D&C 115: The Name Gets Two Verses and the House Gets Nine

The name is why most of us know D&C 115, and the name sits in two of its nineteen verses. Verses 8 through 16 run nine in a row about a house, and that's where the chapter spends its time.

I don't think the proportions make the name a smaller thing, but they do show what kind of revelation came to Joseph Smith on April 26, 1838, at Far West, Missouri. He was told what to call the Church and what to build, all at one time, with the building getting more of the words.

Why does verse 3 use the name before verse 4 explains it?

Read verse 3 slowly. The Lord is addressing the high council and "all the elders and people of my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world." The name is already in use. Then verse 4 states it outright:

For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nobody in the chapter argues for the name or defends it. It gets used and then stated and the revelation moves on to Far West.

The Church had been organized in April 1830, and D&C 20:1 opens with "The rise of the Church of Christ in these last days." Set that beside verse 4 and you can see what the two texts do: verse 4 keeps "Church of Jesus Christ" and adds "of Latter-day Saints." That's all I'm claiming from the comparison, and the chapter doesn't say why the name changed.

The idea behind a name like this is older than 1838. In 3 Nephi 27 the disciples ask the Lord what to call the church, because there were disputations about it, and his answer in verse 8 is that a church called in a man's name is the church of a man, "but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel." I wrote about that chapter last month in a post on what Jesus said he came to do. The second half of that verse is the part I'd keep next to D&C 115. A name is given, and then there's a condition about what the people are built on.

Verse 5 comes straight after the name: "Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations." Verse 6 then turns to a gathering that is to be "a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth." A reader going straight through gets a name, a call to be seen, a warning about a storm and then in verse 7 a city called "most holy."

What was the house in verses 8 through 16 supposed to be?

Verse 8 gives the command: "build a house unto me, for the gathering together of my saints, that they may worship me." Verse 9 asks for a beginning, a foundation and a preparatory work "this following summer," and verse 10 puts the beginning on "the fourth day of July next." Then verse 11 says something different: "in one year from this day let them re-commence laying the foundation of my house." Those are two instructions with two dates, and I keep them apart. The text doesn't explain why the foundation is laid again, or what it means to re-commence it, so I don't either.

Verse 12 sets the bar for the work, "until there shall not anything remain that is not finished." That sentence is about finishing, and it's the one the history cuts against. According to the Joseph Smith Papers the first stones of the temple were laid on July 4, 1838. The foundation wasn't completed before the Saints were driven out of Missouri that winter. The temple was begun and never finished.

Verse 13 is the easiest one to read past:

Verily I say unto you, let not my servant Joseph, neither my servant Sidney, neither my servant Hyrum, get in debt any more for the building of a house unto my name;

The chapter says "any more," so there was debt already, and it names the three men. It gives no figures and no creditors. Whatever the Lord wanted the Saints to do about money, this is all the chapter says on it.

Ron Hatch lived two doors down from us in Bountiful, and the summer I was ten he poured a concrete slab behind his house for a two-car garage. He told my dad he'd put up the walls when he had the cash for the lumber and he wasn't going to borrow it. Then he waited. The slab sat there four summers with weeds coming up through the expansion joint, and we shot baskets on it. The walls went up when the money was there.

That's what verse 13 sounds like to me, a house that gets built without anyone borrowing more for it, and the price of that is time. The chapter doesn't say how long. The Hatch garage took four years, and the Far West foundation was still unfinished when the Saints were driven out.

Verse 14 says the house is to be built "according to the pattern which I will show unto them," and verse 15 puts a condition on it:

And if my people build it not according to the pattern which I shall show unto their presidency, I will not accept it at their hands.

In verse 15 the pattern is shown "unto their presidency," and verse 16 says it again with a name attached, "even my servant Joseph and his counselors." The chapter doesn't describe the pattern. It says who will get it and what follows if it's followed or isn't.

What does "stakes" mean in verses 6 and 18?

The word comes up twice. In verse 6 the gathering is "upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes," and the purpose is "a defense, and for a refuge from the storm." In verse 18 the Lord says "other places should be appointed for stakes in the regions round about, as they shall be manifested unto my servant Joseph, from time to time."

In verse 18 places are appointed "for stakes," so the places and the stakes are two things, and the appointing happens one place at a time as each is shown to Joseph. D&C 101:21 has the Lord say "I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion." That's the only reason the scriptures I checked give for the word. Whether it carries the same meaning today is a question these chapters don't answer.

Far West is to be built up "speedily" in verse 17, and the other places come "from time to time" in verse 18. My own guess is that the first is urgent and the second is gradual, which is a reading of two phrases and not something either verse says.

Section 114 was given at Far West on April 11, 1838, about two weeks before this one, and I wrote about its two verses and the man it doesn't name on Monday.

What does verse 19 add at the end?

It turns back to Joseph: "I will be with him, and I will sanctify him before the people; for unto him have I given the keys of this kingdom and ministry." The pattern in verses 15 and 16 goes to the presidency, and the last verse says who holds the keys. I read that as why the people aren't asked to come up with a plan, though the verse doesn't say so.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where was D&C 115 given?

On April 26, 1838, at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. The Joseph Smith Papers and the Church's own introduction to the section agree on both.

Was the Far West temple ever built?

No. The first stones were laid on July 4, 1838, and the foundation wasn't finished when the Saints were driven out of Missouri. The chapter's command in verse 12 to finish the house was never carried out there.

Is the name in verse 3 an older name for the Church?

No, it's the same name. Verse 3 already uses it when it addresses "my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," and verse 4 states it as how the Church "shall be called."

Why does verse 11 say to begin again in a year?

The chapter doesn't say. Verse 10 sets July 4 for the beginning and verse 11 sets a second point, a year from the day of the revelation.

Section 116 is next, and it's a single verse about Spring Hill, so I'll read it tonight. Over the weekend I'm going back through verses 8 to 16 with a pencil to mark every instruction and see how many of them I would have said were in there.

— D.