Doctrine and Covenants 1

Although the first section in this book, this section was written on November 1, 1831, well after the other first 70 sections. Section 2 was written in 1823.

Verses 1-6 are the opening verse of this book of scripture, and the language is powerful and seems to connote the far-reaching scope intended in communicating these revelations. One could imagine a voice that, although calm and peaceful, comes across with such power as to shake the recipient to their very core. But, then one could imagine the camera zooms out, the voice is coming from a small speck of dust (like a Whoville kind of thing), and the voice is barely audible as a small noise not intelligible as an actual voice, not even quite loud enough to be an annoyance. And, it is thus that these revelations seem to come across to the rest of the world. There are nearly 8 Billion people in the world (2022), and only about 16.8 million people (maybe 5 million if you go by activity levels in 2022) are paying attention in spite of a sales force consistently numbering in the tens of thousands, millions of US dollars spent annually on public relations and advertising, preaching that every member is a missionary, etc. That's only about 0.2% of the world population (or about 0.075% if you go by activity levels). In spite of the grandeur of the language, it seems the message is virtually unnoticed.

Fear and tremble? Really? What happened to the God of the New Testament? This guy seems to be straight from the Bronze age. Is this supposed to inspire people to want to worship this God?

While technically the Lord could use whatever words he would like to, it is strange that his words in modern revelation would be so unoriginal and highly dependent on the text of the KJV bible. This is somewhat problematic due to the KJV not having the most accurate translation. A cynical person might see this as Joseph trying to get his followers to accept these revelations as being from God by simply using biblical language that was familiar to them.

Compare this verses 13,15 with "it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth" and "For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;" to Isaiah 24:5 with "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant".

This verse is a mashup of various KJV bible verses. First compare this verse with "They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness" to Romans 10:3 with "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness". Next compare this verse with "every man walketh in his own way" to Acts 14:16 with "all nations to walk in their own ways". Note that there are 12 instances of the phrase "own way(s) " in the KJV bible, but only the verse in Acts also contains any variation of "walk".

Now compare this verse with "which waxeth old and shall perish" to Psalms 102:26 which contains both "shall perish" and "wax old" (which is repeated in Hebrews 1:11). Also note that there are only 2 instances of the phrase "waxeth old" in the KJV bible (in Psalms 6:7 and Hebrews 8:13). Lastly compare this verse with "even Babylon the great, which shall fall" to Revelation 18:2 with "Babylon the great is fallen". Note that there are only 2 instances of the phrase "Babylon the great", both in Revelation, but only the verse in Revelation chapter 18 also contains a variation of "fall".

"18 ... they should proclaim these things unto the world

"19 The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—"

We are to believe that God has set up the weak things in the LDS Church to preach to the rest of us and break down the mighty and strong among us. Sorry, the bold language here and the examples of bold prophets in the Book of Mormon don't seem to match what we have in the LDS Church today. You could see President Hinckley trying to fulfill this role (he came across as a nice grandfatherly kind of guy, but not as somebody breaking down the mighty and strong). And now the prophets, seers, and revelators are so careful with the press and in venues where members of their Church are not the predominant part of the audience, that they rarely speak boldly, and certainly not like the language here describes. They really seem more like frightened old men, especially in contrasting their action to that declared in these verses.

"24 ... these commandments ... were given unto my servants in their weakness

"25 And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known;"

There seem to be examples in the Doctrine and Covenants of the prophet and other general leaders of the Church at that time being called out and some of their errors made known. When has that happened in recent history, say the last thirty years or so? Current general leaders of the Church refuse to give apologies. When they correct doctrine or teachings of earlier prophets, seers, and revelators, they fail to indicate these leaders erred. Instead, the language is ambiguous and often makes it sound like it was the general membership of the Church that erred.

Yes, the only Church that God is well pleased with; seems God was in part reiterating what he already told Joseph regarding other Churches. Remember when Joseph asked “which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join”? (Now I know that's from the 1838 version and that in the 1832 version Joseph told us that he already knew he should join none of the other churches because they had all strayed, but let's give Joseph a break and go with what the Church has canonized here.)

In the Joseph Smith History in the Pearl of Great Price God responded to Joseph with, “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’”

This underscores that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) is not an ecumenical organization. The teaching here is that it is God's only Church, and all others are not authorized for, nor do they speak for God.

"34 ... I the Lord am willing to make these things known unto all flesh;

"35 For I am no respecter of persons, and will that all men shall know that the day speedily cometh ..."

"No respecter of person"?

And yet more than 185 years later, much of the world hasn't even heard of the LSD Church, much less the doctrine and gospel the Church teaches. I would think an all-powerful God with such an ambitious agenda could really do a much more effective and efficient job of telling the whole world than using tens of thousands of missionaries on a continual basis and still not really getting the word out.

".... my word ... whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

Now, if the leaders of the Church would ever admit to the particulars of what it is that they say that is not the word of God, but rather their opinion as a man, then maybe we could have a point of agreement to work with. However, the leaders of the Church use this passage (and the teachings of their predecessors) to justify never backing down on anything they say. It seems an excuse (or maybe better said a trap, since they seem to be victims too) they succumb to that perpetuates mistakes and harm, sometimes on a church-wide level. It's the kind of thing that brought us "Africans were less valiant in the premortal existence and they have the curse of Cain" as racist excuses for the temple and priesthood ban on blacks from the top leaders of the Church for some 130 years. This is the same kind of thing that led to the Church fighting the Equal Rights Amendment. It's the same trap that gave us "Gay is a choice; they're not born that way." Strange or peculiar beliefs can be harmless and even interesting, but preaching unsubstantiated claims of men as the word of God hurts people, and at times deeply.