Fifteen (1820)
(^42) “History of Joseph Smith.” Times and Seasons 3 (1 Apr. 1842): 748. See also DHC, 1:6.
(^43) BOM, Mosiah 4:27.
(^44) 1 John 2:27.
(^45) DHC, 1:6.
(^46) BOM, 2 Nephi 2:26; Ether 3:13; also see chapter 14 infra for detailed explanation of what
this means.
(^47) For example, critics cite DHC, 6:408–9, “Address of the Prophet—His Testimony Against
the Dissenters at Nauvoo.” “If they want a beardless boy to whip all the world, I will get on the top of
a mountain and crow like a rooster: I shall always beat them. ...My enemies...think...they will keep
me down; but for the fools, I will hold on and fly over them. ...I have more to boast of than ever any
man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of
Adam. ...Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I.
The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.”
These excerpts include Ed Decker, Decker’s Complete Handbook on Mormonism (Eugene: Harvest
House, 1995) 366–7; and Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism, 460.
George D. Smith writes, “in defending his theology, [Joseph] Smith proclaimed, ‘I am
learned, and know more than all the world put together.’” George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: “...but
we called it celestial marriage” (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008) 225–6.