LDS Priesthood Unveiled Appendix 1power to baptize with the priesthood of Aaron, he was mortified! He argued vehemently
with Joseph against its introduction and perpetuation, pointing out what he knew the 116
pages contained, about which Oliver and Hyrum knew nothing.
Joseph threatened Martin with condemnation from God in the form of a “revelation”
that he claimed to have received after Martin had lost the manuscript.^151 Of course, the truth
was that the revelation did not exist anywhere but in Joseph’s mind until Martin questioned
Joseph about what he was doing in direct violation of what was given in the Book of Lehi.
Joseph then made up another “revelation from God” to silence Harris. In this revelation from
God, the Lord himself referred to Martin as “a wicked man,”^152 and thereby, humbling
Martin deeply and silencing him, at least for the time being, under Joseph’s use of his
authority to do what he was mandated to do.
Nevertheless, Martin refused to be baptized by this corrupt authority, as he saw it. It
was not until after he had seen an actual advanced human being,^153 and an organized
church was finally formed, that Martin finally acquiesced to Joseph’s machinations, as he
saw them, to give the people what they wanted just as Moses had done. Oliver Cowdery
baptized Martin Harris soon after the Church was officially organized in 1830. Harris’
membership lasted less than eight years, at which point he determined that Joseph Smith
was doing things that he (Martin) did not understand and could not accept.
The Gift of the Holy Ghost
Another major issue that Harris had with Joseph’s religion was the introduction of a
“high priesthood” into the Church. Besides the authority to baptize given by the laying on
of hands, which was never mentioned by Christ in the Book of Mormon, Harris also
questioned the assumed power to confirm the Holy Ghost upon a person. He knew there
was nothing of the sort mentioned in the Book of Mormon’s account of the visitation of Christ.
No one ever laid their hands on someone else and gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost. The
Book of Mormon was expressly clear on how the Holy Ghost was received.
The first mention of the “Holy Ghost” in the Book of Mormon is in reference to the way
“the Messiah should make himself manifest unto the Gentiles” after he was crucified and
resurrected.^154 The “power of the Holy Ghost” is explained as “the gift of God unto all those
who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself
unto the children of men.”^155 Thus began the LDS doctrine of the gift of the Holy Ghost.
There are many mentions of the “gifts of God” throughout the Book of Mormon. The
men of the early LDS church envied these gifts and wanted them—even to the point of
lusting after them; and the gift they wanted above all was the “high gift from God.”^156 They
wanted “great power given them from God”^157 as mentioned in the Book of Mormon. It was
this “gift” that both Oliver and Hyrum desired after reading about it in the Book of Mormon
transcript. This motivated Joseph to coordinate the events of the “restoration of the Aaronic
Priesthood,” wherein, as mentioned above, Joseph told each of them, through a “revelation
from God,” that each had received his own “gift.”^158
Because Oliver and Hyrum received their individual “gift from God,” the men who
later found out about these “special gifts” each wanted their own gift too. “And because
they desired it, God hath done it, that they may stumble.”^159 Joseph continued to fulfill this
mandate supporting the free will of the people. He gave the men just what they wanted.
Joseph attempted many times to teach the men what the “gift of the Holy Ghost”
actually meant by using the Book of Mormon as a reference guide; but the men had their own