Without Disclosing My True Identity
otherwise insignificant existence.^46 The mortal mind invents things that bring value to the
person (vain); and these mental inventions are usually diametrically opposed (foolish) to the
individual’s real eternal nature.^47 No other creature in the Universe uses imagination^48 as part of
its existence. Only humans have the ability to come up with “vain and foolish imaginations.”
Joseph needed to know and understand how to deal with this part of human nature.
Following proper protocol in the way advanced humans deal with mortals face-to-face, the
Three Nephites and John the Beloved became an important part of Joseph’s training.
Although their physical bodies had been adjusted so that they could perform their
individual specific roles upon the earth “without tasting death,”^49 they were otherwise
mortal just like Joseph.^50
Joseph learned to depend on these semi-mortal humans for counsel and guidance
throughout his life. He, like all true messengers who understand this proper protocol, never
trusted what came into his mind and what others would perceive as “revelation.”^51 If he
didn’t hear the words being spoken directly to him from an actual physical person whose
voice box created the vibrations that his actual physical ears could pick up (or through the
designated instrument known as the Urim and Thummim), he paid no attention to it,
attributing it to his own vain and foolish imagination.
Throughout his life, Joseph had to deal with others’ vain and foolish imaginations
and the pious perception that God actually heard and answered their prayers. This is why
Joseph produced revelation after revelation from God, hiding the “mysteries of the kingdom
of God” within their presentation and away from the people, giving them what they
desired so that they would stumble.
Learning to Deal With Others on Their Level
The teenage Joseph lived contemptuously among the adults he encountered in his
daily activities. He often marveled at their ignorance, and would later report how:
It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was
that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was
doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor,
should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of
the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in
them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it
was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.^52Joseph kept this sorrow to himself because he listened to the counsel given to him by
Christ to not “cast [his] pearls before swine.”^53 The teenage mind finds its own way—as it
was intended to be. Joseph was often arrogant and pretentious as he listened to the “vain
and foolish imaginations”^54 of others, especially of “the great ones of the most popular sects
of the day.” He needed to learn when to keep his mouth shut and how to properly deal with
people on their level.^55 It was very important for him to learn this, even though he (as was
attributed to the apostle Paul) had been set
free from all men, yet he was made a servant unto all, that he might gain the
more. And unto the Jews he had to become as a Jew, that he might gain the
Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that he might gain