal division, yet has managed to preserve its core identity. The revelations are not abstract theological musings; they are practical responses to immediate crises. They address the need for a temple, the organization of a priesthood, the establishment of a school, and the survival of a community in a hostile world. The text is filled with the voices of real people, struggling to understand their place in the world and their relationship to the divine.
The Doctrine and Covenants also serves as a window into the complexity of religious authority. The book is a collection of revelations, but it is also a product of human editorial decisions. The committee that compiled the 1835 edition made choices about what to include and what to exclude. The editors of the 1876 edition made choices about how to organize the text and which sections to add. These decisions were not made in a vacuum; they were influenced by the political, social, and theological context of the time. The book is a testament to the power of human agency in the formation of scripture. It is a reminder that even in a religion that claims divine revelation, the human hand is always present, shaping, editing, and interpreting the word of God.
The journey of the Doctrine and Covenants from a mob-destroyed manuscript to a book that has traveled to the moon is a story of resilience. It is a story of a faith that has survived the destruction of its physical records, the death of its founder, and the schism of its community. It is a story of a text that has been rewritten and reinterpreted to meet the needs of a changing world. The book is not a static monument; it is a living document, a conversation between the divine and the human that continues to this day.
The controversy over the authenticity of certain sections, the removal of the "Lectures on Faith," and the shifting stance on polygamy are not signs of weakness; they are signs of a religion that is engaged with the world. The Doctrine and Covenants is a mirror that reflects the struggles, the triumphs, and the contradictions of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is a book that demands to be read not as a finished product, but as a process, a continuous act of revelation and reformation.
In the end, the Doctrine and Covenants is more than a collection of verses and sections. It is the story of a people who have sought to build a kingdom of God on earth, a story that is as much about human failure and redemption as it is about divine promise. It is a book that has been carried through the snow of Missouri, the deserts of Utah, and the silence of space. It is a book that continues to shape the lives of millions, a testament to the enduring power of faith in the face of adversity. The book is not just a record of what has been; it is a promise of what can be, a covenant that binds the past, present, and future together in a single, unbroken thread.