Like No Other Book: The Doctrine and Covenants

To my son, 

I want to encourage you to keep reading in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Doctrine and Covenants is really an amazing book like no other in the world, for it contains the words of the Savior directly in our time. It is composed mostly of revelations that were received by the Prophet Joseph Smith in which we can hear the voice of the Lord directly. Isn’t that awesome?! These are the words the Jesus Christ actually spoke. Listen to the way that He introduced Himself in one of the revelations: “Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made; The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes; I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by me” (38:1-3). He is the one who created the earth, who was in the beginning with God, who has all things before His eyes and knows all things—and He has taken the time to speak directly to us!

               In addition to hearing the voice of the Savior directly, there are some other pretty cool topics covered in the Doctrine and Covenants that you will not want to miss as you read. You will read of some pretty extreme events that you may see in your lifetime, when the Lord will “send forth flies upon the face of the earth” and the “stars shall fall from heaven” (29:14, 18). We learn that there will be “earthquakes” and “thunderings, and the voice of lightnings” and that there will be “waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds” (88:90). Another section describes some of the events in the last days in these words: “Famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning” (87:6). It is going to be intense! Though some of this might seem scary, we also find great promises of how the Lord will protect and bless his people. There will be a great city built up in Zion in Jackson County, Missouri called the New Jerusalem which will be “a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God” (45:66). Though there will be wars on the earth, the people there will be protected and they “shall not be at war one with another” (45:69). If that happens in our lifetimes, I hope that you and I will be there in that city! Whatever happens, if we follow the Savior we have this promise that we need not worry for He will be with us: “I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (84:88).

               As you study the Doctrine and Covenants you will also read of some other amazing events. One of those is the coming of the Savior to the Jews. Listen to this description: “And then shall the Lord set his foot upon this mount, and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall shake.” He will come down out of heaven and stand on the Mount of Olives, a place He came to in mortality in Jerusalem, and it will split in two. Here is what will happen next in the Savior’s own words: “And then shall the Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet? Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God. And then shall they weep because of their iniquities; then shall they lament because they persecuted their king” (45:51-53). He will declare to the Jews in great power that He is the Son of God and they will then know that Jesus who was crucified really was the promised Messiah!

               There are many other incredible topics that I’ll let you discover as you read, from ancient parchment about a man who would never die to the story of a whole civilization who will miraculously come down from some northern land and bring rich treasures to the city of New Jerusalem. There are descriptions of angels who will sound trumpets, a pioneer company headed to the west, and even a vision of missionaries “clothed with power and authority” in the spirit world preaching the gospel and proclaiming liberty to those who are dead. So keep up your reading and you’ll be amazed and what the Lord has spoken in our day!