A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORD OF WISDOM

By Marcel Kahne

Translated by Gerald D. Woodard

Original French at www.idumea.org

None of the revelations given to Joseph Smith was received by chance. All were related to the events of the day; all were in response to questions asked by the Prophet. The First Vision occurred because Joseph Smith went to the woods to pray, to find out which church was Christ’s church. John the Baptist appeared because Joseph and Oliver Cowdery went to pray regarding baptism. The Word of Wisdom is no exception to this rule. We need only look at the environment in which it was revealed.

In the United States in the 19^th century, there was an abundance of literature regarding the use of alcohol (strongly discouraged, except for illness), wine (considered by some to not contain alcohol), tea and coffee (criticized particularly for the high temperature at which it was drank), tobacco (known to be poisonous in concentrated form, but also recognized for its therapeutic virtues), and meat (eaten by most people at all three meals and discouraged as a “stimulant”). Fruits and grains were recommended in their seasons.[1]

Alcoholism was a nagging social problem and a temperance movement appeared in the 1820s, with considerable success. When the Word of Wisdom was given in 1833, there were five thousand temperance societies in the United States, claiming one million members.[2] Six thousand were formed in one year alone.[3] Articles on temperance and dietetics were published regularly in newspapers.

The Temperance Society succeeded in causing the closure of a distillery in Kirtland and another in Mentor on February 1, 1833, just twenty-seven days before the revelation regarding the Word of Wisdom.[4]

 

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD OF WISDOM

It is therefore clear that calls for “wisdom” in what people were consuming were common at the time. However, it would seem that two other factors were directly behind the publication of the revelation.

The first was “apparent attempts of hostile elements to dispose of church leaders by putting poison in wine” (“In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men…”).[5]

The second is related as follows by Brigham Young:

“I think I am as well acquainted with the circumstances which led to the giving of the Word of Wisdom as any man in the Church, although I was not present at the time to witness them. The first school of the prophets was held in a small room situated over the Prophet Joseph’s kitchen… Over this kitchen was situated the room in which the Prophet received revelations and in which he instructed his brethren. The brethren came to that place for hundreds of miles to attend school in a little room probably no larger than eleven by fourteen. When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first (thing) they did was to light their pipes, and while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom, and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry.”[6]

 

THE TEXT OF THE WORD OF WISDOM REVELATION

Originally, the revelation began at verse 4: “Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days…” The text of the first three verses was an introduction prepared by the committee responsible for the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835. That introduction gives an idea of how the Word of Wisdom was viewed by the committee, as it states that it was sent “not by commandment, or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints…” For an unknown reason, this introduction was included in the revelation itself when the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was published and thus became an integral part of the text canonized in 1880.[7]

 

HOW THE WORD OF WISDOM WAS APPLIED

The application of the new revelation took two contradictory directions. The first was strict regulation. Arrington describes it as follows:

“Some apparently regarded the revelation as prohibitory and binding and wanted to make the obedience of its principles a matter of fellowship. The church council in Kirtland, in February, 1834, for example, adopted the following resolution: ‘No official member of this Church is worthy to hold an office, after having the Word of Wisdom properly taught him, and he, the official member, neglecting to comply with it or obey it…’ In December, 1836, the church congregation voted a pledge of total abstinence from intoxicants after which water was used for the Lord’s Supper. In 1837, at a general meeting conducted by church authorities in Far West, Missouri, in 1837, the membership agreed that ‘we will not fellowship any ordained member who will not, or does not, observe the Word of Wisdom according to its literal reading.’ Several months later, at the annual conference of the church, Joseph Smith spoke on the Word of Wisdom and stated that it should be observed. Moreover, when a council at Far West tried a high church official (David Whitmer) for his fellowship, the first of the five charges against him was that the did not observe the Word of Wisdom.”[8]

Common usage, on the other hand, took a very different direction, as is summarized by Professor McCrue:

