Scriptures
Doctrine and Covenants 76


Section 76

A vision given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Sidney Rigdon, at Hiram, Ohio, February 16, 1832. Prefacing the record of this vision, Joseph Smith’s history states: “Upon my return from Amherst conference, I resumed the translation of the Scriptures. From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of man had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled. It appeared self-evident from what truths were left, that if God rewarded every one according to the deeds done in the body the term ‘Heaven,’ as intended for the Saints’ eternal home, must include more kingdoms than one. Accordingly, … while translating St. John’s Gospel, myself and Elder Rigdon saw the following vision.” At the time this vision was given, the Prophet was translating John 5:29.

1–4, The Lord is God; 5–10, The mysteries of the kingdom will be revealed to all the faithful; 11–17, All will come forth in the resurrection of the just or the unjust; 18–24, The inhabitants of many worlds are begotten sons and daughters unto God through the Atonement of Jesus Christ; 25–29, An angel of God fell and became the devil; 30–49, Sons of perdition suffer eternal damnation; all others gain some degree of salvation; 50–70, The glory and reward of exalted beings in the celestial kingdom is described; 71–80, Those who will inherit the terrestrial kingdom are described; 81–113, The status of those in the telestial, terrestrial, and celestial glories is explained; 114–19, The faithful may see and understand the mysteries of God’s kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 aHear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice ye inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is bGod, and beside him there is cno dSavior.

2 aGreat is his wisdom, bmarvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out.

3 His apurposes fail not, neither are there any who can stay his hand.

4 From eternity to eternity he is the asame, and his years never bfail.

5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am amerciful and gracious unto those who bfear me, and delight to honor those who cserve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their aglory.

7 And to them will I areveal all bmysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.

8 Yea, even the wonders of aeternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.

9 And their awisdom shall be great, and their bunderstanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall cperish, and the understanding of the dprudent shall come to naught.

10 For by my aSpirit will I benlighten them, and by my cpower will I make known unto them the dsecrets of my ewill—yea, even those things which feye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

11 We, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, being ain the Spirit on the sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two—

12 By the power of the aSpirit our beyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God—

13 Even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the abeginning;

14 Of whom we bear record; and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we aconversed in the heavenly bvision.

15 For while we were doing the work of atranslation, which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John, which was given unto us as follows—

16 Speaking of the resurrection of the dead, concerning those who shall ahear the voice of the bSon of Man:

17 And shall come forth; athey who have done bgood, in the cresurrection of the djust; and they who have done evil, in the resurrection of the unjust.

18 Now this caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of the Spirit.

19 And while we ameditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the bglory of the Lord shone round about.

20 And we beheld the aglory of the Son, on the bright hand of the cFather, and received of his fulness;

21 And saw the holy aangels, and them who are bsanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who cworship him forever and ever.

22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the atestimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he blives!

23 For we asaw him, even on the bright hand of cGod; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the dOnly Begotten of the Father—

24 That by ahim, and through him, and of him, the bworlds are and were created, and the cinhabitants thereof are begotten dsons and daughters unto God.

25 And this we saw also, and bear record, that an aangel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who brebelled against the Only Begotten cSon whom the Father dloved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son,

26 And was called aPerdition, for the heavens bwept over him—he was cLucifer, a son of the morning.

27 And we beheld, and lo, he is afallen! is fallen, even a son of the morning!

28 And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision; for we beheld Satan, that old aserpent, even the bdevil, who rebelled against God, and sought to take the kingdom of our cGod and his Christ—

29 Wherefore, he maketh awar with the saints of God, and encompasseth them round about.

30 And we saw a vision of the asufferings of those with whom he made war and overcame, for thus came the voice of the Lord unto us:

31 Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and asuffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power—

32 They are they who are the asons of bperdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born;

33 For they are avessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity;

34 Concerning whom I have said there is ano bforgiveness in this world nor in the world to come—

35 Having adenied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father, having bcrucified him unto themselves and put him to an open cshame.

36 These are they who shall go away into the alake of fire and brimstone, with the devil and his angels—

37 And the aonly ones on whom the bsecond cdeath shall have any power;

38 Yea, verily, the only ones who shall anot be redeemed in the due time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his wrath.

39 For all the rest shall be abrought forth by the resurrection of the dead, through the btriumph and the glory of the Lamb, who was slain, who was in the bosom of the Father cbefore the worlds were made.

40 And this is the agospel, the glad btidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—

41 That he acame into the world, even Jesus, to be bcrucified for the world, and to cbear the sins of the dworld, and to esanctify the world, and to fcleanse it from all unrighteousness;

42 That through him all might be asaved whom the Father had put into his bpower and made by him;

43 Who aglorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of bperdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him.

44 Wherefore, he saves all aexcept them—they shall go away into beverlasting cpunishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to dreign with the edevil and his angels in eternity, where their fworm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment—

45 And the aend thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows;

46 Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof;

47 Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by avision unto many, but straightway shut it up again;

48 Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the adepth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are bordained unto this ccondemnation.

49 And we heard the voice, saying: aWrite the vision, for lo, this is the end of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly.

