The Know

In May 1831, a recent convert named Leman Copley approached the Prophet Joseph Smith with a request: some elders should be sent on a mission to North Union, Ohio. This town, about fifteen miles west of Kirtland, was settled by members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, though its members were often called Shakers or Shaking Quakers “because their worship included a form of ecstatic dancing.”1 Before Copley was baptized, he had been a member of the United Society himself, though he never made the move from his farm in Thompson, Ohio, to North Union like most other Shakers in the area had.

Copley’s request was a reasonable one: The Saints had had pleasant encounters with the Shakers of North Union. Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson met briefly with them while en route to preach in Missouri. Furthermore, the fact that the Church’s beliefs shared multiple similarities with those of the Shakers likely led Copley to hope that many members of his former faith would accept the fullness of the gospel.

Steven C. Harper notes, “Shakers believed that Christ had instituted God’s first church, which subsequently apostatized. They believed, therefore, that God would restore his church,” acknowledging that while the reformers were good people, this restoration could only be done via a “new revelation from God to some person.” Shakers also believed in “individual moral agency . . . [and] consecration and stewardship of property.” Furthermore, “Shaker explanations for worshipping God by singing and dancing sounded like Doctrine and Covenants 136:28, in which the Lord acknowledges that repentant, forgiven souls long to sing and dance as forms of prayer and thanksgiving.”2

However, the differences between the Church’s beliefs and the United Society’s were greater. “Shakers,” Harper explains, “believed that marriage was a worldly, not a divine, institution . . . and that sexual relations were ungodly. . . . They rejected resurrection and looked forward to shedding their flesh at death to live a wholly spiritual afterlife. . . . They believed in confessing sin but not in the need for redeeming ordinances such as baptism. Shakers believed in temperance, including eating meat sparingly, if at all. Some preached vegetarianism.”3 Shakers also believed that some individuals beyond Jesus Christ had lived or could live a life entirely free of sin while yet in mortality.4

The greatest difference in belief, however, was that Shakers believed that Christ’s church had been restored through a woman named Ann Lee. Believing that “God was both male and female,” Shakers believed that “God first made his appearance in the form of a male, Jesus Christ. In Ann Lee the female principle of God was manifested, and in her the promise of the Second Coming was fulfilled.”5

Although Copley had since joined the Church and even though he had never been a full participant or believer in Shaker doctrine and practice, Joseph Smith reported that Copley was “apparently honest hearted, but still retained ideas that the Shakers were right in some particulars of their faith.”6 Thus, upon Copley’s request that a mission to the Shakers of North Union commence, Joseph prayed and received Doctrine and Covenants 49.

This section, among other things, authorized Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Leman Copley to “go and preach my gospel which ye have received, even as ye have received it, unto the Shakers” (verse 1). More than anything, though, it helped clarify “exactly where Shaker beliefs and the restored gospel overlapped or diverged,” correcting some of the false doctrines Shakers believed.7 This would be critical for potential converts who wanted to learn more about the restored gospel.

First, the Lord clarified that the Son of Man “now reigneth in the heavens, and will reign till he descends on the earth . . . ; but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until he comes” (Doctrine and Covenants 49:6–7). This challenged the Shaker doctrine that the Second Coming had already occurred through Ann Lee. Furthermore, the Lord taught, “The Son of Man cometh not in the form of a woman, neither of a man traveling on the earth” (verse 22). This offered a clear rebuttal of a key Shaker doctrine—Jesus Christ would return only in His own resurrected body and not in the form of any other mortal individual.

Second, the Lord declared, “I will that all men shall repent, for all are under sin” (verse 8). The only exception to this rule was “holy men” reserved by the Lord, perhaps referring to people like John the Beloved or the Three Nephites who are no longer living in a fallen state.8 Furthermore, while Shakers believed that all one needed to do to be saved was confess their sins, the Lord commanded, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the holy commandment, for the remission of sins; and whoso doeth this shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of the hands of the elders of the church” (verses 13–14). As Casey Paul Griffiths explained, “The ordinances of the gospel allow men and women to be cleansed of their sins by entering into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ,” and only through these ordinances can anyone truly be cleansed from sin.9

Third, the Lord emphasized the importance of marriage and raising children:

And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation; and that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made. (Doctrine and Covenants 49:15–17)

This ran counter to the Shaker belief that celibacy was a higher law required of the faithful.10

Finally, the Lord taught that “whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God,” as animals were under humankind’s stewardship to use “for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance” (verses 18–19). Later revelations such as the Word of Wisdom would help clarify this principle.

The Why

The mission to North Union did not have the success that Leman Copley was expecting: the Shakers soundly rejected the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 49 and dismissed the elders.11 This had a negative effect on Leman Copley, who would himself be disfellowshipped for a time for refusing to allow the Colesville Saints to live on his farm as he had previously agreed. Eventually he was excommunicated for signing false witnesses against Joseph Smith’s character. Though he was rebaptized, he never joined the Saints in Missouri, Illinois, or Utah, thereby removing himself from the Church again.12 Despite the Shakers’ rejection of this revelation, many important lessons can be gained from this revelation today.

First, this revelation was given in part because Leman Copley “still retained ideas that the Shakers were right in some particulars of their faith.”13 While there are some common beliefs between the restored gospel and the United Society as discussed above, these do not appear to be what Joseph had in mind when he made this assessment. In section 49, the Lord made it clear that all sincere seekers of truth must wholeheartedly accept the restored gospel and cannot hold to some of the false traditions that they had previously been taught. As the only true and living church, the fullness of doctrine and authority is found only in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Lord requires our full conversion.14

Second, the Lord showed firsthand how He “speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3). By addressing a specific group of people, the Lord discussed real doctrinal concerns that would have been prerequisite to joining the Church and may even have been some of the concerns that were on Leman Copley’s mind.

Finally, modern Latter-day Saints can recognize the need to be all in when it comes to the restored gospel. This revelation came through a prophet of God, cutting through error to teach the plainness of the restored gospel. Some individuals, like Leman Copley, fail to realize the significance of this truth, which can lead to attitudes such as Copley’s regarding the Shakers being right in some areas when the Church taught otherwise. True seekers will, however, consecrate all of themselves to the Lord.

Even if the mission did not convert any of the North Union community, it still took an act of faith for the missionaries to accept this call and preach the truth, even when it must have been hard to do so. Modern Saints can share that courage when choosing to serve the Lord and help others accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.