In his May 12, 1844, discourse, Joseph taught that:
I never told you I was perfect—but there is no error in
the revelations which I have taught
As Drew Briney noted:
This is a fascinating statement in context of the many,
many substantive changes that Joseph made to the D&C. Within that context,
this statement suggests that revelations that were incomplete or that only
represented a steppingstone toward a more perfect law were still considered
error-free by the prophet. In other words, grammatical errors, punctuation
errors, and incompleteness of revelations were not considered errors. (Drew
Briney, Doctrine and Covenants 1844 JSV Edition: Lectures on Faith, Sections
1-138, 87 Uncanonized Revelations[JSV Publications, LLC., 2025], 68 n. 1
Briney
references two sources from Brigham Young. The first is from the
April 8, 1844 minutes of the Council of Fifty, where Brigham
supposed there has not yet been a perfect revelation
given, because we cannot understand it, yet we receive a little here and a
little there. He should not be stumbled if the prophet should translate the
bible forty thousand times over and yet it should be different in some places
every time, because when God speake, he always speaks according to the capacity
of the people.
The second is Brigham’s July
8, 1855 sermon, “The Kingdom of God”:
I am so far from believing that any government upon this
earth has constitutions and laws that are perfect, that I do not even believe
that there is a single revelation, among the many God has given to the Church,
that is perfect in its fulness. The revelations of God contain correct doctrine
and principle, so far as they go; but it is impossible for the poor, weak, low,
grovelling, sinful inhabitants of the earth to receive a revelation from the
Almighty in all its perfections. He has to speak to us in a manner to meet the
extent of our capacities, as we have to do with these benighted Lamanites; it
would be of no benefit to talk to them as I am now speaking to you. Before you
can enter into conversation with them and give them your ideas, you are under the
necessity of condescending to their low estate, so far as communication is
concerned, in order to exalt them.
You have to use the words they use, and address them in a
manner to meet their capacities, in order to give them the knowledge you have
to bestow. If an angel should come into this congregation, or visit any
individual of it, and use the language he uses in heaven, what would we be
benefitted? Not any, because we could not understand a word he said. When
angels come to visit mortals, they have to condescend to and assume, more or
less, the condition of mortals, they have to descend to our capacities in order
to communicate with us. I make these remarks to show you that the kingdom of
heaven is not yet complete upon the earth. Why? Because the people are not
prepared to receive it in its completeness, for they are not complete or
perfect themselves.
The laws that the Lord has given are not fully perfect,
because the people could not receive them in their perfect fulness; but they
can receive a little here and a little there, a little to-day and a little
to-morrow, a little more next week, and a little more in advance of that next
year, if they make a wise improvement upon every little they receive; if they
do not, they are left in the shade, and the light which the Lord reveals will
appear darkness to them, and the kingdom of heaven will travel on and leave
them groping. Hence, if we wish to act upon the fulness of the knowledge that
the Lord designs to reveal, little by little, to the inhabitants of the earth,
we must improve upon every little as it is revealed. (JOD 2:314)
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