Without Disclosing My True Identity
moving around the country without a stable home. That all changed when Joseph gained a
real purpose for studying the Bible. He needed to find out what the world had invented and
why it had become the cause of so much contention and misinformation. From the day of his
First Visitation, Joseph took a much greater interest in the Bible, its construction, writing style,
and the way it was perceived by the people—those who had no idea that it was an
“abomination” before the very God whose words they thought it contained.
Joseph learned how to pray, speak, write, and deliver religious prose in order to
convince the world that the God in whom a majority of its inhabitants believed had called
him as a “prophet, seer, and revelator.”^29 Immediately after his meeting with Christ, Joseph
delved into religious discussion and study unlike any other boy of his same age. He wanted
to find out everything he could about the enemy, so that he could wage a war against it. The
enemy was “Lucifer” (human nature) and “his” religions, along with the prideful men who
were deceiving the people by teaching “Lucifer’s” (their own) doctrines and precepts.
Joseph’s Otherwise Mundane Life in 1821
During his sixteenth year, Joseph spent the majority of his time working alongside his
father and brothers in preparing their farmland for production. The work was mundane and
monotonous, which allowed Joseph’s mind to ponder on the singularity of what had
happened to him and how he could prepare himself to be Christ’s double agent. Joseph poured
through the Bible and often called upon Alvin for his insights and perceptions. He also visited
different churches in the area, sometimes with his mother, sometimes alone. Joseph involved
himself, when able and if allowed, wherever religious or philosophical discussions took place.
He joined juvenile debating clubs where he honed his skills as the only mortal man called by
advanced humans to be their agent, who would never be allowed to disclose his true identity.
He mastered the ability of giving the illusion that he was delivering to the people what “God”
wanted; while not revealing that the people were the “God” he was listening to and whose
desires he was satisfying (“Oh,...you want religion, do you?”). Joseph was unable to make
real truth work for them, so he allowed it to work fully against them.
Lucy Smith (Joseph’s Sister)
The only other event to mention during 1821 was the birth of Joseph’s last sibling, Lucy,
on July 18th. By the time Lucy entered puberty and the development of her own “prejudices,”
the religion that Joseph was suffered to create was well under way. Lucy developed a prejudice
supportive of Joseph during that time that always kept her faithful to the memory of her older
brother and his legacy. Thus, Lucy would join in the fight against Brigham Young and his
dictatorship until she died (a few years after Brigham Young’s death). She never embraced
another religion or belief system. Nothing could come close to what she had learned and
witnessed from her brother’s tenure as a prophet of God. One of the last things Lucy said on her
deathbed was, “Curse that man [Brigham Young] for what he has done to Joseph’s beloved
name!”^30
A Double Agent for Real Truth
And what was Joseph’s real legacy? For want of a better non-religious description of
his role, he was an “undercover spy” (Jehovah’s command to Joseph was as that to Peter,