What most
Latter-day Saints have been taught in church and believe as truth.
Oliver
Cowdery’s Gift
It’s not often talked about in Church these days, but in Section 8 of the
Doctrine and Covenants it discusses in length the special gift given
to Oliver Cowdery called the “gift of Aaron”.
The heading to Section 8 provides the context
for the discussion:
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the
Prophet to Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829…In the
course of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Oliver, who continued to serve
as scribe, writing at the Prophet’s dictation, desired to be endowed with the
gift of translation. The Lord responded to his supplication by granting this
revelation.
The revelation states, in relevant part:
6. Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another
gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things;
7. Behold, there is no other power, save the
power of God, that can cause this gift of Aaron to be with you.
8. Therefore, doubt not, for it is the gift
of God; and you shall hold it in your hands, and do marvelous works;
and no power shall be able to take it away out of your hands, for it is the
work of God.
9. And, therefore, whatsoever you shall ask
me to tell you by that means, that will I grant unto you, and you shall
have knowledge concerning it.
10. Remember that without faith you can do
nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; do not ask
for that which you ought not.
11. Ask that you may know the mysteries
of God, and that you may translate and receive knowledge from all those
ancient records which have been hid up, that are sacred; and according to
your faith shall it be done unto you.
(D&C 8:6-11, emphasis added)
From this account, we don’t really know much
about what exactly the gift of Aaron is that Oliver Cowdery received but most
members are under the impression that it has something to do with being the
spokesman for God.
Reference: http://www.gospeldoctrine.com/DoctrineandCovenants/DC%208.htm
Significant
details & problems that most Latter-day Saints are not aware of.
What is “the gift of Aaron”? The text provides several clues. First, Oliver has a history of using it, since
“it has told [him] many things”. Second,
it is “the gift of God”. Third, it is to
be held in Oliver’s hands (and kept there, impervious to any power). Fourth, it allows Oliver to “do marvelous
works”. Fifth, it is “the work of God”. Sixth, the Lord will speak through it to
Oliver and tell him anything he asks while using it. Seventh, it works through faith. Finally, it enables Oliver to translate
ancient sacred documents.
With only these clues, the gift of Aaron remains
very hard to identify. The task becomes
much easier, however, when we look at the original version of the revelation
contained in The
Book of Commandments, a predecessor volume to The Doctrine and Covenants, used
by the
Now this is not all, for you have another gift,
which is the gift of working with the rod: behold it has told you
things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of
nature, to work in your hands…
What is the gift of Aaron? It is a “rod of nature”.
What is a “rod of nature”? The historical record
indicates that it is a divining rod (or dousing rod), which Oliver Cowdery used as
a youth to hunt for buried treasure. See e.g., Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon
Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 1: 603-05, 619-20. Cowdery’s use of a divining rod to search for
buried treasure evokes similar images of Joseph Smith hunting
for treasure with a stone in a hat. Oliver also wished to use his divining rod, in
the same way Joseph Smith used his stone and hat, to
translate ancient scriptures. Section 8 of the Doctrine
and Covenants indicates that the Lord, through Joseph Smith, granted Oliver’s
request.
If Oliver Cowdery’s gift was really a divining
rod then this seems to indicate that the origins of the Church are much more involved in folk magic and
superstition than we’ve been lead to believe by the
Was the Rod of Aaron really a physical object?
Some faithful
members say that when the Book of
Commandments refers to a ‘rod’ that it isn’t really a physical rod but a
metaphor and thus cannot be a divining rod.
Read the following phrases from the Book
of Commandments:
‘you shall hold it in your hands…and no power shall be able to
take it away out of your hands.’
The scripture refers to a physical object that Oliver held in
his hands.
What does
the
The following
is taken in its entirety from the Gospel Doctrine study Guide:
DC 8:6 the gift of Aaron
Joseph Fielding Smith
There was another gift bestowed upon Oliver Cowdery, and that
was the gift of Aaron. Like Aaron with his rod in his hand going before Moses
as a spokesman, so Oliver Cowdery was to go before Joseph Smith. Whatever he
should ask the Lord by power of this gift should be granted if asked in faith and
in wisdom. Oliver was blessed with the great honor of holding the keys of this
dispensation with Joseph Smith, and like Aaron [Ex. 4:10-17], did become a
spokesman on numerous occasions. It was Oliver who delivered the first public
discourse in this dispensation.(Roy W. Doxey, comp., Latter-day Prophets and
the Doctrine and Covenants [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1978], 1: 82.)
