What If … Chad Updated the Doctrine and Covenants? Part 1

Chad Nielsen

1 year ago

I told you I wasn’t done with the Doctrine and Covenants yet.

Follow me, and ponder the question: What if?

It’s the year 2023 and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has decided to produce a new edition of their scriptures. For reasons that are unclear, the project was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: Chad Nielsen, of Times and Seasons. Challenged to produce a new edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, Chad goes to work, planning out what he will do.

Now, in reality, I know full well that the Church doesn’t care about any suggestions I might have and that I would be very far from their first candidate for a project like that. That is why I opened by presenting this as a Mormon multiverse story (sorry about using the moniker, the alliteration was just too good to pass). This series of posts is entirely for fun and also entirely hypothetical. It is, I will also note, a logical outgrowth of my spending the entire last year focused on the Doctrine and Covenants and then important documents in Latter-day Saint history.

Disclaimer out of the way, now, what would I do if I was tasked with an update to the Doctrine and Covenants? I might start out by laying out guiding principles, looking at the updated hymnal guidelines for inspiration. Excluding the guideline about inviting joyful singing, the relevant guidelines from there would be that updates to the scriptures must do the following:

Increase faith in and worship of our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Teach core doctrines with power and clarity.
Comfort the weary and inspires members to endure in faith.
Unify members throughout the Church.

I would also add a goal of strengthening faith that leaders of the Church are guided by revelation from God. Now, I’m not going to go into the controversial territory of wholesale removal of any sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. So, most of my comments will focus around reorganizing, editing existing sections, and things to add. I’ll cover each of these in turn, throughout the series of posts, focusing on the organization I might follow.

Thus, this puts us here in the series:

Organization
Editing of documents
Additions

When it comes to organization, the first thing I would do would be to collapse the Pearl of Great Price into the Doctrine and Covenants. The boundary between the two has been porous over the years, with sections being included in both or moving from one to the other at different points in history. For example, Sections 137 and 138 were originally included in the Pearl of Great Price before the decision was made to move them to the Doctrine and Covenants. In addition, the Pearl of Great Price is very small—too small to devote an extended period of time to studying in Sunday School, for example, so it often gets folded into other discussions anyway. My thought here is—why continue to deal with an artificial boundary between two collections of documents produced in the modern dispensation? Why not just group them together into one book of scripture that serves as anthology of important documents from the modern Church as well as smaller translation projects?

Combining the Doctrine and Covenants in the Pearl of Great Price would necessarily lead to a shift in organization in the Doctrine and Covenants. The idea of blocs of sections, which is what I would follow, has precedent in the original edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. In fact, it was given that name rather than the original Book of Commandments (commandments and covenants being interchangeable terms for the revelations of Joseph Smith) because the Lectures on Faith was added (the Doctrine part of the Doctrine and Covenants) in addition to the revelations (the Covenants part of the Doctrine and Covenants). Even within the current Doctrine and Covenants, there are different types of documents—revelations, records of visions, minutes of meetings, excerpts from letters, records of sermons, and statements of the Church. And, technically, the Sections and Official Declarations do form two separate blocs within the current edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. With that in mind, I would rearrange the Doctrine and Covenants into several different sections, most likely the following:

Doctrine—Sermons and statements that explain the doctrines and policies of the Church
Covenants—Written revelations that are presented in the voice of the Lord
Visions—Records of visionary experiences
Official Declarations—Declarations put out by the Church (just as it currently is)
Prayers and Poetry—What the name implies (somewhat analogous to the poetry section of the Hebrew Bible)
Histories—Documents that are meant to function as historical presentations
Translations—Documents that come from various projects that Joseph Smith referred to as translations

Granted, even these get a bit messy at times (i.e., is Section 102 doctrine or history? Does 113 belong under doctrine or covenants?), but it seems like a comprehensive approach to include all the different content from the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, while also laying a foundation for further expansion.

Using only the current contents of the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, this organization would look something like this:

