Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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SECTION 63
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, late
in August 1831. HC 1:206—211. The Prophet, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver
Cowdery had arrived in Kirtland on August 27, from their visit to Missouri.
Prefacing his record of this revelation the Prophet wrote: "In these infant
days of the Church, there was a great anxiety to obtain the word of the Lord
upon every subject that in any way concerned our salvation; and as the land
of Zion was now the most important temporal object in view, I inquired of the
Lord for further information upon the gathering of the Saints, and the
purchase of the land, and other matters."
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1—6, A day of wrath shall come upon the wicked;
7—12, Signs come by faith;
13—19, The adulterous in heart shall deny the faith and be cast into
the lake of fire;
20, The faithful shall receive an inheritance upon the transfigured earth;
21, Full account of the events on the Mount of Transfiguration has not yet
been revealed;
22—23, The obedient receive the mysteries of the kingdom;
24—31, Inheritances in Zion are to be purchased;
32—35, The Lord decrees wars, and the wicked slay the wicked;
36—48, The saints are to gather to Zion and provide moneys to build it
up;
49—54, Blessings are assured the faithful at the Second Coming, in the
resurrection, and during the Millennium;
55—58, This is a day of warning;
59—66, The Lord's name is taken in vain by those who use it without
authority.
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1 HEARKEN, O ye people, and open your
hearts and give ear from afar; and listen, you that call yourselves the
apeople of the Lord, and hear the word of the Lord and his
will concerning you.
2 Yea, verily, I say, hear the word of him whose anger is
akindled against the wicked and
brebellious;
3 Who willeth to take even them whom he will
atake, and bpreserveth in life them whom
he will preserve.
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4 Who buildeth up at his own will and
apleasure; and destroyeth when he pleases, and is able to
bcast the soul down to hell.
5 Behold, I, the Lord, utter my voice, and it shall be
aobeyed.
6 Wherefore, verily I say, let the wicked take heed, and let the
arebellious bfear and tremble; and let
the unbelieving hold their lips, for the cday of wrath
shall come upon them as a dwhirlwind, and all flesh shall
eknow that I am God.
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7 And he that seeketh asigns shall see
bsigns, but not unto salvation.
8 Verily, I say unto you, there are those among you who seek signs, and there have been such even from the beginning;
9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but
asigns follow those who believe.
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10 Yea, asigns come by
bfaith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by
the will of God.
11 Yea, signs come by faith, unto mighty works, for without
afaith no man pleaseth God; and with whom God is
bangry he is not well pleased; wherefore, unto such he
showeth no signs, only in cwrath unto their
dcondemnation.
12 Wherefore, I, the Lord, am not pleased with those among you who have sought after signs and wonders for faith, and not for the good of man unto my glory.
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13 Nevertheless, I give commandments, and many have turned away
from my commandments and have anot kept them.
14 There were among you aadulterers and
adulteresses; some of whom have turned away from you, and others remain with
you that hereafter shall be revealed.
15 Let such beware and repent speedily, lest judgment shall come
upon them as a asnare, and their bfolly
shall be made manifest, and their works shall follow them in the eyes of the
people.
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16 And verily I say unto you, as I have said before, he that
alooketh on a woman to blust after her, or
if any shall commit cadultery in their hearts, they shall
not have the dSpirit, but shall deny the faith and shall
fear.
17 Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said that the
afearful, and the bunbelieving, and all
cliars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the
dwhoremonger, and the esorcerer, shall
have their part in that flake which burneth with fire and
brimstone, which is the gsecond death.
18 Verily I say, that they shall not have part in the
afirst resurrection.
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19 And now behold, I, the Lord, say unto you that ye are not
ajustified, because these things are among you.
20 Nevertheless, he that aendureth in faith
and doeth my bwill, the same shall overcome, and shall
receive an cinheritance upon the earth when the day
of transfigurationa shall come;
21 When the aearth shall be
btransfigured, even according to the pattern which was
shown unto mine apostles upon the cmount; of which account
the fulness ye have not yet received.
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20a the day of transfiguration
There comes the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord, and that day to the
righteous shall be 'a day of transfiguration'. But to the wicked it shall be
a day of burning and destruction even as stubble. Wen the Lord does come at
his Second Coming, he will come in all his glory with fire and with burning.
The earth will be set ablaze and trasfigured or translated from its now
telestial state into a terrestrial state in which process all wickedness and
corruption will be burned, being purged. And like the Lord's appearance upon
the mount of transfiguration in fire and glory, the righteous will not be
burned nor consumed. They like the earth will be transfigured into a state of
immortality consistent with their status of righteousness. This will occur at
the beginning of the Millennium and the buring will be literal fire and
burnings which the earth will pass through unto a renewed state as it was
at the time of the Garden of Eden.
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22 And now, verily I say unto you, that as I said that I would
make known my will unto you, behold I will make known unto you,
anot by the way of commandment, for there are many who
observe not to keep my commandments.
23 But unto him that keepeth my commandments I will give the
amysteries of my kingdom, and the same shall be in him a
well of living bwater, cspringing up unto
everlasting life.
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24 And now, behold, this is the will of the Lord your God
concerning his saints, that they should aassemble
themselves together unto the land of Zion, not in haste, lest there should be
confusion, which bringeth pestilence.
25 Behold, the land of aZion—I, the
Lord, hold it in mine own hands;
26 Nevertheless, I, the Lord, render unto
aCaesar the things which are Caesar's.
