Joseph Smith - The Prophet

Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God with a special mission and message to the world. As the dispensation head with authority directly given from God, Joseph Smith started the great restoration and sought for Zion, but as history manifests, not only did the restoration not get finished but apostasy ensued.

From the day Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed as a result of rejection of truth and the influence of his own people, even the believers began to neglect his teachings, forget the truths he restored, and began to lose light and memory of what God had previously revealed and restored through Joseph. Losing light, forgetting fundamentals, ignoring and changing ordinances, corrupting doctrine, and even re-creating and manipulating major parts of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ revealed through Joseph Smith has enlarged in error, accelerated in misunderstanding and confusion, and currently the preservation of the restoration is in serious jeopardy. With courage, we must face the challenges before us today by finding the truth despite deliberate efforts to hide history and alter the record. Once sufficient truth is found and the unfolding restoration is embraced, repentance is obviously required and turning and facing God and following His path is paramount.

Christ on the day of His resurrection said: “O Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Our challenge today is exactly that. It is the same situation that believers have faced each time a servant of God has appeared with a message and whenever God speaks through His chosen messengers. I believe it to be wise to give strict heed to the restoration that came through Joseph and the work of the Lord that is currently underway.

Here are a few words attributed to Joseph:

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching. (TPJS, 191)

It is the privilege of every Elder to speak of the things of God; and could we all come together with one heart and one mind in perfect faith the veil might as well be rent today as next week, or any other time, and if we will but cleanse ourselves and covenant before God, to serve Him, it is our privilege to have an assurance that God will protect us at all times … Until we have perfect love we are liable to fall and when we have a testimony that our names are sealed in the Lamb's book of life we have perfect love and then it is impossible for false Christs to deceive us. (TPJS, 9)

In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer. When we understand the character of God, and how to come to him, he begins to unfold the heavens to us, and to tell us all about it. When we are ready to come to him, he is ready to come to us. (TPJS, 350)

When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses … Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions--Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn. (TPJS 150-151)

Whenever men can find out the will of God and find an administrator legally authorized from God, there is the kingdom of God; but where these are not, the kingdom of God is not. All the ordinances, systems, and administrations on the earth are of no use to the children of men, unless they are ordained and authorized of God; for nothing will save a man but a legal administrator; for none others will be acknowledged either by God or angels. (HC, 5:259)

Here is a message by another witness of God:

“Although Joseph Smith revealed many, previously unknown things, his ministry was devoted primarily to bringing others into fellowship with God. The ordinances, scriptures, revelations, and teachings restored through him were not intended to titillate, but to instruct on how to reconnect with God.

From his emphasis on the promise in James 1:5 (“if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God …and it shall be given him”) leading to the First Vision, to the promise of Moroni 10:4 (“I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and … he will manifest the truth of it unto you”), to D&C 93:1 (“It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am”), and in numerous other places throughout his ministry, Joseph reiterated both the possibility and importance of each soul coming directly to God.

This is the role of a true messenger. It is to bring others into harmony with God. Not to titillate them with new information, leaving them without knowledge of God. When someone delivers a new message that does not include knowledge about how the audience may come to God themselves, then the primary intent is always to make others dependent on the messenger. It is vanity. It is prideful. It is to call attention to themselves in an effort to place themselves above their fellow man, and interject themselves between the person and God. It is priestcraft.

The “welfare of Zion” consists of teaching others how to come to God themselves, and receive the heavenly promises directly from God. (See 2 Nephi 26:29)  Zion will be composed exclusively of those who can endure the presence of God. Therefore, it is necessary for everyone to come up to the heavenly mount by their own repentance and remembrance of the Lord.

It is foolishness to separate information about the Lord’s doings from instruction on how to become redeemed. It is vanity to spread new, and personal revelation about the afterlife, God, man, prophecy, visionary encounters, and spiritual experiences if the primary reason does not focus on instructing how the audience can come to God themselves. It is also dangerous to trust teachings which fail to give you guidance on how you can find God for yourself. If all that is delivered is a message about some great experience, the experience was not intended for you. It isn’t important. It is the way to find God that will save you. Not someone else’s new, and exciting spiritual manifestation.

I’ve shared almost nothing of the things I have learned. But I’ve tried to share everything about how you can “come and see” (John 1:46). Still, however, there are very few who can detect the difference. Still there remain those who are tossed to and fro by the sleight of men. (Ephesians 4: 14)

Here’s how things really work:  New revelation for the church comes from the top. It is not binding upon anyone unless it comes through the correct channel, and then is sustained as binding upon the church. Whether you like that system or not, that is the system. HOWEVER, every church member is obligated to teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom.

Expounding, exhorting, teaching, and instructing is a common obligation imposed upon us all. Therefore, everything I have written, all I have taught, and the things I have testified about are confined to elaborating upon the established doctrines of the church, the revelations in the Book of Mormon, the other standard works, and Joseph Smith’s teachings. I’ve said almost nothing about my personal revelations because they were intended for me. They will not help you. They equip me to be able to preach, teach, exhort and expound, but just publishing what I know to the world will not aid any other person in their individual journey. 

Salvation for you is a journey exactly like the journey undertaken by Joseph Smith. Which is also identical to the journey undertaken by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Which was modeled upon the pattern coming down through Noah. Who was a contemporary with Enoch, both of whom undertook the same journey. Which originated with Adam, who came back into God’s presence three years previous to his death, and received “comfort” from the Lord (D&C 107:53-55). The Lord is the promised Comforter who will come to all of us on the same conditions (John 14:23, D&C 130:3). I was asked, and wrote a manual on that process in the first book, The Second Comforter: Conversing With the Lord Through the Veil. The purpose of the book has nothing to do with my own recognition or importance. Throughout the book my many failings are discussed. The book is about the reader, and how the reader can come to know God.

Still people will go to great trouble, and spare no effort to find someone who will only give a titillating peek behind the veil, but who will do nothing to instruct you on how you can meet God here, be redeemed from the fall of man, and come back into God’s presence. This is the purpose of the Gospel, and the definition of redemption. (Ether 3:13) Telling about personal experience cannot help another. Testifying to the process, however, is the burden of all true teaching.

I am a fool, and anyone who thinks otherwise is misled. My only relevance is the common obligation imposed upon us all to preach, teach, exhort and expound. I confine all I do to that obligation. The only thing I can offer anyone is to point them to the One who is filled with truth and light, which is intelligence. (D&C 93:36)  And still there are those who cannot discern between what and how I teach, and how others who are practicing only priestcraft do so. I am saddened, not particularly surprised, but saddened. These are the times we live in. (Isaiah 29:9-10.)

What more could have been done than the Lord has already done?  Is it not us, not He, upon whom the blame must be lain?

The Latter-day famine continues unabated still. Not because there isn’t something worth consuming, but because we crave only the weakest of gruel, which cannot sustain life. Therefore, let us all feast away and still become famished until at last we perish without hope, having wasted the days of our probation. We didn’t care much for Joseph’s message in his day, and we fail to even notice it in ours."  (Joseph The Prophet)