“In the 1830s, this revelation was preached and followed with very little consistency. Some members clearly viewed compliance with these words of wisdom as obligatory for good standing within the Church, while others unmistakably rejected this notion. While consumption of “strong drink” occasionally turned up among grounds for excommunication, other proscribed items remained widely, if temperately, used throughout the decade. By the 1840s the more tolerant attitude had been adopted by the Church at large. Nauvoo liberalized its liquor control laws, and Joseph Smith demonstrated by words and action that his personal approach was one of moderation rather than abstinence. The latter years of this decade saw a further relaxation of any practical proscription implied in the Mormon health code, and Mormon pioneers who could afford it included tea, coffee and alcohol among the stapes they carried west. (The Mormon Nauvoo Neighbor, in fact, specifically recommended that each family take a pound of tea, a pound of coffee and a gallon of alcohol.)[9] By 1851… adherence to the Word of Wisdom had been eroded even further by frontier conditions [the area between colonized areas and the desert] and compliance may well have been at its nineteenth-century nadir.”[10]

At a church conference on September 9, 1851, Brigham Young reemphasized the Word of Wisdom and asked those gathered to commit to observing it. According to the published proceedings in the Kanesville Guardian on November 28, 1851:

“President Young rose to put the motion and called on all sisters who will leave off the use of Tea, Coffee, etc., to manifest it by raising the right hand; seconded and carried. And then put the following motion; calling on all boys who were under ninety years of age who would covenant to leave off the use of Tobacco, Whiskey and all things mentioned in the Word of Wisdom to manifest it in like manner, which was carried unanimously.”[11]

It should be noted that the Word of Wisdom was not presented at that conference as becoming a commandment from then on. Brigham Young would return to this topic in October 1859:

“My counsel to the Elders of Israel is to let whiskey, brandy and other strong drinks alone… It is my positive counsel and command that drinking liquor be stopped… In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command the Elders of Israel… to cease drinking strong drink from this time henceforth, until you really need it… [for medicine]. I now request the authorities of this church… to sever from this society those who will not cease getting drunk.”[12]

Note that this regards drunkenness, not the general observation of the Word of Wisdom. In this regard, Brigham Young stated the following in April 1861:

“Some of the brethren are very strenuous upon the ‘Word of Wisdom’, and would like to have me preach upon it, and urge it upon the brethren, and make it a test of fellowship. I do not think I shall do so. I have never done so.”[13]

In the spring of 1867, Brigham Young went as far as to say that the Word of Wisdom is “the word of the Lord” and Ezra T. Benson, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles from 1846 to 1869, explained it as follows, without going as far as to say that it was a commandment:

“Suppose he had given the Word of Wisdom as a command, how many of us would have been here? I do not know; but he gave this without command or constraint, observing that it would be pleasing in His sight for His people to obey its precepts. Ought we not try to please our Heavenly Father?...”[14]

In an address given on July 25, 1880 in Salt Lake City, George Q. Cannon of the Council of the Twelve again stated:

“It [the Word of Wisdom] appeals to our sense of right that a commandment does not, because a commandment comes with strict injunctions which leaves no alternative but to obey; but this is a word of counsel by a kind father…”[15]

All this should not lead us to think that the saints of the day neglected the Word of Wisdom. It was simply not the taboo that it is now. Non-Mormons who visited the Mormon territories agreed that the Latter-Day Saints were frugal, industrious, and sober. For example, in 1855, Jules Remy and Julius Brenchley embarked on a lengthy visit of the region and wrote the following:

“The style of living among the Mormons is simple and frugal. They are very temperate, which enables them the better to bear the privations to which they are exposed by their frequent changes of place, and during the periods of scarcity too often caused by great droughts and the ravages of locusts. Bread, maize, potatoes, pompions, dairy produce, bacon, beef, are the principal and almost their only food. They make use of tea and coffee less frequently. The majority abstain from fermented or spirituous liquors, either voluntarily and from motives of temperance, or on account of their poverty. They chew tobacco more than they smoke it; this vile habit, however, is less usual among them than in other parts of the Union.”[16]

According to Arrington, more emphasis began to be put on the Word of Wisdom in 1867. That year, a Women’s Relief Society and a men’s School of the Prophets were organized in each Mormon community. Both organizations adopted rules requiring observance of the spirit and meaning of the Word of Wisdom.[17]

