Jesse Gause and D&C 81

[_honorentheos]

If you are like me, you may never have heard of Jesse Gause despite having grown up in the church or becoming familiar with it's history and organization.

Jesse Gause was a convert to the church, formerly of the shaker faith, who became the first counsellor to Joseph Smith in the original First Presidency of the restoration.

The original Kirkland Revelation Book records this event which we now have as D&C Section 81. It began -

"83 Revelation given to Jesse Gause Hiram Portage March 15. 1832 - Verily I say unto you my servant Jesse listen to the voice of him who speaketh to the word of the Lord your God & hearken to the calling wherewith you are called even to be a high Priest in my Church & counsellor unto my Servant Joseph..."

Despite being the first counselor to Joseph, his career in the church was short lived, with his disappearing from not only the history but the very memory of the church. As I understand it, his reemergence into a place in church history is owed in large measure to Michael Quinn who brought awareness to his very existence let alone the important place in early church history even though it is only faintly that we see this even now.

I find this interesting on many accounts. First, the Book of Commandments published in 1835 had changed the original revelation given to act as if it were given to Fredrick Williams. Why is that?

Section 90 of the D&C provides further direction regarding the first presidency and clearly names Williams as the counsellor along with Rigdon, so why write Gause out of the history of the church, going so far as to manipulate revelation?

[_Fence Sitter]

Honor,

As you know it was pretty common to revise revelations. You could ask the same question of almost any revision. Obviously revisions like this were being made to promote a faithful view of revelations. If they left his name in there inevitably there would be the question of why would God give a revelation like that to someone who would just walk away from the church.

“Upon his return to Kirtland, Jesse was called to serve a mission with Zebedee Coltrin. They began their journey on 1 August 1932, and traveled until the 19th, at which time Coltrin decided to return to Kirtland because of severe pains in his head. After praying with and for each other, they parted. Jesse Gause continued east and walked right out of the history of the Church, never again to return. There appears to be no other record of the man either in or out of the Church.

So he was gone well before the 1835 Book of Commandments was published.

[_honorentheos]

Very true, fence sitter. I wonder if most active LDS are comfortable with this, though? Or is it just not well known that current recorded revelations are revised or redacted versions of what was actually spoken at that time?

What I also find interesting about Gause is that the revelation in Section 81 is included in the History of the Church, vol. 1 with the FGW modification. Gause was literally written out of LDS history.

[_Fence Sitter]

Very true, fence sitter. I wonder if most active LDS are comfortable with this, though? Or is it just not well known that current recorded revelations are revised or redacted versions of what was actually spoken at that time?

What I also find interesting about Gause is that the revelation in Section 81 is included in the History of the Church, vol. 1 with the FGW modification. Gause was literally written out of LDS history.

I do not believe most active LDS are aware of or care about the extent and nature of the revisions to their history and sacred scripture.

The History of The Church is a great example of partisan history.

[_zeezrom]

Let us rejoice. For, if Jesse had not left the church, our Runtu would not exist. http://runtu.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/w ... ds-church/

[_ludwigm]

Oliver Granger in D&C 117:12 is a similar story, IMHO.

Richard Packham has a good article about.

[_honorentheos]

Thanks for sharing the information above, Zeez and Ludwigm. Very interesting.