Twenty-Nine (1834)As the Church grew into the religion the people desired, many began to boast that
the kingdom of God was only among the Latter-day Saints; and that the priesthood power
was given to the Elders of the Church alone. Joseph gave an impromptu speech at the
Nauvoo Temple (still under construction at the time) on January 22, 1843, in which he tried
to ebb the tide of the men’s arrogance. He told them,
The priesthood and kingdom of God is found wherever and whenever a
righteous man has existed upon the earth. From the days of Adam to this
day, the kingdom of God has always existed upon the earth.^5In fact, he said a lot of things that LDS historians cannot properly explain, partly
because his words were subject to the imperfections of hand-transcription by his scribes. The
process of recording what Joseph said often necessitated the interpolation of words into a final
edited version, recorded according to what his scribes thought he had said.^6 Once written,
however—omissions, errors and all—the flawed transcription became the permanent and
lasting “first-hand account” of his words. Usually, Joseph let his scribes’ records stand as they
were written so that the people would have a record of what they wanted to believe they heard
and what they wanted him to have said. Nevertheless, the annals of LDS/Mormon history
report of that speech, “I say, in the name of the Lord, that the kingdom of God was set up on
the earth from the days of Adam to the present time.”^7 In that one powerful statement,
Joseph negated the very premise of an “apostasy” and of the need for a “restoration” and the
reestablishment of an order of a true church of God. In essence, Joseph rebuked the arrogance
of the leaders and people as Christ did when John questioned a man for “casting out devils in
thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.” To which Jesus responded,
“Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”^8
Of course, the people did not give heed to Joseph’s simple explanation, and their
interpretation of his words evolved into its own definition of the “Stakes of Zion.”^9 The
people thought of the “stake” as an organizational body overseen by a few male leaders
who were responsible for people—again destroying the empowerment of the individual and
making the people further dependent upon the “arm of flesh”^10 —something about which
the words of Isaiah warned them. The leaders of the Church would bow their heads in
prayer and call upon the Lord that he send his Spirit to help them know what his will was
concerning the establishment of their religion. Their God was “the God of this world,”^11 and
the only “God” who answered them every time they raised their voices to pray. Their
answers didn’t come aloud, but through the “still small voice” in their head. The voices in
their heads would answer them, saying, “You want religion do you?”^12 They got their
answers and the religion they desired from their God.
The Church established its first Stakes in Kirtland, Ohio and Clay County, Missouri
that same year (1834). The Missouri Stake could not be located with particularity because of
the precarious situation in which the members of the Church found themselves after their
expulsion from Jackson County. The residents of Clay County lived across the Missouri
River and had their own problems with the people of Jackson County over the slave issue.
The majority of Clay County wanted their state to join the Union as a free state, while the
majority of Jackson County’s citizens cast their voice for slaves. Clay County citizens
accepted the Mormons and didn’t (at the time) feel threatened by what they saw as
misguided, but sincere, expectations of making Missouri the Lord’s state.