DC 8:8 you shall hold it in your hands
How could Oliver Cowdery hold the gift of Aaron in his hands? A
review of the first edition of the Book of Commandments makes this verse more
clear. In the original, the preceding verses read as follows:
“Now this is not all, for you have another gift, which is the
gift of working with the rod: behold
it has told you things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause
this rod of nature, to work in your
hands, for it is the work of God.” (Melvin J. Petersen, “Preparing Early
Revelations for Publication,” Ensign,
Feb. 1985, 20)
Oliver held this rod (symbolic of the rod of Aaron and the gift
of Aaron) in his hands. Oliver was in
possession of a rod—an instrument for divining the Lord’s will which worked
much like a Urim and Thummim. The possession of such a rod explains why the
next verse says, ‘you shall hold it in your hands…and no power shall be able to
take it away out of your hands.’
“It seems evident that the Lord entrusted Oliver with a sacred
instrument through which he could translate by the Spirit of revelation…
Having received instructions on the use of the sacred instrument which he
possessed, Oliver Cowdery sought to translate from the Plates of Mormon,
probably through the instrument which had been entrusted into his care. But he
failed.” (Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrinal
Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co.,
1967], 6.)
Reference: http://www.gospeldoctrine.com/DoctrineandCovenants/DC%208.htm
Per the LDS
gospel doctrine guide, the rod was a physical object – a ‘sacred instrument
through which he could translate’.
Why did the Church eliminate the word ‘rod’ from
its scriptures?
A logical question is, “why were the scriptures altered from the original
revelation to remove any mention of the word ‘rod’?” Critics would say that the Church was trying
to move away from anything that made its origins seem less Holy and more superstitious.
Well meaning, educated, reasonable people learning about the heavy
involvement in magic and the occult by early LDS leaders, find adequate justification
to label the LDS church, a cult.
Divining rods are viewed as a superstitious tool used by superstitious
people and not something God would have his apostles use. Thoughtful people view the seer stones Joseph
Smith used as another magical instrument used to trick the gullible. The
From an
The money diggers used divining rods to find buried
treasure. They were also used as "a medium of revelation." Those who
used divining rods were at times referred to as "rodsmen." Richard P.
Howard, RLDS church historian, makes some startling admissions in a book
published by his church:
Several writers have
established that both in
By the time that Joseph Smith
approached the reinterpretation and rewording of this document for the 1835
edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, he had had time and experience necessary
to place his 1829 assessment of the meaning of Cowdery's gift of working with
the rod in a somewhat more accurate perspective. Both he and Cowdery had
developed away from an emphasis on the religious or mystical meanings in such
mechanical objects as the water witching rod. Joseph's 1835 wording of this
document ... left behind the apparent 1829 reliance upon external media,
which by 1835 had assumed in Joseph's mind overtones of superstition and
speculative experimentation (Restoration Scriptures, Independence, Mo..
1969, pp.211-14).
We are not aware of any writer in the Utah Mormon
church who has been this honest about the change concerning the gift of working
with the rod in Joseph Smith's revelation, but Marvin S. Hill, assistant
professor of history at BYU, has admitted that "when Oliver Cowdery took
up his duties as a scribe for Joseph Smith in 1829 he had a rod in his
possession which Joseph Smith sanctioned...." (Dialogue: A Journal
of Mormon Thought, Winter 1972, p.78). Marvin Hill goes on to state:
"Some of the rodsmen or money diggers who moved into Mormonism were
Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Orrin P. Rockwell, Joseph and Newel Knight, and
Josiah Stowell." It is interesting to note that Marvin Hill includes two
of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon in his list of "rodsmen or
money diggers."* (In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pp.47-49, we
reproduced a number of affidavits and statements linking Joseph Smith to peep
stones, divining rods and money-digging.)
Reference: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech4.htm
What does
the
Brigham Young
explained why some alterations were made in the Book of Commandments:
“When revelations are given through an individual
appointed to receive them, they are given to the understandings of the people.
