Book of the Week: Studies
in Scripture Volume 1 (Millet and Jackson)
Section 76 - The greatest revelation the Lord, Jesus Christ, has ever given to man in the history of His Church, so far as record is made, was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith on the 16th of April (Feb.), 1832, known as the 76th section of the book of Doctrine & Covenants, commonly called for years and still known as "The Vision." I say, this to my mind is the climax of all wonderful revelations that have come from the Lord from the days of Father Adam until the present moment. (Melvin J. Ballard, Ogden Tabernacle, Sept. 22, 1922)
Because this section, called "The Vision," departed significantly from the mainstream Christian view of one heaven and one hell, it was not easily received by some at first. Brigham Young said, "My traditions were such, that when the Vision came first to me, it was so directly contrary and opposed to my former education, I said, wait a little; I did not reject it, but I could not understand it" (Deseret News, Extra, September 14, 1852, p. 24). Entire branches of the Church had the same problem. John Murdock and Orson Pratt, serving missions in Ohio at the time, struggled to help Church members there accept these new outlooks on eternity. Soon, however, most members believed and understood the concepts, and came to revere this vision as one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring ever given.
Philo Dibble's account He said there were as many as 12 men present. "Joseph would, at intervals, say: ‘What do I see?’ Then he would relate what he had seen or what he was looking at. Then Sidney replied, ‘I see the same.’ Presently Sidney would say, ‘What do I see?’ and would repeat what he had seen or was seeing, and Joseph would reply, ‘I see the same.’ This manner of conversation was repeated at short intervals to the end of the vision, and during the whole time not a word was spoken by any other person. Not a sound nor motion made by anyone but Joseph and Sidney, and it seemed to me that they never moved a joint or limb during the time I was there, which I think was over an hour, and to the end of the vision. Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory, but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag, observing which Joseph remarked, smilingly, ‘Sidney is not used to it as I am." Cook, Lyndon W. The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1985. 157-158.
"Eleven years after the vision (May 1843) Joseph Smith said, I would explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them. It is possible that by then he had already revealed more than is recorded in D&C 76. Robert Woodford has suggested: his later writings 0on the resurrection, pre-earth life, astronomy, and the degrees within the celestial kingdom may all have reflected some of the things he learned in this vision." (Dahl, Studies in Scripture V. 1 p. 282)
Calvinists (Whoever God chooses) Universalists (God chooses all), Methodists (God was mighty to save but would respect an individual's will to be saved or not).
The revelation contains a series of six visions:
A. They see the Son of God on the right hand of God (verses 1-24)
Vs. 1-5 - 1 Savior, His works are infinite, he doesn't fail, He delights to bless us.
Vs. 6-10 - Note 9 blessings.
Vs. 15-17 - John 5:29 - Just and unjust replace life and damnation.
Vs. 18-19 - They "marveled" & "meditated" (See JSH 12; 1 Nephi 11:1: D&C 138:1-2; Enos 3, 4; Helaman 10:2-3
Vs. 22-24 -What do we learn from their testimony?
