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Section 80

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Doctrine and Covenants Contexts
Page 191

Stephen Burnett started fast. He converted at age sixteen and was ordained a teacher, then an elder, and then a high priest before he turned eighteen. He was filled with the Holy Ghost and a desire to take the gospel to his relatives. He led his parents into the Church and was called to preach in January 1832 (Doctrine and Covenants 75:35) and again in March by section 80.

Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith started their mission on July 15 and spent a few days together declaring the gospel in villages south of Kirtland, Ohio.328 Stephen also went east with success. He “was the first one that sounded the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel” in Dalton, New Hampshire.329 By 1838, Stephen felt completely disillusioned. He tried but failed to regain the Spirit. Finally, he “proclaimed all revelation lies” and left the Church. He said that the foundation of his faith failed and the entire structure fell in “a heap of ruins.”330 Joseph thought there was more to it. He thought that Stephen’s unwillingness to consecrate his life to the kingdom of God contributed to his unconversion.331

Notes

  1. 328. Eden Smith, Journal, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. Stephen Burnett had earlier preached with Eden Smith’s father, John. See Lyndon Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Seventy’s Mission Bookstore, 1981), 170, 314.

  2. 329. Levi B. Wilder to the editor, February 15, 1835, in Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 5 (February 1835): 75.

  3. 330. “Letterbook 2,” p. 64, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-2/69.

  4. 331. “Elders’ Journal, August 1838,” p. 57, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-august-1838/9.