When I was a Mormon, Section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants contained some strange foreign-sounding names which were assigned to the persons mentioned in this section (such names were also used as aliases for church leaders in Sections 82, 92, 96, 103, 104, and 105 as well.) Such names as “Baurak Ale” for Joseph Smith ostensibly prevented the church’s enemies from knowing the intentions of plans such as Section 103 detailed—the recovery by force of the land they’d left in Missouri. However, uses of names like “Enoch” also led ordinary church members of the time to think the “revelations” were about ancient personages, thus concealing plans that church leadership kept from its own members as well.
Since 1981, the code names are no longer printed in modern editions of the Doctrine and Covenants, another example of how the LDS Church can and does change the words of its own scripture, even if they are the words of its god.
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
