Without Disclosing My True Identity
received and if “his people” (referring to the Latter-day Saints) took any responsibility for
the way they were perceived and treated by others. Joseph did not dismiss the fact that the
people caused many of their own problems:
I’ve tried to teach this people correct principles so that they can govern
themselves. But when they reject these principles and look to me for
guidance, I can only do the best I can as a man. Left to themselves, people
will find their own way and order.^8 It is apparent that our problems with
the State and our enemies stem from our inability to govern ourselves by
correct principles. I taught them to seek for wisdom instead of riches.^9 In
truth, their pride was the cause of the same persecution the Nephites of the
Book of Mormon encountered from their enemies.^10In later years (and the upcoming chapters corresponding to them), the church’s
financial irresponsibility will be documented, showing how the LDS people caused a great
deal of economic harm to themselves and to the people of the State of Missouri, from
whom they borrowed on credit and could not repay. Joseph never denied that the LDS
people were the cause of their own persecutions. He knew that the only “Holy Ghost” and
“Lucifer” that guided the people were their own conscious thoughts and decisions,
disguised as illusive and imagined characters.
Many of the ideas and decisions that the people made were supported by invented
revelations, which Joseph used to cause them to stumble. Joseph suffered these “revelations”
to become LDS doctrines and precepts because the people desired them, a fact which Joseph
wisely realized that he could never reveal to a people who were trained to place the
responsibility for their actions on someone other than themselves.^11 If the LDS people had
fully realized Joseph’s guile in appeasing their false ideas, he would have been killed by
them much sooner than he eventually was.
The True Godhead Revealed in the Temple Endowment
Joseph later presented, in parabolic style, the “correct principle” that human beings
ARE the “Holy Ghost”—collectively making mankind a member of a Godhead—in which the
people already believed. However, again, as with every “correct principle,” he hid this “real
truth” in the symbolism of the presentation of the LDS Temple Endowment.^12 Nevertheless,
the truth is clearly presented for any with desire and who have “eyes” to “see” it.
In the presentation, the endowment starts out with three actors’ voices playing the
parts of Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael—representing the Godhead. “Elohim” represents
exactly what the Hebrew word means, the plural form of “God,” or better, all the advanced
humans who create other humans and are responsible for their development. These newly
created humans were made in “our own image.”^13 “Jehovah” represents the Hebrew god
who dealt with the people through chosen messengers and prophets. “Michael” represents
what its Hebrew definition means, “those who are like God.”
The Three are equal gods, each concurring with the other two on everything that they
do. They symbolically create a solar system, the earth, and the plants and animals. Then,
Elohim asks, “Is man found upon the earth?” Jehovah and Michael respond, “Man is not
found on the earth, Elohim.” They then go down to the earth and “form man in [their] own
likeness and in [their] image, male and female.”^14 They take Michael—an equal member of