D&C 29

In Doctrine and Covenants 29, the Lord is speaking to his people. The verse starts off using metonymy, a type of poetry found frequently in the Hebrew Bible, to describe how the Lord atoned for us. Because of this, I view this as another example that these revelations truly are the voice of the Lord rather than the words of a young farm boy with limited education. Next, a major theme of this section is the gathering of the saints. This theme has been central to many sections in Doctrine and Covenants already, but this time, it is in connection to last day prophesies. The gathering sounds like rapture as those left behind get burned as stubble. However, I think this gathering and destruction that must happen before the Lord comes was already fulfilled. Saints physically gathered to Utah afterwards, the Lord poured out destruction upon the United States. Finally, we talk about how the Lord never at any time gave temporal commandments, but always spiritual commandments.