Doctrine and Covenants 38: Beauty of Doctrine

This week, I will finish seven months of study of the passage of scripture titled "Doctrine and Covenants 38." Such a dry, utilitarian title obscures the incredible beauty of this revelation.

If the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants attributed to Joseph Smith, first prophet of the Restoration, were indeed merely creations of his own mind, we would see them evolving in complexity over time, as the youth became a mature man. We forget sometimes just how young Joseph Smith was as leader of the Church.

But Section 38 was revealed when the Church was not even a year old, and the Prophet himself was only 25 years old. It is a fully mature,expansive passage that reveals not his mind but that of the omniscient, eternal God who revealed it to him:

"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 ...

... Let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practise virtue and holiness before me ...

... Let your preaching be the warning voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in meekness ..."

I see these particular verses as highlighting the grand themes of the revelation: The introduction, declaring the majesty, power and imminence of God; the principles of the Zion society that He was preparing to restore to the earth -- a people of equity, purity and compassion preparing for the return of the Messiah; and the call to share the word.

Verses 31 and 39 have been footnoted to 2 Peter 3:14 and Haggai 2:8, respectively. Most apppropriate. Following the footnotes last night, I was powerfully impacted by the reality that our Eternal God works upon the same Plan that He has always had, "never varying from that which he hath said," and that all of these verses,though vastly separated in time and place, fit together beautifully, being ultimately from the same Mind, to declare the same principles of Zion, Paradise on Earth, whether amongst the ancient covenant Children of Israel, the earliest Christians or the saints of the Restoration.

God is in charge, all things are His, Zion will see the Desire of Nations, Messiah's rule of equity for all, with the glorious temple of God at its center, served by a people prepared in heart.

And I picture the Prophet Joseph on that frosty January day of 1831, gathered with the saints at Fayette, N.Y., with but a wood fire to warm the room; I hear the scrape of boots on the rough floor and the rustle of ladies' skirts. Then the light of heaven shines upon Joseph and he begins to speak the words of revelation and all the congregation is hushed as the very Laws of Zion are set forth again in supernal beauty.

China connections

I clipped a column from the paper today about historic trade relations between China and the U.S. One paragraph grabbed my attention, as it bears most interestingly upon the history of the LDS Church.

"U.S.-China trade began in 1784, when the ship Empress of China set sail from New York, bound for Canton -- now Guangzhou -- with a cargo of fur and ginseng, prized in Asia for its healing properties.

"It turned a handsome profit," said [Craig] Canning, historian at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "And right away, other Americans went out to seek their fortune."

One of those Americans, was Joseph Smith Sr., father and namesake of the future Mormon prophet.

Writes Richard Bushman, in "Rough Stone Rolling," a biography of the prophet, p. 18:

"It was a fateful turning point in the Smith family fortunes."

The man entrusted by Smith to transport his ginseng, one Stevens, turned out to be a rascal who fled to Canada with all the profits. The Smiths, who had been getting by relatively well until this time, were unable to pay their debts and were reduced to destitution. They were forced to move several times during the next few years, finally settling in Palmyra.

Plural marriage, change in the church and Joseph Smith

Dear world:

Yes, the Prophet Joseph Smith was sealed to more than one wife. No, this does not shake my faith. I believe I have known it since I was a teenager, in spite of the fact that many critics of the church are shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that Joseph actually engaged in the very practice that was revealed to him as recorded in the Doctrine & Covenants. Apparently, in the minds of some, polygamy sprang fully formed, like Athena from Zeus, from the wild mind of Brother Brigham.

Shocked they also are that the Church doesn't rent billboards trumpeting this knowledge to the world. After all, a knowledge of the names of the wives of the Prophet will be required of every member hoping to achieve celestial glory. (I'm being a little sarcastic there.)

Yeah. Boggles the mind.

I know all about the Helen Kimball thing, too, the 14 year old to whom the Prophet was sealed in some capacity. It is quite a stretch, a very slanderous stretch, to call a man a pedophile -- our critics' new favorite word for the Prophet -- for being sealed and that not to a child but to a teenager. In many states of the US, it is still perfectly legal to marry a teenager. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence anywhere that the Prophet ever had any intimate relations with Helen Kimball. Sealing is a doctrine, like many doctrines, that took time to be fully and properly understood and fully unveiled.

The bigger picture: Aside from one line in the New Testament about certain qualifications of being a bishop, the Lord issues not one word of condemnation in the entire Bible about plural marriage and, in fact, even called the polygynous Abraham His friend.

Latter-day Saints do not practice this principle today, because the Lord can command and the Lord can revoke and He has currently revoked. Thus He had no problem with judicious use of wine in Biblical days but has told us to refrain in this modern era -- so please do not trot out that tired line about Timothy and his stomach or Jesus drinking wine so why don't we? Thus He forbade pork in Biblical days but does not forbid it now.