Home › Covenants
Conditional Covenants in the Doctrine & Covenants
A reference for testing whether the blessings promised to the restored church were unconditional guarantees or conditional covenants that could be — and by the revelations' own account, in some cases were — broken.
Anchor text — D&C 78:11-15 (the United Firm / United Order). The passage that prompted this catalog. The covenant structure it tracks is stated plainly here: an obligation ("organize yourselves by a bond or everlasting covenant that cannot be broken," v. 11), a promised blessing (the church standing "independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world," crowns, and rulership "over many kingdoms," vv. 14-15), and a promised curse ("he who breaketh it shall lose his office and standing in the church, and shall be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption," v. 12). Section 78 appears in its chronological place (March 1832) in the catalog below.
Note on scope. Sections are listed in chronological order by date of revelation. Section 132 is deliberately excluded on provenance grounds. "Scriptural verdict" below means a verdict the revelations themselves render (e.g., the Lord declaring a covenant broken); where the text renders none, that is stated rather than filled in with historical inference.
Chronological catalog
D&C 20 — Articles and Covenants of the Church (April 1830). The founding covenantal framework of the church: the baptismal covenant, the duties of members and officers, the terms of membership and fellowship. Obligation: the whole church bound to the articles and covenants. Blessing: standing as a member of Christ's church. Curse: those who transgress and repent not are "dealt with according to the covenants of the church" (20:80). Verdict: none rendered in the text; this is the constitutional baseline the later covenants build on.
D&C 21 — Heed the Prophet (April 6, 1830). Given the day the church was organized. Obligation: receive the prophet's word "as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith" (21:5). Blessing, explicitly conditioned on that heeding: "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you… and cause the heavens to shake for your good" (21:6). Verdict: none rendered. Significance: the promise of institutional preservation is conditional, not an unconditional guarantee of permanence.
D&C 38 — The Gathering to Ohio (Jan 2, 1831). A sweeping conditional promise to the whole body. Obligations: gather to Ohio; be one. Blessings: "there you shall be endowed with power from on high" (38:32); protection from enemies; "if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people" (38:39). Condition/curse: "if ye are not one ye are not mine" (38:27). Verdict: none directly rendered here. Open question for the thesis — whether the promised endowment "with power from on high" was in fact obtained.
D&C 41 — Receive the Law or Be Cast Out (Feb 4, 1831). Obligation: receive and do the law. Blessing: discipleship. Curse: "he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple, and shall be cast out from among you" (41:5). Verdict: none rendered; states the membership condition as bluntly as anywhere.
D&C 42 — "The Law of the Church" (Feb 9 & 23, 1831). The original consecration revelation and the direct precursor to the United Firm. Obligation: consecrate properties and receive stewardships (42:30-34); keep all the commandments (42:29). Blessing: inheritance and the temporal/spiritual order of Zion. Curse: those who sin and repent not are delivered up "unto the law of the land" and dealt with by the church (42:84-93). Verdict: the institutional attempt to live this law — the United Firm — is later declared broken in D&C 104:4-5, 52-53. Section 42 is arguably the foundational covenant the whole 78/82/104 sequence is enforcing.
D&C 58-59 — Missouri Consecration and the Sabbath (Aug 1 & 7, 1831). Obligation: build up Zion, keep the law of consecration in Missouri, observe the Sabbath and confess God's hand in all things. Blessings: "after much tribulation come the blessings" (58:4); "the fulness of the earth is yours" (59:16-20). Curse: those who confess not God's hand and obey not "the wrath of God" is kindled against them (59:21). Verdict: the Missouri failure is later addressed in 101 and 105 below.
D&C 64 — The Obedient and the Rebellious (Sept 11, 1831). Obligation: forgive one another (64:9-10); render a "willing" heart. Blessing: "the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days" (64:34). Curse: "the rebellious shall be cut off out of the land of Zion, and shall be sent away, and shall not inherit the land" (64:35). Verdict: none rendered here; the cutting-off is stated as a conditional future.