50 And again we bear record—for we asaw and heard, and this is the btestimony of the cgospel of Christ concerning them who shall come forth in the resurrection of the djust

51 They are they who received the atestimony of Jesus, and bbelieved on his name and were cbaptized after the dmanner of his burial, being eburied in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given—

52 That by akeeping the commandments they might be bwashed and ccleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the dhands of him who is eordained and sealed unto this power;

53 And who aovercome by faith, and are bsealed by the Holy Spirit of cpromise, which the Father dsheds forth upon all those who are just and true.

54 They are they who are the achurch of the bFirstborn.

55 They are they into whose hands the Father has given aall things—

56 They are they who are apriests and bkings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory;

57 And are apriests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of bEnoch, which was after the corder of the Only Begotten Son.

58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are agods, even the bsons of cGod

59 Wherefore, aall things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

60 And they shall aovercome all things.

61 Wherefore, let no man aglory in man, but rather let him bglory in God, who shall csubdue all enemies under his feet.

62 These shall adwell in the bpresence of God and his Christ forever and ever.

63 These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall acome in the bclouds of heaven to creign on the earth over his people.

64 These are they who shall have part in the afirst resurrection.

65 These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the ajust.

66 These are they who are come unto aMount bZion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.

67 These are they who have come to an innumerable company of aangels, to the general assembly and church of bEnoch, and of the cFirstborn.

68 These are they whose names are awritten in heaven, where God and Christ are the bjudge of all.

69 These are they who are ajust men made bperfect through Jesus the mediator of the cnew covenant, who wrought out this perfect datonement through the shedding of his own eblood.

70 These are they whose bodies are acelestial, whose bglory is that of the csun, even the glory of God, the dhighest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.

71 And again, we saw the aterrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the church of the bFirstborn who have received the fulness of the Father, even as that of the cmoon differs from the sun in the firmament.

72 Behold, these are they who died awithout blaw;

73 And also they who are the aspirits of men kept in bprison, whom the Son visited, and cpreached the dgospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh;

74 Who areceived not the btestimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.

75 These are they who are ahonorable men of the earth, who were bblinded by the craftiness of men.

76 These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fulness.

77 These are they who receive of the apresence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father.

78 Wherefore, they are abodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun.

79 These are they who are not avaliant in the btestimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.

80 And now this is the end of the avision which we saw of the terrestrial, that the Lord commanded us to bwrite while we were yet in the Spirit.

81 And again, we asaw the glory of the btelestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the cglory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament.

82 These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the atestimony of Jesus.

83 These are they who adeny not the Holy Spirit.

84 These are they who are thrust down to ahell.

85 These are they who shall not be redeemed from the adevil until the blast resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the cLamb, shall have finished his work.

86 These are they who receive not of his fulness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial;

87 And the terrestrial through the aministration of the celestial.

88 And also the telestial receive it of the administering of angels who are appointed to minister for them, or who are appointed to be aministering spirits for them; for they shall be bheirs of salvation.

89 And thus we saw, in the heavenly vision, the glory of the atelestial, which surpasses all understanding;

90 And no man knows it except him to whom God has revealed it.

91 And thus we saw the glory of the aterrestrial which excels in all things the glory of the telestial, even in glory, and in power, and in might, and in dominion.

92 And thus we saw the aglory of the celestial, which bexcels in all things—where God, even the Father, reigns upon his cthrone forever and ever;

93 Before whose throne all things bow in humble areverence, and give him glory forever and ever.

94 They who dwell in his apresence are the church of the bFirstborn; and they see as they are seen, and cknow as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his dgrace;

95 And he makes them aequal in power, and in might, and in dominion.

96 And the glory of the celestial is one, even as the glory of the asun is one.

97 And the glory of the terrestrial is one, even as the glory of the moon is one.

98 And the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one; for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world;

99 For these are they who are of aPaul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas.

100 These are they who say they are some of one and some of another—some of Christ and some of John, and some of Moses, and some of Elias, and some of aEsaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch;

101 But areceived not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the beverlasting covenant.

102 Last of all, these all are they who will not be agathered with the saints, to be bcaught up unto the cchurch of the Firstborn, and received into the cloud.

103 These are athey who are bliars, and csorcerers, and dadulterers, and ewhoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.

104 These are they who suffer the awrath of God on earth.

105 These are they who suffer the avengeance of eternal fire.

106 These are they who are cast down to ahell and bsuffer the wrath of cAlmighty God, until the dfulness of times, when Christ shall have esubdued all enemies under his ffeet, and shall have gperfected his work;

107 When he shall adeliver up the bkingdom, and present it unto the Father, spotless, saying: I have covercome and have dtrodden the ewine-press falone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.

108 Then shall he be acrowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the bthrone of his power to reign forever and ever.

109 But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as ainnumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore;

110 And heard the voice of the Lord saying: These all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall aconfess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever;

111 For they shall be judged according to their aworks, and every man shall receive according to his own bworks, his own cdominion, in the dmansions which are prepared;

112 And they shall be aservants of the Most High; but bwhere God and Christ cdwell they dcannot come, eworlds without end.

113 This is the end of the vision which we saw, which we were commanded to write while we were yet in the Spirit.

114 But agreat and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the bmysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion;

115 Which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not alawful for man to utter;

116 Neither is man acapable to make them known, for they are only to be bseen and cunderstood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who dlove him, and purify themselves before him;

117 To whom he grants this privilege of aseeing and knowing for themselves;

118 That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to abear his bpresence in the world of glory.

119 And to God and the Lamb be aglory, and honor, and dominion forever and ever. Amen.