Thirty-Two (1837)Christ. They threatened to take the temple by blood and made Joseph the apostate. Anyone
who stood up for Joseph had their life threatened^98 and were excommunicated from the
new, reorganized Church.
Meanwhile, the Church at Far West was prospering at this time. The leaders there
rarely told the Far West members what was happening and had happened at Kirtland—
which the members considered at the time to be the temporary headquarters of the Church
and the “land of Zion.”^99 Missionary efforts in other states and cities brought members into
Far West, ignorant of the Church’s demise in Kirtland.
Being pursued relentlessly by creditors and church dissenters, Joseph fled to
Canada^100 (of course by “commandment of the Lord,”^101 ) to seek some reprieve from the
persecution. Once he left, the Church fell into the hands of the apostates who claimed the
Kirtland Temple as their own.^102 Joseph’s father, Church Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr., entered
the temple on one occasion trying to restore calm among the other leaders and members of
the Church. He barely escaped with his life.^103 Upon hearing that his father was almost
killed in the Kirtland uprising, Joseph came back to Ohio and tried to steady the ark. He
failed, forcing him and Sidney to flee in the middle of the night to Far West, Missouri to
avoid both apostates and creditors.
Brigham Young’s Church Evolved
Again, Joseph had little control over the councils of the Church. Under mandate, he
gave them free reign, authority, and control over Church matters. After his death,
Brigham Young stepped into his shoes without understanding anything about Joseph or
his role as a true messenger who did not disclose his true identity. Young learned from Joseph’s
“mistakes” and took more control of his own church, empowering the priesthood bodies,
not as equals, but as subservient assemblies to a higher council and authority, with the
ultimate authority vested in him. Brigham Young made all the decisions for the Church,
whether a lower priesthood body agreed or not.^104 Eventually, Young’s church further
evolved and relegated the Aaronic Priesthood solely to teenagers,^105 who didn’t have a
clue of how the Church functioned.
In time, the members were not allowed to attend the temple unless they paid a full
10% tithing on their annual gross income,^106 which is still in force today.^107 In the temple,
the Saints were to ostensibly receive what they were taught was the “endowment from on
high,”^108 which they never did receive. The Church set up its organization so that it would
never again need to depend upon the “Lord’s divine intervention” (which they would
never receive anyway) to sustain it and pay its debts.^109 By the early 1970’s, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was well on its way to having much more than would be
sufficient for its needs. By then, it was able to “buy anything in this world for money,”^110
just as its God had promised.
Missed Opportunity Because of Hearts Set Upon the World
One can only imagine the light that could have shined forth^111 back in the early
1800’s from a people who received and embraced a distinct Code of Humanity. This “code”^112
could have made them compassionate people to all, productive farmers and prosperous
businessmen not given to greed and profit, and those who treated all people like they would
have wanted to be treated. Their neighbors would have loved them for their humility and