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Discourse, 30 January 1842

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL], 30 Jan. [1842]. Featured version copied [ca. 30 Jan. 1842] in Wilford Woodruff, “Book of Revelations,” pp. [3]–[4]; handwriting of
Wilford Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

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; CHL.
The discourse is contained in a blank book measuring 6 × 4 × ⅜ inches (15 × 10 × 1 cm). The text block originally consisted of fifty-six leaves, with two leaves of endpaper at the front and at the back of the volume. The book has a tight-back, quarter binding with cow leather. At some point the first leaf of the text block and the two leaves of endpaper at the beginning of the volume were excised from the volume. Ink is visible on the stub of the first leaf of the text block, indicating that at least the recto of that leaf contained text. The wear on the stubs suggests that the pages were cut from the volume while it was still in use.
Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

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inscribed “Book of Revelations | W Woodruff” on the front cover of the volume.
The volume was initially owned by Asahel Woodruff, who began using it as a diary or genealogical record sometime around December 1837. He died in October 1838, and his brother
Wilford Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

View Full Bio
took possession of his “private letters, Journals, writing papers [and] Account Books” on 13 December 1838.
1

Woodruff, Journal, 13 Dec. 1838.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Presumably this volume was among Asahel’s papers. Wilford Woodruff began copying into the volume in summer 1839. The volume was perhaps transferred with Woodruff’s other papers and journals to the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) by 1858,
2

“Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [25], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

but in 1860 Woodruff used the volume to record bids to provide grain for the soldiers stationed at Camp Floyd that year. The volume appears in a church inventory produced in 1878.
3

“Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [14], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

At some point after 1878, the record was given to his wife Sarah Brown Woodruff and was then passed down through the family until it was donated to church historian and recorder Joseph Fielding Smith sometime in the mid-twentieth century.
4

Eunice W. Perry to Joseph Fielding Smith, no date, in Case File for Woodruff, “Book of Revelations,” CHL.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Woodruff, Wilford. “Book of Revelations,” ca. 1837–1860. CHL.

Smith apparently retained the volume among his papers, and it likely became part of the First Presidency’s papers when Smith became church president in 1970, as happened with other historical records in his possession.
5

See, for example, Source Note for Revelation Book 1.


In 2010 the First Presidency transferred custody of Woodruff’s “Book of Revelations” to the CHL.
6

Brook P. Hales to Glenn N. Rowe, 28 June 2010, in Case File for Woodruff, “Book of Revelations,” CHL.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Woodruff, Wilford. “Book of Revelations,” ca. 1837–1860. CHL.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Woodruff, Journal, 13 Dec. 1838.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    “Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [25], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [14], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    Eunice W. Perry to Joseph Fielding Smith, no date, in Case File for Woodruff, “Book of Revelations,” CHL.

    Woodruff, Wilford. “Book of Revelations,” ca. 1837–1860. CHL.

  5. [5]

    See, for example, Source Note for Revelation Book 1.

  6. [6]

    Brook P. Hales to Glenn N. Rowe, 28 June 2010, in Case File for Woodruff, “Book of Revelations,” CHL.

    Woodruff, Wilford. “Book of Revelations,” ca. 1837–1860. CHL.

Historical Introduction

On the evening of 30 January 1842, JS delivered a discourse at his home in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois, concerning deification and other doctrines. In a brief note in JS’s journal, scribe
Willard Richards

24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813; to Chatham, Columbia Co...

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described the discourse as concerning “Spirits their operations & designs.”
1

JS, Journal, 30 Jan. 1842.


This description was likely based on JS’s statement, as noted by
apostle

Members of a governing body in the church, with special administrative and proselytizing responsibilities. A June 1829 revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to call twelve disciples, similar to the twelve apostles in the New Testament and ...

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Wilford Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

View Full Bio
in the document featured here, that “Spirits that have bodies have power over those that have not.” A year earlier JS preached on similar themes, including the embodiment of God and Christ and the concept that humans have power over the devil because the devil lacks a body.
2

Accounts of Meeting and Discourse, 5 Jan. 1841.


Deification, as a Latter-day Saint doctrine, appeared in the vision of the afterlife that JS and
Sidney Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

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experienced on 16 February 1832. Their account of the vision referred to postmortal human inhabitants of the
celestial kingdom

Highest kingdom of glory in the afterlife; symbolically represented by the sun. According to a vision dated 16 February 1832, inheritors of the celestial kingdom “are they who received the testimony of Jesus, & believed on his name, & were baptized,” “receive...

View Glossary
—the highest of three kingdoms of heavenly glory—as “Gods even the sons of God.”
3

Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76:58].


Parley P. Pratt

12 Apr. 1807–13 May 1857. Farmer, editor, publisher, teacher, school administrator, legislator, explorer, author. Born at Burlington, Otsego Co., New York. Son of Jared Pratt and Charity Dickinson. Traveled west with brother William to acquire land, 1823....

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defended the concept in a pamphlet printed in 1838.
4

Pratt, Mormonism Unveiled, 27.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Pratt, Parley P. Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked, and its Editor, Mr. L. R. Sunderland, Exposed: Truth Vindicated: The Devil Mad, and Priestcraft in Danger! New York: O. Pratt & E. Fordham, 1838.

In 1841
Thomas Sharp

25 Sept. 1818–9 Apr. 1894. Teacher, lawyer, newspaper editor and publisher. Born in Mount Holly, Burlington Co., New Jersey. Son of Solomon Sharp and Jemima Budd. Lived at Smyrna, Kent Co., Delaware, June 1830. Moved to Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania...