D&C 1 — The Preface (Nov 1, 1831). The Lord's own introduction to the Book of Commandments, addressed to the church and the world. Obligation: repent and keep the commandments. Blessing: "he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven" (1:32). Curse: "he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received" (1:33). On v. 15 ("they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant"): this is NOT a verdict against the restored church. The antecedent "they" traces back to v. 14 — "they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants… shall be cut off from among the people" — i.e., the inhabitants of the earth who reject the restored gospel, not the church's leaders. The language is drawn almost verbatim from Isaiah 24:5 ("The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant"), a global indictment of the apostate world. Reading v. 15 as an earlier/general apostasy (the condition the restoration answered) is therefore the stronger reading; dating it specifically to "shortly after Christ's ministry" is the Great Apostasy framework applied to the text rather than something the section timestamps on its own. Consistent with all this, v. 30 has the Lord "well pleased" with the restored church "collectively" (the "not individually" qualifier only leaves room for individual members falling short). So Section 1 places the restored church in good collective standing as of 1831 — it is not evidence of the church breaking covenant.
D&C 70 — The Literary Firm Stewardship (Nov 12, 1831). Obligation: faithful stewardship over the revelations/commandments. Called an "ensample" (70:9-11) — the same word used in the anchor text, 78:13. Blessing: "worthy of his hire" (70:12); stewardship honored. Curse: unfaithfulness in stewardship condemned. Verdict: none rendered; a structural precursor to the United Firm's stewardship principle.
D&C 78 — The United Firm (March 1, 1832). See the anchor text above. Obligation: organize by everlasting covenant. Blessing: the church standing independent, crowns, rulership. Curse: loss of office and standing, "buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption" (78:12). Verdict: broken — see 104.
D&C 82 — The United Firm Restated (April 26, 1832). Restates 78's covenant with nearly identical sanction: "the soul that sins against this covenant, and hardeneth his heart against it… shall be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption" (82:21). Contains the governing principle of the whole conditional logic: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise" (82:10). Verdict: broken — see 104.
D&C 84 — Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood; Condemnation of the Church (Sept 22-23, 1832). Obligation: receive the priesthood and magnify the calling. Blessing: sanctification and "all that my Father hath" (84:33-38). Curse: "whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come" (84:41). Verdict rendered in the same section: the whole church placed under condemnation for treating the Book of Mormon and the former commandments lightly — "which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation. And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all" (84:54-57). Directly central to the "fall" thesis.
D&C 97 — Zion Conditional (Aug 2, 1833). As explicit an if/then as the D&C contains: "Zion shall escape if she observe to do all things whatsoever I have commanded her. But if she observe not… I will visit her according to all her works, with sore affliction" (97:25-26). Verdict: the affliction followed — see 101.
D&C 101 — Why Zion Was Afflicted (Dec 16-17, 1833). Renders the verdict on the Missouri Zion: "in consequence of their transgressions" the Saints "must needs be chastened" (101:2). Names the causes — "jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes" (101:6). Verdict: covenant broken; blessing withheld through the people's own fault, per the text.
D&C 103 — The Call to Redeem Zion (Feb 24, 1834). The revelation organizing what became Zion's Camp. Obligation: gather "the strength of my house" to redeem Zion, and keep the commandments. Blessing: the Saints will "prevail against mine enemies" and are appointed to be "the saviors of men" (103:9-10). Curse: "inasmuch as they are not the saviors of men, they are as salt that has lost its savor… good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men" (103:10); if they pollute their inheritances they "shall be thrown down" (103:14). Verdict: the outcome is rendered four months later in 105 — the redemption deferred.
D&C 104 — The United Firm Broken and Dissolved (April 23, 1834). The Lord's own verdict on the covenant of 78/82: some "have broken the covenant through covetousness, and with feigned words, I have cursed them with a very sore and grievous curse" (104:4-5); the order is then formally reorganized/dissolved (104:52-53). The clearest instance of a named restoration covenant declared broken by the Lord.
D&C 105 — Redemption of Zion Deferred (June 22, 1834). The verdict on the Zion's Camp obligation of 103. The redemption waits "for a little season" because "they do not learn to be obedient to the things which I require at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil" (105:9-10), and because the Saints did not impart of their substance as becometh Zion (105:3). A conditional blessing explicitly deferred by covenant failure.
