Diaries are not usually considered to be
scripture, but Doctrine and Covenants, Section
130 was copied from Joseph Smith’s diary dated April 2,
1843. All the introduction to Doctrine and Covenants
130 says is, “Items of instruction by Joseph Smith the
Prophet, at Ramus, Illinois, April 2, 1843 HC
5:323-335.” But Doctrine and Covenants 130
doesn’t cite the source of those instructions. HC
5:323-335 is History of the Church volume 5, pp.
323-325 and is given as a reference but neither it nor
the Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual pages
321-324 give the source of Smith’s instructions in
Doctrine and Covenants 130.
However, parts of Smith’s diary
on April 2, 1843 were copied with a few words
changed to make Doctrine and Covenants 130. To
see that, compare Doctrine and Covenants 130 with
photo copies of Smith’s original 1843 diary, pages 37
through 44 or in the published volume entitled An
American Prophet’s Record, The Diaries and Journals of
Joseph Smith, pages 339 to 341, published by
Signature Books in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1987.
Since Smith’s diary on April 2, 1843 has
other content before, after and between some verses
in Doctrine and Covenants 130, how and why
was the content selected to become LDS scripture?
Did God intermittently inspire what Smith wrote
in his diary that day? Smith didn’t say that any part
of his diary was LDS scripture.
Doctrine and Covenants
130:1 says, “When the Savior shall appear we shall see
him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like
ourselves.” 1 John 3:2 also says “We shall see Him
as He is,” but it does not say He is just like us
(now). It says “We shall be like
Him,” but that is future, when He returns.
So, He is NOT a man like us now, as Smith said.
Doctrine and Covenants
130:2 says, “That same sociality which exists among us
here will exist among us there” only with eternal glory.
But nothing in the Bible indicates that the same social
structures we have here continue in eternity. On the
contrary, the picture given in Revelation 21 and 22
sounds very different from our present society.
Smith wrote in Doctrine and Covenants
130:3, “John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and Son,
in that verse, is a personal appearance; and
the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s
heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.” If
that is a false sectarian notion, why does the
Book of Mormon say in Alma 34:36: “…the Lord hath
said He dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the
hearts of the righteous doth He dwell.” This is
just one of many places where Smith contradicted what he
said somewhere else.
The context of John 14:23 shows
Jesus was not talking about a personal
(physical) appearance. In John 14:19-20, Jesus said,
“Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but
you see me: because I live, you shall live also. At that
day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in
me, and I in you.” In John 14:22 a disciple
asked Jesus, “How is it that you will manifest
yourself unto us and not unto the world?” In
response Jesus said in verse 23, “If a man loves me, he
will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
So, the context does not imply a personal, physical
coming of the Father and Son as Smith claimed.
Furthermore, John 15:5 says, “I am the
vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and
I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.” The
Bible also says that God or Christ is in
believers in Romans 8:9-10; Ephesians 4:6;
Colossians 1:27; 1 John 4:4 etc., so that is not
an old “sectarian notion” but a biblical doctrine.
Doctrine and Covenants
130:4 is not in Smith’s diary, but is a transition to a
new subject. Doctrine and Covenants 130:5-6 says
that angels who minister to this earth are those who
belong to it. Doctrine and Covenants
132:16-17 also supports that idea when it says
angels were mortals who lived on earth but did not
get married for eternity (in an LDS temple) and
therefore can’t become gods but will become angels who
are single and who will serve others forever.
Doctrine and Covenants
130:7-9 says angels and God live on a
great “Urim and Thummim” which is “like a sea of glass
and fire.” “This earth, in its sanctified and immortal
state, will be made like unto a crystal and will be a
Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon.”
On page 323 the Doctrine & Covenants Student Manual
says the 2nd LDS Prophet, Brigham
Young explained what that means when he said, “When it
(the earth) becomes celestialized, it will be like the
sun, and be prepared for the habitation of the (LDS)
saints (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 163).”
It also quoted Brigham saying, “This earth, when it
becomes purified and sanctified, or celestialized, will
become like a sea of glass; and a person, by looking
into it, can know things past, present, and to come;
though none but celestialized (LDS) beings can enjoy
this privilege (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p.
87).”
But, Brigham also said, “Who can tell us
of the inhabitants of this little planet that
shines of an evening, called the moon?...When
you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you
will find that the most learned are as ignorant in
regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So
it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun.
Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do
you think there is any life there? No question about
it; it was not made in vain” (Journal of
Discourses, vol. 13, p. 271).
In the same volume Brigham said, “I have
never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the
children of men, that they may not call scripture” (p.
95). Does Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s “scripture”
sound like biblical scripture? Mormonism wants to be
accepted as part of mainstream Christianity, but these
LDS teachings are not what Christians believe or teach.
Anyone who wants to read more on this LDS
Scripture can do so in the LDS Doctrine and&
Covenants Student Manual. Our next article will
conclude our discussion of Doctrine and Covenants
130.
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