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—a
Warsaw

Located at foot of Des Moines rapids of Mississippi River at site of three military forts: Fort Johnson (1814), Cantonment Davis (1815–1818), and Fort Edwards (1816–1824). First settlers participated in fur trade. Important trade and shipping center. Post...

More Info
, Illinois, newspaper editor who was hostile to the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

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—responded, claiming “the reasoning of the Apostle Parley P. Pratt” and “the doctrine of the Church” to be that Latter-day Saints would “have power to create worlds” in the next life “and that those worlds will transgress the law given, consequently they will become saviors to those worlds, and redeem them; never, until all this is accomplished, will their glory be complete; and then there will be ‘Lords many and Gods many.’”
5

Harris, Mormonism Portrayed, 23; see also Watkins, “Parley P. Pratt and the Dialectical Development of Early Mormon Conceptions of Theosis,” 209. Although William Harris was credited for Mormonism Portrayed, Sharp was the primary author. (“Monsieur Violet and the Mormons,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 11 Sept. 1844, [1].)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Harris, William. Mormonism Portrayed; Its Errors and Absurdities Exposed, and the Spirit and Designs of Its Authors Made Manifest. . . . Warsaw, IL: Sharp and Gamble, 1841.

Watkins, Jordan. “‘All of One Species’: Parley P. Pratt and the Dialectical Development of Early Mormon Conceptions of Theosis.” In Parley P. Pratt and the Making of Mormonism, edited by Gregory K. Armstrong, Matthew J. Grow, and Dennis J. Siler, 201–218. Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark, 2011.

Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

This statement contains similarities with the featured document, suggesting that Sharp was drawing on existing beliefs among the Latter-day Saints. In the sermon featured here, JS further elucidated his previous teachings regarding deification and related subjects. Some ideas related to deification expressed here do not appear again in any later discourses.
Wilford Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

View Full Bio
copied this sermon into his booklet titled “Book of Revelations,” though his journal indicates Woodruff was away from Nauvoo on 30 January.
6

Woodruff, Journal, 30 Jan. 1842.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Woodruff likely used someone else’s notes of the sermon when he recorded it. Except the brief note in JS’s journal, this is the only extant account of this sermon.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 30 Jan. 1842.

  2. [2]

    Accounts of Meeting and Discourse, 5 Jan. 1841.

  3. [3]

    Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76:58].

  4. [4]

    Pratt, Mormonism Unveiled, 27.

    Pratt, Parley P. Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked, and its Editor, Mr. L. R. Sunderland, Exposed: Truth Vindicated: The Devil Mad, and Priestcraft in Danger! New York: O. Pratt & E. Fordham, 1838.

  5. [5]

    Harris, Mormonism Portrayed, 23; see also Watkins, “Parley P. Pratt and the Dialectical Development of Early Mormon Conceptions of Theosis,” 209. Although William Harris was credited for Mormonism Portrayed, Sharp was the primary author. (“Monsieur Violet and the Mormons,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, 11 Sept. 1844, [1].)

    Harris, William. Mormonism Portrayed; Its Errors and Absurdities Exposed, and the Spirit and Designs of Its Authors Made Manifest. . . . Warsaw, IL: Sharp and Gamble, 1841.

    Watkins, Jordan. “‘All of One Species’: Parley P. Pratt and the Dialectical Development of Early Mormon Conceptions of Theosis.” In Parley P. Pratt and the Making of Mormonism, edited by Gregory K. Armstrong, Matthew J. Grow, and Dennis J. Siler, 201–218. Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark, 2011.

    Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.

  6. [6]

    Woodruff, Journal, 30 Jan. 1842.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Page [3]

Jan 30[th] [1842] Joseph the Seer taught the following principles that the God & father of our Lord Jesus Christ was once the same as the Son or Holy Ghost bothaving [both having] redeemed a world became the eternal God of that world he had a son Jesus Christ who redeemed this earth the same as his father had a world which made them equal & the Holy Ghost would do the same in his turn & so would all the Saints
1

JS made similar statements regarding Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in 1843 and 1844 but did not repeat in extant documents this teaching about “all the saints.” (See Richards, “Scriptural Items,” [27 Aug. 1843], [27]; and Laub, Reminiscences and Journal, 6 Apr. 1844, 17; [16 June 1844], 30–31; see also multiple versions of JS, Discourse, 7 Apr. 1844, in JS Collection, CHL; Woodruff, Journal, 7 Apr. 1844; and Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 7 Apr. 1844.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Laub, George. Reminiscences and Journal, 1845–1857. CHL. MS 9628.

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

[p. [3]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 30 January 1842
ID #
10323
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:127–129
Handwriting on This Page
  • Wilford Woodruff

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS made similar statements regarding Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in 1843 and 1844 but did not repeat in extant documents this teaching about “all the saints.” (See Richards, “Scriptural Items,” [27 Aug. 1843], [27]; and Laub, Reminiscences and Journal, 6 Apr. 1844, 17; [16 June 1844], 30–31; see also multiple versions of JS, Discourse, 7 Apr. 1844, in JS Collection, CHL; Woodruff, Journal, 7 Apr. 1844; and Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 7 Apr. 1844.)

    Laub, George. Reminiscences and Journal, 1845–1857. CHL. MS 9628.

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

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