095 The Restoration - Intro to the Doctrine & Covenants - Come Follow Me - E2 - Dec 30-Jan 5

Summary

Church History Matters: Episode 095 - The Restoration: Intro to the Doctrine & Covenants - Come Follow Me - E2
Released on: December 26, 2024
Hosts: Scott Woodward and Casey Griffiths
Podcast Series: Church History Matters by Scripture Central

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Introduction

In Episode 095 of Church History Matters, hosts Scott Woodward and Casey Griffiths delve into the foundational aspects of the Latter-day Saint faith by introducing listeners to the Doctrine and Covenants through the Come Follow Me curriculum for the week spanning December 30 to January 5. This episode serves as an extensive primer, setting the stage for an in-depth exploration of the Doctrine and Covenants throughout 2025.

Welcome and Podcast Pivot

[00:04 - 01:31] Scott and Casey welcome listeners to the new year, expressing enthusiasm for focusing on the Doctrine and Covenants after years of broader church history discussions. Scott remarks, "This year we get to just focus in on the Doctrine and Covenants. How you feeling about that?" ([00:31]). Casey emphasizes the significance of the Doctrine and Covenants as one of the four books of canon scripture, underscoring its role in shaping Latter-day Saint identity and doctrine.

Hosts Introduction

[04:46 - 06:03] Scott introduces Casey as a "fun loving scholar" and an Associate Teaching Professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU Provo. Casey reciprocates by highlighting Scott's expertise in technology and his role as co-managing editor for Doctrine Covenants Central.

Come Follow Me Curriculum Overview

[06:09 - 11:10] The hosts outline the week's curriculum titled "The Restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ", which is anchored by the Restoration Proclamation issued in 2020. Scott enumerates the six church proclamations since 1830, detailing their historical contexts and significance:

1. 1841 Nauvoo Proclamation: Celebrates church progress despite persecution.
2. 1845 Proclamation by the Twelve Apostles: Declares God's voice and invites all nations to witness the restoration.
3. 1865 First Presidency Proclamation: Clarifies doctrines about the nature of God, addressing misconceptions.
4. 1980 Proclamation Celebrating 150th Anniversary: Highlights church doctrines and mission.
5. 1995 Proclamation to the World about the Family: Defines church positions on family, marriage, and gender roles.
6. Restoration Proclamation (2020): Marks the 200th anniversary of the First Vision, outlining major restoration events and future directions.

Casey adds, "I believe that we study the Doctrine Covenants, and then in the final weeks of 2025, we will spend a week on the Family Proclamation." ([10:04])

The Four Cs: Context, Content, Controversies, and Consequences

[17:22 - 19:58] Introducing their foundational framework, Scott and Casey present the Four Cs approach for studying the Doctrine and Covenants:

1. Context: Understanding the historical backdrop when a revelation was given.
2. Content: Analyzing the actual text and concepts conveyed.
3. Controversies: Exploring any debates or disputes surrounding the revelation.
4. Consequences: Assessing the impact of the revelation on both the original recipients and contemporary Latter-day Saints.

Scott articulates, "We're going to do Doctrine and Covenants in context. We're going to be doing history behind. As we get into the text, we're going to be talking about all of...." ([01:31])

Understanding the Doctrine and Covenants

[20:48 - 37:15] The discussion transitions to a comprehensive overview of the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Scott emphasizes the necessity of context, comparing it to appreciating the full narrative of a powerful musical composition. He quotes Joseph Smith: "To ascertain its meaning, we must dig up the root and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus." ([23:06])

Casey echoes this sentiment, highlighting that the D&C comprises answers to specific questions posed by church leaders, which explains its sometimes fragmented nature. They recommend supplementary resources like the Saints series and the book Revelations in Context to aid in understanding the D&C ([24:54]).

Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants

[37:15 - 44:11] Casey provides a detailed historical account of the D&C’s evolution:

• 1831-1832: Initial compilation of ~60 revelations, primarily Joseph Smith’s dictations.
• 1833 - Book of Commandments: First publication attempt thwarted by mob violence; limited copies survive.
• 1835 - Book of Covenants: Expanded edition including Lectures on Faith and additional revelations.
• 1876 Edition: Under Brigham Young, significant additions like section 132 (eternal and plural marriage) and removal of the Lectures on Faith.
• 1981 Edition: Reorganization into chronological order, addition of significant sections such as section 137 (vision on salvation for the dead) and section 121-123 (Liberty Jail letters).
• 2013 Edition: Incorporates findings from the Joseph Smith Papers Project, introducing corrections and updates without altering doctrinal content.

Scott notes, "In 2013 we got a new edition that's also when the completely electronic edition that's in Gospel Library became available." ([44:11])

Controversies Surrounding the Doctrine and Covenants

[44:11 - 61:28] The hosts address the primary controversy: textual changes and additions over time. Scott points out that critics refer to these modifications as evidence against the D&C's authenticity. However, he clarifies that most changes are minor, such as correcting typographical errors or updating names, without altering doctrinal meanings. For instance:

• Section 35: Changed from "thrash" to "thresh" to better reflect agricultural terminology ([59:28]).
• Section 40: Correcting the spelling of "James Coville" to "James Covel" ([59:54]).
• Section 127: Capitalizing "T" in "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" ([60:21]).

Casey emphasizes the transparency of these changes, stating, "They have been super transparent about this... they haven’t tried to hide this stuff." ([46:36]). Scott reinforces this by highlighting that doctrinal integrity remains intact, and changes enhance clarity rather than undermine faith.

The Consequences and Significance of the Doctrine and Covenants

[61:28 - 66:00] Scott and Casey elaborate on why the D&C is crucial for Latter-day Saints:

1. Modern Origin: It's the only scripture given in original English.
2. Voice of Christ: Predominantly presents teachings and directives from Jesus Christ.
3. Living Scripture: The D&C is open for future revelations, maintaining its relevance and adaptability.

Scott quotes President Ezra Taft Benson, who described the D&C as the "capstone of our religion with continuing Latter Day Revelation." ([62:16])

Casey adds, "The Doctrine and Covenants has more red letters words than any other book of Scripture that we have, and we should cherish it, because it’s not just the words of Christ, it’s the words of Christ to us in our time." ([64:11])

Closing Remarks

[66:06 - 67:21] The episode concludes with the hosts expressing anticipation for the year's study, emphasizing the vital role the Doctrine and Covenants plays in understanding the restoration and ongoing revelations within the church. They invite listeners to engage with the upcoming content, promising a thorough exploration of each revelation through their Four Cs framework.

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Notable Quotes

• Scott Woodward ([00:31]): "This year we get to just focus in on the Doctrine and Covenants. How you feeling about that?"

• Joseph Smith ([20:48]): "To ascertain its meaning, we must dig up the root and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus."

• Casey Griffiths ([24:54]): "Everything up to section 137 is in Saints."

• Steve Harper ([52:46]): "Revelation is communication in which God is a flawless divine encoder, but mortals are the decoders. Various kinds of noise prevent perfect understanding."

• President Ezra Taft Benson ([62:16]): "The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion and the Doctrine and Covenants is the capstone of our religion with continuing Latter Day Revelation."

• Casey Griffiths ([64:11]): "The Doctrine and Covenants has more red letters words than any other book of Scripture that we have, and we should cherish it..."

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Conclusion

Episode 095 of Church History Matters offers a comprehensive introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants, laying the groundwork for a year-long study. Through historical context, analytical content exploration, addressing controversies with transparency, and highlighting the enduring consequences, Scott and Casey provide listeners with valuable insights into one of the church's foundational texts. Notable quotes sprinkled throughout the discussion enhance the depth and engagement of the episode, making it an essential listen for those seeking to deepen their understanding of Latter-day Saint doctrine and history.

Transcript

[Host]

Welcome to Church History Matters. Come follow me edition, where we are systematically diving into every section of the.

