"Praise to the Man!"

Joseph Smith

A Young Boy, A Big Question:

This post is something that brings up a lot of controversy when people not of my same faith hear about it. All of this controversy is centered around one man, Joseph Smith. 

"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!" (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3)

There are many things that the minds of mere men can comprehend. Among these things fall two of the greatest things that have ever happened to mankind. I would like to talk more about the more recent of these two great things, that would be (as depicted by the verse of Scripture) the martyrdom of Joseph Smith.

mar·tyr·dom  [mahr-ter-duhm]  noun1.the condition, sufferings, or death of a martyr.
mar·tyr  [mahr-ter]   noun1.a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion.
2.a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice.

Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, but that is not where his story begins. His begins just like each of ours in this life, wandering alone through this new and mysterious world. Newly departed from the presence of our Heavenly Father, placed in our situations here on the Earth and asked to find our way back to Him. That is no different for anyone here that journeys through mortality.

The specific time that Joseph was placed on the Earth was the winter of 1805. But his story begins a few years later in 1820 when he is fourteen years old. In this time there was religious excitement throughout his area in Palmyra, New York. I don't want to stray far from his story and so I will now share with you the story through his own words.

Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.

For, notwithstanding the great love which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions.

I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.

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 strife 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.

My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?

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 wisdom 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.

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. 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! 

(Joseph Smith History 1:5-17)

This is where I will go into my own words, because sometimes it takes a moment to step back and look at it into perspective. There are many that call Joseph Smith a fraud, a con, a phony, but those names are typically related to this idea that he "found" some gold plates and from them wrote scriptures. He had a significant and special witness to God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. Both at the same time!!!

I don't know how to convey that any clearer. We find scriptures that show the differences in the two throughout the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but none of those matter in comparison to this witness! God standing above Joseph in the air, pointing to Jesus Christ and calling Him "My Beloved Son." Followed promptly by a command directly from the mouth of God, not through His Prophets, not through the Scriptures, it fell from His own glorified lips,

 "Hear Him!"

You want to know if this is true? So did I. You want to know how? So did I.

The answer lies in the fruit of Joseph Smith's works, the Book of Mormon. We have implicitly been given a means that allows us to discover the truth of it all.

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Don't you wish there was an instruction book for life? A book written with the soul purpose to explain clearly the truths of eternity and how we can return to live with our Heavenly Father? Well, here one is. Don't rob yourself of this great joy, and these great blessings.

I will spell out the simple steps of how we can find out:

1. Read the Book of Mormon.
2. Think about the feelings that the Book of Mormon has brought to you.
3. Ask through Christ (that means you need faith in Him) if it is true. 

I will now give you a way to get a FREE copy of the Book of Mormon so you can do these things for yourself.    Book of Mormon (Free)

Do this and blessings will flow into your life. I know this to be true because I have taken the same steps.