Overview of Doctrine and Covenants Commentary

 

Given that my most popular posts were the commentaries on the Book of Mormon, I'm going to do the same thing with the Doctrine and Covenants. However, because producing those posts takes a lot of effort on my part and I'm not sure I'll have the time to give the same effort as I did with the Book of Mormon commentary, I've decided to try a new approach. 

For the Doctrine and Covenants commentary, my plan is to provide the entire section (or section) and with annotations to the passages. I will also remove the versification format and instead put them in paragraph form. This format, I hope, will make it easier to track each idea as whole, instead of separately. Versification often results in people missing how ideas are connected to each other, which hinders their overall understanding. Although this means that some of the posts will be long, it will save me time as I only have to provide annotations and provide full explanation, but I can still discuss this important book of scripture. 

Moreover, by setting up this way, I can also show my perspective when I read the scriptures -- showing how one can mine out more information than what's on the surface. I've written about these skills in my book, but I think modeling how this is done may be of benefit. 

The D&C contains many gems that are worth discussing. I find it to be one of the most underutilized book, next to the Old Testament. This is a shame because it is the only book of scripture that features direct revelation from the Lord to His prophet. Thus unlike the other book of scriptures, where the revelation is quoted from the 3rd person perspective (e..g, The Lord told me...), the D&C is from the Lord himself (e.g., I the Lord say...). This feature gives a raw and unadulterated view (and voice) of the Lord. 

Another important aspect of the D&C is that it's given to an infant church, who are having to learn along the way. This means that mistakes will be made and we will be able to learn from those mistakes, thereby serving to our benefit. 

Last, the D&C contains some of the most important doctrines of our belief as well as laying out a more accurate nature of God. Statements by the Lord where he is "bound" by what we say, signal a shift from the teaching of mainline Christianity of a sovereign God who is above all. Rather, the D&C provides a different view of God -- one who is bound by law, not above it. Moreover, the later revelations of, especially around section 76 onward, contain important principles that are often neglected or passed over. 

In addition to providing commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, I will also be posting about other topics and I still have to complete the Kingdom of Heaven Is Within series, which I hope to wrap up in the next two months.