Sacred Texts: Mormons

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 77. Revelation to Joseph Smith, Hiram, Ohio, March 1832.

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This is a recorded revelation attributed to Joseph Smith, founder of Latter-day Saint (Mormon) Christianity, delivered in 1832 and later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants Section 77. It takes the form of a structured question-and-answer dialogue in which Smith provides authoritative prophetic interpretations of specific symbols and passages from the biblical Book of Revelation (chapters 4–11). The central argument is that John's apocalyptic imagery maps onto a concrete cosmic and historical framework: the sealed book represents God's plan for seven thousand years of earth's temporal existence, with each seal corresponding to a millennium, and the sounding of the seventh trumpet marking the beginning of Christ's return and the earth's sanctification. Smith interprets figures like the four beasts, the 144,000 sealed servants, and the two witnesses not as purely allegorical but as literal beings or persons with specific roles — for instance, the 144,000 are identified as high priests ordained to administer the gospel, and the angel from the east is identified as the prophet Elias who will restore Israel. What distinguishes this text from mainstream biblical commentary is its claim to be direct divine revelation rather than scholarly exegesis, and its confident specificity — assigning precise millennial timelines, identifying symbolic angels with named figures, and grounding abstract apocalyptic imagery in LDS theological concepts like the "church of the Firstborn." Readers interested in Mormon scriptural theology, prophetic hermeneutics, or the interpretation of Revelation within restorationist Christianity will find this a compact primary source.

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 77. Revelation to Joseph Smith, Hiram, Ohio, March 1832.

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