As I understand it, clarifying what something means is not changing its meaning. It is restating the matter in words that are better understood. However, even if a person believes and accepts that there are “changes” in their understanding of that word, the Lord has told us: “I Am the same yesterday, today, and forever, and I deliver My words according to My own pleasure. And because I’ve spoken one word, there’s no need for you to conclude that I can’t speak another. Because My work isn’t finished yet, and it won’t be until the end of mankind, or even from then on and forever.” RE 2 Ne. 12:9-10. If the Lord has more to say, then it should be His prerogative to do so. I dispute that the text has been changed, although it has certainly been clarified. Sometimes in surprising ways that would not be attainable without the Lord’s clarifications.
One of the clarifications that the Covenant of Christ makes very clear is that the text is NOT a history. That point is made continually: Jacob 2:13: “And not even one percent of the doings of this people, who are now becoming numerous, can be written on these plates.” Words of Mormon describing what his abridgment has included: 1:2: “I can’t write one percent of my people’s activities.” Helaman 2:4: “But not even one percent of events are included in this book, such as an account of the Lamanites and Nephites wars, conflicts, divisions, preaching, prophecies, shipping, shipbuilding, building of temples, synagogues, and sanctuaries, and their righteousness and wickedness, and their acts of murder, robbery, and plunder, and all kinds of abominations and whoredoms and idol worship.” Ether 6:20: “Then he ended his record, but I haven’t written one percent of it[.]” 3 Ne. 2:16: “they can’t all be written in this book. Indeed, this book can’t contain even one percent of what occurred among so many people in 25 years.”
Even Christ’s teachings are likewise not given but in a tiny sample: 3 Ne. 12:1: “And now not even one percent of what Jesus taught the people can be written in this book.” I assume that if over 99% of what the Lord taught was omitted from the text, then He has every right to make His message more clearly stated for us.
Covenant of Christ (like the Book of Mormon) is NOT a history. It is instead a prophecy. As the one who abridged the text explained why the less than 1% of the material was given to us today as our warning: “Why have you altered God’s holy word so as to bring condemnation on your souls? Look to God’s revelations, because the time is coming when all these things will certainly be fulfilled. The Lord has shown me great and awe-inspiring things about what’s going to take place soon after these words appear among you. Now, I speak to you as though you were present, yet you are not. But Jesus Christ has shown you to me, and I know the things you do. I know you live pridefully. There are none, except for a few, who aren’t lifted up in pride to their very center, to the point of wearing very fine clothing, and to the point of envying and strife, malice, persecution, and all kinds of iniquity. Your congregations and churches — every single one of them — have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. You love money and your material possessions and your fine clothing and decorating your houses of worship more than you love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. You pollutions, hypocrites, and you teachers who sell yourselves for things that will corrode and decay, why have you polluted God’s holy congregation? Why are you ashamed to take upon yourselves the name of Christ? Why don’t you consider that the value of an endless happiness is greater than misery that never dies? Isn’t it because of the world’s praise?” Mormon 4:5.
Covenant of Christ was meant specifically as a warning to us. Now. And we need to understand the text. As Jesus Christ forewarns us about this very moment we live in: “Yes, woe to the Gentiles unless they repent: For when that day comes, says the Father, I’ll take away your strength from you, and I’ll destroy your security. Your cities will fall and I’ll break open your guarded borders. Your sciences and learning will turn into foolishness, and your false beliefs will cause your failure. I’ll expose the fraud of those in authority, and your trusted institutions will lose everyone’s loyalty.” 3 Ne. 9:12. This is now underway. We need to awaken and see how the Covenant of Christ is aimed directly at us, to awaken us to our present plight, the justified condemnation we are under, and coming judgments.
The Lord’s clarifications throughout the new text are all intended to address us where we are today.
I’ve addressed false beliefs derived from the Book of Mormon text in the past. I coined the term “Trinitarian comma” because of doctrinal disputes over whether Joseph Smith’s understanding of the Godhead changed over time. There are many scholarly works exploring the apparent changing view of the Godhead by Joseph from the original Book of Mormon text to the Lectures on Faith and Nauvoo era sermons. I dismissed these by pointing out that John Gilbert provided all the punctuation to the text, and by replacing the punctuation I could make the text read consistent with the Lectures on Faith. Those punctuation changes were adopted for the Restoration Edition of the Book of Mormon. I only point this out to show that doctrinal errors crept into beliefs because of content in the text that were not part of what the Lord intended, nor what Joseph Smith even provided.
I’ve heard of criticisms that some traditional, long-held, widely defended interpretations of the text are contradicted by the rewording in Covenant of Christ. This criticism assumes the traditions are correct. That ignores the possibility that the Lord has now deliberately clarified His meaning in order to precisely reject the traditional view and make His meaning directly opposed to it. After all, He has told us something about traditions, especially those borrowed from Historic Christianity: “they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight, that those professors were all corrupt, that, They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” T&C 1, JS-H, Section 2:5
I’d suggest reading Covenant of Christ as if it were a new message and see what it tells you about our present circumstances. The book is for and about us. It is not history. It is prophecy and warning for us at this very moment in time. It was clarified for the very generation when the book’s message was intended to be understood. Read it to try to understand what it is telling you.