According to notes made by , JS attended a meeting on “Tuesday the 12th,” apparently in , Illinois. McIntire provided no further information on the date of the meeting, but he was presumably describing a gathering that occurred on 12 January 1841, a Tuesday. According to McIntire, the meeting was held at the home of a Mr. Davis, who may have been , a merchant residing in Nauvoo. The meeting was likely an installment of a weekly lyceum at which attendees gathered to discuss secular and religious topics. At the meeting, , , and one or two others addressed subjects that were apparently predetermined. In response to these speeches, JS remarked on vice, war, the role repentance and will play in God’s eternal judgment of humankind, and the varied durations of time that humans will suffer before being granted salvation. McIntire apparently took his notes during the meeting.
McIntire’s account of this meeting held “Tuesday the 12th” directly follows another account describing a Nauvoo meeting in January 1840, but 1840 appears to be an incorrect year because JS was in the Philadelphia area in January 1840 and McIntire did not live in Nauvoo at that time. McIntire, recording at the first of a new year, may have meant to write 1841 instead of 1840. (Historical Introduction to Letter to Emma Smith, 20–25 Jan. 1840.)
According to records associated with the store he operated in the area, Davis resided in the vicinity of Commerce, Illinois, as early as 1836. (Lyon, “Account Books of the Amos Davis Store at Commerce, Illinois,” 241.)
4th. subject the Gospel by he lectors on it till he Comes the Laying on the hands for the Holy Ghost— then Joseph— takes it up & ad[d]s the Resurection & Eternal Judgment in the Eternal Judgment there is many things to know & to under stand in Gods Judging for instance Peter said Davidd had not yet ascend to heaven & that he was a Murderer— & that his soul was in Hell is plainly told By Peter in acts— 2d. ch— Petter shews plainer [i]t in the 3d of acts that a Murderer could Not be Red [p. [6]]
An 1833 revelation directed the Saints to remain temperate in their reactions to violent confrontation, spelling out the circumstances under which war was justified. One month earlier, JS had briefly instructed church leaders on subduing evil passions and eliminating prejudice as a way to banish hatred and vice. (Revelation, 6 Aug. 1833 [D&C 98]; Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.)
This sentence, and the comment at the end of the paragraph about “faith Repentence & Baptism,” suggests that in referring to the gospel Badlam may have been speaking on the first conditions of salvation—faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost—as spelled out by Orson Pratt in an 1840 pamphlet containing statements later attributed to JS. Badlam’s comments may also have been prompted by an article series titled “Gospel” that ran in the November and December 1840 issues of the Times and Seasons. (Pratt, Interesting Account, 27–28; “Gospel No. I,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1840, 2:196–200; “The Gospel, No. II,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:213–215; “The Gospel. No. III,” Times and Seasons, 1 Dec. 1840, 2:226–228; “The Gospel. No. IV,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1840, 2:243–247.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.