The Doctrine and Covenants

This week marks the beginning of a new year, which always means a new curriculum by the Church. As part of the "Come, Follow Me" program, two years ago we learned about the New Testament. This past year we learned about the Book of Mormon. For 2021 we will concentrate on our Doctrine & Covenants, and next year we'll most likely read the Old Testament. And our Pearl of Great Price appears to be dispersed over all 4 years. All together, this constitutes our canon of scripture ... five books.

So, for this week's spiritual thought, I wanted to give y'all a heads up. I try to keep these posts open for everyone to read, including those who don't belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But this year provides somewhat of a challenge, as out of the five books, the Doctrine & Covenants (D&C for short) is the one book that covers actual Church history and revelations recorded by our prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., and a couple of other prophets.

I think what I may do this year is to take this as an opportunity to share some Church history tidbits so you non-members can learn more about what makes us all Latter-day Saints. Not with the intention of converting, but more with the intention of sharing information. The more we learn about others, the more we learn about ourselves. I constantly study other religions and what they have to offer, and more often than not, I find surprising similarities.

Also, one suggestion I'm given is to read the Church-published "Saints," which details a lot of history around the time of Joseph Smith. I'm getting ready to download this for my Kindle from Amazon for free. I believe it is available for free elsewhere as well. Let me search really fast ... it's available in HTML (you can read in your browser) here.

I have to admit that I'm actually light on Church history. I know all the big details that most members pick up in Sunday School, and I've read the first five fiction books of The Work and the Glory, which actually taught me several pieces of history, and plenty of stories from here and there, but that's about yet. 

So, this year I'm going to strengthen myself and give more effort to learn more about the history of my own church.

If I find anything cool, I'll share, but as always I'll try to keep this interesting for all readers.

I'm kind of excited about this new change of scenery. And perhaps, you too, can decide to spend the year attacking something new. Perhaps you can learn more about the history of your own particular denomination. Or about the beginnings of Christianity itself. Or about the history of other religions. If you're atheist (and still reading), I'm sure you can find something as well -- perhaps learn more about the atheistic movement? There is good to be learned from all experiences and history, and I invite you to join me in a fun journey this year. We'll see what happens.