�鶹��ý

January 12, 1838

Before departing Kirtland for Far West, Missouri, on January 12, 1838, Joseph Smith received a revelation clarifying the authority of the First Presidency as it pertained to the creation of new stakes of Zion. Lingering questions remained about the jurisdiction of the First Presidency in creating new stakes, especially as Latter-day Saints continued to flow into Far West and other parts of Missouri. “Church leaders had been concerned about creating new settlements in Missouri for several months, and by fall 1837 they had determined that additional stakes were needed to accommodate the growth of the church and the Kirtland church members who intended to move there.”[1]

This revelation specifying that a new stake must acknowledge the authority of the First Presidency in order to be counted a legitimate stake of Zion must be viewed in the context of the wave of recent excommunications and growing dissentions in the Church. One month previous to this revelation, in December 1837, dissenters in Kirtland had “united together for the overthrow of the church” and formed a breakoff group that challenged Joseph Smith’s prophetic legitimacy and authority.[2] By the end of the month, several prominent Church leaders, including Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris and apostles Luke Johnson and John F. Boynton, among others, had been formally excommunicated.[3] “Requiring the members of prospective stakes to accept the leadership of the presidency and specifying that only the First Presidency could designate new stakes ensured that no ad hoc stakes could be created by dissenting members.”[4]

❋ ❋ ❋

Kirtland, Ohio, January 12, 1838.

Can any branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints be considered a stake of Zion until they have acknowledged the authority of the First Presidency, by a vote of said Church? Thus saith the Lord—verily, I say unto you, nay. How then? Answer: no stake shall be appointed except by the First Presidency, and this presidency be acknowledged by the voice of the same; otherwise, it shall not be counted as a stake of Zion. And again, except it be dedicated by this presidency it cannot be acknowledged as a stake of Zion. For unto this end have I appointed them, in laying the foundation of and establishing my kingdom.

Notes

[1] JSP, D5:498.

[2] Elders’ Journal 1, no. 3 (July 1838): 36.

[3] For perspectives on the wave of apostasy among Church leaders in late 1837 in Kirtland, see William Shepard and H. Michael Marquardt, Lost Apostles: Forgotten Members of Mormonism’s Original Quorum of Twelve (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2014), 131–61; Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2018), 292–300.

[4] JSP, D5:499.