Documents, Volume 2, Part 1 Introduction: Missouri, Summer 1831
Part 1: Missouri, Summer 1831
Much of JS’s
time in the summer of 1831 was
spent in founding the in , Missouri. In
June 1831, a revelation directed JS
and other church to go to , where the Lord had promised to reveal to JS and “the land of [their]
”
if they remained faithful. To
fulfill this directive, JS, Rigdon, , , , ,
and and Elizabeth Van Benthusen Gilbert departed
,
Ohio, on 19 June 1831. The group split at , Missouri; Rigdon and
the Gilberts traveled by water the rest of the way, while JS, Harris, Partridge,
Phelps, and Coe proceeded on foot. JS and his company arrived in ,
Jackson County, Missouri, on 14 July, and Rigdon
and the Gilberts came the following week. Eventually,
more than two dozen elders made the journey from to Missouri that summer. Some stayed in Missouri thereafter, while others
returned to Ohio.
While in , JS
dictated several revelations and transacted several items of business. On 20 July, a revelation declared
that Missouri was the land of and that was
the “centre place” at which the would be constructed. That same revelation
identified the spot where JS and the Saints were to construct a . In the ensuing days, JS
and other church leaders followed directions in the 20
July revelation— and in other revelations from that summer in Missouri—to dedicate the land
for the building of the city of Zion, to dedicate the temple site, and to hold a
with the elders who had traveled to Zion. A 1 August 1831
revelation
specified that was to “ & dedicate this land & the spot of the
temple unto the Lord.” Accordingly, on 2 August, “the land of Zion was consecrated and
dedicated for the gathering of the Saints by Elder Rigdon.” That same day, JS
“assisted the
of the
church to lay the first log for a house as a foundation of Zion, in ,” twelve miles west
of Independence. On 3 August, just west of
Independence, a group of eight elders, including JS, “assembled together where the
temple is to be erected.” later recorded that on that spot, Rigdon
“dedicated the ground where the city is to Stand: and Joseph Smith Jr. laid a stone
at the North east corner of the contemplated Temple in
the name of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth.” Rigdon then “pronounced this Spot of ground
wholy dedicated unto the Lord forever.” The next day, JS held a
conference with fourteen elders and thirty-one other church members in Kaw Township,
during which they partook of the . In subsequent days, he attended the
funeral of , the wife of his close friend , and dictated revelations outlining procedures for the establishment of
Zion and for the gathering of the elect.
The 1 August
revelation directed
that JS and should return to following the conference to “accomplish the residue of the
work” that the Lord had “appointed unto them.” This included working on
the , or revision, of the Bible that JS had commenced in 1830. On 9 August 1831,
JS and a group of elders began the journey back to Ohio. JS traveled mainly with
Rigdon and after a revelation instructed them to travel to by
way of ; they reached Kirtland on
27 August 1831.
Upon his return, JS discovered that “in the absence of the Elders many apostitized,”
requiring him to give “much exortation” to the congregations in Ohio. Because some church
members, including several who had visited , had engaged in conduct that required
discipline, JS participated in conferences in early September that attended to disciplinary
matters.
At the time,
procedures for church discipline were not well established. In February 1831, a revelation outlined
“the rules and regulations of the Law” to be followed when individuals committed
various offenses, including murder, theft, lying, adultery, and offending other
members. In some of these cases, including adultery and giving offense, the guilty
party was required to confess his or her sins to gain forgiveness; those unwilling
to confess were brought before “two Elders of the Church or more and every word
shall be established against him by two witnesses of the Church.” The elders were to
then “lay the case before the Church and the Church shall lift up their hands
against them.” The revelation did not outline specific punishments, other than that
the guilty parties would be rebuked.
Several individuals were chastened in revelation texts. In
other cases, individuals were brought before conferences of elders. In the
case of those commanded to preach, church discipline included prohibiting them from
acting in their office or taking away their —measures not specified in any of JS’s
revelations but used by some Protestant churches at the time. In other cases, individuals were “dealt with according to
the law of this Church,” but the historical record does not
specify what form this discipline took.
Part one of this
volume includes fourteen documents: nine revelations, four minutes of conferences,
and one ’s
license. Most of
the original manuscripts were produced in —some in , some
in , and some on the
banks of the . Five of the original documents were created after JS’s
return to .