These revelations, after a lapse of years, become mystified to those who were
not personally acquainted with the circumstances at the time they were given.”
(Journal of Discourses, 3:333.)
Melvin J.
Petersen wrote, “The meaning of this revelation as recorded in the Book of Commandments and in the Doctrine
and Covenants is not clear. History does not record that Oliver Cowdery or
anyone else living at the time it was given had a problem understanding it, but
today some of the revelation (as given in the original) is unclear to us.”
(Melvin J. Petersen, “Preparing Early Revelations for Publication,” Ensign, Feb. 1985, 20)
Accordingly,
when the text of the revelation was prepared for review in 1835, it was
altered. But who changed it? Both Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were part of
the “committee to revise the Book of Commandments when the wording of this 1829
revelation was changed.” (“The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching” by
Richard Lloyd Anderson Fn, BYU Studies,
vol. 24 (1984), Number 4 - Fall 1984)
Oliver Cowdery’s experience with a divining rod.
It is known that Oliver Cowdery and his father were ‘rodsmen’
before Oliver joined the Church.
From D. Michael Quinn’s book Early
Mormonism and the Magic World View:
... a religious group began using forked divining rods for
revelatory purposes in
The Wood group's civil prominence, fervor, and open conflict with non-believers
led to the so-called "Wood Scrape," a sensational event known far
beyond the Cowdery family's residence six miles away. The Wood group's
"Fraternity of Rodsmen" boldly prophesied they would inherit that
region of the country in an apocalyptic event on 14 January 1802.... This was
happening six miles from the Cowderys' home....
From 1800 to 1802, Nathaniel Wood's "use of the rod was
mostly as a medium of revelation"... A connection between William Cowdery
and the Wood Scrape would help to explain why his son Oliver had a rod through
which he received revelations....
To read more on
this from Quinn (about 1/3 of the way
down):
http://olivercowdery.com/gathering/Newisrael.htm
Also: Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents
(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 1: 603-05, 619-20
Using the Rod to find where the temple was to be built.
Recently the Mormon writer D. Michael
Quinn has admitted that "Oliver Cowdery was by revelation given the gift
of working with a 'rod of nature...'" (Brigham
Young University Studies, Fall 1978, p.82). Dr. Quinn further informs that
"during the Nauvoo period Apostle Heber C. Kimball 'inquired by the rod'
in prayer." In a footnote in the same article the following is cited from
the Anthon H. Lund Journal for July 5,1901: "in the revelation to Oliver
Cowdery in May 1829, Bro. [B. H.] Roberts said that the gift which the Lord
says he has in his hand meant a stick which was like Aaron's Rod. It is said
Bro. Phineas Young [brother-in-law of Oliver Cowdery and brother of Brigham
Young] got it from him [Cowdery] and gave it to President Young who had it with
him when he arrived in this [
Reference: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech4.htm
The treasure hunt.
In addition to using a divining rod to find water,
many rodsmen used a rod in an effort to find treasure. Joseph Smith's interest in treasure hunting
continued even after he published the Book of Mormon. Ebenezer Robinson,
who was at one time the editor of the Mormon paper, Times and Seasons,
gave the following information:
A brother in the church, by
the name of Burgess, had come to Kirtland and stated that a large amount of
money had been secreted in a cellar of a certain house in
Ebenezer Robinson goes on to state: "We soon learned
that four of the leading men of the church had been to Salem, Massachusetts, in
search of the hidden treasure spoken of by Brother Burgess, viz: Joseph Smith,
Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery. They left home on the 25th of
July, and returned in September."
Joseph Smith's History tells of this trip: "On
Monday afternoon, July 25th, in company with Sidney Rigdon, Brother Hyrum
Smith, and Oliver Cowdery, I left Kirtland, ...and arrived in Salem,
Massachusetts, early in August, where we hired a house, and occupied the same
during the month ..." (History of the Church, vol. 2, p.464).
On August 6, 1836, Joseph Smith received a revelation
concerning this treasure hunt, which is still published in the Doctrine and
Covenants. In this revelation we read the following:
I, the Lord your God, am not
displeased with your coming this journey, notwithstanding your follies.
