Understand and Rejoice

In the Introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants this explanation is given of what has been updated in the latest publication of the scriptures: “Other special features of this latest edition include revised maps showing the major geographical locations in which the revelations were received, plus improved photographs of Church historical sites, cross-references, section headings, and subject-matter summaries, all of which are designed to help readers to understand and rejoice in the message of the Lord as given in the Doctrine and Covenants.”  In other words, all the work that the Church has done to improve the documentation and information available about the Doctrine and Covenants is in the goal of helping us to “understand and rejoice” in the word of the Lord.  As the Introduction states further, “the Doctrine and Covenants is unique because it is not a translation of an ancient document, but is of modern origin and was given of God through His chosen prophets for the restoration of His holy work and the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth in these days.”  In other words, it is the only book of scripture for which the amount of available historical information and outside sources is of considerable size.  And in reality to get a full understanding of the revelations we have to know something about the historical context of the revelations. 

                When the children of Israel returned from exile to Jerusalem, they needed to be taught again the law and their duties before the Lord.  Ezra gathered “all that could hear with understanding” and read to them from the scriptures in the street: “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8).  In what we might consider a modern-day reenactment of that same kind of effort, there has been a colossal push by the Church and Church History department in recent years to bring us information and understanding about our history and the revelations of latter-day scripture.  Here is just a sampling of some of what is available to help our understanding of the Doctrine and Covenants that wasn’t online when we started to study it in Sunday School four years ago:

·         Gospel Topic Essays – The Church has published online, and now made available in the Gospel Library app, 11 detailed essays that help give understanding to difficult questions about doctrine and the history of the Church.  These include essays very pertinent to subjects of the Doctrine and Covenants such as the essay Becoming Like God (D&C 76, 132) or Race and the Priesthood (OD 2).

·         Revelations in Context – This collection of about 50 essays gives excellent background to many of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.  For example, this essay helps us understand the great trials (and the deaths) that were a part of President Joseph F. Smith’s life when he received the great vision of the redemption of the dead. 

·         Historic Sites – This website gives us a visual of many of the places associated with the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants.  For example, we can see pictures of the Harmony, Pennsylvania area near where seven of the earliest revelations were given or a view of the Newel K. Whitney home in Kirtland, Ohio were revelations such as the law of the Church (D&C 42) were received.

Also available to us is The Joseph Smith Papers, the herculean effort to bring us the historical documents relevant to the life of Joseph Smith.  In this are contained many of the original transcripts of the revelations—for example, you can see the hand-written manuscript containing D&C 10 with the minor edits made in preparation for publication.  It is simply amazing all that is available for free to the lay member of the Church to help in their study of modern day scripture. 

                When the book of the law was read to the ancient Israelites “all the people wept,” perhaps because they knew that they had not been able to follow the law as expected in their years of captivity.  Nehemiah responded saying, “This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep…. For the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:9-10).  Likewise today the flood of information that we have available to us as we read the Doctrine and Covenants should help us to “lift up [our] hearts and rejoice” in the revelations of God and in the strength of the Lord given to His Saints in the last days (D&C 42:69, 24:12).