[Scott Woodward]

Doctrine and Covenants throughout the year 2025. We have a lot to talk about today, so let's get into it.

[Casey Griffiths]

Hello, Scott.

[Scott Woodward]

Hello, Casey.

[Casey Griffiths]

Here we are once again. And it's a new year also, so a lot. A lot going on.

[Scott Woodward]

Welcome to 2025, man. We get to dig into the Doctrine and Covenants this year, Casey. Like, we've been doing a lot of church history the last couple years, but this year we get to just focus in on the Doctrine and Covenants. How you feeling about that?

[Casey Griffiths]

I'm feeling pretty good. And I'm going to push back right away because we're still doing church history, right? It's just this is the most important church history that we do. It's so important. We made it one of the four books of canon of Scripture. And so we're still doing what we're doing with history, but now we're talking about, like, the big stuff, the revelations that really changed things and set us apart and put us on the path as a people.

[Scott Woodward]

So in the past, we've done church history with references to the Doctrine and Covenants. Maybe this year we're going to flip that ratio. Lots of Doctrine and Covenants contextualized in. Okay, maybe a lot of history. Actually. It's not going to be. It's not going to be minor. We're going to do Doctrine and Covenants in context. We're going to be doing history behind. As we get into the text, we're going to be talking about all of.

[Casey Griffiths]

It, actually, history, theology, all that good stuff. And it's going to be a little different from what we've been doing. And maybe we should talk a little bit about why we're doing that for.

[Scott Woodward]

Those out there that maybe don't know us, don't know who we are. Maybe you're new to church history matters this year. You're just joining us to study the Doctrine and Covenants together. We want to first say welcome. We're so glad to have you with us. And maybe we should just talk about who we have been and why we're pivoting now to talk about the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. So we've been doing this podcast for two years, and it was conceived on a trip to Nauvoo, basically where you and I were talking about how we wanted a platform to talk about some of the tougher issues in church history. Scott and I are the managing directors of a site called Doctrine Covenants Central, that's kind of a subsite of Scripture Central. And we spent all this time putting up good resources, commentary, videos, guides, and this podcast is part of it, too. And in the past, we've been doing series. We did a series on the first Vision and a series on Book of Mormon translation, a series on some really spicy subjects like plural marriage or race in the priesthood. But in 2025, we've always known that the Church was going to pivot and do the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history. And so we've decided to change our tactics just a little bit, like, tell them a little bit about what we're doing now. Scott?

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah. So just this year, okay, this year only, Casey and I are going to be walking through the Doctrine and Covenants. We're going to be covering lots of things. We'll introduce our four Cs as we get into this, the context of the Doctrine and Covenants, the content in the Doctrine and Covenants, controversies surrounding these sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, if there is any, that's been part of our philosophy from the beginning. Hasn't it been, Casey, that if there's controversies in church history, we found the most productive thing is to just get into it and explore it. Don't shy away, don't try to go around it, just hit it. And so if there's any controversies in these sections or in the history surrounding sections, we're going to hit them, and then we'll talk about the consequences or what came out of each of these revelations and how it's affected where we're at today. So that's kind of in a nutshell. We want to hit those four Cs context, content, controversies and consequences of every section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. And let me mention, this is also kind of like a multimedia strategy for Scripture Central, where we've been making content to get ready for this year for three or four years right now. And obviously, this podcast, which is now going to be a video series, too, there will be a video and an audio component to it. It's going to be our main thing. But we've also made a lot of site videos to take you to all the places where these revelations were received and where crucial events in the history of the church took place. There's going to be a series called Restoration Revealed that should be published about once or twice a month. That will take you to the sites where the revelations were received and give you other insights into things. So we're going to do a lot of things to try and be as thorough as possible. And we hope that you'll keep looking at Scripture Central where there's going to be links to a lot of these resources.

[Scott Woodward]

Perfect. So that's who we are, that's what we're up to. And we're excited for this year and I don't know, maybe it would be good for us to just quickly introduce each other. Casey, for those who don't know us, can I, can I just introduce you real quick?

[Casey Griffiths]

Yes. And, and then can I introduce you?

[Scott Woodward]

Oh, yes, let's do this. So, Casey Griffiths. Casey's a fun loving scholar who it has been my pleasure to work with for the last couple of years. That's true. He's an associate teaching professor of church history and doctrine at BYU Provo. And Casey holds degrees in history, religious education and educational leadership. And I just love talking all things church history with Casey because his knowledge of the subject matter is almost encyclopedic. Casey, what an honor, Scott, it's an.

[Casey Griffiths]

Honor to work with you and to introduce you because you've probably already seen the name Scott Woodward somewhere. If you've ever googled a really obscure quote in church history. There were a couple of years there when ScottWoodward.com was the first thing that came up. And you are a amazing with technology and putting these things together. Scott is the co managing editor for Doctrine Covenant Central, which we said is part of Scripture Central. Scott works at BYU Idaho and he has a PhD in Instructional Psychology and technology and he's one of the best teachers that I've ever worked with.

[Scott Woodward]

Well, thank you, Casey. Okay, should we talk about this week's come follow me curriculum?

[Casey Griffiths]

Yes. In fact, this week is kind of the calm before the storm, I guess you'd say, because we start the Doctrine Covenants, which includes we're going to be studying Joseph Smith history alongside of it. The proclamations, the major proclamations the church has issued.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah. The title for this week study is the Restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a big topic, Casey. As we know, the restoration is a very big multi layered concept and it's going to take at least a year for us to do a decent flyby of all of this. But the backbone for this week's curriculum is the Restoration Proclamation issued back in 2020. And it's not the first one, Casey. In fact, let me ask, do you know how many times church leaders have issued a proclamation since the beginning of the church in 1830?

[Casey Griffiths]

I know, but tell the good folks.

[Scott Woodward]

Out there the answer is six. That's not a lot. In fact, let me just walk through them real quick because I think it's super interesting to see what's happened and kind of where this latest proclamation fits. The first proclamation ever issued was back in 1841. It was issued in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was meant to detail the progress of the church. So this is under Joseph Smith's jurisdiction. Despite the hardships, despite the persecution that the Church had endured just coming out of Missouri, they're happy to report the church is progressing. It's kind of a cool proclamation. The second proclamation was issued in 1845, and this is just a year or so after Joseph Smith's death. And this was issued by the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And it was issued because section 124 of the doctrine and Covenants commanded it to be issued. That was in Joseph Smith's lifetime. That was back in 1841. The Lord commanded it. But they finally got around to it in 1845, and it's pretty awesome. It's bold. It's issued April 6, 1845, and it boldly declares that God has spoken again from the heavens, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ has been restored. And it includes a voice of warning to all nations and invites all mankind to come and see what God is doing in the restoration. There's the title proclamation of the twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to all the kings of the world, to the President of the United States of America, to the governors of the several states, and to the rulers and peoples of all nations. Greetings. It says, such a cool, bold proclamation. So that's number two. Number three was in 1865, and this one was issued by the first presidency and the 12, correcting various theories that had been spread abroad in the church about the nature of God. It kind of helped clarify that doctrine is announced and proclaimed by the First Presidency. It was correcting actually a doctrine that Orson Pratt had been spreading in the Church totally innocently. He was pretty convinced he was right. And so this is a corrective for an apostle. Really interesting little segment in history. I would not want to be the guy that had a proclamation issued, correct my statements. But, dude, honestly, like, Orson Pratt is amazing. Like, the way that he took this. He took it in stride, and he humbly accepted this correction, and he said, all right, I won't teach that anymore. The fourth proclamation was issued in 1980, and this one's pretty cool. This is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the church's founding. And so in order to read this proclamation, President Gordon B. Hinckley went to Fayette, New York, and stood there in the Whitmer home on April 6, 1980, and he read this proclamation. It's a very happy, upbeat proclamation detailing the church's progress, the church's key doctrines, mission, and message. Kind of a celebratory proclamation. Okay. Now, the. Probably the most famous proclamation is the 1995 proclamation, which is the proclamation to the world about the family. And this was issued September 23, 1995, by President Gordon B. Hinckley, now president of the church, in the General Relief Society meeting. Actually, super cool.

