At one time, the Lectures were part of the Mormon canon. The lectures were combined in 1835 with early Mormon revelations as the Doctrine and Covenants, which was officially accepted as part of the Mormon canon on August 17, 1835. In that publication, the Lectures contained a preface stating "that it contains, in short, the leading items of the religion which we have professed to believe," and "we have . . . endeavored to present our belief, though in few words, and when we say this, we humbly trust that it is the faith and principles of this society as a body".
Some Mormon sects, however, have subsequently removed the Lectures from their canon; for example, the Community of Christ removed the Lectures from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1897, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints removed the Lectures from their version of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921. An introduction to the 1921 Latter-day Saint version of the Doctrine and Covenants states that the Lectures "were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons".
It is unclear who is the author of the Lectures. Authorship studies suggest that Sidney Rigdon was the main author, with some substantial involvement by Joseph Smith, Jr and others. (See Dahl & Tate at 7–10, 16 n. 8.)