Fifteen (1820)
that person’s free will; nor would such a being ask something of a mortal that the being
thought the mortal could not accomplish.
Of course, Joseph didn’t fully comprehend at that time the ramifications and
consequences of the assignment; and Christ didn’t want him to worry about it any earlier
than necessary. Joseph was secure in knowing that he would be given the help when he
needed it.^40 By the end of their meeting, Joseph was completely comfortable with the gentle
man who was placed in control of the solar system that he now understood was to become
the eternal home for all of his mortal siblings (each on their respective planets).
Keeping the Experience Confidential
The last 15 minutes of their conversation was about the importance of keeping the
experience confidential and not letting anyone else know about it until Joseph was allowed
to do so. It wasn’t hard for Joseph to understand the abuse and ridicule he would experience
if he told people that he had just sat down and talked to an advanced human being for a few
hours, who was the real Jesus in whom everyone believed. (Although he would soon have a
solidifying experience to enhance his resolve to heed this counsel, as reported in the
previous chapter.) What would they say if they found out that mortals are not alone in the
Universe and that the earth is being monitored by actual human beings, just like them, and
not by the invented “gods” of their religious faiths, which none of their religious leaders
could explain to them anyway?
Yes, Joseph presented it correctly when he later published the 1842 account, “I was
[told] that I must join none of them [the churches of the day], for they were all wrong...that
those professors were all corrupt.”^41 The meat of the conversation and most of what he
learned and was instructed to do was simply presented with the words, “many other things
did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time.”^42
Joseph would later state:
After he [Christ] left me alone in the solitude of nature, I laid there and
reflected upon the experience. I wondered to myself why others would not
want to know that we weren’t alone in the Universe. The idea that someone
more powerful than us was concerned about us and always acted for our
benefit was consoling. I knew I could tell no one. They wouldn’t have
believed anything I said. Religious belief was too deeply embedded into their
minds. At that age, my mind was caught up in the profundity of the event
more than considering how what I then knew would change my life from
that moment forward.For a very good reason, Christ did not dwell or expound upon the changes that
were going to occur in Joseph’s life. Christ knew that Moroni, the Three Nephites, and
John the Beloved would go over many of these things with a much more mature young
man at a later time, and that Joseph would need to have many experiences without any
foreshadowing. Christ’s visit did, however, leave an important impact upon Joseph that
gave him the continued courage and strength to do what he was asked to do, in spite of
the great opposition he would later encounter. That vital impression left on him was the
fact that there were advanced humans watching over and monitoring this planet and
making sure that all things progressed as they were supposed to, according to the