Doctrine and Covenants

The book " Doctrine and Covenants " (English " Doctrine and Covenants " ) is one of the canonical Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints and some other Mormon churches. It first appeared in 1835; a partly covered by the identical predecessor magazine called "The Book of Commandments" ( engl. "The Book of Commandments " ) one had begun in 1833 to print; the "Book of Commandments" but could not be completed because a mob destroyed the printing press.

Content

The book contains many revelations that Joseph Smith is said to have received from Christ, and a few revelations to his followers and official statements by his successors. In most of the revelations of Christ appears as a speaker who refers to himself with the word " I ". They are to this day for the organization and management of the above church and have their theology and structure sustainable coined as their other scriptures, such as the Book of Mormon. In particular, the priesthood of the Mormon, the temple service and the concept of life after death find their doctrinal basis, and also the known alcohol prohibition and in the meantime applied polygamy, as well as the setting of the same, go back to sections of this book.

Redaction criticism

Some sections have been added by followers of Joseph Smith with the express approval of the general membership at a General Meeting. A series of instructional lectures Smiths ( the "doctrine " of the book's title ), once before the revelations (the " Covenants " ) were, however, not considered canonical, were taken out in the early 20th century, the established title of the book was kept.

Use in other churches of Mormon origin

The versions of this book in the various Mormon denominations differ, sometimes significantly. For example, the Community of Christ the sections that relate to the dead baptism, now deleted and not even taken the polygamy teaching section. For their edition of the book contains a series of revelations of its own prophet line. In addition, the order and numbering of sections of the book between the churches is different because the main church in Utah this chronologically re- arranged in 1876 and further sections from other writings Smith added, while the other churches retained the old, thematic arrangement.

There are also churches that are indeed emerged from the Latter Day Saints, where are but " Doctrine and Covenants " not recognized as a divine source of revelation and scripture and used. This applies for example to the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message and the Church of Christ ( Fetting ). The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) uses the " Book of Commandments " of 1833 ( see above).

Criticism

Critics of the Mormon churches point to some differences between the " Book of Commandments " and the first edition of " Doctrine and Covenants ", and in particular the deletion of references to practices like dowsing. In more recent times, many inspired by the Hebrew words deck names have been changed in the output of the main church, which served in the old editions, to keep the identity of the persons or things mentioned secret. These code names were replaced by the real name of the intentioned people, because the reason for the secrecy, long after the death of everyone involved, is obsolete today.