Student Manual Doctrine & Covenants

Excerpt:
Section 1
The Lord’s Preface: “The Voice of Warning”
Historical Background

The heavens had been opened, revelations had been given, and the Church had seen over a year’s growth since its organization when a council of elders convened in a conference in Hiram, Ohio, on 1 November 1831. The conference considered plans to publish the revelations already received. Their decision was to publish them in a book to be called the Book of Commandments and to authorize ten thousand copies in the first printing. Following the first session of the conference, the Prophet Joseph Smith inquired of the Lord to receive divine confirmation of their resolution. The Lord not only approved the work but gave a revelation as His own preface to the book. This preface became section 1.
Notes and Commentary
D&C 1:1–4. The Doctrine and Covenants Is a Voice of Warning unto All People

The preface of the Doctrine and Covenants introduces the message of the book. The entire book of scripture stands as a warning to the nations that God will not be mocked. Those who heed the voice of warning will find protection and peace, but those who refuse it will reap bitter fruit. President Joseph Fielding Smith said that the Doctrine and Covenants is not a book just for the Latter-day Saints. It is “more than that, it belongs to all the world, to the Catholics, to the Presbyterians, to the Methodists, to the infidel, to the non-believer. It is his book if he will accept it, if he will receive it. The Lord has given it unto the world for their salvation. If you do not believe it, you read the first section in this book, the preface, and you will find that the Lord has sent this book and the things which it contains unto the people afar off, on the islands of the sea, in foreign lands, and his voice is unto all people, that all may hear. And so I say it belongs to all the world, not only to the Latter-day Saints, and they will be judged by it, and you will be judged by it.” (In Conference Report, Oct. 1919, p. 146.)

4. And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.

“The voice of warning shall be unto all people” (D&C 1:4).

The Lord declared in verse 4 that the Doctrine and Covenants is to serve as “the voice of warning . . . unto all people.” This theme is heard again and again throughout the Doctrine and Covenants, showing the judgments that are to come upon the world and how we can be saved from them. For a more complete treatment of this doctrinal theme see Enrichment A in the Appendix.
D&C 1:6–7. The Lord Calls This Section His Preface

The purpose of a preface is to prepare the reader for the contents of a book. It summarizes the message of the book and the purposes of the author. Although this revelation was not the first received by Joseph Smith, it has been placed in the book as section 1 because of this identification by the Lord.