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JON - Can you tell me why the "Book on Lectue on Faith it was removed from the Doctorine Covenents by Joseph Smith wote in there and I think in 1921 Joseph F. Smith removed it. Since it is accepted as scripture and written by Joesph Smith, we are encouraged to read it. All Morman Book stores carry it. It has also been mentioned by the Apostels to read it. There are so many changes in the the scriptures it is making me nevious that we might me loosing some things that should not be changed.
JOEL - The main reason the Church removed the lectures from the D&C in the 1921 edition is explained in the introduction:
"Beginning with the 1835 edition, a series of seven theological lessons was also included; these were titled the Lectures on Faith. These had been prepared for use in the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio, from 1834 to 1835. Although profitable for doctrine and instruction, these lectures have been omitted from the Doctrine and Covenants since the 1921 edition because they were not given or presented as revelations to the whole Church." (Introduction Doctrine and Covenants)
Here are a few other reasons according to President Joseph Fielding Smith:
They were written by a committee of a few people and not by direct revelation to Joseph Smith from God as the D&C was.
They are instructions relative to the general subject of faith.
They are not complete as to their teachings regarding the Godhead.
There are a few points of doctrine regarding the nature of the Godhead in the Lectures on Faith that might be interpreted differently compared to what was revealed in D&C 130.
The committee proposed to delete the 'Lectures on Faith' on the grounds that they were 'lessons prepared for use in the School of the Elders, conducted in Kirtland, Ohio, during the winter of 1834-35; but they were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons.'
Many regarded them as good as scripture but Leaders of the Church have consistently maintained that from the beginning a distinction was made between the Lectures on Faith and the revelations in the D&C.
I have a copy of the 1907 printing of the triple combination, which includes the Lectures on Faith and I have referred to them on occasion for additional insights into church doctrine. They are not written in the form of scripture that we normally see in our cannon of scriptures.
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