Doctrine and Covenants 18, with Scott Woodward

Doctrine and Covenants 18, with Scott Woodward – powered by Happy Scribe

Doctrine and Covenants 18 was given in June 1829 through Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdrey, David Wittmer and to the Future Quorum of the Twelve Apostles regarding how to build up the Church of Jesus Christ in their day. Here’s the back story. Back in March 1829, the Lord told Joseph Smith at the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church was soon to occur. This is, in fact, the very first mention of a church and Joseph’s revelations.

And maybe the first moment it occurred to Joseph that his translation work with the Book of Mormon would directly lead to the establishment of the Lord’s Church. Two months later, in May, the Lord spoke again to Joseph of the prospect of establishing his church. It also appears likely that in the latter part of this month, Peter, James and John appeared to and ordain Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery apostles and conferred upon them the keys of God’s kingdom on Earth for this dispensation, which appears to be relevant to the organization of the Lord’s Church in the near future.

The following month, in June 1829, sometime soon after they moved in with the Peter Wittmer family in Fayette, New York, Joseph and Oliver received an important revelation in the chamber or bedroom of Father Wittmer, wherein the voice of God gave them further details concerning the impending organization of the church. Included in this revelation were specific instructions about ordaining one another and others to the office of Elder in the church, administering the sacrament and conferring the Holy Ghost upon previously baptized people.

Yet, Joseph said, we were commanded to defer this our ordination until such times as it should be practicable to have our brethren who had been and who should be baptized, assembled together when we must have their sanction to our thus proceeding to ordain each other and have them decide by a vote whether they were willing to accept us as spiritual teachers or not. Such a time, it turns out, would not happen until April 6th of the next year. Suffice it to say that in June of 1829, the topic of establishing the Lord’s Church was squarely on the minds of Joseph and Oliver, as well as David Wittmer.

Yet none of them had any experience as to how to go about doing so. As they thought more on the matter, Joseph directed Oliver to prepare a kind of founding document which would outline the basic beliefs and practices of the church, similar to formal documents of other religious institutions of the time. Finding this to be a very difficult and even discouraging task, 22 year old Oliver asked Joseph to inquire of the Lord for additional guidance on the matter. So in the presence of both Oliver and David, Joseph approached the Lord for direction on this issue of a founding church document specifically, as well as for any further instructions relative to building up the Church of Christ that the Lord saw fit to offer them doctrine and covenants.

18 was the result of this inquiry. So that’s the back story. Now let’s look at the message of the revelation itself. The Lord begins by directly addressing Oliver’s concern about writing the founding document, saying now behold, because of the thing which you, my servant Oliver Cowdrey, have desire to know of me, I give unto you these words. Behold, I have manifested unto you by my spirit in many instances that the things which you have written are true, meaning the pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript.

He has been scribing wherefore you know that they are true. And if you know that they are true, behold, I give on to you a commandment that you rely upon the things which are written. In other words, Oliver need look no further than the freshly inked pages of The Book of Mormon manuscript themselves for rich material on the core doctrine structure and practices of the Lord’s Church. For in them are all things written concerning the foundation of my church, my gospel and my rock.

The Lord says wherefore if you shall build up my church upon the foundation of my gospel and my rock, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. Oliver took this council to heart, poring over the loose pages of The Book of Mormon manuscript and drawing there from abundant material which he either quotes directly or closely paraphrases in his founding document, which he calls the articles of the Church of Christ. In fact, more than half of Oliver’s finished document consisted of direct quotations from the Book of Mormon, drawing primarily from Jesus’s teachings in third Nephi and Moroni descriptions of church practices in the Book of Moroni.

Much of the rest of the material in this document includes quotations from this DNC 18 revelation itself. Now it is significant to note here the influence of the Book of Mormon on setting up the church. That is when the Lord wanted to establish the foundational doctrine, ordinances, structure and practices of his latter day church. He directed Oliver to draw directly from the teachings of the Book of Mormon. Yet the church wouldn’t be exclusively based on the Book of Mormon to restore the foundational keys of authority.

For instance, the Lord sent messengers from the New Testament era, John the Baptist and Peter James and John. And in the years to come, the Lord would add to the church key elements from the Old Testament era, as well as incorporate completely modern elements, synthesizing them all together into one syncretic whole verses one through five and DNA 18. Thus capture a key moment in the early development of the Lord’s Latter Day Church, which would ultimately come to embody and inspired multi dispensation of fusion of practice’s doctrine and authority.

Starting in verse six, the Lord describes the fundamental need for and work of his church. Behold, the world is ripening in iniquity and it must needs be that the children of men are stirred up until repentance. And then he names the two basic subgroups of the human family, both the Gentiles and also the House of Israel. There was a bygone ancient day when the Lord largely focused his efforts only on calling the House of Israel to repentance. But that is not this day.

In this era, the Lord commands all men everywhere to repent, and the recently baptized Oliver Cowdery and David Wittmer were to help the Lord get the word out. To underscore this point, the Lord compares Oliver and David to Paul Martin, apostle for you are called, he said, even with that same calling with which he was called, recall that Paul was the first person ever explicitly called to preach to both the Gentiles and the children of Israel, both subgroups of the human family mentioned in verse six.

