Without Disclosing My True Identity
contained therein. The LDS/Mormon people never considered that “fullness” meant there
was nothing that one could add to or take away from it.^8 The LDS Twelve Apostles did not
follow the example of the “Nephite” apostles who “ministered those same words which
Jesus had spoken—nothing varying from the words which Jesus had spoken.”^9 They had
their own words to minister unto the people, words that Jesus never spoke.
But the people had their vote—and they used it to elect a man to be Nauvoo’s first
mayor. Although Joseph Smith Jr.’s name was on the ballot, the people elected John C.
Bennett, who had only appeared on the scene just a few months previous and had never even
once read the Book of Mormon—NOT ONCE!^10 The Saints did not know this; neither did they
know that Bennett had been exposed to Mormonism a few years earlier and had rejected it as
nonsense after reading E. B. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed. At the time Bennett was first
introduced to Mormonism, the Church was in a burgeoning stage of development and had no
obvious potential of becoming any kind of an institutional springboard of interest to Bennett’s
personal aspirations.
That’s right! Joseph, the chosen true messenger, ran for mayor opposed to Bennett!
But the people of Nauvoo had their free will; and regardless of what Joseph meant to them
as a prophet, the people elected whomever they wanted as their mayor. They chose to reject
Joseph as a candidate in favor of the untested Bennett.
John C. Bennett Adds to the “Fullness of the Everlasting Gospel”
On February 3rd, Bennett gave his inaugural speech. He started out by condemning
those who drank.^11 Joseph was relieved that his dear father was not present. Joseph Sr. drank
until the day he died. Bennett’s disparagement of liquor as something that “enslaves,
degrades, destroys and wretchedness and want are attendant on every step,”^12 echoed
Joseph’s mother’s harsh words and demeaning nagging that his father endured all of his life.
Both Joseph and Hyrum looked at each other during Bennett’s degradation of those
who, like their beloved father, had fought the enticement of the bottle. When their eyes met,
the brothers silently confirmed their continued love for their mutual father and their hidden
disgust for John C. Bennett—the people’s choice, when they could have been listening to the
one true servant of God.
From this time forth, the “word of wisdom,”^13 which was meant “to be sent greeting;
not by commandment or constraint,”^14 evolved into a commandment and a constraint that
would keep a person from receiving the highest and most coveted ordinances of the Church—
the LDS Temple Endowment. Had he lived, the LDS Church’s own Patriarch, Joseph Smith,
Sr., could have never received his endowments—according to their new rules!^15
Bennett continued his inaugural address by introducing another institution that
would give the people the desires of their hearts with the promise to fulfill their “aspirations
to the honors of men.”^16 Bennett argued that,
the immediate organization of the University...cannot be too forcibly
impressed upon you at this time. ...The wheels of education should never be
clogged, or retrograde, but roll progressively from the Alpha to the Omega of
a most perfect, liberal, and thorough course of university attainments.^17The University of Nauvoo was established this same year.^18 John C. Bennett was its
first chancellor, with William Law as the registrar.^19 Notable among those who would