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27 Wherefore, I the Lord will that you should
apurchase the lands, that you may have advantage of the
world, that you may have claim on the world, that they may not be
bstirred up unto anger.
28 For aSatan bputteth it
into their hearts to anger against you, and to the shedding of blood.
29 Wherefore, the land of Zion shall not be obtained but by
apurchase or by blood, otherwise there is none inheritance
for you.
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30 And if by purchase, behold you are blessed;
31 And if by ablood, as you are forbidden to
shed blood, lo, your enemies are upon you, and ye shall be scourged from city
to city, and from synagogue to synagogue, and but bfew
shall stand to receive an inheritance.
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32 I, the Lord, am aangry with the
bwicked; I am holding my cSpirit from the
inhabitants of the earth.
33 I have sworn in my wrath, and adecreed wars
upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall bslay the
wicked, and fear shall come upon every man.
34 And the asaints also shall
bhardly cescape; nevertheless, I, the
Lord, am with them, and will dcome down in heaven from the
presence of my Father and econsume the wicked with
unquenchable fire.
35 And behold, this is not yet; but aby and
by.
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36 Wherefore, seeing that I, the Lord, have decreed all these things upon the face of the earth, I will that my saints should be assembled upon the land of Zion;
37 aAnd that every man should take
brighteousness in his hands and
cfaithfulness upon his loins, and lift a warning
dvoice unto the inhabitants of the earth; and declare both
by word and by flight that edesolation shall come upon the
wicked.
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38 Wherefore, let my disciples in Kirtland arrange their temporal concerns, who dwell upon this farm.
39 Let my servant Titus Billings, who has the care thereof,
dispose of the land, that he may be prepared in the coming spring to take his
journey up unto the land of Zion, with those that dwell upon the face
thereof, excepting those whom I shall reserve unto myself, that shall
anot go until I shall command them.
40 And let all the moneys which can be spared, it mattereth not
unto me whether it be little or much, be sent up unto the land of Zion, unto
them whom I have appointed to areceive.
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41 Behold, I, the Lord, will give unto my servant, Joseph Smith,
Jun., power that he shall be enabled to adiscern by the
Spirit those who shall go up unto the land of Zion, and those of my disciples
who shall tarry.
42 Let my servant aNewel K. Whitney retain his
bstore, or in other words, the store, yet for a little
season.
43 Nevertheless, let him impart all the money which he can impart, to be sent up unto the land of Zion.
44 Behold, these things are in his own hands, let him do
aaccording to wisdom.
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45 Verily I say, let him be ordained as an agent unto the
disciples that shall tarry, and let him be aordained unto
this power;
46 And now speedily, visit the churches, expounding these things unto them, with my servant Oliver Cowdery. Behold, this is my will, obtaining moneys even as I have directed.
47 He that is afaithful and
bendureth shall overcome the world.
48 He that sendeth up treasures unto the land of Zion shall
receive an ainheritance in this world, and his works shall
follow him, and also a breward in the world to come.
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49 Yea, and blessed are the dead that adie in
the Lord, from henceforth, when the Lord shall come, and old things shall
bpass away, and all things become new, they shall
crise from the dead and shall not ddie
after, and shall receive an inheritance before the Lord, in the
eholy city.
50 And he that liveth when the Lord shall come, and hath kept
the faith, ablessed is he; nevertheless, it is appointed to
him to bdie at the age of man.
51 Wherefore, achildren shall
bgrow up until they become old; old men shall die; but they
shall not sleep in the dust, but they shall be cchanged in
the twinkling of an eye.
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52 Wherefore, for this cause preached the apostles unto the world the resurrection of the dead.
53 These things are the things that ye must look for; and,
speaking after the manner of the Lord, they are now anigh
at hand, and in a time to come, even in the day of the coming of the Son of
Man.
54 And until that hour there will be foolish
avirgins among the wise; and at that hour cometh an entire
bseparation of the righteous and the wicked; and in that
day will I send mine angels to cpluck out the wicked and
cast them into unquenchable fire.
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55 And now behold, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, am not
pleased with my servant aSidney Rigdon; he
bexalted himself in his heart, and received not counsel,
but cgrieved the Spirit;
56 Wherefore his awriting is not acceptable
unto the Lord, and he shall make another; and if the Lord receive it not,
behold he standeth no longer in the office to which I have appointed him.
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57 And again, verily I say unto you, athose
who desire in their hearts, in meekness, to bwarn sinners
to repentance, let them be ordained unto this power.
58 For this is a day of awarning, and not a
day of many words. For I, the Lord, am not to be bmocked in
the last days.
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59 Behold, I am from above, and my power lieth beneath. I am
over all, and in all, and through all, and asearch all
things, and the day cometh that all things shall be
bsubject unto me.
60 Behold, I am aAlpha and Omega, even Jesus
Christ.
61 Wherefore, let all men abeware how they
take my bname in their lips—
62 For behold, verily I say, that many there be who are under
this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord, and use it in vain, having
not aauthority.
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63 Wherefore, let the church repent of their sins, and I, the
Lord, will aown them; otherwise they shall be cut off.
64 Remember that that which cometh from above is
asacred, and must be bspoken with care,
and by constraint of the Spirit; and in this there is no condemnation, and ye
receive the Spirit cthrough prayer; wherefore, without this
there remaineth condemnation.
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65 Let my servants, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, seek
them a home, as they are ataught through prayer by the
Spirit.
66 These things remain to overcome through patience, that such
may receive a more exceeding and eternal aweight of
bglory, otherwise, a greater condemnation. Amen.
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