Division	New Name	Current Name
Introductory Materials
	Title Page	Title Page
	Introduction	Introduction
	The Lord’s Preface	Section 1
	Testimony	Section 135
Doctrine
	Doctrinal Document 1	Section 20
	Doctrinal Document 2	Section 102
	Doctrinal Document 3	Section 134
	Doctrinal Document 4	Section 127
	Doctrinal Document 5	Section 128
	Doctrinal Document 6	Section 129
	Doctrinal Document 7	Section 130
	Doctrinal Document 8	Section 131
	Doctrinal Document 9	Articles of Faith
Covenants
	Covenant 1	Section 3
	Covenant 2	Section 4
	Covenant 3	Section 5
	Covenant 4	Section 6
	Covenant 5	Section 8
	Covenant 6	Section 9
	Covenant 7	Section 10
	Covenant 8	Section 11
	Covenant 9	Section 12
	Covenant 10	Section 14
	Covenant 11	Section 15
	Covenant 12	Section 16
	Covenant 13	Section 17
	Covenant 14	Section 18
	Covenant 15	Section 19
	Covenant 16	Section 21
	Covenant 17	Section 22
	Covenant 18	Section 23
	Covenant 19	Section 24
	Covenant 20	Section 25
	Covenant 21	Section 26
	Covenant 22	Section 27
	Covenant 23	Section 28
	Covenant 24	Section 29
	Covenant 25	Section 30
	Covenant 26	Section 31
	Covenant 27	Section 32
	Covenant 28	Section 33
	Covenant 29	Section 34
	Covenant 30	Section 35
	Covenant 31	Section 36
	Covenant 32	Section 37
	Covenant 33	Section 38
	Covenant 34	Section 39
	Covenant 35	Section 40
	Covenant 36	Section 41
	Covenant 37	Section 42
	Covenant 38	Section 43
	Covenant 39	Section 44
	Covenant 40	Section 45
	Covenant 41	Section 46
	Covenant 42	Section 47
	Covenant 43	Section 48
	Covenant 44	Section 49
	Covenant 45	Section 50
	Covenant 46	Section 51
	Covenant 47	Section 52
	Covenant 48	Section 53
	Covenant 49	Section 54
	Covenant 50	Section 55
	Covenant 51	Section 56
	Covenant 52	Section 57
	Covenant 53	Section 58
	Covenant 54	Section 59
	Covenant 55	Section 60
	Covenant 56	Section 61
	Covenant 57	Section 62
	Covenant 58	Section 63
	Covenant 59	Section 64
	Covenant 60	Section 65
	Covenant 61	Section 66
	Covenant 62	Section 67
	Covenant 63	Section 68
	Covenant 64	Section 69
	Covenant 65	Section 133
	Covenant 66	Section 70
	Covenant 67	Section 71
	Covenant 68	Section 72
	Covenant 69	Section 73
	Covenant 70	Section 74
	Covenant 71	Section 75
	Covenant 72	Section 77
	Covenant 73	Section 78
	Covenant 74	Section 79
	Covenant 75	Section 80
	Covenant 76	Section 81
	Covenant 77	Section 82
	Covenant 78	Section 83
	Covenant 79	Section 84
	Covenant 80	Section 85
	Covenant 81	Section 86
	Covenant 82	Section 87
	Covenant 83	Section 88
	Covenant 84	Section 89
	Covenant 85	Section 90
	Covenant 86	Section 91
	Covenant 87	Section 92
	Covenant 88	Section 93
	Covenant 89	Section 94
	Covenant 90	Section 95
	Covenant 91	Section 96
	Covenant 92	Section 97
	Covenant 93	Section 98
	Covenant 94	Section 99
	Covenant 95	Section 100
	Covenant 96	Section 101
	Covenant 97	Section 103
	Covenant 98	Section 104
	Covenant 99	Section 105
	Covenant 100	Section 106
	Covenant 101	Section 107
	Covenant 102	Section 108
	Covenant 103	Section 111
	Covenant 104	Section 112
	Covenant 105	Section 113
	Covenant 106	Section 114
	Covenant 107	Section 115
	Covenant 108	Section 116
	Covenant 109	Section 117
	Covenant 110	Section 118
	Covenant 111	Section 119
	Covenant 112	Section 120
	Covenant 113	Section 121
	Covenant 114	Section 122
	Covenant 115	Section 123
	Covenant 116	Section 124
	Covenant 117	Section 125
	Covenant 118	Section 126
	Covenant 119	Section 132
	Covenant 120	Section 136
Visions
	Vision 1	Section 2
	Vision 2	Section 13
	Vision 3	Section 76
	Vision 4	Section 137
	Vision 5	Section 110
	Vision 6	Section 138
Official Declarations
	Official Declaration 1	Official Declaration 1
	Official Declaration 2	Official Declaration 2
Prayers and Poetry
	Kirtland Temple Dedicatory Prayer	Section 109
Histories
	Joseph Smith’s 1838 History	Joseph Smith–History
Translations
	Book of Abraham	Abraham
	Book of Moses	Moses
	Account of John	Section 7
	Joseph Smith-Matthew	JS-Matthew

That being said, what would you do if this episode was “What if … You Updated the Doctrine and Covenants?”