[Casey Griffiths]

And it's a big enough deal that I should note it's part of the curriculum for this year. I believe that we. We study the Doctrine Covenants, and then in the final weeks of 2025, we will spend a week on the Family Proclamation. And I'm looking forward to that. Good stuff there.

[Scott Woodward]

The purpose of this proclamation, it states in some of the final paragraphs, is to warn and forewarn the world. That's one of the purposes. Other purposes are to officially state succinctly the church's positions on family, on marriage, gender roles, human sexuality. Really important. Clearly a response to the Times in the 1990s. But it's only growing in relevance as we continue to see today. So that's 1995. That's the fifth one. The sixth one is officially the Restoration Proclamation. And, Casey, tell us a little bit about that one. This is more in recent memory.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, I remember being there with my family in the basement of my house. This was during the pandemic, as we mentioned earlier, when President Nelson issued the Restoration Proclamation in honor of the 200th anniversary of the first vision. And there was some interesting stuff that happened here. Like, even though it was in the middle of the pandemic, President Nelson made the journey all the way to Palmyra so that he could read the proclamation in the sacred grove. And if you pull it up on Gospel Library, there's the video right there where you can hear Russell M. Nelson reading the Restoration Proclamation. And it kind of does a great job creating sort of a skeletal structure of the major events that you need to be familiar with if you want to understand what we call the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, of course, it starts with the first vision. Since this is signed by the entire First Presidency in Quorum of the twelve, their commentary on the first vision, then it does some interesting things. For instance, it talks about the restoration of Priesthood keys by angelic visitors, which usually is simplified down to John the Baptist brought the Aaronic priesthood, Peter, James and John brought the Melchizedek priesthood. This actually adds in Elijah and talks about the keys of creating eternal families and then mentions others. And this was a great thing, honestly, because we've got that simplified narrative of the two restorations. But there's a lot of restorations that happen and a lot of angels mentioned throughout the Doctrine and Covenants. Then it goes into the translation and message of the Book of Mormon. What the Book of Mormon means and what it signifies, talks about the organization of the Church and why the church was organized and then points us towards events still happening, like the calling of new apostles in our day, continuing revelation given to these apostles. And then it points us towards the future in the last few paragraphs, explaining that right now the gathering of all things together in one unto Christ is happening in our midst and reminds us that the central purpose of the restoration is to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ. So like we mentioned, restoration is a huge, multi layered concept and we want to throw out a small caution as we dive into some of the complexities of the Doctrine and Covenants and the restoration. That's that we don't miss the forest for the trees. What we mean by that is that we can get caught up in the minutiae of the restoration or those keys of authority or that significant event that we can miss the one thing that these all converge to bring about.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah, can I share my favorite scripture that encapsulates that one major big overarching thing, please. Doctrine and Covenants 84, verse 2. This is about two plus years since the church was organized. And the Lord really succinctly captures the point of the restoration. Here's what he says. Yea, the word of the Lord concerning His church established in the last days for the restoration of his people as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets and for the gathering of his saints. There it is. There's the key that this church was established for the restoration of God's people. So I love what you're saying about, you know, if it's, there's, there's this truth or there's that key, or there's this revelation that came. But let's just step back and make sure we see the forest for the trees. All of those pieces are being restored so that, or as a means to the end of restoring God's people back into his family. I mean, what God wants is his people back as Elder Kieran said in his first General Conference talk, God is in relentless pursuit of us. And what we're going to talk about this whole year and walk through the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants to witness and to understand more about is God's pursuit of his children. And what we're going to find is it wasn't just the pursuit of his children in the 1800s, the 1900s, but through the work that's restored through Joseph Smith and the temple as the centerpiece. This is going to be God's efforts to reclaim all mankind who have ever lived in the history of the world. Like, what we're talking about this year is massive. And it comes piece by piece here, a little there, a little line upon line, precept on precept. And so it can be easy to miss the big picture. But if we can just keep that in mind. I like that we're just kind of looking at the big puzzle box, right? Looking at the picture on the puzzle box before we start to put together the puzzle. It's like, this is what we're going for, right? God is pursuing his children. The church was established in the last days for the restoration of his people. And so that's a great way to start. Now we're looking at the picture on the puzzle box. And the rest of this year, we'll just go through all the pieces that bring this about.

[Casey Griffiths]

And you make a really great point here, which is to say these puzzle pieces sometimes come together in surprising ways. Like, it's really common to say, well, this is the New Testament Church restored. And it is. That's true. But more than that, it brings back things from the Old Testame and things from the Book of Mormon that were unique. And then there's things that haven't been revealed before. Some revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants talks about things being revealed that were hidden from the foundation of the world. And so, yes, all those things. And we hope that you'll recognize the church from the outlines given in the Book of Mormon and the New Testament and so on and so forth, but you'll also recognize that we are building something new, that what we're doing is kind of unique in the history of the world because we're in a totally unique time in the history of the world. We're getting ready to move towards the Second Coming. And so we've. We're doing some things that maybe haven't been done before.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah, I love the phrase that we pluck from Paul in Ephesians 2. He calls it the Dispensation of the fullness of times. I think the word times there is important. It's. It's not just the New Testament church, like you're saying. It's. It's all the times. It's Book of Mormon times, Old Testament times, New Testament times. Yes. And then the current context in which the church was restored, there's going to be things pulled in from there, gathering together in one all things in Christ in preparation for his coming. So that's the big project. And all of those things are happening so that God can have his people back to get his people into the family of God, to make them heirs of his kingdom so he can rule and reign with them. I mean, it's a beautiful picture as you step back and admire it with awe and wonder. That's one of the phrases for this time period, is it's a marvelous work and a wonderful.

[Casey Griffiths]

Let me talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing then. We've sat down and we've kind of worked out a strategy we want to follow with the revelations because we also recognize that there are a lot of great podcasts out there that are doing Come follow me material, and we don't want to undercut them. What we're trying to do is something a little bit different, and that has to do with our expertise when it comes to church history and the Doctrine and Covenants. And that brings us to our burning question of the day, which is what are the strategies that we're going to use as we study the Doctrine and Covenants in the history of the Church this year? And we're proud of this. We put some work into it, but we call it the four Cs. Do you want to introduce the four Cs here?

[Scott Woodward]

So every week as we go through the assigned Come follow me curriculum, we're going to try to provide four things. Number one is we want to make sure we understand the context. What was happening when the revelation was given? We'll always start there, every time. And then number two, once we understand the historical context, we're going to get into the content. What does the revelation actually say? What are the concepts God actually conveyed in the text, and what do they mean? It's always important to understand, like what God meant to the original recipients of that revelation. Then later we can liken it to ourselves. Sure, we can apply as it seems relevant to our lives, but we don't want to rush to that. We first want to understand in the original content, what did this revelation mean to those recipients number three, we mentioned this. We're going to tackle the controversies. We're going to ask what's controversial about this revelation then or now and try to dig into as much as we know about it and we'll try to bring some resolution to it. Casey, I don't know if we can promise we're going to do that every time. We're going to give I like the instead of Q and A, we're going to give Q and R. I like R. We're going to give responses. We're not going to get answers. We're going to give responses to the controversies. Sometimes they're pretty open and close, but others are a little gnarly. And we'll just do our best to walk you through them and share our thoughts on it, hopefully get your thoughts on those as well and hopefully offer some tools for resolution.

