Confused in D&C

[thewb73]

I have been reading the Doctrine & Covenants and I'm confused as to who is speaking to Joseph Smith. Is it Heavenly Father or is it the Lord Jesus Christ?

I was taught that we pray to God the Father and he answers our prayers accordingly. However, when I read the revelations given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, I cannot tell if it is the Savior or God the Father who is doing it.

Section 1 in D&C is the preface and it appears that it is the Lord (and I mean the Lord Jesus Christ) speaking. I stumbled across something while readling the student manual for D&C and Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith said, "...it is the only book in existence which bears the honor of the preface given by the Lord himself..."

So is it the Savior or is it God the Father? Can someone help me out? Thanks in advance!

[McLainDow]

It is Jesus Christ that speaks to Joseph Smith.

[skippy740]

As far as I know, the only written words of God the Father in the scriptures, are those that testify of His Son - "This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"

This (or similar words) were at the Baptism of Christ, Christ's visit to the America's (3 Nephi 11) and when both God the Father and Christ visited the boy Joseph in the Sacred Grove.

[Just_A_Guy]

BUT: Christ speaks the words the Father Himself would speak were He present--that's a concept sometimes called "divine investiture of authority". So sometimes scriptures that originated with the Son will lapse into the perspective of Elohim.

Moreover, we tend to think of each and every revelation in the D&C as a Section 76 or D&C 110-esque vision where Jesus descends from on high and dictates the revelation personally. I don't think that's the case at all. I think Joseph received these sections through a variety of means--sometimes direct vision, sometimes the whisperings of the Spirit, and sometimes by means of the Urim and Thummim/seer stone. And he wrote them in the best language he knew how--but there was never a guarantee that the language would be perfect (see also here).

Edited October 2, 2013 by Just_A_Guy