Another element that seems to have weighed in the balance was the geographic and economic isolation of the Saints. The little liquidity they had absolutely had to be used for essential purchases in other regions of the United States. Utah had nothing to export that could bring in cash. And the immigration of new converts required large sums of cash. The Saints had to be economically independent and thus had to dedicate as much of their efforts as they could to developing the agricultural, mineral, and industrial resources of the region, rather than buying or producing such things as coffee or tea. To help in this effort at economic independence, the Saints tried to produce their own wine (used in the Sacrament until 1897), but they consumed more than they exported, and the practice was discontinued before the turn of the century.[18]

It was under the direction of President Taylor, and with the arrival of a new generation of General Authorities raised in Utah, that greater emphasis would be placed on observance of the Word of Wisdom. These men gave many sermons on the matter, recommending that it be a test of worthiness.[19]

The two General Authorities most in favour of a strict abolition of tea, coffee, alcohol and tobacco were Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant. Having become President of the Church, Joseph F. Smith recommended that stake presidents refuse temple recommends to those who flagrantly violated the rule, but to be more flexible with older men who used tobacco and older women who drank tea. Nonetheless, drunkards were to be refused recommends. The General Authorities used general conferences to promote compliance with the Word of Wisdom. In September 1905, for example, George Albert Smith recommended that the Stake Presidency, High Council and Bishops in the Star Valley Stake refuse “to longer tolerate men in presiding positions who would not keep the Word of Wisdom.”[20]

In a letter dated December 28, 1915, President Smith stated that young “or middle-aged men who have experience in the Church should not be ordained to the Priesthood nor recommended to the privileges of the House of the Lord unless they will abstain from the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks.”[21]

Beginning in 1921, instructions become even more explicit and began to appear in the 1928 edition of the General Handbook of Instructions. In January 1930, Heber J. Grant warned bishops that young men using tobacco were not to be called on missions. That year, Ruth May Fox, the Young Women’s President, asked Latter-Day Saint girls to abstain from smoking and drinking and, at the youth conference in June 1930, President Grant urged members to “study and know the laws regulating tobacco, liquor and safety.” He said that, “cigarettes degenerate the brain in an uncontrollable manner.” He particularly urged that girls not be allowed to smoke, because, he said, “it destroys the God-given power to bring forth sons and daughters into this world.”[22]

Thus, in the early 20^th century, the Word of Wisdom, given in 1833 “for a principle with a promise" and long considered simply as “counsel from a loving father”, would become a requirement for all Latter-Day Saints.

 

THE WORD OF WISDOM TODAY

When we reflect on what was originally the first verse of the revelation (now verse 4), “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation”, we realize that it is all the more applicable today. The alcohol and tobacco industries, in particular, have seen enormous growth through, among other things, unprecedented advertising made possible through the media. Entire sectors of the economy thrive off it and have an interest in people smoking and drinking as much as possible. Even states, aware that illnesses related with these drugs cost social security a fortune, are hesitant in the fight against tobacco and even more so against alcohol, as they are accessory to it: do they not profit from the boom in excise on these products? And the problem is further aggravated by the introduction of a wide range of medication on the market, many of which become harmful when used in excess as they are. However, the worst conspiracy is still that of the drug cartels that flood the market with deadly products that are increasingly “effective”. We are now truly in the day of “evils and designs which exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days” and the warning given by the Lord now takes on its entire meaning. The Word of Wisdom was given for us, today. We are not born an alcoholic or drug addict, we become one, first by believing that moderate use is not bad, and then because we get caught up in life’s circumstances and fall into an abyss because we were too close to the edge. The Lord clearly told us: “I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation” and by requiring total abstinence.

When Latter-Day Saints speak of the Word of Wisdom to non-members, they are usually told that Jesus drank wine and changed water to wine at the wedding in Cana. The Saints sometimes reply that the wine in question was non-alcoholic, in which they err, as the text of the bible is very clear: “…the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse...” (John 2:9, 10).[23] The truth is that the Word of Wisdom is something new, in response to new circumstances. Never has any generation been as threatened as ours by “evils and designs” of those who become rick at the expense of the health of consumers. Never has any generation so needed to observe the letter and the spirit of the Word of Wisdom.