Sacred Texts: Mormons

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 42. Revelation through Joseph Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, February 9, 1831.

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This is a canonized scriptural text from the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) tradition — specifically Section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants, recorded as a revelation received by Joseph Smith in February 1831 in Kirtland, Ohio. It presents itself as direct divine commandment (spoken in the first person as Jesus Christ) to the newly organized LDS Church, functioning as a foundational legal and ethical code for church governance. The text's central content covers missionary organization (sending elders out two-by-two to preach and baptize), moral law (reiterating prohibitions against murder, theft, adultery, and lying with explicit consequences including excommunication), and a distinctive economic system called the "Law of Consecration," whereby members deed excess property to the church bishop for redistribution to the poor and community building. A notable feature is this consecration principle, which envisions a communitarian economic order with a church storehouse, individual stewardships, and surplus redistribution — a proto-cooperative system strikingly different from mainstream Protestant economic norms of the era. The revelation also addresses healing through priestly blessing, the authority required for ordination and teaching, marriage fidelity, and anticipates a future gathering place called the New Jerusalem. Someone deciding whether to read it would find it most relevant as a primary source for early Mormon theology, ecclesiastical law, and the LDS experiment with communal economics.

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 42. Revelation through Joseph Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, February 9, 1831.

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