D&C 124 — Rejection as a Church (Jan 19, 1841). The Nauvoo temple/Nauvoo House commandments made conditional with an appointed time. Curse stated at church-wide scale: "if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God" (124:31-32; see 124:45-48). Verdict: none rendered in the text at the time of the revelation; the appointed-time condition is the sharpest test of whether the church stood or fell.
D&C 130:20-21 — The Underlying Principle (April 2, 1843). The theological rule beneath every entry above: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated — And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." Establishes that no blessing in the restoration is unconditional by nature.
Summary
| Section (date) | Obligation | Promised blessing | Promised curse | Scriptural verdict on keeping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 (Apr 1830) | Live the articles & covenants | Membership in Christ's church | Dealt with per church covenants | None rendered |
| 21 (Apr 1830) | Heed the prophet | Gates of hell shall not prevail | (Conditional — implied loss) | None rendered |
| 38 (Jan 1831) | Gather; be one | Endowment of power; riches; safety | "If ye are not one ye are not mine" | None; endowment fulfillment is open |
| 41 (Feb 1831) | Receive and do the law | Discipleship | Cast out from among you | None rendered |
| 42 (Feb 1831) | Consecrate; keep commandments | Inheritance / order of Zion | Delivered to law; dealt with | Broken via United Firm (see 104) |
| 58-59 (Aug 1831) | Build Zion; keep Sabbath | Fulness of the earth | Wrath kindled | Failure addressed in 101, 105 |
| 64 (Sept 1831) | Willing heart; forgive | Eat the good of Zion | Rebellious cut off from Zion | None rendered |
| 1 (Nov 1831) | Repent, keep commandments | Forgiveness | Light taken away | Church "collectively" well pleased (v. 30); v. 15 = the apostate world (cf. Isa. 24:5), NOT the restored church |
| 70 (Nov 1831) | Faithful stewardship | Worthy of hire | Condemnation | None rendered |
| 78 (Mar 1832) | United Firm covenant | Independence; crowns; rulership | Buffetings of Satan | Broken (see 104) |
| 82 (Apr 1832) | United Firm covenant | (as 78) | Buffetings of Satan | Broken (see 104) |
| 84 (Sept 1832) | Magnify priesthood | Sanctification; "all the Father hath" | No forgiveness this world or next | Whole church under condemnation (84:54-57) |
| 97 (Aug 1833) | Zion obedient | Zion escapes | Sore affliction | Affliction followed (101) |
| 101 (Dec 1833) | (verdict section) | — | — | Chastened for transgressions |
| 103 (Feb 1834) | Redeem Zion (Zion's Camp) | Prevail; be "saviors of men" | Cast down; as savorless salt | Outcome deferred (see 105) |
| 104 (Apr 1834) | (verdict section) | — | Sore & grievous curse | Covenant broken; order dissolved |
| 105 (Jun 1834) | (verdict section) | — | Delay | Redemption deferred "a little season" (105:9-10) |
| 124 (Jan 1841) | Build temple by appointed time | (blessings of the house) | Rejected as a church, with your dead | None rendered at the time |
| 130:20-21 (1843) | (principle) | Any blessing | — | All blessings conditional by law |
Pattern. From the organization of the church (21), through its founding law (42) and gathering promise (38), the central blessings — protection, endowment "with power from on high," inheritance in Zion, and even "the gates of hell shall not prevail" — are consistently framed as conditional. And in multiple sections the revelations themselves render a verdict that the conditions were not met: 84:54-57 (whole church under condemnation), 101/105 (Zion chastened and its redemption deferred), and 104:4-5 (the United Firm covenant broken and cursed). Section 1:15 is deliberately excluded from that list: on the stronger reading its "broken everlasting covenant" describes the apostate world that occasioned the restoration — echoing Isaiah 24:5 — not the restored church, which v. 30 places in good collective standing as of 1831. Whether the genuine verdict passages amount to a "fall" of the church, or to correctable chastisement within a still-standing covenant, is the interpretive question the pattern sets up.