D&C 105: Who Stays, Who Waits, and Why Verse 7 Is There

I think D&C 105 gets summarized as the revelation that ended Zion's Camp, and the summary leaves out how much of the chapter is about sorting people. It sorts the Saints by who is at fault, it sorts the men in the camp by who stays and who goes home to wait, and it sorts the work by what has to happen first.

The revelation is dated June 22, 1834, and the camp broke up within the next few weeks. The chapter itself never tells anyone the march is over. What it tells them is where to stand in the meantime.

Who is D&C 105 actually rebuking?

Verse 2 is where I'd begin, since verse 5 is quoted so often that most of us land there without reading what leads up to it.

Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now.

Doctrine and Covenants 105:2

The qualifier "the church and not individuals" comes before any of the failures are listed. Then the failures come. The people haven't learned to be obedient, they're "full of all manner of evil," they "do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them" (verse 3), and they aren't united by the law of the celestial kingdom (verse 4). Verse 5 is the famous one. Verse 6 follows with the chastening "by the things which they suffer."

Back up to verse 1 and you find it addressed to the men who "assembled yourselves together," so the camp hears every word of the list. In verse 7 the Lord says the Lord is not speaking of "those who are appointed to lead my people, who are the first elders of my church, for they are not all under this condemnation." Read slowly, that says some leaders are under it and some are not, and the camp had leaders in it.

The next verse points somewhere else entirely. It speaks of "my churches abroad," where many will say "Where is their God?" and add, "otherwise we will not go up unto Zion, and will keep our moneys."

I'd underline "keep our moneys," and I can't recall a lesson that stopped on it. Verse 17 makes a similar charge, that "the strength of mine house have not hearkened unto my words," and it's hard to place that group inside a camp of men who had walked to Missouri. So I read the chapter as pointing at several groups at once, some in the camp, some in the branches back east, and not sorted cleanly. That's a reading and the text doesn't draw the lines for us. The Church's history puts the number who marched at about 230, which makes the gap between the marchers and everybody else easy to picture.

Does the revelation tell the camp to disband?

The instructions are in verses 20 through 22.

And now, verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto you, that as many as have come up hither, that can stay in the region round about, let them stay;

Doctrine and Covenants 105:20

The following verse turns to "those that cannot stay, who have families in the east," who are to "tarry for a little season, inasmuch as my servant Joseph shall appoint unto them." Joseph is to be counseled about it in verse 22. Some men stay in Missouri and some wait for word, and the word comes through the man already leading them. A commander closing down an expedition doesn't usually write it that way.

Verse 9 says the elders "should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion," and verse 13 repeats it almost word for word after three verses of explanation. To me that reads like a speaker who expects to be interrupted and wants the sentence on the record before anyone does.

Anybody who has come home from something that didn't work might want verse 19.

I have heard their prayers, and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith.

Doctrine and Covenants 105:19

The Church's history says the Missouri militias outnumbered the camp and the governor wouldn't support it, and cholera killed thirteen of the camp before it ended. None of that is in D&C 105, which was given before the camp ended, to men who had no idea yet how it would go. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were among them. The Jackson County trouble the camp was marching toward is the background of D&C 101: They Started the Tower and Then Debated It, if you want the earlier chapter.

What was the endowment waiting for?

Verse 11 puts the condition plainly.

And this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high.

Doctrine and Covenants 105:11

A "great endowment and blessing" has been prepared, according to the next verse, "inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me." It comes around again in verse 18 for those who hearkened, with an "if they continue faithful." Both promises carry a condition, which makes me slow to read the endowment as comfort handed out after a bad summer.

In verse 33 the first elders "should receive their endowment from on high in my house, which I have commanded to be built unto my name in the land of Kirtland." The Kirtland temple was dedicated in 1836, a little under two years later, and that's the fulfillment the Church's history points to. Verse 37 says "after many days," and in 1834 that can't have sounded like two years to a man who had just walked home.

I've no way to know what the men who first heard verse 11 pictured. I picture something shaped by a lifetime of hearing the word in one setting, and they heard it before that setting existed. It gives a place and an order (endowment before redemption) and leaves the content to Kirtland.

According to verse 34 the commandments "concerning Zion and her law" are to be "executed and fulfilled, after her redemption." Then comes "There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy."

What about the fighting?

"I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion," says verse 14. Later the Lord says that after the lands are purchased the Lord "will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously purchased with their moneys." By verses 38 through 40 they're told to sue for peace.

I haven't found a way to fold those three into one rule. The permission in verse 30 depends on purchase and the one in verse 31 on an army that has become "very great" and "sanctified before me," so whatever force the Lord had in mind was a long way off, and it came after a good deal of buying land and being gentle with neighbors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Zion's Camp a failure?

Measured by the plan, yes, since nobody redeemed Jackson County that summer. Verse 19 calls the trip a trial and says the offering was accepted, and I'd take the Lord's word on that over mine. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball later led the Church, though the chapter doesn't present that as the reason for the march.

What does "endowed with power from on high" mean in verse 11?

The chapter's own answer is the house in Kirtland named in verse 33. If you want more than that, the people to read are the elders who were there in 1836, not us.

How long is "a little season"?

The chapter gives no length. Verses 9 and 13 use the phrase and verse 37 says "after many days," so the Lord is working with two different clocks. The Kirtland endowment came in under two years, and redemption of Jackson County is still ahead of us.

What is the law of the celestial kingdom in verse 5?

This chapter gives pieces. Obedience and sharing with the poor are in verse 3 and union is in verse 4, with consecration coming up in verse 29. It reads like a list the Saints already had, being reminded which items they'd skipped.

I've been reading this chapter as one man's instruction to one group, and it's closer to a letter with several readers. Monday I'm reading D&C 106, which is addressed to a single man, Warren Cowdery. Before then I'm going to find the Church's own history of the camp and read it through, so that when I teach this chapter I'm not guessing at what came after.

— D.