As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I’ve been asked on a few occasions how we can have a claim to modern day revelation when there are currently no new scriptures being added to the Doctrine and Covenants or to our cannon of scripture in general.  I have learned more about this through the Doctrine and Covenants class that I am taking. Here are some explanations:

First, I realized that several sections of the D&C resemble patriarchal blessings that are still given today.  A patriarchal blessing is a blessing given to an individual that is personalized for them by offering specific counsels and promising specific blessings and is given by the appointed patriarch (there is one patriarch for every stake [which is a group of people who congregate in relatively close meetinghouses]).  These blessings are one example of continual revelation in the church, and the only difference between these and some sections of the D&C is only that the second is canonized scripture for the whole church while the first is personal scripture.

Secondly, many of the revelations in the D&C are for establishing doctrine and instruction on how to run the church.  These types of revelations only need to be given once and after that it is our duty to review it and understand it.

Lastly, in when Joseph Smith was the prophet the members of the church in general only followed his counsel if he got a direct revelation from the Lord saying “Thus saith the Lord…” After Joseph Smith was released from liberty jail however, the members soon realized the truth of the Lord’s words: “Whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same” D&C 1:38.  From that point on the members of the church had more faith that the Lord does inspire his prophets and it is not necessary that the Lord commands us in all things by saying “Thus saith the Lord…”  Today much of what the Lord’s servants do for us to day is to instruct us by the spirit and their messages always seem to be the ones most needed by members, and I believe they receive revelation to know what to teach us.

Tags: Doctrine Covenants Revelation Patriarchal Blessing Prophet Church Open Cann

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