B. They see how the devil and his followers rebelled and were cast down (25-49)
C. They see the Celestial Kingdom (50-70) - The Obedient, The Covenant Keepers
D. Terrestrial Kingdom (71-80) The Good
E. Telestial Kingdom (81-90) - The Bad
"One Latter-day Saint student became distraught upon learning than an idea taught in an earlier discussion of Doctrine and Covenants 76 was inaccurate. The teacher had interpreted vs. 89-the glory of the Telestial, which surpasses all understanding-by telling the students that Joseph Smith taught that one would commit suicide to inherit the telestial kingdom. That is not what the revelations say, nor what Joseph Smith apparently said, not is it consistent with the scriptures or Joseph's other teachings. How do such popular folk doctrines develop and gain widespread acceptance? In this case Lorin Farr reported in 1900 that some 60 years earlier he had heard Joseph say something like "If we knew the condition of the spirits in the spirit world, thousands would commit suicide to get there. Similarly, Charles Lowell Walker heard Wilford Woodruff refer to Joseph's teaching that if the people knew what was behind the veil, they would try by every means to commit suicide that they might get there, but the Lord in his wisdom had implanted the fear of death in every person that they might cling to life and thus accomplish the designs of their creator. As best we can tell from these accounts, Joseph said nothing at all about the telestial kingdom. He spoke about spirits in the spirit world. He was explaining why humans have an innate fear of death. It is a gift from God that helps us remain on earth to finish our mortal probations. Otherwise we would move on the next stage the first time things got tough. Fragments of Joseph's teachings were captured, like a puzzle missing some of its key pieces. There the incomplete teachings were paraphrased. Then these corrupted versions were introduced out of context until many LDS have heard from someone somewhere and are pretty sure it was Joseph Smith who said the telestial world is so great we would commit suicide to get there. We need not impute meaning to verses 89. Let us be content to know for now that ever the world in which we live surpasses our present understanding." (Harper, Making Senses of the D&C p. 267-8)
F. Those who will inherit each of these degrees of glory; and they see the three kingdoms of glory compared (91-119).
Section 77- First of March - Revelation is one of the plainest
books God ever caused to be written. “But [section
77] is not a complete interpretation of the book. It is a key. A key is a very
small part of the house. It unlocks the door through which an entrance may be
gained, but after the key has been turned, the searcher for treasure must find
it for himself. …“The Lord has, in this Section, given His people a key to
the book. … As Champollion, by the key furnished in the brief test on the
Rosetta stone, was able to open the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics, so the Bible student should be able to read the Apocalypse with a
better understanding of it, by the aid of this key.” (Smith and Sjodahl,
Commentary, p. 478.)
Section 78 -Revelation given
through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, March 1, 1832. On that
day, the Prophet and other leaders had assembled to discuss Church business.
This revelation originally instructed the Prophet, Sidney Rigdon, and
Newel K. Whitney to travel to Missouri and organize the Church’s
mercantile and publishing endeavors by creating a “firm” that would oversee
these efforts, generating funds for the establishment of Zion and for the
benefit of the poor. This firm, known as the United Firm, was organized in
April 1832 and disbanded in 1834 (see section 82). Sometime after its dissolution, under the direction of Joseph
Smith, the phrase “the affairs of the storehouse for the poor” replaced
“mercantile and publishing establishments” in the revelation, and the word
“order” replaced the word “firm.”
Vs. 5-8 The goal of the Church
Vs. 14 - Independent-temporally, spiritually and doctrinally
Vs. 17-18 A message of hope when you are down. How about hymn #241
Vs. 19- another lesson on gratitude
UNITED FIRM
NAMES - Following are: (a) an alphabetical list of names used to identify
individuals and places without using the actual name of the person or place;
(b) the real name or title listed in parentheses, and (c) the section(s) and
verse)s) where these unusual names and titles are used. You will note that
these names are used only in sections 78, 82, 92, 96, 103, 104, and 105.
Ahashdah (Newel K. Whitney) 78:9;
82:11; 96:2; 104:39, 40, 41
Alam (Newel K. Whitney or Edward Partridge) 82:11
Baneemy (mine elders) 105:27; originally Lyman Wight, reinterpreted by Orson Pratt as "mine elders" in 1876, perhaps corrupt Hebrew for “my sons”; also claimed as a
title by Charles B. Thompson
Baurak Ale (Joseph Smith, Jr.)
103:21, 22, 35; 105:16, 27. This
is a very clear Hebrew for barakh 'el (ברך אל) “blessed [of] El,” i.e.,
God.
Enoch (Joseph Smith Jr.) 78:1, 4;
superscriptions to 96 & 104.
Gazelam (Joseph Smith, Jr.) 78:9;
82:11; 104:26, 43, 45, 46.
Horah (Oliver Cowdery or John
Whitmer) 82:11
Laneshine house (printing office)
104:28, 29
Mahalaleel (Sidney Rigdon or A.
