Doctrine and Covenants 131

Doctrine and Covenants 131

Historical Context

Doctrine and Covenants 131 consists of three different items of instruction that Joseph Smith gave on three different occasions. The first part of the section (D&C 131:1–4) consists of instructions given on May 16, 1843, in the home of Benjamin F. Johnson, a close friend who lived in Ramus. During his stay in Ramus, Joseph Smith instructed Benjamin and his wife Melissa on the eternal nature of marriage. In the months following, Joseph performed a sealing for Benjamin and Melissa, making their union eternal.1

Doctrine and Covenants 131:5–6 is taken from a sermon Joseph Smith preached in Macedonia, Illinois, on May 17, 1843. The Prophet spoke using 2 Peter 1 as his text, discoursing on the meaning of the phrases “make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10) and “a more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19). Samuel Prior, a Methodist preacher who was in the congregation while Joseph spoke, later recalled, “He glided along through a very interesting and elaborate discourse, with all the care and happy facility of one who was well aware of his important station, and his duty to God and man, and evidencing to me, that he was well worthy to be styled ‘a workman rightly dividing the word of truth,’ and giving without reserve, ‘saint and sinner his portion in due season.’”2 Prior also wrote, “I was compelled to go away with a very different opinion from what I had entertained when I first took my seat to hear him preach.”3

In the evening of May 17, 1843, Joseph Smith immediately followed Samuel Prior’s speech to a large group of Latter-day Saints in Macedonia, Illinois, with a discourse of his own. Prior later wrote of the sermons, “The congregation was large and respectable—they paid the utmost attention. This surprised me a little, as I did not expect to find any such thing as a religious toleration among them.”4 After Prior finished his sermon, Joseph Smith “arose and begged leave to differ from me in a few points of doctrine, and this he did mildly, politely, and affectingly; like one who was more desirous to disseminate truth and expose error, than to love the malicious triumph of debate over me. I was truly edified by his remarks, and felt less prejudiced against the Mormons than ever.”5

Unfortunately, we do not have the text of Samuel Prior’s sermon that prompted Joseph Smith’s response. Part of Joseph’s response, however, was later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 131:7–8. Joseph’s teachings focused on the eternal nature of both spirit and matter.

William Clayton was present in the Johnson Home on May 16, and he recorded both of Joseph’s May 17 sermons. Clayton later copied these teachings into his journal. These excerpts were used to create the History of Church, and excerpts from this history were used in Doctrine and Covenants 131. There is evidence that Clayton copied the portions of these discourses into his journal using notes that he took during the sermons, which further lends credibility to the accuracy of his reports.6 In 1876, Elder Orson Pratt, acting under the direction of President Brigham Young, added this section to the Doctrine and Covenants.7

See “Historical Introduction,” Instruction, 16 May 1843, as Reported by William Clayton.

See Discourse, 17 May 1843–A, as Reported by William Clayton.

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

D&C 131:1–4

1 In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;

2 And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage];

3 And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.

4 He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.

Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4 was given to Benjamin and Melissa Johnson, close friends of Joseph Smith. Benjamin later recalled, “In the evening he [Joseph Smith] called me and my wife to come and sit down, for he wished to marry us according to the law of the Lord. I thought it a joke, and said I should not marry my wife again, unless she courted me, for I did it all, the first time. He chided my levity, told me he was in earnest, and so it proved; for we stood up and were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.”8

When talking to the Johnsons, Joseph simply taught, “In order to obtain the highest a man must enter into this order of the priesthood.” With the approval of Brigham Young, Orson Hyde later added the bracketed phrase “[meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]” (D&C 131:2) for clarification.9 In bringing both Benjamin and Melissa Johnson into this order of the priesthood, Joseph was teaching of an order of the priesthood that both men and women could enter into together. In a discourse recorded in Joseph Smith’s journal on August 27, 1843, he taught of “three grand orders of priesthood.”10 Most Church members are familiar with the Aaronic and Melchizedek orders of the priesthood, but Joseph, speaking of “patriarchal authority,” taught of the “patriarchal” order of the priesthood.” He also added, “finish that temple [the Nauvoo temple] and God will fill it with power,” implying that this order of the priesthood functioned primarily within the walls of the temple.11 Bathsheba W. Smith, another Church member from the time of Joseph Smith, later recounted that the Prophet “wanted to make us, as the women were in Paul’s day, ‘A kingdom of priestesses.’” She then explained, “We have that ceremony in our endowments as Joseph taught.”12

