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.
And in this ye say truly for so it is But these things which I have told you shall not pass away but all shall be fulfilled & this I have told you concerning Jerusalum & when that day shall come shall a remnant shall a be scattered among all Nations but they shall be again but they shall remain untill the times of the be fulfelled & in that day shall be heard of wars & rumours of wars & the whole Earth shall be in commotion & mens hearts shall fail them & & shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the world & the love of men shall wax cold & inequity shall abound & when the times of the gentiles shall be is come in And a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness & it shall be the fulness of my Gospel but they receive it not for they perceive not the light & they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men & in that generation shall the times of the gentiles be fulfilled & there shall be men standing in that generation that shall not pass untill they shall see an overflowing scourge for a desolating sicknes shall cover the land & shall not be moved but my Deciples shall stand in Holy places & shall not be moved but among the wicked men shall lift up their voices & curse God & die & there shall be earthqakes also in diverse places & many desolations yet men will harden their hearts against me & they will take up the sword one against another & they will kill one another And now when I the Lord had spoken these words unto my Deciples they were troubled for when all these things shall come & I said unto them be not troubled for when all these things shall come to pass ye may know that the promises which have been made unto you shall be fulfilled & when the light shall begin to break forth it shall be with them like unto a Parable which I will shew you ye look & behold the figgtrees & ye see them with your eyes & ye say when they begin to shoot forth & th◊◊◊ [their] leaves are yet tender ye say that summer [p. 73]