Sidney Gilbert) 82:11
Mahemson (Martin Harris) 82:11;
104:24, 26
Olihah (Oliver Cowdery) 82:11;
104:28, 29, 34
Ozondah (mercantile establishment)
104:39, 40, 41
Pelagoram (Sidney Rigdon) 78:9;
82:11; 104:20, 22
Seth (Joseph of Egypt) 96:7
Shalemanasseh (Martin Harris, or WW
Phelps) 82:11
Shederlaomach (Frederick G. Williams)
92:1, 2; 104:27, 29
Shinelah (print) 104:58
Shinelane (printing) 104:63
Shule (ashery) 104:39
Tahhanes (the tannery) 104:20
Talents (dollars) 104:69, 73
United Order ( United Firm)
Zombre (John Johnson) 96:6; 104:24,
34
Section 79 - Carter, Jared
Biography -14 June 18011–6
July 1849.2
Born at Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut.3
Son of Gideon Carter and Johanna Sims.4
Moved to Benson, Rutland Co., Vermont, by 1810.5
Married Lydia Ames, 20 Sept. 1823, at Benson.6
Moved to Chenango, Broome Co., New York, by Jan. 1831.7
Baptized into LDS church by Hyrum Smith, 20 Feb. 1831, in Colesville, Broome
Co.8
Moved with Colesville branch to Thompson, Geauga Co., Ohio, May 1831.9
Ordained a priest, June 1831.10
Ordained an elder, Sept. 1831.11
Appointed to serve missions to eastern U.S., 22 Sept. 1831 and 12 Mar. 1832.12
Left to serve mission to Michigan, Dec. 1832.13
Appointed to serve mission to eastern U.S., Mar. 1833.14
Ordained a high priest, by May 1833.15
Appointed to obtain funds for Elders School, 4 May 1833.16
Member of Kirtland temple building committee, 1833.17
Appointed to first Kirtland high council, 17 Feb. 1834.18
Appointed to serve mission to Upper Canada, 20 Feb. 1834.19
Labored on Kirtland temple.20
Shareholder of Kirtland Safety Society, Jan. 1837.21
Appointed president of Kirtland high council, 9 Sept. 1837.22
Removed family to Far West, Caldwell Co., Missouri, 1837.23
Appointed member of Far West high council, 3 Mar. 1838.24
Prominent in Missouri Danite activities, 1838.25
Moved from Far West to Commerce (later Nauvoo), Hancock Co., Illinois, 1839.26
Member of Nauvoo Masonic Lodge.27
Affiliated with James J. Strang’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
1846.28
Excommunicated from Strangite movement, 8 Nov. 1846.29
Returned to LDS church.30
By June 1849, moved to DeKalb Co., Illinois, where he died.31
Vs. 3 -
Baptized 79 in 6 months and 2 days
Section 80 - Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith
What I Know and Don’t Know- Steven
Harper
In 1985 Mark Hofmann killed two
innocent people and nearly himself trying to cover his string of forged
documents, many of which were calculated to cast church history in a
suspicious, less than faithful light. Earlier that year (May 1985) the church
published one of the forged documents in the Church News, a purported
letter from Joseph to Josiah Stowell about using a fresh hazel rod to find
buried treasure guarded by a clever spirit. At age fourteen, I read the letter
in the Church News at the breakfast table and asked my father flippantly
why they weren’t teaching me that at church. “I don’t know, “ he said. He
explained that he didn’t understand the letter. He made no pretense to
understand it. He then explained to me that he knew that the Book of Mormon was
true because of his experience with it and with the Holy Ghost. It would be
many years before I could understand that my father had given me a most
effective epistemology for breakfast. At the time of the bombings, Hofmann had
rumored that he could acquire documents created by controversial early apostle
William McLellin if he could get funding. In June 1985, as part of his plot to
defraud, Hofmann offered to donate the collection to the church. Ironically,
the church had acquired many of McLellin’s papers in 1908. Leaders and
archivists who knew of the acquisition had passed away and the church had lost
consciousness of the documents. In March 1986, in the legal fallout following
the bombings, archivists discovered letters that mentioned acquisition of McLellin’s
papers, which led to the discovery of the papers. Rumors spread, meanwhile,
that the church would suppress the McLellin documents. Instead, church leaders
invited Jan Shipps, a renowned non-Mormon scholar of the Saints, to edit
McLellin’s papers for publication by an academic press. She in turn
collaborated with John W. Welch, editor-in-chief of BYU Studies, where I
was working as an editorial assistant. I was assigned to help the editors
compare McLellin’s original holograph journals to typescripts to ensure the
accuracy of The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836. I read those
journals closely. They are evidence for Richard Bushman’s informed observation:
“The closer you get to Joseph Smith in the sources, the stronger he will
appear, rather than the reverse, as is so often assumed by critics.” That is my
experience. I have held the first vision accounts in my hands and studied them
very much. I know what they say and how they say it. A historian cannot prove
or disprove whether the vision they describe was historical. I don’t know that
the vision happened because the documents say it did. Rather, I find no reason
in the historical record to disbelieve in the vision. I believe that it
happened because I find the documents authentic. They speak to me spiritually.
