The Order of Revelation

A book of revelations that legislates about revelation: who may receive it for the church, what everyone else may and may not do with what they receive, and what happens to the arrangement if the one appointed falls.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. Recipients are named only as the verse text names them. Dates, places, and occasions are not in this wiki’s source text and are not stated.

Account

The rule, and its exception clause

The rule is stated to a second party, in the course of telling him what he may do: “But, behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses” (D&C 28:2); “And thou shalt be obedient unto the things which I shall give unto him, even as Aaron, to declare faithfully the commandments and the revelations, with power and authority unto the church” (D&C 28:3). What the addressee may do is then stated positively and generously: “And if thou art led at any time by the Comforter to speak or teach, or at all times by the way of commandment unto the church, thou mayest do it” (D&C 28:4); “But thou shalt not write by way of commandment, but by wisdom” (D&C 28:5); “And thou shalt not command him who is at thy head, and at the head of the church” (D&C 28:6). The same allowance and the same limit are repeated for a specific labor: “and thou shalt have revelations, but write them not by way of commandment” (D&C 28:8).

The distinction that whole passage turns on — receiving revelation, which the text grants broadly, against writing revelation as commandment for the church, which it restricts to one — is stated by the verses themselves and is the hinge of everything else on this page.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () A second revelation restates the rule to the whole body of elders, and adds a clause the first does not carry: - D&C 43:3: “And this ye shall know assuredly—that there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me.” - D&C 28:2: “But, behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses.”

The six-word run “appointed to receive commandments and revelations” (D&C 28:2, 43:3) is shared. Divergences reported: the earlier verse names the man and compares him to Moses; the later verse names no one and instead attaches two conditions — “until he be taken” and “if he abide in me” (D&C 43:3). The later section then supplies the succession clause outright: “But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be appointed unto this gift except it be through him; for if it be taken from him he shall not have power except to appoint another in his stead” (D&C 43:4), which stands beside the earlier section’s “For I have given him the keys of the mysteries, and the revelations which are sealed, until I shall appoint unto them another in his stead” (D&C 28:7).

What the church is asked to do with his words

One revelation addresses the church rather than the recipient, and states the church’s side of the arrangement: “Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me” (D&C 21:4); “For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith” (D&C 21:5); “For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory” (D&C 21:6).

The same section opens by listing the titles the record is to use — “in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father” (D&C 21:1) — and the later exposition repeats four of them of the presiding office generally: “Behold, here is wisdom; yea, to be a seer, a revelator, a translator, and a prophet, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the head of the church” (D&C 107:92), an office whose duty is “to preside over the whole church, and to be like unto Moses—” (D&C 107:91). The comparison to Moses thus stands in both the earliest and the latest of these statements (D&C 28:2, 107:91).

Section 21 also records an ordinance in the other direction — the recipient ordained by the man he is set over: “Wherefore it behooveth me that he should be ordained by you, Oliver Cowdery mine apostle” (D&C 21:10); “This being an ordinance unto you, that you are an elder under his hand, he being the first unto you, that you might be an elder unto this church of Christ, bearing my name—” (D&C 21:11).

The oracles, and the warning attached to them

A later revelation widens the arrangement: “Therefore, thou art blessed from henceforth that bear the keys of the kingdom given unto you; which kingdom is coming forth for the last time” (D&C 90:2); “Verily I say unto you, the keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come” (D&C 90:3); “Nevertheless, through you shall the oracles be given to another, yea, even unto the church” (D&C 90:4). Two others are then said to hold the same keys: “And again, verily I say unto thy brethren, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, their sins are forgiven them also, and they are accounted as equal with thee in holding the keys of this last kingdom” (D&C 90:6).