[Casey Griffiths]

And I mean, that's part of our promise, right? Is we are going to go there. Some controversies in the Doctrine and Covenants might not be able to be resolved by us, but we at least want you to be familiar with them. We'll give responses here, but some controversies come and go. Some things I thought were totally settled are sometimes revisited by people. But we're going to try and address as many as we can as we go through the sections together.

[Scott Woodward]

And then the fourth thing we're going to do for every revelation, the Doctrine and Covenants is talk about the consequences, meaning what were the outcomes of this revelation? How did it impact that original group? And then how does it continue to have impact on Latter Day Saints today if it does?

[Casey Griffiths]

All right, Those are the four Cs and let's demonstrate each one of them. Now, as we mentioned, this week is sort of our big picture week. Boyd K. Packer said once that when you start a course, you should do a little over overview, give everybody the big picture so that they can see where they're at and it makes it easier for them to find themselves along the way. And the big picture thing we want to focus on today is the Doctrine Covenants itself. It's really unique among our books of Scripture. It's structured a little bit differently. It has some quirks to it that if you know and are familiar with your study will be much, much more beneficial. And so we want to kind of do big picture. What's the Doctrine Covenants? Where does it come from, what's unique about it and how can you utilize it best when you study this year? So let's dive into it, give us some context for the Doctrine and covenants.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah. Let's talk about why we need context. And then number two, where we go to find that context. The first one, let me introduce it with a quote by Joseph Smith. Joseph once said this. I have a key by which I understand the Scriptures. I inquire what was the question which drew out the answer? Answer. To ascertain its meaning, we must dig up the root and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus. That's actually in context of Jesus's parables. That's how Joseph Smith understands Jesus's parables. It's such a great approach. I think that same approach is perfect for the Doctrine and Covenants. The challenge with the Doctrine and Covenants, Casey, it's different than the Book of Mormon, Old Testament or New Testament, is that the context is almost completely missing from these revelations. We have a stack of and a bound copy of the revelations of Joseph Smith without the storyline behind them. And so we find this is absolutely crucial to get the storyline before we try to understand the revelations. But that could be challenging. It's kind of like, you know, the play Les Mis. When I first started hearing the music of Les Mis, it was powerful. I learned the music way before I ever saw the play. I didn't know much about the story, but the music was moving. The music was powerful. But you know what happened when I actually saw the play, the music took on a whole nother level of awesomeness, of appreciation, of beauty, of meaning. As I thought about that experience, I thought about how understanding the historical context behind the Doctrine and Covenants does that. It helps the Revelations have more power, more meaning, more force. They're good even if you don't know the story. We don't want to sit here and pretend today that. That you can't just open the randomly to the Doctrine of Covenants and find verses that are going to bless your life. Like you can do that. You can read without knowing any context and still gain some value. Just like you can listen to Les Mis music without even knowing the story, knowing nothing about the French Revolution, and guess what? You're still going to enjoy the music. But when you learn the context, when you learn the history, when you learn the story, when you learn the question that drew out the saying from Jesus, something is enhanced in that and your understanding is deepened and sweetened. And your ability then to intelligently apply the revelations to your life, I think, goes up immeasurably. And so this is why context matters. Anything else you want to add to that?

[Casey Griffiths]

I love this quote. By John A. Widtsoe. The first thing to be remembered is that the revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants are answers to questions. If that is kept in mind, it will help to a better understanding in the history of the Church. You will find that the prophet says, I inquired of the Lord. The revelation follows in each. The answer to a question is a dominating part of the revelation that explains the somewhat disjointed nature of the Doctrine and Covenants. The mind that gave the revelations possessed the whole plan, but it was given piecemeal to the Church as required. And that is such a good thing to keep in mind, is just like you said, Scott, Joseph Smith's Scripture tip was what was the question that inspired it to come about? In the Doctrine and Covenants, you'll find sort of a minimal amount of context. That's usually that italic introduction before each section. And that is the bare minimum, what you got to have to survive, basically. But we are really sort of living in the golden age of church history, where there are so many resources and so much good work that's happening right now. You should use some supplemental resources when you study the Revelation. Like you said, Scott, you'll get something out of the revelations if you read them, no doubt, but you can get so much more if you know the context surrounding the revelations, if you know the question that prompted the revelation. It's really, really help. Let me point out a couple resources, these are all free, that would help some that come directly from the Church, and then we'll point out a couple that we've had a hand in creating. One is just Saints. So Saints Volume 1 covers pretty much the entire period that the Doctrine Covenants is received in, with a couple exceptions. Pretty much everything up to section 137 is in Saints. And so if you can read Saints alongside the Doctrine and Covenants, it's really helpful. You could also read it as an audiobook, but that is really helpful.

[Scott Woodward]

It really helps to understand what was going on in the 1800s in the context of Joseph Smith's day, his era, the big picture story of the saints. Very, very helpful.

[Casey Griffiths]

And I will say I worked with the people that helped write Saints. I interviewed them and they sort of intended saints to be history for people that hate history, to be honest with you. Like, they talked to me and said we didn't want it to be a traditional history book. We wanted it to read more like a young adult novel like Harry Potter or the Hunger Games or something like that, and gave me some advanced chapters Before Saints Volume 1 came out and I read them and thought, yeah, this is pretty good. Handed them to my wife and said, read this and tell me what you think. And she was like, I love this. It hit that sweet spot between Harry Potter or the Hunger Games or Twilight or something like that where it's very approachable. And I'll also commend them that they don't shy away from controversies and Saints either. But they use multiple perspectives. They draw from men and women. They try to use perspectives from people that come from different cultures. Like, it's just a really, really accessible way to get into the history of the chur. And really helpful if you can read it alongside the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

[Scott Woodward]

That's big picture. Where would you tell people to go if they are wanting, like section by section?

[Casey Griffiths]

Okay, two things. There's another really good book. It's in Gospel library for free or you can buy a copy for probably around five bucks. Called Revelations in Context. These are essays that accompany the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. They're written by staff from the Church History department. And what they tried to do was center each essay around a person. You'll have a central character that you can kind of latch onto or understand. For instance, Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants is Joseph F. Smith's vision of the spirit world. He sees the world beyond this. But the Revelations in Context essay centers around Susa Young Gates. So again, kind of an unexpected perspective. Susy Young Gates is the daughter of Brigham Young and became such a prominent church leader that she was sometimes kind of half kiddingly referred to as the 13th apostle because she spoke and was quoted so much. And it tells the story of Section 138 from her perspective. Like what was going on with her and how did this affect her and what did she write about it when she received it? It's a really, really cool little book. And at the end they actually have a section by section index that points you towards where each of the essays are helpful.

[Scott Woodward]

And that is really awesome. The index by section number, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, is fantastic. So whatever section we happen to be studying that week, you come here, you click on it, you'll be able to go to that article that is highlighting that section. And sometimes one article highlights multiple sections or backdrops multiple sections, which is great. Any other sources?

[Casey Griffiths]

One more. And we have a motive in describing this one. And our idea behind Doctrine Covenant Central is kind of to have a one stop shopping experience where if you go there's section by section resources, and here's what you'll find. You click on, let's say you want to do section 20. You click on section 20. When you click on that, you're going to see two historical essays that describe what's going on. So one's written by Steve Harper, who is our dear friend and one of the finest scholars on the Doctrine and Covenants you'll find anywhere he's worked on the Joseph Smith Papers. He's just a great teacher and a great guy. Steve gives us the context of the Revelation. Then I wrote some additional context that's in there, too. Your videos, Scott, where you go section by section are usually hyperlinked on this page. And then we have verse by verse commentary on the sections as well. And so same page, link to the earliest copy of the Revelation on the Joseph Smith Papers, link to the current edition of the Revelation in the Doctrine Covenants. So this is kind of a good place to go if you want to get all these comprehensive resources in one place. And most of this stuff you can also find at an app that Scripture Central developed. Again, all this is free, called Scripture plus that will have a lot of this stuff. Also, all the videos that Scripture Central has made link to the sections all tied and linked in there together. So that's an almost overwhelming amount of resources. But if you want to get a lot out of the Doctrine and Covenants, I suggest you take advantage of that, too.

