Paying tribute to a prophet of God
Today, December 23, 2005, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
He was the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. From its start in 1830, it has grown from six members in New York State to over 12 million members throughout the world, in almost every nation.
He translated the Book of Mormon, which was the record of a group of people who left Jerusalem in 600 BC and fled to the "promised land". This Promised Land was the American continent, where they established a great civilization, which continued to have prophets leading them and which looked forward to the time when their Savior, Jesus Christ, would be born in Bethlehem.
This record culminates with the visit of Jesus Christ to these people in Central and South America. Just after his resurrection he appeared to them, ministered to them, and taught them the things he taught the people in Jerusalem.
For 1400 years the Book of Mormon laid under the ground, having been buried on the side of a hill in upstate New York.
Then, on December 23, 1805, Joseph Smith was born. In his 14th year, Joseph was troubled on the subject of religion:
During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and astrife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong.
While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
So Joseph went to the woods outside his home to pray. He knelt and was surprised with his experience, to say the least!
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
With that, Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God. Over the next several years he was taught and trained by heavenly messengers to prepare himself for the work he was about to do. In his 21st year he received the record which became the Book of Mormon. He and certain select individuals around him were allowed to see and touch the plates, in addition to helping him translate and publish the manuscript. Their testimonies are printed within the first few pages of the Book of Mormon.
The Lord wanted Joseph to restore the true church of Jesus Christ. The church that Christ established was one with apostles, prophets, revelation, and the priesthood authority of God: the authorization to act in God's name and be his ministers. Joseph's mission was to bring all these things back to the earth, as they had been lost to the ages through apostasy, corruption, and disbelief.
A church was founded on April 6, 1830. Six men in a small log cabin publicly signed the charter for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Book of Mormon and the Bible were to be used side-by-side for the teaching and preaching of the people within the church.
Over time, persecution caused great hardship to the Church. They left New York and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, then Independence, Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois. Throughout this time, Joseph and his followers received tarrings and featherings, nighttime abductions, burning of crops and homes, and outright murders and atrocities at the hands of unruly mobs seeking to destroy the work that Joseph Smith had been called to do. In 1844, on trumped up charges, Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith were led with two other men to Carthage Jail in Quincy, Illinois. There the jail was stormed by an angry mob of 150-200 men and Joseph and Hyrum were killed in the melee.
John Taylor, who was imprisoned with the Prophet and was an eyewitness to the event, wrote, "To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p.m., by an armed mob, 0painted black, of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming: I am a cdead man! Joseph leaped from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaiming: O Lord my God! They were both shot after they were dead, in a brutal manner, and both received four balls."
From Nauvoo, the Mormons (led at this point by Brigham Young) were forced to flee the confines of the United States to the Salt Lake Valley, which at the time was part of Mexico. There they were free to live their religion as they saw fit, without the constant persecution at the hands of mobocracy.
In his announcement of the death of Joseph Smith, John Taylor also added his testimony of the life and character of the man he called a Prophet of God:
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!
To John Taylor's words I add my own small, humble testimony: I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I know he was the instrument by which the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. This is the Church that Christ established, with apostles and revelation and the priesthood of God. And I celebrate the life of Joseph Smith and wish him a Happy 200th Birthday.