Revelation, , OH, ca. 7 Mar. 1831. Featured version, titled “47 A prophecy March 7th. 1831,” copied [between ca. Mar. and June 1831] in Revelation Book 1, pp. 71–76; handwriting of ; CHL. Includes redactions. For more complete source information, see the source note for Revelation Book 1.
Historical Introduction
JS dictated this revelation, which Revelation Book 1 titles a “prophecy,” sometime around 7 March 1831, during a period when, according to JS’s history, “many false reports, lies, and fo[o]lish stories were published in the newspapers, and circulated in every direction, to prevent people from investigating the work, or embracing the faith.” JS’s history reported that the revelation was the “joy of the saints who had to struggle against every thing that prejudice and wickedness could invent.”
The revelation describes the and Christ’s second coming, both of which had been prophesied in JS’s of the Book of Mormon, his previous revelations, and his revision of the Old Testament. In particular, it connects the text of Matthew 24, in which Jesus prophesied concerning the last days and the Second Coming, with JS’s 9 February 1831 revelation about the New Jerusalem; as the revelation featured here states, “I will shew it plainly as I shewed it unto my Deciples as I stood before them in the flesh.” The revelation also uses Jesus’s New Testament prophecies to explain and reinforce the command to gather to : “Not many years hence ye Shall hear of wars in your own lands wherefore I the Lord have said gether ye out from the Eastern lands [and] assemble ye yourselves together.”
Parts of this text also found in Matthew 24 were among those included in JS’s later work of revising the New Testament, a project that began the day after JS dictated this revelation. Though JS’s inspired Bible revision had focused only on the Old Testament before this time, the revelation instructed him to shift his immediate efforts to the New Testament: “Now behold I say unto you it shall not be given unto you to know any farther then this until the New Testament be & in it all things shall be made known Wherefore I give unto you that ye may now Translate it that ye may be prepared for the things to come.”
Three early copies of this revelation are extant. The version in Revelation Book 1 (featured here) and a copy in ’s handwriting were created around the same time, likely in spring 1831, and there are no significant differences to indicate which is earlier. An additional copy created by later in 1831 largely corresponds with the other two versions. Differences between all three versions are noted in the footnotes.
Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583.
McLellin, William E. Copies of Revelations, early Nov. 1831. In “W. E. Mc.Lellan Jan— 1877,” 1877, William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 7.
See, for example, Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 501 [3 Nephi 21:23–25]; and Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831 [D&C 42:9, 35, 62, 67]; see also Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 566 [Ether 13:3–5]. One revelation foretold the destruction to come and urged the gathering of “mine Elect” to a designated place of safety. Another indicated that the sacred city was to be built “among the Lamanites,” or the American Indians. Two months later, in December 1830, JS dictated a passage that described the founding of the city of Zion by the patriarch Enoch and prophesied that there would be another Zion. In that text, God declared that he would “gether out mine own elect from the four quarters of the earth unto a place which I shall prepare an holy City that my people may gird up their loins and be looking fourth for the time of my coming for there shall be my tabernicle and it shall be called Zion a New Jerusalem.” (Revelation, Sept. 1830–A [D&C 29:7]; Revelation, Sept. 1830–B [D&C 28:9]; Old Testament Revision 1, p. 19 [Moses 7:62].)
McLellin, William E. Copies of Revelations, early Nov. 1831. In “W. E. Mc.Lellan Jan— 1877,” 1877, William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 7.
The most high God & the glory of the Lord shall be there & the terer of the Lord also shall be there insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it & it shall be called & it shall come to pass among the wicked that evry man that will not take his sword against his Neighbour must needs flee unto Zion for safety & there shall be getherd unto it out of evry Nation under Heaven & it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another & it shall be said among the wicked let us not go up to battle against Zion for the inhabitants of Zion are terible wherefore we cannot stand & it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gethered out from among all Nations & shall come to Zion singing with songs of everlasting Joy & now I say unto you keep these things from going abroad unto the world that ye may accomplish this work in the eyes of the people & in the eyes of your enemies that they may not know your works untill ye have accomplished the thing which I have commanded you that when they shall know it it may be terible unto them that fear may sieze upon them & they shall stand afar off & tremble & all nations shall be afraid because of the teror of the lord & the power of his might even so amen [p. 76]