[Scott Woodward]

Excellent. So Scripture plus that app is probably the best way to access all of these resources all in one spot. But you can also get it by going to doctrinecovenencecentral.org so that's how we get context. Now, second C would be content. Typically, if we're in a particular section of the Doctrine of Covenants, we're going to dive deep at this point into the verse by verse. But in this case, let's talk about the entire content of the whole Doctrine and Covenants. And Casey, tell us a story. Tell us how did we even get this text? Where did it come from? What iterations does it go through? Like, do kind of a quick version for our listeners here. What is the source of the Doctrine Covenants?

[Casey Griffiths]

Well, everybody kind of knows. It's been drilled into us that saying about the Book of Mormon, the Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. However, what did Joseph Smith say about the Doctrine and Covenants? Here's what he said. It is the foundation of the church in these last days and a benefit to the world, showing that the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom of our Savior are again entrusted to man. So the Book of Mormon sort of like brings people to Christ. President Benson said the Doctrine and Covenants brings people into Christ's kingdom. And the Doctrine and Covenants is also a great little way to examine how Scripture is created. So here's the basic story, okay? It's really within the first year that the church has organized that they've started to have this nice pile of revelations. The revelations have been really instructive. They've helped them solve difficult questions. And they start wondering, do we need another book of Scripture? Around the years 1830, 1831, they're arranging and copying the revelations. Oliver Cowdery is helping with this. Then they call a new church historian. This is doctrine and Covenants 47, where John Whitmer's called. And by the fall of 1831, we've got about 60 revelations that are prepared and ready to be printed. Orson Pratt, for instance, of these revelations said, so highly were they esteemed by us that we committed some to memory and a few we copied for the purpose of reference in our absence on missions, and also read them to the saints for their edification. So the missionaries of the church are already realizing how important these revelations are. I mean, they're literally the word of God. So they're memorizing them, they're copying them. Some of them would walk around with little folded up copies of sections of the Doctrine and covenants, especially section 20, which is kind of the basic operating instructions for the church, in their pockets. And Orson Pratt noted that this was starting to become problematic because a copy of a copy of a copy started to contain errors, misspelled words, incomplete phrases. And that's sort of a recipe for problems like that's sort of how we got into this mess of apostasy in the first place. So it's in November 1831 that a conference of high priests is held at the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio. And a decision was made to publish the Doctrine and Covenants, which at the time was called the Book of Comm. Commandments or Covenants and Commandments. And they make the really ambitious decision that they're going to print 10,000 copies and they're going to do it in Missouri. By mid November 1831, Oliver Cowdery and John Whitmer leave from Kirtland, Ohio to go to Independence, Missouri with the copies of the Revelations, and they take them to W.W. phelps, who's the editor of the church newspaper there. The evening and Morning Star, and they hand it over to him so that he can printed. And that's where the Doctrine Covenant starts to appear in print for the first time. We go from these written Revelations, which are copied by the church historians. And then the first time they appear in print is in June 1832, where several revelations are published in the Evening and Morning Star of the church newspaper in Missouri.

[Scott Woodward]

So These are about 60 plus revelations, the first kind of 60 plus of Joseph Smith. So not everything we have in the Doctrine and Covenants right now, but this is kind of the first run.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, that's one of the neatest things about the Doctrine and Covenants is each successive edition kind of gets bigger, with some exceptions, which I'll talk about in a second here. And so they start publishing these in 1832. They also make the decision, they scale back their ambitions a little bit. They're only going to do 3,000 copies instead of 10,000 copies. And they also put together an organization, this is described in the Revelations, called the Literary Firm, that consists of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, John Whitmer, and Martin Harris. For the diligent of our brethren and bringing to light by grace of God, these sacred things. So they're organizing to do this. So they start to print what they're going to call the Book of Commandments. They get a copyright in February 1833. They start to write little introductory notes. And the introductory notes in the Book of Commandments are really short. They're usually just one or two sentences, but they're the earliest introductory material we have. So they're really, really valuable if you get a chance to look at them. And by May 1833, the church newspaper, the Evening and Morning Star, announces that they're to sell the book of commandments 25 to 50 cents a copy, which is a lot of money back then, but not exorbitant. They get close to having the whole thing printed in the summer of 1833, and then all heck breaks loose, to put it gently. July 20, 1833, a mob breaks into the printing establishment of W.W. phelps, destroys his office, destroys most of the printed sheets of the Book of commandments, and nine days later, W.W. phelps writes to church leaders in Kirtland. He says, although the enemy has accomplished his design in demolishing the printing establishment, they cannot demolish the design of our God, for his decree will stand and his purposes must be accomplished. And you'll recall stories from church history about members of the church that ran into the printing office while it was being destroyed and ran out with copies. Probably the most famous example here is Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her sister Caroline. They grab copies of the Revelation. They lay down on top of them in a cornfield while the mob is searching for them. Because of them and others, we do have some copies of the Book of Commandments, but the Book of Commandments is really, really rare. I think the last one that sold sold for $1.7 million. It kind of doesn't get off the ground. Unfortunately, the Book of Commandments has to be abandoned during this time. But they don't give up. In 1834, they decide that they're going to publish an updated version of the Book of Commandments, which is going to feature more than just the 65 revelations that we're going to be in the Book of Commandments, but other revelations received after November 1831. Oliver Cowdery is set apart to work with Sidney Rigdon and arranging what they start calling the Book of Covenants. So we go from Book of Commandments to Book of Covenants. Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, that's the first presidency at the time, just in case you're checking, are called to arrange the items of doctrine of Jesus Christ for the government of the church. That's their kind of short description of it. The committee works for about a year arranging and preparing the revelations. And then meantime, the saints are asked to donate and loan us all the means and money you can that we may be enabled to accomplish the work as a great means towards the salvation of men. And then in August 1835, a conference is held where they vote to accept the revelations of Scripture and print the revelations. They also add in a bunch of things. So they add in the Lectures on Faith, which are a series of theological lectures given to the school of the elders. They add in a preface, they add in articles on marriage and government. The article on government is now section 134. And in September 1834, at a Kirtland High Council meeting, publishing the Doctrine Covenants was officially authorized. The publication moves forward and bound copies are available for purchase by mid September 1835 at a dollar per book. So this is the first edition. It's called the Doctrine and Covenants.

[Scott Woodward]

So there's a lot of stuff that was slipped into that 1835 edition. Edition.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. And one quirk of it is it seems like if you look at an 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, that the name Doctrine and Covenants seems to be tied two parts of the book. The part one was the lectures on faith, which in the 1835 edition literally says, on the Doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. And then the second part is the Revelations, which is labeled the Covenants and Commandments of the Lord. So Doctrine and Covenants probably originally referred to the Lectures on Faith, the Doctrine and the Covenants, the Revelations. Which is interesting that they call these revelations covenants. 1835, that's when we get the Doctrine and Covenants for the first time, and it's widely disseminated. And it goes on for about the next nine years until they decide to produce another edition of the Doctrine and Covenants that has all the important things that have been added since then. So wonderful, important additions to the Doctrine and Covenants that come into their own as well in 1844. That's when this is published. And by the way, it's almost done. When Joseph and Hyrum Smith are killed, killed in Carthage jail, they add in an addendum which becomes section 135, which notes the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. And you'll Note in section 135, they talk about how this book of Doctrine and Covenants cost the best blood of the 19th century. So that's fresh in their mind. And that one contains a lot of the Nauvoo revelations, section 124, the epistles that describe how to do baptisms for the dead and things like that. And that stays the standard Doctrine and covenants until 1876, when we get another major overhaul of the Doctrine Covenants. This one's done under the direction of Brigham Young, but Orson Pratt is kind of the person who. Who does the. The fine work here. 26 revelations are added. One section is removed. So the article on marriage, which talked about monogamous marriage, is removed and replaced by section 132, which introduces the principles of eternal marriage and also plural marriage. We should mention here as well. In their mind, a revelation trumps a declaration. The Declaration on Marriage was written by Oliver Cowan Boundary, and it was kind of outdated. When Section 132 was received, they also made major changes. The revelations were placed in chronological order in earlier editions of the Doctrine Covenants. They were kind of in order of importance. So revelations like the Articles and covenants, Section 20 came first, or Section 107, which was on church government. Now they're just in chronological order, as close as they can get them to go.

