Sacred Texts: Mormons

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 33. Revelation through Joseph Smith to Ezra Thayre and Northrop Sweet, Fayette, New York, October 1830.

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This is a revelatory text from the Doctrine and Covenants tradition of the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) scriptural canon, specifically Section 33, recorded as a divine commandment given through Joseph Smith to two early church members in October 1830. The text belongs to the genre of prophetic calling narratives, in which God directly addresses individuals and commissions them for missionary work. Its central argument is that the world is spiritually corrupt and ripe for harvest, and that these two men are urgently called to preach repentance, baptism, and acceptance of the restored gospel before Christ's imminent return. The text articulates core early Mormon theological claims: the necessity of faith, water baptism, and baptism by the Holy Ghost for salvation, as well as the authority of the Book of Mormon alongside other scriptures. A distinctive feature is the eschatological urgency — the "eleventh hour" framing positions the LDS church as the final, divinely established response to universal religious corruption ("priestcrafts"). The text also implicitly asserts the legitimacy of the newly founded church by invoking biblical language (Matthew 16's "upon this rock," the parable of the ten virgins) to ground its authority in continuity with early Christianity.

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 33. Revelation through Joseph Smith to Ezra Thayre and Northrop Sweet, Fayette, New York, October 1830.

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