This week's Gospel Doctrine lesson was on "Deception." One area of deception that I wanted
the class to understand was the negative things that are said about the
Prophet Joseph Smith. Moroni told him that his name would be had for
good or evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should
be both good and evil spoken of among all people (JS-History 1:33). The
prophet found that he had to defend himself verbally toward the end of
his life even among some of the saints. Several months before his death
he made this statement:
When did I ever teach anything wrong
from this stand? When was I ever confounded? I want to triumph in Israel
before I depart hence and am no more seen. I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught. Must I, then, be thrown away as a thing of naught?
(Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected and arranged by Joseph Fielding Smith, p.368)
D&C
132 has some very important statements about the Prophet Joseph. The
Lord tells him that his calling and election is made sure and why it was
made sure or that he was sealed up unto eternal life.
D&C 132:49-50
49 For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father.
50 Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins;
I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you.
Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as I accepted the
offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.
Here the Lord tells the Prophet that He
will forgive all of his sins because of the sacrifices that he has made. Then the Lord makes this statement to him:
D&C 132:60
60 Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the sacrifice which I require at his hands for his transgressions, saith the Lord your God.
It is important to know that the word "set" as used in the verse above means "to oppose or reject"
according the the 1828 dictionary. So, what the Lord is saying is that
Joseph is not perfect but that his sins are between Joseph and the Lord
and not between us and the Prophet. His sins are none of our business.
The Lord is handling him as he sees fit just like he will do with each
of us.
3 comments:
That is so true. It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis Story "The Horse and His Boy" where Shasta wants to know why something happened to Aravis and Aslan told him that it was not his story and therefore not something he needed to know or worry about. All that was needed was for him to worry about his story.
Sorry...random thought there. Thanks for the blog posts. Now that I am in primary I don't get to come to your class. So the blog posts are much appreciated.
It is true that many evil things have been said about Joseph by even church members and leaders, especially the accusation that 'he preached and practiced polygamy', which he did not.
The truth is, if we do our homework, and not just follow blindly and accept what church leaders have said since Brigham Young, is that Joseph always preached against polygamy his whole life and continually warned the Saints to not fall for it or even for a prophet or church leader who may come preaching it.
But many church leaders back in Joseph's day secretly liked the idea of polygamy and thus they didn't heed Joseph's teachings and warnings and thus, after his death men like Brigham Young started preaching and practicing polygamy openly. But many Saints remembered Joseph's teachings and scriptures (the BoM & D&C) teach that polygamy was and always is a vile whoredom and thus they refused to follow Brigham Young and his evil doctrines.
Even Christ and the Book of Mormon prophets condemned polygamy in every case, but people would rather listen to the likes of Brigham Young than Christ or Joseph Smith or ancient prophets.
History shows that D&C 132 was actually put in the D&C by Brigham Young long after Joseph died, and it was not written in Joseph's handwriting so no one can claim it was from Joseph, for it went against everything Joseph ever taught about marriage and polygamy. Thus it must have been written by BY and his polygamous supporters.
For true prophets like Joseph don't lie and deceive and lead astray the Church their whole life, they tell the truth, but hardly anyone looks into church history to find the real truth, for most men like the idea of polygamy and thus defend it by accusing the prophet Joseph Smith of such whoredoms.
The scriptures that Joseph gave us all condemn polygamy in every instance throughout history, and Joseph warned the Saints that if a prophet ever comes preaching or practicing polygamy then we will know for sure he's an imposter and false prophet.
But few ever study the proven and published words of Joseph Smith. They would rather believe that he abused his wife Emma and ran around with other women behind her back, then believe he was an honorable true prophet who told the truth and was completely faithful and respectful to his wife Emma.
It's sad to see how people in the Church today just follow blindly and don't check into the facts of church history and learn what Joseph really said and did, which is completely opposite what the Church (Brigham Young) always said he did back then. Brigham Young was the one who instigated polygamy for his own selfish and evil desires and he pinned it on Joseph after his death when Joseph couldn't defend himself anymore.
Brigham Young took all of Joseph's teachings 'against' polygamy out of the D&C and put in D&C 132, to justify his abusive whoredoms to women.
I suggest that Anonymous who made the comment on plural marriage, read the article on "Plural Marriage" in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.
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