Thus, Oliver and David were being commissioned with the same task. The Lord then tenderly explains what they are to remember when calling people to repentance. Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, he says. And to quantify precisely what that worth is, he explains. For Behold the Lord, your redeemer suffered death in the flesh. Wherefore he suffered the pain of all men that all might repent and come on to him. And he has risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men under him on conditions of repentance.

Here in the Lord was describing something of a sacred equation. If the worth of each soul is directly proportional to the price paid to redeem it, then the worth of every soul was openly declared at Calvary. Upon Jesus’s death, Jesus’s infinite sacrifice announced our infinite worth, and his death and resurrection opened the way for all to repent and come on to him. Thus, he says, how great is his joy in the soul that repentance wherefore he says to Oliver and David, you are called to cry repentance into this people.

And if it’s so, be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance into this people, he says, and bring save it, be one soul. And to me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father. And thus how much greater will be your joy if you should bring many souls into me now? The Lord explains in verses 17 to 22, everything they’ll need to help people repent and come to Christ.

First, he says. You have my gospel before you and my rock and my salvation, a likely reference to the contents of the Book of Mormon. Second, they are to ask the father for the guidance of the Holy Ghost in this work. Third, they are to remember that if you have not faith, hope and charity, you can do nothing. Suggesting that trying to call people to repentance without faith, hope and charity is ineffective and futile.

For instance, they are to contend against no church except, of course, the Church of the Devil. But they are not to attack and fight with other Christian churches. Rather, they are to take upon themselves the name of Christ and with faith, hope and charity, simply speak the truth in soberness. Then the Lord says as many as repent and are baptized in my name and endure to the end shall be saved. This is how people are brought to Christ and take upon themselves his name and all mankind must take upon themselves the name of Christ, he explains, in order to be saved in the kingdom of my father.

In verses twenty six to thirty two.

The Lord announces that there are 12 others who will be called to declare my gospel, as did the apostle Paul to both Gentile and Jew, they are called 12 disciples patterned after the twelve and third Nephi in the Book of Mormon and will be men who desire to take upon them my name with full purpose of heart. Their sacred role mirrors the role of the twelve disciples described in the Book of Mormon. They are called to preach Christ Gospel, to baptize in his name and to ordain priests and teachers.

In verses 31 to 36, the Lord speaks directly to those future 12 who will be called. He comforts them to know that in their feelings of inadequacy, his grace is sufficient for them. Yet they must walk up rightly before him and sin not. They are to ordain priests and teachers and declare his gospel. He assures them that these words are from him and not from man. Wherefore he says you shall testify. They are of me. It was his spirit, after all, that inspired these words, and it is by his power.

They can read them one to another. In this sense they can testify that they have heard his voice and know his words. In verses 37 to 39, the Lord directs his words again to Oliver and David, giving them a charge to search out these twelve. They will recognize them by their desires and their works, the Lord says. And when they find them, they are to show them verses 31 to 36 of this revelation, and it seems verses forty to forty seven as well, in which the Lord seems again to be addressing the future.

Twelve. The twelve are to preach to the world saying you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for all men must repent and be baptized and women and children old enough to be accountable. They are to keep God’s commandments in all things. And by your hands, the Lord assures them I will work a marvelous work among the children of men under the convincing of many of their sins so that they may come unto repentance and thereby be enabled to come onto the kingdom of my father.

The Lord concludes this revelation by soberly informing them that being given blessings above all things, he will hold them especially accountable. If you keep not my commandments, the Lord says you cannot be saved in the kingdom of my father. These are the words of their Lord, God and Redeemer spoken to them by the power of his spirit, when exactly Oliver and David began their search for these twelve disciples. According to the Lord’s instructions here, we don’t know.

But some five and a half years later, in February 1835, when the first twelve apostles in our day were called Oliver, Cowdrey’s stated that since the time of this revelation in June 1829, our minds have been on a constant stretch to find who these twelve were. At a special meeting in Kirtland, Ohio, on the 14th of February 1835, Joseph proposed that the time had come to fulfill this revelation by ordaining twelve men to the office of Apostle Joseph, instructed Oliver Cowdrey and David Wittmer, as well as Martin Harris, to do as the Lord instructed here and DNC eighteen and to pray each one and then proceed to choose twelve men from the church as apostles, to go to all nations Kindred’s tongues and people.

According to the minutes of that meeting, Oliver, David and Martin United in prayer, after which they were then blessed by the laying on of hands of the first presidency. And then, according to a former commandment, DNC eighteen, they proceeded to make a choice of the twelve. So to summarize doctrine and covenants, eighteen played a vital role in shaping the latter day church in at least three ways. First, by guiding Oliver to distill into one document the foundational doctrine, ordinances, structure and practices of the church from the Book of Mormon and see twenty four.

What becomes of this document? Second, by articulating the core work of the Church in inviting all mankind everywhere to repent, come to Christ through baptism, and take upon themselves his name so that they can be saved in the kingdom of his father. And finally, by directly leading to the call of the Twelve Apostles in the latter days to lead out in this core work of the Lord’s Church.

And that’s the story of doctrine and covenants. Eighteen.