I don’t find the same inconsistencies or anachronisms or conspiracy in them
that unbelievers have. Indeed, I recently read the journals of Benajah
Williams, a Methodist itinerant in Mendon, NY, not far from Joseph’s
Manchester, who documented a religious scene perfectly compatible to the one
Joseph described. I have examined the Book of Mormon manuscripts and studied
the extensive and complex historical record of its translation. The evidence is
conclusive that Joseph produced the Book of Mormon between April and June 1829.
Moreover, the historical record evidences that those who knew Joseph best in
this period believed him most when he declared that he translated by the power
of God. But I know that the Book of Mormon is true because I feel the Holy
Spirit when I read it and abide by its precepts. The Book of Mormon makes me a
better father and husband, a better follower of Jesus Christ. I know that about
it. I am a student of Joseph’s revelation manuscripts. I was one of the editors
of his revelation manuscript books. Joseph didn’t assume that his revelation
texts were faxed from heaven. I don’t either. I share his sense that God spoke
to Joseph in his language, which Joseph described as crooked, broken,
scattered, and imperfect. In any communication the encoder sends signals to a
decoder, the recipient. In the process there is always “noise” that impedes
full and flawless receipt of the message communicated. I understand Joseph’s
revelations as messages communicated by a divine encoder but received by a
decoder or recipient limited by crooked, broken, scattered, and imperfect
mediums. In this way of thinking, Joseph neither received the messages
flawlessly nor had the power to re-communicate them perfectly, as he and other
revelators have acknowledged. My faith in Joseph’s revelations rests on this
understanding, and on the compelling evidence that those who knew Joseph best
believed his revelations, that he could not produce them on demand, that he
marveled at some of them, and that he sometimes confessed to having intentions
and aspirations that differed, sometimes significantly, from what his
revelations commanded him and others to do.I know the early reception history
of Joseph’s revelation manuscripts. Those who were best positioned to know—the
ones with whom he counseled, the ones who wrote as he dictated, the ones whose
convenience and reputations were at stake, testified that they were “given by
inspiration of God & are profitable for all men & are verily true”
(Book of Commandments and Revelations, page 121). I know that the so-called
Kirtland Egyptian Papers are not what critics have claimed them to be, and that
critical explanations of the Book of Abraham obfuscate the historical evidence
rather than rely on it. There is much that I do not know. I do not know how to
understand plural marriage. I have studied the complicated historical record of
it diligently and there is very much that remains unclear. I don’t know exactly
how to understand D&C section 132. I don’t know what to make of the
problematic letter purportedly from Joseph Smith to Nancy Rigdon. I recently
gave a talk at a leadership meeting. My topic was historical issues with which
Saints sometimes struggle. I catalogued the historical problems, briefly
describing each. While describing the received wisdom on plural marriage, I had
a distinct and undeniable thought that came from outside me. “You do not know
what you are talking about,” it said. It was right. I do not know how to think
about plural marriage. I continue to thoroughly examine the historical record,
seeking light and truth by study and also by faith. I do know, as a result of
that process, that Helen Kimball and Lucy Walker both left testimonies that
Joseph did not exploit them, and that they both testified that they received
their own revelations, as Joseph invited them to do, before being sealed to
him. In other words, I know that the historical record created by witnesses and
participants does not match the sensational books and online material created
by people who know less than I do. And I know that I don’t know. I am deeply
saddened by reports of Saints losing their faith after becoming conscious of
one or more controversial issues of the Mormon past. I wish I could give each
of them the experiences I have had and help to educate their expectations and
identify their assumptions and discern the difference between their
interpretations of evidence and the evidence itself. Obviously, the historical
evidence is not the determinant of belief or disbelief. Those who knew Joseph
best believed him most. The historians who edit the Prophet’s papers believe.
