Revelations of the Restoration

Perhaps you are alot like me, when you discover a great teacher, you want the front row seat, so you can ask lots of questions. Getting the front seat means being the first to class. Studying "Revelation of the Restoration" was my class away from class.The authors provided a comprehensive study of the Doctrine and Covenants. The authors don't stagnate in boring date, time, and place trivia. Each chapter has interesting stories about early leaders, saints, and pioneers.There is a nice balance between doctrine and biographies of people, who were a part of Church history. The authors research yields some very interesting stories many of which were new to me.One of the most important aspects of the book is that it gets the reader to reflect on man's relationship with God. The Doctrine and Covenants is a marvelous set of revealed scriptures.It outlines the organization and name of the Church, (establishment, organization, and power of the priesthood), man's eternal potential and covenants., the establishment of Zion, building of temples, eternal marriage and family, judgement and mercy, prophets and revelation, genealogy and family research, (priesthood keys: Elijah, Elias, Mose, John the Baptist), wickness before the second coming, the call to be a missionary. A large number of additional topics are covered in the book.

Several years ago, Dr. Joseph Fielding McConkie co-wrote a commentary on the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and I ate it up! Wonderful! Wonderful! But this book is more than a follow-up to the Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon. It is even more that a commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants: it truly is a commentary on many of the institutional Revelations of the Restoration. It includes not only the Doctrine and Covenants, but also the Joseph Smith Translation, the Joseph Smith History, the Lectures on Faith, the Book of Abraham, the Wentworth Letter, and the King Follette Discourse!As you can see, this book is geared for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so if you wan an introductopry book, I would recommend "Standing for Something," by the church's world leader, Gordon B. Hinckley.Ezekiel bound the sticks of the Bible and the Book of Mormon together so that they become one! Not only should we bind the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, we need to bind them with the D & C, and the Pearl of Great Price, and with the counsel of the living prophets and apostles. This bundle of sticks can be very heavy, but thank goodness for palm pilots! This book is doctrinal heavy, so it doesn't have a lot of the historical tidbits that some my want, but Cook's "The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith" would be better suited for such research. Or you could always go back to the primary text: "The History of the Church." It does, however, focus on what we believe and who we should act, and traces the lines of revelation as they cut across the lives of the early Saints. As a historian (BA from BYU, class of 1995), I would prefer studying doctrine over history-as important as it is-since we are saved by Jehovah, the god of Israel, and not Clio, the muse of history.This is the next step in evolution of commentaries and surpasses Hyrum Mack Smith's "Doctrine and Covenants Commentary," which was the standard for so many generations. The McConkie-Ostler commentary has some advantages over the Smith commentary: it is more readable, it is up to date in the scholarship, up to date with the current revelations, and had an easier font. The disadvantage is the McConkie-Ostler commentary doesn't have the text of the D & C in the book, unlike the Smith Commentary or McConkie's earlier "Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon." The trade-off is between a larger, self contained work in several covers, or a slimmer, one volume, dependant work. I see merits and debits either way, and therefore respect the choice made.On a personal note, Brother McConkie not only has the voice of his father, but the mind of his father as well. It is wonderful to see him and his brother Mark keeping the family tradition of doctrine alive. I have always been enlightened and, yes, even blessed by reading his words.