Doctrine and Covenants 49

(October 14, 2015)

                The process of revelation is a powerful and interesting one.  Here we have revelation given on the subject of the appearance of Christ at the Second Coming.  We know, from this section, that He will not appear as a woman nor as a man traveling.  Both of these are received by revelation.

                But there is a great deal of things that are not answered by this particular revelation.  Why include the language that He will not appear as a woman, and not answer one of those questions?  The reason is that there had been a particular problem at the time of some people believing the idea that Christ was coming (or had come) in the form of a woman.  So the revelation which came from God came to address a particular subject at a particular time.

                Presumably (and I don’t know this, of course) we do not have as many large, doctrinal revelations occurring in our Church as did in the days of Joseph Smith.  But the revelations addressing the matters as they arise are just as powerful and just as important.  And they will come one at a time, issue by issue.