[Scott Woodward]

Isn't this when they divide them, like, into verses and put a bunch of footnotes in? This is the 1876 edition.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, they versify it and then, like I said, they add in some of the most crucial revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. So this is where section 121, the Liberty Jail Revelation, which is what all my students always want to talk about and write about, is added in other crucial revelations, like section 115, which gives us the full name of the Church that was actually received in 1838, but now it's canonized as a Revelation Revelation. So revelations received in Missouri, the revelation that talks about Adam On Diamond, Section 116 is part of this too, and it's presented to the Church. In fact, President George Q. Cannon in the First Presidency introduces it in General Conference by saying, I hold in my hand the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, as there have been additions made to it which were not contained in the original edition. It has been deemed wise to submit these books with their contents to the Conference to see whether the Conference will vote to accept accept the books and their contents as from God. And according to the Conference, the vote was unanimous. So we have this new, much beefier version of the Doctrine and Covenants, and that is standard until 1921.

[Scott Woodward]

And this is an experience that most members of the Church have not had, probably where you've actually sustained additional revelations to be added to Scripture. I mean, that's a cool moment.

[Casey Griffiths]

And again, sometimes that's the procedure they follow. Usually really, when something new is added to the Doctrine and Covenants, there's a sustaining in General Conference. There's also places where we just accept that we've sustained the leaders of the Church and we trust their judgment. For instance, the largest instance of de canonization in the Doctrine Covenants takes place in 1921.

[Scott Woodward]

So stuff was actually taken out of.

[Casey Griffiths]

The Doctrine and Covenants, stuff taken out of the Doctrine and Covenants. So it's already happened once. They took out the article on marriage in 1876. But in 1921, a scripture committee that consists consists of James E. Talmadge and John A. Widtsoe, and Joseph Fielding Smith makes the decision to remove the Lectures on Faith from the Doctrine and Covenants. And that was controversial at the time, speaking of controversies. And I'll just add, the lectures on faith are awesome. Like, I really like the Lectures on Faith, but I can see how they were tonally and materially very different from the rest of the Doctrine Covenants.

[Scott Woodward]

They weren't Revelation. They were theological lectures. It would be kind of like having the first part of the Doctrine of Covenants today be like, preach my Gospel. It's like, it's really, really good. It's a great manual. There's some really solid theology in there. But should that be standing side by side with actual revelations from our Lord Jesus Christ? This committee chose to pull it out. Not to say that it's illegit or not to say that it should be shunned, but to say it's not canon.

[Casey Griffiths]

It'S not revelation, it's not a standard we use to measure the truth of other revelations. Lectures on faith are great, and a significant portion of lectures on faith were actually put into the 2007 teachings of the Presence of the Church Joseph Smith Manual. But I kind of get where they were coming from here, that the Lectures on Faith were substantially quite different from the rest of the Doctrine Covenants. So that's the largest instance of decanonization. Then we don't get another new edition for 60 years until the 1981 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. 81 is kind of an interesting study in canonization because we tend to think, oh, something new will be received, and we'll add that to the doctrine and covenants. 1981 illustrates that sometimes something old is added to the Doctrine and Covenants. They had section 137, which is a vision given in the Kirtland Temple. It's actually been around since the Kirtland Temple was dedicated. It was received that winter when the Kirtland temple was dedicated.

[Scott Woodward]

1836. Right.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. So it's an oldie but a goodie that we just realized, oh, this is really crucial. This talks about salvation for the dead. And then maybe a connected section that's received in 1918. So more than 60 years old. This vision given to Joseph F. Smith, where he sees the missionary work that happens in the spirit world. One of my favorite sections of the Doctor and Covenants is canonized as well. And then a new revelation, a declaration that recognizes the revelation that extended the priesthood to all worthy people. In addition to that, 1981 had new footnotes, new cross references, new section headings, maps, a topical guide and an index. So it's a major upgrade from what we have at that point. We got a new edition of the doctrine covenants in 2013. That's the current edition that we're working with.

[Scott Woodward]

2013 brings us what was added in 2013.

[Casey Griffiths]

2013 had a ton of changes made because of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. The Joseph Smith Papers was started in 2005 with the Express intent of getting together all of Joseph Smith Papers or its most important ones in one place. And as they were gathering these together, they gathered the earliest copies of the Revelations. They kind of did an extensive examination of what the Revelations looked like across all the editions of the Doctrine and Covenants. And they changed a significant, significant portion. All I'm saying is in 2013 we got a new edition that's also when the completely electronic edition that's in Gospel Library became available. And that's the edition that we should be working off of right now. If you still got your 81 edition, it's not going to throw you off. They didn't change the section numbers, they didn't even change the page numbers, to be honest with you. But they did make a lot of changes. And so it would behoove you, if you study the Doctrine Covenants this year, to use your electronic version that's on your phone or your device, or to get a 2013 edition which is also available in print.

[Scott Woodward]

Well, that does bring us to the third C, which is the controversies. Probably the biggest controversy of the Doctrine and Covenants as a whole is, is that there have been changes, that stuff has been taken out, that stuff has been put in that tweaks have been made to verses, that sections have been spliced together in early editions like 1835. So much of this has happened that some critics of the Doctrine and Covenants call it tongue in cheek, the doctored Covenants. Yeah, so, so clever. And you just mentioned in the 2013 edition, this is, this is still ongoing, that there are actually changes to over 74 sections, sections in the Doctrine of Covenants. And you can actually download a PDF from the Joseph Smith Paper site that highlights in yellow all the changes that have been recently made in the 2013 edition as compared to the 1981 edition. Some people are bothered by this, Casey, because there's an assumption that true prophets don't change stuff in Scripture, that true prophets receive pristine revelations and therefore have no need to change change them. And I think that's an assumption that's unfounded that we should talk about. Let me ask you this, has Joseph Smith or any other prophet tried to hide any of this efforts to change or update the Doctrine and Covenants? Casey?

[Casey Griffiths]

Oh, no. I mean, they've been super transparent about this. All you had to do is purchase like the former edition of the Doctrine Covenants. You can see the changes. Like I said, in this particular instance, they published a PDF that has all the changes highlighted in yellow, like they're trying to be as open and transparent as they can possibly be with this.

