Sacred Texts: Mormons

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 97. Revelation through Joseph Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, August 2, 1833.

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This is a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) canonical scripture — a recorded revelation given through Joseph Smith on August 2, 1833, included in the Doctrine and Covenants tradition. The text addresses the early Mormon community in Zion (Missouri), directing them to establish a school under the leadership of Parley P. Pratt and, more prominently, to build a physical house of worship funded by tithing and sacrifice. The revelation defines Zion not merely as a geographic location but as a moral condition — "the pure in heart" — and promises divine presence within a properly consecrated temple while warning that God will not enter a defiled one. A distinctive feature is its dual tone of conditional promise and conditional threat: Zion will become globally glorious and inviolable if the community obeys, but faces plague, pestilence, sword, and divine scourge if it does not. The text also frames impending judgment on "the ungodly" as imminent and unstoppable, contrasting sharply with the protected status promised to the obedient. Someone deciding whether to read it would find it most relevant for understanding early Mormon ecclesiology, the theological significance of temple-building, and the community's self-conception as a covenanted people under direct divine governance.

Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 97. Revelation through Joseph Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, August 2, 1833.

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