Doctrine & Covenants One Hundred Twelve

About 6 months ago, I published a blog post about changes that had recently been made to the heading of section 112 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Before you read this post, go and read that first one. The changes that were made are relevant to this post.

D&C 112 is a revelation that was received in Kirtland, Ohio on Sunday, July 23, 1837. Amazingly, it was given to Joseph Smith on the very same day that two Mormon apostles, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, delivered the very first Mormon sermon in a foreign land. I’ve written before about how this day was a fulfillment of the 70-weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, and was also the fulfillment of 3 Nephi 16:10-12, which foretells the time when the fulness of the gospel would be taken from the Gentiles and the knowledge of the fulness of the gospel would be given to the house of Israel.

I call D&C 112 the founding document of the Quorum of the Twelve. I’ve received pushback for this, but the reason I call it that is because I believe it was D&C 112 that gave the commission to the Quorum of the Twelve that they still operate under today, namely the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham and “the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north,” as described in D&C 110:11-12.

D&C 112:32 refers to the keys of a dispensation that had been given to the Twelve, and I believe it’s talking about the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham. This dispensation corresponds, I believe, to verses 51-57 of the allegory of the olive trees in Jacob 5. Read that chapter very carefully, and you’ll see that verses 51-57 describe a time in which natural branches (Israelites) are being grafted back into the mother tree (the house of Israel), but no fruit is being produced–only the preservation of roots is occurring. Read verses 58-69, and you’ll see that a new phase is planned therein in which servants will go forth the for last time to prune AND NOURISH the vineyard. Read verse 70 onward, and you’ll see that the last time will begin by grafting the Lehites (“the last” in the allegory) into the New Jerusalem (the “young” tree in the allegory) first–for as the Lehites were the last to leave Jerusalem (after the lost tribes of the Northern Kingdom), they will be the first to be gathered back to their own Jerusalem.

But, please, go here and read my exposition on Jacob 5. I cannot fully explain the allegory in this post.

I say all this to propose that a NEW PHASE is about to begin in the vineyard, and the phase that we have been in since 23 July 1837, namely verses 51-57, is about to come to a close. And that brings me back to section 112…

D&C 112 was a revelation originally given to Thomas B. Marsh, who at the time was the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. From the very beginning of the distribution of this document, its heading read something to the effect of: “The word of the Lord unto Thomas B. Marsh, concerning the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” In other words, it was always explicitly stated that this revelation was “concerning,” or about the Quorum of the Twelve.

Verse 14 of D&C 112 takes it even further, declaring that whatever the Lord says next in this revelation will also be directed toward the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve. In fact, He uses the term “all the Twelve,” which opens it up to every single member of the Quorum of the Twelve that had been and would yet be called in the future:

Now, I say unto you [Thomas], and what I say unto you, I say unto all the Twelve: …

As of writing this article, there have been 105 men called to the Quorum of the Twelve. You can verify this for yourself at qof12.com.

And then we get to verse 23.

Alluding to Isaiah 60, here’s what it and the next few verses say:

23 Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face.
24 Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.
25 And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;
26 First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.
27 Therefore, see to it that ye trouble not yourselves concerning the affairs of my church in this place, saith the Lord.

Many members of the Church read these verses and interpret them to mean that the Lord’s vengeance will begin like a whirlwind upon the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–which they see as “His house.” And while they may be right in one way, they almost always forget that this revelation—especially from verse 14 onward—is addressed specifically to “all the Twelve,” not all the church… 

Which means that when verse 26 says that the whirlwind will begin “first among those among you,” it’s specifically referring to some of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

If we believe D&C 112 is truly a revelation from God–who can see all things past, present, and future–then it looks like the Lord’s vengeance will begin upon His house, first among some of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

What this looks like, I do not know. But we should make certain that our foundation is built upon the Rock, who is Christ, the Son of God, the only sure foundation, that when the storm, the mighty winds, and the shafts in the whirlwind come, they will have no power over us to drag us down into misery and lamentation… because, although the sand be washed away in the flood, if we’re built upon Jesus, we cannot fall. (see Helaman 5:12)