Chastening

A revelation that states a rebuke and its motive in the same breath, and then spends its remaining verses telling the rebuked party what to build.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. The section speaks in a first-person divine voice. Dates, places, and occasions are not in this wiki’s source text and are not stated; nothing about what building was built, or whether it was, is available to this page. The building instructions themselves are treated on The Houses Commanded and are cited here rather than mapped.

Account

The rebuke, with its reason attached before it

The section’s first verse states the chastening and its motive in one sentence, and the motive comes first: “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you” (D&C 95:1). Only then does the rebuke land: “Wherefore, ye must needs be chastened and stand rebuked before my face” (D&C 95:2).

The fault is named and quantified: “ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things, that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house” (D&C 95:3). The phrase “a very grievous sin” is repeated twice more in the section, of two further parties (D&C 95:6, 95:10), which is the clearest signal the text gives that the three faults are being weighed on the same scale.

The purpose the building serves is stated in a verse that names a prophetic idiom.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 95:4: “For the preparation wherewith I design to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time, that I may bring to pass my strange act, that I may pour out my Spirit upon all flesh—” - Isaiah 28:21: “For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.”

Divergences reported: person — the prophecy speaks of the LORD in the third person (“that he may do his work”, Isaiah 28:21) where the revelation speaks in the first (“I design”, “I may bring to pass”, D&C 95:4); and the prophecy’s doubled figure, work and act, is reduced to the act alone. The prophecy’s two mountains have no counterpart in the revelation. The run “strange act” stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus — D&C 95:4, D&C 101:95, and Isaiah 28:21 — and “strange work” at two, D&C 101:95 and Isaiah 28:21. D&C 101:95 is already registered against Isaiah 28:21 on The Redemption of Zion; that is a different verse pair, and it is disclosed here.

Called, and not chosen

The second fault is stated as a ratio, in words that stand as a proverb elsewhere.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 95:5: “But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are chosen.” - Matthew 22:14: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Divergences reported: the parable’s line is a general maxim with no antecedent group; the revelation applies it to a specific set the verse itself defines — “many who have been ordained among you” (D&C 95:5) — and inserts “of them” into the run, which is why this is registered as allusion rather than shared phrasing: the longest verbatim run common to both is “called but few”, three words. The next verse states what the unchosen have done, in a figure of its own: “They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day.” (D&C 95:6); the hyphenated form “noon-day” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, this one and 1 Nephi 1:9, where the sense is unrelated. The run “many are called” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — Matthew 22:14 and D&C 121:40, which states the maxim in the parable’s own words; that verse belongs to another cluster and is flagged rather than treated here.

What the building is for

The instructions themselves are treated elsewhere, but two of their verses state a purpose in terms that run with a gospel’s closing charge.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 95:8: ”…I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high;” - Luke 24:49: “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”

Divergences reported: the gospel’s charge attaches the endowment to a place and a waiting (“tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem”, Luke 24:49); the revelation attaches it to a building not yet built (“in the which house I design to endow”, D&C 95:8), and narrows the recipients to “those whom I have chosen”. The gospel’s “endued” reads “endow” in the revelation. The revelation’s next verse makes the correspondence explicit in its own words: “For this is the promise of the Father unto you; therefore I command you to tarry, even as mine apostles at Jerusalem.” (D&C 95:9) — which carries over the gospel verse’s promise, its command to tarry, and its city. The run “power from on high” stands at seven distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Luke 24:49, D&C 20:8, D&C 38:32, D&C 38:38, D&C 95:8, D&C 105:11, and D&C 109:35; the gospel verse is the only non-Doctrine-and-Covenants witness and is paired for that reason.

The remaining instructions — the solemn assembly, the interpretation of a title, the dimensions in feet, the division of the inner court, and the appointment of three to receive the pattern (D&C 95:7, 95:11–16) — are cited here and treated on The Houses Commanded, so that all such material lands on one page rather than two. Two facts from that run are recorded here because they are countable and unique: the dimension “fifty and five feet” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus (D&C 95:15), and the third fault named in the section is located in a named institution — “contentions arose in the school of the prophets” (D&C 95:10) — a phrase standing at five distinct frozen verses in the corpus, the other four in D&C 88 and D&C 90.

A name given three ways in one verse

The section’s last verse names its speaker four times over, in a chain found nowhere else: the higher part of the inner court is dedicated “for the school of mine apostles, saith Son Ahman; or, in other words, Alphus; or, in other words, Omegus; even Jesus Christ your Lord. Amen.” (D&C 95:17). Two of those names stand at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus each — “Alphus” and “Omegus”, both here.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 95:17: “And let the higher part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for the school of mine apostles, saith Son Ahman; or, in other words, Alphus; or, in other words, Omegus; even Jesus Christ your Lord. Amen.” - D&C 78:20: “Wherefore, do the things which I have commanded you, saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman, who prepareth all things before he taketh you;”

Divergences reported: the earlier section uses the name with an article and in apposition to another title (“saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman”, D&C 78:20); the later uses it bare, as the speaker’s signature, and then glosses it twice more (D&C 95:17). The name “Son Ahman” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — these two, and nowhere else in the corpus. Registered with the lower-numbered section as the record’s second reference, the register’s convention for pairs inside one work.

Significance

The section is worth reading for its ordering. Chastening is stated as a consequence of love before it is stated as a consequence of fault (D&C 95:1), and the sin named is not a transgression but an omission — a commandment “not considered” (D&C 95:3). The three faults the section names are all of that kind: not building, not being chosen, and contending.

The other reportable feature is how quickly rebuke turns into specification. Ten verses after “ye must needs be chastened” (D&C 95:2) the text is giving measurements in feet. What that shift implies about the section’s purpose is left to the reader.

Key references

D&C 95:1–3 — chastening stated as love; the fault named
D&C 95:4 — the strange act, and the pouring out of the Spirit
D&C 95:5–6 — called but few chosen; darkness at noon-day
D&C 95:8–9 — the endowment of power, and the command to tarry
D&C 95:10 — contentions in the school of the prophets
D&C 95:11–17 — the building instructions and the closing chain of names

The Redemption of Zion · The Councils of the Church · Temple in the Record · Endless Punishment · The Two Priesthoods · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants section 95 throughout (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Isaiah 28, Matthew 22, Luke 24, and D&C 78 quoted alongside it; D&C 20, D&C 38, D&C 88, D&C 90, D&C 101, D&C 105, D&C 109, D&C 121, and 1 Nephi 1 are cited inside disclosures.

Every quote is verbatim from the frozen source text, cited to its exact reference and checked character-for-character; no quote crosses a verse boundary. Four connection records are registered on this page, all [textual] and all submitted asserted_by: wiki. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by script at the time of writing on the stated basis.