Many of the historians who know the historical record best are firm in the
faith. They believe. I believe. I choose to believe and have not been
disappointed as many have. I think that my resilience to the forces that have
eroded the faith of so many was forged in my early, formative experiences with
the historical record and a faithful father who handed me his epistemology—his
way of knowing and coping with not knowing. I empathize with those whose
experiences differ from mine and leave them feeling unable to believe. Stephen
Burnett typifies many such individuals. He felt the Holy Spirit and a desire to
take the gospel to his relatives. He led his parents into the church and
responded successfully to mission calls. But by 1838 Stephen felt completely
disillusioned. He tried but failed to regain the Holy Spirit. Finally he
“proclaimed all revelation lies” and left the church. Stephen wrote candidly to
Lyman Johnson, explaining his decisions. “My heart is sickened within me when I
reflect upon the manner in which we with many of this Church have been led
& the losses which we have sustained all by means of two men in whom we
place implicit confidence,” Stephen wrote, referring to Joseph Smith and Sidney
Rigdon. He said that the foundation of his faith failed and the entire
structure fell in “a heap of ruins” when he interpreted a statement by Martin
Harris to mean that Martin and the other Book of Mormon witnesses had not
really seen the plates. Stephen Burnett gave us a rich metaphor by describing
his faith as a building whose foundation had been shattered, leaving only a
heap of ruins. Those who share his experience know what he means. There are
many coping strategies such souls adopt. Stephen chose to acknowledge that
“Harris and others still believe the Book of Mormon,” but that he was “well
satisfied for myself that if the witnesses whose names are attached to
the Book of Mormon never saw the plates as Martin admits that there can be
nothing brought to prove that any such thing ever existed for it is said on
page 171 of the book of Covenants [D&C 17:5] that the three should testify
that they had seen the plates even as J[oseph] S[mith] Jr & if they
only saw them spiritually or in vision with their eyes shut—JS Jr never saw
them in any other light way & if so the plates were only
visionary.” I am struck by the three instances of if in Stephen
Burnett’s statement. He built his interpretation of the witnesses on hypotheticals:
if the witnesses never saw that plates as he believed Martin Harris had
said, and if Joseph never saw them then they were only visionary.
Hearing that train of thought, Martin asserted that the plates were not
visionary. He did not wish to be understood as Stephen Burnett understood him.
But Stephen had chosen to disbelieve and Martin’s testimony did not affect him.
Evidence of an eyewitness was not the determinant of his faith. Rather,
Stephen’s faith, or lack thereof, determined the way he interpreted the
evidence of the eyewitness. I empathize with Stephen. Indeed my heart aches for
him. But I do not see as he saw. The historical method I practice
professionally and the spiritual life I enjoy have long since combined into a
most blessed inheritance: my father’s confidence to choose faith precisely
because of the mixture of what he knew and didn’t know. ———————————————-Steven
C. Harper (M.A., Utah State University; Ph.D., Lehigh University) is an
Associate Professor in the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham
Young University and a volume editor in the Joseph Smith Papers project. He
previously taught at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, and among the honors he
has received are the Juanita Brooks Award for Best Graduate Student Paper and
the 1999 T. Edgar Lyon Award for the Best Article of the Year, both given by
the Mormon History Association. Posted December 2010
