Revelation, 16 April 1830 [D&C 22]
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Source Note
Revelation, [, Seneca Co., NY, 16 Apr. 1830]. Featured version part of “The Mormon Creed,” in Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 19 Apr. 1831, vol. 2, no. 44 (second series), p. [4]. The microfilm copy of the text transcribed herein was filmed by the Microfilm Corporation of Cleveland, OH, 1947, copy at CHL.Both the Painesville Telegraph version and the one found in Revelation Book 1 appear to have been created about the same time, but differences between the two versions indicate that the former was based on an earlier copy; therefore, the Telegraph version is featured here.
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Historical Introduction
JS dictated this revelation shortly after the formal organization of the church on 6 April 1830. While the version featured here does not include a specific date, a manuscript copy in the handwriting of dates the revelation to 16 April 1830. When copied the revelation into Revelation Book 1, he likely wrote the heading found there: “A Revelation given to Joseph the Seer Some were anxious to Join the Church without Rebaptism & Joseph enquired of the Lord & he received as follows.”Although several passages in the Book of Mormon emphasized the necessity of by proper authority, no revelation prior to 16 April 1830 explicitly addressed the question of rebaptism for those who had been baptized in other faiths. ’s June 1829 “Articles of the Church of Christ” prescribed the method of baptism and the wording of the baptismal prayer, declaring that “whosoever repenteth & humbleth himself before me & desireth to be baptized in my name shall ye baptize them,” but it did not address the question of rebaptism. The revelatory document on church government known as “Articles and Covenants,” which superseded Cowdery’s earlier document, clarified that baptism was necessary for entry into the church but did not explicitly address rebaptism either.The version of the 16 April revelation featured here was published in the Painesville Telegraph and reportedly obtained from . The newspaper appended the revelation to its publication of Articles and Covenants, as though it were part of that text. ’s early revelation notebook also appended the 16 April revelation to the end of Articles and Covenants, again without a separate heading or title. The first version of Articles and Covenants published in a church newspaper, in June 1832, likewise combined the two documents. The combining of these two texts in so many early versions suggests that the 16 April revelation was seen as an extension of the instructions on baptism contained in Articles and Covenants. The 16 April revelation is presented separately herein because the official version, found in Revelation Book 1, records it as a discrete text.Despite the clarity this revelation may have provided church members, the requirement of rebaptism became a point of contention for many outside the church. Opponents criticized followers of JS for teaching “that their book contained a new , to come under which the disciple must be re-immersed,” and when Thomas Campbell, father of Disciples of Christ founder , set forth his objections to JS’s teachings, he argued that “re-baptizing believers is making void the ordinance of Christ.”
Footnotes
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1
McLellin, Copies of Revelations, 7.
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.
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2
Revelation Book 1, p. 32. Many years later Orson Pratt explained the context for this revelation. Although Pratt did not become a member of the church until September 1830, he may have gained his information from those familiar with the circumstances. According to Pratt, “This is the reason why the Lord commanded this people—the Latter-day Saints—to re-baptize all persons who come to them professing to have been baptized before. In the early days of this Church there were certain persons, belonging to the Baptist denomination, very moral and no doubt as good people as you could find anywhere, who came, saying they believed in the Book of Mormon, and that they had been baptized into the Baptist Church, and they wished to come into our Church. The Prophet Joseph had not, at that time, particularly inquired in relation to this matter, but he did inquire, and received a revelation from the Lord.” (Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 2 Nov. 1873, 16:293.)
Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–1886.
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3
See, for example, Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 200–201, 477–479 [Mosiah 21:33–35; 3 Nephi 11:21–22; 12:1].
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5
Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:37].
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6
See Historical Introduction to Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20].
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7
Gilbert, Notebook, [1]–[12]; “The Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1832, [1]–[2].
Gilbert, Algernon Sidney. Notebook of Revelations, 1831–ca. 1833. Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583, box 1, fd. 2.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
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8
[Matthew S. Clapp], “Mormonism,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [1]; Thomas Campbell, “The Mormon Challenge,” Painesville Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [2]. Late in 1830, when missionaries took their message to northeastern Ohio, the Painesville Telegraph chided Oliver Cowdery for maintaining “that the ordinances of the gospel, have not been regularly administered since the days of the Apostles, till the said Smith and himself commenced the work.” (“The Golden Bible,” Painesville Telegraph, 16 Nov. 1830, [3].)
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1831–1838.
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