[Scott Woodward]

It reminds me of this quote from President Packer, he said back in 1974, before the 1981 edition or 2013. But this has been happening. These changes in Doctrine Covenants have been happening ever since, you know, the second edition. And President Packer said this. Critics cite these changes, of which there are many examples, as though they themselves were announcing revelation. Revelation as though they were the only ones that knew of them. Of course there have been changes and corrections. Anyone who's done even limited research knows that. But when properly reviewed, such corrections become a testimony for, not against, the truth of the books. That's interesting. That's a really important point that we'd like to talk about.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. And in talking about the changes in the Doctrine and Covenants, maybe we need to talk about sort of the raw material, where it comes from. First of all, in almost every instance, there were multiple people present when the revelations were received. Received because Joseph Smith worked with scribes. In fact, here's an example. This is Parley P. Pratt. He was present when section 50 of the doctrine Covenants was received. And this is what he describes seeing. So this is in his autobiography. He writes, after we had joined in prayer in his translating room, he dictated in our presence the following revelation. Each sentence was uttered slowly and very distinctly and with a pause between each sufficiently long for it to be recorded by an ordinary writer in longhand. There was never any hesitation reviewing or reading back in order to keep the run of the subject. And so everybody that sort of saw this just described Joseph Smith praying, then dictating the revelation and allowing the scribe long enough to write this down. There's even instances like section 100 of the doctrine Covenants, where we have the original paper that they wrote it on. It's in the Harold B. Lee Library here at byu. But in most cases, we don't have the original paper. What happened was, is the original paper was taken and given to a church historian, usually John Whitmer, who's the historian when most of the Doctrine and Covenants is being received and he copies it into what we now today call the manuscript Revelation books, which these are all available on the Joseph Smith paper site as well. You can look at them. You can also buy facsimile copies. Not hard to look this stuff up. But we owe John Whitmer a huge debt, and sometimes we downplay his role. But when these books were published, and they're all in the handwriting of John Whitmer, we realized he did a valiant work. He brought together some really, really important material for us.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah. And addition to Joseph praying and getting a revelation directly, of which there's lots of sections of Doctrine and Covenants that come that way. We also have sections that come by way of the Urim and thummim, like section 3, 7, 34. Some are just directly the voice of God to Joseph's mind. Some are by angels, like DNC2D and C13D and C27. Some are by visions. Some are by scribes just recording, like, discord courses. We get sections like section 130 or 131, where William Clayton was just writing down what Joseph was preaching, and that later gets canonized. Sometimes we get council meeting minutes, like section 102. Sometimes we get inspired journal entries. Sometimes it's letters, like section 121 through 123, the Liberty jail letters, or 127, 128 on baptisms for the dead. Sometimes it's just dinner conversation that was recorded, like section 130, verses 1 through 17. We get William Clayton recording Joseph's dinner conversations or private conversations that were recorded, like section 131, the first four verses. So there's. There's a lot of different sources that are coming together to create this text. And so we have these different sources that come together to create what we now call the Doctrine and Covenants. Now, the most significant changes in the text themselves, I think it's fair to say, were done by Joseph Smith directly. Maybe we should talk about why he did that.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. So close study of the revelations show that they're malleable, that they're changeable, and that they can be added to. For instance, Section 27 is a revelation given in the summer of 1830, and it details the main teaching, which is it's okay to use different substances in the sacrament other than wine. Then there was additional revelation given that adds on this idea that eventually Jesus Christ will return to earth and will drink of the fruit of the vine with him. And it lists off all these ancient prophets, all these angelic messengers that have appeared. That's a revelation Joseph Smith received at another time that he felt added to the content of section 27. And so they were placed together. But I mean, the whole process we've described, where a scribe is writing it down, then it gets copied into a book, opens the door for changes to come into the revelation. In fact, I'd say maybe five categories, why the text has changed. One could just be errors in transcription. You know, we go back to the original source and we find wording that may have accidentally been put in Incorrectly, there can be typographical errors. So when you're going from a written revelation to a typeset revelation, there can be errors. It seems like sometimes Joseph Smith also went back and reworked the language to communicate the ideas more clearly. Like Steve Harper likes to say, Joseph Smith wasn't a human facts machine. The ideas were being filtered through him. And sometimes he may have felt like that was an awkward wording. Let me rework that. Sometimes, like we mentioned, there was additional revelation given, and sometimes separate revelations were sort of weaved together to create a stronger theme. And so, like we said, if you look at the changes, especially if you download that document where they're highlighted in the 2013 edition, you can see that there's changes sometimes made to the text itself. That's rare in the 2013 edition edition, but there's also a lot of changes made to the historical context. So actually, most of the changes in the 2013 edition aren't to the text of the Doctrine and Covenants. They're to the italicized introductions where we just got better information or we had misspelled names or anything like that to help us contextualize these things. Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Woodward]

In fact, on that point, can I just read some Steve Harper? You mentioned Steve Harper. He actually wrote an awesome article about this. We'll link in the show show notes. It's so good it's called that they might come to understanding revelation as process. And he talks about this kind of unfounded assumption we sometimes have that Joseph Smith was a human facts machine, as he mentioned, and he pushes pretty hard against that. And he says this revelation is communication in which God is a flawless divine encoder, but mortals are the decoders. Various kinds of noise prevent perfect understanding. This is Steve talking about communication theory, where you've got sender who encodes a message, message sends it through noise to a decoder who has to decode it. Right. In this case, God is the sender, Joseph is the decoder. And he says there is no evidence that Joseph Smith thought in technical terms of communication theory, but he understood these ideas well. He did not assume, as we might, that his revelation texts were faxed from heaven. He understood that the Lord could certainly send signals seamlessly, but he knew better than anyone else that he lacked the power to receive signs, the messages immaculately or to recommunicate them perfectly. He considered it, quote, an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord, as he put it, largely because he felt confined by what he called the total darkness of paper, pen and ink and a Crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language. So helpful. So as Joseph's abilities to communicate revelatory ideas grow, he goes back to some of the former revelations and enhances finances them. Something like that. I think Section 7 of the doctrine and Covenants is a great example of that. Like this is actually received through the Urim and Thummim. And then as it goes to publication in the 1835 edition, he adds a bunch of stuff, which is really interesting, right, because he's getting this word for word from the Urim and Thummim. But then later, he enhances it by his ongoing understanding and additional clarity that's come to him. It's really fascinating.

[Casey Griffiths]

And I would say that in our belief system that's allowed. If we sustain someone as a prophet, we think that they have the right to receive new Scripture or to make changes to Scripture or to kind of update things, like you said, to make the language as clear as possible. So this is okay in my mind, as long as you accept that we're led by prophets and apostles, it's okay for them to make updates and changes.

[Scott Woodward]

And then you said, okay, number four and five. Sometimes he would just add revelation to a text that enhances our understanding of the previous revelation. So it's almost like revelation upon revelation. Revelation more recent revelation informs previous revelation. And so those get synthesized together, something like that. Like section 27, where August of 1830 we get the first piece, and September of 1830 we get the second piece. First part talking about the sacrament and second part talking about kind of the second Coming and how that's related to the sacrament, something like that. And Joseph just puts those together in the published text. And then the fifth one, you said he's weaving together the revelations. Okay, that's really good. Is there a good example of Joseph weaving multiple revelations together into one?

[Casey Griffiths]

I mean, Section 27 is the one that springs to mind. And you just talked about that. But there's also other cases, like parts of section 84. Joseph Smith updated and weaved in other revelations that he'd received to kind of create the most clear text that was trying to convey the ideas that were there. A lot of times this is Joseph Smith. Other times it's other people with prophetic or apostolic callings. For instance, section 121, 122 and 123 are all taken from a letter written from Liberty Jail. The letter is amazing. You should read the whole thing. But it's about 17 pages long. And Orson Pratt in 1876 went back and Kind of clipped out the parts of the letter that were most important that he felt contained the most vital teachings or that contained the voice of the Lord. So in the letter, Joseph Smith, for instance, would write, oh God, where are art thou? And where's the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? And then sometimes later in the letter, he answers in the voice of the Lord, my son, peace be unto thy soul. Thine adversity and thine affliction shall be but a small moment. And Orson Pratt kind of combined those together. Now again, he has a prophetic calling and can do that and did so under the direction of the President of the Church, who at the time was Brigham Young. So this is all fair game as far as we're concerned. We just want to produce the most useful version version of the text that's there.

[Scott Woodward]

That's really helpful. Do we need to do any examples from the 2013 changes?

