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Joseph Smith said Doctrine and
Covenants Section 125 was a revelation given to him
in March of 1841. Since there are only four verses in it
we will quote all of it so that it may be seen in
context. A question is raised in verse 1 "What is the
will of the Lord concerning the saints in the Territory
of Iowa?" The answer begins in verse 2:
Verily,
thus saith the Lord, I say unto you, if those who call
themselves by my name and are essaying to be my
saints, if they will do my will and keep my
commandments concerning them, let them gather
themselves together unto the places which I
shall appoint unto them by my servant Joseph, and
build up cities unto my name, that they may
be prepared for that which is in store for a time to
come.
[v. 3] Let
them build up a city unto my name upon the land
opposite the city of Nauvoo, and let the name of
Zarahemla be named upon it.
[v. 4] And
let all those who come from the east, and the west,
and the north, and the south, that have desires to
dwell therein, take up their inheritance in the
same, as well as in the city of
Nashville [in Lee County, Iowa], or in the city of
Nauvoo, and in all the stakes which I have appointed,
saith the Lord.
In this revelation the Lord says it is
His will for the LDS to gather together in the
places He reveals through Joseph Smith. He said that the
LDS were to build up the cities of
Zarahemla and Nashville, which were small towns in
Iowa across the Mississippi River west of Nauvoo, IL.
The Lord also said all LDS who had the desire should
take up their inheritance in those towns,
so it sounds like He was speaking of a permanent home.
But the last part of verse 2 says "that they may be
prepared for that which is in store for a time
to come."
On page 312 of the Doctrine and
Covenants Student Manual (used by LDS Seminaries and
Institutes of Religion) it says this refers to the LDS
in Iowa being ready to help the Nauvoo Mormons when they
left for Utah. But the LDS in those two tiny Iowa towns
went with the Nauvoo Mormons when they left, so
any help they gave was brief and minimal.
Smith’s revelations often refer to
the soon coming of Christ (as in Doctrine and
Covenants 128:24) which is probably what he had in
mind in this revelation. His only prophecy about the LDS
going to the Rocky Mountains is recorded in the
History of the Church, vol. 5, pages 85-86 and is
dated August 6, 1842 which is a year and a half after
Doctrine and Covenants 125 was given. Other LDS
wrote about Smith’s Rocky Mountains prophecy but gave
different dates for it and mention people who weren’t
there, which raises questions about its reliability.
It seems inconsistent for the Lord to ask
the LDS to "build cities" and claim their "inheritance"
in Iowa if He planned to move them to Utah within five
years. On August 7, 1841 the "city" of Zarahemla, Iowa
had a population of 326 while Nashville was even
smaller, so were they really "cities"? When Nauvoo
Mormons left for Utah, LDS in both Zarahemla and
Nashville went with them and those towns ceased to
exist. So, was anything in this revelation actually done
the way the Lord revealed it?
On September 1, 1842 Joseph Smith wrote
an epistle to Mormons which became Doctrine and
Covenants 127, so it is LDS scripture. In the first
two verses Smith said that his enemies had persecuted
him in Missouri and were now persecuting him in
Illinois. At the end of verse two he said, "I feel, like
Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the
God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and
will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo,
I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God
hath spoken it." Smith was not
writing about the persecution of the LDS Church,
but about being persecuted himself. He
said that God has "delivered me" out of all
tribulation "and will deliver me from
henceforth." Yet, less than two years later, his
enemies killed him, so did the Lord really say Smith
would triumph over all his enemies?
Verse four begins, "And again, verily
thus saith the Lord: Let the work of my temple,
and all the works which I have appointed unto you be
continued on and not cease." Verse six says, "When any
of you are baptized for your dead, let there be a
recorder" who was to witness the event and record it.
Verse nine goes on to say, "And again, let all the
records be had in order, that they may
be put in the archives of my holy temple, to be
held in remembrance from generation to generation,
saith the Lord of Hosts."
Even though Smith wrote this epistle he
claimed "The Lord" revealed its message. The temple
Smith wrote about was the Nauvoo Temple which was under
construction in 1842 but still wasn’t completely
finished when the Mormons left Nauvoo in 1846. Yet,
the Lord said the LDS records of their
baptisms for the dead were to "be put in the archives
of my holy temple, to be held in remembrance from
generation to generation."
But the Nauvoo Temple caught fire in
February 1846 and in September that year a mob entered
it and desecrated much of the interior. On November 19,
1849 it was set on fire and everything burned except the
exterior stone walls which were knocked down by a
tornado six months later, on May 27, 1850. All that
remained of the Nauvoo Temple were scattered, scorched
stones, so no archives existed where the records of
baptisms for the dead could be kept. Therefore, the LDS
records of baptisms for the dead were "not put in
the archives of my holy (Nauvoo) temple, to be held in
remembrance from generation to generation" as "the
Lord of Hosts" said. So, did the Lord make a mistake
or did Smith’s revelation come from some source other
than the Lord?
Our next article will discuss Joseph
Smith’s "three grand keys" by which one can distinguish
between different kinds of heavenly beings. Anyone
wanting more information on Doctrine and Covenants
125 can find it in the Doctrine and Covenants
Student Manual.
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