From Deseret News archives:
LDS Church News: Early church histories were a 'prequel'
They were an early effort to obey God's directive to keep a record
Fourth in a series
Note: Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, Church Historian and Recorder, has called the Joseph Smith Papers Project "the single most significant historical project of our generation." This article, part of an ongoing series, pertains to the "History" volumes in the project.
On the day the Church was organized, the Lord gave a revelation, the very first words of which command, "Behold, there shall be a record kept among you" (Doctrine and Covenants 21:1).
"But it did not spell out the details, just that a record should be kept," said David Whittaker, a co-editor of Volume 1 in the "History" series of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
As is often the case, the Lord left it to His servants to figure out on their own how best to follow His directive.