[Casey Griffiths]

Let me cite a couple, just really fast, that are really, really important in 2013. So two things. Like I said, most of the changes in the 2013 edition were in the section headings. There's two examples where there were no section headings and they added them in, and that's Official Declaration one and Official Declaration two. And as most people know, these are highly controversial. Official Declaration 1 ended the practice of plural merit marriage. Official Declaration 2 extends the priesthood and blessings of the temple to all worthy people. And both of these are probably the closest thing you'll find to official commentary on the practice of plural marriage, which is still really controversial in the church, and the priesthood restrictions, which are also really controversial. So for instance, the introduction to official declaration 2 just flat out states we don't know the exact reasons why the priesthood policy was put in place, which is an important, important official statement for the Church to make that kind of cuts through all the explanations that were given by well meaning members of the church, sometimes church leaders, and makes the official church teaching just. We don't know exactly why this was put in place.

[Scott Woodward]

There's been a lot of speculation in the past about less valiancy and premortal existence or descendancy from Cain and that kind of stuff. And they're saying we don't actually know that.

[Casey Griffiths]

The italicized introduction to Official Declaration 2 also acknowledges that there were people of African ancestry ordained when Joseph Smith was President of the Church, meaning it wasn't a policy for all time. It doesn't appear to have been a policy when Joseph Smith was President of the Church. Now I also want to add too, that in the 2013 edition, there were some changes made to the actual text of the Revelations itself, and you can pull these up too. So let me cite a couple examples. Section 35, verse 13 in the 1981 edition led to thrash the nations by the power of my spirit. In the 2013 edition, it reads, to thresh the nations by the power of my spirit. So just one vowel change from thrash to thresh. But I mean, I remember reading that scripture, I call upon the weak things of the world to thrash the nations by the power of my spirit. Which is awesome. But it sounds like we're going to beat people into submission until they join the church. Threshing is an agricultural term that just means to separate the useful part of the plant from the non useful part. So like, you know, when you thresh wheat, you're just taking away the part that can be used to make bread. You're separating the wheat from the chaff. I guess you'd say when you look at the original revelation, it probably was thresh.

[Scott Woodward]

I think the, the original revelation said thresh. Correct?

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. So when we looked at the earliest edition, and by the way, thresh and thrash can be used interchangeably, but we're trying to get it right as closely as we can. That's one example of change. Section 40, the name James Coville, C O V I L L was changed to James Cov, Covel, C O V E L. Are you still with me, Scott? Have you lost your. Have you lost your faith in the fidelity of the revelation?

[Scott Woodward]

I don't know, man. That's. That's pushing the envelope case.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, yeah. So. So in this case, we just found a census record that we think indicated that James Coville's name had been spelled incorrectly. We're trying to get it right. Let me give you another example. Section 127, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with a lowercase T in the the, was changed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with a capital T in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

[Scott Woodward]

So I'm not seeing anything that is doctrinally significant. These seem like kind of ticky tacky. Is that fair?

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, I'll agree. But it does show, like, how concerned we are with getting everything right.

[Scott Woodward]

Oh, I love that. Yeah. So you can just make this sound really scandalous, Right? You could say in the 2013 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants are over. Over. However many changes in 74 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, it's like, whoa, that sounds scandalous. And then you actually look at them. And then they're changing thrash to thrash James Coville to James Coville and capitalizing T's and stuff. And these are all pretty minor in terms of changes and no changes when it comes to doctrine of any kind.

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah, pretty minor. But church antagonists like to again sort of set this thing up where if there's any changes, that means that not true. When in reality there's always been changes and they were pretty transparent about making the changes. Like they haven't tried to hide this stuff. That's the major controversy overall in the Doctrine and Covenants. But once you understand it, I think it's pretty manageable and maybe even a little edifying.

[Scott Woodward]

Yeah, for sure. We see imperfect prophets which as we're going to see as we study section one next week, that's all God's ever had to work with. He says he calls upon the weak and the simple to do his work. What we're seeing is consecration weak and simple prophets that are doing their very best to make sure we get the revelations as accurate and clear and communicate the ideas of heaven the best as they possibly can muster. At the end of the day, that's edifying.

[Casey Griffiths]

Now it's time for our final C, which is the consequences of the doctrine Covenants. So why is the doctrine, Doctrine and Covenants so consequential for Latter Day Saints?

[Scott Woodward]

The Doctrine and Covenants is, as Joseph Smith said, the foundation for the church. And there's another quote we can throw in from President Ezra Taft Benson. He said the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion and the Doctrine and Covenants is the capstone of our religion with continuing Latter Day Revelation. He said the Lord has placed his stamp of approval on both the keystone and the capture capstone. So whether you want to go with the analogy of the Doctrine and Covenants being the foundation of the Church or the capstone kind of the crowning piece, both of them work. There's a few things that make the Doctrine and Covenants so foundational and so helpful for us. For instance, number one, this is the only book of Scripture that we have that's of modern origin, that's given in the original language of English to the Church. Right. We've got way early Church manuscripts of Greek copies of New Testament letters and Gospels and those kinds of things. But Doctrine of Covenants is actually in English and that's amazing. And number two, this is the only book of Scripture we have that is almost exclusively in the voice of Jesus Christ. Now, as we pointed out, this is also the only Book of Scripture with no storyline. And so we do have to do some work to go and get the context. But as we do so, the music of the Doctrine of Covenants is sweeter. Finally, the Doctrine of Covenants isn't finished, Casey. Yes, we've got these foundational texts about our doctrine. We've got foundational texts about the establishment of Zion. We've got these foundational texts about the centrality of marriage, of work for the dead, of work in the spirit world. These are incredible texts outlining our doctrine. But one of the greatest things about the Doctrine and Covenants is that it's not finished. It's open. We believe in an open canon. If we're going to add any additional revelations to the Church, if more revelations come, and we expect they will, we believe that God will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, if and when that happens. Casey. I think they're going in the Doctrine and Covenants, wouldn't you agree?

[Casey Griffiths]

Yeah. And in that sense, it's like our book, right? All the other texts we use were produced by other people. The Bible is called the Book of the Jews, the Book of Mormon, the Book of the descendants of Lehi. This is our book. And you made some great points. I want to add one more. A good friend of mine from the Church of Jesus Christ bickering tonight, they've produced their own version of the Book of Mormon that has the words of Christ in red, which I love. So great. Imagine a red letter edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. I mean, that would be every single page, with a couple minor exceptions, because almost every revelation starts with something like, listen to the voice of your Lord and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ. So it's fair to say that the Doctrine and Covenants has more red letters words than any other book of Scripture that we have, and we should cherish it, because it's not just the words of Christ, it's the words of Christ to us in our time. And that's really, really special.

[Scott Woodward]

That's. That's worth something. I remember when Joseph Smith first proposed in 1831 that they publish revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants. He said the committee voted on it, and they said that these revelations were worth more than the riches of the whole, whole earth. That might sound like an overstatement to some, but when you think about how much red lettering would be in there, as you're mentioning, like the words of Jesus Christ to us in our day, laying the foundation of this Church and preparing the way for God's people to be restored to his family. How do you put a price tag on that? That's the big picture, that the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants are coming about. Like we said at the beginning, God is in relentless pursuit of us. And the story of the restoration is the story of God restoring His people into his family. And the Doctrine and Covenants shows us how line upon line and precept on precept, he's gone about doing that very thing.

[Casey Griffiths]

Well said. So I'm looking forward to this year. I loved exploring our little rabbit holes in church history, but this is the most vital material in church history, so it's going to be fun.

[Scott Woodward]

It feels significant.

[Casey Griffiths]

All right, and until next time, Scott, thanks for going on the ride with me.

[Scott Woodward]

Yes, sir, thank you. We'll see you next week.

[Host]

Thank you for joining us on this.

[Scott Woodward]

Episode of Church History Matters.

[Host]

Our new episodes drop every Tuesday, so please join us next week as we continue to dig into the context, content, controversies and consequences of the revelations of.

[Scott Woodward]

The Doctrine and Covenants. If you're enjoying or gaining value from.

[Host]

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[Scott Woodward]

Let me say that again, all of.

[Host]

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