During his discussion with Benjamin and Melissa Johnson, Joseph Smith clearly connected the power to continue their marriage in the next life with a God-given covenant. William Clayton recorded, “He said that except a man and his wife enter into an everlasting covenant and be married for eternity while in this probation by the power and authority of the Holy priesthood, they will cease to increase when they die, they will not have any children in the resurrection. But those who are married by the power and authority of the priesthood in this life and continue without committing the sin against the Holy Ghost will continue to increase and have children in the celestial glory.”13 This new and everlasting covenant opened the way for men and women to continue the joys of family love into the eternities.

D&C 131:5–6

5 (May 17th, 1843.) The more sure word of prophecy means a man’s knowing that he is sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood.

6 It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.

Verses 5 and 6 of Doctrine and Covenants 131 were taken from Joseph Smith’s sermon on 2 Peter 1, which was given on May 17, 1843. Joseph referred to 2 Peter 1:19, in which Peter declares, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Peter also gives the exhortation, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (2 Peter 1:10). In these passages Peter may have been quietly alluding to his experience, alongside James and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–2).

Joseph connected the “more sure word of prophecy” to being sealed up unto eternal life. In a discourse only a few days earlier, Joseph taught that the “more sure word of prophecy” related to “the promise of eternal [life] in the kingdom of God.” Wilford Woodruff’s notes regarding this discourse record Joseph’s statement:

Now for the secret & grand key. Though they might hear the voice of God and know that Jesus was the son of God, this would be no evidence that their election and calling was made sure that they had part with Christ and was a joint-heir with him, they then would want that more sure word of prophecy that they were sealed in the heavens and had the promise of eternal live [sic] in the kingdom of God. Then having this promise sealed unto them[,] it was as an anchor to the soul[,] sure and steadfast though the thunders might roll; and lightnings flash and earthquakes bellow and war gather thick around. Yet this hope and knowledge would support the soul in every hour of trial[,] trouble[,] and tribulation. Then knowledge through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—is the grand key that unlocks the glories & mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.14

D&C 131:7–8

7 There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;

8 We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

A revelation given to Joseph Smith in May 1833 revealed that “the elements are eternal” (D&C 93:33). In Doctrine and Covenants 131:7–8, Joseph also broke down the conceptual barrier between material matter and spirit, declaring them to be the same thing, only in different states. A year earlier in the Times and Seasons, Joseph taught: “The body is supposed to be organized matter, and the spirit by many is thought to be immaterial, without substance. With this latter statement we should beg leave to differ—and state that spirit is a substance; that it is material, but that it is more pure, elastic, and refined matter than the body;—that it existed before the body, can exist in the body, and will exist separate from the body when the body will be moldering in the dust; and will in the resurrection be again united with it.”15 In the same discourse he added, “the spirits of men are eternal.”16

Footnotes

• 1. “Doctrine and Covenants 131,” in Joseph Smith’s Revelations.
• 2. Samuel Prior, “A Visit to Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 15 May 1843, 4:197–98, italics in original; see also 2 Timothy 2:15 and Luke 12:42.
• 3. Samuel Prior, “A Visit to Nauvoo,” 4:197–98.
• 4. Samuel Prior, “A Visit to Nauvoo,” 4:197–98.
• 5. Samuel Prior, “A Visit to Nauvoo,” 4:197–98.
• 6. “Doctrine and Covenants 131,” in Joseph Smith’s Revelations.
• 7. Robert J. Woodford, Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants, 1724.
• 8. Benjamin Johnson, My Life’s Review, 1947, 92, underlining in original.
• 9. Instruction, 16 May 1843, as Reported by William Clayton, p. 15, JSP.
• 10. JS Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844, p. 71, JSP.
• 11. JS Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844, p. 74, JSP.
• 12. “Pioneer Stake,” Woman’s Exponent, July and August 1905, 34:14, quoted in Jill Mulvey Derr and others, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History, 2016, xxix.
• 13. Instruction, 16 May 1843, as Reported by William Clayton, p. 15, JSP.
• 14. Discourse, 14 May 1843, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff, p. 32, JSP.
• 15. Times and Seasons, 1 April 1842, p. 745, JSP.
• 16. Times and Seasons, 1 April 1842, p. 745, JSP.