Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832, Extract, as Published in The Evening and the Morning Star
Source Note
JS, Letter, [, Geauga Co., OH], to , [, Jackson Co., MO, 27 Nov. 1832]. Extract published in “Let Every Man Learn His Duty,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1833, p. [5]. For more complete source information, see the source note for Revelations printed in The Evening and The Morning Star, June 1832–June 1833.
It is the duty of the Lord’s , whom he has appointed, to keep a history, and a general church record of all things, that transpire in , and of all those who consecrate properties and receive inheritances, legally from the ; and also, their manner of life, and their faith and works: and also, of all the apostates, who apostatize after receiving their inheritance.
It is contrary to the will and commandment of God, that those who receive not their inheritance by consecration, agreeable to his law, which he has given, that he may tithe his people to prepare them against the day of vengeance and burning, should have their names enrolled with the people of God; neither is their genealogy to be kept, or to be had where it may be found on any of the records, or histories of the church: their names shall not be found, neither the names of their fathers, or the names of their children, written in the book of the law of God, saith the Lord of Hosts; yea, thus saith the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things: and often times it maketh my bones to quake while it maketh manifest, saying:— And it shall come to pass, that I the Lord God will send one mighty and strong, holding the sceptre of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words, while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritance of the saints, whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God: while that man who was called of God, and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning; and all they who are not found written in the book of remembrance, shall find none inheritance in that day, but they shall be cut asunder and their portion shall be appointed them among unbelievers, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. These things I say not of myself, therefore, as the Lord speaketh he will also fulfil.
And they who are of the , whose names are not found written in the book of the law, or that are found to have apostatized, or to have been cut off out of the church, as well as the ; or the members, in that day, shall not find an inheritance among the saints of the most High: therefore, it shall be done unto them as unto the children of the priests, as it is written in the second chapter, and 61st and 62nd verses of Ezra: And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai: which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name: These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the . [p. [5]]