Historical Context Of The Doctrine And Covenants

The easiest scriptures to understand are the ones with stories. Several Church leaders have said that a key to understanding the Doctrine & Covenants is to know its story. This book tells that story. This is an uninterrupted narrative focused specifically on the Doctrine & Covenants. While many books have previously done a good job of telling church history, they are of limited use when it comes to the D&C because they rarely mention even half its sections. And while commentaries often do discuss the historical background of each section, they can only provide that background in chopped up little pieces that are themselves separated from the larger historical setting. The Historical Context of the Doctrine & Covenants solves those shortcomings. For the first time, every single section of the D&C is seamlessly woven into the larger fabric of Church history so that references to people, activities and circumstances make intuitive sense. This book immerses the reader in the historical background so it is not only understood, but also experienced. It quotes extensively from journals, correspondence, histories, speeches and interviews of dozens of early Church members, as well as from contemporary church records and newspapers. This book is well researched and documented. 353 pages of narrative are followed by 62 pages of footnotes (all active in the Kindle edition), 24 pages of bibliography, and (in the paper edition) 40 pages of index. It incorporates new information that only became available in 2010 with the publication of Joseph Smith's first revelation book by the Joseph Smith Papers. Each section of the D&C is briefly summarized as part of the historical background for all the other sections that follow. These summaries point out when a section was written down in pieces, changes who is being addressed, or simply moves from one subject to another. They identify each revelation's principal messages and reflect its train of thought. They discuss the extent to which each section circulated and was known to Church members. And these summaries identify relationships both with other sections and with the historical development of Mormon doctrine. Brigham Young said in a conference only 12 years after Joseph Smith's death that "these revelations, after a lapse of years, become mystified to those who were not personally acquainted with the circumstances at the time they were given" and that "a portion of this congregation have not been personally acquainted with the early experience and travels of this church, and with the sayings and doings of the Prophet Joseph, and it may be that they do not fully understand what this revelation [D&C 58] really does mean." (Journal of Discourses 3:333-34). This book demystifies the Doctrine & Covenants by relating the experience and travels of the Church so readers will understand what each section really does mean. Volume 1 covers D&C 1-70, 74, 107, 133, Moses, and Joseph Smith History.Volume 2 covering the remainder of the Doctrine & Covenants and Abraham will follow.

William Earl McLellin (1806-1883) was born in Smith County, Tennessee. He married Cinthia Ann in 1829 in Illinois. She died in about 1830-1831 in childbirth. In 1831 William joined the LDS Church and went on several missions. In 1832 he was excommunicated for a short time but was rebaptized and, in 1835, was one of the first members of the Twelve Apostles. By this time he had married Emeline Miller they had six children. He and his family settled in Jackson County, Missouri and suffered the persecutions against the Mormons. By late 1836 William and his family had left the LDS Church and settled in Illinois for a short time before returning to Missouri.