Doctrinal Development

In December 1830, a revelation commanded Church members to “assemble together at the Ohio” (Doctrine and Covenants 37:3). Shortly after, during a conference held at the Whitmer Home in Fayette, New York, the Saints sought additional clarification on the command to gather. In response, the Lord promised that in Ohio He would give them His law and that they would be “endowed with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32).

Following these revelations, the Church was headquartered in northeast Ohio from February 1831 to January 1838 while Joseph Smith his family lived in and around Kirtland. This was a time of revelation, growth, change, triumph, and tragedy as Joseph grew into his role not only as a revelator but also as a community leader and spiritual adviser for the Latter-day Saints. During this time, Joseph received a significant number of revelations that restored knowledge lost through long centuries of apostasy. These revelations changed Latter-day Saint views of the world, the afterlife, and God’s plan of salvation. They also contained innovations that reoriented Latter-day Saint’s views on creation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This pushed the Saints to build institutions that would seek out new converts, ensure community security, mitigate poverty, and uplift all.

These revelations also created, altered, and extended Church administrative structures and expanded the understanding of the power and structure of the priesthood. They also called on the Saints to build a house of the Lord—a temple where they would participate in newly restored ordinances and receive the promised endowment.

In a revelation received on the day Joseph arrived in Kirtland, the Lord taught that “by the prayer of your faith ye shall receive my law, that ye may know how to govern my church and have all things right before me” (Doctrine and Covenants 41:3). Many of the early converts in Kirtland had been members of “the family” living at the Morley Farm. This group was attempting to live what they understood as the New Testament ideal of having “all things common” (Acts 4:32). Joseph Smith observed that the efforts of the family were admirable but unsustainable. Knowing that by the prayer of faith the Lord would reveal the promised law, Joseph Smith called a meeting of twelve elders on February 9, 1831, just five days after he arrived in Ohio.

During the meeting, those present followed the Lord’s call to join in prayer literally. After they had “united in mighty prayer, and were agreed as touching the reception of the Law,”¹ elders posed questions about the practical and pressing needs of the Church. In response, Joseph Smith dictated a series of answers from the Lord, which became the basis of a revelation then known as the law of consecration and stewardship or simply the Law (see Doctrine and Covenants 42). This revelation taught the Saints how to gather, care for one another, and pursue economic equality without neglecting personal choice and responsibility.

While still working on the Book of Mormon translation, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery anticipated using their gifts in “bringing to light . . . those parts of my scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:27). In October 1829, Joseph and Oliver purchased a large edition of the King James Version of the Bible from E. B. Grandin’s bookshop. In June 1830, with the Book of Mormon now printed and the Church organized, Joseph and Oliver began working on their second major translation project: the inspired translation of the Bible.

When Joseph Smith left New York state, his work on the inspired translation of the Bible was already well underway. By that time, Joseph had already dictated significant revisions and expansive additions to the vision of Moses and the account of Enoch found in Genesis.² On the day that he and Emma arrived in Kirtland, a revelation directed the Church to “have a house built” for Joseph where he could “live and translate” (Doctrine and Covenants 41:7). Joseph Smith considered his work on the inspired revisions of the Bible a “divine mandate” and an important “branch” of his call as a prophet.³ Joseph Smith’s work on the Bible revisions was a “direct catalyst for many of the revelations” in the Doctrine and Covenants, with “more than a dozen sections that arose directly from the translation process or contain instructions for Joseph and others pertaining to it.”⁴

The role of Bible translation in prompting revelation is perhaps best evident in the revelation received by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon on February 16, 1832. Several weeks earlier, Joseph Smith’s efforts to oversee missionary work in the area around Hiram, Ohio, had taken him away from his work on the translation. In a revelation received in January 1832, the Lord directed him to resume the translation and to focus on that work “until it be finished” (Doctrine and Covenants 73:4).

Less than a month later, while translating John 5:29, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, who was serving as scribe, had a vision open to them. Known to the Saints at the time as simply “the Vision,” this revelation contained expansive new information about the resurrection of the dead and the three kingdoms of glory that await us in the next life (see Doctrine and Covenants 76). In addition, this revelation teaches us that through Christ “worlds are and were created” and that, as “begotten sons and daughters unto God,” all women and men possess an eternal divine nature (Doctrine and Covenants 76:24).

Many of the revelations received in this period provide expansion and clarification for the priesthood. When these revelations were published in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, many of them were designated with the heading “On Priesthood” and “constituted something of a handbook on priesthood and Church government.”⁵

Some of these revelations explain specific offices and quorums and their administrative functions. Other revelations, however, outline the doctrine of the Priesthood, explain its eternal nature, and teach us that priesthood power is God’s power which draws women and men to Him through covenants. On September 22 and 23, 1832, Joseph Smith received a lengthy revelation on the priesthood while meeting in council with two groups of priesthood holders. In this revelation, likely received in the N. K. Whitney & Co. Store, we learn that the Melchizedek Priesthood has been handed down to righteous prophets since before the creation of the earth (see Doctrine and Covenants 84:6–17) and that in the “ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.” This revelation also places those who hold the priesthood under an “oath and covenant” that as they magnify their calling, they will be sanctified.

Above all else, the revelations received in Ohio expanded Latter-day Saint understanding of the nature and Atonement of Jesus Christ. In “the Vision” (Doctrine and Covenants 76), Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon saw the Savior Jesus Christ. They declared:

“And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—

“That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;

“That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:40–42).

Shortly after the dedication of the house of the Lord in Kirtland, Christ appeared again, declaring to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery:

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father.

“Behold, your sins are forgiven you; you are clean before me; therefore, lift up your heads and rejoice.

“Let the hearts of your brethren rejoice, and let the hearts of all my people rejoice, who have, with their might, built this house to my name” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:4–6).

In the dedicated temple, the Saints received the endowment of power which had been promised nearly five years earlier when they were commanded to gather in Ohio. Although additional ordinances and ceremonies associated with “endowment” were introduced in Nauvoo, the endowment of power promised for the Saints in Kirtland included the “Pentecost-like season” that followed the dedication of the temple and “the restoration of priesthood keys” by Moses, Elias, and Elijah in the Kirtland Temple (see Doctrine and Covenants 110).⁶

This endowment of new keys and ordinances followed the Lord’s declaration that the Saints’ sacrifice in building the temple had been accepted and that their sins were forgiven through the Atonement of Christ.