And as I said unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph: In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed. Doctrine & Covenant 124:58
A question may be asked, ‘Will mothers have their children in eternity?’ Yes! Yes! Mothers, you shall have your children. Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses VI:10
Eternity is full of thrones, upon which dwell thousands of children reigning on thrones of glory, with not one cubit added to their stature. ibid. VI:10
What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. Joseph Smith, Salt Lake Tribune 13th December 1997 & History of the Church VI:408
The same God that has thus far dictated me and directed me and strengthened me in this work, gave me this revelation and commandment on celestial and plural marriage, and the same God commanded me to obey it. He said to me that unless I accepted it, and introduced it, and practiced it, I, together with my people would be damned and cut off from this time henceforth. We have got to observe it. It is an eternal principle and was given by way of commandment and not by way of instruction. Joseph Smith, Contributor vol 5 p259
For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and just, for even now their females are more virtuous than the gentiles. Joseph Smith, revelation Missouri 1831
I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left. Joseph Smith, prophecy 18th May 1843
And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land, to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country. Joseph Smith, letter N E Seaton 4th January 1833
Had I anything to do with the Negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species. Joseph Smith, cited History of the Church V:218
For instance, the descendants of Cain cannot cast off their skin of blackness, at once, and immediately, although every soul of them should repent, obey the Gospel, and do right from this day forward ... Cain and his posterity must wear the mark, which God put upon them; and his white friends may wash the race of Cain with Fuller’s soap every day, they cannot wash away God’s mark; the Lamanites, through transgression, became a loathsome, ignorant and filthy people, and were cursed with a skin of darkness … yet, they have the promise, if they will believe, and work righteousness, that not many generations shall pass away before they shall become a white and delightsome people; but it will take some time to accomplish this at best. Joseph Smith, The Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star vol 14 p418
He [Smith] prophesied that in a few years it would exceed in splendour every thing known in ancient times. Its streets were to be paved with gold, and all who should escape the general destruction, shortly to take place, would assemble there with all their wealth. The ten lost tribes of Israel had been discovered in their retreat in the vicinity of the North Pole, where having been secluded for ages by immense barriers of ice, they had become exceedingly rich. In a few years the ice would be melted away, when those tribes, with St John, and some of the Nephites described in the Book of Mormon, would appear in the new city, loaded with immense quantities of gold and silver. Henry Caswall, The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century, 1843
Re: It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty.
Yep. I've been to the sacred grove in the spring. I think it was in early May.
The ground was pure mush. The only thing that kept me from sinking was the thick layer of leaves.
I walked there via a modern day paved road. If I’d had to walk across fields to get there I would have been knee deep in mud. It would have been a mess. The sacred grove is a very wet woodland. There were droves of huge mosquitoes that made it miserable. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I was told that they now spray to keep the mosquitoes from carrying off the tourists. They also put down thick mulch on the path to control mud.
The only time it wouldn’t be muddy is in the middle of summer, or when the ground is frozen in winter. Mia, board post 7th June 2012
Parkin quotes another acquaintance of Joseph Smith, Calvin Stoddard, who stated that ‘Smith then came up and knocked him in the forehead with his flat hand – the blow knocked him down, when Smith repeated the blow four or five times, very hard – made him blind – that Smith afterwards came to him and asked his forgiveness’. Max Parkin, Conflict in Kirtland, Masters Thesis p132
In 1828, Joseph sought membership in the Methodist church where his wife, Emma, had belonged since she was seven years old. The death of their firstborn son on June 15, 1828 may have motivated him to do that.
Emma Smith’s cousins, Joseph and Heil Lewis, were members of the Methodist church which Joseph tried to join in Harmony, Pennsylvania.
They said, ‘Joseph presented himself in a very serious and humble manner, and the minister, not suspecting evil, put his name on the class book, in the absence of some of the official members’. The Amboy Journal 30th April 1879
In the spring or summer of 1828 Joseph asked the circuit rider if his name could be included on the class roll of the church. Joseph ‘presented himself in a very serious and humble manner’, and the minister obliged him.
When Emma’s cousin, Joseph Lewis, discovered Joseph’s name on the roll, he ‘thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer’ as a member.
He took the matter up with a friend, and the following Sunday, when Joseph and Emma arrived for church, the two men steered Joseph aside and into the family shop. They told him plainly that such character as he ... could not be a member of the church unless he broke off his sins by repentance, made public confession, renounced his fraudulent and hypocritical practices, and gave some evidence that he intended to reform and conduct himself somewhat nearer like a Christian than he had done. They gave him his choice to go before the class, and publicly ask to have his name stricken from the class book, or stand a disciplinary investigation. Joseph refused to comply with the humiliating demands and withdrew from the class. His name, however, stayed on the roll for about six more months, either from oversight or because Emma’s brother-in-law, Michael Morse, who taught the class, did not know of the confrontation. When Joseph did not seek full membership, Morse finally dropped his name. Newell & Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith p25
Twenty-two years later Brigham Young described a ‘secret council’ ... at which he said Joseph accused Emma of the poisoning and ‘called upon her to deny it if she could’ ... He told her that she was a child of hell, and literally the most wicked woman on this earth, that there was not one more wicked than she. He told her where she got the poison, and how she put it in a cup of coffee; said he, ‘You got that poison so and so, and I drank it, but you could not kill me.’ When it entered his stomach he went to the door and threw it off. He spoke to her in that council in a very severe manner, and she never said one word in reply. I have witnesses all around, who can testify that I am now telling the truth. Twice she undertook to kill him. ibid.
The Lawrence sisters had come to Nauvoo from Canada without their parents in 1840 when Maria was about eighteen and Sarah fifteen. Emma and Joseph offered them a home. According to William Law’s account, the girls had inherited about eight thousand dollars in English gold. Law said, Joseph got to be appointed their guardian, and indicated that he and Sidney Rigdon were bondsmen to Joseph. ibid. p144
In 1974 Dr Reed Durham, who was director of the LDS Institute of Religion at the University of Utah and president of the Mormon History Association, made a discovery that was so startling that it caused great consternation among Mormon scholars and officials. Dr Durham found that what had previously been identified as the ‘Masonic jewel of the Prophet Joseph Smith’ was in reality a ‘Jupiter talisman’. This is a medallion which contains material relating to astrology and magic. Dr Durham, apparently not realizing the devastating implications of his discovery, announced this important find in his presidential address before the Mormon History Association on 20th April 1974. Mormon Miscellaneous, publisher David C Martin vol 1 no 1 p14
Over time, Joseph became aware that people trusted him and that he could be an influence for good or ill, that even through nefarious means God worked through him when his heart was right. He realized this when he led groups in search of Spanish treasure in New York and Pennsylvania. Although no treasure was found, the men sincerely believed that Smith had a spiritual gift and could see where casks of gold were hidden in the earth. This training ground in spiritual leadership was invaluable because the prophet learned how to create an environment for belief – one in which people could exercise faith and be converted to Christ through the sensible influence of the Spirit, all prior to the overarching work of restoring primitive Christianity. Dan Vogel, The Making of a Prophet
I know of no substantial evidence to support his claim to have ever literally translate any document, leaving me to appreciate his writing at face value rather than because of their antiquity. Grant Palmer, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins p36