“Come Follow Me” for the Week of June 28 – July 4

In this article, as with so many I’ve read up till this point, the LDS Church says that many of the revelations JS received were in response to specific issues that JS personally faced. This one is due to a former Mormon (Ezra Booth) denouncing JS and Mormonism. Though the revelation is not as pointed as many of these other “responsive” D&Cs, it still reminds me of this article, ‘Revelation by the Numbers“, which makes the argument that these D&Cs tend to follow a specific formula, so that the bigger the threat facing JS, the more grandiose the revelation.

The rest of the article quickly covers D&Cs 71-75, and is pretty basic and not surprising nor controversial.

Looking at D&C 71, much of it is drawn from Biblical words and phrases, but we read in verse 7, “Wherefore, confound your enemies; call upon them to meet you both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their shame shall be made manifest.” In the past, Mormons have used this verse as the basis for participating in debates with non-Mormons. Modern Mormons apparently ignore this verse, because it is relatively rare for them to participate in debate, and even in online discussion groups, if the discussion gets contentious, they usually will claim that “they’re not there to argue”, and say things like “contention is of the devil”. I daresay that if an LDS tries to back out of a debate saying something like this (often coincidentally when they’re losing or backed into a corner), and we presented this verse of the D&C, and say that this is a commandment from God for them, they’d probably say that this D&C was given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and shouldn’t be considered as applicable to them. Of course, that would contradict what the LDS Church has said in these “Come Follow Me” articles, saying that LDSs need to take what is written here, even if it’s written to someone else, as if it’s written to them, or to take everything written in the D&Cs, and to apply it to themselves as much as possible.

D&C 72 gives many details about what bishops are supposed to do, with verse 15 saying, “Thus it cometh out of the church, for according to the law every man that cometh up to Zion must lay all things before the bishop in Zion.” This sounds like it’s saying that everybody who becomes a Mormon (or specifically everyone who came to the central location, here called “Zion”) has to give everything he owns to the LDS Church — and this is in line with everything I’ve read in the D&Cs so far.

D&C 73 is very short, and uses much KJV language, and basically says that JS and Sidney Rigdon are to continue their version of the Bible (now called the Joseph Smith Translation [the JST] or the “Inspired Version”, by certain non-LDS Mormons) and are also supposed to preach.

D&C 74 is based on and explains 1 Cor. 7:14, and specifically contradicts infant baptism, and ends by saying, “But little children are holy, being sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ; and this is what the scriptures mean.” This verse is very similar to one in the BOM which also denies/decries infant baptism, so I’m not really sure why this “revelation” was necessary.

D&C 75 is fairly lengthy, but is primarily calling out by name a couple of dozen individuals, and giving them individual or joint or group directions of where to go and what to do, and has little or no relevance to modern times.