I have much treasure in
this city for you,... and its wealth pertaining to gold and silver shall be
yours.
Concern not yourselves about
your debts, for I will give you power to pay them. ...inquire diligently
concerning the more ancient inhabitants and founders of this city;
For there are more treasure
than one for you in this city (Doctrine and Covenants, (111:1, 2, 4, 9,
10).
Mr. Robinson stated that the treasure was never found,
and Joseph Smith was unable to pay his debts as the revelation had promised.
The Mormon historian B. H. Roberts admitted that the Mormon leaders went to
Although there’s no specific mention of Oliver’s rod
being used to try to find this treasure, the story illustrates the magical
mindset and raw attempts to find money and treasure. This was a major motivation of early church
leaders: Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon.
Reference: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech4.htm
Do divining rods really work.
Whenever divining rods are discussed,
there are some people, even today, that say they do actually work –at least to
find water. Several people still use
divining rods today to attempt to find water.
As illustrated here:
The simple fact
is that divining rods are not able to reliably find water or treasure. I watched a show on TV a few years back that offered
a $1 million prize to anyone that could determine where water was using a divining
rod. Several dowsers tried but all
failed. The Amazing Randi, a magician
and famed debunker of psychics and hoaxers, has a standing $1 million challenge
to anyone that can prove paranormal activity, including use of a divining rod
in a controlled environment. His
challenge has yet to be claimed by anyone using a divining rod. To quote from Randi’s site: “No, dowsing does not work, and the majority of claims made for the JREF million-dollar
prize are directed at this remarkable self-delusion…”
Reference: http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/38/31/
Faithful LDS member response.
Critics of the church like to imply that
the "gift of working with the rod" refers to a typical y-shaped
divining rod that Oliver Cowdery used in the superstitious practice of divining
for water. Although divining for water
was a common practice in those days, other historical records have described
the rod, more like that of Aaron's, as a
long staff that was held in one hand. If
Aaron could have one, why not Oliver?
Reference: http://www.mormonhaven.com/allen.htm
Critic’s response.
Aaron (assuming
he’s even a real person from history) using a staff 4,000 years ago is a little
different than Oliver Cowdery using it in the 19th century. Oliver wasn’t commanded by God to cast his
staff down in front of the Pharaoh to have it turn into a snake and devour the Pharaoh’s
magicians’ snakes. Also there’s no
mention that Aaron used his staff for revelation or for finding water or
treasure with. As was a common practice
in the desert in 2000 BC, he probably mostly used his staff as a walking
stick. Also, since Aaron’s staff was
given to Moses by Pharaoh, there is a certain symbolism for having Moses or
Aaron use this same staff to perform miracles with – particularly in Pharaoh’s
presence.
If it is not an embarrassment to use a magical rod or staff,
or magic rocks placed in the bottom of a hat, then why aren’t these tools used
today by the first elder of the church?
What would the faithful members of the church say today if the First Presidency
used a magic rock, staff or rod to obtain revelation?
As the Church began to grow, the leaders of the early church were
embarrassed by the magical practices that were fundamental to the development
of the Church such as the use of seer stones and divining rods. If we accept the beginnings of the Church as
actual events, then we must believe that the rod Oliver used was more than just
a stick, and that the stone Joseph used to translate the Book of Mormon with
was a magic stone. We can see why the
Church has moved away from even talking about these things. The church leaders today have distanced
themselves from external devices believed to have magic power, to receive God’s
revelations. But the historical record
is clear that the early Mormon leaders relied on special ‘sticks and stones’ in
order to produce “the revelations” they claimed were from God.
Links
Supporting the critics:
Special thanks to
imagesoftherestoration.org for providing the picture of Oliver using the Rod and
historical commentary. http://www.imagesoftherestoration.org/blog/
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_olivercowdrey.html
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech4.htm
http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=61803
http://loydo38.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Supporting the church:
http://www.gospeldoctrine.com/DoctrineandCovenants/DC%208.htm
http://www.mormonhaven.com/allen.htm
http://gospelink.com/next/doc?book_doc_id=267642
Neutral:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Page
http://olivercowdery.com/gathering/Newisrael.htm