Lectures on Faith: Preface

Intro | Preface
Lecture 1: 1 |  2-9 | 10-11 | 12-17 | 18-24

The Lectures on Faith, as the first part of the book of Doctrine and Covenants, contains the preface to the entire Doctrine and Covenants within it. It begins:

"Dear brethren:

"We deem it unnecessary to entertain you with a lengthy preface to the following volume, but merely to say, that it contains in short, the leading items of the religion which we have professed to believe."

So first off, this book as published contains the leading, or foremost and first, items and beliefs of the religion "we have professed to believe." The use of "we," at minimum, refers to the signers at the bottom: Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. At this point, this was the First Presidency, with Joseph as President, Oliver as Assistant to the President, Sidney as First Counselor, and Frederick as Second Counselor. However, after the Doctrine and Covenants were sustained (see the Joseph Smith Papers Website, pages 263-265, for the details of the sustaining), the use of "we" then referred to all the members of the church. They accepted the following volume as the leading points of the religion they all professed to believe.

"The first part of the book will be found to contain a series of Lectures as delivered before a Theological class in this place, and in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation, we have arranged them into the following book."

Did you catch that? It was a small part of the paragraph, but Joseph and the others said these lectures embraced "the important doctrine of salvation." With such a doctrine as salvation, the word "important" seems like an understatement, yet salvation is apparently what these lectures discuss.

So, how important is salvation?

How important is it to study everything available relating to salvation?

"The second part contains items or principles for the regulation of the church, as taken from the revelations which have been given since its organization, as well as from former ones."

This nicely describes our current Doctrine & Covenants, taken from various revelations given to the church. However, from how it's described here, it almost seems like this part plays second banana to the first part, the one that discusses salvation. Granted, they still contain important truths--Section 76, on the three degrees of glory, had already been received by this point--but the main purpose of that half was for "the regulation of the church."

As a side note, having owned a replica copy of the 1835 Doctrine & Covenants, I've noticed some differences in its organization (which can also be found in the Joseph Smith Papers). The Lectures on Faith were first in the book, and were even set in a larger font than the Revelations portion that followed. This seems like an odd formatting decision, unless the Lectures really were considered the more prominent half of the book. Perhaps, the Doctrine which the latter Commandments were based upon?

Continuing, "There may be an aversion in the minds of some against receiving any thing purporting to be articles of religious faith, in consequence of there being so many now extant;" That can be seen today, with people who don't want to be held down by a structure of beliefs. It's a rather Protestant (non-Catholic)  belief, even though each Protestant religion has their own creeds "which a man must believe or be asked out of their church" (TPJS, pg. 288). However, that wasn't the case with these. The writers explain, "but if men believe a system, and profess it was given by inspiration, certainly, the more intelligibly they can present it, the better." This seems to be a layered comment. As quoted in the previous post, John Taylor and Albert Einstein both said, basically, anyone who can't clearly teach a precept doesn't understand the precept they teach. If that's true, then since this book was given to help believers present (teach and explain) what they believe, perhaps the underlying purpose of this book was to help believers understand what they believe. These precepts aren't given as doctrinal boundaries within which a member must stay or else be cast out; rather, they're given to assist in understanding, to make the doctrine clear, and to provide power in inviting others to experience the same.

Returning to the aversion argument, they say "It does not make a principle untrue to print it, neither does it make it true not to print it." Writing is an imperfect practice, the result of filtering our thoughts through our collection of available words to express those thoughts. An incomplete or inadequate vocabulary may greatly limit our ability to express our thoughts. But still, the act of writing and recording is vital to us, according to the scriptures (For example, see 3 Nephi 23). Perhaps, like the fulfillment of Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies, these precepts needed to be recorded for a wise purpose in God, in addition to the support for the saints mentioned above.

Continuing, "The church viewing this subject to be of importance, appointed, through their servants and delegates the High Council, your servants to select and compile this work." So the church, through the High Council, appointed Joseph Smith and the rest to compile this book. That's actually an interesting turn of phrase. When we, in modern times, think of "the church," we often think of the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Seventy, or a combination of them all. Hence the term "Church-approved," and the question "What has the Church said about [topics like homosexuality or certain "deep doctrines"]." But back in Joseph's time, according to this line, "the church" apparently referred to the members, since "the church" directed the First Presidency to do this work, specifically through the High Council. This view is reflected in a revelation from 1829: "Behold, this is my [Christ's] doctrine--whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church" (D&C 10: 67-68, emphasis added). It's an odd flip, going from the members directing the work to the leadership directing the work; I wonder when that changed?

Continuing, "Several reasons might be adduced in favor of this move of the Council, but we add only a few words. They knew that the church was evil spoken of in many places--its faith and belief misrepresented, and the way of truth thus subverted. By some it was represented as disbelieving the bible, by others as being an enemy to all good order and uprightness, and by others as being injurious to the peace of all governments civil and political."

So here we have the complete purpose of this book: 1) To properly represent the faith and belief of the church (those who "repenteth and cometh unto me[Christ]"), and make straight the path of truth once again; 2) To show they do, in fact, believe the Bible--nearly all the scripture references in the Lectures on Faith are from the Bible, and many of the revelations in the next half clarify the Bible; 3) To show the church welcomes and embraces "all good order and uprightness;" and 4) To show the church upholds "the peace of all governments civil and political." To me, I can see the Lectures fulfilling the first two, and the following revelations fulfilling the last two.

"We have, therefore, endeavored to present, though in few words, our belief, and when we say this, humbly trust, the faith and principles of this society as a body." If nothing else, this book--the Lectures and the revelations combined--represented Joseph Smith's beliefs, as well as the beliefs of the rest of the Presidency. Of course, the rest of the church at the time sustained the book as well, so they considered it to be their belief as well.

"We do not present this little volume with any other expectation than that we are to be called to answer to every principle advanced, in that day when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and the reward of every man's labor be given him." The signers, Joseph included, testified that they expected to answer to God for everything written in this book. They essentially testified, with God as their witness, to the sincerity and truthfulness of the precepts herein. It's a pretty serious testimony.

They close with this statement: "With sentiments of esteem and sincere respect, we subscribe ourselves your brethren in the bonds of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then the First Presidency and one of the Twelve Apostles signed it. In that way, this letter is similar in structure to the letters that we get in Sacrament meeting, when the General Authorities have important messages to send to the entire Church body. We're familiar with most of the book they refer to in this letter, but the first section (the Lectures) maybe not so much. That's where the next several entries will come in.