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () The warning attached to receiving the oracles is built on the parable of the two houses: - D&C 90:5: “And all they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them lest they are accounted as a light thing, and are brought under condemnation thereby, and stumble and fall when the storms descend, and the winds blow, and the rains descend, and beat upon their house.” - Matthew 7:25: “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

Divergences reported: the parable’s four elements are rain, floods, winds and the beating; the revelation’s are storms, winds, rains and the beating — floods are absent and storms are added. The parable’s house stands (“it fell not”, Matthew 7:25); the revelation’s hearers “stumble and fall” (D&C 90:5). The revelation also drops the parable’s foundation clause, which is the point on which the parable turns. Registered as allusion, not shared phrasing: the elements correspond, the wording does not run together — “the rains descend” stands at exactly one distinct frozen verse in the corpus, D&C 90:5.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The permanence clause is restated years later in a revelation addressed elsewhere: - D&C 112:15: “Exalt not yourselves; rebel not against my servant Joseph; for verily I say unto you, I am with him, and my hand shall be over him; and the keys which I have given unto him, and also to youward, shall not be taken from him till I come.” - D&C 90:3: “Verily I say unto you, the keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come;”

Divergences reported: the earlier verse addresses the holder in the second person and bounds the promise by two worlds; the later speaks of him in the third person to others and bounds it by an event, “till I come” (D&C 112:15). The later verse also extends the keys outward — “and also to youward” (D&C 112:15) — which the earlier does not.

The law is received by assembly, and is not for everyone

One further revelation attaches the receiving of law to a gathering and to agreement: “Hearken, O ye elders of my church whom I have called, behold I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall assemble yourselves together to agree upon my word” (D&C 41:2); “And 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” (D&C 41:3); with the test of receiving it: “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple, and shall be cast out from among you” (D&C 41:5). The same instruction is given for assemblies generally: “when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given” (D&C 43:8).

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () The reason given for withholding is the Sermon’s: - D&C 41:6: “For it is not meet that the things which belong to the children of the kingdom should be given to them that are not worthy, or to dogs, or the pearls to be cast before swine.” - Matthew 7:6: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

Both verses pair dogs with pearls and swine, and both use them of things withheld from the unfit. Divergences reported: the Sermon’s verse is an imperative with a stated consequence — trampling and rending — which the revelation drops entirely; the revelation supplies instead a category the Sermon does not name, “the things which belong to the children of the kingdom” (D&C 41:6), and an explicit criterion, “them that are not worthy” (D&C 41:6). The run “pearls before swine” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — Matthew 7:6 and 3 Nephi 14:6 — and the revelation’s inverted “the pearls to be cast before swine” (D&C 41:6) matches neither word for word, which is why this is registered as allusion.

The same section closes with a warning about the words just given: “These words are given unto you, and they are pure before me; wherefore, beware how you hold them, for they are to be answered upon your souls in the day of judgment” (D&C 41:12) — the second of the two “beware how you hold them” warnings in this material, the other being D&C 90:5.

Significance

The arrangement these sections describe is narrower than it first looks. What is restricted is not revelation but a particular act: writing revelation as commandment for the whole church. The same passages that restrict it grant the addressee leave to teach by the Comforter at any time (D&C 28:4) and to have revelations of his own (D&C 28:8). Elsewhere the same range tells every elder to be taught from on high (D&C 43:16) and gives the church a test it can apply for itself (D&C 50:17–23, see Discerning the Spirits).

Two safeguards run in opposite directions and are stated without being reconciled: the church is to receive one man’s word “as if from mine own mouth” (D&C 21:5), and the same church is told to beware how it holds what it receives, “for they are to be answered upon your souls in the day of judgment” (D&C 41:12).

Key references

D&C 21:1–11 — the record and the titles; the church’s charge; the ordination
D&C 28:2–8 — the rule, the allowance, and the limit; the keys and the successor clause
D&C 41:2–6, 41:12 — the law received by assembly; who it is withheld from; beware how you hold them
D&C 43:1–8 — the rule restated to the elders, with its conditions
D&C 90:2–6 — the keys never taken; the oracles given to another; the two counselors
D&C 107:91–92, D&C 112:15 — the presiding office described; the keys restated

Joseph Smith · Oliver Cowdery · Discerning the Spirits · Common Consent · The Councils of the Church · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants sections 21, 28, 41, 43, 90, 107, and 112 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from Matthew 7; 3 Nephi 14 is cited, not quoted, inside a disclosure.

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 asserted_by: wiki; two of the four have Doctrine and Covenants verses on both ends. Phrase distributions are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing.