LDS Church News viewpoint: A preface by the Lord

Those who have stood beside the Missouri River and watched this majestic body of water as it wends its way to the Mississippi River can reverence the Lord's carefully chosen imagery.

\"As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints,\" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:33).

The prospect of any simpleton changing the course of such a body of water with no more strength than a puny arm opens the minds to the intensity and eagerness of the Lord to bless them.

How that concept must have strengthened them in desperate times.

The Doctrine and Covenants is replete with such insights. Each is a literary masterpiece in its simplicity, while being vast and eternal in concept.

For more than half a year now, it's been the privilege of Mormons to draw peace and power from this book. Revealed by the Lord to his prophet Joseph Smith, it's a book for our day.

But there hasn't always been a Doctrine and Covenants, notes BYU associate professor of church history and doctrine, Steven C. Harper.

\"The story of how those revelations were written, prepared for publication, and moved through various states until they reached our present edition is the story of trying to keep up with a flood of revealed knowledge (Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour through Modern Revelation).See the full story on ldschurchnews.com.

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This story is provided by the LDS Church News, an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is produced weekly by the Deseret News.